Psalm 19 — Romans 1

0:07 Good morning. What type of flexibility do I have here? I'm kind of a wanderer. What's the scope of? I can feel free.

0:17 Okay. If I if I get out in the front, I like to get a little closer to people. Just I want to make sure my as I love that. Yes. Yes.

0:27 One of the funniest things that I, you know, when you hear a preacher for years over the radio like Doctor. Charles Swindoll, you create these images of them in your mind. And when I was at Dallas Seminary, had the privilege of being there when Doctor. Swindoll was president. And the craziest thing was for me to see this guy.

0:52 I mean, he was right here. Ten and two, man. Right here. Only Doctor. Swindoll could be that articulate and that incredible a speaker without moving.

1:03 So if I move around, I'm not Doctor. Swindoll. I'm going to also work very hard to get you all out on time. I know the time comes short. I haven't timed this message.

1:17 So, you know, we'll see. But as the lord, as the spirit leads, right? It's a blessing to be with you this morning. I'm grateful to Roger for his invitation to speak with you. Andy, thank you for your communication and prayer with and for me.

1:37 I bring greetings from the Great Adventure Church in Dubuque, Iowa where I serve as one of the elders there. We stand together with you in proclaiming Christ and serving him. So the elders there are grateful that I can share with you this morning. I'll be in their pulpit in a couple weeks. I also bring greetings from Emmaus Bible College where I serve as the vice president for Advancement there.

2:06 That includes all of our opportunity to talk to people about the importance of supporting the college, alumni relations, and all of our media ministries. We have a great ministry called Concerning Him. That's our podcast and blog. Encourage you to check that out. Great stuff.

2:23 I bring greetings from President Phil Boone as well. He asked me to pass along his greetings. So a little bit about myself. I've only been at Emmaus for two and a half years. I'm kind of a new person to the brethren.

2:38 I'm married to my wife Stephanie. We've been married twenty eight years. Move to Dubuque was moved 17 in twenty eight years. So we're we kind of you know they've said when certain groups sailed somewhere and the captain got to the shore and he says hey we're burning our burning the ships. When we moved to Dubuque I gave away the boxes.

3:02 I'm done moving. I have four kids, three girls, and a son. They range from 19 to 12. So that's just a little bit about myself. Have you ever had one of those moments?

4:03 We'd never been to Africa before. It wasn't necessarily on our bucket list. And we were blessed to spend nineteen days in East And Central Africa with the ministry I used to work for. And as it turned out, we were able to go on a safari at the beginning of that trip. And so when we left Dallas, we were living in Dallas at the time, and we made that, I don't know how many hours long trip, twenty some hours flying over there.

4:37 We got to Nairobi, We had an overnight, and we had to jump in a van and drive the entire day out on the roads to get to the Serengeti. And we actually got there in time to actually spend some time, three couple hours on the Serengeti that first evening. And then our driver, when he dropped us off, he said, hey, we've got to get going early. We're to leave around 05:30. And my wife and I were like, are you serious?

5:10 We're about to keel over. We need some sleep. And we couldn't understand why he wanted to get such an early start on the next day. So the next morning, we got up. And after we crossed through the security checkpoint that they let you into the reservations.

5:29 We were about five minutes into the reservation. And all of a sudden our driver just screeched to a halt. And he turned around and said, hey, look behind you. And so we all got up. The top was open, so we all stood up and looked back.

5:46 And there before us was the sun coming over the horizon across the Serengeti. It was one of the most beautiful experiences that I've ever had in my life, ever. If you ever get a chance to go to Africa, do It's a life changing experience. And the next two days of seeing the giraffes, and the lions, and the wildebeests, and the hyenas, the cheetahs, the elephants, the gazelles, the leopards, the hippos, and the sun, and the moon, and the stars spoke volumes. My response was and still is of total wonder and awe at the witness of God.

7:09 Psalm 19, and I'm reading out of the NIV, says this, The heavens declare the glory of God. The skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech. Night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language.

7:27 Their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out to all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. In the heavens, he has pitched a tent for the sun, which is like a bridegroom coming forth from his pavilion, like a champion rejoicing to run his course. It rises at one end of the heavens and makes its circuit to the other. Nothing is hidden from its heat.

7:53 The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making the wise simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes. The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever.

8:16 The ordinance of the Lord are sure and altogether righteous. They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold. They are sweeter than honey, than honey from the comb. By them your servant is warned, and keeping them there is great reward. Who can discern his own errors?

8:37 Forgive my hidden faults. Keep your servant also from willful sins. May they not rule over me. Then I will be blameless, innocent of great transgressions. May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be pleasing in your sight.

8:56 Oh lord, my rock and my redeemer. Let's pray. Father, as we begin to look at this amazing passage, we would just ask that you would speak to us in a new way this morning, that your word would be held high, that you would be teaching us this morning, that you would provide clarity, that you would encourage us, engage us at the heart level so that we could become different people, that you would, through your power, change how we behave as we interact with your word. And Lord, we would give You all the glory through that process. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.

10:28 It's a psalm of wisdom, characterized as a wisdom psalm. Wisdom is intelligence that enables people to cope with life. Wisdom is intelligence that enables people to cope with life. This is not just head knowledge about facts. We have far too many of those people in our world, but about intelligence that leads us to be able to handle life.

10:58 The ability to frame life within the God ordered construct. David, carried along by the Spirit, provides us with a type of wisdom, this type of wisdom in Psalm 19. There's also, as we look at beginning to look at this passage, there's also, you'll notice throughout the text, there's a progression of thought for David as well in this poetry. He starts from the outside, he works in, and then he works back out. So out, in, and back out.

11:36 Speaking of the theology of Psalms, Doctor. Robert Chisholm, professor of Old Testament at Dallas Seminary, says this: Rather than a direct word from God to His people, Psalms contain their expressions of faith, their response to God's self revelation in word and in deed. And Psalm 19 is an excellent example of this claim. Now as you can tell, the text breaks itself down very good for us. It comes broken down from verses one through six, verses seven through 11, and then 12 through 14.

12:12 As we work through this text this morning, I have this main idea that I'd like you to think about. In light of God's self revelation, in light of God's self revelation, never underestimate the power of your audible and silent witness to, of, and for the Lord. I'll say that again. In light of God's self revelation, never underestimate the power of your audible and silent witness to, of, and for the Lord God. So we break this text down easily in three sections.

13:16 He's setting the stage that this is the God above all gods. This is the God of the cosmos, of creation. The God who the heavens which he created declare his glory. The sky that proclaims the work of his hand. It's the...

13:33 It's that term, that handiwork. We see that same kind of idea and term in Ephesians where Christ says, we are his handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for good works. And that before the foundation of when he created. It's his handiwork. It declares his glory.

13:49 The cosmos, the creation, proclaims the work of his hands. Verse two, it says, day after day it pours forth speech. It's the idea of it's bubbling up. It's like a spring that's continuously bubbling up and communicating the glory of God. Night after night displays, His glory and His self revelation is on display.

14:17 His self revelation is on display. The greatness, goodness, His generosity in creating a place that is sustainable for us is on display. Their voice. Their voice goes on, verse four, Into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. If you have a highlighter or a pencil, underline all and ends.

14:47 This is a comprehensive communication, self revelation of the Lord. Their cry goes out to the world. In the heavens, he has pitched a tent for the sun, which is like a bridegroom coming forth from his pavilion, like a champion re rejoicing the run, his course. It's this idea of the sun is doing exactly what God created it to do. It's illuminating everything in the world.

15:22 There's nothing that cannot see the glory of God. Darkness is gone. It's revealing God's light. He's speaking to us through the course of its coming forth and going in. Like a champion running this course, I'm reminded it probably doesn't look it, but about eleven years ago I ran a half marathon.

15:44 And that was an undertaking in and of itself. I'm training for another one in a couple of months. And I remember, oof, about mile eight, it was grueling. And once I got to 13.1, I'm not sure I rejoiced when I was doing that, but it was a sense of accomplishment, right? It was, I finally did this.

16:04 I didn't fall over. I stayed on the pace that I wanted. And I was, in a sense, rejoicing. That's the kind of idea that the sun is... It's like, yes, I'm accomplishing what I've created it to do.

16:21 The wonder and witness of the world of God. The sun, the moon, the stars, they're continuously testifying. They're not heard in many ways. But it's an extraordinary way they communicate. It speaks without words.

16:43 It's the, quote, paradox of wordless speech, as Doctor. Tom Constable says it. The paradox of wordless speech. The challenge, though, is that I find that we conservative evangelicals rarely take the time anymore to listen to how God speaks through his creation. We rarely take time to do that.

17:08 That experience I had on the Serengeti was one of those monumental ones where I was just taken aback in a new way of the beauty of God's creation. I ran along the shores of the lake here yesterday and was again taken back by the beauty of God's creation. And that is part of how he speaks to us. The great pastor Charles Spurgeon says, This is one of God's big books of knowledge, God's creation, the knowledge of creation. It's comprehensive.

17:48 God uses both the wonder and witness of his creation to point to himself as the I am. You see, using the word El, David is putting the God of creation of all the other gods, all the other pagan gods that he would have been interacting around. Many of the people and the pagans, they worship the sun, the moon, the stars. They would worship creation instead of the Creator. And he's saying, My God, the I Am is above all the other gods.

18:23 And people will either recognize that or they will revolt against that. They'll either recognize God's creation or they won't. I don't have time to chase this with you, but write down Acts chapter 10 and Cornelius the centurion. Take time to read that chapter and see how the Lord works with someone through general revelation, which is what we're talking about here, and when he comes to special revelation in a response to the gospel. It's a great, great example of this idea.

18:59 The question you might ponder this morning is how might you leverage God's book of creation to point people towards their creator? We live among people who worship this creation. They'll place animals and plants and trees far above God's pinnacle of creation, the human being. But how can you easily and naturally use the book of God's creation to testify to God's self revelation. Romans reminds us that everybody knows it.

19:45 Romans one. Everybody knows it and they will be accountable for it. The wonder and witness of the world of God. Next, we work to the next point, which is the wonder and witness of the word of God. The wonder and witness of the word of God.

20:34 There are two sides: His general revelation and His special revelation. They're two sides of the same coin. God witnesses both ways. And He talks to us in this section about His special revelation: The law of the Lord is perfect. What does it do?

20:56 It revives the soul. I love that term. The law revives the soul. Does your soul need a revival? It revives the hard heart, but it also needs to continuously revive our hearts to the things of God.

21:14 The statutes of the Lord, second, are trustworthy In a world where we can't trust pretty much anything, this, the revealed word of God, is truthful. It makes wise the simple. I'm not the smartest guy in the room, or depending on how you say it, I'm not the sharpest tool in the toolbox. And I'm sure glad that the Lord makes simple people wise. The precepts of the Lord are right.

21:51 They give joy to the heart. There's your word, I wonder if it's the same one you're talking about, right? It gives joy. The precepts, do you find joy when you read the scriptures? We should be finding lifeblood, joy, sustenance.

22:09 That's what we receive from it. Joy to the heart. The commands of the Lord are radiant. They give light to our eyes. Radiance.

22:23 Do you need direction? The Word can enlighten your eyes. It revives the heart. It enlightens our eyes. It gives us the ability to see things that people can't see.

22:38 We shouldn't be arrogant about that, but we have things that the non believer has. They don't have access to this. They don't understand it, but you and I do. And when we look at God's word, there isn't a thing that he's not gonna talk to us in principle form that we can't find in the word. It gives light to the eyes.

23:02 The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever. The fear of the Lord endures forever. It's pure. It's this reverence, this holy reverence, the fear of God, the reality that he is good, but He's righteous. The fear of God endures forever.

23:30 Finally, the ordinances of the Lord are sure. The ordinances of the Lord are sure. They are altogether righteous. So just as the sun dominates the creation and reveals the comprehensive extent of God's work, the word of God has dominance over humankind. He reminds us in this section.

23:57 There's no ambiguity here. There's no doubt. I mean, we can have questions, but God gives us truth. Are we able to receive that truth? I love this next section.

24:20 David tells us, They, verse 10, They, these statutes, these commands, these testimonies, this law, the judgments, the ordinances, these are more precious... What does the text say? More precious than what? Gold. Not just gold, much gold, and then a bunch of gold.

24:52 It's more precious than gold, much gold, much pure gold. They sweeter than honey honey from the comb. What's he talking about here? David is talking about our affections. Two affections that hinder us from spending time in the word and allowing it to transform our lives.

25:20 It's commerce and delight. There's not anything wrong with the goodness of commerce and business and enjoying life. There's no problem with that. The challenge is our affections are focused on those. We decide, make almost all of our decisions in life based on what degree we can get that's going to earn us the most money so that we can live the easiest life.

25:46 I don't care whether we're Christians or not. That's what we do. We say we might not, but we do that. Our affections are for those types of things. We want more money.

25:59 We want to have all the pleasures of the world. That's not necessarily what God has called us to. It doesn't mean you shouldn't enjoy it not hating on you for liking those things. But where is your affection? Do you make your decisions about all those things based on more money and more delight?

26:19 Those are good things, but what is God calling you to do? Doesn't mean we need to go out and seek the worst possible scenario. It just means when you're thinking about life, is your first thought, well, what degree or what job is gonna get me the best job or the best place to live? I submit that's not a biblical response to making a decision. David tells us this.

26:49 If we enjoy life, that's great. If you make a lot of money in business, that's great. But don't have those things as the objective of your affections. Let them be the outcome of your faithful response to God's calling and the decisions you make. David, the shepherd boy, the giant slayer, the king, he's telling us to really think about our affections here.

27:23 The wonder of the world of God and the witness of the world of God. The wonder and witness of the word of God transforms our life. One side of the coin speaks to the general construct of God's creation of all things. The second side is special revelation, and those combined help us understand who God is and His plan for our lives. And in all of this, we see the response that, I forgot one more thing before that.

28:30 So the scripture gives us this idea that we know what things we're not to do from it. Right? It warns us. It's our mentor. It's our monitor.

28:44 It's the place we should start and stop with everything that we say and do. It's our mentor. Those are words from Spurgeon, our mentor and monitor. And in keeping them, see, and being faithful to the Word of God, we see there's great reward. Why are we so shying away from rewards?

29:07 David tells us there's rewards for that. What are the rewards? When you think about our world today, is anybody at peace? Very few people. Very few people have peace.

29:29 Very few people have peace. When you are faithful to the word of God, that's one of the outcomes. That's one of the rewards. You... You're not...

29:42 I mean, yeah, we gotta be smart, but you you experience a peace that is beyond anything that an unbeliever has. As Christians, we should have peace. If there's no peace, then I submit that you need to go back to the scriptures and allow the allow the Holy Spirit to reframe your countenance, reframe the things that are worrying you, the things that might cause you pause. Because that is one of the rewards that David tells us. Great reward.

30:18 Hope. What about hope? We have so much hope in this world. Our lives should be brimming with these rewards. Peace, hope, and grounding.

30:30 The peace that we have that we know where we're going. How do you share that peace? The hope that we have that, man, everything could... Everything's been put in a ditch right now. And you're like, how are we gonna get this out of the ditch?

30:44 There's hope beyond that because we know God is sovereign. We know none of this is making, making him pause. Do you have that hope and that peace and then the grounding? Those are just three thoughts that have when you talk about the reward of faithfully listening to and following the word, grounding and reality. See see what happens when we...

31:10 When when you see the progression of what David's doing, he looks up and he's saying, this is created by God. It puts him in a position of great humility and he's like, Wow, how do I fit? Then special revelation jumps right in there and says, Hey, I love you. I created you. I wanna restore a relationship with you.

31:36 It's grounding. The people that we interact with, they they're like ships. I'll use another metaphor. They're like ships out there on the on the lake. They have no sail.

31:47 Well, they may have a sail, but they have no rudder. They're just spinning around, flying around, wherever thing takes them, whatever makes them happy or whatever they might think. This is not grounding. When you're faithful and understanding and following the word of God, you have that hope, that peace, that grounding. So the wonder and witness of the word of God.

32:38 It's helpful to notice in this section, verse 14, the word, O Lord, is the same word that's used also in verse seven, is that special term Yahweh. I failed to make that point earlier, but now he takes and uses that special personal term of Yahweh. It changes from God broad to the special term that the scribes very didn't like to write. I've heard it that some of the scribes would actually take a bath before they would write down Yahweh. They had such reverence for the name of God.

33:25 David responds to, in this prayer, in the two books of God with a rhetorical question, a statement of reality, and a statement of appropriation. He says in verse 12, he says, Who can discern his own errors? In light of all this, who can discern his own errors? The reality is that only God can. Only You, Lord, can help me discern my own errors.

33:59 Forgive my hidden faults, the things that I just don't see. Without the Word of God, we would not understand what reality is. We, mankind, is completely bankrupt. Only God can forgive us. He says, Wow, Lord, it's not me, it's you.

34:24 Right? You see this? Starts up high, out, he internalizes it, and he responds. Only you, Lord. Keep your servant from willful sins.

34:40 May they not rule over me. Then I will be blameless and innocent of great transgression. This is his statement of reality, the statement of David's reality. It gives us that idea of a true reality check that we can't do this for ourselves. We can't do it on our own.

35:02 Keep your servant from willful sins. It's the power of God and the strength of the Holy Spirit that allows any one of us to live in victory over sin. It's Christ in you. It's Christ in me. He makes a statement.

35:23 Keep your servant from willful sin. And on your, it's on your behalf that I am blameless, free of transgression. His final statement is a statement of appropriation. May the words of my mouth, verse 14, May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my Redeemer. This is his personalization, this affirmation of God and how he responds to the grandeur of God's creation, the bigness, even down to the little details.

36:08 It's his response to God's word. He says, This is my offering. May what I say and my thoughts be pleasing to you. See the play he's doing here and there? What he says, things that can be heard and things that are in his heart, things that can't be heard.

36:29 He talked to us about how creation speaks in a way that can't be heard. Your meditations, the things that you say in your heart that only you can hear. May my speech and my thoughts be pleasing to you. And then he concludes, O Lord Yahweh, my rock, my redeemer. Not his judge, not the condemner.

36:55 This is my stability, my rock, and the one who redeems me. David personalizes this truth from both books. It's appropriated and real. He shows us a pattern. Well, how might this affect our lives?

37:41 I had no excuse when I was, when I travel far away. I could have put it in the car. Usually bring a box of Legos, and I set it on the pulpit. And I just look at it. And this is one of those ways you might be able to, you influence, wherever you work, just set a box of LEGOs somewhere.

38:03 Maybe it's outside of the package and just when somebody asks you why is that there, why haven't we put it together? You say, Well, I'm just waiting for it to spontaneously build itself. That's a way you can witness to people who believe that God didn't create the world. Right? How long do you have to sit here for that pile of Legos to, on its own, build itself?

38:31 How might you witness to that creation, that created order that only God could deliver. Don't estimate those two books. How can you interact with some of your friends, the officer in college, that they worship the creation instead of the creator? How do you engage them in simple conversation? God enables you and I.

39:03 He equips us also to be that flesh on flesh personalization and witness, and we can become that witness of the Word and the world to the people around us. Don't overlook the cosmos. There is no randomness. People are the pinnacle of God's creation, and He loves them. And they're looking for that love.

39:32 They're looking for that constance in their lives. They're trying to find it in every other place but the Lord Jesus. And we have an opportunity to talk to them, just testify to that grounding, as I said, that grounding, that peace, and that hope. David looks up to the cosmos, the created world creation, and looks to the word, and then he personalizes and prayerfully testifies to the revealed God, that personal God, that God who is all His vastness, He cares for each of us ultimately through the comprehensive work of Jesus Christ. He cares for us.

40:17 We can testify to the fact that He now, Christ now who died for us, is resurrected in power and is living and is supernaturally born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, and voluntarily gave Hisself for us. That God, this is what David's pointing us to, that God is the God that we can have hope in. David testifies to this good news in the Psalms, and perhaps the Spirit helped him see what was to come. This good news, a life lived in the wonder and the witness of the Lord, of the only true God who is the El and the Yahweh, our rock and redeemer. That is our hope, and that is the world's hope.

41:11 Let's pray. Lord God, we're so thankful, Lord, that you speak to us in many ways through poems, through songs, through direct letters. Thank you so much for this great message that you give to us through your servant David. We ask, Lord, that as we interact with your world and your word, that we would be very mindful, that we would find ways to continually testify to your love and your work. Lord, I pray that this morning that you and through your word has touched the hearts of those here and those listening so that their lives would be changed, that we would now pivot and think differently and do things differently because we've been transformed by the power of your word.

42:25 And Lord, if there's anything that was said that didn't need to be remembered, let it go. And Lord, I pray that you would enable the recall, the things that you would want to be understood this morning, so that your word and your glory will be held high. And we ask these things in Jesus' name I pray. Amen.