How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth. Through your precepts I get understanding, therefore I hate every false way. Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. I have sworn an oath and confirmed it to keep your righteous rules. I am severely afflicted. Give me life, O Lord, according to your word. And accept my free will, offerings of praise, O Lord, and teach me your rules. I hold my life in my hands continually, but I do not forget your law. The wicked have laid a snare for me, but I do not stray from your precepts. Your testimonies are my heritage forever, for they are the joy of my heart. I incline my heart to perform your statutes forever to the end. This is the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. You may be seated. Well this summer we went down to Hawassi in Funyaks, which is similar to a kayak, maybe just a little dumb down, just to be saved for us. And as we were going down to Hawassi, we noticed that there were some pretty dark clouds on the horizon. And in the process of navigating that river, we would see a bolt of lightning and then wait patiently for the thunder. And because a thunder follows lightning. You remember last week when we talked about our walk with the Lord, we realized at the end of Psalm 134, these Psalms of Ascent, that we had reached a place where it was very common for us to recognize as one of the themes of those Psalms that gratitude followed grace. I would submit to you that gratitude follows grace the way that thunder follows lightning. And it is my hope and prayer that your hearts are filled with gratitude to the Lord for what he's done for us, that as you navigate your life in this world, that you walk along and you have a sense of right and wrong. You have a sense of light and darkness. And it's the prayer of our session and diacinate that the members of our church are walking in the light of the gospel. You might say, what does that look like? What kind of break that down for us? It's a beautiful picture in the scripture when we speak of this light and darkness. But I want you to recognize the reality of this. In 1977, while attending Wheaton College, I came home from a trip on the train to Chicago. And I got back to my room there at Wheaton at about four in the morning. And as I sat down on my bed, I just thought, you know what, I can't do this anymore. I can't live a life that to some people appears to be a godly Christian life and live another life when I go into Chicago on Friday nights. And I came to the end of myself. The Lord had opened my heart just a couple years before, where I very for the first time heard the gospel in 1975. And I believed I definitely was converted and professed belief in the work of the Lord for me. But as I walked away from that time of conversion in October of 1975 and ended up transferring over to Wheaton College, I began to recognize that I was living a duplicitous life. I was living a couple different lives, I was living different lifestyles depending on the people I was running around with. And when I went into Chicago with some of my friends and classmates, I wasn't living a life that was honoring to the Lord. And so when I got home at four in the morning on that fall day at Wheaton, 1977, I sat down on the end of my bed. And I said, Lord, I can't do this anymore. I either want to be a non-Christian who doesn't have the guilt of doing the things that I thought I enjoyed, or I want to be a Christian who has the freedom to pursue the Lord and not walk this way any longer. When the Spirit of God resonated in my soul and said, you got it! You're at a good place, boy! And he broke through to me, and I began to recognize that I needed to walk in the light of what God had revealed to me. I was done living a hypocritical lifestyle, and he led me. He led me out of a hypocritical lifestyle into a more authentic lifestyle, one of honesty, and one of pursuing the Lord, and seated on the edge of my bed there outside of Chicago, the power of the Spirit convicted me afresh, that I needed to walk in the light if I have the light. Because you see, if you're here this morning, and you're stumbling your way through life, and you make mistakes, and you're trying to find your joy and satisfaction in the things of the world, you're in for big trouble. You know, recently, on one of our trips this summer, in the middle of the night I walked into a door. Thank you for not laughing, some of you. The door was open, and I was walking in the darkness, and I couldn't hear that phrase, and I was walking in the darkness, and I could not see exactly where I was going, and I walked right into the edge of the door, thump! So I backed up and started to feel my forehead to see if there's any blood, and it turned out there was some blood, it was a pretty good thump. And then I went on from there, kind of walking like this. My wife affectionately refers to this as the mummy walk, you kind of walk along. And you know, that's how some of you are walking right now. You're thumping your way along, walking in the darkness, and you are convinced that this is the life that God has for you, it's not the life that God has for you. Because God is going to shine his light into your life in a way, that he opens up your eyes, so that you no longer have to stumble along in the darkness. But you can pursue the God who is pursuing you, and you can find the great joy and satisfaction in him. Now, let's look at this text in Psalm 119, verse 103, How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than the honey to my mouth. There's this thought that has happened in the heart of the psalmist, where he is saying that, Lord, you are the sweetest thing to me, how sweet are your words to my taste. I've heard the words of the world, and now I'm hearing this sweet flavor. I know it's a bit of a funny metaphor. He says, how sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth. He's speaking of the spiritual concept of hearing the Lord and being satisfied by him, but he's using a physical metaphor, this idea of taste. And you know what I've noticed over the years is when I've tried to introduce a food to a person, one of the things I do is I'll say, you'll love it. Oh, you've got to try it. Oh, well, maybe you didn't like Brussels sprouts when you had them when you were a kid. Oh, but I make the best Brussels sprouts. You know, when our grandchildren are visiting, one of the things that I've caught myself doing is I'll take a bite and I'll go, mmm, yum, yum, yum, yum, oh, these are so good. That's what David's saying. That's what David's saying or the psalmist, if you will, is saying, mmm, see how sweet the word of the Lord is, it's so sweet, it's like honey. And then look at this next verse, through your precepts, I get what, I get understanding. You see, first of all, what the Lord does in our lives is He shines the light into our mind. He gives light to the intellect. The way to the heart and the way from the heart to the hands is always through the mind. And so God gives us this understanding. He gave me that understanding and knew as I was seated on that bed in Wheaton College saying, what am I doing? I know better than this. I've tasted better than this. You know, once you've tasted good food, it's hard to eat junk. I will eat fast food in a dire emergency. But I rarely eat fast food. Why? But I put that in my mouth when you can stop and make a sandwich or you can go home and whip up a scallop souffle or something simple. But you see what's happened is the Lord has given us a taste. He has opened our mind's eye so that we see there's another way. It's this beautiful way and we gain a new understanding. And do you know what, Christian, you walk according to your understanding. You live according to your understanding. You are the person that reflects your understanding and your beliefs. It's been so fun for me to meet you. We've been here five months and some people are just happy we're here. We're so glad we're here. Thanks for coming. You're crazy. It's kind of what they're thinking, I can tell. And then there's other people who are tremendously theologically astute. And their way of showing me love is to maybe want to debate a particular theological issue. And what I have found is that when the Lord opens your mind and you taste the sweetness of who he is, it changes your life. It changes your life in such a way that you live a life that is reflective of the beauty of Christ. You might say, I'm not there yet, I want to be there. He's moving us along that path, isn't he? As you receive grace, give gratitude. As the Lord gives light to your mind and here in verse 104, he gives us understanding through his precepts. So the first thing I want you to recognize is the Lord gives light to your mind. But do you know what else he does? He gives heat to your heart. He gives heat to your heart, verse 105. Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. So he gives us this sense of knowing where to go. You know, I remember as I was seated on the edge of my bed at Wheaton, I got up the next day and I went to one of my friends because I didn't know who would understand. I didn't know who would understand that I was tired of living a lie. You know, if you've fooled a lot of the people, you don't want to start with them because they've been completely fooled. And so you'll have to convince them that you're really a liar and a cheat, and that's no fun. So I went to one of my friends, Dave, and I said, Dave, I've been living a lifestyle that is not honoring to the Lord, and I'm done with it. I can't take it anymore. And Dave said, you know what? I haven't been walking too closely with the Lord either. He said, but I know it's important to get in God's word. Why don't we read the Bible together? I said, that's a grand idea. And so he said, there's 31 Proverbs in the book of Proverbs. Why don't we read a proverb a day because most months have 31 days. And so we started to read Proverbs every day together, and we did that for five years. That was a pretty good start. And do you know what, since 1977, I think I can honestly say there hasn't been a day when I haven't read God's word. Because God's word to me is so sweet, and it's so true. Now one of the great struggles I was having, and one of the reasons it's very hard for me to answer the first confession question when it says, what is the chief end of man? And the answer is the chief end of man is to glorify God, and then I had a problem. Enjoy him forever. I had this concept that glorifying God and me enjoying him was a non-sequitur. It's like they didn't belong in the same sentence. How in the world can I glorify God and also enjoy him? It doesn't work, see, because I can act like I want to glorify God, but then when I'm alone I just want to find joy for myself, and if he sees what I'm doing, then I'm really not glorifying him. It's a bit of a catch-22, it's a conundrum, and I had that breakthrough, and I realized that as I seek to glorify God, I enjoy him. And as I enjoy him, I glorify him, and the whole thing came together for me. The hand slipped in to the glove, and my life has never been the same. For the past 33 years, I have found the Lord Jesus Christ to be sweet to my taste, to give light to my intellect, and to give heat to my heart, and it's a wonderful life. And I would just ask you right now, are you living a duplicitous life? Do you act differently when you're with your friends from school than you do when you're with your parents? Do you act differently when you're at church than you do when you're out on a Friday night? If you do, you are living a tension-filled life, and it will eat you alive. In fact, as one of your pastors, I pray that it eats you alive. I pray that you come to the end of your rope, and you say, I can't go on like this. I can't go on with the light that God has given me and walk in the darkness. It doesn't make sense. I'm not going to do it any longer. I'm free. What the world has to offer me does not taste as good as what Christ has offered me. My brain won't take it, my mouth won't take it, my heart can't stand it. So the Lord moves His people, doesn't He? He moves His people on this journey toward heaven. Because if you can't enjoy God now, what makes you think you will enjoy Him in heaven? The answer is you won't. Now there's a couple different ways of viewing that you won't, isn't there? I ask you simply, do you enjoy the Lord? Do you enjoy His presence? Do you find Him to be sweeter than honey? Do you find Him to be lighting your path? You see, this is how the Lord works in our lives. He moves in our heart by moving in our mind. And right now, your mind is actively wrestling with what this passage says and how you're living your life. And you know what? You need help. You need help. When's the last time you asked for help? After the early service a lady came up to me and said, pastor, I can't go home. I'm not going to make it. My children aren't going to make it. I need help. Earlier in the service, in the first service, I had to pray for help because in the middle of the prayer of confession, I lost it. I started weeping and I couldn't stop weeping. And I wept my way through the entire first service, do you know why? It's not because I'm living a duplicitous life. It's because I'm not living a duplicitous life. The gospel moved from this theologian's brain into his into this theologian's heart afreshed this morning and it was too much. I want to give you permission to have spiritual breakdowns in this church. I know it's a little embarrassing when we have nervous breakdowns so you might not want to have that here, although you're welcome. But I want to give you permission to have spiritual breakdowns in this church. You fall apart and you can't go on and you need help. Welcome home, brother, to hospital for centers. The chief center happens to be the chief shepherd, welcome home. Because when the light of God shines into your mind and gives heat to your heart, what are you going to do? Are you either going to worship him in the fullness of who he is and the fullness of who you are or you're going to repent? Anything less than that is a duplicitous life. Now do you know how good God is? Do you know what He actually does in our lives? He changes our heart so that we begin to be inclined to worship and obedience. Look at this last verse that Scotty read for us. The Psalmist says, I incline my heart to perform your statutes forever to the end. This idea of having your heart inclined, I want you to see a bit of an incline, if you will. In fact, one of my friends in Dallas has a favorite golf course. He said, Tinsley, I want to take you to play my favorite golf course and I've got a favorite hole on the golf course and my favorite hole contains a favorite green and I said, I can't wait. So Bob takes me on to play golf and I go, is this it? No, it's not. He works away around to about the 14th hole and he goes, this is it. This is my favorite hole on my favorite golf course and I said, why? He goes, wait till you get to the green, which is usually what I do when I play golf. I wait until I get to the green. As we approached the green after a series of shots, I noticed that the green was huge and you know what else? It was shaped like a bowl. So anywhere you hit the ball on the green, it followed the incline to the hole, I love it. That's what the Psalmist is saying. He's saying, God has incline to my heart. Can you imagine that? God has incline to the heart of the believer so that as we walk along with him on this journey, we begin to naturally run toward the throne of God in worship and when we don't we repent and we return to worship. He's inclined our hearts and what happens when your heart is inclined is says this, you perform your statutes forever. What does that mean? Want you to think about this? First of all, the Lord works in your mind by giving you light and then he brings heat to your heart and then he brings this desire to obey to your hands and feet as the work of the Lord. He inclines his people to himself. He brings this restoration. I love this last word. This last word in this particular section of the Psalm is intriguing to me. By the way, Psalm 119 is the longest chapter in the Bible. If you're ever going to memorize the chapter of the Bible, you might not want to start with Psalm 119. You might, but you might not. It contains 22 stanzas, one for each letter of the Hebrew alphabet, more or less, and each one of the verses under each of the stanzas begins with the same Hebrew letter. Starts with alif goes debate, moves through, it's very interesting, it's very confining you might think. But it's purposeful, it's in the dead center of the Bible, and I want you to see the word that it ends with. It says, your statutes forever, I incline my heart to perform your statutes forever to the end. There's only one person who has performed God's statutes to the end, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you see what's at the bottom of this incline? Do you see who's standing there, minding the flag at the bottom of this incline? It is the great gatekeeper, the great gate himself, the Lord Jesus Christ, the forever God, not the temporal God's, that we worship occasionally around here, the forever God, the Lord Jesus Christ, who illumines the mind, who heats the heart, and moves us to action. So brothers and sisters, I ask you tonight, when you sit down on the edge of your bed, to answer a simple question, do I live a duplicitous life? Have I fallen in to the creature comforts of the Western world so that the great God of my heart is comfort and prosperity? Or do I still have a fervency for the Lord? Is it still in there, brother and sister? Is your heart still warm? Is your mind still supple? Are your hands and feet ready to obey? Do you know before the brainer admission started, there were a number of very difficult situations that incurred in this area. The French and English were battling over this territory, and in a process they made numerous treaties with the Cherokee which they broke. And so the Cherokee learned not to trust the white man, and when the people came to begin the brainer admission, they had a difficult task. The Cherokee chief in Western North Carolina, I'm not sure exactly how to say his name even though he's probably one of my great-great-great-grandfathers being part Cherokee myself. The chief Yanaguska of the Cherokee Indian Reservation of Western North Carolina. This is taken from a book written by Robert Walker called Torch Lights to the Cherokees. It says after the Bible had been translated into Cherokee language by the missionaries before Yanaguska would permit it to be introduced among his people, the old chief requested that it be brought to him in red. After listening earnestly to a portion of St. Matthew, the old chief dryly but seriously remarked, well, it seems to be a good book, but it is strange that the white people are not better after having had it so long. Robert Walker says, the natural criterion by which one judges the efficacy of any religion is its visible effects on the character and behavior of its adherents. I ask you, has the Lord given you light in your mind? Has he given you heat in your heart? Has he given you an inclination toward humble obedience as you follow our Savior Jesus Christ? For as the Brainered Missionaries held out the Torch light to the Cherokee Indians and I'm thankful they did, you hold out the Torch light for your neighbors and for your office workers and for the people we see in the grocery store. Are we first Presbyterian Church of Chattanooga, Torch lights for our Savior Jesus Christ? I pray we are, let's pray together. Dear Father, you made us to be a city on a hill, a light so bright that people cannot ignore us. They must either shield their eyes or run toward it out of curiosity. I pray, dear Father, that as we come to the recognition that at some level each and every one of us lives a duplicitous life, that all you would pour out your grace and new on us and that we would be humble, honest people, who recognize that the only torch that we can hold is the beautiful and the loving Jesus Christ, who fulfilled your precepts and your testaments and your promises and your commands perfectly for his people. Oh God, please move in our midst that we would humbly receive the gift of the Lord Jesus Christ, that even in spite of ourselves, we would be made torches to shine forth the truth of the gospel in this culture, to this people whom we are called to love, not hate. We are called to have pity, not judgment. We are called to be discerning Lord, but not hypercritical. Oh Phyllis, with the love of our great Torch that we might walk in the light, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. Now would you please stand for the benediction. Now may the Lord bless you and keep you, may the Lord cause his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you, may the Lord lift up his countenance upon us, may he lift up his countenance upon us and give us his goodness and his kindness from this time forth and forevermore, amen.