A Right Choice - Part 2 of 2

Oh, for a thousand tongues to sing, my great Redeemer's praise, Thou forest of my God and King, Thou triumphs of His grace.

This is L. Sarah Bradley Jr. welcoming you to another broadcast of the Baptist Bible Hour. Jesus is all the world to me, my life, my joy, my all. He is my strength from day to day, without Him I would fall.

When I am sad to hear my go, no other one can cheer me so. When I am sad, He makes me glad. He's my friend.

Jesus is all the world to me, my friend, in trial sore. I go to Him for blessings and He gives them more and more. He sends the sunshine and the rain. He sends the harvest golden rain.

Sunshine and rain, harvest of grain. He's my friend. Jesus is all the world to me and true to Him I'll be. Oh, how could I this friend deny when He's so true to me? Following Him, I know I'm right. He watches or me day and night. Following Him, I deny. He's my friend. Jesus is all the world to me. I want no better friend.

I trust Him now. I trust Him when my fleeting days shall end. Beautiful life with such a friend.

Beautiful life that has no end. Eternal life, eternal joy, He's my friend. As we continue our study in Psalm 119, our subject for this section is a right choice. I hope that if the message is a blessing to you, you'll write and let us know.

And if you can help us with the support of the program, we'll certainly be grateful for that. Our address is Baptist Bible Hour, Box 17037, Cincinnati, Ohio 45217. How I love the great Redeemer, who is doing so much for me. With the joy I tell the story of the love that makes men free. Till my earthly life is ended, I will send songs of love. Then beside the crystal sea, more and more my soul shall be, praising Jesus and His love. He is everything to me, to me. He is everything to me, and everything shall always be. I will never cease to raise a song of gladness in His praise.

Here and in the world above my soul shall sing of savings of life and life. The joyous He, the precious bread who died for me. Glory be to Him forever, endless praises to Christ the Lamb. He has filled my life with sunshine, He has made me what I am. Oh, that everyone would know Him. Oh, that all would adore Him. Oh, that all would trust the love of the mighty friend above, and be His forevermore. He is everything to me, to me. He is everything to me, and everything shall always be. I will never cease to raise a song of gladness in His praise. Here and in the world above my soul shall sing of savings of life and life. The joyous He, the precious bread who died for me. Life and life and joyous He, the precious bread who died for me. I often receive response from people that listen to our broadcasts, that talk about how grieved they are in their church, where some of these new concepts are being introduced, and the whole order of worship has been changed, and the focus has been changed, and the emphasis is no longer on God and His Word, but on man and his desire to feel good about himself.

How sad to see that. How is the church going to be washed and cleansed? It's not going to be by the schemes and innovations of men. It's not going to be by incorporating the philosophies of the day into our order of worship.

It's going to be by the Word. That's the reason that as you come here time after time, not only is there the singing of the hymns and public prayer, there is always the preaching of the Word, the Word of God. This is used by the Holy Spirit in washing, cleansing the church, keeping it cleansed as far as its doctrine is concerned, keeping it cleansed as far as giving guidance and instruction to those who make up that body of believers.

So the Word of God is of great value. We need to be washed by it. We need to be convicted by it. We need to be guided by it. We need to be strengthened by it. We need to be comforted by it.

Without it, we're going to be at great loss. Without an intimate involvement, an ongoing, regular involvement with the Word of God. We're going to give way to our own impulses, our own thoughts, our own attitudes, our own responses, or the things that we hear others say, the influence of the culture in which we live, or the ideas that others may use to try to influence us. May we give our attention as it ought to be given to the Word of God. And so, the psalmist is praying, remove me from the way of lying, grant me thy law graciously. Lord, graciously teach me and guide me in the truth of thy word that I may be delivered from dishonesty, from falsehood, whether it's false doctrine that someone is trying to influence me to believe, whether it's trying on the part of someone to guide me in the wrong course of conduct, or whether it's the tendency within my own heart from time to time to deceive myself that I may be delivered from that which is deceitful. Then verse 30, here we find a right choice.

I have chosen the way of truth, thy judgments have I laid before me. The Psalms start out by depicting two ways. There is, according to what we read in this psalm, the way of lying, there is the way of error, there is the way of sin, there is the way of ungodliness, and certainly that way is to be avoided.

And that's what the psalmist is praying about, that the Lord would deliver him from it. Proverbs chapter 4 verse 14 says, Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men. Here then is one way, it's described as the path of the wicked or the way of evil men. It says just simply and plainly, don't go that way.

That's not the way to travel. Somebody might say, well I'm keenly aware of that, but you see, a reminder is obviously in order because the Spirit of God inspired that it would be a part of this wonderful book. Warning us, reminding us not to go in that way of wickedness.

And then as we say, the psalms begin in Psalm 1 with this contrast being laid out before us. Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. There is a way then that's described as being the way of sinners, the way of the ungodly, the counsel of the ungodly, sitting in the seat of the scornful. That's one way, but he says, blessed is the man that doesn't walk that way. And in contrast, verse 2, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth he meditate day and night. So here's the way of truth. This individual delights in the law of God. He meditates on that truth, and so he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bringeth forth his fruit in his season.

His leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. There are two ways. The way of lying, the way of truth. Proverbs chapter 23 and the 23rd verse says, buy the truth and sell it not. You hold on to it. You don't give it up. You don't sell out to anything that is falsehood.

Buy the truth. It's worth something. It's valuable. You lay hold of it. You secure it.

Do not sell it. Do not turn away from it. So there are two ways and there are two helps. Because even as he speaks of this right choice, I have chosen the way of truth. By judgments have I laid before me. He tells us about how he's going to be able to maintain traveling in that right path.

By the teaching of God's Word. He said in the 14th verse of Psalm 119, I have rejoiced in the way of thy testimonies as much as in all riches. This tells us that his priorities are such that above the concern about the riches of this world, he has rejoiced in the testimonies of God. So not only has he read them, not only has he meditated on them, he has rejoiced in them. He has acknowledged these are good. These are beneficial. These are worthwhile. These things are food for my soul.

I find strength and help in them. This help then from the teaching that we get from the Word itself is a tremendous benefit. Let's look at a New Testament passage, one that you're very familiar with, but just so you'll see that the same principle that we're reading about continuously here in the Old Testament is very vividly set forth in the book of 2 Timothy chapter 3. All scripture, this is verse 16, all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.

Here then is the source of great help. All scripture is given by the inspiration of God, breathed out by the Spirit of God. It's His message. It's His Word. It's for our benefit. It is profitable. It's profitable for doctrine, for teaching.

It's profitable for reproof. Something about our human nature that resists being reproved. Who wants to be told that they're wrong? I think that's one of the reasons you don't see people lined up at the door coming to hear a message where people are going to potentially be reproved.

Somebody says, I want to feel good about myself. I don't want to be told that I'm wrong. I don't want to be reproved, but that's one of the benefits of the Word of God, to reprove us. It's for correction, to correct us. When we see our error, when we see our sin, not only are we reproved, confronted about it, but we're corrected. We're given instruction and righteousness. We're told how then to turn in another direction and to live righteously in this present evil world. We have then this help, this teaching that we receive from the Word of God itself, but there's additional help.

If this was just an intellectual process for you reading something, always to keep it uppermost in your mind, indeed we would have to say that there would be repeated failure with little hope of success. But we turn to the book of Philippians chapter 2, and after giving this admonition that we are to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling, we're told in the 13th verse, for it is God which worketh in you both the will and to do of His good pleasure. Now that's reassuring, is it not?

To know that you're not just on your own. Do you have some responsibility? Absolutely. Will there be chastisement if you fail in your responsibility?

Yes. Whom the Lord loves, He chastens and scourges every son whom He receiveth. But you're not on your own. As a child of grace, the Holy Spirit dwells in you. He is at work in you. He is at work in you convicting you as you read the Word so that it's not just words on the page.

The message convicts you. You hear preaching. Sometimes a person will say, I don't know how that man knew so much about me. Well, it wasn't that the preacher had any complete knowledge of the details of that person's life. But the Word of God as it was preached and applied to the Holy Spirit was convicting. It hit home. The person says, you're describing me.

That's exactly what I've done. That's my failure. That's my sin.

That's the weakness of my flesh. There's conviction in it. And the Holy Spirit is there to bring about that conviction. And He's there to enable us when we see the weakness of our own human nature and say, how can I overcome?

He's there to assist us and enable us to live to His glory and praise. So there's a right choice that's been made. There are two ways.

There are two helps. But the significant thing is a decision was made. I have chosen the way of truth.

Some people have a lot of difficulty because they're very unstable. They're being tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine, every new idea and scheme that comes along. That's why the Lord has put pastor teachers in the church, according to Ephesians chapter 4, that you might not be tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine, but become established. But then the person can say, yes, I have made a choice. I have chosen to follow the Lord. I am determined.

I have turned from the things that I used to pursue. And in spite of the fact the struggle goes on, and in spite of the fact there are times that I have failed, I still stand with the choice that I've made. A great example of that is found in the book of Joshua chapter 24 and the 15th verse. And if it seemed evil unto you to serve the Lord, people having been so wonderfully blessed of God, having been favored above all other nations, yet were very quick to be influenced by the idolatrous practices of the heathen around them. So Joshua says, if it seemed evil to you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. In other words, if you're not going to serve God, then just pick one because one's just as useless as the next.

It doesn't really make any difference. You know, somebody would say, oh, don't you think that one religion is just as good as another? Yeah, when it comes to man-made religion, one's just about like another because it's all man-made. But Joshua said, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. We've made a choice. Our decision is we're not going to worship idols.

We're not going to be influenced by the practices of the heathen. We are going to serve the Lord and Him alone. Now, can you honestly say in your heart, I have made that decision? If that is your decision, how effectively does that influence every other decision that you make? When you think about the activities of your day-to-day life, how much of it displays the fact that you've made that kind of a decision? If somebody was able to trace your steps, hear your conversations, see how you use your time, see how you use your resources, would they be convinced? Here's a person who could stand right there with Joshua and say, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. That's the first and uppermost thing in my mind and heart.

Or is it sometimes kind of a side issue? I've got this project to take care of and this interest that I'm pursuing and this thing that I want to get done and this goal that I've set. Yes, I do want to serve the Lord. I want to go to church on Sunday.

That's wonderful. I certainly would not discourage that. I wish more were faithful in coming to God's house to worship Him. But this matter of serving the Lord is not just a Sunday situation.

It's something that should dominate every detail of our life. When you're at home, when you're at work, when you're interacting with people who are believers or interacting with people who are unbelievers, to constantly keep the focus before you, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. I have chosen the way of truth, not still analyzing which way to go and not still second-guessing like, well, maybe there's a better path over here. As a Christian, you remember, I was distracted in Pilgrim's Progress and went over the stile and crossed the fence and into Bipath Meadow, which looked like a more inviting way to travel.

But the consequences were very doleful as he wound up in the basement of Doubting Castle. Oh, may we be able to say with David, I have chosen the way of truth and thy judgments have I laid before me. That's what's going to keep me on track. I've chosen the way and I have your judgments, your word, your testimonies, your truth out before me and they're going to be a constant guide. If I find myself drifting in this direction or if I find myself veering off here, I've got your judgments before me. And it's going to be a reminder as to what choice I have made. What kind of a choice have you made?

Have you made a right choice? Are you delighting in the Word of God? Delighting in His statutes?

So that you have all that's necessary. The guidance, the strength, the comfort, all that you find so richly available to you in God's inspired book. Oh, how important as this psalm gives constant reference to the Word of God that we see the importance of making it a vital part of our lives every day that we live. Sweet the moments rich in blessing, which before the cross I spend, life and health and peace possessing from the sinner's dying friend. Here I sit forever viewing, mercy streaming in His blood, precious does my soul be doing, lead and claim my peace with God. Truly blessed is this station, longing for His cross to lie, while I see divine compassion holding in His languid eye. Here it is, I find my heaven, while upon the Lamb I gaze, love by much, I'm much forgiven, I'm a miracle of praise. Love and grief, my heart dividing, with my tears His feet I make, constant still in faith abiding, but deriving from His death. May I still enjoy this feeling, in all need to Jesus' goal. Through His wounds each day more healing, and Himself more deeply known. I hope the message has been a blessing to you today. If so, we'd love to hear from you. Our address is Baptist Bible Hour, Mach 17, 037, Cincinnati, Ohio 45217. Until the same time tomorrow, this is LaSara Bradley Jr. bidding you goodbye, and may God bless you. Praising my Savior all the day long.