Blessed Are They Who Walk According To The Law Of The Lord

INTRO.- ILL.- A collector of rare books ran into an acquaintance who told him he had just thrown away an old Bible that he found in a dusty, old box. He happened to mention that Guten-somebody-or-other had printed it. "Not Gutenberg?" gasped the collector. "Yes, that was it!"

"You idiot! You've thrown away one of the first books ever printed. A copy recently sold at auction for half a million dollars!"

"Oh, I don't think this book would have been worth anything close to that much," replied the man. "It was scribbled all over in the margins by some guy named Martin Luther."

Brothers and Sisters, the Bible is valuable but not because it’s an old book or because Gutenberg printed it at one time or because Martin Luther may have scribbled his name in it. THE BIBLE IS VALUABLE BECAUSE IT IS THE LIVING, ETERNAL WORD OF GOD! And no other book can be compared to it.

Psalm 119 has 176 verses and most of them deal with God’s law or God’s Word. Is scripture important? Is the Bible important? Well, what do you think?

II Timothy 3:16-17 “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

If scripture is from God as we believe it is then it must be read, listened to, learned from, and obeyed. The obedience is the hard part, of course.

There is another life beyond this life which is eternal, and God is trying to tell us in His Word what to do and how to get there. And it’s a matter of us listening, learning, and living by faith and learning to obey God’s Word.

James 1:22 “Be ye doers of the Word and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.” (And Luke 6:46)

ILL.- Every state has their own “rules of the road” handbook published by the DMV. What’s the purpose of those rules? They give rules to follow for every driver: stop, go, yield the right of way, rules for passing, merging, speed limits, turn signals, etc. This doesn’t mean that every driver is going to abide by those rules, but if they are smart, they will. Following these rules will help to keep them from having accidents or from getting traffic tickets.

LIKEWISE, God’s Word is given to us as a sort of “rules of the road” for living the Christian life. Not everyone abides by those rules, but if they are smart they will. They may not get a ticket from God if they break the rules, but they may get some things they don’t like!

Matthew 7:24-27 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”

It sounds like we all need to follow God’s rules of the roads. If not, there could be a big crash in our lives.

PROP.- What does God’s Word do for us?

1- God’s Word keeps us pure

2- God’s Word helps us to know God

3- God’s Word brings joy to our hearts

I. GOD’S WORD KEEPS US PURE

1 Blessed are they whose ways are blameless,

who walk according to the law of the Lord.

9 How can a young man keep his way pure?

By living according to your word.

10 I seek you with all my heart;

do not let me stray from your commands.

11 I have hidden your word in my heart

that I might not sin against you.

ILL.- The Teacher was checking her student’s knowledge of the book of proverbs. “Cleanliness is next to what?” she asked. A small boy replied with real feeling: “Impossible.”

There is no scripture in the book of Proverbs that reads “cleanliness is next to godliness.” Jesus made it clear that men are defiled by what is in their hearts and that godliness is not attained by what we eat or don’t eat or by how often we wash our hands.

Matthew 15:18-20 “But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man ‘unclean.’ For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what make a man ‘unclean’; but eating with unwashed hands does not make him ‘unclean.’”