We're in Psalm 119, and you'll go to verse number 153, and stand with me this morning as we read God's Word, honoring the reading of it, and pray that the Lord will bless it to our hearts, our souls, our minds, that we might live soberly, righteously, godly in this present world. Beginning in verse 153, Consider mine affliction and deliver me, for I do not forget thy law, says David. I believe it's the writer of Psalm 119. Plead my cause and deliver me, quicken me according to thy word, says verse 154. 155 begins with, Salvation is far from the wicked, for they seek not thy statutes. Great are thy tender mercies, O Lord, quicken me according to thy judgments. Many are my persecutors and mine enemies, yet do I not decline from thy testimonies. I beheld the transgressors and was grieved, because they kept not thy word. Consider how I love thy precepts, Quicken me, O LORD, according to Thy lovingkindness. And if you will, read this last verse with me. Thy word is true from the beginning, and every one of Thy righteous judgments endureth forever. You may be seated. I wasn't with you last Sunday. Brother Dean Olive just stood in my place. And so let me just recap my last message before I went on my little jaunt to Beaumont, Texas, and bring you back up to speed. If you remember, that message was entitled, The Inside War. The Inside War. Remember that I told you that we don't have a clue when the Lord will come back. We don't. Who knows, He might just answer our prayers and heal our land. I would love to see that, wouldn't you? I would love to see a sin-killing, Holy Ghost revival in America and see a great sweeping of souls into the Kingdom of God. And He may use you, maybe me, who knows, to spark that revival. We're saying this morning, revive us again. Remember? Fill each heart with thy love, may each soul be rekindled with fire from above. Well, it would be wonderful to have that kind of reviving happen to us. By the way, we are America and the world's only hope this hour. for salvation from the wrath of God. God is going to pour His wrath out, and I think in a lot of ways He's already began. I really believe the wrath of God is being poured out even as we speak. We're just very, very blessed that it hasn't fallen on us, and I don't believe it will. I believe that the Lord will keep us from that hour of temptation. But if you remember, I challenged you to do eight things as we wait for the Lord to come get us. Number one, I told you that you are to challenge the abominations of this hour, these departures, if you will, from the Word of God. We've got to stand up for the faith once delivered to the saints. Even though this government will call you racist, you'll be called a homophobe, you'll be called a white supremacist, an urban terrorist, etc., if you do. But we are not to be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of our minds and never, ever, ever let ourselves be conformed to it. Conformed to it, by the way, is doing what everybody else is doing. You understand that? Conformity means doing what everybody else is doing, regardless whether it's right or not. Biblical obedience is doing what is right, no matter what else everybody else is doing. That sounded a little jumbled there. No matter what everybody else is doing. Then number two, you must realize now that your Christianity is already offensive to the world. Therefore, you ought not be afraid to stand up before this evil world and tell them the truth that Jesus Christ is the only one that can save them and the world. Christianity, by the way, is counter-cultural. The mere facts of our Christianity, that that we believe and hold sacred, is diametrically opposed to the belief system of this world. Everything that we are, everything that we say that we are, the Bible we hold, the church we attend, is diametrically opposed to the world. And by the way, the more the church stands in contradiction to the world, the more they're going to come after us. The more the church stands for the truth of Christ, the more vehement she stands against sin, the more the church is going to be hated. You cannot be any more offensive and repugnant to this culture than you already are as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. So stand up for the truth of the Word of God in the face of all ungodliness and do not be afraid. Thirdly, you have to believe that this demonic control world intends to silence our message and even ban our Bibles if it can. They hate you because you stand against everything they are. They hate your Lord who definitely stands against everything they are. They hate God's Word because it definitely stands against everything they are. Number four, we must be vigilant for our adversary, your adversary, the devil walks to and fro in the earth, seeking whom he may devour. And as I told you in Sunday School this morning, he's not a respecter of persons. It doesn't matter if you're a pastor of a church or a lay person on the pews, it doesn't matter. He is trying to get at us. The prince of the world has come down to us and he's pulling out all the stops because he knows he only has a short time according to Revelations 12, 12. Number five, you must believe without a shadow of doubt that greater is Christ that's in you than the devil that's in the world. How many believe that? Let me see your hand. Do you believe that Christ is greater than the devil? I hope you don't believe that the devil is co-equal with Jesus. He's not. And according to one denomination who remain nameless, they believe that the devil and Jesus are spirit brothers. God help those poor deluded people. Knowing that greater is He that's in us than he that's in the world enables us to take the fight to the enemy. to take the gospel, that's your weapon, to the enemy. And number six, you must learn before you take it to the enemy to hate sin. If you don't hate sin, something's wrong, especially when it's in you. You should hate your sin the worst. You ought to hate it so badly that your spirit becomes vexed and grieved at the terrors of the very sin that besets you. Because when you sin, it's in the face of our Lord. Can you imagine what those abominations that are being carried out does to our Lord? Well, it's a stench in his nostrils. Yes, God laughs at them. God mocks them, holds them in derision. But I'll tell you what, it ought to make you sick to your stomach what they do to our Lord with their abominations. You ought to take it personally when anyone defames your Lord. Charles Haddon Spurgeon wrote in his Daily Treasures, Sin is always a folly, and as it is the height of sin to attack the very existence of the Most High, so is it also the greatest imaginable folly that we should stand against. SHOULD THOU HELP THE UNGODLY AND LOVE THEM AND HATE THE LORD? NO. IF YOU ARE A FUNDAMENTALLY FAITHFUL FOLLOWER OF LORD JESUS CHRIST, AS YOU SHOULD BE, NUMBER SEVEN, YOU MUST BE EXTREMELY ALERT TO THE FACTS OF HOW THE DEVIL HAS BROUGHT UPON US THESE PERILOUS TIMES AND STAND AGAINST THEM. UNLESS YOU ARE A BINO I've been using CNO for a long time, but everybody I found out is a Christian. Ask anybody, they're a Christian. I've quit asking if they're a Christian. I ask now, are you a faithful follower of the Lord Jesus Christ? Quite a bit of difference. The BNO is a believer in name only. And if you're a BNO, you won't see the world for what it is. Because in truth, you are so tied to the world yourself that you accept everything the world is doing. You're tolerant. You're passive. Oh, you're apathetic. Got that in Sunday School this morning, didn't you? As a matter of fact, though you sit on the pew, you will get angry at me or any faithful minister for that matter when they call these sins to your attention. And then number eight. You must, without hesitation, begin, this day even, to set yourself to drawing nigh to God in hopes that God would draw nigh to you, that He might hear your prayers and heal your family heal your loved ones that may have fallen into these abominations. Look with me at what the Apostle Paul says that he strove to do in 1 Corinthians 9 27. 1 Corinthians 9 27 to finish up this recap real quick. Paul said, and here's the Apostle Paul now, understand who this is, this is the Apostle Paul saying this, 1 Corinthians 9 verse 27, "...but I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection, lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway." Bring my body into subjection, that means bring my life into subjection under the will of God, under the Word of God. live like I should for God, so that I don't become a castaway myself from the Word of God. What Paul is saying simply is, you must fight your greatest enemy, you must fight the hardest enemy you'll ever fight, and that is you, yourself. As I told you before, how can you or any believer, for that matter, fight the good fight of faith when your own sin is at issue? How can you tell others to live right when you don't? How can you tell others, invite others to church even, if your church attendance is suspect? Sin will never be an affliction to those around you if it's not an affliction to you. IF YOU DON'T GRIEVE OVER YOUR SIN, THEY'RE NOT GOING TO GRIEVE OVER THEIRS. AND HERE IS THE FIRST HEADING, BY THE WAY, IF YOU WILL, IN TODAY'S MESSAGE FROM STANZA 20 IN PSALM 119. TURN BACK THERE. DAVID CALLS HIS SIN AN AFFLICTION. VERSE 153, PSALM 119 UNDERLINES THAT. He says, consider my affliction. Consider mine affliction. And he says, deliver me. Now understand the definition of an affliction is a disorder, an infirmity, a weakness in his flesh. And even now, this has become his complaint. It's an affliction to him. His sin is an affliction to him and he's complaining about it. He's not complaining to God about it. He's complaining to himself about it, asking God to deliver him from it. So your sin must be seen as affliction by you. Just as David's affliction was a tear in his heart and mind, you ought to hate sin so much in yourself that it's a tear to your heart and mind. It ought to be a tribulation to your health even. It ought to make you sick at your stomach. Unless you go right to the Lord and ask forgiveness for your daily indiscretions and you let those indiscretions, those sins go, it ought to make you sick because it's sin against the Lord. David said, Oh, against you have I sinned, God. Father, and it ought to be a tormentor to your sleep as it was to David. David's sleep was tormented. Sin hurt him so badly that he had all night prayer meetings with God. He wanted it gone. How could he stand against the sin around him if his own sin stuck out like a sore thumb? He pled with God to deal with his sins and release him from this affliction. He saw his sin as an affliction, a 24-hour tribulation, a tormentor to his very sleep. And the reason why was the conviction of God upon him for it. And I hope that you've been so convicted over your sin, because I know I have, that you have to get up out of your bed and get on your face and ask God to forgive you. That's the only way you're going to get deliverance. David wanted to lay aside every weight and sin that did so easily beset him in order to be enabled to run with patience the race that was set before him. At least that's what Paul teaches us to do in Hebrews 12.1. But back there in verse 75 of Psalm 119, David says, I know, O Lord, that thy judgments are right, and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me. God wasn't being unjust in afflicting David over his sin. Because many times that affliction, that chastisement, if you will, brings us back to God when we forget ourselves or we get so deep in our sin. Listen, we get so deep in our sin that we don't go to the Lord and ask forgiveness. We let it fester and keep going and going and multiply. So David says in verse 75 of Psalm 119, I know your judgments are right. You judge me right. I have sinned. And in thy faithfulness against sin thou hast afflicted me. God will judge your sin if you don't. See, that's one of the things the Apostle Paul tried to tell the church of Corinth. They had turned the Lord's Supper into a party, into a frolic. They had let a man sit on their pews that was having an affair with his stepmother. They had gone awry completely. And Paul says at the end of chapter 11, if we would judge ourselves, we wouldn't be judged with the world. And if we get judged with the world, God's going to intervene on it by that judgment. And buddy, you don't want the outcome. Chastisement will come. Consider my affliction, deliver me. Deliver me from your wrath, is what David's saying. Truly, abominations of the wicked around him were an affliction to David, no doubt about it, but his greatest affliction was his own sin, and it was repugnant to him. It was a vexation to him, as much as the evil men around him. He wants to do something about the evil men around him, but first he must deal with self. And oh, friends, it has got the best of him. As a matter of fact, he's read the law, he's read God's Word, and he says, I do not forget thy law at the end of verse 153, saying, in effect, based upon what I know that you can do, deliver me. We sometimes forget. that there's an all-seeing God, an omniscient God who sees us. David had read God's Word, God's Law, was very acquainted how God hated sin. Are you acquainted with that fact? Are you acquainted with how God hates sin? But we're under grace. Yes, we are. Yes, my sins are all forgiven, past, present, future. Believe it! But day to day, If we let ourselves get involved in sin, we rob ourselves of blessing, we rob ourselves of God's being with us, etc., etc., etc. I go down the list of these things. But most of all, do you not love your Lord for what He's done for you? And shouldn't you wish not to ever dishonor Him by being disobedient to Him? I'm asking you, point-blank church, I'm asking you on Facebook, should you as a believer love the Lord so much that any indiscretion would prompt you to ache because you hurt your Lord? Listen, if Jesus wept because those folks at Lazarus' tomb acted up the way they did, you know that He must weep sometimes when we sin and don't take it to hand real quick. I know some folks are going to send me mail. I don't believe that. He's already done away with our sins, yes, but the relationship. You ever done anything to hurt your husband or wife? Let's see a show of hands. No, I'm just kidding. You don't have to do that. You have. You know you have. Sometimes one little word can do it. Oh, come on, all you married folks. You know how it hurts when your loved one hurts you. Well, don't you? How do you think the Lord Jesus Christ feels? In David's time, he was under the law. And he knew that not only could God rob him from the blessing that he had on him, But God could destroy him and his whole household as well. Certainly David felt the sting of God's chastisement in his household. After he committed adultery with Bathsheba, the baby him and Bathsheba had died. And then God said the sword would never leave his house, and sure enough, it didn't. His son Absalom, you've heard the story, you've read those before. And most of all, here was David. He had put all the material together to build God a temple, and that's what he wanted to do. But God wouldn't let him. He said, You are a bloody man. You've shed too much blood. And so Solomon did that. And so David knows exactly why these things had happened to him. So David, secondly, here's point number two, seeks out an advocate. He's having to deal with this affliction. Now he wants an advocate, a lawyer, you will, to help his case. Again, you must ask, how do you know he wants an advocate? Well, look at verse 154. So vexing to David is his sin, and the sins of the others around him, that he cries out to the Messiah to come. Remember we were talking about that two Sundays ago? He cries out for his Messiah to come, which, by the way, is the Lord Jesus Christ. He wants the Lord Jesus Christ to plead his cause, verse 154, and deliver him. He cries to the Messiah because he knows by reading the Word of God that only the Messiah can mediate between him and God the Father. He understands that force rightly. He's saying in very simple language, go to the Father for me and plead my cause. I know he will hear you. He may not hear me, but he will hear you. That's what he's doing. Understand, my friends, whether the Old Testament or the New, Christ is the only mediator between God and men. The only one. As a matter of fact, 1 Timothy 2.5 says, For there is one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. And then in Romans 8, 33 and 34, if you can turn to that fast, I need to move along. But verse 33 says, Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen again. Who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us? Intercession means he mediates. That's what you hire a lawyer to do for you when you get in trouble. You want him to mediate between you and the jury. You want him to mediate between you and a judge. He knows what to do. Your lawyer, if he's trained right, he knows what he's doing, he can help you with your case, get out of trouble even. When Dave is doing that, he's asked for an advocate. Plead my cause. And it is Christ that pleads our cause before God. This is the central fact of the Gospel, beginning all the way back in the Garden of Eden. If you can turn there quickly, do so. Genesis chapter 3, verse 14 and 15, and here you'll see the first mention of our advocate, of our mediator, the mediator between God and men. Genesis chapter 3, verse 14 and 15. Verse 14, The Lord God said unto that old serpent, Satan, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field. Upon thy belly shalt thou go, and thus shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. And then in verse 15, God says, And I will put enmity, that means a war between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed, and it, that it there is Christ Jesus, shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." There's our advocate. There's our propitiation. That's the first mention of Jesus Christ, the word it, in Genesis chapter 3, verse 15. appears to be an advocate. Christ, Jesus did that on Calvary, by the way, in crushing the devil's head. You know that, don't you, and bruised his heel in it. And what Jesus did on Calvary plunges backward all the way to Adam and Eve. Christ Jesus, the Mediator to come, the Messiah to come, was the advocate for Adam and Eve from then on. And now today, he is our advocate. When the devil comes after us and accuses us because he is the accuser of the brethren before God, Jesus says, hey, I've already paid for those sins. Their debt has been paid. They're free and clear. And it is his pleadings that grant us deliverance from our sins and our enemies. Turn to Hebrews with me real quick. David's pleading for an advocate, and we're going to see the advocate in operation according to the Apostle Paul. Hebrews chapter 4, verse 14. Hebrews 4.14, saying, Then we have a great high priest that is passed into the heavens. Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmity. Look at there. Affirmity is afflictions. But was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Now go to Hebrews chapter 7 verse 25, just a few pages forward. Wherefore, verse 25, Hebrews 7, Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever lives to make what? Intercession for them. He's advocating for them. He's mediating for them. The them here is all his people, his elect, his darling bride. Go to chapter 9 of Hebrews, verse 24. Chapter 9, verse 24. For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true, but unto heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God, everybody, for us. See the advocacy there? See the pleadings He does, His intercession for us? Flip forward a little farther and go to I John, chapter 2. I John, that's one of those little bitty books. Just flip on forward, you'll get there. I John chapter 2, verse 1. John writes, My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate. a lawyer with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he was that for David too. Look at verse 2 of 1 John 2, and he is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. Propitiation means to appease. Appease means to satisfy, to soothe, to calm down, to settle. You might ask, well, why would God have to be satisfied, soothed, calmed down, or settled down? Because of our sins. He's angry at the wicked all day long. Jesus had to die to soothe him. Jesus appeased the Father. Go back to John chapter 3, if you would, and look at verse 36. John 3, 36, He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. Go to Romans chapter 1, verse 18. Romans 1. Verse 18, For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, especially those who hold the truth in unrighteousness. You see that? The wrath of God. The wrath of God for sin, on sin. And one more, and if you can get there quickly, do so. Ephesians chapter 5 verse 6, There Paul says to the Church of Ephesus, Ephesians 5 verse 6, "...Let no man deceive you with vain words, for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience." That's why God has to be appeased. That's why David wants a lawyer. You ever watch any of those shows where a guy has been caught, and they brought him in to interrogate him, and boy, his mouth is just running loose, and then suddenly they ask him a question that just startles him as if he's been caught. And he says, I want a lawyer. I want a lawyer. Hey, I think David got startled a little bit when he saw his sin. I need you to plead my cause. David knew this for sure, else he would never ask his Messiah to come plead for him. You know that. He believed in his heart, in his day, that the only one that could satisfy the wrath of God, he knew this by the Word of God that he had available to him, that the only one that could appease a holy and righteous God for sin was Jesus Christ, the Messiah to come, even though he didn't know him by Jesus. David didn't know the name Jesus. He knew Messiahs. He knew that. As a matter of fact, we know that He knew that because in Psalm 35, verse 1, there again, David says, PLEAD MY CAUSE, O LORD. Psalm 43, verse 1, JUDGE ME, O GOD, PLEAD MY CAUSE. This ain't the first time He's done this. He's very, very well aware of the fact that the Messiah to come could plead His cause. For the record, The Messiah to come that was for David and is for us, the man Christ Jesus. Heard David's pleas. Heard his prayers asking for deliverance as much as he hears ours. Now aren't you glad we have an advocate? Oh, hallelujah. So confident is he in the Lord Jesus that David says back in Psalm 119 there, I hope you did hold on to it. Notice what he says. Quicken me according to thy word, in the second part of verse number 154. Boy, I've said a whole lot, just go through two verses, haven't I? But notice there, plead my cause, deliver me, verse 154, quicken me according to thy word. Now all of us here knows what quicken means, and for those who are listening by Facebook, they may not know. Quicken means to make alive, to revive. In this case, David is pleading for the Lord to preserve him, to restore him, to restore him to the life that he had with the Lord. That fellowship that he had and has with the Lord, the joy of the Lord's salvation, he wants to be restored that. He believes wholeheartedly that the Lord Jesus can do that for him. By the way, that's grace through faith and that nod of David here. That's it. He's learning some grace, and he's got faith in that Messiah to come. He can't see him. He don't know who he is. He's yet to come, but he believes. He goes to the tabernacle believing. He brings his offerings to the tabernacle believing. Here is grace through faith, and that not of himself, and he won't brag, no sir, he never brags, for he knows who his Redeemer is. And this is the case not only for his sin, but the sins of all those around him. David says in so many words, though they don't want you Lord, I do. Though the world hates you, I love you Lord. Don't men defile you, blaspheme you? Not me, Lord. You're all I've got. And He is all we have. The wicked care nothing for the Lord. They want nothing to do with the Lord or His statuettes. But David says in so many words, I do, I do, in spite of all my own sins. Look there, verse 155. Salvation is far from the wicked, for they seek not thy statuettes. But 156, great are thy tender mercies, O Lord. In spite of them, in spite of what they say, great and tender are thy mercies, O Lord. Even if and when you quicken me according to thy judgments, and we all deserve what we get, don't we? Even if thy judgments means chastisement, a spanking for what I've done wrong, sickness for what I've done wrong, Praise you, Lord God. Praise you. That's a hard pill to swallow. But take comfort in this one thing. The facts are that all things work together for good for them that love God, even liver cancer. I know that's hard to grapple with, but I guarantee you a whole bunch of good is going to come out of this. I'm going to be mean right here. This liver cancer may be the exit for you to glory, but wait till you get there. And I know that boy right there, if that were to be the case, and that young son of yours are going to grieve big time. But out of you will come for them great, great benefit. That's hard to get a hold of. It is. It's hard for anybody to get a hold of. How can liver cancer be of any worth? I don't know, but God's providence always works to our good. And it may not be right now, but at some point it will be. God will make it so. That's why we're told, seek ye first the kingdom of God and all His righteousness and all these things will be added to you. And one of those things He adds to us is the ability to understand and believe that all things will work together for good. The tender mercies will come. And though our heart breaks, aches, and though we're sick as dogs, still God knows what he's doing. Aren't you glad God knows what he's doing? And you know something? This is the thing I think about. Those cocktails that you're drinking, the ones at the doctor's office now, not those at the bar down at the state line. I just teased it. I know you don't go down there, do you? But those nasty chemicals that you have to drink as your chemo treatment may be and is the promise of God to restore you to your much-needed health. And I hope that you have the mind that every time you have to get an infusion of that stuff, you thank God for it. In spite of your daily transgressions, in spite of your laziness toward him, in spite of your lack of prayer, devotion and such, the Lord loves his little helpless children and showers them with tender mercies all the time. Tender mercies that protect us, verse 157, from our many persecutors and enemies. And with that grand knowledge, David says there in verse 157, yet do I not decline from thy testimonies, for I know they are the best and they work. David says, I know your word works. David got a real good dose one time of how God works. I mean, how is it that you go down to a little stream, pull out five stones, take one of them, put it in your sling, and fall, a big giant cut his head off? I don't get that. Because God's mercies, God's providence works. He says, Yet do I not decline from thy testimonies. In verse 158, David says, I behold the transgressors, including himself. And he was grieved because neither them or he kept the Lord's word as they should. Verse 159, he says, But Lord, please, if you will, consider the fact that I love thy precepts. And again, he says, it quickened me. Revive me. Fill my heart with your love. May my soul be rekindled with fire from above. Hallelujah, thine the glory. Hallelujah! Amen. Hallelujah, thine the glory. Revive me again. Boy, every day, that's Darrell Lingerfeld's prayer. Revive me again. I've stumbled. I thought something I shouldn't think. I've done something I shouldn't do. Three times in this stanza, he's asked him to be quickened. Revived. Oh, that we would cry that way. Oh, that we would constantly be saying to the Lord, revive us again. If you would get an individual revival going on in your life, maybe you could bring it in here and fire us up for a church-wide one. Maybe, just maybe, that our church get fired up enough that we get one in the community. Maybe you get fired up so much you get one in Giles County. Maybe you would take off and set the world on fire. Perhaps if God's people, which are called by His name, would humble themselves and pray and seek His face and turn from their wicked ways, He would hear from Heaven and would heal our land. But it ain't going to happen until we begin to seek His face. Well, He said, Thy word is true from the beginning. Verse 160. And David believes that with all his heart. YOU KNOW, ALL SCRIPTURE IS GIVEN BY GOD, BY INSPIRATION OF GOD. AND PAUL SAYS, HE'S PROUDFUL FOR DOCTRINE, FOR REPROOF, FOR CORRECTION, FOR INSTRUCTION IN RIGHTEOUSNESS. DAVID WROTE IN VERSE 86 OF PSALM 119, IF YOU LOOK THERE, ALL THY COMMANDMENTS ARE FAITHFUL. IN VERSE 138 OF PSALM 119, HE SAYS, THY TESTIMONIES THAT THOU HAST COMMANDED ARE RIGHTEOUS AND VERY FAITHFUL. In verse 142 of Psalm 119, David writes, Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and thy law is the truth. Verse 144, The righteousness of thy testimonies is everlasting. Give me understanding, and I shall live. And then verse 152, Concerning thy testimonies, I have known of old that thou hast founded them forever. They're bedrock truth. Proverbs 30, verse 5, the proverb writer said, Every word of God is pure, and He is a shield unto them that put their trust in Him. That's what David was looking for. John MacArthur once said, Scripture needs no updating, editing, or refining. Whatever time or culture you live in, God's Word is eternally relevant. It needs no help in that regard. THE WORD OF GOD, THE TRUTH OF IT, NEEDS NO HELP TO BE RELEVANT IN ANY CULTURE. IT IS PURE. IT IS SINLESS. IT IS INERRANT TRUTH. IT IS FOREVER ENDURING. IT IS GOD'S REVELATION FOR EVERY GENERATION. THIS DAVID NEEDED AND WANTED. AND A RIGHT VERDICT WILL BE DELIVERED TO DAVID. REMEMBER I TOLD YOU HE HAD AN AFFLICTION. AND HE NEEDED AN ADVOCATE. HE NEEDED AN ADVOCATE BAD. And guess what? The Lord delivered. Number three, the Lord acquiesced. Now understand, the Lord didn't give in as such, though that's what acquiesce means. But what He did was He heard him and He delivered him. I was trying to keep all A's in those points. Did I do a good job? Affliction, advocate, acquiescence. If you will, 160 one more time. What will revive David? Nothing but the truth. And the truth always is the right verdict. For every one of thy righteous judgments endure forever. Let me close with this. David's own son, Solomon, would one day write in Ecclesiastes 3, verse 14, I know that, said Solomon, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be forever. NOTHING CAN BE PUT TO IT, NOR ANYTHING TAKEN FROM IT. AND GOD DOETH IT, THAT MEN SHOULD FEAR HIM." What should you be doing in perilous times? Seeking the Lord while He may be found, calling upon Him while He is near, getting with your mediator often. You cannot point your finger to the world and say, do this or do that, if your sin has not been dealt with. And if you need help with it, just call upon Jesus. He is a friend to not only sinners, but even wayward believers. Father, thank you for your word this morning. Blessed Lord, take the words of this poor old country itinerant preacher and make them alive in your people. The hour grows late. The devil is seeking whom he may devour. Quicken us, O Lord. Revive us again. Rekindle our hearts and souls for Jesus. Bless your people, please. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.