Well, again, brothers and sisters, it's been a joy to be able to be with you and to have the privilege of sharing God's holy word together. I'm particularly thankful for the privilege of being here for your fifth anniversary. Some of you may be aware, Sister Alina is beginning contraction, so this may be a very good way to remember their anniversary with their little one. Let's read from God's word and then we'll once again pray our text is Psalm 119 and verse 16. A simple couplet that is containing two short sentences. 119 verse 16, I will delight myself in your statutes. I will not forget your word. Our Father, we do thank you for these moments that we can have together in your holy word. We pray that you would be with us and help us and bless us as we look together at these simple words. Lord, may they define our lives increasingly. We pray these things in Jesus' name. I've been in ministry now for, I preached my first sermon way back in 1979. Not many of you were alive then. I began preaching at my church, Reformed Baptist Church in Louisville in 1990. And over that time, I have pastored dozens and hundreds of people and preached thousands of sermons. The longer you're in ministry and the more you interact with people, there are certain things that really encourage you. And then there are certain things that are discouraging. And there seems to be a spirit abounding in our day, something that I'm seeing more and more. And I would even go so far as to call it a plague that has struck our modern churches. And it is what I'm calling a soul crippling passivity. when it comes to the known will of God. And by a soul-crippling passivity, I'm referring to a man or woman or a boy or a girl confronted with the truth of the gospel, confronted regarding a certain sin, and they have the attitude, I just can't help it. That's not who I am. There's really nothing that I can do. It's just the way that I am. Here I am, I'm stuck, I'm like a stick that falls into the water and the current just leads it. I have no agency, I have no ability, I have no strength, I have no will that can change the way things are. There's nothing I can do, and really what they're saying is, well, there's nothing God can do. The Spirit can't help me. The Word of God cannot change me. And so I will simply rest content in my lack of Christ-likeness or in my open rebellion. You may find somebody saying that, I just don't love my wife anymore. Husband comes and says, I just don't love her anymore. And the idea is, well, there's nothing I can do about it. Rather than saying, I don't love my wife and I'm going to cry out to God and I'm going to plead with God and I am going to change the way that I'm acting and I will determine to do and be what God has called me to do. A person might say, I don't feel like praying. Well, many times I don't feel like praying. Somebody might say, I don't feel like reading my Bible. And they might even say it would be hypocritical of me to do something I don't feel like doing. I can't choose my emotions. I can't simply choose to be. certain thing. Somebody might say, listen, I know that this or that would be healthy for my soul, or maybe it would be healthy for my body, or healthy for my relationships, but I'm stuck. It's just the way that it is. I cannot overcome my resistance. Maybe you've said such things. Maybe you've felt such things. But how different is the heart expressed in our text? What does the soulness say? I will delight myself in your statutes. I will not forget your word. Now, before I go any further, I'm not talking here about simply self-determination. I'm not talking about self-help. This is a man who knows that there is a God in heaven who hears and answers prayer, that there is a God in heaven who will help his children who strive to be what God is commanding them to be. But brethren, simply looking at the surface of the text, here is a saint who knows how things ought to be. That is, that God's Word is delightful. It's a treasure. It's likened to gold, yea, to much fine gold, sweeter also than honey. and the honeycomb. Now you may, maybe you like broccoli, but understand it's not put forward just as this is a kale and broccoli salad. Eat it. It's good for you. It's gold. It's much fine gold, sweeter also than the honeycomb. And the idea is that Not only is it that, but we should long for. In fact, the Apostle Peter says, as newborn babes, we long for the sincere milk of the word that we may grow thereby. That's what God's word is. It's what God objectively says that it is. I don't always feel that way. I don't always treat it like it's gold, much fine gold. I don't always regard it. But I am determined to take God at his word, and I am determined that I will match my desires with God's revelation, and I will battle in my soul and trust God that there will be an alignment between duty and delight. Now this psalm, Psalm 119, as many of you know, it's the longest chapter in the Bible. It is a psalm which exalts the written word of God. It's a psalm that's written, I'm sure you've already heard this, it's an acrostic taking the corresponding letters of the Hebrew alphabet and giving eight verses to each of the letters of the alphabet. The song speaks of someone who is amazed to know that the God of heaven has actually spoken, that the God of heaven has revealed himself in his will to his creatures, and that thought has gripped him and caused great joy. that God has not been silent. Almost everybody believes that there is a God. In fact, even people who are very strong in their assertions that there is not a God really do believe there is a God. But they say, well, I've never heard from him. I've never seen him. And what a sad thing it would be to know that there is a God, and perhaps even to know that God is good, and perhaps even to know that God is holy, and that I am accountable to Him, responsible to Him, and that one day I'll stand before Him and He will judge me for my life, my words, my thoughts, my attitudes, my deeds, what I've done and what I haven't done, and yet I have no clue as to how to please Him or how to be right with Him. What a sad thing that would be. The God of the Bible is not mysterious in this sense. He has not been silent. in regard to who he is. He's not been silent about who we are. He's not been silent about what our problem is. He's not been silent about how we may know him and live with him happily in this life and in the life to come. And I hope again we think to ourselves, maybe last time you thought this, where would we be without our Bibles? in regard just to the so many things in our lives. How to love my wife, how to raise my children. I'm in the grandfather stage of life, which I absolutely love. And I'm so thankful there are truths in God's word. I'm a pastor, there is a Bible that guides me in regard to what I am supposed to do. Again, imagine that God had not made his way or person known. So this is a text that reminds us that God has spoken and the joy that we are to find in it. God has revealed to us the way of salvation. Brethren, what a joy that is to know. What if we had to work it out ourselves? And this is what the world does. This is really what every other religion has done. I'm gonna try to figure out how to make myself right with God. Is it half him, half us? Is it half us, half ritual? What if we were left to guess? The joy of this psalm is this, there is a God and he has spoken. He has revealed himself to us so that we can know him and his will for us so that we can be saved from our sin and learn how to live in a way that brings glory to God, that brings joy to us, and life and liberty to those around us. All of that is true because God has spoken. Now in light of that, our passage has two simple assertions that are laid out, two declarations, two determinations. One deals with feeling and the other with action. I will delight myself in your statutes. This is a heart set on loving God's word. Loving God's word, delighting in God's word, finding joy in God's word. I will delight myself in your statutes. Now, you're gonna find in this psalm that there are a lot of synonyms used for God's word, laws, commandments, statutes, whatever the case may be. Statutes are laws and decrees. It's God weighing in and helping to shine his light on matters like social issues and justice, that this is right and this is wrong, this is good, this is bad, this is well-pleasing, this is something that I detest. Now the church may not always get it right, preachers may not always get it right, but God always does, he never fails. Now the phrase used here in regard to God's statutes and God's revelation is interesting. He does not say simply, I will understand your statutes. He doesn't say, I will study your statutes. He doesn't say, I will exegete your statutes. He doesn't say, I will preach your statutes. And he does not say, I will do your statutes, or I will teach others what your word says. All of those things are good, to exegete God's statutes, to memorize God's statutes, to proclaim God's statutes, to learn out how to practically live them out, But what he says is this, I will, I am determined, I am going to do what is necessary that I will delight. Now you know what delight is? And if I were to lay out – I often use food or we can use people. If somebody said to me, Jim, what do you think about – so I have two grandchildren. I've got another one coming, God willing, at the end of August. So my granddaughter's name is Eleanor. My grandson's name is Jesse. I really like talking about them. I, they live about ten minutes away. When I come home and they're home with Grandma and I come in and I see them, anybody who sees me knows, like, it's not just like, okay, I'm going to spend some time with these children because that would be a nice thing to do. I love it. There's certain food out there that if I said to you, you could go the spectrum. What do you think about cornflakes? All right. Let's talk about fruits. What do you think? Banana? That's okay. Watermelon? That's getting better. Strawberries? Unbelievable. You know, whatever the case might be. I could learn other kinds of food. And you go from it's okay to I like it to I love it. Now there are foods out there again that I know are good for me. And I might say to myself, I can make myself eat it. But I can't say I will make myself delight in it. I'm going to delight in kale. I will eat kale. I'll put it in a smoothie, but I don't have to delight it, I just have to ingest it. But here's a man saying, not just I have delighted or I do delight, but I will delight. He's making a choice. I'm going to bring myself. by means of understanding what the Bible is and what it does to the point where it will bring heat and light and delight into my soul. I will bring myself to the point where I will not just read it because it's my duty and read it because I need to, but I will enjoy it. I'll find happiness in it. I will rejoice in what you have revealed. Again, sometimes we say, I know that this is right regardless of how I feel. I'm determined. I've been married for 35 years. I have been determined all of those years to be the husband that God wants me to be. I don't always feel like it. But there are times I have to talk myself into my obedience. You go home, you're tired, you wanna go downstairs and maybe turn on the computer and just shut your mind off or turn on the television or take a nap, but your wife needs you, she needs you to listen to her, she needs you to talk with her, she needs you to interact with her, and you say, all right, that is what I'm going to do. I know it's right, and regardless of how I feel, I will do what God wants me to do. Perhaps somebody is interacting, and they get angry, and they want to lash out, but they're able to control themselves. They control their tongue. They restrain themselves by force of the will. Or maybe somebody says, I don't want to come to church. I've had a lot of people say, I don't want to go to prayer meeting, but I choose to. And that's good. And that is right. To do that, to make those righteous decisions, But again, it's another thing to say, it's one thing to say, I will go to prayer meeting. It's another thing to say, I'm going to love prayer meeting. Do you understand the difference? I want my affections to draw me up. I want to not only be obedient in a way that will guide my feet, but I want to rejoice in my heart. I will. And then there is the second I will. I will not forget your word. Some translations read it, I will not neglect your word. Or some put it positively, I will remember your word. I'll not neglect it. That's more than saying I'm going to read it. Sometimes you may have gone through periods. Maybe you've gone days, sometimes weeks, maybe sometimes even longer that you haven't read your Bible. And the preacher will sometimes come and he'll rebuke you if you've got dust on your Bible or, you know, blow it and dust flies off of it. And some of you have a Bible, you have a word from God, but you never read it. And he's not just saying, I will not neglect it. He's saying more than that. I'll keep it. I will treasure it. I will have it before me. I will meditate upon it. I will study its precepts. I will read and I will listen. I'm not going to go off into the world and face all that I will face without your word to lead me and guide me. I will therefore be different and distinct from all the other people of the earth because, dear ones, we march to the beat of a different drummer. If I am going to embrace God's precepts and God's Word. If I'm gonna not neglect God's Word, rather give attention to it, if I'm to remember God's Word, not just that it's there, but to remember its precepts, to remember what it says, to remember what it promises, to suck the delight out of its promises, my thoughts and my words and actions will reflect one who knows that you've spoken. Why do you talk the way you do? Why do you refrain from your anger? Because God has spoken. Why do you love the way that you do? Why are you striving to be patient? Why do you care about that person? Why do you stop and help somebody? All of it is because God has spoken. There are those who know that God has spoken who delight in what he has revealed. And in that moment of crisis, you're able to say, I have not and I will not forget your word. Because that's where it really matters. It's in the moment of crisis. There are things we know that God wants us to be and to do, but in the moment of crisis. A man knows God doesn't want him to look at this particular website, or movie, or magazine, or whatever. And women, it can be the same way. It might be something that God doesn't want you to be. And you know it, but in that moment, you are forgetting God's word. But he says, I will not forget your word. When I'm tempted to lust, I will not forget things like Job, who made a covenant with his eyes that he would not look upon a woman with lust. When tempted to go with an immoral crowd, I will not forget the precepts of Psalm 1, which we read. When I'm tempted to be silent, I will remember the Lord who spoke to us about not being shamed of him and of his words. That's the heart that's laid out here. a delightful duty and resolute action, a heart set on loving God's word and a heart set on knowing and doing God's word. We need to understand here, brother, the writer is determined to remember God's laws and to delight in what God has revealed. A determination of the will can and should lead to a delight in the soul. His delight in the word is not just the result of his choice, it is a choice itself. And this delight is pursued with determined action. Believers must be led by what God has revealed and not by how they feel at any given moment. While delight can lead to good resolve, here we find that resolution will lead to delight. And so I asked, What determines your obedience and your interaction with God's word? How much are you led by your emotions rather than by resolution built upon the truth? Brethren, again, we want to remember here that as with all texts, that there must be a gospel focus. A heart transformed by grace. will show itself in our disposition and attitude toward Christ as the living word and the Bible as the spirit-inspired written word. It is a heart that has been transformed by grace. And again, apart from God's grace, we may be led to what our confession refers to as something like lofty conclusions about God's word, but only by the spirit and only by a heart transformed by the living word can we have the kind of disposition spoken of here. Well, brethren, may God help us to be those who choose, resolve, and will delight in your statutes, and I will remember your word. Well, let's pray and ask God's blessing on these things. Our Father in heaven, thank you for these