Well, we turn back to Psalm 119,
and as I said, I forgot to read from verse 9 down to verse 24,
but we'll come to it as we go through the message. We looked
at verses 1 to 8 last week, and I mentioned at the time that
many commentators, many commentators, treat these words as instructions
for improvement in our walk with God. Well, okay, no doubt they
do. You will get wisdom from it.
You will get a lot of worldly wisdom from the Word of God. You know, how to live better
in this life. There's no doubt about that. But you know, if
that's all you get, you get nothing worth having. Because the key
is Jesus Christ. The key to the Scriptures is
Jesus Christ. He alone, verse one, blessed
are the undefiled. Blessed is the undefiled, it
should really say, the translators put that in. Blessed is the,
who is the undefiled? There's only one, it's only Christ.
Only in him do his people do no iniquity. He, Christ, is his
people's justification before God. He is the head of his body,
his church, his people, and the head and the body are in perfect
union. That's why the figure is used
in Scripture, to show as your head and your body are in union.
He, the head of his body, is in union with his body, and what
he is as the head, his people are counted in Christ by God
in him. The Bible's purpose is to declare
God's salvation from sin. for the multitude that he loved
everlastingly. That's what it is all about.
It is not to make the world a better place. That is not the mission.
So much of so-called Christianity thinks its mission in this world
is to make the world a better place. If only we could learn
to get on well. But it isn't. It's to declare God's salvation
from sin. for the multitude he everlastingly
loved. The truth of God is about God's
kingdom. What did Christ come preaching?
Jesus came preaching. What was his message? It was
the kingdom of God is at hand. The message of God is the kingdom
of God. This is what the people of God
look to, look forward to, long for, have their hearts set upon.
Not this world, not the things of this world. This is just a
passing through place, a sojourn. we look for eternal life. We
look for that abundant eternal life. Jesus said, I am come to
give them life, and that more abundantly. He came to give abundant
life. He came to make peace for sinners
with God, with a holy God. You just You can hardly, as a
human being, get your head round the immensity of those words.
Peace between sinners and a holy God. Wow. What an enormous chasm. And yet He, Christ, has made
peace. How? through the blood of his
cross. Where did I get that from? Did
I just make it up? Did I just think of it? No, I
got it from this book. I got it from the Word of God.
I know it's through the blood of his cross that he made peace
because the Word of God tells me. This is what the Holy Spirit
reveals to us. Reconciliation with God in Christ
for sinners. Who is Christ? He's the woman's
seed. He's not an afterthought. In
Genesis 3, the woman was promised a seed who would come from the
woman, who would redeem his people from the curse of the law, who
would undo that fall brought about by Satan and his deception.
He is the woman's seed. He is God's Lamb, because soon
we see a Lamb, and He is God's Lamb, the Lamb of God who would
shed His blood, for the life is in the blood. He would shed
His blood to pay His people's sin penalty, to satisfy divine
justice, so that divine justice that screams out the soul that
sins, it shall die, says, enough. Enough. No more penalty required. He has paid it all. So that we
read those glorious words in Romans chapter 8 verse 1, there
is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus,
who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. In Christ
there is no condemnation before God. my sin, O the bliss of this
glorious thought! My sin, not in part, but the
whole, is nailed to his cross, and I bear it no more." No condemnation. But here's a question. How do
his people live in the good of it? Because you come to believe
Christ, you come to trust him, you become a Christian, you're
converted, and you believe Him and you trust Him, but there's
time for most of us before we die. For that thief on the cross,
there was not very long at all. He, in a point of revelation
from God, hanging there bleeding to death next to Christ on the
cross, Lord remember me when you come into your kingdom. Verily,
verily, I say unto you, this day you shall be with me in paradise. How much time did he have to
improve his sanctification ready for heaven? How much time did
he have to study the Word of God so he became a scholar in
it? Answer, none. What was his qualification? He
knew this, God had shown him, that man dying next to him was
God's Christ, who was taking away the sins of him and his
people. Lord remember me, this day you
shall be with me in paradise. So, how do we live in the good
of salvation? And that's what I want us to
see in verses 9 to 24. Verse 9, look there. Wherewithal
shall a young man, could be a young woman, it could be any of us,
wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed
thereto according to thy word. Let me put it this way, how shall
I, a believer, trust in Christ's salvation as it says in the first
few verses, how shall I, a believer, trust in Christ's salvation with
a confidence that I'm going to heaven, how shall I live in the
good of God's grace? Naturally, in my flesh, as I
am born, I am a sinner. David said, in sin did my mother
conceive me. He didn't mean that his mother
was committing immoral acts. He meant that he was born as
a child of Adam and therefore a sinner, unclean in God's sight,
made aware of it by the Spirit. You know that line in that verse
of an old hymn that we sometimes sing, a sinner is a sacred thing. How does he know? The Holy Ghost
has made him so. Made aware by the Spirit of God.
He's taught by God. This child of God is taught by
God. that unrighteousness and the kingdom of God are completely
incompatible. 1 Corinthians 6, 9, and I could
quote no end of other verses. The unrighteous shall not inherit
the kingdom of God. Paul says that to them, to the
Corinthians. He says, no ye not, the unrighteous
shall not inherit the kingdom of God. There shall nothing that
defiles enter in, says Revelation 21. Nothing that defiles But
the people of God in Christ, the Saviour, are made the righteousness
of God. How? Because He, the Saviour,
was made the sin of His people and bore its penalty. He knew
no sin and He was made the sin of His people. He was made sin
that His people might be made the righteousness of God in Him.
So what are the people of God? The people of God, each one is
a dichotomy. We are what Song of Solomon chapter
6 and verse 13 describes as a camp of two armies, two opposing armies. In Galatians we're told what
they are, the flesh and the spirit, the flesh wars against the spirit,
the spirit from God and the flesh which we're born with. And like
David, you know, King David, he was a man after God's own
heart. The man that almost certainly
wrote this psalm, King David, a man after God's own heart.
Oh, he knew the things of heaven. If God describes him as a man
after his own heart, how can he be one who was a murderer?
How can he be one who was such a shedder of blood? He's capable
in his flesh of great sin, great sin. That's the dichotomy. Knowing
God, believing Christ, sincere in following, aspiring to heaven,
we might be as the children of God if we're believers, but in
us, in our flesh, we must remember always that we are corrupt. The
seeds of every sin is in every one of us until the day we die.
As John says, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves,
and the truth is not in us, but we have an advocate with the
Father. What will keep me? What will keep me on the road
to eternal life? God will, by His Spirit. But
God, by His Spirit, uses means. He uses means. Let's answer the
question. You see, it's a pertinent question. Where with all shall
a young man cleanse his way? That's a very relevant question.
How shall we live if we've believed Christ? How shall we live between
believing Him and the day we leave this life and die and go
to be with Him? How shall we cleanse our way. How shall we cleanse that way
which is tainted with sin every step? Here's the answer, a prompt
answer straight away. What's the answer? By taking
heed thereto according to thy word. By taking heed to God's
word. Think about this book. This wonderful
book, it was written by... Now, no doubt those more expert
than me can correct me on my statistics, but it doesn't really
matter. It's the spirit of what I'm saying that matters. Written
by about 40 authors, over nearly 2,000 years of history. Each
one writing in their own style, and for each one their own personality
is evident. And yet, the message of this
book is utterly consistent. Do you know those who say the
Bible's full of contradictions are those who don't believe the
Bible. Those who say it's full of contradictions are those who
do not believe God. But the more the child of God
digs into this book, the more the child of God knows of this
book, Those that I've known in my life who have known this book
better than anybody I've ever come across, the more they study
it, the more utterly consistent they find it to be. You know,
a man like John Gill, in his study in London in the when?
1700s wasn't it? Sometime in the 1700s I think.
And there was a saying that The one place you would find John
Gill was in his study. Doing what? Studying this word.
The whole of his life. And you can get his commentary
on the whole Bible. He studied it so much that he
had masses and masses of stuff to say about every single verse,
and yet to that man, Surely he'd find the inconsistencies, wouldn't
he? No, he believed God, and God showed him his truth. It's
utterly consistent in declaring Christ, because as Christ himself
said to the Jews, he said, you search the scriptures, for in
them you think you have eternal life. And that's right, you do.
These scriptures are they, the scriptures, that speak of me,
he said, of Christ. You see, he, Christ, Jesus, the
Lord, He is God's Word. He is God's Word. He is the thoughts
of God expressed such that we can hear and understand the thoughts
of God as He reveals them to us. As God in flesh, which He
is, truly He is God, very God. As God in flesh, He is God's
Word. For you know That verse, John
1 verse 1, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with
God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning
with God. He made all things. Without Him was nothing made
that was made. He is God's Word. It is His eternal name. You know,
in Revelation chapter 19 and verse 13, speaking of the glorious
Savior, not as Jesus meek and mild walking this earth, a man
with no comeliness that we should desire him, but in his glorified
state as John saw him in heaven, his name is called the Word of
God. This is Jesus Christ. He is the
Word of God. The written word, inspired of
God, in writing. This is what we have in front
of us. Writing is amazing. I know we have all sorts of ways
of storing information now, electronically, on disks and on silicon chips. so on and so forth. But there's
something about writing on pages that has a permanence that all
of those other things will not have. This has a permanence.
It's been miraculously preserved down the ages. Think about it. Down the millennia, this book
has been preserved. Whatever else of archaeological
history has disappeared and are found to be obscure, here we
have the most amazing amazing revelation of past history of
the world, of the thoughts of God, of what holy men inspired
by the Spirit of God wrote down. Here we have it in writing, and
its purpose is to reveal God's satisfaction of divine justice
for hell-deserving sinners in Christ Jesus. In the Old Testament,
that message is all in pattern. in picture, in blueprint, in
the symbols of the temple and the sacrifices and the priests
and the kings. In the New Testament it's explicitly
fulfilled and declared in the gospel accounts and the epistles
in its complete fulfillment and then heaven's opened and in Revelation
we get this picture of God's eternal purposes for his people. If all you see in the scripture
is a recipe for living to make the world a better place, you've
missed it completely. How do we run the race that's
set before us? I think it's Paul writing to
the Hebrews, chapter 12, verse 1. How do we do it? Looking unto
Jesus. How do you look unto Jesus? Jesus
is the Word. He is the Word of God. You look
to his Word. It's his Word. When you look
at the Word, you look to Jesus. He is the way, the truth, and
the life. That's why I don't like red-letter
Bibles. I mean, it's all right, they've
got the right words in, but they claim that the words in red are the
words of Jesus. No, the whole of it is the words
of Jesus. All of it is the word of God.
All of it is Christ's word. In the coronation service, when
our Queen in the United Kingdom was crowned in June 1953, wasn't
it? That was when it was. I had a
little boy, I got a little pen for it. I think I was only about
two years old at the time. And in that service, speaking
of the Scriptures, the formal words are that this book is the
greatest treasure earth affords. of all the other riches of royalty
and jewels, the crown jewels beyond belief, but the Word of
God is the greatest treasure earth affords, because these
are the words of eternal life. And as Peter said to God incarnate,
the Word incarnate, to whom shall we go? You have the words of
eternal life, for He is the words of eternal life, by taking heed
thereto according to His Word. With this book available, We
need to take heed to it, don't we? Take heed, pay attention.
Take note, pay attention. Give it respect. It says in the
gospel, it says, take heed how you hear. Be careful, pay attention. Give it respect. This book, give
it respect for what it is. It's the words of the creator
and upholder of everything speaking to you. Give it respect. Read
it systematically. Don't just dibble into it for
little kind of promises that you want to pull out of it. Read
it systematically. Go down its highways and its
byways. Go to the places where the gold
is lying clear on the surface and then go to the deep mines
where you have to dig and dig and dig and ask God's Spirit
to lead you and guide you. Become familiar with it. Get
to know it, like getting to know your way around a place. I remember
when I, as a country lad, knowing not much more than growing up
in a village and occasionally going to a small town, that was
the experience I had, I was going off to university to Liverpool,
and when I got there, living there, I made it my business
to get to know the city, to get to know a map of the city, to
understand if I'm in this street, I know how to get to that street,
and oh, I recognise this. Become familiar. It's the same
with the Scripture. Read it systematically. Become
familiar with it. Get to know your way around it,
like knowing your way around a place. Listen to God speaking. Seek to hear God speaking. Take heed unto the Word of God. This is Christ in His Word, speaking
in your heart through it, through the Word of God. And look at
verse 11. Thy word have I hid in mine heart,
that I might not sin against thee. What does that mean, to
hide it in your heart? It means to memorize it. Memorize
it. Commit parts of it to memory.
I know you won't be able to have perfect recall of it all, but
memorize what you can. The more you read it, the more
it will be familiar. The more you will know when you
turn this corner what's coming next. You know it. Memorize it
so that its precepts come readily to mind. When you're in situations
of temptation, that I might not sin against thee, thy word have
I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee. It will
steer you from falsehood. It will instruct you in wisdom
from heaven. You know, I'm speaking primarily
to those who already believe, but to those who do not yet believe,
if there are any listening, do you know this is the book that,
as Paul says to Timothy, is able to make you wise unto salvation. It makes you wise unto salvation,
to teach you God's precepts of truth and of integrity. It will
teach you the blessedness of the being of God. Look at verse
12. Blessed art thou. How do you
know David? Because he knows God's word. God has inspired him. God has
taught him his word. Blessed art thou, O Lord. Teach
me thy statutes, thy word, thy gospel principles, thy law. It will give you the words to
guide you. in this life, on life's journey.
Look at verses 14 to 16. I have rejoiced in the way of
thy testimonies. As much as in all riches, I will
meditate in thy precepts and have respect unto thy ways. I
will delight myself in thy statutes. I will not forget thy word. Does
this sound like somebody that goes, do you know, oh I feel
so guilty, I haven't read my Bible today. Oh, I'd better beat
myself up and go through the slog of having to read a great
long passage just so that I feel better that I've read God's Word
today. It doesn't, does it? This sounds like somebody that
rejoices in it, that meditates in it, chews it over, extracts
the good from it, delights in thy statutes. It will cause you
to be joyful. It will cause you to possess
great treasure, independent of life's physical state. How did
John Bunyan get on in Bedford Jail? He's deprived of his freedom.
He probably wasn't fed very well. He was deprived of his family.
And yet, because he knew the Word of God so well, there it
was. All that time in that prison,
12 years, he was rejoicing in the way of Christ's testimonies,
as much as in all riches. He was chewing it over so that
he could write Pilgrim's Progress and the Holy War. He was delighting
himself in the statutes of God, the Gospel principles of God.
He had not forgotten the Word of God. What great treasure.
Treasures of wisdom and knowledge is what we have. You know in
Christ I hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And
where do we find them? In the Word of God. For He is
the Word of God. So then, a prayer to God. 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. You know,
I said that this is alphabetical, it's the Hebrew alphabet, Aleph,
Beth, Gimel, Daleth, and so on, 22 letters. And each one is a
verse of poetry with eight verses in it, though the verses in our
Bible are put in there afterwards, but they're a very useful thing
to have. But conveniently, each one of them is given eight verses.
And in this third verse, you know, the equivalent of the letter
C, I guess, Gimel, 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." A prayer to God. Born of God's Spirit, knowing
the blessing of salvation in Christ, heeding the truth and
wisdom of God's Word in the path of life, the psalmist prays to
the One who alone is the source of all good. His prayer is that
God would deal bountifully with him. He's not asking for earth's
riches and treasure, but for life in the truth of God. That I may live and keep thy
word is what he's saying. Open thine eyes that I may behold
wondrous things out of thy law, that I may live and keep thy
word. He desires to know more of God.
to find more treasure in wisdom and knowledge of God in his word,
thy law, thy law. They use these terms interchangeably. Robert Hawker in the Bulletin
article, one of the articles anyway, says whenever you read
the word word in this psalm, think, is it not speaking of
Christ who is the word? He is the word. And when you
read law, don't think Ten Commandments, think the whole revelation of
salvation that God has given. He knows, verse 19, that he is
not of this world. He says, I am a stranger in the
earth. I'm not compatible with this
earth. I don't think like the world. I don't think like the
people who disbelieve you. I'm not of this world. I'm not
of its philosophy. of its pleasures, of its riches,
of its aspirations. He is at odds with this world.
Look at verses 21 to 23. 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 statues. You see, he's at odds with this
world. Having tasted Verse 20, having
tasted that the Lord is good, he says, my soul breaketh for
the longing that it hath unto thy judgments at all times. Having
tasted, he yearns for more. Verse 24, thy testimonies also
are my delight and my counselor. What are the wondrous things
that he prays for God to show him? Verse 18. Open thou mine
eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law. Wondrous
things. What are these wondrous things
that he prays for? Because in praying, he acknowledges
this, and we must all acknowledge this, that revelation is God's
to give to whom he will. It's God's to give. You cannot
work it out for yourself. If God leaves you alone, if God
passes you by and leaves you alone, you will not, in the power
of your flesh, however great you are, be able to deduce the
way of eternal life. It is God's to give that revelation. Luke 10 verse 23, Jesus turned
him unto his disciples and said privately, listen to this, blessed
are the eyes which see the things that ye see. Why? Because God
has revealed them to you. For I tell you that many prophets
and kings have desired to see those things which ye see, and
have not seen them, and to hear those things which ye hear, and
have not heard them. You see, these things are, as
it says in verse 23 of Psalm 118, it's the Lord's doing. It is marvellous in our eyes.
This is a marvellous thing that God should reveal His truth to
His people. It's the most blessed thing that
can ever happen to you. You must acknowledge it. You
know, Savior, dear Savior, to you I cry, whilst on others thou
art calling, please, this is my prayer, do not pass me by,
but reveal your truth to me and in me. Here are five things,
there's many, many more, but just for the sake of time, here
are five things to meditate upon. regarding the wondrous things
that we pray that God would open our eyes, the eyes of our understanding
spiritually, the eyes of faith to see these things. Here's the
first one, and this is just off the top of my head. No doubt
wiser people can come up with a more comprehensive list, but
this is just five for you to think about. What things? What
are the wondrous things out of thy law? I'll tell you what is
a wondrous thing to know. The answer from God to Job's
question. You know Job's question? I quote
it often, Job 9 verse 2, and it's somewhere else, it's in
chapter 25 as well. How shall a man, who is a sinner,
under just condemnation, how shall a man be just with God? How shall one whose very nature
and deeds and thoughts demand the condemnation of God, the
eternal condemnation. How shall such a one be declared
just in the sight of God? And this book, and absolutely
nowhere else, gives you that answer, if you will believe it.
If you will believe, not what so-called Christians tell you,
because they don't know the truth, so many of them. They claim to,
but they don't. Not what other religions tell
you, but what this book tells you. How shall a man be just
with God? All of it in the redemption that
Christ Jesus has accomplished. All of it on the basis of what
He came to do and accomplished. He shall not fail. He succeeded. Secondly, secondly, wondrous
things. He is a wondrous thing. I think,
closely related to that. How shall a man be just with
God? Somebody has to come. God has to come. There was no
other good enough. God must come. God, in the likeness
of sinful flesh, yet without sin. God must come. to accomplish
that redemption. Here is the mystery of godliness.
Great is the mystery of godliness. Without controversy, says Paul
to Timothy, and without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. That God was manifest in the
flesh. God. Charles Wesley's hymn, God
contracted to a span, incomprehensibly made man. God. You know, he said,
my father is greater than I, but he was God. Why was his father
greater than him? Because voluntarily, then, he
laid his glorious side. His space, his existence was
contracted to the span of a man, yet fully God, for in him dwelt
the fullness of the Godhead bodily. You understand that, don't you?
Of course you don't. Neither do I. But the Word of
God says it. Great is the mystery of godliness.
God was manifest in the flesh. He was justified in the Spirit
in everything He did. He was the Holy One of God. He
was seen of angels who desire to look in to the salvation of
God. Do you know what we read again? Where do we get it from?
This book. the eternal fascination of the angels of God. Do I believe
in angels? Of course I do. Of course I do. Not just as the pop song says,
was it Abba sang that song, I believe in angels? I do believe, I believe
in angels because they're here in this book. Yes? The angels
desire to look into this, the mystery of godliness. The angels
of God are fascinating with this, that one as holy and pure as
God from whom they must shield their eyes, crying, holy, holy,
holy is the Lord, the whole earth is full of his glory. The one
from whom they must shield themselves because of his holiness should
look down and redeem sinful man. Scene of angels preached unto
the Gentiles. Now then, how about that? Surely
God's message was only for the Jews. Those people, no, no, preached
unto the Gentiles and Amazingly, despite all that Satan did in
the fall, despite everything he did in blinding people's minds,
he was believed on in the world. Christ was believed on. He was
believed on by some whilst he was in this world. and he's believed
on by many more since he left this world and returned to glory.
This is the mystery of godliness, but how on earth would we know
it? We look at creation around us and on a beautiful day as
we have here today, we've gone in this country from the depths
of winter in May, the coldest May I can ever remember, to what
suddenly feels like one of the hottest summers ever. In just
a matter of days, we just sort of seem to switch from one to
the other. And you look at the garden and it's absolutely full
of the handiwork of God, the flowers, the bees, the birds,
the leaves, the beautiful blue sky, everything. But do you know,
you would never, ever, ever know about the mystery of godliness
that the scriptures reveal. You must have the scriptures.
You must have the Scriptures, you know, you must have it. Open
mine eyes that I might see glorious things in creation. He doesn't
say that, he says, behold wondrous things out of thy law. How should
a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed unto thy word.
Third thing, a third thing, because when Christ came, the mystery
of godliness, God was manifest in the flesh. Third thing, substitutionary
atonement by Christ. That Christ came as the federal
head of his people, his elect multitude, that innumerable multitude
that no man can number, whom God loved with everlasting love
before the beginning of time, and Christ in the covenant of
grace covenanted to redeem from the curse of the law by being
made a curse for them, that he might come and be in their place
as their substitute, so that everything that demands of God's
law and justice made on the people of God were met in Christ. Substitutionary atonement by
Christ. Who could ever think this up?
Think of every other religion in the world. Is there anything
that comes close to this? There's nothing. This is unique. This is why our gospel is unique. That God, in Christ, stood as
surety for his people, his elect multitude, in eternal union with
them. His people were espoused to Him
before the beginning of time. His people made His body, and
Him the federal head of that body. And when He came, the Holy
One of God, the One who knew no sin, God, to satisfy justice,
made him, made his darling son, made our Lord Jesus Christ, he
made him to be the sin of his people, that as the substitute
for his people he might bear in full the wrath of God to pay
the penalty for that sin, that his people might be made the
righteousness of God in him. Made the righteousness of God
in him. What an accomplishment! Where could you ever work that
out without this Word? Without this Word of God that
speaks of Christ, that is Christ, that is His Word, from start
to finish. Here's a fourth thing. substitutionary
atonement by Christ leading to the accomplishment of redemption. What did Christ accomplish in
his death? What did he accomplish when he
went to that cross when his hour was come? And when he gave up
the ghost and when he cried, it is finished? In that three
hours of darkness from the sixth hour to the ninth hour, midday
to three in the afternoon, it was dark. There was darkness
all over the earth. And the reason for that? was
in that time, that three hours of world time, God was satisfying
His justice in His Son on the cross of Calvary. And He cried,
it is finished. And He gave up the ghost and
died. And the accomplishment of redemption is this. The sins
of his people are freely forgiven. The justice of God is not violated
in any way whatsoever. You know, sometimes you'll get
a wayward child to say sorry to his brother or sister for
something rotten they've done to them, and the child will go,
sorry, and he doesn't really mean it, and you know that. You
know he doesn't really mean it. But this is sins really forgiven. This is sins really, really forgiven
and paid for. There is peace with God for the
people for whom Christ has died. Oh, I need to know, am I in Him?
When He died on that cross, was I in Him? Did He die for me that
I might have peace with God? That when I stand before that
judgment seat of Christ, I might know that because Christ has
died, There is therefore now no condemnation to me, that I
might find acceptance in the Beloved, the Beloved Son of God,
that I might find acceptance with God, who is strictly just
and perfectly holy, that I might find acceptance with Him, that
I might know, as Jeremiah says, Jeremiah 50 verse 20, in those
days, in those judgment days, and in that time, saith the Lord,
the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for. Israel and Judah
are the people of God. If you're a child of God today,
in the 21st century, then you are a member of the Israel of
God. You're of His people. The iniquity
of Israel shall be sought for, because that's what Judgment
Day is about, looking for sin. And there shall be none. And
the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found. You say, but I
know I'm a sinner. But they will not be found. Why?
Because Christ has taken them away. How far? As far as the
east is from the west. You know, that goes on and on
and on, doesn't it? Wherever you are, you just keep going. It's not like North and South.
You just keep going. He says, for I will pardon them
whom I reserve. I will pardon my elect. I will
pardon the ones chosen to eternal life in Christ, that multitude
that no man can number, so that there is no condemnation. There
is no fear of dying. There is no fear of judgment.
Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared
for you from the foundation of the world. But to those who are
outside of him, depart from me. I never knew you. Depart from
me. What a tremendous difference
that is revealed in this book, the accomplishment of redemption.
No fear of dying on judgment because of what Christ accomplished
for the innumerable multitude he everlastingly loved. The promise
of eternal bliss. This is the accomplishment. You
know, you read Revelation 21. You know, this veil of tears
that we live in now, with bereavement and sickness and trials and tribulations
and the trouble of incompetent governments and authorities and
people who disbelieve God and all of these things. And you
read of heaven in Revelation 21, no more crying. No more tears,
no more death, no more pain, no more sorrow. God will wipe
away all tears from their eyes. Bliss, a picture of absolute
bliss, of intimate fellowship with God in his kingdom. And
fifthly, fifthly, the kingdom of God. and its triumph over
the world's kingdom. You know, that's what you get
from this book. Wondrous things out of thy law. Do you know,
the more you study it and the more you discover what God says,
Christ came preaching the kingdom of God, but it also reveals the
triumph of the kingdom of God. and the overthrow of the kingdom
of Satan. And it gives understanding to his people. It's not just
academic head knowledge, it gives understanding to his people about
the way things are. The way things are as they are.
The terrible things we see going on at the moment, and the great
blunders that our political leaders are making all the time, every
day. And this is all in the purpose
of God, to frustrate the kingdom of this world. and his kingdom
to be triumphant. And how would we know that but
for this book revealing to us wondrous things out of thy law,
giving us divine wisdom to see and understand the way things
are, the unfolding of history to accomplish eternal redemption. You see, all of this And I'll
finish. It's not for head knowledge.
It's for this, verse 24. Thy testimonies also are my delight
and my counsellors. Oh, can I commend to you. Take
heed unto the word of God. Read it. Pray that God will deal
bountifully with you and open your eyes that you may behold
wondrous things out of thy law. He does. He says, seek and ye
shall find, knock and it shall be opened. Come to him and you
will come. He will not turn anyone away.
Truly, with this book, we have a treasure chest of divine wisdom
and knowledge with which God has promised, as he says in Ephesians
1 verse 3 by the Apostle Paul, to bless us, his people, with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. Amen.