Sermon Tone Analysis

Text: Psalm 119:9-16

One of the most important questions in Scripture….

Upon this question hangs the concern of the World’s Religions.

“How shall a young man cleanse his way?”

Zoroastrianism - the person has to win the struggle over evil.

Judaism - You must obey the Jewish law and customs.

Islam - Muslims must practice the five pillars successfully.

Hinduism - The individual must purify himself from evil in life, after life, after life.

Sikhism - Proper worship and conduct must be performed in order to be worthy to be saved.

Confucianism - Heaven on earth is possible, but only through personal conformity to the rules of society.

Shintoism - Must maintain Japanese supremacy at all costs.

Buddhism - Must renounce self in order to reach Nirvana.

Taoism - Must maintain Yin/Yang balance otherwise, no harmony.

Paganism - Must appease the gods and spirits in order to be rewarded.

Atheism, compliance to a system or a philosophy.

You must be in compliance to be happy; or practice total non-compliance, in order to be free.

So, you're either going to be an anarchist - break all the rules, or keep all the rules, but you've got to deal with the rules either way.

Note that in every single one of these religions, the burden is on the human being to do something, achieve something or comply with someone or something, in order to earn or find heaven, nirvana, salvation, happiness, moksha or oneness with Brahma.

You name it, whatever salvation is called, you've got to do something in order to be worthy of it.

Salvation from a Christian perspective is possible and available to all.

Scripture [Christianity] is not culturally or geographically based, like a many of these other religions - i.e.

Judaism.

Scripture offers a tangible, conscious, personal experience of salvation and heaven, which others don't.

Scripture promises life eternal after death.

In Confucianism, Shintoism, Taoism and Atheism, there is no life after death.

Scripture is a salvation offered because of love and received because of faith.

Zoroastrianism and Islam, these are both works-based religions.

Scripture is filled with hope for the future.

Paganism, especially, is based on fear and the mystery of the unknown.

https://bibletalk.tv/what-other-religions-teach-about-salvation

The author concludes his first stanza with the confession that he has fallen short of the demands of the law.

He admits publically that he is not that sinless perfection that would be so comforting.

So he enters the second stanza with a burden…

How can a man cleanse his way?

How can he transform the man he has become into a man that is no longer the way that he is.

He wants the righteousness.

He is still looking for the cleansing that he knows if found in the Word of God.

In fact that is the conclusion of verse 9. “Taking heed to the word”

There is the desire to fix what has been.

Which makes Sense that man would want to fix the past.

The past is a reminder of our failings.

I can think that I am a good man the problem is that my past tells on me.

The people I hurt are in my past.

The word I havent kept is in my past.

Breaking of the Commandments

When I look in the past all I see is one violation of God’s law after another.

The Bible calls this sin.

and each sin builds and builds until I am overwhelmed by it.

This very sin that seeks to destroy my soul cuts me off from the very God of Righteousness that demands my holiness.

The future is promise of my failings.

Did you see how I failed yesterday, That’s probaby what I will be then… There are many that say it isn’t possible for people to change that they are broken and busted as ever will be.

Here me this morning that this book has been changing men and women for generations.

It has been healing marriages, reviving young people, guiding the helpless, and saving the hopeless.

How did the author find this cleansing?

He sought God:

Make this connection no one seeks God without finding his way to the Word.

If a man claims to be seeking God but ignores the Word of God they are deceived.

God’s Word is where he is found and the writer declares that He will seek him in this book.

Don’t be afraid of seeking God the Father.

Jesus taught us to pray by saying, “Our Father”… He said I am the way the truth and the life, no man cometh unto the Father but by Me.

Jesus is the way to the Father.

Our father is the Gospel.

You are brought near to the Father by the completed Work of Jesus on the Cross.

SO seek the Father.

He consumed the Word

In the word is where we find the ways of life.

Vs 13

John said that in Jesus was life and that life was the light of all men.

The author uses a phrase that describes memorizing God’s Word.

He looked at access to the word to be a tool in the holy life.

Why put it to memory.

Because before church had the doctrine of the Holy Spirit.

The author believed in the enlightening work of the Holy Spirit.

He sees the Word of God as the text book of the divine teacher.

There are teachers to day that imagine God has left a bunch of stuff out.

The author wanted to know what was already there.

It is amazing that the author isn’t asking for more revelation and all he had were the five books of Moses and a few prophets.

But we hold the 66 books of God’s revelation to man, and we need more to be happy.

In the word we find the Faithfulness of God.

Vs 14

Sinners should be grateful for a faithful God.

This faithfulness is the environement in which you and I find the loving forgiveness of.

When he had ever y right to throw us away he forgivens and cleanses.

In verse 14 the writer sees that God is the God of his testimony and that we will never lie, and he will never break his word.

SO the author rejoices in the fact that God didn’t follow his wrath or anger instead he followed the covenant he made no matter the temptation to break it.

In the word we find way of Faithfulness

Consider then How John deals with the subject of a clean life.