To have your Bibles, I want you to turn to Psalm 119, the 119th Psalm on the 13th letter, the 13th letter of Psalms. So we're going to count down. We're going to count down the letters and you're going to find out where we're at by the letter that we're on. Now, see if you can help me out. If you get to Psalm 119, look at that first section. There is Oleth, Bath, Gimmel, Dolleth, Hay, Wah, What's that 13th? Help me out, church. Mame. Mame. Mame is the 13th letter. It covers verses 97 through 104. And for one to be a child of God, as we have talked about last Sunday night, one must be united to the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you're united with the Lord Jesus Christ, you're together with him, that means you love the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you love the Lord Jesus Christ, you love the things that he loves. That only comes natural. You love God's people, you love God the Father, you love God the Spirit, you love God the Son, you love righteousness, and you love justice, you love truth. And it was Jesus who said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. We know the Word of God says, Thy word is truth. So we do love the Word of God. And if you notice verse 97, notice what he says. And it says it with an exclamation point. And in the Hebrew, you don't have these exclamation points in periods and commas and semicolons and everything. But what you've got, you've got an exclamation point here in the English. And so we read this, oh, how I love your law. Now shouldn't that be the testimony of every child of God? We should all love the law of God or the word of God. Here he puts an emphasis on it. Our society that we live in, it puts a premium upon education. And education is good. And many people put the more higher the education you get, the more esteemed the person is. Well, let me tell you something. There is something greater than human education. There is something greater than public education. And that is being educated by the Word of God. The world can give you its education and give you its knowledge and give you its wisdom, but that is man's wisdom. And we've got to understand and we need to highlight which is more important, man's wisdom or God's wisdom. And our congregation, I don't think, I have to convince you which one's more important. God's wisdom far exceeds man's wisdom. Here, it should be automatic for a child of God to love the Word of God. I should not have to encourage you. You ought to read God's Word more. You ought to love God's Word more. You ought to have a desire to get in God's Word more. I shouldn't have to encourage you that, because just like a baby, just like that Anahi, that little baby desires milk. It's natural. That's the way babies are born into this world. And even so, a child of God, when he is born again, when that person becomes a child of God, they should desire the sincere milk of the Word of God." Now it talks about in Hebrews how we ought to move on from that and as we grow we desire the meat of God's Word. And what the meat of God's Word is that which is more substance, you might say. More solid food. You don't give a baby a T-bone steak. At least I hope you don't. you know, you feed it milk. And as it grows, then it eats more solid food. And even so, we feed upon the milk of God's Word, but we don't stay stunted on the milk of God's Word. We grow into more solid food and feed upon the Word of God. Does anybody know how many words are in the English language? Anybody counted lately? Chad, you got an answer? No, that's a tough one. That is a very tough one. You know, there are about, it's estimated, around 400,000 English words in the English language. That's a lot of words. You know how many words are in the Bible, as far as different words? About 6,000. 6,000 words make up the whole Bible. It takes 400,000 to communicate, but God takes 6,000 and communicates his truth through his word. Now I'm talking about if there's 6,000. I'm using a King James version. It would be an older version, and that's where that estimate comes from. But if you think about the 6,000 words that the word of God contains, think about what great an impact the Bible has made since it has been written. God's Word has made a powerful impact. It has endured banning. It has endured burning. People tried to get rid of the Word of God. They tried to banish the Word of God. It has endured twisting and contorting and perverting its Word. But what we find with the Word of God, God's Word goes cross-culture. It goes in every language. It benefits us because it warns us where there is danger. It protects us. It gives us peace. It protects us. You think about how the Word of God is described. This is described as a sword of the Lord. This sword is an offensive weapon also. That means it converts. It is pure. It has promises. It guides. It instructs. It educates us. It has powerful influence upon all societies. Think about music. You know what has had a powerful impact upon music? Great composers in the past were often believers. They often used the Word of God in compositions, in art. It has had a great impact in our justice system, in morals, and in values, in literature. The Word of God has had a mighty impact. Here, if I had just one book No other book, and I was on a deserted island, I'd want it be this book. This is the book I desire. This is the book I need. And it is the book we need. Verse 97, Oh how I love your law. Oh may our hearts cry out with the same passion that I love his law. It's my meditation all the day. It's what the Word of God says. If this is so valued, and it should be, and it is in my esteem, this is the greatest textbook that we can have. Yet, many school systems ban this textbook. Some are trying to bring it back, but many don't want it as far as in education. But if you think about it, it's got great value when it is used. It's got value for wisdom. It's got value for understanding. It's got value for giving us knowledge. So I want you to notice in verses 97 through 100 how this is the greatest textbook. He says, oh, how I love your law. It's my meditation all the day. You, through your commandments, have made me wiser than mine enemies, for they are ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the ancients, because I keep your precepts. The psalmist in speaking here, he's talking about how this pure truth that comes from God's Word runs throughout, speaking to all the issues of life. The major issues, the major problems that you encounter in life, the Word of God addresses. And it's got answers for it. There are no contradictions in the Word of God. And you know what, you never reach the end of its riches. You can read it one year, read it the next year, and you read something, you see something different that you didn't see the year before. And you can still do that all the way up to, at least my dad says, he's 90, and you can do it up to 90 years old. I'm sure you could read it all your life, and you can continue to dig in the riches and the depths of God's word. It is priceless. There are theologians that are constantly studying and studying and studying. You know what? They don't have it all down pat. They're still studying. and still studying. And yet, though its depth is bottomless, it is simple enough that even a child can understand it. The child can grasp the truths from God's Word. Let me give you one illustration of that. Look in Luke chapter 19. In Luke the 19th chapter, I want you to look at one verse of Scripture. Luke chapter 19 and look at verse 10. I want you to notice how simple this one little verse is. For the Son of Man is come. to seek and to save that which was lost." Even for the most difficult reader, they can put those words together because you notice there's no double syllables with any of those words. They're all single-syllable words. For the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. All single syllables. Even the most Uneducated can get the truths from God's Word. But let me tell you, it's not enough that we just read it. You can read it and say you read it, but have you meditated upon it? Notice the psalmist says, it is my meditation all the day. Do you meditate on it all the day, throughout the day? I'm not saying every moment of your life. I'm saying as the day goes along, do you meditate upon the Word of God? Does it come back to your memory? And do you do it like the cow chews his cud? Like the cow chews the cud. You understand what I'm saying? The cow chews the cud. He spits it up, regurgitates and chews it again. That's the cud. And he swallows it and spits it up and chews it again. It's meditating upon the Word of God. not only meditating upon the Word of God, memorizing the Word of God. I was talking to a man today, he's not in church, and thank God the Lord's allowed me to have a little bit of an influence upon him in the text that I set out today. He says, I really resemble more Romans chapter 7. So I told him about Romans chapter 7 in the last verse and how it bridges over into Romans chapter 8, which is my favorite chapter. there is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, whereas chapter 7, there's some condemnation there. But chapter 8, we are free from the law, and oh how that is such a blessing. He told me, he texted me back today, he says, I'm going to make it a point that I make myself read chapter 8. You've got to get past chapter 7 because chapter 8 is so rich in depth. And it's not so much important that we read, but that we meditate and that we memorize. I've made a comment to him that I had memorized chapter 8 over a period of time, years ago, back over years ago. Many people were in church, in a particular church, and we were all memorizing Romans 8. As I drove to church, I would have my little New Testament, you know, don't tell on me here. This is kind of like texting and driving, but it was before we had texting. I would have it on my steering wheel. I had my little New Testament on the steering wheel as I'm driving. And I'd look down and just catch a word or two and catch a word or two. And I memorized all of Romans chapter 8 just driving to church, pretty much. It's pretty neat. But anyway, I need to do that more. We need to memorize God's word. We need committed to memory more and more and more. And not just read it, but we need to saturate our lives with it. I want you to notice the outcome of prioritizing God's word. Look in verse 98 through 100. Verse 98, he mentions three different types of people here. In verse 98 first, he mentions his enemies. He says, you through your commandments have made me wiser than mine enemies. for they are ever with me." God's Word's ever with him, and he's always wiser than his enemies. Why? Because he's got God's Word. Listen to what the Word of God says over in 1 Samuel. 1 Samuel chapter 18. In 1 Samuel 18 what you have is you have an illustration of David's life and how he was wiser as he walked with God even though he was on the run and oftentimes in peril, humanly speaking. But notice what it says in 1 Samuel chapter 18 down in verse 5. Verse 5 says, And David went out whithersoever Saul sent him, and behaved himself wisely. And Saul set him over the men of war, and he was accepted in the sight of all the people, and also in the sight of Saul's servants. Look down in verse 14. And David behaved himself wisely in all his ways, and the Lord was with him. Notice down in verse 30. Then the princes of the Philistines went forth, and it came to pass after they went forth that David behaved himself more wisely than all the servants of Saul, so that his name was much set by." I want you to notice how David always behaved himself wisely, and it's because he loved the Lord and he loved the word of the Lord. He was on the run from Saul. He was on the run fighting Philistines or hiding from Philistines at times. And yet, he always behaved himself wisely. Here, he says, through your commandments, you have made me wiser than my enemies. You want to be wiser than the world? It comes through the Word of God. It doesn't come through getting a bachelor's degree or getting a doctorate's degree or a master's degree or anything like that. It comes through the Word of God. The education of God's Word will get you further in life than any education this world has to offer. I'm not putting down education. I'm simply saying this is where we need to be most educated at. I want you to notice as we move along here, and I'll give you one other example over in the book of Proverbs. In Proverbs 28, down in verse 26, you don't need to turn there, it says, many seek, well, that's 29, 28, and verse 26, he that trusts in his own heart is a fool. But whoso walks wisely, he shall be delivered. There is worldly wisdom and there is heavenly wisdom. And if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who upbraideth not and gives to all men liberally, who simply ask him. God will give you that wisdom You remember what the psalmist said, David, as he wrote Psalm 23? You prepare a table before me in the presence of mine enemies. Even when David was on the run, God prepared food for him right while his enemies were right around the corner. It was God always providing, and David acknowledged that. I want you to notice the third type of person he mentions in verse 99. He says, I have more understanding than all my teachers. Understanding. He's not talking about knowledge, just facts. He's talking about understanding. He says, because your testimonies are my meditation. He meditated upon the Word of God and the testimonies of God. Therefore, he had more understanding. You remember back in Psalm 73. In Psalm 73, just turn back there real quick. Kind of brush over that real quick. In Psalm 73, the psalmist was kind of confused. Asaph wrote this psalm, and he saw the wicked prospering, and he was struggling. And as he was having hard times, he couldn't figure out why the wicked seemed to be blessed of God. And then the Word of God says, let's see if I can find that verse in Psalm 73, He said, when I thought to know this, it was too painful for me, in verse 16, until I went into the sanctuary of God, then understood I their end. You see, he had understanding as he got with God's people, and he's got around the Word of God. God gave him understanding of how the end is going to be for the wicked. God blessed him with wisdom and understanding. even more than all his teachers. You remember our Lord Jesus Christ and how he grew in wisdom and stature and how he had more understanding and wisdom than all the Pharisees and scribes who spent all their time studying and rewriting the Word of God and recording the Word of God, you know, rewriting and everything. But yet our Lord had more understanding than them all. Teachers might have more knowledge than a child of God, but this I know, they don't have more understanding than the child of God. You can talk to an astronomer and they can tell you about all the stars and the constellations and the names of them and how far they are out and da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. But you know what? We know the one who made those stars. And we have understanding how God made that. He spoke them into existence and he named them all. And we understand how he created that light. And he created the light beam. Boom, boom. He made it fully mature. You see, the child of God has more understanding. While the astronomer, he's still trying to figure out how all this began. You see where the astronomer's at. He might have a lot more knowledge of little facts, but he just don't have the understanding. And therefore, he's still searching and still seeking. It was Darwin. You remember Charles Darwin. come up with the theory of evolution. We'll say it's a theory because that's all it is. And one of the things Darwin said, he said, the evolution of the eye is absurd. And yet his reasoning, he says, I still believe as far as it evolved over time. But you know what, it's absurd how the I could evolve piece by piece by piece because it functions one with another, you know, all the elements. I ain't going into all the I. But God made it to where it worked. Not to where something had to develop something else before it could work. It all had to work together. He believed the absurdity is what he said. He said, to the eye to this day, this was in 1863, gives me a cold shudder. It ought to. You think there is no God and things just come into existence and it started evolving to something better, something better, yet we see everything getting worse and worse. I want you to notice In verse 100, I understand more than the ancients. Now what he's talking about with ancients, he's talking about those who are aged, those who had more experience. And he says, because I keep your precepts. Just because something is older does not necessarily make it better. You can be older in error and still be in error and cause a lot of problems by teaching your error because you're older in it. give you an example. The Catholic Church. You all have heard the Pope passed away this past week at 88 years old, and some say pray for the Catholic Church. I'm telling you what, don't pray for the Catholic Church. Pray that the truth will be proclaimed in the Catholic Church. They have a way of error. We need to speak truth. We need to speak truth in love. And just because the Catholic Church goes back, I believe, to around 325 AD, that's my personal opinion, and just because it has all these traditions over these 2,000 years almost, that does not make it truth. Tradition does not mean it is true. If you are experienced in error, you will not safely guide others. Finally, notice in the last few verses the guiding of this textbook that we have before us. In verse 101, the psalmist says, I have refrained my feet from every evil way that I might keep your word. Now, when you think about refraining your feet, you're basically instructing your feet where to go and where not to go. You're telling your feet not to go a certain place. That means you're refraining from going down a certain path. Your feet will take you where your eyes will see. Your feet will take you where your mind will start thinking wherever you are. Your feet will take you where your hands will handle whatever you are near. It is your feet that carry you and where choices are made. So notice here He says, I've refrained my feet from every evil way for the purpose that I might keep your word. He desired to keep the word of God. So he had to not do certain things in life, not go certain places in life. And it goes hand in hand with what he's saying in 102. He says, I have not departed from your judgments, for you have taught me. In other words, I'm not going beyond what God says in his judgments. Henry Morris, if you remember from Creation Research Institute, out in California, it's been quite a few years past when he was living, but Henry Morris, when he passed away, it had a little excerpt, and I saved it, but I don't know where I put it, but I remember the headline of that excerpt. He said, others may, but I may not. Now think about that as a child of God. Others may be able to do certain things, but there are certain things you may not be able to do. Simply for conscience sake, if it goes against your conscience, it's sin if you do it. I will give you a little bit of an illustration. I sent the email to the people who are going to be redoing the modeling on our bathroom downstairs, and I said, I know we've signed a contract with that, and I know that, you know, we said it included the cabinets. But being the partitions went up, I'm trying to offset the cost. Would it be possible that we could not have the cabinets done, so it lessened the cost? balance it back out. Regardless, I've signed the contract, we'll stick to our word. Now others might say, well they went up on the price. You know what, it doesn't matter what somebody else says. matters what I say, I've got to stick to my word because of my conviction. And it's the same way with you. If you've signed a contract or if you've promised someone, if it's a verbal promise, a handshake, you need to be true to your word. You need to be true to what you say you're going to do. But don't worry about what about somebody else. It's you gotta stand before the Lord, not you who. You, it's you who has to stand before the Lord. It is you who, ain't it? You who gotta stand before the Lord. And it's we've gotta give an account for the things that we do. So what we find here in verse 102, there is this steady living in life. It's a consistent life, and it's consistent with your word and consistent with the word of God. In other words, the word of God tells us, let your yes be yes and your no be no. don't waver between that. In verse 103, he says, how sweet are your words unto my taste. Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth. Here is the sweet life. Isn't that sweet? The word of God is telling us God's words is sweeter than honey. God's word comforts us. God's word gives us hope. and life is worth the living just because I know he lives. Life can be bitter sometime. Have you ever had lemonade without sugar? Yeah, it's pretty sour, ain't it? Pretty tart. But you know what? You add a little honey to it or add a little sugar to it, that's lemonade. That's real lemonade. So we add the sweetness to life, and that's the word of God. When life becomes bitter, we get in the word of God. And honey often takes away the bitterness of whatever's bitter. We make, what is the old saying? If life gives you lemons, you make the lemonade. Gotta add that sweetness to it. And finally in verse 104, he says, through your precepts I get understanding, therefore I hate every false way. This is the straight and narrow path. It's through the word of God I get understanding. Because I get understanding from God's word, I hate every false way. the false way will lead you to ruin. The false way will ruin your life, but it's God that gives understanding that we might walk in the right path and avoid the deceptive paths. There's a lot of paths that are very deceiving. Which way are we going to choose? It is only through the Word of God that we can have understanding of the right way. and which path to follow. The Word of God says, let me give you one last verse, found over in Matthew chapter 7 and down in verse 13. Matthew chapter 7 down in verse 13 and 14, that's two verses. Matthew 7 verse 13 says this, enter you in at the straight gate. For wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat. Because straight is the gate, and narrow is the way which leads unto life, and few there be that find it. The narrow way, Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but by me. The only way, the narrow way, the way to life indeed, is through the Son. That's the only way to get to the Father. He is the way, the truth, the life. We pray you know Him and follow Him and that His word gives you understanding in the way you should take. Let's have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you for your word. There is so much depth to your word. We cannot fully expound it, but we stand amazed at the truths that you have given to us. The revelation of the truth of your word in revealing who you are, in revealing ourselves to us, in revealing our sin, in revealing the only way to you is through Christ. So Lord, we pray you take your word and continue to work and use it in our hearts and lives, giving us wisdom, giving us understanding, even more than our enemies and more than our teachers and more than the ancients. And it's not for the purpose that we might have the big head and be proud, but that we might glorify you for all you've done. We thank you for how you're working and how you're going to work for Christ's sake. Amen.