You may be seated. How good is it to sing Psalms that the people of God across Old and New Covenant have been singing for millennia. It connects us, does it not? It connects us to a heritage that is much older even in our country. It connects us to a heritage that spans more years than our own life. It connects us to a heritage that really has at its center the Word of God reverberating all the way back to the beginning when God said, let there be light. So thank God for the Psalter. I would ask you to join with me tonight as we ask the Lord to illumine our hearts as we come to the Word of God. So would you bow your head with me? O great and mighty God of the cosmos, we pray that in the same way that at the beginning of this earth, You pierced the darkness with the light that came from Your Word, that You would pierce any darkness in our hearts or even shades thereof with the same light, the light of Your Word, the countenance of Your face, that we might see and behold and love and delight in the face of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, even in this Old Covenant book. Father, in this stanza, that Sadi stanza, as we consider righteousness, as we consider rightness, as we consider straightness, and as we consider that that is an insurmountable wall for us to scale, that there was One who has scaled it, and His name is Jesus. And I pray that His righteousness would be precious to us tonight. And that Father, as we think of the school of refining and sanctification that is the Christian life, that Your Word would guide us in the lumen paths right into the crucible. And also, Father, we would find the path that leads out of it, and that we would say, good is his word, good are the refining fires, good is the God who sends them, and that you would be glorified, and that we would be edified. We ask these things through the preaching of your word this evening, in Christ's name, amen. All right, boys and girls, I got a question for you, okay? Boys and girls, eyes up here, come on now, eyes up here. Okay, look at me, all right? Raise your hand if you want to grow. Anybody? Anybody want to grow in here? Okay. I see a hand there. All right. Okay. Yeah, I see. Is that Lucy's hand back there? Okay. You want to grow, right? Because, I mean, after all, maybe some of you are five, seven, and you've never driven a quad, and you want to drive a quad. Or maybe you see your mommy and daddy driving a car, and you want to drive a car. Okay, or maybe, I mean, who knows? I mean, the possibilities are endless, but you want to grow. But now, boys and girls, let me ask you another question, okay? And you can just shout it out, you can shout out the answer. Is it painful to grow? Is it painful to grow? Yeah. Yeah, it's painful. Some of you older kids, you know, because you have these things called growing pains, right? Where you get these shin splints, okay, and your bones are growing, they're expanding. You know what happens when your bones grow and expand? There's pain there. Well, in the same way that you physically grow and there's pain and affliction associated with that growth, in the Christian life we grow as well. And a metaphor that the Bible has given us, a metaphor that great writers, Christian writers of the past have given us for growth is this idea of refining, this idea of purifying, this idea of going through the fires of affliction, and those fires will burn out the dross and the impurities and the bad stuff, and they'll just leave the pure gold or the pure silver. Now, boys and girls, when we think about our lives as Christians, that's what we want, isn't it? Don't we want to burn off all the bad stuff Our bad attitudes, our bad actions, our bad words when we're disobedient to mommy and daddy and we feel bad for that. Don't we feel bad when we're disobedient to mommy and daddy? And I've often seen tears rolling down the cheeks of my own children when they've thought about how they've been disobedient to mommy or daddy or in a fit of rage said something that they later regretted. The Christian life is about refining. The Christian life is about purifying. And now as I span out and talk to a more mature audience, I'd say this. When I read the old writers like the Puritans, The Puritans tend to show evidence of the refining fires of the applied word to their struggles and trials and anxieties in such a better way than we do. See, we tend to be so easily distracted in life, and this certainly applies to our sanctification. I read these old writers and marvel at what seems to be their utter closeness to the Lord. Their utter closeness to the Lord. The old writers, the Puritans, you could tell that they really thought through the implications of their struggles. In other words, they were presented with something, some challenge, some challenge to their trust in God, some challenge in life, whatever the case may be, and what they did is they would latch onto it, and they would take it through the grid of Scripture, and they would weep over it, and they would wrestle with it, and they would struggle with it, and they would speak to it. You know, we have charlatans that speak the word of God to things in their life in a bad way. They speak to their checkbook and say, you have all kinds of funds. Well, that's just nonsense, boys and girls. But we are called to speak to the world, to the flesh, and the devil, but we take up the words of scripture when we speak to those three entities. And we tell them what God has done. We tell Satan, that old accuser, that no matter what he says, as true as it may be, that we are wicked and defiled and so on and so forth, that that's not the rest of the story. Satan, the old wily angel. There's more to the story, and more to the story is this. that despite all of that, Jesus gave his life for me so that his blood covers my sins and I am worthy to be and stand in the courtroom of heaven. So these old Puritans, that's what they would do. They wouldn't just give up. They wouldn't just give up and do what I often see, not only in my own life, but I see it in counseling as well. Here's what we often do. We're confronted with a challenge. We're confronted with a trial. We're confronted with a struggle. It may be devastating. And because we live in such a plastic society, we go all the way to this. We say, just tell me what I need to do. Just tell me the answer. Just give me the practical response. Just give me the practical. Well, guess what? Life doesn't work that way. The fact of the matter is, is the practical often comes through the profound refining fires of the crucible. And unless you go through those profound refining fires of the crucible, you're not going to get the practical. So you know what we do? We kick the can down the road. We say, well, I'm just not going to deal with this. And sometimes we're able to do that. That's called procrastination. It's not a good trait. But we tend to kick the can down the road instead of going through the fires and wrestling with it like these old Puritan divines did and seeing what the Lord has for us. Instead, we tend to just go around spouting plastic platitudes and hollow beatitudes. But all of this, all of this, this refining, it takes work. And I'm gonna leave you with a very simple principle tonight that I'm gonna expand through this stanza. And here it is, the refining process, that is sanctification, requires the ability to see yourself as much as possible in the third person so that you could see what is breaking down and give attention to it. Now that may seem a little obtuse, but here's what I mean. Let me explain this by contrasting two types of Christians, okay? You have Christian A and Christian B. And Christian A and Christian B are both going through a difficult struggle, okay? The question is, who's going to accept the refining fires that Yahweh is sending their way? and learn the things through struggle, through wrestling, through fighting, through taking scripture upon your lips, through standing on the promises of God, who's gonna get through the refining fires quicker and in a profitable manner? Well, Christian A, like I said, struggles with run-of-the-mill struggles. and needs a bearing on how to view herself. She needs a bearing on how to apply scripture, how to enter into the refining process. But with this Christian, it may take me 12 sessions just to help them see anything. You wanna know why? Because pride keeps them from seeing themselves in the third person. Pride keeps them from seeing themselves in the third person. Listen, everything to this kind of Christian is so incredibly personal that to even suggest the audacious idea that they're a sinner that has need of sanctification is like punching their baby in the face. It's so incredibly offensive to them. And, what we need to realize and stop and consider is this, why is that a flash bulletin to you? Why is it a flash bulletin to you that most, if not all, not all, but most, if not all, of your problems really start with the person in the mirror? They start with you. They start with your heart, and then they emanate out from there through the words that you speak, the things that you do with your hands, and the places you go with your feet. But Christian number two struggles with the same stuff, but through humility, is able to objectively look at their own actions and words from a third person perspective, and locate where things are breaking down, and then hear counsel that will be balm to their soul. So my question for you tonight is what kind of Christian are you gonna be? So here's what I want to do. I want you to notice that the Saudi stanza, verses 137 through 144, allows us to be something of a fly on the wall, as we watch the psalmist wrestle back and forth in the refining fires of the crucible. He's struggling with this idea of righteousness. Now with that long introduction, let me have us come to the text, Psalm 119, verses 137 to 144. The psalmist says this. Righteous are you, O Lord, and right are your rules. You have appointed your testimonies in righteousness and in all faithfulness. My zeal consumes me because my foes forget your words. Your promise is well tried and your servant loves it. I am small and despised, yet I do not forget your precepts. Your righteousness is righteous forever, and your law is true. Trouble and anguish have found me out, but your commandments are my delight. Your testimonies are righteous forever, give me understanding that I might live. That's part of the reading of God's word. So, I want you to listen tonight to, let's see, three. Three observations of this psalmist who is struggling in the fires of affliction, who's struggling in the fires of sanctification, and what brings him out on the other side, okay? He's struggling with this concept of righteousness. He's struggling with this concept of righteousness. And the first thing I wanna say is this. The confirmation, righteousness, truth, and activity of God's word does not depend on me, but on God who spoke it. Let me say that again. The confirmation, righteousness, truth, and activity of God's word does not depend on me, but on God who spoke it. Now, what do I mean by this? Well, verse 137, righteous are you, O Lord, and right are your rules. You have appointed, verse 138, your testimonies in righteousness and in faithfulness. So he's giving a declaration, a confession in verses 137, 138, and then jump down to verse 141. He says this, here's the struggle. I am small and despised, yet I do not forget your precepts. So let's follow his struggle here. Here, he's addressing the problem of personal rejection. Personal rejection. I am small and despised. Another way you could render that, I am small and insignificant. Now, that could refer to his age, okay? But I don't know that that's necessarily what it's getting at. I think what it's getting at is in the eyes of many, the kind of people I want to influence, the kind of people that need to be influenced, the kind of people that need to have the word of God spoken to them that they might submit to it and obey it are not listening to me. They think I'm insignificant. I don't have that position. I don't have that gravitas. They don't care what I say. I've been in situations where I, multiple times, not as a pastor, just as a garden variety, everyday Christian, trying to convince a fellow Christian, trying to convince a brother or sister of the wrongness of their ways. You're going off the path, you're straying from the flock. Maybe it was alcoholism, maybe it was adultery, maybe it was somebody apostatizing from the faith, whatever the case may be, and they just didn't listen to me because I was young, I didn't have a position in the church, And Josh, what does he know? Have you ever experienced that? I think of our young people in the congregation, especially those of you who work in the secular realm, and you deal with this all the time, don't you? You're the odd man out, you're the odd woman out, you're the freak, you're the minority, religiously speaking and worldview speaking as well. But as the psalmist considers this struggle, There's this contrast in verse 141. I am small and despised, but I do not forget your precepts. In other words, I want you to look, if you look up at the contrast in verse 139, at what his foes do. My zeal consumes me because my foes forget your words. Now I want you to notice, his foes forget him, he does not forget them. What is this forgetfulness? It's not a forgetfulness like, I'm trying to get out the door in the morning and I forget where my keys are. It's a moral and willful forgetfulness. It is an intentional desire to not consider God's word and not submit to it. It's not that they do not know. And doesn't Paul tell us this in Romans chapter 1? Though they know the truth of God, though they know that He's there and that He's not silent, they suppress the truth in unrighteousness. They suppress it. They know it, but they suppress it. And oftentimes in our struggle, here's the thing. We think, listen to me. We think, you know what, I've been trying to convince these people of Christianity, I've been trying to convince these people of righteousness, and nobody's listening, nobody's listening, especially you young people, you fall into this temptation. If you can't beat them, what? Join them. I've seen, sadly, so many professing Christians fall to that temptation. My wife and I were just talking, sadly, the other night about, philosophies of youth ministry. Boy, that's an interesting conversation. But she was remarking that her youth group at a big evangelical church back in the day, had the foosball table, had the big trips to Christian camp every year, had the ski trips, had the bells and whistles, the smoke machines, everything, had all those things. And to this day, of all the kids that she went to youth group with, she can maybe count on three fingers the number of Christians who are still following the Lord. Why? Well, I mean, I don't want to get sidetracked on youth ministry problems, but I do want to say this. Young people, your temptation is, you look around and you see that righteousness is not being minded, righteousness is not being obeyed, it's not being submitted to, and you start to think, instead of maybe there's a problem with the people, you say maybe there's a problem with the righteousness. Maybe there's a problem with what God has established. I mean, after all, after all, right? I mean, doesn't our Constitution give us the right to be happy? And aren't gay people who wanna shack up with the same sex just following a desire to be happy? I mean, that just makes God a cosmic killjoy. Listen, young people, I say this all the time. I hope that you can repeat it in your sleep, okay? He who marries the spirit of the age soon becomes a widower. You start buying in hook, line, and sinker to whatever the zeitgeist, the spirit of the age is, and in probably 20 years, you're gonna be alone, and you're gonna buy the next one, and then you're gonna buy the next one. Or, as we come back to righteousness, God's righteousness is established. It was established in faithfulness. It stands forever, and it reverberates throughout the corridors of time, and it will forever and ever and ever and ever. God's truth never changes. You remember that next time you're tempted to forget God's precepts. Instead, young people, listen. When you are trying to convince others with all your zeal and all your might of the rightfulness, the righteousness of God, and they do not listen, then you say with Isaiah in 820, to the law and to the testimony, if they will not speak according to this word, it's because they have no dawn. You remember that. There's no light in them. There's no light in them. That's why you should not be surprised when their words, as they come out of their mouth, seem to form the shape of darkness, because there's no light in them. Guess what, Christian? You are the light. You are the light. You are the one that's supposed to be piercing darkness in those circles. So pierce darkness, and don't join darkness. That's the first thing we learn. Once again, the confirmation, righteousness, truth, and activity of God's word does not depend on me, but on God who spoke it. Here's the second wrestling that we see of the psalmist. Number two, God's promises have mileage which keep us from letting zeal bring us to an end. God's promises have mileage which keep us from letting zeal bring us to an end. Look at verses 139 and 140. My zeal consumes me because my foes forget your words. Your promise is well tried, and your servant loves it. Now what is he saying here? Zeal, okay? We're familiar with zeal. Zeal can be a good thing, zeal can be a bad thing, it really depends. But zeal throughout Psalm 119 has generally been a good thing. It's been a good thing because Psalm 119, whoever the author was, probably Daniel, is exalting this idea of being a radical for the Lord. He's exalting this idea of loving righteousness so much that once again, you look like the odd man out in your circles of influence. That's a good thing. That's not a bad thing. It's a bad thing to fall in line with everybody else. So when compared to everybody else, you look like the zealot. But the problem with zeal is that if you're not careful, it can consume you. And in the Hebrew, this word consume, it literally means to bring to an end. It has this idea of wearing out. And what's interesting is sometimes I'm texting guys and getting texts from guys all the time in the congregation, and sometimes we'll send each other articles or whatever on things that are just detestable. And we're angry about it, okay? And we should be angry about it. I mean, not that the school is the church and vice versa, but some Ivy League school just recently made their head chaplain an atheist chaplain, which is crazy. There's this long lineage of Christian chaplains, and finally they established a chaplain who is an atheist. It's like, what is happening to this world? But listen, beloved, listen. What is the solution to that? What's the wrestling with that? What's the other side that we should come out on? Well, my zeal can bring me to an end because my foes Whether they are pagans or those who profess Christ, they forget your words. But then watch this verse 140. There's almost conceptually a but here, but. Your promise is well tried and your servant loves it. He moves from zeal to love. Why? I love this. Promise is well tried. That's where we get this idea of refinement. That word is the word that talks about refining, smelting, taking through a process. And what this is saying right here is your promises have a track record and mileage of being true. Your promises have found fulfillment. I have seen it in my life. I have read of it in the scriptures. I have read of it in the lives of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob. I've read of it in the lives of David, and Solomon, and Paul, and Timothy. I've seen it in my life. I've seen it in others' lives. So you know what? As bad as things may get, what those promises tell me is this, they're not going to win out. They're not going to win out. God is going to have the last word. God will not be mocked. God will not look like the fool when it's all said and done. Righteousness will be righteousness in the end. And the servant is not afraid, therefore. He's not afraid of competing claims to truth and joy and fulfillment because he has seen time and time again how God's word confirms itself. That's why I'm so grateful that Jacob and Michael are serving as facilitators in this class on apologetics as they're watching Dr. Bonson because what they're basically learning in that class is defending the faith has nothing to do with how smart you are. It has nothing to do with that. There are many times that I have gone up against opponents who were naysaying the Christian faith that were smarter than me, much smarter than me as far as IQ tests and stuff like that. But it's not how smart you are, it's what you believe, and here's what I believe. I believe that without God, it's impossible to understand anything. I believe in the impossibility of the contrary. I believe that unless you start with God, you can't even have existence. And so I just take that paradigm and I apply it to anything. I mean, we could play name that tune. You give me something, logic, mathematics, whatever, and we'll play that game. How do you get what you have today given your worldview that takes God out of the picture? In other words, how do you move from a godless universe, a closed universe where God is not interacting with his people, with any people for that matter, and go from nothing to something? Because as a Christian, I've got an answer to that. I open up my Bible and it says, in the beginning, God. And he spoke and universes leapt into existence. But your answer, Mr. Atheist, is that, well, there was nothing and then there was something. So everything came out of nothing. Can you put the fairytale book down? I mean, just stop. Stop with this mythology. And the irony is that that's what you accused me of. But the reality is you believe in a fairy tale. You believe in pixies. You believe in pixie dust. I believe in the God who created the dust and everything else, and unless you believe in that God, we're not talking about Sunday school, and we're not talking about simply understanding, we're talking about saving your soul. Unless you start with God, you cannot have that. That's why I'm not afraid of competing claims, and neither should you be. So notice how the fact that God's promises have mileage leads the servant to love his promises more. In other words, to worship. And then finally, number three, verses 142 to 144. God's law is an oasis of delight in a theater of war. God's law is an oasis of delight in a theater of war. 142 to 144. Your righteousness is righteous forever. And your law is true. Trouble and anguish have found me out, but your commandments are my delight. Your testimonies are righteous forever. Give me understanding that I might live. Beloved, look at verse 143. Trouble and anguish have found me out. In the Hebrew, it gives this idea that they've ambushed me. Trouble and anguish have ambushed me. Have you ever felt ambushed by trouble and anguish, okay? So trouble and anguish are coming after you. They're pursuing you, right? They're pursuing you. And what does the person who doesn't have God say? I don't know what I'm gonna do. I don't know how I'm gonna get through this. I don't know what the answer is. I don't know if there's a purpose. There is no purpose to this. You know what the child of God says? When trouble and ambush pursue me, God has told me that surely goodness and mercy shall pursue me all the days of my life. And guess what? If trouble and anguish and goodness and mercy are sheepdogs, these sheepdogs have more stamina than these sheepdogs. And these sheepdogs are going to peter out, and these sheepdogs are just going to keep going. Goodness and mercy, rafak, are going to pursue me. They're going to hotly come after me. That's what it's saying in the Hebrew. They're going to come after me. So trouble and anguish, okay, whatever. But goodness and mercy, they shall follow me, they shall pursue me all the days of my life. His testimonies and righteousness are forever. His law is true. So the psalmist says, no matter what kind of anguish Satan and his hordes bring me, just give me more and more and more understanding of your word because the touchstone of my delight is in understanding that word. And I would just leave you with this tonight. If you would stop trying to understand the world more and trying rather to understand the word more, the word that you understand better, that the psalmist says will give me life, will give you a lens for understanding the world better. So Jesus says, sanctify them in your truth, your word is truth. The crucible of sanctification is the word of God. We come to it, we're refined by it, we're changed by it.