Well, good evening to everyone.
If you would open your Bibles with me to Psalm 119. I'm going
to continue our study in Psalm 119 this evening. We'll begin
our reading in verse 129 of Psalm 119. Thy testimonies are wonderful. Therefore, doth my soul keep
them. The entrance of thy words giveth light, it giveth understanding
unto the simple. I open my mouth and paint it,
for I long 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 mine
eyes, because they keep not thy law. I ask the Lord to bless
the reading of his word. Let's bow together in prayer. Our great God, our holy, sovereign,
merciful Heavenly Father, Lord, we bow in thy courts this evening. We bow in worship. We bow before
you in awe and wonder. Worship at thy holy footstool.
We bow before you with hearts that are full of thanksgiving. Oh, how thankful we are for your
mercy and your grace to your people and your son, our Lord
Jesus Christ. We thank you that in your infinite
love for your people, that you would set your love upon a people,
choose to redeem them through the sacrifice and through the
righteousness of thy son. And Father, that you would call
out your people through the preaching of your gospel, that you'd give
an ear to hear, that you'd give a heart to believe what we cannot
believe and what we cannot hear by nature, but that you'd give
your people a hearing ear, a believing heart. Father, we're thankful. We're thankful for this gospel
that you've given us to preach, the glorious good news of who
our Lord Jesus Christ is and what he's accomplished for his
people. And Father, I pray this evening that you would enable
us to worship thee. Give us an hour where we might
be enabled by thy spirit to worship thee in spirit and in truth. Father, don't let us just go
through the motions and be so relaxed and thinking about the
other things of this life that take our attention away. But
Father, give us a heart that hungers and thirsts after Thee,
that worships Thee in spirit and in truth. Father, I pray
that You would enable me in this hour to rightly divide the word
of truth. I beg of Thee that You give me
of Your spirit Enable me to preach your word in the power of your
spirit, not in the weakness of human intellect and logic and
oratory, but Father, in the power of thy spirit, enable me to preach
your word. Enable me to preach your gospel
to your people, from your heart to my heart, to the heart of
your people, that we might hear of the Lord Jesus Christ and
believe him. rest in Him. Father, I pray that
the name of Christ our Savior would be exalted in our service
this evening. Let Him be preeminent in all
things. And Father, we dare not to forget
to pray for your people, especially those, Father, that you brought
into the time of trouble and trial. They're heartbroken and
lost. They're in sickness and great
difficulty. Father, we pray for them. We
pray that you would heal, that you would comfort, that you would
be with your people in a special way who are hurting especially
right now. Father, for your people everywhere,
and especially for the people of this congregation, Father,
I pray for them. I pray that you would meet their
needs, that you'd watch over them, that you'd keep them safe
in this very difficult time, this dangerous virus. Father,
watch over your people and keep them safe. As restrictions start
to loosen and things start to open up, Father, I beg that you
give people wisdom to not do something foolish and to keep
themselves safe and watch over us and protect us and enable
us to soon meet together again in person, to lift up our voices
together in praise and adoration. And until then, Father, knit
our hearts together in these times of electronic services
knit our hearts together, enable us to lift up our hearts together
in joy and praise and thanksgiving to our God. All these things
we ask and we give thanks in that name, which is above every
name, the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. All right, Psalm
119. I've titled the message this
evening, Christ from A to Z. Part eight, we're continuing
to go through this study of Psalm 119, which you know well by now
is a poem which has one eight verse stanza for each of the
22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The theme of the whole psalm
and the theme of each one of these stanzas is the word of
God, both the written word and Christ the incarnate word. And
I want us to see from each stanza, from A to Z, how that Christ
is all in salvation. Tonight we begin looking at the
17th stanza. This stanza tells us how powerful
the Word of God is. The letter for this stanza deals
with the power of speech and it tells us how God's power is
revealed in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
Word of God, the speech of God, and God's power and glory is
revealed to you and me in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now it seems
to me like you could call this stanza the heart of this whole
psalm. It deals with how wonderful God's
word is, how powerful God's word is. It seems to me like this
is the heart of the psalm, so clearly dealing with the glory,
the wonder, the power of the word of God. So I'm only going
to deal with this 17th stanza tonight. I have five points that
I want to give you from this passage on the power of the word
of God. Number one, God's word powerfully
reveals many wonderful things. Verse 129, thy testimonies are
wonderful, therefore doth my soul keep them. Now, David says
God's testimonies are wonderful. Well, the Bible is God's testimony. If you want to find out what
God's testimonies are, God's testimony is the Bible. The Bible,
the written word of God, is God's testimony of himself. And oh
my, it is a wonderful testimony. The Word of God testifies of
the Lord Jesus Christ. The Word of God tells us about
Christ, whose name is wonderful. You know, the Bible tells us
that God's testimonies testify of so many wonderful things because
they tell us of Christ, whose name is wonderful. God's Word
testifies. It tells us who God is. The Word
of God tells us what God is like. It tells us what God's character
is. And it's a good thing that we
have this. It's a good thing God's given
us this Word to testify and tell us who He is because nobody would
ever be able to figure out what God's like. Nobody would ever
be able to figure out who God is or know how God saves sinners
if God didn't tell us in His Word who He is and how He saves
sinners. If God didn't tell us in His
Word that He is absolutely holy and absolutely just, we would
think, well, God can just accept the best that I can do. But God's
Word tells us that's not so. God's Word tells us that God's
holy and God's just. He cannot accept the best that
we can do because the best that we can do is full of sin, defiled
with sin. So instead, now here's something
wonderful. You know what God did? He sent
His Son to do the best that God can do for His people. And God
will accept that. That's a testimony of God. And
that testimony gives God's people a good hope. It lets us have
rest of heart and soul. Salvation based upon who Christ
is and what Christ has done, the best that God can do. Now
that's a good hope. That's a good hope. Now I couldn't
have a good hope if salvation had to depend on who I am or
what I've done. But I can hope in Christ. And
that's wonderful. That's a wonderful testimony.
What a wonderful salvation God has provided for His people in
His Son. Only God could do something as
wonderful as that. We could never figure it out.
God had to give us a whole book to testify of it. The Word of
God testifies of God's wonderful purpose of salvation. The salvation
of His people by the obedience and by the sacrifice of His Son,
the Lord Jesus Christ. No one else would ever be able
to think that such a wonderful thing is even possible if God's
Word didn't testify and tell us about salvation in Christ.
God's Word testifies of God's wonderful wisdom in God being
just and still justifying sinners. Human intellect could never figure
that out. How can God be just and still
justify sinners? It's through the sacrifice of
the substitute. who would pay for the sin of God's elect by
His precious perfect blood and make it right for God to show
mercy to sinners. That's how God can be both just
and justify the ungodly. That's God's wonderful wisdom,
testified of in God's Word. God's Word testifies of all the
wonderful promises of God. There are too many promises of
God for us to even begin to try to list them in such a short
message. But all of God's promises are
precious. They're all wonderful promises.
And God's word, you just go pick out any promise of God and his
word that you want to. God's word testifies, God cannot
lie. So that promise that you thought
of, God's going to keep it because he cannot lie. God will keep
all of his promises. He'll keep all of his promises
of judgment. And God will keep all of His
promises of mercy and grace in Christ Jesus. He'll keep them
all because He cannot lie. That's wonderful. God's Word
testifies and tells us He gives His people the wonderful gift. The Apostle Paul called it unspeakable. The Apostle Paul had a good command
of language. Paul said, there's not words
to describe the unspeakable gift of God's Son. The wonderful gift
God gives His people of faith in Christ. And that's how all
of God's people keep God's Word in their heart. Because God gives
them a heart of faith, a heart that believes Christ. And that's
wonderful. These are all the wonderful promises
of God in His Word. Second, God's Word powerfully
gives light and life to His people. Verse 130. The entrance of thy
words giveth light. It giveth understanding unto
the simple. Now, when Christ, the light of
the world, enters into our heart, darkness vanishes. When God,
the Holy Spirit, reveals Christ to us, He turns the light on
by giving us the light of Christ. The darkness of our unbelief
vanishes. Now, we will believe Christ.
We will. I can promise you, you'll believe
Christ. if you see Him as He is. If you ever see Him as the
Savior of sinners, you're going to believe Him and the darkness
of unbelief will vanish. When Christ is revealed to our
hearts, the darkness of ignorance disappears. You know, we're born
in darkness and ignorance. We don't understand God. We don't
understand how sinful we are. That's how deep darkness we are
in. We do not understand how sinful
we are. We don't understand our death
by sin. We don't understand the nature
of sin. We're in darkness. We cannot understand. And when
God the Holy Spirit reveals Christ, he makes the most simple understand. The simple understand the great
mysteries of the gospel when they see Christ because he's
the answer. See, before we see Christ, we're in such darkness
that we're ignorant of our sin. We're ignorant that everything
we do is sinful. We think, well, I do some bad
things and some good things, and I'm kind of hoping my good
things will outweigh my bad things in the end. That's ignorant because
we don't do any good things. The only thing we do is sinful.
And we're ignorant of that until we see Christ. Before we see
Christ, we're so ignorant, we're in such darkness, that we think
if we act nice to somebody every once in a while, we think that's
righteous. We think that that God's happy with that, that God
will accept that as righteousness if we're just nice to people
once in a while, you know? We think that before we see Christ.
Before we see Christ, we're in such darkness, we're so ignorant.
We think that we're righteous. I mean, the truth is we're totally
depraved. The truth is all we are is sin,
but before we see Christ, we are in such ignorance. We actually
think that we're righteous. We actually think that we're
good enough that God will accept us and love us as we are. And
we think that because we're in such gross darkness. We don't
know who God is. We think God loves everybody.
So God's going to love me too, you know. That's what the darkness
of human intelligence thinks. But after we see Christ, everything
is different. After we see Christ, Then we
get some understanding of who we are, because we see ourselves
in the light of who Christ is. See, we see Christ, now we see
what true holiness and true righteousness really looks like. That's when
I'll learn I'm sinful. That's when I'll learn I'm totally
depraved, I'm completely sinful. If we ever see Christ as He is,
we'll say with Isaiah, woe is me, for I'm undone. I'm a man
of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean
lips." Now Isaiah, how do you know that? What made you draw
that conclusion that you're undone and you're a man of unclean lips?
He says, for mine eyes have seen the King. I've seen the Lord
of Hosts. I've seen what true righteousness
and true holiness really looks like. That's how I know I'm undone. That's how I know I'm a man of
unclean lips because I've seen myself in the light of the King.
After Christ is revealed to our hearts, We'll see what true righteousness
is, and the only righteousness we'll ever want is the righteousness
of Christ, if we see Him as He is. See, that drives the darkness
of unbelief away, doesn't it? The only righteousness we'll
want is Christ. I won't want anything to do with
my own righteousness or my own works. If I ever see Christ,
I'll see this, the only hope a sinful man like me has is Christ
my righteousness, and I won't want it any other way. if I see
Him, if the Holy Spirit gives me light to see Him. Before we
see Christ, we're so ignorant, we think that God can love us
in our sin. We think God can love us in spite
of our sin. And we think that because we're
ignorant of God's holy character. We're ignorant of who God really
is. But after Christ is revealed
to our hearts, we see God as He is. We know God's holy and
God's just. Yes, God's merciful. Yes, God's
love. But God is holy, and God is just. So I see the only way it's possible
for God to love me is if He loves me in Christ. The only way God
can love a sinner is if they're in the Lord Jesus Christ, who
put their sin away. And that makes me so thankful.
If the Spirit's given me light to see Christ, that makes me
thankful. There's a place I can hide. I can hide in Christ. There's
a place I can be, and God will love me. God will accept me.
It's in Christ. And I'll know that and I'll love
that if God gives me light to see Christ. Look over Philippians,
the book of Philippians chapter 3. After Christ is revealed to
our hearts and we have the light of Christ, we will only want
Christ. We will only ever want to be
found in Him. We'll say the same thing the
Apostle Paul said in Philippians chapter 3, verse 7. When he was Saul of Tarsus, boy,
he had a lot of things he could brag on. How well he kept the
law outwardly, didn't he? Couldn't he? But look what he
says beginning here in verse 7. But what things were gained
to me, all my obedience to the law, all my following of the
ceremony and traditions, what things were gained to me, now
I count those things but loss for Christ. Yea, doubtless, I
count all things, everything about me, everything I've ever
done, I count all things but loss. for the excellency of the
knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I've suffered
the loss of all these things." I've gladly given up all my works
of righteousness, all my works of the law. I count all I've
suffered the loss of all those things gladly. Because all I
do is count them but dung. You know, if you've got dung,
you're happy to get rid of it. It's not something you want to
hang on to and hug up real close to. You're happy to get rid of
it. Paul said, I've suffered the loss of all those things
gladly because I count my works but done. I let go of them. I
get rid of them that I may win Christ and be found in Him. Not having mine own righteousness
which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of
Christ. The righteousness which is of God by faith. Not by words,
by faith. That I may know Him and the power
of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings be made conformable
unto His death, if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection
of the dead." And if God the Holy Spirit ever gives us the
light of Christ, this is what we'll see. I want to be found
in Christ and no place else. I want to be in Christ. When God looks at me, I don't
want Him to see anything about me. When God looks at me, all
I want Him to see is Christ because I'm in Him. That's what we say. I mean, we don't just say that.
That's what we believe. If God showed us the light of
Christ in our heart. Before Christ makes an entrance
into our heart, we sit in the misery of darkness where there's
nothing but darkness and death. I mean, it's not just like we're
alive and we're groping around in the dark. I mean, that's true
to an extent. But when we talk about darkness,
it means death. death. But after Christ makes
an entrance into our heart, Christ the light enters into our hearts,
we have the joy, the joy of life. And the light we're talking about
is spiritual light. Look back in our text, verse
135. The light we're talking about
is spiritual light, is Christ the light of the world. Verse
135, see this is the light, it's Christ, make no mistake about
it. He says, make thy face to shine upon thy and teach me thy
statues." The light of the glory of God can only be seen in the
face of Jesus Christ. That's where we have light and
life. It's in the face of Jesus Christ. Let me show you that.
2 Corinthians chapter 4. The light that we're talking
about here is a life. Now, I can make good on that
by showing you this. In 2 Corinthians chapter 4, the light we're talking
about is spiritual life. 2 Corinthians chapter 4. I told you to turn to it, I guess
I better. 2 Corinthians 4, verse 5. For we preach not ourselves,
but we preach Christ Jesus the Lord and ourselves your servants
for Jesus' sake. For God, who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, where? In the
face. of Jesus Christ. We preach Christ
Jesus, the Lord, who is the light of the world. And God's people
are given light in the new birth, in the exact same way God created
light on the first day. He said, let there be light.
That light was the Lord Jesus Christ. God created that light
in the darkness. And in the new birth, when God
causes his people to be born again, God uses that same power
of creation and says, let there be light. He puts a new heart
in his people, a brand new heart that never existed before. God
doesn't take the old heart and fix it up and, you know, make
it where, you know, it's acceptable. No. God created creation from
nothing. There was nothing, just an empty,
vast, void space. And God said, let the dry land,
let the earth appear, let the planets appear, let these things
appear. and they were created from nothing. God does the same
thing in the new birth. He creates a new man, a new heart
that never existed before. He creates it from nothing. He
speaks in power and gives light and life. Well, all right, how
does Christ the light make an entrance into the hearts of his
people and give them life? Well, look at the book of 1 Thessalonians. The answer is through the preaching
of the gospel. That's how Christ makes an entrance
into the hearts of his people. Christ the light. 1 Thessalonians
1 verse 9. God turns the light on in the
hearts of his people through the preaching of Christ. 1 Thessalonians
1 verse 9. For they themselves show of us
what manner of entering in we had unto you and how you turned
to God from idols to serve the true and living God and to wait
for his son from heaven. whom He raised from the dead,
even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come." Now,
what would make people willing to turn to God from their idols
and make them willing to wait for Christ? What would make them
willing to do that? They heard of Christ through the preaching
of the gospel. See that in verse 4? The apostle says, knowing,
brethren beloved, your election of God. I know that you're elect
of God, for our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also
in power. and in the Holy Ghost and in
much assurance. For ye know what manner of men
we were among you for your sakes." The Gospel entered into these
people through the preaching of the Gospel. And through that
preaching, God revealed His Son to the hearts of those people
and they had light and life. Spiritual light and life are
the same thing. And if God ever makes you hear,
I mean not just hear with this ear, but hear with the ear of
faith. Hear the Gospel of Christ. you'll have spiritual light.
Spiritual light comes to the heart through the ear, through
the ear of faith. And the spiritual light is more
than light that just lets us see, it's life. And only God's
word is powerful enough to give spiritual life to a dead sinner. Only God's word is powerful enough
to give spiritual light to those who are born blind. God's word
powerfully gives light and life to His people. That's why we
preach it. That's why we preach only the
Word. Because this Word is the seed that God uses to give light
and life to His people. Alright, here's the third thing.
God's Word powerfully feeds the sheep of God. Back in our text,
Psalm 119, verse 131. I opened my mouth and panted,
for I longed for thy commitments. I long for
thy word." Now the phrase, I open my mouth here, means I open my
mouth wide, as wide as it would go. Just like a baby bird opens
its mouth wide. I've seen in pictures and movies
and stuff, video, these baby birds, they just open their mouth
wide. I mean, just as you would think
their mouth could hinge open that wide, just as wide as it
would go. And that mama bird and daddy bird come dropping
worms and grubs and seeds and stuff. And they just hardly even
close their mouth. They just leave that mouth gap
so wide open because they're hungry. They need to be fed.
That's God's children. If God shows me the power of
His Word, the light of His Word, if God shows me how wonderful
His Word is, I'm going to eat it up. Just eat it up. And I'll
want more of it. I'll just want more and more
and more of it. If we get a taste of God's word,
we're going to need more of it because we can't live without
it. We'll just be like those baby birds, our mouth is as wide
open as they could go. I need more of God's word. If
we've tasted the Lord's word and we've tasted his sweet mercy
and his sweet grace, we're going to need more of it. And when
our journey through this dry and dusty world leaves us hot
and thirsty and parched, we're going to be hungry and we're
going to be thirsty. We're going to pant for the water
brooks of God's word. See, this world has nothing that
will satisfy the heart of a believer. That's why people just gather
up stuff of this world and they gather more and more and more
and more of it. No matter how much they get,
they're never satisfied. This world doesn't have anything
that will satisfy the heart. Really, if a believer, unbeliever
alike does it. But for a believer, this world's got nothing that
will satisfy our heart. This world doesn't have anything
that will satisfy and quench my thirst. Not if I've tasted
Christ. If I've tasted Christ, if I've
drunk of Him, He's the only thing I want. I will remember how God's
Word satisfied me in the past. and I'll paint after it now.
It's the only thing that will satisfy. And how refreshing is
it when God the Holy Spirit applies God's word to our hearts. That's
how he feeds his people is by applying the word, giving us
his word. Well, how is it those baby birds,
God's baby birds, how is it God's baby birds are fed? How is it
that the thirst of God's little children is quenched? What's
mercy? They're fed by God's mercy and
they feed on God's mercy. God's babies are fed God's mercy. God's mercy is the meal and it's
the drink. Verse 132, look thou upon me
and be merciful unto me as thou uses to do unto those that love
thy name. And here's one evidence that
you're an object of God's mercy. You need more mercy. You want
more mercy. He says, look thou upon me and
be merciful unto me. Always look upon me in mercy. Lord, give me more mercy. I'm
thankful for your past mercies. I'm always thankful for God's
past mercy, but we're continually crying for more mercy. It's like
that baby bird with its mouth open wide. We're continually,
we're thankful for God's past mercy, but we're continually
needing more of it. Our cry is, Lord, be merciful
to me today like you have been in the past. Be merciful to us
like we read about your great mercy to our fathers in the past.
Lord, be merciful to us like that today. Look upon me in pity
and feed me, Christ. Look upon me in pity. See how
helpless and hopeless I am and feed me, Christ. Look upon me
in love and give me showers of blessing. Give me, Christ, the
living water. That's the only thing that'll
satisfy my soul. That's what God's word powerfully
gives to his people through his word. God, here's the fourth
thing. God's word powerfully leads God's
sheep. Verse 133, order my steps in
thy word and let not any iniquity have dominion over me. David
says, order my steps in thy word. Steps of a good man are ordered
by the Lord. He said, well, order my steps in your word, order
my steps means to lead me, guide me. That's what sheep need. Sheep need to be led. We need
to be led by a shepherd. We need to be led through this
world simply because of all the worldly decisions that we have
to make. How can we possibly manage this
world? In the past few months, our world's
gotten much more complicated. It was complicated before. How
much more complicated is it now? We need God to lead us through
it, don't we? We need to be led through this world because of
all the dangers that we face. I mean, it's very easy to see
we need the Lord to lead us and provide us, just fleshly speaking,
don't we? But chiefly, far more importantly,
we need to be led. We need to be led to Christ.
We need to be led spiritually. And God leads his sheep to Christ
by his word, his word, which reveals Christ. We need to be
led to Christ, so we trust Him. Now, how do we know? All the
things that we believe, why do we believe them? It's because
God's word says so. How do we know that salvation
is in Christ's obedience to the law, not in our obedience to
the law? How do we know that salvation
is through faith in the work of Christ and not our works? Because the word says so. How
do we know that salvation is received by faith and not by
works? Because the Word says so. How do we know that salvation
is not in man's choice of Jesus, not in man's decision to let
Jesus be the King of my heart and let Jesus enter into my heart,
but that salvation is God's choice of a people? How do we know that?
The Word of God says so. How do we know that Christ did
not die for every son of Adam? How do we know that salvation,
the success or the failure of Christ's sacrifice does not depend
upon us, but it depends upon Him? How do we know that? The
Word of God says so. How do we know that God's elect
are going to be given faith in Christ? They can't conjure it
up themselves. So God the Holy Spirit will give them faith in
Christ and He will keep them so that every last one of them
will ultimately be glorified with Christ. He will not lose
one that the Father chose because He died for them all and He's
going to save them all, glorify them all. How do we know that?
Because the Word of God says so. That's how we're led. We're
led to Christ by what the Word of God says. It just narrowly,
narrowly, narrowly confines us to salvation by Christ alone.
Order my steps in your Word. Lead me in the way that I should
go. Well, who's the way? The way
that we should go is the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is the way
of righteousness. If you want to be righteous before
God, Christ is the way of righteousness. Christ is the way of salvation.
Would you be saved from your sin? Christ is the way of salvation. Christ is the way of forgiveness.
Do you want your sin to be forgiven? Would you want God to forgive
your sin? Christ is the way of forgiveness. Christ is the way
of grace. Christ is the way of peace. Would
you have peace with God? Christ is the way. He's the way
of life. Christ is the way. But you and
I are dead in sin. We're foolish, we're foolish
sheep by nature. We need God to put us in the
way. We need God to put us in the
way by giving us faith to believe Christ. We need God to put us
in the way, and we need God to keep us in the way. I mean, David's
a believer as he's writing this, and he's asking God, order my
steps. Keep me, Lord, you put me in
the way. You put me in Christ, now keep me in the way. Look
back at Psalm 17. He says this several times in
the Psalms. Psalm 17 and verse 5. Hold up my goings in thy paths
that my footsteps slip not. Lord, you put me in your paths,
but my footsteps are going to slip off of it if you don't keep
me in that way. Put me in the way and keep me
in the way. Don't let me slip off of it. Look over Psalm 27. Psalm 27, verse 11. Teach me thy way, O Lord, and
lead me in a plain path because of mine enemies. Put me in the
way, teach me, and lead me, keep me in it. Deliver me not over
into the will of mine enemies, for false witnesses are risen
up against me, and such as breathe out cruelty. I would have fainted. I would have just fainted and
not had the strength to go on. I would have just sat down and
quit. unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord
in the land of the living. So wait on the Lord. Be of good
courage. He shall strengthen my heart.
Wait, I say, on the Lord. See, this is what David's saying.
I need God to put me in the way and keep me in the way. Keep
me from slipping off of the way. I need God to give me the strength
to keep going. Otherwise, I'll just quit. Lord,
put me in the way. and keep me in the way. Keep
me from myself, from my own sin, from my own sin nature. Keep
me from leaving you like I would if you didn't keep me. That's
what David's talking about in verse 134 of our text. He says,
deliver me from the oppression of man. So will I keep thy precepts. Now the sinner's cry is Lord,
deliver me, deliver me. Deliver me from sin. Deliver
me from the reigning power of sin. He says there at the end
of verse 133, let not any iniquity have dominion over me. And here
is how sin has dominion over our nature. Before we're born
again, we've only got one nature. That nature is dead in sin and
that makes it so we cannot believe Christ. You cannot. You might
hear of Christ with these ears, but you cannot make yourself
believe him. I'm the perfect case study. for just, I can tell you, the
years I tried to make myself believe this gospel. It made
sense to me. I could see it in black and white.
I could see that has to be so, but I had no love for it. I couldn't
make myself love it. I couldn't make myself believe
it. And one day I found out, I thought to myself, I believe
that. I love that. This Christ, I love Him. I need Him. I believe Him. What
happened? Well, maybe it's a passing fantasy.
I wait a little bit. Nope, I believe Him. I can't
not believe Him. What happened? God caused a new nature to be
born. So sin could no longer reign. I believed Christ and
could not believe Him. That's what David's asking for
here when he says, let not any iniquity have dominion over me. He's saying, Lord, deliver me
from my sin nature. Give me a new nature that will
believe you and won't stop believing you." That's what he's talking
about here because he says, deliver me from the oppression of man,
of man. He's not saying deliver me from
the oppression of men who hate me and want to kill me like Saul.
He says, deliver me from man. Deliver me from the nature of
man, my fleshly nature. The nature of sin that I carry
around with me Lord, deliver me from myself. Deliver me from
sin. Deliver me from the bondage of
the law, but mostly deliver me from the darkness of my ignorance
and my unbelief. Deliver me from my nature of
man and give me a nature that loves you. Deliver me from my
nature, which would try to oppress me by taking me back under the
captivity of the law. Deliver me from myself and keep
me trusting Christ. And the only way we can be delivered
like that is the power of God's Word. Only Christ, who is revealed
in this Word, by the preaching of the Word, can we be delivered
from the power of our sin nature. See, the believer first looks
to Christ when we hear the Word preached. You who believe, that's
how you first believe, when you heard the Word preached. You
couldn't believe on somebody who hadn't heard preached, could
you? You couldn't believe on somebody you didn't know. The only way you
ever first believed on Christ is you heard the Word, you heard
Christ preached. And the way we continue looking
to Christ, the way we continue depending upon Christ is by hearing
the very same Word preached. That's how God delivers His people. So when you feel like David did
in Psalm 27, you feel like, I just quit, you know? I just don't
have the strength to keep going. Tell you how you'll find the
strength to keep going, to keep looking to Christ. is by hearing
him preach the same way you did when you first heard him, when
you first believed him. There's no substitute for it.
There is no substitute for hearing the gospel preached. That's the
way God leads his people. And when he leads his people,
how does he lead them? Where does he lead them? Always
to Christ. The way God leads his people
is the preaching of his word. All right, here's the last thing. God's word powerfully gives his
people the right attitude. Verse 136, rivers of waters run
down mine eyes because they keep not thy law. Now if God the Holy
Spirit reveals Christ to our hearts, we're going to have a
new attitude. Our heart will be humbled, we'll be thankful,
we'll be awed. That will be the attitude about
ourselves. We'll just be awed, humbled. The Almighty God would be gracious
to somebody like me. That's our attitude. That's the
attitude about ourselves. We're nothing, we're undeserving.
That God would be merciful to me fills me with awe. That's our attitude about ourselves.
But the Word of God also teaches us the right attitude about others,
particularly about unbelievers. I utterly despise the attitude
that looks down the nose and mocks unbelievers. I guess sometimes
it might be a good way to kind of break through the minds, you
know, and be good to mock some religious tradition that makes
absolutely no sense if you took two seconds to think about it.
It's so contrary to God's Word. I could see how somebody might
mock that as a way to make somebody see the foolishness of the error.
I suppose that would be okay if that's what you're trying
to do. Get somebody to see the folly and foolishness, you know, of
the error. Sometimes. Rarely, but usually not. It's usually not good. The example
I always use is mocking a lame person for being lame. Mocking
a blind person for not being able to see. Sinners are saved
by hearing the word of God preached. Sinners are saved by hearing
of Christ, not my sarcasm. So what I'm talking about here
is God giving us the attitude of heart. If God has saved me
by his grace, why would I ever boast and act like I'm better
than those that the Lord has not saved. You know, I used to
be blind. I used to be in darkness, and
the Lord gave me light. And the only reason I'm not still
in that darkness is the Lord's given me light. Well, how could
I ever make fun of people who are still in the same darkness
I used to be in? See, that attitude is fleshly. I know that attitude's
still in us because it's fleshly, and we still have a nature of
sin. But that attitude's not spirit. No, that attitude comes
from the flesh, not the Word of God. If God saved me by His
grace, now this is the attitude He's given me. It makes me thankful.
It makes me thankful. And it makes me secondly weep.
Weep for those who do not know Christ. I hear things that people
say on television and social media and so forth. And it's just utter foolishness.
But it makes me weep. It makes me, I cry rivers of
tears, just rivers run down my cheeks. I wish they knew Christ. It's so sad, the things that
people trust in. It's so sad because it's not
a good hope. It's a hope that's going to lead
them to hell. It's so sad. Oh, I wish they knew Christ.
We sing that chorus. Everybody ought to know who Jesus
is. They ought to. They don't, but
they ought to. He's the only hope that they
have. He's the only hope for a sinner. And the best thing
that I know of to do for those people who do not know Christ
is preach Christ to them, because that's who they need to know.
You know, the Lord revealed Himself to me through the preaching of
the Gospel. Then I know this, surely He can
reveal Himself to others who don't know Him. If He saved me,
I know He can save them. There's no question about it.
If He saved the chief of sinners, He can save the little ones too.
I know that. See, there's nothing more precious, there's nothing
more wonderful than Christ, than knowing Him, salvation in Him,
the power of His Word, His power to save. There's nothing more
precious, more wonderful than salvation in Christ that this
book reveals. And what a gift that God's given.
If you believe Christ, what a gift that God has given you. Aren't
you thankful? Oh, I pray that the Lord will
make us, you and me, good students of his word, so we see how wonderful
and how powerful that he is. All right, let's bow together
in prayer. Our Father, we thank you for
your word. We thank you for the power of
your word, the power of your word to give life to the dead,
light to the blind. We give thanks for How wonderful
Your Word, all the wonderful, precious promises of Your Word,
the promise of mercy, grace, and life in Christ Jesus, salvation
in Him. Father, how we thank You. How
we thank You for how Your Word feeds Your sheep. It's the children's
bread that You freely give to us. And Father, we're thankful.
And Father, I pray You bless Your Word tonight. Bless it to
Your glory. Bless it to the hearts of Your
people Use your words as it's preached tonight to call one
of your poor, lost sheep out of darkness into the light and
life and joy of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, use
your word to comfort the hearts of one of your sorrowing children. Use your word to comfort and
encourage one of your exhausted children trudging along through
this journey that you've called us to here below. Use your word
to Reveal Christ to the hearts of your people one more time.
Father, it's for His glory, for His sake, that we pray and give
thanks. Amen. Well, I pray that the Lord
will continue to watch over you, bless you, and keep you. And
Lord willing, here in a few weeks, we'll be able to meet together
in person and in some limited ways. get the word out to everybody
about how we're going to be able to do that to allow everybody
to be able to come to the public worship services when they become
available here later on in this month. So until then, may the
Lord bless you and keep you.