Fruit of the Word

Alright, Psalm 119, the longest chapter in the

Bible. And we've been walking through this stanza by stanza.

We find ourself in verse 49 tonight.

And I want to start this evening just talking about what happens when we're exposed constantly to the

Word of God. The analogy I'll use is this. If you continue to eat fast food every day, breakfast, lunch, dinner.

Now I'm not saying you can't ever have a McDonald's or a Sonic. You continue to eat it morning, evening, or morning, lunch, night.

Every meal. I'll just make sure we got focused.

Alright, if you keep eating it every meal, what's going to happen? Well, what you...

Yeah, yes, in the words of the great theologian Kermit Grassoffi, you're going to get fat.

What you put into your body is going to produce... You're not going to put something into your body and it'll produce something different.

So you put in garbage, you get garbage, right? You put in fast food, you get fat. I know it's not the politically correct way to say it, but you get fat, right?

Okay, what happens when you're constantly fed a diet of the

Word of God? You're reading it with your family. You're sitting under faithful preaching of the

Word of God. You're studying it daily. You have time in the Word of God.

What is that going to produce? Well, that's what we're going to look at tonight. Fruit of the

Word. Psalm 119. Let's begin in verse 49. Would you stand with me as we honor the reading of God's Word?

Remember your word to your servant, in which you have made me hope.

This is my comfort in my affliction, that your promise gives me life.

The insolent utterly deride me, but I do not turn away from your law. When I think of your rules from of old,

I take comfort, O Lord. Hot indignation seizes me because of the wicked who forsake your law.

Your statutes have been my songs in the house of my sojourn.

I remember your name in the night, O Lord, and keep your law. This blessing has fallen to me, that I have kept your precepts.

Father, would you help us to understand? I need your grace, help me to preach. I thank you for the Word of God.

I pray that you would help me to preach and you would help feed your sheep tonight. We pray that Christ would be exalted, help us to be people of the

Book. We pray that your Word would bear fruit in us. And we pray it all in Jesus' name.

Amen. You may be seated. What does the

Word of God produce in the people of God? Now, we won't possibly be able to cover everything, but here's three thoughts from the text.

The first thing is the Word of God produces comfort. The Word of God produces comfort in the people of God.

Verse 49. Remember your word to your servant, in which you have made me hope.

Remember your word. Now, let me tell you something tonight, church. It's not, he's not praying, remember my works, but remember your word.

So, think about something tonight. What is our hope? What is your hope in tonight?

Remember your word, in which you have made me hope. Remember your word to your servant, in which you have made me hope.

What is your hope tonight? Are you resting your hope in the things that you have done?

God, accept me, because I have done these things. Or is your hope tonight in what

God has done? On the promises of God. You had better set your hope tonight, not on your work, but on God's work for you in Christ.

That's our hope. Christ and His work. Any sinner, no matter ethnicity, age, how far they feel from God, any sinner who will put their faith in the promises of God, who will repent of their sin and trust the good news of the gospel, that is, the life of Christ, the death, the burial, the resurrection of Christ, Jesus, who gave

Himself for sinners, that is where our hope is tonight. And when we continually expose ourselves to the word of God, that is the comfort we have.

What is our only comfort in life and death? The fact that we're not our own, but have been purchased by the work of Christ.

Verse 50 says, This is my comfort in my affliction, that your promise gives me life.

I want to remind you tonight that the word of God that we preach from is living and active.

The word of God is life -giving. Let me just give you something practical. Tomorrow morning, before you do anything else, before you head off to work, before you head off to the turkey woods, before you head off fishing, expose yourself to the word of God.

Let me highlight again the necessity of the Scripture. It is the Scripture that is completely necessary for us to know

God in a personal way. We have general revelation, the heavens declare the glory of God, but we need special revelation, we need the

Bible. We can know and are condemned from general revelation, we can know many things right and wrong from being made in the image of God, but we can't know

Christ apart from the Scripture. I'm not saying you have to have the

Bible in order to become a Christian, but you can't be saved unless someone is sharing the

Gospel, which is revealed to us in the Scripture. Let me articulate, or let me make something clear.

Sometimes when we say, what is the Gospel, we say the Bible. The Gospel is not the Bible. The Gospel is, remember, the work of Christ, the propitiatory work of Christ on the cross.

First it's fulfilling all righteousness, but then His dying, the death of sinners, God punishing Him in our place,

His dying and rising again, that's the Gospel. The Gospel and the Bible are two separate things. The Bible contains the

Gospel. Does that make sense? And you can't be converted apart from someone sharing the

Gospel, which is revealed, the only true Gospel revealed in the

Scriptures. And it is this word that ultimately produces comfort in the believer.

Look at verse 52. When I think of your rules from of old, I take comfort,

O Lord. Now think about that for just a second. Some of you, and we live in an over -medicated society.

We even live in a society where even Christians feel like they have to be on medication. And I'm not against all medication.

I'm just saying hear me out. Hear my observation. I think too many of us allow our minds to think about the things of the world and all the things that we have going on and all the schedules we have to keep and all the worries and concerns of this world and not enough doing verse 52.

When I think of your rules from of old, I take comfort, O Lord. Do you understand that meditating on the

Scriptures, thinking about what God has done for us in Christ, thinking about the

Word of God, thinking about the Bible, do you understand that that is an actual antidote to so much anxiety that's happening in our world today?

You actually can be comforted from the Word of God because it's true.

It never lies. And it gives the believer hope. When we exercise our mind, when we think of His rules from of old, we take comfort.

So the first point, the Word produces in us comfort. Number two, and I'm going to use this word, and it can be used in two different senses, so I mean something specific.

So the Word of God produces comfort in God's people. Secondly, the Word of God produces conviction in God's people.

Now what I mean by conviction, yes, it produces conviction of sin, and that's important. But actually what

I mean here is conviction in the sense that it produces in us resolution.

Like we sang at the end of service this morning, I am resolved. It produces in us strong conviction and resolve.

Look at verse 51. The insolent utterly deride me, but I do not turn away from your law.

So the situation is the insolent make fun. Now listen, I was going to say teen boys and girls, but we really only have teen boys here.

Ellis, you're not a teenager yet. But listen to me, young men here. There will be those who deride you because of you walking with the

Lord. Why do you always go on to church? Why do you care about reading your Bible? Hey, come on, put some of this in your body.

Hey, look at this on the Internet with me. Everybody else, why do you think you're better than us? But what is the resolve of the psalmist?

He says other people will deride me. The insolent will utterly deride me, but I ain't changing.

I ain't turning. I'm on the narrow way. I found life, and this is the direction that I'm going.

On the night of September 13, 1814, from the Baltimore Harbor in Maryland, British ships began to bombard with shells and rockets the

American Fort McHenry. It was so severe that one observer said he was absolutely certain that Fort McHenry had fallen during the night.

But guess what? At dawn's early light, the

American flag was still there, which, of course, inspired Francis Scott Key to write the

American National Anthem. Now, verse 51 says, The insolent utterly deride me, but I do not turn away from your law.

That is, the scoffers bombard us with boastful derisions.

They continue their onslaught. But even greater than Fort McHenry, we stand strong.

And I might say we never falter, but that's not true, is it? Too often we do falter.

Too often, at times, we do sin. Turning away from God's law.

But I remind you tonight, you know what Jesus did? He never faltered. He succeeded.

Would you turn in your Bible just for a moment to Luke 22? Luke 22.

Luke 22, verse 63. Now the men who were holding

Jesus in custody were mocking Him as they beat Him. They also blindfolded

Him and kept asking Him, Prophesy! Who is it that struck you? And they said many other things against Him.

Blaspheming Him. They utterly derided our

Lord. And yet what happened? He never faltered. He never turned away.

He never stepped outside the bounds of God's righteous law.

And so my friends, I remind you that yes, when we come to Christ, there is a change in us.

But our ultimate hope is not our standing strong so much. Our ultimate hope is that Jesus has already stood strong for us.

And so we rest ourselves in Christ. And then we understand that because of the

Gospel, the Bible does produce convictions within us.

So we'll strive to hold fast to God's Word. Because we love Him. Let me tell you again,

I want to speak to the... Well, I mean, it doesn't matter. Young people, old people, everyone in here needs to hear this. We need to be people of conviction.

We live in a world today that the only wrong conviction to have is conviction, right? As long as you can be wishy -washy and go with the flow, you're okay.

But if you stand and you say, no, right is right, wrong is wrong, man is man, female is female, up is up, down is down.

Then you can be accosted. But the reality is, we stand strong because of Christ standing strong for us.

Look at verse 53. Hot indignation seizes me because of the wicked who forsake your law.

Friends, do you hate sin tonight? Be careful here. Do you hate your own sin?

Do you hate sin in yourself? Do you hate sin in others?

We need to be very, very careful sometimes and remember the idea of hating sin.

What I mean is, sometimes we can put our faults on a person and seek to hate a person or whatever.

But the reality is, we should hate sin. We should hate it. And the psalmist says a very powerful terminology here.

Hot indignation. Hot indignation seizes me because of the wicked who forsake your law.

We must hate sin. We must hate the destructiveness of sin. But this hot indignation, don't forget, even in this psalm, is to be coupled with compassion.

Turn over to verse 136. Psalm 119 verse 136.

My eyes shed streams of tears because people do not keep your law.

So friends, this is what I'm saying tonight. The Bible produces in us conviction.

And we stand on our conviction. And when we see the world burning down around us, it angers us.

Because God is not honored. We hate that and yet we're also filled with compassion. Our eyes shed streams of tears.

Listen friends, when is the last time you didn't just get mad because someone did something that was ungodly?

When is the last time you wept for sinners? Jesus wept for sinners, right?

The psalmist here wept for sinners. When is the last time that we have allowed ourselves compassion for the lost?

So if we're in the word, we're making the preaching of the word a priority. If we're making the private reading, studying, memorizing, meditation on the word a priority.

Then these are the things that the word of God is producing in us. It's producing in us comfort.

You know, so many times I counsel with people and their life is unraveling. And one of the first things

I ask is like, how's your time in the word? The word of God does not prevent terrible things from happening.

But it does when these things do strike. It keeps us steady.

It keeps us anchored. And then it produces in us conviction. That is making us bold and resolute in those times that we falter, we rest again in the great gospel that we have.

So comfort and conviction. And then finally, the word of God produces in the people of God commemoration.

I just mean, I don't want to get bogged down in this word. I just mean a remembrance. The word of God produces a remembrance of the things that He has done for us.

So it produces in the people of God a joy and celebration in the things that God has done.

Look for example in verse 54. Your statutes have been my songs in the house of my sojourning.

Not only does the word of God produce singing within God's people, but the content of our songs is

God's word itself. So, right now we're preaching through a song.

Churches should sing songs. It's really kind of strange to me. Like growing up, it really wasn't a regular practice to remember.

I know we did sing, the one that I remember is, Thy word is a lamp unto my feet.

You know that one? I'm not going to keep singing it, but that's it. I remember singing that. But as far as, oh maybe we sang, you remember the song,

As the deer panteth for the water. You know that one? So we sang, there's a few songs that we sang.

It's really interesting to me that we have moved away so easily from singing psalms.

I don't understand that. I just can't, like as I read the scriptures, and I look and the Bible commands us in Ephesians 5 and Colossians 3, that the church should sing psalms.

We just kind of moved away from that. I find that strange, but we shouldn't only sing psalms. Both of those texts talk about psalms, hymns, spiritual songs.

But let me just say with all of it, the content of all those different types of singing must be the

Word of God. We want to sing the Word of God. I want to be careful, I don't think, well

I don't know, maybe in here there might be someone who is going to be a creative music artist one day.

And if you are, praise God. But let me just encourage you with something. We don't have to have more creative songs so much as we need more songs just simply faithful to what the

Bible says. Right? So we have a lot of singing out there today, but sometimes I sing a line or something and I'm like,

I don't really know, understand what that means. Why can't we just sing the Word of God, right? The psalmist says, your statutes have been my songs.

I love the Bible so much it's in my heart. I'm going to sing what your

Word says. So, even when we think about songs, we don't judge songs so much on musical style, although there is a little bit of that, but we should judge them based on biblical content.

And then here's a wonderful phrase. He says he sings the songs of God, the statutes have been my songs, in the house of my sojourning.

So the psalmist is a pilgrim. We are strangers and sojourners in this land.

Our citizenship is in heaven. Now, being a sojourner, being a pilgrim, it kind of brings a negative connotation.

It means we aren't home yet. It means we're journeying, but this is the reality of God's people.

We are sojourners. This summer we're having a vacation Bible school. The theme is going to be,

I think, right? Okay, I had to get confirmation there. The theme is going to be The Pilgrim's Progress.

That's a great book, but most importantly, it's a great concept. We are pilgrims in this land.

So, let me mention this. This reminder here tonight, your statutes have been my songs, in the house of my sojourning.

Let me be real with you for a moment. You don't always have to put on a plastic smile.

That's what some people believe about Christianity. If you ever say to anyone that you're hurting, that you're struggling, that you're sad, get away from them.

They're unclean. No. Have you read the Psalms? They're like, why

God? How long, God? Why have you forsaken me, God? This is the reality of the

Christian life at times. We are sojourners. We struggle and we have to fight sin and we falter.

People who don't understand the Gospel are the people who try to live with a plastic smile. No, people who do understand the

Gospel, they don't try to live with a plastic smile. They understand, some days I'm not okay.

But I got Christ. I got my brothers and sisters. I've got the

Word of God. And so I still sing. I still sing.

Why? Because the Spirit of God through His Word is producing this in us.

I remember what God has done. Sometimes I sing through tears, but I don't stop singing.

Look at verse 55. I remember your name in the night, O Lord, and keep your law.

Again, here's the idea of commemoration, remembering. Now, I think this is wonderful. I remember your name in the night.

Listen, Christian. While others are sleeping, while others are doing ungodly and unholy things in the cover of darkness, while others are focused on carnal things, the psalmist is remembering the name of his

God. We want to be careful here. The things that we discussed aren't things that we always do perfectly.

Of course not. Only Jesus did that. That's our hope. His righteousness. Clothed in His righteousness.

You remember this reality. Only a perfect righteousness will get you to heaven.

But it's not yours because you don't have it. It's Christ's. And we rest in Him. But these are things that are being wrought in our hearts.

These are things that are the fruit of God's word in our life. I remember the text says,

Your name in the night. Oh, Lord. By the way, that's the covenant name of God.

Oh, Yahweh. In remembering God's name reminds the psalmist that God is

God. A covenantal God who is condescended to man in order to be known and who has bound

Himself freely and graciously by His promises to us, His people, and to the psalmist as he meditates on these wonderful truths and as he remembers the name of God in the night and all that His name entails and the promises that He has made and the grace that He has shown.

He longs to keep God's word. I remember Your name in the night, oh Lord, and keep Your law.

This is His desire. This is the desire of the believer. The word causes us to remember and remembering fuels us to be in the word.

It's actually a wonderful cycle. And then verse 56. This blessing has fallen to me that I have kept

Your precepts. This is very interesting to consider.

This blessing of comfort and hope, of courage, of singing, of remembrance has fallen to the psalmist.

That I've kept Your precepts. What does that mean? That we're saved by works? No. But what type of Christian has the blessing of comfort and hope and courage and singing and meditation?

It's not the one living contrary to God's word.

And the idea here is that the blessing of the Gospel and the blessing of the promises of God and the blessing of God's sovereign grace, when it falls upon a person, this is the kind of life that it produces.

It's kind of like this morning, remember we said, blessed is the one who dwells in the house of Yahweh? And we said, what is it like to have a life that is blessed?

You think, man, a blessed life, I'd have more money. A blessed life, all the doors on my van would open, right?

A blessed life, it is kind of sad, but a blessed life, you know,

I might have more prestige. No, the text says, the blessing that has fallen on me is that I've kept

Your precepts, right? Don't take that for granted. You know, people deride you, people mock you, people post nasty things about you, people, you know, that you might be the talk of the community or whatever the case may be, people saying things about you, and you say, yeah, well, how do

I respond to that? All I know to say is that God has blessed me, right? God has blessed our church.

How do I know? Because I'm following the word of God, not by my own strength, not by something in within me.

I need grace. Let me communicate that to the church, and I'll speak on behalf of Pastor Jacob and myself.

We need grace. We're not perfect. We need God's grace daily, daily, daily, daily. I need the gospel.

But what a blessing it is to be part of a people that desire to do what the

Bible says. Man, on one sense, that seems so simple, right?

We should just take what the book says and we should do it. But on another sense, if it was so easy, why didn't everybody do it?

And I'm just trying to say tonight, the point is, as we follow God in faith, as we believe the promises of the gospel, as we seek to walk with God, even though imperfectly, resting ourselves in Christ, these blessings are ours.

Comfort, conviction, commemoration. These are some of the things that the word of God is producing in the people of God.

So really a question for you tonight is, is that true of you?

Can you look at your life and say, is the word of God doing these things in your life? Are you growing in your comfort in the gospel?

Are you weaning off needing the things that the world has to offer?

I mean really you need to consider that. This isn't just like a sermon to like, oh yeah, you know, a lot of Christianese and then we say amen.

No, think about this. Is the word of God producing comfort in your life? Is the word of God producing conviction?

Are you a man or a woman or a young man or a young woman that's willing to stand on the truth of God as our culture runs headlong?

What are those things? I want to say lemur, but that's not the right word. Lemmings, lemmings, right? Is it lemmings, the things that commit suicide or whatever?

Our culture, I don't know. Forget that analogy. Our culture is like a runaway car careening down the side of the hill ready to barrel off the cliff and you got so many that profess the name of Christ they just want to jump in the car and go along with the culture.

Are you a person willing to stand for the truth? And are you a person of commemoration, particularly the gospel and the word of God and the things of God?

Friends, these are the things that the Holy Spirit produces in the people of God by the word of God.

Do not starve yourself from the word. Submit yourself to the Bible daily in your personal reading, in your time with your family and commit to sitting under the preaching of God's word because this is what

God produces in us. Let's pray. Father, we thank You for Your word and that it produces this great fruit and we pray that You would bless the preaching and study of Your word even though we're so imperfect.

We rest in a perfect Savior and we pray that You continue to have Your word work in the church.