Father, indeed, we are beholding to you for these blessings of fellowship with the saints here this morning. And oh, how we love to come and be a part of them. And Lord, we pray that now that our hearts and minds would be settled into your Word. That Lord, you would speak through it. Speak directly into our hearts. into our minds, Lord, if you would, and cause us to retain it in our memory banks. There may come a time when they will strip us of our printed word, but if we have it in our hearts, sealed up, then surely when they do, we'll still be able to recall and enjoy the wonders of your word. And Lord, that's what we're doing, Psalm 119 this morning. We're reading the grand thoughts of David here in Psalm 119. And Lord, we're seeing how that he enjoyed it and yet was provoked by it. And even not only provoked, but Lord, brought to repentance by it. as the whole entire canon of your Word ought to do. And Lord, as we try to preach the whole counsel, your whole counsel, I beg for mercy, I beg for strength, unction, and certainly I beg and plead for Holy Spirit to you to give me the ability to speak what it is that the Father would have me speak, in spite of my notes, In spite of my notions and what I believe that, Lord, You have given us from Your Word, I don't want to embellish, neither, Lord, do I want to take liberties. I want to be faithful to every word, every line, every jot, every tittle that Your people may be fed this morning from it, make application of it, and begin to live by it. For indeed, it means nothing if we do not make it livable and seen as living in us. I beg and plead now with you, have mercy upon us. Bless these in our congregation that are having some struggles with their flesh for sweet carrying this cancer for Ken and his leg. And Lord, I pray for Ken and Debbie's son that you'd help him with his diabetes. Others in here are suffering through some things as well. Lord, you know best. You know what to do. We leave it with you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Now, I probably won't do this every Sunday, but let's go back to verse 1 and read forward. I think we need to do that. Remember now that each one of these stanzas begins with a letter from the Hebrew alphabet. And the first letter here is Aleph. And then our writer pens these words, Blessed are the undefiled in the way who walk in the law of the Lord, Blessed are they that keep His testimonies, and that seek Him," talking about the Lord, "...with a whole heart." These undefiled ones we talked about up there in verse 1. Verse 3, "...they also do no iniquity, they walk in His ways." Their sin debt has been paid. They're living by faith and not by sight. Verse 4, the writer says, "...Thou hast commanded us to keep Thy precepts diligently, And then he says in verse 5, Oh that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes, and we must put this with precepts as well, we need to do this diligently. Verse 6, Then shall I not be ashamed when I have respect unto all thy commandments. I will praise thee. with uprightness of heart, when I shall have learned thy righteous judgments." And by the way, look at that verse. He'll praise the Lord with uprightness of heart, but only after he's learned the Lord's righteous judgments. Listen, you cannot worship, you cannot praise Him that you don't know. Understand that, you can't. You can't worship what you don't know, who you don't know. And then verse 8, He says, I will keep thy statutes, O forsake me not utterly, which in essence means, Lord help me. I resemble that remark. How about you? Now, moving on, we come to the next stanza of the 119th Psalm and reading from verse 9, we have the letter Beth. And he writes, Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way, by taking heed thereto according to thy word, that's how, with my whole heart have I sought thee. Oh, let me not wonder from thy commandments. Thy word have I hid in my heart, mine heart, that I might not sin against thee. You ought to underline it, you ought to highlight it, you ought to write it down on something, put it in prominent places throughout your house, Listen to me don't just ignore what I'm telling you do it memorize it to remind yourself Use the word against the devil the devil's trying to trash you all out. You know that You'll walk out this afternoon from this church in just a little while and before you get out the driveway the devil be on you about something That's just what he works. It lurks around churches He lurks around maybe sitting on a pew. I'm gonna figure out which pew it is and take it out. I Uh-oh, might get your pew. Lord, forgive me. Let's get back to it now. Verse 12, blessed art thou, O Lord, teach me thy statuettes. With my lips have I declared all the judgments of thy mouth. Not my mouth, thy mouth. I have rejoiced in the way of thy testimonies as much as in all riches. I will meditate in thy precepts and have respect unto thy ways. Verse 16, let's read it together. I will delight myself in thy statutes. I will not forget thy word. Everybody read that last clause together. I will not forget thy word. May the Lord bless the reading of his word this morning. Now, as we move into the second stanza, We have more of David's grand thoughts, which he has committed, I believe, to his personal notebook, his diary, if you will. And as I told you before, we don't know if David wrote this psalm in a single day, or if it took him 22 days, as there is 22 stanzas, notated by a letter of the Hebrew alphabet. And we're not sure whether or not it may have taken him 176 days. He daily meditating on something profound that he discovered in the Word of God, or the Word of God pricked his heart so badly that he had to stay there on that verse for some time. or that verse or that thing that he found in the Word of God, not a verse, but whatever he read, it motivated him, uplifted him, and that may have been a reason why he stayed on it. You know that he had found God's statutes and wondrous doctrinal treatises as being wonderful to his heart and mind, and yet provoke him to do better, and nothing else, throw him into repentance. I know this, it certainly provoked him into some incredible meditations, whose outcome we're reading right here in this psalm. No doubt he found, as I told you before, Jehovah-exalting lines and phrases, and God's own testimonies. Not his testimony, not David's testimony, but God's own testimony. God speaking of himself to David. This causes meditations then with this incredible fellowship with the Lord to move into personal worship that would indeed in every way cause David, here it comes, love him more dearly, follow him more nearly, and see him more clearly. Did I get it right? Sometimes I lose my way in those three little sayings. But this is what happened to David. At least we believe that's what we're seeing in this psalm. And as you read through it, and I hope you have already, this psalm is extremely emotional. These thoughts, these words, these powerful statements were not just some run-of-the-mill meanderings of a man that just happened to be doodling on a piece of paper. No, these collective thoughts are EMOTIONS. This man has been in touch with God in his time of meditation. And we see this from the first stanza alone. Look up there at the first stanza. The stanza begins with great joy in verses one through three with acknowledgement of who he is in the Lord. And who is he in the Lord? Verses one through three. I'll tell you who he is. He's a member of the Lord's undefiled. When he comes to that understanding, when he sees exactly who he is now, oh man, you know, you had a worship service. I mean, when I learned about election, you talk about a worship service is still going on. It's still going on. Can you imagine what he learns? That he's a member of the undefiled, that his sins are completely forgiven. They're washed away by his Messiah to come. Who will do it in the future? But he's going to realize it now where he is. And oh, what joy that provoked in him. What emotion. Blessed are the undefiled in the way who walk in the law of the Lord. Blessed are they that keep His testimonies. Man, this is euphoric talk here. Blessed, blessed. And they that seek Him with the whole heart. Verse three, they do no iniquity. They walk in His way. Why do they do no iniquity? Because those sins are forgiven. They know it right well and they want to live for Him. But in verse four, the stanza turns somber. as he meditates on the responsibility that the undefiled have. Verse 4, Thou hast commanded us to keep thy precepts diligently. He goes from joy to somberness because he knows, verse 1, 2, and 3, he hasn't done like he needed to do all the time. And there's also a twinge of sadness added to the mix of emotions here in verses five and six as David realized that he's not very good at doing the very things he has listed in the first four verses. Oh, that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes, he writes. Oh, that I could do it. Verse six, then shall I not be ashamed. You know that right now, in his heart and mind, he's ashamed. He's ashamed that he's not giving the Lord the kind of attention that he deserves. God has been so good to him, but he's not been that good to the Lord. This is King David we're talking about, the manager of God's own heart, and he's ashamed. He says, when I have respect unto all the commandments, when I look at all your commandments, when I see all your word, I realize what I've been like, how I've done. Most of us only realize that when the preacher brings it up in church on Sunday. And in verse 7, David makes a decision from what he has learned and certainly felt in his times of meditation and says now in verse 7, I will praise thee with uprightness of heart when I shall have learned thy righteous judgments. He says, right now I can praise you with uprightness of heart because I've not learned them like I ought to. And then in the verse of emotion, he cries out in verse eight, I will keep thy statutes. I'm gonna turn over a new leaf. I'm gonna do better. Oh, forsake me not utterly, which in essence is David begging the Lord with tears in his eyes to help him. He wants to do better toward the Lord. He's failed the Lord in the past. He doesn't want to do it anymore. Do you see David's emotions here? This whole thing's emotional. You should recognize these emotions because we all have emotions like this. I'm not going to ask you to raise your hand or give me a full tally of all the times you failed the Lord, but I guarantee you, you can't count them. Probably failed a bunch on the way to church this morning. Failed before you got here. Things you know you should do to get yourself ready to get to church, you fooled around. Or you didn't do this, you didn't pray for your king, you didn't pray for your pastor this morning. You know I had to come up here, why didn't you pray for me? And if you are a believer, these emotions are not going to stop until you reach home. They're not. There are gonna be times of great joy and great worship, and there's gonna be times you're gonna be crying, oh Lord, oh Lord, forgive me. Forgive me. Until we reach our final home, we're going to experience mountaintop living one day, and then the depths of the valley the next day. That's how it is in this world, in this condemned, fallen world, in your condemned, fallen flesh. That's the way it's gonna be. Boy, what a downer this is. Boy, that Darrell, he preaches some downer messages, don't he? We're always gonna find ourselves walking in the valley of the shadow of death, sometime, many times, until we get out of here. Until we get out of here. And as we attempt to worship the Lord and serve Him, we're going to find roadblocks everywhere. We're going to find ourselves stubbing our toes, blooding in our nose, falling down so many times. And then we find ourselves the next day, the next instant, riding on the clouds of glory and sweet communion with the Lord, and I want more of that. Don't you want more of that? That was what David was experiencing. He wants the euphoria, verses one through three. But most days he finds himself crying verse eight. Oh Lord, help me. So now with his emotions in the valley, he begins to ponder what he has written in the first stanza, thinking about those first grand thoughts. And he wants those highs, if you will. And he begins to meditate on how he's going to have them. As a matter of fact, he opens the second stanza, verse 9, with these words. He's asking himself this question, and the question is good for all young men, all young women. Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? Not only of the inordinate sins we commit, Certainly those are failings, but how we treat the Lord in His worship and how we think about Him, how we feel about Him. The question takes in these questions, as a matter of fact. How am I going to honor the Lord? How am I going to keep His statutes? What can I do to stay in sweet fellowship with Him? How can I stop sinning? For I know that is exactly what breaks fellowship with my Lord. There may have been a bunch of other questions in his mind, but he wants to cleanse his way. He asks us that rhetorical question, how does a young man cleanse his way? How do I cleanse my way? I thought about that a lot. And you know what? Every one of us asks ourselves that question every time we sin. Every time we sin, we get down and we confess it and we ask the Lord to forgive us. And then the next thing comes up, how am I gonna stop this? What made me do that? Why did I shoot my mouth off that way? How can I keep my mouth closed? Don't ever say those questions out loud. Your wife may hold up a clothespin. Stick this on your lips and you'll shudder for a while. But this is running through his mind. Remember, he's prayed, Oh Lord, help me. He's a member of the Lord's undefiled, of the Lord's people, His very children. And friends, the Lord always hears the prayers of His little children. He does. And God is going to answer David's prayer. Right here in front of your very eyes. We see it answered here in verse nine, the second clause. What does David say? How do you cleanse your way? By taking heed thereto according to thy word. Isn't that something? Now, I'm gonna say this to you. Because I don't know this for a fact, but God may have answered that instantaneously. David said it, the lights went on, and he realized what he needed to do. Or a couple days later, or a week later, we don't know. But the answer came nonetheless. God answered his question right there on the spot. This is not something that David came up with. I don't believe it for a minute. I believe the Holy Spirit went by heeding the Word. Here was the means by which David could know the blessings of verse 1 through 4 continually. Here was the means to see the Lord more clearly, follow Him more nearly, and love Him more dearly. You take heed thereto according to His Word. That's what it says. You daily look in His Word. You daily learn His Word. You daily live in His Word. You know what you ought to do? You got a piece of paper hidden if you write this down or commit it to memory. You ought to have that somewhere on you. I must look in His Word daily. Did you read any Bible yet today? I hope you will before you go home. And don't let this suffice what we're doing here. This is my reading. You read for yourself. You look at His Word daily. You learn His Word daily. You live in His Word daily. That's what that means. Heed thereto according to Thy Word. Well, with God's reply then, And with it burning in his mind, David first reflects on his walk with the Lord thus far. That's what David did. When that reply, when that prayer was answered right there, the very first thing David does is that he looks back and reflects on just how he had been living. Just how much he had learned, etc., etc. His immediate response is verse 10, "...with my whole heart have I sought thee." Without a doubt, he loved the Lord, and he wanted the Lord's blessing upon him. But when he actually reviewed, listen to me, when he actually reviewed his activity for the Lord, he found that his spirit had indeed been willing, but his flesh was weak. David had not burnt the midnight oil in the pursuit of living for the Lord as he should. So after real consideration of how he had done business with the Lord, after this reflection, he secondly has to repent. He reflects, he then repents, and he cries a repentance. Look there. Oh, let me not wonder from thy commandments. He's seen backwards. Hey, we sing that song here all the time. Remember it comes, I found, prone to wander, Lord, I feel it prone to leave the God I love. That's the MO of all of us. He knows that, he reflects, he sees, he's reviewed, he sees, he repents. and he cries in repentance, O let me not wander from thy commandments. Yes, there are times in which he knew that he had failed the Lord utterly, and you know you have. Don't sit there pious, looking at me like a calf at a new gate. No, no, no, you know. Both of us, all of us, more times than we'd like to admit. Turn over to Romans chapter 7. The Apostle Paul does the best in describing how we are and where we are. Romans chapter 7, Paul comes with this complaint. Verse 14, For we know that the law is spiritual. But here's his complaint, But I am carnal, sold under sin, For that which I do, I allow not. For what I would, that do I not. But what I hate, that do I. Oh man, the things that he wants to do, his flesh, oh, aggravates the situation, he can't do it. Verse 16, Then I do that which I would not. I consent unto the law that it is good. What the law says not to do, I'm doing. The law is right. The law is right. The law convicts me. It convicts me. It should convict us all. That's why Jesus had to keep the law for us, because we couldn't do it. No matter how hard we had tried. Verse 17, now then is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. Most certainly there's sin in our members and our flesh that aggravates us and we'll not get rid of that till we get out of here. It's been paid for. And so in verse 18, he says, for I know that in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing, for to will is present with me. But how to perform that which is good, I find not. FOR THE GOOD THAT I WOULD I DO NOT, BUT THE EVIL WHICH I WOULD NOT THAT I DO. NOW IF I DO THAT I WOULD NOT IS NO MORE I THAT DO IT BUT SIN THAT DWELLETH IN ME. I FIND THE LAW THAT WHEN I WOULD DO GOOD EVIL IS PRESENT WITH ME, AND YOU'RE GOING TO FIGHT THAT TO THE DAY YOU GET OUT OF HERE. Verse 22, FOR I DELIGHT IN THE LAW OF GOD AFTER THE INNER MAN, REALLY AND TRULY MY SOUL AND SPIRIT DELIGHTS IN THE LAW OF GOD. Verse 23, but I see no law in my members, that is my flesh, warring against the law of my mind. In Galatians, Paul said, the spirit wars against the flesh, flesh against the spirit. And bringing me into the captivity of the law of sin, which is my members. He says, this is a constant thing. Verse 24, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? And then verse 25, he answers that question. I thank God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. That's who's going to deliver me. Now did that give him license to sin? No, no, no. but he is coming to grips with what is causing the sin, and that's this old flesh that someday is gonna be taken off of us, and we'll get a new body, say amen, a new heart, new mind that's set for the kingdom of living for God. So going back now to Psalm 119, David knew this about himself, and that his only hope was to do what God had told him to do in verse nine. And what he does is he regroups. He regroups. Remember now, he's reflected, he's reviewed, he's repented, now he's going to regroup. Verse 11. Thy word have I hid in my heart. In other words, he's studying, he's reading, he's learning, he's committed to memory, he's getting his memory muscle, that old brain to work, and he does so because he does not want to sin against the Lord. Thy word have I hid in my heart that I may not sin against Thee. Now that he's regrouped, Now David's going to refocus. In verse 12, here is now his focus. Blessed art thou, O Lord, teach me thy statuettes. With my lips have I declared all the judgments of thy mouth. I have rejoiced in the way of thy testimonies as much as in all riches. He is not concerned about the details of worldly living, earthly living, when he says in verse 14, "...as much as all riches." In other words, what we have here is a man who has committed himself, refocused himself completely to the Lord and is going to do all he can to learn about the Lord. And you know what David does after he does a refocus? Verse 15. I will meditate in thy precepts, not just today, but every day, and have respect unto thy ways. I will delight myself in thy statutes. I will not forget thy word." This is going to be a lifestyle. This is going to be a daily routine for him. And I believe that David received the bounty of reward for doing that, because repetition works wonders. David's going to repeat what he's refocused himself on. It's not going to be just a one-day affair or one moment, and he's going to keep himself to it. Now, we didn't live with him. We don't know what the outcome would be of this, but we believe that what he says he's going to do, he's a man after God's own heart. He commutes with God. God commutes with him. He is a friend to God. How many of y'all want to be friends to God? Oh, no question in my mind. How many of y'all want to serve the Lord Jesus Christ like you should? Well, that's what it takes. It's just like anything else you do. I mean, for heaven's sakes, if you're going to set your sights on being something, you've got to train to be that thing. You've got to put in the sweat. You've got to put in the midnight oil. You've got to do everything that you can. But we're believers. We live on grace. But we are created under good works as a result of the grace. And it should be that we should want to be the best at what we do for the Lord. We'll never attain it here, and I shouldn't even throw that in there, but I gotta keep you humble. But we're to strive nonetheless. We keep on keeping on. I can't tell you how many times that I've seen athletes who've trained for a triathlon. That's where they swim so many miles, crawl out of the water and get on a bicycle and bike a hundred miles. They come back in and they get off the bicycle and then they run another how many miles it is. It may be 30, 40 miles they run in that triathlon. And I've seen people, no joke, I've seen people at the finish line finishing up that run on their faces, literally clawing and scratching their way across the finish line. They would not give up. They wanted the T-shirt. They wanted the T-shirt that said, I finished the Iron Man. Let's look at a picture of the Iron Man. We'll go to the house. Go to 2 Timothy. 2 Timothy. This is in my notes. Thank you, Holy Spirit. You must have wanted me to bring this up. 2 Timothy, go to the last chapter, chapter 4. Here is a man who is writing his last letter. He will never write another letter after this one. He's writing to his little protege, his young protege, young Timothy. And there he speaks to him and charges him to preach the word to be instant, in season, out of season, to reprove, rebuke, and exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. I mean, he's zeroing in on his young friend because he knows that the executioner is just outside the door. He knows it. He knows it. He may have even heard the file on the axe that's going to behead him. You know the apostle Paul was beheaded, right? This is his last letter. It may have closed. He may have closed the letter and handed it off just as they opened the door and getting ready to lop his head off. But I love what he says. Verse number six, chapter four, second Timothy. Everybody turn there with me. Don't miss this. Verse six. For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course. I have kept the faith. Can y'all say amen? That's what I want said about me. Well, there's one thing about old Darrell Lingerfeld. I'll tell you what, he fought the fight. He wouldn't lay down. He kept jabbing until they knocked him completely out. But he finished his course. He kept the faith. He didn't let down the Lord Jesus. He kept preaching. Even when they were saying all nasty things about him, he kept preaching. He even went up there and started a church on that hill when everybody said, nah. It's too late in life to do that. No, no, no. He kept on fighting. He kept on fighting. He kept on scratching. He kept the faith. And then I'm going to get what the next verse says. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day and not to me only. but unto all them also that love his appearing. That's why every day, Darrell Lingerfeld reflects, reviews every day, repents, regroups, refocuses, Repeats. This woman and I, every morning, don't matter where we are, even if we're traveling in the car, we read the Bible. We got a couple of apps when we're in the car, we listen to Alexander Scorby reading. I follow along when she's driving, et cetera, et cetera. Never fails. We got ready for church. You know what we did? We went to the living room, we sat down, we read. We finished up Proverbs this morning. We start Ecclesiastes tomorrow. Every morning. That's why the Lord is blessing us. We do his business first. We pray. Pray for you. I'm telling you, you saw what David asked, you saw God's answer. Take heed to the Word of God. My friend, you can't take heed to it if you don't read it. You'll waste your time, you'll spend your time running after every other pursuit, and yet all those pursuits will fail you because you didn't do the first one. I should have put your Bible away, I got one reversed, but I'll just quote it for you, because I memorized this. Matthew 6.33, sir, do you know it? Yes, sir, I know it. Lay it on us. Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and I will baptize you. And all these things will be added unto you. That's right, Matthew 6.33, do you know that verse? You ought to learn that verse. You have not because you ask not. It says the Word of God. And also because you read not. You don't spend the time that you should. And folks, I'm rich. I'm the chiefest of sinners. No question about it. I am. I am. I'm going to be fighting my way out of this world. I'll just tell you. My poor old guardian angel, he is beat to death. Sometimes I do silly things and I can swear I can hear him behind me going, oh no, not again. But greater is He that is in me, the Lord Jesus Christ, than he that's in the world. Fight on. Fight on.