00:00
00:00
00:01
ట్రాన్స్క్రిప్ట్
1/0
We saw at our communion on Saturday evening, that wonderful theme of his banner over me was love. We spoke about the Christian being conquered by our Lord Jesus Christ, by his love and constrained by the love of Christ to march and to fight under the banner of Christ. It's love that makes the Christian to be no longer his own. And surely in Psalm 119, we see one who has been conquered and constrained by love. And we see his fervent love flaming out in verse 97. Oh, how love I thy law. The following verses give us the reason for this fervent love. And the reason for fervent love is a super abundant privilege. The psalmist loved much because he had been given so tremendously much. If we were to look at verses 98 to 100 from one angle, from a suspicious angle, then we might conclude, well, here is a man that was very proud because he thought that he knew more than other people knew, and he loved to go around telling how much more he knew than other people. But that's absolutely wrong. It's not a proud heart that's speaking in these verses, but rather it is a heart that's actually humbled and that is overwhelmed. He is saying, in effect, I must be the most blessed man in the world because of all that God has done for me by his word. Now, in a sense, it's easy, easier to make that point this afternoon when the godly man is comparing himself to his enemies. Oh, how much more blessed I am than my enemies. As the Lord spares us, perhaps we'll look next week. at the following two verses. But the point that I want to drive home is, here is a man who is not saying, oh, how good I am, but who is saying, oh, how good God is. Why does God love me so much? I'm so ignorant by nature, but God has taught me so much. You see, to a heart acquainted with its own natural folly and sinfulness. The mercies received from the Lord make that man think, God must be showing more mercy to me than he's showing to anyone else on the planet. That's the spirit of the thing. There's fervent love for God because God has done so much for me by his word. That brings us to verse 98. I have a few remarks about the translation of verse 98. One of them, is in keeping with what we have in our metrical version. Metrical version says, it makes me wiser than my foes. So in the metrical version, it's God's law or God's commandment. Those are the thing making me wiser than my foes. And it's one of those cases where either is possible, but I prefer and I'm more settled that the metrical version is closer to the mark. Of course, it's true that it's God through his commandments that's making me wise, but I think the better translation would be that it's God's commandments are making me wiser than my enemies. The second part of the verse, I also have a comment about that, for they are ever with me. Now, the word with, there is an ordinary word in Hebrew to say with, and it's not that word that we find in this place, rather, it would be a word where the simple translation would be to, for they are ever to me. And this is the ordinary way in Hebrew that you express possessing something. So I'm persuaded that the accurate translation here would be, for they are ever mine, they're mine. So with this in mind, and looking to God's help, let's proceed to open and apply his word. We'll see three things, which will be wisdom imparted, wisdom compared, and wisdom possessed. So first of all, wisdom imparted. That is that God through his commandments or simply his commandments and understanding in our minds that it's God doing it, by that means they made me wise. It doesn't say I'm wise, I'm wise by nature. It says, by implication, I'm foolish by nature. I don't know a thing, but God by grace has made me wise. Do you understand that to have even a little bit of wisdom is a mercy that's more than any of us here deserve to have. What is the means by which God makes naturally foolish people into wise people? Well, that's the commandments, or more broadly speaking, the whole word of God. Paul wrote to Timothy and said that from a child, he had known the scriptures which were able to make him wise unto salvation. If we were to walk into the bookstore, and there was a display right at the front of the bookstore, and the title on the book said, this book can make you rich, or this book can make you healthy. Open the covers and follow the directions that you find within this book, and you are guaranteed to be healthy. How many copies of that book would be flying off the shelf? Now the Bible doesn't promise that. It doesn't say this book is able to make you wealthy or to make you healthy. But it does say that this book is able to make you wise for another purpose, wise unto salvation. Where God gives us means, then we need to use the means. once again, to focus on the translation of verse 98. Either it's saying, thou through thy commandments has made me wiser, that's God doing it, but God doing it through means, or I think perhaps more accurately, Thy commandments have made me wiser. Either way, it's means that are being employed. So we believe in the sovereignty of God. We believe that God has decreed whatsoever comes to pass and that God by his infallible and almighty power brings to pass everything that he has decreed, no matter who or what sets himself against the Lord. We believe in the sovereignty of God. And we also believe that a sovereign God uses means to bring about all his purposes. And so the word is the means, the principal means of becoming wise. And this is why in our shorter catechism, we have an entire question about how we're supposed to use the means. How is the word of God to be read? and heard that it may become effectual unto salvation. And that is that we are to attend there unto with diligence, preparation and prayer, receive it with faith, lay it up in our hearts and practice it in our lives. So to go back to the illustration of the book in the bookstore, which says, this book can make you healthy. Well, then maybe it's going to tell you, you know, you need to exercise every day and you need to make this, these half dozen recipes and not eat this or that and follow these prescriptions and you'll be healthy. It'll tell you. Well, with scripture, it's not so simple as that. It's an exercise that reaches home to our hearts, that engages the whole man. So in order to become wise by the scriptures, we need to be thinking ahead. That's one thing we need to be thinking. Here comes the word of God and I need to be praying that God would bless it to me. I need to make sure that I'm there. I need to overcome unworthy reasons for not being there. I need to, Make sure I'm staying in the room where the word of God is being preached and not leaving or not falling into drowsiness. I need to be active and listening to the word of God, praying that he would bless it to me. I need to receive it with faith. I need to keep it there within so that it doesn't make wings and fly away. and I need to practice it in my life. This is what God is calling you to. And it's to this kind of receiving of God's word that he promises it will make you wise. Notice how this is all very personal. Thou through thy commandments has made me wiser than mine enemies. So there's no one who is beyond the reach of scripture's power. The book in the bookstore which promises health, maybe some people will be helped by it. Maybe others are too sick to be helped by it anyways. Not so with the Bible. No matter how foolish you are, it is able to make you wise. Well, what is wisdom anyways? What does it mean to be made wise? In reading Thomas Manton, I came across something that was helpful. He says that wisdom consists in having the right end, the right means to get to that end, and then a diligent use of the means to the end. So a wise person made wise by the scriptures has been turned towards his chief end. Our catechism starts there. What is the chief end of man? If you don't even know what you're aiming at, how can you possibly hit the target? If you step out your door and get into the car and your mind is blank about anywhere that you're intending to go or drive, then you certainly won't get there. So we need to know our end. And we need to be turned from false ends and wrong ends to God himself as our end, to the glorifying of God and the enjoying of God. Man by nature has a wrong end. And what's conversion? Conversion is being turned from having a wrong end, seeking the wrong thing, self, pleasure, sin, to seeking God. We should always be thinking about what our end is. So Thomas Manton says, to look at anything as good in itself without looking further, what it is good for is to make it into God. What's it good for? What is sleep good for? What is food good for? What is clothing good for? They are good to maintain your health and wellbeing. And what is health and wellbeing good for? It's good for service. And what is service for? It's for God. God has to be our end in everything. And that's wisdom to be turned towards our chief end. The Bible is able to turn you towards your right, towards the right end. Do you understand that about your heart? Do you lament that? Oh, I'm always slipping away to something else that ends in me. Oh, for my heart to be turned entirely to God, to have him as my end. The Bible's able to make you wise like that. Not only is it able to turn you to your chief end, but it's able to show you the right means. And that's important too. because there are examples in the Bible of good men who had the right idea and the right aim, but they used the wrong means. Abraham, he gave in to the counsel of unbelief. God's promised us seed, but I'm old, Sarah's old, and so he went into Hagar. There was lot, it's uncomfortable to think about, But Lot, he actually was aiming at something good. He was aiming at protecting his guests from being sodomized. Was that a good aim to have? Yes, absolutely. But did he use the right means by offering his daughters? Absolutely not. So that helps us to see it's not enough just to aim at the right thing. We need lawful means. Peter, what was his aim when he drew his sword and cut off the ear of the high priest servant? In some way he wanted the glory of Jesus. Was that a good aim? Absolutely, wrong means. So to be wise, we need to aim at the right end and we need to know what the means are. And so much of this involves us being humbled and casting away what we think the means should be and listening to what God says that the means are. So for instance, the Lord Jesus said, blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth. Wonderful verse. You know that that verse, it inclines me to be post-millennial because it's saying something about the earth being possessed by the meek. Very simple kind of verse. Okay, but how? shall we come to the possession of the earth by being meek? It doesn't seem like the right means. It seems like being warlike would rather be the way to inherit the earth. No, God says the means is being meek. What about this? He that rebuketh a man shall afterward find more favor than he that flattereth with his lips. Do you want people to favor you? Do you want people to like you? Well, the fleshly means of going about that is entirely wrong. It's not a bad end. It's not a bad aim to say, I would like people to favor me. However, to do so by never saying anything that's hard or that disturbs them or convicts them. It's a fleshly means. God says, speak in open love and where you need to rebuke and you'll find favor in the end. What about this? Be careful for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving. Let your requests be made known to God. Oh, I'm worried about a lot of things. I'm wondering how we'll make ends meet. I'm wondering how we'll provide this and that for our children. Well, the fleshly means would seem to be, well, if I fill my mind with thoughts night and day about how are we gonna do it, how are we gonna do it, how are we gonna do it, that will somehow enable me to meet all the demands. But God says, no, the means is not being careful and praying to me and trusting me and thanking me for what you have. That's wise, to accept God's means. What about our children? chasing thy son while there is hope and let not thy soul spare for his crying. Well, we want our children to be doing well. Of course, that's a good end. But if we discipline them, they cry, they get upset. And it seems like that's not a good way of reaching the end. So maybe let's not do that. No, but that's fleshly thinking. to receive God's wisdom is to say when they need it, chasten them even if they cry, because there's hope. And then you'll be made wise by the scriptures. God through the scriptures, he's able to turn us from our foolish things that end himself. He's able then also to teach us his means for aiming at the right and chief end And then thirdly, he also makes us wise by stirring us to diligence. It's not enough to know the end and to know the means, but we actually have to use the means. So the only way that there is to advance towards our end is by self-denial and exertion and pains and patience. And so the scripture comes and it exhorts us, it stirs us up through the blessing of Christ's spirit. We need those readings of God's word and those sermons which push us towards our doing our duty. That's part of the scripture making us wise. Step forward and make the difficult choice. That's wisdom taught by God. So first of all, we have wisdom imparted. Thou through thy commandments has made me wise. But not only wise, he also says, wiser than mine enemies. So secondly, we have not only wisdom imparted, but wisdom compared. And there's that series of comparisons. The comparisons in verse 99 and 100, these are relative comparisons. More wisdom than my teachers, more than the ancients, those who are older than me. But there's an absolute contrast between the Christian and his enemies. That is, the godly man has wisdom and his enemies have none. So have you ever heard of exclusive psalmody? Well, usually by that we mean sing the psalms in God's worship and don't sing anything else. Exclusive because things that aren't the psalms are excluded. But there's another kind of exclusive psalmody as well, if you will allow me to put it this way, because in Revelation 14, we meet the 144,000 who are singing a new song, which no man could learn except those who were redeemed from the face of the earth. So they were singing the Psalms exclusively because the ungodly were not singing with them. And so here we have in verse 98, we have exclusive psalmody. We have something that God's enemies can't sing. We have something that only those who are made wise by God can sing. And you ought to use every means to be able to sing Psalm 98. But it's a verse that splits and divides between people. It divides between the wise and the foolish. It makes a comparison. Let's compare the righteous and the wicked side by side. If we put them side by side, The righteous are by God made wiser than the wicked. So the wicked, they have a kind of worldly wisdom. James speaks about a kind of devilish wisdom. And in their wisdom, they have a wrong end, which is self. but they use means to reach their wrong end. And their means are unlawful and sinful, but they pursue their means towards their end with great energy and diligence. And so they have a wisdom, but yet their wisdom is folly. If we were to look at the righteous and the wicked in the day of the prosperity of the wicked, it wouldn't seem like verse 98 was true. Actually, Jesus said that the children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light. If we take a snapshot of time and a snapshot of when things are going well in this life, it won't look at all like the righteous are wiser. It will look like the wicked are having their day. They're getting what they're aiming at. But now think about not about the day of prosperity, but think about the day of adversity. Think about when health is taken away, when riches are taken away, when honor is turned to being forgotten and set to the side. And now look at the godly man in the day of his adversity. Look at Paul and Silas. What are they doing in their prison? They're singing praises to God because they have been pursuing an end that has not been taken away from them. The prison did not block them from obtaining their end, which is the glory and enjoyment of God. And so they were wise, wiser than their enemies. Think about the day of death. Who is wiser than the righteous or the wicked? The day of death, everything the wicked have lived for is taken away from them. As we've been told, you are as rich, you wanna know how rich you are? How rich will you be five minutes after you die? The wicked die and all their thoughts decay, but the righteous die and they enter into the Father's house. They enter into everlasting glory. Think about the day of judgment. Who's wise then? Those on Christ's right hand entering the Father's kingdom or those on his left hand? It really is true. that God makes his children wiser than their enemies. They obtain their end. Is that something you can sing about? I hope that it's something you can sing about. No one here should be having any ideas about being proud or lifted up. But if God has made you through his word wiser than your enemies, Really, if you can say, God has made me wiser than the foolish people who run and fight and strain themselves and fret and end up in hell. God has made me wiser than that. Can you say that? Then you should be able to sing to God, sing with a melted heart to God. You should say, why would God make me wiser than my enemies? Why should God make me any wiser than Judas was or Cain or Saul? Why has God done it in his grace and mercy? He's made me wiser than my enemies. You should sing to God, dear believer. And how can we learn? to sing. We have to learn from Jesus to be able to sing. To be content as our Lord Jesus was hated by his enemies. He was not richer than them. He was not stronger than them, but he was wiser than them. And he has entered his glory and they have faded and they have gone. The Lord Jesus is willing to teach you this wisdom. Wisdom compared Now through thy commandments has made me wiser than mine enemies. Godly men is wiser when we side by side compare the law of the righteous and when we compare the law of the wicked. It's also true when we compare them head to head. Sometimes we face the problem of comparison, like Asaph in Psalm 73, looking over here at the wicked. But then there are also conflicts. And in those conflicts, the godly are made wiser. than the wicked. Pastor Son was a Korean pastor. He was imprisoned and interrogated by the Japanese day after day after day of trial. And they would write down everything that happened in the trial and everything that he said and big stack of papers. At the end of the trial, they showed him the record of the trial and they said, are these your words? And he said, no. And so they're taken aback. What do you mean? Are you denying saying these things? And he said, no, they're not my words, they're God's word. His point was in this trial under tremendous pressure, when they had the power, they had the numbers. What he stuck to was the word of God and the word of God was enough to make him wiser than his enemies. It equipped him to be able to stand and to have an answer wiser than them through the word of God. The only way that the Christians enemies can make a fool of him is by drawing him to sin. They only win If you sin, if you stick with the word of God, then you are wiser than they are. Have fellowship with Jesus in this respect, because in his temptation, what was it by which he overcame the crafty one? But the word of God, through that commandment of God, he had more wisdom than his enemies, according to his human nature. Also, when Jesus was heading to the cross, he said this in John 14 at the end. Hereafter, I will not talk much with you for the prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in me, but that the world may know that I love the father. And as the father gave me commandment, even so I do arise. Let us go hence. The crafty prince of this world didn't have anything, any foothold in our Lord Jesus. Our Lord Jesus resisted him. And he did so in obeying the father's commandment. Through the father's commandment, he arose up and went to the cross. And in the same way, the Christian is wiser than his enemies. when through grace he keeps the word of God. So we have wisdom compared, how merciful that God teaches this excellent wisdom to his children, wiser than mine enemies. Thirdly, we have wisdom possessed for they are ever with me or as I think we should render for they are ever mine. They're always mine by commandments. They're possessed by me. So the Christian possesses God's commandments by gift. When we compared verse 29, we see that removed from me the way of lying and grant me thy law graciously. Have you ever thought about God's law as something that could be mine because God has given it to me, because he's granted it to me in his graciousness? How does God do that? Well, certainly it implies that I've believed upon the Lord Jesus Christ and I have been freed from condemnation. So the law of God is no longer that handwriting of accusation that condemns me and nails me down under God's wrath and curse. I've been freed from that in my justification. And then There's something following justification, which we call sanctification, which we can describe as being given God's law, namely being given it in the heart that God, God's commandments are mine forever because he has put them into my inward parts and written them on my heart. You might erase something you have written down, but God, will never erase his own handwriting. The heart where God has written his law, that law will be there forever. Do you see what a glorious confidence this is? For they are mine forever. That's a shield against the fear of apostasy. Sometimes the believers vex with that. How can I know that I won't be overwhelmed by all the temptations and by the strayingness of my own nature? Well, because God's commandments are mine forever because he's given them to me. He won't take them back. So they're mine by God's gift. And they're also mine by choice. God has graciously persuaded me to make his commandments mine forever. I could never choose and embrace the commandments of God except by his spirit, but I do here and now embrace them and take them as mine forever." That's the idea here, or part of the idea. It's echoed in verse 111. Thy testimonies have I taken as an heritage forever, for they are the rejoicing of my heart. I choose thy commandments to be my rule. in everything that happens to me. I hereby resolve that I will not consult with flesh and blood. Thy commandments are mine forever. That means that I won't just follow God until things become hard and then go back to flesh and blood. But I will never be ashamed of the commandments of God. I believe that whatsoever difficulty they bring me into their right and they are the commandments of my God to whom I cleave in faith. Do you see how this is? It's an example of what we may call closing with the Lord. So God comes to us in the gospel. And he says, as we heard this morning, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. What do you do with the gospel that is preached to you? Do you receive and embrace and rest upon the Savior? Well, if you do, then you have obligations under Christ. You have obligations to live no more for yourself, but by his strength, manfully to war against sin and to make his His commandments, your rule forever. So if there were a suitor that were to come and to woo a bride for himself and he proposes marriage to her, what if he did that and he were met by deafening silence? How strange that would be. He comes and he proposes, I'll be your husband. I'll take you to be mine and I'll fulfill all these duties towards you. I'll do my utmost to provide for you, protect for you, et cetera. And she just says nothing. That would be so strange. Well, wouldn't it be strange if God were to come to us in the gospel and if we just were mute, if we said nothing. God is actually giving us language here by which we are to echo back to him. We are to embrace the Christ that he offers to us. And then we are to make up our minds that by the strength of Christ, we're going to take God's commandments to be ours forever. We will keep on practicing them. And not only is this a mental idea, but it's actually professed openly. It is something here that the psalmist is singing about. They are mine forever. I will serve the Lord. So we've witnessed a sacrament this morning. Sacrament, the old root of the Latin word, I think has to do with the vow of a soldier when he's enlisted. So there's a sense in which in our baptism, Christ is coming to us and enlisting us to be his. He is taking that banner of love and he is unfurling it over our head. He could have come with a banner of condemnation, but instead he comes with a banner of love and he says, here's what I'm willing to do for you, to wash you. And our baptism calls upon us. The blood of Christ and the spirit of Christ speak to us in our baptism and say, be conquered, be willing. to follow this Christ and to fight under his banner. Our baptism speaks to us as if by our name and says, you yield to this Christ, be melted by his love, by gospel grace and be enlisted under his banner. And then in the other sacrament of the Lord's Supper, we have opportunity when we come to years of maturity to openly profess, yes, I do take this Christ and I will live for him and I will die for him. We have opportunity by our own profession, indeed, to say that God's commandments are ever with us. They're mine forever. May the Lord bless us to be found in that position. Polycarp was found in that position. Before his martyrdom, he said that he had served Christ 86 years and Christ had never done him any wrong. And how could he, Polycarp, be false to that Christ? Now, there he was, fighting under Christ's banner all the way to the end. He could say, thy commandments are mine forever. May the Lord bless that that be true of each of us. Wisdom imparted, wisdom compared, wisdom possessed. May the Lord bless us to know those things. Amen. And would you stand with me as we pray? O Lord, our God and our Father in heaven, How we do thank thee for thy word and for Christ, the living and the incarnate word. So grant that thy word should not be received as the word of men, but in as far as it agrees with thy written word, give grace to the hearers to receive it as the word of God to them in the preaching. to lay it up in their hearts, to practice it in their lives. We ask it for Jesus' sake. Amen.
Wiser Than My Foes
సిరీస్ Sermons on the Psalms
ప్రసంగం ID | 1030232054527190 |
వ్యవధి | 40:06 |
తేదీ | |
వర్గం | ఆదివారం - PM |
బైబిల్ టెక్స్ట్ | కీర్తన 119:98 |
భాష | ఇంగ్లీష్ |
వ్యాఖ్యను యాడ్ చేయండి
వ్యాఖ్యలు
వ్యాఖ్యలు లేవు
© కాపీరైట్
2025 SermonAudio.