Well, very good. It is good to see you this evening. If you would take your Bibles and turn to Psalm 119. I do appreciate the invitation to come and share with you this evening. Psalm 119 is what I want to look with you with tonight. Not all of Psalm 119. You can be grateful that we're just covering part of it. If you would stand with me, if you don't mind, in honor of the Word. Let's read together Psalm 119, beginning in verse 9. How can a young man keep his way pure? by guarding it according to your word. With my whole heart, I seek you. Let me not wander from your commandments. I have stored up your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. Blessed are you, O Lord. Teach me your statutes. With my lips, I declare all the rules of your mouth. In the way of your testimonies, I delight as much as in all riches. I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways. I will delight in your statutes. I will not forget. your word. Would you pray with me? Most gracious Heavenly Father, we thank you for the opportunity again we have to come and to look into the sacred words of life and we pray that as we gather together to worship and to hear from your Holy Spirit as he moves in the text before us, we pray that the eyes of our heart would be enlightened, our ears would be open to receive any instruction you would give us that might give honor and glory to Christ, that might conform us more into his image as we seek to serve him faithfully. We're thankful for Christ, for forgiveness of sin that he gives, for the fact that there is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus and it's upon his righteousness we plead for mercy and grace that you might give us wisdom. We ask it in Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. Psalm 119, just looking at this section here, verses 9 through 16, and we want to talk about walking in the way of the Word. There's a story I once heard of a man who was in prison, and he was in need of some money. So he wrote his mother and asked her to send $500 immediately. Soon after, he got a package in the mail. It was a Bible. On the top of the Bible, there was a letter that said, son, I love you. Pray and read your Bible. Well, the man became immediately angry. He got on the phone and called his mother, Mama, I appreciate the Bible, but what I need is $500 right now. She told him over the phone, son, pray and read your Bible. He became even more angry and hung up on his own mother. Then a few days later, he wrote her a letter. Mother, I know you believe in God, but that's the problem with you Christians. You're so heavenly minded that you don't know how to function in the real world. When I need $500, I don't need a Bible. I need a check or $100 bills. If I need money, don't send me a Bible and tell me to pray. He got a letter in response back from his mother that simply said, son, pray and read your Bible. He was so irritated at his mother that for six months that he was in jail, the Bible stayed in the corner of his cell. After a long while, he finally got out and his mother was there to meet him. He could hardly speak to her because he still had this grudge against her. Mama, you let me down, he finally said. I needed you as a mother and you let me down. She said, what do you mean, son? I wrote you, I called you, I begged you for $500 and every time you gave me the same old line to pray and read my Bible. Well, son, did you pray and read your Bible? Yeah, I prayed and I read my Bible. I'm still as broke now as when you told me the first time to pray and read my Bible. Son, do you have your Bible? He reached in his bag and he handed the book to her. Son, she said, let me ask you one more time. Did you pray and read your Bible? She opened up the Bible and the Bible after every 200 pages within the text was taped, a $100 bill in five different sections of the Bible. If the boy had just read his Bible, he would have understood that the very thing he asked for and was looking for was literally in his Bible. But because he didn't take his Bible seriously, what his Bible had to offer, he never received physically or spiritually. Tonight I want to consider a section of what is the longest psalm in the Bible, Psalm 119. A little bit of information about Psalm 119. We call it a chapter. It's really not a chapter. It is a psalm, a hymn, but it is the longest chapter in a sense in the Bible. There are 21 sections in Psalm 119. And the reason is because each section follows one letter of the Hebrew alphabet. It's consecutively used throughout this hymn. It begins with the first letter Aleph in Hebrew and goes all the way through if you turn in your Bible to the end of Psalm 119 to Tav, the last letter in Hebrew. And the interesting thing about Psalm 119 is that every line that we have, the word begins with that letter of that section. So we're looking at the second section of these 21 sections under the Hebrew letter Beit. And you don't see it in English, but each line begins with a word that has a Beit in it. It's a beautiful, beautiful psalm. But more than just the structure and the beauty aesthetically of the psalm is the great value, purpose, and joy we see in its description of Scripture itself. So as we take the time to study it tonight, I want to look at this second section under the letter Beit and consider what it means to walk in the way of the word. As we begin tonight talking about walking in the way of the word, we see that we do so first in walking in the way of the word because the word preserves our heart. First, because the call is to preserve your heart with the word. Look at the psalmist as he writes, how can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word. With my whole heart I seek you. Let me not wander from your commandments. I have stored up your word in my heart that I might not sin against you." Now, we might be familiar with this section of Psalm 119. Maybe you've memorized verses 9 or 11. Maybe you've heard them in Sunday school or Vacation Bible School or wherever. It is a familiar section to the psalm, and these verses are wonderfully instructive and encouraging to us, especially in the call to preserve our heart. The preservation of our heart, the scripture says, comes from the scripture itself. How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it, it says, according to the word. The question of how can our way be kept pure is answered. with the sentinel of the word, which is placed upon the citadel of our heart. We need the strong presence of God's word to preserve us in purity. The reference to young man here is telling as well. Now the author no means excludes those who are older individuals. He's not saying that it's only for the young, but rather think of it this way. The younger you begin in the Word of God, the younger you start in preserving your heart with the Word, it will not fail you as you age and grow in life. The author is showing us the necessity really of beginning the practice of guarding our heart with the Word while still young. We have young people here tonight and I hope you take this call serious. Now is the time to look at the Word of God as that preserving part of growing, not only in maturity, but in your faith. The Puritan Thomas Manton once commented on this text, quote, a man may tame, make tame fierce creatures, lions and tigers, and the fury of youth needs to be tempered and bridled by the Word. There's nothing like the Word of God to come in when we find a need in our lives when we're young that can shape and fashion our character for the future. But nevertheless, those who may get a later start in life, there's never too late to begin growing in the Word and seeing its preservation of our heart. The Scripture teaches, as we can clearly see here in verse 9, that the church must impress and hold accountable young men and women in our families to continue to guard their lives later as well. We can see in other parts of the Old Testament the instruction to the young, Ecclesiastes 12.1, Solomon says, remember also your creator in the days of your youth before the evil days come and the years draw near of which you will say, I have no pleasure in them. The psalmist also writes in Psalm 71, 5, for you, O Lord, are my hope, my trust, O Lord, from my youth. And then later in that same psalm, in verse 17, O God, from my youth you have taught me, and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds. So even to old age and gray hairs. You see, The preserving work of the scripture should begin in our children when they're young. And as we do grow in age and gray hair, it will continue to guide and guard. Let me ask you this. In your church, I know very little about you or your families, but let me ask you, are you fostering an attitude in the young people in your family of faith, in this community, to find a preserving, guarding work of the word? Or are we merely passively showing them the value of the word, but not with a full preserving of the heart? It's easy to share the word with someone and say, you should do this. It's another to show them what it means to live through it every day, in the joys and in the sorrows of life. We must instill in young men and women the need to guard and preserve their hearts with the word of God now, not wait until they get older. I often tell young people this, what would you rather do? Would you rather commit your life to the Lord now, stay in the word, and when you're 50, 60, 70 years of age, look back and say, what the Lord has taught me over five, six decades of being in the word, or would you rather wait until the end of life full of regrets saying, I wished I would have spent more time studying God's word? We need to begin when we're young, and we need to instill that in our young men and women. Now is the time to find the preserving aspect of the word, which will guard you for life. We should emulate the prayer of Psalm 144, 12. May our sons in their youth be like plants full grown, our daughters like corner pillars cut from a structure of a palace. The strength of youth can be of value if it understands the word of God and its place in the heart. It is a sign of foolishness and contempt for God and his word, not to challenge young people to guard themselves with the truth of God when it so clearly asks and answers, how can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word. Proverbs 1 verse 2. also gives us the wisdom of the word when it says to know wisdom and instruction, to understand words of insight, to receive instruction in wise dealing, in righteousness, justice, and equity, to give prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to youth. The New Testament, we have a direct and strong command to the Church of God to put forward to our young people in 2 Timothy 2.22, flee from youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. Notice Paul's correlation between fleeing sinful passions in youth and instead pursuing righteousness with the heart. It is the preserving work of God that can help us in our youth and into spiritual maturity as we follow it. The fact is there may be some of you with us tonight You have a testimony of years of rebellion from God because someone didn't care enough for you to share the preserving aspect of the Word of God while you were young. If that's your story, then why stand idly by while you see young men and women make the same mistakes you did? Instill in the young men and women you have, now is the time to pour yourself into the Word. The Word of God will guard you. if you give yourself to it. We as well as all generations should see the preservation that comes to our hearts by seeking the Word of God in wisdom. So whether we grow in age or whether we're already grown, the Word of God guards our hearts. Again, accomplished with the whole heart, that we might not wander from God's holy word. Verse 11, the psalmist says, we use the whole heart as a repository for the word. Look again, I have stored up your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. The heart is the place for the word of God to dwell. Why? Why is it that the psalmist and God inspires the psalmist to write here of storing the scripture in the heart? Let me ask you. Where does your heart naturally lead you? Where does our heart naturally go towards to fill? Is it not in sin? As the prophet said, the heart is desperately wicked. Who can understand it? So to fill the heart with the word of God is to unseat self-righteousness and sinful tendency. Even as Christians, we tend to fight against the desire that once ruled our choices and actions to sin. What better way to overcome those tendencies and temptations than to fill our heart with the word of God and evict any rebellion from God from it? preserving and guarding the heart is to drive out the occupation of sin and self and place in it Christ Jesus as our King and Scripture as our guard. Some seek to clean their own life up without the Scripture. Ever known someone to do so? You know, I'm trying to get my life straightened out. If I can move to another town, if I just get a fresh start, But every time we get a fresh start, we still take with us a heart full of sin. Sin has to be replaced by the word. Sin can't be swept from our heart by our own good deeds. Sin must be driven out by the cleansing work of Christ and replaced with the word of Christ. Those who try to clean their life up on their own, They may have some tragedy or some awakening to the destructive pattern of living in their sin. And they say, I've got to do something different. I want to start living different. But they don't put the word there in its place. It's a devastatingly dangerous way to go about it. Jesus warns of this in Matthew 12. Matthew 12, verse 43, Jesus says, when the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, It passes through waterless places seeking rest, but finds none. Then it says, I will return to my house from which I came. And when it comes, it finds the house empty, swept, and put in order. Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself. And they enter and dwell there, and the last state of that person is worse than the first. So also will it be with this evil generation. The danger in self-righteousness is to say, if I just do more, try harder, be better, then God will be pleased with me. But the danger that lies therein is that evil quickly moves back in and the first condition is not even nearly as bad as we are afterwards. To try to clean up one's life without understanding the work of grace, what Christ has done, and the preserving aspect of the Word of God is to put oneself up for failure continually. We must see and submit to Christ and to the Word of God to guard our hearts because no amount of good deeds, honesty, or even personal morality can guard us from sin. Only the inspired Word of God. Seek a desire then in the same way to turn from sin, but instead of leaving vacancy your heart, store it with the word of God so that when sin comes once again, we have a century there to guard our hearts. This is what the psalmist, I believe, means when he says, I have stored up your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. So as we seek to walk in the way of the word, We begin by considering the call to preserve our hearts with the Word. Preserve our hearts with the Word. Second, it leads us to understand the profit of the Word. We see the preserving work of the Word, and second, we see the profit of the Word. There are two expressions that point to the profit of the Word here, two illustrations that the psalmist gives us. The first is that of a pupil. Look at verse 12. Blessed are you, O Lord, teach me your statutes. The prophet of the word comes to us as a teacher and we as a pupil to it. Profiting from the word begins when we become a student of it. The psalmist speaks of the need to learn from God, from his word, teach me, Lord, your statutes. Let me ask, do you first preach to yourself before you preach to others? Do you first teach yourself the Word of God before teaching it to others? It's so easy to point out other people's need for the Word, isn't it? I can look in my kid's life, or my wife's life, or my congregation's life, and I can tell them the need for the Word here, here, and here, but the hardest place to start is here, in my own heart. Do you profit from the word? Are you a pupil of scripture first and foremost, before you seek to make pupils of it yourself? We have a reminder from Paul in Romans 2 verse 21, you then who teach others, do you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing, do you steal? You who say that one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law. The best place to find profit from the word is to be a pupil ourselves first, and then we share in its value with others. It's easy to apply the scriptures to others, but it's truly difficult for us to consider our own hearts and pray, oh Lord, teach me your statutes. And once we've profited from the teaching of the word ourselves, then Then we can be a proclaimer of it to others. We must get the horse and the cart in the right order. Blessed are you, O Lord, teach me your statutes, verse 12. But then verse 13 is the response now. With my lips I declare all the rules of your mouth. Once we profit from the Word by being its pupil, we are called to profit from the Word by being its proclaimer. With my lips I declare all the rules of your mouth. We are to share and teach a lost world the good news of God's eternal life. Have you ever been around someone who said, I don't witness by necessarily telling someone about Christ, but instead living as a good example around. Have you ever heard that before? Folks, I think that is the biggest lie in the American church today. It might sound pious to say that, but you can't silently share the gospel of Jesus Christ by good living. The Word of God is called Word for a reason. Jesus is called the Word that became flesh for a reason. Words must be spoken. We must tell someone the Word of God. We must verbalize it, as the psalmist says, with my lips. With my lips, not just my actions, I declare all the rules of your mouth. The scripture is not given to us as an individual gift to keep to ourself. It is a word to be spoken to the world. After all, if this truly is the Word of the very God, that we worship, why would we not speak it and share it with the world he created? We are to declare and proclaim a gospel to people in need of the word. The word we have a need for and receive, we then overflow from our lips, proclaiming it to others, the need for Christ. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 4-5, for what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord. Colossians 1-28, Him we proclaim, warning everyone, teaching everyone with all wisdom that we may present everyone mature in Christ. That should be the motivation for the church. The primary role of the Church of Jesus Christ is this, share the truth of the gospel with others. So many churches today, and I've been in churches that do this as well, do everything else but the one thing we have been called to do. The last thing that Christ tells the church to do is to go teaching them to observe all that I've commanded you. And as we go, make them disciples. That's the only thing we are called to do. We are not called to have potlucks, block parties, vacation Bible schools, camps, and all of those things. Not that those are wrong. I'm not saying that we shouldn't do those things. But we shouldn't make those things primary. We are to share the word. And as we share the word, we can do those things. But so many churches today, they plan their ministry around all of these social activities and leave out the word. The word is why we are here. Share and proclaim the word. profiting from it as a pupil and then as a proclaimer of it to the world. The beauty of God's word is seen, not in keeping this book on our private bookshelves, but proclaiming it to all nations. After all, Romans 10 verse 14, Paul asked, how will they call on him in whom they've not believed? How are they to believe in him whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news. That's it. Church, that's what we are to do. Proclaim the word. That's it. It's not that complicated. Find someone who doesn't know the word or knows less of the word than you do and share it with them. It's that easy. Be a pupil. and then proclaim it, and you will see the prophet in the Word of God." So, we see the prophet, what profits us as we studied ourselves and what profits others as we proclaim it. Last then, the last thing we see is that we should then procure joy from the Word. Procure joy from the Word. Notice how the psalmist speaks of the great joy, pleasure, and delight that comes from the Word of God. Look at verse 14. In the way of your testimonies, I delight as much as in all riches. I will meditate on your precepts, fix my eyes on your ways, delight in your statutes, will not forget your word." You see the emotion of the psalmist here. What he sees in the word and the great joy that comes from it. As he looks at the word, as he looks at it in his life, he has this overflow of delight that comes from it. If you neglect to take the word of God, or if you take it but don't find joy and delight in it, then you have a deep spiritual problem. God's Word graciously speaks to us to show us how to avoid the deadly consequences of our sin. As well as the joyous wisdom of how we live for Christ's glory, we should then take pleasure and joy in it. Is it not a delightful truth that while we were dead in our trespasses and sins, hardened in our hatred and rebellion against God. God sent the divine word, the word that became flesh, to reveal to us not only our aggression against God, but by His grace, salvation if we trust Him. Is that not a delightful word? The gospel never grows old, folks. The word of God should never grow dull in our life. And if the word ever grows dull, it's not the word who's at fault. It is us. Spurgeon once said, the Bible falling apart usually belongs to someone who isn't. That's what it means to find a light in the word of God. To receive a word in the midst of imminent doom that we have received and see there is a way of escape if trusted and followed should be a joy, not only to us, but to everyone who is perishing. That is why the gospel means good news. Good news is to be shared and good news is to be enjoyed. So it is with the delight and the joy of scripture. For a follower of Christ, we should find and procure our greatest joy, not in relationships, not in finances, not even in family. We should find it in the word, which then gives meaning to our relationships as they are meant to be in Christ. It gives meaning to how we use our stewardship of our resources for His glory, and it gives value and meaning to our families as we truly understand the goodness of God. Procure this joy only through the Word of God. The beauty, the glory of the Scripture is one of God's greatest graces next to the saving work of His Son. So, do you find delight in it? Do you see the joy that comes from it as it sheds a light upon sin but also shows you a way of salvation? What keeps you, let me ask, from taking time to share it with someone else? There's no doubt all of us in this room who know somebody who knows less about scripture than we do. We all know someone. All you need to do is go to them and say, Would you mind if we got together and read through the gospel of Mark together or John? Would you mind if we got together and just spent some time reading from the scripture, just seeing what God's word would have to say? There's great profit in that. If we do so, we see the joy that will flow from our life and yes, the joy that will flow from others in sharing it with you. So walking in the way of the word, means we preserve or guard our heart, not by what we do, but by hiding God's Word there inside our heart. It means to profit from the Word, not just by telling others their need for it, but first being a pupil ourselves and then proclaiming it to others. And then there is a procurement of joy when we study it every day. honoring Christ, thanking the Lord that he's been gracious and good to us. So let me ask you, what are you doing with the word? Are you walking in it? Let me pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for the brief time that we have together tonight to look at your word, to consider it together. And Lord, we do pray that you would forgive us for where we lack in our desire and zeal for scripture. We realize, Lord, that this is a an amazing book that is before us, that it is the very Word of God that has come directly from your mouth, that it has been divinely inspired, that it is without error and without fallacy, that it has been preserved and protected throughout generations, that it has been the work of the Spirit in taking ordinary men, shepherds, fishermen, lawyers, doctors, even self-righteous hypocrites, and using them through the gracious work of Christ to redeem not only their heart and soul, but to show them an inspiration to write for us what you would have us to know. every other God that is no God at all, gives no joy, no hope, no real word that can be trusted, but the true and living God, you alone had given us a sure foundation, a sweet and savory word to feast upon, a delight and joy to our soul when we meditate upon it, something that exposes our sin, but something that also brings the great and gracious forgiveness message of Christ. Help us, Lord, to not underestimate nor take advantage of having this book. Help us to take every moment we have to savor it, to enjoy it, and yes, to share its truth with someone else. I do pray for this church, Lord. I pray for Brother Kevin and his ministry, I pray for these that support it, not only with their resources, but also with their prayers and with the ministry that they do outside of the walls of this building. I pray that here in Ponca, there would be a work of your spirit through these individuals' lives, not in seeing people better than themselves, but seeing broken people that have found wholeness in Christ. and a welcome call for the sinner to come and find grace as they have. Lord, we thank you. We love you, and we give you all honor and glory. For Christ's sake, we pray. Amen.