SPEAKER_01: Ministering to the heart of Western Arkansas's River Valley for over 165 years.
SPEAKER_01: Welcome to Chapter and First, the Bible Teaching Ministry of Fort Smith's First Baptist Church.
SPEAKER_01: You'll find sermons and teachings from Pastor Greg, our ministry staff, and guest speakers.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for listening.
SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the edition of the Legacy Series of our Chapter and First podcast.
SPEAKER_00: This podcast gives us a platform to share the Bible teaching and preaching ministry of First Baptist Church.
SPEAKER_00: The Legacy series gives us a chance to go back in time and hear some incredible Bible messages from some of the great men of God who have preached here and taught God's Word here at First Baptist Time.
SPEAKER_00: Today's message you're going to hear is from Dr.
SPEAKER_00: William Bennett.
SPEAKER_00: Dr.
SPEAKER_00: Bennett was pastor of First Baptist Church from 1967 until 1986 with a 19-year time.
SPEAKER_00: During this time here, the church built building started evangelism explosion, and the church grew evangelistically during his ministry.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, uh folks say that his favorite motto was Our goal is souls.
SPEAKER_00: And certainly many souls were saved under the evangelistic preaching and teaching of Dr.
SPEAKER_00: Bennett.
SPEAKER_00: After pastoring at First Baptist, he went on to teach in seminaries, and God used him in evangelism platforms through international missions around the world.
SPEAKER_00: And we are blessed to have him as a part of our heritage as a church family.
SPEAKER_00: So today's message, we pray you will be blessed by hearing Dr.
SPEAKER_00: William Bennett preach as a part of our legacy series.
SPEAKER_02: And he says one of the greatest lyrics in all the world.
SPEAKER_02: This great English critic and scholar gives us an estimate of the psalm.
SPEAKER_02: If you want an outline, we have the revelation of God in the skies, verses 1 through 6.
SPEAKER_02: And then verses 7 through 11, we have the revelation of God in the scriptures.
SPEAKER_02: And then verses 12, 13, and 14, his revelation to our souls.
SPEAKER_02: You brothers who preach, that is an alliterative outline.
SPEAKER_02: Let's look at it.
SPEAKER_02: The first section deals with the witness of creation to the glory of God.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 1: the heavens declare it's a progressive tense.
SPEAKER_02: The heavens are telling.
SPEAKER_02: The heavens are continually telling.
SPEAKER_02: The heavens are unceasingly proclaiming the glory of God.
SPEAKER_02: And the firmament, that would be the skies around the earth, the heavens referring to the greater outer spaces, the skies surrounding the earth showeth his handiwork or the works of his hand.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 2 says, day unto, or day after day, uttereth, or is pouring forth, or is proclaiming speech, or is pronouncing the message, and the night is doing the same, and night after night is proclaiming the knowledge of God.
SPEAKER_02: All of nature witnessing, speaking, telling the wonders of the glory of God.
SPEAKER_02: So great until Paul says in Romans 1 that the heathen world is without witness.
SPEAKER_02: In Romans 1 20, he says, You are without excuse because of the witness of the glory of God in the natural order.
SPEAKER_02: He goes on in verse 3, and he says, There is no speech nor language.
SPEAKER_02: Nature has no alphabet or has no verbalization, as we call language.
SPEAKER_02: Where is added, it ought not be added.
SPEAKER_02: The King James people sometimes added words which clouded rather than clarified the text.
SPEAKER_02: There is no speech nor language.
SPEAKER_02: Their voice is not heard.
SPEAKER_02: You go out in the daytime and you watch the sun.
SPEAKER_02: You see the mountains and you see the wonderful world.
SPEAKER_02: There is no voice.
SPEAKER_02: But yet there is a message.
SPEAKER_02: And you go out at night and you see the stars.
SPEAKER_02: Have you not done that?
SPEAKER_02: I think all of us have done this.
SPEAKER_02: We used to do it more as children than we do it now.
SPEAKER_02: I shall never forget watching the elements as a boy, growing up in eastern North Carolina, where we have the tremendous storm and the fireworks.
SPEAKER_02: Nothing touched my heart more than that.
SPEAKER_02: I remember that so well.
SPEAKER_02: It's one of the most graphic things of my life.
SPEAKER_02: Or to watch the stars on a countryside.
SPEAKER_02: I didn't know this was in the Psalms, but I knew that behind it there must be a mind.
SPEAKER_02: And what a mind there is behind this universe.
SPEAKER_02: And let me say to you in the university, there is no conflict between the witness of nature and the witness of holy scripture at all.
SPEAKER_02: The Creator, God, and the Redeemer, God is one, and He does not contradict Himself.
SPEAKER_02: And I have never worried a moment that true science would ever contradict true Scripture and true.
SPEAKER_02: It's only when we do not know what science says or we do not know what the scripture says that we find contradiction.
SPEAKER_02: God cannot contradict himself.
SPEAKER_02: He speaks in his universe and he speaks in holy scripture, and there are no contradictions.
SPEAKER_02: Let's move on.
SPEAKER_02: Their line that means their worldwide witness or their worldwide voice, that is the voice of the created order, is gone out through all the earth and their words to the end of the world.
SPEAKER_02: He is saying there is no limit to this witness of God in nature.
SPEAKER_02: It is universal, it is worldwide, it's on all the continents God has spoken in creation.
SPEAKER_02: In them, that is in the heavens, or in the created order, hath he set a tabernacle or a dwelling place for the sun.
SPEAKER_02: Why does he single out the sun?
SPEAKER_02: Because of its prominence.
SPEAKER_02: Scientists tell us it's burning up, but it is so large that we don't need to lose any sleep about it.
SPEAKER_02: It's gonna heat the earth for a long time.
SPEAKER_02: In the heavens, he says, hath he set or placed a dwelling place for the sun, and in verse 5, he uses two words to describe its wonders, which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber.
SPEAKER_02: And you have here the wonderful sun, and if you've seen the sunrise, it's a pity to be brought up in a large city and not see the sunrise.
SPEAKER_02: They tell me there are people in New York who've never seen the sunrise and never seen any grass and never seen anything except cement.
SPEAKER_02: That's sad.
SPEAKER_02: I shall never forget seeing the sunrise.
SPEAKER_02: Grew up on a tobacco farm, we literally work from four until eleven.
SPEAKER_02: We work 13 months out of the year, if it's possible.
SPEAKER_02: During the rush season, we'd get up and unload the barns at 4 o'clock, and we'd store the tobacco until 11 o'clock.
SPEAKER_02: And while I've always hated tobacco, I went to two tobacco universities and grew up, and I never saw anything morally wrong with it.
SPEAKER_02: We sold it and we took it to the tobacco market, and that's the way we lived in the Carolinas.
SPEAKER_02: Tobacco, not cotton, was king.
SPEAKER_02: But during those rush seasons when we were getting up before day and staying up until late at night.
SPEAKER_02: We had a black man helping us, and one day uh he said, you know, he said, I'm working more than 24 hours a day.
SPEAKER_02: And we said, Well, how in the world uh could you work more than 24 hours a day?
SPEAKER_02: He said, That's simple.
SPEAKER_02: We've been getting up before day around here.
SPEAKER_02: And indeed we did.
SPEAKER_02: But we saw the sunrise.
SPEAKER_02: You get up at 4 o'clock, we saw the sunrise, I saw the sunrise day after day, and I saw it set.
SPEAKER_02: I've been plowing many a time, been on a mule, been on a tractor, and saw the sun set.
SPEAKER_02: I thank God.
SPEAKER_02: I talked to my boys about it today, and Darry says, Oh, what our boys have missed, that they didn't see the sunrise, and they didn't see it set.
SPEAKER_02: That's what he's talking about here.
SPEAKER_02: He's saying the sun is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and you know the joy of the bridegroom coming out of uh the chamber with his new bride.
SPEAKER_02: If you have any problem with this, just locate Phil Bennett tonight and look at the smile on his face.
SPEAKER_02: I don't think I've ever seen the like of it.
SPEAKER_02: He was like a chandelier today at lunch.
SPEAKER_02: My goodness! He's lighted up, he's happier than he was before he was married.
SPEAKER_02: I thought of him when I read this verse.
SPEAKER_02: And rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race, as an athlete.
SPEAKER_02: Oh, these metaphors describing the mighty sun.
SPEAKER_02: This is in holy scripture.
SPEAKER_02: His going forth or his starting point or his rising, that is the sun's rising, is from the end of the heaven and his circuits until the end of it.
SPEAKER_02: He's describing the vast journey of the sun across the universe.
SPEAKER_02: From its rising, and I've seen it, I've seen it in the country.
SPEAKER_02: You saw it rise in the east, and it went over, and you would see it set behind the trees.
SPEAKER_02: It's a beautiful thing to see the sun make its journey.
SPEAKER_02: You follow it in the country.
SPEAKER_02: Because you can tell when it's lunchtime by the sun and you see it when it rises and you follow it.
SPEAKER_02: It's one of the most wonderful, intriguing things in all of life is to see that sun.
SPEAKER_02: The psalmist had seen it, and he says it makes its vast journey, and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof.
SPEAKER_02: Nothing.
SPEAKER_02: God's revelation in the universe.
SPEAKER_02: And you know what Jesus says in the Beatitudes?
SPEAKER_02: Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
SPEAKER_02: The Beatitudes are present, they're also future.
SPEAKER_02: We are literally going to inherit the earth, but we inherit the earth now.
SPEAKER_02: Listen, nothing wrong with you taking a vacation at all.
SPEAKER_02: Don't you ever feel guilty about it?
SPEAKER_02: Nothing wrong with you going to the mountain.
SPEAKER_02: Nothing wrong at all in you going out into God's great laboratory and rejoicing.
SPEAKER_02: It's ours.
SPEAKER_02: No one can appreciate it.
SPEAKER_02: Have you ever stood at the ocean?
SPEAKER_02: Have you ever stood at the ocean and seen the tides coming in and going back?
SPEAKER_02: Of course, I was reared on the ocean.
SPEAKER_02: I missed nothing so much as ocean when I moved to Memphis, Tennessee.
SPEAKER_02: By the time I got here and forgotten.
SPEAKER_02: Man, I was sick when I was in Memphis.
SPEAKER_02: That ocean, that ocean, I have I have I've walked on the ocean at night and just prayed and thanked God.
SPEAKER_02: Oh, the mystery and the wonders of the ocean and what it'll do for the soul.
SPEAKER_02: What it will do for the soul, the revelation of God in nature.
SPEAKER_02: It's ours to enjoy.
SPEAKER_02: It belongs to us.
SPEAKER_02: Because we know the Redeemer is the Creator and our Savior made it.
SPEAKER_02: It's wonderful.
SPEAKER_02: No one can take a vacation.
SPEAKER_02: No one can enjoy this world except God's redeemed people.
SPEAKER_02: Let's move on, verses 7 through 11, and we have the revelation of God in the scripture.
SPEAKER_02: The first the theologians call general revelation.
SPEAKER_02: The next they call special revelation.
SPEAKER_02: You who are going to the seminary, when you get in systematic theology, that'll be the first lecture.
SPEAKER_02: General revelation versus special revelation.
SPEAKER_02: He uses seven titles for the word, seven adjectives to describe the word, and seven results of the word.
SPEAKER_02: How marvelous.
SPEAKER_02: He says the law, what is the law?
SPEAKER_02: A comprehensive term for God's revealed will.
SPEAKER_02: Not just the five books of Moses.
SPEAKER_02: It is the word Torah, but it's just a comprehensive term for all of God's revealed will in his word.
SPEAKER_02: He says the law of God is perfect.
SPEAKER_02: What does that mean?
SPEAKER_02: It covers every single aspect of our lives.
SPEAKER_02: There is not an area of our living that the word doesn't touch and tell us how to live.
SPEAKER_02: Converting, Hebrew scholars say it should be translated, restoring or reviving the nephesh, the soul or the total being.
SPEAKER_02: The word of God gives life and vitality to the total man, my friend.
SPEAKER_02: The testimony, the testimony is that truth which is spoken by God personally.
SPEAKER_02: The testimony of the Lord is sure.
SPEAKER_02: What does that mean?
SPEAKER_02: It is absolutely trustworthy, and you can build your life on this foundation.
SPEAKER_02: It is trustworthy, making wise the simple.
SPEAKER_02: You want to be wise?
SPEAKER_02: Know the word of God.
SPEAKER_02: Know the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: He goes on in the next couplet, verse 8.
SPEAKER_02: He says, the statutes are the precepts, and these are the precise commands of God to his people.
SPEAKER_02: The Bible is full of this.
SPEAKER_02: He says that the precepts of the Lord are right.
SPEAKER_02: Meaning there's not anything wrong in the Word of God.
SPEAKER_02: We have people who are telling us today, there's errors.
SPEAKER_02: I do not believe that.
SPEAKER_02: I think that is a misunderstanding.
SPEAKER_02: I think that every error can be explained.
SPEAKER_02: That's the great debate in the convention today.
SPEAKER_02: That there's error in Scripture.
SPEAKER_02: I do not believe that.
SPEAKER_02: I believe that all the word of God is right, and I think the thou shalt nots are just as important as the thou shalt.
SPEAKER_02: When God says thou shalt not, he's saying to us, don't hurt yourself.
SPEAKER_02: Thou shalt not gossip, he is saying, Don't hurt yourself.
SPEAKER_02: Thou shalt not have a root of bitterness in your heart.
SPEAKER_02: Hebrews 12, 15, don't hurt yourself.
SPEAKER_02: Don't hurt yourself.
SPEAKER_02: And when he says, thou shalt, he's saying, help yourself to happiness.
SPEAKER_02: That's what he said.
SPEAKER_02: The thou shalt not sis, don't hurt yourself.
SPEAKER_02: The thou shalt is help yourself to happiness.
SPEAKER_02: When you do what God says, you're gonna be happy, and there's no other way to be.
SPEAKER_02: And he goes on to say, rejoice in the heart.
SPEAKER_02: The commandment of the Lord, he says, is pure.
SPEAKER_02: The commandment is pure, he says.
SPEAKER_02: Enlighten in the eye.
SPEAKER_02: The word of God will even put a glow in your eye.
SPEAKER_02: Listen, you see someone who's dreary-eyed and depressed in his eye, and downcast in his eye.
SPEAKER_02: That's not a person who's really in the word of God.
SPEAKER_02: And often, as we come from the word of God, if we've really got into the word of God, listen, we're exploding with energy and vitality.
SPEAKER_02: Man, the word of God keeps you alive.
SPEAKER_02: I want to say something to you.
SPEAKER_02: Out of my own heart, it's the most meaningful thing in vitality in my life.
SPEAKER_02: The clinicians have asked me one question: How do you do it?
SPEAKER_02: How do you do it?
SPEAKER_02: How do you preach five times a son?
SPEAKER_02: Well, to God be the glory.
SPEAKER_02: But I would say absolutely that the vitality of my life is in the freshness of the revelation of the word of God.
SPEAKER_02: That I'm excited.
SPEAKER_02: I couldn't do it, I couldn't do it at all, except for the excitement of the word of God, the truth that God shows me out of the word.
SPEAKER_02: It just excites me and makes me live.
SPEAKER_02: It makes me live.
SPEAKER_02: That's the way to live, is to say in the word of God.
SPEAKER_02: It'll even enlighten the eyes, he says.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 9, the fear of the Lord, and that means the awesome reverence for him is pure.
SPEAKER_02: Now, fear is not a title for the Lord, uh, for the word, but it is a result of the word.
SPEAKER_02: If we're really in the word, we will have an awesome fear of God.
SPEAKER_02: The awesome fear of the Lord is clean or pure, and it is.
SPEAKER_02: Enduring forever, and he says, the judgments of God are his ordinances.
SPEAKER_02: That's what he has decreed.
SPEAKER_02: The ordinances of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.
SPEAKER_02: Now look what he says in verse 10.
SPEAKER_02: How important and how valuable is the word of the Lord?
SPEAKER_02: Is the word of the Lord more important than material things?
SPEAKER_02: Is it important that we feed upon the word of the Lord?
SPEAKER_02: That we spend some time in isolation?
SPEAKER_02: That we have a hideaway where we can go and pray and read the word of God?
SPEAKER_02: Which is more important?
SPEAKER_02: The accumulation of material things or the accumulation of the word of God in our hearts?
SPEAKER_02: Our world believes that there's nothing as valuable as gold, that there's nothing as valuable as food for the stomach.
SPEAKER_02: What does God say?
SPEAKER_02: Look at verse 10.
SPEAKER_02: More to be desired are they than gold.
SPEAKER_02: Yea, than much fine gold.
SPEAKER_02: What's the difference?
SPEAKER_02: The fine gold was that which was especially refined.
SPEAKER_02: You mean to tell me that the Bible is more valuable than gold?
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
SPEAKER_02: Far more valuable than material things.
SPEAKER_02: There's no treasure in the world that compares with it.
SPEAKER_02: And then he goes on to say, sweeter also than honey, and the honeycomb, really the drippings of the honeycomb, which was the best part of the honey, that which dripped, dripped, and ran out.
SPEAKER_02: Now gold is the most precious material thing in the world, and honey, we're told, is the most delightful food that nature produces.
SPEAKER_02: And the psalmist says, there is no comparison in the treasure of gold and the word.
SPEAKER_02: And there is no comparison in the taste and the sweetness of the sweetest thing that nature produces, honey, compared to the sweetness of the word of God.
SPEAKER_02: Isn't that wonderful?
SPEAKER_02: You know what Job says in Job 23, 12?
SPEAKER_02: He says, I have esteemed thy word more than my necessary, and that's the word daily food.
SPEAKER_02: Can you say that?
SPEAKER_02: I must say that I cannot say that.
SPEAKER_02: There are times this is true, but there are times it's not true.
SPEAKER_02: I love to eat physical food.
SPEAKER_02: The word of God, though, is sweeter and more wonderful than the greatest food that this world can ever, can ever afford.
SPEAKER_02: And it's more valuable than anything in the world.
SPEAKER_02: And 95% of every problem in this congregation tonight rests on someone not knowing what the Bible says or not doing what they know the Bible says.
SPEAKER_02: The word of God is perfect, is telos, which means that it covers every aspect of life.
SPEAKER_02: What does this remind you of in the New Testament?
SPEAKER_02: Some of you, and some of you are good theologians, Brother Stebbins.
SPEAKER_02: I believe he's a theologian.
SPEAKER_02: I heard him say yesterday that repentance is a gift.
SPEAKER_02: I said to Brother Tom Newton, he's bound to be a reformed theologian.
SPEAKER_02: A man that would say that.
SPEAKER_02: A classic Calvinist, I believe he is.
SPEAKER_02: I'm going to meet with him at 9.15 and check him out.
SPEAKER_02: But I believe he is.
SPEAKER_02: I believe he is.
SPEAKER_02: This confirm 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17.
SPEAKER_02: Do you know it?
SPEAKER_02: Here's a verse we should know.
SPEAKER_02: All scripture, all scripture is God-breathed and is useful for doctrine, reproof, correction, instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect.
SPEAKER_02: See this word perfect again?
SPEAKER_02: See how the scripture ties in?
SPEAKER_02: Perfect.
SPEAKER_02: That is complete.
SPEAKER_02: The word of the God is God is perfect.
SPEAKER_02: Thoroughly furnished, the Greek verb is equipped.
SPEAKER_02: Thoroughly equipped unto every good word.
SPEAKER_02: My goodness, what a statement that is.
SPEAKER_02: And this is what the scripture says here tonight.
SPEAKER_02: And it's more valuable than the finest gold, it is sweeter than honey.
SPEAKER_02: Moreover, by them is thy servant worn.
SPEAKER_02: Not only is it a positive force and a sweetness to the soul, but in it we are warned.
SPEAKER_02: You know what John Bunyan wrote in the front of his Bible?
SPEAKER_02: This Bible will keep you from sin, or sin will keep you from this Bible.
SPEAKER_02: Young people, that's true.
SPEAKER_02: If you will stay in the Word of God, you will stay away from sin.
SPEAKER_02: Psalm 119, verse 11 says, Thy word have I hid in my heart that I may not sin against God.
SPEAKER_02: And in the Hebrew, it says, unless I hide the Word of God in my heart that I'm going to sin against God.
SPEAKER_02: We can't keep from sinning against God unless we know the Word of God.
SPEAKER_02: And we need the warning of the Word of God.
SPEAKER_02: And the pastor has to preach messages of warning at times.
SPEAKER_02: That's not negativism, that's positive truth, which we need to hear.
SPEAKER_02: You study the word of God, and it will warn you.
SPEAKER_02: It will warn you not to have certain attitudes.
SPEAKER_02: It will warn you not to do certain things.
SPEAKER_02: It will absolutely keep us under conviction and cleanse our souls.
SPEAKER_02: And so he says that in verse 11.
SPEAKER_02: And in keeping of them there is great reward.
SPEAKER_02: The rewards cannot even be mentioned, but you can't fail.
SPEAKER_02: You can't fail when you keep the word of God.
SPEAKER_02: Young people, if you want to succeed in life, get into the word of God, stay in it, and do what the word says, and you will absolutely head the list.
SPEAKER_02: You'll lead your class and your business and everything.
SPEAKER_02: God has promised this.
SPEAKER_02: Who can understand his arrow?
SPEAKER_02: Who can?
SPEAKER_02: Cleanse thou me from secret faults.
SPEAKER_02: Who can understand his own heart?
SPEAKER_02: Nobody.
SPEAKER_02: Deceitful above all things.
SPEAKER_02: Jeremiah 7.19.
SPEAKER_02: Who can know it?
SPEAKER_02: I don't even know my own heart.
SPEAKER_02: You don't even know your own heart unless the searchlight of the Word of God shines into our hearts.
SPEAKER_02: We don't know.
SPEAKER_02: But listen, if we'll come and hear the word when it's preached and taught in Sunday school, and we will study this word all we can, I will guarantee, my friends, that things that are hidden in our lives will be revealed.
SPEAKER_02: And when they are, we need not to resist, but we need to repent and to be cleansed of these things.
SPEAKER_02: Secret things are in our hearts.
SPEAKER_02: We're blind to our own selves.
SPEAKER_02: It's the word of God he's talking about.
SPEAKER_02: Who can understand his errors?
SPEAKER_02: Cleanse thou me from secret faults?
SPEAKER_02: The only way in the world is through the written word of God.
SPEAKER_02: Keep back thy servants also from presumptuous sins.
SPEAKER_02: Now he's mentioned a second type of sin.
SPEAKER_02: The first sin is sin of ignorance.
SPEAKER_02: Here is a second type: presumptuous sins.
SPEAKER_02: What are they?
SPEAKER_02: Sins willfully, arrogantly, and pridefully committed.
SPEAKER_02: Did you know there was no sacrifice in the Old Testament for presumptuous sins?
SPEAKER_02: This is what the Hebrews call sinning with a high hand.
SPEAKER_02: No sacrifice.
SPEAKER_02: Like the person who meditates in his heart to commit adultery or murder.
SPEAKER_02: No sacrifice.
SPEAKER_02: This is the most serious sin in all the world, is that which is willful and deliberate and premeditated.
SPEAKER_02: It's forgiven in the grace and goodness of Jesus, which shows an improvement over the old covenant.
SPEAKER_02: But he is talking about that.
SPEAKER_02: He says, Let them not have dominion over me.
SPEAKER_02: Then shall I be upright and I shall be innocent from the great transgression.
SPEAKER_02: What is the great transgression?
SPEAKER_02: It's sinning against the revealed will of God.
SPEAKER_02: That's the great transgression.
SPEAKER_02: That's sin of presumption.
SPEAKER_02: And I hope that no one will be guilty here tonight because when we willfully sin against the revealed will of God, that's the most serious sin in all the world.
SPEAKER_02: Now we're not we're not excused because we're ignorant, because we got a Bible.
SPEAKER_02: And this is one reason that we ought not to hear the word preached by our pastor once a month, but we ought not miss the worship service if possible.
SPEAKER_02: If you love your Sunday school class, you need to get them into the preaching of the word because the pastor will have a word that you don't have and will have an authority under God to exhort that you don't have.
SPEAKER_02: If you want to develop your people, tie your class to the worship service, the worship service type to the class.
SPEAKER_02: That's the thing that works.
SPEAKER_02: This church ought to be full every service.
SPEAKER_02: With people who are here going to Sunday school, Sunday school, coming here, hearing all the word we can.
SPEAKER_02: All the word from various directions and various gifts that we might know what it says, that we might be warned, that we might do it, and above all, that we not commit the great transgression.
SPEAKER_02: And then in verse 14, he applies it to himself.
SPEAKER_02: A summary.
SPEAKER_02: This is used in ritual.
SPEAKER_02: First time I ever heard this, used in a very ritualistic episcopal service, but it's the great truth of God.
SPEAKER_02: Let the words of my mouth, let the spoken words of my mouth and the meditation, the inner thoughts of my heart be acceptable.
SPEAKER_02: And that's a sacrificial word.
SPEAKER_02: Let the words which I speak and the thoughts which I think be so true and be so in accord with the word, that's what he's saying, that they will be a sacrifice unto God.
SPEAKER_02: My, what a statement that is.
SPEAKER_02: Is what you're saying with your lips something you can present to God as a holy sacrifice?
SPEAKER_02: Are the thoughts of your heart are they acceptable to God?
SPEAKER_02: Can you present them to God?
SPEAKER_02: Better that our inner thoughts be right and the outward speech be wrong.
SPEAKER_02: Really?
SPEAKER_02: It would be better to talk wrong than to have the inner man wrong.
SPEAKER_02: And sometimes there are those who speak good.
SPEAKER_02: But that inner man, it's not there.
SPEAKER_02: But you see what he does, he brings together the outward and the inward.
SPEAKER_02: That's the man of God.
SPEAKER_02: That's the man in the word.
SPEAKER_02: Let the words of my mouth and let the meditation of my hearts be an acceptable sacrifice to a holy God.
SPEAKER_02: Oh Lord, my strength, that's the word rock.
SPEAKER_02: What does that mean?
SPEAKER_02: Refuge.
SPEAKER_02: You know why they spoke of that?
SPEAKER_02: Because they often went into the caves when the storms came, when the wild animals they rushed into the caves of the rocks.
SPEAKER_02: Oh, God is such a cave, such a rock for us in the stormy place.
SPEAKER_02: He's the rock.
SPEAKER_02: We sing that uh in this praise song that Randy loves him, which I love.
SPEAKER_02: He's our rock.
SPEAKER_02: But not only is our rock, he's our redeemer.
SPEAKER_02: He's our G-O-E-L, He's our kinsman, Redeemer, He's the one that's purchased us out of sin.
SPEAKER_02: For as much as you know that you were not redeemed by corruptible things as silver and gold, but by the precious blood of Jesus as of a lamb without spot and without blemish.
SPEAKER_02: This should be the testimony of every child of God tonight.
SPEAKER_02: The words of our mouth and the meditation of our hearts, being a holy sacrifice unto God, who is our refuge, our rock, but also our blessed redeemer.
SPEAKER_02: Is he your rock?
SPEAKER_02: Is he your redeemer?
SPEAKER_02: He must be your redeemer before he can be your rock.
SPEAKER_02: Do you know him tonight?
SPEAKER_02: Have you received him as your personal Savior?
SPEAKER_02: God is speaking to so many hearts.
SPEAKER_02: You say, No, I don't know him really as my redeemer, and therefore I don't have him as my rock.
SPEAKER_02: You can know him.
SPEAKER_02: You must believe that Jesus died for you, died on the cross for you.
SPEAKER_02: He was buried in a grave for you, he arose again for you, and there's salvation there for you if you will repent, which means to admit that you're lost and say, Lord, I'm willing.
SPEAKER_02: I'm willing to turn.
SPEAKER_02: And then by faith, invite him into your heart.
SPEAKER_02: And then to openly confess.
SPEAKER_02: Do it tonight.
SPEAKER_02: If you're here tonight, you're a member of another church, God's impressed you to unite with us.
SPEAKER_02: Come.
SPEAKER_02: If you've confessed Christ during the week, come.
SPEAKER_02: We're just going to sing about one stanza.
SPEAKER_02: It's a little after 7:30.
SPEAKER_02: We've covered so much.
SPEAKER_02: We're going to be going in just a few moments.
SPEAKER_02: Come on the first stanza as we sing, just as I am, without one plea.
SPEAKER_02: We're singing this song because revival is here and God is speaking.
SPEAKER_02: Oh, come to Him tonight.
SPEAKER_02: Come to Him.
SPEAKER_02: Saints of God, pray, examine your heart.
SPEAKER_02: Are the words of your mouth that which you're speaking?
SPEAKER_02: And the meditation of your heart.
SPEAKER_02: Can you present them to God as a holy sacrifice?
SPEAKER_02: If not, cleanse your soul.
SPEAKER_02: Go out of here tonight and all this week speak.
SPEAKER_02: Speak.
SPEAKER_02: Don't speak any language that would not be an acceptable sacrifice to the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: And don't think any thoughts, except those in accord with the Word of God.
SPEAKER_01: We pray this message has been a blessing to you and helped to strengthen your walk with Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Please know we want to minister to you and pray for you.
SPEAKER_01: Send an email to contact us at fsfbc.org.
SPEAKER_01: And let us pray for you and help you in any way we can.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for listening to chapter and first, the Bible teaching ministry of Fort Smith First Baptist Church.