Believing the Bible

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Psalm 119:73-80

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This evening, our exposition on Psalm 119.
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We won't take too long, but I do think it's important when we meet to preach.
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And what we're going to examine tonight is we've found our way to verse 73 of Psalm 119.
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What does it mean to believe the Bible? If we took a survey in our community, if we took a survey in our state, if we said, hey, do you believe the
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Bible? Probably in the Bible belt, you would have a lot of people say, yeah,
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I believe the Bible. Okay, but what does it mean to believe the
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Bible? And we're going to examine that tonight from this stanza. Psalm 119, beginning in verse 73.
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Would you go ahead and stand? We'll honor the reading of God's word in that way. Psalm 119, verse 73, your hands have made and fashioned me.
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Give me understanding that I may learn your commandments. Those who fear you shall see me and rejoice because I have hoped in your word.
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I know, oh Lord, that your rules are righteous and that in faithfulness you have afflicted me.
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Let your steadfast love comfort me according to your promise to your servant.
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Let your mercy come to me that I may live for your law is my delight.
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Let the insolent be put to shame because they have wronged me with falsehood. As for me,
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I will meditate on your precepts. Let those who fear you turn to me that they may know your testimonies.
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May my heart be blameless in your statutes that I may not be put to shame.
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Father, would you help us to understand this text to apply it to our lives? May we see
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Christ in it. Thank you for the prayers tonight and the singing. We pray that you would bless the preaching of your word and that it would be effectual.
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We come before you tonight with our hope in the power of your word and the Holy Spirit using that word to do exactly what you have foreordained even before the foundation of the world to accomplish your great purposes.
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And even tonight on a Sunday night in rural Arkansas, an out of the way place,
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Washington D .C. is not thinking about this place. The most important places in the world don't even know that this place exists.
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And yet you have a church here. And so we pray that you would do great things for your glory through your word.
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We pray in Christ's name. Amen. What does it mean to believe the
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Bible? Well, you understand that we're going through an acrostic, as it were.
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Maybe that's not the right term. Each stanza begins with a new letter of the Hebrew alphabet. And so we're not necessarily walking through this verse by verse in the same way that you would a letter.
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It's not necessarily that each stanza is building on a new argument or whatever. It's just a poetic device to exalt and highlight the beauty and wonder, importance and necessity of the word of God.
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And so we kind of take it apart a little bit differently. So the first thing that I want you to look at tonight is the fountain of believing.
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OK, number one, the fountain of believing, that is the source of believing. Where does believing in the
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Bible come from? What is its fountain? And the answer is the
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God of the Bible. Look at verse 73. Your hands have made and fashioned me. And the psalmist prays, give me understanding that I may learn your commandments.
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Friends, if you want to believe the Bible, the fountain of believing, the source for believing, where belief in the
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Bible comes from, is from the God of all grace. And there's some things that we learn here about God.
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We learn that He's a personal God. The text says, your hands have made and fashioned me.
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Isn't that beautiful? Your hands. God, by the way, that's an anthropomorphism.
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God doesn't have hands in the sense that we have hands, right? God hands, that's attributing something to God, so that it's a device that we can help us to understand
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God. But the reality is, this is a very personal attribution to God.
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It's a very personal thing to God that the psalmist is declaring, that God has personally shaped and fashioned him.
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This is personal, this is intimate. God made us and fashioned us in His image for His glory.
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Now, I'll just make a comment here. I could speak a whole message on this, but this is why abortion is such an atrocity.
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You understand? What we are doing when we... So there's a couple of ways we can be complicit in the sin of abortion.
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We can fund abortion, we can have an abortion, we can encourage someone we love to have an abortion.
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Or here's another way, we can just be quiet about it. We can ignore it, we can pretend that it's not a thing.
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But you understand that every year... You hear this, that abortion is illegal, but it's not in many places, and even places that they would say abortion is illegal.
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You've got the abortion pills coming, and we have women taking the pill and destroying the baby that's inside them, even at a very early stage, right?
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When does life begin? I'm not trying to preach on abortion, but a whole sermon, but let me just remind us some things to your mind, bring to your mind that life begins at conception.
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And when we have an abortion, when we kill an unborn child, why is it such an atrocity?
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Because we are killing an image bearer of God. God who has shaped and fashioned each individual in His image.
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So consider this, we're talking about a personal God, we're talking about the fountain of believing comes from a personal
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God, and we're just mentioning here that God has shaped and fashioned us.
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And the application I made there is we should hate the sin of abortion. Now, God is a personal
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God. Salvation is personal. It is coming to God and personally laying hold of the truths of the
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Gospel. It is believing on Christ as your only suitable and all -sufficient
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Savior. It is trusting His righteousness alone as what will merit you into heaven.
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Not your merits, not your works, but what Christ has done for you and paying your sins on the cross, bearing
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God's wrath and rising again from the dead. And of course, the fountain of all this belief is
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God Himself. And that God would give us understanding in this word. We also see not only is
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God a personal God, He's a pure God. Verse 74 says, "'Those who fear you shall see me and rejoice because I have hoped in your word.
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I know, O Lord, that your rules are righteous and that in faithfulness you have afflicted me.'"
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God is holy. This is why the Bible talks about fearing God. God is not like us.
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Maybe one illustration is you have this idea, I think guys have this idea a lot more than the ladies, but we have this idea of like if there's a tornado, like we wanna see it, you know?
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We wanna see the tornado. But there's kind of a balance there. Like we wanna see it, but we're also afraid of it, right?
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This is kind of an example, although infinitely greater, of what it means for God to be holy.
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We fear Him, but we are simultaneously in awe of His holiness. And He is righteous, the text says.
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He always does what is right. So again, I'm just telling you this tonight that the fountain of believing, the source for us believing the
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Bible, comes from God. And the Psalm says that this God is a personal God, that He is a pure God.
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Thirdly, I'll just mention this, He's a purposeful God. Verse 76 says, "'Let your steadfast love comfort me "'according to your promise to your servant.'"
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He's purposeful in His promises. The Hebrew word most of you probably know or you've heard it before, it's not completely foreign to you, verse 76, steadfast love is hesed, steadfast love.
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God's covenantal love, God's loyal love, God's graciousness. Sometimes it's just translated as mercy, but God's loyalty to Himself and to His people and what
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He has said. God is purposeful in that. He's purposeful in His plan, a plan to apply the steadfast love that He has for Himself between the persons of the
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Trinity and to take that love and to set it upon unworthy sinners. Not just neutral sinners, not merely sinners who, like if someone comes up to you and says,
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I'm gonna give you a million dollars. You say, wow, I don't deserve that. But that's not like grace.
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It's not merely that you don't deserve the grace of God, you deserve the opposite. You understand?
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It's like you're trying to murder someone and then they turn around and say, you know what? I'm gonna give you a million dollars.
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Like, you don't deserve a million dollars. You deserve to be executed by the state, right? Well, similarly, this is how it comes to the grace of God.
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He has purpose to bestow this covenantal love, this steadfast love upon a people before the foundation of the world who are undeserving and unworthy.
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God is purposeful in His plan and He's purposeful in the gospel, the plan of the gospel. Friends, let me just say this tonight and I wanna be careful because like we can joke and stuff, but you know,
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I do wanna be serious. I'm not trying to... I should say this every sermon I preach because I don't know the sermon
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I preach that it's gonna be my last sermon. But there's a lot of things
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I'm doing over the next week that's a bit of an uptick from normal.
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I'm driving six and a half hours or six hours, I guess, or Jacob's driving four hours tomorrow and we're going to fly in an airplane multiple times tomorrow.
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We're gonna be in a foreign country for the week. We're gonna fly back multiple times,
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Lord willing. We're gonna drive back. There's just a lot going on here. All that to say this, if this is the last time
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I ever preach to you, this is what you need to know. My children, listen to me.
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Madewell children, listen to me. Osborne children, I see you. Listen as best you can.
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And every other person in here, listen to me. Christ is
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King. Our Lord Jesus is a sufficient Savior for any who will come to Him and trust
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Him and believe on Him. God is faithful to His promises. He is faithful to His plan and He will bestow
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His steadfast love upon His people which includes all who will call out to Him in faith.
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Hear me clearly. Jesus Christ was born of the Virgin Mary. Jesus Christ fulfilled all righteousness.
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He was our faithful covenant head. He fulfilled the covenant of works. He suffered on the cross in the place of sinners that are undeserving like you and like me and He rose again from the dead.
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You hear me? He rose again from the dead to save us from our sins.
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So I don't know when the last sermon I'm ever gonna preach, it might be tonight, it might be next week, it might be 100 years from now, probably not.
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It might be 80 years from now, maybe at the longest. I don't know the last time I'm gonna preach but I want to hear you tonight.
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Please, if you're withholding coming to Christ, if you profess to be a Christian but you're not, if you're a child in here tonight and you're like, well, maybe
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I'll come. I don't know the next time I'll preach the gospel but if this is the last time, tonight is the night for you to come to Christ and trust the plan of God.
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He's purposeful in His promises, in His plan. He's purposeful in His providence.
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Verse 75 says, I know, O Lord, that your rules are righteous and that in faithfulness you have afflicted me.
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So we don't know what God had done to the psalmist here but we know that God had afflicted the psalmist but He had done so in faithfulness.
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So listen to me, God brings affliction upon His people. It's not always enjoyable on the surface but at a deeper level, we know that whatever comes into our life,
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God has a purpose for it. And so the whole point of this first section is for us to remember that the foundation of our, the fountain of our believing the scriptures and understanding the scriptures is
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God Himself. And God is a personal, pure and purposeful being. Secondly, the function of believing.
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Verse 73 says, your hands have made and fashioned me. Give me understanding that I may learn your commandments.
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That's the function of believing the Bible, that I may learn your commandments. This is worship.
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The purpose of knowledge of the word of God is to glorify God. To believe the
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Bible is to apply His precepts to our life. That I may learn your commandments.
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The commandments, what is the purpose of the law? Well, I'll just mention tonight the three uses of the law.
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First, the law of God is a mirror. So in verse 75 says, I know, O Lord, that your rules are righteous.
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So the law of God is a mirror for us. His righteous rules are a schoolmaster. They show us our unrighteousness.
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They drive us to Christ. We see His righteous rules and we realize that we have woefully missed the mark.
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We need Christ. We need a mediator. We do not measure up. We deserve God's judgment. Let me encourage us tonight, church, that we need to preach the gospel.
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Amen, amen, amen. We also, in preaching the gospel, we must preach the law.
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We don't preach the law without the gospel. And we don't preach the gospel without the law. The law and the gospel come together.
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And the law drives us, shows us our need for a savior, shows us our filthy rags, shows us our uncleanness, and then the gospel shows us that Jesus Christ saves exactly that kind of person.
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So application, just know like this time of year, you think of June, you think people call it pride month or whatever.
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It's like, well, you know, I need to be loving, accepting, all that. No, you need to call sin, sin. You need to call homosexuality an abomination.
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I'm not saying that homosexuals can't be saved. Of course they can be saved. They were saved in the Bible. The Bible explicitly says they're saved because 1
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Corinthians 6 says such were some of you, meaning those who repent of their sins and look to Christ and turn away from homosexuality and greed and drunkenness and adultery and believe on Christ.
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They truly are saved. So there's hope, right? But there's not hope if we take the law of God and try to stick it in our pockets behind our back and we just say, hey, you know what?
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God is love. You understand? God is love, but God loves his law. He loves his righteousness.
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He loves his holiness. So consider these things. The law of God is a mirror. Secondly, the law of God is a moderator.
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Now this text doesn't deal with it, so I'll just mention it, but briefly. But the law of God, you understand, moderates mankind because it helps keep mankind from being as sinful as we possibly could be, okay?
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So because the law of God outwardly, the fact that the law of God is still written in the conscience, it constrains men outwardly.
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Every culture, for example, has various moral standards. Where does that come from?
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It comes from being made in the image of God. So the law of God is a mirror, a moderator. But thirdly, the law of God makes known to us the will of God.
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So it shows us what is pleasing to God. So as believers, look at verse 80. May my heart be blameless in your statutes.
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Like, that's the cry of a believer. May my heart be blameless in your statutes.
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The Hebrew word there, blameless, complete, unscathed, intact, without fault, free of blemish, impeccable, or what the text says, blameless.
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Now, is that your heart? Answer, of course, no. That's not your heart. Your heart is not that.
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That's Jesus' heart. And we need His heart. We need His righteousness credited to our account.
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Even as Christians, the law shows us how we need Jesus so that we might not be put to shame.
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But we also have this desire like the psalmist does. May my heart be blameless.
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We want to walk in a way that is pleasing to God. This is a promise of the new covenant.
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God says, I will write my law on their heart. So for the believer, the law of God is not just now in our conscience.
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That's how it is with all humanity in one way or another. Some more, some less, some consciences are sheared, seared, sheared, like shaved, no, seared.
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Some consciences are seared. But when we're born again,
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God writes His law on our heart. So now there is a desire. You understand, believer?
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You desire this, verse 80. You desire your heart to be blameless in the statutes of God.
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That is the function of believing the Bible, that I want to walk in God's ways.
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It's simply this, I want to do what the Bible says. So when we have fights, you know, like when denominations have fights and they're like, you know, well, we're gonna let women preach.
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And you don't want to let women preach because you're mean and you don't like women. No, that's so foolish, right?
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I have a wife, I have three daughters. I'm grateful for godly ladies.
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The reason I don't want women to preach is not because I'm scared of women or I fear women or I have anything against women.
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The reason I don't want women to preach is because I want to do what the Bible says, right?
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Reason I want to have a healthy church. I want to have a plurality of elders. I want to be a reformed Baptist. I want to do what the
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Bible says. And that's the desire of someone who believes the Bible.
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If you say you believe the Bible, you'll want to do what it says. This is only by grace. Thirdly, the fruit of believing.
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What does it look like to believe? Not only do we want to do the commandments and walk in His ways, but there's some things here
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I'll mention. One, delight in the Word. Look at verse 77. Let your mercy come to me.
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Let your mercy come to me that I may live for your law is my delight.
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This brother was afflicted, but none of us can live without the mercies of God. And he understood
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God's mercies needed to come to him instead of us trying to come to God.
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We need God's mercies to come to us, for often we are too weak to come to Him. But the fruit of this understanding here in the text is a delight in God's Word.
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Delight, to take delight in. So many things people delight in. Maybe children or sports or food or movies.
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Like it's okay to appreciate those things, right? But God has given them to us as good gifts, but we're called to delight.
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The believer's heart is one that delights in God's Word and knowing the one the Word points to, knowing
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Christ. And like we heard this morning from Pastor Jacob, serving Christ and serving His church, we delight in the
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Word. Those who truly understand the Bible are changed by grace and delight in the
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Word of God. Look at verse 78, meditation. He says, as for me, at the end of it, as for me,
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I will meditate on your precepts. The biblical practice of meditation.
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Friends, let me encourage you that tomorrow when you read your Bible, it's not just about I'm gonna open the Bible, I'm gonna read my chapters,
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I'm gonna check it off, I'm gonna close my Bible, and then I'll pick it up again the next day. When we read the
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Bible, parts of it should stick with us, we should chew on it, we should think about it throughout the day. This is the biblical practice of meditation.
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The fruit of believing is delight in the Word. Another fruit of believing, number two, detested by the world.
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So delight in the Word, secondly, detested by the world. Look at the first half of verse 78. Let the insolent be put to shame because they have wronged me with falsehood.
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The insolent, the King James says, the proud, the fools, the ones that do not delight in the
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Word of God, the ones that think they have enough knowledge on their own. These people derive those who do delight in the
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Word of God. You understand, children, teenagers, you understand that if you are purposed, if you are resolved to delight in the
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Word of God, there are going to be those who deride you, who speak falsely about you, who make fun of you, who post things about you, who talk behind your back, who won't be your friend, who do terrible things towards you and perhaps your family.
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Why? Because you believe the Bible and they don't. Friends, a fruit of believing the
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Bible is that we're detested by the world. If we're transformed by its message, the world will hate you.
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That's what Jesus prompts. In our Scripture reading this morning in the service, Jesus says, in the world you will have tribulation.
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He doesn't say, but if you follow me, you won't. No, He says, in the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer.
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I have overcome the world. So we rest in Christ and we let persecution come.
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So delight in the Word, detested by the world and then finally tonight, another fruit of believing is drawn to other worshipers.
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So in verse 74, it says, those who fear you shall see me and rejoice because I have hoped in your
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Word. Why will they see Him and rejoice? Because He's a God -fearer, because He has hoped in the
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Word of God, right? So our hope is sure.
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Whatever happens, whatever may come, we have a sure hope that Christ is King, that Jesus wins, that He's already won, that His kingdom is forever, that He's building
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His kingdom right before our eyes, that we are forgiven based on His work on our behalf and that God is on His throne and one day all things will be set right.
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And when we understand that, when we believe that, we're drawn to other worshipers. So let me just say it this way.
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If someone says, I believe in Christ, I believe the gospel, I believe Jesus is coming back, I believe God's gonna judge the world, but they don't go to church, that doesn't make sense according, listen, even according to the
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Old Testament, that doesn't make sense because worshipers of Yahweh are drawn to one another.
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Now in the New Testament, we understand that this is organized under the institution of the local church.
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So we see that more clearly, more fully, but we see typology of the local church even in the
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Old Testament. In verse 79 it says, let those who fear you turn to me.
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Let those who fear you turn to me that they may know your testimonies.
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So the psalmist has undergone affliction, but now he desires to be surrounded by other believers, right?
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So the point here is, if you are believing the Bible, you'll delight in the word, you'll be detested by the world, but you'll be drawn to other worshipers, you understand?
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A lot of people say they believe the Bible, they're drawn to the world and they despise worshipers.
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That's the opposite. If you love the Bible, if you love the scriptures, then you love
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Christ, you love the gospel, you understand your need for his righteousness, you glory in his resurrection for your justification, you walk in him in sanctification, and you love the local church.
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Even in the Old Testament, we see a pointing forward to the beauty and necessity and reality of the local church.
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Okay, that's all I have for you tonight. I'm going to close though with an exhortation. So the exhortation that I have for us tonight, just because it's
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Father's Day, is to encourage fathers, myself,
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Pastor Jacob included in this, but to encourage fathers in this place to cultivate a love for the
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Bible in your children. Now, listen, I understand you'll stop me and say, hey, preacher,
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I can't do that. It's only the Holy Spirit that can do that. Well, first and foremost, I say to you, amen. It's only the
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Holy Spirit that can do that, right? But the Holy Spirit, we understand, works through means.
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We call these sometimes the means of grace, or sometimes they're referred to as spiritual disciplines.
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But the reality is this, dads. It is our responsibility to cultivate within our children a love for the
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Bible, insofar as we're resting in the power of the Holy Spirit. So what I want you to do here, let your children see you read the
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Bible. Let your children know there are times in your day that you have set aside to read the
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Bible, not even with them, not even with your wife, just you reading the Bible. And then, of course, gather with them regularly, open up the
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Bible, read it with them, and say, this is what it says. Teach your children, even talking to the young dads in here, right?
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Sometimes you're like, is he talking to me? Well, yes, Trey, I'm talking to you right now. Even the young dads in here. Cultivate in your children a love for the
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Scriptures. Teach them to memorize the Bible. Sing songs that are laden with the
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Scriptures. Catechize them, ask them questions and answers, because we're not just trying to have rote memorization of the
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Bible, although that's a wonderful discipline to have, but even in addition to that, we're trying to understand how the
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Bible fits together, what's the main message of the Bible, the doctrine that the Bible teaches. Dads, I'm pleading with you, in a culture that is literally running off the side of a cliff, that we would be the last board of society, and that we would say, not on our watch, we will, so far as God gives us life and breath and grace, raise our children in the nurture and admonition of the
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Lord. We will be a generation that believes the Bible and teaches our children to do likewise.
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So help us, God. Father, we pray that you would help us to be these type of men, and that we'd be this type of church.
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Help us to believe your Bible. We believe it, we trust it, we know that it is the inerrant, infallible, sufficient, authoritative, clear, and necessary revelation from you.
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We believe every line from Genesis to Revelation. We believe that this book doesn't merely contain your word, but that it is your word, translated to us from original
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Greek and Hebrew, and some Aramaic, into a language that we can understand. And we pray,
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God, that we would remember tonight to whom much is given, much is required, and you've given us much in your word, and so may we love it.