seen quite clearly here in Psalm
119 as this psalm has 176 verses and each one of the psalms begins
with one of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet and 22 chapters
of 8 verses And another interesting thing,
of course, I didn't discover this myself, but other scholars
and those who've studied the Hebrew and have more wisdom about
this than I could ever expect to have, each one of these verses
in each one of these sections begins with the letter that is represented there. In
other words, in the first eight verses, all of the eight verses
in that, uh... section of the song began with
the hebrew letter a left and uh... that's just an interesting
thing yeah i believe the lord set forth these things he gave
course we know that he gave these uh... words to me and to right
now uh... but we believe this is the word
of god And we believe, I believe, that the Psalms are directly
the word of God in the sense that these are dictations of
the Lord Jesus Christ to those who wrote this, we believe being
David. And as we see and we will see
throughout this particular Psalm, these are the words of Christ. Blessed are the undefiled in
the way who walk in the law of the Lord. Blessed are they that
keep his testimonies and they that seek him with the whole
heart. They also do no iniquity. They walk in his ways. Thou has
commanded us to keep thy precepts diligently. Oh, that my ways
were directed to keep thy statutes. Then shall I not be ashamed when
I have respect unto all thy commandments. I will praise thee with uprightness
of heart when I shall have learned thy righteous judgments. I will
keep thy statutes, O forsake me not utterly. Wherewithal shall
a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according
to thy word. With my whole heart have I sought
thee. Oh, let me not wander 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. With my lips have I declared
all the judgments of thy mouth. I have rejoiced in the way of
thy testimonies as much as in all riches. I will meditate in
thy precepts and have respect unto thy ways. I will delight
myself in thy statutes. I will not forget thy word. That's as far as I'm going to
read this morning and hopefully we can look at these verses. We'll go as far as we can. Blessed
are the undefiled in the way who walk in the law of the Lord. Blessed are they that keep his
testimonies and that seek him with the whole heart. Now, it
is natural for man in his natural mind and carnal thinking, especially
religious men, when they look at this passage of scripture,
they would consider that this has some reference to their keeping
of these things. And the reason that they think
that They could be considered as the undefiled in the way who
walk in the law of the Lord. Now, there is a measure in which we
could say that of ourselves if we have understanding of how
it is that the Lord works in his people and performs for us
and in us by his power. We could say that. But realistically, what the Lord
is saying here in this passage of Scripture is really identical
to what Brother Al read there this morning when Moses set forth
what the Lord told the nation of Israel to do. This is true.
Blessed are the undefiled in the way. But who do you know
that is undefiled in the way? See, I mean, for a man to say,
well, that's me, He's not aware of who He is.
When we read this, blessed are the undefiled in the way, when
a man reads that and he says, man, I'm glad of that. No, when a man reads this in
nature, in his carnal understanding, and he reads that, it ought to
strike fear into him, because there is no blessing to those
who are defiled. Now you see, the law is that
way. The law of the Lord is perfect. It's holy. There is no mercy
in the law. The law says what it says. And
those who are undefiled are blessed. Those who are defiled are cursed. Now that's just the stark truth. The Lord Jesus took delight in
the law of the Lord. In His law, He did meditate day
and night. and he manifested what this psalm
speaks about, blessed are the undefiled in the way. He was
undefiled. He had no sin, neither was guile
found in his mouth. There was no tendency to sin
in the Lord Jesus Christ. He had no bent towards sin. See,
you and I, we have to have a hedge put about us to keep us back
because we're running towards sin. The Lord Jesus Christ, he
said, Oh, that my ways were directed to keep my statutes. His desire
was to keep the statutes of God. Now we can say, Lord, we won't
keep our statutes, but we know that left to ourselves, we'll
go away from the Lord. But the Lord in his perfection,
he said, Lord, keep me. See, there's a difference. because
the Lord desired to be kept from a perfect standpoint of the fact
that He desired that with His whole heart. You and I have a
mixture of that in us. You know, sometimes we say, oh
Lord, we want to walk in Your way, but then sometimes we kind
of push the Lord back to the back, do we not? And say, well,
you know, we'll go on and try our way for a while. Well, maybe
that didn't work out too good. Blessed are the undefiled in
the way who walk in the law of the Lord. Now, dear brethren,
the only one in whom this can be said and in whose righteousness
we hope to stand is the Lord Jesus Christ. who walk in the
way of the Lord. He walked in the way of the Lord,
in the law of the Lord, how do we know that? He said, I am the
way, the truth and the life. No man comes to the Father but
by me. Blessed are they that keep his
testimonies and that seek him with the whole heart. That's who's blessed. those that
seek Him with the whole heart. Well, you know, I've heard men
say, well, I'm seeking Him with my whole heart. No, you never
sought the Lord with your whole heart. Because there's always,
as long as you live in this flesh, you will not seek the Lord with
your whole heart. And you would perish because
of that, except for the mercy of God. Except the Lord Jesus
Christ. has stood in your room, in your
stead, in your place as a substitute, as that one who has kept the
law completely and perfectly. They also do no iniquity, they
walk in his ways. You know, back when we were in
school, whenever the teacher would give a test and everybody
did bad on the test, we'd always want the teacher to grade on
the curve. You remember that? I mean, you wanted the teacher
to kind of bring the standard down where we didn't look quite
so bad. You know what I mean? If we made
a C, we really, if we graded it down on the curve, we could
actually make a B or an A. Well, the law of the Lord's not
like that. God doesn't grade on the curve. There's a standard
of righteousness. And that standard of righteousness
is Jesus Christ. And anything, anybody that does
not measure up completely to that standard will perish. Now
if a man has been taught by the Spirit of God what he is by nature,
then he knows himself to be in dire trouble. A religious man,
he thinks he can make a deal with God. See, men by nature,
they think that they can just come to God anytime they get
ready and they can, the Lord's just wanting to make a deal with
them so bad until he'll just take anything they offer him.
Well, Lord, if you'll get me out of this, I'll serve you. All men, again, as Brother Al
pointed out, all men gonna serve God. You can't keep from serving
God. Wickedest man on earth's gonna
serve God. He's gonna serve God unto his
own destruction, but he's gonna definitely. Pharaoh, I mean the
Lord said, I raised up Pharaoh that I might show my glory in
the earth, show my judgment. Said for this same purpose I
raised him up. And so the Lord does indeed.
He raises up the wicked men of the earth to manifest his glory.
Now, men don't like to think about that, because, well, that
just doesn't seem like that would quite be fair. Well, see, the
Lord would manifest the glory of His grace in the earth, and
it is by His love to unworthy sinners that He shows that. Because
all men by nature are just alike. There's not a lick of difference
in any man ever born into the world, the best of men and the
worst of men. They're all the same by nature.
And apart from the grace of God, they would all likewise perish.
But you see God who's rich in mercy, he shows mercy. And they
also do no iniquity, they walk in his ways. How can we say that?
Because in Christ, those who are in Christ, they have no iniquity
before the throne of God. We're justified as if we had
not sinned. Thou hast commanded us to keep
thy precepts diligently. Who can argue with that? I mean, a lot of people, they
bring out the law and they say, well, this is what God commanded
us to do. So we're going to paste it up
here on a sign, or we're going to put it out here for everybody
to see, and this is the law, and we're going to make everybody,
everybody's going to keep the law. Brother, we're behind the
eight ball to start with. We've already broken the law.
See, if a man was ignorant of the law of the Ten Commandments,
if he'd never heard of the Ten Commandments, and then you brought
the Ten Commandments to him and put it right before him, and
you said, here's the law of God, and from that point forward,
he said, well, I'm gonna keep that. He'd already be lost, because
he's already broken the law of God. You see, I mean, as we read in
Romans, all men have the law of God written in their heart. If you don't believe it, you
know, just every man despises the things that men
do to him that are against the law, does he not? I mean, if
somebody comes to steal something from you, you might be the biggest
thief in town. But I guarantee you, if somebody
comes up to your house and steals something from you, you'll be
mad about it. Why? Because the work of the law is
written in the hearts of men. Men know. Yes, they do. They can't escape it. Thou hast
commanded us to keep thy precepts diligently, not partially, but
completely, oh that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes.
Now by the grace of God, the Lord does put within the hearts
of his people a desire to keep the law of God. It is a desire
of the sons of God to do that which is right in the sight of
the Lord. We just don't entertain any notion that we do that. See,
that's the problem, is when men think they do that. As long as
you understand that you don't do that, and that your hope and
your expectation of righteousness is not found in what you do,
but in what He has done, then, you know, that's a glorious thing.
That is the work of grace. Then shall I not be ashamed when
I have respect unto thy commandments. Now, is that what he said? No,
he said, when I have respect unto all thy commandments. See, we like the law until we
don't like it. You know, there's certain things
we like, this is pretty good, but then when it kinda comes
against some secret sin or desire that we have, then, well, we
don't like it quite as much. But he said, I will have respect
unto all thy commandments. The Lord perfectly desired to
walk in the way of his Father. I will praise thee with uprightness
of heart when I shall have learned thy righteous judgments. I will
keep my statutes. Oh, forsake me not utterly. Father,
into thy hands I commend my spirit. Did he not pray? Oh, forsake
me not utterly. Now he was in the measure in
which he prayed, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? The
Lord did indeed turn away from him, the father, as he saw the
son as sin, for the Lord will not look upon sin. Now there's
a mystery why, no man can comprehend that completely, how that could
be, that the Lord could forsake his son and yet at the same time,
be one with his son? I mean, I don't have any way
to explain that to you, that would satisfy the carnal understanding
of men. But we do understand that he
did pray. And he did have that understanding
that the Lord had forsaken him. But here we see, he's praying
that same prayer. Oh, forsake me not utterly. Don't
cast me away. See, that is a desire of the
sons of God, is not to be cast from the presence of the Lord.
And Jesus Christ, as a perfect son of God, desired not to be
cast out of his Father's presence. The one thing he desired more
than anything else was to do his Father's will. And that was
the one thing that he had to bear in becoming sin for us to
go contrary. to be as he bore our sin, everything
about bearing our sin was contrary to the way of God, yet he did
it gladly, even though he desired not to be in that situation,
in the fact of being cast out from the Lord. I mean, that was
the agony that he had in the garden, was it not, as the sin
of God's people was laid upon him? and he being of pure eyes,
and to look upon it, and bore it, and knowing that the only
way that he could please his father was to become displeasing
in his father's sight. Now that's a conundrum, is it
not? I mean, that's between a rock and a hard place. And he poured
out his soul unto death, and he was crushed under the weight
of that, and he sweat great drops of blood, the scripture says,
for our sake. because he desired to do the
will of God. And yet he knew that in order
to do the will of God, he must become displeasing in his father's
sight. That's a wonder. It's what we
come to remember today. Remember his death till he comes
again. Wherewithal shall a young man
cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according
to thy word. With my whole heart have I sought
thee, O let me not wander from thy commandments. Wherewithal
shall a young man cleanse his way." Who's a young man? See,
every man thinks he's a young man. I still think of myself
as a young man. I look in the mirror and I say,
who in the world is that? But, you know, when I was a kid,
I used to think old people thought like old people. They was the
old people, and so they thought like the old people. But the
reality is that, you know, we still think of ourselves as young.
I still think I can do the same things I always did. I mean,
you know, I could go climb that tree over there if I wanted to.
I just don't want to. But you know, where would an
Australian young man cleanse his way? And so men, we don't
think of ourselves as young. So this is really wherewithal
shall a young man cleanse his way is speaking to all men, all
women. How shall we cleanse our way?
Can we? Who can bring a clean thing out
of an unclean thing? The answer is that we can't do
it in ourselves. But he says here, by taking heed
thereto according to thy word. Taking heed to what? Taking heed
to the fashion in which a man can be clean before God. How
can a young man cleanse his way? By starting to keep the commandments
of God? No, by taking heed thereto to
the word of God, which tells us that we are sinners in need
of a cleansing power out beyond ourselves. How can a young man
cleanse his way? He came in his own power, but
by the grace of God, he can see the one who does make sinners
clean. Oh, what a glorious thing. With my whole heart have I sought
thee. Oh, let me not wander from thy
commandments. Thy word have I hid in mine heart,
that I might not sin against thee. The Lord Jesus Christ demonstrated
that, did he not, when Satan tempted him. He said, it is written. See, the Word of God, He hid
the Word of God in His heart, that He might not sin against
the Lord. Oh, that He might hide His Word in our heart, that such
might be, that we might be able to say the same thing, that the
Word of God, the power of the Lord Jesus Christ might dwell
in us richly, that we might not sin against the Lord. What is
the greatest sin of man? I believe it's self-righteousness.
To think that you're something when you're nothing. To think
that you can partially obey the Lord and He'll be pleased with
you. Well, we'll make it up to you, Lord. We'll go to church
every Sunday next month. We'll make it up. I mean, we've
been kind of slack, but we'll do something. We'll go out witnessing. We'll put some more money in
the plate, or we'll do this out of the other. No. that we might not sin against
thee, Lord, teach me thy statutes. Let me know that the truth is,
what the truth is. And the truth is that all of
our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. And all of our righteousness
that is acceptable in the sight of God is that which is performed
by Christ. and that which is manifested
before us today. With my lips have I declared
all the judgments of thy mouth. I have rejoiced in the way of
thy testimonies as much as in all riches. That has to be the
Lord speaking, does it not? With my lips have I declared
all the judgments of thy mouth. You don't even know all the judgments
of his mouth. How could you do that? I mean,
how could David do that? He didn't know all the judgments
of the mouth of the Lord. because there are things that
men can't know about the judgments of God. I have rejoiced in the way of
thy testimonies as much as in all riches. I will meditate in
thy precepts and have respect unto thy ways. See, the way of
the Lord is past finding out. and when a man has respect under
the ways of the lord he'll recognize that now sometimes we get lifted
up with pride and we think well we know all the way of the lord
we we we've got handle on this we can straighten everybody out
you know they all what people need to do just come ask me and
i can tell them you know how it is you know what the lord's
been pleased to show you that's all you know joe said I heard about you with
the hearing of my ears. So you can learn a lot of stuff.
I mean, you can get where you could write a book about the
things that's in the Bible. But that doesn't mean that you
know the truth of God. That doesn't mean that he's applied
it. to your heart. That doesn't mean that you have
respect unto His ways. Because He alone can give you
respect unto His ways. And the way that happens is when
you fall down on your face and say, Oh Lord, I don't know anything.
Teach me. Show me. Because the way of the
Lord is past finding out. But He has revealed to us some
things has He not? He has revealed to us that there
is a Savior for sinners. I don't know all the mysteries
of prophetical things that can be unfolded, perhaps, as you
read the Bible. But I know what the spirit of
prophecy is. The testimony of Jesus is the
spirit of prophecy. And I know this, that Christ
is the subject of all prophecy. And so, I have respect unto the
ways of God. Christ is the way. And it's impossible
to have any regard to the ways of God if we do not have respect
unto the ways of Jesus Christ. I will delight myself in thy
statutes. I will not forget thy word. I'm
thankful today that the Lord Jesus Christ has not and will
not forget the word of God. I forget it. You know, this fella
that I've been corresponding with, he places a real emphasis
on memorizing the scripture, and I think that's a good thing.
You know, everybody ought to memorize scripture. But see,
We don't need to confuse memorizing the scripture with hiding the
word of God in our heart because those are two different things.
Now, you need to memorize the scripture. It's good to memorize
the scripture, but the better thing is to seek the Lord that
he might write it in your heart, that he might impress those things
upon you so that you do not forget his word. Do not, it's the thing
that's in your mind and heart, not just in your mind, but it's
in your heart. Because just like Job, as we
talked about, he said, I've heard of thee by the hearing of the
ear. I know a lot of stuff. I mean,
you know, I could stand here and talk to you about stuff for
a long time. I could wear you out probably
just standing here talking about stuff. What good would that be? What we desire, dear brethren,
is not just to know these things as men can know stuff. Everybody
can know stuff. I mean, you can go on YouTube
now. I believe you could go on the computer and learn how to
be a brain surgeon. There's probably a YouTube video
on there. If you ever need to do brain
surgery, just go on there and see it. Or if appendix gets to
hurt you, you could probably find one and cut the thing out. I mean, you can learn a lot of
stuff. But only the Lord can cause you to love His way, to
have respect unto His way. And His way is right before us
today. He said, as often as you eat
this bread and drink this cup, you do show the Lord's death
till He comes again. Dear brethren, that's the only
thing I want to manifest. I don't want to stand before
you and manifest any great wisdom or anything. I don't want you
to go out of here and say, oh man, he really could preach,
you know, and all that kind of stuff. But I do desire, by the
grace of God, that you go out of here remembering Christ. Because
He's the only one worthy to be remembered. I mean, when all
men have done all they're going to do, what's it going to amount
to? Think of all the hopes and dreams and exploits and deeds
of all of those people buried in that graveyard out there.
And they don't amount to a hill of beans, do they? I mean, there
may be some hills of beans that's growing out there that the roots
went down and got some nutrients out of what was down there. I
don't know, but you see, the Lord provided all that. And when
we're dead and gone, He'll still be doing exactly what He's gonna
do. May we have respect unto His ways and know that we can
do nothing apart from His mercy and kindness towards us.