The Manifestation of God

Sa to God be the glory Great things He has done he so loved the world that he gave us His Son who gave up his life the forgiveness of sin the gates open wide he has welcomed us in oh, praise the Lord Let the earth hear his voice oh, praise the Lord Let the people rejoice oh come to the Father through Jesus his Son and give him the glory Great things he has done Praise the Lord Praise the Lord To God glory O perfect redemption the purchase of blood to every believer the promise of God the vilest offender who truly believes that moment from Jesus A pardon receipt oh, praise the Lord Let the earth hear his voice oh, praise the Lord Let the people rejoice oh come to the Father through Jesus his Son and give him the glory Great things he has done Praise the Lord Praise the Lord To God be the glory Praise the Lord Praise the Lord To God be the glory Great things he has taught us Great things he has done and great our rejoicing through Jesus the Son but purer and higher and greater Will be our wonder our transport When Jesus we see Praise the Lord Praise the Lord oh to God be the glory O praise the Lord Let the earth hear his voice oh, praise the Lord Let the people rejoice oh come to the Father through Jesus his Son and give him the glory Great things he has done O praise the Lord Let the earth hear his voice O praise the Lord Let the people rejoice oh come to the Father through Jesus his Son and give him the glory Great things he has done Praise the Lord Praise the Lord To God be the glory Praise the Lord Praise the Lord oh to God be the glory Praise the Lord Give thanks to the Lord our God and King his love endures forever for he is good he is above all things his love endures forever Sing praise Sing praise Sing praise Sing yeah. Forever God is faithful Forever God is strong Forever God is with us forever Forever with a mighty hand and that's just storm his love endures forever for the life that's been reborn his love endures forever Sing praise Sing Praise Sing Praise Sing praise yeah. Forever God is faithful Forever God is strong Forever God is with us forever Forever God is faithful Forever God is strong Forever God is with us forever Forever Forever Give thanks to the Lord for he is good Give thanks to the Lord for he is good Sing praise sing Praise sing Praise is secret yeah Forever you are faithful Forever you are strong Forever you are with us forever and ever and ever Forever you are faithful Forever you are strong Forever you you are with us Forever Forever I hear the Savior say thy strength in thee this fall Child of weakness Watch and pray Find in me thine all in all Jesus made it all all to him I own sin had left a crimson stain he washed it white as sn Lord, now indeed I find thy power and thine alone can change the leper smiles and mel the heart of stone Jesus made it all all to him I own sin had left a crimson stain he washed it white as snow for nothing good have I whereby thy grace to I wash my garments white in the blood of Calvary's lamb Jesus made it all all to him I own sin had left a crimson stain he washed it white as sn before the throne I stand in him complete Jesus died My soul to save my lips shall still repeat Jesus made it all all to him I own sin had left a crimson st. He washed it white as snow Sin had left a crimson stain he washed it white as snow.

Father. Father, thank you for this beautiful day that you have given us. Lord. We thank you for your grace and your mercy. And we thank you, Lord, for all things that you have provided to us.

Father, I thank you that today we can be here, that we can hear from your word. Father, I ask that you will refresh our souls today. I ask that you will conform us to your image. And I ask that you will be glorified through your word in us and us walking in your word. In Jesus name we pray.

Amen.

Good evening, everyone. Welcome back to church.

Sorry, having a rough day, but announcements. Wednesday at 6:30 we'll continue our Bible study through the book of Luke. I think we're. Remind me, we're in chapter 17 this week. Okay, start in 18.

So we will be in chapter 18 on Wednesday, continuing through the book of Luke. And then I think really that's all we have toward announcements. So we're gonna continue our study. We started a series through the book of Psalms and last week we did chapter one. And I had no idea, and I told you guys, I have no idea where we're going with it.

And so I think we're gonna do right now is just do six or seven and we'll take a break and move on to something else and come back. So today we're gonna be in Psalms chapter 19. If you have your Bibles with you, please turn with me there. If you don't, we'll put it up here on the screen for you. So Psalms chapter 19, okay?

The heavens declare the glory of God and the expanse proclaims the work of his hands. Day after day they pour out speech. Night after night they communicate knowledge. There is no speech, there are no words. Their voice is not heard.

Their message has gone out to the whole earth. And their words here. And their words. Sorry. To the ends of the world in the heavens, he has pitched a tent for the sun.

It is like a bridegroom coming from his home. It rejoices like an athlete running a course. It rises from one end of the heavens and circles to the other end. Nothing is hidden from its heat. Before I jump too much into this, I want to explain the nature of how David often writes his psalms.

This. This poem is known as a. I'm going to pronounce this word wrong, but a chiastic poem, meaning that the author uses mirrors and parallels. And I want to show you what that looks like here.

I love having a baby in church. No, I. I mean it. I do. I love having the baby.

So here we see. If we just break this down into the parallelisms, you'll notice I've got the letters A and B. So the heavens proclaim God's glory, right? The firmament, the work of his hand. Work, right.

So the main theme in this parallelism is that the heavens, the work of God's hand, proclaim his glory. Our next. Just from this passage, you see, day by day it speaks, and night by night it gives knowledge, right? So you got this mirror, this parallel that David is seeing this world, his world view. The message has gone out to the whole world, right?

And then the flip side of that, the end of the world and speech, then he kind of breaks from this a little bit. We got the sun, which is paralleled by the bridegroom and his fineries and the strong man displaying his strength and then going back to the sun rises in the horizon, that regular motion over the whole earth, Earth, it's all seeing no one, hidden from its heat.

I don't know how to work my own equipment here, so sorry, but. So the psalmist declares in verse one that creation, God's handiwork, displaces. And in particular, David focuses on the heavens. For anyone who knows me, you know how I feel about the heavens. The.

It's what got me into photography, right? So I love to go out and I love to take pictures of the night sky and just look at the tiny, tiny portion of creation ultimately, but that we can see and see God's majesty in that. And David, I think that's lost on us. Today we live. We live in cities with light pollution, smog, all sorts of things that Filter out the night sky.

And I can only imagine what it was like back then to look up at that sky and see the glory of God. So creation specifically, here, the heavens declare the glory of God, but they do more than declare the glory of God. They declare the existence of God. They declare that there is a creator. Last week we were in Psalms chapter one, and I talked a little bit about absolute morality.

If there is any morality at all, it has to be absolute. It cannot be subjective. There's no way for subjective morality to have any framework within any type of creation. And if there is absolute morality, it must speak of a creator. That somebody has to give that law.

And the only person who can give that law is a perfect holy being, and that is God. The same is true about the work of God's creation, the works of his hands. It speaks to a creator. And when you look out into the expanse of the night sky and you see the Milky Way and you see the stars, you see the moon, even if you look to the earth right outside of what the psalmist says, but look to the earth, it declares that there is a creator, God. To look at what exists and to think that it spontaneously appeared for no reason at all is unreasonable.

So he continues here. He says that day after day, it pours out speech. Night after night, it communicates knowledge. But he. He plays the paradox here.

For there is no speech and there is no words. There's no voice to be heard, right? So this is a paradox of inaudible speech. The existence and the nature of the created world and universe gives witness to God in a. In a fountain of unspoken communication.

You look at it and it just speaks witness to God. It speaks witness to his power, even though it has no voice, right? No speech to communicate with us. There's an implication here, though, and that is that the receipt of this communication is dependent on the perception of the observer. And I bring this out to talk about atheists for a moment who deny the existence of God and who believe that, that this is all an accident.

The one thing they ask for is evidence. And they believe that faith, the faith that we have, is baseless. And a lot of Christians lend to that view because a lot of Christians don't understand the nature of faith, that faith is the substance of things that we hope for. It's our hope based upon the evidence of things that are not seen. So there's evidence, right?

So it's the, the implication here is that creation in and of itself is evidence of God. The fact that we are here is Evidence of a creator, of a divine and intelligent being. Now whether or not you accept that evidence is up to you, but it is evident that that you have to look at and perceive nonetheless. I didn't put it up on the screen so you can't see it. But just look what Roman.

What Paul says in Romans 1:19 and 20 it says since what can be known about God is evident among them because God has shown it to them for his invisible attributes, that is his eternal power and divine nature having clearly seen since the creation of the world being understood through what he has made.

If you continue on in that it'll say so that they are without excuse. But Paul declares that God is evident among mankind because his invisible attributes, right his eternalness and divine nature are seen through the visible creation being understood to point to him.

He then continues in verse 4. Sorry, not 4, verse 5 it says regarding the Son. It is like a bridegroom coming from his home. It rejoices like an athlete running a course. It rises from one end of the heavens and circles to their other end.

And nothing is hidden from its heat.

I love David.

David. He's, he's. He's not arguing this with any scientific motive.

This isn't a scientific statement but this is a statement that Dave. A worldview David has through the faith he is obtained in God and the way that he can describe it focuses on three things here, right? The first is the regular pattern of the sun's motion. And I'm going to point this out now because because it's going to come up here in a few minutes we can depend upon the sun. It is predictable, it is regular.

It comes up every single morning, it sets every single night. We know what time it's going to come up, what time it's going to go down. It. So the first are the three things this description focuses on is the regular pattern of the sun Sun. The second is the all seeing eye nature of the sun probably in here can contributed to the personification of the sun as a God of justice in ancient Near Eastern mythology.

There may be some contribution there. And we also have to understand though that David is not worshiping the sun. He does not see the sun as, as deity but he sees the sun as something under the control of this all powerful God, right? But it's all seeing. Everyone on earth is touched by the sun, right?

It. That's what it says here in the end, right? The third element here is the heat of the sun. Like justice is both life given and death dealing dependent on the situation. But nothing is hidden from the sun's heat.

No matter where you are in the world, the sun is going to shine on you. The sun is going to provide heat for you. Right? The sun is seen. And I say this to say that nothing is hidden from God's heat, either whether that's through his Son or through his work.

Nothing is hidden from God.

That's. We want to. We want to see that here.

I don't know how to get this up. The instruction we're gonna pick up here in verse 7. The instruction of the Lord is perfect, renewing one's life. The testimony of the Lord is trustworthy, worthy, making the inexperienced wise. The precepts of the Lord are right, making the heart glad.

And the command of the Lord is radiant, making the eyes light up. The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever. The ordinances of the Lord are reliable and altogether righteous. They are more desirable than gold, than an abundance of pure gold, and sweeter than hunter honey dripping from a honeycomb. In addition, your servant is worn by them, and in keeping them there is an abundant reward.

I want to split this passage into two sections. There's regard in the Bible or God's Word and Law. In an in and of itself there were six statements and then there are two statements to follow. And I want to split this passage into two parts. First, describing what.

What the. What the Bible is keeping in mind. The Bible did not exist as we know it back then. The psalmist is referring to God's law, his Word, right? And his ways.

But we have today a completed Canaan, a completed Bible, completed Word of God. So I want to focus larger on the entirety of God's Word, right? What it is. And then second, what does the Bible do? So beginning with what the Bible is.

First, the Bible is perfect in Psalms 119, verse 116, I'm not joking. Verse 160. A lot of verses there. He says that your entire Word is truth.

The entirety of God's Word is truth. And Christians do themselves and Christianity as a whole a disfavor. When they introduce this idea that the Bible is man's writing and that it contains errors, it does a disservice to yourself and to Christianity as a whole. We need to understand that it's perfect. There are no errors, whether historically or doctrinally, in the Word of God.

And that's criticism that I think the inerrancy of God's Word is foundational upon that which we stand because we believe in a true God, an unchanging God, A God who keeps his promises. And we cannot have that if we have a word of God that contains errors. Right. So there are no errors in the word of God. Now are there, are there questionable acts in the word of God?

Yeah, because the Bible is not just a book of doctrine, but a book of history. One thing I love about the Bible, if. If you're trying to write and persuade people to follow you and to. To listen to what you have to say and follow a cult or a theology or any, any sort of thing, the one thing you do not want to do is highlight your errors, your problems, your. The issues that you yourself have.

But the Bible does not shy away from that. The. There is no hesitancy within the Bible or New Testament to talk about their mistakes, their sins, their errors, their punishments and the things that have happened.

And something I hear from people and something it's not true, but I hear it is that if it's in the Bible, it means that God condones it.

And that is not true. Just because it's in the Bible doesn't mean that God condoned it. The author of the psalm in which we read today, he. He is known as the man after God's own heart.

He grew up a shepherd boy protecting she sheep and rose to fame defending God's nation of Israel. We all know the story, David and Goliath to eventually becoming a great and mighty king. And then in the, in the midst of that David sleeps with Bathsheba and then we. There's a fallout. There are consequences.

And my point in bringing this up is that just because it's in the Bible does not mean that God condones it. God did not condone the actions of David sleeping with Bathsheba or David killing her husband as a cover up. But what the Bible does do is record that history and the fact that those errors. Not errors let me back up and correct myself. The fact that those human mistakes are recorded in the Bible lends to its credibility.

It lends to the fact that it is not just a theological but a historical book, but also that it's a true book. The next thing is that it's sure, right? The word of God is sure. And here is what I mean by that. It never changes.

I've got two scriptures from the New Testament I want you to read. Matthew 5:18. Jesus is speaking Sermon on the Mount. He says heaven and earth will pass away, but not one letter of the law until it's fulfilled. I paraphrase that though I did not bring it up.

So if someone did bring it up and I paraphrase that wrong, then correct me. And then Hebrews 13:8. Jesus and I often supplement Jesus here with God so that we remember that we're talking about the perfect and holy triune God here. Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever. The same God that we know and experience today is the same God that they knew and experienced 2000 and 4000 years ago.

It's the same God that will be experienced a decade from now and into eternity from now. He does not change. He is consistent in his ways, he is consistent in his thinking, and he is consistent in his theology. And then he says that though the heavens and the earth will pass, His Word shall not. And this is super important to me, not just to know that the Word of God is sure, but because of where we live, right?

We live in the heart of a religious movement where there is a church and a theology that wants to teach you that God's Word and that His Gospel and His Holy Spirit disappeared from the Earth for two or 1800 and some odd years until Joseph Smith was given it again.

And so it's important for me, and it's important for me to have you guys understand that God's Word is sure. It's never changing. It will not pass away. God's Holy Spirit that He has given us will not and has not left, right? There is no gospel to restore because the Gospel of Christ has been here since he gave it to us.

The right rules, all of God's rules are right for living. And I'm going to say this because we live in a society where that thought, that idea sounds weird. The society and time that we live in, in, we see rules as prohibitions. We see laws as, you can't do this, you can't do that, right? Freedom, restricting.

But that is not how Christians view God's rules and laws. It's not how David saw and viewed the Word of God, right? His rules are the right rules for living. God made creation and God has given us the correct rules, the correct framework to live within that creation. And I'm going to say this, there can be wrong rules for living.

Just, just look at today's society, right? We have rules today seeking to protect transgenderism, seeking to protect gay rights, seeking to protect abortion, right? All things in which the Bible very clearly condemns.

And our society, it sees it not as a way to live the most fulfilling life you can, but as a restriction. And so our societal rules, right? Our societal way of living is wrong. So there can be wrong and right Rules for living. And the Bible gives us the right framework to live.

It's pure as opposed to other religious texts. Since I mentioned Mormonism already, I'll bring up the Book of Mormon, the dnc, the Quran from Islam. These are all religious texts that if followed, will lead you into sin. Every one of them. But the Bible is pure as opposed to these religious texts.

There is nothing in the Bible and I'm going to insert this statement here, properly understood and interpreted, there is nothing in the Bible that could ever lead you to sin.

Clear fear, right? The word of God produces reverence toward God, true and righteous judgment. I've had a conversation, few conversations, but one in particular where the judgment of God was questioned. Does God judge correctly?

Is he right to judge the way that he judges? When God flooded the earth in Noah's time, was his judgment right? That's called into question all the time. Was that right or was that wrong? Wrong.

When he judges the earth in the tribulation period, is he right or is he wrong? So we need to understand that his judgments are true. Right? He's an all seeing, all knowing God so he can make true judgment. He doesn't make judgment on misinformation.

His judgment is righteous because he is righteous. Because he has not sinned. Because he is holy, his judgment is righteous. And then finally, I just want to throw this in. The Bible doesn't say it right here in this passage, but I think we need to acknowledge it.

He has the right to judge because it's his creation.

Who else but the Creator has the right to judge creation? So the Bible tells us that God's judgment is true and just better than gold. When I read that in prep for this, the very first scripture, to pop into my mind again as Christ in the Sermon on the Mount, there's a passage on how to deal with anxiety. And he tells us to not worry about what we're gonna eat, what we're gonna wear, what tomorrow is going to bring. And he tells us this.

He says, don't treasure up those things would moth and rust can corrupt and thieves can steal those things that are perishable, but treasure up that which could not be corrupted, that which cannot be stolen, that which moth and rust does not destroy.

Christ will later say, what good is it to gain the world and lose yourself soul? There's a lot of us. And this was the trap that I was in before my, my Christianity, before my faith in Christ, that we chase after money, we chase after gold, physical things. It says here that the word of God is More desirable than gold. Even more desirable than an abundance of pure gold.

This is David, King David. And I think King David. And if you look, his predecessor, his son, King Solomon, I think they both are in a good place to be able to make such a statement. Statement. They had it all.

And yet they knew that. That all of that was less desirable than the word of God. And I think this is important for us because I think there are some in our church that we. These. We desire the earthly things, and we worry about the earthly things, and we are chasing after the earthly things.

And if that's what we are doing, and I believe there are some here, then our heart is in earth and not in the kingdom of heaven. And what good is it? Why, we can gain the world. We can gain all the power and all the money and all the things this world has to offer us. And it's temporary.

We will die. We will enter eternity. And nothing from here is going to come with us. And so what good is it if we lose our soul? And it says, it's sweeter than hunger.

Honey provides all that we need for satisfaction. We don't need worldly possessions for satisfaction. I'll get to that here in just a moment. Let's switch from what the Bible is to what the Bible does. It converts and restores the soul.

The Word of God turns the sinner away from his wake. Jesus spoke. He said, you are made clean. This is in John 15. He says, you are made clean because of the word I have spoken to you.

In Romans 10, Paul declares to us that if we would believe in our heart that God was raised from the dead and confess him with our tongue that he was Lord, that we'd be saved? And then if you continue about nine verses later, he says, how can they confess in him whom they have not heard? Right? So the Word of God, it turns us from our ways.

It molds us, it washes us and then molds us into the image of God. The Word of God makes wise. We read a little bit of Romans 1 already today. Let's jump two verses further from where we left off. Romans 1:22.

Paul wrote that by becoming wise, they became fools. Before I mention any more on this, let's look what Jeremiah says. Says the wise will be put to shame. I'm just jumping to the end of the passage now. For they have rejected the Lord, what wisdom do they really have?

The Bible makes us wise. There is no wisdom in earthly scholarships.

By becoming wise, Paul is talking 2,000 years ago. They became fools. Read the rest of that passage, right on your own. And look at what they're doing. Men and women turning from natural affections, worshiping created things as gods.

It says that they become inventors of evil right by, become unwise, they became foolish.

Paul says in his epistles to Corinth in the first Epistle, he says, let us become fools, that we may become wise. We need to abandon earthly worldviews, secular worldviews. We need to turn to the One, the only source of wisdom, which is the Word of God.

The Word of God makes us glad. Just a minute ago I said, it's sweeter than honey. It provides all that we need for satisfaction. In John 15. This is one of my favorite passages.

I bring it up a lot. John 15. Starting in verse nine, he says, as the Father has loved me, I have also loved you. And I can never read that without stopping and commenting on that real quick. As the Father has loved me.

Have you ever stopped and thought, how has the Father loved the Son? With. With what type of love was that? With what intimacy, with what constraints the. The Father had a eternal love for the Son.

The Father loved the Son in ways that we cannot comprehend and that we cannot speak. Because I don't think we in our sin suits really know it or comprehend it. But look what he then says. He says, in that way, I have also loved you.

So if you can think for a moment in what way the Father may have loved the Son may have loved Jesus, it is in that same love that he has loved us. Remain in my love, he continues, and if you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commands and remain in his love. So there's a linkage here that we have seen repeated. We saw this in the Epistles of John walking in the commands of God will keep us in his love. And if we remain in his love, we will keep the commands of God.

They can all be summed up. All of the commands of God can be summed up in two commands. Love God and love your neighbor. But look at verse 11. He says, I've told you these things so that my joy may be in you, and your joy may be complete.

Now, obviously, I jumped in in the middle of the passage there, there. But the. The instructions and commands and wisdom of God, they are not prohibitions on our life, but when you walk in them and in the fruits of the Spirit, it is then that you have joy. And not temporal joy, not worldly joy, but eternal joy. It enlightens Jesus is the light of the world that shines into darkness.

We're told that in First John. Sorry, not First John. John chapter one. In verses four and five, Jesus is the light of the world that shines into darkness. In that same passage, Jesus is described as the Word of God.

And the Word of God is light. And what does light do? We've talked about this when we went through John. Light exposes it reveals it makes things manifest. And what specifically here the Word of God makes manifestations our sin.

In John chapter three he tells us that's why the sinners hate the light and love the darkness as they do not want their deeds made known. For the Word of God enlightens us, it exposes our sin, then it enriches us.

Proverbs 3:13 18 says, Happy is the man who finds wisdom and who acquires understanding. For she being wisdom, for she is more profitable than silver and her revenue is better than gold. She is more precious than jewels, and nothing you desire can equal her. Long life is in her right hand, in her left riches and honor. Her ways are pleasant and all her paths peaceful.

She is a tree of life to those who embrace her and those who hold on to her are happy. The Word of God enriches us in every way. It also warns does the Bible, especially you get into the New Testament and the teachings of Jesus. Are we not warned about sin and destruction?

And it rewards. James 1:25 says, the one who looks intently into the perfect law of freedom and perseveres in it, and is not a forgetful hearer, but a doer who works. This person will be blessed in what he does.

Now you all know and so I will clarify. This is not a work based system or theology, right? But the one who receives and experiences the goodness that the Word can give is the one who is not a forgetful hearer, but who remembers and does.

And we do that because of the Spirit of God in us. Let's turn to to the final passage of the evening.

It says, who perceives his unintentional sins cleanse me from my hidden faults. Moreover, keep your servant from willful sins. Do not let them rule me. Then I will be blameless and cleansed from blatant rebellion. May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, Lord, my rock and my redeemer.

I just want to show before we comment on this, at the beginning of this message tonight I showed you how David sees things in a mirror like way, right? In these parallels I want to just show you that we have who can perceive his unintentional sins and being cleansed from hidden faults. But then he switches it and prays, keep me from my willful sin, then I'll be blameless and finally cleansed from blatant rebellion. So who can perceive their unintentional sins?

Can any of us? Can any of us really, truly know what is in our heart? Jeremiah 17, verse 9. Jeremiah says that the heart is deceitful above all else. Who can understand it?

And what Jeremiah is telling us here is our hearts, our emotions, our feelings, they are deceitful. There are things that are true, but we don't feel that they are true. And if we are emotionally and feeling led and driven, then we will walk in the deceit of our own heart. We will blind ourselves. But our heart also does not want to condemn us.

And so it'll seek to either hide sin from us or justify it. And so who can understand it? The prophet asked, only God. We need the mirror. And that's why I wanted to point out that David sees in these parallels and these mirrors.

We need the mirror of God's word to reveal our sin to us. But David asked here. He says, cleanse me from my hidden fault. And he says, keep me from my willful sins. But if we turned several dozen pages in our bibles to chapter 139, David says, one of my favorite things, and I'm gonna call this a dangerous thing.

There are, there are what I call dangerous prayers. Asking God for patience is one of those dangerous prayers.

Here's what David prays in Psalm 139. Search me, O God, and know my heart, test me, know my concerns, see if there's any offensive way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way.

That prayer was a prayer that came from a very sincere heart. David knew and understood. He says, look in me, God, because I cannot. Look in my heart and examine it, search it and see if there's anything offensive in me, because we cannot do that.

We cannot do that in a.

The words are running away from me.

I, I'm just going to leave that thought, I guess, because the words have run way. But search me, know me, and see if there's anything offensive in me. Church if you want to walk in the spirit of God and if you want to root out, if you hate evil and you hate sin, this is the prayer to pray, because there is no way. And it came back to me, so I'm circling back to it, that we can objectively look at ourselves and know all the sins that we have done, we can't do it objectively. We will either miss it or we will try to justify it.

But moreover, verse 13, he says, Keep your servant from willful sins so that they will not rule over me. David prays. He says, look, even protect me and forgive me for the things I don't know that I'm doing. He says, help keep me from walking into willful disobedience, right into willful rebellion. This is important.

In Romans 6:16, Paul says, Do you not know that if you offer yourself to someone as obedient slaves, you are a slave to the one that you obey? There's only two options that Paul gives. You're either a slave of sin leading to death, or a slave of obedience leading to righteousness.

So what will it be? And then he says, in verse 14, he closes, May the words of my mouth, the meditation of my heart, be acceptable to you, Lord, my rock and my redeemer. When I was studying, I found a quote by Warren Wiersbe that I liked and felt worked here. So I'm just going to let Warren Wiersbe speak to this final verse. He says, the word meditation here has the image of a musician plucking the strings of a heart.

Who controls the music of your heart, God or Satan? Meditation is to the heart what digestion is to the body. It is taking in of the word of God and making it a part of the inner being. As the heart and mind think on the word all day long, the spirit guides the life. And this is what it means to walk in the spirit from Galatians 5:16 and to have the spiritual mind from Romans 8:1 through 8.

I'll just leave it right there with what Warren Wiersbe said. Who controls the music of your heart? It is either God or Satan. And let me tell you this about Satan. One thing that we know about Satan, we know that Satan is a musician.

And as a musician, we know that Satan knows how to pull the right strings. Which is why it is so important, as David prayed here, that we ask God to search and to know and to see if there's any offensive way in us, that we ask God to draw that out. Because if we rely upon ourselves, we will not be objective in any way.

I love that question. So I'll end with it one more time before we end service here. Who controls the music of your heart, God or Satan? Satan. As we go to our closing prayer here, I just remind everyone that we will have communion after service for those who are not here in person.

As always, you're welcome to grab bread and water and take it with us. And then we're gonna meet Wednesday night, 6:30. We'll be in Luke chapter 18. And I look forward to seeing you all then. Let's pray.

Father, may you dig into our hearts and may you reveal to us the hidden sin and the hidden offensive things that lie within us. Father, will you cause us to rejoice in your word, to not see it as some prohibitive way that restricts our freedom, but to see it as the freeing and loving thing that it is? And Father, I pray that as. As John said in First John 5, that the word will not be a burden to us, but a delight. Father, I pray that you will be glorified as we not only ask you to do those things, but allow you to do those things.

And I pray, Lord, that that glory that you'll be glorified here on earth and in heaven. And I pray, Lord, that. That you are the light of the world. And that as you do that in that your light will shine forth. And Lord, I pray that your kingdom will grow greater than what we could ever imagine.

In Jesus name, amen.