But to turn to the 119th Psalm,
this is the next to the last of these stanzas of the 119th
Psalm. Let's begin reading in verse
161. Princes have persecuted me without a
cause, but my heart standeth in awe of thy word. I rejoice at thy word as one
that findeth great spoil. I hate and abhor lying, but thy
law do I love. Seven times a day do I praise
thee because of thy righteous judgments. Great peace have they which love
thy law, and nothing shall offend them. Lord, I have hoped for
thy salvation and done thy commandments. My soul hath kept thy testimonies,
and I love them exceedingly. I've kept thy precepts and thy
testimonies, for all my ways are before thee. Let's pray. Lord, would you give each one
of us the grace to stand in awe at thy word. Lord, we ask that we might be
given the grace to hear your gospel. Lord, what a precious privilege
of grace it would be if you would cause your gospel to be preached
and you would give us hearing ears. Lord, we ask that you would,
through your son, accept our thanksgiving. And Lord, we so
greatly desire to worship. To sit at the feet of thy son
and hear his word. Lord, we confess our sin and
our sins. And we pray for forgiveness for
Christ's sake, cleansing in his blood. Lord, we pray for those
of our number that are going through trials, physical, emotional,
spiritual. We pray for your blessing upon
them and that you bless these trials for their good and for
your glory and give us grace to love one another. And support one another and forgive
one another. Lord, we pray for our nation. We pray for the rulers of our
nation. That your will, as we know it will, will be done in
all things. We're so glad you are God and
beside thee is none else. We pray for all your people wherever
they meet together. Lord, bless us for Christ's sake.
In his name we pray, amen. Now I'm going to look at these verses first as
the word of the Lord Jesus Christ. And after that, we're going to
look at it as the words of the writer. But he says in 161, princes
have persecuted me without a cause. Now, who could that be but the
Lord Jesus Christ? Any persecution that I have,
that somebody levels toward me, there's a cause for it. I'm always
to blame, you are too. You could never say, with regard
to any criticism, level against you, there was no cause. I can't
say that either. He could. Princes persecuted me without
a cause. There was no cause to persecute
him. He also said, they hated me without a cause. Both Herod and Pontius Pilate,
with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, that covers everybody,
were gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ. They persecuted me without a
cause. Now the reason men persecute
him without a cause is because they hate him without a cause.
That's the reason. The carnal mind is enmity against
God. Men hate God and they hate his
son, Jesus Christ. Why? Because men are evil. Is
that a good enough answer? Because men are evil. And that includes me and you. They persecuted me without a
cause. He's altogether lovely, and to
hate him is altogether evil. But my heart standeth in awe
of thy word. Look at the Lord's attitude toward
the word of his father. He stood in awe at the word of
God. Don't you love to think about
the Lord Jesus Christ reading the scriptures? I thought about
him even as a young man, opening up this book and reading it. He wrote it. By his spirit, yet
he stood in awe of every word that was written. And I pray
that's what we're doing right now. Standing in awe of his word. That's worship. Standing in awe
at his word. He said in verse 162, I rejoice
at thy word is one that findeth great spoil. Now, if you find
a great treasure, you rejoice. What if you found a treasure
this afternoon that would make you independently wealthy? You'd
rejoice, you'd be glad. Well, this is infinitely more. The Lord says I find this word
as one that finds great spoil. And then he says in one verse
163, I hate and abhor lying. Now what a horrible thing lying
is. It began with the devil. The
Lord said he's a liar and the father of it. Remember when he
lied to our first parents? Yea, hath God said, you're not
to eat of every tree. You'll not surely die. He is
the father of lies. And lying, think of how horrible
it is to tell a lie. When I lie, I'm manipulating
people. All you do when you lie is try to manipulate people to
get your way, even an exaggeration. And the Lord says, I hate and
abhor lying, but thy law I love. Now, he hated lying because lying
was principally against his father. Men telling lies on God, lies
with regard to the content of the gospel, lies regarding the
person of Christ. How evil. And Christ says, I
hate and I abhor lying, but thy law do I love. Now, you know how someone loves
the law of God when they've kept it perfectly. when it has nothing
to say against them. Well, the Lord kept God's law
perfectly. He never sinned. Don't you love
the glory of his person that he never committed a sin? He stood before God's holy law
without guilt. Oh, how we admire his person. Thy law do I love. Verse 164. Seven times a day do I praise
thee because of thy righteous judgments. Now, does that mean
on seven different occasions? Maybe in a 24 hour period he
prayed to the Lord. No, seven means all the time. Perfection. All the time, seven
times a day do I praise thee because of thy righteous judgments. Now, what that's talking about
is the cross, the righteous judgments of God. And this is Jesus Christ
praising his father for his righteous judgments. And even when he was
on the cross suffering the wrath of God as the sinner's substitute,
he was praising God for his righteous judgments. He never quit believing
God, he never quit worshiping God, even when he was made sin,
even when he was forsaken by God. You know the reason he stood
silent before Pilate is because he knew he was guilty. And he
was praising God for his righteous judgments. He would rather die
than let God's law be dishonored. He was praising God for his righteous
judgments, the righteous judgments of the cross. How we stand in
awe at the righteous judgments of God upon the cross of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 165. Great peace. Have they which love thy law,
and nothing shall offend them. Now, the only way I can have
peace before God's holy law is if it doesn't condemn me. If
I'm under the law, and the law condemns me, I don't have great
peace, I have great fear. I have great resentment. You
know, as long as you're under law, you won't love God. You'll
resent him, you'll think he's too strict, you'll think he's
too hard on you, but you won't love him. The only people who
have great peace before the law of God are those people who stand
without guilt before the law of God. The law of God looks
them over and says, perfect. Now, if God's law says that with
regard to you, you have great peace. A peace that passes all
understanding. The peace of God, the peace,
oh, it's great peace. Great peace, these are the words
of the Lord still. Great peace, which love thy law,
nothing shall offend them. They're not gonna be tripped
up. Now, the Lord says, Lord, I've hoped for thy salvation.
Now, Jesus Christ, even when he was on the cross, never quit
believing God. That's so beautiful. He never
stopped believing God, even when he was forsaken by God, even
when he had no feeling of comfort whatsoever, totally cut off. Even then, he never quit believing
God. He said, though he slay me, yet
will I trust him. He says, I've hoped, even while
he was cut off, He hoped in God's salvation. He knew exactly what
was going to take place as a result of him going to the cross. He
says, Lord, I've hoped for thy salvation and done thy commandments. He knew that he had worked out
a perfect righteousness. He knew he was guilty, but he
also knew he had worked out a perfect righteousness, keeping all God's
commandments, and that's the personal obedience of every believer
that he worked out for them. He says, I know that. Verse 167,
my soul hath kept thy testimonies and I love them exceedingly. Don't you love the beauty of
that language? He says, I love them exceedingly. I have kept
thy precepts and thy testimonies. And this isn't just talk, all
my ways are before thee. This is not just me talking big.
You see this with regard to me. All my ways are before thee and
I love them exceedingly. I've kept all your commandments. What a beautiful, beautiful speech
of our Lord before his father. But let's look at these as the
words of the psalmist. 161, princes. have persecuted me without a
cause. What that is talking about is
the eighth beatitude, being persecuted for righteousness sake. The cause is not in you. that
you're persecuted in that sense. It's because every believer stands
for the righteousness and merits of Jesus Christ being the only
righteousness there is. And it's the only righteousness
I have. And all human righteousness is
nothing more than filthy rags. Now, I maintain that by the grace
of God, the eighth beatitude, and I will be persecuted without
a cause as far as in me. It's because of the message of
the gospel. But my heart standeth in all
of thy word. Now, isn't it glorious? This
is thousands of years old, and we stand in awe of it. The Word of God. We stand in
awe of this book we call the Bible. We love it. We stand in awe. This is not
man's production. This is not written by me. And
I was talking to somebody who said, well, it's like any other
kind of great piece of literature that a man's piece of literature.
No, it's not. It's the Word of God. And we
stand in awe knowing that every word is spoken inspired by God
exactly as he would have it said. We stand in awe of the word of
God. I rejoice, the psalmist says,
that thy word is one that findeth great spoil. Now I think of the
great spoil of this word. Here's an example. The Word of
God tells me that I'm holy, unblameable, and unreprovable in His sight
because of the blood of Jesus Christ. Is that great spoil? The Word of God tells me that
I am complete in the Lord Jesus Christ, lacking nothing. I have
all things, all that God requires of me. Is that great spoil? The
Word of God tells me that all things are working together for
my good and His glory. Is that great spoil? Everything.
Oh, what great spoil that is. If God be for us, who can be
against us? Is that great spoil? I mean,
the great spoil of the victories of the Lord Jesus Christ in the
behalf of every believer. It's great spoil. And that's
the way we see his word, as great spoil. Now the psalmist says,
I hate and abhor lying, but thy law do I love. I hate lying,
and let me tell you where I hate it first, in myself. In myself. I hope that's the way you see
lying. Do you believe in yourself? You are a liar. I hate lying
in myself. I hate lying on God. Lying with
regard to the gospel. Lying with regard to how God
saves sinners. I hate and abhor lying. I hate seeing manipulation of people.
Trying to get them to respond the way I want them to respond
or somebody else doing it. I hate memorial. Lying's so evil. The devil's the father of it.
And the fact that all men are liars, me and you included. Oh,
I hate and I abhor lying. But thy law do I love. Now, with regard to the law of
God, the whole word of God, the Ten Commandments, whatever you
want to talk about, I love His law. And let me remind you, the
only way you'll love His law is if you see the law justifies
you because of what Christ did. He was delivered from our offenses
and raised again for our justification. So God's holy law looks at me
and says He has no guilt. He stands perfect, he stands
perfectly righteous. Oh, thank God for the law that
is honored by the Lord Jesus Christ and I perfectly kept it
in him. I love his law. I like what Paul
said in Romans chapter seven. He said, I delight in the law
of God after the inward man. And I do, I do, every believer
does. I hate and abhor lying, but I
love thy law. Do I love? Verse 164. Seven times
a day do I praise thee because of thy righteous judgments. Now,
once again, his righteous judgments are his judgments on the cross.
Where can we ever see the righteousness of God like that? His righteous
judgment on the cross wherein he made a way to be just and
justify the ungodly and how we praise him for his righteous
judgments. Verse 165, great peace. Have they which love thy law
and nothing shall offend them. Great peace there. This is the
peace of justification, the peace that Ephesians 2.14 says, he
is our peace. The peace of knowing that God sees me as having never sinned. That's what justification is.
Somebody says, really? Really, really. Holy, unblameable,
and unreprovable, in his sight, the peace of him putting away
all my sin, the peace of him giving me his righteousness,
so I stand before the holy law of God without guilt. Great peace. He was delivered
for our offenses, raised again for our justification, therefore
being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord
Jesus Christ. Great peace have they which love
thy law. Nothing shall offend them. Who
shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? Bring it on. Can't be done. great peace have
they which love thy law." The only people who really love the
law of God are the people who know that Jesus Christ is their
perfect righteousness before that law. They love God's law. Verse 166, Lord, I've hoped
for thy salvation and done thy commandments. Now what's that
mean? Well, hope is a confident expectation
with regard to the future. Now, with regard to the future,
I have a hope that when I stand before God in judgment, I'll
stand before God perfectly accepted in the beloved. I've hoped in
thy salvation. I have a hope that I'm going
to be justified. that I'm going to be without
guilt, that I'm going to be perfect. What a hope. I can't see it,
but I hope in it. And I have a hope that from the
next second till I stand before God in judgment, everything's
working together for my good. I've got that hope. I have hoped
in thy salvation, and I've done thy commandments. Now, 1 John
3, verse 23, this is his commandment. that we believe on the name of
his son and love one another as he has given us commandment. I have believed on his name.
Now he's given me the grace to keep that commandment. I realize
that, but I personally have believed on his name, the name of the
Lord Jesus Christ. I believe that his name is my
salvation, the person behind the name. I believed on his name.
And you know what? When he says to love one another
as he gave you commandment, everyone that loves Jesus Christ, I love
that person. You know why I love them? Because
they love Jesus Christ. They love him who is altogether
lovely. You can't help but love anyone who loves the Lord Jesus
Christ. He says, I've kept thy commandments. Verse 167, my soul
hath kept thy testimonies, I love them exceedingly. Now, that kept,
my soul hath kept thy testimonies, that's talking about what he
said, I guard over them. I want them just as they're stated
in the Bible. I love this statement that Chris
Cunningham has made. Don't tell me what the Bible
means, tell me what it says. And I want to keep that with
all my soul, because all my salvation is found in his testimonies,
what he testifies with regard to himself. My soul hath kept
thy testimonies, and I love him exceedingly. Be not ashamed of the testimony
of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but be thou a partaker of the
afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God, who has
saved us. That's his testimony. And called
us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to
his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus
before the world began. You know, I love that exceedingly.
I love that exceedingly. I love them exceedingly. I've
kept thy precepts and thy testimonies. Pretty much repeating What he
just said, I've watched over them, I've kept them, I believe
the gospel, I've kept thy testimonies, thy precepts, for, and I love
the way he says this, all my ways are before thee. This is
not just a speech on my part. What I thought about was, Peter, do you love me? Do you love my person? Peter, do you love me? Yea, Lord. He asked him the third time.
Peter, do you love me? And Peter was grieved. He said,
Lord, you know all things. You know that I love your person. This is not just me speaking.
You know. And this is what the psalmist
is saying at this time. All my ways are before you. And
you know that I stand in all of your word, that I love your
precepts, your testimonies. I love your law. I love your
righteous judgments. I love everything about you.
I love all your attributes. I wouldn't change a thing about
you if it were my power because you're altogether perfect and
glorious. And that is the psalmist's testimony
with regard to the Lord Jesus Christ. May that be our testimony
as well. Amen.