Well, good evening. If you would
open your Bibles with me to Hebrews chapter four, a scripture reading
this evening will be taken from Hebrews chapter four. Begin our
reading in verse 11. Let us labor therefore to enter
into that rest. Lest any man fall after the same
example of unbelief for the word of God is quick. and powerful,
sharper than a two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing
asunder of soul and spirit, of the joints and marrow, and is
a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither
is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight, but
all things are naked and opened under the eyes of him with whom
we have to do. Seeing then that we have a great
high priest that has passed into the heavens, Jesus, the son of
God, Let us hold fast our profession, for we have not an high priest
which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities,
but was in all points tempted, like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly
under the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find
grace to help in time of need. Let's bow together in prayer. Our great God, our holy, Sovereign,
merciful, heavenly father. Lord, we bow in your presence
this evening. We bow seeking a blessing from
your storehouses of grace. Father, would you bless us tonight
with a word from thee? Would you bless us with a heart
of belief and understanding that we might believe and hear, hear
with the ear of faith the things of our Lord Jesus Christ that
we hear preached from your word this evening. Father, bless us,
we pray. Father, at this difficult time
for our country and our world, Father, we pray your physical
mercies, your healing mercies upon our land. Lord, would you
be pleased to heal this disease and stop the spread of it from
from causing so much pain and suffering. Father, we look to
thee to provide, to heal, to bring some relief to people at
this time. Father, enable us to be able
to meet together face to face with one body as soon as it could
be thy will. We're thankful for this technology
that you've given us where we can still hear your word, we
can instill be able to hear and rejoice in Christ our Savior,
to have our souls be fed with your word. Father, we all know
it's much better in person. We pray that you would deliver
us and be able to meet together again soon. Father, we pray for
those who are hurting and sick with this virus and also those
of our number who are suffering so many other ailments and sicknesses
and heartaches and problems. Father, we hold your people up
to thee. And we do so with a grateful
heart, knowing that thou art able, knowing that as much as
we care for our loved ones, you care for your children much more.
And we're thankful to know thou doest all things well. Whatever
you do is right and good. And Father, we pray for the grace
to bow to your Father, again, bless us. Bless us as we look
into your word. Give us a word from thee that
will glorify Christ our Savior, comfort and feed and edify the
hearts of your people. For it's in Christ's precious
name we pray and give thanks. Amen. All right, now our text
this evening is going to be taken from Psalm 119. We're going to
continue our study in the Psalms with Psalm 119. I began studying this a couple weeks
ago, and I'll tell you that I was intimidated at the thought of
this psalm. Psalm 119 is the longest psalm,
and its theme is the whole Word of God. There is a sense in which
the whole Bible is contained in this Psalm 119. Now, the psalmist
in this psalm, his theme is God's Word. He uses many different
words to describe God's Word. He uses the Word. He uses the
law and the testimonies, the commandments, the judgments.
He uses precepts and ways and statutes. And all those different
words all mean the word of God. He's not talking about the moral
law or the Mosaic law. He's talking about the whole
word of God, which points us to one place, to one person,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And this word, God's word, describes
salvation in Christ. Now, the Hebrew alphabet has
22 letters. And this psalm is broken up into 22, eight verse
stanzas. There's a stanza for each one
of the letters in the Hebrew alphabet. And the writer uses
those letters to describe the word of God, both the written
word of God and the incarnate word, the Lord Jesus Christ.
So my title this evening is Christ from A to Z. This will be part
one, and we'll see how many parts it takes for us to cover this
entire psalm. And I do not intend to preach verse by verse. I'll
read all the verses of the psalm as we go through them. But I'm
going to preach verse by verse on the whole psalm. But what
I want to do is, being enabled by God's Spirit, to give you
the main point in each one of these stanzas to show us that
how from A to Z, every letter of the alphabet, Christ is all. Now this psalm is a poem. It's
written in a format of a poem that those old Jews used. But more than a poem, this is
a poem inspired by God, the Holy Spirit. And it's a work of art. I suggest as you have time, you
sit down and read through the whole thing slowly and carefully. This poem is a work of art. It's
poetry in motion, which beautifully tells us that Christ is all. Christ is all in salvation. Christ
is all in righteousness. Christ is all in sanctification.
Christ is all in the forgiveness of our sin. Christ is all in
spiritual life. Christ is all in physical life. He's all, isn't he? Christ is
all in peace with God. If you would have peace with
God, it's all in Christ. Christ is all in God's covenant
of grace. Christ is all in the purpose
of the Father. Christ is all to the Father. And Christ is all to us. Christ
is all that we need. Christ is all that we need to
know If you know Christ, you know everything you need to know
from the Word of God, how God saves sinners. So this first
stanza tells us that all of God's blessings are in Christ. Verse
one, Psalm 119. Blessed are the undefiled in
the way who walk in the law of the Lord. Blessed are they that
keep his testimonies and that seek him with a whole heart.
They also do no iniquity. They walk in his ways. Thou hast
commanded us to keep thy precepts diligently, O that my ways were
directed to keep thy statutes. Then shall I not be ashamed,
when I have respect unto all thy commandments. I will praise
thee with uprightness of heart, when I shall have learned thy
righteous judgments. I will keep thy statutes, O forsake
me not utterly." Now this is what this stanza tells us. God
blesses those people who keep his word perfectly, who keep
his law perfectly. That's the undefiled the psalmist
talks about. To be undefiled is to not have
one sin, but to kept every point of God's law perfectly. And this
is a true statement. God will only bless those who
keep his law perfectly. God will only bless those who
keep his law with their whole heart and do no iniquity. So
now if this is telling me this stanza, this Psalm 119 is telling
me that I have to keep God's law perfectly before God will
bless me. If that's what this is saying,
then I'm going to be utterly discouraged and I'll have no
hope of salvation and you won't either. So what we know that's
not what this is telling us. So what is, we don't know if
this was David or not, but the Psalmist, if this is not David,
somebody a whole lot like David, what is David telling us here?
What's telling us that God's blessing is all in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Christ kept the law perfectly
for his people as their representative and believers are blessed in
Christ. They're blessed by God for Christ's
sake. God blesses his people because
of what Christ has done for them, how Christ obeyed God's law perfectly
for them. So that if you believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ, you are undefiled. You're perfect. You're without
sin. If you believe on Christ, you
actually have kept all of God's testimonies and all of God's
laws perfectly. You have sought the Lord with
all of your heart because that's what you did in Christ, your
representative. When the Lord Jesus did those
things, you did too, if you believe on him. So the psalmist says
in verse eight, I will keep thy statutes. And this is what he
means. I've kept them in Christ and my Christ, my representative.
So he says, Oh, forsake me, not utterly. Now we know based upon
God's word, upon the promise of God's word, that he will never
utterly forsake his people. He will not leave nor forsake
his people. There's no reason for God to
forsake them. Christ has made them perfect. Well, what about
their sin? We can't deny that they have
sin. Well, no, we don't deny that. But Christ took care of
the sin of his people too. He obeyed the law for them, and
then He took care of their problem, of their sin. Christ took the
sin of His people away from them, and He suffered and died for
that sin as a substitute for His people. The sacrifice of
Christ put away all of the sin of God's elect that was laid
upon Him, and He washed them white as snow. When He died to
God's law and God's justice, God's people did too, because
they were in Justice, God's justice against their sin is satisfied
because they already died to sin in the person of Christ our
substitute. And the father will never utterly
forsake those people. Because the father utterly forsook
Christ our savior at Calvary. The father turned his back upon
his son so that in agony, the son cried, my God, my God, why
hast thou forsaken me? Since that's true, since God
already forsook Christ, for the sin of his people. He'll never,
ever forsake those who believe on Christ, because in Christ,
they're perfect. Their sin has been put away.
There's no reason for the Father to forsake them. They're perfect
in Christ. They're undefiled. Now, this
stanza is the stanza for the letter A, and it tells us that
all of God's blessings are in Christ. All holiness is in Christ. All of God's law is in Christ. All of acceptance with God is
in Christ. So if you would be blessed of
God, then trust Christ to be your all. That's the stanza A.
Right? The second stanza begins in verse
nine and tells us that holiness is in Christ. Psalmist says in
verse nine, wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way by
taking heed thereto according to thy word. Now, does this mean
that anybody can cleanse their way and they can actually be
less sinful by doing what the Word of God tells them to do?
Well, of course not. You know better than that. If
you know yourself at all, if you're honest about yourself
at all, you already know you can't sin less. You know better
than that. This is what the psalmist is
telling us, the same thing all the Word of God tells us. Cleansing
from sin is in Christ. Holiness is in Christ. Sinners
are made holy, not by their works. Sinners are made holy by believing
Christ. Sinners are made holy when God
puts a new heart, a heart that is holy in them, a heart of faith
that's in them. And that's the heart he talks
about here in verse 10. With my whole heart, with the
new heart that God's given me, a heart that's holy. With my
whole heart have I sought thee. Oh, let me not wander from thy
commandments. Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not
sin against thee. Blessed art thou, O Lord, teach
me thy statutes. With my lips have I declared
all the judgments of thy mouth. I have rejoiced in the way of
thy testimonies as much as in all riches. I'd rather have the
testimonies of God, the word of God, than all the riches of
this world. I will meditate in thy precepts
and have respect unto thy ways. I would delight myself in thy
statutes. I will not forget thy word. Now, the believer is one person
who has two different natures. The believer has a nature of
sin, a nature that can't do anything but sin. Scripture calls that
nature the old man or the flesh. But by God's grace, a believer
has a second nature, a new nature, a heart that God has put within
the hearts of his people. And that nature can never sin.
It's holy. Scripture calls that nature the
inner man, or the spirit, the new man. So everything a believer
does is still sinful. Everything we do is still completely
sinful, but the believer is also holy in Christ. Both of those
things are true. And the only way you can understand
that is if you have two natures. If God's given you a second nature,
you've been born again, you understand that. Everything we do is sinful,
but the believer is also holy. We're holy in Christ. And the
way we find out that all holiness is in Christ and not by our works
is by the word of God. By doing what the word of God
says, the word of God, the commandment of the word of God is to believe
Christ, to quit trying to keep the law yourself and believe
Christ. Now, how do we know that? So
how do we know that holiness is had not by our works, but
by faith in Christ? because the Word of God says
so. We know that we cleanse our way by doing what the Word of
God says and believing Christ. In Christ, we're cleansed and
made perfectly holy. It's all in Christ. Now this
stanza is the letter B. This stanza tells us that Christ
is absolutely necessary. Everything spiritual is by Christ. By Christ, we're cleansed from
sin. By Christ we are blessed and by Christ we are delighted. We are delighted and God is delighted
in us by Christ. All right, the third stanza describes
Christ's delight. That stanza is found beginning
in verse 17. Deal bountifully with thy servant
that I may live and keep thy word. Open thou mine eyes that
I may behold wondrous things out of thy law. I'm a stranger
in the earth. Hide not thy commandments from
me. My soul breaketh for the longing that it hath under thy
judgments at all times. Thou hast rebuked the proud that
are cursed, which do err from thy commandments. Remove from
me reproach and contempt, for I have kept thy testimonies.
Princes also did sit and speak against me, but thy servant did
meditate in thy statutes. Thy testimonies also are my delight
and my counselors. Now this stanza, this third stanza,
describes Christ the light. And this is the light you and
I must have. Because we're born spiritually blind. A spiritual
blindness means that we can't understand. We can't understand
anything spiritual. And there's no way that the human
mind, the mind that we're born with, there's no way that mind
can comprehend or understand God. We can't understand anything
about the character of God. We can't understand anything
about how it is that God saves sinners with our natural understanding. No matter how smart you are in
the things of this world, and this congregation is full of
smart, smart people. You talk about things and understand
things. I've got no idea what you're
talking about. You're smart people. But with our natural understanding,
we cannot understand We cannot understand how God saves sinners.
I don't care how smart we are. We, by nature, with our natural
mind, we cannot understand the Word of God because we're blind. We cannot see. And we understand
something about this matter of spiritual sight by physical sight. The only way that we can see
physically is if there's enough light to see what is around us.
Well, the only way we can see spiritually is by having Christ
the light. In Christ the light, we see everything
in God's word and we can understand it in the light of who Christ
is. But if we're going to see anything spiritually, God's got
to work a miracle. We're born blind. We're born
with eyes that do not work. So God must work a miracle, and
he must give us sight. When the psalmist says here in
verse 18 about God opening our eyes, he's talking about the
miracle of God giving us light, giving us sight to see, giving
us eyes of faith to see Christ. And if God the Holy Spirit will
show us Christ, oh, we'll see wondrous things. We'll see wondrous
things out of God's law. We'll see wondrous things out
of the whole word of God. If God the Holy Spirit gives
us light, He gives us Christ, to be able to see Christ, we'll
understand all of the scriptures. All of the scriptures will be
wondrous to us because they'll reveal Christ to us. Just go
back to the very beginning, Genesis chapter one. If God the Holy
Spirit gives us Christ, we'll have light to see Christ in the
story of creation. The story of creation we read
about in Genesis chapter one, All that is given to us as a
picture of God creating a new man in the hearts of his people. And that creation of that new
man begins just like the creation of this world began. It begins
with us being without form and void, being in great darkness.
God speaks and says, let there be light. And there's light. And that light is Christ. Christ
is the light of God. He was revealed first, and when
God says to our hearts, let there be light, now I see. The darkness is gone, and now
I see. Now I am able to see and understand
all of the Scriptures. If God gives us light, we'll
see that the Lord Jesus Christ is the woman's promised seed.
He's the seed God promised right after the fall. He's going to
come and remove the curse of sin from His people. In ourselves,
all we have is the curse of sin, and there's nothing we can do
to get rid of it. But if God would give us light, we'll see
Christ has come to remove the curse of sin from his people.
If God gives us light, we'll see Christ in Abel's lamb. Abel
sacrificed a lamb as an offering to God because that's the only
way God can be worshiped, is in the blood of a lamb. If God
gives us light, we'll see Christ is the lamb of God. sacrifice
for us and the only way we can worship God, the only way we
can approach God is in Christ. Now that's a wondrous thing,
isn't it? To be able to see Christ, to be able to know I can come
to God and worship. God will accept my worship in
Christ, the Lamb slain. That's a wondrous thing. If God
will give us light, we'll see Christ in Noah's Ark. If God
gives us light, we will have found grace in the eyes of the
Lord, just like Noah did. And just like Noah, we'll be
saved from God's wrath, because God's wrath against our sin fell
on Christ, our ark. Just like the rain against Noah's
sin fell on that ark, not on Noah and his family, we'll be
saved from God's wrath, because God's wrath against our sin fell
on Christ, our ark, not upon us. That's a wondrous thing,
isn't it? Then if God gives us light, We'll
see, the Lord will provide. Now the Lord will provide. He
will provide Christ as the lamb for the burnt offering. He'll
provide Christ as a substitute to die in our place. We'll see
that just as clearly as Abraham and Isaac saw it that day on
top of Mount Moriah. If God gives us light to see,
We will see, we'll understand. God did not give the law, the
Ten Commandments and all the Mosaic Law. God did not give
that law. So we'd have something to do
that would make God happy with us. We'll see. If God gives us
eyes to see, light to see Christ, we'll see and understand. God
gave us the law to show us our sinfulness. The law was never
given as a way, something we could do to make God happy with
us. It was to show us how rotten we are, to show us our complete
inability to keep God's law, and to show us that we need Christ. We need Christ to come do something
for us we can't do for ourselves. We need Christ to come and keep
the law for us, to make us righteous in His obedience, because we
don't have any of our own. That Christ would come and keep
the law to make His people righteous. That's a wondrous thing, isn't
it? To understand the true meaning of the law is to point us to
Christ, not to put you under bondage to have to keep the law.
That's a wondrous thing. Oh, that's a wondrous thing.
But you can only see that in Christ. If God gives us life,
We will see and understand the answer to Job's age-old question,
how should a man be just with God? How can he possibly be cleaned
as born of a woman? The only way we have that answer
is in Christ. Christ is Job's daisman. Job
talked about that daisman. I need somebody to come lay his
hand on God and on me. That's Christ. He's the daisman
who can lay his hand on God and satisfy God. He can also reach
way down and lay His hand on me and give me what I need to
make me righteous and make me be accepted in Him and lift me
up to God. That's all in Christ. Oh, that's
a wondrous thing that Christ would come and stand in that
gap between God and sinners and bring them together. That's a
wondrous thing. If God gives us light, we'll see that a man
is justified by faith. by faith in Christ, not by our
works of the law. The Apostle Paul wrote an entire
book to the church at Rome to establish this truth. Sinners
justified by faith in Christ and not by our works. And if
God will ever show you Christ, oh, that'll be a wondrous thing.
Sets you free from all the burden of the law. Only in Christ, God's
got to give me light to see Christ. That's the only way I can ever
see. I can never understand how is
it that God can save a sinner like me and still be just. The
only way that's possible is by giving me Christ obedience and
sacrificing Christ as my substitute to be my sin offering. The only
way I can ever see that is if God gives me light to see Christ.
And if he does, I'll see all those wondrous truths and be
able to rest in Christ. See, we can never see We can
never understand, we can never love anything in God's word unless
God reveals Christ to us first. Only in Christ will I delight
in God's word. That's what the psalmist says
here in verse 24. Thy testimonies also are my delight. They're my delight and they're
my counselors. And nothing gives me more delight. And if you believe Christ, God's
given you a heart that believes Christ. Nothing will give you
more delight than seeing and believing Christ. To think He
chose me. To think that He loved me. To
be able to sit and meditate that the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son
of God, died for me. That's my delight. That gives
me delight. To know that Christ is all of my salvation. Christ
is my wisdom. I'm so ignorant, but Christ is
my wisdom. He's my righteousness. He's my
sanctification. He's my redemption. Christ is
my peace with God. Christ is my life. Christ is
my rest. Oh, to think and meditate on
those things, to have God reveal those things and slowly teach
me more and more and more about them. That's my delight. That's my delight. Now, I'm no
Hebrew scholar, but as I understand it, this stanza is the letter
G, which tells us to go. Go to Christ for everything we
need. See, that's how God's word is
our counselor. Verse 24 says that God's testimonies,
his word, are my counselor. Well, how is God's word my counselor?
Because all of God's word, every page of it, tells me go to Christ
for everything that you need. Remember in the time of those
years of famine in Egypt, the people were hungry. They came
to Pharaoh for bread. What did Pharaoh tell them? Don't
look at me. Go to Joseph. If you want bread,
go to Joseph. He's got it all. My friend, God's
word is our counselor that tells us, are you hungry? Go to Christ
for bread. Are you empty? Go to Christ to
be filled. Are you unrighteous? Go to Christ
for righteousness. Are you unholy? Go to Christ
for holiness. God's word tells us, go to Christ. Go to him for
everything that God requires of you and you'll be blessed.
All right, now the fourth stanza describes to us the new birth
and life in Christ. Verse 25. My soul cleaveth under
the dust. Quicken thou me according to
thy word. I've declared my ways and thou
heardest me. Teach me thy statutes. Teach
me your word. Make me to understand the way
of thy people. So shall I talk of thy wondrous
works. My soul melteth for heaviness.
Strengthen thou me according unto thy word. Remove from me
the way of lying and grant me thy law graciously. I have chosen
the way of truth. Thy judgments have I laid before
me. I have stuck unto thy testimonies. O Lord, put me not to shame. I will run the way of thy commandments
when thou shalt enlarge my heart. Now here, in this stanza, the
psalmist begins describing our dead spiritual nature. Did you
notice how he said in verse 25, my soul cleaveth under the dust. It cleaves to the dust. So quicken
me according to thy word. My soul cleaves to the dust.
Now Adam was created out of the dust, wasn't he? And when God
created Adam, he gave Adam life, physical life and spiritual life.
But Adam lost that life when he sinned against God. God told
Adam, remember God created a perfect garden for Adam. Everything Adam
could ever need, it was perfect. And God created Adam, he put
Adam in that garden, and he said, Adam, you have the run of it.
You take care of this garden, you live in this garden, enjoy
it. But Adam, enjoy it all, but don't
eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil. Eat of every other tree, enjoy all of it. But Adam, there's
one rule, one law. Don't eat of that one tree. Eat
of all the rest of them. Enjoy all the rest of it. Don't
eat of that one. Just Adam had one law. Now you know the story. Adam
couldn't keep one, could he? God called Moses up to the mountain
and gave him the law. God gave Moses pages and pages
and pages and pages of commandments. If our father Adam couldn't keep
one law, What makes you and me think we can keep all those other
laws and make God happy with us by how well we keep them?
You know, the only reason, the only thing that makes us think
that? We're dead. We're dead. We're blind. We can't
see God's law. We can't understand it. We know
the rest, end of the story. We know Adam would soon eat of
that, the fruit of that tree. But you know, God knew it all
along. God knew when he created Adam in that garden, God knew
what Adam would do. He already knew Adam's going to eat of the
fruit of that tree. And that was all in God's purpose.
And I know God already knew this was going to happen because God
told Adam, for in the day that you eat thereof, not Adam, if
you eat, not if the day comes that you eat of that, but for
when you eat of the fruit of that tree, thou shalt surely
die. And you know that that literally
translated is dying. Thou shalt die. Adam, in the
day you eat that tree, you will begin to die physically, dying. Thou shalt die, but you'll instantly
die spiritually. And when Adam took that fruit,
that's exactly what happened. When Eve ate the fruit, nothing
happened, did it? Because Eve is not the federal head. Eve
is in Adam. When Adam ate the fruit, they suddenly died. They
both suddenly realized they were naked. They felt shame. They
felt shame amongst each other. They felt shame before God. They
instantly died spiritually. They instantly began hating one
another and hating God when Adam, the federal head, ate that fruit.
Now here's how that affects you and me. That happened more than
6,000 years ago. So how does that affect you and
me? Well, what Adam did, all of his race did. Just like Eve,
you and I were in Adam. We did what Adam, our representative,
did, and we became guilty in Adam. And the evidence of our
guilt that's in Adam is that when we're born, we're born spiritually
dead. We're born with that dead nature
that Adam received when he sinned against God. See, that's the
only nature that Adam had to pass on to us was a dead spiritual
nature. We're born dead in trespasses
and sins. Now that's what God's word says.
We're born dead in trespasses and sins because of the nature
of the seed that conceived us. The seed that conceived us can
give us physical life, can it? But all it can give us spiritually
is a dead spiritual nature. So we're born dead. We cannot
believe. We can hear the gospel with these
ears, but we cannot believe it. We can't hear it and understand
it and love it. We can't hear the gospel. We
can't hear God's word read to us and love God. We can hear
of Christ the Savior, but we cannot come to him because we're
dead. We can't do one spiritual thing,
not one, because we're dead. Any more than a dead body in
a casket at the funeral home can get up and walk out or can
change its position or can do anything, that corpse can't do
anything because it's dead. That's you and me by nature,
spiritually. We're dead so that we can't do one spiritual thing. There is one thing a dead man
can do. and it stinks. And that's what
you and I do. By our filth, our sin, our death
in Adam, we stink before God. So we're born spiritually dead
and our flesh clings to that deadness. The psalmist says,
my soul cleaveth unto the dust. Our flesh clings to this spiritual
deadness. It clings to sin and we cannot
separate from We cannot separate from this dust and give ourselves
life. Our nature clings to death so
strongly that the only way we can be given life is if God gives
us brand new life from a brand new seed, a completely different
seed. And that seed is the Word of
God. Look at 1 Peter 1. This is the
same seed that Peter talks about in 1 Peter 1. The psalmist says,
quicken me according to your word. He's saying, Lord, quicken
me, give me life according to the promise of life that's in
Christ that I hear about in your word. But he's also saying this,
quicken me by your word, quicken me by the seed of your word that
gives spiritual life. I need brand new life from brand
new seed, the word of God. And this is what Peter tells
us. First Peter 1 verse 23. being born again. Not of corruptible
seed, not of that same seed from which you were born the first
time, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible. Now what
is the incorruptible seed? By the word of God, which liveth
and abideth forever. For all flesh is as grass. See,
we can't have the same seed that caused us to be born flesh. All
flesh is as grass. And all the glory of man is the
flower of grass. The grass withereth and the flower
thereof falleth away. But the word of the Lord endureth
forever. And this is the word which by
the gospel is preached unto you. This is the word that's preached
unto you. And by that word, God gives his
people life from a brand new seed. When God the Holy Spirit
causes his people to be born spiritually, they're born again. Scripture calls it being born
again, having a second birth. God's people are born the second
time from a completely different seed that gave them physical
life. It's the seed of the Word of God. So the nature of that
new life that God gives is all new. It's all different from
the life of the flesh. It's spiritual life, not carnal,
fleshly life. It's living life. It's life that's
eternal that will never die, unlike this flesh which must
die. And that new man, everything is different about that new man
because of the seed that conceived him. The new man believes God
and loves God because of the nature of the seed that conceived
him. The new man cannot sin because the seed that conceived him is
sinless. That new man has eternal life because of the nature that
conceived him or the nature of the seed that conceived him.
It's perfect and sinless. That's the new birth. Now the
stanza of this letter is the letter D and it tells us of death
and depression. It tells us there's death in
Adam and there's depression. It's clinging to this dust. What
is more depressing than clinging to dust? And we have death in
Adam. We have this depression because
of our sin and our sin nature. But this stanza also tells us
of another D, of dependence. Dependence on Christ. See, we're
born dead and we're dependent on Christ to give us life. We
are just as dependent on Christ to give us spiritual life as
we are completely dependent upon our parents to give us physical
life. The fact that I have physical
life is a result of an act between my parents I had no part in. I didn't have any input in. I
was completely dependent upon them to give me physical life. We all understand that. We're
just as dependent on Christ to give us spiritual life. And I
can't think of a better place to be. than being completely
dependent on Christ. Can you? I don't want to have
any part of it dependent upon me. Any part. Can you think of
any place better to be than completely and utterly dependent upon Christ?
I can't think of a better place. Because if we're dependent upon
Christ, you know what? He'll give us life. If we're
dependent upon Christ to forgive us our sin, He'll forgive us. If we're dependent upon Christ
to make us righteous, he'll make us righteous. If we're dependent
upon Christ to save our souls, he'll save us. That's what he
says in his word. If we're dependent upon God to
give us life, he'll give. If we come to Christ like that
leper of old, Lord, if you will, you can make me whole. If you
will, you can give me life. He will. Every single time he
said, he will say, I will be thou whole. If we're completely
dependent upon Christ to bring us to the Father, he will. So this deed tells us of death
in Adam and life being dependent upon Christ. It also tells us
of our depression in Adam because of our sin and because of our
nature. But it also tells us of our delight,
that there is delight in Christ. God gives life by the seed of
his word. And that seed is our delight. It's the seed that gives us life.
It's also the seed that strengthens us. The same word that gives
us life in the first place gives us strength and comfort for our
souls. That's what the psalmist here
talks about in verse 28. My soul melteth for heaviness. Strengthen thou me according
to thy word. That word melteth is droppeth. I just, I melt. I drop from lack
of any strength, any comfort, any hope. I just drop in myself. I drop, melt for heaviness. But
Lord, strengthen me by your word. Just like you give me life by
your word, Lord, strengthen my heart. Strengthen me by your
word. I thought about this time of
pandemic. Our lives are affected, aren't
they? I'm here Janet, just sitting
right here underneath this camera that we're recording. And it
just is weird. All these other chairs are empty.
Our life is affected, isn't it? And many people feel worry and
anxiety because of that. And of course we do. Don't let
somebody tell you, you know, you don't have any faith because
you feel fear and worry. No, of course you're worried.
Nobody wants to be sick. But the hearts and souls of God's
people are strengthened by the Word of God. See, that's why
what we're doing here is so important, that we still have a means that
we can hear God's word preached, because what calms the hearts
of God's people, what gives peace to the hearts of God's people
is hearing Christ preached, hearing God's word preached. The faith
in Christ is not going to inoculate you from this virus, but it will
calm your heart. It will give you peace of heart.
In closing, I want you to think about this. About the word of
God being our delight. The written word and Christ the
incarnate word being our delight. I want you to think about this.
Take this with you. Our God. Now I'm talking to believers
here. If you believe Christ, this is true to your heart. Our
God who chose us. Our God who loved us. From eternity
He loved a people. Our God who redeemed us. by sacrificing
His Son in our place. Our God, who has called us by
His Spirit. He sent His Spirit to call you
to Christ, to dwell in your heart. Our God, who by His grace has
saved us, by His purpose of grace. That is the one who's controlling
this whole thing. just like He's always controlled
everything. You know, God didn't just start
controlling things when this virus started spreading across
this world. He's always controlled things.
The one who's controlling everything is the one whose purpose is to
redeem His people by His grace and to bring them to glory and
to present them faultless before His throne. That's the one who's
controlling everything. You reckon it'll be all right?
I'd say it will, don't you? Whatever he does will be right
and it will be best and it will be exactly what we need. If God put that in our heart
and let us meditate upon that, that will give us rest in these
turbulent times. See, Christ is all we need. From
A to Z, Christ is all we need. And Lord willing, we'll pick
up here again next Wednesday for part two. Until then, may
the Lord bless you. Let's bow together in prayer.
Lord, I pray that you would take your word as it's been preached
and bless it to your glory. Father, let us see the glory
of Christ in your word and the gospel as it's been preached.
And Father, enable us to hear it with the ear of faith. Open
our eyes that we might see and see wondrous things of Christ,
our Savior, from your word. Father, use your word as it's
gone forth powerfully to give life to the dead. Cause your
word to go forth powerfully to reach to the hearts of your people,
to comfort our hearts. Give us hope and rest and peace
in Christ our Savior. Father, all these things we ask.
We do ask for our good, for our comfort, for our edification,
for our growth, for our life. But Father, for the glory of
your great namesake, we pray that you blessed your word in
our day, to our hearts. All these things we ask in the
name of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's for his sake and his glory.