Humility Leads to Holiness

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lass=MsoNormal align=right style='text-align:right'>1) 11-18-07…..AM…..SBC    2)  

“Humility Leads to Holiness”

Psalm 119:9-16

Introduction:

1-      “It is an acrostic psalm, following the letters of the Hebrew alphabet.”[1]

2-      “In the Hebrew Bible, each verse in a section begins with that Hebrew letter. For example, all the verses in the “aleph” section (vv. 1–8) begin with the Hebrew letter “aleph.”[2]

3-      “All but five verses mention the Word of God in one way or another. The exceptions are vv. 84, 90, 121, 122, and 132.”[3]

4-      “The number eight is stamped all over this psalm. Each section has eight verses; there are eight special names for God’s Word listed…The word “eight” in Hebrew literally means “abundance, more than enough”…It is as though the writer is saying, “God’s Word is enough. If you have the Scriptures, that is all you need for life and godliness.”[4]

a-                          Note the eight basic titles of the Bible in the first nine verses of the psalm: law of the Lord, testimonies, ways, precepts, statutes, commandments, judgments, and word.[5]

Ø      this all shows the poetic genre or type of the book of Psalms

5-      It is virtually entirely a psalm of prayer, for throughout it is addressed to the Lord and comes from a heart of true humanity in all its frailty and failure. However great our aspirations to obey, to keep the Lord’s word in the forefront of our minds and lives, we remain to the end like a lost sheep needing the Shepherd’s care (176).[6] (D.A. Carson)

Transition to Proposition:  This Psalm shines as the brightest constellation in the sky when it comes to the Psalms…What we want to do with it this morning is…

Proposition:    To see that God’s Divine Revelation is honorable and excellent for

                        cleansing and teaching, and that it is worth responding to.

Read Psalm 119:9-16 and Pray

1) The Cleansing of the Word                        v9-11

 

Ø      before we can truly embrace the solution we must understand the depths of the problem

Ø      the ones that draw closest to God are the ones that know they need God the most

 

A-    The outward problem  (v9)

 

1-      The Total Depravity of Man

Sin = any failure to conform to the moral law of God in act, attitude, or nature[7]

a-      Sinful Actions  - 10 Commandments (Ex 20 - lying, stealing)

b-      Sinful Attitudes – 10 Commandments (Ex 20, Matt 5 – coveting, anger, lust, jealousy)

c-      Sinful Nature – (Eph 2:3 – “we were by nature children of wrath”

-          “Even while asleep, an unbeliever though not committing sinful actions or actively nurturing sinful attitudes, is still a ‘sinner’ in God’s sight; he or she has a sinful nature that does not conform to God’s moral law”[8]

                                Colossians 1:21 “And you, qwho once were alienated and enemies in your mind rby wicked works,”[9]

3                                             Psalm 14:3 -  “They have all turned aside, They have together become corrupt; There is none who

                                                                                                does good, No, not one”[10]

-          The Fall of Mankind Genesis 3 tells us the when sin entered into the world it avalanched each one of us so that no one could overcome the effects of their own depravity

2-      So, what happens when we sin?

a-      our legal standing before God remains unchanged - we still keep our justification: a legal act freeing us from our sentence of sin

b-      our fellowship with God is disrupted and our Christian life is damaged – we cause our Lord and Savior to weep when we sin

c-      our fruitfulness in ministry is damaged – we diminish the degree to which we are abiding in Christ

Jn 15:4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine,

neither can you, unless you abide in Me.[11]

Application:

1-      If you are out of fellowship with God this morning then don’t be discouraged, verse 10 gives an answer to all your sin problems.

B-    The inward answer (v10)

·         This answer is not found in ourselves – we are good for nothing in this area

·         This an answer changes the inner-man which in turn affects his outer thoughts and actions

1-      The only answer to a front-line battle against sin is through God’s Word

a-      as we have seen we have nothing to which we can fight this battle

Illustration:             - It is equivalent to going to war against a tank with a bee-bee gun

                                 - going against a giant with only a sling shot – God got the glory

         Fence: something to keep out the intruders – mom and dad’s paraclanthia’s

Application:    How high is your spiritual fence?  High enough to guard and protect you against sin

-          this is more than knowing just facts

-          this is more than just being able to fill out our SS Quiz sheet

-          this moves us into the realm of the application of Scripture

-          How well are you applying the knowledge of God’s Word that you have?

Psalm 51 – David’s brokenness over His own sin

Ø      Do you seek God with your whole heart?           v10

-          probably the most important anthropological word in the Hebrew scriptures[12]

-          The heart is the center of emotions, feelings, moods, and passions. [13]

-          Within the heart, human beings meet God’s word (1 Sam. 12:24; Jer. 32:40) and thus it is the location where conversion takes place (Ps. 51:10; Joel 2:12; Acts 2:37).[14]

-          The request for a pure heart is the desire for a new and more perfect conscience (Ps. 51:10; Matt. 5:8).[15]

Ø      What is being stored on the hard-drive of your heart?  Does it need to be reformatted?  Do you need to run the antivirus? 

Transition:  Not only does Psalm 119 lead us to the cleansing of The Word, but also to…

2)  The Teaching of the Word             v12-14

 

A-    only the humble person recognized the need to be taught     v12

 

1- the humble person says give me your statutes that I may know my duty in every thing

B-    only the humble person recognizes the worth of God’s testimonies as greater than material possessions      v14

1-      Can you say about God’s commandments Soul, take thy ease;’’[16]

2-      in true religion there is all riches and they are known only as the unsearchable riches of Christ.[17]

Application

Ø      Up to this point the verbs of this passage are used as verbs of determination (I am determined to seek … to hide … to recount … to rejoice)

Ø      How determined are you to allow humility to lead you to holiness?

Transition:  Once seeing the effects God’s Word can have on our hearts…we are called by the Psalmist to observe…

3) The Response to the Word             v15-16

 

            A- Only when we delight exclusively in it will we be able to then act upon it

            B- The full force of the Divine precepts is not to be grasped except by prolonged meditation on them. [18]

            C- That which is “laid up in the heart” (ver. 11) can never be forgotten.[19]

Conclusion:

Read  from “On this Day” – 365 Amazing Stories of Inspiring Stories about Saints, Martyrs and Heroes

November 18 – Journal of Hudson Taylor from November 18, 1865

Ø      Here was a man that after taking God’s Word to heart knew that God would supply

Ø      Here was a man that did not wander from God’s Testimonies and rejoiced in them more than all the riches that life could bring

Ø      Let us be people and a church that infinitely love God’s Word, infinitely seek to meditate on it and infinitely pray we will not wander from it


----

[1]Warren W. Wiersbe, Wiersbe's Expository Outlines on the Old Testament (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1993), Ps 119:1.

[2]Warren W. Wiersbe, Wiersbe's Expository Outlines on the Old Testament (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1993), Ps 119:1.

[3]Warren W. Wiersbe, Wiersbe's Expository Outlines on the Old Testament (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1993), Ps 119:1.

[4]Warren W. Wiersbe, Wiersbe's Expository Outlines on the Old Testament (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1993), Ps 119:1.

[5]Warren W. Wiersbe, Wiersbe's Expository Outlines on the Old Testament (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1993), Ps 119:1.

[6]D. A. Carson, New Bible Commentary : 21st Century Edition, Rev. Ed. of: The New Bible Commentary. 3rd Ed. / Edited by D. Guthrie, J.A. Motyer. 1970., 4th ed. (Leicester, England; Downers Grove, Ill., USA: Inter-Varsity Press, 1994), Ps 118:24.

[7] Systematic Theology, Grudem; p490.

[8] Ibid.

q [Eph. 2:1]

r Titus 1:15

[9]The New King James Version. (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982), Col 1:21.

[10]The New King James Version. (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982), Ps 14:3.

[11]The New King James Version. (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982), Jn 15:4.

[12]Paul J. Achtemeier, Publishers Harper & Row and Society of Biblical Literature, Harper's Bible Dictionary, Includes Index., 1st ed. (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1985), 377.

[13]Paul J. Achtemeier, Publishers Harper & Row and Society of Biblical Literature, Harper's Bible Dictionary, Includes Index., 1st ed. (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1985), 377.

[14]Paul J. Achtemeier, Publishers Harper & Row and Society of Biblical Literature, Harper's Bible Dictionary, Includes Index., 1st ed. (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1985), 377.

[15]Paul J. Achtemeier, Publishers Harper & Row and Society of Biblical Literature, Harper's Bible Dictionary, Includes Index., 1st ed. (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1985), 377.

[16]Matthew Henry, Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible : Complete and Unabridged in One Volume (Peabody: Hendrickson, 1996, c1991), Ps 119:13.

[17]Matthew Henry, Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible : Complete and Unabridged in One Volume (Peabody: Hendrickson, 1996, c1991), Ps 119:13.

[18]The Pulpit Commentary: Psalms Vol. III, ed. H. D. M. Spence-Jones (Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 2004), 103.

[19]The Pulpit Commentary: Psalms Vol. III, ed. H. D. M. Spence-Jones (Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 2004), 104.

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