If you have your Bibles tonight, if you want to join me, we're looking at Psalm 119. We've been doing a study through Psalm 119, and tonight we're looking at a message I've entitled Winning the Battle Within.
Anybody ever feel like there's a battle within that you're facing? And tonight I trust this will be an encouragement to you. We're going to read verse 25 down to verse number 32. The Bible says, My soul cleaves, or cleaveth unto the dust, quicken, or could also be translated as revive, or make alive, thou me according to thy word. I have declared my ways, and thou hurtest me, teach me thy statutes. Make me to understand the way of thy precepts, so shall I talk of thy wondrous works. My soul melteth for heaviness.
You ever feel that way? Strengthen thou me according unto thy word. Remove from me the way of lying, and grant me thy law graciously.
I have chosen the way of truth. Thy judgments have I laid before me. I have stuck unto thy testimonies, O Yahweh, or O Lord, put me not to shame. I will run the way of thy commandments, when thou shalt enlarge my heart. Father, again we thank you for your word tonight. Let it be our meat, our drink, our wisdom, our vision, our understanding, and I pray that we would find ourself like clay in the potter's hand to be molded and fashioned, that we might leave here looking less like ourself and more like Christ, with the mind of Christ, that we would walk like Christ, that we would put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and that all these things would come to pass, that in all we do you would be glorified.
You are worthy of that. We ask it in Jesus' name. And God's people said, man you may be seated.
So tonight we're going to be looking again at a message entitled, Winning the Battle Within. And the Bible-centered life is a life that is God-centered, and those who have the Word of God leading them have God leading them. Those who quote Scripture quote God. Those who delight in the Word of God delight in the God of the Word. And as you reflect upon the priority of God's Word in your life, you are able to see the priority of God in your life. What we do with His Word is really what we are doing with Him. And it's really hard to separate God from His Word because God has revealed Himself to us through the Word, so much so that Jesus in fact labeled Himself as the Word of God in John 1-1, that in the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God. In verse 14 the Word was made flesh.
And even in Revelation 19 it says that on His thigh a name is written and He's called the Word of God. So tonight I know the Word of God is valuable to you, or you wouldn't be here knowing that in front of you is a lengthy sermon. But the Word of God is a necessity for us. It is so valuable that it must be placed in the make time category of our life. There are things in life that you prioritize and I prioritize that we just don't go without.
I have to have that. If you think about your morning and you ask the question, what do you need to have in the morning, and a lot of people say I need my coffee. See, I need my coffee. Who drinks it just black? Okay, some of you guys will get a better heart later.
Who drinks it with something that's sanctifying, like caramel drip or hazelnut? These are spiritual additions that you can make. Okay, yeah, see, okay. Hey, raise your hand if you're with me, right? The black only will catch up on these days, y'all with me? Yeah, their palate will grow.
Don't write me letters, I'm gonna take some heat for this afterwards. There are things that we enjoy having. Those are okay to do. Those are things that you appreciate and thank God for all the blessings that he gives us in food and drink and all of these kind of things. But we make time for things we really, really see as a priority. And I can tell you, friends, when we say I make time for the Word of God, what it's saying is I'm making time for the God of the Word.
He is such a priority to my life that everything else needs to hold until I spend time with him. And that's one thing I just so love about Psalm 119 because it's a chapter written by someone saturated in the Word of God. What's it like to be around somebody that's so saturated that they would say 176 verses and only three or four of those verses do not make a reference to the Word of God?
You ever been around that person? I haven't until I came to Psalm 119. I haven't talked to somebody that every single sentence they said out of 176 sentences was directed toward the Word of God except three or four.
That's crazy. This is a person that's consumed with the Word of God. And it is very interesting that God reserved the longest chapter in the Bible about his Word. There's no chapter in the Bible that has a driving theme that is so dominant that it puts it in every verse. It's like what, you know, the word meno is the word abiding and I think about John 15, abide in me, my words abide in you. The word abide is, I think it's used 11 times in John 15. But that doesn't even come close to how many times the Word of God is referred to. There's eight different synonyms used for the Word of God, eight different words that are utilized to elevate the Word of God and different aspects of it. It's called the judgment of the Lord, the precepts of the Lord, the Word of the Lord, the commandments of the Lord. But you get to just read about what does this guy say?
What does he do different than I do? What did the Word of God mean to him that maybe it doesn't mean to me the same level that it means to him, though I want it to be that? And so we get to see that as we navigate through this. And I pray that tonight we will continue to be molded. I think, you know, my dad would always say, birds of a feather flock together, right? Whoever you're around, you begin to be conformed to, you begin to mold yourself to. And I always tell this to young people, especially, that get in the stream that's going in the direction you want to go in in life, right? Show me your surroundings and I'll show you your future, right? Show me your friends and that's the direction you're going to end up in. So you want to get in a stream that it's like, I would like to end up over there, well if that river is running this way, then get in that one. If that river is running this way, you don't want to swim upstream the whole time to get to it. And so when you come to certain passages in the Bible, you want to get in the stream that's moving you in that direction. You want to get around the influences that will guide you there.
And this is one of those opportunities. So the battle within, how to win the battle within, and I'm sure we all deal with this, so how do I gain that victory? And there's four truths tonight we'll extract from this. The first one is in verse 25.
We need to have the right perspective, the right perspective. He says, My soul cleaveth unto the dust. The word cleaveth here, it's a word that means to be glued to, to adhere, to fasten to something.
The idea is that it's not easily removed. You're connected to it. The word dust here may mean either, and this is important, it can either mean like earthly, earthly things, something that's considered low, base, and worldly, worldly, or it may mean the grave as if we were near to dying. Our bodies go into the dust.
From dust we come and dust we return. But the force of the word cleave, most commentators agree, better represents the idea that the soul was glued or fastened to the things of this world. And that's what I believe strongly that this is talking about, as well as the rest of the text. Spurgeon writes, Here it seems to me, we have the psalmist in trouble, bewailing the bondage to earthly things in which he finds his mind to be held. There is a tendency in his soul to cling to earth which he greatly bewails. And so he is in a level of distress over this. His soul is lamenting his affections for base things.
Have you ever been there? You're like, Do I really still desire that? Am I really still struggling with that temptation, that desire?
Is that still hanging on to me after all these years? And you may look at this and say, Well, I thought this was a man who was an example of one who loved God and His Word. How could he be struggling with an attachment to worldly things? Well, he is a godly man and who loved the Word of God. And those who truly know God most know themselves best. Those who see God for how pure and holy and righteous He is always are evidenced by someone who is a humble person. You'll notice somebody who is walking really close to the Lord, they don't boast of their abilities. They usually boast, like Paul said, If I boast in anything, let it be of my weaknesses. The closer you get to the Lord, you don't do self boasting, you do Christ boasting because you're humiliated because you look at Him more than you do other people. And when you look at Him most, you always see yourself very small.
Right? I mean, if I went out and threw football with Peyton Manning every day, I'm like, I'm pathetic at this. Y'all with me? But if I went out and threw with say, like, I don't know, Eric Howard, I'd be like, you know, I'm pretty good at this. No, he could probably out throw me, I don't know. But he's a good person to humble right now, I think.
So I'm teasing. He's a very humble man. I, you know, who we compare ourselves to really shows a lot about us. And I can tell you, if you spend a lot of time with the Lord, you're not going to walk away proud. You're not going to think more of yourself. Nobody goes to the Grand Canyon and says, I'm awesome.
You look at the Grand Canyon and say, I am puny. What do you think we would say before the presence of God? As a person grows in their walk with God, they will grow in self awareness. You know, I think about Paul in Romans seven, Romans eight, Isaiah, Isaiah six, John and John one, Ezekiel, Ezekiel chapter one.
I mean, you just read about these guys. They were so, so humbled by the glory of God's presence. So this psalmist was walking close to the Lord and he saw his fleshly desires as that which cleaves to the dust and it grieved him. Matthew Henry says, while the souls of the children of this world cleave to the earth as their portion, the children of light are greatly burdened because of the remains of carnal affections in their hearts. So do you ever feel yourself grieved by the earthly desires that remain in your body? You long to live for Christ in the inner man, but you feel the old man reaching for the base things of this world. The struggle is real.
The struggle is intense. And in response to this inward struggle, he prays, he says, my soul cleaves into the dust, quicken me according to thy word. It could also be translated as revive me, cause me to live, give me strength to break away from this fleshly bondage to earthly things, this low affection to the things of earth. This is literally a prayer for revival. The definition of a revival is a bringing or coming back to use attention or being after a decline.
It's restoring to vigor or activity, returning to life or consciousness. David Guzik says, revival comes from a sense of spiritual need and lowliness. True revival is biblical. It's marked by a shame, by a shamed awareness of your sin and an urgency to confess and make it right. And what is the source of revival?
Like what brings it about? The thing that brings around revival is the word of God. That's why when you come here, you know the word of God is going to be taught and preached because what else would you receive?
What else could revive you? The last couple Sundays, I pray that we would be revived in forgiving, that we would be stirred up to forgive. It sanctifies, doesn't it?
It challenges us. The source which would break the bondage of dusty living and bring revival to the backslider is the word of God. One of the things I have found to be so sanctifying is scripture memorization, so rewarding. I would encourage you, if you don't do it as a daily practice, implement scripture memorization.
It is one of the best things you will find. And if you're not doing it, I promise you, you don't realize the jewels that you're missing. It is a benefit that is better than you realize until you begin to saturate your mind. And I'm not talking like trying to memorize just one verse, one week, and then you don't do it again. I'm talking about every day setting aside 10, 15, 20 minutes just for focused scripture memorization.
Focused memorization. It is an incredibly sanctifying thing to your mind. I can't elevate the benefit enough. God's word is a cleanser of the soul. It revives us. Jesus said, you're clean through the word that I've spoken. And if you want to break from worldly earthly preoccupation, from living in the valley of this earth, from the wrong affections and misguided goals, draw close to the word of God. Remember, all that we do for this earthly life at best is temporary, and everything we do for God is at worst eternal.
That's the way to really set the pace. So the first thing we have to do is have the right perspective. Does your soul struggle with earthly desires? Do you need to revive and make the word of God the source of cleansing and revival in your heart? Secondly, the right honesty, verse 26, he says, I have declared my ways and thou hurtest me. So after the psalmist took an honest look at himself, it was time for him to get honest with God. The faults he saw in himself, he needed to confess.
I like what Spurgeon said, our confessions are not meant to make God know our sins, but for us to know our sins. God is never like, you did what? Isn't that the great terror of telling our parents what we did wrong? You did what?
You did what? It's like, the worst news was when they would, I hate confessing my sin like this, but when I would go to the principal's office as a young kid and they would say this statement, the all dreaded statement, we have contacted your father. I'm like, you might as well just put me in jail now, I would feel better. My dad used to say this, he said, if you go to jail, he said, I'm not getting you out. I said, dad, if I go to jail, I don't want you to get me out. I feel very good about that. A lot more safe there than when I come home to you.
If I got in trouble like that in school, I couldn't imagine if I got myself in jail. What a blessing to have a healthy fear of parental authority. He said, I have declared my ways. We don't confess to God because God needs our information.
It's because we need to understand our condition. I've declared my ways. I have not held back. I am exposing everything to God. And when is the last time you got real honest with the Lord and said, this is where I'm struggling, Father.
This is the battle within. Begin to open up, get very honest. If we can't get honest with the one who already knows, we're living in deception. The problem with many of us is we have not gotten honest with God. We will not get honest with God until we have come to grips with our own reality. We like to always say we like to turn our black sins into gray sins.
Well, it's really not that bad. Sometimes people say this if I ask them, you ever told a lie before? And they're like, well, not like a black lie.
It's more of a white lie. We sanctify things in our life. The psalmist declared his ways to the Lord. He recounted and proclaimed to God the wrong earthly affections of his heart that he had struggles with. One of my annual reads is The Pursuit of God. I love to read that.
I try to do it every year. He closes most chapters with a prayer. And the weight of his prayers affected me as a young man. I thought, I've never heard somebody pray like this. I've never really read people's prayers much back then.
And it was just, it was so convicting. I thought, he's so honest about his weakness. I've never heard somebody pray with such honesty of their own weakness. I still remember reading this and just being taken back because I was like, man, I thought Tozer was like a really spiritual guy. He's like the rest of us.
He has struggles too? Let me just read you the prayer that he writes on chapter four. He says, Father, I want to know you, but my cowardly heart fears to give up its toys.
I cannot part with them without inward bleeding, and I do not try to hide from you the terror of the parting. I come trembling, but I do come. Please root from my heart all those things I have cherished so long, and which have become a very part of my living soul. I come trembling, my living self, so that thou mayest enter and dwell there without arrival. Then shalt thou make the place of thy feet glorious. Then shall my heart have no need of the sun to shine in it, for thy self will be the light of it, and there shall be no night there. In Jesus' name.
Amen. I didn't know strong Christians prayed like that. I thought that's what sinners would probably come up with in a less articulate way. But to find out, that's actually what the people who walk closest to the Lord talk like.
You would think there's something wrong in their life, but actually it's that everything is right in their life. There is a paradox of Christian growth. The closer you get, the further you seem to be. The further you seem to be. The more wisdom you have in the Word, the more of a fool you realize you can be.
Everybody's smart next to certain people, right? But you get close to God and His Word and begin to grasp the depth and the height and the breadth and the length and width and all the circumference. You're like the eight-ounce cup at the edge of the ocean, and you're just like, man, I am so small. Think about Psalm 139. God knows our ways. The question is, do we know ours?
I love Psalm 139. He says, oh Lord, you have searched me. You know me. You know my down-sitting.
You know my uprising. You understand. The phrase, you know it's my thought of far off. What that means is, it doesn't mean that God's like far away and then He can know our thoughts. He's saying, you know my thought a long time before my thought even originates and comes to fruition. Before the thought is birthed, you already know what's going to be thought. You precede thoughts that I have, and you know they're on their way.
You know my thoughts, a far off. Thou can passest my path in my lying down. You are acquainted with all my ways. There is not a word in my tongue, but lo, oh Lord, you know it all together. You've beset me behind before. You've laid your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. He said, it is high.
I cannot attain to it. And he starts going into the omnipresence of God. He concludes the chapter in 23 and 4. Because God knows everything about Him before He even does it, He's like under the light. He's like, I didn't realize this light was that luminous. And he cries out, oh search me, oh Lord, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts, and see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way of everlasting. That's a man who's gotten honest with God. It's the prayer of verse 26, I have declared my ways. I'm getting open and honest with God.
I just think that we live in a world of people hiding things, deception, lies, deceit, all over our world today. If you want God to give you victory over the battle within, then you need to get real about what is within. And so what do you need to get honest with God about? In verse 26 he says this, I have declared my ways, and thou hurtest me. When he got honest with God, God heard him. I think it's important for us when we pray not to forget to praise God for hearing us. Worship Him for hearing us.
He declared His ways and God was near. Do you know there's never been a prayer that God is not going to hear if you come to Him with humility? The Bible says if I regard sin in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. He will not hear the prayer of the prideful and the sinful-hearted person, but He will hear the prayer of His people. So we need to have the right perspective.
We need to have the right honesty. Thirdly, we need to have the right prayer. Verse 26, I declared my ways, thou hurtest me. Teach me thy statutes. Make me to understand the way of thy precepts, so I shall talk of thy wondrous works.
My soul melteth for heaviness. Strengthen thou me according to thy word. What beautiful verses. Verse 29, remove from me the way of lying and grant me thy law graciously.
I love that statement in verse 26, teach me thy statutes. You ever have somebody in your life that you're doing something and they come along and say, could you teach me about that? Don't you love a teachable spirit? It is so important to me. It is so refreshing.
Could you teach me how to do that? I would really like to learn. And they begin to ask you questions. And for anybody who's a teacher, they like drool drips out.
They're like, really? I remember when I was a youth pastor, I would just comb it over the word. I'd get a lesson ready. I'd be so fired up about it. I'd come into Sunday school in the morning at like nine o'clock and I'm so fired up. I was so fired up as a youth pastor. And I'd have a dozen kids in there glazed over.
They're sleepy. Did you bring your Bibles? And I'm like, well, you're going to get it this morning.
It's coming out even hotter now, boys. And I get so fired up. And I used to pray, God, could you just give me one person that loves your word to come to Sunday school in the morning? Just somebody who wants to hear the truth. And I would get so, you know, and I remember when Eric Woodworth got saved, this converted atheist would like sit in the front and he's like, yeah, be like asking questions. I'm like, there it is. I just needed one, my soul.
I just need somebody who wants to learn the Bible. And he would come to me with dozens and dozens of questions. You know why God's using him on the mission field? Because he's a teachable person.
He wanted it and he was feeding on it, satiating himself, just drinking it up. Are you teachable? You know what a clean heart does?
A clean heart becomes teachable. When the wrong affections and desires of the world are inundating a heart, a heart becomes too consumed and preoccupied. It becomes Martha-ized. Don't look that word up in the dictionary. I create words sometimes.
It should be a word. The preoccupied heart is very unteachable. We've all been there, haven't we? You wake up in the morning. I can tell you what will cause problems with your ability to focus on the Word of God, because all of us have woke up in the morning. We begin to read the Bible. You ever start reading through a chapter and you're like, what did I just read?
Does anybody else have this problem, being in confession? It's like, I don't even remember. Did I even read the whole chapter?
You ever do that? You go through 20 verses and you're totally thinking about something else, totally consumed with it. You're able to read.
God gave us the capacity. We could read it even out loud, but your mind's literally thinking about something else over here the whole time. So I've learned in my life there's some things I've had to do to prepare myself for the Word of God. I do this in the mornings. The first thing is I do not, as best as I ever can, unless I'm not wise that morning, I never try to ever look at any news, media, or anything before I get in the Bible.
There is an acute focused ability, and I'm not scientific on this and I've never talked to a doctor about this, I just know by personal reality. Once my mind watches like a video, once my mind gets focused, because I'm very focused in the morning, so once I start getting captured by something, it's hard for me to get captured by something else. So don't look at anything till the Word of God's been looked at.
It can wait. The second thing is I usually like sing a song to the Lord by myself. This is just personal practice. I love certain songs of praise and worship toward God, and so I usually, you know, get my guitar on my office, spend time praising the Lord for a moment, and then I get into 10, 20 minutes of scripture memorization, and I'm extremely focused at that point. And I tell you, when I get done focusing on the Word of God for 20 minutes, scripture memorization, my mind is very lucid about what I'm reading, like I'm super focused. Then I spend time in prayer, and then I get into the reading of the Word. But if you just have barely woken up, grab a cup of coffee, and you're wiping sleep out of your eye, and you're trying to read without any type of preparation, that's not wrong to do.
It's better to read than not read. But when I used to play sports, I didn't just like, hey, I'm gonna, you guys ready to play? I didn't just roll out of bed and go out on the field. I would eat right before it.
I would stretch. There were a lot of times like hours of honestly preparation going into that for football games, basketball games. I mean, there was a lot that went into it, getting taped up, getting stretched out, practice shooting.
I mean, there was a lot that went into it. Why would we treat God less than a ball game? So just, I'm not saying you have to spend an hour getting ready for the Word of God, but I'm saying to just prepare your heart because, or you can be the person that says, man, I always struggle with focus when I read the Bible, because we saturate our mind with the world, and we give God a little bit of leftover. But if we detach from some of that stuff sometimes, and that's why I think in the morning is always the best. I just, I'm a morning proponent of reading the Bible, because you haven't faced the day yet.
It would be better to get into the Word of God, better to get into the Word, and get where you need to be with the Lord early on, so that you have that to carry throughout the day. And I would say the teachable heart is a humble heart. The soul seeks to be taught. You know, Jesus said in Mark 4 23, He said, if anyone hears, that has ears to hear, He said, let him hear. He says, take heed what you hear, and with the measure that you use or you meet, it will be measured to you, and to you that hear, more will be given. Jesus is literally telling us in Mark's gospel, chapter 4 23 through 24, whatever kind of hearing you bring to me, I'm going to measure back understanding to you. And the proportion of hearing that you give me, you can think about it like a cup. The size of the bowl of hearing that you bring to me, I will measure and proportion back to you that amount of understanding.
So what kind of bowl do you want to bring God in the morning? Is it making sense? This is what Jesus said. It's one of the most powerful, potent scriptures. Verse 27, He says, so shall I talk of thy wondrous works. Again, once you have been taught the Word, you will talk about the Word.
You ever notice that? You ever learn some great truth? What do you do? You just start talking about the Word of God. I love talking about the Word of God with my family. We talk about the Word of God. I like talking about the Word of God with people. People come to me for counseling, one of the benefits.
Some of you guys are like counselors in other settings, and we're so thankful that you're a Christian able to do that in the world. So for you, sometimes it can be challenging because it's like there's certain boundaries about how you can navigate some of those conversations. But for me, it's like, you know what you're getting.
You come to my office, or if I come to your house and sit down. We are going to one source, and it's coming up. It's going to be talked through thoroughly, and we're going to dive right into what the Bible would say about something like that. And when you've learned the Word, you want to share that. That's why the Bible says in Luke 6 45, a good man out of the good treasure's heart brings forth good things. What's in the well comes up in the bucket, right?
I mean, you're going to share what God has taught you. And then he goes on in verse number 28. He says, my soul melts for heaviness.
Strengthen me according to thy word. The word melteth here is the Hebrew word dalaf. It means to drop or to drip. In Ecclesiastes 10 18, it was used to speak of water dripping, and I was waiting for like a dripping of like one of Solomon's many wives, but it wasn't about that.
It was about the dripping through the roof of a house in Ecclesiastes 10 18. So having a slow leak, something that just keeps dripping, he says, my soul melts. In Job 16 20, it spoke of tears dripping. Here it looks to clearly speak of the Psalmist's soul literally melting or dripping with tears because of what heavy things what heavy things they're going through. The idea is that he has a steady flow of tears.
This isn't this isn't someone gushing out tears. This is just a steady weight, grieving, constantly, slowly dripping with tears. And what was causing him grief? He says, my soul melteth for heaviness.
The word means grief, sorrow, being vexed. Spurgeon says, heaviness of heart is a killing thing. And when it abounds, it threatens to turn life into a long death, in which a man seems to drop away perpetual drip of grief. Now, what was this heaviness from? I think it would have to be from sin of some kind, whether his sin or somebody sinning against him. And what is more grievous than sin?
What's heavier than that? Best selling second best selling book in the English language, in the history of the English language, only behind the Bible is John Bunyan's book, Pilgrim's Progress. It is an allegorical depiction of the weight and heaviness of sin. And Bunyan captures this as he writes, as I walk through the wilderness of this world, I came upon a certain place where it was a den. And I laid me down in that place to sleep. And as I slept, I dreamed a dream. And I dreamed and behold, I saw a man clothed with rags, standing in a certain place with his face from his house, a book in his hand and a great burden upon his back. I looked and saw him open the book and read therein. And as he read, he wept and trembled.
And not being able longer to contain, he break out with a lamentable cry, saying, What shall I do? And in the story, he finally comes to the cross and the tomb on his journey. And he finds relief from his burden. Bunyan goes on and says, Thus far did I come laden with my sin, nor could ought ease the grief that I was in till I came there.
What a place is this? Must here be the beginning of my bliss? Must here be the burden fall from my back?
Must here the strings that bound it to me crack? Blessed cross, blessed sepulchre, blessed be the man that was there put to shame for me. Friend, if you're grieved over sin, if sin is burdening you, there is relief from that. And the relief comes through casting that down before God, repentance, and a cleansing that only the Lord can give. And here the psalmist prays in his praise and his heaviness for relief.
And where else can he go? For strength, but to the Lord. So whether he was a personal sin or somebody sitting against him, he's carrying this burden, and he's feeling like a constant drip of tears from the weight of this.
And notice where he goes to for relief. He says here, Psalm 119 verse 28, Strengthen thou me according unto thy word. The curse of heaviness finds its cure in the word.
The curse is cured in the word. What strength God's word gives to the believer, it's the rock upon which we stand. Have you ever come in a place in life where you're just so weighed down, you feel so burdened, you feel so distressed, and then it's like a light came on in the scriptures when you were reading it or in a sermon that you were hearing, and God's word just brought such peace, some truth. It was almost like supernaturally given to you.
It was almost as though God was speaking directly to you through his word, which he does. You know the Bible says in Psalm 27 14, Wait on the Lord, be of good comfort and he shall strengthen thine heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord.
Do you think Mary and Martha could have prayed that? Wait on the Lord. We've been waiting four days. Wait, just wait on the Lord.
He's already dead, just wait on the Lord. He'll strengthen your heart. Isaiah 40 29, He gives power to the faint and to them that have no might. He increases strength.
That's good news. He says in verse 29, Remove from me the way of lying and grant me thy law graciously. He says, Take away from me lying. Lying here refers to every false, deceitful, and hypocritical way. It wasn't simply speaking something false. It was living in a way and having wrong motives when he should be doing what is right. Alexander Barnes says, On nothing does a man need more to examine himself, and nothing does he need more to the need of grace of God than that he may be sincere.
Let me live a life that is true, that is sincere, that is upright, not false or lying or deceitful, but one of integrity. It is interesting when you read the Bible, how much lying went on in the Bible. Didn't Cain lie? Didn't Cain lie? Where is your brother Abel? Am I my brother's keeper? That's a deceitful response, isn't it?
Of course he knows where he's at. He killed him. Abraham lied about his wife. Isaac lied about his wife.
David lied before Achish, acting crazy. Peter lied. Ananias and Sapphira lied. Satan is the father of lies, John 844. God cannot lie, Titus 1-2. Do you lie?
Do you lie? You know God says in Proverbs 6, 16-19, He says twice that He hates a lying tongue and a false witness that speaks lies. Six things the Lord hates ye, seven are an abomination, a proud look, the second thing a lying tongue.
And then He goes on and lists a false witness that speaks lies. God hates it. I mean, just read Acts 5. Ananias and Sapphira found out how much God hates lying. The prayer then is to remove deceit, lying, hypocrisy, and insincerity.
You will find such prayers in the mouth of those who are true worshipers of God and know the weakness of their own heart. I think all of us, we don't even realize how dishonesty can come out of our mouth at times. Exaggerations, extensions of the truth.
The fish I caught was at least, right, this big. Question, would God say your heart is honest before Him? Are you sincere? Are you a person of integrity?
Would He find sincerity and honesty inside of us? He says, and He concludes that by saying, and grant me thy law graciously. Verse 29, remove from me lying, grant me your law graciously. I don't deserve it.
I don't deserve having your word. We learned last week that verse 18 of chapter 119, open my eyes to behold wondrous things out of the law. We only learn the word of God if God allows us to know it. You will not learn the Bible by skill, talent, IQ, your abilities. You learn the Bible by God's enabling you. It is divine enablement. It is the illumination of God. That's why in Luke 24, when they were in the upper room and they could not understand it, Jesus told them the verses.
He says, these are all the things I told you according to the scripture that would come to pass. And then He opened their minds that they might understand the scriptures. That is God reaching in the mind and heart of a person and turning the light on.
That is supernatural. It's a wonderful truth. So if somebody really gets the word, if you ever study the Bible and you really get it, guess who gave it to you? And if a preacher preaches and you begin to grasp the weightiness of the word of God, guess who gave that to you? It's the Lord, isn't it? That's why the pastor's abilities and his skills are not the one that does it. It's the word of God. It's the power of the Spirit.
And let's give you one final thought here. How do we get victory on the inside the battle within? We have to have a right perspective, right honesty, right prayer, and finally a right commitment. Look what he says in verse 30. I have chosen the way of truth. Thy judgments have I laid before me.
After he examines all the different paths he could take, what's wrong for the flesh, what is right, he is committed to the path of truth. Thy judgments have I laid before me. The word judgment looks at scripture as the divine verdict. That's what judgments mean, divine verdicts. The phrase views God as the judge of all the earth and his scripture are the pronouncements from the divine bench. These are the truths that God expects us to live by and which he will judge us by. And so the believer needs to lay before him a path that reflects these expectations. He says in verse 31, this is great, he says I have stuck unto thy testimonies.
It's the same word, Hebrew word translated as cleaveth in verse 25. I was glued to dusty living. I am gluing myself to your words. I am attached to them. I am adhered to them.
I will not easily be separated from them. The Hebrew word means to be glued to adhere fast. And what a joy it is to be glued to the word of God.
What benefit that gives us. He goes on and says in verse 31, oh Lord, oh Yahweh, you ever see capital L-O-R-D, that's the covenant name of God, oh Yahweh, put me not to shame. This is asking God, sustain me on the right path. Don't let me fall into anything that would result in shame. It is so heartbreaking when you see those who were loving Jesus, faithful servants of God, men or women of God, who fall into sin. Isn't it? It's just heartbreaking.
It's just so sad. And it can happen to anyone. And we have to come with human humility and say, God, keep me from that. Protect me from that. You know, our perseverance is not through self-empowerment but divine enablement. You don't keep yourself strong. God strengthens you.
He keeps you from falling. All of us should be praying, Jude 24. Now unto him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory, with exceeding joy. An Arminian would read that, now unto me that is able to keep me from falling and to present myself faultless before his presence, with exceeding joy.
That's literally how an Arminianist could reread that. We don't believe that. We believe that God is the one who keeps us. I'm in his hand and I'm like a, like I said Sunday, like a wiggly worm that I would like wiggle my way out sometimes by my own foolishness. That's why we sing the song, Prone to Wonder, Prone to Leave the God I Love. Fasten my heart to you, God. Keep me from falling. Present me faultless before your throne of grace, with exceeding joy. What are you relying on to sustain you?
Self-effort? Do you wake up like motivated, like hopefully I'm motivated today to live for Jesus. Listen, I know that we play a clear part in our obedience to God, obviously, but Lord, stir up obedience in me. You know what the Bible says in Ezekiel? God says, I will give them a new heart so that they will obey my commandments. Do that for me, God.
Give me that. Is that a good prayer? Is that a good verse to pray? God, give me a new heart.
Make me long for you more than anything in the world. And I can tell you, friends, my affections have changed since I got saved as a young guy. The things I used to love, I, over the years, I don't love like that. Things I used to enjoy, things that were not sinful even, just, just neutral things in the world.
It's just like, yeah, it's just not that big a deal anymore. You just begin to reevaluate priorities. Verse 32, as we conclude, he says, I will run the way of thy commandments when thou shalt enlarge my heart. Do you see the dependency there?
I'll run those. I'm going to run the way of your commandments, but it's when you've enlarged my heart. This shows the level of commitment, though. I mean, he is, he has not taken a casual stroll. He's not like, well, maybe I'll come Sunday. Been missing you at church. Yeah, got a lot going on recently. We've been so busy. I get it.
I get it. Glad God doesn't say that about us. Lord, I haven't been breathing right lately, Lord, I haven't been breathing right lately. And God's like, well, I've been busy lately. We're running short on air on this planet called Earth.
I was taking a nap. The rest of the cosmos to hold up, you earthlings over there. Aren't you thankful God doesn't take a break from us?
I think we need to realize our priorities need to be vertical before anything else comes. How much energy do you put in the following God's word? He says, when you enlarge my heart, the Bible speaks of selfish, prideful, vain, covetous hearts that men normally have as being narrow. And the enlarged heart is one filled with love, hope, selflessness, humility. Sin narrows the soul. God enlarges it. So the psalmist expresses his faith and dependence on God to do the work in his heart necessary so that he might run with a commitment that he needs. And so in conclusion, the battle within, how do I get victory? How do I get victory? You have to have the right perspective.
Is your perspective right tonight? How has your view of God affected your view of yourself? You have to have a right honesty, declare your ways in the Lord. We've got to get honest with God. He already knows.
He's not going to be shocked. Thirdly, the right prayer. The clean heart is a teachable heart. God, teach me your word, longing to learn it.
And then lastly, the right commitment. I've chosen the way of truth. I've stuck to your testimonies. I am glued to them.
I will run after them when you enlarge my heart. What you do is you join your passion for God with the wisdom of knowing it's him that gives you both the passion with the wisdom of knowing it's him that gives you both the passion and the ability to do it. The person that struggles to last in their Christian life is the one who begins to depend on himself.
Like they think it's up to them. You have to have such a high view of God sustaining you. It would be like the person saying, you know, I think I can live this life on earth, you know, breathing, eating, my job, my family, all this stuff, if I just have enough passion to do it. You aren't the one sustaining you. It's God sustaining you both physically, but also spiritually. So spiritually, just recognize tonight the incredible dependency. And if I could, do you know why Peter didn't pray?
Because he didn't think he needed to. I will never deny you. I'm sufficient. Jesus, you don't realize, you don't realize the level of commitment I'm making for you, right? Just, just bring the temptation.
I'll pull this off. Weren't you with him in the garden? No, but we saw you with Jesus. I don't even know the man. That's what it sounds like. That's what self-sufficiency ends up becoming. So start humble, remain humble.
If anything good comes, God allowed that to be produced. Stay on your knees. Stay faithful. Give all glory to Him and realize we have this treasure on earth and vessel that the excellency, the power may be of God and not of us, right? Our sufficiency is not in ourself. Our sufficiency and with joy, we pray it our sufficiency is in God. Amen. You believe that tonight?
