Pray together for our time in God's Word. Please bow your heads. Heavenly Father, we thank you again for time together here. We ask that you would bless us, that you would open our hearts and give us ears to hear and eyes to see as we peer upon the majesty and beauty of your Word. May it impact us. May it sanctify us. May it feed and fill us. Lord, may it send us away rejoicing together, knowing that we serve a wonderful Savior. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Alright, good to be here with you again as always. Please open your Bibles with me to the book of Psalms. Chapter 119. We have talked about the longest chapter by far in Scripture. verses and all, that highlights the delight, the love that the psalmist, probably King David, has for the Word of God. We are in an abbreviated study of sorts going from verses 1 through 16 before we begin our study elsewhere. But we are exploring the initial ponderings of the psalmist regarding his relationship to the law of God. In our introductory material, we covered that in some depth, that the Christian, under the provisions of the New Covenant, does not need to approach the law in some kind of unreasonable terror because the law condemns him. The law does not condemn him any longer. We understand from the opening verse of Romans 8, verse 1, that there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus has set me, what? Free from the law of sin and death. We are free now from the curse of the law. We are not free, however, to abandon obedience to God's written Word. God calls us to obey Him. He gives us a new heart. He writes His law upon that heart so that we will delight in His law, so that we will obey Him. So obedience is not something that is optional for the Christian. But we do have the provision to draw near to the commandments of God insofar as they continue into the New Covenant age, gaze upon that Word, delight in it, and respond obediently. And so we want to refresh our hearts in this vein from Psalm 119. with the heart of King David, delight in the Word of God. I love the way he expresses this. We covered verses one through eight, and we entered into a study of sort of the second major section. And in the Hebrew, for one, Hebrew is written from right to left, not left to right. And in the Hebrew, each block of eight verses successively begins with a letter of the same letter of the Hebrew alphabet. So verses one through eight is aleph, verses nine through 16 begins with the beth. So just keep that in mind, some fun patterns to explore in Hebrew poetry. But what we want to get out of here is the point that David is making regarding this young man's relationship to the law of God. And so we really only got through one point last Lord's Day, and that was talking about the reality of the pure way. We call this message glorying in the law of God. Yes, we can look at God's law and praise Him. That should be our response. Our initial response is to hear the Word of God. Yes, to hear the commandments of God written down and praise God. That is part of our new nature, built in. We praise God that He has spoken to us. We praise God for revealing Himself. And of course, what this exposes is a particular path in life. There is, as Proverbs says, there is a way that seems right to a man, but the end thereof is what? The end thereof is death. There are many ways. There is only one right way, and that is the way of God. Every other way That man can conjure up leads to death. And so we want to walk God's way. And so we open up the psalm with, how blessed are those whose way is blameless. This is not a human way. This is a man who has looked at God's way and said, this is the way that I shall walk. And that understanding continues into the second chunk of Psalm 119, beginning with verse 9. How can a young man keep his way pure? So here we are, starting again back to this way. That is the young man's initial concern, and what we did last Lord's Day was sort of highlight this ongoing tragedy that this question is hardly asked, let alone among young men. How many young men are out there asking themselves, how can I keep my way pure? Well, the psalmist asks this, so it has to become our priority. How can a young man keep his way pure? So this, in its immediate context, is a concern for a young man. And I think that's perfectly clear based on our understanding of what it means to be a man. A young man eventually is going to be a grown man, and we want that grown man to be a godly man. And we want that godly man to lead a wife faithfully. We want that godly man to raise children faithfully. We want that now-grown man, that grown godly man with his family, to preach the Word of God faithfully, to be a steward of what God has given him, and to be a workman in the Garden of God so that the Kingdom of God expands over all the earth. We can't escape this, friends, is that the Lord is announcing His Kingdom, the Gospel is being preached, But the primary instrument of this is going to be godly men leading the way. God is going to use godly men to make His gospel known. And so that initial concern is for young men. And so we have to pay attention to this. We have to ask this question, how can a young man keep his way pure? And the answer is very clear, by keeping it according to your word. And so that was simply the point being the reality, the reality of the pure way. And so from last Lord's Day, just a couple of major takeaways, things that I don't want us to miss, because a lot was said, but condensing it down into two major takeaways, remember this. And this is especially for you young men out there. And I'm going to try to look at all of you so you know I'm not just isolating one person. But all of you young men, seek the Lord in your youth. Seek the Lord while you are young. Seek the Lord even when you are a boy. Be like Samuel. It took a few times. But when the Lord spoke to him, he finally said, Speak, Lord. Speak, O Lord. I am listening. Your servant is listening. Do not buy that lie from the pit of hell that you can squander your youth by getting it out of your system. Talk about sowing your wild oats. No, sow your godly oats early. Young, any dad in here or elderly man in here, surely who fell into sin can testify to you the same thing. You're probably telling your sons this, either by example or by warning. Walk with God in your youth. Walk with God while you are a young man. Cling to Him. Even if that means standing alone. Don't wait. Because time flies. Don't wait until you're a 30-something year old troglodyte living in your mom's basement to follow God. You wake up in the middle of the night wondering where you are. You've died infinity times on call of duty. And you're wondering where the Cheeto stains came from on your t-shirt. Don't be that man. Seek the Lord while you are young. That's the first major takeaway. Here's the second one. And I'll be brief. You can do this by taking heart that one man has gone before us who has kept this way pure and has his righteousness available through faith to be imputed to your account. We know who that is. That's our Lord Jesus Christ. We can understand from this context and this question and the commands that follow thereafter that we have every provision to do this. So don't make the mistake, oh, I'm still young. I still want to have fun. You know, obeying God, following the Word of the Lord is not the dullest thing on earth, friends. It is enjoyable. God is called to be our highest delight, the one we cherish, the one we treasure. The godly life is far from boring. And even if it were boring, it's better than being condemned to hell. Let's put it that way. But we have Christ and His righteousness. We have also His example who kept His way. Who kept it according to His Father's Word. Who sought the Lord with all of His heart and never wandered away from the commandments of God. I could go on. But we have Christ as our example. And so you young men out there, I don't care where you are right now in life, whether you're a preteen, Whether you're mouthing off to your parents right now, repent by the way. Walk with God. Trust in the Lord. Follow Him. Don't waste your time on godless living. So that's the reality. And so today we're going to get into the second point called the resolve of the pure way. We have the reality. So what are the inner convictions that are going to characterize the keeping pure of this way, right? Guarding it, right? Guarding it, using the same word as Adam was told to guard the garden, to keep it, right? To tend it, to protect it from all enemies, foreign and domestic. Okay. So look at verse 10. The resolve of the pure way. How can a young man keep his way pure? By keeping it according to Your Word. Simple question. Simple answer. Only through God's Word. Now the resolve. With all my heart I have sought You. Do not let me wander from Your commandments. Your Word I have treasured in my heart that I might not sin against You. So there's the seeking. There is the treasuring. And then there's that resolve not to sin. So he says this, with my whole heart, I have sought you. Listen to what Spurgeon says. His heart had gone after God Himself. He had not only desired to obey His laws, but to commune with His person. I think that's very important. Think of it especially in the context of young men. But any age of saint can relate to this. That keeping the commandments of God, that seeking the Lord with your whole heart, does not merely mean keeping His commandments by rote. We keep His commandments out of a heart that seeks Him, that wants to know Him, that wants to commune with Him, that delights in Him and so wants to obey Him. That's why it says, with my whole heart. Think of the heart as that which points to the disposition of the inner man, His will, His desires, His affections. He wants to seek the Lord. He loves the Lord. His heart has been transformed to know the Lord. And he says, with my whole heart, I have sought you. Right? Not with a half heart. With a whole heart. There is this idea that with his whole inner man, there is nothing left out. There is nothing that is compromising. There is nothing he is holding back. There is nothing in him that says, okay, Lord, I will seek you with this part of me, but this, I still want to do my own thing. Not yet, Lord, not here. This is the picture of a man, rather, who is wholly devoted to his God. To seek not only the blessings of God, but God himself. and understands the blessings connected with seeking God with all He is. And this seeking means not merely to look for something, right? Like we're looking for the lost remote controller or we're looking for food. It means to even ask, to inquire. So this idea of seeking God is to ask Him about things, to ask Him for things. It's interesting. The contrast here, I was reading in Deuteronomy 18, and one of the warnings to the people of Israel was to not seek a necromancer. One who communes with the dead. Think of the contrast there. When we seek, same word now, when we seek the living God, we are seeking one who gives life. We're seeking life itself. That is one thing that separates this godly young man who loves the Lord from those who do not know or love Him. He seeks after the Lord. He is not interested in seeking life and wisdom from other would-be purveyors of life and wisdom. He is not looking for the dead as in a necromancer. He's not looking for the dead while he knows he can inquire of that which is living. we also would be similar to be marked as those who seek for life, who seek for goodness, who seek and inquire from God Himself. And then he says this, Do not let me wander from Your commandments. And of course, the similar question arises here. Why is a person who is seeking God with the whole heart suddenly concerned about not wandering from His commandments? And I think the answer is relatively simple, is that the more we are in the light, the more clearly we perceive the dangers of the darkness. The lighter the light, the darker the darkness becomes. And the greater realization occurs to us as to what we were apart from Christ. The darkness is ever darker because we are seeing it in view of the light. Do not let me wander from your commandments. How much more precious is the commandments of God now that we have been called to obey them through the inner working of the Holy Spirit? Analogy I like to use often is imagine that you grow up and you're spending your whole life eating tofu and arugula salad. You're asking what tofu is. I don't know, but it's not food. No one should put that in their body, but people do. And if you do, repent. But imagine eating that growing up, this spongy, flavorless stuff. Right? And then someone puts before you a delicious, juicy, grass-fed steak. And you think, what is this wizardry? What is this deliciousness? And then suddenly, the thought, after you've been enjoying this grass-fed beef for years and years and years, it's a staple of your diet. And you've learned to enjoy the real substantive food that gives you life and strength and big muscles. And then suddenly you think, and then someone comes to you and says, hey, try this new tofu. And you just recoil in horror because you think now you know what it really is. And you think, how could I ever go back to that? Sort of what the psalmist is, how the psalmist is reasoning. Even though he knows he is safe under the mighty watchful hand of God, there still is this holy fear of ever going back to the way things were because now he knows all the clearer of what that life was like apart from God. And so he says, do not let me wander from your commandments. And of course, wander here means to be led astray or even to be exhilarated. That wandering, that this compromise in a believer, even a believer's life, there is an exhilaration when it comes to sin. Yes, it brings forth misery and death afterwards. But yes, even in the Christian's life, sin can be fun for a time. There is an exhilaration. with these things that draw our attention away. But soon thereafter, there is discipline. There is pain. There is anguish. Like Peter walking to Jesus. Walking on water. Peter walking on water. A mere man. And as soon as he took his eyes off Christ, what happened? He started sinking. Probably sank pretty fast too. And that's what wandering is. like to the believer. And so there is a concern. There is a plea to God. There is a resolve in the heart. Do not, Lord, let me wander from your commandments. Do not let me be exhilarated by a false god. Let you be my one and only delight. And wandering sometimes is not as initially recognizable as we may think. I think we think of wandering, we just sort of turn around and walk away. Wandering from the Word of the Lord is not always like that. I would say rarely is it like that for the believer. Sometimes, wandering can be a zigzag. You're kind of walking to and fro, back and forth, slowly. There's the Word, right? There's the commandments of God. Small compromises. There's a zigzag. I think one of the most well-known types of compromise, what we could call the double back, where at first we wander from God's commandments a little bit, and then, oh, nope, we got that reminder, this is the Word of God, this is what He has commanded, I must obey it. But then we wander a little farther, and then we go back again. And sometimes we can go through long periods of time where that is characteristic of our life, we double back. But I think the most dangerous one is this, is that we're right here. And what we end up doing is rather than feasting on the Word of God, we take it in very, very small doses. And it becomes sort of like an inoculation. Sort of like a vaccine. You take it in small doses and then what happens? You become resistant to it. And that is precisely why we seek God with the whole heart, because then we never become immune to the Word of God. We never become resistant to what it says and what it commands us to do. And we think that, yeah, little small compromises here and there are no big deal, but then in the end, before you know it, there's a full-blown departure. Looks like it did, again, similar to Eve in the garden. We start by questioning whether or not God has said the thing at all. Question the clarity of God's word. And when compromise gets to a certain point, what we do is we end up bending and twisting and manipulating the word of God for our own purposes, to serve as a platform for our own compromises and sins. And then we question the sufficiency of God's word. Oh, we need other things. We need wisdom from another source. And so we make what God has said secondary to the Christian life. But God's Word we know must rule all. It will not tolerate operating in secondary fashion. And what we end up doing functionally is making it null and void. It's like when we allow grace to be supplementary to the law, rather than vice versa. We nullify grace all together. It is all of grace. Not by our own ability, not by our own strength and wisdom, but it is all of grace. And if it is all of grace, then we can seek God with all of our heart. Pleading with Him, resolving in our own hearts to not wander from His commandments. No matter how much we wander, God's commandments don't become any less binding. When God speaks, we listen. When God speaks, we obey. And when God speaks, we rejoice that He has taken it upon Himself to speak to such lowly creatures. We seek Him with the whole heart. Listen to 2 Chronicles 15, 12-15. Great passage. They entered into the covenant to seek the Lord God of their fathers with all their heart and soul. And whoever would not seek the Lord God of Israel should be put to death, whether small or great, man or woman. Moreover, they made an oath to the Lord with a loud voice, with shouting, with trumpets, and with horns. All Judah rejoiced concerning the oath, for they had sworn with their whole heart and had sought Him earnestly. And He let them find Him. We all know the frustration of losing anything in our household. And we seek. And we look. And we lift up couches. We go out to our vehicles. We go out to our garages. We look everywhere and we can't find it. Imagine seeking the Lord and not being able to find Him. And yet the provision He gives us Here, is that to seek Him with heart and soul. To seek Him earnestly. He will be found. What does the Lord tell His people? You will seek Me and find Me if you seek Me with all your heart. I don't think that has changed. Thank God He is a God who wants to be found. And reveal Himself to His people. That we may find fellowship with Him. And then look at the conclusion here of this passage. He let them find Him, so the Lord gave them rest on every side. We talked about that precious rest in our Scripture reading this morning. We have rest in Christ today. We are resting together today in His Word. Do not let me wander from Your commandments. Your Word, He says. Here's the other resolve. Your Word I have treasured in my heart that I may not sin against You. For treasure, right? Something that we store up or we prize, that we consider valuable. We treasure that which we think about, talk about, spend our money on, spend our time on. All those things together point to that which we value most. That which we ascribe worth to. And so, of course, this involves this prizing. Look at what he says just down in v. 14 of this chapter. I have rejoiced in the way of your testimonies as much as in all riches. He sees the Word of God as supremely valuable. You could have all the gold, all the treasures in this world still. Having the revelation of the Lord is more valuable. In Psalm 19, the psalmist recounts how having the Word of God is treasured more than gold, even fine gold. So it involves prizing something. Our estimation of what God has spoken to us. But this also involves an investment. As men, we're going back to the young man, and then of course the grown man, which many of us in here are. This involves an investment, that we teach our children, we teach our wives how to fear the Lord, that He shall be our fear and our dread. We teach them to love the Lord and to delight in Him, to worship Him, to serve Him all the days of our life, with our whole heart. And of course, this takes much discipline, maturity, Sometimes we learn the Word and we just come out of the gate screaming. And then as time goes by, we become old. And sometimes when we become old, we become bitter. And when we become bitter, there is a hesitation to speak the Word of the Lord. I have known and heard of many men, in Reformed circles even, who have all this knowledge. They have all this knowledge through years of study and discipleship. A huge library. And where are they in our churches? Sometimes they show up. But where's the investment they're making? Who are they pouring into? But see, this is why we do this from a young age even. Don't let anyone look down on you because you're young. That's what Paul tells Timothy. So even when you are at a young age, when you grasp the Word of God, start pouring into others. Start teaching others. Teach them the whole counsel of God. Teach them to love and fear the Lord. Teach them to serve the King. And don't ever withdraw. Don't ever think that it's not worth your time. Don't ever think that the next generation is somehow a lost cause. That the church has erred so much and wandered so far, that even God Himself can't use you in calling them back to true worship and true doctrine. This is a huge problem that older, wiser men do not invest. But that investment must continue. This also involves memorization. Beuys says this, memorizing is precisely what is called for, since it is only when the Word of God is readily available in our minds that we are able to recall it in moments of need and profit by it. That is why we treasure God's Word in our heart. It becomes a storehouse of truth that we are ready to expend, right? We are ready to invest in others. We're not this clueless person looking around, waiting around for someone else to answer. No, we have treasured God's Word in our heart, and we are ready for that quick draw. We are ready to speak the truth at a moment's notice. Yes, that is a demanding calling. But when are we going to tire of being biblically illiterate in our own midst? Of not knowing what to say. Of not knowing what God has said regarding a matter. That should be inexcusable. Your word I have treasured in my heart that I might not sin against you. See, look at the purpose here. That I may not sin against you. We use the word of God. We treasure up the word of God for many things. But one of the mainly important things that is often left out is that we may not sin against God. Now, we understand that the Christian life is more than simply sin management. The Christian life is more than just, OK, I'm not going to sin, right? We understand the Christian life in a positive fashion. We go and we perform certain good works to the glory of God and the advancement of His kingdom. But chief in our minds as well is that we may not sin against God. If you want to live righteously, You treasure God's Word in your heart. If you do not want to live unrighteously, the answer is the same. You treasure God's Word in your heart. You store it up. Your very heart is a storehouse of truth, mighty to save and mighty to sanctify. But that's the preoccupation of the psalmist. He remembers that God, in giving His Word, is a righteous God, and he does not want to offend that God. He uses here the most basic word for sin in the Old Testament, that is katah. which means to miss the mark. One of the comparisons often made with the use of this word is found in Joshua 20, when there's this feud in the nation of Israel. And in verse 14 of Joshua 20, we read this, the sons of Benjamin gathered from the cities to Gibeah to go out to battle against the sons of Israel. From the cities on that day, the sons of Benjamin were numbered. 26,000 men who draw the sword beside the inhabitants of Gibeah who were numbered. 700 choice men. Out of all these people, 700 choice men were left-handed. Each one could sling a stone at a hare and not miss." Maybe that was a typo. Maybe that's judges. But anyway. Sling a stone at a hare and not miss. Right? Not kata. Not miss the mark. When we think about the Word of God, we handle it in a precise way, a pinpointed way, so that we do not sin against the Lord. In a precise way so that every arena of life is held captive to the authority of God's Word. that I may not sin against you." I mean, think about... A great illustration of this is found in Genesis. Remember Joseph, right? Joseph in his coat of many colors. Joseph in the amazing technicolor dream coat. What happened to him? His brothers got envious of him. They hated him. They sold him into slavery. But God was with him. That's one thing we have to know about Joseph. God was with him, and of course, he rose to prominence in the house of Potiphar. And Joseph caught the eye of Potiphar's wife. And she constantly made sexual advances against Joseph. Very shameless behavior. And what did Joseph say? Let's first of all focus on what Joseph did not say. He did not say, Oh, Mrs. Potiphar, this would ruin my reputation. I mean, I have risen to prominence in this house. I have a good name. I don't want to taint my reputation. No, he didn't say that. Nor did he say, you know, if I do this and I get caught, I'm going to get put to death. It wasn't about the punishment either. What did he say? He said, why should I do this wicked thing and sin against God? In Joseph's mind was a desire to not offend his God. Where did that desire come from? by treasuring God's Word in his heart. You think this desire came from some kind of natural law? Not at all. It was told to him. He was taught this. Not to sin against God. Not to sin against the true and living God. But that was his priority. That was his resolve. When so many other reasons could have been given, chief among them was this, that I may not do this wicked thing and sin against God. May our attitude be the same when it comes to sin and temptation. I don't want to offend God. God cares about righteousness. God cares about how I conduct myself as His ambassador. I don't want to sin against God. That was Joseph's resolve, and may it be ours. And that text is Genesis 39.9, by the way. that we may not sin against you. We treasure God's Word in our heart for the purposes of righteousness. Not to get our own way, not to advance our own name, but to advance the name of Jesus Christ with all power and authority. Think back to this issue of treasure, riches. If you guys have read Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas, or if you've seen the movie, the movie's pretty good too, but the book is way better from what I've been told. But in the movie, you've seen it, right? Edmund Dauntess, the main protagonist, escapes from the Chateau d'If, that prison that he was never supposed to get out from, and he gains a friend by sparing his life named Jacopo, and they go and they find the treasure. Skipping lots of info here. But they go and they find the treasure. And so, when they finally do, Edmund Dantus has amassed untold wealth, probably the modern equivalent of at least hundreds of millions of dollars. More wealth than you could ever spend in a lifetime. And so he's sitting there musing. He's like, you'd think he'd be way more excited to have found this treasure, and Jacopo is dancing around with joy because they have found all this gold, and he says this to his friend, Zatara, which means driftwood, the boat cannot hold no more, and there are at least eight more boatloads down there. Do you not understand? You are wealthier than any man I have ever heard of. Whatever your problems were, they are over. That's his reckoning of the situation. And we think, wow, when we have these untold riches, what are we going to do? What are we going to do with them? And so he asks Edmund, what do you want to buy? And his simple response is, Revenge. Revenge. After getting this amount of money, revenge is the first thing that comes to your mind? Okay, revenge who? And then he responds, danglers, vilafort, fernand, and mercedes. And then Jacopo says, right, we kill these people and then spend the treasure. No, he says, we will study them, learn their weaknesses. Well, why not just kill them? I'll do it. I'll run up to Paris. Bam, bam, bam, bam. I'm back before week's end. We spend the treasure. How is this a bad plan? Edmund says, death is too good for them. They must suffer as I suffered. They must see their world, all they hold dear, ripped from them as it was ripped from me. And I bring this up to illustrate that this is the exact opposite of how the godly man is to regard how he spends the treasure of the Word of God. When he realizes that he has the Word of God treasured up with all of its graces, with all of its life-transforming revelation, his instinct, his supernaturally dispensed instinct is to be a blessing. It is not to seek revenge. It is to seek forgiveness. It is not to bring suffering to those who did him wrong. It is to bring healing and restoration and reconciliation to those who have done him wrong. That is how we spend this massive wealth that God has given us in Christ. Not to be self-seeking in the least, but to seek what God seeks. And so the question becomes, what are our priorities with these untold riches of wisdom and knowledge? Our chief concern is to do good. Our chief concern is to see God glorified. and the investment and expenditure of the treasure that He has given us. And so we continue to the next point. The request of the pure way. After realizing all He has, He says, Blessed are You, O Lord, teach me Your statutes. And here we have this prayer again. This response. He realizes all the blessing that He has, all the grace that He has. Blessed are You, O Lord. That's His response. Blessing to God. And then He says this, Teach me your statutes. You note that he does the same thing. Very similar. He says in verse 8, I shall keep your statutes. Do not forsake me utterly. Right? We notice this pattern here where he speaks of himself. He speaks about God, but then he prays to God. He realizes what's at stake and says, blessed are you, O Lord, teach me your statutes. The one who realizes all the wealth and riches he has via the Word of God wants more from God. As if to raise the cup of salvation to call upon the name of the Lord. That is, the one who has his all in all in Christ wants more of Christ. He wants more. Teach me your statutes. Write that word. Teach me that which has been inscribed. Teach me more of what has been written on my heart. In Christianity, no man is self-taught. A man can teach himself math. A man can teach himself how to play guitar or the kazoo. A man can teach himself how to cook. But a man cannot teach himself the way of God. And that's why in Psalm 25, verse 4 we read, Make me know your ways, O Lord. Teach me your paths. You must cause me to know your ways. Otherwise, I am like a lost sheep. It all comes down to what God says. And so the psalmist recognizes this is all from you. Please, Lord, teach me. And what a reminder for our time today when there is an abundance of teachers, an abundance of gurus who are who are teaching their own philosophy, their own way of life. And I think part of the attraction of this in today's era is that sometimes the stuff they say vaguely resembles biblical truth. Right? We call that hijacking biblical truth. But why not go straight to the source? Go straight to God's Word? That is the pure way. In Psalm 86.11 we read this, "...Teach me thy way, O Lord, I will walk in your truth. Unite my heart to fear your name." There is no unity in the heart if what we are being taught is half of God, half of man. 25% God, 75% man. Ratio it any way you would like. But it must be all God. Anything other than that is compromise. Anything other than that is contamination. Never learn from that which is incidentally godly. Accidentally godly. Learn from God Himself, that which is purposefully godly. May your cry be to Him this morning, teach me your way, O Lord, and that you would have it no other way. Teach me your statutes. And then finally, we'll go through this quickly, the responsibility of the pure way. That is what we are left with, with particular instructions. And if you look through this carefully, this regards how we treat the Word of God on a day-to-day basis. This is our relationship to it. This is the pattern of how we steward God's Word. With all this treasure, What do we do with it? How are we to be a blessing? How are we to show the good and the grace to others? This is the responsibility of the pure way. So let's look at verse 13. With my lips, I have told of all the ordinances of your mouth. So that word ordinances, judgments, right? The conclusions that God Himself has come to, we come to the same conclusions. But look at this here. With my lips, I have told of all the ordinances of your mouth." What does this tell us? What's the most plain, basic, obvious thing that is being said here? Is that we are saying the same things that God says. We are not deviating. We are not adding our own wisdom and counsel, our own judgments. We're simply confessing. That's what a confession is. We are saying the same things that God is saying. Listen to Psalm 3730. The mouth of the righteous utters wisdom, and his tongue speaks justice. Just like God does. Psalm 40 verse 9, I have proclaimed glad tidings of righteousness in the great congregation. Behold, I will not restrain my lips. So amazing. You guys get a chance to go out to Planned Parenthood ever on a Saturday morning from 9 to 11 a.m. Be there or be square. There will be a megaphone there. There will be a bullhorn. And someone, usually Jeremy, will be preaching. You know how many times someone will drive by, and using colorful language, which I'll leave out in this sermon, but will in effect say, shut up! Stop talking! This word's being used in violent fashion to try to restrain what is being said. To put restraints on God's Word being clearly and loudly spoken. That is the attitude. No, we will not restrain our lips. God has told us to proclaim glad tidings of righteousness. First in the great congregation, and then we go forth and preach glad tidings to the nations. Behold! See here! I will not restrain my lips. I will not shut up. I will not be silent. I will keep talking. It is better to obey God than man. And then it says, O Lord, You know. You know. Psalm 1055, remember His wonders which He has done. His marvels and the judgments uttered by His mouth. And so we say the same thing. We confess the same thing God confesses. We proclaim His name everywhere. With my lips, I have told of all the ordinances of your mouth. All the commands. All the judgments. Verse 14, I have rejoiced in the way of your testimony. So you see this pattern here. You see what's being made up here. With my lips, I have told. What's the first thing we do with the Word of God? We proclaim it, right? We pass it on. We speak it forth. But there's also internal matters, right? We're not merely mindless, heartless robots. We speak forth that which reflects a new attitude, a new heart, a new mindset. And so, he says, I have rejoiced in the way of your testimonies as much as in all riches. So there is rejoicing there. There is praise. There is being glad in the fact that you have God's Word as much as if you had all the gold in the world. Verse 15, I will meditate on your precepts and regard your ways. So there's speaking it forth, there is rejoicing, the praise of the inner man, there's being glad in it, and then there is meditating on it. So kind of going from the heart to the mind here. I will meditate on your precepts. Precepts meaning a word referring to an officer responsible for looking at a situation and taking action. This deals with the details of God's law word, of His revelation. And so it's taking time to meditate. I love your law. It is my meditation day and night. Jeremy referenced a verse this morning in Sunday School, Joshua 1.8. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth. But you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success." But this meditation, right? Not a passing thought, right? But deep thinking, prolonged thinking. The word is used here, you guys are probably familiar with this illustration, like a cow chewing the cud, right? Contrary to the myth, cows do not have four stomachs, but they have four compartments in their stomachs. And here's what it looks like. They're out there in the green hills of the Napa Valley. They eat the grass, they chew it up, and it goes to their stomachs very quickly. And it stays in the stomach, and what it does is it soaks up all of the acids in the stomach. It sounds kind of gross, but hear me out. And then after a while, the cow vomits it back up, and apparently it has new flavor, a new makeup. And I guess it does this again and again and again. They repeat it several times. Eating the grass, digesting it, puking it up, eating it again, puking it up. And yeah, it sounds gross, and yet this is the illustration that is to be brought to mind. But what's the point of this? It's to get every ounce of nutrition out of the grass, to not miss any benefit that it has to offer. Only then does it go through the system. But how often do we treat God's Word like this? Where we digest it, we think about it, we return to it again and again and again, because we want to get everything out of it that God desires for us to get out of it. We can learn a lot from cows, other than the fact that when they're fully processed, they're absolutely delicious. We can learn a lot from them. to meditate, to chew on something, to maximize, to exhaust the benefit. That's how we should view God's Word. To meditate upon these precepts. And then it says this, To regard your ways simply means to scan, to behold, to investigate, right? You're not going to chew on something if we just give it a passing glance. You only really chew on something and digest it when you investigate it carefully. This is very simple. We are all students of the Word, no matter how much you've read. No matter how much you've studied. No matter the size of the masses you instruct and teach and preach to. You are always going to be a student of God's Word. Never see yourself as above it, but under it. Always learning. Always crying out to God, teach me Your statutes! There is never going to be a lack of blessing when we approach God's Word that way. Always something to learn. When we look to the Lord as the great Teacher. Right? Even Jesus told His disciples, never be called rabbi, for you have one teacher. And our teacher is the Lord Jesus Christ. And so if we are to meditate on God's words, we have to investigate them. There is no meditation without investigation. We are like that person in James 1.23, if anyone is a hearer of the Word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in the mirror, right? Goes away, forgets what he has seen. Hard to do that if you have meditated, right? More than looking in a mirror. Looking in a mirror and observing. Getting a clear picture of the reality of life in Christ. And where we need to grow. Where we fall short. And then we do it again and again. We process God's Word again and again to maximum effect. And so this responsibility closes once again with this issue of delight. Different word used here. But delight again. It kind of reminds us, right? He says this thing twice. Don't forget to delight in God's Word. Don't forget to exult in it. Don't forget to enjoy it, right? It's this concept of obeying God's commandments and liking it. That we don't view God's commandments as drudgery, as this unreasonably heavy yoke that no man can bear. No, His yoke is easy. His burden is light. And we can bear it gladly. We have every provision. We have the Holy Spirit. We can obey God and love it. Imagine that. I shall delight in Your statutes. I shall not forget Your Word. So, tying this up, we enjoy God's statutes, and with that paralleled, we do not forget. And I think one is key to the other. If we really are enjoying God's Word, We really are delighting in what He has said. It's hard to forget. It's hard to forget and just dispense with the things that you remember enjoying. The things that gave you the most delight. Those are the hardest things to wander away from. I shall not forget Your Word. It kind of brings us back to this concept of the book of Deuteronomy. Remember, right? Boiled down to one word. Deuteronomy means remember. He says, I shall not forget Your Word. That is this, do not forget the things the Lord has done for you. Do not forget the covenant, Deuteronomy says. Do not forget the Lord. Do not become proud and forget the Lord. That's what we do. We forget the blessings, right? And sometimes we forget for blessings. We look at the blessings and we forget the one who blesses us. We forget for pride rather than humbling ourselves. We forget in suffering. Rather than calling to mind all the times the Lord has made us endure and has brought us through those sufferings. When I am tried, I shall come forth as gold, Job has said. We don't want to forget His goodness in suffering. We want to remember His goodness as the very thing that gets us through the suffering. We also forget for noise. The noise of all the voices competing for our attention. All the voices that are not the voice of the Good Shepherd. And Jesus tells us plainly, if you are My sheep and you hear the voice of another shepherd, what do you do? Run. Don't walk. Run in a straight line back to the saving arms of the Good Shepherd. Don't let any other voice compete. Never be like King Ahaziah who fell through the lattice of his upper chamber and became ill. 2 Kings 1, so he sent messengers and said to them, go inquire of the Lord. No. Go inquire of Beelzebub, the god of Ekron, whether I will recover from this sickness. But the angel of the Lord said to Elijah the Tishbi, to rise, go up to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria and say to them, is it because there is no god in Israel that you are going to inquire of Beelzebub, the god of Ekron? Now therefore, thus says the Lord, you shall not come down from the bed where you have gone up, but you shall surely die. Imagine getting a message like that. Then Elijah departed. Far be it from the church of the living God to put ourselves in a position where we are, even inadvertently, or become accustomed to inquiring of other gods. So that the modern day Elijahs have to confront us on the road and say, nope, not going to happen. Is there because there is no God? Is there because there is no God on the throne that you inquire of other gods? When the messengers returned to him, he said to them, Why have you returned? They said to him, A man came up to meet us and said to us, Go, return to the king who sent you, and say to him, Thus says the Lord. Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are sending to inquire of Beelzebub, the god of Ekron? Therefore you shall not come down from the bed where you have gone up, but shall surely die. This is what befalls everyone who forgets that God has spoken, and that there is a true and living God, as opposed to false God, who reveals himself to his people. And then this, this is what is so sad. There's not a lot of alarm here. There's no, did God really say that? Boy, I should repent. I should return to the living God. No, he says, what kind of man was he who came up to meet you and spoke these words to you? They answered him, he was a hairy man with a leather girdle about his loins. Man, you know, you know that when God sends a hairy man Dressed in leather. He means business. And he said, it is Elijah the Tishbite. And I think then he realized he was in trouble. Because things Elijah said came true. God indeed was with him. And may God be with us in the same fashion. To the same fashion. To the same degree that we never question in our hearts, especially in this congregation, whether or not that there is a God that lives amongst His people. Never forget God's Word so much that that is where we stand. That we have hairy men in leather girdles confronting us on the road to King Soopers, asking us why we have forgotten God and pronouncing disciplinary action upon us. But we have God's Word, friends. Remember that. We have His precepts, we have His law, we have His testimonies, we have His Word, ordinances, judgment. We have God's revelation in every dimension possible. We are not lacking anything. It is because there is a God in Israel that we can keep our way pure and abide by that responsibility of the pure way and treat His Word with respect and reverence and with delight knowing that God has spoken to us. So with that, We'll close our study this morning. Let us pray. Bow our heads. Gracious Heavenly Father, we thank You again for Your Word. Thank You that we can go the distance this morning and ponder the pure way. Lord, the pure way that is Your way. A way that is to be cherished. A way that is to be guarded. A way that is to be kept clear so that others may come pouring in when we proclaim Your Gospel. Lord, we know that You have given us commandments. You've given us instructions. And I pray, Lord, that we would hear Your Word and obey. And we know, Lord, that this is all by grace. We are not under the curse of the law. We're under grace. And because of that, we can draw near to Your Word. We can draw near to Your law and rejoice in it. We can rejoice in it knowing that You have spoken to us. Knowing that it is for our good. For our instruction. knowing that we can obey You because the Holy Spirit empowers us and because You have given us a new heart inclined to hear Your Word and obey it. So I pray that this will be true of us, Lord. I pray that we would fear You, that we would shun evil, that even our young men in here, Lord, would follow You and love You from a young age and become grown men who love their wives and love their families and are fruitful and multiply and are faithful to teach their families Your Word, the Word of the living God, and that they would grow old content in what You have revealed to them and taught them. Lord, I pray that as a church we would all hunger and thirst for Your Word, that we would be able to stand after deep meditative study and say, O Lord, we are rich beyond measure. Teach us more. Show us more that Your grace may abound, that we may truly be those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, knowing that we will be filled every time. We commit this, Lord, to You by faith and in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.