Our Everlasting Inheritance

good morning it's good to have you all with us we're going to continue and psalm 119 we are on the noon section i have a question for you how many of you like walking in the dark now if you're like me as a i often have liked walking in the dark i still do in some ways so let's change this how many of you like walking in dark Not Indiana dark where you can see from the light pollution, but dark where you can't see your hand when it's in front of your face. How do you like walking in the dark when you're down a path you've never been on before? And there's pits on every side. There's snares and death traps filled with spikes that would skewer you. There are ravines that you can't climb up.

Briar patches, and you can't see any of it. Oh, but don't worry, there's plenty of people who will guide you down the path. However, the majority of those people who will guide you down the path are blind. They'll tell you all the ways and the ins and outs and how you can walk this path, and yet they're as blind as you. How interested are you in walking down that path in the dark? It's a path which no sane man would travel. However, it's the path that every one of us was born on. It's life. Every man, every woman is born into darkness. We're born as children of darkness, blind to the truth of God and the reality of the world that he's made. We are in the dark about truth and goodness, mercy, about God, about sin. This is a result of our sin nature.

But it's also worsened by the fact that we oppose the truth and suppress it. Men in their darkness hate any sight of the light. They run from it. They hide. They don't want to be exposed. This is the state of unregenerate man. Sometimes they might flirt with the light like a moth. But in the end, they hate it. It's the state all of us who are Christians were born into as well. But when God moves in a man or woman, he uses his word to begin to open their eyes. God's word begins to give light so that you can see how to tread your way through this poor, fallen, treacherous world. What is that light?

Well, in John, we see this progression of in the beginning was the word. This word is Jesus. But Jesus is the light that has come into the world and that reveals all things. And so when we read the Bible, the Bible is not a mere collection of writings from self-help gurus. But when we go to God's word, we go there and we meet Christ. And in his word, we learn from him. And we learn of God's mind and his thoughts. And we begin to get light. And the light that we need is Christ. In Christ, all things become clear. So my exhortation for us this morning is that we would turn to God's word. That we would turn and again and again.

every day to his word. And in his word, we will meet God. We will learn to see Christ and we will receive light and direction, comfort and joy in the midst of a treacherous world that is out to get you, that is deceptive, that desires your destruction. And so with that, please stand for the reading of God's word. This is Psalm 119, 105 to 112. It's hard not to read this in the King James. Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. I have sworn and I will confirm it that I will keep your righteous ordinances. I am exceedingly afflicted. Revive me, O Lord, according to your word. Oh, accept the freewill offerings of my mouth, O Lord, and teach me your ordinances.

My life is continually in my hand, yet I do not forget your law. The wicked have laid a snare for me, yet I have not gone astray from your precepts. I have inherited your testimonies forever, for they are the joy of my heart. Now I have inclined my heart to perform your statutes forever to the end. This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated. So when you started school, you didn't know much. You didn't know simple addition problems. You couldn't add them. You didn't know how to do algebra. You didn't know how to do physics. If you were to put addition, algebra, and a physics problem in front of a kindergartner and ask them which one's the hardest one to solve, how would they know? Their ability to answer any of them would be equal.

But as time progresses, as they go to class and are taught, they're lectured, they do their homework, they do their practice, the complicated problems begin to unravel. They begin to be able to work out the solutions to the problems that they're given. They can solve them. The student even begins to discern between what's a simple problem and what's a complicated problem. They can discern what's hard and what's easy. Because to be able to distinguish between what's hard and easy requires knowledge. If you have no knowledge, it all sort of looks the same. Well, this is in ways the law of God for us as Christians. The law is a school teacher. It's a school teacher to teach us. The first thing that the law of God teaches us is that we need Jesus.

Outside of Christ, there is no hope. There is no salvation. We need Christ's righteousness to be applied to us. The next thing is that the law teaches us how we should act. It teaches us what obedience ought to look like. It teaches us how we ought to respond to Christ. Now, the Holy Spirit uses the law to teach us how we ought to think and act in life. And so the analogy between the school, right, is that we're born in darkness. We don't have understanding. We need something to begin to enlighten us. This is what the law of God does. It enlightens us. It gives us understanding. And as we grow, we begin to have more understanding for the problems and things that we run into in life.

The law teaches us how God thinks. It teaches us his mind. It teaches us his character. It teaches us who he is. This is in marked contrast to what the world does. If you spend time in the book of Judges, the book of Judges is sort of a miserable book to read. The constant theme of the book of Judges is, and every man what? Did what was right in his own eyes. That's a miserable place to be. You look at the book of Judges, and again and again, Israel starts to do okay. They call on God. He brings peace, and yet they then do what's right in their own eyes, and they bring misery and destruction on them again and again because they're living in opposition to God. They begin doing what's right in their own eyes. That brings blindness.

when you're led by the nose by your emotions. And so what we see are there are two ways in life, two paths that we could go on. One is to go on following God and following the wisdom of God, or we can follow man's wisdom. We can do what's right in our own eyes, or we can do what's right in God's eyes, but you can't do both. man's wisdom is opposed to god's wisdom to follow one is to reject the other and so what the psalmist here is teaching us is that god's word is a light to our paths if we want to know how to go god's word is where we ought to go and so we all are always faced with decisions We're always making decisions, what we should do, what path we should go. Every day we have innumerable plans and decisions that we're making. And the question is, do you stop and consider what God has to say about whatever thing and problem that's come up in your life that you have to make a decision about?

What does the Bible have to say about the work that you're doing and the decisions you have to make and work and the family conflict that you face? Now, one of the themes that we've seen in Psalm 119 is that the path that God, God's path is straight. And this is also a theme in Proverbs that the wicked's paths are devious. They're complicated. And the God's path is one that's straight and narrow. And so if we follow God's word, he gives us light to see the path before us, how to act. Now, when you don't follow God's law, life gets very complicated. And perhaps one of the best scriptures for us to think about in light of this is King David. Think about it. David, at the time when kings go to war, is not going to war. He goes up on his roof. And while he's there, he looks out and he sees Bathsheba. And he lusts after her. He has a decision. What's he going to do? Is he going to repent of the lust, close his eyes, turn around, leave, or pursue? We all know what he does, right? He pursues. That leads to...

Him committing physical adultery, which leads to a pregnancy. Now he's faced with another choice. What to do? Lie. He chose to lie. He tries to cover up. The cover up doesn't work. Now he's in a worse bind. What's he going to do now? Oh, I know. Let's murder. Not just Uriah. But all the men who died in the foolish attack when he sent Uriah to his death, multiple murders, it doesn't end there. That sin directly leads to his son's own rebellion against him and his son's adultery with his concubines. And so what I want to say is sin complicates life. It leads to destruction. It leads to destructive ways.

But God's word is a light which gives wisdom. One sin leads to another sin, leads to another sin. And David's sort of stumbling around in the dark trying to figure out. And there's pitfall, pitfall, pitfall. And it's like he has light to just fall into each one, right? He just goes. This is an example of just falling and falling into pitfall after pitfall, snare after snare. This is what happens when we follow our hearts, right? The lesson of every Disney movie, just follow your heart. That's what happens if you follow your heart. Your heart is full of lusts and doesn't tell you the truth. You have to be warned against the lusts in your heart. We must abide by the truth of God's word. If you listen to the truth of God's word, which tells you to tell the truth, Which warns you against the lust of your hearts. At each one of those points where David is faced with another choice, to go further and deeper into sin or to repent, God's word is always saying, repent, repent. That's the light. It's shedding light. It's telling you. Destruction is down here, right? And so this is us. We must be students of God's word to know and to have light to be able to see. Because in worldly wisdom, keep covering up. Keep covering it up.

But I'll tell you, the light of scripture does not just happen. It's not just an automatic thing. To be enlightened by scripture, you must be devoted to the reading, meditating, praying, and obeying of God's word. This isn't something that just happens on a whim because you decided to open up God's word once in your life. It's something that is built and sustained. If we don't have the Holy Spirit in our lives and if we don't become students of God's word, then we won't have the lightening effect that it's meant to have and the decisions that we have to do. And so one of the first lessons of this psalm, or this portion of the psalm, is that light and understanding comes from the word of God.

That is what will give us an understanding of how to live and how to act and where to go. That if we do not devote ourselves to God's word and to its understanding and to its reading, the learning of Christ who is the light, then we will fall prey to snare after snare, pit after pit. We'll be like David, just stumbling into sin after sin. The psalmist goes on and he says something interesting. He says, I have sworn and I will confirm it that I will keep your righteous ordinances. And this is something that I think all Christians are familiar with, especially like when you're new and young in the faith, right? As soon as you became a Christian and you really became alive, right? There is this point where you were like, I am never gonna send this in again.

Right? I'm beyond that. Right? You have this resolve. And it is a beautiful thing. It is wonderful to have that resolve. And we should have that resolve. God opens our eyes to his truths. And that should inspire us to be resolved never to commit those sins again. And that is one of the pictures that we have in baptism. Right? Is this. Public acknowledgement that I'm putting away these things, I'm dying to them, and I am resolved to follow God. Now, this isn't something that we in our own strength can just muster up. You can't just, if you in your own strength just resolve to follow God, it's like, how long can you dead hang? Well, you can white knuckle it for a time, but you're gonna fall.

Rather, the resolve that the psalmist has is in response to the fact that God's word is a lamp to his feet and a light to his path. That God has opened his eyes, that God has showed him a better way, and in response to the work that God is doing, he then resolves to continue into the work. As we obey God and we see the fruit in our lives and the richness and the sweetness that comes from walking in God's paths, it will naturally lead us to want to be more obedient because we can see the joy and the fruit that comes from it. You look at godly men and women and their marriage and the joy that there is. You look at...

the way godly parents' children act. And you say, I want that. I want my marriage to be like that. I want my children to be like that. And the joy that comes from obedience when it's seen spurs in us a resolve and a desire. That's what we want. And so we see the psalmist saying, I am resolving. I will obey. I will... Keep your righteous ordinances. And so naturally, we ought to ask and say, where have you resolved to obey? Have you resolved to obey? Are we selectively obedient? Or have we just resolved that we will follow God's ordinances? Our resolve does not save us, but our resolve is in response to the work that Christ is doing in us. Now, The next verses, though, get to some of the rub that we all feel. He says, I am exceedingly afflicted. Revive me, O Lord, according to your word. Oh, accept the freewill offerings in my mouth, O Lord. Teach me your ordinances. This is the difficulty. Remember where we started is we're born into darkness. We're born on this path. And men love what? They love dark. So if you begin.

to walk by the light of God's word, now you are a light walking in the darkness. And men love darkness because light exposes. So as you do that, you resolved, I'm going to walk by God's word. I'm going to walk by the light. You're a light bearer. It's evident everywhere you go. When you carry God's word, when you carry that light, it directs how you think, what you say, what you do. The world will not like it. You follow God and it will be apparent to them. Some people, by God's mercy, will be attracted to it. But many will not like it. And so they will oppose you because the light of your life will expose them.

and they were like the moon reflecting the sun's light. They can't get to God. Satan can't get to God. He was kicked out of heaven. So what's the next best option for him? Well, he's got all these image bearers of God, so he's gonna destroy them. And all of his followers will look and say, oh, well, we can't get to the source of the light, but we can get to the ones who reflect the source of the light. And so they oppose God's people. But it's not just external affliction. There's internal affliction. We are fighting our sinful nature. So not only will there be external opposition, but even our own hearts will fight against us. Especially as we begin to face affliction, we will begin to realize that The source of the affliction seems to be when we follow God and our adherence to God's law. And so you think about this, in Pilgrim's Progress, Pilgrim is reading this book, Scripture, and as he reads the Scripture, he gets this big burden. And so the natural inclination of the heart is, well, stop reading the book. It's putting a burden on your back. Well, that can be our natural, well, if following God is going to cause affliction,

Just stop following God. Make the affliction go away. Of course, that's sinful logic. It's as if the problem, it's to say, well, there actually isn't a problem. No, there is a problem, right? It's like if you have a toothache, you have a cavity or something, and there's pain in your mouth, and you just take drugs to make the pain go away. It doesn't exist. No, it exists, and it's getting worse by you pretending it's not there. And so that's a sinful logic. We have to be aware of that. And so what the psalmist says is, in the previous verse, right? He has resolved to follow God's word, even through the affliction. Difficulties and temptations arise, but the psalmist turns back to God's word and looks for God's promises to life. He says, revive me, revive me. And so here again, we ask.

When you are discouraged and weak, where do you go for reviving? You're exhausted. Where do you turn to be revived? Do you turn to alcohol? Do you turn to nicotine? Do you turn to sex? Do you turn to social media? Do you turn to YouTube? We all have things where we're exhausted, we're tired, we're discouraged, and we want to turn to any number of things where we think, This will revive me. This will comfort me. Well, if these are the things we turn to, then this is just going to lead us into darkness. None of these things are going to help you in your resolve to follow God. The only thing that will really help in those moments is to turn to God's word, to prayer. Turn to those who will speak God's word to you. This is what the psalmist does.

This is where he turns. And actually, in those moments of discouragement and distress, one of the best ways to learn to love God's law is to turn to it and find the comfort and the reviving that's there. And the Psalms are great for this. What you should do is make a playlist of some of your favorite Psalms. And the favorite, you know, there's so many set to music. Make a playlist of it. And instead of turning to all these things that the world wants to feed you to comfort you or to make you feel alive and energized, instead, turn to the Psalms. Turn that playlist on. Pray through scripture. Write down God's promises. Call other Christians. Go get coffee with them. Don't suffer in affliction by yourself. Notice again at the end of this verse that the psalmist prays that God would teach him.

The response of the Christian in difficulties is not a rejection of God, but it's to follow God harder. And again and again, what the psalmist does is he cries out to God to teach him. Again, this is getting back at this idea that reading scripture doesn't just magically enlighten you, but it requires God to teach you. It's one of the works of the Holy Spirit that he does is that he gives us, enlightenment as we read through his word. And so again and again, we see the psalmist praying that God would teach him. And this is the response that Christians have to persecution and affliction. Affliction is meant to drive you to rely on God and his word. And it's meant to purge from us a love of this world and the things of this world. Our hearts are so caught up in the world and the comforts of the world.

And the better things go, the smoother our lives, the easier it is for us to just love the world more and to think we've got fire insurance. We said the words, we prayed the prayer, God saved us, now we can just do life as we want to do it. And so God has to bring in affliction and troubles to wean us from this world and say, I've got something so much better for you. And as I think it was C.S. Lewis who says, you know, we're caught up playing with mud pies. We have the real deal and we're satisfied with mud. And so often affliction is just trying to pry us from this world to teach us to love God and to turn to him, turn to his word. Well, what we see is the psalmist in his turning to God is taking his life into his own hands.

My life is continually in my hand, yet I do not forget your law. The wicked have laid snares for me, yet I have not gone astray from your precepts. Recall Daniel. Daniel was taken, the prophet Daniel was taken as a captive child, raised in captivity in Babylon. He took his life into his hands when he refused the king's delicacies. Think about it. In doing that, he exposed. all the other acolytes, because he was healthy and fit. And they were exposed as weak and unfit. His righteousness to God elevated him and put pressure on everyone else. And one can imagine, and we know from near the end of Daniel's life that this was a continual thing in his life. Again and again throughout his life, he followed God. This culminates near the end of his life when the wise men of Babylon are so fed up with Daniel, they want to find a way to get rid of him. But he's too powerful. So they plot.

And they watch for an opportunity. And this is what they say. We're not going to find any ground of accusation against Daniel unless we find it against him with regard to the law of his God. Imagine that adherence to God's word. So they say, we have to make a law specifically aimed at Daniel, a fake law. So they do. Only people can pray only to King Darius for 30 days. They expect that there's no circumstances in which Daniel would obey that, and they're right. Because what we learn is, Daniel knew the document was signed, and he entered into his house, into his rooftop chamber. He had windows opened toward Jerusalem, and he continued kneeling on his knees three times a day, praying and giving thanks before his God, as he had been doing previously.

Daniel refuses to change his practice or hide. Rather, he's visibly going and praying in front of open windows. He saw the snare that his enemies had set, but he refused to be scared and instead takes his life into his own hands, follows God, never forgets God's law, but instead obeys his precepts. I mean, we might ask ourselves, where are we tempted to hide our obedience? Where do we want to close windows so we can assuage our consciences? I'm still following God. I'm just going to do it secretly so no one sees my commitment to God and will attack me or afflict me. What would visible faithfulness cost you right now? See, the psalmist is resolved to follow God's precepts. And if he were to hide it, where do you think his resolve would go? But it gets even better.

The psalmist moves on and he says, I have inherited your testimonies forever, for they are the joy of my heart. This is the Christian perspective on life. In normal life, we expect at some point that we'll receive some inheritance. There'll be some sort of inheritance. But any inheritance you receive in this life is temporary. You inherit. Maybe your inheritance lasts. Maybe it doesn't. Maybe you'll lose it. But whatever the case is, in due time, you also will die, and someone will inherit the things that you have. The reality is worldly inheritance does not last. It's always temporary. You have brought nothing into this world, and you will take nothing in this world out. But that is not true.

of the believer who appropriates God's promises for their own. If you take God's testimonies as your own and you love them and you follow them and you obey them, that is something that can never be taken from you. It is an everlasting inheritance that is in God's word and it will last beyond the grave. It will be with you even into eternity. This is an inheritance that's greater. than any earthly inheritance. It's of inestimable value because it lasts. It doesn't ever go away. Now, this means we ought to claim God's ordinances and testimonies as our own inheritance, and we ought to teach them to our kids.

Teach our children to obey. Teach them to have an inheritance that's of inestimable value. And we'll do this by reading God's word to them, by praying with them, by modeling our own reliance on God's word, teaching them to value this. This is an inheritance that cannot ever be lost. Unlike worldly inheritance, which is mere money or land, it's stuff. that fades and comes to an end. The Bible is an everlasting inheritance that enriches the believer even when the believer's destitute or in exile. And so what we see is that the word of God is not merely a duty, but it's the source of deep joy and delight. Other joys of this life, wine, wealth, reputation, money, are fleeting and ultimately empty. But the joy that we find in the testimonies of God is substantial, soul satisfying. The joy arises because God's word reveals Christ to us and salvation and God's fatherly love. And what more could the Christian hope for? Finally, this almost says, I have inclined my heart to perform your statutes forever to the end. We have work to do as Christians, don't we?

Salvation begins with the Holy Spirit. He regenerates us and he inclines our hearts to God. But we also have part in inclining our hearts towards God. Our hearts naturally do not incline towards God. As we said multiple times now, men love darkness and hearts are naturally inclined towards darkness. So we have to... fight that natural inclination towards darkness and instead fight to incline our hearts towards the statutes of God. This is a grace of God, right? This work is not something that we force or we begin in us. However, once we've been made alive in Christ, We also ought to work to shift our desires to following God. It's a work that we do in concert with the Holy Spirit, enlivening and quickening us. How? Not by doom scrolling. That will not in any way incline us towards God's statutes. Sin of its very essence will pull us away from God and what he desires. We will be inclining our hearts towards God by the reading of his word, by praying and meditating.

by examining ourselves and confessing our sin and doing this every day, every day. We must be renewed or we will stray. And he says that this is forever to the end. And that reflects the need of perseverance and constancy. We must always be on guard against growing complacent in our sin. We don't want to have temporary zeal. Our life as a Christian is a marathon. It's not a sprint. It's a marathon. And so we must rely on God's divine strength to endure our trials and temptations and the weariness and trusting him to preserve us. So we started talking about being on a dark path that's full of pitfalls and snares and dangers. And that is the reality of our lives. You can't change that. But you don't have to walk in the dark.

Jesus Christ is the light of the world, and he stepped down into the darkness and lighted our way. Jesus has lived a perfect, righteous life, full of obedience. He's shown us the way and will walk with us and beside us. So devote yourself to him and to his word. When you're confused, go to his word. When you're tempted, go to his word. When you're weary. Go to his word. He will guide us safely through all the treacherous paths of this life. He's the light to our path. In him, there's no darkness. In him, we can see our way. And he'll be there every step. Let's pray.