Well, good evening everyone.
If you would open your Bibles with me to Psalm 119. We'll begin
our service reading a portion of our text this evening. Psalm
119 beginning in verse 97. Oh, how I love thy law. It is
my meditation all the day. Thou through thy commandments,
has made me wiser than mine enemies, for they are ever with me. I
have more understanding than all my teachers, for thy testimonies
are my meditation. I understand more than the ancients,
because I keep thy precepts. I have refrained my feet from
every evil way, that I might keep thy word. I have not departed
from thy judgments, for thou hast taught me. How sweet are
thy words into my taste. Yea, sweeter than honey to my
mouth. Through thy precepts I get understanding. Therefore, I hate
every false way." Thank God for his word. Let's bow together
in prayer. Our Father, oh how thankful we
are that out of your goodness and grace to your people that
you have given us yet another opportunity to open thy word,
hear thy gospel preached, to hear the name of Christ our Savior
proclaimed. And Father, I pray that this
evening, I beg of you this evening, that you would bless your word
as it's preached. Father, in this hour, give us
a heart of true worship. Enable us to long to see and
by thy grace be enabled to see our Lord Jesus Christ and his
glory and his sufficiency Enable us to see him with the eye of
faith as a sacrifice for our sin, as a Savior who put away
our sin, as the Savior who we love, who we trust in, who we
believe. Father, apply your word to our
hearts for your glory, we pray. Father, we thank you for this
opportunity that you've given us to worship and this means
by which that we worship. to hear your word preached at
this time, but we cannot meet together. We know that it would
be better, it's our heart's desire that we be able to meet together
in person and be able to lift up our voices together in praise
and thanksgiving to our God. But Father, until such time as
you see fit to make it safe that we can meet together, we pray
you'd bless this means that you've given us, to bless your word. Father, enable us at this time
to see your glory, to see a special manifestation of your glory,
that while we are confined and restricted, that you are not,
and yet your word is not restricted. And cause your word to go forth
in power, enable us to see the glory of Christ our Savior, we
pray. Father, I thank you for all the blessings of this life,
even in this time of difficulty, how you've blessed your people,
continued to bless, We're thankful. Thank you for this congregation
that you've raised up here in Ashland, Hurricane Road. Father,
I pray that you would bless each home, each one. Bless with your
grace and your mercy. Bless with your presence and
your leadership and your protection. And Father, for those that you
brought in the time of trouble and trial, we pray for them. We pray for your hand of healing,
your presence to comfort their hearts. Pray a special blessing
at this time, Father, for our sister, Jessica Clark, that you'd
undertaken her behalf to heal her body and that you'd be with
her and her family at this time. Father, bless, we pray. We're
thankful to know thou art the great physician. You're able,
and Father, if you will, you can make her whole. That's our
prayer, the prayer of our heart. Now, Father, again, bless us
in this hour. enable us to forget about the cares and worries and
things of this life and enable us to set our affection on things
above and to hear word from thee that would save and comfort and
edify the hearts of your people. It's in the precious name of
our Lord Jesus Christ, for his sake, for his glory and in his
name, we pray and give thanks. Amen. All right, Psalm 119. We're going to continue our study
there this evening. I titled the message, Christ
from A to Z, part six. I don't know how many parts we're
going to take to get through this psalm, but I think it's
been a blessed study. I've enjoyed it and I pray that
you have too. Now, I'll remind you again, you
probably have my introduction memorized at this point, but
Psalm 119 is a poem and has one eight verse stanza for each of
the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet. And the theme of the
psalm, the theme of each stanza is the word of God. both the
written Word of God and Christ, the incarnate Word of God. And
it is my goal in this study to give you the main point of each
of one of these stanzas, each letter of the Hebrew alphabet
to show us how that Christ is all in salvation from A to Z,
every letter of the alphabet, Christ is all. And tonight we'll
begin looking at the 13th stanza of this psalm, which shows us
that God's truth is revealed in the Lord Jesus Christ. The
letter for this stanza Represents God's truth concealed and God's
truth revealed. Now you know that God's truth
can only be revealed in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the truth
of God. That applies to Christ incarnate
word and to Christ the written word. Now hold your place there
and look at Mark chapter 4. I'll show you that in the parables
that the Lord taught. In Mark chapter 4. In verse 10, the Savior here
has been teaching the people in parables, and now He's come
away from the crowd. He's just with His disciples.
In Mark 4, verse 10, And when He was alone, they that were
about Him with the twelve asked Him of the parable. And He said
unto them, Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom
of God. But unto them that are without, all these things are
done in parables, that seeing they may see and not perceive,
and hearing they may hear and not understand, lest at any time
they should be converted and their sins should be forgiven
them. Now this is God's word concealed
to those seeing they may see but not perceive, hearing they
may hear and not understand. But the Lord told his disciples,
unto you it is given. The reason that you understand
the meaning of the parables is God has given you an understanding. He's given you eyes to see. And
those who don't know the meaning of the parables, they don't know,
they don't see Christ in these things because God's left them
alone. It's not like he's hidden it
from them, they're trying to find it and they can't. No, he just
left them alone. All God has to do to conceal his truth from
someone is leave them alone in their blindness, to leave them
alone in their own understanding. But look what the Lord says here
in verse 13. See, here's the key. And he said unto them, know
ye not this parable? And how then will you know all
the parables? Now this is what the Lord is
saying. The meaning of this parable is the same meaning as all the
parables. It's Christ. This is the meaning of every
parable in every passage of scripture. The meaning is Christ. And you
can understand the meaning of every passage of scripture. You
can get the blessing that's in every passage of scripture if
you have the key. And the key is, The meaning is Christ. When
you're reading any scripture, if you want to get the blessing
from it, you want to know what this is truly saying, it'll help
you to already know the meaning of it's Christ. Now, all I have
to do is pray that they'll let me see it. The meaning of every
passage of scripture is Christ. And that's how God reveals his
truth to his people, through his word. Now, let me show you
that by looking back in our Psalm, beginning in verse 97. Oh, how
I love thy law. It is my meditation all the day. Now only the Lord Jesus Christ
can say honestly that he loved God's law and that God's law,
his word was his meditation every day, every hour of every day.
We sing that, um, that course every hour of every day. That's
a good goal for us, but we can't say God's words are meditation.
We can't say that the Lord Jesus Christ is our meditation. We
can't say the father is our meditation every day. Christ could, he did
and it was true. The Lord Jesus loved God's law. He loved God's law and he loved
obeying God's law because that's his nature as the son of God.
He could love God's law and he could love obeying, honoring
and magnifying God's law. And when God the Holy Spirit,
when he reveals God's truth, when he reveals Christ to the
hearts of his people, he gives them a new heart. And that new
heart does love God's law too. Just like our Lord Jesus Christ,
the heart that God gives his people in new birth is a heart
that loves God's law, that thinks upon God's law and is blessed
by meditating upon God's law. Now that's the only way we can
love God's law is if God gives us a new heart. He's got to give
us a new heart of faith in Christ and a heart of love for Christ.
And when God does that, that's God fulfilling his promise that
he mentioned several times in the scriptures He promised to
give his people a new heart and to write his law in our inward
parts. That's how we love God's law.
When God gives us a new heart, he's written his law, his word
in our hearts. And people who God has saved,
they love God's word and they love all of God's word. You know,
we who know the Lord, we long to hear God's word preached because
that's how our souls are fed. We love to read God's word because
God's word speaks to our heart like the words of men never can.
We love to read God's word that speaks to our heart. And a believer
loves God's word even when God's word corrects us. Even when God's
word corrects us and reveals our sin, the believer still loves
God's word. You know why? Because the believer,
when we're corrected by reading God's Word, when we see our sin
revealed in God's Word, the believer is automatically forced to look
to Christ. And the believer absolutely loves
being pointed to Christ, to see Him. So we love God's Word even
when it corrects us and even when it reveals our sin. A believer
loves all of the Word of God. A believer loves the law of God,
the moral law, the mosaic law that's revealed in God's word
that takes up much of the Old Testament. A believer loves the
law of God. Now you can only love the law
of God if God, the Holy Spirit has revealed the truth of God
to you. You can only love that law, the
written law of God, all those commandments of God. You can
only love them if God's revealed Christ to you. Without faith
in Christ, the law would drive us to despair because we can't
keep it. Because we'd surely be damned
if it was up to us to keep God's law, we'd be driven to despair.
See, if I only see the law telling me what to do or what not to
do so that God will be happy with me, if that's all I see
in the law, that the law has given me commandments to keep
and things to not do so God will be happy with me. If that's all
I see in the law, one of two things will happen. Number one,
I'll be driven to despair because you will have put a burden on
me I cannot carry. I can't keep God's law. I can't
do what it says to do and I can't not do what it says don't do.
So I'll be driven to despair. Or secondly, I'll become self-righteous
because I'll have a false sense that I've kept the law well enough.
One of those two things will happen if all I see in the law
is something that I can do to make God happy with me. But if
God reveals his truth to me, If God reveals Christ to me,
I see God's truth. I will love every commandment
of God's law because I'll see how Christ kept it for me. I'll
see Christ as the fulfillment of every commandment of the law.
I'll see Christ as a fulfillment of every ceremony of the law,
and I'll be blessed. I'll be happy. My heart will
be encouraged, but only if God reveals Christ to me. See what
I'm saying? Seeing Christ will make me love God's law. because
I'll see Christ who fulfilled it for me and I'll find rest
for my soul. So, if God's revealed his truth
to me, I love the Old Testament law. If God's revealed his truth
to me, I love all those Old Testament scriptures which are pictures
of Christ. I can only love that story of
Abraham taking his son Isaac to the top of Mount Moriah to
offer him there as a burnt offering if I see how that's a picture
of Christ. I can only love the story of Noah and his ark. I
can only love all those different stories of the Old Testament
if I see how they're pictures of Christ. Not just stories with
a nice heartwarming moral to them, you know, but they're pictures
of Christ. If God reveals Christ to me,
I'll love those Old Testament scriptures. The law and the prophets
both. And if God reveals Christ to me, I'll love the New Testament
scriptures too. Now if I think the New Testament
All it's telling me to do is you've got to live by following
the example of Jesus. You've got to learn the teachings
of Jesus and do what He says and God will be happy with you.
If I think that's what the New Testament is telling me, I'll
have the same reaction to the New Testament as I did to the
Old Testament law without faith in Christ. I'll be driven to
despair. If the New Testament really is
written to tell me how to live, to ask myself what would Jesus
do so I can do it, If that really is the teaching of the New Testament,
reading the New Testament will drive me to despair because you
put a burden on me that I cannot carry. It's nice to ask what
would Jesus do, but I can't do it. I cannot be like the Lord
Jesus. So I'll be driven to despair
or secondly, I'll become self-righteous through some false sense of thinking. Somehow I can be like Jesus.
Somehow that I am following the example that Jesus said, if that's,
you know, the kinds of things that people try to put on you.
And I'll just use one example, I could use many different ones,
but I'll just use one example to show you what I'm talking
about. If I think the scripture, the New Testament scripture is
telling me that I've got to love my neighbor as myself in order
to be saved, you know, if I just really care about other people,
then that means that God will accept me. If that's what that's
really teaching, I'm going to be driven to despair. Because
I could fool you that I love my neighbor as myself, but let's
be honest, I can't. You can't either. None of us
can love anybody like ourselves. We can't love our neighbors like
we love our own flesh. That'll drive me to despair.
But if God shows me his truth, if God reveals Christ as his
truth to me, I'll have real joy from my heart because I'll see
Christ is my neighbor. The son of God became my neighbor. when he took on him flesh just
like mine. He took on him a body, a nature
just like mine, yet without sin. And he did that because he loved
me and he loved me perfectly. And he came where I was down
there in the ditch and he had compassion on me and he reached
down and laid hold upon me and picked me up and healed me. He
poured in the oil and wine of his sacrifice and he healed me. Now, if I see Christ as my neighbor,
that's the truth of God. Christ is the neighbor. He's
the good neighbor. He's the good Samaritan. If I
see that, then my heart's going to be blessed. And you apply
that same thing to every verse of scripture. If you see Christ
in it, your heart will be comforted. Your heart will be encouraged.
So by God's grace, I can say with a psalmist here, I do love
the word of God. I love it because God's enabled
me to see Christ in it. He's given me the key to it.
That's the truth of God revealed. Now read on, verse 98. Thou through thy commandments
has made me wiser than mine enemies, for they are ever with me. I
have more understanding than all my teachers, for thy testimonies
are my meditation. I understand more than the ancients
because I keep thy precepts. The psalmist here talks about
wisdom and understanding. Wisdom and understanding. are
both greater than mere knowledge. Knowledge is knowing some facts,
memorizing some facts. Wisdom and understanding are
able to put knowledge to truth. And only the Holy Spirit can
give us spiritual wisdom and understanding. Fleshly wisdom
and understanding too, but only the Holy Spirit can give us wisdom
and understanding. We can be wiser than our enemies
who have some knowledge of God's word. They have some memorized
some facts, you know, from God's word. We can have, we can be
wiser than our enemies. We can have more understanding
than those false prophets who try to teach the word. If we
know Christ and they don't, that's how we're have more, more wisdom
and more understanding because we know Christ, we have Christ.
I'll give you an example. Knowledge says, Jesus Christ
of Nazareth is the Savior of sinners. Knowledge can read the
scriptures and understand Jesus Christ is the Savior of sinners.
That's knowledge. Wisdom and understanding. Put
that knowledge to use by going to Christ and begging him for
mercy, begging him to save me. See, that's the difference between
knowledge and wisdom. Knowledge says there's forgiveness of sin
in the blood of Christ. Almost anybody can read the scriptures
and have the natural understanding to know there's forgiveness of
sin in the blood of Christ. But wisdom and understanding
put that knowledge to use by going to God, by going to him
and begging Christ, begging him, God save me, forgive my sin for
Christ's sake. There's forgiveness of sin in
the blood of Christ Then God, I'm begging you, wash me. Wash
me in the blood of Christ. That's wisdom and understanding.
Now, many people have knowledge of the scriptures, but they're
educated fools. They're like the Pharisees of
old who search the scriptures and they think in them, in the
fact that they search the scriptures, in the fact that they've memorized
some scriptures, they think that they have life. They're educated
fools. They take their knowledge of
fact and they twist those things to fit their doctrine. They twist
those things so they can come to God their own way. Now, I'm
not saying knowledge is a bad thing. I want you to have knowledge. I want you to have knowledge
because you're well-taught in the Word of God. I don't want
you to have the knowledge of what men say is true. I want
you to have knowledge because you're well-taught in the Word
of God. But I also want you to be wise. I want you to have understanding. That's why I constantly tell
you, come to Christ. Look to Christ. Coming to Christ
and begging Him for salvation, begging Him for mercy, looking
to Christ because He commanded me to look and live. That's wisdom. That's understanding. And that's
what you'll do if God gives you understanding. Wisdom and understanding
obey God's commandment. What is God's commandment? It's
not all the commandments of the law. God's commandment, His commandment
of scripture is believe on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Wisdom and understanding believe Christ. They believe He is who
He says He is. They believe He'll do what He
said He'll do. They trust Him to save them. That's wisdom and
understanding. And wisdom and understanding
keep God's word, not by obeying it themselves, but by keeping
it, keeping it. The word keep the psalmist uses
here It means to observe, to watch, and to keep close. Now here's how you keep God's
Word. It's by observing Christ in the
Word, by looking for Christ in the Word, and by keeping Him
close. How do you keep Christ close?
By depending on Him. By leaning more and more heavily,
leaning more and more and more of your weight on Christ. If
you're leaning on somebody, you're keeping them close to you, aren't
you? That's how we observe God's Word. It's by looking for Christ
in the Word and by depending on Christ, leaning on Him. That's
how we keep Him close to us. That's wisdom and understanding.
All right, verse 101. I've refrained my feet from every
evil way that I might keep thy word. I've not departed from
thy judgments, for thou hast taught me. Now again, only our
Lord Jesus Christ can make this statement and say, I have not
refrained my feet from any evil way that I have not followed
after evil and I'm not departed from my judgments or my commandments.
Only Christ can say that. But yet, by God's grace, believers
do say this. We do follow Christ. He's given
us feet and we do follow Christ and we've come to him and we
will not depart from him. We're like Peter. Lord, to whom
shall we go? We're not going anywhere. We
need you. We're depending upon you. By
God's grace, we do follow Christ and we will not depart from him.
And all that goes back to the word keep, doesn't it? The believer
will observe Christ and follow him, follow his gospel and keep
him close because God's given us a heart that needs him. Now
verse 103, how sweet are thy words unto my taste? Yea, sweeter
than honey to my mouth. Now God's word will only be sweet
if you see Christ. Otherwise, if you don't see Christ,
all God's Word is, is a bunch of laws that you can't keep and
a bunch of ways that you cannot follow. But if we understand,
or maybe if you don't see Christ, maybe you think that God's Word
is saying, Christ loves everybody, Christ died for everybody, yet
people are going to go to hell anyway. That's a sour message, isn't
it? That's not a sweet message. Unless
you see Christ, God's word cannot be sweet to you. But if God the
Holy Spirit shows us Christ, we see that the Lord Jesus Christ
is God's truth, that he is revealed in the word, the whole Bible
will become sweet to us. It'll be sweet. But it's not
just sweet like dessert. You know, I have a real sweet
tooth and I love dessert. I love dessert. In this time,
we're kind of salted away from each other. We're isolated and
things, you know. A big part of my entertainment
is eating. And I was waiting. Janet was
cooking dinner the other day. And you know what I did? I went
and had dessert first. And she said, you're going to
ruin your dinner. And I said, mothers are. Children, don't listen to
me for a minute. But mothers always say that.
They always say you're going to ruin your dinner. It didn't. No, I love dessert. I had some
before dinner. I ate my dinner. I had some after.
I love dessert. But that's not real good for
you. I mean, that's just not best for me. I've got such a
sweet tooth. When David here talks about God's
Word being sweet, it's not like dessert because God's Word is
always best for you. God's Word is always good for
you. The Word of God is both sweet and nourishing to our souls. The word of God is both milk
and honey. It's nourishing, and it's sweet
to the taste. It's sweet to the taste if God
shows you Christ. God's word is sweet to the believer,
even when the word points out the bitterness of our sin. Even
when God's word leads us to the bitterness of repentance, God's
word's still sweet to the believer. Because when, like I said earlier,
when God's word shows us the bitterness of our sins and the
bitterness of repentance, what does the believer have to do?
What do you have to do? You have to run to Christ, don't you?
And Christ tastes all the sweeter after we're reminded of the bitterness
of our sins. He's all the sweeter. The songwriter
was correct when he said, it is so sweet to trust in Jesus,
just to take him at his word, just to take God's word and eat
it. is so sweet. His word is sweet. If you see
Christ. Now verse 104. Through thy precepts,
I get understanding. Therefore, I hate every false
way. Now, by nature, we love every
false way. You know, a false way is earning
our way to God by what we do or what we don't do. A false
way is earning our way to God by keeping his law. That's a
false way. And that's the way that this
flesh by nature loves, we love every false way. And by nature,
we hate the only true way that that's our nature. Well, the
only way we can get an understanding to hate every false way is if
God shows us Christ. If God teaches us Christ, the
true way, if Christ, if God teaches us that Christ is the way of
salvation, that Christ is the way of righteousness, that Christ
is the way of holiness, that Christ is the only way to God.
If God will teach us that, if He'll teach us Christ, we'll
hate every false way. Because if God the Holy Spirit
reveals Christ to me, I'll love Christ. I mean, not only will
I believe Him, I don't just believe Christ because I have to, I don't
have another choice. I mean, I don't have another choice,
but it's not just that. I believe Christ because I love
Him. I believe Christ because I want to, because I need Him,
because I want to be close to Him. That's the heart of faith.
If I love Christ, I'm going to hate every false way that's opposed
to Christ. If I love Christ, I'm going to
hate Christ, or I'm going to hate all those ways that are
opposed to him, that lie on him. I'll hate those ways because
I love Christ. I'll hate every false way that's
not Christ, my Redeemer, alone. But the only way I can see that
is if God, the Holy Spirit, reveals the truth of God to me. If he
conceals Christ, the truth of God to me, by just leaving me
to my own devices, I'll never have understanding. But if God
the Holy Spirit reveals Christ the truth to me, I'll love it. I'll love God's Word. I'll depend
upon Him and Him alone. Alright, that's the 13th stanza. Now the 14th stanza tells us
about resting in the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior. That 13th
stanza showed us the truth of God revealed. Well, what automatically
comes after that? If God reveals His truth to us,
Christ to us, will rest in. And that's what this 14th stanza
is all about. Now the letter for this stanza
has to do with faithfulness and humility. And can you think of
a better example of faithfulness and humility than our Lord Jesus
Christ? Faithful and humble. This letter
also has to do with God being known through humility, not by
the humility of revelation, not by human intelligence. The letter
is pronounced Nun, which reminded me of Joshua, the son of Nun. Joshua, that glorious picture
of the Lord Jesus Christ, who led Israel into God's promised
land of rest. Moses couldn't lead the people
into rest, the land of rest, because Moses represents the
law. There's no rest in the law. But
Joshua, the picture of the Lord Jesus Christ, Christ was named
after him. The New Testament name for Joshua
is Jesus. He named this is this is the
Lord Jesus Christ is our Joshua who leads his people into rest
who does what the law cannot do. He gives his people rest.
God's people are given spiritual rest by the Lord Jesus Christ
when he saves them from their sin. When he redeems them from
the curse of the law, they're given rest because there's no
more work to do. And God is revealed to his people only in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Christ cannot be seen. He cannot
be understood by human intelligence, but he's understood. He's seen
by divine revelation when God reveals his son to us. So verse
105, he says, thy word is a lamp under my feet and a light under
my path. Now you who are taught anything
at all about scripture, you know, this is talking about the Lord
Jesus Christ. He is the light of the world.
And the only way we have to the light to see God, to see God,
understand who he is, is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is
the light of the world in this sense. He's the only one that
gives us light to reveal the father. We cannot see the father
apart from Christ. And the only way that we have
the light to see how does God save sinners? How can God save
a sinner and still be God? And here's the better question.
How can God save me? and still be God. How can God
save me and be holy and just and merciful? How can God do
all of that? The only way I can see how God
could save a sinner like me and still be God is in the light
of the Lord Jesus Christ by seeing who Christ is. And if I know
who Christ is, I will automatically know what he accomplished at
Calvary. If I understand that the Lord Jesus Christ is the
son of God in human flesh, if I understand he's God, then I
will automatically know everyone for whom he died is saved. He
didn't die for somebody who's gonna go to hell. No, sir. I'll
know that if I understand who he is, that he is the son of
God in human flesh. He is God's promised savior who
came to save his people from their sin, that he got the job
done if he's the son of God. I'll understand that and rest
in him if God will reveal Christ to me. Now, the only place that
Christ is revealed is in this book. in the written word of
God. You cannot go and have Christ
revealed to you by looking at nature. You can't have Christ
revealed to you by looking at history and the acts of history
and trying to understand how God was working those things
together. That's not how Christ is revealed. Christ is revealed
in his glory, his saving glory only in the written word of God. It's impossible for us to know
Christ apart from the preaching of the Word of God. Somebody's
got to preach Christ to us. Now, we can memorize facts and
we can learn some doctrine. All of our children who regularly
attend here, I promise you, are Calvinists. They've been taught
that doctrine from the time they understood language. It's real
easy to make somebody a Calvinist because the human mind can understand
doctrine. Human intelligence can just remember
those facts. Even if you don't believe him,
you can spit him back out. But we cannot know God. We cannot
know God. We cannot be saved. We cannot
love God. We cannot believe Christ and
come to him and let's God the Holy Spirit is pleased to reveal
Christ our hearts. And the only place he does that
is through the preaching of his word. Well, how do I know? If the light or the understanding
that I have is understanding? Is God given understanding? Is
God given wisdom? How do I know? Is it God given
wisdom? Or is it just the human ability
to remember the facts that I've heard? How do I tell the difference
between the darkness, what we call light, the darkness of human
understanding and light, spiritual light that God gives? How can
I tell the difference? Well, if God the Holy Spirit gives
us understanding, gives us light, we will be led to believe on,
to follow, and to rest in the Lord Jesus Christ. I wanna give
you three evidences from our text and the rest of our time
this evening, I wanna give you three evidences. If God's given
you light, this is what will happen, these three things. Number
one, if God's given us understanding, if we have spiritual light, we
will trust Christ to be our righteousness. We'll trust Christ to obey the
law for us if God's given us spiritual understanding. Look
at verse 106. I have sworn, and I will perform
it, that I will keep thy righteous judgments. Now only the Lord
Jesus Christ can make this statement. Only the Lord Jesus Christ can
say that he performed all of God's righteous judgments, that
he satisfied God's righteous judgments. Only Christ can say
that. Only the Lord Jesus Christ performed
every commandment of God's law perfectly. He did every thou
shalt of the law. And he didn't do one thou shalt
not. He obeyed God's law perfectly. Verse 112 says, I have inclined
my heart to perform thy statutes always. Always, in every second,
even unto the end. He was obedient even unto the
end. He was obedient even unto death. By his death, he performed, he
satisfied all of God's righteous judgments. Only the Lord Jesus
Christ can make this statement. And if God, the Holy Spirit,
has given us an understanding, we will see that Christ's obedience
to the law is my obedience. If God's given us an understanding,
we'll see that Christ's obedience to the law is my righteousness. Him obeying the law, Him satisfying
justice, that's my righteousness. That's my only hope of righteousness,
is the Lord Jesus Christ. If God's given us an understanding,
will trust Christ to be all the righteousness that I need. Part
number two, if God's the one who's given us an understanding,
we will trust Christ crucified as a sacrifice for our sin. Human
understanding can remember Jesus of Nazareth died on a cross 2000
years ago, but God given understanding will lead us to trust Christ
as the sacrifice for my sin. Verse 107, I'm afflicted very
much. Quicken me, O Lord, according
unto thy word. Now this is Christ speaking as
he suffers as the sacrifice for the sin of his people. Look over
to Isaiah chapter 63. Isaiah chapter 63. This is the
Savior talking about being afflicted, being punished by God, afflicted
for the sin of his people. Isaiah 63 verse nine. In all their affliction, he was
afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them. In his love
and in his pity, he redeemed them, and he bared them and carried
them all the days of old. In all their affliction, he was
afflicted, and because he was afflicted for them, for their
sin, the angel of his presence saved them. Look back at Isaiah
chapter 53, verse four. He was afflicted
in our affliction, Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried
our sorrows. Yet we did esteem him stricken,
smitten of God and afflicted, but he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him and with his stripes we are healed. Now this is what
God given understanding believes and sees. The only way that my
sin could be put away is in Christ. suffering for my sin for me,
suffering the death that I deserve for my sin. When my sin was charged
to him, Christ was afflicted for my sin, and I trust Christ
and Christ alone. He put away my sin. That's the
only hope I have. Now I still see my sin. I still
see my sin nature, but I don't, if I've got wisdom, I don't despair
for it because I see Christ crucified for my sin. And I know that his
sacrifice was enough that put my sin away. And I also see Christ
risen for my sin. You know, Savior talked about
here his affliction, but he also said, Lord, quicken me, quicken
me according to the promise of your word, according to the promise
of your covenant. Christ was resurrected. He did
die for the sins of his people, but he was resurrected. And human
wisdom just understands, just, you know, memorize the fact that
three days after he died, Christ was resurrected from the dead.
But if God's given me understanding, I see Christ's resurrection is
the evidence that his sacrifice put my sin away. If God's given
me understanding, I see my faith in Christ is well-founded. The
only reason the father would raise him from the dead is because
he put away all the sin that was laid upon him. And if God's
given me understanding, I don't want to trust anything else.
I don't want to trust anyone or anything else. I want to trust
Christ and Christ alone. That gives me rest for my soul.
See, that's how the Lord Jesus Christ, our Joshua, leads his
people into true spiritual rest, because they got nothing to worry
about. The work is already finished. And if God's gonna give me spiritual
life, he's gonna use the seed of his word to do it. If God
has given me an understanding, so I see Christ, I have a desire
to hear God's word preached, and I have a desire to read it
for my own self. Verse 111, he says, thy testimonies have I
taken as an heritage forever for they are the rejoicing of
my heart. Now God's word is his testimony. It testifies of Christ and that's
my heritage. That's my inheritance forever
because I want no other hope. I want no other inheritance.
I want no other savior other than Christ alone. If God has
given me understanding, I trust Christ crucified as the only
sacrifice that's needed for my sin. So number one, God's given
me an understanding, I'll trust Christ to be my righteousness.
Number two, if God's given me an understanding, I'll trust
Christ. His sacrifice is the only sacrifice
for my sin that's needed. And number three, if God has
given me an understanding, I have a desire to worship and praise
God. Verse 108, except I beseech thee,
the freewill offerings of my mouth, O Lord, and teach me thy
judgments." Now, God's people don't worship God because the
law requires them to show up at certain services. You know,
the Old Testament law required the men, the male attendants
at certain ceremonies, go to Jerusalem so many times a year,
they had to show up at this service or that service, you know. But
that's not why God's people show up to worship God, because the
law requires us to. God's people worship God freely. He says here that, accept the
free will offerings of my mouth. God's people worship Him freely
because they want to. They want to. And I'll tell you
why they want to. God's given them a new heart.
A heart of worship, a heart of praise. God's people give as
a free will offering. You know, they don't give like
a tax or a tithe like was required under the Old Testament law.
You know, give or else, no. God's servants are willing servants.
They're willing servants in every way. They give their offerings
willingly because they love God. They give willingly because God's
given them a heart to give. And not just to give of their
money, but also their time and their talents to help others
because they've been given light to see Christ, how he gave himself
for their sins. Now if I see how Christ gave
himself for me, for my sin to redeem me, how can I not willingly
give? How can I not? How can I not
willingly give of my money, but also of my time? How can I not
freely give the praise of my lips? I have to do that if I
see how Christ gave himself for me, don't I? So the only sacrifices
that are left for God's people to offer are the free will sacrifices
of our lips. Praise and thanksgiving. That's
what comes from our lips. Praise and thanksgiving. And
it's got to be free will. It's got to be given of our own
free will because God's given us a new will, a new want to,
that wants to praise and thank Him. There can't be any other
sacrifice left to offer. If I go back to my second point
and see Christ's sacrifice is the only sacrifice that I need
to put my sin away, then what sacrifice is left to offer? but
the fruit of my lips, the praise and thanksgiving for Christ my
Savior. And David closes asking the Lord
to teach me, teach me to worship you right. Teach me to praise
you right. That's what he says at the end
of verse 108. Oh Lord, teach me, teach me thy judgments. I
beseech you to accept the free will offerings of my mouth. Oh
Lord, teach me to give them. Teach me to worship you. Teach
me to worship you and praise you right. And if God's given
me an understanding, I will only want to worship God in the Lord
Jesus Christ. If God's given me an understanding,
true spiritual understanding, I will want to praise Christ
my Savior every chance I get. If that's the understanding,
the desire of your heart, then God's given you spiritual understanding. It's not just fleshly understanding.
It's spiritual, God-given understanding. to seek Christ, to want Him,
to want His righteousness in none of my own, to want His sacrifice
in none of my own, and to desire to praise Him from the new heart
that comes out of my lips, that comes from the new heart that
God's given. If that's your desire, then God's given you spiritual
understanding. All right. Well, may the Lord
bless you. Let's bow together in prayer. Our Father, how we thank you.
We thank you for this time we've had together to read and to study
your word. Father, I beg of thee that you'd
cause your word to go forth in power, to reveal your glory to
the hearts of your people, to call us to Christ, to cause us
to depend more and more fully upon him. Father, cause your
word to go forth in power, to comfort the hearts of your people,
to show us Christ and to give us understanding to know if we
have Christ, we have everything. If we're in Christ, we're secure
and have nothing to fear. Father, bless your word, we pray,
to your glory. And when it can be your will,
cause us to come back together again, to worship you as we come
together face to face in one accord and one heart, but Father,
until then, cause us to worship you in this manner. Bless your
word, use it to draw us more and more close to lean more and
more fully on Christ our Savior. For His blessed name, we pray
and give thanks. Amen. Well, I pray that the Lord
will bless that to your heart. And until next time, may the
Lord bless you.