I'd like for us this evening to look
in Psalm 119.
Now, this is a lengthy psalm, 176 verses,
the longest chapter, I believe, in the scriptures.
And, indeed, to look at a chapter like
this, and to look at the individual verses,
and to gather thoughts, indeed, the writer of
this psalm had a tremendous interest in the
value of the Word of God.
And when you think about the scriptures, the
Word of God, it says that the Word
of God is living, is quick, is powerful,
is sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing
even to the dividing asunder of soul and
spirit, bone and marrow, discerner of the thoughts
and the intents of the mind and heart.
Indeed, we're dealing with something, and we have
in our hands that which sometimes we may
take lightly.
So often, we have to appropriate by faith
the promises that are made for them to
become very real to us.
And, of course, that's the intent of the
psalmist to impress upon us that out of
his own experience, indeed, he had proven over
and over again the value of the Word
of God.
It applies to those that are young, it
applies to those that are old, and all
in between.
It deals with every situation in life that
you can think of, and some that you've
never experienced.
But, indeed, there are answers here that should
be valued.
If you haven't already had the experience in
proving the promises that are made, as you
read and as you look at these experiences
and these promises, if perhaps in the course
of life you find yourself in such a
position, may the Spirit of God bring to
your mind the precious promises in the Word
of God.
It'll strengthen you, it'll fortify you, because your
enemy, Satan, seeks to discredit the Lord of
glory through your life.
And, it is a grave thing in our
lives.
It certainly does injustice to the Word of
God, and the value of the Word of
God, for any one of us to have
any doubts in our hearts regarding the promises
of God.
His promises are sure.
He never fails.
Any promise that he makes, he fulfills.
Let's read from verse 113, and read this
eight-verse section, and then some thoughts.
I hate vain thoughts, but thy law do
I love.
Thou art my hiding place and my shield,
I hope in thy word.
Depart from me, ye evildoers, for I will
keep the commandments of my God.
Uphold me according unto thy word, that I
may live, and let me not be ashamed
of my hope.
Hold thou me up, and I shall be
safe, and I will have respect unto thy
statutes continually.
Thou hast trodden down all those who err
from thy statutes, for their deceit is falsehood.
Thou puttest away all the wicked of the
earth like dross.
Therefore, I love thy testimonies.
My flesh trembleth for fear of thee, and
I am afraid of thy judgments.
Shall we look to the Lord again in
a word of prayer?
Our Father in Heaven, we thank Thee for
providing us with such a wonderful insight into
Your workings with the sons of men.
We thank Thee in the name of the
Lord Jesus that You've given to us Your
holy word.
Grant, we pray Thee, that each one of
us shall value it.
It, indeed, is a wonderful treasure.
You've revealed Your mind, Your will and way
to us for the course of our lives
while we live here upon the earth.
We're fully aware that many things will come
and go and pass away, but the word
of God endureth forever.
As we look at these things tonight, and
as we seek to gather something for the
enrichment of our souls, grant, we pray Thee,
that each shall be rewarded, and that all
of it will be for the glory and
honor of the Lord Jesus Christ, for it's
in His precious name we pray.
Amen.
Now, sometimes you, I think, find yourself seeking
to defend the Lord, at least you feel
that way.
From time to time you may see things
in the course of life.
A few years ago there were very prominent
displays of signs and slogans that were written
in places that said, God is dead.
Right away, for the Christian, there's a sense
of being a little angry and ready to
step forward and say, My God is not
dead.
That's good, but you have to be aware
that men with darkened minds, darkened hearts, and
living in a world in which Satan is
the ruler of this world, they're subject almost
to say anything.
Some of the things that they say, indeed,
are just ridiculous, so silly.
Now, I believe that there's such a thing
as being incensed when we really see that
righteousness is being given a black eye by
those in this world that don't even understand
the righteousness of God.
The basis of all of His dealings with
us is on that basis of righteousness, His
righteousness, and all that He has done to
provide for us in the person of His
Son, a perfect righteousness found in Him and
Him alone, the Lord Jesus, the One that
took upon Himself our sin, the One that
knew no sin, but He was made sin
for us, that the righteousness of God might
be put to our account.
This is the same God that measured out
the waters that are in the sea in
His hands, and as you just take a
little walk through the scriptures, you're constantly made
aware of the greatness of our God.
You're also made aware of the silliness and
the foolishness of the hearts of men, things
that are said, things that are done, and
we may sometimes take these things for a
person.
Here's a poor rebel sinner, and perhaps every
moment of every day he's demonstrating in some
way rebellion against God.
He's rebelling against the authority of God over
his life he will not submit, and sometimes
we have a feeling within our hearts in
which we take it personal.
It's against me, but it's not.
Basically, we have to realize that all of
this rebellion, all of this hatred and bitterness
that one sometimes finds in his soul, is
from a source that most of us honestly
have to look back and say, there was
a point in my life when some of
these same things I entertained in my heart,
my mind.
Poor sinners outside of Christ do some pretty
ridiculous things.
The psalmist talks about the wicked, those that
are intrinsically evil down to the very core.
They're lost, and they're rebelling against the authority
of God, and when the psalmist considers all
of this, he says, I hate evil.
I hate vain thought.
I hate double-minded men.
I hate those that, in a sense, have
been taken prey by the God of this
world, and the ridiculous things that are happening
in their lives I recognize the source, but
I still hate it.
I detest it.
The word of God says that you can
be angry, but be sure you say not,
and don't let the sun go down on
your anger.
It's proper, it's in order, that when we
observe some of those things in this life
that we recognize the source.
It is from the God of this world,
it's from Satan.
It primarily is addressed as opposition against God.
We have to recognize it as such, but
it does make us a little angry.
That's a natural response.
The psalmist says, I hate vain thoughts.
I hate the double-minded, but I love
the law of God.
We can ask ourselves the question, in view
of all of the distressing things that happen
in this life, all of those things that
are observable in the lives of those that
are rebelling against God, you certainly won't find
any comfort in making these observations, and it
may cause you to be a little angry.
Think of how comforting it is to read
the word of God.
It has that effect of calming one's spirit
within, and as we read and study and
meditate upon the scriptures, it gives us heavenly
thoughts of the God that we serve, the
Savior who loved us and gave Himself for
us.
I believe that those in this world that
know the Lord should take a stand for
holiness.
Godliness with contentment is great gain.
The problem is that, in the world today,
people are not interested in being godlike.
Most people are just interested in being happy.
And they go about all sorts of things
or pursuits with the hope that, some way,
I'll find happiness in this life.
And they're chasing shadows, and they're living in
a world of fantasy.
If we are to find the real true
source of satisfaction and joy for the soul,
it has to be found in God.
To be godlike and to understand more perfectly
our God, the God that created all things,
the God who sovereignly rules even in the
affairs of men where God is ruled out
and we will not have this God to
rule over us.
He still sovereignly rules, no matter what men
say, no matter what ridiculous positions they take.
And even though they assume a posture of
being godlike, yet they have no power, very
often there may be an advantage sometimes to
be gained in at least taking a stand
on the side of that which is truly
righteous.
Men are given to being double-minded.
James talks about those that the instability in
their lives, they're like the sea and the
waves of the sea, and you never really
know where they stand.
And they say so many foolish and silly
things.
Well, the psalmist can go on record as
saying, I hate all that.
I hate all those things, and that's enough
to just say I disapprove of all of
that because God's judgment is appointed unto men
once to die, and after that the judgment.
You know, our Lord Jesus, with all of
the injustice that was aimed at Him, when
He reviled, He reviled not again.
When He suffered, He threatened not, but He
committed Himself unto Him that judges righteously.
When we're fully persuaded in our own hearts
and minds, one day God will rectify all
of the injustices in this life.
Righteousness will prevail.
I can say, Lord, I've been on Your
side all the time.
I was fully persuaded of that.
You convinced me of that long ago, but
during the course of my life, I expressed
disapproval of all of these things.
I believe the righteous should take a stand.
It is with holy boldness that we should
stand up in this world and let men
know where we stand.
I value more the Word of God than
I do the words of men.
Men are liars.
Men are deceivers.
Again, it's traceable back to the God of
this world who is a liar and a
deceiver, and so those that are His willing
subjects, they do their master's bidding.
But our God is a pure and a
holy and a righteous God, and when we
think of all of the things in this
life that are so contrary to that purity
and that righteousness, we must express our disapproval
of it.
I think the psalmist is aware that there
are always those around, and there will be
until our Lord, in that final time of
judgment upon all unrighteousness, a setting of things
right.
He says that we have to recognize at
least the danger that is presented of evil
that is fostered by those doubters and apostates.
And like Paul's words in Ephesians 5, verse
11, he says, "...have no fellowship with the
unfruitful works of darkness, but reprove them."
We must speak out.
We must let men know.
No, I don't approve of the things, even
though our legislators, our supreme court justices, they
may approve of legalized murder, abortion.
But we must be bold and say, no,
that cuts right across all that I know
to be true in the Word of God.
That's murder.
That's a sin.
And, as a nation, we say, in God
we trust, and then we are involved through
this legislation with all of these laws that
have been enacted in something that legalizes something
as horrible as killing unborn children.
There's so many other things that you can
say in which today, if you take a
stand for these things, you're characterized as being
a fundamentalist.
You may be called some other names.
You may be called ignorant, unlearned, and out
of touch with the progress that perhaps scientists
are making in the world today in uncovering
the mysteries of the universe and this sort
of thing.
Well, believe me, it's only a smokescreen, and
I know that in the hearts of many
of these, there must be deep, troubled thoughts.
There has to be, because they don't know
the peace of God in their souls, and
it requires that they keep busy, busily engaged
in seeking to find some satisfaction even in
an area in which sometimes dishonor is brought
upon the name of the Lord by some
that even claim to know the Lord in
the experience of salvation.
Secondly, I think Christians, and I believe the
psalmist was aware of this, that we're not
to allow such idle, vain thoughts to be
coursing through our minds.
It's good to meditate upon the Word of
God, and thou wilt keep him in perfect
peace whose mind is stayed upon thee.
It also says that we are to keep
our thoughts and our minds, our affections upon
things that are above where Christ sits at
the right hand of God.
When Paul writes to the church at Corinth,
he says, casting down imaginations.
There's some strange things that you can go
through your mind, and Paul says, be aware
that the one that is the ruler of
the kingdom of darkness, the one with such
subtle power, can introduce, if he can prepare
those ministers of righteousness, and he himself can
appear as an angel of shining light, certainly
as that master deceiver.
But all of the strange things that are
provided today for men to think upon, things
because of the discernment that we have based
upon the Word of God, we know are
a fraud and a sham.
Paul says, cast down those imaginations, those vain
thoughts, and every high thing that would exalt
itself above the knowledge of God, and bring
into captivity every thought to the obedience of
Christ.
You know, the answer is found in the
Word of God.
Clear instructions are always provided for God's people
so that we can keep our lives under
the control of the Spirit of God.
That course that he directs is a safe
course, or it may be rocky at times.
There may be all sorts of things along
the pathway.
The psalmist speaks, indeed, of the entrapment by
Satan of those that he seeks to bring
into subjection to himself.
I know the Word of God says, Be
strong in the Lord.
Put on the whole armor of God that
you might be able to stand.
The days are evil.
These are distressing times that we live in.
Let God's people be fortified with the Word
of God.
Let's be prepared to give every man an
answer of that hope that is within us.
You see, we can't claim that these things
are original with us.
It's the Word of God.
We speak for the truth that God provides
for us from His Word.
I hate, the psalmist says, vain thoughts, but
I love the Law of God.
You and I reject, and indeed we detest,
those that seem to find it so difficult
in the course of life to take a
clear-cut stand as far as their Christian
profession is concerned.
It bothers you when someone says, I'm a
Christian, and yet there's so much that swirls
around his life that bespeaks of a love
for this world.
He's not clearly marked out and defined as
being a person that knows Jesus Christ and
the experience of salvation.
Scripture says, If any man is in Christ,
he becomes a new creation.
All things pass away.
Behold, all things become new.
But in the course of life, we see
individuals.
I'm a Christian.
It's so easy to say that, but then
the life, there's something about it that's not
clear-cut.
You can keep one foot on this side
of the fence, and the one here, and
we call it fence straddling.
We call it the gray area.
Oh, you say, he's not completely in the
dark, but then I can't say he's in
the light, either.
I think something that we find in the
word of God is in 1 Kings, chapter
18, when Elijah, he says to all that
were assembled there that day when he was
challenging these false prophets, and he was bringing
it to the attention of God's people and
all that were present, that we're going to
prove something today, and I want you to
be a witness to it.
He says, How long halt ye between two
opinions?
Will you worship God, or will you worship
Baal?
I trust you know the story, and you
know that a victory that day, because of
the faithfulness of a man that was wholly
bold, was willing to put his God to
the test, and his God was victorious.
The judgment that fell upon those false prophets,
he wanted God's people to be delivered out
of that realm of being indecisive as to
who they were going to worship.
The one that they owed their allegiance and
their loyalty to, and God forbid that one
of us should have a testimony as a
Christian that it was not clearly definable, that
we believe that holiness of character on a
walk in this life that would indeed bring
glory to God, that it is something that
characterized us as we walk through this pilgrim
pathway.
Men and women would know, we would know
by our actions, by what we do, what
we say, where we go, that godliness was
something that we put a high value upon,
and we would have no part in those
realms of evil and darkness that men seem
to almost glory in today.
Scripture tells us our God is a jealous
God, and He certainly doesn't want any one
of us to have any fails in our
lives.
Doesn't the first commandment say, Thou shalt have
no other gods before me?
And there are so many false things that
can be introduced into our lives.
They appear to be so harmless, and they
even have the approval of the world, but
they are rejected by the word of God.
Anything that would come between me and my
God should be utterly rejected.
Jesus Christ should have the preeminent first place
in our lives.
And, of course, the psalmist, the next verse,
114, in contrast to such conditions as they
exist, and men with all of their vain,
empty-headed thinking, his love, his faith, all
that he associated with belonging to the Lord
and the worship of his God, his hope,
it was firmly established that his hope was
in his God, and his God had given
him his word, and that was the fight.
But when you get to verse 115, he
comes forth with a very firm declaration, and
sometimes we have to take a position akin
to this.
He says, Depart from me, ye evildoers.
Now, listen, I believe in being kind, and
gracious, and loving to poor sinners in this
world, but our toleration of evil, sometimes it
may smack of even our approval or our
endorsement of it.
Let us speak out and say away with
you, I know the source of all that
you live for, the things that are most
meaningful in your life, I know the source
of these things.
Depart from me, ye evildoers.
I will keep the commandments of God, those
commandments of pure and holy.
My God looks for holiness and righteousness within
the inner parts.
Remember, it's the word of God that discerns
the intent and the thoughts of the heart
and the mind.
Our whole being is an open book to
God.
This is the God we serve, and if
we practice deceit, he knows we're being deceitful.
We could never be so clever as to
pull anything over on our God, because he
knows our hearts.
It's wonderful to know that the word of
God reveals all these conditions and warns us,
Don't let this happen to you.
Don't let Satan deceive you.
You stand ready to courageously take a stand
against all the evil that is in the
world.
Depart.
You will have no part with evildoers.
The next two verses, verses 116 and 117,
he offers in the form of a prayer
for grace.
He knows he must have God's help if
he's to be victorious, and don't ever think
you can gain a victory apart from God's
help.
That's what he's there for.
He says, Call upon me in the day
of trouble.
I'll hear you, and I'll help you.
That's Psalm 50, verse 15.
You call upon me.
I have an attentive ear.
I'm listening.
All I'm listening for is your cry.
You say, Help, Lord!
I need help.
He stands ready to help.
He promised it in his word, and he
can preserve us.
The word of God tells us that we
can be more than conquerors through him that
loved us and gave himself for us.
We should be fully aware that perfect victory
can be ours in the provision that God
has made for us.
I know that very often in the scriptures
you read that word, ashamed, and it means
to be affected by the reproach that may
be associated with someone else.
I think about Paul.
He says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ.
It's the power of God and the salvation
to everyone that believes it.
Now, Paul had made a determination in his
heart, I will not be ashamed.
I will not be affected by the reproach
that is upon that person Jesus Christ, this
world with all of the enmity within the
heart, all of the bitterness, all of the
hatred that is directed toward that blessed person,
the Son of God.
I know where men stand on that issue.
I'm not ashamed of Christ.
I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus
Christ.
It is the power of God and the
salvation to everyone that believes it.
So, when we even entertain a thought in
our minds that there might be some social
blemish brought to bear upon me, if I
take this very firm stand, I believe in
God.
I believe in Jesus Christ as the Son
of God.
I believe that He is the Savior of
sinners.
I believe in the atoning sacrifice that He
made upon Calvary's cross to provide salvation for
us.
I have believed this.
I will, in the course of my life,
make all of my claims for the forgiveness
of my sin and the acceptance of the
Holy and Righteous God upon the crews that
are found in this book.
I'm not ashamed of this.
There's a tremendous tendency within the soul to
be frightened by men, and I know that
our enemy, Satan, he seeks to terrorize God's
people, and I know he is a mighty
foe.
I know that picture of a roaring lion
going about seeking whom he might devour.
Indeed, he's formidable.
I don't minimize that for a moment.
Greater is he that is in you than
he that is in the world.
And when we claim these wonderful promises, the
promises of our God, we are fortified in
that quietness of spirit, that blessed assurance that
in the face of all the opposition that
we may find coming our way, I'm not
ashamed.
I'm not ashamed.
We stand in a day in which it
appears that some are indeed wavering because of
all of the opposition that sometimes is directed
toward the gospel.
We live in an area in this land
in which we live.
It seems that it's almost protected.
It seems like there's almost a hedge around
us.
There are many other places in which there's
a hostility toward the gospel.
Is opposition really a raid against the preaching
of the Word of God?
Men and women carrying their Bibles, their scoffers,
they are those that do their evil work,
sometimes even under guise, of having the answers
to problems that men are faced with, which
we personally know and believe from the Word
of God.
This book, the Word of God, is that
which supplies the answers to the problems of
men.
In verse 118, from his sheltered place, he
has made an observation.
God's judgment.
If God promises something, He'll do it.
You know this to be true.
Men are to take lightly.
They do take lightly.
If we say that God says that one
day He will cast into the lake of
fire all of those that have rejected the
Son of God, everything that is evil, everything
that is opposed to the righteousness of God,
it will be judged justly and righteously.
And then we make an observation.
God has promised that, but men sometimes are
aware that these things have been said.
But the thing they don't take into account
is that that Word will be fulfilled.
They don't believe God is going to do
what He says He's going to do.
Some way, somehow, it won't be quite that
bad.
And how often have you heard this?
Oh, that's just your interpretation of Scripture.
You know, when you talk about hell, the
lake of fire, a place that is very
unpleasant, a place that bespeaks of judgment, someone
says it's not quite that bad.
You're just painting a picture, and indeed your
picture is not really what it's really going
to be like.
We see something far less than that, and
through these vain imaginations of men, they're able
to soften and sometimes even discredit those things
that are said in the Word of God.
I can say this.
Don't you be deceived.
God will not be mocked.
Whatsoever men sow, that shall they reap.
A statement is made here in which so
often we think about the course of the
Christian life, in which there is a refining
process that's going on, and there's so many
things in our lives that God, by process
of trial and testing and so many experiences
in life, He removes the dross.
But, when the psalmist thinks about the wicked,
he says, I'll put it away, the dross.
Well, the Christian goes through a refining process
with a view of just producing the pure
gold, that precious metal.
But, the wicked are looked upon as being
nothing but dross.
That's all they are, and that's the way
the psalmist sees them.
Isn't that horrible?
Here's a man made in the image and
likeness of God because of his defiance of
God, because of that position that he takes
opposing God.
He's looked upon as being dross, and dross,
of course, is worthless.
This erring as to judgment, the psalmist sees.
He approves of God's judgment.
God's judgment is righteous.
God's judgment is true.
It is right, and no one can ever
say that God was unjust in the things
that He did.
The last verse of this section, he says,
My flesh trembles for fear of thee, and
I am afraid of thy judgment.
You know, when you think about the judgment
of God falling upon this world, and how
awful that judgment will be, if we can
come to grips with that, and realize the
reality of it, just as the psalmist has,
when he thinks about the judgment of God,
he says, My flesh trembles, and have you
ever heard the expression, it made my hair
stand on end?
Well, it's a little akin to that.
I'll tell you, we would promote holiness of
life, and put a different value upon the
righteousness of God if we discerned more perfectly
the judgment of God.
It would cause each one of us, in
our hearts and souls, to be aware the
judgment of God, it will fall.
If we don't hear a lot of preaching
about the judgment of God, not as much
as we should, but the judgment of God
is real.
To the psalmist, it made it tremble.
I think about Jeremiah and his pronouncements and
thinking about those false prophets, and indeed there
was a deep sense of fear and distress
that overcame his soul.
So, I look out on this world in
which we live, and know the judgment of
God will fall, that judgment that is being
impounded day by day.
It will surely come, but those in this
world say it won't come.
It won't come.
We're going to create utopia right here upon
the face of the earth.
We're going to have our own Garden of
Eden.
We don't need God.
But, I know the judgment of God will
come, and those that know that God, Creator
of all things, the sovereign ruler of the
universe, are persuaded in their hearts this judgment
will come.
And, I have a sense of fearfulness for
those that will experience and feel the mighty
power of God's judgment upon them.
What an awesome thought, and to have the
comforting promises of God's word to sustain and
strengthen us and fortify us as we walk
through this pilgrim pathway.
Shall we pray?
Our Father in heaven, with thou my presence,
again thanking thee for the word of God,
thanking thee, O God, for this revelation of
thyself, being reminded again and again and again
that the psalmist had taken your word, or
the psalmist had taken and proven the word
of God.
He had found it to be that which
would strengthen his soul.
He had found it to be that which,
in the face of all that he had
witnessed in this life, there was nothing comparable
to it.
Because, all of the promises of men, they
come to naught.
The promises of God, they stand and endure
throughout all eternity.
O God, we thank thee tonight that we
claim your promises, claim your promises for the
salvation of our souls.
We claim your promises for sustaining us and
keeping us through the course of this life.
We claim your promises for an eternity in
your presence, bearing the likeness of your wonderful
Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
And, tonight, we pray thy blessing upon us.
Grant, we pray thee, that a new value
and a new appreciation of the word of
God shall be instilled in our hearts.
For this we pray in the name of
the Lord Jesus.
Amen.