our Bibles today to Psalms chapter
19. Psalm chapter 19, I would point
out to us once again that this psalm divides itself into three
divisions. The first division praises God's
book of creation in verses one through six. The second division
praises God's written word, the Bible, verses seven through 11. And the third division is a beautiful
and very useful prayer. Let us read the psalm. The first
division, verses one through six, creation declares that there
is a God. The heavens declare the glory
of God, and the firmament showeth his handiwork. Day unto day uttereth
speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge. There is no
speech nor language where their voice is not heard. Their line
has gone out through all the earth, in their words to the
end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle
for the sun, which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and
rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race. His going forth is
from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of
it, and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof." Second
division. The Word of God. The law of the
Lord is perfect, converting the soul. The testimony of the Lord
is sure, making wise and simple. The statutes of the Lord are
right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is
pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean,
enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are
true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than
gold, yea, than much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and the
honeycomb. Moreover, by them is thy servant
warned, and in keeping of them there is great reward. And lastly,
the third division now, the prayer. Who can understand his errors?
Cleanse thou me from secret faults, Keep back thy servant also from
presumptuous sins. Let them not have dominion over
me. Then shall I be upright, and
I shall be innocent from the great transgression. Let the
words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in
thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer. I brought a
message last time from the words in the First Division. the heavens
declare the glory of God. And we considered spiritually
what you and I see when we look up into the heavens, that is
the sun, the moon, the stars, the clouds, and the lightning. But this time, we will look at
the words in this second division which speaks of God's written
word. And I want to point out three
things that we have. three things that we have in
these verses about the Bible. First, we have five different
names for God's written word. That's the first thing we see.
We have five different names for God's written word. It is called by the name of the
law, the testimony, the statutes, the commandments, and the judgment. all speaking of God's written
word. Five names for His written word. The law, the testimony, statutes,
commandments, and judgments. And each time, I want you to
notice that each time that God calls His written word by one
of these five names, He declares that it is His word. That is,
the law is the law of the Lord. The testimony is the testimony
of the Lord. The statutes are the statutes
of the Lord. The commandment is the commandment
of the Lord. And the judgments are the judgments
of the Lord. And you have to notice that each
time this name of God, which appears here, is His name Jehovah. Now, God reveals himself to men
through his various names. And this name Jehovah especially
speaks to us and tells us of his self-existence. That God
is eternal God who needs nothing. He is self-existent in himself. But it also tells us that he
is a covenant God, that God is a God of the covenants. And so that's the first thing
that we see. We have five different names
for God's written word. In other words, for the Bible.
We have five different names for the Bible here. It is called
The law, the testimony, the statutes, the commandment, and the judgments. Now, the second thing I want
to point out to us is this. We have five descriptive words
for each of these five names. Five descriptive words of each
of these five names. The law of the Lord is perfect. This is a descriptive word of
God's word. It is perfect. Now the word law,
and I know sometimes people are confused because this word means
different things in different places of the Bible. The word
law is used in the scripture to refer to different parts of
the Bible. Sometimes it refers to only the
first five books of the Bible, that is the Pentateuch. Sometimes
our Lord divided up the scriptures when he spoke to the apostles
after his resurrection into three parts. Remember, the law, the
prophets, and the Psalms. And so sometimes the word law
refers to the five books that Moses wrote. Sometimes it refers
to all the Old Testament. And sometimes it refers to the
body of laws that God gave to the nation of Israel through
Moses. As we read in John chapter 1
in verse 17, for the law was given by Moses, or the law was
given through Moses. God gave the law, but he gave
it through Moses, but grace and truth come by Jesus Christ. And sometimes it refers to doctrine,
As you notice, if you have a Bible with marginal readings, and I
hope most of you do, if you look beside the word law, there's
a number, and if you look in your margin, you see that another
word, maybe a better translation, is doctrine, the doctrine of
the Lord. In other words, the doctrine
of the gospel, the doctrine of the Messiah. And in Romans chapter
8 in verse 2, the apostle Paul said, for the law of the spirit
of life in Christ Jesus. Now that has to be referring
to the gospel, even though it is called the law. The law of
the spirit of life in Christ Jesus, the gospel, hath made
me free from the law of sin and death. Also in Hebrews chapter
7 and verse 19, the apostle wrote, for the law made nothing perfect. The law made nothing perfect,
but the bringing in of a better hope by which we draw nigh to
God. We might ask this question today,
when we read here, for the law is perfect, how perfect is God's
law? How perfect is the Word of God? I want you to keep your places
here, of course, but turn with me to 1 Timothy chapter 3. 1 Timothy chapter 3. And here we have the inspired
apostle Paul writing to this preacher by the name of Timothy.
I'm sorry, 2 Timothy, 2 Timothy chapter 3. Beginning with verse 14, we read
2 Timothy chapter 3 and verse 14. But continue thou in the
things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing
of whom thou hast learned them. And that from a child thou hast
known the holy scriptures. which are able to make thee wise
unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All
scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for
doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,
that the man of God may be mature, perfect, thoroughly furnished
unto all good works. Now I want to call our attention
to two statements in those verses I've just read. First of all,
the phrase, all scripture is given by inspiration of God. Literally, literally this means
God breathed on purpose every word of scripture. That's what
it means literally. God breathed on purpose every
word of scripture. And second, the Holy Scriptures
are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which
is in Christ Jesus. This is what our text tells us
back in Psalm 19. The law of the Lord is perfect. That is the doctrine, the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ is perfect, converting the soul. I call your
attention to the marginal reading in that verse because here we
find the word converting and you look in your margin and another
reading would be restoring. Restoring. The law of the Lord
is perfect. Restoring the soul. We had a man in our church many
years ago, dear friend. who bought an old car and restored
it. And what he had to do to restore
this old car was take it all the way down to the frame. You
don't just get an old car and put a new paint job on it and
call that restoring it. No, to really restore an antique
car, they go all the way to the foundation, to the bottom, we
might say. And the law, the gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ is perfect, restoring the soul. You see,
religion, for the most part, just puts a new paint job on
a person, cleans him up, puts new clothes on him, gives him
a certain way to walk and talk and all of that, but it doesn't
go to the problem. It doesn't deal with the heart.
That's where man's problem is. When Adam came from his Creator's
hands, he was perfect. He was whole. He could not need
to be restored. Why? Because he was perfect,
pronounced good. But once he sinned and disobeyed
God, now man needs to be restored, and the work must begin on the
inside, not just the outside. The outside will take care of
itself, that's true, but the work has to begin on the inside. We've got to go all the way to
the problem, all the way down to the frame, all the way down
to the bottom. That is, the heart of man is
desperately wicked and deceitful above all things. Who can know
it? Who can know it? Only God. He's
the only one who can know our heart. Sometimes men say, well,
if I know my heart. Well, you don't. You don't know
your heart. You know from the word of God
that you came into this world with a wicked heart, a deceitful
heart. And that's one reason, not the
only reason, but one reason we need the written word so desperately. Yes, creation tells man there's
a God and allows man then to begin to imagine how God is and
to imagine how he can make himself acceptable to God, whichever
God he imagines. But it is the written word of
God that declares unto us the truth about God and the truth
about ourselves and how great our need is. Oh, the law of the
Lord is perfect, restoring the soul. And yes, God uses his word
in calling out his people, in saving his people. In James chapter
1 and verse 18 in the New Testament, we read, of his own will, that
is of God's will, begat he us with the word of truth, of God's
will. Men are born not of the will
of the flesh, nor of the will of man, nor of blood, but of
the will of God, of his will. He has begotten us, as James
says, with the word of truth. In other words, using the gospel. Our Lord commanded his disciples
to go into all the world and preach the gospel. Faith cometh
by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Paul told Timothy,
the scripture, that as God breathed, is able to make a person wise
unto salvation. Now notice, through faith. in Christ Jesus. It's in the
Word of God that we learn of Christ. We hear of Him, who He
is, and what He has done for the saving of His people. Also
in 1 Peter chapter 1 and verse 23, the Apostle said, being born
again, and men must be born again to enter the kingdom of heaven. Peter said, being born again,
not of corruptible seed. That's the word of man, corruptible
seed. Sprinkle a few drops of water
on a baby's head, and now they're in the kingdom of heaven. Corruptible,
we're not born, men are not born again of corruptible seed, but
of the incorruptible seed. by the word of God which liveth
and abideth forever. So that's the first descriptive
word. The law of the Lord is perfect. Restoring the soul, converting
the soul. Now second, the testimony of
the Lord is sure. It's sure. And this is what we
should remember. When we come to the word of God,
this is God's testimony. When men are called in a courthouse
to give a testimony, they hold up their hands and they swear
to tell the truth, and nothing but the truth, so help them God. This is God's testimony. This
is His testimony about Himself, first of all. I was reading yesterday, John
Calvin made a statement something like this. He said, it really
doesn't matter if a man has one God or a hundred gods. if it
is a God that he has imagined and not the God who reveals himself
on the pages of the Word of God. It doesn't matter what God a
person believes in if it is not this God, this God, who reveals
himself here. The testimony of the Lord is
sure, is sure, what he says about himself, that
he is God and there is no other, that he is omnipotent, there's
nothing too hard for him, that he is everywhere present, that
he knows all things, that he does not change, he cannot lie. This is his testimony about himself
and not only about himself but about creation. This is God's
testimony. When we read Genesis chapters
one and chapters two, people say, well, I don't believe that.
I don't agree with that. I don't think, well, you're calling
God a liar. This is God's testimony. Not
only about himself and about creation, but about the fall.
You know, you just look around you or just look within you. You don't have to look very far,
do we? to know that something has happened to man. When you
go to a funeral and see that corpse, that lifeless corpse,
that body that one time breathed and was loving and caring and
you loved to be with, and now the life is gone, death has come,
What brought that about? What caused that? The fall, right? Sin came into God's creation. And death by sin, the apostle
Paul said. This is God's testimony. His testimony is sure. The psalmist in Psalm 119 and
verse 30 said, The entrance of thy words giveth
light. It giveth understanding to the
simple. Now, this is what was written. Revelation makes wise the simple. That's what Paul told Timothy. It's able to make thee wise unto
salvation. When God's word enters, as the
psalmist said, the entrance of thy words giveth light. By nature,
we are darkness. We're in the dark, and we are
darkness. But when God's Word comes, and
yes, when it enters, not when it just enters these ears, but
when God the Holy Spirit causes His Word to enter, As Paul said
to the Thessalonians, our gospel came to you not in word only,
but in power and demonstration of the Spirit of God. And then
you have a witness of the word of truth. This testimony is sure. Some of the old writers prefer
the word babes or children here instead of simple. In our text, we read The testimony
of the Lord is sure making wise the simple. Some prefer the word
babes, not referring to age so much as just our natural condition,
our understanding. The Lord Jesus, in Matthew chapter
11, speaking to his father said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord
of heaven and earth, Because thou hast hid these things from
the wise and the prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. The word of God makes a person
wise unto salvation. It teaches us of our sinfulness,
of our need, and it teaches us of the Savior, Jesus Christ our
Lord. Third, the statutes of the Lord
are right. They're right. Again, in Psalm
119, David said, therefore, I esteem all thy precepts concerning all
things to be right, and I hate every false way. God warns about
adding to or taking away from his written word. The statutes
of the Lord are right. We read almost at the very end
of the Bible in the book of Revelation, God said, if any man shall add
or take away from the words of this book. Some people say, well,
that just refers to the book of Revelation. No, it refers
to all of God's book, all of his words. If any man shall add
or take away from the words of this book, God shall add unto
him the plagues of this book. The statutes of the Lord are
right. Whether men accept it, men believe
it or not, God's word is right. It's right. And notice he said
it rejoices the heart. The statutes of the Lord are
right rejoicing The heart. This is speaking, of course,
of the gospel. The apostle Paul wrote two times
in the letter of Philippians saying, rejoice in the Lord.
When we're living in days like we are living in, and there's
much uncertainty, that's always true. That's always true. As far as uncertainty is concerned,
nothing's changed. Every day of your life that you
have wakened and got out of bed, it's been an uncertain day. That
could have been the last day of your life. Every, every day
is uncertain, but we just, we are made to realize it more in
times like this, are we not? When we see this pandemic and
this plague that has come into the land and men are fearful. But God's people, we have cause
always to rejoice, not in the things of this world, not in
the sicknesses and the death and all of those things. We're
not going to rejoice in that, but we are going to rejoice in
the Lord. He hasn't changed. His gospel
hasn't changed. And if it's God's purpose to
take us out of this world by this virus, that's the way we
are going to go out of this world. That doesn't mean we do not use
wisdom and prudence, but my friends, God is still on the throne. Nothing
has changed and nothing's going to change in that regard. As
the psalmist said, rejoice in the Lord or rejoice for the Lord
reigneth. Rejoice in the Lord. This scripture
says rejoice in the Lord. This is the way believers are
able to rejoice. And I looked up this verse in
Psalm 84. And it said, blessed are they
that dwell in thy house. Now listen, they that dwell in
thy house, they will be still, they will be still praising thee. Those who dwell in God's house
throughout the long ages of eternity, those who dwell in God's house,
they will be still praising thee. They will be still rejoicing
in thee. This rejoicing begins in time. That's right. Today, those of
us who know the Lord, This rejoicing in our heart begins today, but
it doesn't end in this life or when this life ends. We just
enter into another place. But this rejoicing, we shall
still be rejoicing the Lord. A million years from now, God's
people will still be rejoicing in the Lord. It's not going to
ever cease, this rejoicing. All right, here's the fourth
thing. The commandment of the Lord is pure. How could it be anything but
pure? Saying that it is the commandment of the Holy Lord God. The commandment
of the Lord is pure. In Proverbs 30 in verse 5, Solomon
said, every word of God is pure. In Psalm 12 in verse 6, we read
the words of the Lord are pure words. as silver tried in a furnace
of the earth purified seven times. In other words, they have some
ore, there's some silver there, they put it into the, put it
to the heat rather, and they rake off the impurities, that's
one time, they put it in there again, they put it in there again,
and after seven times, it's so pure they don't have to do it
again. Silver, gold. God's Word is like that. It is pure. It is pure. There's nothing mixed with it. Sometimes people will mix things. Sometimes in cooking, ladies
or men too, I suppose, they mix some things in with other things
to make it go further. Isn't that true? There's nothing
impure in the Word of God. It is pure. The pure milk of
the Word of God. The Word of the Lord enlightens
the eyes. Notice, enlightens the eyes. Not just the eyes of the flesh,
but the eyes of the soul. The soul has eyes. When a person
is created in Christ Jesus, created anew, that new man has spiritual
sight. And it is the word of God which
enlightens the eyes of the soul. And the fifth thing, here's the
last thing, the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous. The judgments are the ordinances
of the Lord in his church. We're given two. In the church,
we have two ordinances, baptism and the Lord's Supper. And both
are to be observed by those to whom he has revealed himself
and given faith. Both of these ordinances are
visible. They're things that we can see.
The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous. in baptism,
that's one of those ordinances. That's a visible declaration
of the gospel of Jesus Christ. How that Christ died for our
sins according to the scriptures and was buried and that He rose
again the third day according to the scriptures. And the Lord's
Supper is a visible representation of His death. We show forth His
death in the ordinance of the Lord's Supper. The ordinances,
the commandments of the Lord. The written word of God, now
notice these five things. The written word of God is perfect.
The written word of God is sure. The written word of God is right.
The written word of God is pure, and the written word of God is
true and righteous. Now here's the last thing I want
to point out. We have the psalmist David's
personal testimony to God's written word. First of all, it's value. As far as David was concerned,
the value. You couldn't put a monetary value
on this book. There have been times, you read
in church history, when the Bible is sold for great amounts of
money, but really you can put no monetary value upon God's
Word. Because think of where you would
be without the Word of God. He said it's better than gold,
more to be desired than gold. than much fine gold, not just
gold, but much fine gold to show the worth, the value. This is
David's estimation of the word of God. And David knew something
about gold. He was a man who had a lot of
gold. He did. But he said, I'll tell you what,
this book, this written word of God is of more value than
gold, much fine gold. And his second testimony was,
its taste is sweeter than honey, yea, the honeycomb. I guess the
honeycomb is the sweetest of that honey. And David said, this
word is sweeter than the honeycomb. And third, his testimony was
that by it, servants, God's servants are warned. You know, you're
driving along and you see a warning sign, blinking lights. And that's
helpful, isn't it? Keeps you from running into some
things that you're not prepared for. And God's word, the same
is true. By the word of God, the servant
of God is warned. And then notice he says, in keeping
them, and he doesn't say far. He doesn't say, for keeping them,
there is great reward. He says, in keeping them, there's
great reward. And obeying the word of God,
there's great reward. Brings its own reward with it. There are rewards of grace as
well as of debt. Reward here is used not to signify
recompense earned in strict justice, but a gratuity bestowed in keeping
of them is great reward. I want to close with a poem that
I read recently that I thought was so good. We've traveled together, my Bible
and I, Through all kinds of weather, with smile or with sigh, in sorrow
or sunshine, in tempest or calm, thy friendship unchanging, my
lamp and my song. We've traveled together, my Bible
and I, when life had grown weary and death even was nigh. But all through the darkness
of mist or of wrong, I found there a solace, a prayer, and
a song. So now, who shall part us, my
Bible and I? Shall isms or schisms or new
lights who try? Shall shadow for substance or
stone for good bread supplant thy sound wisdom, give folly
instead? Ah, no. My dear Bible, exponent
of light, thy sword of the spirit put error to flight, and still
through life's journey until my last sigh, we'll travel together,
my Bible and I. Can you say that today? By God's
grace, we'll travel together, my Bible and I, as we go through
this life. Oh, what a treasure. What a treasure
we have in our hands here that speaks to us of God's unspeakable
gift, the gift of his darling son. And I pray the Lord would
bless this word. Tonight, I plan to bring a final
message from this psalm, from the prayer, the third division
of the psalm. Now we're going to sing a hymn,
279. I'm a child of the King, a child
of the King, 279. And let's stand as we sing this
hymn.