Turn in your Bibles to Psalm
119. This is the longest psalm. I think it's something like 176
verses. But I just want us to look at
one of those verses this morning. And that is the 50th verse. The
psalmist is led by the Spirit of God to make this statement,
This is my comfort in my affliction, for thy Word hath quickened me. This is my comfort in my affliction,
for thy Word hath quickened me." Recently, I received an email
through the Sermon Audio website from a couple in England. I don't
know where in England, but their comment was this concerning a
message that they had listened to on the website. Pastor Gary,
This message was just what we needed to encourage us in all
our rather overwhelming trials and difficulties. And the thought
came to my mind, how could it be that something said by a country
preacher in North Carolina It could be found to be a comfort
to a couple of people in England with entirely different cultures,
backgrounds. I know this, it had nothing to
do with me. It could not be the way I said
it, but if comfort was found, It had to be in the Word of God
spoken. What I say will not really ever
matter. And only that which I speak or
any other preacher speaks as to what God said will count. It doesn't matter what you think,
or I think, or we feel, or we believe, it's going to always
come down in the final analysis to what God says. There is no doubt that all people,
I don't care who they are or where they're from, all people
have various afflictions, troubles, And we find Job declaring this
a long time ago. He summed us all up in this way. He said, man born of woman is
of few days and full of trouble. Trouble in mind, trouble in heart,
trouble in body. As a matter of fact, the word
affliction here has various meanings which speak of misery, depression,
trials, trouble. And the people of God, no matter
whether they're in England or here or wherever they are, they're
not immune to affliction. These preachers on TV, they kind
of want to get folks on what I call a hallelujah hayride. We're all just going to have
a good time in religion, and we're all going to pretend that
we have no trials or troubles like this, because God wants
us to be healthy, wealthy, and wise. Well, I can tell you this. God gets what He wants. And obviously, He does not want
me to be those things. I'm getting older and weaker
and obviously less healthy. I certainly am not wise in myself
and I definitely am not wealthy. You see, the people of God, as
I said, have afflictions. As a matter of fact, He says
many are the afflictions of the righteous. Many afflictions. And the psalmist says in another
place that His afflictions and His trials were such and left
him in such a state that his soul refused to be comforted. He thought that his trials, he
thought that his troubles were so great, there was nothing that
could be said or done that could in any way comfort him. But we can be assured of this,
and that is that all believers have comfort and that their comfort
is equal to and sufficient to their afflictions. And our comfort,
like everything we have, comes from God as the gift of His grace. You can't comfort yourself. He
says through the apostle Paul, "'Blessed be God, even the Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God
of all comfort.'" Sounds to me like if you and I get any comfort,
it's going to have to be from God. He says, "...who comforts
us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them
which are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we ourselves
are comforted of God." We are to show each other what God used
to give us comfort. And this comfort is wrought in
our hearts by the Spirit of God. As a matter of fact, this is
the name of the Holy Spirit by which the Lord Jesus said when
He was gone away that He would do what? He said, I will not
leave you comfortless, I will send the Comforter. Capital letters. That word is
paraclete in the Greek, one who walks along beside us, the comforter,
the Holy Spirit. And if you notice here, each
believer has their own particular afflictions. He says, my afflictions,
my troubles, my distresses, And the Scripture says of each man,
the heart knows his own bitterness. You've got your trials, I've
got mine. You've got your afflictions,
I've got mine. But just as we all have our particular
afflictions, as I said, so also do God's people have their own
particular and special And this is what the psalmist
is setting forth. And he begins in his statement
here, he says, this is my comfort in my affliction. And it would
seem like here that he is saying this in a way so as to distinguish
it as being different from every other. This is my comfort in
my affliction. And what he's saying here is
that it is different from the world's words. It is different
from the world's pleasures. It is different from the world's
assurances. And men can act as cheerleaders
and pep talkers and all these things, but in a short while,
their words reveal themselves for what they are, nothing equal
to our afflictions. Pat you on the back, everything's
going to be alright. Stand up and we'll all praise
the Lord. Stand up, we'll all claim this,
that, and the other." And then they go home, where's their comfort? And he speaks of it as being
near this, as being near at hand rather than that. This is unique
and special, and he speaks of this as if holding and grasping
to this alone. This is my comfort. As a matter
of fact, this is my comfort and the only comfort I have. He says, this Word is my comfort. You know, He says, Thy Word have
I hid in my heart. This Word of God. This Word from
God. This which God has spoken. This Scripture which is literally
God breathed, this is my comfort. And this is my comfort to the
exclusion of all others. I remember an old preacher said
one time, he said, the gospel is good news. And I found out
that it is the only good news there is in this world. You found that out yet? The only
good news there is in a world of sinners and in a world that
is under the curse of sin is God's Word. This is all of it. This is the consolation. This is it presently in all afflictions. This is my comfort, sufficient
and satisfactory and sweet in every circumstance. Don't be
looking anywhere else. Don't be expecting to find it.
Not in your best friend, not in your mate. Not certainly in
government, not in any of these things. These politicians have
been promising comfort and help for how many generations and
we still don't have it. Why? Because they can't give
it. They can't give it. He says,
this is my comfort in my affliction. And then he immediately turns
on that with the next thought. He says, "...for Thy Word." Thy
Word. Do we understand what a psalm
is? A psalm is a psalm. And in the Old Testament, as
they went up in worship, As they rose up the various planes of
worship, these singers would sing these songs as they went. So these are songs sung in praise
to God. They are not like these so-called
gospel songs of our day that have no reverence for God, that
appeal only to excite our flesh, that have words and statements
in them that are not only not true to the Word of God, they
are contrary to the Word of God. But they call them gospel songs.
Ain't no gospel in them. Here is this psalm in which they
said, this is my comfort in my affliction for thy Word. Not just any Word. And not all
words, but Thy Word. There's something unique about
Psalm 119. And you can go in every verse
of Psalm 119, and in each verse there is some kind of reference
to the Word of God. Sometimes it's called the Law
of God, Sometimes it's called the statutes of God. Sometimes
it's called the commandments of God. All these various references,
all of which are speaking to the Word of God. We're to hold
what God says above every other word. I know what we do. We say, You know, that's your
opinion, or that's your doctrine, or that's your idea of what it
says and what it means. But the truth of the matter is,
God has said what He has said, and He means what it says. It's not difficult to understand
what God says. He used men that were fishermen
and farmers and all these various individuals to be the instruments
by which He gave His Word. It's not hard to understand,
but it's impossible for us as sinners to believe of ourselves. You say, why is that? Well, because
it also says that our natural minds, The way we come into this
world, the way we are taught by fallen sinners like ourselves,
maybe even mom and dad, the way we are taught by false religions
is enmity against God. If I wanted to get a crowd this
morning, if I wanted to assure my success, If I wanted to accumulate
things in this world and earthly glory, all I'd have to do is
to tell men and women what they want to hear by nature. But it
would be contrary to God's Word. It'd be contrary to the truth. Look over in verse 107. Here
the psalmist says, I am afflicted very much, quicken me, O Lord,
according to Thy Word. Thy Word. That Word which is
true. and which is unchanging, that
Word, all of which he says is yes and amen in Christ." Why
do we have the Old Testament Scriptures? You know, most folks
imagine that the Old Testament Scriptures and the New Testament
Scriptures are somehow quite different. how that the Old Testament
Scriptures are no longer relevant, how that the New Testament Scriptures
say something that's contrary to the Old Testament Scriptures,
but that's not true. Because Christ, when He came
into this world after His resurrection, He revealed Himself to a company
of people, and it says that from the Law and the Prophets and
the Psalms, from all those Old Testament Scriptures, He revealed
the things in them concerning Himself. Do you know what the Old Testament
is about? about the Lord Jesus Christ. We have Him in type,
we have Him in shadow and picture, prophecy. You know what the New
Testament is about? It's about the Lord Jesus Christ. We have Him come into this world,
the one prophesied, in order to accomplish those very things
that God led the prophets to write about, which was that Messiah
would come and save His people. Paul in Romans says, "...for
whatsoever things were written aforetime." were written for
our learning that we, through patience and comfort of the Scriptures,
might have hope. That's the only place hope is
in. The only thing we can find in this world that God uses to
give us hope, they're found in the Scriptures, in the Old Testament
and New Testament Scriptures. These are unchanging things spoken
by God, and He said that His Word is forever settled in heaven. He didn't change just because
the New Year changed. He doesn't change because we've
become so modern and so sophisticated. He didn't change over time. He says that He is God who changes
not. I am the Lord that changeth not,
therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. Christ said He
is Jesus, the same yesterday, today, and forever. You mean Christ was the same
in centuries past? He was the same in eons past. He's the eternal Son of God.
And He's the same today. And He'll be the same tomorrow,
and the year after that, and the year after that. He's the
same. This is His Word. Turn over to
2 Corinthians. 2 Corinthians, look first in chapter
1 at verse 3. Now Paul begins, In 2 Corinthians, as he does
in 1 Corinthians, he's writing to believers, and they got their
problems. And actually, if you read these
epistles and read about what was going on at the church at
Corinth, what you'll find is that their problems was, for
the most part, themselves. But now listen to how he begins
this letter. Verse 3 of chapter 1, "...Blessed
be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father
of mercies," here it is again, "...the God of all comfort, who
comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort
them which are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we ourselves
are comforted of God." But look over in chapter 5. Because what we find
in Scripture is that when He speaks of the Word, He is speaking
of the gospel Word. You see, we can stand up and
speak, or we can hear men speak, and they may speak or read words
from God. But the message of the Bible
is not some one verse here, one verse there, but the whole sum
of Scripture, the gospel. Now listen to what he says in
2 Corinthians 5, verse 18, "...and all things are of God, who hath
reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ." In other words, this
message that he's going to describe in just a moment has something
to do with what God has done. The gospel isn't me telling you
something that you're to do. You and I could do nothing that
would satisfy God and please God. The gospel isn't about me
telling you if you'll do something, God will bless you. He says that
this has to do with the fact that all things are of God who
hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ. What has He
done? You tell me. He has reconciled
some people to Himself by Jesus Christ. You're not reconciled
to God by virtue of something you do, or something you decide,
or something you accept. Reconciliation to God is only
through and by Jesus Christ and His cross death. Reconciliation
means to have peace. And God, concerning His people,
has never done anything to need for Him to be reconciled to them,
but they have a need of themselves being reconciled to Him. How
is that accomplished? Somebody said, well, you need
to make your peace with God. You can't make your peace with
God. But the Bible says that for some
people, Christ made peace by the blood of His cross. What's Christ doing outside of
Jerusalem there? Is He hanging on that cross and
laying down His life to give everybody a chance? You say,
well, I thought that's what He was doing. That's not what the
Bible says. I don't care how many people
preach it. The Bible says that the Good Shepherd laid down His
life for the sheep. John 10. And there are some fellows
there, when Christ made those statements, He said, they said,
we don't believe on you. They were religious people. They
were the Pharisees. They said, we don't believe on
you. What have you got to say? We've
seen our own religious people. We don't believe anything you
say." What did Christ say? He said, you believe not because
you're not of my sheep. You say, I don't believe that
gospel you preach, preacher. I'm not surprised. But Christ
said, my sheep will hear my voice and they'll follow me. They won't
follow this religion or that religion or another religion.
They won't follow the ideas and philosophies of men. They won't
follow some preacher who's trying to make a name for himself. He
said, they follow me. When our Lord came into this
world and began His opening ministry publicly, It had been foretold
of the prophets that there would be a forerunner, a man who is
described as a voice crying out in the wilderness. It was John
the Baptist. And so here comes the Lord Jesus
Christ, God in human flesh, come walking down to where John the
Baptist was. Did John say, well, look at me,
I was right, wasn't I? Look at me, I've got the inside
scoop on this. He pointed with one finger and
he said, Behold, the Lamb of God takes away sin. Behold, the Lamb of God that
taketh away the sin of the world. He didn't say every person in
the world. He uses that to show that every
barrier and division upon this earth, Jew, Gentile, male, female,
whatever the distinction is, God has a people from among Adam's
race, even though there isn't any of these distinctions, that
He came into this world to take away their sins. God was in Christ reconciling
them unto Himself." Well, look a bit farther here. He says in
verse 19 of 2 Corinthians 5, "...to wit, that God was in Christ
reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses
unto them." What does that mean? that He did not impute their
trespasses to them." That word means to charge or reckon. God did not charge them with
their sins. Now wait a minute. Isn't that
the very kind of thing that the just God says as being abhorrent
to Him? If you clear the guilty and you
condemn the just, He said, I'll not have it. So how in the world
did He not impute or charge these people their sin to them? Well,
He just said. He was reconciling us unto Himself
by the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what Christ does on that
cross almost 2,000 years ago. He hangs on that cross as their
substitute, as their Savior, and bears the penalty of their
sin in His own body. What's the penalty for sin? Death. The soul that sinneth shall surely
die." And so that's what he's doing. He's reconciling his people
unto God through his own death. God does not impute their sins
to themselves. He has imputed their sins to
Jesus Christ. And there's one thing I'm sure
of. If this God, who describes himself as a just God and a Savior. He is not a Savior at the expense
of his own honor or justice. He is first and at the same time
a just God, if He is such, and I assure you He is. If Christ
died for my sins, and my friends, I've got more than any of you,
I'm sure, all my sins, that like the psalmist said, they roll
over my head in the multitude of them. All my sins, all the
sins of His people in every age, all the sins of His people in
its entirety, the Lord laid on Him the iniquity of us all. And if He died for my sins, then
I don't have any. If he suffered the penalty that
was due all my sins, all the sins of his people, I'm free. And salvation becomes, obviously,
what God says in this Word it is, all of God's grace and all
in one outside of myself. Suppose you can't swim, as we
say, a lick. You can't swim a lick. But you
might be like my granddaughter at three years old who thinks
she can do anything. I can swim, I can do this. She
can just do anything. Until it comes down to the time
of doing it. But as long as you think that
you can swim, everything's alright until you fall into the water. And you never ever ever call
out for help. You never ever yield yourself
to be saved, to be rescued until you're brought to confess your
real condition. I remember reading years ago
that one of the things that they taught in training lifeguards
is that That person that you're seeking to save, you swim out
to them, but you do not touch them as long as they're thrashing
and wailing and imagining that they can save themselves. But
when they're brought to realize that their struggles are futile,
and they yield it up, then you take hold of them and rescue
them. You still trying to save yourself? Trying to be good enough to go
to heaven? Let me just... I've tried all that. Well, I
joined the church. So did I. Probably two or three
of them. And I went down the aisle. And
I shook the preacher's hand. And I tried to pray what he called
was the sinner's prayer, a rehearsal of something that he said. And
I listened to what he said when he tried to convince me that
now, by virtue of me doing those things, I was a Christian. I was saved. And they say things
like this, and don't you ever let anyone tell you you're not.
That's like putting a man in a coffin and nailing everything
down around the edges, putting screws in the top, You've doomed
him, but for the grace of God. Listen to what he says, "...and
have committed unto us the word of reconciliation." The word
of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors
for Christ as though God did beseech you by us. We pray you
in Christ's stead, be you reconciled to God. Now wait a minute. He is writing this letter to
believers. They were reconciled to God in
Christ Jesus on that cross. What is he talking about there?
He said, now with all these things that are happening to you, in
all your trials, in all your afflictions, in all your tribulations,
whatever God in His wise providence sends to you, be reconciled,
be at peace with that. Why? Because God has already
reconciled you unto Himself. He says, "...for He hath made
Him," that is Christ, "...to be sin for us, who knew no sin,
that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." You say, well,
preacher, we're having hard times. We are. But those who believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, who trust Him alone, according to
what God says in His Word, the worst, is behind you. This is the Word of Reconciliation. God has reconciled us to Himself
in Christ. It's called the Word of Truth,
the Word of Life, the Word of Righteousness. It is the Word
of Christ. It is the written Word about
the incarnate Word. You say, how do you tell if a
preacher is preaching the Word? They all claim to be preaching
the Word. The preaching of the Word has to do with the preaching
of Christ. It isn't all about how to live
and how to succeed and how to be happy and healthy. That's not it. The message of
the gospel is about the Word. Go to John's gospel, that first
chapter, in the beginning was the Word, capital letters, And
the Word was with God, and the Word was God? The little Father, and the Word
was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory as
the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Thy Word. The reason that the
written Word is the comfort of God's people is because it's
about the living Word. There's no comfort for us as
sinners apart from Christ. And there can be no comfort for
us as far as anything written except it be in and about Christ. All the promises of God are yes
and amen in Him. The written Word. The Scriptures. Thy Word. This is my comfort. Thy Word. Not a newspaper. Not a movie, or a novel, or a
magazine. He says, Thy Word. The preached Word. You read Isaiah
40. And this is the instruction to
the prophet. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people,
saith the Lord. That's why I'm not going to spend
my time beating you to death. That's why I'm not going to spend
my time pointing out to you every flaw and blemish. I can't, I've
got so many myself. I'm sent to comfort the Lord's
people. They're the only ones that will
be comforted, but they'll be comforted in the fact that God
has already dealt with their sin. Already reconciled them. Already saved them, if you will. And then notice what he says
again in our verse. He says, "...thy word hath quickened."
Quickened has a twofold meaning. On the one hand, it means to
make alive from the dead. And then it has another meaning,
which means to revive. Thy word hath quickened. It's
made me alive from the dead. You see, the Spirit of God uses
the Word of God when he brings his people to life. That's what
he says to the Ephesians. And you hath he quickened, made
alive, who were dead in trespasses and sin. What's the evidence
of spiritual death? We don't believe God. We'll believe
man, but we don't believe God. He says, of His own will, James
says, of His own will, God's own will, begot He us, brought
us forth from death to life with the Word of truth. God doesn't save His people by
lies preached and half-truths. Peter said, "...being born again,
not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word
of God, which liveth and abideth forever, the word of the Lord
endureth forever, and this is the word which by the gospel
is preached unto you." God uses the truth in the hands of the
Spirit of truth to bring sinners out of darkness into light. to
bring them to faith in Christ as He is and for what He's done.
And then that second meaning is He uses it to revive and refresh. You see, the Lord's people have
trials and troubles and afflictions. They're even plagued oftentimes
with unbelief. They get full of despair. They
take their eyes off the truth, off of Christ. They look at their
self and their situations and all their problems of life, their
health issues, all these things, and they feel as dead. What does
he say quickens them, revives them, refreshes them? He said, Thy Word, Thy Word. It seems like I have experienced
a lot of such feelings lately. I might as well tell the truth.
Family situations, health feelings, just unbelievable sometimes. I said to my wife, what else
can happen? And I can tell you that the only
thing in those lowest times and darkest hours The only thing
that has been like a flicker of light is what God says in
this book. I can't explain how it is that
God uses His Word to revive and refresh His people. The other
day I was just reading along in some verses in the Psalms,
and I came upon a verse, Psalm 68 and verse 9. Where the psalmist says, Thou,
O God, didst send a plentiful rain, wherebout Thou didst confirm
Thine inheritance when it was weary. And that very verse, He
made to my poor soul like a plentiful rain. I must not be dead. if His Word brings such a refreshing
comfort to me when I was weary." Some have little comfort. Maybe
they have little hearing of the Word. He said, "...desire the
sincere milk of the Word. Thy Word hath quickened, hath
made me alive, and hath revived me and refreshed me time and
again." And I'll say one more thing about this verse. It seems
to me, whatever our comfort is, really reveals our citizenship,
if you will. Where and what and who do you
seek when you need comfort? The just shall live by faith. Living sinners, quickened by
God, they live by faith. Faith is the evidence of life. And faith, Paul says, comes by
hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. I always fear for those
who will not be comforted by the Word. Who in their need leave
the Word. who turn to everything but the
Word, who give evidence that the Word gives them little comfort. But God's people, they're going
to be found like Peter. When our Lord said to Peter,
after the great multitude had walked away and left him, He
said, will you also go away? Peter answered and said, Lord,
to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal
life. A thirsty man has to go to the
well. A hungry man has to be found
at the table. God's people find comfort only
in Christ and Him crucified. That word, that gospel and good
news of what He's done for sinners. This is my comfort in my affliction,
for Thy Word hath quickened me." Father, we pray this day that
You would take Your Word and bless it to the hearts of Your
people wherever they are. They all will be found comforted
in Christ Jesus. in who He is and in what He's
done. And we pray that in all things
you would get glory and honor to yourself. We thank you and
we praise you in His name. Amen.