Praise the Lord. What wonderful singing today. What a blessing. I just wanted to keep singing. I tell you, it's just tremendous, tremendous time to worship the Lord. What a blessing to be here today. And I count this as a high privilege. I'm so grateful to Pastor Eric. I'm glad he came back from his world journey to be with us today. So thankful for he and his family being here with us. And I'm glad you're here today too. I pray that today we would be magnifying the Lord Jesus Christ, exalting God in all that he has done in our worship time, whether it's in singing, praying, or preaching, or teaching, we pray that God would be glorified. If you would please turn in your Bible to Psalm 119. Psalm 119. We want to look at verse 24 today, verse 24. If you would read along with me, verse 24. Your testimonies also are my delight and my counselors. Your testimonies also are my delight and my counselors. So we have a few questions when we look at this passage. In the time we have now, we want to examine and determine what exactly are testimonies. And why should testimonies of the Lord be his delight and his counselors? Should they be our delight and counselors? Is this optional? Is this something that applies to only the very devout? Or is this something necessary for every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ? So when we look at this word testimonies, as we've looked at before, there are several words in Psalm 119 that are synonyms or slight shadings of understanding, but they all represent the Holy Scriptures. They all represent the Bible. So whether we're looking in these verses, we see testimonies, or statutes, or ordinances, or precepts, or commandments, or law, or word, or way, or judgments. All of these, in a slightly different manner, all represent the scriptures. So we don't want to trip up over any of these thinking there's a massive difference in these because they all represent the Bible. But there are differences, again, of shades of meaning in them. And for example, they all come from different Hebrew words. Testimonies here in this word. comes from the idea of a witness. So when we think of the testimonies of scripture, we're simply reading about the events or actions of the past that God used to be a witness to the world and to his people. So even today, we think of someone that has to testify in a court of law of something they had witnessed, we give a testimony. So this is the same thinking here. The testimonies of the Lord are those actions in scripture that magnify his holy name, that portray and show his greatness, not only to the nation of Israel, but to the world. And we can think of in the Old Testament, one single event that occurred that God used intentionally, and it's mentioned many times in the Bible, the idea of the exodus, the delivery of the nation of Israel out of slavery from Egypt. That was a testimony of the greatness and mercy and love and kindness of God toward the people of Israel. And we know it's such a significant testimony because it's mentioned again several times throughout the Bible, especially in Psalms. Multiple places we read about God referring to that event as a reason why the people should repent of their sins, confess them to God, believe him because he is faithful. He was faithful in delivering the nation of Israel out of slavery and he will be faithful in whatever he is calling them to at that moment in believing him. Just as when we read the Bible, we see these actions by God and we learn of his faithfulness and we delight in that faithfulness. We are delighting in who God is, that we can trust him for all of our needs, all of our concerns. We can look to him to supply to us what is necessary because of his great faithfulness. The psalmist in Psalm 119 mentions this several places, but one place in particular we want to look at is verse 90. If you would look down at verse 90. And notice what he says there about your faithfulness. Your faithfulness endures to all generations. You established the earth and it abides. So the psalmist here is referencing the great faithfulness of God in creation and the fact that he created the earth And he committed to sustaining the earth. Even today, what a wonderful world we live in, in God. We sang about it as a testimony to God, how great thou art. The nature that he has given us is a testimony to his faithfulness. among other things, of course, but certainly God gives testimony of who he is, testimony of his greatness. And when we think of testimonies in the New Testament, we think, of course, of the significant, most significant event in history, the crucifixion and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the event to which all Scripture tends. All Scripture points to this magnificent event, the fact that the Son of God, the Messiah, who was promised from Genesis chapter 3 onward, as God raised up prophets, these prophets would be called to the nation of Israel, and yet, in their prophecies, they would continue to reinforce and give prophecies concerning the coming Messiah, that God will deliver His people, He will save His people. And we know the enormous number of prophecies in the Bible concerning the coming of the Messiah. Over 300 prophecies in scripture point to the coming of the Messiah, God's promise to deliver his people, to save his people. All who would put their faith and trust in Jesus for salvation will be saved. And we praise him for that. We thank him for that, that God kept his word. God is faithful, and we praise God for his faithfulness, his enduring faithfulness in the monumental event of the crucifixion and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Savior lives today. We do not speak of Jesus in the past tense. He is alive today. He's alive and he reigns and we are looking forward to his coming. So just as certain as God has been in the past to keep his promises, he will be every bit as certain to keep his future promise to come again. The Lord Jesus Christ is returning and we need to be prepared. We need to live lives in obedience to his commands, looking forward to that great event. So the delight of the psalmist in the testimonies of God should be our delight as well. We should delight in what we read in scripture, the faithfulness of God. Because so many places in the Bible we read about magnificent events that occurred And they were so significant that God would tell the nation to build a standing stone, to build a monument, to build an altar on this spot to show what God has done for the people. So even though we do not have physical standing stones, we in our own lives as believers, we all have standing stones of events in our life that speak to the faithfulness of God. We heard Kevin's sermon last week. What a blessing to hear of how God was so faithful to Kevin. and Rachel in difficult times. And to hear him glorify God in that faithfulness, that helps us, doesn't it? Helps us grow as Christians to hear how God has been faithful to others. He will be faithful to me as well. And that is the real promise of scripture. That is the real joy. That is the real delight we have as Christians. That God has been faithful. He is faithful. and He will remain faithful. And I pray today that if you do not know Christ, today would be the day you would come to faith in Jesus, to trust Him for His faithfulness, to save all who would put their trust in Christ for salvation, to repent of your sin, confess it to the Lord, and turn to Christ in trusting Him for salvation, believing God will do what he has promised to do. We rejoice in that, and so we delight in the testimonies of God. But not only delight in his testimonies, they are to be our counselors. The testimonies of God are to be used in our life to grow us in obedience. We are to look and see as we live our life to search the scriptures how we are to conduct ourselves in a way that glorifies God and blesses us. And this Psalm 119 really, in a remarkable way, points directly to that because this psalm leads us into the blessed life. How are we to live our life? This psalm, whether you are young or old, whether you're a girl or a boy, whatever your state in your life, this psalm addresses aspects of our lives. And it does it in a way that directs us to recognize the faithfulness of God and that we are to use scripture as our counselors. We are to look and what the scripture has said, and to live according to it. Look back at verse one, if you would, Psalm 119. Blessed are the undefiled in the way who walk in the law of the Lord. Blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with the whole heart. This is how we are to live. This is how we are to conduct ourselves, to trust God with our very lives, to recognize that God must do for us what we cannot do for ourselves, to recognize who God is, to trust him for his faithfulness, not only in the past, not only in the present, but in the future and in eternity into the future. We trust God, we are called to trust Him. So when we see this wonderful verse 24, your testimonies also are by delight and by counselors. Because when we consider the counsel of Scripture, we learn the wonder of it, the beauty of it, and certainly this psalm speaks to that, the greatness of scripture, but we do not ever want to think that the psalmist is making much of scripture as much as he is making much of God. Look at verse 10, if you would. Turn back to verse 10, and notice what he says there, with my whole heart I have sought you. I believe that's right. With my whole heart, I have sought you. We are to seek God through his word. We know about God through the Bible, don't we? We know about God in a general sense, general revelation of the world. Obviously, in the world that we live in, we say, well, God must be powerful. And the more we learn about the universe, the more powerful we recognize that he is, that he is also merciful because of the weather we have. and storms that come in rage do not last forever, that God is gracious to those, his creatures, that there's so many things about the world that we learn about who God is, but it's in specific revelation in scripture that we learn about the means of salvation, that who we are as people, that we are sinners, that we do not seek him, he seeks us. We never seek him first. Jesus was clear about that when he taught that in John chapter six, that the father must draw. All who come to Christ are drawn by the father. And we do not seek him. As a matter of fact, Romans tells us that we are enemies of God. We are ungodly. We are sinners and we are helpless. We cannot do anything about our state. So when we learn and study scripture and meditate on it, we recognize and understand more and more how delightful it is that God is so merciful, so gracious to us, and so very good. And we read about his goodness in Psalm 119, if you would look at Psalm 119, verse 68. He states it very clearly. You are good and do good. Teach me your statutes. Because God is good, because God is faithful, we can trust His Word. We are to go to His Word because it is His Word. He is faithful. He is truthful. And because of His faithfulness to us, we are to rely on the Word of God. The very fact today, if you were here And you hear this, and you are looking at these verses, and you perhaps are indifferent to them. You need to examine yourself concerning your state, not because of what I say, but because of what the Word of God says. Look at verse 150. They draw near who follow after wickedness. They are far from your law, verse 150. They draw near who follow after wickedness. They are far from your law, verse 155. Look down a little bit further, verse 155. Salvation is far from the wicked, for they do not seek your statutes. Now again, this is not what I'm saying, this is what the Bible is saying. If you're not interested in scripture, if you're indifferent to it, you need to examine yourself and recognize your condition. I'm not the one speaking of your state of your salvation. Scripture is speaking of your state of salvation. We need to draw near to Christ. We need to seek Him and trust Him, looking to Him to do in us what we cannot do in ourselves. Because God is faithful, because He takes the testimonies of Scripture and of God as His counselors, what does the psalmist do in Psalm 119 over and over and over? He cries out to the Lord. He asks of God, give me Make me. Save me. Help me. Revive me. All these actions that the psalmist is pleading to God to act on his behalf. This is not selfishness. This is the way we should emulate this. We are to cry out to God in our private prayer time, in our public prayer time. And I want to thank Caleb. And Jacob, so much for Wednesday night. What a blessing for these young men to lead our prayer time. It is a blessing to hear on Wednesday night the prayers of our people. I praise God for hearing the prayers of our people. And I pray we would pray more in these days where things, it seems, are spiraling to places that seem so ludicrous, and yet this is the reality of the day we live in. What an exciting day to live in, and yet to trust God, to seek him, in all that he does to give him glory. So to cry out to God, as the psalmist does, is what we should do. We should emulate what he does. These verses are given to us as examples to us, not for us to dismiss, but to emulate, to say, that should be me. The great commentary writer Matthew Henry was given by his father when he was a young man, was given one verse a day out of Psalm 119 to meditate upon. And through one year, he would go through Psalm 119 twice. And he loved Psalm 119. He wrote some marvelous commentary on it. And one comment he made I thought was especially interesting was that reading through Psalm 119 with a purposeful manner will either warm you or shame you. And I find that to be exactly right because there are places in this Psalm that I'm so different in my response than the psalmist. If you would look at verse 136. This is one some people look at and dismiss as hyperbole. And of course, it is poetic. But it says, the rivers of water run down from my eyes, because men do not keep your law. Now, we can read that and go, well, of course, that's making just a hyperbolic statement. You don't have rivers of water run down from your eyes. and then it's dismissed. But that should not be the way we look at this. I don't even have a trickle of water running down from my eyes. grieving, we know that God punishes the wicked. The psalmist knew that God punishes the wicked. His grief was twofold. One, for those that were committing the sin and neglecting God, and two, for those that are maligning the name of God, that God's name would be denigrated among people. And that should be our thought as well, that we should hate sin so much that we grieve over it, desperately grieving over sin. And yet our eyes are dry and our hearts are cold when it comes to God's name being dragged through the muck every single day by people who make a curse out of it. What a shame of our response that we do not hold the glory of God in higher esteem than to be grieving over the fact that people denigrated. Because we look forward to the day when God will justify himself among the nations. He will judge the wicked. He will bring all things right. and he will make his name glorious among the nations to the point that every knee will bow and every tongue will confess Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. What a blessing for us to consider that God is great and his name is greatly to be praised. So when we consider this verse concerning how we should delight in his testimonies, and how his word should be our counselors, we are to recognize our ineptitude, our weakness in that. We cannot, with all the study we have, we cannot make ourselves delight in the testimonies of God. You can fake it, and people do. There's a word for that, it's called hypocrisy. but we cannot gin up in ourselves delight. God must do that work in us when we come to him in repentance, in confession of sin, and trust, believing him, believing his promise concerning saving all who would put their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's been said, and I think rightly so, by Andrew Murray, that humility is the channel through which all of God's graces flow. So when you think of events in your life, the testimonies of the Lord in scripture, but he gives you a personal testimony. That's why we share our testimonies. That's why we delight when we hear Kevin preach about how gracious and merciful and sufficient God was in supplying their needs. But all of us as believers have a testimony, don't we? Yes, we do. If you're a Christian, you have a testimony. Now, you may have a testimony that God saved you in an early age because he gave you godly parents to the praise of the glory of his grace. You should not ever be ashamed of your testimony as a Christian because we all have testimonies. When you look at scripture, we see how many different godly men and women, we read about their testimonies. You can go back to Abraham going forward. We read testimony after testimony of how God worked in the lives of people for His glory and for their salvation. So we all have a testimony. We have a testimony we should live. We have a testimony we should share for His glory. We share the gospel in sharing the testimony of how God saved me. If you're a Christian, how God saved you, how God is at work, how God is faithful, and he is greatly to be praised. He is to be believed and trusted. So the greatness of God is in his faithfulness, is in his mercy. And it's in His grace and His love that He showers and pours out to His children, to all who would put their trust in Him. We pray today that you would come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And I pray today, if you're a Christian, that you will grow in your confidence and trust in Him. Confess to him, even now, God, I don't have the delight in your word that I should have. God, I don't trust you in this situation like I should. But God puts events in our lives, brothers and sisters, to humble us. He puts those events in our lives to give us a testimony of his faithfulness to us. So I pray today that even today you would Take time this moment to trust in Christ, to confess your sins to Him, confess your weakness to Him. We are all weak. We are all needy. And I pray that you would cry out to Him more and more in these days, seeking Him to act on your behalf, to bless you, to give to you, to teach you, to sustain you, to revive you, I pray that he would do this for his glory and for our good. Even today, this sermon is the invitation. We don't ask people to walk an aisle or raise a hand, fill out a card. We ask you to deal with God where you are. Trust him. Put your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, that what he has done on the cross, giving his life as a ransom for many, saving all who would put their trust in him. We pray today that that would be the case, and those that know Christ, that we would walk in obedience to him for his great glory, that we would delight and take counsel in his testimonies. This closing prayer, Father in heaven, I just thank you, Lord, for your supply. Oh, God, I'm forever grateful, Father, for how you meet our needs. I'm so thankful, God, that you are so faithful. I'm so grateful, Lord, that you forgive our sins. You cleanse us from all unrighteousness by the shed blood of Jesus Christ. And I pray today, Lord, you would be magnified, you would be glorified in all that we do and say. that our every thought would be taken captive to the obedience of Christ, that we would be holy in all our conduct as our great God is holy. I pray this now in Jesus' name, amen.