Address—Robert Boulard
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Perhaps we could start our meeting tonight with #276.
#276.
So should we ask Lord's blessing on our time together?
Our loving God and our Father, we thank Thee for this little hymn that reminds us that Thou art the bread of heaven, reminds us that we're not here very long, and how our souls yearn our hearts yearn to be safely home and at rest. And while we face the dangers of the path and the opposition of the enemy and the Wiles of the enemy while we are in this scene, we just ask Thee that Thou, in thy grace and My kindness, preserve us and to guide us.
And so guide us by thy Spirit tonight as we open up thy precious word. Help us, each one, to glean something for our own souls and to have a fresh, uh, desire of heart to please our Savior and to walk in the path of righteousness in an unrighteous world. So we just ask thee for thy blessing our God and our Father, and that the Lord Jesus would be exalted and made more precious to us as a result of this little time together. We ask it and give thanks for the time together and the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen.
I'd like to read a few scriptures before we start, and we, uh, let's just turn to Deuteronomy chapter six first.
We spoke in the gospel meeting last night and umm took up something of the 19th Psalm and speaks there of the three witnesses that God has given to man in connection with his revelation to himself. And it's really the revelation of God in, uh, creation at the beginning, the glory of God, the heavens declare the glory of God. Then we have the word of God presented to us and a special revelation from God himself.
Spoken to us in love and with every aspect that we would need for our entire Christian pathway for as a Saint of God. And then we have the conscience that God uses as the word of God shines the light upon our consciences and into our hearts. And so we're we can be guided by the light as it shines and exercises our conscience. I wouldn't like to spend a little time this evening and just go over the word of God in connection with those 10 words in the 119th Psalm.
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That describe the word of God and because as I said last night, the word of God is vital to the life of a Christian. It's vital to life at all for all eternity. None of us will ever be in the glory apart from the word of God and his revelation to us by the word of God and the power of God because it's the power of God unto salvation and umm faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. None of us are in this room that know the Lord Jesus the Savior and appreciate the person of the Lord Jesus and the finished work of Christ apart from the power of the word of God that has.
Given us life and that we that nourishes our souls in this dark scene. But the world is working. The enemy is working hard today to displace the word of God and to replace it with the wisdom of man and to replace it with something.
That would displace the person of Christ and his wisdom and his love and trying to guide us in the path. So let's just read in Deuteronomy chapter 6. I'm just going to read a few spot verses and then.
A couple of passages and then we'll read in the 119th Psalm a few verses and, uh, make some comments. So chapter 6 of Deuteronomy and verse, uh.
Let's read from verse one. Now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments which the Lord your God commanded to teach you, that you might do them in the land, whether you go to possess it, that thou mightest fear the Lord thy God, and to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command thee, thou and my son and my son's son, all the days of thy life, and that thy days may be prolonged. Verse 6.
And these words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart, and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shall talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way.
And when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand.
And they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes, and thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house and on thy gates. And it shall be when the Lord thy God shall have brought thee into the land which he swear unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob, to give thee these great and goodly cities which thou build us not, and houses full of all good things which thou fillest not, and wells dig which thou digest not, vineyards and olive trees which thou planest not, when thou shalt have eaten and be full. And beware lest thou forget the Lord which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt from the House of *******.
And just turn over to chapter 8 and umm, this wilderness chapter.
Verse 3.
Chapter 8 of Deuteronomy, verse three. And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only.
But by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord, that man live man in Chapter 11.
It says uh, there.
In verse 21, that your days may be multiplied in the days of your children in the land which the Lord swear unto your Father's to give them as the days of heaven.
Upon the earth. And then let's just look at the 119th Psalm.
Just the 1St 16 verses I'd like to read there.
119 Psalm verse one. Blessed are the undefiled in the way who walk in the law of the Lord. Blessed are they that keep his testimonies, and that seek Him with the whole heart. They also do no iniquity. They walk in his ways. Thou hast commanded us to keep thy precepts diligently. Oh, that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes. Then shall I not be ashamed when I have respect unto all thy commandments.
I will praise thee with uprightness of heart when I shall have learned thy righteous judgments. I will keep thy statutes. Oh, forsake me not utterly wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way by taking heed thereto, according to Thy word.
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With my whole heart have I sought thee. Oh, let me not wander from thy commandments.
Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against Thee. Blessed art Thou, O Lord, Teach me Thy statutes. With my lips have I declared all the judgments of Thy mouth. I have rejoiced in the way of Thy testimonies as much as in all riches. I will meditate in my precepts, and have respect unto Thy ways. I will delight myself in my statutes. I will not forget Thy word. Now let's just turn to Jeremiah.
I think it's chapter 33.
No, it's chapter 36, Jeremiah Chapter 36.
And we're just gonna read just a few verses.
You can pick up the story, perhaps yourselves, verse 22.
A king of Israel, Jehoiakim and Umm. This is what he did when he had the word of God presented to him.
Now the king Jeremiah 36, verse 22 Now the king sat in the winter house in the ninth month, and there was a fire set on the hearth burning before him. And it came to pass that when Jehudai had read three or four leaves, he cut it with the penknife, and cast it into the fire that was on the hearth, until all the roll was consumed in the fire that was on the hearth. Yet were they were not afraid, nor rent their garments, neither the king nor any of the servants that heard all these words.
And then?
Another passage, uh Amos chapter 8.
The book of Amos Hosea, Joel Amos.
And verse 11 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water.
But of hearing the words of the Lord, and they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north, even to the east, and they shall run to and fro, and to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it.
While we live in a world that's given up the word of God in a Christian testimony, they're professing Christianity that, uh, is umm, despising the word And what has been used to set up the fabric of, uh, Western society that LA from to a large degree has been the word of God and umm, even in the courtrooms in the United States and different places.
That umm, men have sought to even have the word of God displayed publicly, umm, has come under attack. And we read in Amos and how there's going to become a time even in the land of Israel where there be a famine for the word of God, not only a famine for food. And as God brings, uh, the beginning of sorrows into that land and uh, among the Gentile nations is judges the Western Christian world. And as he judges Israel and then as he judges farther out into the prophetic earth.
No, or the, uh, beyond the prophetic, uh, earth. Why there's going to become a famine for the word of God in the very land of Israel that ought to have been characterized by the truth of the word of God. And God intended that his people, Israel would be a model of those that were a faith of the household of faith, had a relationship with him and that their lives would be guided and ruled by the word of God. I want to ask you a question tonight and I asked myself often times as I'm going about my day in different activities.
Is my life being guided by the word of God? By every word of God?
Is my life being guided and am I guarding my heart for the Lord and seeking to guide my path from day-to-day, moment by moment by the word of God is a searching question for us all. There are other things that come in emails and, uh, all the electronics that, uh, take precedence and instead of pausing and crying to the Lord for wisdom and uh, seeking the truth of the word of God, wisdom of the Word of God and the guidance of the Word of God often times.
We're called to make a decision very quickly and there isn't even a time to make a prayer, to raise a prayer to the Lord. But we find that, uh, the Lord gives us this, uh, 119th Psalm that, uh, is presented that it's a time when, umm, just at the beginning is the millennial, just Millennium just dawns, just at the beginning to dawn. And the children of Israel come into that land. And what characterized them the first time around as they came into the land was, uh.
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Failure because they set aside some portion of the Word of God. We're going to look at some of those examples perhaps tonight if we have time, but, umm.
They fell into idolatry. They set aside the word of God, they fell into idolatry. And the Spirit of God tells us in the New Testament to flee idolatry, says that to Christians during the Christian era. And umm, he speaks in, I think it's Ephesians, idolatry, covetousness, which is idolatry. And so all around us, people want things. They want things. And it characterizes the Christian testimony as well. We have to hang our heads and say it characterizes us too. We want things and they displace Christ.
But what will characterize the children of Israel as they enter the millenniums is that they have the word of God before them again and become sweet to them. And, umm, so I'd just like to look at this, uh, Psalm when I was a young lad.
Came out of the McDonald Division in 1969. Was a very moving experience. I won't go into any detail, but I came to this meeting room.
In, uh, I think it was probably 1970, might it be 1971 for your all day meeting in July? And the passage that was taken up was 119th Psalm. I never forgot. I don't know a lot of what was said, but it made a deep impression on me at the time and I've never forgotten, never had that. My father quoted those verses, uh, in Amos chapter 8 that we read tonight. That's gonna be a famine for the word of God in the land. And I never forgot that either.
You know, there's, uh, we have the truth of the word of God and, uh, I want to just look at these verses of Scripture because they describe the word of God. And as I said last night, that it's so vital and important to the believer to have the word of God before him.
To live a safe life, to live a life that's fruitful for the Lord that if he sets aside any portion of the word of God, doesn't pay attention to it, doesn't enjoy it in the presence of God, it leads to some failure or another. None of us can set aside any little portion of the word of God. Isn't it wonderful that his believers that we can accept accept it all and in faith walk in and all if we have that desire. Well, it says here the first thing says blessed are the undefiled in the way.
Who walk in the law of the Lord. And so this is the first word that's given in this, umm, Psalm and it speaks of the path of happiness. What characterized the children of Israel as they set aside the word of God and turned to idolatry was misery and sin, sorrow and, umm, it brought destruction to the nation. But uh, oh, there's a happiness that's going to pervade that nation as they see the Messiah and they accept the Messiah for themselves. They see that it's, uh, those 10 tribes, they'll look upon him and.
Shall say, What are these wounds in thine hands? And he shall answer them. Those with which I was wounded in the House of my friends, they'll recognize them as the Messiah. And they'll latch on to every word that he says. And they'll read this Psalm and they'll enjoy the truth they'll be taught and enjoy the truth that the word of God, the entire word of God, is something that ought to captivate them. And so it says, the law of the Lord. The law of the Lord has to do with the first five books of the Bible.
And so.
In the English Bible, we say Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, and then we get into the Joshua, Judges and so on. But those first five books, if you look at uh, maybe a German Bible or I think, uh, the Portuguese Bible, some of the other, umm, translations in different languages, I say the first book of Moses, the second book of Moses, third book of Moses, 4th book of Moses, and 5th book of Moses. But in the English, we've given them titles or headings.
And so they comprise the first five books of the Bible. And the law as it was given to man provides a divine boundary, align the marking the boundary. Because as I said last night in the gospel, man has lost his ability to be able to know where the fence is, where the guideline where he, if he crosses the fence that he'll fall into the ditch of sin or he'll fall into an area in a place that God didn't want him to go.
And he's going to reap the consequences governmentally, whether it's morally or whether it's in spiritual things or whether it's in physical activities. And so they needed to have the law.
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You know.
We live in a day of ignorance of the word of God in much of society, but it shouldn't characterize us. I was doing business with a fellow and umm.
He was over in Europe. He was actually in Portugal doing some business on our behalf when, uh, I was working in the, uh, Automotive World and he was, uh, out there doing some business and he had his cell phone and he was, uh, driving along in, in a city in Portugal and he was talking on the cell phone. He's talking and talking and talking. And he went through a police checkpoint and, umm, the police called him over.
He's talking on the phone, talking on the phone.
And he says, yes, Sir, what officer, what would you like? And he says, he points to his phone and it was, he says that you're not allowed in Portugal. You're not allowed to drive and talk on your cell phone like that. You have to have hands free. He said, well, I didn't know officers. I'm, I'm from America and I don't know, I didn't know about that. And umm, he said, well, Sir, you're, you're, you still have to pay this €120 fine because that's our law. And you're, if you come and drive in our country, you're expected to know what the laws are in this country.
And so he didn't have €120 and so he had to call another business person. They came over, paid his fine and so on. And then he called me and told me about this and I said, well, John, his name is John Miller, I said.
It was a sin of ignorance. It was a sin. It was a sin of ignorance. He's a man that is somewhat of a 7th Day Adventist and but he the law was there, but he didn't read it, didn't know it, and yet he was guilty of not of going beyond the guideline of what they would allow in Portugal, in Portugal.
For driving, well, you know, the word of God is given to us so that we know what the boundaries are and that we can walk in this scene in a clear conscience and know that we're living for the glory of God. Are you walking within the boundaries? Do you want to know what the boundaries are? Isn't that wonderful to be able to pick up the Word of God and read the whole tell the Word of God?
I'm ashamed to say this, and I know some of you have heard me say it before, but I never read the Bible from front to back until I was maybe 18 or 19 years old. I'm ashamed to say it, I didn't do it. I didn't read it from front to back until I was maybe 18 or 19 years old. But after I read the Word of God, it got a hold of me and I was thankful to the Lord that it gave me a thirst to read more and to enjoy more and to remember.
What was written? Well, that's the first word that's given to us here. It's a divine boundary, these 10 words, and I mentioned last night that the Inuit or the Eskimos, they have something like 14 or 15 different words that describe snow. And it's because it's vital, it's important to them in life. They have to know what kind of snow is coming, whether it's Blizzard conditions or whether it's crunchy snows, snow that they can deal with in different circumstances because their lives depend on it. And so the law as a divine boundary.
We're not under law, but we know that it gives us the principles of life and how God desired us to live even within the Christian testimony. Well then it says in verse two, blessed are they that keep His testimonies and that seek Him with the whole heart.
The whole heart, a testimony to man. And so God has given us something in his word to tell us, a divine witness to man as to what to expect if different things would take place. You know, I'm just going to turn to, uh, Deuteronomy again.
I think it's Chapter 7.
God gives the testimony Chapter 7 and verse 3.
Gives a testimony to man. He says, uh, verse three, neither shalt thou make marriages with them. Thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son, for they will turn away thy son from following me. He gives a testimony to man, says there's a situation that will arise.
And if this situation arises, I'm gonna tell you what's gonna happen, and they're gonna turn. If you marry your son marries the daughter of the land, or your daughter marries the son of the land, they'll turn the hearts away from following the Lord. And so we know that that's what took place in Solomon's life. He married strange women of the nations, and that turned his heart away.
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That's a testimony that God has given. He's given a true testimony.
They're wonderful to be able to read the Word of God and to rely upon the truth of what the Word of God says about certain situations.
Brother Gordon Hale used to say. I heard him say it oftentimes.
He said this, he said he never knew of a boy or a girl that married an unbeliever, a Christian that ended up to be a happy marriage. He never knew. He knew that there were some that were saved, some of that were saved after they married in an unequal yoke. Oftentimes there was something that came in that wasn't doesn't allow it to be as happy a union as it could have been and so disobedient to the word of God, to the testimony that he's given doesn't lead to happiness. And so this is what the 1St 2 verses no wonderful in the 19119 saw in the 1St 2:00.
Versus have this word blessed or happy and God has a happiness plan for each one of us. And it has to do with walking in obedience and submission to the Word of God. And if your will or mine is an opposition to the word of God, any part of it, it doesn't lead to happiness leads to sorrow. When was the last time that you wanted something that was not according to the wisdom of the Word of God? You wanted it and you wanted it regardless of what God said.
When was the last time you wanted something like that? It was for good.
When was the last time you just wanted your way? Just in a little thing just I want this and I, I just have to have it. I just want this and it made you happy.
You know it says, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to raw. For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God, and the wrath of man is connected with the will of man. And so you could say that the will of man worketh not the righteousness of God.
None of us, if we seek our own will apart from the wisdom of the word of God never brings us any happiness. And so here these Saints as they read this, as they enter the Millennium, they'll read happier the undefiled in the way who walk in the law of the Lord. Blessed or happy are they that keep his testimonies and that seek him with the whole heart. Now I looked up to today, you know the 119 saw mentions the heart 15 times.
And the last time it's mentioned in the, uh, 119 Psalm, it's, uh, really close to the end.
I think it's.
I guess I didn't mark the mall.
Something like 16 times that it's marked.
That that, uh, that word is used in the Psalm.
I don't have it marked. I, I meant to market, but uh, 16 times that word, the heart is mentioned. And so they seek him with the whole heart. Nothing reserved. Seeking is a present activity, something that we do, but it speaks of devotedness to the Lord.
It's not wonderful to be devoted to the Lord, to have the affections. Has He won your heart? Has He desired, Have you desired to give Him the affections of the heart? He paid the price at Calvary's cross to redeem us, shed His precious blood to redeem us, to make us His own. And now He doesn't want a part of the heart. He wants the whole heart, just wants the whole heart.
He says in Proverbs 23, my son, give me thine heart. While this is the second word, the testimonies divine witness to man as to the wisdom of God and uh, his desires that we would acquire knowledge and wisdom that we would know, umm, how to conduct ourselves and to learn from what he has taught us and his word. Then we have in verse three, they also do know iniquity. They walk in his ways.
And so here we have the divine course of life, instruction for the divine course of life, the ways of God, the ways, the word of God in connection with the moral ways of God.
Are you going to learn the moral ways, the right moral ways in this world from the institutions of man? You're gonna learn in the newspapers exactly what it is to live a moral life? No. Is it? Is the country, is Canada supporting the moral aspects of the truth of the word of God? No. How are you gonna learn the moral ways that will be pleasing to the Lord and with the gift to give you a long life and a prosperous life?
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You know if you look at the very last verses of the 119th Psalm says this in verse 174.
I have longed for Thy salvation, O Lord, and Thy law is my delight. Let my soul live.
And it shall praise the led by judgments. Help me. I have first have gone astray like a lost sheep. Seek thy servant, for I do not forget thy commandments. And so there's a longing in the heart that these ones will have to be kept and to be preserved, because they'll recognize that there was a time in their lives when they gave themselves up to idolatry and they didn't walk in obedience to the Word of God. Now they know that it's a happy path and they want to be kept. And it's a wonderful thing for us to have a sense of our weakness.
They want to give the Lord our whole heart and to walk in a righteous way in an unrighteous world, because it says they also do no iniquity or unrighteousness. They walk in His ways. The moral ways of God are told out in His Word, and He desires that we would walk in that safe path of wisdom.
Let's just read in the Proverbs Chapter 9.
These are some of the ways of God that he, he umm outlines in the book of Proverbs.
But umm.
He gives us instruction.
In verse 13.
A foolish woman is clamorous. She is simple, knoweth nothing, for she sitteth at the door of her house, on a seat in the high places of the city, to call stranger passengers who go right on their ways.
Whoso is simple, let him turn in, hit her, and As for him that wanteth understanding, she saith to him, stolen waters are sweet, and bread is eaten in secret as pleasant. But he knoweth not that the dead are there, and that her guests are in the depths of hell. And so the ways of God morally are told out in the word of God. And is not wonderful that we can know what is the truth in connection with how to live morally in a world that is immoral.
And it ought to be a light and a testimony, not only in this neighborhood, but in our own homes, among those that are believers, as to the truth that we know what the moral ways of God are and His instruction in connection with them.
Then it says in verse 4, this is the first fourth thing. It says thou hast commanded us to keep thy precepts diligently. And so a precept is a very small detail of the law, divine little detail, very smallest part if you look at Isaiah chapter 28.
It brings, it gives us a little bit of a.
Instruction there, verse 9.
Isaiah 28, verse 9.
Whom shall he teach knowledge, and whom shall he make to understand doctrine, or teaching them that are weaned from the milk and drawn from the breast? For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line.
Line upon line here a little, there a little.
Not nice, says it again in verse 13. The word of the Lord was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, here a little, there a little, that they might go well.
You know, we get saved. We know the Lord Jesus as our Savior. We're instructed somewhat in the truth of God. We come to the assembly meetings and, uh, we learn just a little bit at a time, a little bit at a time.
I just want to encourage you. I know there's some young people here and I, I'm so thankful to see that you have a desire of heart to be at a meeting like this and, and set the evening aside and come to spend a little time and have a little time over the word of God. And every time that we spend any time in the presence of the Lord in the word of God at home in the assembly.
Why we get a little bit of something, we may not recognize it, but we get a little bit of something, a little precept, a little precept here, a little there, a little, a little line of things. And the line there in Isaiah chapter 28, there's a line of truth that goes through the word of God in connection with the blood of Christ, a line of truth. And you can trace the line of truth in connection with the blood. You can trace the line of truth in connection with the Lamb of God right from Genesis right through to the end when they behold the Lamb of God.
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And the Lamb is found worthy to open the book thereof, and to loose the seals thereof. You can trace that line of truth. You can trace the line of truth in connection with the righteousness of God, in connection with sin, and how blood needed to be shed.
But we're never gonna learn everything all at once, and God gives us little things to enjoy every day. Is that what you wanna do every day? Just I asked the Lord myself, you know.
I feel so.
I confess to you that often times I feel so ignorant of the truth of God, so ignorant of the entire truth of what we have in the Word of God. And I just asked the Lord every day I just ask Him just for a little something to enjoy, just for today. Do you ever do that? Just ask the Lord just for a little something, a little precept, just a little something. And often times you get more than what you ask for. Sometimes just a little of Christ, just a little of the perfection of His work, a little bit of the perfection of His person, the glory of His person.
But then, you know, sometimes we need instruction, we need to be well grounded. And so we have these precepts diligently. I just wanna turn to First Samuel. We'll just look there. A little detail, you might say. Well.
I'm an engineering person and I love detail, but some people don't like detail.
Makes them irritated to get into detail. Isn't that true? They just give me the give me the big picture. Fly up there at about 40,000 feet. I don't want to know any of the detail. We'll fly over all these barns and cows. We're not going to count cows. We'll just just give me the highlights. But oh, it's wonderful to get into the details. But you know, when Samuel met the Lord, First Samuel chapter 3.
Verse seven says Samuel did not yet know the Lord, neither was the word of the Lord yet revealed unto him.
And the Lord called Samuel again the third time, and he arose and went to Eli, and said, Here am I, for thou didst call me. And Eli perceived that the Lord had called the child. Therefore Eli said unto Samuel, Go lie down, and it shall be, if he call thee, that thou shalt say, Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth. So Samuel lay down.
Went and lay down in his place, And the Lord came and stood, and called, as at other times, Samuel, Samuel. Then Samuel answered, Speak for thy servant heareth.
He forgot a little detail, didn't he? He forgot a little detail.
You know what the detail is.
Eli said, Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth. But Samuel said. Samuel answered, Speak for thy servant heareth. Just that little detail.
A little detail. The lordship of Christ, you know, the Lord there in capital letters means in the French translation is Lake El Nel, the eternal 1 Jehovah, the ever existent one. He didn't know the ever existent 1A little detail that he missed that he glossed over and he didn't address the Lord as Lord with that reverential title. But umm, oh how the Lord delights to give us those details.
To recognize His lordship over us and recognize these little things that He's given to us to build upon. And then when he delights to present to us a line of truth in the Scriptures, we have that right in connection with the details, the little precepts in Scripture. Then it says in verse five, we got the fifth word here, Oh, that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes. And so here we have statutes which are really.
And perhaps you might say divine regulations for life, a statute you have, uh, I don't think you, you probably don't have too many city statues here. You might have some Township statutes, but there are some, I've lived in some places where there's city statute. And you, if you take your garbage can and you bring it to the end of the driveway and the garbage truck comes by, you have something like two or three hours after you get home and they have to be back behind the house or in the garage. They can't be at the front of the house. You can't keep your garbage can at the front of the house. Well, that's a city statute. That's a regulation.
And the, the life might be ordered, that it might not just be a free for all and everybody in their neighborhood just does whatever they like. And so God has regulations, as it were, that your life and mind might be regulated. That we might have habits that glorify Christ and that we might read those scriptures habitually, that we might find ourselves in prayer habitually, that we might set aside a little portion of time just for the Lord. Let's just look at umm, Daniel chapter 6.
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Here was a man, a principled man.
In an unprincipled world, living.
In a regulated way, regardless of the circumstances that came his way is Daniel chapter 6 and verse 10. Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house and his windows being opened in his chamber toward Jerusalem. He kneeled upon his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God as he did a four time.
God records that his Val. He valued it.
I don't have an office that I go to every day anymore, but.
When I was in business.
I made it a habit to have a Bible in my office.
And at noon, if I ate my lunch at the office, I shut the door and I just spent a few minutes eating my lunch in my office. And I had the word of God before me. And I looked up, up sometimes, uh, to see some of the principles that I might act on, on some of the things that came up in the office the first thing in the morning. And so that in the afternoon, I have a sense of perhaps how I got to solve some of those problems because problems and events take place.
In business and perhaps in the school where you go to, if you go to school or college, whatever it might be, events take place. And if we have a regulated habit of searching the word of God and a regulated world, a regulated, uh, habit of, uh, going to the Lord with different in, umm, incidences and uh, making it known to him while it'll help us in our lives, help us to live for his glory and to have a regulated life.
You get up in the morning, you have some idea of what you're going to do, a principled life. You have a purpose. You know, we used to when we were running factories, we'd have different ones come and they'd apply for a job and we had all kinds of job descriptions for every.
Every job in the whole factory and in the office as well, job descriptions and one of the little things on the end of every job description that we had and every umm, interview questionnaire that we had for the interviewer is the last question was how fast did this candidate walk?
How fast did this candidate walk to his car or something like that?
And, umm, we were looking for people that when they left the interview, they would walk out of the office, they'd, uh, close the door and uh, they get to the car and uh, drive off. They had something, they, they walked with purpose. They got something to do. Somebody who went out the door, kind of lazily slammed the door and kicked the tire a little bit and looked around and didn't have too much purpose in life. Well, we figured that's how they would walk on the factory floor. That's how they might work in the accounting department. That might, might be how they work in the, uh.
Engineering department. So we were looking for people that had purpose to life and they were regulated in how they lived and it glorifies the Lord. If you and I live in a regulated habitual way and we have a sense of purpose to live for the Lord, but you have that sense of purpose to live for that one who came with purpose into this scene and he went every step was a step of obedience to his Father's will, not one step out of step. What an example for us with purpose and to have a regulated life.
We read of them first thing in the morning, Mark's gospel chapter one, verse 35, as he begins his umm work in this scene as a servant of God and find him very early in the morning in prayer, just asking the Lord for direction for the day.
His father, is that how regulated our lives are? Well, this is one of the things that meant something to the Lord, and it's going to mean something to the children of Israel as they come back and the lion and it says in verse six, the 6th word that we have is commandments. It says, then shall I not be ashamed when I have respect unto all thy commandments?
Well, what brings shame to man?
Is a disobedience to the Word of God shame?
Dishonor. But what brings dignity to the path of faith is an obedience to the word of God, a reverence for the word of God, dignity to the path of faith. And it says, when I have respect unto all thy commandments. Now we read this and we say the 10 commandments, the 10 things that God has commanded man to do. Well, that's really not what's referred to here when we read particularly in the New Testament of his commandments. This commandment have I given unto you.
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No new commandment, right eye on to you. It really speaks of a divine instruction, Instructions that God has given from His heart, that you and I might get life right the first time. That we might read the instructions, read the divine instructions that He's given us in life to chart our course through this world and to not make decisions that would be contrary to the wisdom of His Word.
You know, I told a story last night of a lawyer in Texas, his name is Mark, and we had a case of a a lawsuit.
In, uh, Texas fellow ruled his truck and became a quadriplegic and uh, he sued the ARE, he sued Toyota, he sued all kinds of companies. He said just, he got some money in the end, but uh, bottom line is, uh, I had to go and testify in the courtroom and umm.
Of course the opposing side tries to make it look like, uh, everybody's at fault except the fellow that rolled his truck who leaned down to answer a cell phone or a paging machine and took his eyes off the road. And then he was wandering off the road and he yanked the steering wheel back and he.
He tore across two lanes of Hwy. with big black stripes and then hit the soft dirt on the other side and it tripped the truck and it rolled 3 1/2 Times up against the fence. Basically the truck cap and the ladder and some of the equipment that he had in his truck probably saved his life and prevented the cab of the truck from being crushed. But anyway, make a Long story short. The umm the lawyer on the other side, he says umm.
Making an argument that nobody reads an instruction manual, nobody reads the umm.
Car manual, the owner's manual in a car when you get a car, brand new car, whether it's a used car or a a new car, you read the owner's manual front to back. I love to read owner's manuals front back. I get a car and it's like a little bit like reading the dictionary, but I love to read the whole owners manual and find out things about this car and what you shouldn't do and what you should do and, and the features and so on. And and that's just me. He asked the wrong guy. He said, well, what's the gross vehicle weight on your vehicle? I said 938 lbs. I'm allowed to carry 938 lbs passengers and all.
It's right on the B pillar, but it's also in the owners. Man, he he couldn't stump me.
On on the owner's manual. He thought this was bizarre that somebody would read owner's manuals well.
God has given us a manual for life. If I could use it that way.
Instructions.
Instructions to get life right we had.
I may have told you this before, but uh, we had, uh, when we were doing manufacturing in the truck cap business, we had these tunnel covers, flat tunnel covers for the pickup trucks and they were very complicated machines, uh, products and, uh, customers wanted to have carpet line tunnel covers that just like a big piece of fiberglass makes a trunk out of your pickup truck. And so carpet line lights and keyless entry and all that kind of stuff. So we have the company went to a lot of expense and they made full color instruction sheets photographed exactly how to do this on a Toyota, exactly how to do it on a full size Chevy and they're all these cars.
Lot of expense and another instruction sheet, full color, how to get the wiring right so that when you hit this key fob, the thing pops up, the light goes on and then you can just open the tunnel cover, finish opening it. Every week we would get phone calls that the customer service reps upstairs, the CSRS, they get phone calls and someone will say that this tunnel cover doesn't work. It's not fitting right. It's and, and it's just not working right. Well, we trained our customer service reps to ask this question first, Sir, what step are you on on the instruction sheet?
They say what instruction sheet? The one in the zip lock bag with the touch up paint and the spare keys and so on and put the phone down, run, get this thing and then unfold it all.
And then they find that they made some terrible mistakes. One man, he said, I hit the key fob and the sunroof opens on this truck and another hits a key fob and the lights flash on and on. One man, he cut up a Nissan Titan and he damaged one of the computers on the truck and it cost him $7000 to fix it.
I would just say this to each one of us. There are some things that we can't back up and redo. They had to buy new parts and they could fix that truck up. But God has done what He can do to give us instructions, divine instructions, respect unto all thy commandments in verse six so that we get it right the first time. There are some things that you can't fix and back up.
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And try to fix.
I told you this at Colorado. I want to tell you.
Faithfully is a warning. Young people never marry an unbeliever.
I was up on a ladder painting my house, scraping up and everything and I got a phone call from my daughter in France and she says, dad, I'm getting married.
I said it's the young lad, a believer. Does he know the Lord Jesus the Savior?
And she didn't give me a very good answer.
I don't think he's a believer.
I could hardly work the rest of the day.
It's a tragedy because, you know, we never, ever disobey the word of God and disobey and turn aside the instructions of the word of God. And it turns out right. Never, never. And so the Lord gives us in love. He gives us these instructions because he wants us to get it right the first time. And there are some things that we just can't back up in a race. And that's what I said to this daughter. I said marriage is one of the things that you can never erase.
The world may tell you that you can divorce and if it doesn't work out, you can start over again. But that's not true. There are heartaches and sorrows that can never be erased, and so God wants us to get it right the first time. Well, verse seven says I.
I will praise thee with uprightness of heart when I shall have learned thy righteous judgments.
Well, this is one of the things that He gives us judgment, divine verdicts. God has told us how things are going to turn out.
If we don't obey his word.
Let's turn to Joshua Chapter 7.
A little bit further on, I'm sorry, umm, Chapter 9, Joshua Chapter 9, verse 14.
And the men took of their vittles, and asked not council at the mouth of the Lord. And Joshua made peace with them.
And made a league with them to let them live. And the Princess of congregations swear unto them. And it came to pass at the end of three days. And after they made a league with them.
That they heard that there they were their neighbors and that they dwelt among them, then just turned to judges. Chapter 2.
Judges chapter 2 and verse one.
An Angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal to both him, and said, I made you to go up out of Egypt, and have brought you unto the land which I swear unto your father's. And I said, I will never break my covenant with you, and you shall make no league with the inhabitants of this land.
He shall throw down their altars. But ye have not obeyed my voice. Why have you done this?
Well, the Lord gave them instructions and like John Miller was driving in Portugal and he's driving, talking on his cell phone, not paying any attention, gets pulled over.
Oftentimes we do the same thing. The Lord has given us instructions and He's.
Given us a judgment, He's given his divine verdict. And he says in connection with marriage, if you marry an unbeliever, they're going to draw your heart away from the Lord. And he says don't make a lead, don't join in an unequal yoke in business. And really, perhaps this is what it speaks of in Joshua Chapter 9, unequal yoke with those that are unbelievers and join, make a league, make an agreement. He says it won't turn out right.
So they say I have.
I will praise thee with uprightness of heart when I shall have learned thy righteous judgments. So the Lord wants us to know what His divine verdicts are. Now the judgments of the Lord are told out particularly in Exodus chapter 2122 and 23. We don't have a lot of time left, but I just, if you turn to chapter 21, it's a lovely little portion of Scripture.
I'll just point out Exodus chapter 21, verse one. Now these are the judgments which thou shalt set before them if thou buy in Hebrew servant. Six years shall he serve, and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing. Isn't that lovely? The very first one. That's a divine verdict that God has given to his creature. Man is in connection with a little type of Christ.
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The Lord Jesus if thou by a Hebrew servant then you'll find in verse seven if.
A man sell his daughter to be a maid servant. All the gifts in these three chapters you can read and you can get a good sense of what the Lord is, uh, driving at morally so that his men, his, uh, those that were belong to the Lord would know what he thinks about different situations. Isn't that nice? You ever read those commandments, those divine verdicts? Exodus chapter 212223. So wonderful meditation just to think of the moral ways of God.
And how he delighted to give render his judgments in those things. Well, verse 9.
Let's read verse 8 says I will keep thy statute, so forsake me not utterly.
So I thought, you know, why does it say that in the end of this series of.
Verses I will keep thy statutes. Oh, forsake me not utterly. Well, you know, if you live a regulated life, you live to please the Lord and your life displays regulation and not if I could use that word or free for all. Just kind of if it feels right, then I'll do it. If it doesn't feel right, well, I won't do it. But you're living a regulated life in the presence of God.
Why there may be some persecution, there may be some things that come up and it doesn't look like you're, you're getting the, the right deal. Looks maybe like you're getting the raw deal because you live a regulated life for the Lord. And uh, so the Lord gives a little encouragement here. I will keep thy statutes. Oh, forsake me not utterly. Isn't it wonderful to have the, the presence, the sense of the presence of the Lord as we walk through this scene? The world may not value that you have a Bible at work in a drawer or if you have the.
Desire to have it on top of your desk and you have the liberty to have it on top of your desk and you read it. They know that you read it at noon or something.
I may despise you as someone may despise you, but you know I had my Bible in my office and those that were in the office that I worked in knew that I did. There was a man that came in my office one day and he had some questions about the word of God and he asked those questions. He gave him some answers, photocopied some ministry, and I gave him some ministry on the questions that he had. You know what's wonderful thing to have the truth of God and be able to share it with others.
Then in verse 9, where wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way by taking heed thereto, according to thy word. That's the eighth thing. The commandment is the 7th or the 6th, the judgments the 7th. The word is really a divine utterance, the spoken word of God. God has spoken to man.
Audibly, and he's given us his written word and a divine utterance, a sweetness to be able to read what God has said to us. But communication is often being said. It's two ways, prayer, speaking to the Lord, but the word of God, the divine utterance that he's given so that we might have a sweetness to rely upon his blessed word. I don't have time to make many more comments, but we'll look at the other two. If you look at verse 91.
It says they continue this day according to thine ordinances. This is the ninth word, the ordinances for all thy servants, for all are thy servants. And so the ordinance has to do with divine direction for worship, how we worship the Lord. And He's given us wisdom in His word as to how we should do it in our day, why He's given us the ordinance, if we could call it that way, of the remembrance of the Lord, and how we should do it, why we should do it.
And intelligence.
That we should come into his presence and remember him in his death. And you know, there are other meetings he tells us about in umm. He tells us about the reading, meeting, the public reading of the scriptures and doctrine and so on. First Timothy, chapter four. He tells us how we're to give ourselves to reading and the public reading of the Scriptures until he comes. Well, the last one is verse 82. My eyes fail for thy words, saying, when wilt thou?
Comfort me.
Well, you know, if you turn to John's Gospel chapter 14, it just gives us a little bit the divine expressions of the Lord, the sayings, and it's really not used in 119 Psalm, umm, in the way that it could be or should be. But, uh, if you look at John's Gospel chapter 14, he uses this expression verse 24.
He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings, and the word which he hears not mine, but the Father's which sent me.
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The sayings, the expressions that the Lord has, I have loved you, saith the Lord. I change, not Jesus Christ. The same yesterday and today and forever. The expressions of the Lord. You know one of the expressions I love to hear and love to read in these scriptures and it came to pass.
I tell my wife, oftentimes I'm waiting for the eternal rest of God. I'm waiting for the Lord to come. This world doesn't have anything that I want.
Doesn't have anything I want. I want to be with the Lord.
And I just rejoice that he has that little expression he used all throughout the Word of God. And it came to pass. And I tell her that someday we're going to wake up in the glory. We're going to hear his voice. And we'll say exactly that it came to pass, came to pass. And we're going to remember exactly where we were, exactly what we were doing. And we're gonna remember that moment internally. And there are other expressions that you enjoy yourself that the Lord uses in the Scriptures. Wonderful thing to share them with one another. One of the other expressions that I like that the Lord uses is.
With me with me Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my glory for thou lovest me before the foundation of the world. What a wonderful thing to think of what it is to be in the presence of the Lord and to know have a conscious sense of it. Let's just read those. I just want to review those 10 words two minutes. The law is the first one in verse one and it's a really a divine boundary for man.
And then the testimonies are in verse 2, the divine witness to man, so that he acquires knowledge and wisdom and he learns from other people's mistakes, but he learns from the testimony of God in the Scriptures as to those errors.
And then verse three is his ways, his moral ways, the divine course of life that can be lived for the glory of God. Then the precepts are the divine details of Scripture details so that we might be able to live fully in the light of His word and the teaching of Scripture. Verse five is the statutes, the divine regulations of life, that we might live a regulated life, not a not an undisciplined life.
In an undisciplined in an unregulated and increasingly lawless world, but that the believer, even though the world becomes more lawless continues on in a steady course just like Daniel. And then we have the commandments in verse six, divine instructions from the heart of God himself so that we might have direction for life. That's correct. And then in verse 7, the 7th one is the judgments, the divine verdicts that God has.
And as stated in his scripture that our righteous judgments and then in verse 9 the 8th is the word of God, divine utterance from the heart of God himself and the heart of the Lord Jesus. Then in verse 91, it's the ordinances in connection with divine instruction and direction for acceptable worship of the Lord and then the sayings of the Lord in verse 82. But if I connected, I connected in John's Gospel chapter 14 verse 24 the expressions, divine expressions that the Lord has no wonderful to be able to have the whole word of God.
And enjoy it in all its entirety. May it characterize your life and mind that we're men and women of the Word of God, that we appreciate what God has said, we value it, and that we guide our lives by what He said. Let's commend ourselves. Our loving God and our Father, we thank Thee for thy precious word. We just ask Thee for help. That we might value it, that we might read it, that we might not be ignorant of what Thou has told us of in this by word.
And that, uh, in these days of giving up of the knowledge of the word of God and of putting aside that, uh, by mankind, even in the Western Christian world, that, uh, we might be characterized by those that value the precious word of God and that we might quote it to one another, learn versus a scripture and just, uh, seek to be characterized by loving those details that that was given us in the Scripture. So we ask it, we commend ourselves to thee for the evening and the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen.