God's Word: Standards for Servants

Amen, let's pray together lord You are so good and we thank you for your cleansing Cleansing blood we thank you lord that we can gather together this evening and study your word It is so valuable so precious And pray that the things we learn tonight will enable us to live as your servants in jesus name amen Turn with me in your bible to psalm 119 psalm 119 verse number 121 the 16th section In our study of psalm 119, there are 22 of them all together This is number 16

This is the 20th message in our discussion of psalm 119 And we've had a great time understanding the essence of god's holy word and what god has to say about his wonderful word tonight we're going to talk about The most famous of all topics which is the reason this place is flooded over with people It's the reason why there's standing room only this evening It's because we're talking about a topic that everybody wants to know about and that is how to serve You see if you were to Tell people that there was going to be a special musician here this evening They would come and they would pack the place to hear the special musician If you told the people that there was going to be some popular speaker Here this evening they would come and pack the facility But if you tell them we're going to talk about what it means to be a servant nobody wants to come Because you see nobody really truly wants to be a servant In fact, maybe you're here tonight thinking you're a servant and you're really not You see it's the essence of our identity And so I want to help you understand some of the things what the bible says About servanthood and so before I go to psalm 119, I'm going to take you back to luke chapter 17 Turn back with me to luke chapter 17 for a moment And I feel safe talking about this because i'm many years away from luke 17 in our study on sunday morning So by the time we get there again, you will not know what I have said to you You will have forgotten it already, but this is one of my favorite passages of scriptures because it really puts your identity to the test It really helps you understand whether or not you truly are a servant A lot of us like to pay lip service the fact

Oh, yeah, i'm i'm a servant. I serve people and yet when we come to grips with the reality of the text in luke 17, we have to really Examine where we are Listen to this He said to his disciples jesus speaking It is inevitable that stumbling blocks should come But woe to him through whom? they come It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown to the sea Than that he should cause one of these little ones to stumble be on your guard If your brother sins rebuke him If he repents forgive him And if he sins against you seven times a day And returns to you seven times saying I repent Forgive him So Let me help you understand what jesus is saying He tells his men that stumbling blocks are going to come You're going to go through life and you're going to face Issues and situations That will be a great stumbling block to you and christ says but but woe to the one through whom they come And then he says but If you stumble and the person who causes you to stumble comes to you and asks you to forgive him your responsibility is to forgive him In fact, he says he becomes seven times a day the same day And asks you to forgive him you are to forgive him so if I was the kind of person that was Rude and obstinate and I came up to you and slapped you in the face and said oh i'm sorry Would you forgive me? You would say yes, I forgive you And then a little later on I would come up to you and I'd do the same thing i'd slap you in the face Say, oh, i'm, sorry Would you forgive me? your response is to forgive Now jesus says seven times in a day Now if you sleep eight hours in a day that gives you 16 hours to be awake That means every two hours and 15 minutes this guy comes up and slaps you in the face And he repents of a sin Remember in matthew chapter 18 christ says that we are to forgive our brother And peter remembering what christ said in luke 17 says how many times are we to forgive our brother seven times lord? And what did jesus say? uh 70 times seven Well, if you take the same 24 hour day Sleep eight hours you're awake 16 hours

That's one every 1.9 minutes In the day You forgive your brother for the same events Sounds unreasonable Sounds almost ridiculous If someone is going to offend me that often Then maybe they're truly not repentant But jesus says if he asks you to forgive him you are to say yes, I forgive you if he repents of a sin You are to forgive him Now it sounds ridiculous At least to the apostles For listen to what they say verse five and the apostle said to the lord increase our faith Lord, if you expect us to forgive seven times in one day the same offense If this person comes to us every two hours and 15 minutes And does the same thing and asks? To for to be forgiven and we are to forgive the lord

We can't do that It's beyond us It's more than we can handle

So we need you to give us more faith because without more faith We cannot forgive our brother seven times in one day Listen to jesus's answer If you had faith like a mustard seed You would say to this mulberry tree be uprooted and be planted in the air in the sea and it would Obey you Listen Jesus says in essence It's not an issue of faith You don't need more faith Don't go back and say well god you're asking me to do something. I can't possibly do so Therefore I need more faith so that I can Do what you've asked? Christ says you don't need more faith This is what he does say verse seven But which of you having a slave plowing or tending sheep will say to him when he has come in from the field Come immediately and sit down to eat But will he not say to him prepare something for me to eat and properly clothe yourself And serve me until I have eaten and drunk and afterward you will eat and drink He does not thank the slave because he did the things Which were commanded Does he? jesus says Let's look at this You have a slave He's been in the field all day It's hot He's been plowing from dawn to dusk When he comes in from the day You don't say to your slave

You know what you've had a rough day I'm, sorry You're sweating like you are i'm Sorry

It's so hot today. I didn't know it was gonna be that hot I'll tell you what why don't you sit down put up your feet turn on the espn watch the game relax Take it easy. I'll fix your dinner for you. I'll give you a cold drink Jesus says you don't do that Instead you say to the slave Change your clothes Change your clothes prepare my meal Take care of what I need first That's the first thing you do And then he says That slave is not even thanked for his duty Why? because A slave does what a slave does He doesn't get thanked for doing his duty That's his job When you go to work and you work from nine to five your boss doesn't say you know what I really appreciate you coming every day from nine to five He doesn't thank you for being there for 95 why because you're supposed to be there from nine to five That's your job

That's your duty to be there from nine to five If you have a nine to five job If you're a banker, I guess it's ten to two. I don't know sure what it is But you know, but but he didn't thank you for being there because that's what your obligation is And jesus says when your slave comes in he does what he's supposed to do And then he doesn't even get a break

He is supposed to serve you and then he can serve himself, but he does it without one word of thankfulness because He's just doing the duty of a slave Now comes the point of the story Verse number 10 So you too Now he drives it home So you too When you do all the things which are commended you say Wow, we are really great slaves Is that what it says No, it says when you do the things that are commanded you say we are unworthy slaves We have done only that which we ought to have done Jesus says so you too likewise When you have done that which has been commended of you And which is what? To forgive your brother when he repents of his sin When you've done what you have been commanded to do Don't think for one moment You have gone above and beyond the normal and you should receive some kind of special thanks Because you are this wonderful person who forgives those who have offended you Because it's the duty of the slave To obey his master And the master says You are to forgive is And when you have forgiven your brother Whether it's seven times in a day every two hours and 15 minutes or every 1.9 Minutes you have still only done which is your duty to do Sometimes we think people are so wonderful because they forgive someone who who did something Tremendously gross to them

They think oh, what kind of person is that that they would extend forgiveness and jesus says no big deal It's not a big deal because you've only done that which is your duty to do See we tend to think we're great servants of god until we come to face with the reality says lord We can't do what you've asked us to do increase our faith and god says you don't need more faith You just have to obey me. I am the master You're the slave See we have a hard time with that

Well, there are certain analogies in the scripture the bridegroom and the bride We like that picture That's a good picture We like the picture of the father and the son Because god's the father and we're the sons we like that picture We like the picture of the vine And the branches we like the picture of the head christ the head

We are the body But the picture of the master slave analogy is not one we like so well Because it demands obedience to god And that's the essence of christianity To be a servant of the living god It would be the favorite phrase of the apostle paul paul a bondservant Of jesus christ Titus would use the exact same phrase peter would use the exact same phrase It was said of abraham that he was a servant of god It was said of david that he was a servant of god

It was said of isaiah and joshua that they were servants of god Every great man in the scripture realized that he was the servant of the living god The question is do we see ourselves? in that same light servants of the living god jesus said the slave Is not above the master If they persecuted me They will persecute you The bible In acts chapter 13 tells us these words about King david If someone would ask you to describe king david, what would you say? How would you describe him in one sentence a warrior? a godlike man a man after god's own heart a king His Defeat of goliath

How would you define him? Listen to what it's recorded in acts chapter 13 For david after he had served the purpose of god in his own generation Fell asleep and was laid among the fathers That's his epitaph He served god in his own generation There can be nothing greater said than that That someone would say my father My mother my brother my sister my husband my wife served god and his purposes in his generation And that's what was said of david In describing this great man of god Listen when you and I begin to see ourselves as servants Then and only then do we begin to see ourselves as christ saw himself And then and only then will we begin to be christ-like? Because he was the ultimate servant He was one who emptied himself and became a slave That's our lord And that's how we become like him by being slaves of god in the age this age of me Christianity It is my needs it is my wants it is my health It is my job

It is my house It's the age of me christianity It's the age where we don't want to talk about self-sacrifice surrender Servanthood those words are things

We don't like to emulate We don't want to speak about And yet that's the essence of what christianity is for the son of man came To serve What have you come to do? When you go to church, do you go to church to serve or be served? When you go home from work, do you go home from work to serve or be served? When you wake up in the morning, do you wake up in order to be served or to serve? You can answer that question, you know that deep in your heart And we need to understand That the bible says we are the slaves of god and as the slaves of god He demands that we obey him But the great thing about being a slave of god god never treats us like a slave He never treats us like a slave In fact He wants to bless us

He wants to he wants to honor us Listen to john chapter 12 Turn to john 12 for a moment We're going to get to psalm 119. I just want to lay the groundwork for you John 12 Verse 20 Now there were certain greeks among those who are going up to worship at the feast These therefore came to philip Who was from the state of galilee and began to ask him saying sir We wish to see jesus philip came and told andrew andrew and philip came and they told jesus So you got these guys who want to see jesus? They go to philip

They say philip We want to see jesus well Andrew is always taking people to jesus So philip brings them to andrew and then andrew and philip take them to jesus It'd be like saying someone come to you and saying, you know, I I want to know I want to know about the messiah I want to know about what it means to be saved

You say you know what? I got just the guy you need to talk to Come with me and so you bring him to to your elder or to your pastor or to a friend of yours that that loves the lord you say You know, my friend wants to know about jesus Would you tell him? these people bring these greeks to to jesus because They want to see jesus So this is the lord's opportunity to tell them about eternal life

This is the lord's grand opportunity to speak to them about eternal things What does jesus say? Listen to this And jesus answered them saying the hour has come for the son of man to be glorified Truly truly I say to you unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies it remains by itself alone But if it dies it bears much fruit Here are these greeks coming to see jesus they come to philip philip takes into andrew andrew and philip taking with jesus and jesus Hey, guess what on the messiah i'm gonna die And he says this listen to this He who loves his life loses it And he who hates his life in this world shall keep it to eternal life Just let you know if you love your life you're gonna lose it But if you hate your life You're gonna keep it So this is the way jesus presents himself This is how jesus presents the gospel He does it in a way

That's completely foreign to evangelists today Because evangelists today don't want to turn people away Jesus just wanted people to hear the truth Now listen to this verse 26 if anyone serves me Let him follow me And where I am there shall my servant also be if anyone serves me the father will what? honor him The lord says you want to be a follower of mine You got to be my servant You got to be my slave And if you follow me You will serve me and if you serve me my father will honor you You see god doesn't treat us like slaves He wants to reward us He wants to honor us

He wants to bless us because we are his children But we can never forget about the slave master relationship Because it's at the core of our identity He purchased us

He bought us back from the slave market of sin Because we were slaves of sin That we might serve a new master The righteous one And so we didn't go from being slaves to not being slaves We went from slaves to sin and to satan to slaves of the living god to serve and honor him And that Lords the lord says will receive great reward because my father will honor you That all sets a tone for the psalmist who says three times That he was a servant of the living god He understood who he was He understood what life was about And I want to give you six components of the servant according to psalm 119 To let you know that this man understood his identity He said very clearly in psalm 119 verse number 125 I am thy servant I want you to be able to leave this place this evening saying to the lord god lord. I am your servant And then live as the psalmist lived Let me share it with you the characteristics That helped describe for us this servant And how he lived his life It begins in verse number 121 by looking at what the servant does What the servant does he says I have done justice And righteousness A true servant is characterized by what he does He does that which is just In that which is righteous He's not being arrogant He is stating the fact that his whole life is consumed with doing what is right before god And if i'm a servant of the living god, that's my desire that's what I want to do We sang the song this evening

Micah 6 8 What does the lord require of you that you do justly? That you love mercy And that you walk humbly with your god the psalmist realized that the psalmist knew micah 6 verse number 8 He knew that he had to do justly He had to treat people in a righteous manner He had to live a life of integrity He understood that he says lord. I have done justice and I have done righteousness That's a servant He does what is commanded him

That's what jesus said in luke 17 You have done that which? was commanded And we as servants are to do what god says It's as simple as that the christian life is not Really hard to understand It's very simple Just do what jesus says Obedience is the essence of christianity That I long to obey him. I long to serve him because of all he's done for me And that was a psalmist He says very clearly. I have done justice and Righteousness psalm 25 verse number 21

The psalmist prayed let integrity and uprightness preserve me for I trust in you over in psalm 37 Verses 30 and 31 listen to this the mouth of the righteous utters wisdom and his tongue speaks justice The law of his god is in his heart his steps do not slip Isn't that good? You want to keep from falling? You want to keep from backsliding? Then the law of your god must be in your heart The mouth of the righteous utters wisdom Speak things that are true and honest and his tongue speaks justice And that person walks uprightly

He does not slip He does not fall why because he's made a commitment to do What is righteous and to do what is just So a servant Is seen in what he does He does what is just and what is righteous A servant then is seen in what he declares That's the second point what he declares verses 121 or the end of verse 121 down to verse 123 Be sure to excuse me

Do not leave me to my Oppressors This is how you know, he's not arrogant in the first statement Because he says lord. I don't want you to leave me to my oppressors the oppressors first time It's mentioned in the psalms mentions twice in this section and once in the next section verse 134 But the oppressors are those who act Violently and deceitfully towards you that they might take advantage of you That's the oppressor And you know, isn't it interesting that because he does justice and because he does righteousness he's oppressed Isn't that what the bible says? You you seek to live godly in christ

You will suffer persecution You seek to honor god you're going to suffer all kinds of problems in the world That's what jesus said over in matthew chapter 5 Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness for theirs is the kingdom of heaven Blessed are you when men cast insults at you and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely On account of me rejoice and be glad for your reward in heaven is great for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you christ is saying if you live the the beatitude kind of life if you have the attitude and the Characteristics of a true christian and live a poor and spirit kind of life Live a merciful kind of life a life that hungers and thirsts for righteousness If you're a peacemaker, guess what people will persecute you They will speak against you

Here's a psalmist lord. I have done justice and I have done righteous Lord do not let my oppressors overtake me He felt the oppression of those who were against him because of his righteous stand How many times do we feel that from people actually Many of you know that i've been going through a lawsuit with one of the people That I coached in little league this past year and tomorrow morning is my day in court At 8 a.m

We have the opportunity to go before the judge because i've been falsely accused Of things that I had not done And yet What do I do? I had to leave everything into the lord's hands He's the one that's in charge And so therefore Lord, I have done justly Lord, I have done righteously Do not let my oppressors overtake me You see the servant of the lord sits back and says, you know lord you're in charge You take control You make it happen I am your servant It's my job To honor the lord with my life And let lord the lord take care of my oppressors The psalmist had this concern so he declared very loudly lord. I need your protection Because a servant can't protect himself a servant needs his master to protect him to put that umbrella around him into and to Clothe him in in protection from above psalmist knows that So he appeals to god based on that and then he says this Be surety for thy servant for good

Do not let the arrogant oppress me first time first verse In psalm 119 that doesn't mention the word of the lord

It's the first verse But it mentions the god of the word See he is so often spoke about the law of god and there are 10 synonyms we talked to you about way back You know some 20 weeks ago about the 10 different synonyms used throughout psalm 119 that described the word of the lord But none of them are used in psalm 119 122 But he speaks about god being his surety being his guarantee So he declares his concern But he declares his concern with great confidence that god Will protect him That god will be his guarantee And will not let the arrogant oppress him anymore And then he prayed not only with confidence and with a concern but with great commitment

He says My eyes fail with longing for thy salvation and for thy righteous word I I love that, you know because when we are being oppressed listen carefully when we're being oppressed when people are against us What consumes our eyes? our oppressor And what they're doing and what consumes our time How it is we can handle the oppression And how it is we can deal with those who oppress us but the psalmist wasn't that way was he What did he do? He says very clearly my eyes lord are failing because of you Because of my longing for you and for your word Instead of focusing in on his circumstances instead of focusing in on his oppressors

He focused in on his god above What a great lesson for all of us to learn Because we can be wrapped up in all the oppression in all the hardship all the persecution all the difficulty You name it

Whatever is surrounding us our eyes become consumed with the circumstances But the psalmist says lord my eyes my eyes fail For longing for thy salvation and for thy righteous word He spent his whole time doing what we need to be doing When we are oppressed when we face our oppressors Consumed with thoughts about god Reading his word Looking to him for his saving mercy Because only god can give that So the servant see he's well aware of his need And so we understand what he does because he says I do justice and righteousness We understand what he declares

He declares his concern to god his confidence in god and his commitment to god And the third thing I want you to notice about this servant is what he depends on he depends on the mercy of god Look at verse number 124 Deal with thy servant according to thy loving kindnesses There he sees himself once again as a servant Lord deal with your servant with mercy See, this is what he depends on he depends on the mercy of god

He's not asking god to deal with him justly Because if god dealt with him justly He'd be punished He's asking god to be merciful to him Because it's because of the lord's mercies that we are not consumed right great is thy faithfulness lamentations tells us The faithfulness of god and so he depends on the mercy of god We need god's mercy every single day and he recognizes it lord. I need you to be merciful to me I need you to demonstrate your loving kindness to me Remember the apostle paul over in first timothy chapter one in his testimony says this I thank christ jesus our lord who has strengthened me because he considered me faithful putting me into service Even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor and yet I was shown mercy Because I acted ignorantly in unbelief Paul knew it was because of the mercy of god That he experienced the saving grace of god And the psalmist never depended upon his own intellect never depended upon his own experience Never depended upon his own education

He depended upon the mercy of god Why because that would be the only thing to sustain him during his time of hardship He knew that And as a servant of god, he needed his master To be merciful to him The fourth thing I want you to see is what he desires He says in verse 124 the latter part and teach me thy statutes I am thy servant Give me understanding that I may know thy Testimony What was his desire to know god's word He wanted to know god's word teach me Teach me Teach me it wasn't it wasn't anything other than a teachable spirit You know, sometimes we can we can get to a point where we think we know everything and we don't need to be taught anymore But a servant always recognizes his need to be taught A servant always recognizes he needs to understand who god is and what god is doing He says I am your servant

Give me understanding The order is very important He didn't say lord Give me understanding that I might better serve you He says I am your servant

Give me understanding lord. I'm going to obey you I'm going to do whatever you say because lord I am your servant So he steps out in obedience first And then asks for understanding second How many of us sit back and say lord? I want to obey you I want to do what you've asked me to do, but I don't understand why you're asking me to do this So if you give me some understanding, maybe i'll do it for you That that's the way we live our lives But the servant says i'll be obedient to you I am your servant. I will serve you and as i'm serving you lord My prayer is that you give me understanding And you see that's the attitude god wants us to have He wants us to to walk after him and obey him without question And he'll show us what it is

He's doing and why he's doing it But this is the desire of the servant He wants to know god's word He's already going to serve god He's already going to obey god He just wants to understand What god has for him? so we've seen what the servant does we've seen what the servant declares what he depends on what he desires and Next I want you to understand what the servant decides to do He decides listen carefully to leave matters in god's hands Folks this is so good

Listen to this He says in verse 126 It is time for the lord to act for they have broken thy law He decides to leave everything in god's hands Folks that's what a servant does He lets god do what only god can do You see there are many times We don't want to leave things in god's hands We want to take control we want to be in charge Just recently my wife and I Sold our home and we bought a new home many of you know different scenarios concerning that whole That whole scenario And if I had hours I could tell you many stories that were pretty much unbelievable throughout the whole process But to cut a long story really really short We were in the process of selling our home And uh, we had to sell our home in order to obtain the new loan to buy the new home We'd already put money down in the new home And we believed that god wanted us to move series of circumstances that god had brought into our lives Showing us that it was time for us to move from our present facility to a different facility and so god had already worked in our lives and and we were in escrow with this couple and And they had put down a good faith estimate and they were sincere about buying the house and they had written us emails The the realtor had written us emails about how much they wanted to buy our home and we were all set and ready to go I'm out moving along one day and my wife comes outside and she's on the phone talking to me and she's as white as a ghost And I shut the mower off and she says This couple that they've canceled escrow on us Now we have 10 days Before we are to be into our new home And we have a loan that only works if we sell our house that we're previously in And we are accepted before the end of october that's 10 days And so this couple cancels escrow on us no reason no apparent they just found another house They wanted to buy another house and they canceled escrow on us And my wife was as white as a ghost Remember that babe And she sat down the couch and she just just let it all out She said what are we gonna do? I don't know I don't know

What are we gonna do? You know in every step of the way The whole story of us selling our house in my new house was god teaching us a lesson a very simple lesson Which is a rephrasing of a verse in scripture It says in psalm 127 verse number one unless the lord builds the house they labor in vain to build it Well unless the lord sells the house They labor in vain who try to sell it And boy did god teach us that lesson i'm the kind of guy that is Likes to be in control My wife is more so that way than I am but We are control freaks And we like to have all of our ducks in a row And we like to be able to plan to the future So that everything is taken care of each and every step of the way and god throughout the month of october every thursday Shattered that plan Four consecutive weeks he shattered that plan And we had to learn to trust him through the whole process And it was just an amazing thing to work it was amazing for our children to sit and watch the response of their parents to disappointment after disappointment over confusion Discouragement over and over again And how do we respond to those things? What do we do? Our children are watching Because they're learning lessons that one day when they go to sell a house and buy a house or get caught in a situation What do they do? And it was even up to the very last moment Of the very last day That we were completely out of control of everything And god kept teaching us

It's time for me to act and for you To sit down And forgive me shut up Simple as that God was in complete control of everything And as we look back on just the whole scenario god had a plan It just wasn't my plan And you know, we always have problems with that right? We have a plan and we think it's going to go this way and god says No, it's not It's going that way And we have to learn to follow him and serve him And it's time for the lord to act we felt like we were Treated unfairly we were treated unjustly They they dropped out of their escrow for for no apparent reason and and yet god says it's time for me to act How is it? You can sell a house in 10 days You can't have an escrow in 10 days

How are you going to do it in 10 days? God had a great plan The plan was very simple to go back to the previous people that we had canceled escrow on because of their untruthfulness And because there's their deceit And went back to them And they were more than happy to buy the house And they bought the house closed escrow and god had it all taken care of You see the lord needs to act The lord is going to act The question is are we going to submit to his leading and follow him? and this psalmist Says I have decided To let god do what god does Now god's going to do what god does anyway, but to get to that point Is where the servant of god needs to be? God you're in charge You rule overall and you as you go through life, you're going to notice it you make plans I don't care what your plans are your plans for your your kids schooling your plans for uh, How many kids you're going to have your plans for one day to get married your plans for your future retirement? Your we make a million plans a million plans But god Has the ultimate plan for your life? You have to learn what it is

You have to learn to follow him and you know, he only unveils to you each day at a time And we saw through each disappointment in our scenario of selling a house and buying a house every time there was a disappointment God came and threw out a blessing It was on that day when the people dropped out of escrow that the lady that we were buying the house from our new home She called me and said hey lance. I got great news I'm thinking great my house fell out of escrow What kind of news you got for me? She goes I got great news

We just dropped your house 100 000 I said really she said yeah And they'll see it was one of those things where lord was saying I think I got it all taken care of lance Just gotta sit back and watch me Watch me work We got to the point where we bought a new house for virtually the same price We sold our old house for See god had it all worked out God knew what he was doing We just had to learn to let the lord act Let the lord do what he does And that was the servant of the lord in psalm 119

He says lord You act And in this case he was saying lord you act against those Who are my oppressors? You handle them lord He realized he didn't have to handle him It wasn't his responsibility because he was a servant of the master And that master is his protector That master is his guide That master is his warrior And so he decided lord It's time for you to act They've broken your law You gotta deal with them But that's the place god wants all of us to be because you know what we go through life and there are people who treat Us unjustly all the time I'm going to court tomorrow and i'm going to walk in the court and i'm going to quote psalm 119 verse number 126 Lord it's time for you to act Why? Because they have broken your law God's got to act What am I going to do? I can't do anything Except do what god has commanded to obey his word And that's where all of us need to be And that's where the servant of the lord is in psalm 119 The sixth thing I want you to see is what he delights in He delights in the law of god He says therefore I love thy commandments above gold

Yes above fine gold, isn't that good because I love the law of god You see he he loves the law of god because his eyes were failing For reading and meditating and longing for the law of god See the more you're around the law of god the more you fall in love with it See, he didn't see the law of god as a burden He didn't see it as a problem for him he'd loved it above gold Yes above fine gold Listen to the words of jerry bridges In his commentary in psalm 119 This is so good He says therefore. I I love the commandments of god above gold

Yay above fine gold because While the world and my own heart have only combined to flatter me the word God Has discovered to me my real state as a self-deceived guilty defiled sinner before god Because they have been as a schoolmaster to bring me to christ The only remedy for sin the only rest for my soul I love them Because they have often supplied wholesome reproofs in my wanderings and plain directions in my perplexity. I love them Because they restrict me from that which would prove My certain ruin and because in the way of obedience to them the lord has accepted me with my sweet savor Should I not love them? Can gold yay fine gold offer to me blessings such as these can it heal my broken heart? Can it give relief to my wounded spirit? Has it any peace or prospect of comfort from me on my deathbed? And what cannot? What has not what will not the precious word of god do at that awful season of trial? Oh my god, I would be deeply ashamed That I love thy commandments so coldly That they are so little influential upon my conduct That they so often give place to objects of comparative nothingness in thy sight Oh that my heart might be holy and habitually exercised in them that I may find the work of righteousness to be peace and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance forever Oh, it's so true I love the word of god above gold because when my heart is broken, what can gold do? When death is at the door What can gold do? nothing But god's word can do everything everything So the psalmist the servant of the lord delights in the law of god and lastly What he defends he defends the holiness of god He says in verse 128

Therefore. I esteem right all thy precepts concerning everything I hate every False way He defends god's holiness

He defends god's holy word He sees and understands that everything god says Is always right Well, that's a great place to be everything god says is right Everything god says about creation is right. I don't care what your science teacher says Everything god says about crime is right. I don't care what the lawmakers say Is right Everything god says about your conduct is right Everything god says about the conversion of a sinner is right Everything god says about christ the messiah is right everything god says about the coming of the messiah is right Everything that god says is always right

This almost says you know what lord you're always right No matter what you say you're always right That's a servant who understands His master He says therefore I hate every false way I hate it because god's way is always right Everything opposed opposed to that is wrong Listen to what jerry bridges says about this verse It's so good About the hatred of sin in the false way listen this If my hatred of sin is sincere Well, that's good, isn't it? Is your hatred of sin sincere? Listen to what? Mr

Bridges says if my hatred for sin is sincere I shall hate it more in my house than abroad Here lies the grand seat of hypocrisy And therefore may the great searcher of hearts enable me to search into its depths May I take the lamp of the lord to penetrate into its dark interior hiding places of evil May I often put the question to my conscience? What does the omniscient judge know? of my heart Perhaps at the time That the church holds my name in esteem the voice of conscience As the voice of god may whisper to me That which is highly esteemed among men Is an abomination in the sight of god luke 16 15 Some false way Yet undetected within May keep me lifeless And unfruitful in the midst of the quickening means of grace Let me look into my house My calling my family my soul and in the course of this search how much matter will be found for prayer contrition Renewed determination of heart and dependence upon my god Oh that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes I will keep thy statutes Oh forsake me not utterly psalm 119 verse 5 and verse 8 and oh Let my spirit be wounded by every fresh discovery of sin Let my soul bleed under it But specially and instantly Let me apply to the fountain open for sin and for uncleanness Here, let me wash my soul from the guilt of sin And regain my peace with god and to him Who opened this fountain? Let me also repair for a large supply of spiritual strength May his power and grace sharpen my weapons For the spiritual conflict until every secret iniquity Is overcome and forever disposed From my heart

Can you say that? That's what the servant says Why? Because he wants to obey his master Let's pray Father we thank you for the truth of your great and wonderful word Oh I wish Oh, I wish that many Would come to hear the truth Oh how I wish lord That this this place would be filled With those who want to long to be servants of god Yet it is true That for the most part Servanthood is not something We admire It's not something We aspire And yet It is what is required And so I pray that we your people Would understand what it is the servant is to do What he is to declare What he is to depend on How it is he decides to let god act How he desires the law of god? How he depends on the mercy of god? And how it is he learns to hate everything false And love everything true in jesus name Amen