The True Cry of the True Christian, Part 3

This sermon is part three in presenting five lessons about the True Cry of a True Christian so that we might truly trust in God.

1. The cry of the believer (vv. 145-146)
2. The hope of the believer (vv. 147-148)
3. The plea of the believer (v. 149)
4. The relationships of the believer (vv. 150-151)
5. The Firm Knowledge of the believer (v. 152)

Transcript:

Good morning. Please turn in your Bibles to Psalm 119, verse 145.

Well, as you're turning there, I just want to remind you of where we're at. We are in Psalm 119, which is an acrostic psalm, meaning as you as you look at it, your Bible will most likely have a bunch of Hebrew letters at the top of every eight verses. And that's to reflect that in the Hebrew text every verse starts with the same letter of the Hebrew alphabet for each section. So, the first section of eight verses is A, the second section is B, the third section is C, but in the Hebrew alphabet, and that's why you got all those weird words and symbols. But the point of an acrostic is to aid in memorization typically. However, for Psalm 119, the point is more than that because he does eight verses of acrostic. And so the point is not just to help memorize, but also so that we would see that as the psalmist talks about the word of God and the life of the child of God, that there's a fullness, there's a richness, because seven is a Hebrew word for completeness, and he does one more, he does eight. So it's above and beyond what is complete. And so by going through the entire Hebrew alphabet for eight verses, what the psalmist is saying is that the Bible was designed to meet every circumstance in which the child of God lives. Every circumstance that you could run into, every way that you need help, the Bible is there for you. So this is the Bible and the believer from A to Z, or as the psalmist would put it, the Torah and the child of God from Aleph to Tav.

So that's what we're in. And you'll notice we're in Kof today. , starting in verse 145, you'll notice a theme of crying out. So just notice that as we read. And this is the word of God. The psalmist says this,

"I called with all my heart. Answer me, oh Yahweh. I will observe your statutes. I call to you. Save me and I shall keep your testimonies. I eagerly greet the dawn and cry for help. I wait for your words. My eyes eagerly greet the night watches that I may muse on your word. Hear my voice according to your loving kindness. Oh Yahweh, revive me according to your judgments. Near are those who pursue wickedness. They are far from your law. Near are you, oh Yahweh, and all your commandments are truth. Of old I have known from your testimonies that you have founded them forever."

Let's pray and ask God to bless this time. Father, we are grateful for your word. That is your word that instructs the believer. It is your word that saves the sinner, that opens blind eyes and pierces hardened hearts that are hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. We pray that your word would be effective today. That that as your word goes forth, it would not return void. It accomplish the purpose that you have for it. That your people would be built up and that those who are not your people would be saved, Lord. And that all of us, Lord, would be hearing this clearly. You'd be helping us, Lord, even as we deal with an hour less of sleep, you would help us to help us to be able to pay attention and to learn. But at the same time, Lord, I pray that you'd be working in our hearts where we would not just be hearers of the word, but we would be doers as well. And we pray all these things in the name of your son, Jesus Christ. Amen.

You’ll notice in life, sooner or later you will need help. And sooner or later, God in his gracious providence will give you a moment where he'll expose your inadequacy. He'll expose that you don't know what to do. And maybe it's a time that you think, "Oh, I could get all the groceries in the house." Maybe it's the time that you thought you could fix something, do the home repair project or the auto repair project, and it just didn't go right. Maybe it was the time that you knew you just have a homework problem in school that you had to ask for help, something that you were embarrassed to ask about. Or maybe it's one of the big problems of life. Maybe you need counseling. Maybe you need advice. And maybe it's something that you want to say that you have figured out, but you don't know. And we're grateful because you know, God has given us the church. He's given us fellow believers that can help us that he's put in our lives that can help be a resource. However, we realize sooner or later there will be problems that even the church, even our fellow believers, cannot help us with. Even our pastor cannot counsel us with because these are cosmic problems. These are spiritual issues, existential crises that are far beyond human strength and wisdom to solve.

And in these moments, in these moments, there are burdens and trials that only God can bear for us. There are things that can be solved only by prayer. And that's what the psalmist is talking about in this section. What we've been seeing for the past several times as we've covered this section, which we've entitled "The Cry of the Believer, the True Cry of the True Believer." What we've been seeing is that the true believer cries out to God and asks him for help. He prays. And so we've been seeing five lessons of how the child of God cries out in prayer, asking for God's help. First, in verses 145 to 146, we saw the cry of the believer. You notice that both those verses start with that phrase, "I called out." The psalmist says, "I called with all my heart. Answer me, oh Yahweh." He says in verse 146, "I called to you. Save me." And so we saw there, we saw this idea of a believer genuinely coming to God in sincerity, that there's a wholeheartedness to the believer praying and asking God to help him. There's a desire to obey in both of those verses. So, this comes from an a heart of obedient faith. A heart of obedient faith. The believer cries out to God. And we saw as he's crying out then there's also reality of the need for hope, the hope of the believer in verses 147 and 148. The believer needs hope. He says, "I eagerly greet the dawn and cry for help. I wait for your words. My eyes eagerly greet the night watches that I may muse on your word." And you notice how morning and evening the psalmist is crying out to God and meditating on God's word, that he's both searching his knowledge of the scriptures and he's getting up early to pray. And morning and evening is this guy's discretionary time. This is his time when he has not to work. You know, this is time you're either sleeping or relaxing. And he's crying out to God. And he is intentionally fixing his hope on the promises of God and praying to God. What we see there is this idea of the need for a believer to do things which fix their hope. We talked about meditation. Meditation in the form of music. Meditation in the form of memorization. Just the idea we need to fix our hope, the hope of the believer. And then we saw in verse 149 the plea of the believer. The psalmist pleased that God would revive him. That's the genuine plea of the believer. He's requesting that God would give him life. That's the desire of a believer. And then lastly, what we saw was the relationships of the believer. You notice in verses 150 and 151, the psalmist says, "Near are those who pursue wickedness. They are far from your law. Near are you, oh Yahweh." And this is significant for two reasons. I mean, first, you just see the situation of the psalmist. People are trying to kill him.  It's easy for us to sit here and to talk about prayer or to sit here and talk about what we're going to talk about today from the armchair, from the pew. But when you're in the trial, that's when things get real. If this is not ironed out, if this is not you, then you will not have the attitude he has. So the situation is significant. But more to the point of what we saw is the reality that in the midst of his tough situation, the psalmist disassociated from the wicked and associated in trust to God. Notice how he uses the word near twice. He says those who pursue wickedness are drawing near. It's a verb form in Hebrew. He says they're drawing near, but they're far from you. So, notice even though they're near to him, they're far from God. And so, he measures them more in their distance from heaven than their proximity to him. And even as danger is close, even as his enemies are in his face, he recognizes the imminence of God. That God is closer because God isn't drawing near. “God is near,” is what he says. The first statement of nearness is a verb. The second statement is a predicate adjective. He says, "You are near, oh Yahweh."  First, you're drawing near. Now, now you are near. but anyways, he says, "You're near and all your commandments are true." So that the psalmist's relationship with God is what allows him to cry out to God in prayer with a confidence that God will deliver him.

But now, today, we have come to our final point. We are coming to our final lesson. And this one is perhaps the most key of all of them. This one we talk about the firm knowledge of the believer. So today in verse 152, the psalmist will give us his fifth and final lesson on prayer, the firm knowledge of the believer. And the psalmist when he speaks of this knowledge, this is significant because look, I mean, we all know things, but we all know there's things we just don't need to know. We all know there's things that we just don't need to know. There's things that I just do not care to know. I don't need to know those weird medical details. Like some of you guys were talking about some some accidents that freak accidents people would have yesterday. I don't I don't need to know that.  There are things that you don't need to know about. We don’t need to know every little thing that is happening in this world at any given time. We don’t even need to know what’s happening in people’s lives at any given point. We don’t need to keep up with the Kardashians. We don’t need to know the latest celebrity gossip. There are things that we don’t need to know and then there are things that we don't want to know. In addition to this there are even things that we want to know that we just don't need to know. You may want to know how your friends doing every day, but you don't necessarily need to know every day. You may want to know what what's going on in our government, but that doesn't necessarily help you with day-to-day life. In fact, it probably only makes you mad. You may want to know something that fascinates you in history or geography, but you don't need to know that. Like, you don't need to know what's going on in Africa necessarily to live a perfectly fine life here. And you you don't need to know the biology of a fruit fly. You don't necessarily need to know that. That might be helpful. That might be fascinating. You don't need to know those things. And so there's things that we just sit there and we go, "I don't need to know that." But this is something you need to know. You need to know this. You have to know this. This is something that the psalmist says that you need to know. And the knowledge he speaks of is not a useless factoid. It's not Bible trivia. He's not talking about fascinating but otherwise frivolous facts. He's talking about a kind of knowing that's part of the very foundational knowledge of the Christian faith. That's what he's talking about. Job 19:25 is an example of this. Job says as he's suffering in the midst of his agony, he says, "As for me, I know that my redeemer lives and at the last he will rise up over the dust of this world." That's gospel knowledge that Job knew. He says, "My redeemer lives." Job says, "Job had that hope even though he had lost everything." He lost his reputation. His best friends thought he was a sinner. He lost his earthly possessions, his wealth gone in an instant. More importantly, he lost his family, his seven sons and three daughters that he loved more than anything else. All died on the same day. And even to a degree, he lost his confidence in the goodness of God because he says as he speaks to his friends, as he pours out his heart to them, he says, "I just wish I could die." So in the midst of of Job losing everything, what helps him? It's this knowledge, this central knowledge of the Christian faith, the central confidence in God that allows this man to stand. Standing upon this firm knowledge makes men unshakable and allows them to persevere in the faith.

Another example of this kind of knowledge is in 2 Timothy 1:12 where Paul in prison waiting to die says this, "For this reason I also suffer these things but I am not ashamed for I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day." Beloved, this is the knowledge that we need. You need this knowledge. If you don't have this knowledge, you can't live. You can't face tomorrow not knowing these things. So, would you like to know what they knew? Would you like to to know this knowledge? This knowledge that's the foundation for his prayer that the psalmist can cry out to God and and feel confidence that God will answer him because he knows from the testimonies of scripture. That's what we're going to see today. Today in verse 152, we're going to see four qualities of the firm knowledge of the believer possessed and modeled by the psalmist that enables us to pray confidently. Four qualities of the firm knowledge of the believer. This firm knowledge. Four qualities, four descriptions of it. First, we're going to see the act itself, the knowing. Second, we're going to see its age. When did he know? What's the duration? Third, we're going to see its origin. And lastly, we're going to see its authority.  We're going to see the act, its age, its origin, and its authority. Let's look at the first point, the act itself. The psalmist says in 152, he says, "Of old, I have known from your testimonies." He says, "I have known." I have known. So the psalmist we see here actually knows and believes. The psalmist actually knows and believes. This is what we see here. When the psalmist says, "I have known from your testimonies that you have founded them forever." He's doing more than simply describing academic knowledge. This isn't just knowledge, bare knowledge. This knowledge is is similar to what we just saw with with Job. I know that my redeemer li lives. And what we saw with Paul, I know in whom I have believed. So what I would describe this is the knowledge of faith. The knowledge of faith. This is the knowledge of faith. That is to say, it is an act of true saving faith. So the psalmist knows and believes.

And again, this is important because we have to realize that knowing the truth of the gospel, knowing the central principles of scripture, knowing the central message of scripture, and knowing even the Bible itself is essential for salvation. And true saving faith consists of knowing amongst other things. You know, whenever we talk about faith, faith if if you hear someone say, "I I have faith. I believe," really you're talking about not just one thing, but a series of five things that all have to go together. To be true saving faith, you have to have these five things. You have to you have to know first. Then you have to be convicted. You have to have conviction. Not just knowing like an atheist would could read the Bible and know the Bible, but you have to be convinced that it's true. And then you have to seek refuge in Christ. You have to you have to look for salvation in Christ because it does you no good to know it's true and be convinced it's true and not find refuge in Christ. You Noah was saved inside of the ark. He was not saved outside of the ark. He didn't build this ark and go, "I know this can save me," and then just stood by it. No, he went into the ark. You have to take refuge in Christ. Then you have to receive Christ. Which is to say that you can't be saved by Christ. You can't you can't be saved by Christ and then just adopt this attitude of, "Oh, there's my fire insurance. I'm good." And walk away and live freely. No. What what we see is that is that true salvific faith always resolves the believer being united to Christ by faith. There's an identification. That's why the New Testament speaks of a believer as being in Christ. He's in Christ. Paul says he's put on Christ. He's clothed in Christ. Paul says in Romans 6, you're baptized into Christ Jesus. So, it's this it's this kind of spiritual baptism that occurs at regeneration when the believer receives Christ and he's united with him. Their destinies are intertwined. Then finally, there's assurance of salvation. Once you've truly believed, the true believer has a sense that they are saved. The true believer has a sense that they're saved. So we see these five actions. Knowledge, conviction, seeking refuge, reception, and finally assurance of salvation. So what we're realizing is that the knowledge he's describing here is that first act. It's the beginning of faith. And it continues in the believer because knowledge is an essential first act of faith. You know, and by itself we realize knowledge can't save. By itself, knowledge can't save. However, without it, one cannot be saved. By itself, it can't save. But without it, you can't be saved. So, knowledge while insufficient on its own is a necessary instrument of salvation. This is what we have to realize. Knowledge is a necessary instrument of salvation. So, knowledge is insufficient on its own. That's what the demons have. The classic example from James 2— the demons believe and that doesn't help them. They know and it doesn't help them. James 2:19 says this, "You believe that God is one. You do well. The demons also believe and shudder." And James is poking his Jewish audience because that phrase is the Shema from Deuteronomy 6—"Hear O Israel, Yahweh our God is one Yahweh.” So, knowing God is One is a central truth of the Christian of the Old Testament faith. Old Testament believers would have recognized that James is referencing the essential knowledge of Orthodoxy. So James says, "Look, even though you have the greatest orthodoxy, even though your doctrine, your theology is all right and you know the truth, it does nothing if if you don't have works, if there's not a change in your life, if that faith doesn't change how you live, it doesn't touch the heart." So, we knowledge on its own is not sufficient for salvation. Yet we realize knowledge is necessary. Knowledge is necessary. As the as the psalmist says in 119, "I have known."

So, we realize it's necessary. Turn with me to Romans 10. Turn with me to Romans chapter 10, 10:14. Well, in Romans 10, Romans 10 famously defines salvation as being by faith. And in verse 8, he Paul says, "If you confess with your mouth, Jesus says, Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." So, Paul says, "Salvation is by faith alone, by Christ alone." However, he goes on in verse 14 to explain that this faith relies upon knowledge. Notice what he says. He says, "How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher?" And so, Paul says that that people can't believe unless they hear. They can't believe unless they hear and they can't hear unless someone tells them. He goes on in verse 17, if you look a little further down, he says, "So faith comes from hearing and hearing by the word of Christ." So, Paul's conclusion is that the word of God, hearing the word of God, is instrumental to salvation. That if you do not hear the gospel, which is contained in the word of God, the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ, you can't be saved. You can't come to saving faith without the word of God, without having heard the gospel. You guys can turn back to Psalm 119. So, we've seen that knowledge is a necessary component to faith. We got to know. And what the psalmist is talking about is faith. This knowledge that produces faith.

But I think there's two takeaways First, people who are wrong about the gospel. People who are wrong about the gospel, it doesn't matter how sincere they are, they cannot be saved until they have that knowledge corrected. It doesn't matter if a person is sincere in their faith if it rests upon error. Doesn't Roman Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Mormons, and every other false religion that doesn't have saving faith cannot bring salvation even if those people are sincere. And it's sad. They're deceived. We pity these people. We don't look down upon them. We pity them. But the reality is, you cannot be saved unless your faith rests upon Christ and him alone.

>> Second, this is why we must be faithful to preach the gospel. We must be faithful to preach the gospel to everyone that God puts in our path. Because those who never know the gospel can never be saved. Those who never hear the gospel can never be saved. Some professing Christians teach that God spares those who have never heard the gospel. The cannibals in far off islands. They say they've never heard the gospel. Well, those people can't be saved. It doesn't work that way. God doesn't spare them. Only those who obtain the knowledge of the gospel can come to saving faith. Now, I do want to add, I didn't have this in my notes. I do want to note that there is a separate discussion around infants and their salvation. So, I'm not talking about that. The infants who die young, there's a separate discussion about that. But I'm talking about people on islands. If they don't hear the gospel, they can't be saved.

So in addition, this builds in us a recognition of the danger of ignorance. The danger of ignorance. We might be tempted to downplay the danger ignorance. A lot of people want to downplay it. They want to say, "Oh, it's not a big deal. You're just wrong. Oh, we just disagree." But ignorance isn't safe. A lot of people, they try this humility. They try to treat it like it's a virtue to be ignorant. They say, "Oh, I don't know. I I think that's just my opinion, but you know, you have your views. I have my views." That's not a virtue. Ignorance is not a virtue. Ignorance is a trait common to unbelievers and the unsaved. This is something we must realize. Ignorance is a trait common to unbelievers. Ephesians 4:18 says this, "Unbelievers are darkened in their mind, alienated from the life of God because the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart." So, it is a characteristic of unbelievers to be alienated from the life of God. They're separated from God because they don't know. They're ignorant. And it's no excuse because the reason they're ignorant is because they have a hard heart. Because they're not curious, because they're callous, because I don't have time for that right now. You know, I don't want to talk about religion. I don't want to talk about Christianity. I don't want to I don't want to think about God right now. I'll deal with that later. That's a hard heart. The heart of the fool who says in his heart there is no God. Even if he believes in God, he practically says in his heart there is no God. And so that that's a description of unbelievers. In addition to this, some of these unbelievers who are ignorant have a tendency to try to share their ignorant views. And this is this is a trait of false teachers to be ignorant as well. That's what 1 Timothy 1:7 Paul says, "Wanting to be teachers of the law even though they do not understand either what they are saying or the matters about which they make confident assertions." So, brothers, we need to know, beloved, we need to know. We need to know the truth. We can't be ignorant. We especially can't be ignorant if we're trying to be teachers. But we can't be ignorant because knowledge of the truth, ignorance of the truth is a characteristic of unbelievers. Knowledge of the truth is a characteristic of believers. Believers know the truth. This is a characteristic of them. The Bible says that all true believers are enabled by script or the Holy Spirit to understand the word of God. All true believers are enabled by the Holy Spirit to understand the word of God. 1 John 2:21 says, "I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it, and because no lie is of the truth." John says to his congregation, he says, "Look, I'm writing to you to encourage you. You know the truth. So this this shows that you're a believer." In the context, he's talking about all these people apostatizing, leaving the church, walking away from the faith. And he's talking to them who stayed and said, "You know the truth. You're not deceived. Don't be worried about that. You're a believer. You know the truth." Believers know the truth. 1 Corinthians 2:12 says, "Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit who is from God so that we may know the depths graciously given to us by God." So, Paul says in first Corinthians that the spirit enables us to know the depths given to us by God. That is to say, we can understand spiritual things. We can understand and appreciate spiritual things. So, if you're sitting here today and if in general you can't answer spiritual questions, this should be a little bit of a cause of discomfort. If you can't answer spiritual questions and if you're not looking for answers. Now, if you're looking for answers, that's one thing because the reality is that God can work. God works with people. They're young believers. They draw near to God and they come to learn. That's a good thing. But if you're sitting here and you're comfortable and you just can't answer basic questions, like one of the most basic questions of all, if you were to stand before God right now and he were to ask you, "Why should I let you into my heaven?" and you can't answer that question, you should be very concerned because believers know. Believers know. Unbelievers don't. So, this is this is the first thing we've know realized. The believer knows and believes. The psalmist knows and believes the knowledge itself. Now, we're going to move and talk about when did he know? We're going to talk about the age of his knowledge. Notice he says in Psalm 19:152, he says, "Of old I have known." Of old I have known. The psalmist has an early elementary and enduring knowledge. The psalmist has an early elementary and enduring knowledge. Now this word of old is is describing when he knew, right? It's it's used of ancient things in the Bible. Um, Job uses a bygone days of his life when he wasn't suffering. Um, so the so this phrase of old is a descriptor and when he says of old, it's clear he must have learned this a long time ago because he says of old I have learned it. And not only did he say of old I have learned it, he says I have learned it, meaning not only did he learn it long ago, but he's kept it up to this day. So, we see it's early and we see it's enduring. And it must be his point in drawing this out is that this is something so central, so key that he's just known it. It's something elementary, basic to the gospel. He says, "Of old, I have known it." So, it appears as the psalmist is saying that it's something he learned a long time ago and it's continued throughout his life. And and I think there's a point to draw out from this. There's a point to draw out from this. Two lessons we can take from this is first the value of educating your children in the truth from a very early age. And secondly, the value of acquiring for yourself knowledge of the truth as early as possible. You want to know as soon as you can. Spiritual truth gained early is an investment in a spiritual life. So let's talk about wanting to gain the knowledge early.

Turn with me to 2 Timothy 3:14-15. I think this is a powerful a powerful passage. Paul is writing his last letter to Timothy and he's he's trying to impress in him the need of of the last statements that he needs to know. And this is a statement about scripture that he makes. He's about to give in 3:16 his talk about how scripture is inspired, which we'll hopefully see in a little bit. But Paul says this, he says this in in in 2 Timothy 3:14-15. He says, "But you continue in the things you learned and became convinced of, knowing from whom you learned them." That's his parents. He says that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to make you wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. So notice Paul says from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to make you wise unto salvation. This is the benefit of knowing. This is specifically the benefit of knowing scripture. Think about this. It's able to make you wise unto salvation. Wisdom is skill. You think about all the skills you want to learn, all the things you want to learn. You're like, wouldn't it be cool to do this? Wouldn't it be cool to do that? There's no skill more central to human existence, more important than being saved. So Paul says, you want to you want to learn this sacred writings which are able to make you wise into salvation from an early age. And this is this is significant because people often try to leave God for later. This is the basic way that people who think there's some truth to it will deal with God. They'll say, "Oh, I'll read my Bible later today." I think we've all done that at least once in our life. I'll read my Bible later today. You know, putting it off or or it's a more basic, "I'll go to church later in life." I will prioritize church later in life. Or more significant and more central to our problem. It's, "Oh, I'll repent after I've had my fun." Right? People always try to push God till later. They're always trying to say, "Well, you know what? After I've had my time, after I've had my chance." But what they forget is the parable of the rich fool told by our in our Lord in Luke 12 where where Jesus speaks of a man who only ever thought of worldly success, who only ever thought of getting rich, and he became so rich that he didn't have space to hold all his wealth.  the worst thing that could have happened to this guy is he was successful. He got what he wanted because it held him off from what he really needed because what happened to that man? You know what happened to him? He died that very night. Jesus says he dies. "Your you fool, your soul is required of you this very night." He died in the midst of his pursuits and went straight to hell with no means of paying the spiritual debt that he owed God. This man, he he he he had all that he wanted but not what he needed because he pushed God for later. He tried to leave God for later. Ecclesiastes 12:1 says, "Remember your creator in the days of your youth before the evil days happen and the years draw near in which you will say, I have no delight in them." So Solomon in Ecclesiastes says the exact opposite. He says, "Remember your creator in the days of your youth." He gives the exact opposite of advice of what people want to do. They want to they want to have their life and then give God the worst of their life. Solomon says, "Give God the best of your life because that's the most important thing." And I think by way of illustration, I always hear financial advisers talk and almost universally when in financial advisers talk to someone, they'll they'll advise them to start investing early because of the power of compounding interest. They say that time in the market is the most powerful factor in having enough money for retirement. And the money that you save today doubles every decade. I don't know if you know that. It's a fascinating fact. If you save a dollar today, it'll be be $10 in a decade roughly. Um, just saved in a standard investment. So spiritual investment, it's no different. In fact, it's far more significant because this short life, you may find salvation that goes with you to eternity. But even for the believer, even for the believer, the spiritual investment at a young age will reap dividends in old age. So many people have lives that are so full of heartache and pain because they pursued their idols in their youth and they reaped the consequences. As Paul says in Galatians, "Know for certain, what you sow is what you reap. He who sows to his flesh will reap corruption." That is a true fact. So in light of this, we also see our second principle that you shouldn't just strive to know this early, but you should also strive to teach your children. Believers who have kids should strive to teach their children from a young age. Because this is an encouraging fact. The psalmist can say, "Of old I have known." Even from a young age, he knew. From a young age, the psalmist knew. He says Ephesians 6:4 or Ephesians 6:4 commands fathers to bring their children up in the discipline and admonition of the Lord and Deuteronomy 6-9 that God commands the Israelites to teach their children as well. , and that same command is echoed in Deuteronomy 11:18-21. So this is an encouragement. Teach your children young. Pursue knowledge from a young age and teach your children young.

Three, its origin. Where did he get this knowledge? Where does the psalmist get this knowledge? He says, "From your testimonies." The psalmist knows from scripture which bears witness. The psalmist knows from scripture which bear witness. And this this just brings us back to the point. How do you know anything? What's the foundation for your life? People have all sorts of foundations. They they they try to build their life on all sorts of things. People think what makes sense to me. You know, some people say, "Oh, I I build my life on science. I build my understanding of the world on what I can observe with my eyes or my gut." Right? People have all sorts of foundations, but the Bible only recognizes one foundation. The Bible only recognizes one foundation. There's only one foundation. That's the testimonies of God. And this word testimony, it it's used of courtroom evidence. It's used of eyewitnesses in a courtroom who've seen something and they're repeating it. This idea of bearing witness. Scripture bears witness. It testifies. The psalmist is speaking of the very testimonies of scripture which bear witness to the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Let me say that again. The scripture or the the psalmist is speaking of the very testimonies of scripture which bear witness to the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Scripture testifies. It testifies. And there's little areas it testifies. You know, we can look at the little promises, but let's just look at the big one. Let's look at the big hole of life. Scripture explains life. It bears witness to the reality of what this life is. And it has a strong warning for us. It's telling us this is the way the world is. First, it tells us about our creator and his original design for mankind to worship, serve, and enjoy him. You may not realize this, but you were created to know God and enjoy him, to have a relationship with him. And any other purpose for your life that you're pursuing is not your original design. You're like a screwdriver being used as a hammer. It's going to have bad consequences. That's not how you were designed. You were designed to worship God. A hammer should drive in nails. You you were designed for a purpose. But scripture also testifies about the fall of the first man into sin and how that ruined him. When the first man fell into sin, it it ruined him. No longer does mankind enjoy communion with God. No longer does mankind have access to God. And everything around man. Every aspect of his life is tainted by sin. His work is toilsome. Now his relationship is now broken by sin. He's now doomed to die. Everything of life is tainted by sin, damaged by sin. That's what's wrong with our world is sin. That's what the Bible teaches. And even more than that, scripture says that now God's wrath is against mankind because of our sin. Because we're in living in rebellion against him. We're striving for autonomy, trying to figure things out on our own. So when God looks at us, when he evaluates us, all of our righteous deeds are as filthy rags to him. Everything you do, nothing's good. He sees your sin and he sees everything you do. And in his eye, no one is righteous. No one is righteous. If there's anyone here who does not think that they are a bad person, who maybe thinks they're a good person, you need to know that God doesn't view you that way. And it doesn't matter how good you think you are. God gets to define what you are because he made you. And he says you're not good because you don't do live exactly how he wants you to. God sees everything in your life. He He sees your every prideful thought, your boastful thoughts. He sees every sinful outburst of anger. He sees every time you lust. He sees every selfish choice. He sees the bitterness and unforgiveness. He sees the broken relationships that you've caused or every other sin. Even the ones you don't know about. Even the ones that you think you're clear, he knows. And you may think you're okay. You may be able to justify yourself in this area, but he sees your life. And he knows where you've sinned. Even when other people have sinned against you, he sees how you've responded a wrong way. He sees all of it. He knows. So there's nothing you can do to trick him into believing that you're good. And the consequences of this is inevitable judgment. The scriptures say that it's appointed to man to die once and then comes the judgment. It's appointed to man to die once and then comes the judgment. There's a horrible punishment awaiting sinners, guilty sinners. The Bible says that that all sinners will stand before God's great white throne. They'll be resurrected, given bodies suited for punishment, and they'll stand before the great white throne, and that God will judge them on the basis of their deeds, convict them in his divine court on the basis of their deeds, and he will cast them into the lake of fire where they will experience eternal conscious burning torment. A terrible, terrible thing. This is what scripture says. This is the inevitable con warning that it gives to sinners. It testifies of the creation, the fall, our sin, and the inevitable judgment for those who don't know God.

But scripture doesn't just offer warnings. Scripture also promises hope. It doesn't just bear witness to the bad news. It bears witness to the good news as well because scripture speaks of the gospel. That is the good news of Jesus Christ. That the man Jesus Christ, the son of God, was sent into the world to die upon the cross for all who would repent and believe. So God decided because no sinner can be righteous in his sight. Because no one can satisfy God's perfect standard, God decided to satisfy himself and send a worthy substitute to die in their place. So scripture offers forgiveness to those who would listen to this testimony, to all who would hear this testimony of of salvation in Christ. There's a free offer of forgiveness to those who would repent and believe, who would put their trust in Christ, who would turn, that's what repentance means, turn from their sin and follow Christ, and to put their faith and trust, all of their faith and trust in that. Not in our own deeds, not to think we're good people, but to put all of our faith and trust in Christ. This is what scripture says. For example, Isaiah 53:4-5. This is the book of Isaiah. This is hundreds of years before Christ. Hundreds of years before. Even secular scholars recognize this is hundreds of years before Christ. Isaiah prophesied the death of Christ. He said, "Surely our griefs he himself bore and our sorrows he carried. Yet we ourselves esteemed him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was pierced through for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The chastening for our peace fell upon him, and by his wounds we are healed." Here's another one. Romans 5:8. "But God demonstrates his own love toward us. Than while yet that we sorry it but God demonstrates his own love toward us and that while we are yet sinners Christ died for us." And he goes on in the next verse, "Much more than having now been justified by his blood we shall be saved from the wrath of God through him." So Paul says that God demonstrated his love and sent Christ to die for guilty sinners. 1 Peter 2:24 it says, "He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree so that having died to sin we might live to righteousness by his wounds you were healed." So scripture says if if if someone hears and listens to this message, scripture calls that person, if they're hearing this if you're today, you do not know Christ, this is the message that scripture would tell you. Isaiah 55:6-7, "Seek Yahweh while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return to Yahweh and he will have compassion on him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon." So what scripture says what scripture freely promises is that salvation is available to all who would repent and believe and trust in the name of Jesus Christ. And that's the that's the testimonies of scripture. This is this is what the psalmist trusts in. This is where he learned it from. These testimonies of scriptures. This is what gave him this knowledge of faith that allows him to say, "Of old, I have known from your testimonies."

Now, let's look at the authority. Now, let's talk about the authority. The psalmist knows that the Bible is God's ordained word and thus will last forever. The psalmist knows that the Bible is God's ordained word and thus will last forever. And this is a powerful statement. He says, "You have founded them forever." You have founded them forever. Really, there's two elements going on here. First, he's saying the Bible's God's ordained word. And then he's saying because it's God's ordained word, it lasts forever. Right? God built it, it'll never collapse. And he uses this word founded. It's a construction metaphor. You lay a foundation when you lay a building. We use this all the time. We use it for founders of countries founding fathers. We use this for founders of a company. We use it for founders of all sorts. Well, God founded his word. God founded his word. This is the doctrine of inspiration. When we read the Bible, what we're saying is that this is God's word. God wrote it. He started this. He ordained this. He established scripture. 2 Timothy 3:16 says, "All scripture is God breathed. It's breathed out by God. It's his very word." 2 Peter 1:20-21 says, "Know this first of all that no prophecy of scripture comes by one's own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever made by the will of men, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. Men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God." This is God's word. He worked through men. That's why we define inspiration as the spirit of God protecting the men of God to write the word of God. There's two authors. This isn't just a human book. This is God's word. He worked through the men who wrote this. So, because it's God's word, he guaranteed it would be right. Now, we don't have time, but Exodus 4:10-12 talks about how Yahweh speaks to Moses. And you know what he says at the end of it? Moses says, "I can't talk. I can't talk. I'm a bad speaker." You know what God says to him? "Who made the mouth? Who made the mouth? I did." God made the mouth. So God's point is, "I can make you say what I want you to say. I can get I can work through you because I made your mouth." Moses, people always say this is just these are just human words. How could a human write perfectly? Because God made their mouths. And God who made their mouths, who made speech, who made language, who made intelligibility, spoke through his word. And that's the beautiful promise. That's the beautiful promise of scripture. It is God's word. And because it's God's word, it will never fail. It will never fail. You can build your whole life upon it. John 10:35, Christ says, "Scriptures cannot be broken." They cannot be broken. Luke 21 through 30. 21:30. Our Lord says, "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away." Know this, the world you're looking at around you will die before this book dies. The truth in here is more reliable than empires which have crumbled to dust. It's more reliable than anything else in your life because it will never fail because it was written by the God who made this universe. And the God who made this universe has decreed that this book will always speak truth. And it will speak truth till the end of days. And if it was possible for this book to speak lies, those lies would become true because it is truth itself. This is how we know. How do you have the firm knowledge of the psalmist? How do you really know? It's really simple. It goes back to the three S's. Scripture, Savior, and Salvation. How do you really know the word of God is how you know? Do you want the firm knowledge of the psalmist? Do you want to be an unshakable rock when you pray to God? Do you want the confidence to know that your prayer requests will be answered? Well, you better start knowing scripture because that's the rock.

Let's pray. Father, we trust in your word. It speaks truth to us. We pray that your word would continue to work. It would continue to have its effect in your people and to the children of God. So that one day creation which now groans will rejoice when it sees the glory of the children of God. Creation will rejoice when your son returns to reclaim his bride, the church. So father, work in our lives. Build the house, Lord, or else we labor in vain. Jesus name. Amen.