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ట్రాన్స్క్రిప్ట్
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I'm going to read from the book of Psalms tonight, Psalm 119. From verse 1 to verse 16, the first two sections of the Psalm, Aleph and then Beth, the first two letters of the Hebrew alphabet, Psalm 119. Verse 1, as we say, we're very thankful that you're here, and you've given us your time to join for the Bible study. We pray that God will bless His Word to your hearts tonight, Tuesday night in the Psalms. Psalm 119 and verse number 1. Blessed are the undefiled in the way who walk in the law of the Lord, Blessed are they that keep his testimonies and that seek him with the whole heart. They also do no iniquity. They walk in all his ways. Thou hast commanded us to keep thy precepts diligently. Oh, that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes. Then shall I not be ashamed. When I have respect unto all thy commandments, I will praise thee with uprightness of heart. When I shall have learned thy righteous judgments, I will keep thy statutes, O forsake me not utterly. Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way, by taking heed thereto according to thy word. With my whole heart have I sought thee, O let me not wander from thy commandments. Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee. Blessed art thou, O Lord, teach me thy statutes. With my lips have I declared all the judgments of thy mouth. I have rejoiced in the way of Thy testimonies as much as in all riches. I will meditate in Thy precepts and have respect unto Thy ways. I will delight myself in Thy statutes. I will not forget Thy Word." And we know that God will bless the reading of His precious Word. We'll pray together. Father, make this a blessed time tonight around Thy Word, and then as we pray together, We ask, loving Father God, that thou wilt speak to us through thy truth. May thy word come as a message from heaven. Give help, Lord, I acknowledge my need. And I pray for the infilling of thy spirit. And I pray, Lord, that thy word tonight will find a resting place in our hearts. Hear and answer prayer. Encourage every brother and sister tonight who is tuned in and given of their time. We ask it all for the Savior's sake. and for God's everlasting glory. Amen. Psalm 119, as you will be well aware, is the longest chapter in all the Word of God, the longest even of all the Psalms. I remember as a youngster, a friend of mine, his mother was talking about in her Sunday school days, one of her chores was to memorize. the whole of the psalm. I don't know how she did it, but she said she did, and what a feat that was. It is a psalm of the Word. Each eight-verse section corresponds to one of the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet, Aleph, Beth, Gimel, Daleth, He, Vos, En, and so on and so forth until you get to the end of the psalm. And virtually every verse within the psalm has reference to the Word of God in some regard. You look at verse number 1, it speaks about the law of the Lord. Verse 2 speaks about His testimonies. Verse 3, His ways. Verse 4, His precepts. Verse 5, His statutes. Verse 6, His commandments. Verse 7, His judgments. Verse 8 again, His statutes. Verse 9, His word. Verse 10, His commandments. And then verse 11, the verse that we're going to consider tonight, again, His word. Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee." This psalm is a goldmine of spiritual truth. And this particular verse speaks to us of the great value of memorizing God's Word, committing it to memory, having it not only then in our minds, but having it as well in our hearts. As a young Christian, there was a series of comics that were going about, Spire Christian Comics. One of those comics was entitled In Presence of Mine Enemies. I used to read it from time to time as a child. And then a number of years ago, I got the book off it, the autobiography off it on Amazon, a man called Howard Rutledge, an American from California. I think he was from a church in San Diego. He was a fighter pilot during the Vietnam War. His plane went down at that particular time, landed in the ocean. He made his way to land, was captured by Vietnamese troops, was stripped naked, attacked, and imprisoned for a period of seven years. And during that time in that concentration camp, he was malnourished. He testifies to the rats and spiders, he testifies to the cold in the winter, the heat in the summer, the loneliness, the torture, being shackled at excruciating positions. And at that particular time, whenever he was captured, he was not yet a Christian. He testifies that during his time of imprisonment, that took prison to show me how empty life was without God. He said, I had to go back to my memory of Sunday school days. He says, I tried to rebuild the Bible from memory and my hymn book from memory. He was able to recall many verses of Scripture and portions of God's Word that he learned as a little boy. And he says it was amazing how much he was able to retain and recall from his memory, because he had learned the Word of God, much of it, from faithful Sunday school teachers and children's workers. He was able to recall verses from choruses and from hymns, sermons that he had heard, Sunday school lessons that he had heard, and it all brought him afresh to the Savior. He was amazed by how much he could recall, and they developed a very intricate system, I think it was some type of Morse code, and he was able to converse with other prisoners. And they were able to share verses of Scripture that they had learned. He was able to share verses of Scripture that he had learned. He was able to write those verses of Scripture on the walls of his little cell with a stone and carve them in the walls of his cell. And over a period of seven years, he says, it was amazing how much Scripture we are all able to correlate together from memory. And we were able to meditate upon it, and he says, thinking about verses that I had memorized could make a whole day of solitary confinement bearable. Richard Wernbrand, the Romanian pastor, speaks of the same thing, being imprisoned in communist Romania. Stripped of all of this world's good, not even allowed to have a Bible, but he had memorized much of the Word of God before his imprisonment came and was able to recall it and meditate upon it and even in solitary confine and construct sermons out of Scripture that he had memorized. You see, what had happened was God's Word had become all the more precious to them whenever they didn't have it in their hands. They had it in their heads. And as they meditated upon it, it moved down into their hearts, and they grew to love the Savior more intimately. It all ties in with Psalm 119, verse 11. Thy word have I hid in mine heart that I might not sin against thee. I want to speak for a little while tonight upon hiding it in your heart. Hide it in your heart. No fancy outline tonight. Trying to get away from alliteration sometimes can be just as helpful as using it. And so I want to speak first of all about a treasure for us to hide. Thy Word have I hid. in my heart, Thy Word." The psalmist here points to the Scriptures, to the law of God, the statutes of God, the commandments of the Lord as being God's Word, not man's Word, but God's Word, something that God Himself has given. The psalmist was convinced that the Scriptures were the very words of Almighty God. Moses said in Deuteronomy chapter 8 and verse number 3, man doth not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live. There is a text of Scripture that points towards the verbal inspiration of Scripture, that the Word of God Proceedeth out of the mouth of God. And this is something that Jesus Christ, our Lord, verified at the commencement of his earthly ministry when he was being tempted and tested by the devil in the wilderness. He quoted this very verse. Man doth not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Moses stated it. Christ verified it. The Apostle Paul reaffirmed it. He said in 2 Timothy 3.16, all Scripture is given by inspiration of God. The word inspiration there literally means God-breathed. All Scripture is God-breathed. All Scripture is God-inspired. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God. Paul reaffirmed it, but Peter expounded it. Whenever he said in 2 Peter 1, Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. He said no promise of Scriptures of private interpretation. It's not dreamed up in the hearts of men, but holy men, men that were set apart by God and for God, spake as they were moved, carried along, guided by the Holy Ghost. Now, I can't explain it, but I believe it. And I accept it by faith. I think there's all of the evidence in the world to show us that the Bible is the Word of God. I believe it by evidence, and I also accept it as well by experience. How many Christians listening on tonight in our online Bible study can testify that God has spoken to me through His Word? God has given us promises in His Word and they have come to pass in our lives. God has given us guidance in His Word. God has rebuked us in His Word. God has fed us in His Word and be knowing in our hearts that this is the very Word of God and the Word of God ever comes under attack without the church and even within the church. And everything in doctrine and in practice must be judged by the supreme authority of God's Word. Isaiah 8, verse 20, to the law and to the testimony, if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. Always take your theology, always take your experience, always take what you hear out there, take it back to the scriptures. It's our sole rule of faith and practice. And it's a living word. Hebrews 4.12 says, the word of God is quick. That just means living, it's alive, it's quick, and it's powerful, and it's sharper than any two-edged sword. We used to sing a little chorus, I have a precious book. It's the Word of God. It's the only book that God has given. As I read, God speaks to me. I see Christ and Calvary, the wonderful Word of God, and therefore God's Word is precious. In verse 7 to 2 of this psalm, the psalmist says, The law of thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver. He says in verse 127, Therefore I love thy commandments above gold, Yea, above fine gold, he says in verse 162, I rejoice that thy word is one that findeth great spoil. J. Gratian Mackin, the great theologian, said, the Bible is God's book, not man's book. Simply stated, the Bible is God's book, not man's book. C. H. Spurgeon said, the Bible speaks to you in the very tones of God's voice. The Bible speaks to you in the very tones of God's voice. And we need to understand this and grasp this and accept this. The psalmist says, this is thy word, God's word from heaven. And as we read our Bibles, God speaks to us in the very tones of his own voice. There is a treasure for us here to hide. And then there is a place in which for us to hide this treasure. Thy word have I hid in my heart." If you were listening carefully to the reading tonight, you'll note that the heart is very prominent in the Psalm 119. Verse 2 says, "'Blessed are they that keep his testimonies and that seek him with the whole heart.'" In verse 11, thy word have I hid in my heart. In verse number 10, with my whole heart have I sought thee. Oh, let me not wander from thy commandments. Now, the heart is the very center of one's being. The heart is the very center of the soul. Whenever the Bible speaks about the heart, it's speaking about our affections. It's speaking as well about our emotions. It's speaking about our will. It's speaking about our desires. Now, the Christian is someone who has been given a new heart. Ezekiel 36, 26, a new heart will I put within you. And he says the result of the new heart is that you will keep my commandments and you will walk in my commandments. And then, Deuteronomy 6, 5 says that we are to love the Lord with all of our hearts. The Bible says that God looketh upon the heart. Jesus Christ our Lord says where your treasure is, there will your heart Be also. And the psalmist here says, Thy word have I hid in my heart. I've taken this great treasure, something that I deem to be more valuable than anything else in all the world, of more value than fine gold. And I have taken the word of God, and I have hidden that word deep within my heart. He's telling us, I love God's word. I value God's Word. I cherish God's Word, and I treasure God's Word, and it's not just in my hand. It's not just in my head, but it's in my heart. You see, many people have God's Word in their hands. They own the copy of God's Word. They have it in their homes. They have it in their hands. Some people have a lot of it in their heads. and they're still lost and on their way to hell. But the Christian is somebody who has God's Word in the heart. Moses was very careful to nail this down whenever he spoke to the children of Israel because he, I suppose, was something of a philosopher. He knew something of the psychology of the human soul, and he knows that sometimes you take great pleasure in having a lot of knowledge. but maybe not very much experience. And he knew that if I give the law to the children of Israel, there will come a time whenever they might have it in their hands and have it in their home and have it in their heads, and they'll be puffed up with pride because of that, and that happened with the Pharisees. And that's why he said in Deuteronomy 6, and verse number 6, and these words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart, in the seat of your emotions and affections. in the very depths of your souls. These words need to be in your heart. He said in Deuteronomy chapter 11 and verse number eight, therefore shall ye keep all the commandments which I command you this day that ye may be strong and go in and possess the land. He says, keep the commandments which I give you. And whenever they're in their heart, we will have a desire to keep his great commandments. Paul said, in the book of Romans chapter 10, and verse number 8. The Word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart. That is the Word of faith which we preach. He says, as he wrote to the Colossians in Colossians chapter 3, and verse number 16, let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly. in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts unto the Lord. Do you remember the parable of the sower? The sower went forth and he sowed the seed of God's Word, and he sowed it in the heart. And then the Lord Jesus Christ said, that good soil, That's the soil where the seed is sown and it brings forth fruit. It comes up out of the heart. I was speaking to a man a number of months ago, and it was evident that this man knew the Word of God, but more than that, he loved it. Because as this man spoke, he wasn't just quoting Scripture and saying, the Bible says in, the Bible says in, the Bible says in. He wasn't quoting Scripture, but he was speaking scripturally. It was an unusual thing because as he was speaking, his speech, his entire manner of conversation was permeated by the truth of God's Word. The Bible says, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. And so often whenever you're speaking to a Christian who loves the Lord and has studied the Word of God and reads the Scriptures, it becomes evident that their speech is seasoned with grace and tempered by the teaching of God's precious Word, and that can become evident. There's a treasure for us to hide, thy Word. There's a place for us to hide that treasure in our hearts. And then maybe you say, well, how do I do that? What are the means by which we hide it? Now you'll notice that the psalmist says, thy word have I hid in mine heart that I might not sin against thee. Thy word have I hid. The word hid means stored away. And it's something that the psalmist is consciously and actively doing. He says, I take time to hide thy Word. I'm active in this. I'm responsible for it. How does he do it? Well, I think there are four ways whereby we hide the Word of God in our hearts. First of all, by meditation. Now, sometimes whenever the world speaks about meditation, it has this idea of getting away and sitting in a corner with your eyes closed and your legs crossed and your nose up in the air, trying to empty your mind of absolutely everything and think about absolutely nothing, and they say that that is meditation. That's not what the Bible means when it speaks about meditation. Whenever the Bible speaks about meditation, it means that we must think about God's Word. We must meditate upon it. We must take it and familiarize ourselves with it. Therefore, first and foremost, we must read it. You'll never get God's Word into your heart if you're not reading it systematically. Not just reading your favorite chapter or your favorite psalm or your favorite story from the New Testament, but reading the Word of God systematically. every single day, reading it daily, reading the Word of God. There's no substitute for that in the Christian life. I encourage you, if you haven't started it, start, begin to read the Word of God systematically, not only reading it, but also hearing it attentively, That's why it's important if circumstances allow us that we get together to worship God and gather around the open Bible together and hear the Word of God preached and listen to the Word of God and then thinking about it intellectually. There's no point just reading the Word of God as quickly as we can without thinking about it. As we come to the Word of God and we read it or we hear it read, we must think about it. Now, what is that saying? What does that mean? How do I apply that to my life? How do I put that into practice? What do I learn in this portion of Scripture about myself? What do I learn in this portion of Scripture about God? What do I learn in this portion of Scripture about the Lord Jesus Christ? Is there a commandment for me to obey here? Is there a precept here for me to take to heart? Is there an example for me here to follow? Is there a commandment for me to obey? Is there an error for me to avoid? So we get the Word of God, we hide the Word of God in our hearts by meditation. And then by memorization. Now, granted, this is a lot easier whenever you're younger. I've noticed, I think, after the age of 30, certainly after the age of 35, and definitely after the age of 40, that my memory is not what it used to be. But there are Scripture verses that we memorized in our youthful days, in our childhood, and they're ever with us. Some of you that are parents maybe think about your children and have no interest in the Scriptures. But you know and they know that they have heard the Word of God, and there have been scriptural truths and scripture verses that they have memorized, and they cannot destroy them. Incorruptible seed has been planted somewhere in their hearts and in their minds, and they can't destroy it. They can't get away from it. They can run to the farthest corners of the earth. and get away from the influence of church and the influence of a Christian home, but they can't get away from the influence of God's Word in their hearts. But I think all of us, regardless of what age we are, need to make a concerted effort to committing Scripture to memory. During this time of lockdown gives us a golden opportunity to do that, to commit Scripture to memory. I know our children at home are trying to get a verse for every letter for the alphabet. You get, I think it was the letter N they were doing the other day, neither is there a salvation in any other. And then what comes after N, then you get the letter O and then P, prepare to meet thy God or pray without ceasing, quench not the spirit, and so it goes on. And it's a lovely thing. to be able to memorize the Word of God because it's as we memorize the Word of God if the Word of God is not in our physical hands that we can meditate upon it. And then there needs to be appreciation. And by that I mean understanding, we must endeavor to understand what we read and understand what we memorize. Remember, Philip spoke to the Ethiopian eunuch. in Acts chapter 8 and verse 30, and the eunuch was reading from Isaiah chapter 53, and it's a wonderful chapter of God's Word. And the first thing Philip said after, he says, well, what are you reading? He says, do you understand what you're reading? And that man was honest enough to say, well, I don't. How can I accept son? Man, teach me. And Philip says, now show me what you're reading. And he showed him, and Philip began to explain that that lamb that's led to the slaughter is the Lord Jesus Christ. took Him to the cross and opened the Scriptures to Him. And it's important for us that we need to understand as much as possible what we're reading. Now, you might get to Ezekiel, or you might get to Revelation, or you might get to Zechariah, and you'll find things that are difficult to understand. But we should try to understand as much as we can. And certainly whenever we're reading about the life of Jesus Christ or the epistles of the Apostle Paul, we should try to understand what we're reading. What does this mean? What does that say? And we get maybe to a big word like propitiation. Some people think, oh, you shouldn't preach on propitiation or quote verses like that because people do not understand it. But we need to find out what it means. It doesn't stop the medical doctor for using medical terms. If he's explaining something that's wrong with us, but he'll explain what it means. And then we understand what's wrong with us, and we can understand what treatment we need as well, and he'll explain that too. And so it is when we come to the Word of God. We need to understand what we're reading. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you. Compare Scripture with Scripture. Get yourself a concordance. And whenever you read about something in God's Word, if you've got a reference Bible, look at the reference and go to that reference and compare Scripture with Scripture. Get a commentary, Matthew, Henry, something like that. And learn to appreciate and to understand God's Word. So there's meditation, there's memorization, there's appreciation, and then it's vital as well that there's application. There's a great danger of being a hearer only. James says, be ye doers of the word and not hearers, only deceiving your own selves. The Lord Jesus Christ spoke about the wise builder in Matthew 7, and he says, the man that hears my word and obeys it, does it, applies it, puts it into practice, he's like a wise builder who builds his house upon a rock. Now, the foolish builder's not some pagan living out there in some tribe someplace that's never heard the word of God. or some secular person who never attends God's house. The foolish builder is the man who hears God's Word but doesn't do it and has a form of godliness and looks like he's building the same as the wise man's building, but the foundation's wrong because it's not built on a foundation of obedience. to the Word of the Lord." So we've thought about a treasure for us to hide, the Word of God, thy Word, a place in which to hide this treasure is in our hearts, the means by which we hide it, meditation, memorization, appreciation, application, and then lastly, the dividends of hiding it in your heart. Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee." It ought to be the desire of every Christian to live as holy and as God-honoring a life as possible. Robert Murray McShane said, made that great prayer, God make me as holy as it is possible for a sinner saved by grace, on this earth to be. In a sense, that was the prayer of Jabez. You may remember that prayer that was recorded in 1 Chronicles 4, verses 9 and 10. Jabez called upon the name of the Lord and says, O that thou wouldst bless me indeed, that thou wouldst enlarge my coast, that thy hand might be with me, that thou wouldst keep me from the evil, that it might not grieve meaner thee." There was a man who wanted to honor God by living a holy life, by not straying into sin, by not backsliding and getting away from God. He made that his prayer. It was the prayer of Jabez. It was the desire of Joseph whenever Joseph was tempted, and it was a real temptation, I'm sure, by Potiphar's wife. He says, God forbid that I should sin against my Lord and do this evil. It was the confession of David in Psalm 51, 4, against thee, thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight. It was the lament of the prodigal son. I will confess. I'll go to my Father and say, I have sinned against heaven and before thee and am no more worthy to be called thy son. And it's as we have the Word of God in our hearts, that place of affection, emotion, where we love and honor and cherish God's Word as we've meditated upon it, memorized it, Appreciate it, that is understood it, apply it to your lives. The Word of God in our hearts is a primary preventative measure against sin. This is what the psalmist is saying, thy word have I hid in my heart. Why? So that I might not sin against thee. John Bunyan who authored The Pilgrim's Progress said, sin will keep me from this book or else this book will keep me from sin. You know, sanctification is a work of God's grace. It's a work of God's Spirit, whereby He enables us to die more and more unto sin and to live more and more unto righteousness. It's a work in progress, and it's a work of progress. And one of the great means that He uses to sanctify His people are the Scriptures. Jesus Christ prayed that very thing in John 17. Sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth. In other words, enable them, Lord, to die unto sin and to live unto righteousness by applying the word of God to their hearts and to their lives. And the Apostle Paul, whenever he's writing to the church at Ephesus, in Ephesians chapter 5 and 26, says, with the washing of water by the Word. And Peter said in 1 Peter 1.22, seeing you have purified your souls in obeying the truth. Purified your souls in obeying the truth. Obedience to the truth is a great means whereby God sanctifies us and keeps us from sin. You know, if I'm honest, in my own life, spiritual failure, yielding to temptation, can be traced back so often to a neglect of the Word of God, a neglect of the Word of God. The Bible is indispensable in the fight of faith. Whenever Paul spoke about the armor of God in Ephesians 6, most of it was defensive armor, the helmet, the breastplate, the shield, the shoes, the belt, the loins girt about, but the sword is the offensive weapon, and the sword of the Spirit is the Word of God." Take this book, friend. Read it. Study it. Learn it. Try to commit it to memory. Obey it. Believe it. Hide it in your heart. Thank you for listening, and may God bless His Word to your hearts, and may the Lord bless us in our season of prayer.
Hide It In Your Heart
సిరీస్ Tuesday Nights in the Psalms
ప్రసంగం ID | 53120145197224 |
వ్యవధి | 33:57 |
తేదీ | |
వర్గం | ప్రార్థనా సమావేశం |
బైబిల్ టెక్స్ట్ | కీర్తన 119:1-16 |
భాష | ఇంగ్లీష్ |
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