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It is always a joy to be here. It’s about an hour and a half drive for us. We’re out in Richland Center. I wish I could make it every week, I really do. But it’s great to be here with you guys.
I’m going to be going through Psalm 119, not all 176 verses though, so no worries. Although it is just a 15 minute read, but just through verses 1 through 8. However, I do want to first give us a little bit of an overview of the psalm because actually what he’s the psalmist, he actually lets us kind of know what he’s going through if you’re able to go through all the verses. But so I’ll just kind of give a little bit of an overview before I actually read the first ones. And we’re going to keep that’s to make it so nobody can fall asleep on me.
I just can’t be as animated as I like to be. So this psalm is called an alphabetic acrostic psalm. So what is this? Psalm 119 is divided into 22 sections. These 22 sections are actually the 22 letters of the Hebrew language.
And we see this, each section has eight verses in itself. So there’s 22 sections, each section has eight verses. So in the first section, verses one through eight, the first word in every verse starts with the first letter of the Hebrew Alphabet. Then in the second section, which is verses 9 through 16, the first word at the beginning of every verse starts with the second letter of the Hebrew Alphabet. Then the third section is the third letter in the Hebrew Alphabet.
And so on it goes using all 22 letters in the Hebrew Alphabet. And this might be for memorization what it is, but it’s very written very well, this Psalm 119 and very different from all the others. And actually you can actually look at your Bibles, most of your Bibles, I believe, separate them up in those sections, which was not done in the Hebrew language. And it doesn’t work in any other language obviously besides the Hebrew. So we, we don’t get to.
To see that. That aspect of Psalm 1:119.
I will be actually only, like I said, I’ll be only studying verses one through eight. But I’ll give a little bit of an overview because this Psalm is actually, it’s an amazing Psalm. And one thing I love about poetry. Which will kind of touched on when he taught, is that in the singing and the worship you can pour out your heart like your whole and you get to come to The God like honestly. And you just get to cry out to him.
And I love that about singing. And there is something seriously special about poetry and our worship to him. In this psalm, the psalmist describes a great distress that comes against him. In verse 23 he says, Even though princes sit plotting against me, your servant will meditate on your statutes. He again talks about princes coming against them.
In verse 161 says, Princes persecute me without cause. But my heart says, stands in awe of your words. He talks here about princes, which are people in positions of power coming against him. We see also, like this great disadvantage when he cries out to the Lord in his distress in even more, in verses 84 through 87, which he says, how long must your servant endure? When will you judge those who persecute me?
The insolent have dug pitfalls for me. They do not live according to your law. All your commandments are sure. They persecute me with falsehood. Help me.
They have almost made an end of me on earth. But I have not forsaken your precepts. And if you listen to that, he says. Here he says, they have almost made an end of me on earth. This psalmist is wore out.
Many troubles have come against him. And maybe, maybe for us, our troubles are not the same as we see he has. Maybe you don’t have princes coming against you, or you don’t even have any people really coming against you. Or maybe you do. But the one thing that I do know about life is that there is trouble.
And when it comes, I love what the psalmist says. Here he says, but I have not forsaken your precepts. And that is a repetition that he continuously is going over. Even though princes plot against me and persecute me, your servant will meditate on your statutes. My heart stands in awe of your words.
Do you see in the struggle, God is not against you. Do not turn away from him. We actually have to, like the psalmist, we need to run to the to the Lord, run to His Word and run to our Messiah. Meditate upon his Scriptures and know them to be true and apply them in your life. That’s the thing, it’s application, applying these things in our life.
Listen to the psalmist plea in verse 36 he says, incline my heart to to your testimonies and not to selfish gain. It says here, not to selfish gain. Don’t corrupt your heart for wealth, for it is an empty pit. Verse 37 he says, Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things and give me life in your Ways. There is life in His Word.
But he says, turn my eyes away from looking from worthless things. There’s no hope in the worthless things. He says in verse 1:13. I hate the double minded, but I love your law. Verse 128.
Therefore I consider all your precepts to be right. I hate every false way. Verse 163. I hate and abhor falsehood, but I love your law. See, in the times trouble, he runs from that which is evil and runs to that which is truth.
His desire is to run from wickedness and turn to righteousness. And you will hear, the psalmist is continually crying out to the Lord to reveal His Word. He doesn’t say, lord, please send me to seminary class or let me read this book about how I’m supposed to read. And I’ve actually done that. I’ve tried to read a book and how I’m supposed and it’s of no benefit because I, I’m not good at reading.
But he says none of these things. He just cries out to God and says, give me life in your ways, Lord. Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things. This is all throughout the psalm. He is in complete dependence on the Lord, revealing His Word.
But he is in the Word. He is meditating upon the Scriptures. He is doing the hard work. We cannot be lazy in this. Do not be distracted from His Word.
See, all good theology comes from the Scriptures. If you want to learn the doctrine of God, get into the Scriptures, but do so in great humility before God. See, it’s not to puff ourselves up. It’s not for selfish gain. It’s not for some position.
It’s to come to know God, the Creator of the heavens and the earth. And this is what is crucial for us when we come to the Word of God. It’s not for us. It’s to grow in who he is, learning more about Him. And then he puts that in us to apply.
And as we grow in His Word, he reveals these things to us. I remember I do lawn care. And one of my customers, I was talking to him. And as I was talking to him, he asked me what I do for the winter because he asked for snow plowing. I don’t do that.
We go to El Salvador. And so I share with him. And so he knows I’m a believer and he wants just this. Recently he told me, he said, he just like Trevor, like my son, like he doesn’t, he doesn’t take his children to church. And he started talking about how he reads the Bible and how he goes to church, but his son isn’t taking his children, so his grandchildren aren’t going.
And then all of a sudden, he said, you know. And I mean. I mean, I know. Like, there’s not just, like, one way to God. Like, there’s many ways to God.
Like, there’s many. And in my head, I’m like, all right, this is when I get fired. I’m like. And so I just let him do a speech. And, like, this is what’s awesome.
Like, there’s nothing special about me. All I know is I’ve read this, and the Lord revealed it to me. He goes. I go. I asked the guy.
I go, so you read the Bible? Yeah. So you believe the word, that. That is the word of God? Yes.
I believe it’s infallible. It’s the true Word. Everything in there is true. He goes, yes. I go, well, in the beginning, it says that God created the heavens and the earth.
That’s one God. And then Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, but through me. I’m like, that’s one way. So there’s one God, one way.
I’m like, there’s not multiple ways. There’s only one way. And then I went into sharing, and then the Lord just. He gave me his word. Like, I didn’t have that prepared.
That’s the Holy Spirit in me. And he used me. And I wasn’t a jerk about it. And he thanked me after the conversation. It was still.
I went against what he was, the false teaching he was taught, and I just led him to the truth. And this is what the psalmist is continuously saying here in the Scriptures. And I tell you this because it’s not about us and our intelligence, because we always think we’re never ready, but it’s not about us, our intelligence, and how well we can articulate things. It’s not about trying to hit people with some great points and say, I got you. See, all we need to do is present the truths of the Word of God and let them speak.
But you have to know His Word and be bold to step out and proclaim it. Do not be intimidated. Stand on his truth. And they’re actually, they’re. They’re quite simple.
It’s very basic. What I took him to. I just took them to back through Genesis, and I let those. The Scriptures say it. They’re very simple.
And I’ll be going over a little bit more through this when we. When I get further in the sermon. See, we don’t have, we don’t get the glory God does. And I say this as the introduction for Psalm 100, 119, because this Psalm is saturated with a dependence on the word of God and a dependence on God revealing his Word. And I want you to know more than anything here, I want you to know that God can and will reveal his word to you.
It’s his promise in the giving of his Holy Spirit. So we are called to repent of our sins and believe in the saving work of Jesus Christ.
And we turn to him. We run to him. See, if you have sinned this week, which I promise you, you did, none of us are exempt from sin. You run to Christ, you look upon the cross. Do not run from him.
See, we are called to give it to him, for that is why he came. He came to save. And a lot of times when we sin, we say that sin’s too bad. Like, I can’t. I did it again, Lord, and it’s like he’s like, I died on the cross for that sin.
Now we should not be practicing sin. And there is a repentance, but repentance is true. And we’ll be going through, be going. That’s the introduction. I’ll be going through Psalm 119, just verses 1:1 through 8.
And in this section. This is the first section, the first letter. But let me pray real quick and then we’ll get into it. Heavenly Father, we truly thank you, God, for your word that your word is true. Lord, I thank you, Lord, that you did not leave us as orphans as we sang, Lord, that Lord, you did not leave us as orphans, but you sent your Holy Spirit, Lord, to fill us with your truth, to point us to you, Jesus Christ, and what a joy it is to sing and to worship you and to grow in your righteousness, Lord.
And I pray that you would continue just to reveal these things to us. Lord, I pray that you would receive the glory. Lord, I pray that you would speak through your word today. I thank you for your truths and I pray these things in the name of your Son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Psalm 119, verses 1 through 8. Blessed are those whose way is blameless who walk in the law of the Lord. Blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with their whole heart, who also do no wrong but walk in his ways. You have commanded your precepts to be kept diligently. Oh, that my ways may be steadfast in keeping your statutes, then I shall not be put to Shame having my eyes fixed on all your commandments.
I will praise you with an upright heart. When I learn your righteous rules. I will keep your statutes. Do not utterly forsake me.
Verse 1 here declares, Blessed are those whose way is blameless who walk in the law of the Lord. Verse 1 and 2 actually start with the same word, blessed. The word means happy. And I’ve gone over this when I believe when I taught on Psalm 1. But it’s much deeper than the emotions of happiness in that we see happiness separated from sadness.
If you’re sad, you are not happy. See, we separate the emotions, but the happiness spoken here is one who has a foundational happiness. See, they have a joy deep within themselves that relies not on circumstances but on relationship. It’s not on circumstances. This joy is built off of a relationship which is foundational.
This is why it was translated blessed and not happy. This person spoken of here is one who has their way chosen and their actions under control. Their way of living is blameless. No one can bring an accusation against them. They are blameless.
They have walked in righteousness. Therefore any accusation that is brought against them is a false accusation. And it reminds me that just reminds me of Jesus Christ. He was blameless. All they could bring against him was false accusations.
See, the world lies to us on how we are to find happiness. They say to just go out and do whatever makes you happy, chase after your dreams. But when we do these things, we become so materialistic and we are taking everything for ourselves. We become so self centered, chasing after everything the world can give us. And it’s all to just please ourselves that we then become enslaved to this lifestyle.
The houses are getting bigger and the families are getting smaller. People aren’t having as many children. And as we as people accumulate more and more things, it can never fill the void. Because we were not created to be self centered. We were created to be God centered.
That’s the void, it’s the relationship with him. Look how verse one finishes. He says, who walk in the law of the Lord. Do you see where this person, their focus is? And if you Notice in verses 1 through 3 he’s talking about those blessed are those.
In verse 4 he says, you have proclaimed your word, you have commanded us. It’s from God. And then from five through eight it becomes personal to the psalmist. His focus here is all God centered. It’s not on the best life.
Now see, the focus is on God’s law and the promise for the person who keeps their focus on his law and walking in his ways has a promise of a foundational joy. Now, this is not a promise for a life without trouble and trials, because as I mentioned before, life is hard. There are difficulties. We are not supposed to have an easy life. Everything is breaking down and corrupted with sin, even us.
This we’re just a bunch of sinners, which that’s not going to go well apart from Him. The trials will be great, but even in those trials we will be able to declare, I have a joy in the Lord. It’s not about all the stuff we have. It’s about the God in Whom we serve and the relationship we have with Him. And if you’re here and you’re thinking how you really haven’t enjoyed the relationship with God and took an advantage of it, that you aren’t taking advantage of His Word and that relationship that he wants to give you, today is the day.
That’s the thing about now. Today is the day. Today you get to put the past in the past and move forward to the future. But walk in his strength. Depend on him and not on yourself.
And look at the promise we get in verse two. Blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with their whole heart. Here we see the word testimonies. This term refers to the act of testifying to a fact or an event. And if you start to think and meditate upon the testimony of God, we could look at the testimony of the creation.
See his relationship with Israel and His faithfulness.
See, we are on this side of the cross. We see his faithfulness to fulfilling His Word in the sending of his own Son. So we get to see his faithfulness, not ours. We get to depend upon his faithfulness.
See, he is so good, and he keeps His Word. And so we can trust in his testimonies. So how do we keep his testimonies? The word translated here to keep. It refers to people maintaining things entrusted to them, especially to keeping the truths of God in both actions and mind.
So what are the truths that we are to keep? Here it says, his testimonies. And God’s testimonies. What are these? If you go to His Word, you can see these testimonies, but you have to go to His Word looking again for him, looking for God.
And this is exactly what the psalmist is saying all throughout Psalm 119. So God’s testimonies. And these are going to be. These are somewhat controversial things that I’m going to be mentioning here. And it’s not because they are actually controversial, but it’s more so because we make them controversial.
But I want you to understand that God has no controversy when coming to the things I’m going to say because I’m going to go to the simple things, go back to the basics.
And the reason we make them so controversial is because we are individualistic and we want to come up with some great new statement where everyone is in awe of us and what we say. And that’s really the divide. It was the first lie of Satan in the garden. He told Eve that God was holding back knowledge from her and if she ate off the tree, she would gain this great knowledge. So again, what I’m going to touch on is a little controversial, especially in our society, but not to God.
So what is it that I’m going to say? Genesis 1:1, it says in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. This is the testimony, as I had mentioned in witnessing. It’s one God, not multiple, just one. He is the Creator.
This is according to the scriptures. So when somebody tells me that they accept the scriptures but that there’s multiple, I just have to bring them to the scriptures. If you believe, if you don’t want to believe these because you’re. The battle is not against me. God doesn’t have.
I don’t have to defend his word.
I just present it. And that’s where the, that, that’s where the divide is.
So this is the testimony. One God, not multiple, just one. And he is the Creator. This is according to the scriptures. Then if we go, we drop down to verse 11 in Genesis 1 it declares, and God said, let the earth sprout vegetation.
These are his testimonies. Plants yielding seed and fruit trees bearing fruit, in which is their seed, each according to its kind on the earth. And it was so here the scripture says that the plants and the fruit trees bear forth their own kind. Not different kinds, but their own kind. And a friend of mine mentioned me where we are, we have a lot of raccoons.
And he mentioned about all the raccoons ate his apple tree. And when I was going through this, it reminded me of something. When that raccoon goes and ate all of his apples off of his apple tree, the seed in that apple will actually pass through the raccoon system. Because if you don’t realize it like the seed’s shell is literally built off of a non digestible shell.
So it passes through the raccoon system, then it exists. This is a great sermon. But it exits the raccoon and when it exits, it literally lands in fertilizer. Everything it needs. And if that’s not the amazing thing, the seed.
The seed was actually transported to a different location by the raccoon’s body so that it is being scattered around. Around the Earth, not by humans, but by the creation. And I’m like, do you not see the geniusness of God?
I glory in those things.
And when that seed starts to grow, it’s not an orange tree, it’s not a banana tree, it’s an apple tree. This is exactly what God testifies to, and this is exactly what we see. They tell me it’s different, but this is all we see. The creation is not creating itself. There is an order.
You go to animals. Dogs produce dogs, cats produce cats. And I literally, I bring everybody back to the beginning. When I. When I’m witnessing, I bring them.
This is. Where are you seeing anything different? Dogs create dogs, cats create cats. And you know what? Humans create humans.
And the Lord has created that. Literally, a man and a woman have to come together to procreate. That is a creation. That is an order. I mean, can we not.
They hate that. That’s the test. They can’t battle that. And it’s right there in the beginning. Then you go down to verse 26.
Then God said, let us make man in our image after our likeness. And this is in Genesis, Genesis 26. Let us make man in our image after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God.
He created him. Male and female. He created them, and God blessed them. And God said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it. Be fruitful, multiply, subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and.
And over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth. We were created in the image of God. Every single one of you is an image bearer of the one true God. You want to know why you have a void in your life? It’s because you are rejecting the very one who created you.
So you can chase after everything this world can give you. But apart from him. And this is what I love about the song is that says, lord, I need you. Because literally, apart from him, nothing can ever fill that void. But he can.
Then going down to chapter two, verse 18 of Genesis, the Lord it says, then the Lord God said, it is not good and this is going to be the controversial part. But it’s not controversial to God. And this is the awesome thing about the Holy Trinity in God. And I better. It’s.
It says, then the Lord God said, it is not good that the man should be alone. I will make him a helper fit for him. You go down to chapter two, verse 21 through 24. It says, so the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept, took one of his ribs and closed up the its place with flesh and the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man, he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, this at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.
She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. Therefore, a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. So do you see that? God first created man, and then he saw that it was not good for the man to be alone, and so he created the woman. This has nothing to do with one being greater than the other.
But that’s the. That’s the way that the world will tell it to us. And that’s the way that they were presented. And then we start to believe it. And this is, again, this is Satan’s little lies to destroy God’s creation.
He just sneaks in these little. These little doubts just to create a little bit of a doubt. But this is God’s structure, and that’s the point. Not about how you feel about it, but what does it say? And this is what Psalm 119 is all about.
It’s about God’s law, his testimonies, his way, his statutes. And what does the scripture say? Husbands love your wife like Christ loved the church. That’s a high calling.
Husbands love your wife like Christ loved the church. And wives, submit to your husband. In this situation, I could come at it from the man’s perspective, because honestly, I’m a man. I know that perspective very well. And I could take it actually from two different standpoints.
I could say, you know, wives, you need to submit to your. Your man. And I could give a good argument for that. Or I could come up and I could. I could cut on us men and make fun of us and diminish the men and how we are, like, just make them look like losers.
I saw this cartoon where they make the man. They make him look like the woman, and they make the woman that she looks like the man. I could take from all Those.
And that’s what, like, we see in the media, like, they’re pushing this right now. Like, Satan is hard at work in diminishing the men and taking manhood out of men. But not only that, he is trying to then put manhood into the woman.
Can we not see what’s happening? Satan is trying to reverse the roles. He is trying to reverse God’s structure. And I just want you to know that Satan will not win at this. So, men, look at how Christ loved his church.
Look what he surrendered for her. Look how he gave his life for her, how he ministered to her with the word of God. Men must do the same. Women, you have been called to submit to your husbands. God said it is not good for the man to be alone.
And I’m not. I’m not trying to give. I didn’t come to give marriage counseling, but to go through the testimony of God. He says, women, you have been called to submit to your husbands. God said it is not good for the man to be alone.
God saw the man needed his wife. Please know that you are so important to your husbands. I know the world says Satan’s little lies, that submission is weak. And this is what I love about the Godhead. Please understand that we actually see submission even within the Godhead, within the Holy trinity.
In John 6:38, Jesus says, For I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. John 12:50, Jesus says, and I know that his commandments. Commandment is eternal life. What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has told me. And the last in Luke 22:41 and 42.
And Jesus withdrew and then withdrew from them about a stone’s throw and knelt down and prayed, saying, father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done.
Within the Godhead we see submission. Jesus submitted to the will of the Father. Jesus leaves, the Holy Spirit comes. He does not glorify himself, he glorifies Jesus. He points us to Jesus.
Even within the Godhead, they’re so complete. Within themselves, they don’t. We do this ourselves. Where we fight for position, we think one is less, less than the other. It’s a battle that we have.
We’re in competition with each other. God within himself, he doesn’t have that battle. Jesus knows what he’s supposed to do, and he does it. He knows his position. There is no contention.
There’s complete contentment within the Godhead. God in himself is fully complete. And we see within the Godhead, there is. And this is what the Jehovah Witnesses get wrong. This is where all the false doctrines they start coming up with because they have to create something.
Because they see this submission. Why would he submit? But it’s who they are. There’s a position. God is a God of order, and he has order even within the Godhead.
It’s not about one being greater than the other.
He’s a relational God. The husband needed the wife. The wife needs the husband. It’s relational. It’s a community.
That’s who God is. He is relational. Then there was the Fall. Sin entered. But even there, God gave a promise that he would send a messiah through the woman, not through the man, but through the woman.
In Genesis 3:15, the gospel is proclaimed. In Genesis 3:15, God’s testimony to which he held true. The virgin birth. You know, I could go on to Noah and the testimonies to whom God told him to build the ark. And Noah obeyed the voice of God, and God was faithful to protect his servant.
The testimonies of God and his faithfulness to those who obey his word. But back to Psalm 119. But for time’s sake, Psalm 119, verse 2 says, Blessed are those who keep his testimonies. These are the things he has told us to do. These are his testimonies.
Hold fast to his testimonies, for they are true. And we can then proclaim them to the world with great boldness. Not to be controversial, and we don’t have to be jerks about it. But brothers and sisters, we are called to proclaim his truth if we don’t know and will. It is our very joy, and we should have such a joy in the proclamation of the testimonies of our God.
So again, blessed, happy, joyful are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with their whole heart. They seek God. This is a verb meaning to seek to inquire of, to examine, to require. They are looking at God with their whole heart. This is with complete purity and complete surrender to God.
This echoes one of the great commandments given from Deuteronomy 6:5. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. You want happiness. Now God tells you how to get it. Here in these first three verses.
It’s by doing his will. And then verse three of Psalm 119 continues. Who also do no wrong, but walk in his ways. This verse is just adding to what has already been said. They are blameless, and they are walking in the law of the Lord.
They keep his testimonies with all that they are. They do no wrong but walk in his ways. And it’s that our own hearts would be pure when we come before him to seek the Lord with all that we have and that we would do no wrong. This is what we were created to be in the beginning, in the garden. And this is true happiness which is unswayed.
To be able to declare that we have served him with a whole heart. I think that’s a heavy calling. Who can raise their hand and say, I have souk the Lord with all my heart, with all my soul, with all my strength. If we go now to verse four, we see God’s proclamation. It says in verse four, you have commanded your precepts to be kept diligently.
Now he says, who’s the one that is proclaiming this? God is not one who just speaks to fill airspace or because he’s afraid of silence. See, God speaks with wisdom and great meaning. And what he speaks, he truly means. He has commanded his precepts to be kept diligently.
That’s an order.
They were spoken. Why? To be kept. They were spoken from his character. This is why we search the Scriptures to come to know him and his commands.
And I’m going to continuously repeat that because it’s not foolishness. We don’t come to the Scriptures. It’s not for us. It’s to grow in who he is. What has he commanded of us?
Now in verses five through eight, we hear a great plea and prayer from the psalmist. And this is coming off of verses one through four, which are shouts of joy and worship in who God is. In these next verses we see a desire for application from a personal point of view. Verse 5 He says, oh, that my ways may be steadfast in keeping your statutes.
Now we hear the psalmist plea. He starts with the word, oh, that my ways. This is a great cry of the soul for the desire to be led by the Holy Spirit to keep God’s statutes and to be firmly planted on the word of God. In this plea, you can hear his reliance on the Lord for helping in this, which will also come at the end of this section in verse eight. But after such a great declaration in verses one through three of who God is and what he has demanded of us, there is then the great desire to obey God’s law and to keep his ways, to not leave the path that God has given us to walk.
In verse 105 of the Psalm of Psalm 119. It says, your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. See, God’s Word is the very thing that keeps us on the narrow path. And the second we take our eyes off His Word and His statutes, we will be taken by such hopeless and endeavors that have no true promise and will only bring misery suffering for our lives. See the desire to walk upright, to walk in wisdom, to have integrity, to keep one’s conviction even when all around us are saying it’s okay.
We will not budge because we serve the Lord in His rules, his statutes, and not men and man’s ways. We will not be turned away. Oh, that we will have brothers and sisters around us pointing us to His Word, asking us and holding us accountable to getting in the Word of God with great encouragement, not in judging one another, but encouraging each other today. That we will read the Word, that we will study the Word. And this is another thing, there’s differences from reading and studying, but that we would study the Word and just pull the diamonds that are in there.
There’s so much good in there. And that we will work caring for one another and for our own souls, that our ways will be steadfast and established, not moving to the right or to the left, keeping our eyes focused on Christ. Brothers and sisters, we and we have to remember we are in a war. We can’t forget that. And the battle has been won, but we were still left here to fight.
But he left us with everything we need. We just need to surrender and rest in his truth and his promise. It is not supposed to be easy. That is the great misinterpretation. But even in the troubling times, again there is a joy that we have in Christ.
Know that he has done the work for us. And as it says in Ephesians 2:10, for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. It’s a constant thing that we are to be walking in good works, brothers and sisters. We are to be walking in righteousness and that we would be diligent in walking out God’s truth, walking out the good things that God has prepared for us. This is what the psalmist again is crying out to God, Verse five, as he says, oh, that my ways may be steadfast in keeping your statutes, verse 6.
Then I shall not be put to shame having my eyes fixed on all your commandments. This reminded me of Hebrews 12:1. It says, Therefore, since we in which Hebrews 12 verse 1 and 2. It says, Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely. And let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
We are told here in Hebrews 12:2 to fix our eyes on Jesus. He is the founder and the perfecter of our faith. Look to Jesus. Listen, if you have sin in your life and you are living a lifestyle of sin, you need to be worried. I’m not just talking about a sin here, here or there.
I’m talking about if you are practicing sin, you’re finding a secret place and committing your sin here. In Hebrews, the scripture tells you, lay aside every weight. Lay aside every sin which clings so closely. See that sin. That sin is out to destroy you.
It promises you fun. It promises pleasure, financial security. But in the end, it will only give you death for evil. Eternity. There’s no going back once we die.
You have today. Once you pass, everything’s finished at that point. And you will be held accountable for everything that you did.
That sin only can promise you eternal death. Run from your sin and look to Christ. And I plead with you. Remember the cross. His sacrifice was enough.
Don’t let Satan lie to you and tell you it wasn’t. Don’t let him lie and say that your sin is too great. That’s not true. He’s the creator of the heavens and the earth. You want to know who can take that sin?
He can take it from you. You want to know who can put that sin to death? He did it when he. When he was buried for three days. He put sin in the grave.
You just have to call out to him. He just wants you to want his help. You have to see you need his help. See he paid your debt. But you need to run from that sin, whatever it is.
Get away from. Get away from your secret sins. And as you grow, you will. You will continue to grow in righteousness.
Run to his righteousness. For when we keep his statutes, as it declares in Psalm 119, 6, then I shall not be put to shame having my eyes fixed on all your commandments. And when we fix our eyes on Jesus and we see him as the beautiful Savior in whom he is, and we see our good God, we move to verse seven. Verse seven says, I will Praise you with an upright heart when I learn your righteous rules. See, our joy turns to praise when we learn his righteous rules.
Oh, that we will be learners. That we will want to sit at our Master’s feet and learn more about Him. That we would never be content with the knowledge that we have. We cannot just sit, we have to be running, we have to be be moving.
That we would not be content with the knowledge that we have, but that we would continue to desire to grow more and more into his image and to learn more and more about our great God. See, we can never in our lifetime reach the depths of who our God is, and we can search the Scriptures for a lifetime. And he will always reveal more and more of his goodness. Brothers and sisters, get into his word and learn about the great God in whom we have the privilege to know and to serve. That you would do so in such humility, not to just gain more knowledge to Lord over others, but that you learn more knowledge about your God to then return to him and fall on your knees in awe and wonder of such an amazingly good God who would reveal Himself to us like who are we?
The psalmist makes such a bold statement about not forgetting the law and keeping God’s precepts. But then at the last verse of Psalm 199, and this I saw this. I never saw this before. The last verse of Psalm 119, verse 176, he says, this is his last words of the Psalm, which is the longest psalm. He says, I have gone astray like a lost sheep.
Seek your servant. I have gone away like a lost sheep. All the bold proclamations that he’s making about keeping the law. And then he says, do you see the humility?
Think about that. At the end of the psalm, he declares his hopelessness without God. He says, seek your servant. Don’t leave me. Don’t leave me to myself.
See, we have all gone astray like lost sheep. Why has he given me the privilege to know Him? Why do I get to see His Word and know it to be true? Why has he revealed it to me? And you see everyone here today sitting under the Word of God.
Please know that there is no partiality with God. All of us sit on equal ground. We are just servants of a good God who is one who saves. And he has distributed gifts to each one of you. He cares so much for each and every one of you.
And he has given you these gifts not to be individualistic, it’s not just for you to keep to yourself, but for you to then Give back to his body to give back to his church. See, we are called to care for one another. Lift each other up. Don’t tear each other down. Don’t be double minded.
Don’t talk behind each other’s back. If you have an issue with your brother, what are we called to do? Go to him and make peace to the best of your ability. Be imitators of Christ and dig into the word of God. Learn about Him.
See that that is given to all of you because he gives you His Holy Spirit. This is his promise. Promise. And His Holy Spirit will guide you into all the truth, pointing to one Jesus. And when you learn more about his righteousness, it brings a desire to praise Him.
It is not praise that is burdensome for us. It is not forced upon us. When we learn of his goodness, the desire of our hearts are truly to worship and praise him. Verse 8 the Psalmist declares, I will keep your statutes. Do not utterly forsake me.
This is how he ends the first section, just the first section, but he ends it with, do not utterly forsake me. Do you see? I mean, listen to the plea.
He asked the Lord not to abandon him as Jesus Christ hung on the cross. It declares in Matthew Stone 27:45:50 and this is Jesus on the cross. He’s hanging on the cross.
Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour, Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And some of the bystanders hearing it said, this man is calling Elijah. And one of them at once ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine, and put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink. But the other said, wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him.
And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. Do you hear what Jesus cried out? The Psalmist in 119 says, do not utterly forsake me. Jesus cried out on the cross, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Jesus was forsaken so that we will not be Jesus took our punishment upon himself to Finish up Isaiah 53:1 11 and this was this was written 600 years before the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
Isaiah 53:1 11 who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground, And no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men of sorrows and acquainted with grief. One from whom men hide their faith.
Actually, Sorry. I’m going to do something.