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. Yea, sweeter than also, sweeter
than honey in the 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 from presumptuous
sin also. Let them not have dominion over
me. Then shall I be upright. I shall
be the innocent from the great transgression. Let the words
of my mouth, the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy
sight, O Lord, my strength, my Redeemer." I want to finish this
tonight and hope that the Lord will be pleased to meet with
us. You know, we've seen that there's two revelations here
in the Nineteenth Psalm. There's the revelation Mr. Spurgeon called the world book,
which is the heavens, and the word book. the Word of God, the
two books of God. But the heavens declare the glory
of God. Now, creation, though it speaks
loudly and clearly and plainly all over the world, all over
the world, it's limited. It cannot reveal Christ. It cannot
reveal redemption. It cannot reveal to make a man
know that he's a sinner. It's wonderful. It's blessed.
It's glorious. And the heavens themselves declare
the glory of God. Then the revelation that we have
that's in the Word. And this is the revelation that
when God gives it, and He gives it to a person, then the revelation
of the Scriptures. And I tell you what, when God
reveals in His Word, we'll see what it does by the titles it's
given and the profound effect. I mean, it has a profound effect
upon those that God uses to save, and we'll see that tonight. And
there's two revelations. And David here, the psalmist,
in six sentences, gives us a wonderful description of God's Word and
the titles of it, and the uses of it. And he uses the word Jehovah
six different times. The Lord, the Lord, the Lord,
the Lord, the Lord. And this Word, as I've already
said, it has an effect. And it cannot but mean to have
an effect upon a soul. And look what he says, the first
thing he says, here's some titles of the word of the Lord. He said
here, the law of the Lord is perfect. The law of the Lord,
the word of God. When he talks about the law,
he's talking about the whole counsel of God. He's talking
about when Paul said, I was not shunned to declare unto you the
whole counsel of God. He's talking about from Genesis
to Revelation, all that I knew about Christ. He's talking about,
at that time, he's talking about from Moses to Malachi. But I'm
telling you, beloved, that the Scriptures, they're perfect.
The law of God, the Word of God is perfect. And I mean, beloved,
it's perfect, free from all error. Perfectly free from all error.
Perfectly filled with all good. I was talking to a lady today,
and I said, when God brings people to judgment, they will see how
good God has been. God has never mistreated one
soul on the face of the earth. He has been good, He has been
so good, I mean, His goodness covers the earth. And yet men,
they don't understand it, they don't appreciate it, but yet,
God's law of the Lord is perfectly good, and it's perfectly suited
to its purpose. You know, the whole Scripture
is given by inspiration of God, and His purpose is to correct
and instruct in righteousness, to reprove, correct, and that
the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto every
good work. So it's perfect. And then see,
and listen to this, and this says it converts the soul. What
else don't convert the soul? Soul ears can't do it. Priests
and popes and rabbis can't do it, but the law of the Lord,
the Word of God, is perfect to convert the soul. It has the
power in it to turn us to God. Conversion is that when you're
going one way and you're turned another way, and we were our
backs were to God, the Word of God, the law of the scriptures
came to us and turned us back to God. And that's why when our
Lord Jesus told Simon Peter, said, when you're converted,
strengthen the brethren. What did he need to be converted
for? What did he need to be converted from? He was an apostle. He cast
out devils. He loved the Lord Jesus Christ.
But what did he need to be converted from? He needed to be converted
from his pride, of his self-righteousness, and his self-confidence. Oh,
they'll all deny you, but I ain't going to. And when you're converted
from all your self-companies, when you're converted from the
idea that you've got all the answers, Peter, every time something
comes up, Peter jumps up and says, I know, I know, I know,
this is the way we ought to do it. And the Lord said, when you're
converted, when you're turned, then you can do something for
some of your brethren. And I'll tell you, beloved, it's perfect
converting the soul. And I'll tell you something,
if a soul's been converted, and the Scriptures talk so much about
conversion, if a soul has been converted, been turned to God,
they know that it was the Scriptures that done it. It's the Scriptures
that teach them. It's the Scriptures that's perfect, that brought
them to an understanding of the Lord Jesus Christ. Then look
what else, there's another title of the Lord. The Law of the Lord
is perfect. And then he says, the testimony of the Lord is
sure. The testimony of the Lord. Now, when somebody gives a testimony,
you've got to judge whether or not they're true or not, if they're
a faithful witness or not. So if God gives a testimony,
do you reckon it's true? Do you reckon it's a good witness? And that's what it means. The
testimony of the Lord, it witnesses to us. And that means it's sure,
the testimony is sure. We can be sure that his witness
is true. We can be sure that his testimony
is right. It won't deceive us. There's
no way it can deceive us. Look over in 1 John 5. Look at
1 John 5. Here's what John said about it. You know, the testimony of the
Lord, that he's a witness. He witnesses to himself. He witnesses
to us. He witnesses to His Word. He
witnesses to His Son. And the testimony, the witness
that God gives of us, of His own Word and our conversion and
all He's done for us, it will not deceive us. The testimony
of God will not deceive us. Now, we can be deceived in ourselves. The heart is deceitful among
all things and desperately wicked. Sin is so deceitful. But, beloved,
when we come to the testimony of God Himself, God cannot and
will not deceive. He said, if it were possible,
if it was possible, the very least would be to deceive. But
it ain't going to happen. You know why? Because we have
the testimony of the Lord Himself. I don't need an angel to come
in here flying in wings. I don't need Christ to come here
and walk down the aisle because He's going to tell me what He's
already told me. Look what he said here in 1 John
5, 9. Listen to it now. If we receive
the witness of men... Boy, that fella right there,
if you could take it to the bank, if he tells you something, you
can take it to the bank. He's telling the truth. Whatever he said, you can count
it on him. But now listen to this. If we receive the witness
of men, the witness of God is greater. If a man testifies to
something that's true, And then if God comes along and testifies,
which one are you going to believe the most? And this is the witness of God
which He has testified of His Son. God bore witness to His Son.
And He that believeth on the Son, He has the witness in Himself.
God gave Him that witness, made Him understand that witness.
And I tell you, go back over in our text now, back over to
Psalm 19. And not only is this testimony
of the Lord right and true, it witnesses to things that are
right now and things that are to come. Oh, it's the testimony
of the Lord. It's a witness. And look what
else it says about the testimony of the Lord during verse 7. It
makes wiser simple. Simple. You know, when I first
come down here, I didn't realize that many people couldn't read
very well, and didn't go to school very much. Their mind hadn't
been very far, and their mind wasn't very large. But it'll take the simple mind
of this person, it'll take the simple mind of this person and
make them wise in God's Word. You look at some of the people
you've known over there. I'll remember a fellow that you
know how he learned to read? Whenever they'd be singing songs
in the songbook, he'd take his finger and go along. And when
they'd say a word, he'd hold his finger over every one of
them words. And after about two or three years, he learned to
read. Hearing people sing. Now, but yet, they loved it. He understood the gospel. Couldn't
read, but it makes them wise to simply take the simplest man,
the simplest mind, and make that person wise to be much wiser
than any Ph.D. or any physicist or anything
else. Because I'll tell you why, it
makes them wise in the God's Word, wise in the salvation of
the Scriptures, which are able to make them wise unto salvation
through faith, which is in Christ. Boy, it'll take the simple-minded
and make them wise. And if you've got the wisdom
that God gives you, you've got something more precious than
a coal. And then look what else it says about there in verse
8. Here's another title of the Lord. The law of the Lord is
perfect. The testimony of the Lord is sure. And then look here. The statutes of the Lord are
right. Now, the statutes, you know,
if you get caught by somebody doing something, they'll pull
out the statute book. They'll start telling you, you
broke this statute, that statute, and you're going to get fined
for breaking this law, that law, and this statute. And they got
all these statutes on the book. Well, let me tell you something,
the statutes of the Lord are right. You know why? Because they're enacted by Him.
And not only that, though they're enacted by Him, they're called
God's statutes, and they come from His eternal counsel and
His will. They're always right. They're
right for me, the statutes of the Lord, whatever God said,
they're right for me. That's why He's telling me the
law of the Lord is perfect. That's a wonderful statute. I
don't have to doubt about that. And, O beloved, God's precepts
will not only get us right, but they'll keep us right. You take
and study the Word of God. You just go through Proverbs
and read the precepts and the statutes. It's just in Proverbs.
Just go through Matthew 5 and 6. It's statutes and principles
that our Lord said, you heard it said, but I'm telling you
this is what it is. And so when we hear these laws,
these statutes, these principles that God teaches us, then, beloved,
they not only are right, but they make us right. They make
our thoughts right. They make our opinions right. They make our traditions right.
They make us right. And I tell you, not only that,
but look what else it'll say. It'll say, they rejoice the heart. You know what God's greatest
precept and statute is to me? When He says, this is my beloved
Son, here ye are. Now that's a statute. That's
a precept. This is my beloved son." Listen
to what he's going to say. Moses had his day. Elijah had
his day. John the Baptist had his day. But he says, this, this, this
is my beloved son. Listen to him. And another precept
that I think to my mind and heart speaks to me and beloved, and
this is what I'm saying, I'll make you right. Our Lord Jesus
Christ says this, no man comes unto the Father but by me. And
He says nobody knows who the Father is but the Son. Nobody
knows who God is but the Son. Nobody's ever seen the Father
but the Son. And nobody knows who the Son
is but the Father. And the only way in the world
we're going to know each either one of them is for the father
to reveal the son and the son to reveal the father. And that's,
you know, that's, that's where we're at. That's the greatest
precept to me. And I got this read over a minute
ago. This is the record, the testimony that God gave of his
son. He that believeth on the son
of God has arisen. God told me to believe on His
Son. The Lord said, if you believe
on Me, you shall never die. What a statue! What a precept! God, all from the beginning,
from the beginning, everything was pointed to Him. Oh, my! That's why John 20, verse
31 says this, John said, These things are written,
that you may believe on the name of the Son of God, and believing
you have life through Him. Oh, that rejoices my heart. Don't
you? And I'll tell you something else
that rejoices my heart. Seeing the fulfillment of the
law in the Lord Jesus Christ. That rejoices my heart. I don't
have nothing to do with the law anymore, and the law don't have
nothing to do with me. any statutes that I couldn't
keep, Christ kept for me. And oh, beloved, I'll tell you
something else rejoices my heart, the substitutionary care of the
Lord Jesus Christ, to understand that when He died, He died not
for Himself, but for those that the Father gave Him. That rejoices
my heart. And you know what He said in
Hebrews, and then over in Jeremiah, He said, and He wrote the Word.
He wrote the words on our hearts. And I tell you, beloved, that's
what I'm talking about. And you know what? This statutes
of the Lord that rejoices the heart, they'll end in everlasting
joy. They rejoice the heart now, they'll
end in everlasting joy. We rejoice our heart here, but
oh, we're going to enter into everlasting joy. And then let
me give you another here right quick. Here's another title of
the Lord. He says here in verse 8 again, the commandment of the
Lord is pure. The commandment of the Lord.
There's a commandment. I can't think of where it's at
right now. I wish I'd have thought of it. I just did. There's a
commandment over there. It says He commanded salvation
for His I said, hearing the Psalms, I
wish I could remember what it was. But He commanded salvation. You saved? God commanded it! People want to command God, and
God said, I command it. Do you know what this command
went for? Save them! And I tell you, go through the
Scriptures, how many times did God say, He commanded the water
to raise up. Israel walked through on dry
land. He commanded Abraham to come
out of where Calvin is. Abraham came out. Commanded Noah to build an ark. And when God commands salvation,
beloved, believe me, you're going to get it. And it says it's pure. You know
what that word pure means? It's clear. It's clear. Ain't
nothing muddy about it. If I said anything that's not
clear that you don't understand. It's clear. It's crystal clear. The Scriptures to us are crystal
clear. I mean, we see it. It don't have
any darkness in it. It don't have any draughts in
it. And not only is it pure, but it purifies those who receive
it. It purifies our conscience. Those who receive it and believe
it, it's purified to them. And then look what it says about
the means here. It just says, the Word of the
Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. You know what enlightening
the eyes means? It means the light comes on,
enlightens them to see things you never saw before. And I tell
you what, the commandment of the Lord, when it came and it's
pure and it came to us, We enlightened our eyes, and we seen things
we ain't never seen before. We saw sin, like we never saw
sin before. We saw Christ, like we never
saw Him before. Not only did we see sin, but
we also, bless His holy name, saw sin put away. If you see
sin, then don't see it put away. And that's what we did. We enlightened our eyes to see
that. Oh, I see sin, but also see sin put away. I see the consequences
of sin, but I see the consequences of sin put away. I see the consequence
of a relation to Adam, but I see the consequences of my relation
to Christ. The eyes. Commence the Lord in
the light in our eyes. You know, that's what people
say. They say, well, I see, I see. I see. And then let me give you
another title. Here's the fifth title of the
Lord. And you know how it says here, the law of the Lord, testimony
of the Lord, the statutes of the Lord, the commandment of
the Lord? And then look here, the fear of the Lord is clean. The fear of the Lord
is clean. And what this is, is the fear
of the Lord here is true religion. And fear of the Lord is often
put in the same place as salvation, as trust, as commitment. You
know, Cornelius, the scripture says, when Peter went down there,
they told him, says, I'm not going up there as a Gentile.
I said, Cornelius fears God. He fears God. And that's what
he told them. He said, go up there and that
man fears God. That man has a reverence and
some seeking true religion. And I'll tell you, let me show
you something over here in Acts 9. Let me show you what I'm talking
about. Acts chapter 9, verse 31. Look what it says here. You know, it's the fear of the
Lord. It's the beginning of wisdom. It's just the beginning of wisdom.
It's just the start. the fear of the Lord. And look
what he said here in Acts 9.31. Then had the churches rushed
through all Judea and Galilee and Samaria, and were edified,
now listen to this, walking in the fear of the Lord. Walking
in the fear of the Lord. Walking Trusting God, walking
in the salvation Christ provided, walking in the fear, walking
in the sight of God, and conscious of God, conscious of what it
is, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost. And then back over here, it says,
not only is the fear of the Lord, this is true religion, but it's
clean. It's clean. You know what it'll
do? You know what our Lord Jesus
said? He said, John 15, 3, Now ye are clean through the word
which I have spoken unto you. Sanctify them through thy word.
Thy word is the truth. It's clean. It makes us clean. That's why old Simon Peter said,
O Lord, do not go and worship me. He said, I don't worship
you. I have no part with you. Go ahead. And that's what the
fear of the Lord does. It's clean and it purifies us. It makes us clean. It sanctifies
us with the word. And then look what else it says.
The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. What endures
forever? The fear of the Lord. Once you've
ever feared the Lord, it will endure forever. You'll never,
ever, you'll always have great reverence for the Lord. Always
trust the Lord. Always commit to the Lord. Always
walk conscious of the Lord. Once it ever happens, it'll happen
and you'll endure for as long as the fear of God does. Now
that's right. And then look what he said. Here's
the sixth title. Here's the sixth title. The judgment,
verse 9, the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.
The judgments of the Lord are true. You ever know God, and
they're right, you ever know God to give the wrong judgment?
Did He give the wrong judgment when He told Adam that you died,
cast him out of the garden? Did He give the wrong judgment
when He sent the flood? Did He give the wrong judgment
when He hung His Son on a tree and made Him to be sin for us?
That was the judgment of God. That was the judgment of God
on sin, on His Son on the tree. Has God ever made a wrong judgment? Is God making a wrong judgment
right now upon our nation? And it's obvious that He's got
His hand against this nation. All nations that forgive God
should be turned into hell. And the judgments of God, and
I'll tell you what, they're right. And I'll tell you why their judgments
are right. They come from infinite wisdom. You see, God lays truth
to the plumb line. I mean, you know, for man, he
can just forget your judgments. Forget, you know, when it comes
to God's judgment, He lays it right to the plumb line, and
you're going to come to His line, or else. And I tell you, has He ever passed
judgment that wasn't right? Oh, I don't think so. And I'll
tell you what, And this is one thing I know. I know this as
well as I know my own name. Whatever God does right to me,
to you, to your husband, your wife, your children, it's right. It is right. It cannot be wrong. It's got infinite goodness. It's
got infinite wisdom behind it. And one thing, and this is what
I'm talking about, the fear of the Lord. We do not trifle with
God. We're not going to charge Him.
Job said, I'm not going to charge God with sin or charge Him with
what? His wife said, Cuss God and die.
Look what He's done to you. He took everything you've got.
Killed every one of your children. Just go ahead and cuss Him and
die. I said, woman, you're a fool. You're a fool. And all this, Joe, send not or
charge God foolish. And that's what, beloved, I believe
that with all my heart. And bless His name. His judgments
are right. And because of Christ bearing
my judgment on that cross, I don't have to fear the judgment at
the end. I don't have to fear it. And oh, listen, let me go
on here, hurry up, I'm taking too long. Now look what else
it says now. Down here, let me give you the
value of God's Word. Oh, how valuable it is. And God's
people, they value God's blessed Word. In fact, they value it
more than all the wealth that's in the world. Look what it says.
They value it more and more to be desired, are they. What? The law of the Lord? the testimony
of the Lord, the statutes of the Lord, the commandment of
the Lord, the fear of the Lord, the judgments of the Lord. God's blessed word is more to
be desired than of gold, yea, than much fine gold. We place
more value on what God's got to say. We'd rather have the
word of God in all the wealth that's in the world. Oh, desire it more than we do
gold. I told you about watching them
fellows looking for that gold. Then these guys go to great,
great lengths to find gold. And I've seen this old man take
his grandson. He had a quart jar plumbed full
of the finest gold. I mean, a quart jar plumbed full
of it. Hundreds of thousands of dollars. He set it down in
front of his grandson and said, Dad, that's yours. You know what
he done with it? He took it and to death to find gold. And we've
done found gold. There's a man, the Scripture
said, a man that's as fine as the gold of Ophir. Do you know
who that is? That's the Lord Jesus Christ. He stands when
we saw Him in Revelation on a golden girl. Oh, listen, gold is of the earth. Grace comes from heaven. Gold
is just for time and what we need for this body. Grace is
for eternity. And there's lots of pleasures
and delights in this world, but God's Word that's received by
grace, look what it says, is sweeter also than the honey and
the comb that goes with it. Jeremiah said, Thy words were
found, and I did eat them, and oh, they're sweet to my taste.
Now watch this. Moreover by them is thy servant
warned. There's something else that the
Word of God does. It warns us. And look who it warns. God's
servants. We have those warnings that go
out to all men in lots of ways. But it warns us. It warns us
of sin. It warns us of judgment. It warns
us of dangers to avoid. It warns us, beloved, of God's
servants. And we take it to heart. We take
the warnings of God to heart. When I read over there, you know
that some turned away and walked no more with Christ. That's a
warning for me. And I take that to heart. I don't
want to walk away. Will you also go away? No. By
them, the servant is warned. And look at here, what else it
says. And in keeping of them, there is great reward. Now, everybody,
but one fellow today that I was reading, says that this reward
is God blessing you for your obedience to the Word, your obedience
to what He says. Now, I'm going to tell you what
it means, and I know I'm right about this. I know I'm right
about this. In keeping of this Word, in keeping
of these things of God, the reward is in the Word itself. Look at
all the rewards we've gotten from the Word of God. We're just
reading the word. The word Lord has come out of
him. God's not going to reward me for something that he gives
me. And here he says the reward is in itself. You know, the knowledge
of salvation? That's a reward we got from the
scriptures. The knowledge of grace? That's
a reward that we have. The knowledge of God's electing
grace? That's a reward we have. of Christ being our salvation
and our Savior. What a reward we've got. How
this Scripture has rewarded us and how we get rewarded every
time we come to the service. The reward's in itself. Did you
have enough obedience today that God's going to reward you for
it? No. The reward's in itself. And oh,
let me quickly say this. Look what it says now. Oh, listen. I told you it has profound effects
upon God's people. And I talked about the Lord's
servants. Look at the effects it has upon
us. We're worn by them. And then
he says, because we see this word, who can understand his
errors? Who can understand his sin? Who
can understand? The errors means the same word
as sin. Who can understand his sin? Who can understand his errors?
I can't. I can't understand why I am like
I am. That's why Paul said, he said,
that that I would, I did, and that that I would, wouldn't I
do? He said, I see this law, this memory in my memory. The
law is wholly just and good, but I'm part of so to understand.
Who can understand it? I can't understand that I'm the
way I am. We're a mystery to us. I can't.
But God can. And I'll tell you not only that,
but the Word can expose our secret sins and our errors. I can understand them, and I
certainly can't number them. But God can understand them.
And God can understand the sinfulness of them. And I can't understand
them. I can't understand the depth
of the sinfulness. But what do we do when we come
to this conclusion? You know, the first thing we
do, we start praying. Look what David said. Cleanse
thou me then. From what I don't understand,
cleanse me from my secret sins. Cleanse me from them. I can't understand, but Lord,
cleanse me from them. Cleanse me from my sins. Cleanse
me from my secret sins. Huh? Oh, my. And I tell you, let me
tell you something about this secret sin. First of all, they're
not secret from God. And there are sins we committed
that no doubt are secret to us. We're not even conscious we've
done them. And they may be secret to other
people. But David says, I tell you what,
Lord, because of this cleanse me from Wash me, and I shall
be white as the snow. Wash me, and I shall be cleansed. Cleanse me throughly and through. When you start understanding
your sin, that you know, and Lord, there is more, then you
start saying, Lord, cleanse me. And then he adds this other prayer.
He goes on praying. He said, this is, keep me back,
thy servant, back from presumptuous sins. Keep me back from the sins of
my infirmity. But especially presumptuous sins. Sins that I say, well, you know,
I get by with it, you know. Tommy Robbins said something
years and years ago, and I was talking to Charlie Pennington
yesterday. We were talking about this. Tommy said one time, he
said, it seems like that when we first learn a little bit about
grace, we just see how far we can go with grace. Just how far we can go into liberty,
how far we can go into sin with what grace we have. And I tell
you what, that's what David said here, keep me back from presumptuous
sin. Don't let me presume and look
at life, look at my conscience, look at the Word, look at things
that are right and true, and just say, well, I'm going to
do it anyway. Don't do it anyway. Oh, they're so offensive to God. Then look what he says. Let them
not have dominion over me. Oh, don't let sin command me. Don't let sin reign over me.
Don't let me be enslaved to sin. Don't let me be enslaved to it.
Oh, don't let me. Then look what he's saying. Then
I shall be upright. Now, what in the world is he
talking about? It means that God will keep my
heart looking up to Him, looking right to Him. Walk uprightly
in our conversation, in our lifestyle. Having been cleansed, having
been purged, having asked God to keep us back, to cleanse us,
Paul said this, let our conversation, let our manner of life be as
becometh the gospel. Walk upright. And then he says, and I shall
be innocent from the great transgression. Oh, I tell you, this could mean
several things. I shall be innocent from the
great transgressions. You know, there are several transgressions
in the Scriptures you could call great. God says six things I
hate, yea, seven are abomination. You know what the first one is?
Pride. Oh, my. That's a great transgression.
God saves us by grace, and then we have pride of grace. And then
it may mean apostasy, the great transgression of apostasy, falling
away. It may mean the sin against the
Holy Ghost, which is the unpardonable sin. But I know a servant, he
says, a servant. He says, talking about his servant,
I know a child of God, can I do that? And then it shall be, I
shall be innocent of the great transgressions. It may be that
I shall be innocent from a multitude of transgressions." And then
look what he says, and may this be our prayer tonight. Let the
words of my mouth, what I've said here tonight. When David
says, when he began to go through the psalm, and he went down through
there, He says, Lord, I've just sung a hymn. I've just sung a
song. And this is the closing stanza
of it. Let the words of my mouth, what's
come out of my mouth, the words that I've said, the words that
I've sung, and the meditation of my heart as I thought on these
things and come to these conclusions as I meditated and learned these
things and saw these things and experienced these things. Let
the words of my mouth and meditation of my heart. Now listen to this.
Be acceptable in thy sight. May not be acceptable to anybody
else, but Lord, would you accept the words of my mouth and the
meditations of my heart? Would you accept them? And then
he says, Oh, Lord, my strength and my Redeemer. Oh, my. Love it, love it, love
it. Love it, love it.