You are listening to Key Life Fellowship's Pulpit Ministry
podcast. We thank you for tuning in as we
learn from God's Word together. For more information about Key
Life Fellowship, visit us on the web at keylifefellow-ship.com.
Amen. What a an honor as we sing that
reminder. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God
Almighty. What an honor that because of
Christ we can now dwell and live in the presence of the one true
and living God who we were once alienated and cut off from.
Anyone thankful for that this morning, they don't ever want us
to lose sight of that privilege, the fact that we get to come in
and to abide in the presence of God because of Christ.
So if you have your Bibles this morning as we prepare our hearts
and our minds to receive instruction from the Word of
God, if you would turn to Psalm 119, I know that's no shocker to
any of you who have been around Key Life Fellowship for any
amount of time. When I told you that we were
going to start at verse one and we were going to walk all the
way through, that's exactly what I meant.
And we're going to continue to do that as the psalmist is going
to continue to break down these eight verse sections and to
teach us so many things that the Lord has taught him.
And we come today to the Hebrew letter Hey, which is spelled in
our English translation HE and he is going to begin another 8
verses that we are going to teach together, simply because
they belong together. And as we.
See in this section today in our series entitled Living a Life in
the In the Light of God's Word, the Psalmist is going to again,
as he will through this entire chapter of the Psalms, he is
going to again put great emphasis on the word of God over
and over and over again. And let me just tell you
something for any of you who are already at the point where you
say, man, I, I, I've heard enough about the word of God.
You have a spiritual condition and it's not a good condition.
And I pray that God would change your heart, because we're going
to see as we continue journeying through the 119th Psalm, that
had God not preserved His word for us, we would be in a
dreadful state, never hearing the truth, never learning the
truth, never receiving the wisdom and the knowledge from
God that He desires that we have.
But God has preserved his truth, and He has preserved his truth
for a reason. And that is so that we can walk
in the light of God's Word. And today, as we are walking in
the light of God's Word, we're going to see the Psalmist teach
us about knowing and trusting the great God of the Bible,
knowing and trusting him. And let me just make this very
clear that to know someone and to trust someone, that's two
totally different things. Because in order for us to trust
someone, they must be trustworthy.
And the psalmist is going to speak of God, and he's going to
speak of God as he truly is trustworthy and faithful to
everything that he has said and everything that he has promised
in his Word. And so it's.
Crucial this morning that we learn three things about God in
light of what the psalmist is reflecting toward us as we read
this. And that is this we can know and
trust God in these areas. And and that first area is this
God as our instructor, our teacher, the one who we learn
from because we are truly learning principles that are
outside of the scope of humanity.
When we open the word of God, we are learning supernatural and
sovereign truths. And so we need a supernatural
and sovereign instructor. And the psalmist understood God
as his instructor. We're also going to see that he
understood God as his director, the one who was directing his
steps and leading his life. And he was submitting to God's
word to receive that direction and, and, and that leadership in
his life. And then thirdly, the psalmist
is going to talk about God as his preserver.
And where would we all? Be had God not and and if God
ceased to continue to preserve us both in our physical lives
but also in our spiritual lives. And so I want us to see the
emphasis that the psalmist is going to make on all three of
those aspects of the great God of the Bible, because it is in
that that the psalmist really learned not just about God, but
he learned to trust the God that he knew to be those things.
And I pray that's what we learn in this message today.
So verse 33, right after the Hebrew letter, hey, it says
this, teach me, O Lord, to follow your decrees, and then I
will keep them to the end. Give me understanding, and I
will keep Your law and obey it with all my heart.
Direct me in the path of Your commands, for there I find
delight. Turn my heart toward your
statutes and not toward selfish gain.
Turn my eyes away from worthless things.
Preserve my life according to your word.
Fulfill the promise to your servant so that you may be
feared. Take away the disgrace I dread,
for your laws are good. How I long for your precepts.
Preserve my life in your righteousness.
Let's pray together. Father, in the name of Jesus, we
come to you now, thanking you for Your word that You have
throughout the ages preserved for us.
Not only so that we may know you and what a privilege and what an
honor it is to know you, but Lord also so that we can trust
You. That we can know that our God is
faithful to everything that He has promised and everything that
He has said. That we can count on you not
just some of the time, but 100% of every second of every minute,
of every hour, of every day, of every week, of every month, and
every year that we exist. And for all eternity we can
trust in your faithfulness. God, I pray as we learn that
even more today from the psalmist who knew you and who
trusted you, that we would lean into You, trusting You more and
more as our teacher instructor, as our guide in our direction
for our lives, as the One who preserves us.
Thank you, Lord, for your word, how you remind us of these
things over and over and over again.
Holy Spirit, we ask now that you would teach us these truths,
that you would make them real to us and we would apply them to
our lives. We pray these things in Christ's
name, Amen. So as the psalmist unfolds this
short chorus of eight verses, here he is speaking, of course,
of the fact that we can, as I have already said, not only no,
but we can trust God and we can trust God in these certain
areas. Look what He says there in verse
33 of Psalm 119. We're going to jump right into
this because there is a lot here.
If you were serving somewhere in the 9:00 service, you know that
there must have been, right? And so we jump in very quickly.
And he says this in verse 33. Teach me, O Lord, to follow your
decrees, and then I will keep them to the end.
In 34, He says, give me understanding and I will keep
Your law and obey it with all my heart.
So what is the psalmist doing here?
I don't want us to miss this. I don't want us just to read
through this and and think that there's nothing being said here
because there's some very important principles that often
times we forget. The psalmist is confirming his
need here and and his need for what?
He's confirming his need to be taught.
By God and not by men. He desires to be taught directly
by God. He values God's wisdom and his
instruction, and he wants it from God himself, an education
that he could not receive anywhere else.
He is saying, Lord, I need you to teach me.
I need you to give me understanding.
And he rightfully acknowledges, and he calls on the Lord as his
instructor. I know what some of you are
thinking, Kirk, what are you doing?
You are about to preach yourself out of a job.
That's not so. The true preacher, one who is
definitely called by God, will only constantly remind God's
people of the things that God has said.
And so when I stand in this pulpit, let these not be my
words that I teach, because my words in and of themselves have
no eternal value. However, when I teach the
scriptures, I am teaching the very word of God.
God breathed Holy Spirit inspired words to His people.
I know all of my critics. They get upset with that, right?
Stop teaching the Bible so much and just entertain us a little.
Tell us a funny story, tell us a joke.
Give us some entertainment. I'm so thankful that we're not a
church who's built on jokes and entertainment, but a church who
was built on receiving instruction directly from God.
And how does He instruct us? It's through His Word.
His Word instructs us about everything we need in this life.
The psalmist understands that. The Psalmist values that he
knows that the Lord is his instructor.
Oh dear Church, please don't ever say that I am your primary
instructor because all I can really do is just remind you
what God has already said. That is why I take such diligent
care. To spend time week after week
after week digging through the scriptures, desiring and praying
to know Lord. What are you saying to your
people here? Because I have no desire to be a
stand up comedian or to be entertaining for a group of
people who could care less about knowing and trusting God.
I literally want to proclaim to you what God has proclaimed in
His Word so that God can be your instructor.
The psalmist getting that, that God is his instructor, that God
is the instructor who is teaching His children, any
children of God here who are thankful that God teaches us
directly. Our heavenly Father teaches us
directly. In fact, if you were in Christ
here today, know this, that God is teaching you through His Word
this very moment as we read through the Scriptures.
It is His word into your heart. Not only that, He has sent His
Spirit to live in each and everyone of you who are in
Christ, to always be with you and always be instructing you in
regard to His Word, enlightening you to the truths that are found
in Scripture. So He desires to teach His
children. Now let me just say this, it is
a privilege to be taught by God Himself, because this is a
special teaching. This is not for everyone.
In fact, a person who is not in Christ cannot understand the
things of the Spirit. That's what Paul tells us.
But those of us who have been counted in Christ, we receive
special teaching from our Heavenly Father that he has
promised to deliver to his children.
Psalm 1/19/99. I turn your attention there and
and knowing this, that in some weeks we will get to this text
and we will preach it again. But the psalmist says this in
verse 99 of the 119. He says I have more insight than
all my teachers, for I meditate on your statutes.
What was the psalmist saying? Was he being arrogant here?
Not at all. He was saying the knowledge that
I have received from the Word of God as He teaches me, that
knowledge and that wisdom is incomparable in comparison to my
worldly teachers. My worldly teachers, as
intelligent as they may be, they know nothing in comparison to
what I can learn directly from God as one of His children.
To know that He is giving me this special teaching that comes
from Him, a teaching directly from God Himself to His own
children. You say what?
Isn't it crazy that we spend so much time in so-called churches
talking about so many trivial things and never stopping to
talk about the privilege, the reality that God himself is
teaching his children? Look at John chapter. 6 Jesus
understood this principle, and he taught on it.
John chapter 6 verse 44, it says, no one can come to me
unless the Father who sent me draws him.
Did you know this? You can't even come to Christ
unless the Father first teaches you through His Holy Spirit,
unless He teaches you. Your need for a Savior, unless
He opens your eyes to the fact that you are a Sinner and there
is only one hope for a Sinner, and that hope is the Lord Jesus
Christ. And how do we know these truths?
These truths are contained within the pages of Scripture.
To know that it is Jesus Christ, the only name given under heaven
whereby men must be saved, who came to this earth as God
Incarnate, who died on a cross, who was buried, and who rose
again on the third day, just as He said that He would.
And it is God Himself who opens your eyes to that teaching.
And it is that teaching that sets you free from sin, and sets
you free from your wickedness, and sets you free from the wrath
of God that will come upon all unbelieving, unrepentant
sinners. And so it is God who first
teaches us anything in regard to Jesus Christ.
It is God who sovereignly regenerates us, making us one of
His own, so that we are now teachable, filling us in,
indwelling us with His Holy Spirit.
Who is that ever abiding teacher in the lives of believers?
So we've received teaching directly from God.
No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him,
and I will raise him up at the last day.
It is written in the prophets. Watch what I'm showing you here.
They will all be taught by God. Everyone who listens to the
Father and learns from Him comes to me.
It is God. Who pointed you to your need for
a Savior? It is God who pointed you to the
fact that you are a Sinner. It is not some preacher who does
that or some teacher who does that.
It is only a preacher or a teacher who is repeating for you
the word of God that there is none righteous, no, not one, and
that the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal
life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Those are not our words. Those are the very words of God.
It is the word of God that says, if we believe in that Jesus who
Scripture speaks of, He will grant to us eternal life and
forgiveness of sin. That is not something that man
has made-up. That is the very words and the
promise of God. And so our great instructor, our
teacher, teaches his children, drawing them unto himself, that
he may teach them directly. What a privilege it is.
Isn't that not what Isaiah said? And Isaiah 54 was going to
transpire, He says in verse 13. All your sons will be be taught
by the Lord, and great will be your children's peace.
Parents, teach your children this principle is that every
time they open this book they are being taught directly by
God. This is not man's word, this is
not man's idea, this is not some philosophy of man.
This is God breathed, Holy Spirit inspired truth.
It is the very Word of God, infallible and inerrant, and He
teaches His children directly from His Word.
And so the true sons of God will be taught by their Father.
Oh, you know this. You know that your Father's
taught you many things in your physical, earthly lives.
In fact, long after, and unfortunately, all fathers will
at some point in time leave this earth.
At some point in time, you're going to reflect back and you're
not going to remember all the bad things.
You're going to remember the good things.
You're going to remember the lessons that were taught, and
you're going to tell other people, probably your children
or your grandchildren. My daddy taught me this.
And you're never going to forget the lessons that your earthly
father has taught you. Now I want you to understand
that principle is ever so true in regard to your heavenly
Father. True sons will be taught by the
Lord, and true sons will never forget what the Lord has truly
revealed to them. Spurgeon said it like this, and
in fact, ironically it was in his exposition of this 33rd
verse. Here in the 119th Psalm, he says
those who were taught by God never forget their lessons.
When divine grace sets a man in the true way, he will be true to
it. He's saying when you were
instructed directly from God, he makes sure that that is never
removed from your memory and you remember those things.
I find it interesting that many people can say that they have
been taught something by God, only to drift away from God and
to live their life for themselves.
And turn their back on the God who they say at one time taught
them something. Unfortunately, what we have is
we have the teaching of men many times disguised as the teaching
of God, the philosophies of men disguised as the wisdom of God.
And when those philosophies and those teachings of men wear off,
the people go back in the world and they return to their sin
because they were never truly taught by God.
Because when a man is taught by God, that teaching roots and it
roots forever in their life is changed from that point forward.
Spurgeon definitely identifying with that, confirming that God's
Word over and over teaching us that.
He says Teach me, oh Lord, to follow your decrees and then I
will keep them to the end. He said.
I won't forget them if you teach them to me.
Oh, I can hear all the wisdom of men, and it means nothing.
The Lord, when you teach me directly as your child, those
are things that will be stamped on my heart forever, and I'll
walk in those things. I'll keep them to the end.
So we see a God here as the psalmist instructor, one who is
teaching his children. But in teaching his children,
he's always teaching His Word. He's always teaching His Word,
and God delights in teaching His children His.
Word, in fact the first Kings chapter 3 verse 9, it says this.
So give your servant A discerning heart to govern your
people and to distinguish between right and wrong.
For who is able to govern this great people of yours?
This is Solomon asking for God to give him wisdom and to teach
him. And then it says in verse 10,
the Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for this.
He was pleased that Solomon would trust him to teach him
about the true wisdom, to truly teach him His word.
Psalm 32, verse 8, the psalmist says, I will instruct you and
teach you in the way you should go.
This is the Lord speaking to him, and I will counsel you and
watch over you. What a joy to know that we have
God as our teacher, as his children.
We can trust that he teaches us. He shows us the way that we
should go and He counsels us and he watches over us that that's
the three things that we're going to see come out of this
Psalm that we're looking at today.
God is our instructor, teaching his children and teaching his
children his word. Psalmist knew that he must be
taught some things. The only problem with many
people in the church, they already know everything.
They already have so much knowledge that they think they
know everything, and there's no one who can teach them anything
else, not even God himself. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm going
to break the news to you. God's knowledge and wisdom is
infinite. You can spend every second of
the rest of your life learning about Him and truly learning
about Him, and you are never going to exhaust fully who He
is. So there's always room for us to
learn more about God and to learn to trust our God more.
Where do we learn this? We learn this through the
Scripture. Let me help everyone else who
would be LED astray by common teaching these days.
We learn this through the Scripture alone.
In fact, I would implore every single one of you, when I teach
something from this pulpit, if you do not filter it through the
pages of Scripture, you are a fool.
Because many a fool have been LED astray by some slick talking
man who gave them some slick talking teaching that was not
biblical at all. Though he stood in a pulpit and
though he stood with a Bible open, he was not teaching them
the word of God. So when you were here and you
were learning, I pray that your Bible is open and that you.
Are. Holding this fallible man
accountable, and that you are looking, is he teaching and is
he instructing from the word of God?
And if he is not teaching and instructing from the word of
God, it is just his opinion. Now I try to do a good job at
this, and if I give you my opinion, and sometimes I do, I
try to preface it with this. This is how hard it is to
understand. This is what Kirk thinks.
Now, what Kirk thinks really doesn't matter in comparison to
what God says. That's why I would encourage you
strongly, not just myself. If God moves you off and you're
sitting under another man's teaching, take the Word of God
and filter every single principle and every precept and
every doctrine and every thought that that man gives to you
through the Holy Scriptures. Why?
Because that's the very Word of God, and that's what He teaches
us. From.
We have to get back to an ideology of sola scriptura where
we say that it is the scripture alone that dictates what we
believe, that dictates our relationship to God and dictates
our knowledge of God and our understanding of who God is and
who God isn't. So it's very important that you
see that God teaches us directly from His Word what a gracious
God he is, that he has preserved his word for us throughout the
ages so that we can have it, that it has not been his desire
to hide it from us. The psalmist here says, Oh Lord,
teach me to follow your decrees. There are things that God has
decreed for. US, we don't have to run.
Run around frantically as if we're searching for these
things. Open the word of God, find out
what God has decreed for his people, or teach us your decrees
and teach us how to follow your decrees.
We know you've revealed them to us.
You haven't hidden them. You haven't made this difficult.
Deuteronomy 2929 that the secret things belong to God and the
revealed things belong to man. God, show me all the things that
you desire to reveal to me in Your Word.
He's faithful to do so as he teaches His Word to the children
that He loves. Preserving the Scriptures so
that we can have them. Oh, so many times.
We pick up our Bible. We take it for granted.
Many of you have many volumes, many copies, many translations.
There was a time when men were giving their lives just to have
one for entire cities and villages.
We all have them in our hand. We all have them on our
electronic devices. Yet so many times we fail to
trust God for the instruction we need.
You know how I say that you fail?
Because you don't open the pages of Scripture.
You don't open the pages of Scripture.
And unless you have somehow become all knowing and all wise,
which you have not, you still are in need of God's
instruction, His teaching from His Word.
God has decreed things in His Word that we must have Him teach
us so that we can obey those things.
So his word teaches us what he's decreed, but is all His word
also teaches us what God demands.
Look, he mentions his law, and I will keep your law and obey it
with all my heart. I know in a.
Society where we have created a weak and impotent God.
The word demand alongside of God is something that bothers some
of you. Can I insert this, that God has
full right to demand and command whatever it is that He desires
and wills to demand and command? And I will not reduce Him to
some weak and impotent deity who does not have that right.
He has every right, especially in the lives of His children, to
tell you what you are to do. All of you who are in the room
today, you know as parents you have a right as a parent, don't
you? To demand and to command your
children to do what it is that you desire them to do.
Why should our Heavenly Father not have that same right?
In fact, whether you give it to Him or whether you don't, He has
that right. You don't have to acknowledge
it. You will do it His way.
You'll do it the hard way. But He has the right to demand
the things of His people. And it is in the teaching of His
Word that we know what these things.
Are. I know in our limp wristed weak
society we don't like anyone telling us what to do.
You got it all figured out. Did you know that's weak?
That's weak. You don't have it all figured
out. You do need help, and you do
need help from God, and you do need instruction from God.
To pretend that you have it all figured out shows your weakness.
Your weakness is your own pride. And you have to be humbled to
the point, just as the psalmist is here, where he says, God, I
need your instruction. I need you to teach me.
I need you to teach me your word.
Before you ever open the pages of Scripture, you better bow the
knee. Lord, teach me what Your Word
says. Teach me what this means for my
life. Reveal Your Word to me so that I
will keep Your law and so that I will obey it with all of my
heart, so that I will follow your decrees and follow them to
the end. So we see our instructor here
being highlighted by the Psalmist who teaches his
children, who teaches His Word to us.
Many have asked, why do you teach through an entire book of
the Bible? In this sense, it's an entire
passage of the Bible because God has preserved it to teach you
something. And if I were to jump from place
to place to place, you wouldn't receive all of the teaching that
He has designed for that passage of Scripture or that book in
Scripture to teach you. And so we.
Open it up and we walk from the first verse all the way to the
last verse, all the while praying.
Lord, instruct us, teach us in Your Word.
Why? So that we'll follow Your
decrees, keep them to the end, so that we'll keep Your law and
obey it with all of our hearts. Shouldn't that be our desire as
children of God to learn from God, to learn His Word being
taught by God? And then watch this.
The psalmist doesn't stop there in regard to our instructor.
Our instructor is teaching his children.
He's teaching his word, but he's teaching for results.
I love this part because so many people, especially in the
theological realm, are just interested in collecting
knowledge. They want to be the smartest
theologian. Around and I've met those guys.
Some of them have become such smart theologians that they're
smarter than God in their own minds.
Be very leery of that attitude where you think you have God all
figured out and you can somehow reduce him to some type of
system. God is talking here through the
Psalmist about the fact that our teacher teaches for results,
meaning this He doesn't teach just so that we can know a whole
bunch of deep truth. He wasn't just simply teaching
the psalmist so that the psalmist could be well versed in
the Scripture, so he can impress his friends about all the
Scripture he's memorized, all the Scripture that he knows, but
he's literally teaching for results.
He's teaching so that the psalmist will live these things
out. And we know we need that in the
church, don't we? More than anything in our day,
Not more knowledge. You, you have more knowledge
than any generation that has ever come through this world.
You have knowledge at your fingertips.
Where we lack is not knowledge and access to knowledge.
Even in regard to God's Word, we lack an application.
We lack in the results that God desires.
What does he desire? Well.
What did the Psalmist say? Follow his decrees.
Keep them to the end. Consistency in our lives being
sold out. Followers of Christ desiring to
please Him with every aspect of our life.
He says give me understanding in 34.
Why did he want understanding? Not so that he could be smarter
than everyone else, so he can understand God's law, so that he
could keep God's law and he could obey it with all his
heart. The psalmist knew full well what
it means to disobey the Lord. Remember the last message.
He was in the dust, broken over his sin because he had disobeyed
the Lord in some fashion. And God brought revival in his
heart. And now God has brought revival
in his heart. And now God is teaching him.
What is he teaching? Him.
He's teaching him that it's not enough just to know the Word of
God because the psalmist knew the Word of God and he ignored
it and it led him into sin. He's saying we also have to
apply the Word of God. The Bible was never given just
as a book full of information for you to memorize.
It was given so that we would live out the truths in the Bible
that we do memorize. James 122 We know what James
says. He says do not merely listen to
the word and so deceive yourself.
Do what it says. That that, that is resoundingly
similar to what the psalmist is saying here.
I want to do what your word says, and I need you to teach me
exactly what your word says. Not so that I can puff up,
because knowledge puffs up. Not so that I can puff up.
But so that I can obey, you know what I would to God I pray to
God, I I genuinely do that God would raise up not a group of
people who know his word, though I want you to know his.
Word watch this who know his word and they obey it with
their. Full hearts.
Why is that my desire? Because I know in Scripture
that's God's desire, and so I pray that His will be done in
that area. So God is a God who teaches for
results. True teaching from the Word of
God will bring obedience. It will result in obedient,
sanctified lives. That is the.
Whole. Reason for the Word of God, that
you would be sanctified and set apart through the Word.
So the whole. Reason that we see a lack of
sanctification in the so-called church and the age and the
culture that we live in is because we can't sit still for
an hour and be taught truth from the word of God.
We have to be entertained and it can't be longer than 20 or 30
minutes or we are checking out. What a sad state that we're in.
If Jesus Christ himself entered
into this building today and stepped up into this pulpit and
said, let me teach you directly. Let me teach you things that
will change your entire life, would you stay?
Would you stay for hours? Would you look at your watch
every 10 seconds? No, you would be be having that
privilege of being taught directly by the Lord.
That's what he's saying when we open his Bible, the word Logos
Christ, we are being taught directly from Christ and he
teaches for results, change lives.
Jesus himself said this while he was teaching on this earth.
He said not everyone who says to me Lord, Lord will enter the
Kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father.
He who actually applies that which has been taught to him or
to her, and how does he do do that?
Because he has truly been taught by God.
It then is effectual teaching. The sad thing is, the church is
so inundated with the strategies and the teachings of man and the
entertainment focused on man that no one is truly learning
from God. Therefore, there are no lasting
results. When the Lord teaches, He
teaches for results. He teaches for results because
it glorifies Him. We're going to see that more
clearly as we unfold the rest of this.
So we see God as our instructor. What a joy to know that, to know
that the all lies, all knowing, omnipotent, omniscient God of
everything teaches us directly those who are in Christ, who are
His children. What a privilege.
What a privilege that so many times we don't take advantage
of. I would encourage you that this
day forward, take advantage of the fact that every time you
open the Bible, you receive direction and instruction right
from God himself. And if you really believe that,
let me help you. If you really believe that you
are receiving instruction from God from the Bible, you will
open the Bible often because you will need instruction often as
you walk through this dark and wretched world.
So we see the psalmist identifying God as his
instructor, but next we see this God as his director.
And he's saying, I know and I trust him not only as my
instructor and my teacher, but also as my director.
Watch his plea here, verse 35. Direct me in the path of your
commands. For there I find it delight.
Turn my heart toward your statutes and not towards selfish
gain. Turn my eyes away from worthless
things. What is the psalmist saying
here? He's saying, God, I need your
direction in my life. Because in and of myself I keep
choosing the wrong direction. I keep choosing the wrong
direction for my life. I keep choosing the wrong
direction for which path I'm supposed to go on.
I keep choosing the wrong direction for where my eyes
look, where my heart is focused. Lord, I need you.
To direct me in my life, I need you desperately.
Well, look at his. Please there.
Direct me in the paths of your commands.
He knew what it was like to follow the paths of his sinful
nature. I told you before that many
assumed that this was David who wrote this Psalm.
And if it is, And I'm not going to argue with anyone.
But if it is David knew what it means to choose your own path
and and to to choose the route that your sinful nature desires.
We have it documented in Scripture that that he knows
fully about that. And so here this man is saying,
Lord direct me in the path of your commands.
For at the heart of everything, they're my delight.
What is he saying? When I went on my own path, it
was not very delightful. I faced your discipline in my
life. I faced your correction in my
life. I faced your conviction in my
life. Remember David, when he was
repenting, my bones were wasting away.
I was crushed under the weight of my conviction.
He said there was no delight in that at all.
And if you're a believer, you know exactly what I'm talking
about. There's no delight in following
our own path. Again.
There is delight in being directed on the path that God
wants us to walk in. So the psalmist here
acknowledging God not only as instructor but as director, the
one who is leading us to the Scriptures, He is constantly
pointing us back to the truth of the Scriptures, directing our
lives through His commands. And a true believer is going to
find delight there. In fact, there will be no more
delightful place in your life than to be right smack dab
obediently in the middle of the will of God.
In fact, the most miserable person on the planet is not a
lost man who gives no regard to God at all.
He's having fun on his way to hell.
It is a saved man who has decided to walk his own path.
It is a saved woman who has decided to do things her own way
to take control of her life. Once again, the psalmist
understanding that's dangerous. He says, but but I delight in
being there in the will of God on your path, following your
commands. Why?
Because that's where we find true joy.
We find true joy as believers in our obedience.
We find out what true obedience look like from the Scriptures.
And the scriptures are always leading us, directing our lives.
We must depend upon them, just as he says there.
Direct me in the path of your commands, for there I find
delight. There's no delight for the
believer anywhere else. It's where we find true
direction and true delight. Psalm 25, verse 4.
The psalmist said this, show me your ways, O Lord, teach me your
paths. Guide me in your truth and teach
me, for you are a our God, my Savior, and my hope is in you
all day long. He said show me your ways
because I have no hope without you.
If I'm not on your way, don't teach me your path, because if
I'm on my own path, I, I have no hope, I have no peace.
Those of you who are in Christ, who have wandered away at some
time in your life, you. Know this to be true.
You find yourself wondering now if I pray as the psalmist is
praying here. Lord, direct me in the path of
Your commands, for there's where I really find light.
Turn my heart toward your statutes.
Turn my eyes. Away from the worthless,
worthless things of this world. So we see that he is constantly
through his scriptures, leading US, directing us, we find
direction through the Word. We find delight in obeying the
Word, in fulfillment, in obeying the word Christian.
Not, not to look for familiar fulfillment anywhere else.
We find fulfillment in obeying the Word of God.
That's what we have been crafted, born again in Christ.
To do that is to obey Him, to bring him glory with our lives.
So he's trusting the Lord to direct him, and he's finding
that direction through his leadership and pointing him
where he wants him to go in the Scriptures.
But not only leading us and leading the psalmist there to
the Scriptures, He's also leading us and leading him away
from himself and ourselves. What he says in verse 36 turn my
heart toward your statutes and not toward selfish gain.
The psalmist knew that apart from a work of God, he was prone
to selfish desire and selfish gain.
Now I won't. Incriminate any of you here
today, because people don't like when I do that, when I speak
generally about the fact that we're all pretty messed up.
So I'll say it about myself. If God doesn't constantly
redirect me, if He doesn't constantly turn my heart toward
Him, I'm prone to selfishness. I'm prone to selfish desire.
I'm prone to selfish gain. Oh, I know, right?
Pastor? The problem with you is you've
never heard an honest pastor before.
Now, I can't say this or you would be offended, or I would
say that you are likewise exactly the same.
But I would never dare do that to you.
So I'll take it upon myself this morning.
No, I'll say this, that all humans, when left to themselves,
will be selfish. You'll follow your own selfish
desires. It's, it's interesting to me
this, this. Thing that we have going on in
our culture, Narcissism. What does that mean?
Selfishness. Well, apart from Christ, we're
all narcissists. You say.
Well, that's not what my therapist told me.
Your therapist is a liar. Your therapist is a liar.
Don't take therapy from someone who's not giving you
instructions from the Word of God.
The Word of God is very clear that if we are on on our own
path, we need God to turn our heart toward His statues and
away from our selfishness. That's what the psalmist is
saying here. He knew that he needed a work
from God in his life to turn him away from himself.
Isn't Scripture constantly leading us away from us?
That's why many men don't like the scriptures because they like
themselves. And they open up the scriptures
and say, man, this is this is beating me up all the time
because every time I read something I realize that I'm
deficient. Yes, you are.
Now I turn another page and I
realized I missed the mark. I look at the commands and I say
I've broken them all. Yes you have.
Keep reading. You'll find out that that's by
design. God designed it that way so that
you will see your deficiencies and you will see your great need
for him to direct your life, and you will bow the knee to the
Lord Jesus Christ in desperation, saying, Lord,
direct me, direct me in the path that I should go.
Turn my heart away from my selfishness and turn it to your
statutes. Turn it to truth because of all
I've ever done is followed lies. So the psalmist is understanding
that principle to God through his word is directing us,
leading us away from us constantly.
What a prayer, what a prayer. What would happen if the church
today would say God lead us away from.
Us and toward your word. Let this not be about us any
longer, but let this be about you and your word.
What would happen? There wouldn't be people here
sitting here saying, man, I, I, I'm, I'm tired of hearing about
the word. You know, they would be on the
edge of their seat saying God speak to us, God teach us, God
shape us, mold us for your glory.
Psalmist understood God is director of his life,
understanding that God directs through the Spirit's power
living in and through him, combined with the truth of the
Word. The Spirit illuminates that word
and then empowers us to walk in obedience to that word.
So He's our director, leading us to the Scriptures, teaching
those Scriptures to us, as we saw in the first point, leading
us away from ourselves and our own selfish desires.
And we don't have time to sit here and speak of all of our
selfish desires. We know that we have them.
He just turned my heart toward the statues and not toward
selfish gain. And then he takes it a step
further in verse 37. He's depending on God to give
him direction to lead him from the Scriptures and to the
Scriptures and to lead him away from himself.
And then we see here another principle leading us away from
sin. And how does he say this
happens? Turn my eyes away from worthless
things. Turn my eyes away from worthless
things. He's speaking here of the lust
of the eyes. It's the lust of the eyes that
we see John in his first epistle there in first John talk about
in verse 16 of chapter 2, he says for everything in the
world, the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and
the boasting of what he has and does comes not from the Father
but from the world. And what is he saying those
things that we lust after with our eyes.
Those things are worthless. Now before anyone checks out
here, lust goes way beyond sexual thing.
The things you covet, the greed that you have in your heart, the
purpose for living. If that purpose is for you and
for your stockpile and your bigger barns.
If that purpose is is for you and the betterment of your
family and just to. Live the American Dream and it's
not to glorify God. You're looking at things with
the wrong eyes. Your purpose is to look upon
success and to to desire success with the covetous heart, to envy
the success of others. If your eyes are to look to
money, be driven by greed and again, selfishness and you need
to pay attention to this, he says.
Turn my eyes away from worthless things.
Even on your social media accounts, right?
When you're coveting everybody under the sun because they're
all in Cancun all the time and you're always at work on a
Monday, scrolling through the world's endless vacation.
And they're awesome relationships, right?
They are on their fourth love of their life, living it up some
tropical destination while you're suffering for the Lord at
work, providing for your family and doing the noble thing
according to the Word of God. But now your eyes have led you
astray, haven't they? Oh, and we don't have time to
discuss all of the ways that our eyes could lead us astray.
But know this, all sin starts with a glance that turns to a
gaze, which turns to lust, which roots in your heart.
And then as Jane says, when it's full grown, it gives birth to
sin. All lust of the eyes eventually,
if not mortified, will result in sin.
We need to be aware of that. In fact, Jesus said this Matthew
528, He says, But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman
lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
If there have been many who have foolishly said this, Jesus said
if you look after a woman lustfully and you've already
committed adultery in your heart, so to look at a woman
lustfully is the same as adultery.
That's not what he's saying to look at a woman.
Lustfully is not the same as having an adulterous affair with
a woman. Not the same at all.
What is he really teaching here? He's saying if you look at a
woman lustfully and it does not end with mortifying your sin, it
is going to lead you down to a path that will inevitably give
birth to sin. Please understand that you men
who think that you can not turn your eyes from worthless things
all the time and it not result in sin, you have another thing
coming. It will result in sin.
You are setting yourselves up. It is sin, and it will result in
greater sin. The psalmist here understanding
that. What a prayer.
Turn my eyes away from worthless things.
If that's the greed of the world, if that's the sexual lust
of the world, if that's the pride of the world, if that is
the success and the notoriety of the world, turn my eyes from
those things. Why?
Because if I'm not looking at them, that's not my focus.
And where does he want his eyes turned?
Back to the Word of God. Back to the Word of God.
But many of you spend hours upon hours upon hours on your little
electronic idols. I said it, and I don't
apologize. You spend hours upon hours on
your electronic idol, turning your gaze to all of the nonsense
and the worthlessness of this world when you ought to be
turning to the word of God, saying Lord, teach me.
Lord, direct me. Guide my steps, guide my life
and guide those things for your glory.
Lead me away from me. Lead me away from.
Sin turn my eyes from worthless things because you're not going
to go toward the direction that you're not looking at.
I learned that the first motorcycle that I had, I almost
straightened out the curve that I was turning in and why I was
focused on the curve instead on the road where I was headed.
If I would have continued to focus on the curve, about two
more seconds I would have ended up in the ditch through the
trees and probably y'all wouldn't be talking to me right
now. And I learned, you know what, I
better keep my eyes on where I'm headed because wherever my eyes
are, that's where I'm going to go.
It's the same in our Christian lives.
If we were focused on the Word of God, we were focused on the
principles of the Word of God. We are focused on God himself
that is revealed in His Word. Our gaze is not going to be on
the things of the world. That's what the psalmist is
saying. Turn my eyes away from worthless
things. Oh, I would that a group of
people this morning would say that.
Turn my eyes away from worthless things because you know this and
I know this. Whatever goes into your eyes
goes into your mind, and there's no telling where he's going to
go after that because when it roots into your heart, it
inevitably will result in sin. So he's leading us away from sin
here. The Psalmist understanding that
that's God's desire he has. Our director psalmist knows and
trusts in God to direct his life.
I pray that we would know and trust God in directing our
lives. If you think that you know a
better direction for your life than God, you're sadly mistaken.
Did you hear me? Because many live their lives,
they would never say it with their mouths.
They know better. They live their lives as if they
think that they know better than God.
But isn't it foolish to have access to a sovereign God who's
already seen and knows the beginning from the end, not just
of your life, but of everything? Isn't it foolish to not trust in
Him and to trust in this guy? Of course it's foolish.
Of course, it was foolish for the psalmist.
That's why he says, Lord, you turn my eyes away from worthless
things. Let me focus on you and on your
word. So we see God as our director.
And thirdly, I want you to see this, and it's very important.
Many have asked me, why don't we just, why don't we just preach
one or two of these verses? This is a lot because they're
made to go together, because the psalmist is seeing God as his
instructor, his teacher, and as his director, the one who leads
him through life by his word. But the psalmist is human, just
like us. And you know what?
He's going to fail and He has failed.
He's going to point us to a very important principle that we need
to realize because we too might fail at some point in time, that
not only does God instruct us and direct us, He preserves us.
Watch what He says here, verse 37.
Preserve my life according to your word.
What does that mean? Preserve my life according to
what you have promised, not based on my performance, not
based upon on what I get right and what I don't get right.
Preserve my life according to your word.
I'm glad that the Psalmist didn't teach us to pray.
Preserve my life according to whether I get it right or not,
He goes on. He says, Fulfill your promise to
your servants so that you may be feared.
Take away the disgrace I dread for your laws or good and how I
long for your precepts. Preserve my life and your
righteousness 2 times. He says Preserve my life,
trusting God as His Preserver. What is this section Speaking
of? It's Speaking of God as the one
who preserves his people. Did you know this?
Your good works don't save you, and your good works don't
preserve you. Anyone here thankful for that?
Because I don't have a good enough good works to preserve
me. And I sure didn't have enough
good works to save me. But it's God himself who saves
us and who preserves us. And in this section, that's what
the psalmist is, is turning our attention to, that it's God
alone who instructs us that it's God alone who directs us.
And as God alone who will preserve us, He is our
preserver. But why does he do this?
Why does he do this? This is most of the time the
reason why people won't believe in eternal security because they
think like. Humans, they say.
Why would God preserve people who are constantly bent to
disobeying Him? Why would He do this?
And So what they do is they create a false doctrine that
says this, God preserves you as long as you're doing good, but
if you do something wrong, He unpreserved you.
Let me help all of you. That's not preservation.
Preservation is eternal. And He's promised to eternally
preserve us in many places in His Word, and He always has
eternally preserved His people. Why does He do this?
Let me make this very clear. He's our Preserver because He
desires to uphold the glory of His name.
That is what the Psalmist is recognizing here, that the
Preserver is upholding the glory of His own name by faithfully
accomplishing what He has promised in His Word will come
to pass. You know what He's promised in
His Word about every single one of you who are in Christ this
morning, no matter where you are.
Some of you are faltering, some of you are wavering.
You still have faith in Christ. You're still His.
We know that you're never going to not be His.
What does He promise us? That those He foreknew He
predestined to conform to the image of His Son.
And those He predestined, He called.
He effectually called them. Those He called He justified,
and those He justified He did also.
Glorify. You know what he's promising us.
He who began this good work in you will carry it on to
completion, just as Philippians 16 says.
And He's promised us that He is going to preserve us.
Now why He does this is for the glory of His name, because He
promised that He who began this good work in US will carry it
unto completion. Wherever you are right now in
your Christian life, if you are truly in Christ, let me assure
you this, you will be glorified one day.
Why? Because God said so, not because
Kirk said so. And so my preservation is not in
some promise that I've created in my own mind.
It's created in the promises that I see in Scripture that
we're His and we will always be His.
And there's nothing that is going to pry us from the grip of
his grace. He has counted us as his
children, and we will always be His children, and He will uphold
the glory of His name in fulfilling those promises.
That's what the psalmist means when he says preserve my life.
According to your word, he's saying this.
Preserve my life, just like you said you would.
Just like you promised you would, knowing that God is
faithful to all of His promises. Remember, He's teaching us to
trust Him. And the first reason that we see
God preserving His people is, is because of the upholding of the
glory of His name. What do I mean by that?
We see it all throughout Scripture.
Scripture faithfully preserving His people for His name's sake.
You say we need clarity. Sure you do.
Look at First Samuel chapter 12, verse 22.
For the sake of his great name, the Lord will not reject his
people. Because the Lord was pleased to
make you his own. He will not reject His people.
That's for all of the whack theologians who say this, that
God has rejected his original covenant people.
He will not reject his people. Period.
And how this ideology has infected so much eschatology, I
have no idea other than you don't trust in the entirety of
Scripture that the promises that he made to ethnic Israel will be
fulfilled just as he said. That's just for free.
First, Samuel makes it very clear that he's upholding the
glory of his own name. That's why he doesn't reject his
people, because he said that he wouldn't.
Psalm 23, three. He restores my soul.
He guides me in paths of righteousness.
Why? For his name's sake.
Not so that people can pat me on the back and say, oh, what a
righteous dude you are. It's for his name's sake.
Psalm 2511. For the sake of your name.
Oh Lord, forgive my iniquity. Though it is great.
What a prayer. When's the last time that you
went to God in confession? And the reason for your prayer
was not so that God would hold something, not hold something to
your charge or hold something to your charge, but you went to to
prayer and confession and in a desire for forgiveness, you went
there so that God's name would be upheld.
When's the last time you approached confession like that?
Lord, don't let your holy name be blasphemed because of my sin
and for your name's sake. Lord, because you've promised to
forgive all those who will confess their sin, You'll
cleanse them from all. Unrighteousness.
Lord, for your name's sake, forgive me for your glory.
Forgive me not because I deserve it, because I'm worthy of it,
but because you're worthy. You'll be seen as faithful to
forgive, just as scriptures over and over say that you're slow to
anger, full of love and compassion.
God, show me that love and compassion through your
forgiveness. Psalm 31 Three Since you are my
rock and my fortress, for the sake of your name, lead and
guide me, he says. Direct me, lead me, guide me.
Why? For the sake of his name?
Well, that would change modern Christianity, wouldn't it?
If we really understood that this is all for the sake of His
name, that God preserves us simply because He desires to
uphold the glory of His holy name.
Psalm 79. Nine, help us, O God our Savior,
for the glory of your name, deliver us and forgive our sins
for your name's sake. They understood it in the Old
Testament, didn't they? Psalm one.
O 6-8 Yet he saved. Them for his name's sake, to
make his power known. We could pull the congregation
before I began this section and say, why did God save you?
And you would say to give me eternal life, to give me
forgiveness, to do this for me and that for me.
Please understand this. You benefit from all of those
things that God blesses us with, but they are benefits.
The reason that God saves anyone, please listen to this,
is for the glory of His name. For the glory of His name, why
did God save you? The correct answer is because
God wanted to display His glory through this once wretched
Sinner who has been changed by the saving power and the
sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ.
It's for the glory of His name. Why?
Because He's all about upholding the glory of His name.
Why? Because He's worthy of every
ounce of that glory. That's why He preserves us for
His name's sake. So He is the Preserver,
upholding the glory of His name. Secondly, upholding the
testimony of His people. You know why He upholds our
testimony? Because we testify of Him.
We testify of His goodness, we testify of His faithfulness, we
testify of His power. And because we do that, we are
testifying of Him. And So what He does then is He
defends His children, protecting those who are His.
That's why we can sing with confident confidence that He is
our defense. He is our shelter.
He is our fortress. He is our stronghold.
He is our ever present help in our time of need.
He protects. Those who are his the Psalmist
understanding this, even requesting preserve my life
according to your word, fulfill your promise to your servant so
that you may be feared, so that others would glorify your name.
He says take away the disgrace I dread for your laws or good.
What is the disgrace that he dreads the reproach that would
come upon him. Now some of the reproach that
would have come upon the psalmist and scholars, they
differ in their view of this, would have been self-inflicted
reproach. He because he was a mere man and
did sinful things. But some of the reproach that
came upon him would be unjust reproach.
That would be that persecution. That would be those enemies who
would attack him and say false things against him.
And if we were again to assume that this was David, we know
that there are accounts of both of that in Scripture.
People who rightfully and justly brought reproach upon him for
the sin in his life, but also those who wrongly brought
approach upon him right. For instance, Saul and many of
the other enemies that we see that David would have had in his
lifetime. But no matter who.
Comes against God's children. God is faithful to defend and to
protect His children, just as a good father always does.
I don't know a dad in this room that if something were about to
happen to your child, someone was going to harm them in some
sort of way. I don't know a dad in this room
who would not act swiftly to keep that from happening.
And I would say this, you would be absolutely right in defending
your children against some type of harm that would have been
placed upon them by someone else.
God in his love toward us, being the good father that He is, He
defends and He protects his children as well, preserving his
testimony of being a good God to His children in our lives.
The psalmist understanding the defense that he has from God and
understanding why God does this, but not only the psalmist
understanding that Isaiah, Isaiah 48.
He testifies to this in verse 9. For my my own name's sake,
recording the the words of the Lord, I delay my wrath.
For the sake of my praise, I hold it back from you so as not
to cut you off. See, I have refined you, though
not as silver. I have tested you in the furnace
of affliction. For my own sake, for my own
sake, I do this. How can I let myself be defamed?
I will not yield my glory to another.
God says I'm going to glorify myself and I'm going to glorify
myself in defending you and not turning you over, being in your
corner as a good Father does, preserving my name, the
testimony that you bear. He does that in the lives of His
children. Ezekiel speaks of this as well
in chapter 20, verse 21. But the children rebelled
against me. These are children rebelling
against God. They did not follow my decrees.
They were not careful to keep my laws, although the man who obeys
them will live by them. And they desecrated my Sabbath.
So I said I would pour out my wrath on them and spend my anger
against them in the desert, but I withheld my hand and for the
sake of my name, I did not. I did what would keep it from
being. I did what would keep it from
being profaned in the eyes of the nations in whose sight I had
brought them out. Also with uplifted hand, I swore
to them in the desert that I would.
Disperse them among the nations and scatter them through the
countries, he said. I did tell them that I'm going
to disperse them, but I am never going to leave or forsake them.
I am going to uphold my people and the testimony that they
bear, which is my name and my word.
The psalmist fully understanding that today and what a joy it is
to know that he truly is our defense, that he truly is a God
who defends his children. And he does that upholding the
testimony of his name in us. Not only does he defend his
children, he dismantles their accusers.
I don't want you to miss this. He completely dismantles their
accusers. He says take away the disgrace I
dread for your laws are good. He says take away the disgrace
that is going to come upon me from all these other people and
I'm going to focus not on them, but I'm going to focus on.
Your word, Your laws are good, and I'm going to focus on that.
And in doing that, you know what the psalmist was doing?
He was just sitting back and he was trusting in God not only to
defend him as his preserver, but to dismantle his enemies before
his very eyes, those who would bring accusation against him,
whether it was just, whether it was unjust.
He knew that God was going to dismantle all of the accusers
who would come against him. Psalm 59, Psalm 59, and verse 10
says You, O God, are my fortress, my loving God.
God will go before me and will let me gloat over those who
slander me. That's the psalmist's hope
there, to know that there are people slandering him and
bringing reproach upon him. And you know what the psalmist
didn't do? He didn't take matters into his
own hands. He just simply trusted in God.
In fact, he bows to the knee here and he says, take away the
disgrace that I dread. You know what his disgrace was,
that he would bring any reproach upon the name of God because he
knew he bore the name of God. And he says, take it away and
I'll focus on your laws for their good.
Know how I have learned this in my life?
And it's been a slow, slow process.
I've learned to trust God to defend me against accusers and
against enemies. And you know what?
It's sad, but they come at you all of the time.
These are generally people who they don't even take the time to
get to know you. Or if they do know you, they
just simply don't like you. And that's OK.
Most days I don't like myself either, but I have learned that
I have to focus on God's Word in those times and I have to bow my
knees in prayer. And there are times where I have
to just simply turn those enemies over to the Lord and
say, Lord, I don't want to hurt the testimony of your name
through this, and I don't want them to hurt the testimony of
your name through this and to bring disgrace because I dread
that. So I'm going to focus on your
word and I'm going to trust in You to do what only you can do.
It seems like I always hear the words of Jesus there in Matthew
chapter 5 when those enemies, those accusers come, Matthew
chapter 5 where he says in verse 11, blessed are you when people
insult you, persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil
against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad because
great is your reward in heaven. For in the same way they
persecuted the prophets who were before you.
What hope we have from the Lord there when our enemies attack
and when our accusers attack, and when there are those who say
all kinds of things against us. And you know what our human
nature is to do. You know exactly what it is.
I'm going to straighten them out.
I'm going to give them a piece of my mind.
I'm going to give them a pound of flesh for the pound of flesh
that they have dealt me. And in doing that, you know what
we don't do? We don't glorify God in that.
But you know what I have seen throughout the years?
I've seen this. If I will bow the knee and in my
heart trust the word of God, He will disperse all of my enemies.
Before you know it, one troublemaker is gone.
The next troublemaker is gone. They're making trouble for
someone else. God defends His people and
dismantles their accusers. He defends us from that
onslaught that comes from the enemy, from those who are
controlled by the enemy. Doesn't he?
As Satan attempts to condemn God's people constantly, what
does this word do? It reminds us there's no
condemnation for he who is in Christ Jesus.
He goes on down in Romans 8A little further, and he reminds
us of the fact that we're conquerors through Christ.
So I would encourage each of you, when those enemies attack,
do as a psalmist is doing here, confidently trust in God, the
one who preserves us, the one who defends us.
And He always has and He always will defend His people.
He will defend you as well. So we see the Preserver
upholding the glory of His name, upholding the testimony of His
people, then ultimately upholding the life of His
people. I'll finish this and I'm done.
But I told you in the beginning, there was a lot to look at this
morning. This is a lot that can be very
helpful to every single one of us.
As a Christian, I'm thankful for all of you who have endured this
teaching, and you won't be sorry that you did.
We see him. Upholding the life of His
people. That was the psalmist's request
in this section. Preserve my life.
Preserve my life according to your word.
He ends with this. Preserve my life.
Watch this in your righteousness.
Preserve my life in your righteousness.
When we look at that, we're not careful.
We can miss it. The psalmist is saying my only
hope of preservation in this life and in the life to come is
a righteousness that comes from God, not a righteousness for me
because I'm not righteous. He's already blown it.
He's admitted it. I'm not righteous.
I can't be righteous and he calls on God and he says
preserve my life. Watch this in your
righteousness. Now we go to Romans chapter 3
very quickly. I hope in our minds and we know
this. Paul says this in verse 21 and
chapter 3. But now a righteousness from God
apart from the law has been made known to which the law and the
prophets testify. This is one of the Psalmist
testifying of the righteousness of God that preserves us.
He goes on and he says this righteousness from God comes
through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.
There is no difference, for all of sin falls short of the glory
of God and are justified freely by his grace through the
redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
What the Psalmist is praying for, we in Christ have.
We have been placed in the righteousness of God, that
righteousness of Christ being imputed to us, us being
justified by that righteousness alone in faith in Christ, and.
His sacrifice and it's that righteousness that preserves his
people upholding. The life of his people upholding
the abundant life that Jesus promised did he not promise that
did he not promise you life he said I came that you may have
life and have it to the fool and he also promised not just life
to the. Fool on this earth, He promised
eternal life after this time on this earth.
He's upholding that promise, preserving that life for us in
Christ constantly. Psalmist says preserve my life
and your righteousness, Cover me with it, wrap it around me.
And those of you who are in Christ, He has covered you with
his righteousness in Christ. You were covered with that
righteousness that comes from God.
And it is because of that righteousness that you have been
preserved eternally. And for those who are not in
Christ, you have no eternal preservation.
You have no eternal preserver. There is no righteousness for
you to be in. Accept the righteousness that
you have in and of yourself, which is that of filthy rags in
the eyes of the Lord. And so I would encourage you
today to turn to Christ, the righteousness that comes from
God as the preserver of your life, your only hope of
forgiveness of sin and eternal life.
So the Psalmist ends this section talking about our
preserver. I know what a blessing to know
and to trust that God does preserve his people, that I can
lay my head on a pillow tonight and know that He will preserve
me if this was my last day on this earth for all eternity
because of Jesus Christ and what he did at the cross through his
death, His burial, and his resurrection.
Is he your preserver? I pray that He is today.
So we've seen the psalmist today unfold this and unpack this for
us, learning to trust God as our instructor, our director, and
our preserver. Oh, believer, I pray that you
are doing that in your life. I pray that you are now aware of
the importance of that in your life, that you are from this
point forward, trusting God even more deeply as your teacher, as
your director and leader and master, thanking him that he is
the one who preserves us even when we don't get it.
All right, well, I told you they all go hand in hand.
But where would we be if he wasn't our instructor?
And where would we be if he wasn't our director?
And where would we be if he did not preserve us?
But he is all those things. He's all those things to his
children. Let us rejoice in that.
Let us thank Him for that. Let us confess to him.
And we don't acknowledge that. We don't take advantage of that.
We don't walk in that. The unbeliever this morning, my
prayer for you is this, that you would trust in God today that
perhaps he is instructing you for the very first time in your
heart, even now that you are a Sinner, that you are alienated
from him and you are in need of a Savior.
And he's teaching you that the only Savior that has ever been
provided for sinners is the Lord Jesus Christ himself who came
2000 years ago. God here on this.
Earth Incarnate. Who came and who offered Himself
as a perfect sacrifice for imperfect sinners, and that if
you would just trust in Him as your Lord and Savior today, He
would wash you of all of your sin and He would grant to you
eternal life, and He will preserve you forever.
I pray today that instruction from God would begin for you,
that He would, by His Spirit, open your eyes to see the truth
for the very first time. You need a Savior, and that
Savior is Christ, and by His Spirit He would instruct you
internally to call on the name of Jesus to save you desperately
today, knowing that His promises are true.
And for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord, they
will be saved. Would you call upon the name of
the Lord today, repenting of your sin, trusting in Christ?
Let's pray together, Father, in the name of Jesus.
We thank you for Your word. Lord, Let us not tire of looking
at the truths that we see in Scripture that are able to make
us wise and to make us wise unto salvation.
Lord, I pray today that you would make someone here wise
unto salvation, giving them the knowledge of the truth that they
would repent and turn to Christ. God, I pray for each believer
who's here today. Perhaps as they've evaluated
their lives, they've evaluated their Christian walk.
They see deficiencies and trusting You in these areas, and
I pray that you would give them the grace today to confess that
and to count on Your Spirit to empower them in the future to
trust You all the more according to Your Word.
And we'll be careful to give you all the glory for it.
We pray all these things in Christ's name, Amen.
You have been listening to Key Life Fellowships Pulpit Ministry
podcast. Join us each week for more
teaching from God's Word. If you would like to speak with
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