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Psalm 119:121-128
We continue tonight in our exposition of the 119th
psalm.
There used to be a time in American history, well maybe I guess you wouldn't
say everybody, but you would say at least most people, had a
shared sentiment about, you know, the importance of what it meant to be an American.
They cared about being a good American citizen.
You know, if we talked about someone being a good American citizen, even during my lifetime,
we kind of understood what that meant.
You know, they paid their taxes, they were a good neighbor or whatever, and they cared
about the country.
I certainly don't agree with everything from John F. Kennedy or his
policies or his morals, but he did have that line, that famous line in his speech, ask not
what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.
And there was this idea, I think in America, at least popularly it
seemed, that we wanted to have a great country and we
wanted to be good citizens.
Of course, in the year of our Lord, 2024, that
has seemingly fallen by the wayside.
But I want to bring that thought this evening as we enter into our text.
I want to bring that thought to this section of Scripture.
I wonder if you think about not being a good American citizen, though you
should think about that.
But I wonder if you think about being a good citizen of the kingdom.
I wonder if you think about what it means to not be a loyal subject so much of the United
States, so certainly there's nothing wrong with that, but tonight I want you to consider what does
it mean to be a loyal subject of Christ?
What does it mean to be a loyal subject of our King?
And that's where we're at, Psalm 119, beginning in verse
121.
Let's stand and honor the reading of God's Word.
The psalmist says, I have done what is just and right.
Do not leave me to my oppressors.
Give your servant a pledge of good.
Let not the insolent oppress me.
My eyes long for your salvation and for the fulfillment of your righteous promise.
Deal with your servant according to your steadfast love and teach me your statutes.
I am your servant.
Give me understanding that I may know your testimonies.
It is time for the Lord to act, for your law has been broken.
Therefore, I love your commandments above gold, above fine gold.
Therefore, I consider all your precepts to be right.
I hate every false way.
Father, would you help us to understand tonight your Word?
Help me, Lord, you know I'm in need of your grace to preach tonight.
I pray that you would supply that over and above.
Lord, our congregation is in need of your grace to hear, to hear well, to hear in such
a way that they apply it.
Lord, we pray the Spirit of God, Holy Spirit, that you would apply the Word preached to our hearts.
May Christ be exalted.
Lord Jesus, we pray that you would reign supremely and we would gladly recognize and rejoice in your
sovereign reign.
We would love you, increase our love for you.
Bless our church.
We pray it in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Tonight we want to talk about loyal subjects.
Loyal subjects.
Number one, loyal subjects.
What does it mean to be a loyal subject of the king?
Okay, number one, loyal subjects practice God's ways.
Number one, if you're going to be a loyal subject, you're going to practice God's way.
Now look there in verse 121 and tell me.
He says, I have done what is just and right.
I've done...
I'm just making sure the front row there.
I won't call anybody.
Make sure we're locked in.
I've done what is just and right.
Now there's a lot of truth there that you may not consider.
And that is, have you ever thought much about the standard of what
is just and right?
In other words, a number of years ago, this is probably like ten years ago, I saw the renowned
atheist Richard Dawkins say that if a baby was diagnosed with
Down syndrome, he said the mother ought to abort that baby.
That was Richard Dawkins' position.
Now the question I have for you tonight is, was he arguing for the right thing
to do or not?
Now I know that we're all going to resoundly put our foot down and say, no, you shouldn't murder a child
simply because that sweet baby is diagnosed with Down syndrome.
That's not right.
But what I'm asking you tonight is, is there a standard for that, right?
Because we live in a day and age that
idolizes subjective morality.
What do I mean?
Guys in the back, y 'all need to think about that because I know this is really pressing with your age group.
But that is, subjective morality means I get to decide what is morally right and what is not.
If I want to hook up with my girlfriend, I can.
You can't get in my business.
I get to choose what is right.
Or it might be a man and another man, right?
That's the world we live in.
If I want to be a boy or a girl or whatever the case may be, if I want to murder my child, if I want to be
a communist, whatever the case may be, I can do whatever I want.
You can't tell me because morality is subjective.
But the psalmist says here in verse 121, I have done what is
just and right.
Now what does that imply?
If he says I have done what is just and right, friends, that implies that there is
a standard.
Right?
That implies that in God's eyes there is something that tells
us what is right and what is wrong.
Now, I understand I'm with the Sunday night crowd.
We know the answer.
What is it?
What tells us what is right and what is wrong?
We have the Bible.
We have the Scriptures.
The Scriptures bear the highest authority in our lives.
And I'm tired.
Aren't you tired?
Living in the Bible Belt and people play fast and loose with the Bible and they use it when it's convenient or
they quote it when they want to.
But it actually bears the highest authority.
And so those who are loyal subjects to the king, we actually want to practice God's ways.
We can definitively stay.
We can stand.
I don't care who says it.
I don't care if it's Donald Trump.
I don't care if it's Kamala Harris.
I don't care if it's the Supreme Court of the United States.
We can stand before all in power and we can hold the Bible and we can say it is morally wrong
to kill a child.
No matter what stage, if that child is 10 years old, 10 days old, 10 seconds old, 1
second old, it's not okay.
Why can we say that?
Because we have an objective standard of morality.
Loyal subjects desire to practice God's ways.
We said, it's been a while since we started Psalm 119, but we said when we started
that this Psalm was going to show us not just the importance of the Word of God, but how to take it and apply
it practically to our lives.
And so here's one of those ways.
So friends, what I'm saying is we don't want to just read the Bible.
We're going to get to that later.
We don't want to just read the Bible and understand what the Bible says, but Pastor Jacob did a really good job this morning
talking about it.
We must apply it.
So what if you know what the Greek and the Hebrew means and you're expert theologians and you can pass the seminary
exam, so what if we don't practice God's ways?
Are you listening tonight?
So what if we don't practice the ways of God?
If we don't say what the psalmist says in verse 121.
I have done what is just and what is right.
Which we see the opposite of right in verse 128.
Therefore I consider all your precepts to be right.
So we want to do what is right according to the scriptures.
We don't want to just read the Bible, but we want to apply it.
We want to do what it says.
We practice God's ways because the Bible shows us clearly what those ways are.
It shows us right.
It shows us wrong.
It shows us morality.
It shows us immorality.
And we want to do what is just and right.
Let's say this quickly too.
We don't do what is just and right in order to be a Christian.
We do it because that's what a Christian does.
In other words, it doesn't flow into being a Christian.
It flows out of being a Christian.
God works these things in us to will and to work.
He produces in us a desire like the psalmist to do what is just and right.
So let me encourage you this week.
Sunday night, so tomorrow, tomorrow most of you probably get a little bit of a break, Labor Day.
But Tuesday you go to work.
You have to make decisions.
Before every decision, what is just, what is right?
The Scriptures teach us.
Secondly, loyal subjects practice God's ways.
Secondly, loyal subjects plead for God's work.
So notice that this is a prayer.
So we practice God's ways.
We plead for God's work.
So verse 121, I have done what is just and right.
And then listen, prayer.
Now, the psalmist is making an appeal.
In other words, he's saying, Father, or he's saying, God, because I have done what you've
called me to do, do not let the oppressors oppress me.
Do not let the insolent oppress me.
Loyal subjects pray to God.
Loyal subjects plead for God to act.
Look at verse 126.
It is time for the Lord to act.
For your law has been broken.
Isn't that true?
Isn't that true in our country today?
Isn't that true in our town today?
Isn't that true in our world today?
It is time for Yahweh to act.
How is it, God, that those who claim your name, even in our area, act
wickedly?
How do they get by with that?
How do those even politicians, I've never known a politician who doesn't say they follow God.
Have you ever known one?
Have you ever known one that will stand up before a congregation, sorry, not a congregation, but stand up before a
crowd and say, Oh, I don't follow God.
No, they still appeal to God's name, and yet they seem to go
in ways contrary to His Word.
Or why do false teachers prosper?
Or how come we see so many who seem to be Christians in name only, but they live like the world, and they seem to be
the ones that get the raises or succeed in the eyes of the world, and so we cry out, Oh God, won't you act?
This entire psalm is a prayer, remember.
In essence, we get to read a one -sided conversation between the psalmist
and God.
But let me just encourage us tonight.
I'll show you something in verse 124 in just a second, but let me just encourage us tonight.
We don't only, as Christians, practice God's ways, but
we plead for God's work.
We need to be more committed to prayer.
We need to be more committed to prayer as families.
We need to be more committed to prayer as individuals.
We need to be more committed to prayer as a church.
We plead for God to work.
Now look at verse 124.
Now he's not just saying, hey, you should answer my prayer because I've done what is just and right,
but he also said in verse 124, deal with your servant according to your steadfast love.
In other words, you remember this is the Hebrew word chesed.
We've talked about it before.
It just means covenant to loyalty, faithful love, steadfast love.
I'm not sure what other translations may say.
I think sometimes the King James just translates it as mercy, but it's a very strong word, and the idea
here is the psalmist wants God to act toward him not based on what he's
done only, right?
So listen, by the way, it is okay to pray to God.
Lord, look, I've done this.
Would you bless?
Like we feel kind of weird.
We feel kind of weird to pray that way, but I'm just telling you that's how the psalmist prays, right?
I have done what is just and right.
Do not lead me to my oppressors, okay?
But you better not live in that kind of prayer because verse 124 reminds us it's not just
about that.
We need God's grace.
We don't want God to do...
In other words, we don't want to say, God, I want what I deserve.
God, give me what I deserve because what do you deserve?
You deserve God's justice, but instead we want to pray for God's grace, so we say pray, God, deal
with us not according to what we've done.
Deal with us according to your steadfast love.
Deal with us according to your grace and your mercy, and we pray as
believers.
We pray in Jesus' name.
That's not actually something you just tack on at the end.
In Jesus' name I pray, amen.
The idea is the whole prayer...
That's okay, right?
I'm not saying that's wrong.
What I'm saying is it's more than just that.
The whole prayer is in Jesus' name.
We want you, Father, to accept this prayer not based on what we've done, not based on our righteousness, but ultimately
you must accept this prayer based on the righteousness of Christ.
We make an appeal through His blood, through His death on the cross for our sins, through His resurrection.
That's the only way that we're able to have fellowship with God.
And so we say, God, would you work in our lives?
Would you work in our country according to your mercy?
According to your faithfulness to yourself?
According to your steadfast love?
As we practice God's ways and plead for God's work, we ground these things in the Gospel.
We ground these things in the finished work of Jesus.
Now look at verse 122.
As I thought about that verse this week, for the Christian, is there a greater pledge
of good that God has given us than Christ?
Think about this.
The psalmist says, let not the insolent oppress me.
But what happened to Christ?
The Father let the insolent oppress the Son.
Why?
So that He could give His people a pledge of good.
Christ suffered at the hands of wicked men.
In one sense, this prayer is not answered for Jesus.
In one sense, don't press that too far.
I'm not trying to be weird.
But see verse 121, I have done what is just and right.
Imagine our Lord Jesus praying that.
Except, God, in one sense you would say, it's not answered.
Who has done more justice, more righteousness?
Who has ever done justice or righteousness other than our Lord Jesus Christ?
And yet He does this, and what happens?
He's left to His oppressors.
The insolent oppress Him.
Why does the Father do that?
So that He could give us Christ.
Christ suffered at the hands of wicked men under the sovereign will of God in order that God would win
His people to Himself for His glory.
So, we practice God's Word and we plead with God to work and our pleading with God to work is
all based on what Jesus has done for us.
Here's the thing, and the New Testament writers make this argument.
So Paul says things like this, If God has given us the greatest thing,
damn paraphrasing, this is Romans 8, right?
If God has given us the greatest thing, how will He not give us all these other lesser
things too?
If He's given us Christ, if He's given us this pledge of good, if He's given us the Lord
Jesus, then how can we be so anxious and worried about all these other things?
So we plead with God to work, we pray to God and we're confident that He's
going to take care of us.
Before I move on, let me just ask this question.
Have you experienced this pledge of good?
Have you experienced God's goodness in Christ?
Have you, Psalm 34, 8, tasted and seen?
We're singing that this month.
Have you tasted and seen that God is good?
Okay, so if you haven't, what do you do?
Well, I hold this verse 122 out to you.
I hold out the pledge of good to you tonight.
The pledge of good that God offers Providence Baptist Church to the people sitting here, to the children, to the adults if
necessary.
What God offers, the pledge of good that God offers is Christ.
The promise of forgiveness of sins, the promise of justification by grace alone, through faith alone, in
Christ alone.
The promise of eternal life, the promise of reconciliation, the promise of future hope.
All of these pledges of good are held out to us tonight in Christ.
Will you take it by faith?
Christian, will you be reminded again tonight that this is the good that God has promised His people?
Will you take this good by faith?
Are you a loyal subject?
We practice God's ways.
Finally, I'll mention tonight, we pursue God's Word.
We pursue God's Word.
Verse 124.
So deal with your servant according to your steadfast love.
And then listen to these requests.
Teach me your statutes.
Verse 125.
I'm your servant.
So look at these requests and just think about them.
So what is he praying?
So let me ask you this.
Let me just pause.
This will be a little bit meddling.
Often time in your prayer life, you're thinking about these external things.
You're thinking about, God bless my day at work today.
God help me with this situation I have.
God help me with the doctor report.
We can pray and we should pray for those things.
Give us this day our daily bread.
That's how the Lord Jesus teaches us to pray.
That God would provide for our needs.
And that's okay.
But what I'm asking you guys is, how often do we pray like this?
Like the psalmist prays.
Father, would you help me?
Would you teach me your Word?
Would you teach me your statutes?
Would you give me understanding into your Word?
Would you help me that I may know what your Bible has to say?
The reason that he wants to learn and know is so that he can grow in the Lord.
That he can grow in knowing the testimonies of God.
And isn't it the cry of every regenerate heart tonight that I want to know this book better?
That I want to know this Bible more?
Isn't it the heart of a loyal subject to say, I've got this book that you've given me, and honestly
every one of us, I'm not just standing up here pointing the finger at you.
I'm up here.
I'm with you in this.
Every single one of us we could say so much travail and sorrow and difficulty has
happened in our life because we've left this thing unread.
We've left this thing unknown.
We haven't searched it's Scriptures.
We haven't searched it's verses.
It was a long time before I came to the theology that I'm settled in now, and part of the reason obviously,
I remember being an arrogant 21 year old thinking, yeah, I pretty much know the Bible well.
I hadn't even read through the whole Bible at that point in my life.
This is the way we treat this Word of God.
And I'm saying to us, friends, let it not be true of us.
Let us be people that pursue God's Word.
Now look at verse 127.
Therefore, I love your commandments above gold.
E.
Above fine gold.
I know for some believers, it's very difficult
when we have to choose between what God has said and money.
I mean, it's difficult on the surface.
It shouldn't be difficult, but if we have to choose between doing what God's Word says or making
extra money or whatever the case may be or where our loyalties
lie, does it lie in gold and fine gold?
Or does it lie in trying to understand the Word of God?
We've talked about this a lot during Psalm 119 I feel like, but do you love God's commandments tonight above money?
Loyal subjects pursue God's Word.
It's not like a drudging pursuit either.
What's it like?
I think everybody probably can resonate with this, but what's it like?
What's it like when you shoot a big old buck, right?
Alex, you'll get there one day.
And that thing runs off, and you're like, we've got to track it.
And you're not like, you're not like, man, we've got to track it.
Well, I'd really rather be, you know, playing Xbox, but I guess I'll go track this big buck.
No.
You want to do it, right?
You're pursuing it.
You're excited about it.
It's a trophy.
There's a prize.
There's something at the end.
You're looking at the blood trail.
You're like, oh, there's blood.
There's blood.
All of a sudden, you've walked, like if you would have done this normally, like just walk six miles or something, you'd be like, oh, man, that was so
hard.
But you don't even notice it, right?
Because you're after that trophy.
You're going.
You're pursuing.
Friends, this is what it's like with God's Word.
I'm not waking up and like, oh, man, I have to read the Bible.
I'm hungry.
I want to be hungry.
I mean, I'm often so slothful and have to deal with remaining sin.
But this is the way we should want to be, right?
God, I'm hungry.
I want Your Word.
I want to do this.
That's the desire of the Christian heart.
Are you one who pursues God's Word?
Not just desire to pursue God's Word, but do you pursue it?
Do you love it?
Do you dig into it?
Do you read it?
Listen, if not, let me just say this tonight.
If not, why?
And more than that, if not, how can I help you?
How can Pastor Jacob help you?
And we're not the only ones in this church.
How can there be other brothers or sisters in this church help you?
Don't be prideful on that.
Don't be like, hey, well, I'm not doing like I need to, but I'm not going to ask nobody about it.
No, this church, I think our entire church, this is what I love about a church family.
I think our entire church family understands this and wants this.
And if you were to go to a brother or sister and you were to say to them, look, I'm not reading the Bible like I need to.
Can you help me?
I am confident that each person in this church would not begrudge
such a request.
In fact, maybe some they'd be like, I'm not either.
Let's go to someone else.
You know, like that's the kind of culture that we want to have people
pursuing God's word and helping each other in this.
Are you glad in God's word above gold?
God's word is right.
We pursue it because it's right.
Look at verse 128.
So let me say this, and we're beginning to wind down here.
If we pursue the word of God, then inevitably we won't only love what is right,
but we will hate what is evil.
So, for example, this is a silly argument, or silly analogy, but I just
was talking about deer hunting, so let's do it.
You shoot the big buck, it's ran off, you gotta find it, and all the sudden, it starts raining.
Are you excited about that, or do you hate that?
You hate that.
Because the rain's gonna make it difficult for you to track the buck.
You've got the goal in mind.
You've got the desire in mind.
You're gonna chase down this deer, but now something's coming and it's getting in the way of that.
Now I don't mean you hate rain like moral hatred or whatever, I'm just saying, you'd rather it not be raining, because you're
pursuing the big deer.
So, think about it this way.
If we love God's commandments, then we hate anything that gets in the way of that.
Even more so than being frustrated with rain.
We hate moral evil.
It's okay to hate evil.
To love what is good is to hate evil.
It's okay.
Guys, not only is it okay, it's the right thing.
We should hate abortion.
How do you feel about abortion?
Well, that's not good.
I wish it didn't happen.
No, we hate it, because it's evil.
Therefore, I consider your precepts to be right.
How do you feel about homosexuality?
I hate it.
Now, let me be clear.
What if someone's had an abortion?
What if someone has committed homosexuality or calls themselves to be a homosexual?
What do we do?
We take the gospel to them.
We don't coddle their sin, but we tell them, you must repent and flee to Christ.
The most loving thing that we can do to any person caught in any sin is to bring them the hope and the
mercy and the pity and the grace of God.
And let me just say this, church.
If any kind of theology makes you hate people, you
haven't understood it right.
What I mean is, if you let theology make
your heart be cold towards sinners, then you haven't
understood sovereign grace well enough.
Guys, if God is gracious to us, He could be gracious to anybody.
And so when we take this gospel to these people caught in these sins, I'm just saying we should
hate these things.
Racism, pride, envy, greed.
Let me add this to the group.
Because this might be like, it's okay.
I'm giving you permission because the Bible does, I believe.
It's okay to hate communism.
Do you understand?
Don't hear that communism is just an alternative political option.
You understand, one of my friends was talking about this the other day.
It's demonic.
It stems from evil.
So it's okay to stand by, you know what, maybe I'll be a communist, maybe not.
No, we should hate that.
It's okay to hate these things because the text says, if we love good, we
hate evil, therefore I consider all your precepts to be right.
We've bought into a lie in America today that it's unkind to hate evil.
You shouldn't be unkind to people.
You shouldn't be rude or arrogant or a scoffer.
This is not the way of Christ.
But friends, if we don't hate evil, then we're not pursuing
God's word.
And so, we pursue God's word, we build a Christian worldview, we have a filter, we
build discernment through that, we begin to have the mind of Christ.
That's why it's important for us to teach these truths to children, even at a young age.
So as Christians, our desire is to love the things God loves, hate the things God hates, and
have the Holy Spirit use the Bible to shape all of this.
Now, let me just close like this.
I wonder if any of these points describe your walk tonight.
Guys, they should.
And we need grace, and we need mercy, but do you practice God's ways?
Do you plead for God's work?
Do you pursue God's word?
If you answer no to any of these questions tonight, do not leave this place until you've made it right with
the Lord.
Repent, right?
John says, I write these things to you so that we may not sin.
But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus
Christ the righteous.
Guys, I've got good news for you.
The reality is we've all failed in these ways.
The good news is we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
Will you go to Him?
Will you repent?
Will you trust Him?
And don't dare leave this place if these things aren't right.
And if there's a way that Pastor Jacob or myself can talk with you and help you, we want to do that.
Let's pray and then we'll sing.
Father, we thank you for your word.
Help us to be loyal subjects to our King.
We pray that this is not just a little saying that we say Christ is King, but it really does permeate our life and
everything that we do.
Whether we're hunting or working or evangelizing, whatever the case may be,
we pursue Christ as King and we want to be loyal subjects to His reign.
And we pray tonight.