“How can a young man keep his way pure?
By guarding it according to your word.
With my whole heart I seek you;
let me not wander from your commandments!
I have stored up your word in my heart,
that I might not sin against you.
Blessed are you, O Lord;
teach me your statutes!
With my lips I declare
all the rules of your mouth.
In the way of your testimonies I delight
as much as in all riches.
I will meditate on your precepts
and fix my eyes on your ways.
I will delight in your statutes;
I will not forget your word.” (Psalms 119:9-16 ESV)
Now this is not written just for young men, but for all men, and for all women. For teachings like this in the New Testament are directed at all who profess faith in Jesus Christ, male or female, young or old. And we read in the Scriptures that "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work" (2 Timothy 3:16-17 ESV). So we all need to take this to heart and to apply these truths to our lives wherever they fit.
But to answer the question asked in this first verse, with regard to how any of us can keep our way pure, the answer is that we can keep our way (our walks of faith, our lifestyles, our practices) pure by guarding (protecting, shielding) them according to the Word of God. And what does that look like? It looks like a life surrendered to doing the will of God, with Christ truly as Lord (Owner-Master) of that person’s life “calling all the shots.” It means this person is living in submission to the Lordship of Christ over his life, walking in the ways of the Lord, and no longer living in slavery to sin.
This person is being trained of the Holy Spirit, by the grace of God, to renounce (say “No!” to) ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live a self-controlled, upright, and godly life, to the glory and praise of God, via surrender of his life to God in submission to the will of God over his life. For he has been crucified with Christ in death to sin and raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him, no longer to live as a slave to sin but as a slave to God and to his righteousness. So sin no longer has mastery over his life to make him obey its desires. But now his desire is to obey the Lord.
The next part of this is that we need to seek the Lord with our whole hearts, not half-heartedly, and definitely not in hypocrisy and fakery. So this isn’t about having a 5 or 10 minute (or however long) time of “devotions” each day nor about attending church services once a week for an hour or two. This is about total surrender of our lives to Jesus Christ 24/7 in all areas of our lives, holding nothing back. He owns us in totality, and he is the one directing our paths, and we are now following him in his ways, and in his truth, and we are committed to his service to doing his will for our lives.
Then, we need to be those who are storing up the word of God (the Scriptures) in our hearts that we might not sin against the Lord. And this is not just about Scripture reading or Scripture memory. For there are many people who know the Scriptures and what they teach, but they are not living the Scriptures in what they practice, for it is just head knowledge, not heart knowledge. They are storing up God’s word in their heads but not in their hearts, so that what they are reading and memorizing is not being put into practice in their daily lives because the word has not gotten to their hearts.
And then remember those Scriptures that speak of what comes out of our hearts? Basically, what we have stored up in our hearts in the way of lust, greed, selfishness, pride, envy, hatred, violence, unforgiveness, resentment, bitterness, and anger are going to be what comes out in our words and in our actions (behaviors). “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.” And “The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil.” (Luke 6:45; Matt 15:17-20)
So until we have a change of heart, by the grace of God, via genuine God-gifted and God-persuaded faith in him, whereby we die with him to sin daily, and we now live to him and to his righteousness day by day, in his power, and where we cast off those fruitless deeds of darkness out of our lives, nothing will change in our lives. We might be able to fake it and to make some adjustments in attitude and actions, at least temporarily, but until our hearts are transformed of the Spirit of God and we let go of all that binds us and that weighs us down, we will not have victory over darkness.
And we have to do more than just declare the rules (commandments) of our Lord with our lips, but we need to declare them by our practices, by how we live our lives day in and day out in truth and in righteousness. And this is not saying that we will be absolutely perfect in every way 24/7, but that our actions must match our words, in practice. Sin must no longer be our practice, but now our practice should be walks of obedience to our Lord and to his commands in holy living. And now our lives are to be being guided and directed by the Word of God and by the Holy Spirit living within us.
[Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; Rom 12:1-2; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Co 10:1-22; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-24; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:1-17; Titus 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; 1 Pet 2:24; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2]
Who Believes?
An Original Work / October 3, 2013
Based off Isaiah 53
Gospel message, who believes?
Jesus Christ died on a tree,
Saving us from all our sin,
So we might be cleansed within.
Had no beauty found in Him,
That we should desire Him.
Man of sorrows, suffering;
Crushed for our iniquities.
Surely He has borne our griefs;
From our sadness, brings relief.
Bore the stripes; forsaken, He,
So forgiven we might be.
We, like sheep, have gone astray,
Each of us turned his own way.
Jesus calls, “Repent today;
My commandments, now obey.”
Jesus said, to come to him,
We must die to all our sin.
Crucified with Him, we live,
Walking in His righteousness.
Suff’ring servants, we will be,
Taking His identity on us,
When confessing Him
As our Savior, Lord and King.
https://vimeo.com/115517757
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