You're listening to Key Life Fellowships Pulpit ministry
podcast. We thank you for tuning in as we
learn from God's Word together. If you would like more
information regarding Key Life or to speak with one of our
pastors, please visit us at keylifefellow-ship.com.
Wait, man, aren't you thankful for the words of the life that
the Lord has spoken in His Word? Give the Lord praise this
morning. You have your Bibles with you.
Turn to Psalm 119. If you don't have your Bible
with you, I ask you this question, why in the world would
you not bring your Bible with you to church?
But if you have your Bible and you have your digital device
that will allow you to see your Bible, turn with me to Psalm 119
as we continue our study entitled Living a Life in the
Light of God's Word. We started this study back on
April the 6th, a little over six months ago as we have journeyed
through this wonderful chapter in the Psalms, and we would.
Air if we were to stop short. Of what we're going to see today
on October 6th 1536, after being betrayed by Henry Phillips.
Henry Phillips being a man who pretended to be a good friend.
This man who we are discussing today was imprisoned in
Villevoord Castle in Antwerp, which is modern day Belgium.
For over a year. He faced harsh conditions and
mistreatment and this man was then tried and he was found
guilty for his crimes and he was sentenced to death.
Following his sentencing, he was then led to the state to be
burned there in public. He was to be executed in the
Vilver Town square, but before being burned he was then
brutally strangled to death and then he was set ablaze for these
horrific crimes that he had committed.
His last words were Lord. Opened the King of England's
eyes. Who was this, many of you may
wonder? And what awful and sinister and
vicious crime did this man commit to deserve such a
grotesque execution? Well, this man was a man by the
name of William Tyndale and he had fled from England and he was
now, he was now being murdered simply because he translated the
Bible from the original Greek and Hebrew into the English
language, which was forbidden and against the law in those
days. You see, William Tyndall
believed that God's Word was so important that everyone not not
just the priest, not just the clergyman who who could only
read it in Latin, but that everyone needed.
Access to the. Scripture in their own language,
he once was recorded saying to a Catholic clergyman.
He said, If God spare my life, ere many years I will cause a
boy that driveth the plow shall know more of the Scripture than
thou dost. William Tyndall desired that the
plowboy would. Learn the Word of God and be
more educated in the Scripture than even those in the Catholic
priesthood. Of the Pope himself, he
understood how important the Word of God truly is.
In fact, he understood Second Timothy chapter 3 verses 16 and
17 that we had read for us a moment ago where it said all
Scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking,
correcting and training in righteousness so that the man of
God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
And William Tyndall wanted every man.
To be thoroughly equipped for every good work, Tyndall
believed we needed this book, and he spent his life, and he
ultimately gave his life so that we could have it.
As many of you hold there in your hand a copy of an English
Bible, please know that we have that because it was worth it for
a man to give his life so that we could read the very words of
life that we sang about a moment ago.
The very God breathe Scripture. Within a few years of Tyndall's
death, his final prayer was answered and King Henry the
Eighth of England had a change of heart and he authorized the
printing of the Bible in English.
This Bible is known as the Great Bible and he mandated that this
English Bible be read in all of the churches in England.
Nearly 90% of that finalized English copy of the Bible was
translated by the work of William Tyndall, who believes
that the word of God. This old book was important in
our day. As we know there are many
liberals. When I speak of liberals, I'm
not talking about political liberal.
I'm talking talking about liberal theologians and liberal
so-called Bible scholars who have convinced themselves.
That the Bible is outdated. And it's no longer needed or
it's no longer relevant. But may we not fall into that
camp. May we consider the great cost,
the great price that has been paid so that we can have the
very Word of God in our hands, in a language that we can
understand, that we can grasp, and that we can learn from.
And we see our need for this old book and why we need this old,
in fact ancient, in fact eternal book.
In fact, more accurately describe it. 66 books joined
together by the sovereign hand of God, canonized throughout
Scripture, kept throughout history, excuse me, and kept for
us as the Holy Scriptures that we now gaze upon this morning as
we look at the 119th Psalm together under the heading.
Tav. Which is the final letter in the
Hebrew alphabet, which ironically means truth and the
psalmist ends the 119th Psalm with.
Truth. He says this.
May my cry come before You. O Lord, give me understanding
according to your word. May my supplication come before
you. Deliver me according to your
promise. May my lips overflow with praise
for you. Teach me your decrees.
May my tongue sing of Your word, for all Your commands are
righteous. May Your hand be ready to help
me, for I have chosen your precepts.
I long for your salvation, O Lord, and Your law is my
delight. Let me live that I may praise
You, and may Your laws sustain me.
I have strayed like a lost sheep.
Seek Your servant, for I have not forgotten Your commands.
Let's pray together. Father, we come to you now in an
age and in a culture who seemingly wants to dismiss your
word as something that is irrelevant and of the past.
But Lord, we need your word. We need this old book.
We need to read it. We need to study it.
We need to value it. God, I pray as we look at this
last section of the 119th Psalm that we see the Psalmist
declaring alongside of us our great need for the Scriptures.
May we value them like never before.
May we walk in them like never before.
May we see our great need like never before, but I pray for
those who are here today who do not know Christ.
I pray that through Your Word today they would see their great
need for Savior, that you would rescue them from their sin as
they call on you, just as Your word promises to do.
And we will give you all the praise and all the glory for it
in Jesus name, Amen. And so we wind up our study in
the 119th Psalm. And what a journey it has been,
hasn't it? How many of you would say,
because of the 119th Psalm in our recent days, spending time
there, analyzing, meditating, studying, reading, that a hunger
for the Word of God has been grown inside of you by the power
of the Holy Spirit? Living in you, I know that many
of you have personally come to me sharing testimony of the work
that God has done. But I believe that we all take
away something from this. And if we can't take anything
else away from this, though there are thousands of things
that we can take away from it. I pray today that we would.
Understand this last section, that we would take away the fact
that we need this old book. The psalmist is going to tell us
why. When the world tells us that
it's not relevant and that it is outdated and that we have no use
for it in our modern culture and our modern way of thinking, in
our modern philosophy and all of our fancy science and all of our
fancy medicine, may we see that we still have a great need.
For the book, as we look at the psalmist, he's going to declare
this morning why we need this old book.
Verse 169 says this. May my cry come before you, O
Lord, give me understanding according to your word.
May my supplication come before you deliver me according to your
promise. 1st I want you to see that this old book promises
believers access to God. If you want to know why do we
need this old book? It is in this old book that God
has preserved throughout the ages.
It is through this book that we realize that we can and do as
believers, have access to the very throne room of God
Almighty. The psalmist here, he's
obviously petitioning God based on the fact that he knows that
he has access to God. And how do we know that we have
access to God? But by the fact that the
Scriptures declare that we can access our creator, God's Word
gives us that confidence. God Word.
God's word gives us that assurance.
God's Word promises us simply that we can come before him.
Look at the psalmist's heart here.
He says, May my cry come before you.
Lord, I'm presenting to you desperation in the cry.
May my supplication come before you.
And he said, May these things come before you according to
your word, according to your promise.
May I access you exactly how Scripture says that I can access
you. Many of us have forgotten to
value the fact that we can access the throne of God.
Many of us have forgotten to see what a privilege that it is.
Scripture is very clear that once we were alienated from God,
once we work cut off from God. But now those of us who are in
Christ, we have direct access to the very throne room of God and
the throne room that we can enter into God describes as his
throne of grace. And I'm thankful that I can, and
you can who are in Christ, access God's throne of grace.
We don't have to stand any longer before his throne of
judgement, knowing full well that's what all.
Of us deserve we can come before God's throne of grace as a
psalmist cries out to him. Let us be reminded that our
cries come before God's throne of grace as well.
In fact, Psalm 34 verse 17, it says this, the righteous cry out
and the Lord hears. Them, and He delivers them from
all their troubles. O may we from the Scriptures,
this old book, have the confidence of knowing that when
we cry out to God, He does truly hear us and He does truly work
on our behalf for His glory. Hebrews 416 speaks of this
throne of grace where He says, let us then approach the throne
of grace with confidence so that we may receive mercy and find
grace to help us in our time of need.
Christian, whatever it is that you were going through, whatever
it is that you are in need of the very word of God says that
we have access to God's throne of grace in our time of need.
Perhaps today you need strength petition is thrown.
Perhaps today you need wisdom petition is thrown.
Perhaps today you need deliverance petition is thrown
and have confidence from. The Word of God that He promises
believers access. To God, we are no longer cut
off, we are no longer alienated. We are invited in.
We are welcome to, to, to commune and to even dine with
God Most High. First John.
John says this in chapter 5, the 14th verse.
He says this is the confidence we have in approaching God, that
if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.
Oh dear Christian, hear that this morning.
That you have full access as a son, as a daughter of God most
high into His throne of grace, where you can ask anything
according to His will, and he hears you.
Be confident of that. John Owen said this.
He said the throne of grace is a throne erected in the heart of
God, where mercy reigns and grace is dispensed.
Do you need mercy? Do you need grace?
Run to his throne. He there delivers mercy and
dispenses grace to all who trust in Him.
Jeremiah Burrows said this. God delights to have us come to
him, and he opens the door to the throne of grace and bids us
welcome. Well, that's for all of you.
We've been listening to the lives of the enemies.
Even as the enemy, even as a believer, you have thought to
yourself, surely God will not welcome me in.
For all of you who are in Christ, let me assure you of
this according to His Word. He welcomes you in, and he
delights to have you come. Jesus himself said, Come unto
me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you
rest. Says take my yoke upon you, for
my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
Well, this old book promises believers access to God, access
to God's throne of grace. But how about this in regard to
access, Access to God's infinite wisdom and His perfect will?
It is in the Scriptures that God gives us access to His very
mind. I want you to stop, and I want
you to think about that for a second.
He gives the finite human access to His infinite mind.
We are enabled by the Scriptures to understand our Creator in a
way that we could not otherwise ever begin to understand Him.
It is because in the Scriptures He reveals Himself unto us.
It's the Scriptures that give us access to the mind of God.
Psalm 32, eight, the psalmist declaring this from the Lord, I
will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go, and I
will counsel you and watch over you.
We have a God who gives us counsel and who gives us wisdom,
who directs our steps according to his word.
Romans chapter 12 Paul describes it like this and in 12 verse two
he says do not conform any longer to the pattern of this
world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind and then
you will be able to test and approve what God's will is, his
good, pleasing and perfect will. Paul is teaching the Romans
this, that it is in the transformation of our minds from
our human secular way of thinking, sinful way of
thinking, to a mind that now thinks biblically and
scripturally. As God reveals Himself unto us,
we are then transformed in our minds.
We actually put on the mind of Christ His infinite mind,
knowing His infinite wisdom, and be being made familiar with His
good, pleasing and perfect will. You say, well, Kurt, does that
mean if you read the Bible that you're going to become infinite?
No, I'm still finite. It allows me to see a glimpse
into His Majesty and a glimpse into his glory.
And to think that such a king would ever allow a peasant like
me to even glimpse upon his sovereign reign, to glimpse upon
his infinite wisdom and his pure, pleasing and perfect will,
and to even know those things. In my life, it's Paul who said
to Timothy that the Scriptures make a man wise unto salvation.
There in Second Timothy chapter 3 verse 15.
Oh, where would we be had the Scriptures not made us wise unto
salvation? I can tell you this, had the
Scripture not been shared to me, I would still be lost and undone
in my sin and in my unrighteousness.
Yet it is through the scriptures God has given us access and
promised us this access into seeing who He really is and
seeing our great need for Him. So we see this old book promises
believers access to God, to which I hope that each.
Of you are. Thankful for access to God's
throne of grace and to His infinite wisdom and will.
But how about access to God's power?
Let us not forget this psalmist. Not only said, May my cry come
before you, O Lord, give me understanding according to your
word. I I want to know your will and I
want to know your wisdom. But he also said, May my
supplication come before you deliver me according to your
promise. He knew that in the Scriptures
that he also had access to the power of God.
It is there that we see that our God has the power to deliver us
from every single situation and circumstance, even the very
death that we will all encounter one day.
His word promises us a victory over death through the Lord
Jesus Christ for those who trust in him.
And so we see that the promises that we have in Scripture, they
allow us to access God's power in our life.
Psalm 145 There in this particular Psalm, the psalmist
is celebrating abundant goodness and the power of God, and it
brings him great joy. In Second Chronicles chapter 20
verse 6, it says this, O Lord God of our fathers, are you not
the God who is in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms
of the nation's power and might are in your hand, and no one can
withstand you. There we see the man of God
recording for us the fact that God is almighty and no one can
stand against him. And it is this Almighty God who
allows us access into his sovereign almighty throne room
to call on Him, as the psalmist is doing here in supplication.
Deliver me. And he's calling on him with
great confidence. Why?
Because the promises of Scripture give us confidence in
the power of God that He can and He does, and He will deliver us
from every situation that we face in this world.
So the psalmist confidently approached God because the Word
declared that He could. And without, without this
promise, we would continue to feel as if we could not approach
God. But over and over and over in
Scripture we see the opposite of that, that He sent His only
begotten Son to this earth to die in the place of wretched
sinners. And to bear the wrath and the
judgement that belonged to us, and to give us His
righteousness, so that our status would be now counted as
righteous before a holy God. Therefore we can enter in
through to His throne room through the sacrifice of Jesus
Christ and the righteousness that He has imputed and given
unto us. Why do we need this old book?
Because without it we would have no knowledge of the fact that we
can now access God the Father. And we can access him
confidently. Secondly, this old book and why
we need this old book is because it postures man.
Properly or may we all agree that before we were regenerated
in Christ, our posture was skewed.
We were postured to sin. We were postured toward
wickedness. We were postured toward
immorality, but it is the very word of God that God uses to
posture us properly. The psalmist declares this here
in 171. He says, May my lips overflow
with praise for you. Teach me your decrees.
May my tongue sing of your word, for all your commands are
righteous. The psalmist here is praising
God for the work that has been done in and through him by God's
Word. What has happened?
The word of God has transformed his posture.
The psalmist is not complaining about those who persecute him.
He's not belly aching about the the the tough times that he's
encountered. He's not moaning and groaning
about the enemies who are who are who are constantly nipping
at him. No, what He does instead is what
He does is he begins to praise the Lord, and He's asking for
more of that. May my lips overflow with
praise. Teach me your decrees as you
teach me Your Word. May I respond in praise.
May my tongue sing of Your Word, for all your commands are
righteous. He's again looking at the Word
of God, and His posture is being changed.
It doesn't take you long if you study the Word of God to just
really break in to praise automatically and organically.
Because when you begin to see the majesty of the God of
Scripture, when you begin to see His power and you begin to see
His authority, you begin to see His might and how He loves his
people and how he works on behalf of His people.
Even when they're unaware of that, you can't help but break
into some kind of praise. The psalmist here defining that
for us, his entire posture overwhelmed with praise for God.
William Tyndall, who we spoke of a moment ago, said this.
God's word is the food. Of the soul.
And whoever feeds on it praises God.
In truth, when you feed on the Word of God, the Word of God
goes into your mind and into your heart.
And what then happened? Praise comes out of your life.
Oh, we don't have to spend much time talking about how praise
comes out of our life. It comes out of our life in the
form of obedience. The the psalmist has covered
that over and over and over throughout the 119th Psalm.
But here he speaks of two particular elements that I want
us to really look at. As the Lord positions us to
praise Him, He positions us to praise Him in every single
situation. Our praise should not be based
on our current situation or even the chaos of our current
situation. Our praise should be based on
consistent praise to God because He is consistently worthy of
that praise. He should not ever be praised
based on our moods. Let me say that again.
He should never be praised based on our moods.
Your moods change. His worth never changes.
He is just as worthy when you're going through a good time as he
is when you're going through a bad time.
And so the psalmist here is teaching us that that the Word
of God will posture us properly. So that in.
Every situation we'll praise God because He's worthy of praise in
every situation. Isn't that the proper posture
for a child of God? Has our Father not been good to
us beyond compare? Has He not been kind to us when
we don't deserve his kindness? Has He not been loving to us
when we don't deserve his love? Has he not been forgiving of us?
When we don't, we don't. Understand His forgiveness when
we don't deserve it. Of course He has.
He has been forgiving and He has been loving and He has been kind
and He has been merciful. Over and over and over again.
Let me remind you, it is the scriptures that declare even the
ones who drove the nails and the hands and the feet of the Lord
Himself, He said. Father forgive them, for they
know not what they do. And it is through the Scripture
He positions us to praise Him in every situation.
Psalm 42. Five it says, why are you
downcast, O my soul, why is so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my
God. You know what we learned there?
And we all get discouraged, don't we?
We all get downcast from time to time.
But. Even in the midst of our
discouragement and the heaviness of our souls and the downcast
that come upon all of us in this life, it does not change God's
Word. He is still worthy of all of our
praise and our proper posture should be to praise Him in every
situation. In Habakkuk chapter 3, Habakkuk
records this. In verse 17 he says though the
fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines.
Though the olive crop. Fails in the fields produce no
food, though there are no sheep in the pan and no cattle in the
stalls yet. I will rejoice in the Lord.
I will be joyful in God my Savior.
Oh, for the people in Habakkuk's day in agrarian societies, you
know what they were saying? Nothing good is happening.
We don't have any figs, we don't have any grapes, we don't have
any olives, we don't have any sheep and we don't have any
cows. Life is not good.
But God is good, yet I will rejoice in the Lord.
In every situation I will be. Joyful in God my Savior.
Notice what Habakkuk didn't say. Everything's going right, so I
praise God. Anyone can do that.
When things are going right, it's easy to praise God.
Isn't it? No, but when times are
difficult, God's Word repostures us to praise God in spite of the
situation, in spite of the circumstance that we're in.
Not only does the Word of God posture us properly by
positioning us, positioning us to praise the Lord in every
situation, but His Word also positions us to praise the Lord
in every way. I told you a moment ago, yes, we
are to praise Him by our lives, the obedience that comes forth.
But the psalmist takes it further.
He says my lips overflow with praise.
He's asking God do this work in me, let this happen.
May my lives overflow with praise constantly for you.
He's talking about his words, the things that come from his
mouth. Are you living a life of praise
for the Lord from your mouth? I know you live in a society
where when you praise the Lord, they look at you like they're
you're weird or you're strange or something is off with you.
May I encourage you to continue to praise Him anyway, to let
those around you who have no hope, who have not trusted in
Christ, know that your hope is beyond what you see in this
world, that you are going to praise God no matter what.
I talk to you often about when those people inquire of the hope
that you have, you know one of the ways that they know you have
hope in every situation, in every circumstance, the words
that come out of your mouth. You're not complaining, you're
not griping, you're not fretting, you're not cursing God
or cursing those around you. You open your mouth and you
praise God with your words. Psalm 34, verse one, the
psalmist said, I will extol the Lord at all times.
His praise will always be on my lips.
Does that describe you? It should as a child of God that
should describe each and every single one of us at all times.
His praise ought to be on our lips, and you'll find this out
very quickly. If you're praising the Lord
constantly with your mouth, you won't have time to gossip, you
won't have time to slander, you won't have time to lie.
You'll be consumed with praising him from your mouth.
I would just challenge each of you.
Oh, when you leave here today, how to think of all the reasons
and all the things that you have to praise the Lord for, and with
your mouth begin to thank Him. You will spend your entire life
every single day, every moment of every day, and never, ever,
ever run out of reasons to praise Him and to thank Him.
The psalmist showing us here the Word of God postures us properly
to be a people whose words declare the praise of our God.
But he also mentions something else he says.
May my tongue sing of your word for.
All your commands are righteous. It is the Word of God that
positions us to praise the Lord in every way with our words and
with our singing the music that comes forth from our mouths.
Psalm 13, verse 6 says, I will sing to the Lord, for He has
been good to me. Has He been good to you?
Then a moment ago, as we sang songs unto the Lord, did you
sing as if He has been good to you, or did you sing as if you
didn't want the person next to you hearing you sing?
May we see a revival in God's house among His people, where
His people sing at the top of their lungs.
I don't care what key you're in, neither does the Lord.
He wants you to sing unto Him and to make a joyful noise.
He wants you to sing His Word. People wonder often why we don't
sing the CC on Top 40 on Sunday mornings because so much of that
is not biblical. It's feel good.
It's. Soft, even times confusing.
We sing songs that agree with, if not contain exactly, the Word
of God. And we are not going to stop
doing that. Why?
Because we are to properly praise Him with His Word.
All His commands are righteous. May our tongues sing of His Word
all that He has revealed to us, His splendor, His Majesty, His
glory, His salvation. We make music with our voices
unto the Lord, not just in the assembly all of our days.
Or isn't there just something about it when you're all by
yourself and no one's there to care how bad you're messing it
up, and you sing for an audience of one out of the overflow of
your heart? Well, I love those moments where
I read something in Scripture that is again, close if not
identical to some of the songs that we sing, and all of a
sudden that song jumps into my heart and comes out of my mouth.
Isn't it true you go throughout your week singing songs of
praise to the Lord after you leave here, And you should.
And that's why it's so important that they're biblical.
That's why we approach it as such.
Because I know none of you are going to get in your car this
afternoon and sing my Third Point.
But I pray that you will sing the praise from the songs that
we sing as you remember that Third Point.
Even if you can't get it exactly right, it's OK.
But I pray that that Third Point cause you to gaze upon the
Savior who is worthy of all of our praise, and you speak of
Him, and you sing of Him with all of your might according to
the Word of God. Psalm 40 verse 3 it says He put
a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God.
Many will see in fear and put their trust in the Lord.
Psalm 96 one and two it says sing to the Lord a new song,
sing to the Lord all the earth, sing to the Lord, praise his
name, proclaim his salvation day after day.
Colossians 316 reminds us of this.
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and
admonish one another as the word of Christ is.
Dwelling in you richly as you teach and admonish one another.
Watch this with. All wisdom, wisdom from His
Word, and then watch this and as you sing psalms, hymns and
spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.
Well, that is praising hymn in song.
Ephesians 519. Paul instructs the church there
at Ephesus to speak to one another with psalms, hymns, and
spiritual songs to sing and to make music in your heart to the
Lord. May we find ourselves postured
and positioned in our lives to do just that.
May we come on the Lord's Day with excitement in our heart.
Because I can tell you this, there's no greater sound and all
the earth to me then when the Saints of God sing so loudly
that they drowned everything else out.
When they sing praise to the Lord because He has transitioned
them and He has postured them into a people and into an army
who praised His glorious name. So we see it is through the
truth of God's Word that we are transformed and we are postured
into men of praise. Because we all know this right
before the Lord changed us through the preaching and the
teaching of His Word, as we received that into our heart,
before He changed us, You know what we were?
We were complainers. Belly Acres Whiners.
I know some of you said, well that's not me.
You're probably the worst one, because by our human nature,
isn't that what we are? Isn't that what we we can become
very quickly lose sight of the important things, But His word
postures us properly, making us into people.
For his praise, for his glory, for his honor, we go to the
third. Section of this today.
This whole book is very important.
We need it because it promises believers access to God.
It postures a man properly, but it proclaims salvation from God.
This is how we find out about the God of salvation, a God who
saves. Watch what the psalmist says
here in 173, he says. May your hand be ready to help
me, for I have chosen your precepts.
I long for your salvation, O Lord, and your law is my
delight. Here's a psalmist reveals that
he knows the word of God proclaims salvation and that
that salvation is from God and God alone.
Many scholars debate on this and in 173 and 174 of this 119th
Psalm, they debate, is he talking about God's salvation as
it it it is viewed in respect to our life in this earth, meaning
that he's our deliverer in this world and he's our our constant
help in our times of trouble. He's talking about the temporal
salvation that he does offer. Is he talking about eternal
salvation? And I have read good scholars on
both sides of the argument. And I say to both sides, yes, he
is the God who helps us and who delivers us and is our ever
present help in our time of need.
He is our salvation in the temporal, in the literal sense,
in the here and now, but he is also our salvation and our help
in the eternal sense in the hereafter.
He's both. And I think that the psalmist
actually speaks that very clearly.
He says may your hand be ready to help me, for I've chosen your
precepts before he ever gets to the part where he's longing for
salvation. He says, May your hand be ready
to help me. The psalmist through the word of
God knows that God is a God who extends his hand to help his
children. That the Word proclaims that
that salvation is from God in any way, shape or form.
He says it is his hand. That constantly rescues those
who belong to him. In fact, in Isaiah 41 verse 10,
it says so do not fear, for I am with you.
Do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you.
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
It is His righteous right hand that holds us forever.
Jesus declaring that in John chapter 10.
Doesn't He make that so clear that we're in the Father's grip
and we're in the Son's grip and no one shall block us from their
hands? That we we, we should be very
grateful. It is constantly rescuing us by
his hand. Psalm 18, verse 16, it says
this, He reached down from on high, and he took hold of me.
And he drew me out of deep waters, and he rescued me from
my powerful enemy, from my foes who were too strong for me.
He's talking about the fact that God in real time is reaching
down and he is helping us. Wasn't it good to know that that
we can lift our eyes to the hills and to know where our help
comes from? Our help comes from the Lord,
the Maker of heaven and earth. He is constantly reaching out
and holding us and helping us in every situation that we face in
this life. He's a rescuer and the helper of
his people, but He's also the savior of His people,
ultimately. Matthew chapter one verse 21, we
know this is declared about the Lord Himself.
It says this, she will give birth to a son and you are to
give him the name Jesus because He will save his people from
their sins. That Jesus came to this earth to
save his people from their sins. Who are His people?
All that the Father has given unto him, and all that the
Father has given unto him will come.
And Jesus. Often times we say his name and
forget what his name means. Jehovah Yahweh saves, and it is
Jesus who came to this earth born of a virgin.
Born under the law to redeem those who were under the law to
rescue us from our transgression, to rescue us from
our sin. It is Jesus who saves.
He's a savior of his people. Psalm 37 verse 39 it says this.
The salvation of the righteous comes from the Lord.
He is their stronghold in time of trouble.
The Lord helps them and delivers them.
He delivers them from the wicked and saves them because they take
refuge in Him. The psalmist knowing that in the
Lord we have a Savior who does exactly what His name says.
He saves that we all who are in Christ ought to rejoice this
very moment. To be a people who thank our God
and you spend our lives praising Him for the salvation that He
didn't have to give unto any of us.
But he chose to rescue the many for his glory, and he has
counted us among them in Christ. So His people ultimately, as the
psalmist is doing here, will long for him, and as they long
for him, they will delight in His word.
We talked about that much in our previous lesson.
We ought to be longing for salvation to be fulfilled
completely to come. To full fruition, the psalmist
again finds himself trusting and trusting in God alone for
salvation, as we all should, shouldn't we?
It's not based upon you, based upon any work you could do, any
merit that you could ever strive for.
You're saved because God is a Savior and He sent his only
begotten Son to this earth to rescue his people from their
sin. In the word of God declares that
proclaims salvation from God and God alone Thank Him for it
properly. Thank Him your entire life and
your entire being. So this old book is needed.
Again, even though some say it's useless.
I still need a Savior, and it is in this book that a Savior has
been declared. His name is Jesus.
I would encourage each of you to trust in Him and Him alone to
save you from your sin and from the wrath that is to come upon
all unbelieving and unrepentant sinners.
We need this whole book because it proclaims the salvation that
Jesus paid for us to have, the salvation that came from God
himself. Fourthly, this whole book
provides spiritual life. 175 It says, Let me live, that I may
praise you, and may your laws sustain me.
The psalmist here. Testifying that he knew from the
Scriptures that God in His Word speaks and promises life, He is
the giver of life and he is also the sustainer of life.
Peter declared this. To the Lord.
Jesus, after many had abandoned the Lord and apostatized, only
having just intellectual faith in him and no real change of
heart. There in John chapter 6, the
Lord asked Peter. He said, Peter, are you going
to? Are you going to go away too?
Are you going to depart? Are you going to leave me?
That's which Peter says boldly as we sang a moment ago in John
668 Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal
life. Where can we go to find these
words of life? You are the only one who
provides for us the spiritual life that we need.
Please know this. Prior to Christ, you were all
dead spiritually. There was no spiritual life in
you at all. There was no little small innate
speck of goodness. You were spiritually and totally
dead in your sin and in your transgressions.
How many of you understand that? There's no such thing as kind of
dead, right? Wouldn't that be good news,
right? You get news that a loved one
has passed away, and then the doctor comes back.
Well, he's not all the way, Dad. He's just kind of dead.
Well, there's no such thing as kind of dead.
And Scripture doesn't say that you were kind of dead in your
sin. You were dead, dead, dead in
your sin. But it's through the word of
life. That God has given you spiritual
resurrection. Oh, I remember the day.
And you remember the day, if you're in Christ, that you heard
the word of God coming from the Scriptures.
And you heard the very voice that that called Lazarus out of
the grave and said, Lazarus come forth in a physical sense.
That very word that is proclaimed in the scriptures
went into your ears and went into your mind.
And God translated that into your heart.
And God allowed you to see your need for Christ, and He awakened
you to life, and He quickened you.
He. Resurrected you spiritually so
that you could believe and be saved.
John chapter 5, verse 24, the Lord says this.
I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes Him
who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned.
He has crossed over from death to life.
You have been spiritually resurrected.
And how did that come? You heard his word.
You heard the word of. Life and in that.
God provided to you spiritual life in Christ Jesus as you
believed and trust in Him. Colossians 2 verse 13 it says
when you were dead, in your sins and in the uncircumcision of
your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ.
He forgave us all our. Sin.
When you were dead, He made you alive, and He made you alive by
preserving His word and then sending someone who would
proclaim His word. And then upon the proclamation
of His word, He provided for you the spiritual life that He
promises to all who truly hear His word.
Faith comes by hearing and hearing the Word of God.
You heard the word of God, and you were spiritually
resurrected, God providing spiritual life unto you, not
only providing spiritual life unto you, but giving you
spiritual. Purpose.
He says, let me live that I may praise you, that that my life
may be about your glory, that my life may be constant praise for
you, my life may be hidden in Christ, that my life may be
completely Christ. He provides for a spiritual
life, giving us a spiritual. Purpose.
Wasn't it true that before Christ, when you were dead in
your sin, your only purpose was to sin and to store up wrath for
yourself for all eternity? I know many of you don't like to
think in those terms, but that that's exactly what scripture
says. But now in Christ and according
to His word, you have a spiritual purpose, and that
purpose is to bring God glory with your life.
In fact, Ephesians chapter 2 says this about bringing God
glory through our works. He says, for we are God's
workmanship in verse 10 of chapter 2, created in Christ
Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do
that in eternity past. God had preordained good works
for you to do for His glory, and then what He did is through His
Word. He provided spiritual
resurrection into your life. You were born again according to
what Jesus taught in John chapter 3 to Nicodemus.
And when you were born again, you believed on Jesus Christ,
You repented of your sin, and now you have a spiritual purpose
in your life. You have a new life with a new
purpose. That purpose is to do the good
works. Which God?
Prepared in advance for you to do.
Now let me just stop you for a second in case you're missing
all this. You deserved death and you
deserved hell, and you deserved the judgement and the wrath.
Of a holy God, but yet in His grace He has allowed you a
different purpose, to fulfill His glory.
Because do you know this? He will be glorified in His
wrath and He will be glorified in His judgement.
The praise be to Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior, that He is
not going to be glorified in our lives in regard to His judgment,
but He's going to be glorified in the good works that He has
prepared in advance for us to do.
We get to do things that bring Him praise.
He's provided us this knowledge, this spiritual life through his
very word. First Corinthians chapter 10,
verse 31 says, so whatever you eat or drink or whatever you do,
do it all for the glory of God. He's writing to the believers
who have been saved and who have a spiritual life in Christ
Jesus. They have been risen to new
life. He says now you have a new
purpose, and that's to glorify God.
So we see that he provides spiritual life.
And This is why we need this old book because it is in this book
that spiritual resurrection is declared, that spiritual purpose
is declared. The psalmist doesn't stop there.
He says it in the next statement, and may your laws
sustain me. He's now talking about spiritual
nourishment that comes from. The Word of God, this
nourishment that sustains us spiritually, Is God still the
giver and the sustainer of life? Then He is the giver and the
sustainer of spiritual life as well as He is physical life.
And He sustains us How? By His word, I've spoken on this
before and I will share it again.
I think that the American church is spiritually malnourished.
Again, I will say I am thankful for a group of people who will
endure sound doctrine, sound teaching, who love.
The word of God, who can't get enough of it, who feast off of
it. But I'm also burdened by the
many places that call themselves churches and they give up, get
up, and they give humanistic. Psychological self help talks
and call them sermons and only maybe include some small
footnote that even might point someone to scripture somehow.
And they're afraid to feed the flock.
Can I remind you that Jesus, when he restored Peter there on
the banks of Galilee, gave him 1 mission.
His mission was to feed his sheep.
Feed my sheep. Take care of those who belong to
me. How do we do that?
How do we take care of God's flock?
We give them nourishment and sustenance from the word of God.
Is that not what Jesus meant when he said in Matthew chapter
4? When he was being tempted by
Satan himself, he says it is written, man does not live on
bread alone there in verse 4, but on every word that comes
where from the mouth of God, oh Christian.
Please hear me today, if this is the only time that you partake
of the word of God, you are starving, you are malnourished.
You need. Food over years.
You can't figure it out. Why can't?
Why can't I figure this out? Why am I always assuming like
fill in the blank? I'm distant from God.
I have no confidence in my salvation.
I don't know if God is listening.
I don't know if I can really still approach him.
I don't know if I've done too much wrong that he would ever
still forgive me. You know why you're asking those
questions? Because you are not feasting on
the Word of God that answers every single one of those
questions. How can I know God's will for my
life? Open this old book, Open it up.
Go through the pages. See how He reveals His His will
through His Word. And then walk in it, live in it,
enjoy it, and praise Him for it. He sustains us through His Word.
In fact, I don't know how a real Christian can make it without
the Word of God. You say, well, pastor, you don't
have to be so passionate about it.
Let me ask you this question. If one of you was suffering with
an eating disorder and I knew that you were starving yourself
to death, and I called myself your friend, and I didn't
intervene and say, hey, is everything OK?
Because I've noticed that you've dropped a lot of weight and
you're looking very unhealthy. You got black circles around
your eyes and. I'm, I'm really concerned about
you. You guys would say, who, who are
you? What kind of pastor are you that
would not have compassion on that person?
Of course I would have compassion on that person.
They're starving themselves to death.
I saw a kid in the street who's hungry and malnourished and I
had a sandwich and I didn't give my sandwich to that child.
Oh, you would all be quick to say, well, Pastor Jesus would
give his sandwich and you bet he would.
He'd turn it into 5 or 10 sandwiches.
Then why do we get so upset when the pastor gets up here and
says, church, many of you are starving because the Word of God
has no predominant place in your life.
Many of you are starving because all you do is come in on a
Sunday morning and get a small meal from someone else.
And you don't spend any time alone with the Lord in prayer
and in in saturation from the scripture and meditation on the
Scripture. I say these things not to
browbeat you. You are missing out on feasting
from the very eternal Word of God, which brings nourishment to
the soul of the believer. Feast off of it, dying off of
it. Gorge yourself on the truth of
Scripture, because it is in these Scriptures that we find
life, and man cannot live on bread of lone, but on every word
that proceeds from the mouth of God.
Psalm 1191-O3 You remember this, as the psalmist said, How sweet
are your words to my taste? Sweeter than honey to my mouth?
Are His words sweet? Do you long for them?
Do you long for their taste? Do.
You long to consume the very word of God into your life for
nourishment. John chapter 6 verse 63, it says
the Spirit gives life and the flesh counts for nothing.
The words I've spoken to you are spirit and they are life, the
spirit in their life. Are you missing out on that in
your life because you're neglecting the Word of God?
Let that cease in your life today.
It is from the Word of God that we receive spiritual life,
eternal life, a spiritual purpose, a spiritual
resurrection, and spiritual nourishment that sustains us in
our walk as Christians. So the psalmist knew this and
God used His word to bring life, and God uses His word to sustain
life. We have to trust in that.
Why do we need this old book? Because it provides spiritual
life and apart from this old. Book.
Word of God, you don't have spiritual life.
Lastly, we see this 176. We see that this old book points
us to our Great Shepherd. Oh please don't miss this part
of it, because many people automatically want to dub
someone who God used to pen scripture as some kind of
superhero who never struggled with anything. 176 says this.
I have strayed like a lost as sheep.
Seek your servant, for I have not forgotten your commands, he
said. I.
Remember your commands. I know how you work, I know how
you operate. What is the psalmist saying?
I'm a lost as sheep. I have strayed, and unless the
Lord rescue me, rescues me, I am in deep trouble.
What is he doing also here? He's confessing his natural
tendency to stray from the Lord and his great need for a
shepherd. Isaiah 53, verse 6.
Isaiah proclaims this. He said we all, like sheep, have
gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own
way, and the Lord has laid on him, referencing Christ, the
iniquity of us all. What is a psalmist saying here?
He's saying I am a sheep who has wandered away and who is prone
to wandering, and I need a shepherd to rescue me.
Oh, how many of you still see your need for the Great
Shepherd? Constantly.
May we realize.
That he is constantly rescuing us from us.
May we see that we are by nature prone to wander away from the
direction that he wants us to go.
How many of you would say, yeah, that's me?
No, it's OK. Three of you and me.
I mean, there's four honest Christians in the room.
I need the Good Shepherd. I need him to leave the 90 and 9
and find the one like he said that he would.
Oh, I'm so thankful that He did in my life, that He continually
does that in my life. How does He do that?
Through His Word. Because His word constantly
points me to my need for this great Shepherd.
Because without Him, I'm nothing but a lost, wandering sheep.
Let's learn a little about this shepherd before we depart today.
He's a shepherd who loves his sheep, and he loves his sheep in
spite of his sheep. He loves his sheep even when his
sheep don't get it right all the time.
He loves his sheep even when they blow it, when they mess up
big time, when they wander to pastures that they know they
shouldn't wander to. He loves his sheep.
Isaiah 40 verse 11 says this about the Lord.
He tends his flock like a shepherd.
He gathers the lambs in his arms and he carries them close to his
heart, and He gently leads those who have young.
I'm so thankful that 2000 years ago Jesus Christ died on the
cross so that the Father could gather me to his heart to
express His love to me over and over and over again.
His endless, enduring, everlasting love.
We have a shepherd who loves his sheep, and I'm thankful He loves
his wayward sheep. How about you?
I'm not going to ask you to raise your hands.
That didn't work good the first time.
All that did was divulge your pride.
I'm thankful that I have a shepherd that those of you who
are in Christ have a shepherd who loves even the wayward
sheep, who desires that they come home.
Or perhaps today some of you are wayward sheep and you need to
come home. Oh, don't believe the lies that
the shepherd no longer loves you.
If you were His and he has cast His love upon you, you will
always be His and His love will always be upon you.
Come home, come home. Just as the prodigal son
returned home, it was embraced with a kiss and given a ring and
a robe and fatted calf. Come home, Come home today.
He still loves you even though you're wayward, but he also
loves his stubborn sheep. For this I'm extremely grateful
for There is no level of stubbornness that I can't be too
obstinate to the point that God will somehow release me from his
love. I told you He loves us in spite.
Of us, there's nothing that you're going to do to change
that. Just be thankful for the Good
Shepherd. Be thankful for the Shepherd of
our soul who loves us with the love.
That we can only in this lifetime begin to understand.
And how do we know this? Through His Word.
He's a shepherd. He loves his sheep.
It's also shepherd who leads his sheep and I'm thankful for his
leadership in my life. John chapter 10, verse 27,
John's gospel. He says, My sheep listen to my
voice, and I know them, and they follow me, and I give them
eternal life, and they shall never perish, and no one can
snatch them out of my hand. He leads his sheep.
How does he lead his sheep? By His voice.
And how do we hear His voice? By His word.
Oh, you see how it all comes together now that He's leading
us. By His word.
He's leading us into eternal life, and He's leading us into
His will for our life. And we will never perish, and no
one can snatch us from His hand. Oh, I'm thankful for the
Shepherd who loves and the shepherd who leads, who's
constantly seeking and saving the sheep that are his.
Oh, I remember that day long ago, I had no idea I was one of
the sheep. So I heard his voice.
I heard his voice as the Scriptures were preached, as the
truth was proclaimed, the truth of Scripture.
God used that to call me home into the fold that Christ died
for me to be a part of. I'm thankful that He is a
shepherd who seeks the sheep. He leaves the 99.
He finds the 1. He is the one.
Luke 1910 speaks up where it says the Son of Man came to seek
and to save what was lost. He's exactly who He declares
that He is in John chapter 10 verse 11, where he says I am the
Good Shepherd, and the Good Shepherd lays down his life for
the sheep. Why is it important that we see
our great need for the Shepherd? Because it is a shepherd.
He laid down his life for his sheep.
He didn't lay down his life for those who did not belong to him.
He laid down his life for those the Father had already given
unto him. An eternity past the shepherd
sought, and he saves those who he laid his life down for His
sheep. Oh, may we be thankful.
May we be thankful for the Shepherd who loves his sheep and
who leads his sheep, destructing us, teaching us through His Word
over and over and over again. Ezekiel 34 verse 12 it says as a
shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with
them, so will I look after my sheep.
I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered
on this on a day of clouds and darkness.
First Peter 225 says, for you were like sheep going astray,
but now you have returned to the shepherd and overseer of your
souls. I pray today that God would make
known to many of you through the preaching of the Word that you
are one of His sheep. That you would hear His voice
this morning as He calls you unto Himself, unto His flock.
That He would have mercy on you, breathing life into you,
breathing faith into you, breathing repentance into you.
That you would turn from your sin, you would turn from your
unbelief, you would turn to Christ, and you would believe
today that you would follow the great Shepherd that the
Scripture points us to. Richard Baxter said this.
He said, he that hath Christ for his Shepherd shall not want, for
he will feed, guide, and defend his flock.
May we learn that. May we lean on the Scriptures
and be constantly reminded of the greatness of our Great
Shepherd. Oh, many of you are familiar
with the 23rd Psalm, aren't you? Some of you have memorized it
even in childhood. Some of you know the gist of it.
Some of you perhaps have only heard it at Funeral services
where it's most often read. Must not wait to read it on the
day of our death. Let's read it together.
It says this. The Lord is my shepherd.
I shall not be in want. He makes me lie down in green
pastures. He leads me beside quiet waters.
He restores my soul. He guides me in passive
righteousness for His name's sake.
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I
will fear no evil, for you are with me.
Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil. My cup overflows.
Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my
life, and I will dwell in the House of the Lord forever.
Well, the Scriptures point us to our Great Shepherd.
Why do we need this old book? Because it is in this old book.
How? We see that we need the shepherd
to rescue the wandering sheep. I pray today, if you are that
wandering, you are that stubborn sheep that you would.
Cry out as the Psalmist did here.
Seek your servant. But I'm not forgotten your
commands. I know your word.
I know what it says. Seek me.
Rescue me. Save me.
I need you. So as we wrap this section up
this morning, believer, I'll address you first because I know
people often wonder, why do you always end with addressing the
believer and then the unbeliever?
Because there's only two types of people in the world and
you're one of those two. You are either a true follower
of Christ or you're a complete unbeliever.
And so to the believer. I say this about this old book,
that it is the very word of God, and it is beyond old, it is
beyond ancient, it is eternal. It is the eternal Word of God
kept and preserved for us. It is a lamp unto our feet and a
light unto our paths. In fact, we are all spiritually
dead without it. It is the Word of life.
May it not be something that sits on a shelf and collects
dust and has no real place in our lives save for a Sunday
morning at church. May it be the truth that guides
us, that encourages us, that sustains us, that leads us to
our Savior in every area of our life, showing us once again how
much He loves us and how He died to save us from our sin.
May we, may we rejoice in that. To the unbeliever, May God use
His Word today as He once did in my life, to open your eyes to
the fact that you need a Savior to save you from your sin.
And that Savior is that great Shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ,
that we spoke of a moment ago. May He graciously turn you to
Christ this morning and away from sin and unbelief, bringing
you to a place of surrender where you call on Jesus Christ
and desperation, knowing what the Word says, that for
whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
May He cast His mercy upon you today.
May He rescue you, deliver you from sin, its power, its
presence, and the eternal penalty that will come upon all
unbelievers, and you trust in Christ as your Lord and your
Savior. Let's pray together, Father, in
the name of Jesus, we come to you now, thanking you for your
word. But I know to so many it is
irrelevant, archaic and useless. Lord, to those who are in
Christ, it is the very eternal Word of God that we rest all of
our hope upon because it declares to us the Savior and
who we hope. God, I pray that we value it as
such, but it truly is the word of life because it is your very
breathed word. God, I pray for the lost who are
here today who don't know Christ, that you would spare
them, that you would spare them from the wrath and the judgement
that will fall upon all the unbelieving.
That you would lead them into your grace and your mercy this
morning in Christ Jesus, saving them as they repent and turn to
you. And we'll give you all the
praise for it in Jesus name, Amen.
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