God's special revelation. Last week we looked at verses 1 through 6 in Psalm 19, God's general revelation in creation. And this week we come to 7 and 11. I'm just slowing down the psalm because I think it was C.S. Lewis that said, out of all literature, Psalm 19 is the most glorious written. And this guy was a literature major who said that. Martin Luther was a reformer in the 1500s and he studied God's Word in the same way he gathered apples. And this is what he said. First he said he shook the whole tree so that the ripest fruit might fall. And then he shook each limb and each branch and every twig. And finally, Luther said he looked under every leaf. In other words, he began by reading the Bible as a whole book. And then he took time to shake every limb, that means studying the scriptures more carefully, a book of the Bible at a time, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, etc. And next, he would examine every branch and twig, meaning giving attention to each chapter and paragraph and sentence. And at last, he would look under each leaf by searching out the full meaning of individual words. Interesting. Now, there are other methods of studying scripture, but Luther's is a good one. Why? Well here's the thing, Luther was such a beaver of the Bible, beaver for the Bible. Why though? Because as he was reading it, as he was studying it, God gave him what? Life. Because all of us are dead in our transgressions and sins until God comes and gives us life. So Luther was saved while he's studying the first chapter of Romans. And God's word then gave him life and became his daily bread. And so like King David who wrote Psalm 19, Luther had what we call a high view of scripture. Meaning what? That scripture is the very breath of God. It's what God has breathed out. It's inspired by him. It's his word. And if you were to get one truth from today's sermon, I would say it like this. The way we treat the Bible is the way we treat God. Are you with me? Just think about this as parents, for example. If the parent gives you a directive or a command or this is the way it's gonna be, if you diss the parent's word, you diss the... parent, okay? So that's the point here, I think, in this. So we want a high view of scripture. He had a high view of scripture, which is why he valued scripture so highly, Luther. And David's the same way. He would not have painstakingly studied the word if he was not going to obey it. Now this is key, because some of us just want to get a fat head, but we got a shriveled up heart. We become pharisaical. We know a lot. We may know a lot about God, but we don't necessarily know him personally, or we know him very little. And we become pygmies, we become Pharisees. Lord, kill the Pharisee in me. But the point is, David saw, to see, to know God means to become more like him in the person of Jesus. It means to become more like Jesus. What was Jesus like? You read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and you see what Jesus was like. True. Jesus said, when you've seen me, seeing the father. So your maturity, my maturity, whether we really know God is determined by how much we're like Christ. Okay. Not perfectly, but progressively. So the point is David saw God's speech in the heavens, we saw that last week, but he also heard God's voice in the word, that is the Bible. And so in the psalm, he now shifts from God's world in creation to God's word in the scriptures. And what's the big idea this morning? That God's word is most desirable. It's to be desired above everything else. everyone, whatever. I mean, God's word is most desirable. That's his point. And why? Because it not only reveals God's will for us, but it also transforms our lives as we let it get into us. As we get into it, it's supposed to dwell richly in us. Paul tells the Colossians. So three truths this morning, simply from verses seven to 11, God's word is perfect. And if you say, duh, okay, well, let's see what that means. God's word is perfect and therefore God's word is precious, but it's also practical. It's meant to be lived. It's meant to be obeyed. Okay. Now, someone could ask in a sermon like this, why do we need special written revelation from God in the Bible since we already have his revelation and creation? Why isn't nature enough? Someone could ask. And Genesis tells us that Adam and Eve lost their moral innocence when they disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden. And so their eyes then, we could say, their eyes became spiritually what? Tell me. closed, darkened, right? And their spiritual hearing became not just dulled but clogged. They couldn't hear God speaking anymore. And now they were insensitive to what God had created. They didn't see His glory in what He made anymore. You say, well, of course they did. Of course they did. Well, they did, but it didn't affect them the way it did before. Do you see what I'm saying? That's what Romans 1 says. Instead of giving glory to God or giving thanks to God, they worship the creature rather than the creator, right? They became insensitive to God's creation and they needed the witness of God's word. For what? To restore their awareness of God's glory. That's the issue. To see their need of his grace in the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's the whole point of the text. So first then, King David tells us God's word is perfect, verses seven through nine. The law of the Lord is perfect, he says. Why? It revives, reviving the soul. By law of the Lord, David means all of scripture. You can see that in Isaiah eight and verse 20. And it's not just the Ten Commandments. It's not just the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible. Law here means more, it's more revelation. It's not just legislation. You say, well, doesn't it include all of the rules and regs and stuff that God gives us? And the answer is yes. See, I think one of the things we say about, well, you know, don't you love that law when that cop pulls you over? That's like saying, don't you love the dentist drill when he starts going, now open this up. It's not going to hurt much. You know, some people really hate the dentist. Your former pastor was like that. You know, Alan said, Oh, I got to go to the dentist. Oh, I like my dentist. But then again, you know, he doesn't like me because he didn't make a lot of money off me. I just love it. He makes a lot of money off someone else in our family. No names. Okay. But here's the point I'm getting at, is that law is not a bad thing. When's the last time you were driving along a road, a mountain road, and you hit the guardrails and you go, oh, those stupid ODOT driving people, you know, they put the guards on that mountain pass. I want to be able to drive as close to the edge as I can. You don't say that. What do you say? When you see the guardrail, what do you say? Thank you! Yes, you should be saying! That's what God's law is like. It's there for my protection. It's there for my good. And so when he says the law of the Lord is perfect, it means it's so comprehensive and complete that it covers every aspect of your and my life. The Bible reveals the mind of God to us. The Bible reveals the condition of man, not good. The Bible reveals the way of salvation, that's Jesus. The doom of sinners who don't turn from their sin and trust in Jesus. The Bible reveals the joy of believers. It gives light to direct you, food to support you, comfort to cheer you. OK, so the Bible reveals God's holiness in our sin. And why? And this is key, beloved. Listen to me. The Bible drives us so to despair. Why? That it may drive us, we may be driven to Christ. So at the center of the written word is the living word, Jesus. This is the way John Gil put it. He said, the Bible tells us of perfect things, such as the perfect righteousness of Christ, and complete justification by it, and of the full as well as free pardon of sins by the blood of Christ, and of redemption and salvation from all sin by Jesus. And it also shows us, the Bible shows us, where true perfection is, namely in Christ, in whom the saints are complete, since Jesus is made to them wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption. Can we all just pray and go home? That's good, huh? It's all in who? Tell me. It's all in Jesus. It's all about Jesus. The Bible is an all-sufficient revelation. So no matter, this is the good news, no matter where you are this morning, no matter what your sins may have been, no matter what your problems are now, the Bible is able to turn you from those sins. The Bible is able to lead you through your problems. Though I walked through the valley of the shadow of death, Okay? Because I know there's people here that are sitting this morning that are going, I don't know how I'm going to make it through this week. Some of you are thinking, I don't know how I'm going to make it through this day. Okay. Okay. Okay. Just listen up. The Bible is able to lead you through your problems, both to feed you and enrich you so that you're able to enjoy the full benefits of the spiritual life. Listen, that's why Jesus said, man shall not live by bread alone. We say, well, yeah, of course he needs a little peanut butter and jelly. No, that's not what he meant, amen? Listen, man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of. He said that to the devil when the devil tempted him. Turn these stones into what? And listen, he hadn't eaten for 40 days. You think he's hungry? You think? A bit? Maybe? A pastor was about to leave home on a long journey. And as he packed his suitcase, he found that he had a little room left in it. And his friend was there next to him. And he said to him, he said, there's still enough room in my suitcase for me to pack a guidebook, a lamp, a mirror, a telescope, a book of poems, a number of biographies, a bundle of letters, a hymn book, a sharp sword, and a small library of 30 volumes. And the pastor's friend looked at the small space left, and he gasped. He said, how can you manage to fit all that in that space? Oh, that's easy, said the pastor, for my Bible contains all these things. Is that good? So being perfect then, notice what David says. The Bible revives the soul. How? This is key. This is just simple. basic Bible teaching this morning. When the Holy Spirit works through the Bible, the wandering soul is brought back to God. Anybody wandering here this morning? The weary soul is refreshed. Anybody weary here this morning? You say, man, you've gone to Midland now. Listen, the grieving soul is comfort. Anybody grieving? Wow. How about this? The languishing soul is revived. Anybody feel like you just, you know, you just wonder how you can go on? Don't you ever feel like that? You say, I never feel like that. You don't, then you better come up here and preach instead of me. Amen. Tell us your secret. Cause you, in fact, if you bottle that stuff, you'll make millions. Amen. The Bible is able to take the anxious and the fearful soul and give them rest. So why? The word of God, empowered by the spirit of God, restores a person to that place from which sin had turned him or her. It brings us back into intimate fellowship with God through his son, through Jesus Christ. And listen, in doing so, what does the Bible do? It turns us away from sin, which destroys us, and back to holiness. The greatest illustration of this in the whole Bible is the prodigal son. And remember that? He goes and he wastes all his money and stuff. He says to the father, I want my inheritance. I wish you were dead. He says, I want your stuff, God. I don't care. I mean, Dad, I don't care about you. Well, the father in the parable is a picture of who? I want my stuff, dad. And I wish you were dead. Give me my stuff so I can go do what I want. So this father divides the inheritance and he gives it to him. And he goes and he wastes his money with riotous living, the text says. And he runs out of stuff and all his friends, he runs out of his friends, but he runs out of money, of course, we know about that story. And he starts to eat in the pig pen. He starts taking care of pigs and he starts eating what the pigs are eating. And he thinks, man, if I'm at home, even my father's servants eat better than this. I know what I'll do. The Bible says he came to his senses. I'll go home and tell my father, make me a hired servant. That's his payment plan. That's his work's plan. Well, the father's smarter than that, isn't he? You say, no, the father's more compassionate than that. The father doesn't have a work plan. The father's plan is that his son did all the work on the cross. No payment plan for your sin, amen? What's that we call that? G-R-A-C-E. God's riches at Christ's expense. Amen. Jesus paid it. Well, Jesus paid most of it. We got the payment plan. You got the rest, right? No, no, no. Jesus paid it all. And so this guy, this son, he comes to his senses. Why? Because sin never makes any sense. And then he remembered how wonderful his father was. And when we remember how wonderful our heavenly father is, we start for home and we're ashamed even to show our faces to him. Ah, yeah. But as we're approaching home, our father sees us and he starts what? He starts running toward us, and then he hugs us for a long time, and the text says he kissed him over and over again, he covered him with kisses. Wow, wow, wow. And then he clothes us with the righteousness of his son of Jesus, the best buds. And then he throws a, tell me, a feast. He doesn't say, oh, we gotta keep this quiet, kill the fattened chicken. He didn't say that. He said, kill the fattened, which meant it's big animal it's a block party amen my son's come home and everybody needs to what know about it and we call that mercy compassion you see and so the Bible's perfect reviving restoring the the soul and being trustworthy God's testimony makes us wise So scripture is the record of God's own witness to who he is and all he will provide in Jesus. And so the testimony is sure, that is to say, it is true in principle and it's proven or verifiable in life situation. So here's the bottom line here. The Bible takes the undiscerning, naive and gullible person and makes him or her wise. Have you ever been driving down the road and you see these signs and they say dangerous conditions ahead? Now I know all of you good drivers slow down, right? Now some of you probably just keep going as fast as you're going. You don't pay attention to the sign. But like a roadway sign warning drivers of winding roads or treacherous conditions ahead, God's word warns us of dangerous and slippery conditions that are up ahead of us that confront us. Listen, what a blessing, Christian, that in a world of uncertainties we have something sure to rest on. But listen, unless you and I humble ourselves to be taught by God, we will never be wise. Some of you are sitting here today, and you think you know better than God, and God's trying to speak to you, and you're not listening, because you got your way, and your way's better. We must become like children, childlike, not childish, amen? And oh, how much misery we could spare ourselves if we just believed and obeyed God's word. And then being right, God's precepts rejoice the heart. Who doesn't want joy, amen? And so there's true joy in knowing and doing what is right. But the only path to true joy is the straight, the narrow way, rather than the crooked one. Okay? Have you ever noticed how much our world emphasizes knowledge? But what's behind the knowledge? Tell me. You need to get a good education because then you'll get a good what? Tell me. And if you have a good job, you'll make lots of, and if you make lots of money, you can get the American dream. Yeah. Right. And so God's word is not against knowledge though, but it is against knowledge that doesn't begin in the right place. What does it say? Listen to this Proverbs one, seven, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. And that's why we're exhorted to trust in the Lord with most of our heart. all of our heart and not lean on our own. And we're told that there is a way that seems right to a man, but the end of that way is death. Yeah, yeah. And so God's precepts are like a road map. Have you ever done this? You know, it's easier to do the GPS. I do this, right? But then I got this woman that's always telling me where to go. Time out. What's wrong with that? Don't have to what? I have to use my brain. Yeah, but she can't even say Gleason. She says Gleason. What's that all about? But the point being, if you're from out of town, Gleason is a, yeah, Willamette, instead of Willamette. But the point being, the point being is that God's road is like a road map or verbal directions to a place that you've never visited before. But here's the point David is saying. If your heart is fixed on the precepts of the Lord, you are never at the whim of public opinion polls. You're never at the whim of the fickle fluctuations of human advice. God's precepts are his remedy for sad, broken hearts. Anybody got a sad, broken heart today? Notice what it says, that God's precepts are right rejoicing the heart. If your heart is sour and embittered this morning, if you can use an injection of joy, anybody there? Tell me, can you use some joy? Well, look at that. Lucy waving her hand in the back. There's Rose and Cam. We got three honest people this morning. Everybody else is just lying. Okay. But the point being, look, if you could use an injection of joy this morning, then what? Memorize and meditate and mull over God's precepts. All you gotta do is take, just take one, just take one Bible. Just take one verse of the Bible and begin to begin to read it, begin to think about it, begin to pray on it. Only God can give us true and lasting joy. And why? Listen to this. We are created by him and what? For him. And the pleasure that God gives goes beyond anything you and I have ever dreamed. But to follow pleasure for pleasure's sake is the way of death and it will lead you to death. Here's the thing I get. David didn't view God's right path, you know, the right path. God's word is restrictive. God's word is boring. No, he sees it as a cause for rejoicing. Why? What is joyful as a good and therefore clean conscience? Conversely, think about this, true, deep, lasting joy is impossible when we allow sin to defile our conscience. Listen to what Jesus said, Luke 11, 28. Blessed are those who hear the word of God and do it. B, you could translate it, are those who hear the word of God and do it, they walk in it. I'll quote Thomas Goodwin, but I put it in a question form. Did you know that you can have head knowledge and still be a fool? There are a lot of smart people that don't believe that there's any God in our country. Did you know that? We talked about it last week. But when God's wisdom enters your heart, notice, it rejoices the heart. When God's wisdom enters my heart, it draws all the affections after it to Jesus, who's at the Father's right hand. And when God breaks open a person's heart and causes wisdom to enter, Then the simple is made wise and the heart rejoices. Listen, two simple truths of scripture draw me to the Bible. You know what they are? It's so simple. Listen, I need to know that someone loves me with a love that I cannot earn and I cannot lose. That's pretty simple, isn't it? And secondly, I also need to know that someone's in charge of this crazy world because I know I'm definitely not. Amen. Notice the progression. Restoration of the soul leads to wisdom, right? Which leads to what? Tell me. Joy. You see the progression? And then fourthly, being pure, the commandment of the Lord enlightens the eyes. So the commandment is pure or morally right, it means, because it comes from the holy God who's the giver of life. Simply put, let me just cut to the chase. Without God's word, we're in the light or the dark. Tell me. We're in the dark and we stumble through life and we fall into walls, walk into walls, we fall into one ditch after the other. And with the light of scripture, we see ourselves and we see the world as it really is. The psalmist says, listen, your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light to my path. And God's aim then is that we see the glory of his son and we be changed into his likeness, his character. And so God opens our eyes by his spirit when we're looking at his son, Jesus, in the pages of scripture. Not at soaps, soap operas. Not at sales. We're not focused on how much money we can make, hopefully. And the work of the Spirit of God and the Word of God always go together. How? The Spirit's work is to show me the glory and the beauty and the value of what my mind sees in the Word of God. That's the whole point. I love what somebody said, you know. I think it was Luther again. He said, if you have the Spirit of God without the Word of God, you'll blow up. Right? He said, if you have the Word of God without the Spirit of God, you'll dry up. Because some of our Trinity is Father, Son, Holy Bible. Over here, the Charismatic, their Trinity is Spirit, Spirit, Spirit. Both of those are ditches to avoid. If you have the Spirit without the Word, you will blow up. If you have the Word without the Spirit, you will dry up. If you have the Word and the Spirit, you will grow up. That's what Luther said. And so here's the point. Some critics claim the Bible is a dirty, immoral book because it contains so much violence and bloodshed. And some of these critics even classify the Bible with modern, obscene literature because they say it speaks of things like incest, adultery, fornication, homosexuality, etc. But the Bible contains these things because it deals with life as it really is. The Bible never shows evil as though it were good, no. It never makes adultery or fornication look attractive. It shows sin for what it really is, sordid and shameful. And those who are in bondage to sin need prayer, amen? and the gospel to free them to be delivered from sin. So the Bible is honest and it's forthright about life. It enlightens our eyes. Here's the question you have. In our day of freedom, quote unquote freedom, okay, in our relativism, what is relativism? Everything's right. You can think it, it must be what? Right. May not be true for you, but it's true for me. There's not one standard. You can get a ruler now and come up with something that's different than 12 inches long. You know what I'm talking about? And when you talk to people that are into anything goes thinking, and you say, hey, the commandments of God bring joy and light. They think you're what? Loony tunes. They think you're crazy. And for those outside of Christ, God's word, the law evokes guilt. Ah, but for those who are in Christ with a regenerated spirit-filled heart, God's will becomes our what? Tell me. Her joy, exactly. And what Jesus desired for his self when he was here will become our desire. That's when he said, I do not seek my own will, but the will of the Father who sent me. Let me illustrate it. An agnostic once asked a Christian woman how she could prove the Bible was the word of God. The Christian woman immediately asked, how can you prove there is a sun in the sky? that's easy was the reply of the agnostic woman because it warms me and gives me light and so it is with me replied the Christian the proof that this book is the Word of God lies in the fact that it warms my soul and gives me and then being clean, the fear of the Lord endures forever." Now this is an interesting, David has gone off from these descriptions of what the Word of God is like and instead of giving another synonym for the Word of God, David gives the attitude and the disposition that the Word of God produces in a person's life, that fear or reverence, respect for God. And this trembling trusting reverence is clean, notice he says. The word clean is a ceremonial word that was used for the law. And here it refers to what is acceptable in the presence of God. Why? Because it's not in any way polluted or perverted. It's clean according to what God says is what? Clean. And what's the point? I cut to the chase this morning. Being in awe of God purifies God's people. And David says this endures forever. It's the lasting blessing and it qualifies us to be in God's presence for how long? Forever, eternity. No wonder Jesus said then, listen, he said this, heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. And those then who are made alive to God and made wise by his word, learn to what? Fear him. Now let me get right to the chase. This is our problem. Our instinct is to domesticate God. Do you know why we want to domesticate God? You know why we want God to be like us? Because then we can manage him. Then he can be predictable. Then he'll get on board with our program. Amen? Well, God can't be domesticated. Amen? God can't be managed, can he? Listen to this. This is what Johnston, this guy Johnston said, I really love it. He said, the Bible teaches that God is a genuinely frightening God. And then he gave a couple examples. When Isaiah saw the Lord seated on the throne, he cried out, woe is me for I am lost. When John the apostle saw the risen Christ in his glory, John's knees buckled and he fell at Jesus' feet as though dead. The prophets and the apostles were terrified when they came face to face with the living God. And then he said this, God is truly fearsome, but he is good. It is a fearful thing to fall in the hands of the living, Amen. And so if you know the God of the Bible, you love him and you serve him, but you do so with deep respect and reference for God. God is not to be toyed with. Amen. And so here's the point. You don't play games with God. He's almighty. His glory is overwhelming. He's truly awesome. But we don't what we do is we just try to bring God down to our level because then we can what we can maneuver, we can manipulate, we can manage, we can hang on to our sin, and he's OK with that. And we say he understands. Yeah, he understands that you need to repent. Amen. You get my point. And being true and righteous altogether, God's rules assure and transform us. Now, this is an interesting word that he would use rules here. Your text may say judgments. It's the idea of decisions or decrees and what God does. It refers to his righteous standard as opposed to manmade regulations, traditions that are subject to change at a whim of man. And the point is God's Word is the only barometer for reality. You never need again to live in doubt and hesitation concerning what is righteous, what is right. Guesswork is gone. The certainty of God's Word is our foundation for what is true and right and good. That's the point. I love what one person said. This guy, Williams, this is really good. He said, we are accountable to God's word on the day of judgment. But the good news is that God's truth and righteousness have been incarnated in Jesus for believers. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. And as our mediator, Jesus gives us his own truth and righteousness when we abandon our untruths and our unrighteousness and flee to him. I think that's good news, amen? That's the gospel. So that when I build my life on God's pure, enduring, true and righteous word, okay, it produces in me a deep reverence or respect for God, which in turn produces this quality of life that keeps me from defiling myself. This is kind of interesting. You know how they have those reading through the Bible in a year plans? And you read along until you get to Leviticus and then you forget it. There are times when you can wonder, I can wonder, whether we're being made more holy in heart and conduct by reading the Bible. A lady was discouraged because her pastor exhorted the congregation to read through their Bibles in a year. But she neither understood nor remembered hardly any of it. Does that happen to you? I read and it just seems like I'm not getting much out of it. And even the stuff I'm getting, I don't remember. So when she expressed her discouragement to her pastor, he said, you got a stranger at home? You know, what do they call that? You got a colander at home?" She said, yes. And he asked her, he said, how much water does it hold? She said, none. He said, yeah, but isn't it a lot cleaner for all the water going through it? That's it, Christian, listen, as you keep getting into the Bible. your life is becoming progressively clean. And why? Because we're seeing as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord, and we're being transformed into Christ's image or likeness. And that transformation is the work of the Holy Spirit. And so all these descriptions of God's word are meant to cause us to desire it. So secondly, David says, God's word is not only perfect, it's precious. Look at verse 10. Amazing. More to be desire are they than gold, even much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb. So the word of God is far better than money. Fine gold means solid gold. It's purified. The more you purify it, the more solid it is, and therefore it's greater weight and value. What's the root of all sorts of evil? Tell me. The love of money. And yet the truth is that no precious metal can compare with God's perfect, sure, right, pure, true, and righteous word. Remember Zacchaeus? A little tax. He's the half pint runt. The short dude who's ripping off the poor. Squeezing money out of the poor tax collector, right? What an example of God's word cleansing you from greed. I mean, as far as the Jews were concerned, he had sold his soul to Rome by purchasing the right to collect taxes and Caesar couldn't care how much he collected. In fact, the extra with Zacchaeus is what? Payment, his retirement fund. Ah, but Jesus, what happened? He came by and he looked up in the tree and there was little Zacchaeus. Can you imagine the crowd? Zacchaeus trying to get through the crowd and people were like, The Jews hated those tax collectors. But he saw a sycamore tree. He climbed up that tree. He was waiting to see who. Geez, they heard Jesus was coming by. And then Jesus said, Zacchaeus, come down, I'm gonna go stay in your house today. Don't you know those people were mad at Jesus? They were offended. But Zacchaeus, when he got home, what did he say? He said, Lord, He said, I'm gonna, if I ripped anybody off, I'm gonna give 400%. I give halfway my goods, he said, halfway. And Jesus said, today's salvation has come to this. So here's a man who once craved gold, now he's craving for who, tell me. God, amen? Listen, the family of a missionary teacher in India returned home to England for a holiday. I love this story. And one of the sons, a seven-year-old, he attended school in that country for the first time. And one day he came home and he said that his assignment was to write a short essay on the subject, my greatest treasure. His parents wondered which of his treasured possessions he would choose to write about. When the boy finally showed his parents the completed essay, they were thrilled to find that his first sentence was, my greatest treasure is my holy Bible. Let me ask you, what is your greatest treasure? If your house was on fire, you say, Pastor, don't even go there. What would you grab on your way out? You say, well, I'd grab the kids. OK, I get it. But would you grab your Bible? At the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II of England, the Archbishop of Canterbury presented her with a Bible. And he said this, Our Gracious Queen, to keep your majesty ever mindful of the law and the gospel of God as the rule for the whole life and government of Christian princes, we present you with this book, the most valuable thing the world affords. Is that how we view the Bible? But the Bible's not only a treasure to be claimed, it's also a taste to be enjoyed. Notice what he says, it gives the sweetest pleasure. David says it's far sweeter than honey in verse 10. Ancient Israelites, they didn't have sugar, but they loved honey. That was their form of sugar. And when God offered them a land, he promised them it would be flowing with milk and honey. Yeah, there are no sensual pleasures I can compare with and truly satisfy your soul like the Word of God. For example, a Christian bookseller was seeking to sell a Bible to an owner of an orchard in Italy. And the owner of the orchard was ready, you know, he was not ready to accept the Bible as the Word of God. And this is what he said to the bookseller. He said, you tell me, he argued, that your book is the word of God, but you do not prove it is so. What fine looking pears, replied the bookseller, suddenly changing the subject. But what a pity there is such poor quality. What? Explain the orchard owner indignantly, a poor quality. It is plain that you have not tasted them. Pick one or two and try them. So the bookseller did as he was bitten and he began to eat. Oh, yes, sir. He said, you are right. Smacking his lips. The pears are excellent. But, sir, you must deal with my book as I have dealt with your fruit. And then he said, taste and see. That the word of God is. that his word is like the Lord. Amen. Taste and see that the Lord is. Taste and see that his word is good. An old commentator, John Trapp, wrote this. He said, All people are all for profit, the young for pleasure. He said, Here in God's word is gold for the one and honey for the other. R.A. Torrey, he said that in one of his passports, he asked one of his parishioners, this lady, how she was getting along in her Christian life. She replied very poorly. She said, my life is a disgrace to me and to the church and to Jesus Christ. I don't understand why it is, she said. He asked, Torrey asked, he said, do you study your Bible every day? Oh, no, she said, but I study it occasionally when I have time. And a little baby was lying in a carriage nearby. So Torrey said this, some pastors are given wisdom by God. Amen. Pray that I'll be given more wisdom. This is what he said to her. Suppose you feed that baby once in two hours today and once in six hours tomorrow, and then go back to feeding it two hours the next day. And you keep up that process, you know, two hours one day, six hours the next. Do you think the baby would grow? No, she said. I think it would die under that treatment. And then Torrey said, and yet that is the way, just the way you are treating your soul. So let me get practical. Did you know that a bird can go nine days without food? Did you know that a man can go 12 days without food? Some of you are dog lovers, you know a dog can go 20 days without food? A turtle, we have a turtle at home, it can go 500 days without food. A snake can go, listen to this, 800 days without food. A fish can go 1,000 days. And insects have been known to go 1,200 days without food. And Robert G. Lee, he made this application. Listen, he said, there are some turtle Christians who go 500 days without much real Bible meat. He said, and there are many bird Christians who go more than nine days without food. And there are not a few fish Christians who go 1,000 days without eating much of the honey and meat and bread of the Bible. And then he said, classify yourself. Interesting. Classify yourself. Let me quote Piper. I like this. John Piper said, The challenge before us is not merely to do what God says because he is God, but to desire what God says because he is good. The challenge is not merely to pursue righteousness, but to prefer righteousness. The challenge is to get up in the morning and prayerfully meditate on the scriptures until we experience joy and peace in believing the precious and great promises of God. With this joy set before us, the commandments of God will not be burdensome and the compensation of sin will appear too brief and too shallow to lure us. See, that's the issue. The joy of Jesus isn't greater than the joy you're getting from sin. But the more you feed on the word of God, it will wean you from the world and the love of the world and the things of the world that are passing away and the desires they're passing away. But God's word will last for like those who do the will of God. They will abide forever, John says. William Tyndale, let me illustrate. William Tyndale, he had given England a Bible in its own tongue. He had translated it into English and he was betrayed by a false friend. He was handed over to the Catholic Church for eventual execution. And for some time he was kept in prison a little north of Brussels in a town called Vilvoorde. where he braced himself to endure the winter months. And the church historian, S.M. Houghton, he tells of a 19th century researcher who discovered a letter that Tyndale had written to the governor of the prison while he was in prison. And this is what it reads in part. Listen to this. This is this guy. He's dying for translating the Bible in a prison. They're getting ready to kill him. And he's going into the winter months. And this is what he writes to the warden of the prison. I entreat your Lordship, that by the Lord Jesus, that if I am to remain here during the winter, you will request the procurer to be kind enough to send me from my goods, which he has in his possession, a warmer cap, for I suffer extremely from cold in the head. A warmer coat also, for that which I have is very thin. Also a piece of cloth to patch my leggings. I wish also his permission to have a lamp in the evening, for it is very wearisome to sit alone in the dark. Listen to this, but above all, I entreat and beseech your clemency to be urgent with a procurer that he may kindly permit me to have my Hebrew Bible. Did you hear that? A warmer cap sounds reasonable. A warmer coat sounds good. A lamp at night, but above all, what's he want? Bible, it's Hebrew Bible. They strangled Tyndale, they burned him at the stake, 1536, but that sacred avarice, that desire for God's word remained to the last. And nor is this some special attitude only for these revered Bible translators. This is one of these super saints, right? Not so. Not so. If God has quietly spoken in the cosmic word in creation, if that God has stooped to speak clearly in the pronouns and participles, adverbs, verbs of his word, the Bible, then surely, surely we should desire that excellent word. What do you think? Do you think he thinks so? Surely that excellent word must be met by this unrelenting appetite. Amen? If I cook, and once in a while I do, and people sit down to the table and they go, I'm not really hungry, it's because they've been feeding on what? Tell me. Junk food, right? So God's perfect word, God's precious word, and lastly, God's word is practical. Look at verse 11 and we're done. Moreover, by them, by these what? By the law, the testimony, precepts, commandment, fear of the Lord rules. His judgments, in other words, by them your servant is warned. In keeping them, there is great reward. So he mentions two benefits. First, to know and heed the word is to be warned by it. And David identifies himself as a servant who's submitted to his master. Here's the question I have, real simple. Why does the Bible record the sins of God's people? Why do we read of Samson and Delilah? Why do we read of David's lust after Bathsheba? Why do we read of Peter's three denials? Think about it. Why do we read that Noah got what? Tell me. drunk because to be forewarned is to be forearmed and that means we're going to be on our guard against sin and Satan and the world. This is the way Spurgeon put it, how many more shipwrecks would there be on the sea of life if it weren't for the storm signals in God's word giving watchful believers a timely warning. Listen to this, I read this, a certain Jew planned, he hatched a plan to poison Martin Luther. But he was disappointed by a faithful friend of Luther who sent Luther a picture of the man along with a warning about him. Isn't that great? And thus the word of God, Christian, shows you the face of those lusts which Satan uses to destroy your comforts and try to poison your soul. And finally, notice what he says, to keep or obey God's word is to be rewarded. You see that? And notice it says, the obedient are rewarded in keeping it, not for keeping it. What's the point? That God's promises us rewards that he does not owe us. So they're rewards of grace. Again, I like how Spurgeon put it. He said, though we earn no wages of debt, he said, we win great wages of grace. So in other words, God's going to reward me for what he did in and through me by his grace. What a deal, amen? I get rewards for what he did in and through me? Talk about a gracious God, amen? And though there are rewards in the life to come, living a fulfilled life in which we are restored, wise, rejoiced, enlightened, enduring, true, and righteous is in a way its own reward. And then there's also that assurance that I'm going to be received, being ready to stand before Christ's judgment seat. Why? Because if I'm trusting in myself, I will not stand before God. If I'm trusting in his son, he will receive me. Amen? That's the bottom line this morning. Augustine once said this. He said that sin is its own punishment. He could have also said that virtue is its own reward. And though the ungodly don't think so, the upright are actually blessed in their uprightness. And so goodness in itself is joyous. To be holy is to be content. Now, let me illustrate this and we're done. The Bible is not like any other book. Can I hear an amen? Amen. J.B. Phillips, he did a paraphrase of the New Testament. Very interesting. But he confesses in the introduction to his letters to young churches that when he began, he first began to translate the New Testament, he did not believe in the plenary verbal inspiration of scriptures. He didn't believe that the Bible was actually the word of God. Okay? I'm going to be real simple about it. But in the process of translating the New Testament, he received so many shocks from the New Testament that he changed his mind. He said, this must be what? God's word. And he confessed that the material he was handling had power. Power. And he said that translating the Bible was like trying to rewire a house without pulling the main switch. He had a shocking experience. Have you? Have I? You read the Bible, have you been shocked? I remember Lloyd-Jones said this. There was a lady came in, she used to be a medium for the devil, you know, calling up spirits and all that stuff. She came and she sat in the sanctuary and she got saved and she said, you know, the strange thing about it was I sensed a power, that same power, When I used to deal with demons and stuff and the dead, she said the only difference was it was clean. Amen. A clean power. If you're thinking, hey, pastor, I read the Bible, but I'm not experiencing these benefits in my life. Okay. It could be. And you wonder why that is. These verses give you a clue to the answer. Listen, whose law is it? Let me ask you, whose law is it? Okay? Whose testimony is it? You go, come on, Doug, get to the point, pastor. Whose precepts are they? Whose commandment is it? Whose fear or reverence is it? Whose rules are they? Okay, that's the point. That means that these descriptions, they're the Lord's. These descriptions and these benefits in and of themselves are not what we need. Instead, they're means, they're channels by which we seek and then enjoy the Lord. Ultimately, listen, God is the one who does all these things, these wonderful things for us, and he does it through his what? word by his spirit. He restores and he makes us wise and he gives us joy and he enlightens and he cleanses and assures us. Listen, that's what we need. Amen. And he does it all as we find his son, Jesus, in the pages of scripture by his spirit. We need the word of God. Amen. Are you listening? Am I listening? Do we hear? the voice of God in his word. Father, we ask that you would bring this home to our heart. I mean, I can preach these things, but unless you get a hold of us, we've heard your word. These descriptions seem really technical, technical and clinical maybe to us, cold and calculating. but they come from you and your heart, and you want us to know you. You've revealed yourself, not just in creation, but in scripture, that we might know you in truth, might come to a knowledge of the truth so as to be saved, to love the truth. Do we, Lord? Do we truly know you through your Son? I pray for those who don't. Draw them to Jesus even now here. turning away from sin and saying, I'm not going to live in it anymore. I'm going to walk with you by faith in your song. I'm going to believe your word and do what it says by your grace, by the power of your spirit. And for those of us that do know you, do we really value your word, Lord? Do we really put it into practice and obey it? Are we going through the motions? Are we in a rut? Have we begun to rot? our miserable Christians. Turn us back to you through your word, we ask. Be gracious to us for Jesus' sake, we ask in his name.