E06: Living Life in the Light of God's Word - Knowing and Trusting The Great God Of The Bible

You are listening to Key Life Fellowship's Pulpit Ministry

podcast. We thank you for tuning in as we

learn from God's Word together. For more information about Key

Life Fellowship, visit us on the web at keylifefellow-ship.com.

Amen. What a an honor as we sing that

reminder. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God

Almighty. What an honor that because of

Christ we can now dwell and live in the presence of the one true

and living God who we were once alienated and cut off from.

Anyone thankful for that this morning, they don't ever want us

to lose sight of that privilege, the fact that we get to come in

and to abide in the presence of God because of Christ.

So if you have your Bibles this morning as we prepare our hearts

and our minds to receive instruction from the Word of

God, if you would turn to Psalm 119, I know that's no shocker to

any of you who have been around Key Life Fellowship for any

amount of time. When I told you that we were

going to start at verse one and we were going to walk all the

way through, that's exactly what I meant.

And we're going to continue to do that as the psalmist is going

to continue to break down these eight verse sections and to

teach us so many things that the Lord has taught him.

And we come today to the Hebrew letter Hey, which is spelled in

our English translation HE and he is going to begin another 8

verses that we are going to teach together, simply because

they belong together. And as we.

See in this section today in our series entitled Living a Life in

the In the Light of God's Word, the Psalmist is going to again,

as he will through this entire chapter of the Psalms, he is

going to again put great emphasis on the word of God over

and over and over again. And let me just tell you

something for any of you who are already at the point where you

say, man, I, I, I've heard enough about the word of God.

You have a spiritual condition and it's not a good condition.

And I pray that God would change your heart, because we're going

to see as we continue journeying through the 119th Psalm, that

had God not preserved His word for us, we would be in a

dreadful state, never hearing the truth, never learning the

truth, never receiving the wisdom and the knowledge from

God that He desires that we have.

But God has preserved his truth, and He has preserved his truth

for a reason. And that is so that we can walk

in the light of God's Word. And today, as we are walking in

the light of God's Word, we're going to see the Psalmist teach

us about knowing and trusting the great God of the Bible,

knowing and trusting him. And let me just make this very

clear that to know someone and to trust someone, that's two

totally different things. Because in order for us to trust

someone, they must be trustworthy.

And the psalmist is going to speak of God, and he's going to

speak of God as he truly is trustworthy and faithful to

everything that he has said and everything that he has promised

in his Word. And so it's.

Crucial this morning that we learn three things about God in

light of what the psalmist is reflecting toward us as we read

this. And that is this we can know and

trust God in these areas. And and that first area is this

God as our instructor, our teacher, the one who we learn

from because we are truly learning principles that are

outside of the scope of humanity.

When we open the word of God, we are learning supernatural and

sovereign truths. And so we need a supernatural

and sovereign instructor. And the psalmist understood God

as his instructor. We're also going to see that he

understood God as his director, the one who was directing his

steps and leading his life. And he was submitting to God's

word to receive that direction and, and, and that leadership in

his life. And then thirdly, the psalmist

is going to talk about God as his preserver.

And where would we all? Be had God not and and if God

ceased to continue to preserve us both in our physical lives

but also in our spiritual lives. And so I want us to see the

emphasis that the psalmist is going to make on all three of

those aspects of the great God of the Bible, because it is in

that that the psalmist really learned not just about God, but

he learned to trust the God that he knew to be those things.

And I pray that's what we learn in this message today.

So verse 33, right after the Hebrew letter, hey, it says

this, teach me, O Lord, to follow your decrees, and then I

will keep them to the end. Give me understanding, and I

will keep Your law and obey it with all my heart.

Direct me in the path of Your commands, for there I find

delight. Turn my heart toward your

statutes and not toward selfish gain.

Turn my eyes away from worthless things.

Preserve my life according to your word.

Fulfill the promise to your servant so that you may be

feared. Take away the disgrace I dread,

for your laws are good. How I long for your precepts.

Preserve my life in your righteousness.

Let's pray together. Father, in the name of Jesus, we

come to you now, thanking you for Your word that You have

throughout the ages preserved for us.

Not only so that we may know you and what a privilege and what an

honor it is to know you, but Lord also so that we can trust

You. That we can know that our God is

faithful to everything that He has promised and everything that

He has said. That we can count on you not

just some of the time, but 100% of every second of every minute,

of every hour, of every day, of every week, of every month, and

every year that we exist. And for all eternity we can

trust in your faithfulness. God, I pray as we learn that

even more today from the psalmist who knew you and who

trusted you, that we would lean into You, trusting You more and

more as our teacher instructor, as our guide in our direction

for our lives, as the One who preserves us.

Thank you, Lord, for your word, how you remind us of these

things over and over and over again.

Holy Spirit, we ask now that you would teach us these truths,

that you would make them real to us and we would apply them to

our lives. We pray these things in Christ's

name, Amen. So as the psalmist unfolds this

short chorus of eight verses, here he is speaking, of course,

of the fact that we can, as I have already said, not only no,

but we can trust God and we can trust God in these certain

areas. Look what He says there in verse

33 of Psalm 119. We're going to jump right into

this because there is a lot here.

If you were serving somewhere in the 9:00 service, you know that

there must have been, right? And so we jump in very quickly.

And he says this in verse 33. Teach me, O Lord, to follow your

decrees, and then I will keep them to the end.

In 34, He says, give me understanding and I will keep

Your law and obey it with all my heart.

So what is the psalmist doing here?

I don't want us to miss this. I don't want us just to read

through this and and think that there's nothing being said here

because there's some very important principles that often

times we forget. The psalmist is confirming his

need here and and his need for what?

He's confirming his need to be taught.

By God and not by men. He desires to be taught directly

by God. He values God's wisdom and his

instruction, and he wants it from God himself, an education

that he could not receive anywhere else.

He is saying, Lord, I need you to teach me.

I need you to give me understanding.

And he rightfully acknowledges, and he calls on the Lord as his

instructor. I know what some of you are

thinking, Kirk, what are you doing?

You are about to preach yourself out of a job.

That's not so. The true preacher, one who is

definitely called by God, will only constantly remind God's

people of the things that God has said.

And so when I stand in this pulpit, let these not be my

words that I teach, because my words in and of themselves have

no eternal value. However, when I teach the

scriptures, I am teaching the very word of God.

God breathed Holy Spirit inspired words to His people.

I know all of my critics. They get upset with that, right?

Stop teaching the Bible so much and just entertain us a little.

Tell us a funny story, tell us a joke.

Give us some entertainment. I'm so thankful that we're not a

church who's built on jokes and entertainment, but a church who

was built on receiving instruction directly from God.

And how does He instruct us? It's through His Word.

His Word instructs us about everything we need in this life.

The psalmist understands that. The Psalmist values that he

knows that the Lord is his instructor.

Oh dear Church, please don't ever say that I am your primary

instructor because all I can really do is just remind you

what God has already said. That is why I take such diligent

care. To spend time week after week

after week digging through the scriptures, desiring and praying

to know Lord. What are you saying to your

people here? Because I have no desire to be a

stand up comedian or to be entertaining for a group of

people who could care less about knowing and trusting God.

I literally want to proclaim to you what God has proclaimed in

His Word so that God can be your instructor.

The psalmist getting that, that God is his instructor, that God

is the instructor who is teaching His children, any

children of God here who are thankful that God teaches us

directly. Our heavenly Father teaches us

directly. In fact, if you were in Christ

here today, know this, that God is teaching you through His Word

this very moment as we read through the Scriptures.

It is His word into your heart. Not only that, He has sent His

Spirit to live in each and everyone of you who are in

Christ, to always be with you and always be instructing you in

regard to His Word, enlightening you to the truths that are found

in Scripture. So He desires to teach His

children. Now let me just say this, it is

a privilege to be taught by God Himself, because this is a

special teaching. This is not for everyone.

In fact, a person who is not in Christ cannot understand the

things of the Spirit. That's what Paul tells us.

But those of us who have been counted in Christ, we receive

special teaching from our Heavenly Father that he has

promised to deliver to his children.

Psalm 1/19/99. I turn your attention there and

and knowing this, that in some weeks we will get to this text

and we will preach it again. But the psalmist says this in

verse 99 of the 119. He says I have more insight than

all my teachers, for I meditate on your statutes.

What was the psalmist saying? Was he being arrogant here?

Not at all. He was saying the knowledge that

I have received from the Word of God as He teaches me, that

knowledge and that wisdom is incomparable in comparison to my

worldly teachers. My worldly teachers, as

intelligent as they may be, they know nothing in comparison to

what I can learn directly from God as one of His children.

To know that He is giving me this special teaching that comes

from Him, a teaching directly from God Himself to His own

children. You say what?

Isn't it crazy that we spend so much time in so-called churches

talking about so many trivial things and never stopping to

talk about the privilege, the reality that God himself is

teaching his children? Look at John chapter. 6 Jesus

understood this principle, and he taught on it.

John chapter 6 verse 44, it says, no one can come to me

John 6:44

unless the Father who sent me draws him.

Did you know this? You can't even come to Christ

unless the Father first teaches you through His Holy Spirit,

unless He teaches you. Your need for a Savior, unless

He opens your eyes to the fact that you are a Sinner and there

is only one hope for a Sinner, and that hope is the Lord Jesus

Christ. And how do we know these truths?

These truths are contained within the pages of Scripture.

To know that it is Jesus Christ, the only name given under heaven

whereby men must be saved, who came to this earth as God

Incarnate, who died on a cross, who was buried, and who rose

again on the third day, just as He said that He would.

And it is God Himself who opens your eyes to that teaching.

And it is that teaching that sets you free from sin, and sets

you free from your wickedness, and sets you free from the wrath

of God that will come upon all unbelieving, unrepentant

sinners. And so it is God who first

teaches us anything in regard to Jesus Christ.

It is God who sovereignly regenerates us, making us one of

His own, so that we are now teachable, filling us in,

indwelling us with His Holy Spirit.

Who is that ever abiding teacher in the lives of believers?

So we've received teaching directly from God.

No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him,

and I will raise him up at the last day.

It is written in the prophets. Watch what I'm showing you here.

They will all be taught by God. Everyone who listens to the

Father and learns from Him comes to me.

It is God. Who pointed you to your need for

a Savior? It is God who pointed you to the

fact that you are a Sinner. It is not some preacher who does

that or some teacher who does that.

It is only a preacher or a teacher who is repeating for you

the word of God that there is none righteous, no, not one, and

that the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal

life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Those are not our words. Those are the very words of God.

It is the word of God that says, if we believe in that Jesus who

Scripture speaks of, He will grant to us eternal life and

forgiveness of sin. That is not something that man

has made-up. That is the very words and the

promise of God. And so our great instructor, our

teacher, teaches his children, drawing them unto himself, that

he may teach them directly. What a privilege it is.

Isn't that not what Isaiah said? And Isaiah 54 was going to

transpire, He says in verse 13. All your sons will be be taught

by the Lord, and great will be your children's peace.

Parents, teach your children this principle is that every

time they open this book they are being taught directly by

God. This is not man's word, this is

not man's idea, this is not some philosophy of man.

This is God breathed, Holy Spirit inspired truth.

It is the very Word of God, infallible and inerrant, and He

teaches His children directly from His Word.

And so the true sons of God will be taught by their Father.

Oh, you know this. You know that your Father's

taught you many things in your physical, earthly lives.

In fact, long after, and unfortunately, all fathers will

at some point in time leave this earth.

At some point in time, you're going to reflect back and you're

not going to remember all the bad things.

You're going to remember the good things.

You're going to remember the lessons that were taught, and

you're going to tell other people, probably your children

or your grandchildren. My daddy taught me this.

And you're never going to forget the lessons that your earthly

father has taught you. Now I want you to understand

that principle is ever so true in regard to your heavenly

Father. True sons will be taught by the

Lord, and true sons will never forget what the Lord has truly

revealed to them. Spurgeon said it like this, and

in fact, ironically it was in his exposition of this 33rd

verse. Here in the 119th Psalm, he says

those who were taught by God never forget their lessons.

When divine grace sets a man in the true way, he will be true to

it. He's saying when you were

instructed directly from God, he makes sure that that is never

removed from your memory and you remember those things.

I find it interesting that many people can say that they have

been taught something by God, only to drift away from God and

to live their life for themselves.

And turn their back on the God who they say at one time taught

them something. Unfortunately, what we have is

we have the teaching of men many times disguised as the teaching

of God, the philosophies of men disguised as the wisdom of God.

And when those philosophies and those teachings of men wear off,

the people go back in the world and they return to their sin

because they were never truly taught by God.

Because when a man is taught by God, that teaching roots and it

roots forever in their life is changed from that point forward.

Spurgeon definitely identifying with that, confirming that God's

Word over and over teaching us that.

He says Teach me, oh Lord, to follow your decrees and then I

will keep them to the end. He said.

I won't forget them if you teach them to me.

Oh, I can hear all the wisdom of men, and it means nothing.

The Lord, when you teach me directly as your child, those

are things that will be stamped on my heart forever, and I'll

walk in those things. I'll keep them to the end.

So we see a God here as the psalmist instructor, one who is

teaching his children. But in teaching his children,

he's always teaching His Word. He's always teaching His Word,

and God delights in teaching His children His.

Word, in fact the first Kings chapter 3 verse 9, it says this.

1 Kings 3:9

So give your servant A discerning heart to govern your

people and to distinguish between right and wrong.

For who is able to govern this great people of yours?

This is Solomon asking for God to give him wisdom and to teach

him. And then it says in verse 10,

the Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for this.

He was pleased that Solomon would trust him to teach him

about the true wisdom, to truly teach him His word.

Psalm 32, verse 8, the psalmist says, I will instruct you and

Psalms 32:8

teach you in the way you should go.

This is the Lord speaking to him, and I will counsel you and

watch over you. What a joy to know that we have

God as our teacher, as his children.

We can trust that he teaches us. He shows us the way that we

should go and He counsels us and he watches over us that that's

the three things that we're going to see come out of this

Psalm that we're looking at today.

God is our instructor, teaching his children and teaching his

children his word. Psalmist knew that he must be

taught some things. The only problem with many

people in the church, they already know everything.

They already have so much knowledge that they think they

know everything, and there's no one who can teach them anything

else, not even God himself. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm going

to break the news to you. God's knowledge and wisdom is

infinite. You can spend every second of

the rest of your life learning about Him and truly learning

about Him, and you are never going to exhaust fully who He

is. So there's always room for us to

learn more about God and to learn to trust our God more.

Where do we learn this? We learn this through the

Scripture. Let me help everyone else who

would be LED astray by common teaching these days.

We learn this through the Scripture alone.

In fact, I would implore every single one of you, when I teach

something from this pulpit, if you do not filter it through the

pages of Scripture, you are a fool.

Because many a fool have been LED astray by some slick talking

man who gave them some slick talking teaching that was not

biblical at all. Though he stood in a pulpit and

though he stood with a Bible open, he was not teaching them

the word of God. So when you were here and you

were learning, I pray that your Bible is open and that you.

Are. Holding this fallible man

accountable, and that you are looking, is he teaching and is

he instructing from the word of God?

And if he is not teaching and instructing from the word of

God, it is just his opinion. Now I try to do a good job at

this, and if I give you my opinion, and sometimes I do, I

try to preface it with this. This is how hard it is to

understand. This is what Kirk thinks.

Now, what Kirk thinks really doesn't matter in comparison to

what God says. That's why I would encourage you

strongly, not just myself. If God moves you off and you're

sitting under another man's teaching, take the Word of God

and filter every single principle and every precept and

every doctrine and every thought that that man gives to you

through the Holy Scriptures. Why?

Because that's the very Word of God, and that's what He teaches

us. From.

We have to get back to an ideology of sola scriptura where

we say that it is the scripture alone that dictates what we

believe, that dictates our relationship to God and dictates

our knowledge of God and our understanding of who God is and

who God isn't. So it's very important that you

see that God teaches us directly from His Word what a gracious

God he is, that he has preserved his word for us throughout the

ages so that we can have it, that it has not been his desire

to hide it from us. The psalmist here says, Oh Lord,

teach me to follow your decrees. There are things that God has

decreed for. US, we don't have to run.

Run around frantically as if we're searching for these

things. Open the word of God, find out

what God has decreed for his people, or teach us your decrees

and teach us how to follow your decrees.

We know you've revealed them to us.

You haven't hidden them. You haven't made this difficult.

Deuteronomy 2929 that the secret things belong to God and the

revealed things belong to man. God, show me all the things that

you desire to reveal to me in Your Word.

He's faithful to do so as he teaches His Word to the children

that He loves. Preserving the Scriptures so

that we can have them. Oh, so many times.

We pick up our Bible. We take it for granted.

Many of you have many volumes, many copies, many translations.

There was a time when men were giving their lives just to have

one for entire cities and villages.

We all have them in our hand. We all have them on our

electronic devices. Yet so many times we fail to

trust God for the instruction we need.

You know how I say that you fail?

Because you don't open the pages of Scripture.

You don't open the pages of Scripture.

And unless you have somehow become all knowing and all wise,

which you have not, you still are in need of God's

instruction, His teaching from His Word.

God has decreed things in His Word that we must have Him teach

us so that we can obey those things.

So his word teaches us what he's decreed, but is all His word

also teaches us what God demands.

Look, he mentions his law, and I will keep your law and obey it

with all my heart. I know in a.

Society where we have created a weak and impotent God.

The word demand alongside of God is something that bothers some

of you. Can I insert this, that God has

full right to demand and command whatever it is that He desires

and wills to demand and command? And I will not reduce Him to

some weak and impotent deity who does not have that right.

He has every right, especially in the lives of His children, to

tell you what you are to do. All of you who are in the room

today, you know as parents you have a right as a parent, don't

you? To demand and to command your

children to do what it is that you desire them to do.

Why should our Heavenly Father not have that same right?

In fact, whether you give it to Him or whether you don't, He has

that right. You don't have to acknowledge

it. You will do it His way.

You'll do it the hard way. But He has the right to demand

the things of His people. And it is in the teaching of His

Word that we know what these things.

Are. I know in our limp wristed weak

society we don't like anyone telling us what to do.

You got it all figured out. Did you know that's weak?

That's weak. You don't have it all figured

out. You do need help, and you do

need help from God, and you do need instruction from God.

To pretend that you have it all figured out shows your weakness.

Your weakness is your own pride. And you have to be humbled to

the point, just as the psalmist is here, where he says, God, I

need your instruction. I need you to teach me.

I need you to teach me your word.

Before you ever open the pages of Scripture, you better bow the

knee. Lord, teach me what Your Word

says. Teach me what this means for my

life. Reveal Your Word to me so that I

will keep Your law and so that I will obey it with all of my

heart, so that I will follow your decrees and follow them to

the end. So we see our instructor here

being highlighted by the Psalmist who teaches his

children, who teaches His Word to us.

Many have asked, why do you teach through an entire book of

the Bible? In this sense, it's an entire

passage of the Bible because God has preserved it to teach you

something. And if I were to jump from place

to place to place, you wouldn't receive all of the teaching that

He has designed for that passage of Scripture or that book in

Scripture to teach you. And so we.

Open it up and we walk from the first verse all the way to the

last verse, all the while praying.

Lord, instruct us, teach us in Your Word.

Why? So that we'll follow Your

decrees, keep them to the end, so that we'll keep Your law and

obey it with all of our hearts. Shouldn't that be our desire as

children of God to learn from God, to learn His Word being

taught by God? And then watch this.

The psalmist doesn't stop there in regard to our instructor.

Our instructor is teaching his children.

He's teaching his word, but he's teaching for results.

I love this part because so many people, especially in the

theological realm, are just interested in collecting

knowledge. They want to be the smartest

theologian. Around and I've met those guys.

Some of them have become such smart theologians that they're

smarter than God in their own minds.

Be very leery of that attitude where you think you have God all

figured out and you can somehow reduce him to some type of

system. God is talking here through the

Psalmist about the fact that our teacher teaches for results,

meaning this He doesn't teach just so that we can know a whole

bunch of deep truth. He wasn't just simply teaching

the psalmist so that the psalmist could be well versed in

the Scripture, so he can impress his friends about all the

Scripture he's memorized, all the Scripture that he knows, but

he's literally teaching for results.

He's teaching so that the psalmist will live these things

out. And we know we need that in the

church, don't we? More than anything in our day,

Not more knowledge. You, you have more knowledge

than any generation that has ever come through this world.

You have knowledge at your fingertips.

Where we lack is not knowledge and access to knowledge.

Even in regard to God's Word, we lack an application.

We lack in the results that God desires.

What does he desire? Well.

What did the Psalmist say? Follow his decrees.

Keep them to the end. Consistency in our lives being

sold out. Followers of Christ desiring to

please Him with every aspect of our life.

He says give me understanding in 34.

Why did he want understanding? Not so that he could be smarter

than everyone else, so he can understand God's law, so that he

could keep God's law and he could obey it with all his

heart. The psalmist knew full well what

it means to disobey the Lord. Remember the last message.

He was in the dust, broken over his sin because he had disobeyed

the Lord in some fashion. And God brought revival in his

heart. And now God has brought revival

in his heart. And now God is teaching him.

What is he teaching? Him.

He's teaching him that it's not enough just to know the Word of

God because the psalmist knew the Word of God and he ignored

it and it led him into sin. He's saying we also have to

apply the Word of God. The Bible was never given just

as a book full of information for you to memorize.

It was given so that we would live out the truths in the Bible

that we do memorize. James 122 We know what James

says. He says do not merely listen to

the word and so deceive yourself.

Do what it says. That that, that is resoundingly

similar to what the psalmist is saying here.

I want to do what your word says, and I need you to teach me

exactly what your word says. Not so that I can puff up,

because knowledge puffs up. Not so that I can puff up.

But so that I can obey, you know what I would to God I pray to

God, I I genuinely do that God would raise up not a group of

people who know his word, though I want you to know his.

Word watch this who know his word and they obey it with

their. Full hearts.

Why is that my desire? Because I know in Scripture

that's God's desire, and so I pray that His will be done in

that area. So God is a God who teaches for

results. True teaching from the Word of

God will bring obedience. It will result in obedient,

sanctified lives. That is the.

Whole. Reason for the Word of God, that

you would be sanctified and set apart through the Word.

So the whole. Reason that we see a lack of

sanctification in the so-called church and the age and the

culture that we live in is because we can't sit still for

an hour and be taught truth from the word of God.

We have to be entertained and it can't be longer than 20 or 30

minutes or we are checking out. What a sad state that we're in.

What a sad state that we're in. If Jesus Christ himself entered

into this building today and stepped up into this pulpit and

said, let me teach you directly. Let me teach you things that

will change your entire life, would you stay?

Would you stay for hours? Would you look at your watch

every 10 seconds? No, you would be be having that

privilege of being taught directly by the Lord.

That's what he's saying when we open his Bible, the word Logos

Christ, we are being taught directly from Christ and he

teaches for results, change lives.

Jesus himself said this while he was teaching on this earth.

He said not everyone who says to me Lord, Lord will enter the

Kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father.

He who actually applies that which has been taught to him or

to her, and how does he do do that?

Because he has truly been taught by God.

It then is effectual teaching. The sad thing is, the church is

so inundated with the strategies and the teachings of man and the

entertainment focused on man that no one is truly learning

from God. Therefore, there are no lasting

results. When the Lord teaches, He

teaches for results. He teaches for results because

it glorifies Him. We're going to see that more

clearly as we unfold the rest of this.

So we see God as our instructor. What a joy to know that, to know

that the all lies, all knowing, omnipotent, omniscient God of

everything teaches us directly those who are in Christ, who are

His children. What a privilege.

What a privilege that so many times we don't take advantage

of. I would encourage you that this

day forward, take advantage of the fact that every time you

open the Bible, you receive direction and instruction right

from God himself. And if you really believe that,

let me help you. If you really believe that you

are receiving instruction from God from the Bible, you will

open the Bible often because you will need instruction often as

you walk through this dark and wretched world.

So we see the psalmist identifying God as his

instructor, but next we see this God as his director.

And he's saying, I know and I trust him not only as my

instructor and my teacher, but also as my director.

Watch his plea here, verse 35. Direct me in the path of your

commands. For there I find it delight.

Turn my heart toward your statutes and not towards selfish

gain. Turn my eyes away from worthless

things. What is the psalmist saying

here? He's saying, God, I need your

direction in my life. Because in and of myself I keep

choosing the wrong direction. I keep choosing the wrong

direction for my life. I keep choosing the wrong

direction for which path I'm supposed to go on.

I keep choosing the wrong direction for where my eyes

look, where my heart is focused. Lord, I need you.

To direct me in my life, I need you desperately.

Well, look at his. Please there.

Direct me in the paths of your commands.

He knew what it was like to follow the paths of his sinful

nature. I told you before that many

assumed that this was David who wrote this Psalm.

And if it is, And I'm not going to argue with anyone.

But if it is David knew what it means to choose your own path

and and to to choose the route that your sinful nature desires.

We have it documented in Scripture that that he knows

fully about that. And so here this man is saying,

Lord direct me in the path of your commands.

For at the heart of everything, they're my delight.

What is he saying? When I went on my own path, it

was not very delightful. I faced your discipline in my

life. I faced your correction in my

life. I faced your conviction in my

life. Remember David, when he was

repenting, my bones were wasting away.

I was crushed under the weight of my conviction.

He said there was no delight in that at all.

And if you're a believer, you know exactly what I'm talking

about. There's no delight in following

our own path. Again.

There is delight in being directed on the path that God

wants us to walk in. So the psalmist here

acknowledging God not only as instructor but as director, the

one who is leading us to the Scriptures, He is constantly

pointing us back to the truth of the Scriptures, directing our

lives through His commands. And a true believer is going to

find delight there. In fact, there will be no more

delightful place in your life than to be right smack dab

obediently in the middle of the will of God.

In fact, the most miserable person on the planet is not a

lost man who gives no regard to God at all.

He's having fun on his way to hell.

It is a saved man who has decided to walk his own path.

It is a saved woman who has decided to do things her own way

to take control of her life. Once again, the psalmist

understanding that's dangerous. He says, but but I delight in

being there in the will of God on your path, following your

commands. Why?

Because that's where we find true joy.

We find true joy as believers in our obedience.

We find out what true obedience look like from the Scriptures.

And the scriptures are always leading us, directing our lives.

We must depend upon them, just as he says there.

Direct me in the path of your commands, for there I find

delight. There's no delight for the

believer anywhere else. It's where we find true

direction and true delight. Psalm 25, verse 4.

Psalms 25:4

The psalmist said this, show me your ways, O Lord, teach me your

paths. Guide me in your truth and teach

me, for you are a our God, my Savior, and my hope is in you

all day long. He said show me your ways

because I have no hope without you.

If I'm not on your way, don't teach me your path, because if

I'm on my own path, I, I have no hope, I have no peace.

Those of you who are in Christ, who have wandered away at some

time in your life, you. Know this to be true.

You find yourself wondering now if I pray as the psalmist is

praying here. Lord, direct me in the path of

Your commands, for there's where I really find light.

Turn my heart toward your statutes.

Turn my eyes. Away from the worthless,

worthless things of this world. So we see that he is constantly

through his scriptures, leading US, directing us, we find

direction through the Word. We find delight in obeying the

Word, in fulfillment, in obeying the word Christian.

Not, not to look for familiar fulfillment anywhere else.

We find fulfillment in obeying the Word of God.

That's what we have been crafted, born again in Christ.

To do that is to obey Him, to bring him glory with our lives.

So he's trusting the Lord to direct him, and he's finding

that direction through his leadership and pointing him

where he wants him to go in the Scriptures.

But not only leading us and leading the psalmist there to

the Scriptures, He's also leading us and leading him away

from himself and ourselves. What he says in verse 36 turn my

heart toward your statutes and not toward selfish gain.

The psalmist knew that apart from a work of God, he was prone

to selfish desire and selfish gain.

Now I won't. Incriminate any of you here

today, because people don't like when I do that, when I speak

generally about the fact that we're all pretty messed up.

So I'll say it about myself. If God doesn't constantly

redirect me, if He doesn't constantly turn my heart toward

Him, I'm prone to selfishness. I'm prone to selfish desire.

I'm prone to selfish gain. Oh, I know, right?

Pastor? The problem with you is you've

never heard an honest pastor before.

Now, I can't say this or you would be offended, or I would

say that you are likewise exactly the same.

But I would never dare do that to you.

So I'll take it upon myself this morning.

No, I'll say this, that all humans, when left to themselves,

will be selfish. You'll follow your own selfish

desires. It's, it's interesting to me

this, this. Thing that we have going on in

our culture, Narcissism. What does that mean?

Selfishness. Well, apart from Christ, we're

all narcissists. You say.

Well, that's not what my therapist told me.

Your therapist is a liar. Your therapist is a liar.

Don't take therapy from someone who's not giving you

instructions from the Word of God.

The Word of God is very clear that if we are on on our own

path, we need God to turn our heart toward His statues and

away from our selfishness. That's what the psalmist is

saying here. He knew that he needed a work

from God in his life to turn him away from himself.

Isn't Scripture constantly leading us away from us?

That's why many men don't like the scriptures because they like

themselves. And they open up the scriptures

and say, man, this is this is beating me up all the time

because every time I read something I realize that I'm

deficient. Yes, you are.

Yes, you are. Now I turn another page and I

realized I missed the mark. I look at the commands and I say

I've broken them all. Yes you have.

Keep reading. You'll find out that that's by

design. God designed it that way so that

you will see your deficiencies and you will see your great need

for him to direct your life, and you will bow the knee to the

Lord Jesus Christ in desperation, saying, Lord,

direct me, direct me in the path that I should go.

Turn my heart away from my selfishness and turn it to your

statutes. Turn it to truth because of all

I've ever done is followed lies. So the psalmist is understanding

that principle to God through his word is directing us,

leading us away from us constantly.

What a prayer, what a prayer. What would happen if the church

today would say God lead us away from.

Us and toward your word. Let this not be about us any

longer, but let this be about you and your word.

What would happen? There wouldn't be people here

sitting here saying, man, I, I, I'm, I'm tired of hearing about

the word. You know, they would be on the

edge of their seat saying God speak to us, God teach us, God

shape us, mold us for your glory.

Psalmist understood God is director of his life,

understanding that God directs through the Spirit's power

living in and through him, combined with the truth of the

Word. The Spirit illuminates that word

and then empowers us to walk in obedience to that word.

So He's our director, leading us to the Scriptures, teaching

those Scriptures to us, as we saw in the first point, leading

us away from ourselves and our own selfish desires.

And we don't have time to sit here and speak of all of our

selfish desires. We know that we have them.

He just turned my heart toward the statues and not toward

selfish gain. And then he takes it a step

further in verse 37. He's depending on God to give

him direction to lead him from the Scriptures and to the

Scriptures and to lead him away from himself.

And then we see here another principle leading us away from

sin. And how does he say this

happens? Turn my eyes away from worthless

things. Turn my eyes away from worthless

things. He's speaking here of the lust

of the eyes. It's the lust of the eyes that

we see John in his first epistle there in first John talk about

in verse 16 of chapter 2, he says for everything in the

world, the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and

the boasting of what he has and does comes not from the Father

but from the world. And what is he saying those

things that we lust after with our eyes.

Those things are worthless. Now before anyone checks out

here, lust goes way beyond sexual thing.

The things you covet, the greed that you have in your heart, the

purpose for living. If that purpose is for you and

for your stockpile and your bigger barns.

If that purpose is is for you and the betterment of your

family and just to. Live the American Dream and it's

not to glorify God. You're looking at things with

the wrong eyes. Your purpose is to look upon

success and to to desire success with the covetous heart, to envy

the success of others. If your eyes are to look to

money, be driven by greed and again, selfishness and you need

to pay attention to this, he says.

Turn my eyes away from worthless things.

Even on your social media accounts, right?

When you're coveting everybody under the sun because they're

all in Cancun all the time and you're always at work on a

Monday, scrolling through the world's endless vacation.

And they're awesome relationships, right?

They are on their fourth love of their life, living it up some

tropical destination while you're suffering for the Lord at

work, providing for your family and doing the noble thing

according to the Word of God. But now your eyes have led you

astray, haven't they? Oh, and we don't have time to

discuss all of the ways that our eyes could lead us astray.

But know this, all sin starts with a glance that turns to a

gaze, which turns to lust, which roots in your heart.

And then as Jane says, when it's full grown, it gives birth to

sin. All lust of the eyes eventually,

if not mortified, will result in sin.

We need to be aware of that. In fact, Jesus said this Matthew

528, He says, But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman

lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

If there have been many who have foolishly said this, Jesus said

if you look after a woman lustfully and you've already

committed adultery in your heart, so to look at a woman

lustfully is the same as adultery.

That's not what he's saying to look at a woman.

Lustfully is not the same as having an adulterous affair with

a woman. Not the same at all.

What is he really teaching here? He's saying if you look at a

woman lustfully and it does not end with mortifying your sin, it

is going to lead you down to a path that will inevitably give

birth to sin. Please understand that you men

who think that you can not turn your eyes from worthless things

all the time and it not result in sin, you have another thing

coming. It will result in sin.

You are setting yourselves up. It is sin, and it will result in

greater sin. The psalmist here understanding

that. What a prayer.

Turn my eyes away from worthless things.

If that's the greed of the world, if that's the sexual lust

of the world, if that's the pride of the world, if that is

the success and the notoriety of the world, turn my eyes from

those things. Why?

Because if I'm not looking at them, that's not my focus.

And where does he want his eyes turned?

Back to the Word of God. Back to the Word of God.

But many of you spend hours upon hours upon hours on your little

electronic idols. I said it, and I don't

apologize. You spend hours upon hours on

your electronic idol, turning your gaze to all of the nonsense

and the worthlessness of this world when you ought to be

turning to the word of God, saying Lord, teach me.

Lord, direct me. Guide my steps, guide my life

and guide those things for your glory.

Lead me away from me. Lead me away from.

Sin turn my eyes from worthless things because you're not going

to go toward the direction that you're not looking at.

I learned that the first motorcycle that I had, I almost

straightened out the curve that I was turning in and why I was

focused on the curve instead on the road where I was headed.

If I would have continued to focus on the curve, about two

more seconds I would have ended up in the ditch through the

trees and probably y'all wouldn't be talking to me right

now. And I learned, you know what, I

better keep my eyes on where I'm headed because wherever my eyes

are, that's where I'm going to go.

It's the same in our Christian lives.

If we were focused on the Word of God, we were focused on the

principles of the Word of God. We are focused on God himself

that is revealed in His Word. Our gaze is not going to be on

the things of the world. That's what the psalmist is

saying. Turn my eyes away from worthless

things. Oh, I would that a group of

people this morning would say that.

Turn my eyes away from worthless things because you know this and

I know this. Whatever goes into your eyes

goes into your mind, and there's no telling where he's going to

go after that because when it roots into your heart, it

inevitably will result in sin. So he's leading us away from sin

here. The Psalmist understanding that

that's God's desire he has. Our director psalmist knows and

trusts in God to direct his life.

I pray that we would know and trust God in directing our

lives. If you think that you know a

better direction for your life than God, you're sadly mistaken.

Did you hear me? Because many live their lives,

they would never say it with their mouths.

They know better. They live their lives as if they

think that they know better than God.

But isn't it foolish to have access to a sovereign God who's

already seen and knows the beginning from the end, not just

of your life, but of everything? Isn't it foolish to not trust in

Him and to trust in this guy? Of course it's foolish.

Of course, it was foolish for the psalmist.

That's why he says, Lord, you turn my eyes away from worthless

things. Let me focus on you and on your

word. So we see God as our director.

And thirdly, I want you to see this, and it's very important.

Many have asked me, why don't we just, why don't we just preach

one or two of these verses? This is a lot because they're

made to go together, because the psalmist is seeing God as his

instructor, his teacher, and as his director, the one who leads

him through life by his word. But the psalmist is human, just

like us. And you know what?

He's going to fail and He has failed.

He's going to point us to a very important principle that we need

to realize because we too might fail at some point in time, that

not only does God instruct us and direct us, He preserves us.

Watch what He says here, verse 37.

Preserve my life according to your word.

What does that mean? Preserve my life according to

what you have promised, not based on my performance, not

based upon on what I get right and what I don't get right.

Preserve my life according to your word.

I'm glad that the Psalmist didn't teach us to pray.

Preserve my life according to whether I get it right or not,

He goes on. He says, Fulfill your promise to

your servants so that you may be feared.

Take away the disgrace I dread for your laws or good and how I

long for your precepts. Preserve my life and your

righteousness 2 times. He says Preserve my life,

trusting God as His Preserver. What is this section Speaking

of? It's Speaking of God as the one

who preserves his people. Did you know this?

Your good works don't save you, and your good works don't

preserve you. Anyone here thankful for that?

Because I don't have a good enough good works to preserve

me. And I sure didn't have enough

good works to save me. But it's God himself who saves

us and who preserves us. And in this section, that's what

the psalmist is, is turning our attention to, that it's God

alone who instructs us that it's God alone who directs us.

And as God alone who will preserve us, He is our

preserver. But why does he do this?

Why does he do this? This is most of the time the

reason why people won't believe in eternal security because they

think like. Humans, they say.

Why would God preserve people who are constantly bent to

disobeying Him? Why would He do this?

And So what they do is they create a false doctrine that

says this, God preserves you as long as you're doing good, but

if you do something wrong, He unpreserved you.

Let me help all of you. That's not preservation.

Preservation is eternal. And He's promised to eternally

preserve us in many places in His Word, and He always has

eternally preserved His people. Why does He do this?

Let me make this very clear. He's our Preserver because He

desires to uphold the glory of His name.

That is what the Psalmist is recognizing here, that the

Preserver is upholding the glory of His own name by faithfully

accomplishing what He has promised in His Word will come

to pass. You know what He's promised in

His Word about every single one of you who are in Christ this

morning, no matter where you are.

Some of you are faltering, some of you are wavering.

You still have faith in Christ. You're still His.

We know that you're never going to not be His.

What does He promise us? That those He foreknew He

predestined to conform to the image of His Son.

And those He predestined, He called.

He effectually called them. Those He called He justified,

and those He justified He did also.

Glorify. You know what he's promising us.

He who began this good work in you will carry it on to

completion, just as Philippians 16 says.

And He's promised us that He is going to preserve us.

Now why He does this is for the glory of His name, because He

promised that He who began this good work in US will carry it

unto completion. Wherever you are right now in

your Christian life, if you are truly in Christ, let me assure

you this, you will be glorified one day.

Why? Because God said so, not because

Kirk said so. And so my preservation is not in

some promise that I've created in my own mind.

It's created in the promises that I see in Scripture that

we're His and we will always be His.

And there's nothing that is going to pry us from the grip of

his grace. He has counted us as his

children, and we will always be His children, and He will uphold

the glory of His name in fulfilling those promises.

That's what the psalmist means when he says preserve my life.

According to your word, he's saying this.

Preserve my life, just like you said you would.

Just like you promised you would, knowing that God is

faithful to all of His promises. Remember, He's teaching us to

trust Him. And the first reason that we see

God preserving His people is, is because of the upholding of the

glory of His name. What do I mean by that?

We see it all throughout Scripture.

Scripture faithfully preserving His people for His name's sake.

You say we need clarity. Sure you do.

Look at First Samuel chapter 12, verse 22.

1 Samuel 12:22

For the sake of his great name, the Lord will not reject his

people. Because the Lord was pleased to

make you his own. He will not reject His people.

That's for all of the whack theologians who say this, that

God has rejected his original covenant people.

He will not reject his people. Period.

And how this ideology has infected so much eschatology, I

have no idea other than you don't trust in the entirety of

Scripture that the promises that he made to ethnic Israel will be

fulfilled just as he said. That's just for free.

First, Samuel makes it very clear that he's upholding the

glory of his own name. That's why he doesn't reject his

people, because he said that he wouldn't.

Psalm 23, three. He restores my soul.

He guides me in paths of righteousness.

Why? For his name's sake.

Not so that people can pat me on the back and say, oh, what a

righteous dude you are. It's for his name's sake.

Psalm 2511. For the sake of your name.

Oh Lord, forgive my iniquity. Though it is great.

What a prayer. When's the last time that you

went to God in confession? And the reason for your prayer

was not so that God would hold something, not hold something to

your charge or hold something to your charge, but you went to to

prayer and confession and in a desire for forgiveness, you went

there so that God's name would be upheld.

When's the last time you approached confession like that?

Lord, don't let your holy name be blasphemed because of my sin

and for your name's sake. Lord, because you've promised to

forgive all those who will confess their sin, You'll

cleanse them from all. Unrighteousness.

Lord, for your name's sake, forgive me for your glory.

Forgive me not because I deserve it, because I'm worthy of it,

but because you're worthy. You'll be seen as faithful to

forgive, just as scriptures over and over say that you're slow to

anger, full of love and compassion.

God, show me that love and compassion through your

forgiveness. Psalm 31 Three Since you are my

rock and my fortress, for the sake of your name, lead and

guide me, he says. Direct me, lead me, guide me.

Why? For the sake of his name?

Well, that would change modern Christianity, wouldn't it?

If we really understood that this is all for the sake of His

name, that God preserves us simply because He desires to

uphold the glory of His holy name.

Psalm 79. Nine, help us, O God our Savior,

for the glory of your name, deliver us and forgive our sins

for your name's sake. They understood it in the Old

Testament, didn't they? Psalm one.

O 6-8 Yet he saved. Them for his name's sake, to

make his power known. We could pull the congregation

before I began this section and say, why did God save you?

And you would say to give me eternal life, to give me

forgiveness, to do this for me and that for me.

Please understand this. You benefit from all of those

things that God blesses us with, but they are benefits.

The reason that God saves anyone, please listen to this,

is for the glory of His name. For the glory of His name, why

did God save you? The correct answer is because

God wanted to display His glory through this once wretched

Sinner who has been changed by the saving power and the

sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ.

It's for the glory of His name. Why?

Because He's all about upholding the glory of His name.

Why? Because He's worthy of every

ounce of that glory. That's why He preserves us for

His name's sake. So He is the Preserver,

upholding the glory of His name. Secondly, upholding the

testimony of His people. You know why He upholds our

testimony? Because we testify of Him.

We testify of His goodness, we testify of His faithfulness, we

testify of His power. And because we do that, we are

testifying of Him. And So what He does then is He

defends His children, protecting those who are His.

That's why we can sing with confident confidence that He is

our defense. He is our shelter.

He is our fortress. He is our stronghold.

He is our ever present help in our time of need.

He protects. Those who are his the Psalmist

understanding this, even requesting preserve my life

according to your word, fulfill your promise to your servant so

that you may be feared, so that others would glorify your name.

He says take away the disgrace I dread for your laws or good.

What is the disgrace that he dreads the reproach that would

come upon him. Now some of the reproach that

would have come upon the psalmist and scholars, they

differ in their view of this, would have been self-inflicted

reproach. He because he was a mere man and

did sinful things. But some of the reproach that

came upon him would be unjust reproach.

That would be that persecution. That would be those enemies who

would attack him and say false things against him.

And if we were again to assume that this was David, we know

that there are accounts of both of that in Scripture.

People who rightfully and justly brought reproach upon him for

the sin in his life, but also those who wrongly brought

approach upon him right. For instance, Saul and many of

the other enemies that we see that David would have had in his

lifetime. But no matter who.

Comes against God's children. God is faithful to defend and to

protect His children, just as a good father always does.

I don't know a dad in this room that if something were about to

happen to your child, someone was going to harm them in some

sort of way. I don't know a dad in this room

who would not act swiftly to keep that from happening.

And I would say this, you would be absolutely right in defending

your children against some type of harm that would have been

placed upon them by someone else.

God in his love toward us, being the good father that He is, He

defends and He protects his children as well, preserving his

testimony of being a good God to His children in our lives.

The psalmist understanding the defense that he has from God and

understanding why God does this, but not only the psalmist

understanding that Isaiah, Isaiah 48.

He testifies to this in verse 9. For my my own name's sake,

recording the the words of the Lord, I delay my wrath.

For the sake of my praise, I hold it back from you so as not

to cut you off. See, I have refined you, though

not as silver. I have tested you in the furnace

of affliction. For my own sake, for my own

sake, I do this. How can I let myself be defamed?

I will not yield my glory to another.

God says I'm going to glorify myself and I'm going to glorify

myself in defending you and not turning you over, being in your

corner as a good Father does, preserving my name, the

testimony that you bear. He does that in the lives of His

children. Ezekiel speaks of this as well

in chapter 20, verse 21. But the children rebelled

against me. These are children rebelling

against God. They did not follow my decrees.

They were not careful to keep my laws, although the man who obeys

them will live by them. And they desecrated my Sabbath.

So I said I would pour out my wrath on them and spend my anger

against them in the desert, but I withheld my hand and for the

sake of my name, I did not. I did what would keep it from

being. I did what would keep it from

being profaned in the eyes of the nations in whose sight I had

brought them out. Also with uplifted hand, I swore

to them in the desert that I would.

Disperse them among the nations and scatter them through the

countries, he said. I did tell them that I'm going

to disperse them, but I am never going to leave or forsake them.

I am going to uphold my people and the testimony that they

bear, which is my name and my word.

The psalmist fully understanding that today and what a joy it is

to know that he truly is our defense, that he truly is a God

who defends his children. And he does that upholding the

testimony of his name in us. Not only does he defend his

children, he dismantles their accusers.

I don't want you to miss this. He completely dismantles their

accusers. He says take away the disgrace I

dread for your laws are good. He says take away the disgrace

that is going to come upon me from all these other people and

I'm going to focus not on them, but I'm going to focus on.

Your word, Your laws are good, and I'm going to focus on that.

And in doing that, you know what the psalmist was doing?

He was just sitting back and he was trusting in God not only to

defend him as his preserver, but to dismantle his enemies before

his very eyes, those who would bring accusation against him,

whether it was just, whether it was unjust.

He knew that God was going to dismantle all of the accusers

who would come against him. Psalm 59, Psalm 59, and verse 10

says You, O God, are my fortress, my loving God.

God will go before me and will let me gloat over those who

slander me. That's the psalmist's hope

there, to know that there are people slandering him and

bringing reproach upon him. And you know what the psalmist

didn't do? He didn't take matters into his

own hands. He just simply trusted in God.

In fact, he bows to the knee here and he says, take away the

disgrace that I dread. You know what his disgrace was,

that he would bring any reproach upon the name of God because he

knew he bore the name of God. And he says, take it away and

I'll focus on your laws for their good.

Know how I have learned this in my life?

And it's been a slow, slow process.

I've learned to trust God to defend me against accusers and

against enemies. And you know what?

It's sad, but they come at you all of the time.

These are generally people who they don't even take the time to

get to know you. Or if they do know you, they

just simply don't like you. And that's OK.

Most days I don't like myself either, but I have learned that

I have to focus on God's Word in those times and I have to bow my

knees in prayer. And there are times where I have

to just simply turn those enemies over to the Lord and

say, Lord, I don't want to hurt the testimony of your name

through this, and I don't want them to hurt the testimony of

your name through this and to bring disgrace because I dread

that. So I'm going to focus on your

word and I'm going to trust in You to do what only you can do.

It seems like I always hear the words of Jesus there in Matthew

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

chapter 5 when those enemies, those accusers come, Matthew

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

chapter 5 where he says in verse 11, blessed are you when people

insult you, persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil

against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad because

great is your reward in heaven. For in the same way they

persecuted the prophets who were before you.

What hope we have from the Lord there when our enemies attack

and when our accusers attack, and when there are those who say

all kinds of things against us. And you know what our human

nature is to do. You know exactly what it is.

I'm going to straighten them out.

I'm going to give them a piece of my mind.

I'm going to give them a pound of flesh for the pound of flesh

that they have dealt me. And in doing that, you know what

we don't do? We don't glorify God in that.

But you know what I have seen throughout the years?

I've seen this. If I will bow the knee and in my

heart trust the word of God, He will disperse all of my enemies.

Before you know it, one troublemaker is gone.

The next troublemaker is gone. They're making trouble for

someone else. God defends His people and

dismantles their accusers. He defends us from that

onslaught that comes from the enemy, from those who are

controlled by the enemy. Doesn't he?

As Satan attempts to condemn God's people constantly, what

does this word do? It reminds us there's no

condemnation for he who is in Christ Jesus.

He goes on down in Romans 8A little further, and he reminds

us of the fact that we're conquerors through Christ.

So I would encourage each of you, when those enemies attack,

do as a psalmist is doing here, confidently trust in God, the

one who preserves us, the one who defends us.

And He always has and He always will defend His people.

He will defend you as well. So we see the Preserver

upholding the glory of His name, upholding the testimony of His

people, then ultimately upholding the life of His

people. I'll finish this and I'm done.

But I told you in the beginning, there was a lot to look at this

morning. This is a lot that can be very

helpful to every single one of us.

As a Christian, I'm thankful for all of you who have endured this

teaching, and you won't be sorry that you did.

We see him. Upholding the life of His

people. That was the psalmist's request

in this section. Preserve my life.

Preserve my life according to your word.

He ends with this. Preserve my life.

Watch this in your righteousness.

Preserve my life in your righteousness.

When we look at that, we're not careful.

We can miss it. The psalmist is saying my only

hope of preservation in this life and in the life to come is

a righteousness that comes from God, not a righteousness for me

because I'm not righteous. He's already blown it.

He's admitted it. I'm not righteous.

I can't be righteous and he calls on God and he says

preserve my life. Watch this in your

righteousness. Now we go to Romans chapter 3

Romans 3 · chapter mention

very quickly. I hope in our minds and we know

this. Paul says this in verse 21 and

chapter 3. But now a righteousness from God

apart from the law has been made known to which the law and the

prophets testify. This is one of the Psalmist

testifying of the righteousness of God that preserves us.

He goes on and he says this righteousness from God comes

through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.

There is no difference, for all of sin falls short of the glory

of God and are justified freely by his grace through the

redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

What the Psalmist is praying for, we in Christ have.

We have been placed in the righteousness of God, that

righteousness of Christ being imputed to us, us being

justified by that righteousness alone in faith in Christ, and.

His sacrifice and it's that righteousness that preserves his

people upholding. The life of his people upholding

the abundant life that Jesus promised did he not promise that

did he not promise you life he said I came that you may have

life and have it to the fool and he also promised not just life

to the. Fool on this earth, He promised

eternal life after this time on this earth.

He's upholding that promise, preserving that life for us in

Christ constantly. Psalmist says preserve my life

and your righteousness, Cover me with it, wrap it around me.

And those of you who are in Christ, He has covered you with

his righteousness in Christ. You were covered with that

righteousness that comes from God.

And it is because of that righteousness that you have been

preserved eternally. And for those who are not in

Christ, you have no eternal preservation.

You have no eternal preserver. There is no righteousness for

you to be in. Accept the righteousness that

you have in and of yourself, which is that of filthy rags in

the eyes of the Lord. And so I would encourage you

today to turn to Christ, the righteousness that comes from

God as the preserver of your life, your only hope of

forgiveness of sin and eternal life.

So the Psalmist ends this section talking about our

preserver. I know what a blessing to know

and to trust that God does preserve his people, that I can

lay my head on a pillow tonight and know that He will preserve

me if this was my last day on this earth for all eternity

because of Jesus Christ and what he did at the cross through his

death, His burial, and his resurrection.

Is he your preserver? I pray that He is today.

So we've seen the psalmist today unfold this and unpack this for

us, learning to trust God as our instructor, our director, and

our preserver. Oh, believer, I pray that you

are doing that in your life. I pray that you are now aware of

the importance of that in your life, that you are from this

point forward, trusting God even more deeply as your teacher, as

your director and leader and master, thanking him that he is

the one who preserves us even when we don't get it.

All right, well, I told you they all go hand in hand.

But where would we be if he wasn't our instructor?

And where would we be if he wasn't our director?

And where would we be if he did not preserve us?

But he is all those things. He's all those things to his

children. Let us rejoice in that.

Let us thank Him for that. Let us confess to him.

And we don't acknowledge that. We don't take advantage of that.

We don't walk in that. The unbeliever this morning, my

prayer for you is this, that you would trust in God today that

perhaps he is instructing you for the very first time in your

heart, even now that you are a Sinner, that you are alienated

from him and you are in need of a Savior.

And he's teaching you that the only Savior that has ever been

provided for sinners is the Lord Jesus Christ himself who came

2000 years ago. God here on this.

Earth Incarnate. Who came and who offered Himself

as a perfect sacrifice for imperfect sinners, and that if

you would just trust in Him as your Lord and Savior today, He

would wash you of all of your sin and He would grant to you

eternal life, and He will preserve you forever.

I pray today that instruction from God would begin for you,

that He would, by His Spirit, open your eyes to see the truth

for the very first time. You need a Savior, and that

Savior is Christ, and by His Spirit He would instruct you

internally to call on the name of Jesus to save you desperately

today, knowing that His promises are true.

And for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord, they

will be saved. Would you call upon the name of

the Lord today, repenting of your sin, trusting in Christ?

Let's pray together, Father, in the name of Jesus.

We thank you for Your word. Lord, Let us not tire of looking

at the truths that we see in Scripture that are able to make

us wise and to make us wise unto salvation.

Lord, I pray today that you would make someone here wise

unto salvation, giving them the knowledge of the truth that they

would repent and turn to Christ. God, I pray for each believer

who's here today. Perhaps as they've evaluated

their lives, they've evaluated their Christian walk.

They see deficiencies and trusting You in these areas, and

I pray that you would give them the grace today to confess that

and to count on Your Spirit to empower them in the future to

trust You all the more according to Your Word.

And we'll be careful to give you all the glory for it.

We pray all these things in Christ's name, Amen.

You have been listening to Key Life Fellowships Pulpit Ministry

podcast. Join us each week for more

teaching from God's Word. If you would like to speak with

one of our pastors, please visit us on the web at

keylifefellow-ship.com. Thank you again for joining us

today.