1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:03,840 This morning we get to dive into the first of four weeks that we're going to spend 2 00:00:04,480 --> 00:00:12,880 expositing four unique sections and four unique themes in Psalm 119. And Psalm 119 focuses our 3 00:00:12,880 --> 00:00:17,760 attention on the immense value of God's authoritative word. And here at Oak Hill, 4 00:00:17,760 --> 00:00:22,480 we are a body that is passionate about the Bible. We are children of the Reformation, right? 5 00:00:23,200 --> 00:00:29,520 Whose battle cry is sola scriptura. So we love the Bible's inerrancy. We love its infallibility. 6 00:00:29,520 --> 00:00:34,960 We love its holy and righteous character. We love its unchanging nature. We love its daily 7 00:00:34,960 --> 00:00:40,640 relevance in our lives. But most of all, we love its author. And that's an important thing to say. 8 00:00:40,640 --> 00:00:46,160 The one who supernaturally breathed that scripture through his chosen servants so long ago. 9 00:00:46,960 --> 00:00:50,800 And that's why we put the word at the center of everything we do here at Oak Hill. It's why we 10 00:00:50,800 --> 00:00:56,000 study the Bible with such a passion, because we want to know the living God more and more, 11 00:00:56,000 --> 00:01:03,040 deeper and deeper with every passing year. We seek to know who he is. We seek to know what he has 12 00:01:03,040 --> 00:01:10,000 done in creation and human history. And we seek to know more about how and why he has saved a bunch 13 00:01:10,000 --> 00:01:18,320 of wretches like us. That's an amen moment. We agree with that, right? Because we sing it. 14 00:01:19,920 --> 00:01:23,760 And all those things that I just mentioned, they're found in that book that you're holding 15 00:01:23,760 --> 00:01:29,680 in your hands right now. It's all found there. A book that ought to be your most prized possession. 16 00:01:30,640 --> 00:01:35,040 Here's what Charles Spurgeon had to say about the Bible. He said, I beseech you 17 00:01:35,520 --> 00:01:37,760 to let your Bibles be everything to you. 18 00:01:39,680 --> 00:01:46,800 Carry this matchless treasure with you continually and read it and read it and read it again and 19 00:01:46,800 --> 00:01:54,160 again. Turn to its pages by day and by night. Let its narratives mingle with your dreams. Let its 20 00:01:54,160 --> 00:02:01,040 precepts color your lives. Let its promises cheer your darkness. Let its divine illumination make 21 00:02:01,040 --> 00:02:09,200 glad your life. As you love God, love this book. It's a great statement. So you have them in your 22 00:02:09,200 --> 00:02:15,120 lap. Let's open them up. Let's open up this matchless treasure and let's turn to Psalm 119. 23 00:02:15,120 --> 00:02:22,720 And I want you to find verse 97. I know that's a weird place to start. We decided we weren't 24 00:02:22,720 --> 00:02:28,560 going to do every verse in this Psalm. It's huge, but we're going to start in verse 97. 25 00:02:29,920 --> 00:02:34,160 Now, as you're making your way there, if you went to the top of Psalms, you would see that there is 26 00:02:34,160 --> 00:02:39,360 no superscription above the heading, which means we don't know who the author of this 27 00:02:39,360 --> 00:02:44,480 amazing Psalm is. Now, over the last couple of millennia, scholars have tried to make some 28 00:02:44,480 --> 00:02:49,600 guesses and there's some prominent possibilities. Always David, when it comes to the Psalms, maybe 29 00:02:49,600 --> 00:02:55,280 David wrote it. Ezra has been suggested if we want to look at the post-exilic period, 30 00:02:55,280 --> 00:02:59,920 but we can't know with any certainty because we don't have a superscription in the actual 31 00:02:59,920 --> 00:03:06,160 text and there's no real internal evidence that points to one man or another. As I shared last 32 00:03:06,160 --> 00:03:11,360 Sunday out at the beach, Psalm 119 is famous for a few things. First of all, for its volume, right? 33 00:03:11,360 --> 00:03:17,040 For its size. It is the longest Psalm in the collection. It is the longest single chapter 34 00:03:17,040 --> 00:03:24,400 in any book of the Bible. 176 verses. Second, it's known, as I said, for its deep, deep focus on the 35 00:03:24,400 --> 00:03:29,760 importance of God's Word. And third, it's known for its unique structure. And I'm going to put 36 00:03:29,760 --> 00:03:34,720 something up on the screen here. For its unique structure, Psalm 119 is arranged in what we call 37 00:03:34,720 --> 00:03:42,160 an acrostic pattern. It has 22 sections that correspond with the 22 letters of the Hebrew 38 00:03:42,160 --> 00:03:45,840 alphabet. If you've never seen what Hebrew looks like, there's the alphabet for you. 39 00:03:46,720 --> 00:03:55,360 And with each of these sections that are headed by a Hebrew letter has eight verses, exactly. So 40 00:03:55,360 --> 00:04:02,400 a total of 176 verses. And then beyond that, the first letter of the first word in each section 41 00:04:02,400 --> 00:04:08,960 corresponds with the letter of the Hebrew alphabet in the title. So it is beautifully poetic. 42 00:04:09,680 --> 00:04:15,680 It is exquisitely thought out and it's wonderfully arranged. In fact, Martin Luther once professed 43 00:04:15,680 --> 00:04:21,680 that he valued this Psalm so highly. He said, quote, I will not take the whole world in exchange 44 00:04:21,680 --> 00:04:27,120 for just one leaf of it. That's how valuable it was to him. At least two famous men in church 45 00:04:27,120 --> 00:04:33,600 history, if you know who William Wilberforce is or David Livingston, both of those men had memorized 46 00:04:33,600 --> 00:04:41,040 all 176 verses of this Psalm because they believed it to be so foundational to their personal 47 00:04:41,040 --> 00:04:45,600 spiritual walk and to their ministries. That's a great challenge for folks like us, right? 48 00:04:46,480 --> 00:04:52,480 Matthew Henry, the great 18th century Bible commentator was introduced to Psalm 119 as a child. 49 00:04:52,480 --> 00:04:59,120 His father told him, if you read just one verse from this Psalm every day, you will get through it 50 00:04:59,120 --> 00:05:05,200 twice every year. And Matthew Henry did that every year of his life. And the point of it, 51 00:05:05,200 --> 00:05:10,320 his father said, was to help him fall in love, not just with the Psalms, but with the entire 52 00:05:10,320 --> 00:05:16,240 canon of scripture. Another great challenge for us. Those are wise words from a wise father. 53 00:05:16,240 --> 00:05:21,520 So as we read this morning, we are entering onto sacred ground as we open this chapter. So I'm going 54 00:05:21,520 --> 00:05:27,440 to have you stand again as we honor God's word. And we're going to read these eight verses. Again, 55 00:05:27,440 --> 00:05:34,560 this is headed up by the Hebrew letter Mem, which you can see circled there in red. This is the 13th 56 00:05:34,560 --> 00:05:41,520 letter of the Hebrew alphabet. And so here God's word this morning. Oh, how I love your law. 57 00:05:42,720 --> 00:05:48,160 It is my meditation all the day. Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies, 58 00:05:48,160 --> 00:05:54,560 for they are ever mine. I have more insight than all my teachers for your testimonies are my 59 00:05:54,560 --> 00:06:00,560 meditation. I understand more than the aged because I have observed your precepts. I have 60 00:06:00,560 --> 00:06:06,160 restrained my feet from every evil way that I may keep your word. I have not turned aside from your 61 00:06:06,160 --> 00:06:13,440 ordinances for you yourself have taught me. How sweet are your words to my taste? Yes, sweeter than 62 00:06:13,440 --> 00:06:21,040 honey to my mouth from your precepts. I get understanding. Therefore I hate every false way. 63 00:06:22,240 --> 00:06:27,680 Amen. Go ahead and have a seat. So already in just this one section, we saw, get this now, 64 00:06:27,680 --> 00:06:34,320 six different words that are used to describe the scriptures, six different words. And I'm going to 65 00:06:34,320 --> 00:06:38,960 give them to you here. I want to give you another, you take a picture if you want, if you care, 66 00:06:38,960 --> 00:06:45,600 but six words already in just these eight verses. First in verse 97, you see the word law in Hebrew, 67 00:06:45,600 --> 00:06:53,280 Torah, right? Found 25 times just in this Psalm. And that word basically, Torah basically means 68 00:06:53,280 --> 00:06:59,120 instruction and coming from the Lord, it carries the idea of authoritative law. Meaning when a 69 00:06:59,120 --> 00:07:05,280 person receives Torah, it means this is how you should live. This is how God says you should live. 70 00:07:05,280 --> 00:07:10,080 And then depending on the context, Torah is a little bit flexible. It can refer to the first 71 00:07:10,080 --> 00:07:15,920 five books of Moses that we're familiar with. It can refer sometimes to a single command. 72 00:07:15,920 --> 00:07:21,040 Sometimes it's used, especially by Jews to describe the entire canon of the Hebrew scriptures. 73 00:07:22,080 --> 00:07:28,880 Second in verse 98, you see the word commandments, mitzvah in Hebrew, found 22 times in this Psalm. 74 00:07:29,600 --> 00:07:34,800 And this is a word that reveals Yahweh's authority, his inherent right to give his people orders, 75 00:07:34,800 --> 00:07:42,720 to command them. Then in verse 99, you see the word testimonies in Hebrew, eduth, found 23 times 76 00:07:42,720 --> 00:07:48,320 and related to the Hebrew word for witness. So it points to the dependability of the Bible as a 77 00:07:48,320 --> 00:07:53,920 witness to the things of God. And sometimes that particular word carries with it the nuance of 78 00:07:53,920 --> 00:08:01,120 being a warning to God's people. Fourth, we have the word precepts in verse 100 in Hebrew, pikkudim, 79 00:08:01,120 --> 00:08:07,520 found 21 times, a word drawn from the office of an overseer. Then in the next verse, verse 101, 80 00:08:07,520 --> 00:08:14,720 you see the most general Hebrew term for word, dabar, found 24 times in this Psalm. It simply 81 00:08:14,720 --> 00:08:20,240 emphasizes the fact that God has spoken to his people. And then the sixth one, finally, in verse 82 00:08:20,240 --> 00:08:26,960 102, is the word ordinances. In Hebrew, mishpatim, found 23 times. Sometimes you see that in your 83 00:08:26,960 --> 00:08:33,760 Bible translated as judgments because it's rooted in the justice aspect of God's character. So those 84 00:08:33,760 --> 00:08:39,200 are the six you see just in our section that we read. And then there's two more we're gonna see 85 00:08:39,200 --> 00:08:45,600 later on in this preaching series, the word statutes in Hebrew, hukim, found 21 times. This 86 00:08:45,600 --> 00:08:51,760 is a word that comes from the root to engrave or to inscribe upon. So it speaks of the permanence 87 00:08:51,760 --> 00:08:58,160 of God's word. And last but not least, finally, we're gonna see a second term for the word word, 88 00:08:58,160 --> 00:09:05,600 emrah, in Hebrew, found 19 times. And that is a particular word that has the nuance of describing 89 00:09:05,600 --> 00:09:12,720 the promises that God gives to his people. So we talk about, we just say the Bible, right, or 90 00:09:13,440 --> 00:09:19,040 the Scriptures. But Hebrew is so colorful, so many different nuances, so many words used by the 91 00:09:19,040 --> 00:09:24,960 Psalmist. So with all those details established, let's walk through the logic of this particular 92 00:09:24,960 --> 00:09:31,440 section of Mem. Beginning with the key verse, look at verse 97. Let's look there. It begins this way, 93 00:09:31,440 --> 00:09:39,040 oh, how I love your law or how I love your instructions, how I treasure your instructions, 94 00:09:39,040 --> 00:09:45,440 oh Lord. Now this is a theme that runs all through the Psalms. And we even see it most prominently 95 00:09:45,440 --> 00:09:50,640 in the foundational Psalm of the whole collection. Remember, it's been over a year now, we were in 96 00:09:50,640 --> 00:09:57,360 Psalm 1, and we looked at that and it said in Psalm 1, the man who is blessed by God, the one 97 00:09:57,360 --> 00:10:04,640 who is happy in God, his delight is in the law of the Lord. And that word delight is so beautifully 98 00:10:04,640 --> 00:10:10,160 descriptive, right? It speaks of a man or a woman who finds great pleasure and fulfillment in 99 00:10:10,160 --> 00:10:18,400 studying and understanding every instruction that comes from God. He's delighted by it. And there's 100 00:10:18,400 --> 00:10:23,840 all kinds of wonderful statements similar to that in the Psalms. But throughout, God's law is said 101 00:10:23,840 --> 00:10:29,680 to be the most valuable thing that a man can possess. Try to wrap your mind around that. Think 102 00:10:29,680 --> 00:10:34,160 about all the possessions we could have in this world. Would any of them actually outweigh what 103 00:10:34,160 --> 00:10:41,200 God has stated, his love letter to us? It's greater than anything on earth, greater than any amount of 104 00:10:41,200 --> 00:10:48,240 silver or gold. In fact, in this Psalm, 119, in verse 162, it says, I rejoice at your word as one 105 00:10:48,240 --> 00:10:56,400 who finds great shalal, which is the word for spoil or plunder. Catch that. The psalmist sees God's law 106 00:10:56,400 --> 00:11:02,880 as something valuable to be captured, as plunder. You go to go and capture it. And then there's 107 00:11:02,880 --> 00:11:07,920 another great Hebrew verb which speaks of treasuring God's word. And the root of that word 108 00:11:07,920 --> 00:11:13,840 is this idea of hiding it or storing it, which is what you do when you find something valuable. 109 00:11:13,840 --> 00:11:20,240 You hide it away. You store it up for use at a later time. So that's the way the ancient Israelites 110 00:11:20,240 --> 00:11:25,280 approach Torah. That's the way they saw it. And that's the way we ought, how we ought to approach 111 00:11:25,280 --> 00:11:31,280 our Bibles each and every day. The problem with our culture today is that we all have multiple Bibles 112 00:11:31,280 --> 00:11:37,280 in our homes. We have it in multiple translations on our computers and our phones. And it's so easy 113 00:11:37,280 --> 00:11:43,360 to take for granted. The ancient Israelites would long to have what we have, but we ought to be 114 00:11:43,360 --> 00:11:48,080 approaching it as that great possession, as if we had captured the most valuable thing in the whole 115 00:11:48,080 --> 00:11:54,800 world and treated it like our greatest treasure. Now, one thing you have to make sure you don't do 116 00:11:54,800 --> 00:12:02,160 in this is treat this word love in verse 97 as just some emotional or sentimental feeling. 117 00:12:02,720 --> 00:12:07,840 Like, oh, we love this person. We're falling in love with this person. It's not the same thing. 118 00:12:07,840 --> 00:12:14,000 The Hebrew word here means more than that. To love God's law is to make a lasting commitment to it. 119 00:12:15,600 --> 00:12:21,520 To make a lasting commitment, to commit one's heart, to make God's law the foundation of your life. 120 00:12:21,520 --> 00:12:27,040 And so in that sense, it has to surpass all other things because the man who loves God's word in the 121 00:12:27,040 --> 00:12:33,760 sense that the psalmist is talking about, he cannot live without it. Have you ever tried to picture 122 00:12:33,760 --> 00:12:38,560 that scenario in your mind? Something happens in this country where literally the scriptures 123 00:12:38,560 --> 00:12:44,720 are ripped from us and we no longer have it. Could you live without it? Could you live without God's 124 00:12:44,720 --> 00:12:51,680 word? The person who loves God's word cannot live without it. To him, it's food that sustains. To him, 125 00:12:51,680 --> 00:12:57,200 it's water that slakes his thirst. To him, it's medicine that comes and heals and brings comfort. 126 00:12:57,760 --> 00:13:04,960 God's word to the psalmist is life. Again, we're so spoiled that we don't often see it that way, 127 00:13:04,960 --> 00:13:11,440 but the psalmist is screaming at us, see the word of God as your life. And so if you say, 128 00:13:11,440 --> 00:13:14,880 well, of course I love God's word, Jeff. Of course I do. That's why I'm part of this church. 129 00:13:14,880 --> 00:13:20,720 That's why I'm here. Okay. Then that means you're giving the word, it's your valuable time, right? 130 00:13:21,520 --> 00:13:26,240 You're giving it your attention and your care. You're giving it honor and respect. You're putting 131 00:13:26,240 --> 00:13:31,760 your trust in it. You're speaking highly of it in front of other people. And of course, at the end 132 00:13:31,760 --> 00:13:37,200 of the day, you're obeying its instructions if you love God's law and the way the psalmist speaks of. 133 00:13:37,200 --> 00:13:42,000 And I don't say that this morning to condemn anybody here, because not one person here would 134 00:13:42,000 --> 00:13:46,560 say, I feel like I've done this sufficiently, right? That I've actually loved God's law 135 00:13:47,360 --> 00:13:52,640 sufficiently. And we probably won't this side of heaven, but here's the really good news. 136 00:13:53,360 --> 00:13:58,480 God's mercies are new every morning. We can start today. We can start tomorrow. That process of 137 00:13:58,480 --> 00:14:03,920 cultivating the proper love that we should have for God's word. And it may start with us saying, 138 00:14:03,920 --> 00:14:07,920 wow, I need to stop taking this for granted. The fact that I've got it on my device here, 139 00:14:07,920 --> 00:14:12,000 my device there, and I've got it on my bookshelf and actually begin to treasure it. 140 00:14:13,680 --> 00:14:17,840 Now, just as an aside, let me address something that sometimes comes up when we talk about the 141 00:14:17,840 --> 00:14:22,960 lofty status of God's word. And this attack often comes from our Roman Catholic friends. 142 00:14:22,960 --> 00:14:27,360 Sometimes they will say, look, you Protestants, you seem to worship the Bible more than you 143 00:14:27,360 --> 00:14:32,560 worship God. Or if you've ever heard that attempt, you know, you're not going to be able to. 144 00:14:32,560 --> 00:14:36,880 I don't know if you've ever heard that attack, but I have many times. And although that attack 145 00:14:36,880 --> 00:14:42,320 is usually sort of thrown at us as a weapon, not in good faith, but we should be careful not to 146 00:14:42,320 --> 00:14:48,240 prove it true in our lives. What I mean by that is I've known some people in the church 147 00:14:49,520 --> 00:14:55,200 who through the years say they have a great love for the Bible. But as you begin to ask them 148 00:14:55,200 --> 00:14:59,600 questions and see their lives, you see that really it's more of a love for the Bible as an 149 00:14:59,600 --> 00:15:05,600 academic textbook. It's become a textbook to them. And somehow in their love for the text, 150 00:15:05,600 --> 00:15:10,880 they're actually failing to worship and love the God who authored it. And so we should always be 151 00:15:10,880 --> 00:15:17,040 clear on this. We love God's word because we love God. So let's make sure we get that straight. 152 00:15:17,040 --> 00:15:22,160 And here in Psalm 119, where God's word is obviously lifted up as a great treasure, 153 00:15:22,160 --> 00:15:27,520 we should notice as we go through this, these four weeks, that every time it talks about God's word, 154 00:15:27,520 --> 00:15:33,440 it points back to the author. In fact, look at verse 97. Notice it doesn't say how I love the law, 155 00:15:33,440 --> 00:15:40,960 how I love the Torah. It says how I love your law. So even though the law is a big part of this, 156 00:15:40,960 --> 00:15:46,800 it ultimately goes back to the author. Make sense? We've got to make sure we get that right. Okay. 157 00:15:46,800 --> 00:15:51,600 I want to look at the second phrase in verse 97. This is the big idea for this morning. 158 00:15:51,600 --> 00:15:57,920 Look what it says. Not only does the Psalmist love God's law, he says it is my meditation all 159 00:15:57,920 --> 00:16:05,120 the day. My meditation. Now, I don't know what word springs to your mind when you hear meditation. 160 00:16:05,120 --> 00:16:10,400 Some people go like all new agey, right? Sitting crisscross applesauce with their, I don't know, 161 00:16:10,400 --> 00:16:14,000 they do this or something with their fingers or whatever, and they start chanting. No, no, no. 162 00:16:14,560 --> 00:16:18,240 No, no, no. Not biblical meditation. So don't wipe that from your brain. 163 00:16:18,240 --> 00:16:23,280 Meditation. This is also a truth, by the way, that's laid out in Psalm one. For the blessed 164 00:16:23,280 --> 00:16:28,160 man, remember what I just said, his delight is in the law of the Lord. And then that sentence is 165 00:16:28,160 --> 00:16:35,360 finished with this phrase. And in his law, he meditates day and night. And then listen to, 166 00:16:35,360 --> 00:16:41,120 listen to how that plays out in his life. When you meditate on God's word day and night, it says, 167 00:16:41,120 --> 00:16:48,560 he will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season 168 00:16:48,560 --> 00:16:53,520 and its leaf does not wither. What does that tell us? How beautiful is that language, by the way, 169 00:16:53,520 --> 00:17:00,640 right? What does that tell us? That the result of having a passion for God's word and taking the 170 00:17:00,640 --> 00:17:10,480 time necessary to meditate upon it will produce in us deep, healthy roots within. And that's 171 00:17:10,480 --> 00:17:17,360 within and deep, healthy roots within produce beautiful spiritual fruit on the outside. 172 00:17:18,880 --> 00:17:22,720 But there's no shortcut to that. Sometimes we want that, right? We want the short, 173 00:17:22,720 --> 00:17:27,600 I just want spiritual fruit to appear, but there's no shortcut. It requires this being 174 00:17:27,600 --> 00:17:33,440 firmly planted by streams of water. So what does it mean to meditate on God's word then? 175 00:17:33,440 --> 00:17:38,000 In a practical sense, if somebody, if some unbeliever walked up to you and said, okay, 176 00:17:38,000 --> 00:17:42,160 hey, I hear you Christians meditate on the Bible. How do you do that? What does that look like? 177 00:17:43,200 --> 00:17:50,720 How would you answer? Well, in the Hebrew, the word means to reflect upon something. In the English 178 00:17:50,720 --> 00:17:55,600 language, it means engaging in thought or contemplation, very similar things, right? 179 00:17:56,400 --> 00:18:01,600 And for the Psalmist who clearly loved God's word, that type of reflection, that type of 180 00:18:01,600 --> 00:18:06,800 contemplation appears to just be a natural thing in his life. And it should be for us as well. 181 00:18:06,800 --> 00:18:12,000 Because when you love something, you think about it all the time, right? It's like any man or woman 182 00:18:12,000 --> 00:18:16,240 who falls in love with somebody, they think about that person all the time. You don't have to, 183 00:18:16,240 --> 00:18:20,880 you don't have to say, okay, I need to set an alarm to make sure I think about my wife today. 184 00:18:21,600 --> 00:18:25,120 No, I just do. It's a natural thing because I love her, because I care for her. 185 00:18:26,160 --> 00:18:31,040 So for him, it's a natural thing. And it's something that builds on itself over time. 186 00:18:31,040 --> 00:18:34,240 When you meditate on God's word, because you love it, guess what happens? 187 00:18:34,240 --> 00:18:38,800 You love it all the more because you're spending more time with it. And it's, and it builds on 188 00:18:38,800 --> 00:18:44,720 itself. And this was true of the author of Psalm 119. And we want it to be true of every member 189 00:18:45,200 --> 00:18:50,800 here at Oak Hill, that we would all come to treasure God's word more and more with each passing year. 190 00:18:50,800 --> 00:18:56,000 And I know you all nod your head. You're like, yeah, I want that because we've all heard that 191 00:18:56,000 --> 00:19:01,760 exhortation many times, but I want to challenge you with this idea. It's not only important that you 192 00:19:01,760 --> 00:19:08,800 consume biblical truth. It's how you do it. Not just that you read the Bible, but how you read it. 193 00:19:09,440 --> 00:19:14,320 Because it's one thing to read the Bible, even to love the Bible in an intellectual sense. 194 00:19:14,320 --> 00:19:19,760 It's another thing to actually treasure it. That as you're reading, you're hearing the very voice 195 00:19:19,760 --> 00:19:25,760 of God speaking into your heart and your life. Those are different things, seeing it academically 196 00:19:25,760 --> 00:19:31,760 and hearing the voice of God in its pages. When we go beyond reading the Bible and we start to 197 00:19:31,760 --> 00:19:37,760 meditate on it, we find ourselves rehearsing its truths in our minds all day long. That's what he 198 00:19:37,760 --> 00:19:41,360 means all day and night. When he says, I meditate all day and night, doesn't mean he's walking 199 00:19:41,360 --> 00:19:46,720 around in life doing this all day long, right? Like, cause that's dangerous. It's like texting 200 00:19:46,720 --> 00:19:55,120 and walking. It's bad, but he's rehearsing truth in his mind all day and all night in terms of 201 00:19:55,120 --> 00:20:01,920 like internalizing God's instructions so that when it, and maybe you've had this experience, 202 00:20:01,920 --> 00:20:07,680 you're internalizing God's instructions so that you walk into a situation and you're now confronted 203 00:20:07,680 --> 00:20:13,280 with the choice. What happens? God's word pops up and speaks to your heart. And you're like, 204 00:20:13,280 --> 00:20:19,120 I know what to do here. I know what will please God in this situation, but it has to be deeply 205 00:20:19,120 --> 00:20:25,040 ingrained in us for that to happen. And that's why the great fourth century preacher, John Chrysostom 206 00:20:25,040 --> 00:20:31,760 made this famous comment. He said, dive into the scriptures as into a chest of medicine and don't 207 00:20:31,760 --> 00:20:39,120 simply dive into them, swim in them, keep them constantly in your mind. Maybe that's an image 208 00:20:39,120 --> 00:20:45,680 you can keep to swim in God's word, to be in the pool all the time, filling your mind. But what 209 00:20:45,680 --> 00:20:52,560 seems clear from the Psalms is that meditation is not the same thing as just hearing, not the same 210 00:20:52,560 --> 00:20:57,920 as just reading. It's more than that. Because we can check a box by spending time reading the word. 211 00:20:57,920 --> 00:21:03,440 We can check a box by saying, well, I was in church and I heard a good sermon. And yet we can walk away 212 00:21:03,440 --> 00:21:08,880 from either reading a Bible or from Sunday worship and never again reflect on anything we've heard. 213 00:21:10,160 --> 00:21:16,880 In one ear out the other, we never reflect, we never contemplate, we never rehearse those truths 214 00:21:16,880 --> 00:21:23,200 in our minds. Now, why do we fail in that when we know it's important? Well, number one, because 215 00:21:23,200 --> 00:21:31,600 our pace of life is so busy that we just can't find time to carve out space and time to actually 216 00:21:31,600 --> 00:21:36,880 reflect on things. Or number two, because of reason number one, we just haven't established 217 00:21:36,880 --> 00:21:43,680 meditation as a habit. And spiritual habits need to be cultivated. And we just don't have that habit. 218 00:21:43,680 --> 00:21:51,600 And what we tend to do is we go, boom, got that done, check that box, what's next? And we move on to the next thing 219 00:21:51,600 --> 00:21:57,440 in our schedule. And we fail to fulfill exactly what the Psalmist is telling us to do here, 220 00:21:58,000 --> 00:22:03,600 to meditate on God's word. So if you were to ask me practically, Jeff, what method should be used 221 00:22:03,600 --> 00:22:08,080 to meditate on the scriptures, I'll probably disappoint you by saying this because the how 222 00:22:08,080 --> 00:22:14,400 of meditation is actually not easy to pin down because we don't have a man. There's no step by 223 00:22:14,400 --> 00:22:21,040 step manual to tell us how to do this. And frankly, because of your unique personality, 224 00:22:21,040 --> 00:22:26,160 because of your life, because of your schedule, it might look very different from for you than 225 00:22:26,160 --> 00:22:32,320 it does for me. But here's my promise at the end of the message, I'm going to close with what I think 226 00:22:32,320 --> 00:22:36,720 is a good process, something that has worked for me in the past. So hold tight on that because that's 227 00:22:36,720 --> 00:22:42,720 really important. What I will say is this, each one of us has to find a method for meditation, 228 00:22:42,720 --> 00:22:48,000 something that works for us because the one thing we can't do is just ignore this example in the 229 00:22:48,000 --> 00:22:52,800 Psalms and say, I don't want to meditate because if we're saying that we're basically saying, I 230 00:22:52,800 --> 00:22:58,960 don't really want to grow. I don't really want to mature in my faith. So this is not really optional. 231 00:22:58,960 --> 00:23:06,960 Make sense? Okay. So now we've just covered one verse. We better get going. All right. Yikes. 232 00:23:07,600 --> 00:23:14,240 What I want you to see next is what the Psalmist says. These two things, loving God's law and 233 00:23:14,240 --> 00:23:21,600 meditating on it. What does it produce in a man's life? Those two things, whoop, they're gone now. 234 00:23:22,400 --> 00:23:28,800 Those two things, let me put it back up. What will they produce in a man's life? Look at verses 98 235 00:23:28,800 --> 00:23:38,240 to 100. What we see here is that that habit will make you wise. It will give you understanding, 236 00:23:39,440 --> 00:23:47,040 insight and discernment. Anybody ever prayed for those things? Good. Verse 98, 237 00:23:47,040 --> 00:23:53,920 your commandments make me wiser than my enemies, he says, for they are ever mine. Verse 99, 238 00:23:53,920 --> 00:23:59,920 I have more insight or more understanding than all my teachers for your testimonies or my meditation. 239 00:24:00,800 --> 00:24:06,960 Verse 100, I understand more. I'm more discerning than the aged because I have observed or obeyed 240 00:24:06,960 --> 00:24:13,040 your precepts. So you see three comparisons here, right? Right? Three different groups of people. 241 00:24:13,040 --> 00:24:18,400 The Psalmist says, let me compare myself to three groups, my enemies, my teachers and old folks. 242 00:24:18,400 --> 00:24:26,960 And of all three groups, he says, I'm wiser. Well, why? For one simple reason, because he loves God's 243 00:24:26,960 --> 00:24:33,920 law and he meditates on it all the day. Now at first glance or first hearing, and we read this 244 00:24:33,920 --> 00:24:37,920 at the beach last Sunday and I heard some of you guys talking about this, you're like, wow, he seems 245 00:24:37,920 --> 00:24:43,040 pretty full of himself, but you have to understand where his confidence comes from, right? His 246 00:24:43,040 --> 00:24:48,400 confidence comes from the infinite wisdom of God, which he is taking in on a regular basis. 247 00:24:49,360 --> 00:24:54,320 And by definition, that is always going to be superior to any human wisdom or any wisdom that 248 00:24:54,320 --> 00:25:00,400 we find in this fallen world. Do we understand that? There's a lot of smart people in this world, 249 00:25:01,200 --> 00:25:09,600 but apart from God's word, you have more wisdom than they do. Process that. So our enemy, 250 00:25:09,600 --> 00:25:13,040 are going to be out there touting their intellectual capabilities. They're going to 251 00:25:13,040 --> 00:25:18,960 boast in their ways, but at the end of the day, what did they actually have? This very narrow, 252 00:25:18,960 --> 00:25:26,640 finite perspective that is tainted with darkness and sin, right? Which makes them blind to the 253 00:25:26,640 --> 00:25:32,080 greater realities in terms of the big questions of life and death. So you may look at them and go, 254 00:25:32,080 --> 00:25:35,200 that's a really smart person. That doesn't necessarily mean they're wise. 255 00:25:35,200 --> 00:25:41,040 And our human teachers, uh-oh, teachers out there, even the ones we love and admire in the psalmist 256 00:25:41,040 --> 00:25:45,120 is not trying to demean teachers here because we need them in our lives. And yes, we can learn 257 00:25:45,120 --> 00:25:51,200 from them, but even human teachers are bound by finiteness and by this fallen world and by their 258 00:25:51,200 --> 00:25:56,960 own sin. So I think his argument is basically this. If our human teachers can teach us some things, 259 00:25:56,960 --> 00:26:02,880 how much more can God's word teach us? So I think that's the argument. So I think that's the 260 00:26:02,880 --> 00:26:09,440 argument. How much more can God's word teach us? Make sense? And yes, we can learn from people who 261 00:26:09,440 --> 00:26:16,480 are older than us, who have more experience than us, but newsflash, age doesn't always mean wisdom. 262 00:26:18,080 --> 00:26:23,520 We should extend honor and respect to the aged, but know that there's a lot of old fools out there. 263 00:26:25,520 --> 00:26:29,680 I've met men in their twenties who have more wisdom than men in their seventies. Why? Because 264 00:26:29,680 --> 00:26:34,880 wisdom is something that they've spent years studying and applying God's word. And some men 265 00:26:34,880 --> 00:26:39,360 in their twenties have been more diligent in that than men in their seventies. 266 00:26:42,480 --> 00:26:48,320 Hmm. Because wisdom comes from that, right? Diligence in studying and applying God's word. 267 00:26:48,320 --> 00:26:53,920 So again, I'll go back to Spurgeon as he once said, he said, we may hear the wisest teachers 268 00:26:53,920 --> 00:27:02,800 and fools, but if we meditate upon the sacred word, we will become wise. There is more wisdom 269 00:27:02,800 --> 00:27:08,000 in the testimonies of the Lord than in all the teachings of men. If they were all gathered into 270 00:27:08,000 --> 00:27:16,160 one vast library, do you believe that? The one book outweighs all the rest. Why? Because it's 271 00:27:16,160 --> 00:27:23,360 from the infinite creator. Now notice some of the nuances in the language in these verses, 98 to 100. 272 00:27:23,360 --> 00:27:28,720 Why do God's commandments make the Psalmist wiser than his enemies? He says, because they're always 273 00:27:28,720 --> 00:27:35,840 with me. They're ever mine, he says, right? That means he's internalized God's law. He has tasted 274 00:27:35,840 --> 00:27:42,080 it. He has chewed on it. He has ingested it. Now it's a part of him and it goes with him everywhere 275 00:27:42,080 --> 00:27:49,840 he goes. That's the goal. Why do God's testimonies give the Psalmist more insight than his teachers? 276 00:27:49,840 --> 00:27:55,680 Because it says those testimonies are his meditation. He is rehearsing the witness of God's 277 00:27:55,680 --> 00:28:02,400 truth in his mind all the time. And finally, why do God's precepts give the Psalmist more understanding 278 00:28:02,400 --> 00:28:09,040 than those older than him? This is important. Look, because he has observed them, which means 279 00:28:09,040 --> 00:28:14,720 the Psalmist isn't just hearing. He isn't just reading. That's a piece to the equation, but he 280 00:28:14,720 --> 00:28:20,000 is applying it as well. He's obeying all that God has set before him as the path to wisdom and 281 00:28:20,000 --> 00:28:27,040 blessing. That's why he feels confident, so confident to speak as he does. So make sure you 282 00:28:27,040 --> 00:28:30,960 catch the summary of those three comparisons. The Psalmist says, I have more wisdom, insight, 283 00:28:30,960 --> 00:28:36,320 and understanding than those in the world because each and every day, number one, I carry God's word 284 00:28:36,320 --> 00:28:41,520 with me. Number two, I'm constantly meditating on it. And number three, I walk in obedience. 285 00:28:41,520 --> 00:28:45,840 Now, if you're looking for a formula for maturity in the Lord, there's a really good one. 286 00:28:47,040 --> 00:28:52,800 There's a really good formula. And if we'll commit to that same process, the promise we have is that 287 00:28:52,800 --> 00:28:58,800 we will begin to cultivate this love for God's instruction, and we will begin to walk in wisdom. 288 00:28:58,800 --> 00:29:04,640 But you got to know this. This is key. It won't happen by magic. There's a lot of magical thinking 289 00:29:04,640 --> 00:29:10,640 in the church. If I'm just around godly people, it just somehow sinks in and comes out of the 290 00:29:10,640 --> 00:29:17,200 life. That's not going to happen. That's not going to happen. We cooperate with the Spirit of God who 291 00:29:17,200 --> 00:29:22,160 wants to grow us in sanctification. We yield to the work of the Spirit. We put in the work 292 00:29:23,120 --> 00:29:28,240 so that God can use that effort, that work, that striving to produce the fruit that only he can 293 00:29:28,240 --> 00:29:34,800 produce. It's a cooperative effort. Make sense? So look, you got to establish certain priorities. 294 00:29:34,800 --> 00:29:39,120 You got to make certain choices. And at some point, you got to do hard things like put down 295 00:29:39,120 --> 00:29:45,920 your phone. I'm guilty. I'm with you. I'm not preaching at you. I'm preaching to us. We got to 296 00:29:45,920 --> 00:29:51,040 put down the phone. We got to log off the computer. We got to get off social media. We got to turn off 297 00:29:51,040 --> 00:29:59,520 Netflix. And we got to find that space, that quiet time, and the focus and the energy to really love 298 00:29:59,520 --> 00:30:07,280 God's word and to meditate upon it. There's guys, man, if I had a cheat code on this, I'd share it 299 00:30:07,280 --> 00:30:12,800 with you, but there's no cheat code. There's no shortcut. There's no substitute for that. 300 00:30:14,080 --> 00:30:20,320 Sorry. Okay. What else does loving God's word and meditating produce in us? Look at verse 101. 301 00:30:21,360 --> 00:30:28,080 It says, I have restrained my feet from every evil way that I might keep your word. And then 302 00:30:28,080 --> 00:30:33,120 let me tack on the last verse. Look at verse 104. From your precepts, I get understanding. Therefore, 303 00:30:33,120 --> 00:30:43,120 I hate every false way. So continuing in our logic, meditating on God's word taught the psalmist 304 00:30:43,120 --> 00:30:49,760 there's a form of knowledge that you can only find in obedience, living in a restrained way, 305 00:30:51,200 --> 00:30:55,120 living by principles and convictions that help you to stay away from evil 306 00:30:56,240 --> 00:31:00,720 and to stay on the path of blessing. And I find the way it's phrased here so interesting 307 00:31:00,720 --> 00:31:05,280 because we often talk about knowing the word so that we won't walk in sin, but here, look, 308 00:31:05,280 --> 00:31:10,560 it's flipped around. He says, I restrained my feet from walking in sin so that I keep God's word. 309 00:31:12,240 --> 00:31:16,320 It's a symbiotic relationship between those two statements. They build on each other. 310 00:31:16,320 --> 00:31:22,320 Meditating on the word restrains us from evil and encourage us to walk faithfully with Jesus. 311 00:31:22,320 --> 00:31:28,720 And when we choose to do that, it causes us to love God's word more. Why? Because it produces 312 00:31:28,720 --> 00:31:34,240 in us spiritual fruit, which is pleasing to us and pleasing to God. It's symbiotic. These two 313 00:31:34,240 --> 00:31:39,840 things go together. It reminds me when I was always writing this, you probably have heard this quote 314 00:31:39,840 --> 00:31:44,560 from D.L. Moody, sin will keep you from this book or this book will keep you from sin. 315 00:31:46,480 --> 00:31:48,720 I mean, that is so simple yet so profound. 316 00:31:51,520 --> 00:31:55,920 So bottom line, your best and most effective companion in the fight against sin 317 00:31:55,920 --> 00:32:01,280 is meditating on God's word and then allowing the spirit of God to impress its judgments on your 318 00:32:01,280 --> 00:32:08,320 heart and your mind. And then you take that with you out into this big bad world and let it speak 319 00:32:08,320 --> 00:32:15,120 to you in the situations you bump into. Notice in verse 104, growing in understanding leads one 320 00:32:15,120 --> 00:32:21,440 into understanding. It says, it says what we get is spiritual discernment because every day we face 321 00:32:21,440 --> 00:32:28,080 all these choices, right? Every day. Look, if you're anything like me, you pray in the morning, 322 00:32:28,080 --> 00:32:32,480 you spend time in the word and you go out into the world and you have the best intentions, right? 323 00:32:32,480 --> 00:32:36,960 To always respond in a godly way and then bam, something happens and you're like, 324 00:32:38,720 --> 00:32:43,520 I did not expect that to happen. And now I'm challenged and now I want to react in the flesh. 325 00:32:44,240 --> 00:32:48,960 Right? Things come at us every day. We're faced with these choices, right? We're going to walk 326 00:32:48,960 --> 00:32:54,240 the path of obedience or the path of sin. And if you're loving God's word consistently and 327 00:32:54,240 --> 00:33:00,720 you're meditating on its instructions over time, over time, it becomes easier for you to bump into 328 00:33:00,720 --> 00:33:08,960 the situation and go, I recognize that. That is the path to sin. If I keep going down that path, 329 00:33:08,960 --> 00:33:13,760 it's going to lead to conflict and pain and discouragement. And at the same time I go, 330 00:33:13,760 --> 00:33:19,120 I also know the other path and I know that path leads to blessing and joy and contentment. 331 00:33:20,560 --> 00:33:28,240 Right? And then you pick accordingly and it causes us over time to hate evil more and more 332 00:33:28,240 --> 00:33:34,880 because we see where that leads. And can I just say sometimes, sometimes, and I can admit this, 333 00:33:34,880 --> 00:33:44,160 I can admit this. Sometimes you have to feel real pain from walking that false way and you have to 334 00:33:44,160 --> 00:33:51,040 experience the consequences of your sin and how it affects you, how it affects those around you, 335 00:33:51,040 --> 00:33:57,600 those that you love, your family, for you to learn that lesson and say, you know what? I'm going back 336 00:33:57,600 --> 00:34:02,160 to God's word and I'm going to love it all the more and I'm going to meditate on it. So next time 337 00:34:02,160 --> 00:34:08,800 I get to that crossroads and I see those two paths, I'll make the right choice. And the Spirit is 338 00:34:08,800 --> 00:34:14,560 there if we'll yield to Him to help us make that choice. This is how scripture makes us wise unto 339 00:34:14,560 --> 00:34:19,920 sanctification. That's the promise. And by the way, if you think that's too simplistic, you know, 340 00:34:19,920 --> 00:34:25,120 Jesus said the same thing in John chapter 17. Do you remember the high priestly prayer? 341 00:34:25,680 --> 00:34:31,360 The last night that Jesus spent with his disciples, here's what he said. He said, 342 00:34:31,360 --> 00:34:40,720 Father, sanctify these men in the truth, sanctify them in the truth. He said, your word is truth. 343 00:34:43,120 --> 00:34:46,880 The Spirit of God works through the truth of scripture to grow us and mature us 344 00:34:46,880 --> 00:34:52,800 in every way in our thinking and our feeling and our priorities in our desires and in the choices 345 00:34:52,800 --> 00:34:59,680 we make to either walk the path of obedience or sin. Now we can't skip past verse 102 because it 346 00:34:59,680 --> 00:35:05,360 too holds a very important truth. Look at verse 102. I've not turned aside from your ordinances. 347 00:35:06,800 --> 00:35:12,960 Well, how? It says, because you yourself have taught me. So the Psalmist says, you God, 348 00:35:12,960 --> 00:35:18,880 you yourself have revealed truth to me. You yourself have taught me through your word, 349 00:35:18,880 --> 00:35:22,960 through your ordinances. This is what I was talking about at the beginning. The Psalmist 350 00:35:22,960 --> 00:35:27,840 heard the voice of God in the pages of the scriptures, which is a wonderful thing. 351 00:35:27,840 --> 00:35:33,680 Now, obviously that truth didn't eliminate the need for God to send prophets. We have the word, 352 00:35:33,680 --> 00:35:38,240 but God also chose spokesmen to speak his truth, to call people back to that truth. 353 00:35:38,720 --> 00:35:44,400 And in the new covenant era, he still uses pastors and elders and teachers to take the scriptures, 354 00:35:44,400 --> 00:35:50,480 to exposit it and to call us back to faithfulness. But the advantage we have in this dispensation 355 00:35:50,480 --> 00:35:54,640 is that we also have the indwelling spirit. We have an advantage over the Psalmist, 356 00:35:54,640 --> 00:35:59,360 right? Because the promise that Jesus said is that the spirit will come and teach you all things 357 00:36:00,720 --> 00:36:06,320 and bring to your remembrance all that I said. And then two chapters later, the spirit will come and 358 00:36:06,320 --> 00:36:12,320 guide you into all truth. But that's always been the promise, whether it's old Testament or new, 359 00:36:12,320 --> 00:36:17,200 the promise has been that the Lord would not leave his people without a witness to the truth. 360 00:36:17,200 --> 00:36:25,280 So I hear it all the time. I wish God would speak to me. Guess what? He has. He has. Again, 361 00:36:25,280 --> 00:36:33,360 it's sitting in your lap. It's sitting in your hands. It's on your phone, probably. He has spoken 362 00:36:33,360 --> 00:36:39,040 to you. We're personally taught by the Lord when we come to him with open, humble hearts, 363 00:36:39,040 --> 00:36:45,520 and we meditate on his instructions. Now, one final verse to look at, and it's literally 364 00:36:45,520 --> 00:36:54,880 sweet. Verse 103, how sweet are your words to my taste? Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth. 365 00:36:55,840 --> 00:37:00,320 This is where all the everything that the Psalmist has said up to this point, this is where it leads 366 00:37:00,320 --> 00:37:07,840 to the sweetness of God's word, which is the sweetness of God himself, treasuring God's word, 367 00:37:07,840 --> 00:37:14,080 committing your life to its precepts, meditating on it day after day. And now that I've read the 368 00:37:14,080 --> 00:37:20,880 Bible, and now that I'm in my early sixties, I can tell you it gets more and more sweet with each 369 00:37:20,880 --> 00:37:27,760 passing year. It really does. Walking with the Lord through the seasons of life, being able to 370 00:37:27,760 --> 00:37:33,600 look back now and go, man, you know, my twenties, my thirties, my forties, my fifties. Wow. Seeing 371 00:37:33,600 --> 00:37:39,200 how God has been faithful in both trials and in blessing through all those seasons of life and 372 00:37:39,200 --> 00:37:46,400 grandkids, it gets sweeter and sweeter as you look back. I think about it this way. Think about 373 00:37:46,400 --> 00:37:55,520 how do you enjoy a piece of hard candy? How do you eat it? Really slowly, hopefully, right? Don't do 374 00:37:55,520 --> 00:38:02,560 that, dentists, right? Don't do that. You put it in your mouth and then you just let it slowly dissolve. 375 00:38:02,560 --> 00:38:09,520 And the more it dissolves, the sweeter it gets in your mouth, right? But it takes time. It takes time. 376 00:38:09,520 --> 00:38:16,480 That's how the word of God becomes sweet to us. Little by little, each time we open it up, each time 377 00:38:16,480 --> 00:38:22,480 we pray over it, each time we ask the spirit to teach us, word by word, verse by verse, chapter by 378 00:38:22,480 --> 00:38:29,120 chapter, over time it becomes sweet. Sweet as honey, the psalmist says. By the way, the opposite is true. 379 00:38:29,120 --> 00:38:35,520 Over that time, falsehood begins to taste more and more bitter. So there should be this separation 380 00:38:35,520 --> 00:38:40,720 of the two, the more time you spend in God's word. So is that how you feel about the Bible? Big question. 381 00:38:40,720 --> 00:38:45,760 Is that how you feel about the Bible that's in your hands this morning? Is it sweet to you? Is it sweeter 382 00:38:45,760 --> 00:38:55,600 than Krispy Kreme? Sweeter than Cheesecake Factory Cheesecake? Right. We all have our favorite dessert. 383 00:38:55,600 --> 00:39:02,560 Do we see it as that sweet? If not, it's good to ask the question, why not? Why isn't there an appetite 384 00:39:02,560 --> 00:39:07,040 present in me for God's word? That's a really good question. Don't be afraid of that question, by the 385 00:39:07,040 --> 00:39:15,040 way. Don't feel ashamed by it. Why have my taste buds become dull? That is worth exploring. It might 386 00:39:15,040 --> 00:39:19,920 be that you're intimidated by the Bible. It might be that it's hard to understand. It might be that, 387 00:39:19,920 --> 00:39:27,520 gosh, there's parts of it that are really boring. Is that bad? Right? If that's you, that's okay. 388 00:39:27,520 --> 00:39:32,160 Come ask for some help. We have people that can walk you through that, that can give you reading 389 00:39:32,160 --> 00:39:38,240 plans, study plans, can help you to bring the text of Scripture alive. So don't be ashamed of that. 390 00:39:39,120 --> 00:39:45,680 But I will say this as well. If you don't find the words of Scripture sweet because there's sin in 391 00:39:45,680 --> 00:39:51,040 your life and because you don't want to be confronted or exposed by it, that's a different 392 00:39:51,040 --> 00:39:58,240 deal. I once heard a pastor say this, the Bible is a book that in some ways is dangerous to our 393 00:39:58,240 --> 00:40:04,720 peace and our comfort and to our comfortable illusions about ourselves. So sometimes we avoid 394 00:40:04,720 --> 00:40:09,840 the word and we're like, it doesn't feel or taste sweet to me right now because I'm enjoying my sin. 395 00:40:09,840 --> 00:40:14,640 The word is sharper than a two-edged sword, right? It will cut and it will divide and the Spirit will 396 00:40:14,640 --> 00:40:19,920 use the Scripture to confront things that he wants you to grow out of. And so if the Bible isn't 397 00:40:19,920 --> 00:40:25,840 sweet to you because of sin, I just want to encourage you, now is the day, today is the day 398 00:40:25,840 --> 00:40:32,320 to start dealing with that reality. We've all been there. Sometimes we want to hide and go, I'm the 399 00:40:32,320 --> 00:40:36,880 only guy that's ever wrestled with this. It's a lie from Satan. He's the only one that's ever 400 00:40:36,880 --> 00:40:43,760 wrestled with this. It's a lie from Satan. We've all been there. But deal with the reality. Commit to 401 00:40:43,760 --> 00:40:50,320 a process of honesty and openness with the Lord and again, ask for help because we have people 402 00:40:50,320 --> 00:40:55,600 here who could help. Did you catch the lyrics of the song that we sang right before I came up here? 403 00:40:57,360 --> 00:41:00,800 It's called Honey, which is, it's one of my favorite worship songs. So, 404 00:41:00,800 --> 00:41:08,240 so look at this chorus. Is this the chorus, Grant? Okay, thanks. Just checking. 405 00:41:09,360 --> 00:41:13,120 And ask yourself the question, does this describe how I feel about God? 406 00:41:14,720 --> 00:41:21,040 It says, you Lord delight in me. I'm adored. I'm desired by you. 407 00:41:22,640 --> 00:41:28,800 Do you believe that? You cherish me. You count me as blessed. Yeah, through Jesus Christ, you love me 408 00:41:28,800 --> 00:41:35,120 to death. That's how much you love me. Does that resonate in your heart? You're like, nope, 409 00:41:36,320 --> 00:41:44,560 that's not me. I'm fully known. God knows everything about you. All of your inclinations, 410 00:41:44,560 --> 00:41:51,120 all of your thoughts. I'm fully known and yet my King still loves me. If you're found in Christ, 411 00:41:51,120 --> 00:41:59,280 he still loves you. He's not angry. He just wants better for you. I've been exposed before God and 412 00:41:59,280 --> 00:42:07,920 yet you speak to me softly, like a shepherd. My deepest joy is found in you and you only, 413 00:42:08,800 --> 00:42:15,440 because God, my God, you feel that? The way of that? My God, you are as sweet as honey to me. 414 00:42:15,440 --> 00:42:20,720 So it's a good question to ask. Is that how I see God? Is that how my relationship with God 415 00:42:22,240 --> 00:42:32,160 looks and feels? Okay, as you process that, let me close with a practical example of what 416 00:42:33,040 --> 00:42:38,960 meditation looks like, at least in my life. Martin Luther once said that, and I love this image, 417 00:42:38,960 --> 00:42:43,760 he said the best way to study the Bible and to meditate on it is pick a passage that is 418 00:42:43,760 --> 00:42:48,880 like a fruit tree. Pick a text and then just shake the heck out of that thing until the fruit starts 419 00:42:48,880 --> 00:42:56,080 falling in your lap. I like that. But you've got to do the shaking. See, some of us expect the fruit 420 00:42:56,080 --> 00:43:00,000 to fall without doing the shaking. You've got to get in there. You've got to shake the tree. 421 00:43:00,800 --> 00:43:05,680 So let me just give you an example. Let's say there's a man who has a problem with anger 422 00:43:06,640 --> 00:43:11,440 and it's something that has been present in his life for a long time. He's got a problem with 423 00:43:11,440 --> 00:43:18,800 anger and it's something that has been present in his life throughout his adult years. Too often, 424 00:43:18,800 --> 00:43:25,120 he's angry about things at work. He's angry at his wife because she's not doing all that he thinks 425 00:43:25,120 --> 00:43:30,960 she should. He's angry at his kids because they irritate him and his anger becomes a dark cloud 426 00:43:30,960 --> 00:43:36,320 over his life and over his family's life. And in the heat of the moment, he tries to justify his 427 00:43:36,320 --> 00:43:42,240 anger. He's like, but I got so much pressure in my life. He justifies it, but he knows deep down, 428 00:43:42,240 --> 00:43:47,520 because he's a Christian, he knows deep down that this is sin and that it's hurting his family. 429 00:43:48,560 --> 00:43:52,800 And from time to time during his life, he will commit himself. I am going to work on this 430 00:43:53,920 --> 00:43:58,560 and I'm going to get better of my anger. And he finds limited success, but he still falls 431 00:43:58,560 --> 00:44:04,240 way short of the man that he wants to be. So the question is, besides constantly praying about this 432 00:44:04,240 --> 00:44:07,680 and besides humbling himself and asking for help, what else can he do? 433 00:44:09,040 --> 00:44:15,280 This is where meditation comes in. For starters, he should look long and hard at every passage in 434 00:44:15,280 --> 00:44:21,200 the Bible that speaks to this issue of anger. And he could go straight to James chapter one, right? 435 00:44:21,200 --> 00:44:26,800 It says, let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger for the anger of man 436 00:44:26,800 --> 00:44:31,680 does not produce the righteousness of God. And there are many passages like this that speak to 437 00:44:31,680 --> 00:44:40,480 the issue of anger. And then this man should slow down, find quiet time, find space and start to 438 00:44:40,480 --> 00:44:47,520 meditate on that statement and others. That is essential to the process. It's not enough. Just 439 00:44:47,520 --> 00:44:53,360 read it. Okay. Oh, James is right. Okay. What's next? No, slow down and start to parse through 440 00:44:53,920 --> 00:44:59,920 that verse and all the verses that talk about anger. And if he does that, he's going to realize, wow, 441 00:44:59,920 --> 00:45:05,600 anger is contrary to the purposes of God in my life. Not only is it unrighteous in itself, 442 00:45:05,600 --> 00:45:12,480 it actually is working against righteousness in my life. That's a conviction, right? And that 443 00:45:12,480 --> 00:45:18,480 unrighteousness then is spilling out into my family's life, hurting the wellbeing of my family. 444 00:45:18,480 --> 00:45:25,040 And I let that sting a little bit because it should. And if he's paying attention to that passage and 445 00:45:25,040 --> 00:45:30,320 other places, he'll find out, you know what? I really don't have a right to be angry at others, 446 00:45:30,320 --> 00:45:33,120 especially when I'm banking on the fact that God's not angry at me. 447 00:45:35,040 --> 00:45:41,280 That doesn't seem right. Perhaps in reflection time, he looks at Jesus as his example and says, 448 00:45:41,280 --> 00:45:47,840 well, how did Jesus respond when he was, when he was treated so poorly, so unjustly, 449 00:45:47,840 --> 00:45:55,840 Jesus didn't retaliate. And he's my example. And what is anger? But a, but a, a lack of self 450 00:45:55,840 --> 00:46:00,720 control and self-control is a fruit of the spirit. This demanded of Christians in Galatians five, 451 00:46:01,760 --> 00:46:05,840 not only is anger contrary to the fruit of the spirit, it's actually the wicked fruit of self 452 00:46:05,840 --> 00:46:13,760 centeredness because it makes my own happiness, the central issue of my life and therefore should be 453 00:46:13,760 --> 00:46:19,680 the central issues of everybody's life to make sure I'm happy. You see how this works? When you 454 00:46:19,680 --> 00:46:27,680 start parsing through what scripture says, what about the command to return a curse with blessing? 455 00:46:27,680 --> 00:46:33,120 What about the command to be a peacemaker in a world of conflict and strife? That's what Jesus 456 00:46:33,120 --> 00:46:40,800 told me to be. So if this man then confesses his need to God and he collates all those biblical 457 00:46:40,800 --> 00:46:47,040 texts together that shows him the sinfulness of his ways, and he reads those texts and he mulls 458 00:46:47,040 --> 00:46:52,240 over them carefully and he thinks about them often and he begins to memorize them and he asks the 459 00:46:52,240 --> 00:46:57,920 spirit for help. And then he begins to write out how those biblical texts should be understood and 460 00:46:57,920 --> 00:47:07,600 applied to his life. And then he does this not once, not twice, but he does it every day and every 461 00:47:07,600 --> 00:47:13,920 day and every week and every month and every year until he begins to see progress in his heart and 462 00:47:13,920 --> 00:47:22,960 in his life. That is what I think the Bible means by meditate. By the way, that's my story. I just 463 00:47:22,960 --> 00:47:32,720 told you my story from many years ago. It's very personal to me, but it takes that time and it takes 464 00:47:32,720 --> 00:47:38,960 that energy and it takes that focus and it takes shaking that tree, not going, oh God will fix that 465 00:47:38,960 --> 00:47:48,160 or ah this whatever. No, no. You've got to attack these things by loving God's law and by meditating 466 00:47:48,160 --> 00:47:54,240 on his word. And that folks is how men and women throughout church history have put sin to death in 467 00:47:54,240 --> 00:48:02,080 their lives through the word and by the spirit. But it's not by magic. It's by ingesting the word. 468 00:48:02,080 --> 00:48:07,840 It's by chewing on the word. It's by shaking the tree of every text and making it a part of 469 00:48:07,840 --> 00:48:12,880 themselves and then carrying that wherever they go. By the way, this is really just, this is the heart 470 00:48:12,880 --> 00:48:21,360 of biblical counseling. This is literally what we do. It's hard work. If you've signed up for 471 00:48:21,360 --> 00:48:29,040 biblical counseling at Oak Hill, you know it's not a cakewalk, right? It's hard work. That's the 472 00:48:29,040 --> 00:48:36,080 expectation of scripture and God will honor that. If that's your desire to overcome sin, if that's 473 00:48:36,080 --> 00:48:41,280 your desire to please the Lord in every way, he will honor that and he will bring all the power of 474 00:48:41,280 --> 00:48:48,160 the Almighty to strengthen you and to heal you and to help you to walk in a path of wisdom and 475 00:48:48,160 --> 00:48:55,920 blessing. Amen. Friends, the word of God is a phenomenal gift, a phenomenal gift. The greatest 476 00:48:55,920 --> 00:49:02,640 thing, the greatest treasure we could ever have. We just have to love his instructions. 477 00:49:03,920 --> 00:49:07,920 We just have to commit to meditating on them because they will bring you all the things that 478 00:49:07,920 --> 00:49:15,440 you truly want deep in your heart, right? To love God and to love others and to please him in every way. 479 00:49:15,440 --> 00:49:22,480 Father, we stand amazed at the power of your word. Even something like Hebrew poetry 480 00:49:23,520 --> 00:49:31,680 that is authored by you, how beautiful it is, how practical it is, how convicting it is, 481 00:49:32,720 --> 00:49:37,040 all the things that you teach us, all the ways that you instruct us, Lord God, we 482 00:49:37,040 --> 00:49:40,080 stand amazed at you as the author of all of it. 483 00:49:40,080 --> 00:49:47,920 And God, we pray, pray that you would seal these truths in our hearts, Lord. I pray for myself and 484 00:49:47,920 --> 00:49:54,480 for my brothers and sisters that we would not shy away from what you've called us to in this passage, 485 00:49:54,480 --> 00:50:01,360 to love your law, to love the instructions that you've given to us. It's a love letter. It's what 486 00:50:01,360 --> 00:50:08,400 is best for us and that we would desire to be able to do that. We would love to be able to 487 00:50:08,400 --> 00:50:14,080 love the Lord God in every way that you've given us and that we would desire that you would 488 00:50:14,080 --> 00:50:19,840 cultivate that in our hearts, a desire to meditate on every word that you've given us, 489 00:50:21,520 --> 00:50:25,360 both for your glory and for our good, Lord, because we know that that is the result of it. 490 00:50:26,160 --> 00:50:31,760 So help us to do that well, God. Help us to help us to continue to lean into your word 491 00:50:32,320 --> 00:50:37,760 in obedience, to trust you for that and to encourage one another to love and good deeds 492 00:50:37,760 --> 00:50:40,880 that you've given us. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.