Well let's turn again to Psalm 119, this wonderful psalm that teaches us so much about the Word of God and to value the Word of God and the value of the Word of God in everything of life. Walking as the Lord's people, seeking to be the Lord's people as we should be and seeking to bring glory to his name. And we've seen that from the first very section of this book, of this psalm, it teaches us that we are truly blessed if we walk in the word of God. And those who walk in the word of God find the blessing of God in their lives. And then we saw that to cleanse our ways, to live a righteous life before our God, even though we are made righteous in the Lord Jesus Christ, to actually to walk that life of righteousness, to work out that life of righteousness, Sanctification, ongoing sanctification. We are sanctified, set apart, made holy in God. Now we have to work it out. Now we have to walk in it. Now we have to maintain it in our lives and live up to it, that life that we have been given. To do that, we need the Word of God. We need God leading us and guiding us in those things of the right. We don't need the words of men. We don't need their ideas. We don't need people to tell us how to manipulate the things that God has given us so that we can make them all acceptable to God, because that's what men tend to do, don't they? Find ways to make the world acceptable to God. Love not the world, the Bible says. But now, what are New Calvinists saying? They're saying, oh no, we can love the world. We can be hedonists, hedonist Christians, how can that be so? What a mockery of the word of God that is, and of being a Christian, and Christ that is. What a blasphemous thing to say. Oh no, we can embrace the world. We've got to be culturally confirming, not culturally denying. But what does John say? Love, not the world. Or, the things of the world. The culture of the world. The things that the world loves and exhorts. Then love it. Love Christ. and the things of God. Those are the things that we should be living for. Those are the things that we should be confirming in the world. Those are the things that we should be saying to the world, this is the way, walk in it. We shouldn't be walking in their ways, but we should be saying this is the way. So, how should a young man cleanse his ways? It should be by the word of God, by looking to the testaments and the law and the teaching of the word of God, because that is the way of righteousness and that is the way of holiness. We've seen that for a Christian in a hostile world, because that is the world that we're living in, that is the world that Christ has promised us as his disciples, they will hate you as they have hated me, you are not above the master. Living in this hostile world that is growing increasingly hostile towards Christians and towards the Christian world, how we are to maintain our Christian walk? To maintain it by the word of God, by holding fast to his word in this world, and to be trusting our God to keep us and to keep faithful to his word. That's how we live in this hostile world, not by giving up on the word of God, We need to be closer to our God, not further away from our God. That's where safety lies, in our God, who has overcome the world. And how are those who are cast down and oppressed the world to maintain their walk for the Lord Jesus Christ? By looking to the word and the encouragements of the word and the teachings of the word that lift them up. and strengthen them for their walk in this world. Well, now we come to this next section. It starts with the Hebrew word he. And here, the psalmist is dealing with the trials and temptations of life. That's the next thing we need to know, don't we? We're seeking to live holy. We're living in a hostile world. How do we deal with that? We're cast down and oppressed because we are seeking to live for the Lord Jesus Christ. But that is lifted off of us as we look to the Word of God. What's the next thing that Satan does? He starts to tempt us, doesn't he? We start to experience the trials of life and the temptations, the hot temptations, those fiery darts of Satan that he casts into our souls and into our lives. And here, the psalmist is dealing with those. How do we deal with the temptations of life? The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. And he gives us three great, great tools to deal with it. Firstly, he tells us that prevention is better than cure. And if we look at this in the context of a disease, of illness, it's very helpful to us. Very helpful to us. Firstly then, prevention is better than cure. Verses 33, 34 and 35 teach me, O Lord, the way of your statutes, and I shall keep it to the end. Give me understanding, and I shall keep your law. Indeed, I shall observe it with my whole heart. Make me walk in the paths of your commandment, for I delight in it. And in each one you see the desire to be prevented from going astray, prevented from falling, preventing from giving in. Teach me, he says, give me, make me. Each one of those is a plea to God to help him so that he may not give in to the temptations and the covetousness and the envy that so fills our hearts and our souls at times. Let's look at them then, each one. Teach me, O Lord, the way of your statutes, and I shall keep it to the end. That's the first thing we need. We need to know the word of God, don't we? We need to be taught to us. We need God's spirit to teach it to us. It's not just reading the word of God. I have nothing against those systems that you sometimes find to read the Word of God in a year, or in two years, or three years, or five years, whatever the system may be. Friends, I have nothing against them at all. But do not believe that you are imbibing the Word of God, or understanding of the Word of God, or taking it in just because you're reading it. It's not enough just to read the Bible. I used to have a teacher at school, a godless man. He was, what was he? I think he was an English teacher. He was head of the library as well and he used to read. He used to know books inside out. He could quote portions of books. And one day he stood up in an assembly and it shocked us all to see this man standing up in an assembly because we used to concentrate on things about the scripture in our assemblies, even though our headmaster wasn't a Christian, that's the way assemblies were when I was a child, a long, long time ago. And here he was, standing up in an assembly, and he waxed eloquent about the Word of God. eloquent he was about the wonderful literature and the prose of the Word of God and the poetry that blew him away and was better than Shakespeare. He was a godless man. Appreciating the Word of God. He could read it on that level, but actually get nothing from it at all. And even we, as the children of God, can read it on that level. We can learn portions of it. But if we're not taking it in, if we do not know it, then it does little good for us, does it? So we need to know it, friends. We need to understand it. We need to actually get down and study the word of God. Teach me. That should be our prayer when we come to the scriptures. Teach me, O Lord, the way of your statutes, those laws that you have set down. I want to know them. I want to know what you have set down so that I will keep to them and I will be true to them. Secondly, Give me understanding, and I shall keep your law. Indeed, I should observe it with my whole heart. You see, it's not good enough just knowing the word of God. It's not good enough just knowing the Word of God. We need to understand it. We need to take it in. We need to really get to grips with it so that we can understand what the Bible is saying to us. And why it's important. Why what you are reading is important to you and to your Christian life and to the Church of Jesus Christ. You need to really get to grips with the Word of God and understand it. And that's what the psalmist wants. He wants to understand what God is teaching in his laws. Those laws that have been laid down by God. Those ways that we should observe and keep to. That's what he means there. And when he knows it, and he understands it with his heart, he's taken it in, it's become part of him, it's what he now believes, And then, what does he say? Indeed, I shall observe it with my whole heart. You never will. You never will, friends, if you only know it. You never will. I have been amazed, absolutely amazed, over the last, say, 20 years, seeing people who know who know the Reformed faith, they can turn you to the Scriptures from memory, to the portions of Scripture that teach the Reformed faith. They know it, but it seems to me that they didn't understand it. Not one word of it, if they can be doing the things that they are doing now. They didn't understand a word of it. Because they have turned to the methodology of the world to try and win the world. Instead of standing by a sovereign God who is the savior of the world, who saves his people from their sins with a wonderful gospel of grace. And that's how he will save his people from their sins. He will not save them by the methodology of the world and of the slick salesmen or by the pop music to entice people in. He will not save them by people lying to them and getting them through the doors anyway and then trying to indoctrinate them and try and make them over a period of time a Christian. That's the methodology that's being used in our church today by reformed people who seem to me understand nothing, nothing of what it is to be reformed and what it is to believe in a sovereign God. We have to understand it or else we'll never stand by it. We have to understand it or we'll never know how to work it out or why we should work it out or what we should do. in any circumstances. Knowing it is not good enough. Knowing it is not good enough. We have to understand it. But thirdly, in this exception or prevention, he says, make me to walk in the paths of your commandments for I delight in it. Now there's a change in here. He's saying for I delight in it. And the key here is to delight in it. If you do not have a taste for the word of God and a love for the word of God, you are not going to work at it. You are not going to try and know it. and understand it, are you? If you delight in it, then you will want to know it, then you will want to understand it, then it will be the most important thing in your life, then it will be the thing that you will want to govern your life by when you first became a Christian. What was the word of God to you then? Well, there was so much of it you didn't know. So much of it you didn't know. And I can guarantee for every born-again Christian here, it's something that you wanted to devour and you wanted to know more and more and more and more of. You wanted to know what your God said, what your God has for us, what your God wanted, and what your God desires in your life. I don't know how long it lasted for, but that was a desire that we all had, didn't we? You see, when you want it, when you delight in it, then you go after it, don't you? You seek it. You devour it. You seek to understand it and apply it in your life. So there are three things. Three things. Prevention is better than cure, friends. Far more better than cure. The covetousness, the envy, the pride of life, those things that are out there, those things that do topple us, don't they? Those things that grip our heart every now and then can be prevented. They will still come to us, but we will know how to deal with them. We will be strong in the Word of God and faithful to our God if we apply ourselves to the Word of God, to know it, to understand it, take it into our hearts, and to love it, and give ourselves to knowing it and understanding it. We can't become very weak friends in our faith and in our life if we do not apply ourselves to the word of God. It's like eating. It's like eating, isn't it? We need to eat for our bodies to be strong and to be able to fight off infection. We need to eat so that we can be strong and healthy. If we don't know the word of God, we are open to covetousness and envy. We're open to it. It's like having an open sore. the disease can get in. That's why doctors and nurses pay so much attention to the scars these days that are left after surgery. They want to make sure it's clean. They want to make sure that what's coming out of it is not infected, and if it is, they deal with it very quickly. They want to make sure that there is no infection there. Because they know that even though they have cut out whatever it is they had to deal with, or mended whatever it is they had to deal with, and cut your skin for, even though that may have been dealt with, you can die from an infection. Because there's a weakness there, in your flesh. And it's the same with us. If we are not applying ourselves to the Word of God, even though we are the children of God, and even though we have been saved by the Lord Jesus Christ, if we are not applying ourselves to the Word of God, then we open ourselves up to be infected by the world again, and to be drawn away by the world. if we do not apply ourselves to knowing the scriptures. And if we don't understand the scriptures, then we will start asking questions. Why do I have to do this? Why shouldn't I love the world? It's so wonderful, isn't it? So much lovely things out there. So much glorious things out there. Why can't I spend my Sundays, just some of my Sundays, doing the things that I want to do? I spend most of them doing the things that God wants to do. Why should I come to church twice on a Sunday and worship God on a Sunday? See, the world starts coming in. It's interesting, isn't it? Those people who used to say, we don't have to worship God twice on a Sunday, we can worship God by not coming to church and by being at our homes and worshiping God in our own homes, now they don't worship God twice on a Sunday. But you'd be hard-pressed to find them in their own homes on a Sunday worshipping God when they're not at church. No, they're playing football, they're playing badminton. Now they have another excuse. Oh, they're witnessing for the Lord Jesus Christ when they're doing these things. Another excuse for forsaking the Word of God and what the Word of God teaches. Because they didn't understand it. They didn't understand why the Sabbath is a precious thing given to us by God to show how loyal we are to Him and faithful to Him. Giving one day over to Him and keeping that day holy unto Him. They didn't understand it. It was just a day set aside. And it was a Jewish day as far as they were concerned and they can forsake it with the rest of the law. Or they can forsake that one law but keep the other nine. Incredible, isn't it? That one law. Apparently. If you don't understand it, if you haven't grasp the meaning of it and the import of it, if you haven't taken it in, if you're not willing to stand on it as the truth, then you never will. You never will. When I was a young Christian, there was a problem in the church because the young people were becoming infected by the the spirit of the age, of the sixties and the seventies. They were being affected by the fun life and the hippie life and things like this. And it was even coming into the church to a certain extent. And then the music was coming in, you know, the old, old songs, you know, coined by William Booth. Why should the devil have all the good music? The answer is because it's the devil's music, of course. But anyway, he thought that that was an excuse to listen to any old music that you wanted to listen to. And then it was taken over by the hippies. Randy Stonehill used to say it, and other people used to say it. You probably don't know these names, do you? People from the past. You don't want to know them, by the way. You don't want to know. But anyway, they took it on and they said, well, why should the devil have all the good music? We can have rock music, we can just tweak it a little bit to make it more palatable towards Christians. And the Christians were saying, yes, why shouldn't we have it? Why shouldn't we worship with this type of music and bring it into our churches? We're not gonna let the devil have all the good music, are we? Because they didn't understand. because nobody had taught them why we worship in the way that we worship. They didn't understand reverence and godly fear. They didn't understand worshipping God with awe and bowing before him in homage to our God. They didn't understand that God is not worshipped with the things made of hands but is worshipped with spirit, that spirit is made alive in him and truth with the word of God. Didn't understand any of those things. It was just the older people saying, no, we want this type of music. And the younger people saying, no, we want our type of music. That's all it was. They didn't understand. So if we don't understand, friends, we won't stand by the things of God. And if we don't delight in the things of God, in the scriptures and in the teachings of the word of God, then we will find something else to delight in, won't we? That's the truth of it, friends. If you don't delight in the things of God, you will delight in the things of the world. Because that's what your heart wants to do. It wants to delight in something. You would delight in your little children, in your little grandchildren. You would delight in your home, in making your home beautiful. You would delight in your car. You would delight in clothes. You would delight in anything. Things are not wrong in themselves. Not wrong in themselves, friends. but that's what will be most important to you. I love my grandchildren. I speak about my grandchildren. I bring them into sermons, don't I? They are a wonder to me. They bring much joy into my heart and I thank the Lord Jesus Christ for my grandchildren. Every day. But they're not the most important thing to me. And they should never be. They should never take the place of the Lord Jesus Christ, should they? In my heart and in my affections. And when they grow up and they want me to go to their birthday parties on the Sabbath day, I'm gonna disappoint them. Because my savior comes first. And my concern for my grandchildren means that I want them to know that. I want them to realise that Jesus should come first and they should want him and to desire to be right by him because he is the King of Kings and he is the Lord of Lords. Know it, understand it, but delight in it as well, friends. Let it be your delight, your joy. The Word of God. So that's the first thing, prevention better than cure. But now we come to cure, because sometimes the things of the world do come upon us very quickly, and they do take us by surprise. We've stopped guarding against them, we've stopped worrying about them, and sometimes we are weak in our life. The devil knows how to manipulate things, doesn't he? He knows when we are the weakest, and the weakest point is, he knows when all the troubles and trials of life as a Christian have gone on top of us, you know, all the problems and difficulties in the church of Jesus Christ. All the problems we've had with being a Christian, maybe at work, we've come under persecution at work, and people don't like us, and we've fallen out with our boss. He knows that at that point in our lives, he can bring in covetousness and envy. And he can make us start to look out and think, yes, why, why am I suffering? Why do I have to? Why is it me? Look, you know, people less able than me are getting on better in their jobs than I am because they're the boss's golden boy or something. I could be that. If only I was willing to give up on the Sabbath. If only I was willing to stop doing the Lord's work and give my time over to this and work till 12 o'clock at night every night or whatever else I have to do. Sometimes we need the cure, don't we? Sometimes this temptation is very, very strong. I remember as a young Christian, I think I've told you this, when I was working in antiques, I used to work up in a place called Beauchamp's Place, or Beauchamp's Place, and it depends who was saying it. If you were a Sloan Ranger, you had a different way of saying it. Do you remember the Sloan Rangers? They were just around the corner from us, where I used to work, and Anyway, my boss was a believer, and I used to work for him in his antique shop, very upmarket antique shop, selling porcelain, British pottery and porcelain, and Chinese and Japanese pottery and porcelain. And very expensive, and we used to have incredible people coming into the shop, buying the stuff. And I was a young Christian, and out the back there was this there was this muse. Do you know the type of muses you get up in London? They were the stables, they were the garages behind the big houses, but they've now become the chic place to live. I don't know if they still are, but they were then. If you had a muse house, you were something. It was a little hovel, but it was nicely done out. It was stuck away behind the shops, but it was nice because it was a muse house in the middle of London. And the guy opposite us, not me, not us, but the shop, in the back of the shop, lived in this muse house. And my boss knew him because he talked to him. My boss lived upstairs in this beautiful house. And he told me he was a young man, about 30-ish, and he was single, never got married, and he brought different girls home every night, and he had all these parties. He seemed to have money just dripping out of him. I think his father had left him a fortune, and he was going to drink it away and party it away. Anyway, this guy had everything. Absolutely everything. The designer clothes, the designer girlfriends, the designer house, the designer car, the E-type Jaguar of those days. That was the bee's knees, wasn't it? Anyway, he had everything. And I used to look at him, I used to think, but one day I was really low, I was really low as a Christian, and I looked at him and I thought, yeah, he has got everything, hasn't he? He's got everything. And I thought about this for about five minutes, reflecting on the things that he got, he got this, he got that, oh, you know, how it'd be nice to have this, how it'd be nice to have that, the things of the world. And then I suddenly realized, I suddenly realized that Christ died for me. He died for me. While I was yet a sinner, He died for me and shed his blood for me. And he came back to me. The one thing that that man has not got is a saviour. He hasn't got any hope whatsoever. And when these things become stale in his mouth, and when these things become old hat to him, and when he gets old and he's got no one to look to and trust him, What does he have? When he's got everything that money can buy, what then does he have? Nothing. But I have a Lord, and I have a Saviour, and I have a life, a new life in Jesus Christ. That moment, it went. It went. I never thought about that guy again, and what that guy had. You see, friends? Sometimes you need the cure, don't you? Sometimes the Word of God is that cure for us. That's what the psalmist is saying here. He's saying, incline my heart to your testimonies and not to covetousness. Turn away my eyes from looking at worthless things and revive me in your way. Now you notice the change here, don't you? You can see the change. First of all, he's saying, teach me, oh Lord, the way of your statutes and I shall keep them. You see, there's no hint there that there is a problem. He's trying to prevent the problem. Now there is a problem. Covetousness and envy. They have risen their ugly head in his life and he needs help. He needs a cure. So the first one is, incline my heart to your testimonies and not to covetousness. Covetousness, that is the lust of the flesh. The lust of the flesh, that is that inclination to the appetites for the things of the world. Inclination to fulfill your appetites, the flesh. to want to just live for the things that will fulfill those appetites. Whatever they may be, sex, drugs, rock and roll, whatever it may be that fulfills the appetites of the flesh. Wanting them, desiring them, and those things that incite them. Incline, what does he say, incline my heart When those things start to raise their ugly head in my life, Lord, incline my life to your testimonies. Incline my life to those things that you have said are good and are worthwhile, to what God has testified to be true and right and wholesome and the things that we should be loving and the things that we should be living for. Incline my heart to them. That's the cure, isn't it? When the world starts to raise its ugly head in our hearts and we start to want and desire the things, those things that will fulfill our appetites, what do we need to know? What God has said is good for us. What God has said is right for us. What God would give us and bless us with. And secondly, verse 37, turn away my eyes from looking at worthless things and revive me in your way. There's envy, isn't there? Envy. The lust of the eyes and the pride of life could be summed up there. Lust of the eyes and the pride of life. What are they? They are those things that fill our vision. Fill our vision and we can't see beyond them. The lust of the eyes, the glitz, the glamour of the world. The lust of the eyes, the riches. Those things that dazzle us and shine before us and we cannot see beyond them, they're worthless, worthless. Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things. All those things that perish, all those things that die, all those things that rot with this world. Christians shouldn't be living for them, shouldn't be dazzled by the things of this world. So easily are, though, aren't we? So easily are. We need this new thing. We must have that new thing. That's what we're being pummeled with all the time, aren't we? Look at Christmas. How are you going to make Christmas better? Well, either you have a... Coca-Cola will make your Christmas better, apparently. It will fulfill your dreams at Christmas time. Or if that's not enough for you, you need House of Fraser and all the horrible things that they apparently advertise in their horrible way on television. I don't know how they think that advert is going to entice anybody into their shop, but apparently it does. Oh, you need Mark's and Spencer's food to make your feast, the greatest feast on earth. Oh, you need something else, don't you? That's what the world dishes out. It all perishes. It all rots. It is all momentarily. The things that we need, and not the things that our body needs, but not the things that our soul needs. The pride of life. That's another envy, isn't it? When we envy people, we envy their power, we envy their shame, their fame, I should say. Yes, it is shame. Isn't it interesting how that rhymes? Fame and shame. It so often is. It's exactly the same thing, isn't it? Or leads to it. We envy them. Because of what they are. The pride of life. Dazzled by it. What do we need when this ugly thing of envy rises up in our lives? Turn away our eyes from looking at Worthless things. Turn us away from them, God. We need his help, we need his strength to turn us away. Turn us away from looking at worthless things and revive me in your way, in the way that you have prescribed, in the way that you are leading me, in the way that you want me to go, in the way that you want me to live. We're disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, are we not? And why do we try and win the world by politics? Why do we try and win the world like some Christians by economics? Why do we try to win the world except by Jesus Christ? Where is the denying self taking up the cross and following him? in Christians' lives today? No, friends, you want the cure. The cure is to look at the word of God. The cure is to pray that our God will lead us in his ways. The cure is to pray that our God will turn our eyes from these worthless things and turn them upon him. When our eyes are on the things of the world, we can only see the world. We can only see the problems and difficulties. We talked about this before, haven't we friends? When we're looking at the earth and we're looking at our problems and difficulties, the problem is all we can see is problems and difficulties. Isn't it? It's true. Because that's what the world is. Problems and difficulties. And it's the same with envy and covetousness. When our eyes are just focused upon this world, when we're too busy to read our Bibles, when too busy to pray, and too busy to reflect on the things of God, when our eyes are just focused on the things of this world, what will we see? What will our vision be full of? This world. and the things of this world. What we need to do is lift our eyes upon God and the things of God. And then the things of the world, what do they do? They grow strangely dim, strangely dim and worthless. As we look at Him, as we look at those things that are worthwhile, and those things that last. As we look at Him, the one that we can trust with all our life. As we look at Him and we can lay ourselves before Him and know that He will work all things out together for our good. Because we love Him and because He loves us. And lastly, friends, we've got to deal with this very, very quickly now, just three things here. When we've been cured, we need to be restored and revived, don't we? And that's what the psalmist turns to now. Three things then for our restoration and for our healing. Establish your word in your servant who is devoted to fearing you. Turn away my reproach which I dread, for your judgments are good. Behold, I long for your precepts. Revive me in your righteousness. The first one is the fear of the Lord. That's the first one. Healing process comes as we turn back to the Lord and start fearing Him once again, loving Him, honoring Him, respecting Him, putting Him first in our lives, seeking to live for Him, giving Him the preeminence in our lives and nobody else the preeminence in our lives. Fearing grieving him. Do we fear to grieve our God and dishonor our God and displease our God? Fearing the consequences of these things, the broken fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ and with our God. Fear him. That's what the psalmist says. Establish your word in your servant who is devoted to fearing you. We should be devoted to our God and the fear of our God. And pray that he will establish his word in our hearts and in our souls. The second one is this. Turn away my reproach which I dread. for your judgments of God are good. We have to believe that God's judgments are good, good and right and true and those things that we should be living by and we should fear breaking them and the consequences of breaking God's laws. We should dread the reproach of our God You know, the amazing thing is, is the children of God, we are not punished by God, but we are chastened by our God. Bible doesn't say that his children are punished, but it certainly does say that we are chastened. And chasing is not pleasant, the Bible says, while we're going through it, but it's for our good. We should fear the chastening of our God. We should fear the reproach of our God. And we should fear being in such a state that we need it, friends, shouldn't we? We should always be seeking to live for the honor and glory of our God. And fourth, and lastly, thirdly, sorry, and lastly, behold, I long for your precepts. Revive me in your righteousness. Fear the Lord. Fear falling into the reproach of our God. And love his word. Love his precepts. Love those things that he has laid down to guide us in his ways so that we can be pleasing and we can be glorifying to him. Those will work for our healing and for our restoration as we come back to our God from that covetousness and envy that is in the world and in the old man. and drugs us down so very often into the ways of this world again. Let's pray. Our gracious God and our loving heavenly Father, we come into your presence and we do praise and thank you that your word is such a blessing to us. Oh Lord, the world does dazzle us. The world, oh Lord, does, oh Lord, enthrill our old hearts. And Lord, we are so, so inclined to give in and to please the flesh. We pray, oh Lord, that we may be above these things. That we may, oh Lord, love your word and want to walk in your ways. That you, oh Lord, will keep us true to you and turn our eyes from these things to your word. Lord, give us that true desire, that true longing of heart to please you and live to the praise of your glory. Please help us. Be with us, Lord, that we may not fall into your condemnation, that we may not fall, O Lord, away from you, that we may not grieve you and grieve the Holy Spirit. Please, Lord, Help us that we may abide in you, and you may abide in us. We ask these things in Jesus' precious name. Amen. Well, let's sing our last hymn then, which is 699. 699, in the hour of trial, Jesus pray for me. Lest by base denial I depart from thee. When thou seest me waver, with a look recall, nor for fear or favor suffer me to fall. 699. Yeah.