How we long that you may be encouraged and find out more and more how strong are the bonds of Christian love. How we long for you to grow more certain in your knowledge and more sure in your grasp of God Himself. May your spiritual experience become richer as you see more and more fully God's great secret Christ Himself. For it is in Him and in Him alone that men find all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Here now is David Johnston, teaching on your selected topic, to help you in your walk with Christ. We started last Wednesday night on talking about David's pocket Bible, Psalm 119. David's pocket Bible, of course, is someone's notion, someone's coinage, someone's term. But probably advisedly, they have taken Psalm 119 and realized that Psalm 119 is a summary of Everything David wrote about in the rest of the Psalms and and that Psalm 119 is a propter proper characterization of the whole Bible So it's a short version if you could if David was likely to carry a pocket version of something of the Bible It may well have been Psalm 119 It's I call it the Bible in Tracy form Everybody here knows about Tracy's, right? How many remember writing Pricey's in high school? What a painful memory. It was the worst thing about English that I remember. I liked English, but not Pricey writing. So just so you know what a Pricey is. A Pricey, or a summary, is not a personal interpretation of a work or an expression of your own opinion of the idea presented. It is rather an exact replica in miniature of the work, often reduced to one-fifth of its size, in which you express the complete ideas. If you remember writing a précis, they would give you a one-pager, and you've got to reduce it to a paragraph. And in your own words, without quoting words out of it, you have to say back the exact meaning of the author. And not an easy task. It depends on your ability to restate the writer's central ideas after you have read it and assimilated it in your own mind. Sound familiar? Her ability to write a praises. essential to the basics of analysis, synthesis, and comparison, and other key higher order thinking skills required for success. Not an easy thing to write a precinct, but a very great skill. that really involves a multitude of skills, the ability to analyze what was said, synthesize it, take it through your own thought processes, compare it, and to re-express it. And so that's what a phrase he is. So tonight, we're in the second group of eight verses. Last week, we started with verse one. Somebody help me with how it starts. Blessed are the undefiled in the way who walk in the law of the Lord. Do you remember that? Blessed are the undefiled. Last week we talked about what defiles a person. And blessed are people who are not defiled, who walk in the way of God. Gave you the nine keys to understanding the book of Psalms. And we understood from this first group of verses that the essence of it is that holiness equals happiness. Blessed are the undefiled. Blessing doesn't come from sinning. Don't you wish that message could be understood by America? Don't you wish Hollywood would start a reversal? with a realization that all the sin that they advertise is so much fun has got wages attached to it that are deathly. Well, that's what we did last week. So this week, we want to take the second group of verses in David's pocket Bible, his secrets that he discovered to cleansing. So are you ready? The question is first asked in verse nine. How shall a young man cleanse his way? Every one of us need to know the answer to this question. We need to know it for ourselves fundamentally, but we also need it need to know it in order to convey it to seeking, sighing souls who seek their sins to quell, who know that Christ and Christ alone can save a soul from hell. The toughest thing that keeps people from coming to the Lord is the notion that they are too dirty and too defiled to ever again amount to something. But we have found a great source of rejoicing in the Lord Jesus Christ. the one who is able to save to the uttermost all them that come unto God by Christ Jesus. Seeing he ever lives makes intercession. With God all things are possible. We must know the answer. for ourselves and for others. How can a young man cleanse his way? So let's go to the 10 principles right now. I'm going to give them word for word out of here. And let's get started. And I want you to first notice that cleansing is best accomplished when young. You should clean up the spill on the floor immediately, not 150 spills later. It's easier to cleanse the fresh spoilage and spillage right when it happens, and not let it set, and then have more spillage on top of it, accumulation. It is best accomplished when young. The younger we can get cleansed, and when you understand this cleansing in a moment, you'll understand that it isn't just a cleansing and then you have to have another cleansing and another cleansing, although that may be true. But God wants to give us the ability to be cleansed and to, are you ready? Stay clean. Real cleansing should have a lasting effect. But cleansing is best accomplished when young. Don't let 35, 50 years of accumulation take place. Do it when you're young. And then it begins by heeding what the Word of God says. What will be the stuff that will be used for a young man to cleanse his way? Answer? By listening to what this book has to say. This book tells the whole answer to all men's ills. No matter what sin or how many of them, how bad or how numerically mounted up they have been. This book comes to tell you how. Get rid of it. And in fact, nested in these words here of this book, are the power, is the power to clean and to cleanse. So someone who wants to start the cleansing process needs to start with listening to the words. Now, it's interesting because this is what Jesus said too. You are clean through the Word which I have spoken unto you. Obviously, we this side of Calvary understand the importance of the blood of Jesus to cleanse somebody. But it is the Word of God that keeps you cleansed after you got cleansed. It's where the cleansing power is. Not just in the blood, but in the word of God. You are clean through the words that I give you. It begins by taking heed to the word of God. And then it requires a wholehearted seeking of God to get this cleansing. Cleansing cannot be a casually approached. Oh Lord. I'd like you to clean me up I did this the other day and the other night and would you fix this place? With my whole heart have I sought thee Now you're gonna see in a moment that the two verses that this one is in between Well, let me tell you what the next one is. I word if I hid in my heart that I might not sin I So here we are dealing with the importance of the Word of God and David sticks in there and he says, I have had to do this with my whole heart. Getting cleansed cannot be done half-heartedly. That would simply indicate that you don't want a whole cleansing. Or that you don't realize the severity of the sin or the damage of the degradation or the horror of the defilement or the greatness of the abomination. So we go at this wholeheartedly. That's why I long the day when see people so seeking God when it's time to deal with your sin that you Do the old-fashioned thing about taking hold of the horns of the altar and you call upon God because there's a whole hearted seeking for this There's no man be pambi religious shriveled Formula that you can just sort of say and wave some kind of Wand over and think it's been dealt with requires wholeheartedness in seeking it. And then, don't let me wander from thy commandments. It requires vigilance. It requires vigilance to the righteous standard. Don't let me wander from the standards. You take heed to the word of God, we do it wholeheartedly. And then we exercise great vigilance about these commandments of God. They are not suggestions. They're not options. They are serious. They are severe. They are necessary. And what keeps a person from going back into the sin life again is a clear picture and heart to keep the commandments of God. Don't let me wander from the commandments. Thy word have I hid in my heart, so that I won't sin against thee. It is not enough to heed the word and know what it says. The word must get inside of us, must be ingested, it must be digested, it must become part of our being. So cleansing is maintained by the sustaining ability and the presence of the Word of God. Thy Word have I moved from the page into my heart so that I won't sin. It is the Word of God incarnated into our being that empowers us to walk on top of sin, so sin doesn't have the drawing power anymore, because greater is he that's within us than he that's outside there. And that happens. We must move the word of God from the pages to our hearts. Now, further in reference to this is the next verse. Because last week we learned about statutes. And I should have put that scripture up, and if you'll let me, I'll go find it. Should have started that software at a time. Well, let me see if you remember it. Remember well, no, you know, I gotta let you see it. So just just close your eyes to this This just should not be done in public. You know that like I'm among friends here. Is that true? They got three or four of you, yeah All right Blessed art thou Lord teach me the statutes Now you we learned last week what statutes were do you remember The statutes are the words of gods that are, the word actually comes from the word, meaning engraved, to be carved into, like engraved, right? So look here now at this. So these things are written not with ink, but with the spirit of the living God not on tables of stone, but in the fleshy tables of the heart. So David is saying, God, the statues that you've engraved on my heart, teach me by them. So we stay teachable by the Lord, How does he teach us with the engravings that he has put in our hearts back to the scripture here? Written on the fleshly tables of the heart written not with ink but written with a spirit of the Living God So It's important to in the cleansing process To listen to what The Spirit of God has written, not with ink, but by His Spirit, not carved in stone, but on the fleshy tables or tablets of the heart. Now, I am a great believer in Jesus. I am a great believer in God the Father. I am also a great believer in the Holy Ghost. I testify that the scriptures are true, at least in my life, and I believe in the lives of everyone with whom I've spoken, and you test this to see if it's not true, that the Holy Spirit is faithful to every person all the time that nobody goes to sin without hearing from the Holy Spirit that's why the Bible calls him the restrainer he is doing a restraining work on this planet not a course of work But nobody does wrong without having to say no to the Holy Spirit. How do we know that? Because when the Spirit of truth has come, he will, number one, convict the world of what? of sin, of what is right, and that there's going to be judgment if you make the wrong choice. Everybody knows it because the Holy Spirit is active. And so David's saying, hey, Lord, I'm going to hearken unto your words. I'm going to get your words resonant in me. And the stuff that you have written, these statues carved into my heart, not with But with the Holy Spirit I'm gonna listen to them. I'm gonna let them teach me And the secret of staying clean is to follow those Trying to think of what Bill calls that Promptings he uses that word. I love that word promptings the promptings of God's Spirit Hallelujah and I good then number seven David learned the importance of verbalizing God's standards He said with my lips have I declared all the judgments of thy mouth With my lips The importance of verbalizing God's standards to yourself out loud Not only to yourself, but to others. I have found that I have needed, by times, to have a strategy in advance of when I might encounter a tempting situation. In other words, I think half of the ability of overcoming temptations is to know what to do if you're confronted with it. before you're confronted with it for example scripture says flee youthful lust just in that commandment there is you will avoid a whole lot of temptations because you won't be there right there are certain people places times and circumstances which are going to create temptation and we are told to flee them we don't go there so you never have to deal with the temptation because you never get there A lot of people are having to fight temptations. They should never have to fight, because if they would flee to begin with, they'd never have to deal with it. It's the best way. But what happens if you inadvertently find yourself into a situation which could provide a temptation of one sort or another? And I tell you so happily that one of the secrets is to verbally identify with Jesus Christ, to verbally identify with God's standards, with whoever is there. Now, I don't know if I've told you about this, but I used to walk the streets. I walked the streets for years, probably seven years preaching on the streets. And I preached on the street corners. I not only had my own little, I had everything from little ones to big ones. In fact, it came across a really funny picture the other day of me when I just knew Christian, preaching on the street. And I got this van behind me, 19, 59 man, you know what bands look like in 1959 They were really ugly. I had this van I had lights up on it and I'm standing on the street corner You know, I could tell you some funny stories I I didn't know any better and I thought you know I'm gonna tell these people about Jesus and I've been in church all my life and when you give somebody When you have tell somebody what Jesus you always have an order call when you have an order call You always have music and I don't have any music So you remember the reel-to-reel tape recorders? Some ministry gave me a reel-to-reel tape recorder, and it took these little tapes about this big, and so I went to the church that I attended, and I had the choir during rehearsal on Thursday night sing a whole bunch of Just As I Am Without One Plea-type songs, and I recorded it on this reel-to-reel tape, and I'd get up there in a street corner and preach, and then I'd put this tape recorder on and play this music out there and invite people to come to the Lord. There were times when I just walked the streets, I didn't preach, I didn't gather a crowd, I just walked the streets. I was constantly invading enemy territory. I was constantly in enemy territory. I'll never forget the traumatic experience I had. Jarvis Street could take you to the place, I've been burned down by now, in Toronto, Red Light District. And I remember the first time I ever witnessed to a prostitute. And all of a sudden, I was in a whole nest. It was a whole bunch of them. And I'll never forget the power that came into me that night when, with about six of them listening, I began to verbally identify with Jesus Christ. Began to verbally proclaim There was a better way to talk about his holiness his standard And I never had a temptation issue in those days and The reason was the principle David speaks about here With my lips I'm going to declare thy judgments. And it keeps them before you. It keeps them before the environment in which you are contextualized. It keeps them before others. You set the standard. And to ever back up, I'd have to have been the most miserable hypocrite to ever walk the face of the earth. There is an ability to stay clean when we verbalize God's standards. This isn't just a boy-girl thing. Two guys, buddies, meet up. And if one of them has become a Christian, the danger is the other guy, I mean, he's not gonna, you know, he's gonna poo-poo the Christian part. But the moment you verbally, if you do it right off the bat, verbally identify with what Jesus has done in your life, and now I live by a standard different than what I used to when I hung out with you, you have cleared the air and you have paved the way to stay pure. You'll follow that? So verbalize with my mouth if I declared thy judgments. Don't act like you're missing something. Don't act brokenheartedly. But joyfully, look at this, I have rejoiced in the way of thy testimonies. As you live this clean life, celebrate your cleanliness. Celebrate being right. Celebrate being holy. Now, Look at what david did because you know from david's story. He had a lot of stuff. He needed to get cleansed from But thank god he got the victory over it. Amen. You want to find out about it in detail? You're getting it summary your pricey version here. You want to go to the long version go to psalm 51 You'll get it watch this now He said I rejoice in the way Lord that you testify is right I rejoiced in it. Now look at this. How much did he rejoice? As much as in riches? No. As much as in all riches. More than, greater than, higher than, better than, all the money that you could ever amass together is your clean life. There's a cleansed life. I rejoice in this way. Oh, God. Oh, God. I think with a whole heart. Word of my head and my heart that I won't sin. With my lips, I tell of my righteous judgments. And now I rejoice in it. Oh, God. Oh, God. When's the last time you celebrated the cleansing that you have through Jesus Christ? I hope it was today. It's a way of life. We live in this celebrus condition. Joyfully celebrate as you live the clean life. And then the need to control thoughts thereafter. And this scripture, then it's found out. My point is simply right here. I will meditate. in thy precepts. Meditation is how you control your thoughts. Meditation is taking the words of God and mulling over them and musing over them and chewing on them and rehearsing them and reviewing them over and over. over again. And if you do that, you will never have the battle up here because the battle will be controlled by the meditations of God. Meditating in the precepts, statutes, the testimonies, the words of God is the key to controlling your thoughts. Think of it, well, there's several ways to do this. You can call it thought replacement if you want. That's a good way to look at it. What's wrong with that? That's a smart thing to do. Replace the bad thoughts with the good thoughts. Replace the tempting thoughts with the righteous thoughts. Replace the unholy with the holy. Replace the profane with that which is godly. So David learned to control his thoughts, and he verbalized it. He said, this is how I'm going to do it. I'm going to meditate in that precepts. And now, I'm not only gonna meditate and I have precepts, but I'm going to have respect unto your ways. Do not despise the ways of God. Hold them in reverence. Hold them in awe. Respect them. Value them It'll keep you where you should be So you control our thoughts by meditation and keep respect under the ways of God There will be a lot of people that you will meet Even in your acquaintance circle who will not respect the ways of God They'll poo-poo mock them Shan that they'll they'll they'll make fun We don't do that we hold them in respect. It's part of staying clean and then lastly I will take the light Myself in thy really these engravings that are now in my heart The ones you put there by the Holy Spirit and the ones that got there because I meditated in your word I Will delight myself. Oh man in thy statues and I will not forget Thy word If only David had known these ten things and the night or the day, he looked out his window on the neighborhood rooftop and saw Bathsheba. If only he had known these 10 things. The history story would be, the story would be written differently. But like David, all we like sheep have gone astray. There's none righteous, no not one. We've all done it the wrong way. But I am grateful that David, this is amazing to me. I'm grateful for what David did, but I'm most grateful for what God did because of David's repentance. He cleansed him. He cleansed him. Cleansed him. And he was a man after God's own heart. So God does. And I'm glad that David wrote these things so that we can have this simple, step-by-step, follow-the-same process. David's secret to cleansing. He carried it in his pocket Bible. Tracy, a brief summary of how the cleansing principles of God work. And you can pull it out at any time check the ten points and stay clean the rest of forever Would you say amen? We trust this teaching has been a blessing to you. For further information on other teaching and series topics, please visit our website at nothingbutthetruth.us or call us toll free at 1-88-THE-TRUTH. That's 1-888-438-7884. you