God's Word: Testimony to Truth

Psalm 119, verse number 97 We embark on the 13th section of this great chapter This is the first section that has no petitions in it Every time we have studied Psalm 119, there has been an aspect of that section that deals with a petition that the psalmist had This time, he asks God for nothing It's a section of praise It's all about the psalmist's love for the word of God You know, it's interesting, people ask, what is the key to the Christian life? What is the key to a successful Christian life? It simply comes down to one thing, and that is learning to love the law of God

If you love the word of God, if you love God's law, that is the cornerstone to Christianity That's what makes your Christianity as great as it is It is the law of God, the breath of God that has been put into print so that you and I are able to read it and understand its great significance for our lives We love a lot of things, but we need to love really only one thing, and that is the law of God That's what captivates the psalmist He is overcome by the word of God and expresses, oh, how I love thy law He loved it because it was his food He loved it because it was his medicine

He loved it because it was his life He loved it because it meant more to him than all the riches and all the gold the world had to offer And so he expresses that love, and the psalmist has gone through great persecution, distress, discouragement, hardship, difficulty, you name it, he's gone through some difficult times, and he's come to this point where he says, you know, I truly love the law of the Lord And we're gonna have to ask ourselves this question Do we love the law of the Lord? Thomas Watson has written a great book It's called The Godly Man's Picture

If you ever get a chance to purchase it, I would encourage you to do so because he tries to portray for us what the godly man looks like And in that book, he records these words about the characteristic of the godly And one of the characteristics of the godly is that they are lovers of the word of God He says they are lovers of the word that has been written This is what he says What sums of money the martyrs gave for a few leaves of the Bible? Do we make the word our bosom friend? As Moses often had the rod of God in his hand, so we should have the book of God in our hand

When we want direction, do we consult this sacred oracle? When we find corruption strong, do we make use of this sword of the spirit to hew them down? When we are disconsolate, do we go to this bottle of the water of life for comfort? Then we are lovers of the word But alas, how can they who are seldom conversant with the scriptures say they love them? Their eyes begin to be sore when they look at a Bible The two testaments are hung up like rusty armor which is seldom or never made use of

The Lord wrote the law with his own finger, but though God took pains to write, men will not take pains to read They would rather look at anything else than at the Bible He's right Our Lord gave us his written word in order that we might learn to love him all the more And the psalmist was one who was deeply in love with this God and therefore would be deeply in love with the word of God, the written word of God Let's read this section together

Now I know that people have said to me, hey listen, you know when you do that thing where you do the alternate reading, well we can't hear what the audience is saying when you do that. I know that. I understand, I get that So my only encouragement to the people who listen is to get a Bible and read along with us or get you to read louder, shout, scream, yell, whatever it is. I know that my microphone doesn't pick you up, which is a good thing But anyway, Psalm 119. I'll read the odd verses like always You read the even ones Psalm 119.97, oh how I love thy law

It is my meditation all the day. I have more insight than all my teachers for thy testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the agents for thy words are precepts. I have restrained my feet from every evil way that I may keep thy word. I have not turned my side to a force of autonomy How sweet are thy words to my taste, yes sweeter than honey to my mouth From your precepts I did not understand thee, therefore I hate every false way. A refreshing section by a man who went through great trouble but in this section he never asks God for anything

He just explains what God's word has done in his life Remember there's a verse we talked about when we first began our study of Psalm 119 over in First Thessalonians 2.13 that serves as a good introduction to what we're going to talk about this evening It says, and for this reason we also constantly thank God that when you receive from us the word of God's message, you accept it not as the word of men but for what it really is, the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe Paul knew that the word of God would perform a work in those who believe

See one thing about the word of God that you can guarantee, it will change your life Every believer has his life changed by the word of God If you're reading the word of God and your life's not being changed it's because you're not a believer The believer has his life changed because the word works It effectually works in those who believe That is it brings about its promised result because God's word was given to us to do a great and mighty work

And so we need to understand that when the psalmist speaks about his love for God's word he does so, number one, because the word of God promotes in him a proper response God's word works so well, it promotes in him a proper response He says, oh, how I love thy law, it is my meditation all the day Notice it says, oh, how I love thy law It's not like, oh, how my church loves the law of God or oh, how my family loves the law of God or oh, how my parents love the law of God No, it's about how he himself loves the law of God You know, there are many people we know who love the law of God

But the question is, do you love God's holy word? He says, I love it because it is my meditation all the day He meditates upon God's word because he loves it And the more he meditates, the more he loves And the more he loves, the more he meditates It's very cyclical He just keeps doing the same thing And the more he is into it, the more it is into him, the more he expresses his love The psalmist was not casually pursuing his God He was passionately pursuing his God It was his meditation all the day Now think about that We read that and we think, who can do that, right? That just can't happen

You know, I got kids, I gotta feed, I got laundry I gotta do, I got work I've gotta go to, I've got all these deadlines I've got to meet. I can't possibly meditate all day upon the law of God Well, I would beg to differ because the psalmist did it You can do it And the psalmist, amidst all of his difficulties that we have studied in great detail up to this point, still found time to meditate upon God's word all the day Remember Psalm 1, turn back to Psalm 1 for a moment, a very familiar one

Psalm 1 verse 1, how blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked nor stand in the path of sinners nor sit in the seat of scoffers But his delight is in the law of the Lord And in his law, he meditates day and night So in Psalm 1, the psalmist was meditating day and night upon the law of God Here in Psalm 119, he says, I meditate all the day He goes on to say this, and he will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither And in whatever he does, he prospers

There's something about the word of God that brings refreshment and nourishment to the soul There's something about the word of God that the psalmist knew that caused him to continually be in that word because he knew he would be firmly planted, he would be unshakable, he would be immovable And therefore, day and night, he would meditate upon the law of God That's the blessed man That's the man who truly understands the blessing of the Lord Remember Joshua? What did God tell Joshua? Again, a very familiar verse of scripture Joshua 1, verse number six

God says, be strong and courageous, for you shall give this people possession of the land in which I swore to their fathers to give them Only be strong and very courageous Be careful to do according to all the law which Moses, my servant, commanded you Do not turn from it to the right or to the left so that you may have success wherever you go This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it For then you will make your way prosperous and then you will have success

Now Joshua was a busy man He led three million Jews That's a lot of people Of all the people that we all lead in this auditorium this evening, it will not add up to three million people This won't But Joshua had to lead three million Jews In order for him to do it the right way, God's law could not depart from his mouth He had to speak forth the words of God He had to make sure that he meditated upon God's word day and night so he would make wise decisions He'd make right decisions He would be able to speak to people properly

Folks, it's imperative that God's word becomes an intricate part of our lives In Colossians chapter three, verse number 16, it was the apostle Paul who said, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly In other words, let it be at home in your heart Don't let God's word become a stranger to your life We can never afford to let the word of God become a stranger to us It must be our daily sustenance That's why the Lord said that his word was like bread, like manna from heaven, that it was the word of God that would cause him to live from day to day It was his food

And so we must see the word of God as our daily food And the psalmist understood that the word of God would promote a proper response It would cause him to love the law of God It would cause him to wanna meditate more and more upon the law of God And he would go on to say these words down in verse number 103 How sweet are thy words to my taste, yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth. A proper response would be for the psalmist to realize the sweetness of God's holy word

Listen, we can hear someone say how sweet something is, how luscious something is, how pleasant something is to the taste, but until we taste it, we don't experience it It was just this past week where my family and I went up to Oak Glen just for the day to get some apple cider and to get some apples It was about 60 degrees up there on Monday afternoon It was absolutely gorgeous And my wife had gotten some apple cider She goes, honey, you need to taste this And I said, do I have to? She says, yes, you have to taste it

Well, I didn't wanna taste it. I wouldn't know how good it was unless I did taste it So once I tasted it, I realized the sweetness that that cider had Well, the same is true with the word of God Unless we taste it, we will not know how sweet it truly is And what is it that makes the word of God so sweet? It's its theme, the Lord God himself Psalm 34, eight, oh, taste and see that the Lord is good Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good

You see, once you begin to feed upon the word of God and begin to get a taste of the word of God, you see how sweet it is, how precious and how pleasant it is, how valuable it is to you Now, people say, well, I've tried to taste the word of God, but it's not that sweet to me Well, listen to what Peter says way back in 1 Peter chapter two He says, therefore, put aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisy and envy and all slander, like newborn babes long for the pure milk of the word that by it you may grow in respect to salvation since you have tasted the kindness of the Lord

Peter says, because you have tasted God's kindness, you need to be like a baby that hungers for the word of God You ever had a newborn baby and nursed that newborn baby? When a newborn baby is hungry, it is absolutely undistracted It knows exactly what it wants It knows exactly where to get it. A newborn baby is completely focused when it's hungry And Peter says, as newborn babes desire the pure milk of the word Be like a newborn baby, undistracted

We get so distracted, and what distracts us? Malice, envy, slander, guile, which is deceitfulness, malice is wickedness, hypocrisy is phoniness, envy is selfishness, slander is just plain unkindness All those things distract us from tasting the sweetness of the word How many people do you know that are really bitter down deep inside? They are so bitter that they can't even begin to taste the sweetness of the word of God It's because there is something blocking them that that distracts them from going and feeding on the word of God

Maybe there's someone involved in slander, gossip, speaking against someone else, and that's what consumes them Maybe they're filled with wickedness They devise all kinds of wicked plans, and they spend their time thinking up on wicked ways in which they can destroy their neighbor Or maybe it's because of just plain envy, jealousy It consumes you It's those things that keep you from tasting the pure milk of the word so that you may grow And the psalmist says, oh, how sweet are your words to my taste Why? Because the Lord is the theme of the word The Lord is the central figure of the word

The word is about God himself, and the psalmist knows it The psalmist knows that what he's reading truly is the word of his God, and it speaks to him about who his God is Listen to Psalm 45, Psalm 45, verse number one, a psalm that speaks of the Messiah as king It says, verse one, my heart overflows with a good theme. I address my verses to the king or to the Lord My tongue is the pen of a ready writer Thou art fairer than the sons of men Grace is poured upon thy lips Therefore, God has blessed thee forever Gird thy sword on thy thigh, almighty one, in thy splendor and in thy majesty

And in thy majesty, ride on victoriously For the cause of truth and meekness and righteousness Let thy right hand teach the awesome things Thine arrows are sharp The peoples fall under thee Thine arrows are in the heart of the king's enemies Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. A scepter of uprightness is the scepter of thy kingdom Thou hast loved righteousness and hated wickedness Therefore, God, thy God, has anointed thee with the oil of joy above thy fellows All thy garments are fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia Out of the ivory palaces, stringed instruments have made thee glad

Verse 11, then the king will desire your beauty because he is your Lord Bow down to him We worship the king We worship the Messiah because of his beauty and because he is the theme of all the verses He is the theme of what all it is spoken of in the scriptures And so when you begin to taste and see that the Lord is good, you are tasting the sweetness of the scriptures And the psalmist says there was a response that the word of God causes me to have It causes me to love him It causes me to meditate upon his word It causes me to love that word It causes me to taste the sweetness of that word

You see, he saw how precious it was He understood the value of the word of God for his life And that's why he could cry, oh, how I love thy law It is my meditation all the day Now listen, the psalmist said that in verse 103, how sweet are thy words to my taste There wasn't certain words that were not sweet All the words of God were sweet to his taste All the promises of God were sweet to his taste All the precepts of God were sweet to his taste All the doctrines of God were sweet to his taste And even all the threatenings of God were sweet to his taste

He didn't discriminate between which were sweet and which were not sweet They were all sweet That's why he says over in Psalm 119, verse number 20, these words, my soul is crushed with longing after thine ordinances at all times At all times, not just sometimes When things are good, my heart is crushed with the longing for thine ordinances When things are bad, my heart is crushed for the longing after thine ordinances All the ordinances of God, at all times, when I live it in sin, my heart is crushed, longing after thine ordinances

You see, we can say we love the comforts of the word of God because they console our soul But can we say we love the word of God when it confronts our sin? Let me read to you once again from the book The Godly Man's Picture, as Thomas Watson helps us understand, do we love the word of God that is preached? Listen to what he says Do we prize it in our judgments? Do we receive it into our hearts? Do we fear the loss of the word preached more than the loss of peace and trade? Again, do we attend to the word with reverential devotion? When the judge is giving his charge on the bench, all attend

When the word is preached, the great God is giving us his charge Do we listen to it as to a matter of life and death? This is a good sign that we love the word Again, do we love the holiness of the word? The word is preached to beat down sin and advance holiness Do we love it for its spirituality and purity? Many love the word preached only for its eloquence and notion They come to a sermon as to a music lecture or as to a garden to pick flowers, but not to have their lusts subdued or their hearts bettered They are like a foolish woman who paints her face but neglects her health

Again, do we love the convictions of the word? Do we love the word when it comes home to our conscience and shoots its arrows of reproof at our sins? It is the minister's duty sometimes to reprove He who can speak smooth words in the pulpit but does not know how to reprove is like a sword with a fine hilt without an edge Rebuke them sharply, dip the nail in oil, reprove in love, but strike the nail home

Now, Christian, when the word touches on your sin and says, thou art the man, do you love the reproof? Can you bless God that the sword of the spirit has divided between you and your lusts? This is indeed a sign of grace and shows that you are a lover of the word. A corrupt heart loves the comforts of the word, but not the reproofs of the word They hate him that rebuketh in the gate Their eyes flash with fire like venomous creatures that are at the least touch spit poison When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart and they gnashed on him with their teeth

When Stephen touched them to the quick, they were mad and could not endure it Watson speaks the fact that we need to be able to love the word of God that's preached and sometimes the word of God that's preached confronts our sin How do we respond? How do we respond? In a few moments, we're gonna see where the psalmist recognized who his true teacher was and praised our Lord God for being the teacher of his soul You see, that's important because you don't see, I'm not your teacher. I'm not your teacher. I'm just a spokesperson for God God is your teacher

How do we know that? The psalmist said it Psalm 119 says these words in verse 102. I have not turned aside from thine ordinances for thou thyself has taught me God is your teacher God is the one who teaches you life's lessons So when the word of God is preached, when the word of God is spoken and it confronts our sin, then we know it's God dealing with us, not the preacher meddling in my private affairs Listen carefully Mr

Watson says, how shall we know that we love the reproofs of the word? He says, answer number one, when we desire to sit under a heart-searching ministry, who cares for medicines that will not work? A godly man does not choose to sit under a ministry that will not work upon his conscience That's really good You see, how do you know you love the reproofs of the word of God when you sit under a ministry that teaches and preaches the word of God on a regular basis? That's what the godly man does

The ungodly does not wanna sit under that kind of preaching because they don't wanna be convicted of their sin They don't wanna deal with their sin He goes on and says this When we pray that the word may meet with our sins, if there is any traitorous lust in our heart, we would have it found out and executed We do not want sin covered, but cured We can open our breasts to the bullet of the word and say, Lord, smite the sin Now you're a lover of the reproofs of the word You open up your vest and say, Lord, smite the sin Deal with me And then he says this

When we are thankful for a reproof, let the righteous smite me It shall be a kindness and let him reprove me It shall be an excellent oil which shall not break my head David was glad of reproof Suppose a man were in the mouth of a lion and another should shoot the lion and save the man Would he not be thankful? So when we are in the mouth of sin, as of a lion, and the minister by a reproof shoots this sin to death, shall we not be thankful? A gracious soul rejoices when the sharp lance of the word has pierced his abscess He wears a reproof like a jewel on his ear

As an earring of gold, so is a wise reprover upon an obedient ear To conclude, it is convincing preaching which must do the soul good. A nipping reproof prepares for comfort as a nipping frost prepares for the sweet flowers of spring Let me ask you again Are you a lover of the reproofs of the word of God? The psalmist said all the scripture was sweet to his taste All of it he loved He didn't love portions of it He didn't love sections of it He loved it all because all of it performed its work in him

All of it brought a response, a proper response, because the word of God effectually works in those who believe See, that's one great thing about the word of God We know that when the word of God is preached, it's gonna deal with my life That's why it doesn't make any difference who's preaching the word If the word of God is being preached, then God will teach you He will teach you through his word The problem comes when God's word is no longer preached The problem comes when God's word is masked or candy-coated with illustrations and sermonettes that really mean nothing

But when the word of God is preached verse by verse by verse, it deals with the deepest part of a man, the deepest part of a woman, and the believer loves to be dealt with He loves to be dealt with by God because God always has your best interest at stake, always And that's when the psalmist said, oh, how I love thy law See, no less than 11 times did the psalmist express his love for the law of God Psalm 119, verse number 47, and I shall delight in thy commandments which I love Verse 48, and I shall lift up my hands to thy commandments which I love

Over in verse number 113, I hate those who are double-minded, but I love thy law Verse 119, thou hast removed all the wicked of the earth like dross, therefore I love thy testimonies Verse number 127, therefore I love thy commandments above gold, yes, above fine gold He was so in love with the word of God, it meant more to him than all the riches he could possess Then over in verse number 140, thy word is very pure, therefore thy servant loves it Over in verse 159, consider how I love thy precepts

Revive me, O Lord, according to thy lovingkindness. 163, I hate and despise falsehood, but I love thy law. 165, those who love thy law have great peace and nothing causes them to stumble Verse number 167, my soul keeps thy testimonies and I love them exceedingly You see, he didn't discriminate between which part of the scripture he loved, in which part he kinda liked, in which part he didn't have to, hopefully he didn't have to read

No, he loved it all because he saw the value of the word of God, do you see it? Do you see how precious and pleasant his words are? How sweet they are to your taste? In order for you to understand that God's word effectually works in those who believe Psalmists love the word of God because it would promote a proper response to the word of God Also note point number two, the psalmist loved the word of God because it would provide for him a powerful resource It would provide for him a powerful resource

Listen to this, Psalm 119 verse number 98, thy commandments make me wiser than my enemies for they are ever mine or they are ever before me. I have more insight than all my teachers for thy testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the aged because I have observed thy precepts The word of God provided a powerful resource for the psalmist a resource that would provide wisdom, understanding, knowledge, insight, so much so he knew more than his teachers, he knew more than the aged, the ancient men, he knew not because he was smarter, he knew because he understood God

Remember Paul told Timothy in second Timothy three verse number 15 that the scriptures make thee wise unto salvation You see there's something about the word of God that does make you wiser than your enemies There's something about the word of God that gives you more understanding than your teachers Listen, it's not saying that you shouldn't be taught by someone, but if someone doesn't know the Lord, okay, they don't understand the mind of God We understand the mind of Christ

First Corinthians two talks about we have the mind of Christ so we have wisdom within us and that wisdom gives us more insight and more understanding than all of our teachers have And if they don't know the Lord, they might have some intellectual knowledge, they might have gathered together a lot of information, but wisdom is something they do not possess because wisdom can only be possessed by people who know the God who is all wise That's how it works And so you have wisdom, you have understanding, you have insight Turn to Psalm 19 for a moment Psalm 19, a very familiar psalm

The psalmist speaks about his commitment to the law of God and how great it is It says, the law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple Now the word in the Hebrew, the word simple in the Hebrew is the great word It comes from a root word that means open door, open door Now that's important, isn't it? Why? Because an open door does not discriminate When you have an open door, anything and everything can go in and anything and everything can go out You ever heard people say, well, you know, I have an open mind

You know, they should be counseled to shut that mind every once in a while Why? Because if you have an open mind, that means anything and everything can go in, anything and everything can go out So the Bible is very clear about what God's word does Let's use the illustration of your house Why do you have a door on your house? You have a door so that when it's hot outside, you keep the cool air on the inside You have a house with a door on it, so when it's cool on the outside, you keep the warm air on the inside

You have a door in your house so that you can bring your children in and shut the door and keep the enemy out, right? Keep the neighbors out Do you know anybody who has an open door policy where their front door is always open and never closed? You ever met anybody like that? The door's always open So the neighbors come and go The dogs and the cats in the neighborhood just come and go The spiders and snakes, they just come and they go Anybody can come and go because there's an open door Well, you see, it's not very wise to have an open door because you have to learn to be discerning

You have to learn to make proper judgment So the things that you don't want in, you shut the door The things you want to come in, you open the door, right? Sometimes we don't want our kids to come in the house, so we shut the door When it's time for them to come in, then we open the door again, they can come back in, right? Well, you see, the mind needs to have discernment It needs to be able to discern between that which is right and that which is wrong And a psalmist says in Psalm 19, the testimony of the Lord is so sure It makes the simple man have wisdom It makes the naive man wise

It makes the man who has the open door, that's never closed, that lets anything in know how to discern between what is good and what is evil, what is right and what is wrong to make the proper decision Only God's word can make you do that God's word gives you wisdom Wisdom, according to the Hebrew, is that skill in the practical aspects of living So much so that you are able to live a life in a right way so as to produce the most beneficial results That's wisdom Wisdom is able to apply the truth to every aspect of my life

And that's why the scripture, which is sure, it's unwavering, it's steadfast It's that one element that causes man with a naive mind, with an open door mind, with an indiscriminate mind to be discerning so that he can make proper judgment, he can make proper decisions God's word does that The psalmist says, I've become wiser than all my enemies. I have more insight than all my teachers How does he have insight? How does he have understanding? He has it because he knows what God says on the issues He's not smarter than anybody else. A lot of people are smarter than the psalmist

But he had insight He had understanding to the workings of God and how God orchestrates things according to his plan and purposes He understood that And he relished that opportunity And he says, oh, how I love your law It's my meditation all the day It causes me to have wisdom, insight, understanding, knowledge It causes me to have more understanding than all my teachers, more insight than all my enemies because I know my God Folks, that's so important How many times have you read Proverbs 24? Chapter 24, verse number three, by wisdom a house is built and by understanding it is established

And by knowledge the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches That's God's blueprint for your family That's God's blueprint for your home You must have wisdom, you must have understanding, and you must have knowledge Proverbs two, verse number six says that wisdom, knowledge, and understanding can only come from the Lord The carnal man, the natural man, excuse me, the natural man does not understand the things of God He just does not He can't Why? Because those things are spiritually discerned

And because he doesn't have the life-giving spirit within him, he can't discern what is spiritual and what is not, what is right and what is wrong Just can't Therefore, we begin to see the psalmist saying, man, I love the law of God This is so great My enemies, my enemies are gonna be subdued because I'm wiser than they are My teachers who think they know everything know really basically nothing when it comes to eternal value and the things that really count in life because I know God He's not boasting

He's not being arrogant and saying, look at me, I have more understanding than all my teachers. I am so wise, my enemies are gonna be dumbfounded No, that's not what he's saying He's giving glory to God because God's word has shown in his heart and exposed the error He's giving praise to God for the wisdom he gives It's really a praise to God It's not about him It's about what God's word has done in his life He says, they are ever before me, they're mine Now, how does God's word be ever before you? Turn to Proverbs six for a moment, Proverbs six

You know, I have so much fun studying the Bible. I wish for a moment you could just jump into my shoes just for a day to experience what it is I go through in my office as I sit and I read and study the word of God. I really truly get excited And you know, if it wasn't for the fact that I had rubber walls in my room, you could hear all that I yell and scream about in there because it truly is a great, great thing to study God's word Listen to what Solomon said in Proverbs six He says, verse 20, my son observed the commandment of your father and do not forsake the teaching of your mother

Now, this is the commandment given by your father and the teaching of your mother, that's in accord with the wisdom of God and the understanding of God Verse 21, bind them continually on your heart and tie them around your neck When you walk about, they will guide you Solomon said in Psalm 119, thy words are ever before me How are they before me? They're there to guide you, they give you direction When you sleep, they will watch over you There's protection And when you're awake, they will talk to you That's communication

You say, wait a minute, how do the commands of God talk to me? Believe me, they talk to you all the time Or I can just start to engage in sin and God's word just starts speaking to you, speaking to you, speaking to you all the time about what you should be doing and what you shouldn't be doing God's word communicates with you That's why when you meditate upon it and you memorize it, God's word begins to operate effectually in your life He says, for the commandment is a lamp and the teaching is a light There's illumination there It says then, and reproofs for discipline are the way of life

There's instruction to keep you from the evil woman from the smooth tongue of the adulterous That's admonition Solomon says, God's word is ever before me It's always there to give me direction, to give me conversation, to give me protection, to give me illumination, instruction, admonition It's all right there He said earlier, Proverbs chapter three, verse 19 The Lord by wisdom founded the earth By understanding, he established the heavens By his knowledge, the deeps were broken up and the skies drip with dew My son, let them not depart from your sight

Keep sound wisdom and discretion so they will be a life to your soul and a dormant to your neck Then you will walk in your way securely and your foot will not stumble When you lie down, you will not be afraid When you lie down, your sleep will be sweet Do not be afraid of sudden fear nor of the onslaught of the wicked when it comes for the Lord will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being caught See, the psalmist knew that having God's word ever before him would be that one key ingredient for him to live a successful life Oh, how I love thy law It is so good to me

There ever before me He says, I keep your precepts That's why he was or had more understanding than the agent or the ancient It's because he did what God said. A man of understanding lives the word of God He's not a hypocrite He understands the truth And so a man of understanding lives the precepts and principles of God's word out in such a way that he does not live a life that's contradictory or filled with hypocrisy He lives a life of equality He lives a life of quality because he lives the word of God

And so the psalmist knew that God's word would promote a proper response, provide a powerful resource, and number three, promise a personal restraint Promise a personal restraint Listen to this, verse 101. I have restrained my feet from every evil way that I may keep thy word Wow. I have to restrain my feet from every evil way so that I'll keep your word You see, he loved God's word so much He didn't want to be in a reproach upon the word of God or the name of God So he had to restrain his feet He had to guard his steps Your feet go where your feelings go

And so he had to override those feelings, those emotions with what God's word said That's important That's walking by faith and not by sight And so he had to learn to restrain his feet and that's what God's word does You see, with our children, we've been talking to them about how to live a life of godliness in an ungodly world for our devotions and our family And so we talked to our children about making right choices You gotta make right choices You gotta make wise choices You can't make foolish decisions You gotta make wise ones Joshua said, choose you this day whom you will serve

But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord We need to make wise choices Every day is a choice Everything we do, and you chose to be here this evening You chose to come to church Somebody else chose not to come to church They chose to do something else You chose church Tomorrow morning when you wake up, you're gonna choose to go to work Ah, no, I have to go to work No, you don't You choose whether or not you're gonna go to work You choose what you're going to wear to work You choose how fast you're gonna drive to work or how slow you'll drive because you wanna be late to work

Every day, every moment is a choice And we gotta make right choices, right? Make wise choices Psalms made a wise choice. I choose to refrain and restrain my feet from every evil way Can you say that? If you love the law of God, you can say that because that's what you wanna do You don't wanna bring a reproach upon the law of God You wanna be able to keep the law of God, right? And that's what the psalmist said And he knew that the word of God would promise a personal restraint He says in verse number one or two, I have not turned aside from mine ordinances for thou thyself has taught me

God, you have taught me Isn't that good? It's so good to know that your teacher is God Let me tell you something Every Christian by nature is a learner He's a disciple Matthew is a learner And so therefore, we are all learners. A Christian by nature is a learner He learns at the feet of Jesus Christ, our Lord Whenever God's word is open, God is your teacher God is your leader And that's the one you learn from The psalmist understood that He said, thou hast taught me. I have not turned aside He says, I have restrained my feet, but I have not turned aside from thine ordinances

One is negative and one is positive Because I have restrained my feet, I have not turned aside from thy righteous ordinances because Lord, you are the one who has taught me And lastly, the word of God produces a pleasing result. A pleasing result Verse 104, from thy precepts I get understanding Therefore, I hate every false way Take the first phrase, oh, how I love thy law Then take the last phrase Therefore, I hate every false way Two parentheses, two brackets around this 13th section. I love thy law And because I do, I hate every false way You see, we as Christians don't hate good enough

We don't hate enough, let alone good enough We love too much of the things that God hates Do we know what God hates? Proverbs six, there are six things that God hates Yes, seven are an abomination to him And he lists them. A lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood Goes on and speaks about those things that God hates That's what the Bible says, love not the world, neither the things that are in the world For any man loves the world, the love of the Father's not in him Why? James 4.4, if you're a friend of the world, you're an enemy of God Enemy of God

Psalm 97, verse number 10 says, hate evil You who love the Lord Proverbs chapter three, verse number seven, states it this way Do not be wise in your own eyes Fear the Lord and turn away from evil Verse eight, it will be healing to your body and refreshment to your bones You see, there's something very restorative about those who turn away from evil and fear the Lord The psalmist says, I love the law of God. I love God's law so much, I hate every false way. I hate it

How about you? Can you say that? Charles Bridges, in his commentary on Psalm 119, written years and years ago, said this about this last phrase It's very convicting, so listen closely He says, but let me ask myself, have I detected the false ways of my own heart? Little is done in spiritual religion until my besetting sins are searched out And let me not be satisfied with forbearance from the outward act Sin may be restrained, yet not mortified Nor is it enough that I leave it for the present, but I must renounce it forever

Let me not part with it as with a beloved friend, with the hope and purpose of renewing my familiarity with it at a more convenient season But let me shake it from me as Paul shook off the viper into the fire with determination and abhorrence What? Can I wish to hold it? If through the precepts of God I have got understanding, must not I listen to that solemn, pleading voice? Oh, do not this abominable thing that I hate No, Lord, let me pluck it out of my heart and cast it from me

Oh, for the high blessing of a tender conscience such as shrinks from the approach and abstains from all the appearance of evil, not venturing to tamper with any self-pleasing way, but hating it as false, defiling, and destructive. I have marked the apple of my eye, that tenderest particle of my frame, that it is not only offended by a blow or a wound, but that if so much as an atom of dust find an entrance, it would smart until it was wiped out

Now, such may my conscience be, sensitive of the slightest touch of sin, not only fearful of resisting, rebelling, or quenching the spirit, but grieving for every thought of sin that grieves that blessed comforter, that tender friend To hate every false way so as to flee from it is the highest proof of Christian courage For never am I better prepared to endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ than when my conscience is thus set against sin

Would not I then submit to the greatest suffering rather than be convicted of unfaithfulness to my God? Lord, turn my eyes, my heart, my feet, my ways, more and more to thy blessed self Shed abroad thy love in my heart that sin may be the daily matter of my watchfulness, grief, resistance, and crucifixion May that be our prayer, that we love the law of God Therefore, we hate every false way Let's pray Father, we thank you so much for the truth of your glorious word

Our prayer, Lord, is that we, as your children, would be lovers of your word, that we would see those great benefits for going after you and pursuing you and meditate upon your word all the day Thank you for the truth that's there, and may we, as your children, learn to hate the things that God himself hates, love the things that God himself loves, thus living a life bringing glory to you In Jesus' name, amen.