I want to read Psalm 119, and I want to ask you to follow with me as I begin in verse 161. 161. Not many places in the Bible I can say verse 161. This is part four of the work of the Word. Follow with me as I read the last two stanzas of the psalm. Princes persecute me without cause, but my heart stands in awe of your words. I rejoice that your word is one who finds great spoil. I hate and despise falsehood, but I love your law. Seven times a day I praise you because of your righteous ordinances. Those who love your law have great peace, and nothing causes them to stumble. I hope for your salvation, O Lord, and do your commandments. My soul keeps your testimonies, and I love them exceedingly. I keep your precepts and your testimonies, for all my ways are before you. Let my cry come before you, O Lord. Give me understanding according to your word. Let my supplication come before you. Deliver me according to your word. Let my lips utter praise, for you teach me your statutes. Let my tongue sing of your word, for all your commandments are righteousness. Let your hand be ready to help me, for I have chosen your precepts. I long for your salvation, O Lord, and your law is my delight. Let my soul live, that it may praise you, and let your ordinances help me. I have gone astray like a lost sheep. Seek your servant, for I do not forget your commandments. The man that many of you might know his name is well known for saying this. My first and foremost business every day is to have my soul happy in the Lord. George Mueller wrote those words. He said, firstly, I would ask for God's blessing in the morning when I would open up his precious word. And then I would meditate on the word of God. And I would search every verse to get understanding out of my daily reading. Not for the sake of my preaching of the word, but for obtaining food for my own soul. And then he said, invariably soon my soul would be led to confession or to thanksgiving or to intercession or to supplication. And the result of my prayer and Bible reading and meditation is that my inner man would be nourished and strengthened so that by breakfast time, I am in a peaceful and happy state of heart. What a great testimony. By breakfast time, I am in a happy and peaceful state of heart." That's what you and I want, to begin your day to have your heart and your soul happy in the Lord. Don't you want that? Don't you long for that? For your soul to be happy in God? The way to do that is to behold Christ in the Word of God. The way to get your soul happy in God is to study the Word of God better, to know and love the God of the Word, and be well-equipped to obey Him in your day-to-day lives. Charles Spurgeon was commenting on this taking in and imbibing of the Word of God, and Spurgeon said, oh, that you and I might get into the very heart of the Word of God and get that Word into ourselves. And then Spurgeon was quick after that to comment on a man whom he highly respected, John Bunyan. Spurgeon said of Bunyan, Bunyan absorbed the scripture so deeply that you read all of his works and it's like you're reading the Bible itself. It was said of John Bunyan, he's like a living Bible. You prick him anywhere and he bleeds Bibline. I don't know about you, but I want to bleed Bibline. You prick me, you poke me, You bring hardship into my life and you and I would bleed bibline. How do we do that? How do we excel at that in our lives? Here's a couple of reminders for you in your notes. Number one, we must excel at reading the word. The whole Bible makes a whole Christian. Number two, we must memorize the word of God to fill yourself full, to be brimming with the truth of God. Third, we can excel at being bib-line by praying the word, letting the scriptures inform your prayer life. And fourth, we can excel at being bib-line by talking of the word. How much of your conversations throughout the day is full of Scripture, quoting Scripture, talking about Scripture, to believer and unbeliever alike. In this amazing psalm, Psalm 119, it's brilliantly crafted, poetically masterful. This is a psalm extolling the Word of God and the God of the Word. We see many attributes of the Word of God and how the Word does its work. And we've seen about nine of these attributes already in the three weeks. You see it in your outline. It gladdens you. It guides you. It calms you. It protects you. It comforts you. It revives you. It teaches you. It satisfies you. It helps you. We've seen all of that and we've looked at that in some detail, but I wanna look at the final three in this study on the work of the Word. I wanna show you the work of the Word tonight in three more, three additional ways that the Word of God does its work in our lives. And I hope that with the help of God and with the illumination of the Holy Spirit, and with the anointing of the Holy Spirit that I can preach the Word faithfully and helpfully to you tonight. Let me give you one of the concluding ways just tonight that the Word of God does its work. You see in your notes, number one, the Word settles you when you are anxious. It settles you when you are anxious. If you let your eye look back to verse 23, I want to show you what David wrote in verse 23. Even though princes sit and talk against me, your servant meditates on your statutes. I mean, we might be tempted to be anxious if people are talking about us. Verse 28, my soul weeps because of grief. Strengthen me according to your word. He's weak, he's grieving. But rather than becoming anxious, he finds strength in the Lord and in his word. What is it that anxious and fearful people are longing for? Anxious people are longing for rest. They're longing for calm. They're longing to be settled at heart. one biblical counselor says, the nature of anxiety is that our minds are captivated by thoughts of doom and thoughts of trouble. And they invariably run in a circular downward pathway, and it's vain to attempt to stop those runaway thoughts. until they are replaced with a righteous biblical replacement. When we are fearful, when we are anxious, we must fill our thoughts and our prayers with meditations on the Lord's goodness. Anxiety, when you really come down to the very root of anxiety, it's fear. Anxiety is fear, which is the opposite of trusting in God. And my proof for saying that is Psalm 56 in verse 3. Anxiety at its very core is the yearning to know what we cannot know. And it's the yearning to control what we cannot control. That's why anxiety is the opposite of faith, according to Matthew 6, 34. Now, when the situations of life trouble us from enemies, to uncertainties, to hostilities, to insurmountable difficulties that we may have, anxiety, is not the choice that God would want us to make, although it's easy in our sinful flesh to become anxious. And it is a choice, by the way, to become anxious. It is a moral choice because God commands us to be anxious for nothing, Philippians 4. So, therefore, the Christian can. He has the power to not be anxious. But the Bible alone is the divine gift to settle you when you're tempted to become anxious. You say, Jeff. How do I not give in to anxiety? That's like the plague of America nowadays. It's the plague. How do we not be anxious? How do we resist fear? How do I not grow worried when evil is abounding and the godless are gossiping and sinners are slandering and evildoers are mocking? What do we do? You see in your notes, I give you a lot of verses after the heading number one. Let me just summarize them briefly. You don't have to turn through all of them, but they're lifted in the parentheses there. In verse 23, when people are talking about you, they're slandering you, you meditate on the word. In verse 31, when you fear being ashamed and being humiliated, what is the best thing to do but to cling to God's Word in verse 31? In verse 39, when you dread the reproach of others, you have to cling to the Word of God, which is good. In verse 61, the wicked seem to trap the godly, and you feel trapped by the wicked, and they're pursuing you, but yet you don't neglect the law of God. In verse 69, maybe you can relate to this, the arrogant lie against you. What do you do so you don't become anxious? You observe the law of God. In verse 84, when you're tempted to repay the wicked and get revenge, no, you must trust in the word. I mean, we could go on and on about the wicked who are laying a trap for you. They're talking behind your back. Hardships and afflictions are assailing you. What do you do and where do you go so that you don't become anxious? Scripture. Scripture is God's Word and it is as strong as God Himself. Scripture is as strong as God Himself. Why? Because the Bible is God's very own spoken Word. In all of the scriptures, the solid, settling, secure solution is leaning on the Word of God. It's holding on to the Word of God. Friend, I don't know everything about your life, but I know that it won't take long before anxious thoughts are creeping in. and fears and worries and anxieties are creeping into your heart and your thoughts and your life. So, what do we do? We lean upon Scripture again. We run to the perfect solution of God and His power in His Word. Why? Because the Word settles you when you're anxious. It settles you. I'm not saying it's a quick, easy fix. Don't hear what I'm saying. I'm not saying it's a quick, easy fix. This is not some little band-aid that you just sort of put on. What I'm saying is this is an ongoing habit of putting off the anxious thoughts and putting on the continual renewing of the Word of God. That's work. And it's labor, but it's good and worth it. So what is the work of the word? It settles you when you are anxious. I think I mentioned it a number of weeks ago when I was preaching on this in my introduction to another psalm, but it really seems to be one of the plagues of America, and that is anxiety. It's everywhere. Not just from the adults, but from the youngest of elementary school children as well. It's everywhere. It's everywhere in our society. And yet, Christian, you and I know the answer, and we have the power of God available to us. The Word of God settles you when you're anxious. Number two, and related to that, in your notes, what is the work of the Word? What does it do? It provides you with songs. This is an important point to bring up because we are living in a day where there's a lot of music out there and a lot of songs out there. And yet God's word and his truth and his doctrine and his character and sound truth provides us with what we need the songs of life. Look at verse 171. Let my lips utter praise for you teach me your statutes. And I love verse 172. Let my tongue sing of your word. Isn't that great? I want to sing your word. I want to sing God's word. Matthew, Henry, The Puritan said, there is no one book of scripture that has been more helpful to the devotions of the saints than singing the Psalms. It has been in all the ages of the church, even since it was written. Many of you might know the name Johnny Erickson Tada, a woman with much suffering. She said, even when my weary soul is faltering, singing is a way of turning my soul Godward. Especially when affliction tries to drag me in the opposite direction. When my mind is in a brain fog, I can still express my confidence in Christ through the hymns that I know by heart. What if I'm not able to speak my praise? Then I can sing my praise. When I sing a hymn, the wise words of scripture become a sacrifice of praise to my God. She said, no matter what trial you are facing, God has a song for you to sing. And Johnny would advise me and you, sing your way through your suffering. Why? because the instruction from the Word of God provides you with the songs that will carry you through the difficulties of life. In fact, I think the scriptures, the solid doctrine of scripture gives you the spine of steel that will carry you along in the sufferings of life. Now, in verse 171, let my lips utter praise. See that word in verse 171, utter praise, that little phrase there? It's a word in Hebrew. It's super rare. It means to gush forth like a fountain. The psalmist is saying, I want my lips to be gushing, gushing forth a fountain of praise to my God. This is not a trickle. This is not one song on Sunday. This is a fountain of praise, gushing like a fountain upward. Look at verse 172. Let my tongue sing of your word. Do you see that word in verse 172 for sing? Again, a very rare word in Hebrew. There's a lot of words for sing, but this is a rare word. It means to shout loudly with heartfelt passion. This is not a quiet singing. This is a passionate, this is a heartfelt crying out to God. I want all of your word to so fill me so that your word becomes my loud heartfelt praises to God. And earlier in verse 164, seven times a day, I praise you because of your righteous ordinances. Even the word praise in verse 164 is a Hebrew form that is emphatic. I will intensely praise you, oh God. And I love how the psalmist is bringing out these nuances here where this is heartfelt. This is passionate. What do I sing? Well, we have a lot of hymns. We have a lot of worship songs, both new and old. That's great. But do you know that God has provided for us 150 hymns that he wants us to know and sing? Psalm singing is thoroughly biblical. Jesus did it. We know that psalm singing is historical because the early church loved to sing psalms. It is beneficial because it writes God's word upon our hearts. Psalm singing is satisfying because, well, you know that you're singing God's word back to him. It's very unique because the unbelieving world doesn't have a category for that. And psalm singing is heaven preparing. Because God's word is eternal and fixed in the heavens, and we will worship our God forever. And his word will give us the psalms that we need and the songs that we need. Let me just give you one illustration. I was thinking of Martin Rinkard in the 1600s who performed all these funerals each day during the war in Europe at that time. And he would sing and he would lead his family in song. He would lead his church in song going through such afflictions. But I want to tell you about a man named Babilas. I found him in Fox's Book of Martyrs. He was a bishop of the early church in the city of Antioch in Syria. According to John Fox, he was a godly, faithful shepherd, true to the word and constant in preaching. On one occasion, he was seized by authorities and bound with chains and put in solitary confinement. He was found to be guilty and on his way to the place of execution, On his way, he repeatedly sang the Psalms. His favorite was Psalm 116. Over and over and over. What is it that carries these pilgrims to their death with a cheerful heart? What is it that our Lord and the early church sang? What is it that we would do well to sing but godly, godly, scripture-filled songs? Including the Psalms. because the Word of God does its work, not only in settling you when you're anxious, not only in providing you with songs as you're living life. But I've been waiting for this one all along. I have to go a little bit to the breadth of God's Word for this. Number three in your outline. What does the Word of God do? It sanctifies you in Christ likeness. It sanctifies you. Now, David wrote in verse 174, I long for your salvation, O Lord, and your law is my delight. I am longing for your salvation. I long for your salvation. Remember Luke four, verse four, we live by every word that comes from the mouth of God. Remember Romans 12 verse 2, we must be transformed by the renewing of our minds. First Peter 2 verse 2, as newborn babies long for the pure milk of the word so that we might grow by it. First John 2 14, the apostle John said to the believers that they are strong because the word of God abides in you. Our Lord prayed. John 17, verse 17, sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth. May I just remind all of you church family this evening that sanctification, that is your growth in godliness, comes by abiding in the word of God. It comes by abiding in the Word of God. It's impossible to grow in Christian holiness without being regular in God's Word. That's what the Apostle Paul wrote to young Pastor Timothy. 2 Timothy 3.15, the sacred writings are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All scripture is God-breathed and profitable. And it makes the man of God adequate, equipped for every good work. Maybe you remember that quote from D.L. Moody. This book will either keep you from sin or sin will keep you from this book. When our Lord prayed for you and me in John chapter 17 and verse 17, he prayed to his father and he said, sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth. Beloved congregation, number one, notice this is an effectual prayer. It will happen. Jesus prays, Father, I want you to sanctify them. And guess what? That's a prayer that will come to pass. He will sanctify us. It is an effectual. It will be a successful prayer. Number two, not only is it an effectual prayer, it is a particular prayer. Sanctify them. Who's the them? He doesn't pray for the world. He prays for those whom the Father had given him, those whom the Father had chosen, the elect before the foundation of the world. Jesus is praying right now for you and for me, for the elect ones that we would be sanctified. Third, what's the means? What's the means? How does this happen? He doesn't say sanctify them by social media. He says, sanctify them in the word, in the word. Your word is truth. Take your Bible just very briefly. I want to camp on this for a minute before we close. Go to 2 Corinthians 3. If there was one verse in the Bible that encapsulated the Christian doctrine of sanctification, it's 2 Corinthians 3.18. I think this one verse encapsulates how you and I should live our daily lives. This is what it is for you and me every day to grow in Christ. Look at 2 Corinthians 3.18, but we all, that's believers, with unveiled face, that means we can see God clearly through the word, we have the spirit of God, we are beholding, that's the main verb, we are beholding, like in a mirror, the glory of the Lord. And when you do that, keep reading, you are being transformed into the same image. What image? The glory of the Lord. from one degree of glory to the next, just as from the Lord, who is the Spirit. This is one of the great verses in all of the Bible that the Word of God does its work in sanctifying us. Let me give you a simple summary of the verse. Beholding Christ is becoming more like Christ. Beholding is becoming. What is our goal in life? It is to behold the glory of the Lord. Show me Jesus, show me Christ, show me the gospel, show me my triune God. I wanna behold Him. How do we behold Him? But in the word. Now this word in verse 18 for behold, beholding, is an intensive compound word in Greek that means to look intently like you're staring at something in the mirror. You're looking, you're staring, you're gazing with thought, with intent. You're not moved. And Paul says, that's what our Christian life should be like. It's active verb. It's an intensive verb. We are beholding. The glory of the Lord. Every day, show me Christ. Every time we gather for Lord's Day worship, show me Christ. Every time we pray and study the word and meditate, show me Christ. Every day, show me more of Christ. And don't miss the passive verb. When you are beholding the glory of the Lord, you are being transformed. God transforms you as you behold Christ. This is not, come on, shape up your life, add 50 more things to your life, and be a better Christian. This is put yourself on the treadmill of God's grace. He's already working. He's already doing this work. And how do you do that? You need to behold Christ. And as you look at Christ, he will, he will bring the work. He will transform you. He will mold you. He will do that work. Hebrews 2.11 says, both he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one. So today, tomorrow, every day, make it your goal to gaze upon Christ. That's what the Word does. The Word sanctifies us as we look at Christ from the Word of God. The goal is not just to read the Bible to get more head knowledge, but the goal is to study the scriptures so that we can know the God of the Word more intimately. In fact, I think I even put it in your notes there at the end. What is the goal of all of the study of Psalm 119? Number one, it is to meditate on the Word. It is to delight in the Word. It is to live the Word and to love Christ, the living Word, and to proclaim it. Church family, this is a great Psalm, Psalm 119. And the Word will do its work. The Word will transform. The Word will save. The Word will sanctify. The Word will strengthen. The Word will convert. The Word will convict. The Word will transform. The Word will work. The Word will do it all. I want to close with this wonderful tip. I came across it weeks ago. I don't know how I missed it in my study and previous times, but I just came across it. And I've tried to do this, so I'll share it with you. Maybe you can benefit from it as well. Maybe you know the name Matthew Henry, a famous Bible commentator in the Puritan era. His father was named Philip Henry. Philip gathered all of his children, and they had many. He gathered his children, and he would tell his children, I want you to read one verse a day of Psalm 119. And when you do that, all 176 verses, you'll do that twice over the course of a year. And the father would tell this to all of the children. All grace grows as love for the Word of God grows. If you want the grace of God, then spend time in the Word of God. Spend time in the Word of God. So, he encouraged his children, read one verse a day. I've tried to do that. For me, it works a little bit better, perhaps, for me to do two verses a day. And I've tried to just do that in my own prayer time in the early morning, take two verses of Psalm 119, read them, think on them, chew on it, turn it into a prayer, ponder it, think on it, reflect on it. On my exercise, I reflect and think about it, how great this would be. Think on that, ponder that. That might be a helpful way. to begin your prayer time. The word of God is our spiritual food. We don't want to go a day without it. How did our Lord withstand all of the temptations of the evil one? It is written. It is written. It is written. Man doesn't live by bread alone, but by every word. We have a great savior who conquered the evil one. He triumphed over Satan, sin, death, hell. He himself bore the wrath of God. How did he do that? It is written. It is written. He was so full of scripture. He was so full of divine truth. And that should guide my life and your life as well. The Word of God will do its work. It'll calm you when you're anxious. It'll give you a song and it'll sanctify you in Christ. Let's pray. Our Father, we thank you for the time that we have had in this wonderful, long, profound, God-given, totally inerrant and needed chapter of the Bible, Psalm 119. We believe that the Word of God does its work. We believe that it really has the power to save and it has the power to sanctify. So when we evangelize, we use the Word. When we parent our children, we use the Word. When we speak truth in discipling other believers, we speak the Word. When the Word of God is preached, it must be the preaching of the Word. Oh Lord, we want our lives to be shaped and governed by the scriptures. Be glorified, we pray, oh God. Shape us more into the image of Jesus Christ that we would behold the glory of the Lord. And as we behold Christ, please transform us more into that same image from one degree of glory to the next. We pray all these things for the glory of Christ. Amen.