Good morning. It's nice to see all of you today. Getting used to where some of you are sitting in the same few seats each time, but getting to look more familiar out here. Now, I would like you to turn in your Bibles this morning to Psalm nineteen. Psalm nineteen. And this is the great Psalm of Creation and Scripture. Well, let's begin by reading verses seven to ten. Psalm nineteen verse seven. David says the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. Now particularly note what David says here in verse ten. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb." Look at what David says there in verse ten again. More to be desired are they than gold, sweeter than honey and the honeycomb. I wonder if we really believe that about God's word. It is more to be desired than gold, than anything that we could pay for it. It is sweeter than honey and the honeycomb. Look at two tests. Is this really true for your own personal life? Is God's word more desirable? than gold, yea, than much fine gold. Let's suppose that this was the only copy of Scripture available. The only Bible. You did not have a Bible in your house. What would you pay for it? Let me auction it off this morning. Would you be willing to sell your house, give up your house, move into a one-room like they have in many of the third world countries in order to obtain the Word of God, if that was the only means that you would be able to do that, do it. Would you be willing to, it says it is sweeter than honey in the honeycomb, would you be willing to live on, let's say, beans and rice? the staple, the food that many people live on every single... Would you be willing to live on beans and rice for the rest of your life in order to get the Scriptures, if that was the only means to do it? Would you be willing to give up your car or your television or your radio or anything else like... we are used to. Would you be willing to live like the poorest in many countries in order to have the Word of God? Now those are kinds of questions that I don't think that we really can ask ourselves or be honest with ourselves in asking. But as far as David is concerned, the answer to those questions are no-brainers. If God's word is really more to be desired than gold, if it is really that which is most important, then it is more important than house or food or car or TV or any kind of material considerations that we might have. So that's test one. Test two, here is a more practical test. If you really believe that God's Word is more desirable than gold and sweeter than honey in the honeycomb, did we practice that belief during the year two thousand? For instance, during this last year, did you spend more time reading your Bible than reading your newspaper? Did you spend more time in your Bible than you did watching TV. Did you read your Bible as regularly as you ate your food? A lot of times Christians acknowledge this verse with their lips, but don't really believe it when you look at the practice. David wants us to see that what he is saying here is really true. that God's word is more valuable than money, it is more valuable than anything that money can buy, it is more valuable than any possession that we might have. And so what he does in verses one to six is show us the greatness of God's glory as it is revealed in creation. Verses one to six deal with creation. Then in verses seven to ten, He shows us that greater than all of the glory of God that is revealed in creation is the glory of God that is revealed in Scripture. And then finally, in verses eleven to fourteen, he presses home the response of the believer. But the heart of the Psalm, the heart of Psalm nineteen, is that portion that we just read in verses Now let's look first of all at the first part, the earlier part. We're not going to spend much time on that. Verses one to six, the greatness of God revealed in creation. The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament shows His handiwork. Day unto day utters speech and night unto night reveals knowledge. There is no voice nor language where their voice is not heard. Their line has gone out through all the earth and their words to the end of the world. In them he has set a tabernacle for the sun, which is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber and rejoices like a strong man to run its race. Its rising is from one end of heaven and its circuit to the other end, and there is nothing hid from its heat. David, you'll remember, was a shepherd. He grew up as a shepherd. He spent many, many days and many nights in the outdoors. And I think David, especially from his younger life, was often overwhelmed by the creation of God. That's why he says the heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament shows his handiwork. David would look up at the nighttime sky and he would be overwhelmed. He would look at the course of the sun moving across the daytime sky and he would be overwhelmed. I mentioned the other night that there have been a couple of times in my life where I've been outdoors and looked up and seen the Milky Way in all of its clearness and in all of its glory. And it is just an overwhelming, awesome kind of experience. David looked up in the sky and he saw the glory of God. The pagan looked up in the sky and he saw the heavenly bodies and he worshipped them. The pagans would worship the sun. and worshipped the moon. David looked at the sun and he worshipped the creator of the sun. David looked at the moon and the stars and he worshipped the creator of those heavenly bodies. We should be overwhelmed by the creator, not by his creation. The heavens declare the glory of God. And that is why we sing, fair are the meadows, fairer still the woodland, robed in the blooming garb of spring. Jesus is fairer, Jesus is pure, who makes the woeful heart to sing. Creation shows us the greatness of our Creator. What does it tell us about God? Creation shows us His wisdom. It shows us His power, His might. If you ever have been struck by the greatness of creation, you notice what David says in verse one? He says, that's God's handiwork. That's the work of His hands. That is just a fraction. of what our mighty God is able to do. Creation reveals the wisdom and the power and the might of God. But for David, this revelation of the glory of God in creation is just a prelude. It is just a forward because if you can see a God of greatness and wonder revealed in creation, you have a much more glorious, much clearer, much more important revelation of that God in Scripture. And God's word in Scripture is much more important for us. And that's what David is going to show us in verses seven to ten, the greatness of God's law. Now, I want you to look again carefully at verses seven to nine. Every verse here, there are three verses, and every verse has two statements. Look at verse seven. The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. That's one statement. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. That's the second. And these two statements are parallel. We said earlier that Hebrew poetry is characterized by parallelism. You have one statement and then you have the same statement in other words or a similar statement in other words which is parallel to the first. So you have in each verse two parallel statements. In reality, verses eight and nine follow the same pattern. We actually have six statements all in the same pattern. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. That's the third statement. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. That's four. Five. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. And six, the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. So you have six lines. And you notice that each line is characterized by three things. You have, first of all, the name of Scripture that is used here. For instance, in verse seven, the law of the Lord. And then secondly, you have a characteristic of Scripture. The law of the Lord is perfect. And then thirdly, you have an effect of Scripture. He says the law of the Lord is perfect. converting the soul. That's what Scripture does. Every one of those lines is like that. Look at the second. The testimony of the Lord, that's the name, is sure, making wise the simple. The name, the characteristic, and the effect. Verse eight, the statutes of the Lord, the name, are right, the characteristic, the effect, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord, the name is pure. The effect, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean. The effect, enduring forever. And the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. Now let's look at these three areas. In all, you have six names in these six lines that David uses to refer to God's word. He refers to the law of the Lord, the testimony of the Lord, the statutes of the Lord, the commandments of the Lord, the fear of the Lord, and the judgments of the Lord. Now David isn't talking about six different things. These are all synonyms. They are six descriptions of God's Word. They have a cumulative effect. We're sitting in a room with six speakers, and we're being hit on all sides with the same sound. There are six different names for God's Word. Now the second thing I want you to notice, not only there are six names, but these six names all refer to God's word as something which is authoritative. They all refer to God's word as something which is authoritative. He says in verse seven, the law of the Lord. The word law in Hebrew basically means instruction. instruction. It can refer to the law that God made Moses. The law of the Lord can refer to the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Old Testament. The law can refer to all of Scripture. It is a comprehensive term for all that God has revealed in His Word. His Word is His instruction to man. So the word law means instruction. The word testimony signifies that scripture is God's word which is attested to by God himself. In other words, God has set his own witness that this is true, that his word is true. It is his testimony. In verse eight, the statute or precepts of the Lord. These are the specific instructions that you find in Scripture. Verse eight, the commandment of the Lord. What is the commandment? It is an order. It is authoritative. He says the fear of the Lord. Fear is the effect that God's word produces. it is designed to produce the fear of God in us. And then when it says the judgments of the Lord, they are God's law for specific cases. The kind of laws that you have, if you are out walking and you find something that belongs to your neighbor, this is what you should do. Those are the kind of laws that are referred to as the judgments of the Lord. You see what we're saying here? God's word is God's authoritative word to us. This book does not contain God's suggestions to us. This is not advice from dear Abbey or advice from our heavenly Father. These are God's instructions to us, His law, His commandments, his precepts. Did you notice also that every one of these six terms that refer to scriptures, the scripture, are all followed by the name of the Lord himself, the law of the Lord, the testimony of the Lord, the precepts of the Lord, the commands of the Lord. That phrase shows that the authority of this book is an absolute authority. It is the authority of God himself. This is the law of God. These are the commandments of God. These are the statutes of God. God never asks us whether we want to accept His word or not. He speaks. And we are to listen for one reason. He is God. He is God. I think that one of the greatest challenges to the church today, one of the greatest challenges to the evangelical church is that there is a weakening commitment to the authority of God's word. There's a weakening commitment to the authority of God's word in one of the issues of the Emmaus Journal. By the way, have you all picked up a copy of the Emmaus Journal that Dave Rogers brought here? I hope you will get it, that you will read it, that you will subscribe to it, and that you will tell others about it also. We produce the Emmaus Journal to try to help and teach God's people, and we are looking for a greater circulation. So pick up a free copy and become spokesman for the Emmaus Journal. But anyhow, there was an article, one of our best writers in the Emmaus Journal, is Dave McLeod, who teaches at Emmaus, and he had... an article that had to deal with the authority of Scripture. And he was telling a story about meeting the daughter of Griffith Thomas, who was an Anglican theologian and one of the founders of Dallas Seminary. Every year at Dallas Seminary, they have a special series of lectures called the Griffith Thomas Lectures. And for all of the years that she was alive, the daughter of Griffith Thomas, a woman by the name of Winifred Gillespie, would come to those lectures. In one year, Dr. McLeod met her, and as they were talking, he mentioned to her that he was associated with a group of assemblies like this one. She said, oh, she said, she says, these churches, they call them, the brethren they call non-conformist churches in England. And she says, oh, she says, I was at a social gathering one time, and when I was talking to this, to one very socially elite woman there, about my father's ministry among assemblies in churches like this in the United States. The woman responded, she says, oh, I have always found these non-conformists as socially inferior and excessively biblical. Excessively biblical. Biblical. Isn't that a great description of people who are committed to the authority of God's Word? Committed to the authority of God's Word. One of the historians of the Brethren movement, H.H. Rowden, said that what made the early brethren different from other churches was the absolute priority that they gave to the Word of God. In fact, he said, what was the unique thing about these early brethren churches was not their meeting of the Lord's Supper. He says, what was really unique about that group was their weekly Bible readings. It was their commitment to the Word of God. They were... excessively biblical. Now, you know, I think that I have seen a change in my lifetime from the time that I was first saved, from the time that I came to know the Lord Jesus and was introduced to Scripture. I think that I have seen a change in the attitude of people in assemblies around the country toward the Scripture. When I was first saved, if you could show somebody that something was taught in Scripture, they would believe it. They would believe it. In fact, a lot of my views change. as soon as I was shown something from Scripture. Things like baptism, baptism of believers by immersion. I didn't believe that at first. I'd grown up in a Presbyterian church. I thought that when I was sprinkled as an infant that that was my baptism. But when I was shown what Scripture said about believers baptism by immersion, accepted it. Eternal security. The rapture of the church. The election of the saints. I didn't believe any of those things. But when someone showed me from Scripture that this was the teaching of the Bible, I accepted it. Now there were a lot of things that I didn't understand about these truths. And as I started thinking through them, there were a lot of questions and and things that I wondered about. But it didn't cause me to give up or reject what the teaching of Scripture was. If the Bible said it, I believed it. And I think that that was the way most Christians in assemblies were. But I detect a different attitude in many places today. You hear things like, well, it really doesn't seem reasonable to me that God would be like that or that God would do that kind of thing. One evangelical theologian is openly rejecting and teaching against eternal punishment because he would like to think of God as a kinder, and gentler God. There are others who call themselves evangelicals, who say they believe the word of God, but who reject what they call the patriarchism of the Bible. And they question what the Bible says about the role of men and women in the church and in the home. Nancy and I know a Christian. who recently was involved in marrying a divorced person. And her attitude toward the Scripture on this was, you know, a lot of people have different views on this. And therefore, I don't have to worry too much about the details. I can... accept the grace of God that is taught in the Bible, and I really don't have to be concerned specifically about what the Bible teaches on this subject. Many people want to pick and choose what they like. Many are affected by the subjectivism of their own experience, by their own desires. and they are really not concerned about the authoritative word that is taught in Scripture. Now that shouldn't surprise us because we live in a very anti-authoritarian age. The Bible is an authoritarian book. It is truth, God's truth, and it isn't open for debate. The truth of this book does not depend on whether you accept it or not. It is God's truth whether you accept it, whether you want it to be God's truth or not. Now the question for us is, is this something which we will accept as God's authoritative word? Is this something that we will have full confidence and trust in. Look at how David describes the scriptures. We've looked at the three names that he has given to scriptures. Now look at the adjectives that he gives us to describe what God's word is like. He says the law of the Lord is perfect. The word that is used for perfect here is a word which means complete and perfect. It is sufficient for everything that God wants us to know. It is sufficient for everything that God wants us to know. The law of the Lord is perfect. He says the testimony of the Lord is sure. The word that is used for sure means trustworthy. It is worthy of trust. It is worthy of being followed. It is trustworthy because it corresponds to reality. It corresponds to truth. It is trustworthy. He says the statues of the word are right. The word right here means straight. It gives us the straight road to the true God. He says the commandment of the Lord is pure. It is pure. It is clean. In the Song of Solomon chapter six, this word is used. It describes something as pure. as the sun. In verse nine, the fear of the Lord is clean. It is clean or pure in the sense that it has no deficiency, no inadequacy, no fault, no error. And the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. Now look at those words again. Perfect, trustworthy, right, pure, clean, true, righteous. Those six words or seven words that are used to describe Scripture are all words that describe God Himself. Isn't He one who is perfect, trustworthy, right, pure, clean, true, and righteous? The revelation of God shows us what God is really like. And what you see here concerning the revelation of God in Scripture is how much more detailed, how much more complete the revelation we have of God in Scripture is from the revelation that we have of God in nature in verses one to six. What does nature tell us about about God. Nature does tell us what God is like, but it's a limited revelation. Nature tells us that God is a powerful God, a wise God, a God of wisdom, power, and might. But where do you learn the grace of God in nature or the love of God? or the justice of God, or the compassion of God. Those are truths about God that are revealed in His Word but are not revealed in the natural world. All these truths that we have about God come from only His revelation in nature. He is perfect and trustworthy. You can trust Him. You can know about God because He has revealed Himself in His Word. What David says about Scripture, that it is perfect, is true because Scripture is God's Word and He is perfect. And because He is perfect, everything we need to know spiritually is found in Scripture. There is nothing that we need to know about God that is not found in His written revelation in Scripture. There is no speculation about God that is worth anything unless it is taught in His Word. There are a lot of people who want new revelations about God. They want new books in the Bible. They want new revelations. They want new prophets today who are going to give us more revelations about God. We have all that we need to know in Scripture. And God's word is trustworthy because God is trustworthy. There is one thing that the Bible says God cannot do. You remember? It is impossible for God to lie. Scripture is true because it is God's Word. Now, there are a lot of false ideas today about truth. We are being indoctrinated with the idea that truth is not absolute, but that it is relative. Truth for you, truth for me, It is never fixed and absolute. I wish I could make that work with my checkbook. I wish I could have put a thousand dollars in the bank in my checking account, write a check for five hundred and put down as my balance that I have nine hundred dollars in my account. I wish I could make that work. Isn't that really the way it should be if truth is just relative? Truth is whatever you want to make it? See, the bank won't accept that kind of reasoning. They say that truth is absolute. And so my checks start bouncing because I have operated on the idea that truth is relative. Now truth is not relative when it comes to your bank account and truth is not relative when it comes to spiritual things either. Truth is not relative because there is only one true God and what is true is His truth. You may not acknowledge Him, you may not believe His Word, All that means is that you are the one who is out of touch with reality. You are choosing error. The only truth is God's truth. Now we've looked at the names of scriptures and the characteristics of scripture. Look at the effects of scripture. There are six names. There are six characteristics. And now there are six effects that follow from it. Now, as we read these things, notice that the six things that David says Scripture does are all very practical things. If you really look at Scripture the way David did, it has to affect your life. He says that Scripture, in verse seven, converts the soul. The word convert here is a word that that means refreshes the soul. It refreshes the soul. It restores you. He says in verse seven, it makes the wise, it makes the simple wise, making wise the simple. Now, most of us don't like to be called simple. But the word that is used for simple is a word that basically in Scripture means teachable. open to the truth, willing to be taught and influenced by the truth. If that's the definition of simple, are you willing to be called simple? Now think about the alternative. It means that you don't want to be taught by the truth. You don't want to be influenced by the truth. I'll be called simple. What does Scripture do? It makes those who are open to the truth. It makes them wise. It rejoices the heart. In verse eight, it enlightens the eyes. In verse nine, it endures forever. And in verse nine, it is righteous altogether. Now notice, these are the effects of Scripture for believers. This is not the effect that the Word of God has on unbelievers. For unbelievers, Scripture does not necessarily rejoice the heart and enlighten the eyes and refresh the soul. For unbelievers, the primary effect of the law of God is to convict of sin and to show the way of salvation. The Bible confronts you with a holy God who is totally against sin, and it shows you a God who is separated from you because of your sin, and it shows you a God who will judge you for your sin. You cannot say that the Word of God while you remain in unbelief refreshes the soul. But the Word of God also for the unbeliever does show the way of salvation. And so it can lead to all of these effects. But for the believer, the Bible needs to affect your life. Has the Bible, the Word of God affected your life? There are three effects that the Word of God should have on your life. Two of them are mentioned here in verses eleven to fourteen, where he talks about the response of the Word of God. A third is just, I think, something that is taught elsewhere in Scripture. First of all, Scripture is the means for you and me to know God. Secondly, Scripture will confront us even as believers with our sin. And thirdly, Scripture will give us a desire to please God. Now, first of all, it is the means of knowing God. We've already seen that the characteristics of Scripture are the characteristics of God. And if you want to know what God is like, this is the book, the only book. that will enable you to know Him. Secondly, Scripture will confront you with your sin. You notice what He says here in verse eleven. He says, Moreover, by them your servant is warned. David says that this book will warn you against sin and its harmful effects John Bunyan said this book will keep you from sin you know as I look at my life God through scripture has done a marvelous work for me in preserving me and keeping me from sin I look at other members of my family there are several members of my family who have become alcoholics. God kept me from that alcoholism through the warnings of Scripture. Moreover, by them is your servant warm. I never started drinking and never fell into alcoholism. That was God's word keeping me from sin. When I first went to college, or I should say while I was in college, It was just the beginning of that sexual revolution that you had in the last half of the sixties and on and on through the seventies, seventies and eighties. There are so many, you know, that has been such a tragedy in the life of so many people. It has ruined their lives. God kept me from that because of the teaching and the warnings of his word. If I had not become a believer, I surely would have followed the path of everyone else my age and in my society and gotten caught up in that. But God kept me from that. I have seen a number of family members whose marriages have ended in divorce, in my family. God gave me a wonderful Christian woman But he also gave me his word to keep my marriage intact and going on well. God has used his word to warn me of sin and to keep me from sin. Has God's word had that effect in your life? You know, some of the greatest blessings of God to us are the blessings of things that never happened to us. He has kept us from sin. He says positively in following God's word there is great reward and in keeping of them there is great reward. Now God's word does not promise you money and it does not promise you health and it does not promise you a position in society God has not promised us any of those things, but He has promised us a blessed life. He has promised us joy in goodness. He has promised us a clear conscience. He has promised us contentment and satisfaction in life. Is there any millionaire who wouldn't give up his whole fortune for peace? and contentment and satisfaction and joy in life. God promises us and gives us through His Word the greatest blessings. Notice also, finally, in verse twelve, that God's Word causes us to examine our hearts. In verse twelve, David, David now, not the unbeliever, but David is confronted with his own sinfulness. That's the effect of the Word of God. He says, who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults. He realizes that his own sin goes deeper than the acts of disobedience that he is even aware of. Who can understand his heirs? Cleanse me of secret faults. There are things in my life that I am not aware of. But confronted with the God of Scripture, David knows his own sinfulness. And so he says, cleanse me. Cleanse me even of those sins that I am not aware of. And then he prays in verse thirteen, keep back your servant, also from presumptuous sins. Let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless and I shall be innocent of great transgression. There is another kind of sin that is even more dangerous than those sins that we are not aware of. He calls this presumptuous sin, willful sin, sins that a person commits with a conscious knowledge that he is rebelling against God. Is a believer capable of that? Well, David certainly was afraid in his own life that he might be capable of that. And so he said, keep me from presumptuous sins. Don't let them have dominion over me. Why did he pray that kind of prayer? It was God's word that led him to see himself and pray that kind of prayer. And finally, in verse fourteen, God's word gave him a desire to please God himself. This is a great verse. This is a verse that I want to pray every day. This is a verse that all of us should take to heart. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O God, my strength and my Redeemer." That was David's ultimate response to God. He wanted more than anything else to please Him. God made us to love Him and to enjoy Him. And the reason that God's word is so important is that this is the only means by which that goal can be attained. Will you close now as we pray this prayer, the prayer of David? Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O God, my strength and my Redeemer. Let's pray. Father, Let the words of my mouth, let the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight. We pray that God's word would be such a part of our lives that we would learn from it and respond in this way, in Jesus' name.