Stanza Beth: "Cleansed By God's Word"

Sermon Primer

The mis-understanding of Sin in our day

One of the reasons our culture today misunderstands or misappropriates sin is what Social Darwinism brought to the conversation.

Darwinians social experiment produced two major schools of thought to explain human behavior.

Behavior #1 The Nurture Argument:

This idea says that we behave as do because of those who have raised us. Basically we fall into all kinds of evil and sin because we have been preconditioned by those who have raised or nurtured us. It all comes down to the kind of upbringing we had as a child.

Behavior #2 The Nature Argument:

This idea says that we behave as we do because of our genetic make-up. If our dad was an alcoholic then by nature we will become an alcoholic. We behave as we do simply because we were born with the propensity to certain kinds of sin or evil.

I would agree that nurture and nature can make the problem worse. The issue however, is our depraved heart.

Our sin touches our every waking thought, shapes every desire, corrupts every word, and taints every deed.

If the depth of humanities sin is not fully understood, then holiness will always be beyond our grasp of understanding.

It all comes down to a depraved heart living apart from God and His infinite plan.

We are continually reminded in scripture that our problem lies inside of us. (Jeremiah 16:9 “our hearts are deceitful above all others.”)

We will read this morning about the urgency of this Holy undefiled life starting in the greenness of our lives. This was written for all the young as an instruction and a warning. This is why churches should invest in the young people of the church. Churches should measure their success with how well they are reaching out to and discipling the young.

Statistics bear out that the older a person gets the more difficult it is to reach them with the gospel of Christ. Why is this the case? Simply because once people have lived more life in this depraved and corrupted world it is harder to break through the deep disease of sin in their lives.

Psalm 119:9–16 ESV

9 How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word. 10 With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments! 11 I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you. 12 Blessed are you, O Lord; teach me your statutes! 13 With my lips I declare all the rules of your mouth. 14 In the way of your testimonies I delight as much as in all riches. 15 I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways. 16 I will delight in your statutes; I will not forget your word.

Big Idea: A pure life is not built by trying harder — but by treasuring, trusting, and delighting in God’s Word.

How do we Live a Pure Life in a Corrupt World?

“Why Smart People Still Make Foolish Choices” (Relatable / Reflective)

Most of us know far more than we actually live. We know vegetables are healthier than fast food. We know exercise matters. We know sleep affects everything. And yet — we still choose against what we know.

Knowledge doesn’t automatically change behavior.

Spiritually, the same thing happens. We can attend church for decades, memorize verses, even teach classes — and still struggle with wandering hearts, recurring sins, and shallow joy.

So here’s the real question Psalm 119 asks us today:

How does God’s Word move from our head into our heart — and from our heart into our life?

That’s the journey Psalm 119:9–16 invites us into.

Verse 9 — The

Central Question and Response

QUESTION: How can a young man keep his way pure?

RESPONSE: By Guarding it According to God’s WORD.

How will he become and remain practically speaking Holy?

To Be Holy is to reflect Christ’s likeness.

I remember as a kid visiting the U.S. Mint in Denver Colorado. We would always get some kind of shiny minted coin.

How do you know when gold is purified? You know that it is purified when you can see your reflection it it. Then you know that it is pure.

This is a picture of what it means for us to be pure and Holy, it’s when we see Christ’s reflection in our lives.

In essence this means that nothing in your life is pure until you have surrendered yourself completely to God’s word.

Our daily duty then is to get ourselves under the word of God. But, how do we do this?

Remember that purity doesn’t happen by accident just like God’s word does not just accidentally become hidden in your heart.

This Christmas I gave each one of my kids the little book 100 Bible verses everyone should know by Robert Morgan. I wrote them a letter with my journey to hiding God’s word in my heart and placed it in the front of each book.

If someone accidentally measures out what he believes to be a dose of beneficial medicine, he will die if it turns out that he has picked up the wrong bottle and has poured out a deadly poison.

The fact that he did it ignorantly will not change the outcome.

Similarly, if a young man surrounds himself with ten thousand problems by carefully using foolish judgement and refuses to receive instruction from the Word of God.

Note: Willful ignorance is in itself willful sin, and the evil that comes with it is without excuse.

We should always keep the word of God at the ready. Just like a soldier in his foxhole ready to do battle against the enemy.

We have the question: How does a man keep his way pure.

We have the response: By guarding it according to God’s word.

Now the psalmist spends the next seven verses on telling us how this becomes a reality in our lives.

1. We Must Have a Whole-Hearted Pursuit of God’s Word

The word of God must move from the page into our hearts. The more a persons whole heart is set on holiness, the more he fears falling into sin. He is not so fearful of willful deliberate sin as he is unintentionally wandering from the right way.

Our Heart is like a musical instrument

What happens if we leave it unattended in the attic for years? Does it stay in tune? No, over time, the change in room temperature and humidity cause the guitar strings to shrink and expand. After months or years of neglect, it sounds awful.

Our heart is no different. As a guitar requires a musicians constant attention to keep it in tune, even so our heart requires constant communion with God to keep it in tune. With this in mind consider Solomons counsel in Proverbs 4:23

Proverbs 4:23 ESV

23 Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.

This is difficult for us to do because our hearts are prone to wander. This wandering does not alway involve open defiance against God or His word.

Many times it is far more subtle:

Spiritual disciplines become neglected. We may go day’s, which then turns into weeks apart from regular time with God in His word.

We indulge careless thoughts. When our mind is unguarded we may all kinds of random thoughts that run through our minds that are not of God.

Frivolous pursuits are entertained. We follow our own desires apart from God.

before we know it we are asleep at the wheel swerving from one lane of traffic to the next. If we are not actively seeking we are wandering.

“Daily progress in the heavenly walk is not maintained by yesterday’s grace” warns theologian Charles Bridges.

How do we Have a Whole-Hearted pursuit?

a. We Should Use Every Means Available to Hide God’s Word in our Hearts.

How do we measure the worth of something? We begin to cherish God’s word when we can affirm with the psalmist that it is worth more than thousands of coins of gold and silver as state in verses 72 and 127.

You cannot hide God’s word in your heart if you rarely open His word and never commit the scriptures to your memory.

It’s much like a surgeon who spends countless hours studying the human body in minute detail. He then takes what he has hidden deep in his memory bank and applies it to his craft of repairing things that are broken in the human anatomy.

You can pick any other profession, especially those that need to perform under pressure. You want your actions to be muscle memory, not fumbling around for the right answers in a particular situation.

However, that is exactly how many people treat the word of God. When put to the test or challenged we fumble around for the answers. If we had hidden God’s word in our heart then we would know the right answers, we would know the right thing to do.

b. We Hide God’s Word in our Hearts to Avoid Falling into Sin

We aren’t to study it out of curiosity or merely to preach and teach. Our primary purpose for studying it is that we must be directed to practice it, put it into actions.

The greater purpose for hiding God’s word in our heart is so that we might not sin against God. The end goal of our sanctification process is to irradicate sin from our lives, to put sin to death once and for all in the mortal flesh.

We hide his word away as the psalmist writes as carefully as a man hides away his money when he fears thieves will break in and steal it away. The dreaded thief in this case is sin itself.

Sinning against God is the believers view of moral evil. Other people only care when they do wrong against their fellow men and woman. god’s word is the best preventative against offending God, because it tells us that his mind and will, and it tends to bring our spirit into conformity with the divine spirits will.

Note: It is with a persons whole heart that they seek after God and His word. No matter how others might treat the sin in their lives, his aim was directed at holiness, that I might not sin against God.

Notice that this is not what he had proposed to do, but what he had already done.

Notice the parallelism between this verse and verse 3 from our text last week which speaks of doing no iniquity while verse 11 deals with the method of not sinning.

2. We Must Have a Taught and Testifying Life in God’s Word

We learn from God and proclaim what He teaches.

A TAUGHT LIFE

HOW DOES GOD TEACH US

Outwardly - through the ministry of the word.

Inwardly - through the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

In Psalm 119:12, “teach me your statutes” (or precepts) is not simply a request for information. It describes a relational, transformative kind of teaching that only God can give.

The Revealed Taught Word of God

A. God Gives Us Teaching that Goes Beyond Knowledge

The Hebrew verb לַמְּדֵנִי (lamdeni) means train, discipline, or form by instruction. The psalmist is asking God to:

Shape his thinking

Train his desires

Form his character

This is different from merely learning rules. It is instruction that changes how a person lives.

Sermon Illustration: The Manual vs. the Maker

Imagine buying a complex piece of equipment—say, a high-end camera, a musical instrument, or a new piece of technology. It comes with a manual, hundreds of pages thick. You can read it cover to cover, memorize the diagrams, even watch videos online.

But when something goes wrong, you still feel stuck.

Now imagine you’re able to call the person who designed it—the engineer who knows not only how it works, but why it was made the way it was. Suddenly, things make sense. The maker explains not just the rules of operation, but the purpose behind them.

How it connects to the text

God’s statutes are not cold instructions; they reflect His wisdom and design.

The psalmist isn’t asking for new information, but for divine instruction that leads to understanding and obedience.

True learning happens when the author explains His own Word.

B. God Teaches by Giving us Understanding

When reading a piece of scripture your soul will not rest until you have grasped it’s understanding. Remember following Jesus parables the disciples would come to him and press him to understand the meaning of the text.

Remember that what Jesus told them. He reminded them that his teachings were only for those who had ears to truly hear.

Throughout Psalm 119, the writer repeatedly asks God for understanding (vv. 18, 27, 34). This shows that:

God’s precepts can be read but not truly grasped without Him

Spiritual insight is a gift, not just the result of study

So “teach me” means: Even if it is different from what I wanted to hear!

“Help me see what your word truly means and why it matters.”

C. God Teaches by Enabling Our Obedience

In Hebrew thought, understanding and obedience are inseparable. To be taught by God is to be:

Enabled to obey

Strengthened to walk in His ways

Internally aligned with His will

That’s why later verses say:

“Give me understanding, that I may keep your law” (v. 34)

“Incline my heart to your testimonies” (v. 36)

Teaching here includes inner transformation, not just external instruction.

No sooner than the word is in our heart than a deep desire arises inside of us to discern and learn it. When food is eaten, the next thing is to digest it. when the Word is received into the soul, the first prayer should be, “Lord, teach me its meaning.”

What Blessed Means Here?

In Hebrew, barukh (“blessed”) is not saying that God receives something he lacks. Instead, it means:

Praised

Honored

Acknowledged as the source of good

So the psalmist is saying something like:

“You are worthy of praise, LORD, because you are the one who teaches truth.”

God is our Ultimate Teacher

We realize that true understanding comes from God.

We ask for instructions, not just information.

Acknowledge absolute dependence on God for spiritual Truth.

God’s law is not merely learned intellectually; it must be taught by God to the heart

John 6:45 ESV

45 It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me—

Where do Human Teachers Fit in?

While Psalm 119:12 does not say that human teachers are blessed, Scripture elsewhere does affirm their value:

Teaching God’s word is an honorable calling (James 3:1; Ephesians 4:11)

Teachers are instruments, but God remains the true source of wisdom

So the implication (not the direct statement) is:

Those who teach rightly do so because they themselves have been taught by God.

A TESTIFYING LIFE

“With my lips I declare all the rules of your mouth”

By training the tongue in holy speech, we are now able to master the whole body.

The more you do Bible talk in your everyday language the more God’s word becomes solidified in your heart and starts to form your language.

We need to have the discipline to bring up scripture in our everyday language. How often do you use scripture in daily discussion. Someone shares a problem or complaint with you and you readily say, “that reminds me of the scripture in … where God declares.”

The more enamored you become with God’s word, it is constantly on your lips. This speaking of God’s word is instrumental when it comes to your spiritual growth because it helps us to understand it more clearly and apply it more affectively.

Recalling scripture to your words in daily life also stands as a reminder of what God has done lest you ever forget.

3. We Must Have a Delighted Mind Because of God’s Word

The Child With a Favorite Story (Joyful Repetition)

Story: Think about a child with a favorite book. They don’t want it read once — they want it read again and again. They memorize lines. They anticipate what comes next. They delight in the familiarity. It’s not boring to them; it’s comforting and joyful.

Connection: That’s how the psalmist approaches God’s Word. A delighted mind doesn’t get tired of Scripture because love deepens with repetition. Psalm 119 repeatedly celebrates meditation, rejoicing, and delight — not novelty hunting, but joyful familiarity.

Spiritual insight: A mature believer doesn’t grow bored with truth — they grow deeper in it.

This connects well with your ongoing Psalm 119 teaching on meditation, storing up the Word, and speaking it aloud.

Delight in God’s Word Daily (vv.14–16)

Joy sustains our obedience.

Duty alone burns out; delight fuels endurance.

Meditation keeps truth alive in the soul.

Forgetting leads to drifting.

Application:

Do you enjoy God’s Word or merely endure it?

Are you creating rhythms for joyful Scripture intake?

Illustration: A musician practices joyfully because they love the music, not just the discipline.

A. A Delighted Mind Finds the Most Pleasure in God’s Word

He compared his intense satisfaction with God’s will with that of a man who possesses large and varied estates and the heart to enjoy them all. David knew the riches that come with power and authority and that grow out of conquest.

He valued wealth obtained from hard work or acquired by inheritance. He knew all riches. The riches of God’s word had brought him far more pleasure than any of this.

What do you spend the most time talking about? The chances are what ever that thing is it is what you find the greatest pleasure.

Where does talking about God and His word rank? Our daily conversations say much about what we truly find as the greatest treasure in our lives.

B. A Delighted Mind Finds the Exercise of Meditation Profitable

Meditation is Thinking with a Purpose

No Spiritual exercise is more profitable to the soul than that of devout meditation, so why are many of us so exceedingly lazy in it?

Joshua 1:8 ESV

8 This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.

Anyone who has a true delight in something will take the time to think about it for a very long time. Mediation is a task for some, but for the one who has truly been cleansed by the power of the word it is the greatest joy we could ever know.

What makes Meditation so profitable?

i. Meditation Moves Truth from Information to Transformation

Meditation is slow, intentional reflection — turning God’s Word over in the mind and heart.

Reading gives exposure.

Studying gives understanding.

Meditating gives absorption.

Like tea steeping in hot water, meditation allows truth to permeate the soul.

When truth becomes internalized:

Fear decreases.

Faith strengthens.

Perspective stabilizes.

God feels near, not distant.

ii. Meditation Opens Affection for God, Not Just Obedience

We don’t delight in facts — we delight in what captures our love and trust.

Meditation:

Slows us enough to notice God’s goodness.

Allows the Spirit to warm the heart, not just inform the mind.

Turns commands into promises and duties into relationship.

This mirrors your Isaiah emphasis:

“You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on You.” (Isa 26:3)

The mind fixed on God produces peace in the heart.

iii. Meditation Anchors our Soul Against Anxiety and Temptation

Psalm 1 connects meditation with stability and fruitfulness.

A meditating believer becomes:

Rooted instead of reactive.

Nourished instead of depleted.

Fruitful instead of fragile.

The more deeply truth is rooted, the more joy becomes resilient — not dependent on circumstances.

Meditation let’s the word actually do it’s work in your life.

IT CAUSES US TO CHANGE OUR GAZE; CHANGE OUR FOCUS

We live in a world and culture today that fly’s by at a frenzying pace, and very few of us ever take time to be still and fix our complete gaze and attention on Jesus Christ the author and perfector of our faith.

CONSLUSION

The Hummingbird Life (Memorable / Imaginative)

A hummingbird beats its wings up to 80 times per second. It moves constantly, darting from flower to flower, never staying still long enough to rest.

In many ways, we’ve become hummingbird people. Always moving. Always reacting. Always stimulated. Always distracted.

But here’s the truth: Hummingbirds burn enormous energy just staying in place. They survive by constantly feeding.

So do we.

When we never slow down to sit at the feet of Jesus, our souls become exhausted, anxious, shallow, and joyless — even if our schedules are full.

Jesus invites us to a different pace:

“Come to me… and I will give you rest.” (Matt 11:28)

Delight grows in stillness, not frenzy.

A frantic life crowds out a focused faith. You cannot delight in Christ when you never slow down long enough to behold Him.

Psalm 119 shows us a different rhythm — not rushing, but meditating; not consuming, but delighting; not reacting, but resting in God’s Word. Today we’re invited to step off the conveyor belt and fix our eyes on Jesus.

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus the author and perfector of our faith. (Hebrews 12:2)

Pulling Over to Recalibrate” (Simple & Relatable)

When your GPS starts giving confusing directions, the safest thing to do isn’t to speed up — it’s to pull over. You stop the car, let the signal reset, reorient yourself, and then continue the journey with clarity.

Spiritually, many of us keep speeding up when our souls feel lost, anxious, or distracted. But Psalm 119 reminds us that clarity, joy, and purity come when we slow down, fix our eyes on God’s Word, and let Him recalibrate our hearts.

Sometimes the most spiritual thing you can do is slow down long enough to let God reset your direction.

You know how a young man keeps is way pure? It’s when the noise of this world fades and the of God becomes the clearest and strongest voice in your life.

A pure life is not built by trying harder - but by treasuring, trusting, and delighting in God’s Word.

What is the strongest clearest voice in your life right now? If God is not that voice why not?

Perhaps it is because you are not daily pursuing Him with your whole heart

Perhaps it is because you are not daily being taught by His word

Perhaps it is because you do not have a Delighted mind that daily Meditates on His word.