Latest / Reformed Thinking / Teach Me, O Lord, the Way of Your Statutes (Psalm 119:33–40) | Charles Spurgeon

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Teach Me, O Lord, the Way of Your Statutes (Psalm 119:33–40) | Charles Spurgeon · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome to reformed thinking. Thank you so much for having me
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  back. And we are incredibly thrilled
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  that you are sitting right here in the room with us, basically
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  acting as the third person in this conversation.
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  Yeah, that is the goal. We want you right here at the
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  table with us. So for this specific deep dive
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  into our source material, we are looking at an extensive
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  examination of Charles Spurgeon's The Treasury of
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  David. Right.
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  Specifically, zeroing in on Psalm 119, verses 33 through 40.
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  Yes, and if you were looking at the Hebrew alphabet structure of
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  this massive Psalm, this is the section corresponding to the
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  letter He. Which is such a fascinating
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  section to look at. It really is, and we are
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  examining these 8 verses through the theological lens of the
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  Reformation and the Westminster Confession.
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  Because you know, you are probably already familiar with
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  the doctrines of grace. Things like total depravity,
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  unconditional election, the effectual call, the perseverance
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  of the Saints. But what we are doing today is
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  looking at how those massive cosmic doctrines operate at the
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  granular level of a single human mind.
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  Yeah, a mine in a state of desperate prayer.
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  That is the right way to frame this definitely, because when
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  you read this specific octonary, this eight verse section, you
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  notice a distinct compounding pattern.
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  Right, it just builds and builds.
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  It does. These 8 verses are entirely
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  made-up of prayer and plea. There is no boasting here at
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  all. None.
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  There is no listing of past spiritual victories.
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  The verses just tremble with a consciousness of extreme human
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  weakness. Yeah, what you hear in the
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  psalmist's voice is this desperate, almost childlike
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  necessity for divine instruction and intervention.
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  Well, spot on I should say. The writer knows the map of the
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  law is laid out in front of him, but he also knows that having
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  the map means absolutely nothing if the maker of the map does not
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  personally open his eyes. Right, and force his feet to
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  move and basically recreate his affections from the ground up.
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  Yes, and the desperation starts immediately in verse 33.
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  It really does, Yeah, the text reads.
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  Teach me, O Lord, the way of Thy statutes, and I shall keep it
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  unto the end. So the Hebrew word translated as
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  teach here is Yara. Yara, OK.
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  Yeah, in its physical sense, it means to point out, to indicate,
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  or even to aim and shoot an arrow.
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  Oh wow, like an Archer. Right.
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  The psalmist is acknowledging right from the start the total
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  insufficiency of the human intellect for grasping spiritual
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  realities. Because by nature, we sort of
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  dote on our own wisdom. We do.
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  We assume that if a text is put in front of us, our native
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  intelligence is enough to decode it, process it, and apply it.
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  But true believers recognize the severe inherent slowness of the
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  human mind to learn the things of God.
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  Absolutely. We suffer from a spiritual
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  blindness born within us from the fall.
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  The intellect is impaired. It is broken.
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  Right. It cannot just look at the
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  statutes of God and comprehend their spiritual weight without
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  divine illumination pointing the way.
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  It is almost like an Archer aiming an arrow directly into
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  the darkened mind. That is a great visual for it.
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  We'll think about a person trying to learn God's statutes
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  without about the internal illumination of the Holy Spirit.
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  OK. It is like someone trying to
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  play a staggeringly complicated Symphony by just looking at
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  sheet music. Right, without ever having a
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  teacher to show them how to read the notes.
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  Let alone how to hold the instrument.
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  Yes, George Horne's commentary touches on this reality.
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  He says a master of music is not someone who can simply identify
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  1/4 note on a page. No.
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  A master is someone who can take a lesson readily from the book
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  and execute it with the instrument.
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  So we have the sheet music of the law, but we require a divine
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  teacher to show us the execution of holiness.
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  Because the mechanics of obedience have to be taught by
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  the one who wrote the music. Yeah, and taking that sheet
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  music analogy further, the text moves to a definitive conclusion
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  in that very same verse. Right, the psalmist says, and I
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  shall keep it unto the end. Now, looking through the lens of
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  the Westminster Confession, we see the doctrine of the
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  perseverance of the Saints right there on the surface.
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  Just glaring at us. Right when God acts as the
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  teacher, the lessons are permanently written onto the
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  soul. They are never forgotten.
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  You can really contrast this with human willpower.
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  Oh, totally. Because human will has a strict
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  expiration date, there is a definitive limit to all
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  perfection of the flesh. A person might force themselves
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  to act morally for a decade maybe.
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  But eventually the unregenerate will collapses under the weight
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  of its own desires. Yes.
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  Heavenly grace, however, guarantees perseverance.
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  If God is the one keeping the student, the student shall keep
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  the way. The endurance is guaranteed by
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  the teacher, not the pupil. Exactly.
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  I mean, yes, we are not relying on our own white knuckled grip
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  on the faith, right? Espernard and Ambrose provided
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  an illustration comparing the believer to a soldier on a
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  March. I love.
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  This one, it is so good. A soldier in a vast army does
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  not choose his own marching orders.
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  He does not pull out his own compass and decide to take a
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  shortcut through a valley just because it looks more pleasant.
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  Because if he wanders off the general's prescribed route, he
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  loses his daily rations. Right.
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  He gets separated from the supply lines and he misses his
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  quarters for the night. And Christ is that general
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  leading the host out of spiritual Egypt.
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  So the believer's survival depends on staying on the route
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  the general dictates. Knowing full well that the
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  general is the one securing the supply lines along that specific
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  path. Wow.
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  And William Cowper's tree SAP analogy from the source material
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  illustrates the internal mechanism of that perseverance.
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  Oh right, the SAP. Yeah, a tree without SAP flowing
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  from the root might flourish for a short season.
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  It might look green and healthy on the outside to a casual
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  observer. But because it has no internal
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  source of life, it will inevitably wither under the heat
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  of the sun. Yes, the visible morality of an
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  unregenerate person is like those detached leaves.
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  They just dry up. Right.
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  Our perseverance relies entirely on the continuous, invisible
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  flow of God's grace. The believer does not bear the
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  root. The root bears the believer.
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  So having the way externally pointed out that Yara we
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  discussed is just the initial step, but just having the path
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  indicated is insufficient. If the internal machinery is
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  broken. We need the internal capacity to
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  actually grasp what is being pointed out.
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  Which shifts the focus directly into verse 34.
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  Right. Give me understanding, and I
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  shall keep thy law. Yeah, I shall observe it with my
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  whole heart. The shift in verbs here is
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  critical. We move from teach me, which is
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  the external pointing out of the objective way to give me
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  understanding. Which is the internal subjective
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  recreation of the mental faculties.
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  Yes, sin has brought humanity into a state of complicated
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  ruin. We are not dealing with a
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  humanity that just makes occasional bad choices.
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  No, we are dealing with a humanity stripped of the very
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  faculty required to understand spiritual things.
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  This tracks perfectly with a reformed view that regeneration
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  must precede faith. Absolutely.
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  A dead man cannot understand the law of the living right.
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  We cannot even accurately perceive our own need for
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  understanding until God grants us a small measure of it.
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  Just enough to show us the terrifying extent of our own
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  blindness. Yeah.
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  But let me ask you this if the understanding is localized in
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  our head, like a purely mental comprehension, why does the
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  psalmist immediately tie it to the affections?
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  Saying he will observe the law with his whole heart.
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  Yeah, why link the head to the heart so quickly?
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  Well, in biblical anthropology, and particularly within the
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  framework of Reformed scholasticism, the understanding
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  and the affections are intricately mechanically linked.
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  OK, how so? The understanding sits at the
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  stern of the soul. It acts as the pilot steering
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  the ship of the human life. Got it?
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  So if the pilot is operating in the dark, the ship crashes into
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  the rocks. It does not matter how strong
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  the engines of desire might be. So an enlightened judgement
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  heals the chaotic divisions of the heart, yes?
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  When the Holy Spirit illuminates the mind, it convinces the
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  affections of the supreme beauty of the law.
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  The mind sees the majesty of the lawgiver, and the entire human
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  nature bows in response. Right.
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  The intellect is remoulded, granting spiritual discernment
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  between right and wrong. Which then gathers up all those
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  fractured affections and unites them around a single object of
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  desire. Yeah, and looking at Thomas
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  Manton's commentary on that phrase Wholeheart, he points out
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  the legal reality that God bought the whole person in both
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  creation and redemption. God did not purchase a fraction
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  of the human soul. No, Manton brings up the
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  terrifying analogy of Ananias and Sapphira from the book.
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  Of acts. Oh, that is a heavy one.
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  It is they sold a piece of property but secretly kept back
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  part of the price for themselves while standing in front of the
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  apostles pretending to give the entire amount.
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  And Manton argues that it is literal sacrilege to rob God of
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  any part of our affections in order to distribute them to the
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  world. Exactly or absolutely, a person
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  cannot divide their heart, allocating 30% to career
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  ambition, 20% to worldly pleasure and handing the
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  remaining 50% to God. The demand is total.
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  The whole man is God's property by every conceivable right and
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  title. So to observe God's law with all
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  your heart requires that the heart be whole, undivided, and
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  unshared. Yes, and this undivided love is
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  only possible when God grants that prior internal illumination
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  of the understanding standing. Right.
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  But once the mind understands and the heart is united in its
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  affections, you run into a brutal physical problem.
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  The theology has to hit the pavement.
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  Yeah, the map is clear. The desire is there, but the
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  legs are. Parallel, yes, which is why the
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  psalmist recognizes this disconnect, begging God to
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  literally force his feet to move in verse 35.
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  Verse 35 reads, Make me to go in the path of thy commandments,
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  for therein do I delight. This verse operates as a master
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  class in the mechanics of irresistible grace.
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  Look at the Hebrew root word for path, which is dharak.
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  That means to tread, to string, a bow, or to trample down.
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  So the path referenced here is not a broad raised Royal Rd.
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  that is smoothly paved and effortless to travel.
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  No, it refers to a narrow arguous footpath that requires
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  intentional treading. And the psalmist delights in the
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  law. His regenerate heart genuinely
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  loves the concept of holiness. Yet the believer finds
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  themselves completely paralyzed, entirely unable to walk that
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  narrow footpath without divine propulsion.
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  It mirrors the Apostle Paul's agonized confession to Will is
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  present with me, but how to perform that which is good?
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  I find not. Yes, and when people hear terms
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  like divine propulsion or irresistible grace, there is a
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  tendency to picture God treating humans like inanimate stones.
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  Right, like dragging them by heavy machinery against their
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  will. But Grace does not operate like
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  a tow truck dragging a vehicle with four flat tires.
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  No. God works in the believer so
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  that the believer actively moves.
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  Think of a father helping a toddler learn to walk.
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  Oh, that is a great analogy. The toddler has the will and the
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  delight. They desperately want to walk
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  across the room to reach a favorite toy.
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  But they lack the muscular development in their legs.
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  They are paralyzed by their own physical immaturity.
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  Right, so the father steps behind the child, holds their
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  hands and physically makes them go.
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  The toddler is actively walking the toddlers putting 1 foot in
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  front of the other. But the energy, the balance and
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  the forward momentum are entirely supplied by the Father.
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  That is it. The believer is made willing in
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  the day of God's might. We tread the narrow path, but
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  God supplies the absolute entirety of the ability to
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  tread. Jay Long gives a brilliant
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  description of this specific spiritual path in the
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  commentaries. He really does.
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  He points out its unique characteristics.
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  Yeah, it is perfectly clean. It is never out of repair.
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  There are no wild beasts allowed to devour the travel.
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  Right, it requires no toll for entry and it leads directly to
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  heaven. It is restrictive, yes, but it
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  is infinitely secure. But staying on that secure,
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  narrow way is incredibly difficult because of our own
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  internal shifting. Our circumstances change and our
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  zeal fluctuates. Thomas Manton recorded a
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  striking historical anecdote about Pope Pius Quintus.
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  Oh, I remember this, yeah. According to the account, when
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  he first entered religious orders as a lowly monk, he
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  possessed A vibrant hope for his own salvation.
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  But as he climbed the ecclesiastical ladder and was
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  promoted to a cardinal, he began to seriously doubt his
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  salvation. And when he finally reached the
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  absolute highest peak of worldly religious status, sitting on the
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  papal throne, he almost despaired entirely.
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  It is a chilling illustration of the psychological reality that
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  an increase in worldly status and comfort almost always
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  correlates with the decay and spiritual zeal.
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  Process disparity is a lethal danger.
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  It is and necessitates a constant daily cry for God to
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  keep the believers feet moving on the narrow path.
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  Because the moment life gets comfortable, the feet stop
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  moving. Which forces you, the listener,
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  to analyze your own internal reactions to comfort.
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  Yeah, where are your affections drawn when the bank account is
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  full and your reputation is secure?
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  The supreme risk of wandering off the narrow path comes from
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  what the human heart naturally covets.
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  Right. The danger is not usually a
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  sudden decision to abandon the faith.
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  No, the danger is a slow, methodical pull towards shiny
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  things. Which leads seamlessly into the
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  battle described in verse 36. Yes, the plea shifts in verse
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  36. Incline my heart unto thy
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  testimonies, and not to covetousness.
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  The psalmist singles out covetousness with laser
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  precision. Why target this specific sin
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  over all others? Because covetousness is the most
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  direct, vicious competitor for the heart's devotion, without a
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  restraining hand applied by the Holy Spirit, the human heart
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  naturally bends toward the petty love of wealth.
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  Or health the human machine is prone to turn aside into the
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  byways of early gain. The will is free to choose, but
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  without the intervention of grace, the unregenerate will
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  freely and enthusiastically chooses the wrong things every
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  single time. So God must actively intervene
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  to bend the will in the exact opposite direction of its
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  natural inclination. Yes, but let me play devil's
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  advocate here. Society praises covetousness.
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  Oh, constantly. We dress it up in respectable
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  clothing. We call it fugality, good
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  business sense, or ambition. We write books admiring people
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  who build massive wealth empires and hoard global resources.
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  So why does the psalmist and the Puritan commentators who analyze
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  this text treat good business sense like a heinous, grotesque
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  crime? It is a fair question.
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  Why is it positioned as the ultimate enemy of God's
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  testimonies? Yeah, to understand the
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  severity, you have to look at the theological mechanics of
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  covetousness as understood by Puritans like Richard Capell and
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  James Usher. OK, what do they say?
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  Covetousness is not a personality quirk.
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  It is literal functional idolatry, right.
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  It is a direct violation of the first table of the law which
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  governs the worship of God. So to be covetous applies a
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  total, comprehensive lack of trust in God's Providence.
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  Yes, the covetous person looks at their bank account to act as
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  their savior, their shield, and the provider usurping the role
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  of God. Wow.
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  Furthermore, well, Capel and Usher pointed out the
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  sociological destruction it causes too.
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  Oh so. A covetous man inherently hates
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  mankind. That is a strong statement.
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  It is he hates the rich because he desperately wants what they
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  possess, and he lives in terror of the poor because he fears
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  they will ask something of him. So it obliterates both love for
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  God and love for neighbor in one stroke.
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  Absolutely. Bonaventura actually outlined 3
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  specific ways covetousness destroys a human life.
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  Oh. Let's hear those.
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  First, he argued it attacks the life of nature because the
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  hoarding of resources deprives others of basic necessities,
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  causing physical harm to the vulnerable.
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  Right. Second, it hinders the life of
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  grace because a mind obsessed with accumulating wealth has 0
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  bandwidth or desire for spiritual meditation.
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  That is so true. And 3rd, it obstructs the life
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  of glory because the covetous person has built their entire
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  heaven on earth and has no desire for the world to come.
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  It is a groveling, hardening sin that Withers everything it
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  touches. And the mechanics of how
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  covetousness takes root are terrifyingly simple.
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  It usually begins with the optic nerve.
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  Right, the heart is stolen by the eyes.
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  The visual stimuli around us feed the idolatrous desires
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  lying dormant within us. You see the object, the mind
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  assesses its value, and the affections latch onto it.
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  Recognizing this immediate physical danger sets up the
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  desperate, almost panic we find in verse 37.
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  Yes, verse 37 says Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity,
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  and quicken thou me in thy way. The literal Hebrew translation
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  of this phrase exposes the depth of the psalmist's perceived
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  helplessness. How does it translate literally?
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  It translates to make mine eyes to pass from seeing vanity.
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  Commentators describe the eyes as the floodgates, or the
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  windows where death enters the heart.
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  And notice the phrasing carefully.
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  The psalmist does not say, I will exert my willpower and turn
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  away my eyes. Right, he explicitly asks God to
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  reach down and turn his head for him.
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  Because he recognizes that his own willpower is entirely
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  compromised. He knows that if he lingers, if
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  he allows his eyes to rest on the vanity for even a second,
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  his affections will be hijacked and he will fall.
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  There is immense practical wisdom in this admission of
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  weakness. There really is.
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  Because if you are terrified of burning to death, you do not
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  play with matches in a dry barn. No, you do not.
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  If you fear catching the plague, you do not intentionally walk
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  into an infected house just to see if your immune system can
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  handle it. You do not place yourself in the
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  direct sphere of seductive temptations and expect your
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  fragile willpower to act as a shield.
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  William Seeker provided a brilliant visual for this.
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  What did he say? He argued that the eyes of a
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  Christian should be like sunflowers, which are open to no
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  blaze but that of the sun. Oh, I love that.
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  The sun sunflower physically tracks the light source.
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  Right, the believers eyes must be locked onto the source of
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  truth, refusing to track the glittering vanities passing.
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  By and the second-half of the verse reveals the cure for the
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  wandering eye. And quicken now me in thy way.
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  Why ask for quickening, which means the infusion of spiritual
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  life right after asking to look away from vanity?
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  Because dead vanity can only be successfully fought with vibrant
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  spiritual vitality, right? When a believer falls into
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  spiritual sloth, the glittering plastic things of the world
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  start to look incredibly appealing.
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  The psychology of sloth is fascinating.
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  It is a spiritually dull person will weep bitterly over temporal
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  financial losses, but they are completely numb to spiritual
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  decay. They act as if losing a
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  percentage of their retirement portfolio is the end of the
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  world, but they do not shed a single tear over Luth on their
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  zeal for prayer. Only God's quickening breath can
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  revive the dead nerves of the soul.
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  Restoring true cheerfulness and obedience, and making the things
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  of the world look as hollow and vain as they truly are.
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  So anchoring the mind against the constant barrage of vanity
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  requires the intellect to be firmly established in objective
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  truth. Because if the truth is
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  shifting, the eyes will wander. Keeping our minds anchored
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  requires God to establish His Word for us.
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  Which brings us to verse 38. Establish thy word unto thy
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  servant, who is devoted to thy fear.
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  This verse is a magnificent prayer against the creeping
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  paralysis of skepticism. Even a fiercely devoted servant
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  of God suffers from seasons of intense doubt.
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  It is a normal, expected reality of the Christian experience
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  under the fall. We need the Word made sure to us
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  continuously. Thomas Manton outlined 2
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  specific mechanisms by which God establishes His word for His
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  people. Right.
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  First, he does it internally by the inward assurance of the Holy
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  Spirit, which actively increases our faith and quiets the anxious
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  mind. And second, He does it
• 20:04
  externally by the outward actual performance of His promises in
• 20:08
  our daily Providence. When God visibly fulfills a
• 20:10
  promise in your life today, it acts as a structural
• 20:13
  reinforcement for your faith, preparing you for the trial
• 20:15
  coming tomorrow. But wait, if God's Word is
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  already perfectly stable in its own nature, if it is the
• 20:21
  unshakeable, objective truth of the universe, why do we need to
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  pray for it to be established? That is a great point.
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  It sounds like asking a Granite Mountain to be sturdy.
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  The mountain is sturdy whether you ask it to be or not.
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  That is the core tension of the verse.
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  The word cannot be more or less stable in its own nature.
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  It is objectively true, regardless of how the believer
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  feels about it on any given Tuesday.
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  But the prayer is that it must be established in US.
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  Yes, the subjective experience of that stability fluctuates
• 20:51
  wildly based on our human weakness, our physical
• 20:55
  exhaustion, and our circumstances.
• 20:57
  So the mechanism works like this.
• 20:59
  When God fulfills a promise, it becomes the earnest money.
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  It acts as the down payment, guaranteeing the fulfillment of
• 21:06
  all future promises. The word is established in the
• 21:09
  soft clay of our hearts so that we can lean our full
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  psychological weight upon it without the terror of it giving
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  way beneath us. Now let's examine the phrase
• 21:18
  devoted to thy fear. The Puritan sources breakdown 4
• 21:21
  distinct categories of fear and understanding this progression
• 21:24
  is vital for understanding what the psalmist is claiming about
• 21:27
  his own heart. Let's walk through those.
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  The lowest level is the fear of man, where a person alters their
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  behavior purely to avoid social pressure, ostracization, or
• 21:36
  physical harm from other humans. OK, the second level is servile
• 21:40
  fear. This is the raw animalistic
• 21:43
  dread of hell. Right.
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  A person operating under servile fear obeys the law only because
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  they are terrified of the punishment of the law giver.
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  It is the fear a prisoner has of the executioner.
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  Yes. The third level is initial fear,
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  which is a transitional state. It is a messy mixture of
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  lingering dread of punishment and the emerging sparks of
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  genuine love. And finally, there is filial
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  fear. Filial fear is the definitive
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  mark of the Regenerate Servant. It is the specific psychological
• 22:12
  state of a child who is intensely afraid of grieving a
• 22:15
  loving, perfectly just father. Under filial fear, you are
• 22:18
  afraid to disobey solely out of intense love and reverence for
• 22:21
  God's character. You are no longer focused on the
• 22:24
  flames of hell, you are focused on the face of the Father.
• 22:27
  You cannot bear the thought of dishonouring his name.
• 22:29
  So a healthy, robust, filial fear of God naturally and
• 22:33
  inevitably leads to a fear of bringing disgrace to his
• 22:36
  reputation among men. When you love the father, you
• 22:39
  fiercely guard the family name. Which connects directly to the
• 22:42
  intense anxiety expressed in the next verse.
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  Verse 39 says, Turn away my reproach, which I fear, for thy
• 22:50
  judgments are good. The word reproach here requires
• 22:53
  careful definition. It does.
• 22:55
  The psalmist is not expressing a fear of being persecuted for
• 22:58
  doing good. Right.
• 22:59
  The biblical mandate is to rejoice when you are slandered
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  or persecuted for righteousness's sake.
• 23:04
  The reproach feared in this verse is the just, accurate
• 23:08
  shame that comes from a believer's own glaring
• 23:10
  inconsistencies, moral failures, or notorious sins.
• 23:14
  The believer dreads causing the enemies of religion to blasphemy
• 23:18
  God's character because of their own hypocritical actions.
• 23:21
  Fear is not about their own reputation taking a hit.
• 23:24
  The fear is that their sin will be used as ammunition to mock
• 23:28
  the God they love. Carrying the name of a Christian
• 23:30
  is exactly like wearing a highly recognizable military uniform in
• 23:34
  public. Well, that makes sense.
• 23:35
  If you are sitting in a restaurant in full uniform and
• 23:38
  you act belligerently, mistreat the staff, or lie, the observers
• 23:42
  do not just judge you as an isolated individual with poor
• 23:46
  character. They judge the entire
• 23:47
  institution you represent. Right, they assume the military
• 23:51
  produces, or at least tolerates bad character.
• 23:54
  The psalmist is terrified of dragging God's uniform through
• 23:58
  the mud. And notice how he appeals to God
• 24:00
  to stop this from happening, stating For thy judgments are
• 24:03
  good. Man's corrupt judgments are
• 24:05
  based on slander, bias and incomplete information.
• 24:08
  But God's judgments are flawless, righteous, and
• 24:12
  perfectly calibrated. Richard Greenham made three
• 24:14
  crucial observations regarding this dynamic of shame.
• 24:17
  What were they? First, he noted the painful
• 24:20
  reality that even regenerate believers are subject to falling
• 24:23
  into notorious sins. Second, when they do fall, these
• 24:27
  sins cause an intense, crushing psychological shame in the
• 24:30
  believer precisely because their conscience is alive.
• 24:34
  Only God can remove this specific type of shame, either
• 24:38
  by granting repentance or by providentially fielding the
• 24:42
  believers failures from public view to protect His own name.
• 24:46
  Contrast this acute sensitivity to shame with the psychological
• 24:50
  state of the reprobate, who feel absolutely no shame for their
• 24:54
  actions and happily boast in their rebellion.
• 24:56
  The regenerate heart feels the sting of reproach acutely
• 24:59
  because it loves the one whose name is being tarnished.
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  So looking back over the terrain of this octonary, we see a
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  relentless compounding progression of need.
• 25:09
  We really do. It starts with a plea to cure
• 25:11
  spiritual blindness. It moves to asking for the
• 25:13
  internal recreation of the understanding.
• 25:16
  It begs for paralyzed feet to be forced into motion.
• 25:19
  It fights the gravitational pull of covetousness.
• 25:21
  It asks God to forcibly turn the head away from visual vanity.
• 25:24
  It cries out for a cure to internal skepticism it.
• 25:27
  Pleads for protection against ruining the family name.
• 25:29
  It is a grueling, exhausting sequence of total dependence.
• 25:33
  And it all culminates in the final verse, crowning the
• 25:35
  section with a magnificent declaration of sincerity.
• 25:38
  Verse 40 reads Behold, I have longed after lay precepts
• 25:42
  quicken me in my righteousness. This final verse establishes a
• 25:46
  massive theological dividing line.
• 25:48
  Yes it does. It is incredibly common for
• 25:50
  unregenerate people to long for God's promises.
• 25:53
  Everyone wants the benefits of the Kingdom.
• 25:56
  Everyone wants heaven, eternal peace, comfort and provision.
• 26:00
  But longing for his precepts, craving the rules, the commands,
• 26:04
  the sharp restrictions on human behavior, that is the
• 26:07
  definitive, undeniable evidence of a regenerate heart.
• 26:10
  The carnal mind inherently hates the law of God.
• 26:14
  It views any external authority as a threat to its autonomy.
• 26:18
  The renewed mind, however, hungers for the law.
• 26:20
  It sees the inherent beauty, safety and righteousness in the
• 26:23
  boundaries. The inclusion of the word behold
• 26:25
  is striking too. Yeah, it acts as an open,
• 26:28
  vulnerable claim of sincerity presented directly to the
• 26:31
  omniscient God. Behold, look at the bottom of my
• 26:33
  heart. God, despite my failures,
• 26:35
  despite my paralyzed feet and wandering eyes, I actually want
• 26:39
  to obey you. Think of a patient who has
• 26:40
  suffered through a long, grueling, near fatal illness.
• 26:44
  For weeks they have had 0 appetite.
• 26:46
  The mere smell of food repulsed them.
• 26:49
  Then one morning, the fever breaks, they wake up and they
• 26:52
  feel a genuine pang of hunger. That hunger is the absolute
• 26:56
  proof that life is returning to the body.
• 26:58
  The desire for the precepts, even if the believer fails to
• 27:01
  perfectly attain them in this life, proves that God has begun
• 27:05
  a good work. The appetite for holiness is the
• 27:08
  indisputable proof of spiritual life.
• 27:10
  Concluding this textual analysis, we have to look at the
• 27:13
  final repetitive cry of the psalmist.
• 27:16
  Quicken me. Give me life, give me vitality.
• 27:19
  It does not matter if you have been a Christian for three days
• 27:22
  or 50 years. No matter how mature the
• 27:24
  believer becomes, they never graduate from the need for fresh
• 27:27
  vitality every single hour. We never outgrow our absolute
• 27:31
  crushing dependence on the Holy Spirit's quickening breath.
• 27:34
  The moment the quickening stops, the feet stop moving, the eyes
• 27:37
  drift to vanity, and the heart begins to covet.
• 27:40
  We need continuous life just to follow the righteous law.
• 27:43
  We are looking at a system of complete, inescapable dependence
• 27:46
  on divine intervention. We need God to teach our minds
• 27:49
  because the intellect is naturally blind.
• 27:52
  We need him to make our feet move because the will is
• 27:54
  paralyzed. We need him to bend our
• 27:56
  affections away from the idol of wealth.
• 27:58
  We need him to physically avert our wandering eyes from the
• 28:02
  plastic vanities surrounding us. We need him to cure our internal
• 28:06
  skepticism, protect our public testimony from our own
• 28:09
  foolishness, and grant us a genuine, ravenous hunger for his
• 28:13
  restrictions. The Westminster Confession
• 28:15
  captures this reality perfectly, stating that we are not
• 28:18
  sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves, but
• 28:22
  our sufficiency is entirely of God.
• 28:25
  From the first spark of intellectual understanding to
• 28:27
  the final step of perseverance on the narrow path, it is a
• 28:31
  continuous work of sovereign grace.
• 28:33
  We are active participants. We are the ones walking.
• 28:35
  We are the ones looking away. We're the ones studying the
• 28:37
  word. But the energy, the inclination,
• 28:40
  and the ability to perform those actions are all gifts supplied
• 28:44
  continuously by God. That is right.
• 28:46
  Well, I want to leave you with a final thought to wrestle with as
• 28:49
  you step back into your day. It is a question building
• 28:52
  directly on the mechanics of grace we have discussed.
• 28:55
  And it is a tough one. It is if God's grace is the only
• 28:59
  force in the universe that can literally make you go in the
• 29:01
  right path. What is the specific vanity you
• 29:05
  are currently trying to turn your own eyes away from, using
• 29:08
  nothing but your own sheer willpower?
• 29:11
  What would happen if today you stop trying to force your own
• 29:14
  heavy head to turn away from the temptation and instead ask the
• 29:18
  Master to take your chin in his hands and turn it for you?
• 29:22
  Because having the map of the law in your hands is completely
• 29:25
  useless if you do not have the legs to walk the terrain.
• 29:28
  Keep your eyes on the general and let him supply the strength
• 29:31
  for the March.