At the end of the day who can you trust?! Have you ever thought that? I m sure we have all been let down by people we admire and look up to.

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1 PSALM 119: TZADDI At the end of the day who can you trust?! Have you ever thought that? I m sure we have all been let down by people we admire and look up to. When I first went to preach with a view for a church in which I served as Pastor, we stayed with a family for whom I gained a tremendous love and respect. John was a recovered alcoholic and became involved in helping others to come off alcoholism and come to Christ. His wife, Joan, knew all-too-well the rigours of living with an alcoholic and the Lord used her also in working alongside John. They were two very fine Christians, - John was an elder in the church. They had five grown-up children, - four daughters (three of whom ended up pregnant before marriage, one of them a 23 year-old to a 64 yearold husband of someone else) and a son who was heavily into drugs and much that was associated with that. John and Joan were two of the mainstays in our evangelism and we regularly went round the doors together. John began to accompany another lady round the doors and I asked him not to do that because some folk were saying to me they were spending too much time in each others company! They stopped going round the doors together for a while but then I heard they had started up again. One morning Joan knocked on my door. John had moved out. I went to see him, we talked, and I had to tell him his present circumstances were incompatible with his position as an elder in the church. He resigned from the Elders Court. About a week later this other woman left her husband and John and her, - although they didn t moved in together, - were as good as living together. Again, as things got worse, I had to speak with John and tell him his witness was not the witness of an obedient child of God. He consequently resigned his membership, - choosing his relationship with this woman over his relationship with the Lord. After a number of months, the relationship fell through and he came back to the Lord and also to his wife. Sadly, not very long afterwards his wife died very suddenly.

2 2 John continued to involve himself in the Lord s work this time among drug addicts as well alcoholics. He ended up marrying a young girl who was a drug addict and unsaved. Just before they were married the young girl s previous partner knifed John in the face and his life was on the edge for a time. Nevertheless, John married the young girl and he subsequently returned to the alcohol. The last I heard of him he was a total wreck away from the Lord. He lives not too far from May Nicholson and when May was so ill with her cancer John was round at her home begging for money. It is such a long story I am telling you but I m just sharing with you an example of someone who once walked with the Lord but who ended up a sad disappointment. The psalmist had been disappointed too In this section of the Psalm we find that he again finds solace in the Word of God. The Word is so precious to him and he emphasises to us his heartfelt conviction that God s Word is altogether righteous. When all other things let us down the Word takes us to our God Who will never disappoint us! Is it necessary to highlight such a theme? Yes, it is, because sometimes as believers we need our faith strengthened and we gain that added strength through an increasing knowledge of God, as we find it in His Word. One of the most basic statements the Bible makes about itself and our faith is Rom. 10:17, faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. The preaching of the Word of God is absolutely vital for salvation. God s Word is absolutely integral in the process of someone coming to Christ, - salvation must be in response to God s Word. It is also the case that the more we live in God s Word, the stronger our faith will become. I had two ladies in a previous congregation who told two enthusiastic young Christians (who had come into membership) they were going to far too many meetings! but you need the Word!! The Lord Jesus spoke about the grain of mustard seed; He said, Mk. 4:31 when it is sown in the earth, is less than all the seeds that be in the earth: 32 But when it is sown, it groweth up, and becometh greater than all herbs, and shooteth out great branches.

3 3 Like the mustard seed, faith has life in it, and if the seed is planted and cultivated, it will grow and bear fruit. If it is not cultivated, it will not grow and it will not bear fruit! The message here is that God s Word is trustworthy you can depend upon it and you can live your life according to it! Here are some very basic considerations regarding the trustworthiness of God s infallible and inerrant and inspired Word and how God s Word helps us to grow in the faith. GOD S WORD IS TRUSTWORTHY NO MATTER WHAT PEOPLE DO (vv ) The psalmist was coming close to arriving at the place where it was taking more and more out of him trying to convince people to listen to and to trust God s Word. I m sure there were times when he must have felt his ministry had failed for no one seemed to be responding. Lord, I m trying to teach this people Your Word, but they neither want to hear it or learn from it. Oh, what can you do?! You cannot force people to accept God s Word. You cannot force them to be as excited about it as you are. I have often been told, That s alright for you, it s your job! But you know, it is not because of my job that I study God s Word, - I study it because I love it and I need it! And besides, your walk with God is only as good as your study and your application of His Word! It is His Word you need to obey!! Though people, - even intellectually clever people, - attack and ridicule it, the Word comes from God and will be here long after the criticiser has gone. People may reject it and keep on sinning but God s Word keeps on being perfect, and it keeps on being necessary for God s people. Yes, you can look to nature and see the wonder of God s creation, but His Word tells you more about Him than any of His creation ever will. His Word is unique and He does all things in accordance with that which is laid down in His Word. His Word is pure, - it is the benchmark of what He expects from His people. The psalmist s enemies had forgotten God s Word, i.e. there had been a time when they had known it but they have since rejected it. They don t heed God s Word any longer, they have no hunger or thirst for it their own form of religion, yes God s Word, no.

4 4 They have moved on, they have evolved to greater things and God s Word is out-of-date! But the psalmist remains constant, Thy word is very pure: therefore thy servant loveth it. Every faithful believer loves the Word of God, for wherever the true grace of God is in evidence, you will find the love of the Word there also. And you will always find that God s Word is trustworthy no matter what people do. GOD S WORD IS TRUSTWORTHY NO MATTER WHAT PEOPLE SAY (vv ) Over the centuries the Bible has been burned, torn in bits by educated criticisers and yet we still have it today. I can promise you with all confidence that no matter what they say about this Book, and no matter how much they show their hatred for it, this Book will outlast every one of them! If clever people come out with so-called clever theories and manage to dupe their audiences, I promise you this Book is to be preferred rather than anything they say in opposition to it. Man s theories come and go, they develop with each generation, they take a new direction every time someone highlights them but God s Word remains constant it remains the same. For saying these things clever people might call me silly, stupid and old-fashioned but unlike all their theories, the truth in which I believe has never changed and never will change. I can read exponents of God s Word from centuries ago and we believe the same because God s Word says it and it doesn t change. I can read the Old and New Testaments and I believe every word, for God s servants down for as long as time has almost lasted have believed them also. The enemy wants to forget the words of God Even many in evangelical circles are exchanging the Word for some other forms of authority which is suspicious and dubious, and not as clearly described in God s Word. small and despised that was how the psalmist described how they looked down upon him but when you stand upon the promises of God in His Word, you are more than a giant! Be excited about this ( I Cor. 1:27) God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; God has chosen you to be His!

5 5 They rejected Christ don t be surprised when they reject you too. They tried to catch Him out don t be surprised when they set up their traps for you too count it an honour! Look at it like this when you are small and despised, place all your hope in the God Who is all-powerful and trust in His Word! God s Word is trustworthy no matter what people do; it is trustworthy no matter what people say GOD S WORD IS TRUSTWORTHY NO MATTER HOW YOU FEEL (vv ) This is important too! Trouble and anguish have taken hold on me, the psalmist said. I don t seem to be coping very well! It s all getting on top of me. Yes, it s perfectly natural to feel like that and it s perfectly natural to look into the Bible and see someone going through difficult times which are not too foreign to what you are going through but it s different because that is the Bible! It s almost as if it is some kind of a fairy story! But even though it is perfectly natural it is not right for the child of God, because somehow it is as if you are casting doubt upon what God promises you in His Word. Don t let how you feel dictate to you the trustworthiness of the Word of God. Your feelings change, but God s Word never changes. God s Word is not only true, God s Word is Truth itself. The Word of God is Truth (Jn. 17:17), the Son of God is Truth (Jn. 14:6 I am the way, the truth, and the life), and the Spirit of God is Truth (I Jn. 5:6). The Spirit of God wrote the Word of Truth, and the Word of Truth reveals the Son Who is Truth so therefore when you turn to its pages you have the Truth and as a consequence your feelings ought to be led into a beautiful confidence/delight in our wonderful and Sovereign Lord. The psalmist s trouble and anguish drove him closer to God s Word and into God s arms. Imagine the sheep lost on the ledge of the cliff bleating, hungry, and frightened and then the shepherd finds him, bends down and lifts him in his arms out of the danger and into the safety of the Saviour. No matter how you are feeling at this moment, you can trust God s Word for to trust His Word is to trust God Himself. Finally GOD S WORD IS TRUSTWORTHY NO MATTER HOW LONG YOU LIVE (v.144)

6 6 I read commentaries and statements from faithful men of the Word who lived a long time ago, - I often bring their thoughts to you for they are completely up-to-date and apt for God s people today. God s Word never goes out-of-date. The words of Abraham and Samuel and David and Paul and all the rest have as much to say to us today as ever they had to say. The passing of time does not make God s Word impotent or ineffective. God s people could not survive today without God s Word. The Word of God is eternal, it is everlasting, it is not confined to any period in time, - it is timeless and fixed forever. You never have to go to it and see if there is an update or a correction as God has made all things perfect, His Word is perfect too. To build your life upon God s Word is to participate in eternity, - Mt. 7:24-27 speaks about the wise man who built his house upon the rock. It is not the length of life that matters but the depth of life that counts and the depth comes from laying hold of God s Word and obeying it. Lay the foundations deep, - dig into the Word, and keep digging you will never hit the bottom because there is always more and more to learn. The psalmist prayed, give me understanding, and I shall live. You will never grow out of it; you will never plumb its depths but because you love its truth, you will keep on digging until the Lord calls you home. CONCLUSION So what has the psalmist reminded us of again? God s Word is trustworthy no matter what people do; it is trustworthy no matter what people say; it is trustworthy no matter how you feel, and is trustworthy no matter how long you live Where would you get a deal/package like that nowadays! Unbeliever, you want something to guide your life by? Turn to God s Word and find God in its pages. Come to Christ and find Him as your Saviour and your Lord. Believer, come again and drink at the waters of the Word of God and satisfy your thirst and keep on drinking. This Book is as the living waters that never runs dry, the Holy Spirit invites you again, taste [from the Book] and see that the LORD is good: [for] blessed is the man [the woman, and the child] that trusteth in him.