Keep sharing good news without ads.
Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/norman-crawford/two-books-of-gods-revelation/
The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever.
The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Moreover, by them is thy servant warned, and in keeping of them there is great reward.
Who can understand his errors? Cleanse thou me from secret faults. Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins. Let them not have dominion over me. Then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression.
The last verse of this psalm is a wonderful prayer, that the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer. There are two books in which God has revealed himself, and this psalm describes these two books.
The first book is from verse 1 to verse 6, and it's the book of creation. The second book begins at verse 7, to the end of the psalm, and of course it is the book of God, the word of God, the Holy Bible.
If you were asked who built this building, and the answer was nobody. It just came to be. These pieces all just came together by themselves. No one planned it. No one did the work. It just happened. You would say that's one of the most ridiculous things you've ever heard in all your life.
What nonsense! And yet, do you know the great wonders of this universe? The amazing creation of life and all that exists around it is supposedly to have come about by chance, without any plan, without any master workman.
How ridiculous that can be. That is not intelligence. That may be called modern science, but it's a very bad misuse of the word science. Science means knowledge, by the way, and that is not knowledge.
It is ridiculous. We have around us the great book of creation, God's handiwork, his wisdom, his power, his foreknowledge in his great creation. How amazing it is. And in our day, we have even more reason to believe that it's amazing when we learn some of the wonders of life, some of the amazing intricacies of the simplest life cell.
One of the Christian apologists a few years ago made the statement, to suppose that the simplest living cell came about by chance plus time is the same thing as to suppose that a 747 jet was produced by chance.
Much more than that. Far more intricate than that. God's plan. God's book is all around us. Thank God we are able to recognize God in it. And the words of this book have gone throughout all the world.
This is one of the reasons, and this is a great problem to many Christians, but this is one of the reasons in Romans 1 that we are told that even those who do not hear about Christ are without excuse.
I believe there's something else in that that the Bible teaches, that where there is a seeking soul, there will be the gospel presented. God knows who they are and where they are. But let me look at the second book with you.
I have seven things I want to tell you about. They're very plain. They're very clear. They are here in these verses. Regeneration. Our spiritual life. The seed of the new birth is the word of God. Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever.
What an amazing power there is in this seed. It gets into the heart and it brings forth life. So we have life through the word. Divine life. Eternal life. And eternal life is not necessarily emphatically talking about its length.
It really is its quality. Eternal life is with the Father and with his Son, and we are to enjoy it presently, enjoy the present possession of eternal life. The Spirit of God has used the word of God in our awakening, in our conviction.
And I'm more convinced of this than I ever was. If the Lord spares me for another few weeks, I'll have been saved for 65 years. And I can remember that moment of salvation as clearly as if it just happened.
In fact, I was thinking about it today. That moment when it dawned on me why the Lord Jesus hung on the cross. How amazing. What a wonder. And the wonder of it, thank God, does not grow less with passing years.
It's a greater wonder than ever. So the word of God, this word that came from God, is the seed of the new birth, the new life. But it isn't just our regeneration. It's our restoration. I've been thinking about this a lot today.
Mr. Archie Stewart made a statement one time that caused a lot of comment. He said the most of the people of God live away from God the most of the time. I hope that's not true. I hope it's not true of me.
Richard Baxter wrote many years ago that if we have ever known what true nearness is, we can never be satisfied with anything less. And I believe, as I've often said, that Psalm 23 is a present experience.
He restoreth my soul. It isn't just some crisis event. It's a constant need. And it's a constant work. And the word of God, God's precious word, actually the word that's used in verse 7, converting the soul, is actually restoring the soul.
So the word of God is used in restoration. And we need it. And we pray that this coming weekend, if the Lord spares us, that there might be restoration in our own hearts and in the lives and hearts of many others who hear the word of God.
Nourished up in the words of faith. That's an amazing statement, actually, in 1 Timothy 4. I was thinking of the preciousness of the word of God to Jeremiah. Thy words were found, and I did eat them. That's personal application.
That's taking it for myself. And if there's anything that is truly personal, it is the word of God to me and to you. It's God's own voice, God's own words that came from his lips, as the Lord Jesus tells us.
So we need to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, and that knowledge comes from scripture, and it produces restoration in our souls. Spiritual wisdom. I've been speaking of spiritual life and spiritual food, but spiritual wisdom is absolutely necessary.
And the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. I'm certain that all of us are quite ready to admit that in spiritual things we are simple. We have very, very little understanding of this precious book and the truths that are in it.
I think that if we get a little understanding of it, the greatest effect on us is that we discover how little we know. And I believe that the word of God is infinite in its depth, in its breadth, in its height, so that we can never exhaust its truths.
We're only beginning to understand, and we sang at the beginning of the meeting tonight of that blessed day, when the beauty of the Savior will be seen in us. We will be the display to wandering worlds of the beauty and glories of the Lord Jesus.
That's what 2 Thessalonians 1 tells us. We will actually display the glories and beauties of the Lord Jesus. So in the word of God now, today, we have what makes wise the simple. So, education to believers is the word of God.
And true wisdom is an understanding of what God has revealed in his precious word. There is not only spiritual life and spiritual food and spiritual wisdom, but there's spiritual victory. Isn't that an amazing statement, that God gives us victory over sin, over evil, over this present world system energized by Satan?
I think if there ever was a time when we were aware of this, it's now that Satan is the God of this age. He has produced the spirit of this age. We are seeing moral standards that have been recognized for centuries, looked upon today as being meaningless.
Even the holy institution of a man and a woman married together. It is a world where Satan is the God. He is ruling. And the evil and wickedness and the acceptance of that wickedness, that is more difficult than anything else.
You see, it isn't that men's hearts are more evil than they were in the past. Because a heart that is full of iniquity can't be any more full. And the heart is deceitful above all things than desperately wicked was as true when it was written in Jeremiah as it is today.
But what's different? The acceptance of evil. The acceptance of sin. The condoning of it. The excusing of it. In fact, even the promoting of it. I think you've all read this and heard about it, that there are many people who spend their time looking at garbage on a computer screen.
There's a lot of it. It's a world of evil. And Satan is the master of it. Thank God we've been saved out of it. And the farther we can keep from it, the better for us. David writes, the fear of the Lord is clean.
That impressed me today. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. So actually, God gives us this kind of purity, this spiritual victory. Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way by taking heed according to thy word.
So we certainly need this. Sin will keep from this book I have in the front of most of my Bibles. Sin will keep from this book those who this book does not keep from sin. Remember that. If I'm failing to read the word of God.
Not only did we get life from the word in the beginning. It was the seed of the new life. But actually, it's from the word of God that we have our faith. I have quoted this verse so often that I'm sure you've heard me say it again and again.
But I believe in that verse in Romans 10 more than I ever did in all my life. Faith comes. And that expression normally is used in Paul's epistles of what comes from God. Faith comes. How does faith come?
By working it up within me? By trying to believe stronger? No. Faith comes by hearing. And hearing by the word of God. Do you have doubts at times? You see, we aren't immune from the lies of Satan. He can whisper into our ears doubts even of God and his word.
How do we overcome? Faith comes by hearing. And hearing by the word of God. I have seen that work so many times that I can't help but tell you how important it is. If you're not reading your Bible, you will have doubts and fears.
But faith comes by hearing. And hearing by the word of God. So thank God for the restraint of the Scriptures. The spiritual victory that comes from the Scriptures. And the righteousness that is produced.
You notice that's what it tells us. That the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. Do I want to live a clean life? A pure life? A righteous life? A good life? A life of blessing to others?
Then it will only be as I feed on the word of God and put it into practice in my life. Obey its precepts. And God will give me help to do that. The Spirit of God within me actually enlightens my eyes.
That's what it says in verse 8. You'll see. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. And as we read the Scriptures, what are we looking for? Well, could I say this very simply? This is so simple that you all know it very well.
Well, the reading of the Scriptures should first of all be a search for Christ. First of all, it should be to see Him. Then to see myself. And then to see the world around me for what it really is. And then to grasp the realities of eternity.
It's only in the word of God that I can grasp such infinite truths. So, the fear of the Lord is clean. The judgments of the Lord are true. But how precious it is. If it was something that didn't have love connected with it, it wouldn't be much.
But we love the word of God because we love the theme of this book, Christ Himself. Christ in all the Scriptures. I am like you. I've often wondered what it would have been like when the Lord Jesus, beginning at Moses and the prophets, expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.
Look for Christ. As you read the word of God, look for Him. For His glories, His beauties, His righteousness, His faithfulness, His care, His comfort, His love, His peace, grace for each day, for each trial, for each need.
More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. I think when we enjoy the word of God, we can understand this, that it is very precious. It is sweet to the taste.
And we love to hear its truths and to put them into practice in our lives. But of course, there's something else here. There's rejoicing. I would say that happiness is a very doubtful commodity. What happiness really means is that happenings are the way we want them.
And I have never particularly thought that we should teach Christians to be happy, but I do think that when we are feeding on the word of God, we will have something much deeper. We will have true joy.
We will really rejoice. And this is what is so necessary to us. I think I can remember men and women, Christian men and Christian women, who were marked by joy, and I'm afraid that I have far too little of it.
Probably you have a similar complaint. Where do we get this from? What does rejoicing really come from? It comes from obedience to the word of God. It comes from accepting the truths about the person of the Lord Jesus.
And not only does it give us rejoicing, but it gives us comfort and patience. And it gives us that delight in the law of the Lord, and to appreciate it more and more. Finally, there's reward. Now, I've gone over seven things, whether you've followed me or not.
There's regeneration, there's restoration, there's replenishment, there's restraint, keeping us from sin. And of course, that's what the word of God does. There is righteousness, which will be produced in our lives.
The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace. You know, in Galatians 5, there's rejoicing, the spiritual joy that comes from the scriptures, and there's finally reward, spiritual recompense. In keeping of that, there is great reward.
We've been singing tonight about the crowning day that's coming. That will be our great joy, when the Lord Jesus receives the glory that is his due forever and ever.