I was thinking of something there
that Brother Al had said earlier, and I don't mean this in a way
of correction, but in a way of illumination upon what he said,
because what he said was true, and it is indeed. As we think
on things, he had said that we desire to praise the Lord when
He blesses us and when He does not. I know what he meant by
that. But I think as we come, as we
grow in grace and the knowledge of the Lord, we come to realize
that there's really never a time when the Lord does not bless
us. Even in those times when it does not seem like the Lord
is blessing us. Because He does indeed cause
all things to work together for good to them that love God, who
are the call according to His purpose. So may the Lord give
us a mind and heart not to think on the fact that we are not blessed,
but to think on the fact that we are blessed. and that might
give him praise in those times when we don't look at those things
as a blessing, as well as those times when we rejoice in the
blessings that he has obviously brought upon us. He's definitely
worthy of all praise. We're looking in Psalm 119, and
we're in verse 129, And this begins with the Hebrew
letter Peh. It says, thy testimonies are
wonderful. Therefore doth my soul keep them. The entrance of thy words giveth
light, it giveth understanding unto the simple. I opened my
mouth and panted, for I longed for thy commandments. Look thou
upon me and be merciful unto me as thou usest to do unto those
that love thy name. Order my steps in thy word and
let not any iniquity have dominion over me. Deliver me from the
oppression of man, so will I keep thy precepts. Make thy face to
shine upon thy servant and teach me thy statutes. Rivers of waters
run down my eyes because they keep not. thy law, tazadi. Righteousness art thou, O Lord,
or righteous art thou, O Lord, and upright are thy judgments.
Thy testimonies that thou hast commanded are righteous and very
faithful. My zeal hath consumed me because
mine enemies have forgotten thy words. Thy word is very pure,
therefore thy servant loveth it. I am small and despised,
yet do I not forget thy precepts. Thy righteousness is an everlasting
righteousness, and thy law is the truth. Trouble and anguish
have taken hold on me, yet thy commandments are my delights. The righteousness of thy testimonies
is everlasting. Give me understanding, and I
shall live. Now as we continue in our consideration,
of these words as being the testimony of Christ and the prayer of Christ
as he sets forth his word by the hand of David, we believe,
as all scripture given by inspiration of God. These are the words recorded
by men, but make no mistake about it, there's not one word in the
scriptures that is not the inspired word of God. Now, there are many
who think that the scriptures can be kind of interpreted any
way you want to interpret them. And it is true that we don't
have a absolute ironclad understanding of all of the lessons and teachings
that are found in this book. Man's a fool that thinks he has
all knowledge and all the answers. There are some who make profession
of this, but they are foolish in their own mind in such a way
to think on that. We're to think not more highly
of ourself than we ought to think, and how high is that? You know,
how high ought you to think of yourself? I'm a worm before the Lord. Now, you know, that doesn't fit
well, does it, with the concept that people have today. I mean,
you know, come on, we've moved on beyond that. We're much more
sophisticated, are we not? The Lord said to Jacob, thou
worm, Jacob. Now how high are we? What is
man that thou art mindful of him, the son of man that thou
hast visited him? We can never consider ourselves to be low
enough in comparison with the Lord, the glory of God. Now,
when we compare ourselves among ourselves, we can make gradations
and we can gauge ourselves, but the scripture says that they
that compare themselves among themselves are not wise. So why would we do that? You
know, our standard is not in any way to achieve more than
someone else. I heard a story about a fella,
two guys was camping out and they had taken off their shoes
and there was this bear, they saw this bear coming through
the woods and one of them started putting on his shoes and the
other fella said, what are you doing? He says, I'm going to
get away from this bear. He said, well, you don't think
you're going to be able to outrun this bear? He said, well, I don't
have to outrun the bear. He says, all I got to do is outrun
you. But see how foolish is that to
consider that we are going to, by being a little better than
somebody else, that means anything. What does it mean? It doesn't
mean anything. Because the standard of righteousness
is Jesus Christ. And there's no other standard
that is of any value whatsoever to the sons of God. We're not
looking to build ourselves up in our own eyes or to build one
another up in comparison to other people. And that doesn't make
any difference if it's in practice or doctrine or tradition or whatever
it might be. We know nothing as we ought to
know. And only as the Lord teaches us can we know anything. And
to know Christ is the epitome of all knowledge. You can't get
any more knowledge than that if you know Christ. And that's
why we come here, hopefully, every week and as we study the
word of God, that we might know him. That's what Paul said, that
I might know him and the power of his resurrection. Because
it doesn't matter what else you know, if you don't know Him. May He give us such understanding.
And so we see His, the heart of Christ, in this Psalm. And as we see the heart of Christ,
as the Spirit of God constrains us to be like Him, we desire
to, that these things, this testimony of Christ might be our testimony.
And so he says, thy testimonies, speaking to his father, thy testimonies
are wonderful. Therefore does my soul keep them. That is, he regarded them as
that precious word of the father. And he kept the word of God.
Now men have different ideas about what it is to keep the
law. And you have some people, they say, well, you gotta do
this to keep the law and that and the other. To keep the law
scripturally is to have the law in the highest regard. It's not. by figuring out the jot and tittle
of each commandment and seeking to, you know, as the Pharisees
did, when they tithed the cumin and the anise and the different
herbs that they grew in their garden, the Lord said, you do
all that, you keep that law in the letter, but you don't keep
the law, because the law of God is precious. And it is that which
we hope is bound upon our heart. And so we keep it in the sense
that we desire it. We put it in a place of honor
in our lives. We don't disregard it. The world
disregards it. He said, therefore doth my soul
keep them, the testimonies of God. That is those things which
the Lord has said. The entrance of thy words giveth
light. How true is that? When the Lord
is pleased to bring the Word of God to a man's understanding,
He's illuminated. See, the gospel is sent forth
by the hand of the Lord not to give life. The gospel does not
give anybody life. But it brings life and immortality
to light. That is, it brings it to the
awareness of those whom God is pleased to give light. But it's
the Lord alone who can illuminate a man. and cause him to understand. I mean, you can't teach a man
anything about the Word of God that is true and lasting unless
the Lord opens his eyes to see it, to understand it, to grasp
it. And that's what the Lord told
the Pharisees. He said, search the scriptures, for in them you
think you have eternal life, but they are they which testify
of me. So it doesn't make any difference
what else you may see in the scriptures. If you don't see
Christ, then you've missed the light that is in the Word of
God. And that the Lord would give
unto those whom he's pleased to give eyes to see. And he says
here, the entrance of thy words giveth light. The entrance of
them. They come to us. The Lord Jesus, as He came into
the world, He came into the world with light, did He not? I mean,
He was the light, He is the light of the world. So He came into
the world, He was illuminated. I mean, we see that as He reasoned
with the doctors in the temple when He was just a lad. So He
had the word, but you and I are not born in the light. We don't have the light, we're
in the darkness. So there has to be an entrance of the light.
And that's what the Lord said to Nicodemus. Nicodemus came
to the Lord, and he never got to ask his question. Have you
ever thought about that? I mean, and Nicodemus had a question,
but he never got to ask it. He said, we know that you're
a teacher sent from God. The Lord said, Nicodemus, except
a man be born again. You cannot see the kingdom. He
said, it's not going to do me any good. whatsoever to answer
your question. Now the Lord knew what his question
was. His question was probably something like the rich young
ruler came asking him. The Lord knew what his question
was, but you see it doesn't make any difference what the question
of a man is unless the man is born again he'll never have the
answer of it. And so it is that the entrance
of thy word giveth light. Because when the Lord is pleased
to illuminate a man with the new birth, when he awakens a
sinner from deadness to life, then that man sees. And once
he sees, he sees glory in it. See, once a man sees the glory
of Christ in the scripture, he rejoices. I mean, a man can't
come to the scripture and see Christ and not go away rejoicing. We see it with the Ethiopian
eunuch, do we not? I mean, here he is riding in
the chariot. He's reading about Christ. But
the light of God is not being shown upon that word. But it
burns in his heart somehow. He wants to know, does he not?
And what did the Lord do? The Lord sent a man. with the
word of God to tell him who that was that he read about. And the
scripture says that he went on his way rejoicing because by
the grace of God, the Lord had enabled him to discover Christ
in the scripture. What a glorious thing. He read
about it, but he didn't know it. He couldn't see it. He was
like those disciples on the road to Emmaus. You know, their hearts
burned within them while the Lord was speaking, but it was
when he left and he illuminated their hearts, he said, was it
not a glorious thing? I mean, didn't we hear his word?
Was it not glorious? Oh, that the Lord might give
us such light today. It giveth understanding even
unto the simple. It's hard sometimes for men to
admit that he's simple-minded. Some of us it's not too big of
a reach for us to do because we realize how simplistic our
mind is. You often think of simplicity
is found in dogs. They just are dogs, aren't they? I mean, they just are going to
lick you and love you and everything about them. Now cats, they're
not so simple, are they? I mean, they're a little more
complex than that. They're a little more standoffish.
Well, the Lord might help us to understand how simple we are
in our understanding and teach us, because the man who knows
himself to be simple is the man who will be given understanding. But you know, as long as a man
thinks he's something, he's not gonna gain anything. The Lord
said that he hid the gospel from the wise and the prudent. because
these things can't be seen by the understanding of men. It
has to be given to them by the Lord, and he gives understanding
to the simple. I opened my mouth and panted.
I longed for thy commandments. As the heart panteth for the
waterbrook, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. You see, the
Lord Jesus, he longed for the communion and fellowship of his
Father. he spent much time in prayer because he desired the
presence of his father. Oh, that the Lord might give
us such a heart to long and pant after the things of God, not
just be, well, we got to fulfill this obligation. You know, when
you think about coming together with the brethren on a Sunday
or whenever you do, I mean, do you come panting, desiring to
hear from the Lord? Or are you just going through
the motions? Well, I believe we ought to do
that. Are you hungering and thirsting for righteousness? Are you seeking
the Lord with all your heart? See, that's what he's saying
here. He says, I opened my mouth and panted. I wanted the things
of God in my soul and in my mind. Look thou upon me and be merciful
unto me. as thou used to do to those that
love thy name. That is, the Lord is the normal. way of the Lord is to bless those
that love His name. Now, who loves the name of the
Lord? Those whom the Lord loves. See, a man won't love the way
of God unless the Lord loves him. And the Lord loves him,
and he loves the way of God. That's the work of God. Who can
explain such a thing? How does a man love God except
that the Lord loves him? I mean, the scripture plainly
says that, does it not? We love Him, why? Because He
first loved us. I mean, that's the work of God.
But it's the truth of God that the Lord does cause His people
to love Him, to love His way. That's very imperfect love, and
it breaks our heart to think how imperfect our love to Him
is, but nonetheless, We have to confess with Peter, Lord,
to whom shall we go? That's the words of eternal life.
Lord, when the Lord said, do you love me? He said, Lord, I
love you. And he didn't want to say it
because he knew the sin of his heart, that he had denied the
Lord and he felt so unworthy to stand before the Lord and
to confess, he felt like it was a lie. The Lord said, Peter,
do you love me? Because you see, the Lord would
draw the love of his people out to himself. Because it is his
love in us and not ours in him that causes us to be blessed
in our walk with him. As we realize it, he loves us. See, we get downhearted sometimes
because we don't love the Lord any more than we do. But brethren,
that's really insignificant. Because He loves you, if you
belong to Him, more than you could ever love Him. More than
you could ever understand. And so what a glorious thing
it is that He is that One who brings these things as you do
unto those that love thy name. Order my steps in thy Word, and
let not any iniquity have dominion over me. Is it not strange, as
we would think, for the Lord Jesus Christ to pray such a prayer
as that? Well, who was he praying for?
He said, I pray not for the world, but for those whom thou hast
given me. Thine they were, and thou hast
given them to me. All of the intercessions of Christ
are in the behalf of his people. You see, when he prayed, he prayed
for us. What'd he say to Peter? Peter,
Satan wants to sift you as wheat. But he said, I have prayed for
thee, that thy faith fail not. Think about Job. The Lord designed a good end
for Job, did he not? But his men would think of it
as a roundabout way to bring him there, was it not? Job was
an upright man, the scripture says. I mean, you'd have looked
at him, he was a pillar of the community. He was a deacon in
the church. I mean, he was up there. He was a fine fellow.
What'd the Lord do? The Lord interrupted his life,
did he not? And Satan didn't come to the
Lord and say, I want to go do something to Job. The Lord said
to Satan, hey, have you thought about my servant Job? You see, the Lord designed the
trials of Job. Why? Because he wanted to punish
Job? No, he designed the trials of
Job in order to bring Job to the exact place that he wanted
Job to be. Now as men would look at it,
well, Job was doing just fine. I mean, isn't that the way people
think? We just get along. See, we often
think, well, you know, we're learning the things of God and
we're going along fine and we don't need any correction. No,
we always need correction. And when we're without correction,
we ought to be fearful. When the Lord's not humbling
us over our sin and showing us what we are by nature, we need
to be fearful. Because whom the Lord loveth,
he chasteneth. And so he chastened Job, did
he not? Why? Because he loved him. And
Job had some mind, some idea in his mind that he had some
knowledge of God. And he did, according to what
we read about some of the testimony that he gave in the Scripture.
But in some ways it was a superficial knowledge. Because when he came
face to face with the Lord, he said, He says, I've heard of
thee by the hearing of the ear. But he said, now mine eye seeth
thee, and I repent in dust and ashes. Oh, that the Lord might
bring us to such a place as that, that we might see ourselves as
we are, that iniquity might not have dominion over us, as the
Lord prayed. Oh, that we might be those who
triumph, not in our own strength, but in the strength of Christ.
Deliver me from the oppression of man, so will I keep thy precepts. Make thy face to shine upon thy
servant and teach me thy statutes. Now how often the Lord, you realize,
was oppressed every day of his life. I mean, his enemies were
like dogs barking around him. He was beset, as we read in another
of the Psalms, by the bulls of Bashan. They would destroy him. He was daily oppressed. He says,
deliver me from it. Now, could he not have delivered
himself? Yes, but his reliance, see, he came to do his father's
will, not his own will. He could, with the stroke of
his hand, have destroyed them. And in his own time, he will.
But he did not act according to the way of man, but he acted
according to the way of the man who is God. And he completely
and perfectly desired to do the will of God
in the face of the oppression of men. So will I keep thy precepts. But he prays for us because we're
weak or we're not, even as he prayed for Peter. And so he knows our weakness. He knows that we're dust. He
looked on his disciples and he said, could you not watch with
me for one hour? Did he condemn them? No, he said
no. He said the spirit is willing,
but the flesh is weak. Because he knows that we're dust.
He knows what we are, brethren. And he loves us in spite of what
we are. See, that's the glorious thing.
The hardest thing for a man to truly grasp And we talked about
this yesterday as we were riding along. The hardest thing for
a man to grasp is that there is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus. That's just not in our way of
thinking. There's gotta be something, you
know. Something's being held over our head here. The Lord's
gonna get us here if we're not careful. And we're thinking that,
but dear brethren, The Lord loves his people with a perfect love.
He satisfied the law in our behalf. And he has prayed for us that
our faith fail not. And he knows what we are, and
yet he loves us in spite of that. That's not the way of man, is
it? David said, there's forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be
feared. He can forgive. He does forgive. It's hard for
us to forgive, is it not? You know, people say, oh, I can
forgive, but I can't forget. Well, you didn't forgive. You
know, that's not forgiving. Because forgiving and forgetting
go hand in hand. Those two things do not, they
don't coexist. And when the Lord forgives, He
forgets. That's a hard thing. It's impossible
in the flesh. I mean, it's just not a possibility. Teach me thy statutes, let me
know thy word, make thy face to shine upon thy servant. Rivers
of waters run down mine eyes because they keep not thy law. See, we're not, we hope that
we're not, we don't want to be, may the Lord delivers from it,
to be judgmental to those that disregard the truth of God, disregard
the way of God, disregard the law of God. But it does cause
us grief, does it not? I mean, when we hear a man speak
the name of the Lord Jesus Christ as a curse word, does that not
send like a dagger into our heart? When men dishonor the way of
God, are we not saddened by it? Even as the Lord was saddened
as he walked into the temple and he saw the money changers.
And all of these people selling these offerings, these animals
to be offered unto the Lord. And he became the zeal of the
Lord's house, ate him up. And then his heart was broken.
He says, rivers of waters run down mine eyes. Do you not think
that he wept when he looked at that? Do you
not think that he wept when he looked over Jerusalem? And he
said, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how oft would I have gathered
my chicks? But you would not. See, the Lord,
as He uggled the cross, He said, Father, forgive them, for they
know not what they do. I can't wrap my head around that.
I can't comprehend it. But the mercy and kindness of
the Lord is ever present in our mind, especially when we consider
those that keep not the law of God. It's easy to say, oh, they're
going to get what they deserve, and all that kind of stuff, you
know. But that's not the place the Lord called us to be. I mean,
we're not called upon to condemn the world. The world's condemned
already. What are you going to do? What can you add to it? Not a
thing in the world. Yeah, brethren, who maketh thee
to differ from another? And what do we have that we've
not received? It's the mercy of God. But our
hearts break when we see men disregard the truth of God, when
we see men go down the pathway of destruction. And what we would
do if we could somehow snatch them back? We weep, even as he
did. Righteous art thou, O Lord, and
upright are thy judgments. How true. How often we need to
be reminded that the judgments of God are true. You know, we
look around us sometimes and we see things. I was, last night, I saw a young man who was afflicted. in body and perhaps in mind,
I don't know, but I was touched in my thought concerning him
and I got to thinking, you know, why is this, you know, I started
thinking about things, you know, why is this man and his family
being put through this? But righteous are the judgments
of God. Dear brethren, and I'm not saying
that they're judged more so than anybody else. Listen, the judgment
of God upon sin is seen in the world. And every time that we
see things that we do not understand and can't comprehend and things
that seem to us to be terrible, just remember that it's sin.
that brought these things upon the world. I'm not talking about
specifically. The Lord said, you know, do you
think these upon whom the tower of Siloam fell are greater sinners
than others? No, they're not greater sinners,
but we're all sinners alike. And we must rejoice in the judgments
of God, the statutes of God. I can't explain things to everybody. I can't make people satisfied.
Well, why'd God do that? Well, I don't know, but he could
have just destroyed us all and he'd have been right. I mean,
what could we say? Righteous art thou, O Lord, upright
are thy judgments. Thy testimonies that thou hast
commanded are righteous and very faithful. What is it that, the
only thing that causes men to consider that the law of God
is unrighteous in some way is the wickedness of our own heart.
See, it's our rebellion against it. I mean, what could God say
that would not be right? You know, I've had men, they
want to argue about that God always does right. Well, according
to whose standard? God always does what He desires
to do, and what He desires to do is always right because He's
God. not because he has to fulfill
some quota or he has to fulfill some design that men have or
thought men have about what's right and what's wrong. God can
do whatever he wants to. This question usually arises
whenever somebody has to bring up the subject of does God send
babies to hell? Now why would anybody ever even
come up with a thought such as that? I mean, you know, but they
do, and then they want to turn it around and say, well, you
know, God, He wouldn't send babies to hell because He's righteous,
He's loving, and all that kind of stuff. Listen, that kind of
question is a foolish and unlearned question as far as I'm concerned.
But I know this, that the Lord will be just And he would be
right if he sent every baby that was ever born into the world
straight into the pits and fire of hell, because we're born and
conceived in sin. Now, you might not like that.
And I wouldn't go around and be telling that to everybody
I come across. But brethren, we need to understand
who God is. Now, whatever he does is right,
whether you like it or whether you don't. And so we rejoice
his testimonies, in his testimonies are righteous and he's very faithful.
My zeal hath consumed me because mine enemies have forgotten thy
words. You know, the world, we think
of forgotten like we knew something and then it left, it got out
of our mind, we forgot it. Well, that's not what he's speaking
about here. He's speaking about disregard.
They've not known the law of God. They've not loved the law
of God. They've not walked in the way
of God. They have forgot it. That is, they put it aside. They've
not given any consideration to it. Even as the Lord said that
there would be some who would perish because they were not
given a love of the truth. that they might be saved. The
Lord said that he blinded some that they might not see. What
did they do? They forgot the law of God. They put it aside.
They had no regard to it. See, that's what's wrong in our
society today. It's not that men say we're not
going to keep the law of God. It's just that they put the law
of God aside. They don't even think about it.
It's not even in their mind. I mean, if you think you're a
woman and you want to be a woman and you was born a man, you can
just do whatever you want to do. You can call yourself anything. You can be what you want to do
because men despise the law of God and they won't think about
it. Can't think about it. And they
will despise it and forget it. I'm small and despise, yet do
I not forget thy precepts regardless. You know, the weakest of God's
children are strong in him because the Spirit of God has caused
him not to forget, not to disregard the law of God. Even the weakest
of brethren. Thy righteousness is an everlasting
righteousness and thy law is the truth. How do we, do we declare that? I mean, is that what we believe?
The law of God is the truth. What is the law of God? Some
people think the law of God is the Ten Commandments. The Ten
Commandments is indeed the law of God, but the law of God is
much broader and more pervasive than that. And the Lord Jesus
summed it up. And he said, thou shalt love
the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with
all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself. Now that's a pretty
simple thing, is it not? And every man who's born into
the world is confronted with that very law, whether he knows
it or not. For the Lord has written that
law in the hearts of men, and they despise it. Every man despises
it. Every child despises it. And apart from the grace of God
to open their heart, open their mind, they will continue down
that pathway. Trouble and anguish have taken
hold on me, yet thy commandments are my delights. The righteousness
of thy testimonies is everlasting. Give me understanding. and I
shall live. Oh, that the Lord might give
us understanding. Understanding that Christ is the way, the truth, and the
life. And no man comes to the Father
but by Him. And that's what we come here
today. We come here without fanfare or come here without any Ritual? To remember the Lord's death
till he comes. Because we know that it's in
the death of Jesus Christ that our sin is taken away, and no
other way. Nothing you can do, I can do,
or whatever, but it's in that which Christ has done. And we
remember his death until he comes again. Now if we're waiting until
he comes again, then we must have the understanding that he
lives in the present time. See now, if we could somehow
be taken up there, we could see him right at the present moment.
He ever lives to make intercession for us. Now that seems preposterous
to the natural man, does it not? I mean, we can't comprehend such
a thing, but it's the truth. And we testify to it when we
partake of this. And this supper is given for
those whose hopes are found in Jesus Christ and Christ alone.
That's who it's for. And those who don't have that
desire and understanding, they're warned not to take of it. We don't do it because of everybody
else is doing it or whatever. We do it because we believe that
Jesus Christ died for sinners, that he paid the price, and that
our hope is in Christ and in what he has performed for us
in his death on Calvary's cross.