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Psalm 119:81-88
That's good singing. I appreciate the Christmas song. We should be singing Christmas songs year-round. I'm in agreement. Psalm 119. Tonight, we continue in our exposition of Psalm 119. You know, there's a little bit of argument this week on social media, always argument, but that is, are we New Testament Christians or are we, you know, whole Bible Christians?
I mean, in one sense, we absolutely do practice New Testament Christianity. I mean, New Testament is what shows us what the church is, the positive ordinances, as we talked about in Sunday school, of the Lord's Supper and baptism.
And so there's no problem saying New Testament Christianity. But on the other hand, we want to say we're not merely New Testament Christians. We're biblical Christians. We love the whole Bible. That's why we preach from Nahum.
It's why we preach from Psalm 119. And we have a lot to learn from the entire canon of Scripture. The entire canon of Scripture teaches us what it means to follow Christ and to look to Him. And so tonight, we pick up in Psalm 119.
We are now in verse 81. We're just kind of taking this stanza by stanza. And we talk about tonight a response to suffering. Now, we don't know who the psalmist is here. Maybe it's David. I told you Brian Borgman makes the argument.
Maybe it's Daniel. But we've seen several times in the book or in the chapter, Psalm 119, which it's longer. By the way, Psalm 119 is longer than Nahum, right? An entire book of the Bible we're preaching to on Sunday morning is shorter than this chapter.
But the idea here is several times in the psalm we see something's going on and God has brought suffering into his life. And so tonight in this stanza, we will talk about a response to suffering. So I invite you to stand as we honor the reading of God's word.
Verse 81, Psalm 119. My soul longs for your salvation. I hope in your word. My eyes long for your promise. I ask, when will you comfort me? For I've become like a wineskin in the smoke. Yet I have not forgotten your statutes.
How long must your servant endure? When will you judge those who persecute me? The insolent have dug pitfalls for me. They do not live according to your law. All your commandments are sure. They persecute me with falsehood.
Help me.
They have almost made an end of me on earth. But I have not forsaken your precepts. In your steadfast love, give me life. That I may keep the testimonies of your mouth. Father, help us. Help me tonight.
You know I'm in great need of your grace. Help me to preach your word faithfully. Help us to listen faithfully. Give us ears to hear. Let us respond in obedience and faith and trust in Christ. Let us remember the gospel tonight.
Let us remember that you've redeemed us by the suffering of our Savior, Christ, who is truly God and truly man, coming to earth to redeem us. We pray, God, that we would embrace suffering as a reality in this life, but understand that you're doing something through it.
And we pray, God, that we would not lose hope and not lose heart. Thank you for your kindness to us. We pray it in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. The psalmist, first of all, longed, number one, he longed for salvation.
You see that in verse 81. My soul longs for your salvation. Verse 82, my eyes long for your promise. The nature of this salvation, when we hear the word salvation, just being Christians, we often think of spiritual salvation.
But in this sense, the psalmist is crying out not just for salvation, spiritual, but physical salvation, right? He desires to be delivered. We see the need for this salvation. My soul longs. This is intense, right?
We don't use this type of language very often.
My soul longs.
That may be an understatement. The King James says, my soul fainteth. The NASV says, my soul languishes. The psalmist here needs God's rescue. He's at the point, he's just not sure that he can hold on.
Things are getting dark pretty quickly.
Help me, God.
Can you relate? My eyes long, verse 82, for your promise. My eyes long. The idea here, the imagery here, think about this, is looking for something so long that your eyes grow weak. Here's a terrible analogy.
You've been deer hunting, you know, and you look out there, and you look out there, and you look out there. Have you ever just looked at a spot so long that it kind of just grows fuzzy or something? Your eyes are like, whoa, okay, okay, I've got to look at something else.
Well, in a sense, spiritually speaking, his eyes are looking for the promise so long that his eyes are growing weak. You're looking, you're looking, you're looking, you're looking, but it never comes.
Verse 83, for I become like a wineskin in the smoke. Now, if you're like me, you don't immediately get that illustration, right?
What does that mean?
But a wineskin would be empty of wine, would be hung up. And if it was in the smoke, what would happen to it? Well, it would dry out. It would be damaged. It would wrinkle up. It would blacken. You understand the imagery now?
He says, I'm like a wineskin in the smoke. That is, I'm dried up. I'm blackened. I'm languishing here. This is the psalmist. He's worn out from persecution, and he longs for deliverance from God. He's desperate for it.
This is one of the reasons we should love and read and sing the psalms. The psalms are real, right? The psalms, so sometimes, it's okay to sing songs like this at times. It's okay. But a lot of songs that we sing are like, I'm so happy, right?
You know, happy, happy, happy, happy. And we forget that that's not the only experience. Like, if that's the only experience you have in the Christian life, it's not real, right? Sometimes you come in here, and you're not happy, happy, happy, right?
Sometimes you come in here, and you're not just like, Jesus is my boyfriend, and he's so great, right? Like, we shouldn't sing those kind of songs anyway. But the point is that we come in, and we sing the psalms, because the psalms give us a real perspective of the Christian life.
Sometimes, we are absolutely full of joy. I hope it's your experience in the Christian life that more often than not, you're full of joy.
And you are.
You're full of happiness, and you're delighted in God. But sometimes, in the Christian life, we come in, and we're wrung out. We're like the wineskin in the smoke. We're dried up.
We're hurting.
This is the psalmist. When there's a life circumstance, maybe a health situation you have, or maybe you're in a situation where your kids are just getting on your last nerve, or maybe the marriage is struggling, or maybe the finances are struggling, or maybe the entire country is struggling, or whatever the case may be, you can relate to the psalmist.
God, right?
Where are you?
Don't you see what's happening in this situation?
Don't you see. You're sort of like,.
I'm trying to be faithful, I'm trying to love my spouse and my kids, and read my Bible, and love the church, but these things just keep happening. God, would you rescue me? We shouldn't take lightly that this is an aspect of the Christian life.
Verse 84, he says, How long must your servant endure? When will you judge those who persecute me? The psalmist reaches a point, he just can't go on.
He's like, how long?
I don't know how long I can endure.
How long?
Verse 86, the second half, when he says,.
Help me!
All your commandments are sure, they persecute me with falseness. Falsehood?
The psalmist knows salvation is only as far away as God is.
Right?
So he turns to God for help.
Yet it feels so far away. 82, again, My eyes long for your salvation. I ask, when will you comfort me? When, God? Will you comfort me? All you have to do, think about this, All you have to do, God, is say the word.
All you have to do is to come in and bring the comfort to my soul, and I will be comforted. So, when will you do it? He trusts in the word. My soul longs for your salvation, 81. I hope in your word. God is able to rescue us from our affliction.
Amen.
And yet, sometimes, he doesn't. Sometimes, he tells us to wait. So we know salvation is always near. Perhaps, it's only a prayer away. But we must not give up.
Secondly,.
So firstly, the psalmist longed for God's salvation. Secondly, he lamented God's silence. He longed for God's salvation, but he lamented God's silence.
It hurt him.
Verse 84, Again, how long must your servant endure? When will you judge those who persecute me? The psalmist here is feeling pressed in on every side. He's wrongfully treated. He's persecuted by others.
You know, that's a mark. I just want to tell you, that is a mark of Christian faithfulness. A mark of Christian faithfulness is persecution. By the way, forever.
Always.
In this age. The history of the world waxes and wanes, and we get into maybe less persecuted and more persecuted times, but it's always going to be a reality that if you want to be faithful, there will always be someone out there that's willing to call you out on it and to persecute you for it.
I think about recently, there was a very wicked situation. Very wicked situation. You may have read about it, but I won't even go into all the detail. But a so-called pastor, he's not a pastor, he's not a believer, in Florida recently, was arrested for child pornography.
And the things that he had on his phone, and the things that he had videoed himself doing with two-year-old children. Absolutely wicked. May this man, I mean, you know, a real justice would be the death penalty.
But did you know that this man's church, just like our church, by the way, our church, this man's church was on the founder's website. Our church is too on the founder's website. Because we want people who look on founders to find a healthy church.
By the way, that's why the Osbournes are here. That's one of the means that God used to bring them here. So praise God. But you know probably where this is going. Do you know men have tried to smear and persecute and say false things?
About who? Because this man's church was on that website. About our brother, Tom Askell. About that church. This has nothing to do with him, right? This man, just because a church is on a website doesn't mean you're affiliated or even responsible.
In fact, they put a disclaimer on the website. They're like, hey, we can't vet all these churches. So they submit, and they submit their stuff, and we put them on the website, but then you have to use your discernment.
So founders, by the way, has already removed this church now off of their network. But the point I'm trying to make is people, when they get an opportunity to try to smear you with lies, they're going to do it if you're faithful.
A man like Tom Askell is a faithful man, and whenever the wicked world has an opportunity to smear a person, they're going to do it. And this happened to the psalmist. And yet, I cannot read this psalm without thinking of Christ.
Again, look at verse 84. How long must your servant endure? When will you judge those who persecute me? Now listen, Jesus didn't say this on the cross, but if He would have, you can imagine that, right?
But we know for sure that He says on the cross, Psalm 22 verse 1, which is what? My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? So this is right in line with the reality of Christ. Jesus cries out to God, and what is the answer?
God was silent. And yet it was purposeful, was it not? In fact, God was not really silent, was He? Because this was His plan unfolding, Isaiah 53. It was the will of Yahweh to crush Him. It's unfolding that He had spoken of long ago as Jesus suffers on the cross.
It's not purposeless. He's becoming sin for us. So you ask the question, why do, and this isn't mine, I think it was R .C. Sproul that said it, why do innocent people suffer? Well, that only happened once.
Christ, and He volunteered. Christ, the innocent one, suffered to atone for our sins, to rise again, to justify us. But also let me tell you about this. His resurrection shows us two other things. One, suffering has a purpose.
The Christian philosophy of suffering is that there's no such thing as meaningless suffering. Suffering is not meaningless. You say, well, how come this happened? How come this happened? How come this happened?
I don't have an answer for all of that, for every little jot and tittle of suffering, but I do know this, the cross shows us, and the resurrection shows us, that suffering has a purpose. Secondly, it shows us, the cross shows us, and the resurrection shows us, suffering not only has a purpose, suffering has an end.
The point is that Jesus can identify with our sufferings, and that God has a purpose in our affliction, and that suffering one day will have an end. Jesus suffered, but His suffering has an end. I don't want to take away from the reality of suffering.
The psalmist lamented God's silence. He poured out his heart to God. We can almost feel the pain. Listen to this again, verse 85. The insolent have dug pitfalls for me. They do not live according to Your law.
All Your commandments are sure. They persecute me with falsehood.
They have almost made an end of me on earth, but I have not forsaken Your precepts. Sometimes in church, we just read this, and we're like, oh yeah, that's a nice little saying, isn't it? But the reality is, if you've been a Christian for any amount of time, you can identify with this, right?
Persecution, not just one, but He says those that persecuted Him. He laments this wrong. God, it's not right. Friends, it's not right when the church is persecuted. It's not right to see our brothers and sisters in Africa to have some sort of Islamic group come in and burn down their church.
That's not right.
God, when will You act?
Conspiracy, the insolent, the proud, arrogant. They dug pitfalls. The idea is they planned ahead to trap Him, right? You understand? A pitfall, like they planned ahead to hurt this man. Disobedience. They don't live, verse 85 says, they don't live according to Your law.
Oh God, don't You see? Don't You realize? Why do the wicked seem to prosper? Jeremiah 12, 1 says, Righteous are You, O Lord, when I complain to You, yet I would plead my case before You. Why does the way of wickedness prosper?
They live in open rebellion. When will You judge them? Oh, look at verse 86. All Your commandments are sure. They persecute Me with falsehood. In other words, they persecute Him with falsehood. What does that mean?
They're liars. They bring false charges against the psalmist. Now, I wonder if this is, remember that we said that Brian Borgman makes a case, maybe it's Daniel. Maybe it's Daniel, maybe it's not, I don't know.
But if it is Daniel, remember what happened in the book of Daniel, right? They created, you talk about digging pitfalls and all that. They created this whole opportunity. Now listen to me real quick. The whole aspect of Daniel's life, there's nothing about Daniel's life that they could bring an accusation.
That convicts me. It should convict us. Like, is there anything about your life that someone could bring an accusation? For Daniel, there was nothing about his life they could bring accusation. The only thing they could bring accusation about was, what?
His devotion to God. So they created this whole system whereby they would entrap him, whereby they would have forced the king to do something. So they go to the king, they appeal to his arrogance, they say, king, you ought to sign a petition that for the next 30 days, no one can pray to anyone but you.
Of course, what are they trying to do? They're trying to entrap Daniel. So what does Daniel do? He goes to his upper room, he opens the door and he does what he always does. Opens the window and he prays towards Jerusalem.
And then they bring false charges against him. They lie about him. The psalmist here, I don't know if it is Daniel, but he laments God's silence. I wonder this evening if you can relate. Can you relate to the fact that God seems sometimes far from your cries?
That He doesn't hear you. That He doesn't answer. Sometimes maybe it feels like He doesn't care. These feelings are real. These feelings hurt. They can make us feel abandoned. But there is another final response that the psalmist has to suffering.
And we must remember this. So first, the psalmist longed for God's salvation. Secondly, the psalmist lamented God's silence. But thirdly, through all of this we see, and we've seen it throughout Psalm 119, the psalmist loved God's statutes.
He loved the Word. Now, I'm not saying, don't misunderstand me, I'm not saying if you just love the Bible your whole life will be roses. Sometimes it's the opposite. William Tyndale, we were talking about him earlier in my office.
William Tyndale loved the Bible. And what did God bring into his life? Well, there was persecution and sorrow, and eventually he was strangled to death. Why? Not because he hated the Bible, but because he loved the Bible.
Because he translated the Bible into the language of the common man. Sometimes because you love the Bible, you will suffer for it. But the psalmist longed intensely for God to rescue him, and he lamented God's silence, but he loved God's Word.
And therefore, he didn't, this is important for the sermon, he didn't trust his own feelings. He was resolved, even in the midst of the pain and the frustration, to follow the Word of God. Let me give you an example in verse 88.
He appeals to the steadfast love of God. He says, in your steadfast love, give me life, that I may keep the testimonies of your mouth. This is, you know, we've said it before in this sermon series, the Hebrew word chesed.
That is steadfast love, translated in the ESV, steadfast love. It's the Hebrew word chesed. It means covenantal love, loyal love, God's faithful love. It is this chesed that we see revealed ultimately in the Gospel.
By the way, let me just make a connection for you. As I was studying this week, I thought about this. But the psalmist asked for life according to the chesed of God, according to the steadfast love of God, he wants life.
Now, in the New Testament, listen to what Ephesians 2, 4, and 5 says. You know it, but listen to it again. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.
By grace you have been saved. You know, this is an amazing thing. The psalmist in Psalm 119 prays for life according to God's steadfast love. And in the New Testament, it is revealed that God does give us life.
What? According to His unmerited love, His steadfast love, His gracious and His sovereign love.
What a marvel.
God, we know that You love us.
We know.
Because Christ died and rose again. This redeeming, life-giving love that God has shown us. And so the psalmist says, give me life. So, even our regeneration is an act of God's love. But even this, as Christians, we need to live again, as it were.
There are times in our life that we feel destitute and forsaken. So we need reminding of the Gospel. We need reminding of God's love for us in Christ. God commended His love for us. And while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
We need revival.
The psalmist needs revival and renewal.
He was beaten down and He was beaten up.
So He says, God, give me life.
But what does He want life for? This is beautiful and important.
Verse 88, in Your steadfast love, give me life. What? So I don't have to deal with persecution. No. So I can just make a bunch of money. No. Give me life, that I may keep the testimonies of Your mouth.
A response, let me say theologically, a result of our regeneration is that we desire to keep the words of God. But even the psalmist here is already a believer. He desires life so that he can obey God.
And look how the psalmist thinks, right? The testimonies of Your mouth. Chew on that for a moment. Listen. The psalmist is saying, empower me, O God, that no matter what comes, I may walk in holiness.
Do we long for physical deliverance? Amen. Yes. It's not wrong, by the way. You don't have to have a martyr complex. You can request and pray for physical deliverance. But more than that, we love the words of God's mouth so much that we know our obedience to Him doesn't depend on our circumstances.
Circumstances cannot ultimately shake the psalmist's love for the word. The gospel reminds us of God's love and causes within us a love for God, a love for His ways. And again, I draw your attention to this.
Let me press this a little bit. A love for the testimonies of His mouth. Now think about that for just a second. The testimonies, he says, the psalmist says to God, the testimonies of your mouth. The psalmist understands that the word of God is not men's words.
I can't trust the Bible as written by men. No, you understand throughout the Bible, the people of the Bible understood the Bible as the very words of God. Some people ask me, does God still speak to His people today?
My answer, of course He does. He speaks to His people. He speaks to His people through His word. He speaks to His people through the Bible. The Bible is literally the voice of God in written form. The Bible is the testimonies of the mouth of God.
When I was studying for this sermon this week, I found a note. I was kind of weird. I was surprised that I found it. It was a note I had put in Logos about this text. But this is from 10 years ago. It says, this is a note I wrote to myself.
No matter what it costs me, may I seek to live according to the truth revealed in the word. I hope that's still my resolve, and I hope that's your resolve. In your steadfast love, give me life, that I may keep the testimonies of your mouth.
Friends, the Bible, children, the Bible is the words of God's mouth. It is just as if God were standing here this evening, right here in front of us, and speaking to us as a friend speaks with a friend.
These words flow from the mouth of God. People are like, I just wish God would speak to me. He has spoken to me.
I wish I could know God's will.
He has revealed His will.
We don't need to enter some sort of super spiritual state where God utters sweet nothings in our ear or whatever. God has spoken to us in His word. These are the words of His mouth. So, you're going to find this funny.
Let's conclude tonight by looking at seven ways the psalmist loved the word. We'll go these quick. Pastor Jake, it gives me a hard time. I guess I do this too much. But, in conclusion, seven points. First, how does he love the word?
He hopes in it, verse 81. My soul longs for your salvation. I hope in your word. The word gives us hope. My heart and my flesh may fail, right? But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
I hope in His word. Secondly, he desires it, verse 82. My eyes long for your promise. He hopes in the word. He desires the word. He's not rescued, yet what does his eyes keep looking for? The promise.
Have you spent time on your knees over the word of God? Think about this. With tears coming out. Crying out to God in prayer. Maybe not understanding your circumstances, but such an intense desire for the word that you continue to just read it.
I don't understand everything that's going on. I don't understand what's happening in my life. I don't understand what's going on in our country. But I'm going to continue to long for your word. I encourage you with something.
Do you have a Bible? Maybe stained with tears. Pin marks. Worn out from use.
I get it.
Listen, listen, listen. I get taking care of your Bible. And we should. We should take care of our Bible. But if you're actually interacting with your Bible a lot, it's going to get beaten up a little bit, isn't it?
I'm not saying throw it on your floor in your car. That's a terrible way to treat your Bible. But if you're really carrying this Bible around, and if you're really opening it up, if you're really pouring over it daily, your Bible is going to be stained maybe with some teardrops.
Maybe you say, I don't want to write my Bible. I'm not going to argue with you about that. I think probably you should have a Bible somewhere that you're willing to write in and circle, and I think it's just a great way to interact with the Scriptures.
But if you have a main Bible that you don't want to write in, that's fine. I'm not saying that. But I am saying, like Charles Spurgeon, he said something along the lines of, a Bible that's falling apart usually belongs to someone whose life is not.
What does he mean by that? He means a Bible that's well-worn. Maybe you've got a few pages that you've had to put some tape on, like I do. Maybe you've had to put some duct tape on the spine. Why is that?
Because your Bible doesn't just sit here in the pew Sunday to Sunday, and then you pick it up. And I would even make this argument, and I know we have some younger people in here. I would even make the argument that praise God for technology, praise God for reading your Bible on your phone.
I read my Bible on my phone at times. But there's something to be said about a physical copy of the Scriptures. Open that and read it. Put your phone away, put the iPad away, put these things away, and hope in the Word of God and desire the Word of God.
Thirdly, he memorizes it. Verse 83, For I have become like a wineskin in the smoke, yet I have not forgotten your statutes. How do we know that the psalmist loved the Word? He hopes in it. He desires it.
He memorizes it. Gotten God's statutes. What does that mean? He memorized them. He loves them. The things that we love, we commit to memory. If we love the Word, we commit it to memory. Thirdly, he trusts in it.
Verse 86, All your commandments are sure. All your commandments are sure. The Bible is trustworthy. It is right. Will we trust this Bible, every word? Will we trust that all it says is good and right and sure?
Will we, like when we take the book of Nahum on Sunday mornings, will we understand that yes, the Bible says God is love, but the Bible also says God is a jealous God. And will we take it in its totality and trust it?
Fifthly, he cherishes it. Verse 87, I have not forsaken your precepts. How could I? Even in the midst of persecution. Even in the midst of trial. How could I, God? I cherish your Word. This Word is precious to me.
No matter what.
No matter what. Here I stand. I think about the boldness of Martin Luther.
Where can I go?
But from your Word.
I think about the disciples in John 6. Everybody departs from Jesus except the disciples. And he says, are you guys going to depart too? And Peter is like, where else can we go?
You have the words of life.
So where else can we go from this book?
We can't abandon what the Scriptures have to say. We cherish it. Sixthly, he enjoys it. He says, in your steadfast love give me life that I may keep the testimonies of your mouth. In other words, here's the point.
This is what he wants to do. I want to keep your testimonies. This is how some people supposedly live the Christian life. I've got to go to church today. I've got to read the Bible today. I've got to be obedient today.
That's not the Christian life. That's a sad life if that's the way someone looks at Christianity. I've got to obey my parents. No, the Christian life is one of joy in the commandments. We find joy. The commandments are not burdensome.
We're not lowering the standard of the law. It's the reality is that we've been born again. And now we seek to follow Christ. And we know that when we fall short, and we fall short every day, that our sins are atoned for in Christ.
And we desire, this is what we want to do. In your steadfast love give me life that I may keep the testimonies of your mouth. This is the desire of the Christian. He enjoyed it. And then seventhly, he submits to it.
So I remind you again what it says. In your steadfast love give me life that I may keep the testimonies, now listen again, of your mouth. So when the psalmist wants to keep the testimonies, he is acknowledging here the authority of God.
Now some people would say things like this. They try to be real, it's really stupid to be honest. The Bible is not my highest authority, Jesus is. Like what are they trying to say? Usually when someone says that, they're trying to find a way to get out of what the Bible says.
Isn't that foolish? But you understand that we have a text here that says tonight, that the testimonies of God, the word of God, is the mouth of Christ. In other words, you're like, my wife has told me what she wants, but I don't have to listen to that.
I just do what I think she wants or whatever. Like what does my wife want for her anniversary? Like for my wife, she wants flowers. But you know what? I'm not going to do that. I'm going to get her monster truck tickets or something.
Like my wife doesn't want that.
How do I know?
Because she's told me with her mouth, I like flowers.
So it's a similar silly analogy, but it's similar. Why would we look at the scriptures and say, you know what? That's not my highest authority.
I'm going to do what Jesus wants.
And normally what we're doing is, we're making what our highest authority?
Ourselves. Our heart.
Whatever I feel like doing, that's what I'll do. But the psalmist says, no, no, no. I'm going to submit my life to your word. These are the testimonies of your mouth. We do not sit in judgment upon the scriptures.
They sit in judgment upon us. Friends, there is no higher authority than the word of God. Even in our own life, I'll just remind you of this. Even in our own church life, we hold to the 1689 Second London Baptist Confession of Faith.
But we don't put that on the equal authority. We don't say that that's the words of God. We don't put that on equal authority with the scriptures. What we're saying when we say we subscribe to that confession, is we're saying we believe this is articulating what the scriptures teach us.
And we always appeal to the Bible. And if ever we find a situation where the confession and the scriptures are in conflict, it's not even a question. Like, what do we go to? The scriptures. The scriptures are the mouth of God.
The psalmist submitted to the scripture because he loved God's statutes. Now this psalm has taught us, and particularly this section, but the whole psalm has taught us the reality of suffering. And we've seen that the entire psalm really points us ultimately to Christ, who suffered for us, who died for our sins and rose again, so that we may be restored to God, that we repent of our sins and believe the gospel, and that being restored to God, we want to live a life, even if it costs us dearly, and it will.
Jesus says those who inherit the kingdom are those who are persecuted, right? Just like the poor in spirit, so too those who are persecuted, Matthew 5 .3 and then Matthew 5 .10. That's a bracket there for the Beatitudes.
So the reality is the gospel brings us into this relationship with God through Christ, and it is so often a path of suffering, but we want to remain faithful. Why? Because we've been given a new heart.
We want to love the word of God. We continue, even on the hard days, to open up the Bible, to read it personally, to read it with our families. Even on the difficult days, we want to come every Lord's Day, we want to sit under the preaching of the word of God.
Why? We love it. This is the word of God. Think about this. We're talking about the omnipotent, the all-powerful, all-knowing, sovereign, king of kings and Lord of lords, the one who holds galaxies, who makes galaxies his footstools, the one who speaks and the universe comes into existence, the one who has planned and decreed and ordered all things after the counsel of his will, the one who predestines and the one who hardens, and the one who shows mercy and the one who shows grace, and the one who bestows justice.
This God has spoken to us. And so we want to take up this book. We want to fill our mind with what this book has to say. We want our heart to be governed by what the scriptures have to say. We don't want to just spout out Christian-y sayings or nonsense.
We want to be a Bible people. And we want this church to be a Bible church. Friends, tonight, I know that this is the Sunday night crowd. So if you're a believer, which I assume that most of the adults here, you are a believer, the exhortation to you tonight is to take up the book, and even in the midst of persecution and sorrow and suffering, that your response would be, I love this book, no matter my circumstances.
There are some perhaps in this room, children, maybe there's an adult even. If you're playing games, you don't know Christ, you say, I don't really treasure the word. Friends, the invitation tonight is to remember that Christ has atoned for our sins, and the only way for your life to change is for you to turn to Christ.
Turn away from sin and self and turn to Christ. And God is able. I could never love the Bible. Yes, you could. If God changed your heart, you could. That's why Jesus says to Nicodemus, you must be born again.
God can change us. Yeah, but if you're saying he's sovereign over that, there's nothing I can do about it. Well, in one sense, there is nothing you can do about it. But in another sense, that's not how the Bible tells us to respond.
The Bible tells us to respond by calling on the name of the Lord. Would you call on the name of the Lord? Would you plead to God for mercy? Would you be like the man that Jesus says, I believe, help my unbelief?
You call out to God and see if he's not faithful to respond in his grace.
Let's pray.
Father, we thank you for your word. Help us to be a people who love it, cherish it, live by it. And we pray that you would bless us. Help us to be people of the book. In Jesus' name, amen.