The Entrance of Thy Words Gives Light

Turn, if you would, to Psalm 119, I want to speak on this theme, this is the title of the message. Did you get that, Darius? This is the title of the message. He's always on me about titles. This is the title of the message, The Entrance of Thy Words Gives Light. The Entrance of Thy Words Gives Light. You know, the Psalms are simply wonderful. They are so many things, all 150 of them. They are cries, they are longings, they are expressions of faith, they are expressions of divine love, they are expressions of grief and sorrow at times, and spiritual passion. And the longest, most extensive psalm, this one, this morning, 119, is a commentary about the Bible. Psalm 119 is the Bible describing the Bible, what it is, what it does, its inspiration, its power, its rightness, its truthfulness, its integrity, its trustworthiness, its longevity, its perfection, and much more. Any of its 176 verses is a unique word. It's a stand-alone sermon. Every one of them could be. Every one of them can be a word in season when the Master in your hearing, in your reading, speaks to you, and there's entrance, and light comes. So our text this morning is incredible in its message, verses 130, 131, Psalm 119, The Entrance of Thy Words. David there says in verse 130, The entrance of thy word gives light, it giveth understanding unto the simple. Now let me just say real quick, simple here does not mean dumb, doesn't mean thick-headed, dense, those who just can't figure it out, no. It's a compliment. It's a grace. The simple-hearted, the childlike one who's open. That's the one who gets the light and the understanding. I opened my mouth and panted, for I longed for thy commandments. Let's pray. Father, we just want to remember this morning that it is the most important time any week in the earth is when the Bible is opened and your people hear the truth. We want to hear this morning with spiritual ears. We want to see this morning with spiritual eyes. We want you to do for us what we sang in that hymn, Master, speak. So it's unto you that we look, stoop to our weakness, mighty as thou art, and speak. Lord Jesus, speak for your glory. We pray in your name, Amen. So you have this phrase at the beginning, the entrance of what? Thy words. The word itself, God's words, His words, not man's words, not church historian's words, not theologian's words, not church tradition's words, not creeds or confessions of faith that are fallible and imperfect that are about the word, no, the entrance of His words. And I've said before often that Psalm 119 calls the Bible statutes and testimonies, precepts, commandments, the way of truth, His judgments, His law, God's testimony. This Psalm is His own testimony about His word. This is the Bible's self-description, Psalm 119. What Scripture says about itself, 16 places at least in this Psalm, God says this about the Bible, My judgments are good, my words give life, my statutes are your songs in the house of your pilgrims, all my commandments are faithful, forever my word is settled in heaven. This is what God is saying to us directly about His word when we read or hear Psalm 119. My commandment is exceedingly broad, that means it covers everything, it's pertinent and applicable to everything. All my commandments are faithful, my word forever is settled in heaven. My commandment, my word is a lamp and a light, my testimonies are your eternal heritage, all my precepts concerning all things are right. Now there's a double universal application, all my precepts concerning everything is right. What God has said about anything, discussion's over. My testimonies are righteous, my word is very pure, the righteousness of my testimonies is everlasting, all my commandments are truth, the entirety of my word is true. So you see what God's saying, we get it. That's what God Himself says about His words, the word of God. The words of God, man shall not live by what? Bread alone, but by what? Every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. Now I want you to think to yourself, when was the last time you remember clearly God spoke to you and there was an entrance of His words to you? Or perhaps you remember the most significant time that ever happened at your conversion, at a juncture where God just needed to come and speak. Do you remember a time that He so clearly spoke to you as if so clearly that it couldn't have been more clear if it were an audible voice? Anybody have that ever? My sheep, He said, hear my voice. And so, every word that has proceeded from God's mouth for man is in the Bible. But He still speaks, He speaks by His Spirit, through His word, through one another when truth comes forth. All of Scripture is God's mind and God's will and is God's voice. When Scripture speaks, God is speaking. And notice here though, the particular personal intimate activity that David clearly is talking about. The entrance of thy words give light. It is to the believer personally that when God speaks, when He takes this word and He hones in on you and He speaks a rhema, a living word to you, that's when entrance has just happened. Something happens in us and to us when what David says, the entrance of your word. This is personal and intimate. It's to you as a single soul. You may be in a worship service, you may be in a Bible study, you may be in the quietness and secret place of your own devotions daily with the Lord and you open the book again as you do every day. You're reading along and suddenly a word comes alive. Wow! I hadn't seen that before. Now you had read it before, but guess what? The entrance has happened. In David's testimony and experience, he's saying here's what happens in the experience of those who love His Word. So hence the living, present action that happens. Note what it says exactly. This first phrase, the entrance. What's that about? What's the entrance? Why would David say it that way? Brethren, this is big and important and fundamental, to receive God's Word and to hear His voice. Jeff prayed it this morning about God giving nuggets. I think it was the word he used, nuggets. So Conrad Merrill used to say, when you're listening to a sermon, have ears to hear. Don't miss the chunk that God sends you, don't let it pass you by, but hear it. You might get one thing from a message that's life, that's manna, that's real, and it'll feed your soul, fresh manna. The preaching of the Word is not for information only. Preaching is not for the intellectual attainment of more knowledge. Rather, it is for experiencing Christ in His truth in the moment by the Spirit. Preaching is to be the living God by the Holy Spirit, speaking a living Word in season to you, for you, right into your heart. The entrance of your Word gives life. It enters, it comes with life. I mean, we read there in John in the New Testament reading, that man comes about his son and Jesus speaks and says, your son lives. Right then, life and healing went into that son some distance away. The entrance is when Christ presently speaks to His people in private, in public worship, and you've heard from God. Entrance means literally here, the opening of a door. The opening happens. Implication, a moment before it might not have been happening. You're reading, you're thinking, but the door hadn't opened. Suddenly the entrance happens. There's the opening of the door of your heart and your mind, and light floods in. And you're hearing living words and unveiling and revealing. Illumination comes. And understanding hits you when God speaks to you personally. The entrance of thy words. It's what happened at Pentecost. Remember, Peter is preaching, and he's preaching the Gospel, and he's preaching with the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven. The result, when the people heard his words, they were what? Cut to the heart. Stabbed suddenly in their conscience, and they were gripped with conviction, and they cried out. It's what happened to Lydia. Paul's there at the place of prayer, and he speaks to this woman. And upon hearing Paul's words, what does Scripture say? Whose heart the Lord opened. Entrance has come. In Bible reading and Bible hearing, through preaching, through private reading, through sharing the Word with one another, when His Word comes, the Spirit does this. He produces an opening enlightenment. The light bulb turns on, and you see light from His light in the world. There's an unfolding divine truth when the entrance happens in the heart. The Bible says light arises for the righteous, and it arises when the living Word applied by the Spirit suddenly grips you with the very force of God speaking to you. And you know when He does it, because you experience God in that moment. He's commanding your attention. He's got your ears and your heart, and you know He's speaking to you. Is that your experience ever? How do we see the sun except from the sun's own light? We don't stare at the sun, we don't look up at it, but we kind of can. We see it's up there. How do we see the sun there except from its own light? The same is true of the Bible. We see light in its light when God speaks to us. When God comes personally and speaks a living Word to you, it can be in the hardest time in your life, deep sorrows, darkness, confusion, hurting. One Word from God into your experience, and you will be helped. You will be set free in that moment. You will be encouraged because the light of God's truth clears the clouds, clears the confusion, and you've heard from Him, and there's peace in the storm. All we've got to do is hear from God through His Word and say, Master, speak, thy servant heareth. Here I am waiting for you to speak. Every time we open the Bible and read, we ought to say, Lord, speak, speak. Lord, give me an entrance in this reading, this time today, with you. And then He does. When He speaks, He rebukes you possibly. He convicts you. He corners you. He comes and loves on you. He deeply encourages you, and He assures you. Whatever He says to you, it affects you, and the entrance has just happened. God has met with you. You've heard His voice. And that Word you hear is manna for your heart that will live for a while, and you feed on it. You may not remember everything you read any morning, but you'll remember a Word God speaks to you, because you'll feed on it. This is kind of what James is talking about in chapter 1 when he says, Receive with meekness the engrafted Word. Literally, the implanted Word. None of us have all the Bible memorized. Anybody have it all memorized? I knew some men that almost had it. No. The engrafted Word is when the Spirit of God takes this truth, and He comes to your soul and your mind and your conscience and your spirit, and He puts it in there like a stent put in a heart. Opens. The engrafted Word. That's the entrance. Jeremiah said it this way, Your Word was found, and I ate it, and it became the joy and rejoicing of my heart. Is that how the Bible affects us? It should be. That's the entrance. And when there's an entrance, what happens? Understanding comes on. Comes to us. Light. Spiritual perception. The voice of God has produced life in us at that moment. And it's communion with Him. And we have clarity. Spiritual understanding hits us. And suddenly we have eyes seeing and ears hearing and heart responding by the operation of the Spirit of God upon your soul when entrance happens. Like a stent being inserted into a heart artery, light is inserted and opens up understanding to us. In His light, we see light. You ever heard of Henry Schugel? He wrote the book, The Life of God and the Soul of Man. George Whitfield, as a young 20-year-old, was sitting under a tree, I think at Oxford, one day reading this book. And suddenly, one sentence, one word out of that book, he was regenerated. God saved him sitting there. Well, Henry Schugel was reading one day Psalm 119. And he came to verse 9, which says, How shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto according to thy word. It hit him like a knife. It captured him. It arrested him. It became such an entrance of God's Word that soon he surrendered his life fully to the Lord. And that verse led him to enter the Christian ministry. And he became a man used of God in Britain, even though he died at age 28. One verse. The power of one word. Your son lives. And he was alive. Every word the Lord Jesus Christ spoke was life-giving. And there was always an entrance. It produced exactly what He said. Let there be light. Jesus said that at the beginning. It's really what Hebrews 4.12 is saying. Remember the verse? For the Word of God is living, powerful, active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing right down into the inner soul and spirit, and it exposes and discerns and judges and penetrates right down into our thoughts, our motives and intentions. The Bible reads us when there's the entrance of His Word. David experienced that entrance. And to him and to us it always brings, when there's an entrance, illumination happens, inspiration happens, communion with God happens, transformation, sanctification, and more. So what results in the entrance of His Word? Well, the second half of the verse says it gives light and understanding. When God really speaks to us and it's a life-giving Word, we are then changed within. Wisdom comes, discernment. Light here means spiritual light. It's illumination of what God wants us to know right then. Spiritual knowledge as soul food. Assurance comes, experiential knowledge of His ways and His purposes. We hear His voice when it happens and we become a recipient of the Word of the Lord in that moment. Solomon said, get wisdom and get understanding. We know just reading and knowing the Bible doesn't do it. The scribes and Pharisees were scholars in the written Word. So that's not all that's needed. There must be spiritual life. There must be an entrance. There must be the Holy Spirit of God communing with us as we're in the Word to meet with us and there's an entrance. God speaks. Understanding and light come by the Spirit's operation in you through the Word. So what are we to do? We are more and more to become simple. Just humble ourselves and be simple Christians. Without this, the knowledge puffs up. We're to become childlike, trusting, looking, dependent servants and lovers of Christ as we are under the authority of God's Word. And when we hear it, be simple. When we read it, be simple. And be praying, Master, speak. My servant, hear us. Because you know what? Verse 131 says we have a job to do. It says we're to desire. I'll open my mouth and pant it. See, here's where some of us get lazy. Mediocre. Casual. Lackadaisical. David's not. He said, I'll open my mouth and pant it. That is desiring. When you come to the Word Tuesday morning, how much desire do you bring? When you came this morning to worship, how much desire did you bring? We desire. I'll open my mouth and pant it. We desire. We pant. We long. Because He fills the hungry, not the satisfied, with good things. He satisfies the longing soul. He answers the seeker. Nobody's going to answer the door if there's not a knock. Yesterday our doorbell rang. I went and answered it. If there's not a knock or a doorbell ring, I'm not going. Christ says, seek Me. Come knock. Come seek. Proverbs 2. Cry out for knowledge and understanding. When we come to the Word of God, we are before Him. We are in His presence. And He will speak living words to us that right then we need. And we're to desire for Him to speak. We're to seek Him to speak. We're to open our mouths wide for Him to speak. That He may fill us. That there may be an entrance in the moment. That comes to the simple hearted, the childlike, and the hungry one. Are you in the earth today, in Denton today, in this room today, who's longing for His voice to be heard in their soul? Who's reading and ready and hearing, desiring to hear and obey the sweet voice or the corrective voice of their Good Shepherd? Who is it that has ears to hear? The entrance of Thy words gives light. It gives understanding to the simple, humble one. Now we're coming this week to a big week. Is something happening this week? I'm trying to remember. My memory sometimes is not good. This week is a big week for the Bible and the Gospel. Right here on these grounds. And with everything else our conference gives us in terms of the means of grace. New friendships, renewed friendships, fellowship, wonderful times, enjoyment, praying together in this room three mornings, being around the tables, taking walks. With all that we have before us this week, we will have the most awesome thing on earth happening. Five servants of Christ will bring the Word of the Lord to each one of us. You're going to be preached to this week. You will have messages preached. Every sermon, all six of them, are for you. And we ought to hear them with expectancy as if they are directly for me because they are. Those five men are praying and preparing and they will step into that pulpit Thursday through Sunday with a word from God. The Spirit will give them fresh manna. They will speak as the oracles of God. They will speak in the place of Jesus Christ the prophet and will be His mouthpiece. And it will be Christ speaking and feeding His people. They will be speaking words that need to gain an entrance for you personally. That's what to pray for this week. That's what to long for that an entrance will be gained in your heart. That Christ will be manifested to you through His Word personally. How shall we hear and receive God's Word this week? In this way? Today? With soberness, with joy, with expectancy. Recognize the high and holy privilege that God is going to speak to us through His servants, through His Word, by the Holy Spirit. The voice of Christ through preaching. Each sermon is for you. There's manna that's going to be there that's fresh for you in all of those sermons. Will you be hearing? As you sit down and that man stands up to preach, will your heart then pray, Master, speak. Thy servant heareth. The Lord has specific truths and applications and corrections and encouragement and direction. Specific, timely, living words for you this week. So, as Jesus said, let him who has ears to hear, hear. Blessed are the eyes that see these things. Beloved, recognize the amazing privilege God is giving to you and come. Come focused. Come asking. Come open hearted. Come hungry. Come believing God to speak to you. And make that your morning and evening prayer Wednesday through Sunday. Recognize what God is giving you this week. Come to every session. Focused and ready. Not distracted. Don't look to the preachers. Look to Christ and the Holy Spirit. Welcome His presence as you worship. Ask and expect Him to speak to you. Have an obedient heart ready to receive the implanted Word which is able to deliver you and minister to you in any situation. Hear with spiritual ears. See truth with spiritual eyes. The entrance this week, the entrance of His Word is coming to you. Eat every drop of honey. Lick the plate clean of all the manna. Get all the meat off the bone of every word that God speaks because the entrance of His Word gives light and understanding to the simple, to the hungry, to the humble one. Brethren, we're in for a feast. It won't be McDonald's nuggets. A table's going to be spread of the finest of the wheat. Are you hungry? Let's pray. Father, we thank You for David's words and what they truly mean. Apply them to our hearts. Do it in our hearts. Give us an entrance more and more this week and the rest of our lives. We pray, Lord, that You would speak to us by name. Let us know it is to us. Let me not unheard depart. We are listening, Lord, for Thee. Master, speak. Oh, speak to me. In Jesus' name.