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Psalm 119:153-160
Hey, man that last line there. It's great. Thank you guys for leading us Psalm 119. We are very very close to finishing the longest chapter in the Bible. I'm Grateful for our time together. I hope that it's encouraged you and strengthened you and a love for the scriptures tonight.
We're going to talk about Trusting the sufficiency of the scriptures. Trusting the sufficiency of Scripture. The sufficiency of scripture doesn't mean that the Bible contains Absolutely, every piece of information that you have to know in life.
For example, I use this a lot. It doesn't tell you how to skin a deer. It doesn't tell you how to change a tire. It doesn't tell you, you know, whether or not you should buy some Bitcoin or whatever. The Bible does not contain all that kind of information.
People try to Knock the sufficiency of scripture by introducing those sort of absurdities. What we're saying with the sufficiency of scripture is this everything that the Lord requires of us. Everything that we need to know for spiritual life and godliness and the church and how to live the Christian life and how to be the husband and father and pastor and Christian.
I'm supposed to be or the wife and the mother and the and And the godly lady that you're supposed to be or everywhere in between everything that we need to know to obey God. We don't need outside sources.
We don't need the scriptures and the church is the sufficient final sufficient standard. We have a sufficiency in the scriptures if you will. And so I want to look at what that looks like in our lives from this section of Psalm 119.
So we're in verse 153. Would you stand with me as we honor the reading of God's Word? We'll read this section together. The psalmist prays to God look on my affliction and deliver me for I do not forget your law.
Plead my cause and redeem me. Give me life according to your promise. Salvation is far from the wicked for they do not seek your statutes. Great is your mercy O Lord. Give me life according to your rules.
Many are my persecutors and my adversaries, but I do not swerve from your testimonies. I look at the faithless with disgust because they do not keep your commands. Consider how I love your precepts. Give me life according to your steadfast love.
The sum of your word is truth and every one of your righteous rules. Endures forever father. Would you bless the preaching of your word? Would you grant me grace and freedom in the pulpit and we pray that this would?
Strengthen our hearts that we would be a church that loves your book. We'd be people of the book unashamed of the of that that we chain ourselves to the scriptures. We believe their truth their veracity their sufficiency.
We know that they are the highest authority and that we should bow to them in every area. And we pray it all in Jesus name. Amen. You may be seated so you kind of notice here, especially the last couple of stanzas that the psalmist is going through a trial a trial of Persecution, but we're reminded here what he's trusting in verse 53.
Look on my affliction and deliver me for I do not forget your law. How quickly Believer do we seem to forget the promises of God or how quickly do we forget our our? Commitment to following God's way the slightest little thing seems to not go our way right whether that's a Stoplight in Perryville or the wrong we feel like the wrong person running for president.
Whatever the case may be little things big things how quickly I'm so guilty of it. Do we turn from the Word of God but the psalmist says I do not forget your law even in the midst of pain. He trusts the sufficiency of Scripture.
So I just want to mention three things tonight that a trust and the sufficiency of Scripture produces in believers. Number one it produces a dependence on God. When people who say that they're dependent on God, but do not trust the Bible are not really dependent on God.
When we trust the Word of God It means that we're trusting the God of the Word. We're not dependent on the Bible necessarily for the Bible's sake. We're dependent on the Bible because we believe that the Bible is the very words of the Living God.
Now six things in the text the psalmist requests of God. Number one. He says look on my affliction. Look at verse 153. Look on my affliction. Verse one or the KJV there translates it consider the psalmist is dependent on God to see and to know his affliction.
The second part of 153 deliver me. So six things he's requesting deliver me. Don't just see my affliction God. Don't just know my affliction. Deliver me from it verse 154 plead my cause. God it is in your hands.
Fight for me. Verse 154 again. Redeem me. So I can't read verse 154 without thinking about first John to one my little children. I'm writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous.
So plead my cause plead my case. Be my Redeemer. Now how much of a sweeter promise do we have there? Realized in Christ who himself is our Redeemer and our advocate. So look on my affliction. Deliver me.
Plead my cause. Redeem me. Then another part of verse 154. Give me life. Plead my cause and redeem me. Give me life. Talk about that more in just a minute and then six. Lee. Consider how I love your precepts.
So six things the psalmist request of God here in verse 159. Consider how I love your precepts. He's asking God. Hey, this is a big prayer by the way examine my life and See my desires and see that I love the Word of God and I seek to walk in truth.
I just wanted to show you six things how the psalmist is dependent on God. Okay, so because the psalmist trust God he trusts his word and because he trusts God's Word He is dependent on God. You see how all that works together.
Hey, I don't speak on this a lot or hopefully I'm not beating a dead horse yet. But there was a time in my life as a guy was always running into people when you said hey the Bible's our highest authority.
They'd say things like this. No, God's my highest authority. Jesus is my highest authority. But you understand how that's we that's absurd. It's it's it's that's an error. That's not right, right? You say what are you putting the Bible above Jesus?
No friends. I'm saying the Bible is God's Word. The Bible is how God communicates his authority to us. And so the more that we love and honor and adore God the more that we love and honor and seek to submit ourselves to and trust in.
What the scriptures have to say? Now, let's go back and open up one of those requests just a little bit. It's three times in the passage Give me life. So we've already looked at verse 154. It's also in 156.
Look they're great is your mercy. Oh Lord. By the way, I just stopped. This is a tangent moment just to say it real quick God has been very merciful to us. Very merciful our nation has experienced this week I believe the mercy of God.
If you think about the things that we do as a nation you think about the things that we condone. You think about the immorality in our nation and and I'm not just talking about out there but even even in Perry County the things that we Give our bodies to and drugs and sexual morality and all these things.
Oh we deserve we deserve the judgment of God. But this week we've seen the mercy of God and I understand that there are many things that we need to correct and hope to see corrected in In Donald Trump's life and in in the GOP and all that we should pray for that.
We should stand and and be willing to say hey look when you do something wrong. This is what the Bible says we're not going to give you a pass just because We're glad that your president or whatever, right?
You understand that but for right now I'm willing to just say without any nuance God has been merciful to us and I'm grateful for that and God's mercy is great. But the text specifically here Surprising not surprising to you has nothing to do with this week.
The text specifically has to do with the psalmist praying for life. Give me life. Give me life. Give me life. Give me life. It's again in verse 159 consider how I love your precepts. Give me life According your steadfast love.
So give me life according to your promise. Give me life according to your rules. Give me life according to your steadfast love this song. This actually this phrase is prayed ten times in the entire 22 Stanzas of Psalm 119 and the last time it's prayed is right here in our text in verse 159.
So what is he saying? Give me life. Well, I think that I think he's essentially saying revive me revive me. Oh God give quicken me give give me spiritual life for the psalmist. He was broken down in this time of persecution and at times He must have felt like he was slipping or maybe even turning his back on God.
So he pleads give me life restore me. I need to see things with a clear vision. I need to see things with with a more godly vision grant me faith grant me grace. Rescue me. I of course physically I think there's an aspect here rescue me from our oppressors but the psalmist doesn't separate this from the spiritual revive me.
Oh God, give me life and Here's the important thing to remember tonight for revival to come. For revival to come in your life for revival to come in the psalmist life for revival to come in this area's life or our nation.
It's completely and utterly dependent on God. We cannot I know we kind of say this Rule churches. Hey, we're gonna have revival. You can't actually schedule revival. You understand that right? Revival is something that God does.
God breathes life into us. We need God to do it. We need Transformation from the inside out. This is true. First of all for the unconverted. They need the breath of God to bring them to life and then it's true of believers.
We need God to work. We want we want hope for our nation. Then we need to plead God give our nation life. You understand in some ways our nation hasn't changed at all. We made a resounding statement this last week and we're grateful for that.
But if things don't change our nation We're still going in a bad direction and we need God to turn it around. Right in the only way that that's going to happen is by the mercy of God. And so we we plead and we cry out to him give us life.
Oh Lord. Well, let me move on though. If you trust in the sufficiency of Scripture, it causes you to be dependent on God secondly. It causes you to have a disgust with ungodliness. Now look at verse 158 now, that's a strong word, but the psalmist uses a strong word he says I look at the faithless with disgust because they do not keep your commands a Trust in the sufficiency of Scripture causes us to have a higher view of God.
But it also causes us to have a right view of sin. Do you get that the word the psalmist uses is Disgust which is heavy, right? We'd like guys. Is it okay to say that it's what God inspired him to say.
The NSB says it this way and I'm not sure about the LSB, but the NSB translates it I loathe.
Them.
Don't want us to think about this verse again. I look at the faithless with disgust because they do not keep your commands. Now. I actually think that the connotation is this the connotation is about a people who should have known better.
But they've rejected God. It's not a lack of compassion towards Sinners looking down your nose at sinners in need of grace but it's actually more of like the idea of being fed up with those who are in the church or Affiliated with the church or maybe even teaching and preaching in the church, but their lives are lived shamelessly.
Yeah, they don't care about the things of God. They do not keep the precepts. They they do not keep the commands. They've they've shunned God's Word. They just made up their own thing. Hey, you understand tonight.
There's a contrast between the world and believers, right? Just Go through this again. Verse 153. Believers don't forget God's law. Verse 153. I do not forget your law. Verse 155. The wicked do not seek the statutes of God.
So there's a contrast believers. Don't forget God's Word. Unbelievers do not seek God's statutes. One verse. Sorry, 157 many are my persecutors and my adversaries, but I do not swerve from your testimonies.
Believers do not swerve from God's testimonies. They seek to live their life Upon the narrow way that Jesus talks about verse 158 though Unbelievers, I look at the faithless would discuss because they do not keep your commands.
Unbelievers Do not seek to live this way. So believers do not forget God's law. The wicked do not seek God's statutes. Believers Do not swerve from God's testimonies. Unbelievers do not keep God's commands.
Let me put it to you this way a church that trusts in the sufficiency of Scripture is Is not only willing but but but is Unapologetic about calling sin this ready.
Sin.
You say well I did that seems obvious but not everyone's doing that. People talk about brokenness people talk about mistakes. People talk about well, you know, that's just the way someone is. We have to be willing To understand the text and to understand the message of the scriptures.
We have to be willing to call sin Sin, for example every year and maybe it won't happen this year. I don't know. We kind of are Not paying attention this stuff much anymore but every year the Southern Baptist Convention they used to send out a thing about the Lottie moon Christmas offering and the IMB and taking up this offering and and one of the things for several years in a lot in a row and I'm Don't understand this language for several years in a row.
They would send a flyer and it would say, you know make your offering to impact lostness around the world. Okay, I don't really know what that means. I Don't understand what you mean by lostness, right?
The Bible doesn't really have a cat a category Really of lostness to me. Lostness is just a euphemism and it's not a helpful Euphemism instead of saying that there's lostness in the world today. We are much better served to say look there's sin in the world today.
There are sinners in the world today. It's not someone is not just a victim of sin, but a perpetrator of sin you say well.
You're just being harsh.
You just go around calling people sinners and and they're not gonna take that very well. But listen to me if we don't call people sinners, then we don't have a solution. This is the good news of it. You want to talk about what Christmas is about?
I give you it in one verse. Jesus Christ came into the world to save Lostness. No mistake errs. No what? Sinners. Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners and if we're not willing to call sin sin.
Then we're not willing to give people the hope of the gospel. We have to understand sin rightly and those trusting in the sufficiency of the scripture see sin for what it is. Sin is lawlessness. Sin is wicked.
It is rebellion against God. Sin is breaking the commandments of God. Sin is not the pursuit of the believer. Because we've been Given life. Yeah, we're prone to wonder but aren't you thankful for verse?
156 great is your mercy. Oh Lord God's mercy is great but the mercy of God should not spur you on to licentiousness rather it spurs believers on to holiness and Part of growing in holiness is being disgusted with sin.
So let me just give come back to our nation for a second. We think about all that's happened this week and going forward. God has been merciful to this nation. God has been kind to this nation and in Romans 2 Paul says the kindness of God is meant to lead us to Repentance, so we shouldn't look at the mercy of God upon our nation and think well God's okay with our sins.
No.
We should look upon the mercy of God and say God is great and therefore Because God is great because God is merciful because God is kind it should lead us to repentance. Well the point in this text though. I'm saying is that a trust in the sufficiency of scripture Should cause us to have a godly disgust of sin again.
I'm bringing that straight from the text. Verse 158. I look at the faithless was disgust because they do not keep your commands. Okay, thirdly trust in the sufficiency of scripture produces in us a determination and that is if we truly trust in the sufficiency of scripture We're going to be determined to know it and to heed it.
I look at verse 160, by the way I just love this. The sum of your word is truth and Every one of your righteous rules Endures forever. We could preach a whole sermon on that the Word of God is trustworthy if we were to run the Word of God and and and test it and and and.
I don't know. Just a mathematics analogy if we just took all the the verses of the Bible and we just added it added them up.
What would the what would the sum be?
Well, the psalmist says the sum is truth. That is the Word of God is true. The sum of it all is truth from Genesis to Revelation. It is true. You really believe that God created the world in seven days.
No, I don't believe that. I believe that he created in six days and rested on the seventh, right? You really believe that Jonah was swallowed by a big fish. Yes, you really believe God really Flooded the entire world.
Yes, I believe all of these things. Why. Because God spoke them. The sum of God's Word is truth. If we believe the sufficiency of Scripture then we believe these things. These are not fables or motivational stories.
This is the truth of God. We rest in it. The Word of God is trustworthy. It's faithful. Every one of your righteous rules endures forever. Endures forever. God doesn't change his mind about morals. God doesn't say murder is bad.
And then he says murder is good. Sexual morality is bad. Oh, but now it's good. Homosexuality is bad. But now it's good. No God's righteous rules endure forever. So we have a determination to love the scripture.
We we want to sharpen our mind. Hey guys, I'm just telling you in this crazy world today We not our mind sharpened. We need our moral compass. Calibrated we need to understand the what is right and what is almost right and what is right and what is wrong and we need To think how to think clearly we need to know how to think clearly and see things rightly.
Well, how do we do that? We are immersed ourselves in the scriptures. We let the Bible shape our minds and our hearts and guide us and we believe Scripture never to be Irrelevant as Baptists we used to be called People of the book.
Sometimes I'm afraid Baptists today will be called people of innovation and creativity. I don't want that like whatever they say about Providence Baptist Church. I hope they at least say that those crazy people really believe the Bible over there.
That's what I want to be known for that. We love the scriptures and we're not we're not rude or or crass or or brash or arrogant about it. We just love the Bible and we're just not afraid like we love the Bible, but it's not secretive.
You know, like I think there's a lot of people maybe even in our community and and surrounding areas maybe in the Bible Bell I said, yeah, I love the Bible, but just don't ask me about it. I don't want to say anything about it.
But what I want to see in our churches. We love the Bible and we actually are not afraid to make statements when those statements need to be made because this is God's good.
Word.
Again we beat this drum throughout psalm 119, but we love the word because we love Christ. There at the end of 159. He says give me life according to your steadfast love. Call the love of God that he has for his people because of what Christ has done.
Think for a moment how Christ loved the script read the Gospels Jesus loved the Bible. Then we think about this theological aspect of the rules aren't aren't the rules of God. Burdensome doesn't God's law condemn us.
Well, those are true for the unregenerate man. But for the believer, we know that Christ has borne the law the curse of the law for us on the cross He was righteous and then on the cross He was cursed under the law and he rose again to newness of life to give us freedom.
We really have freedom. Well, what is that freedom. That freedom is we're free from the curse and condemnation of the law. We're not free from the desire to keep the law. We want it. We want we have that desire now, right?
We say well, I'm free to just sin. Sin sin.
No, no.
Now you're free your.
Burden and the condemnation of the law has been removed because of the work of Christ and now he's written the law on our hearts. And we desire to live for the glory of God. We put our faith in Christ by God's grace, we're determined to live for him in all things.
If we believe that scripture is sufficient for knowing God and knowing his will for our lives that's going to produce a determination in us. A determination to know the scriptures. A Determination to love the scriptures.
A determination to heed the scriptures. A determination to share the scriptures. This is the word of life and I'm getting close to being dumb. But just look how the psalmist treated God's Word. A few notes.
Look at verse 153. I do not forget your law. Meaning what he memorized it. He memorized the Bible. Like why are you guys doing though? Why we do that little thing where we memorized various portions of the scripture.
Because that's just how Christians live. He memorized the Word of God. Verse 157. I do not swerve from your testimonies. That is he sought to obey it. How did he treat the scriptures. He memorized it.
He sought to obey it. Verse 159. Consider how I love now think about this for a. Second consider how I love Your precepts. How did the psalmist treat the Word of God? He memorized it. He sought to obey it.
He loved it not in order to gain God's favor. Not that this was a righteous deed that he was doing in exchange for salvation. No, this could not ever be done. He did this because God's steadfast love had been shown to him.
If the love of God has been shed abroad in our hearts, then that changes the way that we look at this book. We love the Bible. Tonight I want to remind you that we're all prone to trust things other than the scripture.
Because our old sin nature hangs around Your truck you're prone sometimes to trust maybe political analysis over what the Bible says or maybe you're prone to trust what this Expert. Right remember remember those days, you know, you got to trust this expert.
You're prone to believe that you got to trust the experts over what the Bible says. You're prone to believe you got to trust your feelings over what the Bible says. But the call tonight is to be a people wholeheartedly a covenant people the people of God.
Wholeheartedly trusting in the sufficiency of scripture. So let's ask yourself some questions here. Tonight is my dependence resting on the Lord and what he has done. Am I disgusted with sin? I know it's a Sunday night crowd, but let me just say it.
Is there sin present in your life known sin that you just keep running to? Listen the call of the believer or the call of the gospel the call of a regenerate person is that you would not be in love with sin, but that you would Be disgusted with it.
Thirdly am I determined to know scripture and heed what it says? I Don't know how January started out for you, but we're fixing to go back to January. That's how it works every year, isn't it? And you Malva started maybe you start in January and you're a big-time Bible reader.
Well, here we are in November. How you doing with that? Am I determined to know the scripture and heed what it says and the answer to believe is to every one of these questions. Should be yes is my dependence resting on the Lord.
It should be. Yes. Am I disgusted with sin? It should be. Yes, am I determined to know scripture and to heed what it says? It should be. Yes. What if it's not? Examine yourself. Consider your confession tonight.
Are you in Christ is the way of Jesus just a burden for you? The answer friends tonight is the gospel. You need the righteousness of Christ that he procured in his perfect life. You need the death of Christ that settled the legal demands of the law dying on the cross under the wrath of God.
You need the new life that he provides by his resurrection. Rising again from the dead you need the gospel. The gospel is something that unbelievers need if you don't have Christ. You'll perish in your sin under the lake of fire and under the wrath of God you need Christ.
You need to repent and believe the gospel. Come trust Jesus trust the gospel. We've heard tonight, but let me tell you something else Christian for the Christian. The gospel is not just for unbelievers.
You need the gospel, too. You need to be reminded because too often my dependence is not resting on the Lord too often I flirt with sin instead of being disgusted with sin too often I am not as determined to know the scriptures and heed what it says says.
So what do I need? I need an advocate. And I have an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous. So the answer is not just live in licentious just meaning a license to sin just keep the answer is I I'm affected By the Word of God of her tonight.
I Take my sins to the cross. I leave them there. I repent. I move forward. Seeking to walk this narrow way seeking to live this life that the psalmist speaks of tonight and particularly tonight. Seeking to be a person who is committed to trusting the sufficiency of the scriptures.
Let's pray father. We pray that we would be a people a church individuals and a church body that would love the Bible and Live according to its truth. We pray that you'd give us grace and peace. We know we have that in the gospel.
We'd be a people who love the book.