Princes Persecute Me Without A Cause: Loving God’s Word in a Hostile World

• Hatred of God's Word by the World [00:02:50 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor argues that unbelief inherently opposes God's word, citing the persecution of Christ and the historical rage of nations against God's anointed.
• Christ's Priorities and Obedience [00:06:25 ▶️ 📄]
  > Contrasting human distraction with Jesus' unwavering focus on the Father's will, comfort, and personal honor, establishing the model for Christian obedience.
• False Religion and Self-Service [00:11:33 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor critiques the evangelical notion that God exists to serve man, arguing that true faith involves serving God and that works without genuine relationship are rejected by Christ.
• Lying vs. Truth and Confession [00:13:43 ▶️ 📄]
  > Identifying Satan as the father of lies who causes division and hides sin, while emphasizing that truth exposes sin and leads to necessary confession and repentance.
• Confession and Sin [00:18:02 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor argues that denying sin is a lie driven by pride and Satan, and that true repentance requires acknowledging sin against God, seeking pardon, and forsaking it through grace.
• Obedience and Law [00:22:03 ▶️ 📄]
  > He refutes the idea that Christians are 'not under the law,' asserting that keeping commandments is the expression of love for God and that Christ's obedience enables ours, rather than negating the need for it.
• Antichrist and Atheism [00:23:48 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor defines Antichrist as anyone who denies the Father and the Son, extending this label to atheists who emphatically deny God's existence and pretend He does not exist.
• Love for the Brother [00:26:58 ▶️ 📄]
  > He connects love for God with love for the brother, condemning those who claim to be Christians but despise other believers or refuse to gather with the assembly, labeling such behavior as hypocrisy.
• Authority of Scripture [00:30:45 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor insists on believing God's word before understanding it, warning that doubting or dismissing Scripture is equivalent to calling God a liar and rejecting the testimony of the Son.
• Prayer and Praise [00:33:23 ▶️ 📄]
  > He encourages constant prayer and praise throughout the day, noting that while 'seven' represents perfect praise, the New Testament exhortation is to pray without ceasing about all aspects of life.
• Prayer and Thanksgiving [00:33:48 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor describes prayer as a continuous, all-encompassing activity throughout the day, covering all aspects of life, and links it to giving thanks.
• Obedience and the Law [00:34:49 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor argues that true peace comes from loving and keeping God's law, distinguishing between earning salvation (which is impossible) and living out the law as a response to grace.
• Motivation for Faith [00:39:23 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor explains that the primary motivation for keeping commandments is love for God, which is a response to His prior love, rather than fear or self-righteousness.
• Study and Application [00:41:46 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor warns against intellectual pride and heresy, emphasizing that biblical study must be paired with practical obedience ('getting off your chair') to avoid becoming barren or unfruitful.

• Sermon Illustration [00:16:08 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses the analogy of a doctor delivering a serious diagnosis to illustrate how the gospel contains hard truths that liberate people from sin, contrasting this with the desire to avoid difficult realities.
• Sermon Illustration [00:19:27 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor references King David's confession of murder and adultery to illustrate the necessity of acknowledging sin directly against God, rather than hiding it due to shame or pride.
• Sermon Illustration [00:20:26 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor references Adam and Eve's attempt to cover their sin with fig leaves, noting that modern attempts to cover sin are even more sophisticated (like weaving wool), but ultimately futile compared to Christ's sacrifice.
• Sermon Illustration [00:24:43 ▶️ 📄]
  > He describes the behavior of atheists who 'play pretend' that God does not exist, getting angry when God is mentioned, and demanding proof of God's existence despite God's revelation in nature and conscience.
• Sermon Illustration [00:27:15 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor illustrates the hypocrisy of those who claim to love the Lord but despise other Christians, specifically those who avoid church because they view other attendees as hypocrites, thereby failing to love the body of Christ.
• Sermon Illustration [00:31:16 ▶️ 📄]
  > He uses the analogy of putting a finger in a socket to describe the foolishness of pointing a finger at God's word and calling it a lie or dismissing it as old and inapplicable.
• Sermon Illustration [00:35:27 ▶️ 📄]
  > He paints a picture of a dying man on his deathbed mourning his actions and broken relationships but lacking the knowledge or means to clear his conscience, illustrating the tragedy of unrepentant sin.
• Sermon Illustration [00:35:27 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor describes a dying man on his deathbed who is filled with regret over broken relationships and sins, feeling stuck because he cannot clear his conscience or make amends, illustrating the despair of those who do not grasp the hope of the gospel.
• Sermon Illustration [00:40:02 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses an analogy of a parent with 20 believing children who love them, stating that this human love is merely a 'drop in the ocean' compared to the vastness of God's love for believers.
• Sermon Illustration [00:40:30 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor contrasts Jesus, who 'excelled at commandments' and did not wrestle with them, with believers who might struggle, highlighting Jesus as the model of delighting in the Father's will.

• Pastoral Charge [00:12:47 ▶️ 📄]
  > Confess and repent from sin.
• Pastoral Charge [00:19:23 ▶️ 📄]
  > Seek the Lord's pardon and acknowledge Him as the offended party.
• Pastoral Charge [00:32:31 ▶️ 📄]
  > Read, possess, and actively use Bibles, ensuring they are passed down to future generations.
• Pastoral Charge [00:42:15 ▶️ 📄]
  > Physically rise from sitting and engage in active obedience rather than passive study.
• Pastoral Charge [00:43:37 ▶️ 📄]
  > Exercise diligence in faith to confirm their salvation and election.

[00:00:01] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:00:01] Let me guide you to open up your Bibles to the book of Psalms. Psalm 119, verses 161 to 168 is our text today.
[00:00:19] Princes persecute me without a cause. That's our title.
[00:00:26] Let us give our attention to the reading of God's Word.
[00:00:30] Psalm 119, starting with verse 161.
[00:00:37] persecute me without a cause, but my heart stands in awe of your word. I rejoice at your word as one who finds great treasure. I hate and abhor lying, but I love your law. Seven times a day,
[00:00:57] I praise you because of your righteous judgments. Great peace have those who love your law, and nothing causes them to stumble.
[00:01:09] Lord, I hope for your salvation and I do your commandments.
[00:01:14] My soul keeps your testimonies and I love them exceedingly.
[00:01:20] I keep your precepts and your testimonies for all my ways are before you.
[00:01:30] May the Lord add to us the blessing of believing and hearing his word.
[00:01:34] Let us pray.
[00:01:35] Heavenly Father, we pray that you would bless us indeed to be quick to listen, quick to hear, and give us understanding.
[00:01:47] May we find the reason to rejoice in this passage.
[00:01:52] May we find the uses of this passage of Scripture to apply to our faith and our walk and our testimony and our witness for Christ.
[00:02:04] So bless us by your Spirit.
[00:02:06] We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
[00:02:10] So as we're getting to the end of this particular psalm, and remember, the psalms are prayers.
[00:02:24] This is one lengthy prayer we have before us.
[00:02:29] And so we have to take it, you know, in eight-verse chunks to better digest it.
[00:02:35] But we have before us, indeed, the experiences of Christ and our experiences as well, but we have or will experience in our Christian walk.
[00:02:50] And so the first point to consider as we look at the first two verses, 61, 61, 162, is that the world excels in hatred toward God's word.
[00:03:09] The faithful excel in love for it.
[00:03:14] And I do not have to belabor the point that the world, and when we say the world, we talk about those of unbelief, truly excel in hatred towards anything of God's word.
[00:03:31] or anything of God, but most chiefly the word that reveals him most gloriously.
[00:03:41] The world is expert.
[00:03:45] The world has expertise in this hatred.
[00:03:49] They seem to develop all different ways to express this hatred in opposition to all things of Christ and the church and the people of God.
[00:03:59] And if we were objective, and we can't be objective on this point, It would be very amazing to recount all the different ways that unbelief and the people under the power of the prince of darkness
[00:04:16] does excel in their hatred and opposition.
[00:04:22] But we hope we all are accounted.
[00:04:26] We need to be counted among the faithful and thus love the word of God.
[00:04:32] And so the Psalms speak of Christ.
[00:04:34] He speaks of his power, of his glory, of his grace, of his mercy, of his reign, of his judgments, and the persecution that he experiences and hence his people experience as well.
[00:04:54] Speaking of princes, he is the prince of the nations who is persecuted by the princes of the earth.
[00:05:05] and we have that those accounts so well in the gospels but that was prophesied in psalm 2 at the beginning of that psalm why do the nations rage and the people plot a vain thing
[00:05:20] the kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed, saying, let us break their bonds and pieces and cast away their cords from us.
[00:05:44] The cords would be the word of God, the law of God, the commandments of God, and hence that's how they describe the bonds as well.
[00:05:58] Objectively speaking, and by faith we say there is no cause for sin.
[00:06:03] most especially against a holy God.
[00:06:08] There is no just cause for sin.
[00:06:10] Maybe you put it that way.
[00:06:11] It is treason of the highest nature to rebel against God, to transgress his person.
[00:06:25] But the Lord Jesus, the most wise God-man, responds with joy for God's word.
[00:06:37] As this is going on, the Lord Jesus, who knows in the Gospels, does not get derailed from serving the Father.
[00:06:46] You and I get distracted easily.
[00:06:49] And some of us get more distracted in certain areas than others.
[00:06:53] But we all get distracted.
[00:06:54] We all get derailed.
[00:06:55] But the Lord Jesus, as a man, did not get derailed by serving the Father, doing the Father's will.
[00:07:04] He knew his priorities.
[00:07:06] And I hope you understand throughout this psalm, and through many of the psalms, the priorities are spelled out for you again and again and again.
[00:07:16] This is why we need to study them.
[00:07:20] And Jesus, he was not thinking about his safety first.
[00:07:24] He was not thinking about his comfort first.
[00:07:27] In fact, it seems like he was never thinking about his comfort.
[00:07:31] His personal honor, even as the Son of God, was not his first consideration.
[00:07:41] Mary said, all blasphemy would be forgiven, even blasphemy against the Son of God.
[00:07:49] He is concerned about the Father, doing the Father's will, glorifying the Father.
[00:08:01] Now, we in the faith often fear the ungodly.
[00:08:09] We should fear for the ungodly or those who provoke the Lord in an especially heinous way.
[00:08:22] But we will love, although they do not, but we will love the word of God.
[00:08:30] We will focus on the love of God and the love of his word while they focus on opposition to God and despising the word.
[00:08:46] It is a rich delight and is counted as most precious treasure among the godly, the word of God.
[00:08:57] So let us treat the word of God with reverence.
[00:09:01] let us go to it expecting blessings from it at all times let us remain silent when it is read that is your personal reading family devotions someone's reading usually his dad or you know if
[00:09:23] if there's a mom leading devotions let's be silent let's stay still while it is preach Let us take note of it, Lord, because of the word, and live it out always.
[00:09:43] Now, on the last day, many will say, Lord, Lord, and then they will try to boast of what they did.
[00:09:51] Lord, Lord, we did many works.
[00:09:53] Lord, Lord, we fed the hungry.
[00:09:55] Lord, Lord, we cared for the poor.
[00:09:59] Lord, Lord, we gave of our substance.
[00:10:02] Lord, Lord, we sacrificed for you.
[00:10:05] But when Jesus is speaking of this, he'll say, but to many of them, I will say, I never knew you.
[00:10:18] I don't know you.
[00:10:19] You're not one of mine.
[00:10:22] You have not done my works, nor have you worshipped me or the Father or the Holy Spirit.
[00:10:32] That's a dreadful thing to come to.
[00:10:34] there will be many claims upon the name of Christ or of the Christian faith but if they do not have the works of the Lord they are not of him they did not love the Lord
[00:10:49] although they say they did they did not keep the commandments although they say they did because they were selfish they were serving self and not God they were doing all things ultimately to their own destruction
[00:11:06] and they spoke lies they try to justify themselves through lies they hate the truth ultimately for exposes their sins and those who are in opposition to god's word and may you hear it on one subject or a set of commandments or a certain area of of service for the lord or
[00:11:33] worship the lord or just one aspect of keeping the law they do not want to bend the knee they do not want to serve the Lord because they think really the Lord is here to serve me there's a lot of thought in
[00:11:51] evangelical circles that the Lord is to serve me I think people get confused because the Son of God came he was born of a woman he was subject to the law he came as the suffering servant that is a
[00:12:10] beautiful truth that we serve god the father and the son because he's a king kings get their subjects to serve them and we want to serve the lord and so we are here to honor the lord
[00:12:30] and we have to understand the word of god and the word of god at times rebukes christians the scriptures expose our sin daily and we know this and if we are have one ounce of sanctification
[00:12:47] if you're a christian you would have at least that you will want to be convicted of your sin you want your sin to be exposed so you can confess it and repent from it that's part of the plan of
[00:13:03] salvation we like the details of the plan of salvation in scripture we like the helps the scripture gives us and as we have a series on prayer and prayer itself is to be a big
[00:13:18] issue practice manifestation in god's people at all times we want to know how god reveals himself in scripture more and more and that there is hope for the most desperate sinners gets us to the second point lying
[00:13:43] serves only satan truth is the basis for praising the lord let's consider verses 163 and 164 i hate and abhor lying but i love your law Seven times a day I praise you because of your righteous judgments.
[00:14:09] See, Satan communicates through lying.
[00:14:14] That's his method.
[00:14:16] But he also, he accomplishes all his evil by either speaking against the truth, the pure truth of God, or he'll take things God has said out of context and qualify it for evil ends and hence makes it a lie.
[00:14:34] He places doubts, and that's part of a lie, and dismisses the clarity of the word.
[00:14:44] Consider the condemning statements against liars.
[00:14:48] This is fairly exhaustive, but not completely exhaustive in Scripture.
[00:14:52] I'm going to keep in a New Testament here.
[00:14:55] John 8, 44.
[00:14:57] You, as Jesus is speaking to these Jews who are in opposition to him, and very publicly so, you are of your father the devil and the desires of your father you want to do he was a murderer
[00:15:11] from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him when he speaks a lie he speaks from his own resources for he is a liar and the father of it very condemning
[00:15:30] of the devil and we say amen based addressing those who call themselves jewish they are jewish by birth see the good lord only speaks truth for scripture says it is impossible for the lord to lie he liberates people from the bondage of sin by the hard truths of the gospel
[00:15:59] We've talked about at times going to the doctor and people have maybe very serious conditions and it is hard to get from the doctor, what do you think?
[00:16:11] Where am I? Am I conditioned?
[00:16:14] And a lot of times they don't want to say the hard things that they know is true.
[00:16:21] The gospel has hard things, but there are good things to hear.
[00:16:28] And the Lord liberates people from the bondage of sin through his word by the gospel.
[00:16:35] And the truth is meant to call all people to the Lord.
[00:16:38] But lies cause divisions, driving people away from the church or maybe brother from brother.
[00:16:48] This is why those who cause divisions or sowing discord are severely condemned in Scripture.
[00:16:59] And Scripture says, brothers and sisters, and you see someone in the church doing that, avoid them.
[00:17:08] Whether church discipline has taken place or not.
[00:17:12] But the devil wants to divide people, draw people away from the Bible and from the Lord himself.
[00:17:19] A very wicked activity.
[00:17:21] Another passage is 1 John 1, 10.
[00:17:23] It says, if we say that we have not sinned, we make him, the him, being God, a liar.
[00:17:35] And his word is not in us.
[00:17:39] See, silence concerning your sin is a lie.
[00:17:46] If you do not acknowledge your sin before God, you're lying to God.
[00:17:52] You're probably lying to other people as well.
[00:17:55] The scriptures, through the law, expose the many ways we violate the commandments.
[00:18:02] To deny confession before the Lord that we truly have rebelled against them, that we have transgressed this specific commandment before us, is a lie that's repeated every day.
[00:18:19] Pride keeps people from confessing the shame of their treachery against God.
[00:18:29] They believe Satan's lie.
[00:18:32] I cannot live with my shame, so I will not confess.
[00:18:38] That's Satan whispering to us.
[00:18:40] When we think in those ways, that is Satan, not God.
[00:18:45] I'm going to be embarrassed.
[00:18:48] I can't have that.
[00:18:51] People will look down upon me.
[00:18:53] We think of all these bad things that will happen.
[00:18:56] Well, maybe they're true.
[00:18:58] We should still do it because the Lord is gracious and merciful.
[00:19:01] But the way to a clear conscience is only through confirming God's truth from God's word that a violation of the commandment is a sin, must be confessed, we must believe that we are forgiven, and we must forsake it by God's grace working in us and all those three things.
[00:19:23] We should seek the pardon of the Lord.
[00:19:26] We should seek the face.
[00:19:27] We should acknowledge, Lord, it is you.
[00:19:30] This is what David said.
[00:19:31] He murdered somebody, committed adultery.
[00:19:34] You only I have sinned against.
[00:19:37] Of course he sinned against Bathsheba, he sinned against Uriah.
[00:19:42] But sin is against God.
[00:19:45] All sin.
[00:19:49] And so we need to acknowledge our sin, our evil, against a good God.
[00:19:55] And praise God for his truth speaking to our situation.
[00:20:01] Pointing out our offense.
[00:20:02] and hence our need of a savior scripture the command the commandments expose sin and teach us our need for a savior praise god your sin is exposed it's a reminder you need a savior denying your sin by seeking to cover it up by your own means like adam and eve
[00:20:26] we can almost laugh at their effort sowing fig leaves together maybe we laugh because it's not so sophisticated now you've got to go to a cotton plant or shave a sheep and get some wool
[00:20:45] and work on it then you can weave it but we cannot cover our sin we dishonor the Savior who paid the price for sinners 1 John 2 4 says, he who says, I know him and does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth
[00:21:08] is not in him. So the false profession of faith is addressed here. It is easy to acknowledge who Jesus Christ is. We can say that historically, and we can talk about him and his works of
[00:21:26] mercy, but not talk about him as the evangelist or the redeemer. See, it's not the same as worshiping the Lord, to know the Lord, to worship the Lord. It's not the same as loving the Lord, acknowledging that
[00:21:43] Jesus was of Nazareth, that he was of the tribe of Judah, that he was crucified. It doesn't mean you're going to worship the Lord. We acknowledge him in always we love the lord and hence we keep his commandments first john 5 3 says for this is the
[00:22:03] love of god that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not burdensome but when christians say i mean they've been taught to say this because it's taught everywhere i'm not under the law i'm saved oh you don't have to show the love of the lord by keeping
[00:22:27] His commandments? Is that what you're saying?
[00:22:30] And of course, your brother said, no, no, no, I want to show love to the Lord.
[00:22:34] I want to keep the commandments, but I'm not under the law. Yes, you are.
[00:22:39] Or you're lawless.
[00:22:42] Or the shorthand is, you're a sinner.
[00:22:44] You don't want to be a sinner.
[00:22:45] You want to be a saint.
[00:22:48] You want to honor the Lord in your life. Christ kept the commandments, so you can keep the commandments too.
[00:22:57] He didn't keep the commandments so you don't have to keep the commandments.
[00:23:02] To know Christ is to confess Christ. To confess Christ means you follow Christ and delight in all his teachings.
[00:23:11] Brothers and sisters, the devil and those other angels, which we will call demonic, who rebelled with him, do not keep the commandments of God. Those who hate Christ and say so publicly do not keep the commandments of God. You want to look like them?
[00:23:37] No, we keep the commandments because we love the Lord.
[00:23:41] 1 John 2.22 says, Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ?
[00:23:48] He is Antichrist who denies the Father and the Son.
[00:23:51] Now the stakes are really big.
[00:23:57] It defines who is Antichrist.
[00:24:00] There's all this preoccupation like, where's that one person going to show up in history?
[00:24:06] Now that's an interesting thing to think about, the man of sin but it says he is antichrist who denies the father and the son said two thousand years ago and john also says in first under there are many antichrists now there's a spirit of
[00:24:24] antichrist and so how puffed up are the atheists in our day they're they are dismissive of all of Scripture and the person of God as he is revealed in Scripture, they pretend he does not exist.
[00:24:43] Think about that for a moment. Atheists pretend God does not exist. No, they're emphatic that God does not exist. They get angry when you talk about God, but in reality, atheists like to play pretend let's pretend god doesn't exist let's pretend there is no god and they want to kind
[00:25:09] of bait you into this this foolish debate prove to me there's a god well god says all men must die and come before the judgment you're going to die someday you want that proof so he thinks that
[00:25:29] no god is revealed in nature he testifies for a conscience and indeed so thoroughly he testifies through his word.
[00:25:41] But they want to play make-believe.
[00:25:43] They think they are the masters of their destiny.
[00:25:46] That they are controlling the outcome of events in their life.
[00:25:51] Which is truly foolish. No one should ever say that.
[00:25:56] And they think in the end they will be okay.
[00:26:03] Atheists are not afraid of what will happen in the end.
[00:26:08] Now they might be afraid of getting sick.
[00:26:10] They might be afraid of dying. They don't want to experience that, but they pretend all is okay. So to know God is to confirm your allegiance and service to the Antichrist. You're in a bad place if you profess
[00:26:40] to be an atheist. 1 John 4.20 says, if someone says, I love God and hates his brother, he's a liar, for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can you love God whom he has not
[00:26:58] seen? And John says very clearly here, what about those who do not like other Christians, and yet they claim to be Christians? And this is a great oddity in the universe. Those who claim, and you
[00:27:15] and I have met them. We've met them many times. For the most part, you have not met them in the accuse because they don't go to church i don't i'm a christian i believe in the lord but i don't go
[00:27:30] to church because hypocrites go there they want to say friend you're a hypocrite because you say you love the lord they don't love the lord's house you don't love love the body of the lord
[00:27:48] you don't love the commandments of the lord do not forsake the assembly of yourselves together as is the manner of some.
[00:27:56] Exhort one another as you see that day approaching.
[00:28:01] If we are true believers, we have so many sins to put away in our lives.
[00:28:08] We can't count them all.
[00:28:11] We have to be watchful.
[00:28:12] We have to examine motives.
[00:28:15] Look at our actions.
[00:28:17] We want to please the Lord.
[00:28:19] This is our daily desire, our daily activity, our goal of the day.
[00:28:28] But to not love a brother or a sister in the faith because you despise their sins?
[00:28:37] Perhaps you think they don't measure up to you?
[00:28:44] I mean, if we say they don't measure up to Christ, well, we're all in the same boat.
[00:28:49] But I think the hypocrite really thinks, other people, they don't measure up to me.
[00:28:53] They're below me.
[00:28:55] They won't say that, but that's in essence what they're saying.
[00:29:00] But we are living a life we think in such ways.
[00:29:05] We must love those who are sanctified, those who are saved by the Lord.
[00:29:12] And it has to be far more than mere words.
[00:29:18] We must practice patience, forbearing with brothers.
[00:29:23] We were dealing with that in our Wednesday night study in Romans 14 and 15.
[00:29:30] We need to minister to one another.
[00:29:32] and we don't decide, I'm going to minister to person B over here because I like him.
[00:29:41] He's a great guy.
[00:29:43] And person C over here, I don't like them.
[00:29:48] I don't like how they dress.
[00:29:50] I don't like how they look at me.
[00:29:52] I don't like the food they bring to the fellowship meal.
[00:29:55] You know, whatever, superficial thing.
[00:29:59] We are to love one another.
[00:30:01] We are to care for one another.
[00:30:02] for this glorifies God and it is an expression of our love to the Lord first and our love to one another we need to be reminded these words in Romans 5 8 but God demonstrates his own love toward us and that while we were still sinners let me repeat that
[00:30:25] while we were still sinners in the state of sin, Christ died for us. Finally, 1 John 5.10, he who believes in the Son of God has a witness in himself. He who does not believe God has made
[00:30:45] him a liar because he has not believed the testimony that God has given of his Son. Never, never never doubt the written word of god never we read it we believe it then we work on
[00:31:00] understanding it you believe it in order to understand it to doubt god's word is to just to dismiss the word in effect you're pointing your finger in the face of god every time i look at
[00:31:16] this passage i try to imagine myself doing this like what what like it's like putting your finger in the socket. This is the foolish of things to do.
[00:31:25] To say in essence, God is a liar. I don't believe in this part of the Bible.
[00:31:34] This doesn't apply to me.
[00:31:37] This is old.
[00:31:40] Everyone attacks Paul.
[00:31:42] Paul was the most hated man in the church since his death. I mean, he wasn't well respected in his day, sadly.
[00:31:56] What a horrid thought to the beast. Point the finger at God so you're a liar. See, the spirit of God that dwells in all who believe confirms God's word, God's truth. We know the voice of the shepherd.
[00:32:14] We know because we believe. We believe because we have the word of God.
[00:32:19] God speaks to us by his spirit through the word, through that blessed Bible that we have.
[00:32:26] And brothers and sisters, I'm afraid we are in a generation that more and more is not reading the Bible.
[00:32:31] Read your Bibles.
[00:32:33] Have many Bibles.
[00:32:36] So I said, where are your Bibles?
[00:32:37] Some people don't have any torn pages.
[00:32:40] I'm not saying you have to write in your Bible, but it's good if you do.
[00:32:44] That's no shame at all.
[00:32:46] But use those Bibles.
[00:32:48] Make sure your grandchildren and great-grandchildren get hold of your Bible and say, Grandma, Grandpa, they love the Word of God.
[00:33:01] Look how warm this Bible is.
[00:33:06] And this is why we also should sing the Psalms, even when we do not fully know what they mean, because they are God's Word and they're a means of grace to us.
[00:33:18] And it is the Lord who speaks in a wonderful way to his people.
[00:33:23] And so here we're talking about praising the Lord seven times a day, and I know we read this like, how in the world can we do this?
[00:33:29] But seven is that perfect number, a perfect number for perfect praise of the perfect God.
[00:33:36] And in the New Testament, we have a similar exhortation to pray without ceasing.
[00:33:42] It doesn't mean you pray for 24 hours, but you always find opportunity to pray.
[00:33:48] It's not just one time here and one time over there, but you pray throughout the day.
[00:33:54] You have some long prayers.
[00:33:56] You have short prayers.
[00:33:57] You pray about everything.
[00:33:58] Pray about your work, your relationships, your family, your neighbors, your church, your nation, your evangelism, your sin, your repentance.
[00:34:10] See, there is a reason to pray without ceasing.
[00:34:14] We've got a lot of things to pray about.
[00:34:16] And we give thanks always.
[00:34:18] We're always to give thanks.
[00:34:19] So if you're always giving thanks, you're doing it through prayer as well as speech.
[00:34:25] Now, no one can be compelled to do this.
[00:34:29] Now, some people might feel like, let's compel people to do this.
[00:34:36] Well, let us see people do this.
[00:34:39] Let us hear people do this.
[00:34:42] It comes from a loving heart and a heart that's been regenerated by the Lord.
[00:34:47] You find reasons to honor and glorify him.
[00:34:49] Our last point, a holy peace is found by keeping God's word.
[00:34:57] Verse 165 to the end.
[00:35:00] Great peace have those, who are the recipients of that peace, who love your law, and nothing causes them to stumble.
[00:35:10] Lord, I hope for your salvation, and I do your commandments.
[00:35:14] My soul keeps your testimonies, and I love them exceedingly.
[00:35:20] I keep your precepts and your testimonies, for all my ways are before you.
[00:35:27] Is there anything sadder to see or more distressing to see than a dying man who mourns for the actions of his life on his deathbed?
[00:35:42] He has all this regret.
[00:35:45] He has these broken relationships.
[00:35:49] But he does not know how to clear his conscience or how to make amends with others, nor consider God's eternal forgiveness through Christ.
[00:36:03] He feels he's stuck.
[00:36:05] This is where I am, and this is where I will die.
[00:36:11] Even many people who have encountered the gospel get into this mindset, and it's a terrible trap of the evil one.
[00:36:21] The hope of the gospel should come through.
[00:36:25] But that is not the case for those who follow the Lord, who delight in the word of God, those who embrace biblical commandments and understand the beauty of the law that teach us the manner in which we are to live and display the righteousness of God and of Christ.
[00:36:45] See, the law of God is not offensive to the upright.
[00:36:53] Understand, stumbling means to offend.
[00:36:57] So nothing of the law will offend or be offensive to the upright.
[00:37:06] Everything about the person of God and the teachings of God for us is glorious and worthy of celebration.
[00:37:14] Truly, the more you keep the word of God, the more you will realize the peace of God in this troubled world.
[00:37:27] because the Lord always blesses you when you keep the law by faith.
[00:37:35] We don't keep it perfectly.
[00:37:36] By faith we keep it.
[00:37:38] But salvation is obtained by the perfect one, the anointed of the Lord, the Christ who keeps the law perfectly.
[00:37:49] And only the atonement of Christ makes payment for our breaking of the law.
[00:37:54] but we return to the law not to earn salvation but to live it out in the fullness of god's glory and so we want to be that perfect man in verse 166 lord i hope or you could substitute hope for
[00:38:16] wait upon remember hope doesn't mean hope like you think it does i hope it's not 95 degrees when i church today and you're thinking it probably will be 95 degrees in the church but hope is an
[00:38:35] expectation of that which has not yet happened so i hope for yourself i'm waiting i'm waiting it's not like i'm waiting for you to forgive me of my sins and accept me but i'm waiting for the
[00:38:50] fullness of your salvation because this is a child god praying here and of course is the voice of christ so develop and keep ongoing and good works but we are saved by the good works of christ
[00:39:06] we do good works because we work for a good lord good god good shepherd verse 160 uh 167 my soul keeps your testimonies and i love them exceedingly i keep your precepts and your testimonies for all
[00:39:23] my ways are before you and just a little common sense here would you keep the commandments of God if you hate them. Maybe a little bit out of fear, maybe a little bit out of self-righteousness,
[00:39:38] but you will excel in keeping something. You will excel in doing something if you love it, or you're doing it for someone you truly love. The motivation of God's people comes from our love for the Lord, but we only love the Lord because he first loved us. And it's a love that's
[00:40:02] beyond all human love. Now you can have 20 children who are believers, and they love and adore you, but that is going to be a drop in the ocean compared to God's love for you. And so we have
[00:40:18] the greatest motivation. And so this is a repeat for the sincere. This is a beautiful expression of Jesus Christ who delights to do the Father's will.
[00:40:30] He didn't think, oh, I've got another commandment before me.
[00:40:35] He excelled at commandments.
[00:40:38] He didn't wrestle with them.
[00:40:44] In fact, we have this wonderful exhortation in the New Testament about growing, growing in our faith.
[00:40:50] In 2 Peter 1, verses 5-10.
[00:40:54] But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue.
[00:41:00] to virtue, knowledge, to knowledge, self-control, to self-control, perseverance, to perseverance, godliness, to godliness, brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness, love.
[00:41:15] If these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:41:31] Now, Psalm 197 through 100, that was some time ago. For you to really know, for you to be a true Bible scholar, it doesn't mean you have a PhD, but to really know your scriptures, you need to
[00:41:46] study the Word. You need a teacher that doesn't study on your own, but you need to study on your own, but you need instruction, good instruction, but you also have to have this key ingredient. Get
[00:41:59] off your chair. Stand up, move away from the pew. There is the place and necessity, vital importance to study, sit and study. Be taught, be instructed, but also you have to do.
[00:42:15] You have to keep the commandments. This is the formula of scripture. Study, meditate upon the word, listen to your teachers, your elders, and do the commandments. Because those who only study and study and yet are not
[00:42:34] getting out of their chair and not thinking that they have to apply these things in their life. They feel like they don't, I don't need to engage people. I'd rather just study.
[00:42:46] That's where you breed heretics because they're not doing the works of the Lord.
[00:42:54] Now, heretics can really sprout up because of false teachers and false doctrine.
[00:43:01] Don't get me wrong.
[00:43:01] and that ultimately happens but they're not thinking in a humble way I need to do the works of the Lord well let me go back on in 2 Peter here so you want to be unfruitful in the knowledge of the Lord
[00:43:20] Jesus Christ for he who lacks these things is short sighted even to blindness and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins therefore brethren be even more diligent to make your calling and election sure
[00:43:37] for if you do these things you will never stumble for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and again false teachers forget they are sinners they forget
[00:43:53] they are saved by grace and by grace alone they forget that they really know nothing unless the Lord teaches them They become prideful, they become arrogant, they become judgmental.
[00:44:08] They're not doers of the works of the Lord.
[00:44:12] They don't love the word because it's the word of the Lord.
[00:44:18] They love to be heard for their word.
[00:44:24] But I don't expect these things of you.
[00:44:29] So your great motivator, believers, to grow in faith is your love for the Lord.
[00:44:36] It's simple.
[00:44:37] Sinners must have the Holy Spirit in them to know God, to love Him, and they will confess their sin.
[00:44:46] They will grieve over their sin, and they will learn the commandments and keep them to the glory of God.
[00:44:53] Love is the great motivator.
[00:44:56] And when you love Him who is perfect and glorious, your motive is to do only good.
[00:45:04] And as the Lord said to his faithful servant Abraham so long ago, so he will speak to us today.
[00:45:11] I am almighty God.
[00:45:13] Walk before me and be blameless.
[00:45:17] Let us pray.
[00:45:18] Heavenly Father, we pray that we would grow in our faith, that we would grow in our love and affection for your word, that we would not tire of it, that, Lord, may we persevere to draw close to you,
[00:45:33] And may we delight in it every day.
[00:45:38] May we not allow the wicked who hate it and speak evil of it and speak evil of you, distract us from prospering in our faith, from flourishing and keeping the commandments, and doing the good things of the law, and manifesting love to our brothers and sisters,
[00:45:58] but even a love for our enemies.
[00:46:01] so may we be motivated by the person of Christ and the word of Christ so continue to bless your people to glorify you we pray in Jesus name, Amen