Transcript

We’re again going to be in Psalm 119 during this time in God’s Word. If you have your Bibles please turn with me there.

Leroy Eims writes this: One spring, me and my family were driving from Fort Lauderdale to Tampa, FL. As far as the eye could see, orange trees were loaded with fruit. When we stopped for breakfast, I ordered orange juice with my eggs.

The waitress said, “I’m sorry, I can’t bring you orange juice. Our machine is broken.” At first I was dumbfounded. We were surrounded by millions of oranges, and I knew they had oranges in the kitchen. Orange slices garnished our plates.

Juice was not the problem. We were surrounded by thousands of gallons of juice. The problem was they had become dependent on a machine to get it.

Christians are sometimes like that. They may be surrounded by Bibles in their homes and libraries, but if something should happen to the Sunday morning service, they would have no nourishment for their souls.

The problem is not a lack of spiritual food, but that many Christians depend on others, and don’t know how to get it for themselves.

God wants us to know Him. We know Him by His Word. He has given us His Word so that we may grow in our knowledge of Him for ourselves.

By the Holy Spirit’s ministry, He enlightens us to His Word as we spend time with the Word, that we might know the Lord more and more deeply in our relationship with Him.

We don’t get zapped with understanding and knowledge in anything in life. It takes time to learn things, whether it’s the things we learn in school, on the job, in our hobbies, and just about life in general in this world.

We grow in our knowledge and understanding. It doesn’t happen overnight. It’s the same way with our knowledge and understanding of the Bible. It takes time.

But sadly many don’t have the patience with God’s Word to learn and grow that they might give to other things in life.

However, as we patiently, faithfully, consistently spend time with God’s Word, we grow, our knowledge and understanding increases, and we go deeper and deeper into the glories of knowing God, knowing His character, nature, and His plans, purposes and will.

Psalm 119:17-18 reads, “Deal bountifully with thy servant, that I may live, and keep thy Word. Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.”

As we continue in our walk through Psalm 119, we find that the writer enjoys the Word and doing God’s will so much that he now asks as a blessing from God, for life, so he might continue and have many years to live by the Word and do His will. It shows how much he “delights” in the Word.

Then he asks for another blessing, that God would “open his eyes,” that God would enlighten him to His Word, so he might grow and see God’s wondrous blessings.

The writer asks for to know by God’s enlightenment and opening his spiritual eyes to see “wondrous things out of thy law.” The psalmist lived under the Law.

The Word he had was the Law. That was the dispensation he lived under and the Word that he lived by for the daily ordering of his actions and responsibilities before God.

The principle of enlightenment is true though, as we too should ask God to “open Thou mine eyes,” that we might see and understand the wondrous things from God’s Word, rightly divided, understanding that we are under grace, not under the law.

1 Corinthians 2 has much to say about illumination and being illuminated to what God is doing today under grace through the revelation of the mystery.

1 Corinthians 2:7-10 says this, “But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory:

“Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

“But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.

“But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.”

Paul says that he speaks the wisdom of God in a “mystery.” The term “mystery” doesn’t mean what you think when you normally think of the word mystery.

Mystery is the word “musterion” in the Greek. It means “to shut the mouth.” It doesn’t mean something that’s cultic or puzzling or like a labyrinth or a maze where you’ve got to sort of find your way on a quest for the wisdom of God.

The word “mystery” means a secret which is absolutely impossible for man to know, something man can’t know, something unavailable, until God opened His mouth and revealed it. “Mystery” points to the impossibility of man knowing God’s secret.

It’s a secret impossible for man to know until God spoke and revealed that secret. Paul says in Eph. 3 that this secret was “hid in God.” Here he calls it “hidden wisdom.”

The mystery was hidden, unattainable, undiscoverable, until God revealed it. The mystery WAS something hidden BUT NOW is fully revealed. The risen, glorified Christ revealed it fully to the Apostle Paul.

And when the Lord spoke and revealed the mystery He revealed a new dispensation of grace, and a gospel which had been unknown before, and a new hope of heaven, and by the mystery we learn about the Cross in all its glory and all its accomplishments.

God had hidden this message and plan for the heavenlies from before the ages, “before the world began,” v. 7 says. But it was always part of His overall plan.

Before time began, God had foreordained this marvelous plan for His heavenlies. But He hid it, until the time was right.

It’s important to note that the Mystery wasn’t plan B if plan A failed. Both God’s program for Israel and His program for the Body of Christ were plan A’s.

God had a plan for the earth and God had a plan for the heavenlies. God’s plan for Israel and His plan for the Body of Christ are both glorious plans. But the mystery was something God had planned before the world “unto OUR glory” v. 7 says.

The Mystery is God’s plan for us the Church, the Body of Christ unto our glory, for our blessing, our eternal excellence, our exaltation in the heavens.

For all time and before time, God planned our eternal blessing and glory. And in the right time, He unfolded His mystery. And to the Apostle Paul was revealed the mystery and the dispensation of grace that he might in turn reveal the mystery to the world.

And to demonstrate that this was “hidden wisdom,” a completely unknown message that God said nothing about before the Apostle Paul, Paul says that even “none of the princes of this world knew.” No one in this world knew about the mystery, and no one in the spiritual realm knew about it either. Satan and the demons had no idea about the mystery.

They know the Bible backwards and forwards and had thousands of years to know about it. But Satan and the demonic spirits in the heavenlies didn’t know about the hidden wisdom of the mystery because it is NOT revealed in the Old Testament.

You can’t find it there. Satan and his demons who’ve been around a lot longer than we have, for thousands of years, they couldn’t find it, because it’s not there at all.

To show this is true, they had no clue that helping to bring about Christ’s death would result in their own destruction. Had they known about all that the Cross would accomplish, as revealed by the mystery, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

The quotation in verse 9 is from Isaiah 64:4. Three faculties: eye and ear and heart, by which we learn earthly things, are listed.

Paul uses this quote to demonstrate how God, by His own right as God, can hold back truth which He has “prepared” beforehand, unknown truth which can’t be seen by the eyes, heard by the ear, or enter the heart because it was never made known before.

This verse is commonly interpreted to refer to the glories of heaven, which none has seen or heard. Once we get a meaning in our minds, it is often difficult to dislodge it and accept any other meaning. You see this verse at funerals, you read it in comfort cards.

But what Paul is really speaking about here are the truths that have been revealed for the first time in the revelation of the mystery, to those who love Him in this disp. of grace.

The point by Paul is not to describe the future state of the saved, it is to show that to believers who love the Lord under grace He has revealed the formerly hidden wisdom of God, which makes known this glorious disp. of grace and its heavenly position for the believer, which He had “prepared” and “ordained before the world unto our glory.”

Verse 9 speaks of what God had not revealed and not shown, and could never be seen, heard, or enter man’s heart, but then in verse 9, it says that now “God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit.” That which was unknown, now is revealed, and made fully known.

And v. 10 says, “But God!” The mystery was hidden from eternity past, but God interrupted His dealings with Israel, temporarily set His earthly program with them aside. And God ushered in a new program of grace, and revealed the mystery to the Apostle Paul.

The mystery, the message and body of truth, which reveals the Church, the Body of Christ, the dispensation of grace, and our heavenly hope and calling in Christ has been fully revealed and made known now.

And v. 10 says that God has revealed the mystery to “us,” the Body of Christ “by His Spirit,” who dwells in us through the process of illumination to His completed Word.

Once we were blind, but now we see. When we believed the gospel, Christ opened our blinded eyes and we could see spiritually. And we saw and we knew His blood washed all our sins away, and that we were right with God, and at peace with Him.

And after we are saved, the Spirit helps us to grow and see more and more of the truth of His Word. The truths of God’s Word are made known to us by the Spirit’s illumination.

Dr. Tony Evans writes this, “Most of us in our homes have dimmer switches. Dimmer switches are designed to progressively turn up the light. The Holy Spirit is your dimmer.

“What He does is turn up the light so that you can see things you couldn’t see before. We have to be in tune with Him though.

“His illumination won’t necessarily come on with one flip of the switch. If you are open and listening, the dimmer works. Illumination sets in because, over time, the light gradually comes on as we study and spend time in the Word.”

By illumination to His Word, the Spirit turns the light on His Word brighter and brighter so we can see more and more clearly the truth of His Word.

And the Spirit drives us deeper into the Word, deeper into the truth. He reveals, teaches, illuminates to us the “deep things of God” v. 10 says, which in this context is in relation to the formerly hidden wisdom of the mystery and of the Cross of Christ.

Having an understanding of God’s wisdom that is revealed for this dispensation of grace is only because of the teaching of the Spirit. And were it not for Him and His work, we would remain in darkness to it. Knowing the mystery is a gift from God.

1 Corinthians 2:11-13 says, “For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.

“Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.

“Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.”

Verse 11 shows how the Spirit as God Himself can reveal all things about God. The Spirit is infinite in wisdom and understands all the truths of God and is able to impart them.

There is not anything in God that the Spirit does not know, does not always know, has not always known, from eternity. This is not distant knowledge, this is not discovered knowledge; this is immediate knowledge. This is innate knowledge.

He knows God’s wisdom, perfections, and purposes fully because He Himself is God.

He knows the will of God because He is God and wills what the Father wills and what the Son wills. All this being true, He is able to teach us “the deep things of God,” everything about God’s Person, character, nature, everything about the Cross of God’s Son and what it accomplished, and everything about the revelation of the Mystery.

The Mystery and the dispensation of grace was also His plan and will as God. He can illuminate us to its truth fully within His Word.

The Spirit is the Author and Teacher of the Word and He can “open our eyes” to behold the wondrous things from God’s Word, as Psalm 119:18 says.

And in illuminating us to the deep things of God, the Spirit enlightens us to the fact of how we still have to learn, how much we don’t know, how far we need still to go.

Verse 12 shows how the Spirit enlightens us to the things that are freely given to us by God. He does this, because as God, He Himself has freely given them to us! And in this dispensation it’s all about the things freely given to us under grace, by grace, as a gift.

We have freely been given the Holy Spirit, His Word, eternal life, redemption, the forgiveness of all our sins, all spiritual blessings, a seated, eternal position in Christ in the heavenlies. He has freely given us His peace, His joy, His righteousness.

Paul says, “Which things we also speak” in v. 13. The Spirit enlightens us to all we have been freely given, and God wants us to freely speak it and share it with others.

We are God’s mouthpiece, we are to speak about the things of the Word that the Spirit has enlightened us to, to speak about all Christ has done for us and all He has freely given, and will freely give to all who believe His gospel of grace.

And as His mouthpiece we do as v. 7, we also “speak the wisdom of God in a mystery.”

These verses show us that the truths that travel from our head, are to go to our heart, then out thru our mouths. Many times our heads fill with knowledge and it gets stuck there without application, or it gets stuck without sharing it with others.

But it is God’s will that we learn, apply and share the truths we know with others, “not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth.”

Verse 13 also shows how the Spirit in His illumination teaches us by comparing “spiritual things with spiritual,” or Scripture with Scripture, or spiritual truths with spiritual truths in His Word.

The Spirit helps us see things clearly, He helps us make spiritual connections and He uses all His Word to help us grow and to teach us. He illuminates us to His Word to help us see what it means to our lives, and the changes God wants to make in us.

Charles Swindoll writes, “The Holy Spirit takes the majestic truth of God and dispenses it just the way you need it…It is the Spirit’s delight to take the truth of God and make one thing meaningful to that woman, something altogether different to that man, and something different again to that fellow down there.”

The Spirit knows our needs. He makes intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered when we pray because He knows and hears our hearts and emotions when we pray. And in His enlightenment to His Word, in His knowledge of us He applies it to our lives individually, in helping us, comforting us, giving us just what we need.

The Spirit in His teaching ministry also teaches us about the “Lord of glory” as v. 8 calls Him. He shows how Christ is the “Lord of glory” today carrying on a heavenly ministry in His exalted, glorified, resurrected position as the Head of the Church, the Body of Christ.

God the Spirit in His ministry always points to God the Son. He lifts up and magnifies Him. The Spirit increases our knowledge of Christ as we spend time in His Word.

The Bible has been called a “Him” book. It is all about Him, the Lord Jesus Christ. And in being enlightened into a deeper knowledge of Christ and being led toward being more like Him is what transforms our lives.

And by illumination to a knowledge of the mystery in God’s Word our knowledge of Christ increases, and our relationship with Him goes deeper, as we know what He is doing today.

Psalm 119:19-24: “I am a stranger in the earth: hide not thy commandments from me. My soul breaketh for the longing that it hath unto thy judgments at all times.

“Thou hast rebuked the proud that are cursed, which do err from thy commandments. Remove from me reproach and contempt; for I have kept thy testimonies.

“Princes also did sit and speak against me: but thy servant did meditate in thy statutes. Thy testimonies also are my delight and my counsellors.”

The psalmist’s mind is so fixed in the Word and on the Lord that he feels like “a stranger in the earth.” His thinking and life is so foreign from the world’s, that he feels like a foreigner, a stranger, and out of place here. That is true for us too.

This world is not our home. The wisdom of the Word is so vastly different from the thinking of this world, that when we live by the Word, we often feel like we don’t belong here, that I’m a stranger in this place. And the world thinks we’re strange too!

And like a person living in a foreign land, whose desire is to keep up constant communication with their family for comfort, he asks that God not hide His Word from him, but enlighten him to new, deeper truths about God and His Word.

In v. 20, we find that his heart nearly breaks and is crushed, his desire is so great to know God’s Word “at all times.” It was an all-consuming passion of his life.

The psalmist is being oppressed in his life, and had been facing reproach and slander, undeservedly, because he says he’d been keeping God’s “testimonies.” They’re reproach is unfounded and undeserved and he asks God to remove it from his life (v. 22).

In v. 23b, we see that princes and rulers were hurling insults at him as well, as rulers often do today against believers. But the psalmist didn’t lash out, doesn’t become bitter, rather he meditated on God’s Word and His statutes, finding comfort and solace there. God’s Word was his joy and delight, where he found wise counsel for his life (v. 24).

Psalm 119:25-32 says, “My soul cleaveth unto the dust: quicken thou me according to thy Word. I have declared my ways, and thou heardest me: teach me thy statutes. Make me to understand the way of thy precepts: so shall I talk of thy wondrous works.

“My soul melteth for heaviness: strengthen thou me according unto thy Word. Remove from me the way of lying: and grant me thy law graciously.

“I have chosen the way of truth: thy judgments have I laid before me. I have stuck unto thy testimonies: O LORD, put me not to shame. I will run the way of thy commandments, when thou shalt enlarge my heart.”

In v. 25, we see that he had been laid low by his oppression, stating “my soul cleaveth unto the dust” and in v. 28: “my soul melteth for heaviness.”

He was weighed down and overwhelmed by his circumstances, so he immediately turns to God in prayer and to His Word for help, for restoration, for his spirit to be revived, for strength and life.

One commentator said this: “The Word is living water, it gives life…and it is heavenly bread and so strengthens man’s heart.”

The writer takes comfort that God “heard” his prayer in v. 26, which he goes on to recount. The first part of his prayer is again to gain a greater understanding of God and His Word, so that he might tell others about His God and His marvelous ways.

He asks for strength from God’s Word to be brought out from his despondency, and then asks that God would remove the sin of lying from him, and that God would graciously grant that His law and will would be engraved upon his heart and carried out in his life.

Then in contrast to the lying and falsehood he desired put out of his life, the solution is that he’d resolved to follow the Word of truth: “I have chosen the way of truth.” When we follow the Word, we are choosing the way of truth.

In contrast to his soul cleaving to the dust in despair, the solution for bringing him up, was cleaving to the Word: “I have stuck unto Thy testimonies,” he says.

And the Word restores him before we leave the section, as he was down in the dust in verse 25, and then he is up and running in verse 32.

He speaks of running and putting forth a full effort in the ways of the Word.

And he knows that the Word changes his heart, and enlarges it with joy, love, hope, peace, and concern for others and thus motivates him to serve the Lord and others.