Holy Living

Providence Baptist Church

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in Psalm 119, and I don't know if you can say objectively like our brother did that it is the best chapter in the

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Bible, but you can objectively say it is the longest chapter in the

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Bible. That's just the facts. Psalm 119, it is a hundred and seventy -six verses long.

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We find ourselves tonight at verse 105. You know,

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I have been many of times deer hunting out on my dad's place or other places, and I've gone early, of course you want to get to the stand before daylight, and there's been many times that I've gone to the stand without a flashlight.

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At least the days before your iPhone was so easily had a light on it, and you know you just know where the stand is, and you walk to it.

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It's not that hard, but I will admit there have been a few times going out to the stand where you just miss it.

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For whatever reason, it's dark, you can't see, and you're like you get turned around, it's easy to do, and all of a sudden you're like that stand should be right here somewhere, and maybe you miss out on the first part of where you want to be hunting because because you couldn't find the stand.

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All would be much more simple, of course, if you just had a light to show you where to go.

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A lamp unto your feet and a light unto your path. And friends, what we find this evening in Psalm 119 is that's exactly what the

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Bible is. A lot of people in the world today are, as it were, groping in darkness just trying to live life without a lamp, without a light.

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And praise God that he's given us this instruction. And so we'll consider tonight this reality and most importantly how it shows us to live holy lives.

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Psalm 119 will begin in verse 105. I invite you to stand as we honor the reading of God's Word.

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Now the plan is to get through verse 112 if we can move on from verse 105.

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Just a lot of stuff on my heart with the beauty of God's Word. But the text says, your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

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I have sworn an oath and confirmed it to keep your righteous rules. I'm severely afflicted.

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Give me life, O Lord, according to your word. Accept my free will offerings of praise,

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O Lord, and teach me your rules. I hold my life in my hand continually, but I do not forget your law.

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The wicked have laid a snare for me, but I do not stray from your precepts. Your testimonies are my heritage forever, for they are the joy of my heart.

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I incline my heart to perform your statutes forever to the end. Let's pray.

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Father, thank you for your word. We pray your blessing upon the preaching of your word tonight.

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Let us remember that we stand in awe of a holy God and that we'd be a people of your book.

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I pray your blessing over this church and we pray that all that we do would be in accordance with your word.

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Help us, O God, to follow your path. We pray it in Jesus name. Amen. You may be seated.

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So, just a reminder, it's been a while, but Psalm 119, one through three, kind of sets the tone for the psalm.

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Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord. Blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with their whole heart, who also do no wrong, but walk in his ways.

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We talked about when we were there that the ultimate fulfillment of that, of course, is our Lord Jesus. Is anyone here willing to raise your hand and say my ways have been blameless?

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I haven't ever done any wrong. I haven't ever strayed from the word of God. No, of course, the point is we need

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Christ and our Lord Jesus has fulfilled the law of God. He has perfectly walked in the paths of God unto the glory of God to secure for his people righteousness.

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He has died on the cross for our sins. He has risen again and what this has done is this gospel, as we receive it, as God brings about regeneration in our lives, as we receive it through repentance and faith, what happens is

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God's people are transformed. We're changed. We desire to be a holy people and the

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Word of God is sufficient. It teaches us about how to walk in our lives.

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It's clear. It's necessary. It's authoritative. It's delightful. But in receiving the word of God, we must apply it.

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We must apply it to our lives. The application of the word of God to the life of the believer is results in holiness.

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The church is to be holy and separated from the world. She is to be distinct, set apart, different.

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The church is to live, change and transform. We we've bought into this lie maybe the last 50 years or so that if we can make the church look like the world, then we'll win the world.

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But what happens is you don't win the world that way. The world just wins the church. You understand what

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I'm saying in order to be holy is the pursuit of Christ and his kingdom, what characterizes us today, what characterizes churches today.

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Well, I want to together to absolutely pursue Christ and his kingdom. What might

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God do, even with a small group like that? Now, there's a tie in, you know, to this morning's sermon.

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Will we be jealous for a jealous God? And if so, then our our lives will pursue holiness by the word of God.

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So the first thing I want to mention tonight is holy living involves the word. Now, I think

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I'll get past this point, but if not, we may not. We may just leave the next points for next week.

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But I really want to weigh in on verse 105. Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

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Let me mention verse 107 quickly, where the psalmist says I'm severely afflicted.

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Give me life, O Lord, according to your word. In other words, the psalmist understood the connection between scripture and life.

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Not only are we brought to life through the word of God, but also brought to renewal through the word of God.

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And this is what the psalmist needed. But but really, let's camp out for just a moment in this point on Psalm 119 105.

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Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

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What is the psalmist saying? This is this is, of course, he's using metaphor here.

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It's it's a lamp. Your word is a lamp. Your word is a light.

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What is this? What is this bringing to our minds as we think about this analogy? I think about a person. In my mind comes a person with a lantern, you know, and they're and they're walking through the woods and and they've got the lantern up and the lantern shows them where it is that they can walk in it.

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And it warns them from being able to fall off in this ditch or that ditch in it. And it shows them if you hold it up, it shows him the dangers ahead.

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Well, friends, this is the word of God for the people of God. It is a lamp. It is a light.

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Proverbs 623 says something similar. For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching a light and the reproofs of discipline are the way of life.

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What an important and practical aspect this verse is for our daily lives.

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It's like so many of us sometimes I've had many conversations over the years and I'm guilty of this too, but many conversations over the last 18, is that is that right?

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18 years of ministry and people talking about their marriages or talking about maybe their finances or they fall into sin and and one of the questions

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I've just learned to ask is how's your Bible reading? Now, it doesn't mean that if you just read your

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Bible everything your life's going perfect. That's not what I mean. But often I have found there's a great correlation between people's errors and their lack of Bible reading.

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This is something as as simple and seemingly mundane and routine as opening up our

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Bible and reading it. Well, why is this? Because reading the Bible, the Bible is a lamp and a light.

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It shows us. Listen to what Matthew Henry says on this verse. The Word of God discovers to us concerning God and ourselves that which otherwise we could not have known.

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It shows us what is amiss and will be dangerous. It directs us in our work and way and a dark place indeed the world would be without it.

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You think about that. It shows us things that you would not know without the

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Bible. I've had conversations over the years with deacons, with church members, with people who have said, yeah, we got the

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Bible but God's given us common sense. Okay, that's true. God has given a person common sense.

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There are things just by the order of nature that you should know is is right and wrong. But there are things that you cannot know without the revelation of God.

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You cannot know the Trinity, the Gospel, without the revelation of God. You cannot understand the order of the church.

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You cannot understand how God is to be worshipped. There's so many things we do not know unless God has revealed it to us.

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And this is why we need the Word of God as a lamp and a light. It's very practical.

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It's not just important to show us what to believe, but also how to actually live that out.

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Let me also mention this. I know that the Psalm says it's a lamp to our feet and a light to our path.

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But even before that, the Word of God shines inwardly. The Word of God exposes our corruptions.

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You understand, I don't want to call it a process, but that's the word in my mind right now, but the process, if you will, of becoming a

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Christian. One of the things that needs to happen is the Word of God expose our sinfulness. We need to understand we're sinners before we understand that we need a

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Savior. And the Word of God does that. The Word of God shines inwardly. It shows us our corruption.

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It shows us our failures. It shows us our weaknesses and our sins and our transgressions and how we are utterly despicable apart from Christ.

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But the Word of God doesn't leave us there. It goes from inwardly shining our corruptions to outwardly shining the light upon, if you will, the hill of Calvary.

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It shows us the cross. It shows us what Jesus did. It shows us His life and His death and His burial and His resurrection, all for saving sinners.

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It brings us to repentance. The Word of God leads us to repentance. Even tonight as you listen to this and you think, well, what must

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I do to be saved? You must repent and believe the gospel. The Word of God leads us in that. Then it shows us how to actually live out this

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Christian life. Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. Do you understand what happens today is all manner of syncretism in many places.

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So for example, it's why in, I've been on this but it's just been in the news, it's why in the

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Republican National Convention on one night they had a Sikh prayer and then a few nights later they had

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Franklin Graham praying a Christian prayer. It's syncretism. It's just let's just put all these things together, right?

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There's no foundation, if you will. And worse, this creeps into churches, right?

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And you just have all manner of foolishness because we don't simply open up the

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Word of God and say this is the way that we ought to live. I'll tie some of this in with this morning's sermon, too, before we talk more about how to live.

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The Word of God shows us who God is so we can know

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God from the light of nature. In fact, let me just say this. Not only can we know

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God from the light of nature, all men do know that God exists from the light of nature.

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That is, creation shows that God is

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God. His divine power, so this is how Paul says in Romans 1, his divine power and his divine power, let's go to Romans 1, sorry.

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I'm going to go to Romans 1 so I can say this rightly because I'm stumbling.

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Okay, his eternal power and divine nature. Okay, Romans 120. For his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world.

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In the things that have been made, so there without excuse. What Paul is saying there is the eternal power and divine nature of God are clearly perceived in creation.

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You see a sunrise? You know. Okay, just like, just like if you were to walk down the sidewalk here in Perryville and you found this watch laying on the sidewalk, you would not think to yourself, you know what?

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You know what would happen if we just gave molecules billions of years, they would randomly form this watch.

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Guys, we know. The gig's up. That's foolish. We understand.

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Nothing can produce nothing. But even if you give nothing trillions of years, it can still produce nothing.

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So we understand when we look at this world today that it is a complex and created world.

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We understand that if the earth was tilted differently than 23 and a half degrees on its axis, that life on this planet would be impossible.

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We understand it spins at the right speed. It revolves around the Sun at the right speed. It's the right distance from the

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Sun. It's the right distance from Venus and Mars and all these things.

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There's an asteroid belt that goes around outside of Mars that keeps bigger things from coming in sometimes and crashing on the planet.

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Like all these things, it's not by chance. And so we understand by looking at the world that God is eternally divine and that he's powerful.

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But what does mankind do with this information? What mankind does with this information is suppress the truth and unrighteousness.

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All that to say, I'm coming back to the text. Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path because first and foremost, it shows us who

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God is. And to rightly understand God, you don't have the right to think of God any way you want.

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Like if someone says to you, hey God is jealous, you're like, well that makes me uncomfortable. But frankly that doesn't matter, right?

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Because it's what the Word of God says. So this we have in the

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Bible. The Word of God is a lamp that shines upon the Lord. It shows us who he is.

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We have no right to believe things apart from the Scripture. God's Word alone is sufficient for understanding

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God rightly. What a lamp, what a light this word is. But the verse says really to me seems to be indicating toward practical living because your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

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So what does that bring to your mind? You think about your feet, you think about the path. The feet and the path bring to your mind the

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Christian walk. They bring to your mind the idea of moving. So the Christian path must be illuminated by God's Word.

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We must build a framework whereby we filter all of life through the Bible. You understand?

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All that we do, we should think through the Scripture. I mean, there are other frameworks available.

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Everybody sees life through a framework. We might say in the Bible Belt, the southern hospitality framework, where we're nice to people, we're polite to people, we're civilized people.

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We've got good old boys and good old gals here. And while there's some good in all of this, some good in that way of thinking, it's not ultimately a biblical framework.

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This is not to be our light and our lamp to show us where to go and how to live and how to interact.

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It's not our goal. Let me just put it plainly. It's not our goal to build cultural

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Christianity. It's our desire to see biblical Christianity. We don't get to operate on what we think or what we feel

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Christianity should be. We certainly shouldn't operate on what culture dictates that Christianity to be.

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What I'm arguing tonight is that the Word alone is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path.

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And of course, what we mean by this, what the psalmist means by this, is the Word of God, the

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Word of God, the Bible. By the Bible, we filter everything that comes into our lives.

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By it, we act in the ways that God would have us to act. In one sense, the

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Christian life is not only difficult, it's impossible. You can't do it.

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You need the Holy Spirit. We're in desperate need of the Holy Spirit's work. And in another sense, the

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Christian life is easy. What I mean by that is we make moral issues quite complicated sometimes.

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They're not really that complicated when you just open the Bible and you just look at it. Like I mentioned the reference this morning, and it really is something that we've allowed ourselves to be a complicated issue that's not a complicated issue.

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People call into podcast, or I guess you don't call into a podcast. They call into radio. They call into pastors.

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They write emails. What do I do? What do I do with a situation where my grandson or granddaughter is going to be a part of a same -sex wedding?

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What do I do? Well, I'm not trying to be, you know, insensitive, but those issues actually they're not as complicated as we've tried to make them, right?

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Because the Word of God is a lamp and a light. It actually reveals to us that we cannot participate in things like that.

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If we want to be holy, then we must recover the Bible as our light. Job 24 13.

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Job says this, there are those who rebel against the light, who are not acquainted with its ways, and do not stay in its paths.

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When I hear that from the Bible, when I hear that from Job, I think about the Bible belt.

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I think about Christianity, if you will, in our own area. This is the way of many professing

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Christians. It's like they have the Word of God. It's like they have the lantern, but they smash it.

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They put it out, and they prefer to walk in darkness rather than light. We have conversations.

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I have conversations with people all the time saying, you know, the Bible says about one time I was in a meeting. This was years and years ago.

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I was in Clinton, and I was in a meeting with some men about an issue in the church, and I said something like, we know the

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Bible says, and they're like, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then I said, well, you know, the Bible says, and one man, he got up and he was actually mad at me.

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He said, you're always quoting the Bible. Well, I'm like, I was shocked. I was surprised. I was like, well, wait, like that's a bad thing.

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But that's how we should be. The Bible is our lamp. We can't reject it.

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We have to use it to go in the way that Christ would have us to go. We open the

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Word of God so that we can see the path before us, that it illuminates.

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It's the good way, and we must walk in it. Let me press this further. The Word of God is a lamp and a light for so much more than what we've used it in these days.

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So, for example, the Word of God addresses issues in our homes.

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The Word of God is actually very plain on how the home should be ordered, that children should be raised.

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And I understand we live in a fallen world, and there's a complex issue sometimes. Sin brings quite a bit of difficulty to these matters.

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But the Bible is clear that the design of God for the home is that children should be raised by a godly father and a godly mother.

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A godly father should lead in the home. Godly mothers should love and respect, submit to their husbands.

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These are not complicated issues in the sense of what does God want for the family.

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You understand that in almost every scenario, not every scenario,

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I shouldn't say it that way, but if you have a situation, we were talking about a situation, a very sad situation, apparently where a 14 -year -old committed a heinous crime.

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Often that is associated with not growing up in God's design for the home.

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Now, let me also issue another side of this. We don't have a guarantee of our children becoming

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Christian just because we raised them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. We don't have that promise.

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But we do regardless. So let me say this, we don't, this might come across kind of funny, but we don't seek to have a godly home first and foremost so that our children would be saved, although we hope that that happens and we pray for that.

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But we seek to have a godly home first and foremost because what God's Word instructs. That's what we do.

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We want to do that because God's Word teaches us this. We want to do this because it honors

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God and brings God glory. We have moved away, we have relegated, we believe maybe the media or the culture that the

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Bible is very good if you want to go in on Sunday morning and if this floats your boat, if this is your cup of tea, well the

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Bible is good to be read from and studied and maybe talked about on Sunday morning, but you close it and you don't use it the rest of the week.

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But I'm saying that the Word of God is a lamp and a light for issues in our homes, for issues in our government, issues with modes of therapy, issues with our children.

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It is a sufficient word from God to address sin. What about racial issues?

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Word of God addresses it. What about children rebelling against their parents? Word of God addresses it.

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What about corruption in our government? The Word of God addresses it. What I'm saying is it's a lamp and a light and it shows us these things.

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It shows us the cure for sin, namely what Christ has done by his life and death and burial and resurrection for sinners.

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What I'm saying is that this book is not just a book for Sundays, it's a lamp and a light for every day.

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But let me also say this, it is a book for Sundays.

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Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. We should relish sitting under the preaching and teaching of the

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Word of God on Sundays. Why? Because sitting under the preaching and teaching of God's Word gives light to us.

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Does it not? I mean please don't tell me no on this, it would be really discouraging to me, but does not the preaching of the

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Word of God settle in your mind convictions? Does not the preaching of the

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Word of God help you make decisions? Listen, I'm not trying to pat myself or Pastor Jacob on the back and say, man our preaching is so great.

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That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying the Word of God is so great. And as we open the Word of God and as we exposit what the

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Word says, it actually brings to our mind and our heart, oh this is the way I need to live.

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This needs to be adjusted in the home. I need to start doing this at work. You know what? I need to incorporate this practice into my weekly routine.

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The Word of God does all that. Why? Because it's powerful. It's active. It's working. It's a lamp. It's a light.

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It shows us. And so the preaching of the Word of God gives light. It shows us God's way. Do you remember

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Jeremiah 6 16? Thus says the Lord, stand by the roads and look and ask for the ancient paths where the good way is and walk in it and find rest for your souls.

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But they said we will not walk in it. The same word for paths in Psalm 119 105.

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Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. The same word is the same word of Jeremiah 6 16.

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Look and ask for the ancient paths. The ancient paths are the paths that the

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Word of God illuminates for us to walk. So under the right preaching of the

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Word of God, the people of God are directed, if you will, in the ancient paths.

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The light of God's Word shines the way for them so that they may walk in it and be fruitful and faithful.

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Yet, like the people of Israel, sometimes we say like they did, we will not walk in it.

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Why would we do that? You've never found yourself better off rejecting the light of the

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Word and going your own way. So this is not the way. We must walk in the paths that the scriptures illuminate.

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Of course, that path, I've said it over and over again, that path has to begin with the gospel. Do you remember in Pilgrim's Progress, and we did it this summer, but oh

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I forget the guys names. You'll have to look it up. But Christian is walking on the path and there's two guys,

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I think hypocrisy is one of them, but there's two guys that jump over the wall. And so Christian is like, whoa, what are you guys doing?

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They say, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter how you get in. It just matters that you're in.

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You can do whatever you want. You can jump over the wall. And Christian rebukes them. And then the point is, the only way that you start the path rightly is you must enter the narrow gate.

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You must understand your situation as a sinner. You must understand that the only way for you to have heaven, the only way for you to make the celestial city is to repent of your sins and believe the gospel that you're hearing tonight and that you heard this morning and that we preach here every week.

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You must see what Christ has done. You must see that He has resurrected from the grave.

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He lives and He reigns. He was crucified for sinners. The only way to start the path is through the gospel.

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But it doesn't end with we've entered and now we just live however.

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No, we continue to seek to walk. And the text says that it's God's word that's a lamp to our feet and a light to our path.

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I'm just saying that this word is a light on Monday through Saturday, but also

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Sunday. It shows us how God would be worshipped. You remember

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I told you this morning that to worship God flippantly is a very dangerous thing.

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To come in and to say, you know, whatever about God is dangerous, Hebrews 12 29, our

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God is a consuming fire. Okay, but if that's true, then how do we worship

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God? How do we know? You remember in the Old Testament there's the story of Uzzah. And don't we kind of relate with Uzzah a little bit?

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So remember the Ark of the Covenant. It was on the on the ox cart. And all

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Uzzah did, the oxen stumbled. And I see this in my mind.

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I'm like, God, thank you that I didn't live during that time period. Thank you that I wasn't in Uzzah's place because I can see myself doing the same thing.

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So the oxen stumble. The ark is about to fall off the cart. All Uzzah does is stick out his hand and I'm going to keep the

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Ark of God from falling on the ground. Well, God should be happy with that, right?

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But what does God do? God kills him. Well, that just doesn't seem right.

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But wait a second. If you open the Bible and you read it, God instructed his people how to carry the

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Ark. And guess what? It wasn't supposed to be carried by oxen.

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It had rings in it so that you carried it by poles so that that very thing wouldn't happen.

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You understand? If the people of God would just study and read and understand the Word of God, they would keep themselves from offending

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God, right? And so as we think about worship, as we think about how to worship, we must depend on the

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Word. The Word of God alone is sufficient. We believe here in what is called the regulative principle.

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It's very, very simple. The regulative principle just simply means this. Whatever the Scripture regulates as worship, that's worship.

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It's actually wonderfully freeing. I've used silly analogies before. But if a man comes in here and says, hey, on Sunday morning,

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I want to do a puppet show, we're able to say, no.

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We got freedom. Well, yeah, but let's pray about it. Let's talk about it. He'll say, no, I actually have freedom because the

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Bible doesn't instruct us to do that. And so I have freedom to say no. Now, if we want to do a VBS thing and we do some sort of special event for the children, well, we can talk about that.

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But as far as our main gathering goes, we understand that the Word of God regulates what is allowed and what's not allowed.

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And most importantly, it regulates what offends God and what doesn't. God is jealous for His worship.

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And so the Word of God is a lamp and a light. Now, let me let me say this.

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OK, we're not getting to the other verses. Sorry. OK, let me speak to the young people. So when

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I think about. You teenage young men, the ladies in here, the young ladies.

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That. There's a lot of chatter, there's a lot of noise, it's worse, maybe even in your day than it was in my day because of social media.

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But what I'm saying is to listen to the chatter of this world, to listen to your friends, to listen to your teachers, even to listen to this culture, to listen to any of this apart from the word of God.

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OK. It's darkness. To have your paths directed by well -meaning people in your life, but it's separate.

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I say well -meaning, you know, it's not maybe they don't it's not in their mind that they want to see your destruction. It's just the word of God is not their foundation.

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So I'm saying to the young men and young ladies in here is to listen to our friends and our culture and the teachers or whatever the case may be, separated from the word of God.

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It's not light. It's darkness. What happens is, is that sometimes you understand

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I can make it to my deer stand without a light. And so here's what we think.

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Well, you can grope around in the dark. You cannot hit anything. So you be fine for a bit.

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So sometimes we listen to our peers and they say, you should do this. Hey, drink a little bit of this.

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Your parents will know to be fine. Then smoke this. Put this in your body. Try this.

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And maybe you try and you're like, hey, nothing happened. God didn't strike me down. In fact, I've got more friends now.

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Things are better. My life is better. And so you think, you know what? Hey, it's all good. I am OK. But you need to understand that it's just at those moments that you're just a breath away from slipping.

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You're running. What you're doing is you're running headlong through life in the darkness. And in just a moment, you will slip and you could slip in such a way that you'll never recover.

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And so I'm saying to the young people particularly, we must not forsake the light of God's word.

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Young people, I say this, I'll confess my own failures in this. It was not until I was almost 22 that I really repented and understood the need to read the

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Bible every day. Like I had a decent relationship with the

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Bible. But then I was like, I should be reading the Bible every day.

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And I wish I would have started when I was 12 or 14 or 16 or any age before the age of 21, because I would have read the

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Bible that much more in my life and nothing. I'm not a perfect man and I need to grow, but nothing in my life has been more consequential to my growth and maturity and holiness and walk with the

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Lord than daily time in the word of God. And also, I would say the church is important in that too.

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But just encourage the young people. God promises tonight in the scriptures that his word is a lamp and a light.

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Why would we not be in that lamp and light every day? Imagine that you're walking through the woods and you fall off a cliff and you injure yourself and you had a flashlight in your pocket the whole time.

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All you had to do was pull it out and turn it on and there's the path before you. So I'm telling you, especially young people, but not exclusively to the young people, we should be people in the book every day because it's a lamp to our feet and a light to our path.

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And then let me also say this. The word being a lamp and a light reminds us that it shines a very long way into the distance.

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So let me say this. If we look closely, if you'll take that Bible up and you'll shine it down the path and you'll look carefully and closely, you can see the end of the journey and what glory awaits those in Christ.

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Again, a Pilgrim's Progress reference, but in the Pilgrim's Progress, the shepherds on the delectable mountains, they hand

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Christian a looking glass and they tell him to look. I love the way that Bunyan words it, but basically they tell him to look and they're like, can you see it?

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So he's looking and he's looking at the celestial city. Can you see the gate there, Christian?

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Can you see it? He says, I think I can. And that looking glass, that telescope, if you will, it represents the word of God.

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And I'm saying to us that as we look at the word of God, not only does it shine inwardly, not only does it shine us to Christ, not only does it show our steps here and now, but if we'll use the word of God rightly, it shows us the end of our journey.

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Now I don't know when the end of your journey is going to be and the Bible is not going to tell you that, but it does tell you what happens at the end of your journey, right?

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For those who finish well, for those who die in Christ, for those who make it to the end, we understand the glory that awaits the believer.

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And that's the reality too, by the way. All true believers make it to the end. If you're in Christ, you're going to make it, you're going to make it to the end.

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And it shows us the end. This is the way to the king's throne.

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This is the way to heaven. There's more in this text that we should consider and think about.

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But I think tonight that's sufficient for our minds and hearts to think about the great blessing that the word of God is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path.

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We should be in this word daily. We should sit under the regular preaching of the word. We should gather around it in groups and study it together, not just formal times in the church, but around coffee.

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We should be doing this in family worship and opening the word of God and reading it together and understanding that intake and intake and intake and intake and intake of Scripture only benefits the soul, for those who rest in and love the

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Lord Jesus Christ. It shows us the way to go. It shows us who God is. And it gives us the resolve we need for the days that we're in.

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Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word. We pray that we would be a people who use your word as a lamp and a light.

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God, that you'd give us the grace we need. And we thank you for this church. We thank you for what you've done here.

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And you pray you would continue to let us be a people. We need your grace to let us be a people who would take your word and actually use it to shine before us the way that we should go.