A Blessed Walk - Part 1 of 2

This is LeSary Bradley, Jr., and I just wanted to convey a special message today to those of you listening on podcasts. I have to admit, when my staff first started talking to me about putting the broadcasts on podcasts, I didn't know what they were talking about.

I still don't understand it, but I'm thankful for it. Thankful that we can get the message out by another channel. And I just wanted to say how much I appreciate the fact that so many of you are listening to it. I was recently on a preaching trip to Jackson, Mississippi, and so many people came to me and said, I listen every day.

In fact, a number of them said that's the first thing I do in the morning, is listen to one of the programs on podcasts. So I just wanted to say I appreciate the fact that you're listening. I pray the message will be a blessing to you, and we'd love to hear from you.

Our mailing address is Baptist Bible Hour, Box 17037, Cincinnati, Ohio 45217. Thank you for listening, and may the Lord richly bless you. O for a thousand tongues to sing, my great Redeemer's praise, Thou the grace of my God and King, Thou triumphs of His grace. This is Listeria Bradley, Jr., welcoming you to another broadcast of the Baptist Bible Hour. I'm glad to be with you today.

I'm glad that you're here. We come now in our study in the Psalms to the longest psalm, Psalm 119, and we'll look at verses 1 to 8, which we've entitled, A Blessed Walk. I would appreciate you taking time to write us and help with the support of this broadcast. Our mailing address is the Baptist Bible Hour, Box 17037, Cincinnati, Ohio 45217. In our series, Sermons from the Psalms, we want to look today at Psalm 119. This psalm is very unique. It's the longest of the psalms. It has 176 verses.

It's divided into 22 sections, the number of letters in the Greek alphabet, and you will notice at the beginning of each section that that letter is given. There are eight verses in each section. There are at least eight terms in the entirety of the psalm that make reference to the Word of God. It talks about the law of God, His judgments, His statutes, of course His word, His commandments, His precepts, His testimonies, and His promises. In almost every verse in this psalm, there is some reference to the Word of God. The theme might well be described as respect for the Word of God and its practical use in the life of God's children. It describes the law of God as it assists us in pursuing a godly walk, in facing persecution, and in dealing with affliction. In this psalm, we find worship, praise, prayer, admonition, and certainly the experience and struggles of a child of God.

There are some differing opinions about who the author of the psalm may be, but most conclude that it is David who wrote most of the psalms, and we'll approach it from that vantage point. The writer of the psalm refers to the great value and usefulness of it. In verse 103, he refers to it as being his food. In verses 14 and 72, as well as some of the other verses, he talks about it being of great wealth, of more value to him than gold and silver and the riches of this world. Much attention has recently been given to the life of William Wilberforce through the movie Amazing Grace.

As you recall, he was a British statesman that had much to do with the abolition of slavery throughout the empire. In 1819, he wrote in his diary, walked today from Hyde Park corner repeating the 119th psalm with great comfort. Certainly interesting to think that a man who was as busy and active as was William Wilberforce had committed the 119th psalm to memory.

It would certainly be a great blessing to all of us if we would apply ourselves in memorizing at least portions of it. Let's look at the first section reading verses 1 to 8. Blessed are the undefiled in the way who walk in the law of the Lord. Blessed are they that keep his testimonies and that seek him with the whole heart. They also do no iniquity.

They walk in his ways. Thou has commanded us to keep thy precepts diligently. All that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes. Then shall I not be ashamed when I have respect unto all thy commandments. I will praise thee with uprightness of heart when I shall have learned thy righteous judgments. I will keep thy statutes.

O forsake me not utterly. In verse 1, we see a blessed walk. This word blessed refers to those who are favored for the grace of God.

Walking in a way that brings them happiness, peace, and joy. Sad to say that there are multitudes today that seek happiness, not in this blessed way, but in the wrong way. They assume that they'll find happiness in the accumulation of material things. They work hard to get riches. They sometimes neglect their families, in some cases even principles of honesty, because their goal is to be rich.

And frequently they discover that the thing toward which they have so diligently labored has failed to yield to them the satisfaction that they thought they would find in it. Others seek to gain some status in society, feeling if I can just be recognized, if I can be esteemed highly by others, then I'm going to have true happiness. Many today feel that if I can just be free of any restrictions, if I can just not have to live by the rules, if I can be independent, I'm going to find real happiness then. This is sadly the case with many teenagers today. They have the idea that the rules that have been set up by their parents are far too restrictive. They're being deprived of the privileges and the joys that others seem to be experiencing. I've talked to some that said, I just can't wait until I'm old enough to leave home. Once I can make all my own decisions, once I can do what I want to do, or sometimes they forget that right now they're enjoying free room and board and that there are going to be some obligations and responsibilities they'll have to be thinking about once they do leave. But you know the scriptures tell us about a young man who had that spirit.

I just want to get out on my own. He asked his father for his inheritance and he spent it in riotous living. He no doubt was having a great time while he had plenty of money in his pocket. But one day he learned it doesn't grow on trees, it ran out. And he had to get a job feeding the swine, which was not a very respectable position among the Jews. And when he fain would have filled his belly with the husk that the swine did eat, he said, I'll go to my father and say I've sinned against heaven and of thy sight and am not worthy to be called thy son. Here was a young man that thought if I can just be free from the rules and regulations and live my own life the way I want to live it, I will be happy.

And it brought him to devastation. Sadly, how many have been brought to even greater ruin as they've experimented with drugs and alcohol and various other things that they concluded would truly give them pleasure and happiness. But the right way is depicted here. Blessed are the undefiled in the way who walk in the law of the Lord.

Walk in it. It's not just a matter of academic study, examining the law, looking at the word of God, trying to become better versed in it. Of course, we all need to know more about it. We all need to apply ourselves. We all need to read it.

It's profitable to memorize it. But this verse is talking about more than just gaining an intellectual knowledge of what it says. It talks about walking, walking in this way. It speaks of the undefiled. Obviously it does not suggest that these individuals are sinlessly perfect. But they are blameless from the standpoint that there is a complete dedication on their part to walking in the way and to serving God and honoring Him.

And this is their aim and goal in life. We ask the question, what is the way of your heart? Those who walk in the way, in the law of the Lord, are blessed, are happy.

What is the way of your heart? Is there something there that interferes with your communion with God? Do you truly pray, Lord, search me? Help me to know what's within me.

Let's look at Psalm 139, verse 23. Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. Are you sometimes reluctant to pray that prayer? You really prefer not to discover all that's down deep inside?

But that's a needful prayer. Lord, search me. If I try to search myself, I'm going to be too gentle. There's some things I may try to cover up, some things I may try to ignore, but Lord, I pray that Thou will search me.

Know my thoughts. If there's any wicked way in me, help me to see it. Lead me in the way everlasting. I want to walk in the right way. What is Your walk? In the book of 1 John, chapter 2, verse 6, it tells us that we are to walk even as He walked. Is Your walk following the example and pattern set by Jesus Christ?

Is it a walk that is in union with Him? We go to the words of Jesus in the Gospel of John, chapter 15, verse 5. And the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit, for without me ye can do nothing. It is only as we abide in Christ that we can bring forth fruit. Are you abiding in Him?

Are you walking in this way of His truth and keeping with His commandments? Verse 2 presents an earnest desire. These are to they that keep His testimonies and that seek Him with the whole heart. These who are walking in the way, these who are favored, these who are blessed, these who are finding happiness in the Lord are those that seek Him with the whole heart. Obviously there are those who fail to seek at all.

And there are those who do not seek properly. They have a divided heart. The Lord spoke of that to His people long ago. We look at the book of Hosea, chapter 10, verse 2. Hosea, chapter 10, verse 2. Their heart is divided.

Now shall they be found faulty. He shall break down their altars. He shall spoil their images. What does it mean, their heart was divided? God said that I should have no other gods before me. But they often were divided in their loyalty.

They were intrigued by the idols of the pagans around them and began to worship false gods. They had a divided heart. Jesus tells us in the Sermon on the Mount that we can't properly serve God, worship Him if we have a divided heart.

Matthew, chapter 6, verse 24. No man can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. You cannot serve God and riches. Jesus says it's impossible. Sometimes there are Christians that do not understand the fact that there's always an inner turmoil. There never seems to be real contentment and peace and satisfaction.

And they don't want to face what the real difficulty is. You cannot serve two masters if your heart is divided. You're simply giving lip service to the Lord. But in reality, your life is on another course. You're far more concerned about material gain.

You're more concerned about prestige and acceptance. You're more concerned about the very things of this world that we're told not to love than you are about loving God with all your mind, heart, soul, and strength. In the book of Ezekiel, chapter 33, verse 31, it says that they come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them, for with their mouth they show much love, but their heart goeth after covetousness.

Here again is an example of this divided state. They sit before you, the Lord says, sit before you as my people. They hear your words, but they don't do them. Their heart goes after covetousness. They say all the right things, they draw nigh with their mouth, but their heart is far from me.

What about you? Are you seeking God as this text indicates that you ought? Or is it a fact that your heart is divided? Blessed are they that keep His testimonies and that seek Him with the whole heart. It's a blessing to seek God in this fashion. Psalm 27, verse 8, When thou saidest, Seek ye my face, my heart said unto thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek. This is the call of the Lord.

Seek ye my face. What's your response? Do you begin to make excuses?

Do you say my situation is such, I've got so much on my plate right now, I've got so many pressures, so many burdens, I know I ought to be doing that, but I can't do it right now. What was the response of the psalmist? David said, Thy face, Lord, will I seek.

We're talking about a complete commitment. Not seeking God half-heartedly, with a divided heart, with divided interests, with divided loyalties, but seeking Him, seeking Him with a full commitment of heart. Let's look at the book of Jeremiah, chapter 29, verse 12. Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. And ye shall seek me and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart. Have you sometimes said, I can't seem to find the Lord?

I feel He's a distance from me, I feel a barrenness, a coldness. Have you sought Him with all your heart? I will be found of you, saith the Lord. I will come to you when you seek me. You're going to find me when you search for me. You're going to search for me with all your heart.

Oh, that that might be true with every one of us. How are you seeking Him? Are you seeking Him by going to His word to hear what He says?

Some rely more on impressions and feelings and experience, but we mustn't rely on experience and then go to the Bible to try to justify it. We must go to the Word of God to see what God says and then make the right application in our own lives and experience. How are you seeking Him diligently in prayer, continuing to call upon Him, knowing your desperate need of Him? You know, you can talk all day long about how much you need the Lord and how weak you know you are, but if you don't really pray, there's no indication that that's exactly how you feel about it.

It's this lip service of saying all the right things. I'm weak, I need the Lord, but your heart is far from Him and you're failed to diligently seek His face. Psalm 105 verse 4 says, Seek the Lord and His strength, seek His face evermore. Are you seeking Him, seeking God, seeking His face?

And then the third verse of this psalm describes a great change. They also do no iniquity, they walk in His ways. I was talking about these individuals who are blessed, talking about the undefiled in the way, talking about those who seek God with a whole heart. They do no iniquity, they walk in His ways. Now by nature, we know that's not the case.

None of us according to our human nature walk in the way. In the book of Genesis chapter 6, God described the condition of man in that ancient time. Verse 5, And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Really that's a vivid description of man's depravity, man's fallen state.

Apart from grace, that's where we are. You know sometimes people will say, well God looked down upon the human race and saw in advance those who would seek Him and choose Him. What God saw when He looked down upon humanity was not a beautiful picture of people doing the right thing, moving in the right direction. He saw man in a wicked state. He saw that every imagination and thought of his heart was only evil continually.

You may have been brought up in a Christian home, you may have never involved yourself in some of the terrible gross sins that cause people to be appalled and repulsed, but nevertheless, in your human nature, you are as much a sinner as anybody else. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Isaiah chapter 53 verse 6 says that we have turned everyone to His own way. That's our desire in nature. You see that in a little child. As much as we love little children, as beautiful as they are, as much as we appreciate them, have you ever seen one that didn't want His own way? It's inborn.

And you know where they got that? From mother and father. Sometimes the mother says, well, we got it from your side. Poor little fella got it from both sides.

Can't lay the blame on one side or the other. Self-will determined. I can be charming. I can be delightful as long as you let me have my own way. But you put me in the crib when I want to be up, and I'll make you as miserable as possible.

I just want my own way. And then, you see, when they get up a little older, and they haven't been disciplined and subdued, they're still determined. Now, really, the inborn desire in this old human nature never goes away. You know, you begin to think, maybe as I mature and get older, I'll finally reach the place in life that I won't have any trouble with the old Adam nature any longer. And you discover he continues to lift his ugly head, and you still have to go through that conflict and battle and say with the beloved apostle, old wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Conflict goes on.

So that's the way one goes by nature. Bona says, they also do no iniquity. Once again, we are aware that he is not talking about reaching a state of sinlessness here because we learn in the first epistle of John that if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.

But he is talking about those who gain victory in their lives. That's described for us in the book of Romans chapter 6. Verse 14 says, For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law, but under grace. Because now you have been born of the Holy Spirit, because you're a new creature in Christ Jesus, though you still sin, though you still have your faults and failings, though you still must confess, and his promise is that if we confess our sins, it's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, but sin no longer has dominion over you.

You're not enslaved by it. By the enabling power of the Holy Spirit, you can overcome and live righteously and godly in this present evil world. Verse 22, But now being made free from sin and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life.

Now you've been made free. Free from that slavish bondage from which you could not deliver yourself, but by the grace of God, you have new interests, new desires, and by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, you're able to have victory over those many temptations that would so easily beset you. So we're observing here those that by the grace of God have a significant change, because they do know iniquity, they walk in his ways. Verse 4 describes for us a diligent pursuit. Thou hast commanded us to keep thy precepts diligently. He has commanded us. If God commands us to do something, we certainly ought to be interested in understanding what that command is, how we can carry it out, how we can honor him, what we can do that will be pleasing in his sight.

It's not a matter to be ignored or to be postponed. Often this is one of the struggles when parents are disciplining and training their children and teaching them to obey. They have the idea that when the commandment is given, when the order is delivered, they have time to contemplate the whole matter, review it, analyze it, think about it, postpone it until they feel that it's an appropriate time to do what they've been asked to do. But if the child is honoring mother and father and is obedient to them as they ought, it's not a matter of negotiating the commandment.

It's not a matter of postponing it until you feel that it's a more inappropriate time, but to do it and to do it now, to do it immediately. So we ought to be vitally interested to know what our Heavenly Father has commanded us and desire to do it now. We depend on our listeners for support to keep the broadcast on the air. If you'd like to help keep it on your station, you can make a donation by going to our website at BaptistBibleHour.org. And until we greet you at the same time tomorrow, Sarah Bradley Jr. bidding you goodbye and may God bless you. O Savior, raising my Savior, O God in all.