[0:00] Psalm 119, we'll start in verse 41 in a moment. My hands also will lift up thy commandments which I have loved. I hope we say that tonight as the word of God is in your hand.
[0:12] You can say that you love God's word. Some years ago, when Stephanie and I were in India, we saw this Jim there, thought this commercial was really interesting.
[0:23] He had recorded it and wanted me to see it. And I thought it was interesting. It was quite different than what you would have in America. There was a lady that was standing at a window in the backyard.
[0:33] Her husband was playing with one of their kids. And as she was looking out the window, she said, and that was the moment that I fell in love with him. And I'm like, well, that's interesting because it looks like you're married, you have a kid, you have a house.
[0:47] You would have thought that would have happened a lot sooner. And that's going on our American understanding. You know, in an American show or movie, it would happen 100 yards away before they ever spoke to anybody, right?
[0:58] They would say they fell in love with each other at the first sight, but not the case there in a country that often has arranged marriages. She said, at that moment, I decided, you know, I will love him.
[1:09] And we both thought that was quite comical. But as Stephanie has noticed tonight, this is a tough crowd, all right? I don't think anything is interesting. That's fine. We'll get straight to the word here. But sometimes, and I tell you that story because I should, when I start reading in verse number 41, I should say, as it says at the end, I love the word.
[1:29] I love the word. I love the commandments. But just like I would imagine with all of you, sometimes when I start reading, I don't experience the love that I have for God's word. I'm doing it because I know it's the right thing to do.
[1:42] And the pleasure is not yet there in a passage. And I did not know to be so, I was not the level of excitement that I should have been coming to it. But the time you spend in it.
[1:53] So when I get to the point of the passage where it talks about walking in liberty, it really began to stir in my heart and the burn in my heart, begin to understand what it is about this passage that was so special that God would write it and give it to us.
[2:10] And I pray that as I read the passage tonight and as we talk to it, you'll have that same type of experience and say, yes, that's where I love Psalm 119, 41 through 48, when it becomes real and it comes alive to you.
[2:23] Verse number 41, let thy mercies come also unto me. I want your help reading, okay? When I get to the word for, any expression I search with the word for, I want you to read with me. Let thy mercies come also unto me, O Lord, even thy salvation according to thy word.
[2:40] That alone ought to cause us to love God's word. His mercies are coming to us in salvations and they're coming to us by God's word. We forgot to put these boxes here.
[2:51] We forgot to remove the boxes here. But as I look at them tonight, as I think about the mercies and the salvation that will come to people in this community and around the world that are going to be available to them from God's word.
[3:08] Verse 42, so shall I have wherewith to answer him that reproaches me. Read this with me. For I trust in thy word and take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth together, for I have hoped in thy judgments.
[3:23] So shall I keep thy law continually forever and ever. And I will walk at liberty, for I seek thy precepts. I will speak of thy testimonies also before kings and will not be ashamed.
[3:37] I will delight myself in thy commandments, which I have loved. My hands also will I lift up unto thy commandments, which I have loved. And I will meditate in thy statutes.
[3:50] How do you live the Christian life? It's a question you've asked yourself before and discipleship may have been answered. Maybe you and discipleship with somebody else. We live the Christian life by faith.
[4:00] We live the Christian life by faith in God. We live the Christian life by faith in his promises. And you live the Christian life by faith in his word, more specifically, right?
[4:11] Verse 41, let thy mercies come also unto me, O Lord, even salvation according to thy word. Our salvation is from the Lord and our salvation is according to promise.
[4:23] Our salvation is according to his promise. So verse number one has two very distinct truths that are very important. First of all, salvation is from the Lord. Secondly, salvation is according to a promise.
[4:36] And this has two implications in our life. The first one is, salvation is of the Lord. Our trust must be focused on the Lord and his word, according to thy word.
[4:47] In the Psalms, there's a great emphasis on this being God's word. You don't get very far in commandments, statutes, ways. I told you there's eight different words that are showing up a time and time again in every verse in Psalm 119, except for Psalm 119, 122.
[5:04] But continually, we're reminded, these are God's ways. These are God's statutes. These are his testimonies. These are his commandments. They're never separated from it.
[5:14] They belong to him. We have a lot of synonyms that we use, right? When we speak about the Bible, you may say, would you please open your Bible? Would you please open the word of God with this?
[5:26] Our text for the day. There'd be many things that we'd have to say. We ought to often refer to this as the word of God, especially for new believers and children listening to us.
[5:37] It's important they know that when we say the Bible, we're talking about the word of God. When we say the word of God, we're talking about the Bible. So there's a great emphasis on Psalms about these being the words of God.
[5:48] The psalmist focuses himself on the word as it is, knowing that it is the word of God. Far too many conversations among Christians, so little problem solving, so little counseling, centers around the promises of God.
[6:05] And let that not be true of us as a community, as a family of believers. It ought to be the centerpiece on every table of discussion that we would have when it comes to faith and practice.
[6:20] When we're talking about the meaningful things about life and where we should live and how we should live our lives, we should look to God's word and take a promise of God's word and just set it right there on the table and say, how do we live according to God's word?
[6:34] I'd like to recommend a resource to you by Charles Spurgeon called The Checkbook of the Bank of Faith. Being Precious Promises arranged for us daily use with comments by Spurgeon.
[6:47] So each day, there is a different promise from God that starts out the day and then a little commentary on it. I'll share with you the one for tomorrow, September 17th.
[6:59] Matthew 10.42 is the promise, and it's this, And whosoever shall give the drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water, only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward.
[7:15] That's the verse, and now here's the commentary on it. Well, I can do as much as that. I can do a kind act towards the Lord's servant. The Lord knows I love them all and would count it an honor to wash their feet.
[7:26] For the sake of their master, I love the disciples. How gracious of the Lord to mention so insignificant an action to give to drink a cup of cold water only.
[7:38] And I say amen to that. How gracious of our Lord to mention something as small as giving a cup of water because every one of us at about any time in our lives are able to do that.
[7:50] If it would have been given as an example something that was quite complicated or hard or required a lot, that promise we might read would be daunting, right? And we'd say, we can't live up to that promise.
[8:01] But God says something as actionable as a cup of cold water. He continues, This I can do however poor, this I may do however lowly, this I may do right cheerfully.
[8:14] This which seems so little the Lord notices, notices when done to the least of His followers, evidently is not the cost nor the skill nor the quantity that He looks at, but the motive that which we do to a disciple because He is a disciple.
[8:29] His Lord observes and recompenses. He does not reward us for the merit of what we do, but according to the riches of His grace. I give a cup of cold water and He makes me the drink of living water.
[8:41] I give to one of these little ones and He treats me as one of them. Jesus finds an apology for His liberality and that which His grace has led me to do and He says, He shall in no wise lose His reward.
[8:55] What a beautiful promise from God to read early in the morning throughout your day to say, I want this to direct my life. That shows that one, the one for tomorrow, not the one for the day or yesterday, as when you came in there was bottles of water and they will not be given necessarily to the disciples of Christ.
[9:13] They'll be given to anybody on Sunday, evangelistic outreach. They will go with the gospel track. But it's what a wonderful reminder that God, when He sees our actions one towards another, isn't looking at the resource but He's looking at the motive of the heart and that it was given.
[9:27] That's a promise that we're given from God's Word. It can change your day. We must live by faith. Do you believe what was just said to be true? There's so many things that you cannot make sense of in this life by sight.
[9:40] They just don't make sense by sight. The only way to properly understand them is faith in God's Word. All throughout the Bible, we're told that we must live by faith. Habakkuk 2.4 says, The just shall live by faith.
[9:52] Paul quotes that again in Romans 1.17 when he says, For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith as it is written, The just shall live by faith.
[10:03] Are you the just? Yes. We've been made just by Jesus Christ. How are you to live? By faith. By faith in whom? The Lord. And how do you have faith in the Lord?
[10:14] You do that by living according to His Word. The just live by faith. The just live by faith in the Lord. The just live by faith in the words of our Lord. And it continues, Paul would in Galatians 2.20, I'm crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live.
[10:30] Yet not I but Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. We live by the faith of the Son of God.
[10:43] What are we to do? Jesus Christ saved you, Hayden. You're still here on planet Earth. Alright? What are we to do as our lives are still here? We are to live it by the faith of the Son of God who loved you and He gave Himself to you.
[10:57] We're going to live by faith. Hebrews 11, it's an incredible chapter, many stories of people and the common denominator in Hebrews 11 is that they were people that lived and walked by faith.
[11:08] We come to places in the Word of God where God asks you to do hard things and the answer is we should walk by faith. But we get so good at not walking by faith.
[11:20] We get quite good at not needing the walk by faith. Where the Bible demands something of us and it is tolerable or it's enjoyable, we follow it.
[11:30] Right? This is true with our kids. You tell them to do something they want to do, they are right on it. Right? You want to do that? And it's fun sometimes. I'll say, just playing around, kids, get in the van, we are going to go get ice cream right now.
[11:41] Alright? And they're kind of confused. They're like, is dad upset? Is he commanding us? Is there ice cream? But then they can happily run to the van and get in it. Kids, get in the van, we're going to go work.
[11:53] Get in the van, we're going to do something else. And then there is a lot of finding something else to do. There's a lot of reinterpretation of what dad says. They always understand very clearly when they want to know what it is.
[12:05] Right? But when they say, well you didn't say me or you didn't say now or you didn't say this or that, they always try to rearrange my words when there's a command that they don't like.
[12:18] My poor kids. But it's true about you, it's true about your kids as well. And so we're not good, we're not, we're quite good at finding ways to not live by faith. By finding another way.
[12:28] We walk up to the word of God, it demands something of us. The only way we can move forward is to take a step of faith like Peter, to step out of the boat. There's no bridge here, there's no stepping stones, I'm just going to take a step of faith.
[12:39] But what we do is we want to rearrange. Here's a quote by William Plummer. He says, It is impossible to do well in the Christian life or to maintain any successful war against sin unless we have faith.
[12:53] The word of God is powerless to help us until it is believed. Its vast treasures are unlocked by the hand of faith only. Without faith, providence is absolutely crushing in many of its dispensations.
[13:07] The faith makes salvation ours. He that will not trust shall not conquer. He that will not trust shall not conquer.
[13:18] I've jokingly talked about before how a person talks about how the Bible saved them, they had a New Testament in their pocket or something and a shot came and it stopped them. Well, that's happened. If you don't trust the word of God, that's the only benefit it's going to have in your life in protecting you.
[13:34] The Bible, it doesn't just work, it doesn't just having it in your home isn't going to do the job, having ten copies of it isn't going to do the job, having it in your car is not going to do it.
[13:45] Even memorizing the scripture, if it is not going to be obeyed by faith, is not going to provide for you the protection and the benefit that it offers to you.
[13:55] It must be applied by faith. So our salvation is from the Lord, our salvation is according to the promises of God, so this teaches us that the Christian life must be lived by trust in him and his word.
[14:11] Kinsley, Austin, Hayden, I love having you guys so much in here. Don't worry. I pick on my kids, I'm going to pick on you guys as well, alright? And as new believers in life, and there's so many times you're going to get to a place in the word, in life, where you're going to say, according to God's word, this is what I'm supposed to do, but according to everything inside of me, every emotion, my understanding of circumstances, I don't want to do this.
[14:39] And you're going to feel like life is messed up. You're going to say things are moving smoothly, but now I've just kind of got kind of awkwardly, I'm like kind of like at an impasse, I don't know what to do.
[14:50] Those are some of the most precious moments in your Christian life. That is a moment where you get to bring worship to the Lord, and you're going to say, like we sing all the time, you're going to say, nevertheless, not my will, but your will, Lord.
[15:03] And so we're grateful when we come to those moments. We're grateful because that is the sacrifice that you're able to give. Would you love to write a check for a billion dollars to the Lord? Most certainly.
[15:14] That would be a wonderful act of worship, right, to give that up. But in that moment, you're able to give something, you're able to give your life. You're able to say, I'm going to take my hands off my life, Lord, I'm just going to trust you, and I'm going to obey you.
[15:27] So when those moments come in your life, don't begrudge them, don't be mad about them, don't find ways to get out of them. Say, what an opportunity that I have here. Just the trust I'm in the Lord.
[15:40] So what is the context of verse number? What is it that the psalmist is dealing with when he says this? Verse 2 will show us, So shall I have wherewith to answer him that reproaches me, for I trust in thy word.
[15:54] He's being ridiculed. This provides the context. This is more common than we might recognize. When I read about King David or somebody being ridiculed, I picture one story is on the road and a person comes up and kicks dust at him and kind of spits at him when he's being ridiculed.
[16:10] Or I picture Saul trying to kill him. And everything I picture, I just think, that doesn't really apply to me because I don't have people kicking me in the shin and spitting at me and throwing dust at me.
[16:21] And I don't know who my arch nemesis, as you will. I don't have a King Saul or a King David or many of the things that are lived out maybe in the psalmist that is writing here. But you know, every one of you have a very declared and clear accuser of the brethren in your life.
[16:39] Satan, and that word means accuser, he is in your life. There is always going to be ridicule. You can give out Girl Scout cookies to everybody, you can make friends with everybody in the world, and you're still going to have one person who is dead set on ridiculing you non-stop.
[16:56] And that's there. So you can never make everybody happy as long as he is in existence. Quickly here, in the story Pilgrim's Progress, John Bunyan describes a battle between the accuser, Apollyon, and Christian, the main character in the story, at the Valley of Humiliation.
[17:15] One of Apollyon's ploys is to recite a laundry list of Christian sins. He says this, he says, Thou didst faint at the very first, when thou almost choked in the gulf of the spawn.
[17:26] Thou didst almost attempt wrong ways to be rid of thy burden, whereas thou shouldst have stayed till the prince had taken it off. Thou didst sinfully sleep and lose thy choice things. What has thou almost persuaded to go back in the sight of the lions?
[17:38] When thou talkest thy journey, and what thou hast heard and seen, thou art inwardly desirest a vain glory, and all thou sayest or doest. He just lists all the ways in which Christian in his Christian journey had begun to fail, was tempted, didn't do the right thing, and he just goes through this laundry list of things.
[17:56] Have you ever met this person? Have you ever done this? Right? It's time to go to bed, and somebody brings up this laundry list of all the ways in life that you had failed and all the things you have done. Alright, here's the accuser, brother.
[18:06] Here's Christian's response to the accuser. He says this, All this is true, and much more which thou hast left out. He tells the accuser, you don't even know half of it, alright?
[18:18] But the prince, whom I serve, in honor is merciful and ready to forgive, but besides these infirmities, possess me in thy country, for there I suck them in, and I have grown under them.
[18:30] Be sorry for them, for I have obtained pardon by my prince. He tells the accuser, you're right, but my prince knows this, and he has offered pardon for me.
[18:42] At the mention of Christ's forgiveness, Napoleon flies in the rage. Satan, the accuser, cannot abide the fact that his accusations are overcome by the grace of God in Christ, the accuser.
[18:53] The psalmist is showing to us here, you can be ridiculed in life, you can be accused in life by people, humans, or by the accuser of the brother, but there's still a contentment that can be found because you know your salvation and not the mercies come from God.
[19:08] The psalmist finds a confidence that will liberate him to speak of God's testimonies. Verse 46, I will speak of thy testimonies also before kings, and I will not be ashamed.
[19:19] We went from being ridiculed there to now being willing to give a testimony before kings. You know, you think about giving a testimony before kings, oh, this is a great opportunity.
[19:30] Not normally. I mean, when you went before a king, it was either going to be really good or really bad, all right? There wasn't typically where the king was like, I didn't really like what he said, but don't worry about it, right?
[19:41] Standing before the king would have been a place that you would have had to have great confidence standing before him because your life hung in the balance. And so we must be prepared to bear the reproach for the sake of God, the gospel, and the truth of God's word.
[19:56] My heart goes out to the next generation and the generations to come until Christ's return. Over 2,000 years of Christian-held beliefs and values are no longer welcomed in many places in this world.
[20:10] Places where they were once tolerated, places where people would not say anything about them, places where they were once championed because they knew that they were helpful for our country, they're no more tolerated.
[20:21] How to live out the Christian life when you're bearing the reproach of the world is something that every Christian needs to figure out and learn how to do. And this is a time that you should love this psalm.
[20:33] It will be essential for us to love well while we're bearing reproach. 1 Timothy 4.10 tells us, For therefore, we both labor and suffer reproach because we trust in the living God who is the Savior of all men, especially those that I believe.
[20:49] Because we trust in the living God. How can you labor and how can you suffer reproach? You do that by trusting in Him. In Acts 4.23-25, they are literally speaking the testimonies before kings, before their servants.
[21:06] And people are there before them. And their response to all this ridicule they're getting comes in verse 29. It says, And now, Lord, behold their threatenings and granted to Thy servants that with all boldness they may speak Thy word by stretching forth Thy hand to heal and their signs and wonders may be done by the name of the Holy Child, Jesus.
[21:26] And being ridiculed and being reproached, these early disciples said, God, give us boldness. We trust in Your word.
[21:36] We find our identity in it. Psalm 60, verse 3. Thou hast showed Thy people hard things. Thou hast made us to drink the wine of astonishment that's difficulty in life.
[21:47] Thou hast given a banner that is identity to them that fear Thee, that it may be displayed because of the truth. Regardless of the ridicule, regardless of the reproach, we look to Christ who find our salvation and we continue.
[22:04] In the way that Psalm, Psalm 60 ends, is with this. It says, Through God we shall do valiantly for He that shall tread down our enemies. Very interesting in this word.
[22:17] You know, valor is courage on the behalf of others. That is such a needed word for us in the day that we live in. Despite reproach, despite ridicule, we are going to love people regardless of the fact they call us unloving.
[22:33] We are going to love people even when they ridicule us and they reproach us. And that's a liberty that we find in God and in our faith. We find great liberty.
[22:44] Verse number 44. I will walk at liberty for I seek thy precepts. We walk, as we walk in liberty, here's some distinctive things about us. God has brought us mercies from God that come from His word.
[22:56] That's what we saw in verse 41. We need His mercies. We trust in His word. He gives us an answer to those that reproach us. And so we pray it's never taken from our mouth.
[23:06] Psalm 119.43. And take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth for I have hoped in thy judgments. A person that's being reproached, they look to the word of God, to God's words for His mercies, and we find liberty in it.
[23:23] And that's why it's always in our mouth. We don't ever want to remove from the truth. As soon as we stop studying and speaking of the word, we will start losing that liberty. We will stop losing the confidence.
[23:34] In the verses around it that says, I will walk at liberty, it also says, I'm hoping in Him, I'm keeping the law, I'm seeking precepts, and my mouth is filled with the words of His truth. Well, love what Matthew Henry says.
[23:45] He says, All that love God love His government and therefore love all His commandments. Living in subjection and joyful submission to God by faith and His words allows you to walk in a liberty in this world so that when people reproach you or ridicule you, you can move forward with confidence.
[24:12] You can stand before kings because you know that your confidence is found in God's word in His government that's given here for us. All that love God love His commandments therefore love all His commandments.
[24:27] We should love His governing word in our lives. In closing here before we pray, liberty and confidence and delight come from walking in liberty.
[24:39] Are you experiencing that? Are you kind of walking kind of feebly? Are you kind of just saying I'm just always getting ridiculed? I can't decide do I really want to live for the approval of this world?
[24:50] Or do I really want to live for God? You're just not walking in the liberty that is available there for you. There's a confidence that we can walk in a delight that we will find. We should give God's word the affection and the honor and the time that it deserves.
[25:04] Verse 48, My hands also will I lift up thy commandments which I have loved and I will meditate in thy statutes. The psalmist who's being ridiculed he's just saying I just love this word because I love it I will honor it I will give time to it I will when we're talking about meditating on statutes we're talking about giving time to it going beyond reading it but meditating on it.
[25:30] It should seem hypocritical to us to pray to God like I told you in the checkbook of faith by Charles Spurgeon the promises that you would read every day. Wouldn't it be quite hypocritical as for us to pray for God to fulfill his promises in his word but not to be committed to obeying the same word.
[25:49] God makes promises and he keeps them and that brings great liberty to us. We read the promises and we live them out. This gives us incredible liberty not only from the approach of others but the ability to speak boldly.
[26:04] Through the word we have found life and salvation. We've also found liberty from following his commands. So tonight we are grateful for his word. We're grateful for his commandments for his governing of us because in it we have found great liberty.
[26:21] We're not like the little dog right? The little chihuahua dog normally a little dog who has 40 acres to run in but what does he spend his life do? He's running back and forth across the fence because he feels like he's captured but God's way is broad it is open.
[26:35] It's liberty it's not restricting right? The ways of God's way it gives us freedom to live out our lives it gives us confidence it gives us boldness because it gives us a sure word in our lives which is what the world is most certainly looking for.
[26:50] They need guidance and we have it. They need somebody that cares for them we've found it and so we as all people tonight we should be grateful we should hold our words tightly today knowing that it is what gives us liberty as we walk through this world.
[27:06] Let's pray together. Heavenly Father I come to you tonight Lord thank you for this portion of scripture that is here for us. Lord as we live out our Christian lives Lord we want to be people that live by faith we want to be people Lord that walk by faith so I thank you Father for the mercies that come upon us in the plural sense Lord we are in need of your mercies and for the salvation Lord that has come to us according to your word had it not been for your word Lord we would not know where to place our faith had it not been from somebody being sent with this word Lord we would not know where to focus and where to place our trust it is in you and so even if we are reproached by somebody in this world or the accuser of the brethren we say with this Psalmist Father for I trust in thy word we trust that your word is right regardless of how difficult it may be to live out we do not doubt that your word is right for us that you know what is best for us and Lord
[28:10] I pray that you would never take it from our mouth may we never speak to anything else may we never find our answers in anything else may we always have it and we will find our hope Lord and our expectations in your judgment Lord you know right from wrong and so because of this Lord we will continually keep your law forever and ever and this will allow us to walk in liberty Lord as we keep your precepts as we walk away from your precepts Lord we recognize there's only bondage there's only restriction there is not the life that you have given us to live allow us Father to speak your testimonies before kings and we will not be ashamed because we have confidence in your word we delight in these commandments we love them we lift up your commandments Lord because we love them and we will meditate on these statutes with all of our days in Jesus name I pray Amen