You are listening to Key Life Fellowships Pulpit Ministry
podcast. We thank you for tuning in as we
learn from God's Word together. For more information about Key
Life Fellowship, visit us on the web at keylifefellow-ship.com.
Amen. Isn't it always wonderful?
Too afresh and a new behold the wondrous mystery of Christ for
hundreds upon hundreds of years. They only longed to see what we
have seen in him in our day. What a joy that is.
If you have your Bibles, if you would, and if you've been here
any amount of time, you know we're going to the 119th Psalm
this morning as we continue our series entitled Living Life in
the Light of God's Word. I pray that over the last few
weeks as we have been diving into the 119th Psalm, I pray
that you have been challenged. I pray that you have found
yourself hungry for the Word of God.
I pray that you have found yourself diving into the Word of
God, studying the Word of God, meditating on the Word of God,
allowing yourselves to be consumed by God's very word
through the Scriptures. As we continue this journey this
morning, if I were to ask you a question, that question were to
be this are you truly depending upon God in your life?
What would the answer be? Many would say very quickly,
yes, I am depending upon the Lord, but upon further analysis,
many would have to say I am depending upon the Lord.
Sometimes partially, kind of a little for salvation.
But what I want us to see today, as we look at a true dependence
upon God, the psalmist is going to give us a great example of
what that looks like. Because sadly, in the world and
even in the church these days, many unfortunately would rather
depend on their own sinful minds and intellect, their own human
strength or might, their own worldly riches.
They would rather. Depend upon these things than to
depend upon an all knowing, all powerful, all sovereign God in
all things. When we talk about dependence
upon God, we are talking about full and total dependence upon
God, and it's something that to be quite.
Honest is not frequently discussed in church, nor is it.
Frequently even pointed to as important because generally what
we've we do is we depend on ourselves until things.
Get out of our control. We depend upon ourselves as long
as we have the strength, and then when all of our earthly
human resources run out or fall short as they will.
Unfortunately, then, and only then, does a person really step
to the point where they are depending upon God.
Fully, and in today's message, we're going to see the psalmist
who was depending upon God fully.
He's depending upon God and He's depending upon His word, and He
is trusting Him in every single area of his life, as we will see
in everything. As we look at this passage
today, it's going to serve as a guide for us to really answer
the question as to whether or not we are really depending upon
God. Because unfortunately, many
depend upon God for forgiveness of sin and eternal life, and
they never continually depend upon Him again.
Oh, and He will be faithful to deliver, to deliver that which
He has promised. But oh, the blessing and all the
joy that you're missing out on by not walking in dependence on
God in every situation, in every area of your life.
So as we look at Psalm 119, let us see this as our example in
this next 8 verses, as you were familiar with the 3rd letter of
the Hebrew alphabet, gamille. Gamille will be situated just as
the first 2 letters of the Hebrew alphabet were in eight
verses. And we're going to look at all
eight of those verses today because all of those verses
belong together. Therefore, we're going to study
them together and we're going to learn them together.
And we're going to see the heart of the psalmist here who is
depending upon God and everything.
Verse 17, he says this, Do good to your servant, and I will
live. I will obey your word.
Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in Your law.
I am a stranger on earth. Do not hide your commands from
me. My soul is consumed with longing
for your laws at all times. You rebuke the arrogant who are
cursed and who stray from your commands.
Remove from me scorn and contempt, for I keep your
statutes. 23 says. Though rulers sit together and
slander me, your servant will meditate on your decrees.
Your statutes are my delight. They are my counselors.
Let's pray together. Father, in the name of Jesus, we
come to you, thanking you for your word that you have given
us. Lord, may we not fall into the
error of depending on ourselves or depending upon worldly
resources? And we see the.
Example of the psalmist here who understands what it means to
depend upon You and Your Word. As we uncover these truths
today, may You use them to change our lives for Your glory.
God, I pray for the person who's here, who is lost, who is never
truly depended upon you for salvation.
God, I pray today that you open their eyes to see the fact that
they must depend upon Christ to save them from their sin, to
wash them and cleanse them from their wickedness, and to grant
to them eternal life or they will face the eternal wrath of
God. I pray that you make that known
to them today, that they would depend upon You for salvation.
What I pray for those who have already depended upon you for
salvation. I pray that that not be the
extent of their dependence. That they would today, by Your
word be challenged, and that by Your Spirit they would be
empowered to live a life of true dependence upon You, and that
you would receive all glory and honor and praise for their
lives. And we pray all these things in
the mighty name of Jesus. And all God's people said, Amen.
We see very quickly here as we jump into this text, an example
of a true dependence upon God and His word.
And there's some identifying marks that I want you to pay
close attention to here. Now, I don't believe for one
second that this was the psalmist intent to to describe
or to prescribe for you. What it means to depend upon
God, but what He does do in His statements is He reveals to us a
person who is truly and fully depending upon God and upon the
Word of God. And so from that we can learn a
great lesson. Let us learn that lesson
together today. So if there's true dependence on
God in a person's life, if you were to examine your life today
and ask this question, and I hope that you already have.
Am I truly depending upon God as I should?
There will be some evidence and the first thing that we see is
this. If there is true dependence on
God, there will be dependence upon God's grace.
Verse 17. The psalmist makes it very
clear. Concerning his dependence upon
God's grace, he says this in verse 17.
Do good to your servant. Oh, without the goodness and the
grace of God, where would all of us be?
He says Do good to your servant and I will live.
And he says I will obey your word.
The Psalm is here depending on God's grace, Do good to your
servant. He's understanding this.
Without the goodness of God we would all perish.
He's understanding it even further.
Without the goodness of God. None.
Of us would live, none of us would exist.
None of us would breathe. He's pointing others to depend
on that same. Goodness.
Matthew Henry in reference to the Psalm, once said, all grace
grows as love to the word of God grows.
Matthew Henry simply saying this the more we love the Word, the
more amazing and magnificent God's grace becomes.
We see the extent of that grace and the importance of that
grace, and as we see that, that grace grows.
Was that true When we open the pages of Scripture and we began
to love the Word of God and we began to see the goodness of God
coming off the pages of Scripture in reference to how we
live our lives and how God has been good to us in our lives as
believers and followers of Christ, the more that we love
the Word and the more that we delve into the Word, the more
Amazing Grace becomes. I'm a firm believer that when
the church stopped loving the word of God, grace stopped being
amazing to the church. Because when you turn the pages
of scripture, you can't help but see statements like the psalmist
makes here. Do good to your servant and I
will live. Do good to your servant and I
will live. What is he saying here that were
it not for God's grace, he wouldn't even be alive?
Yes, he is. First talking about physical
life depending upon God's grace. First to live thanking God for
his physical life. I'll please know this if you're
under the sound of my voice this morning, whether that's in this
auditorium, whether that's through some social media
outlet, if you were listening to this, your very existence, the
fact that your heart is beating, the fact that your lungs are
breathing, the fact that you are alive this morning is only by
God's grace. This is true both for the saved
and for the lost. Even the lost man who is living
is under the common grace of God that has allowed him the gift of
life every little baby. In our infant classrooms down
the hall, every single one of them, a gracious gift of life
from the father. Every mother who is here
expecting a child with a little baby in their womb.
I know that's not what the Liberals call them, but they are
there's. Babies in a mother's womb alive
because God has breathed life into them graciously.
The psalmist understands this, his dependence upon God's grace
to live. He understands what Job said in
Job chapter 12 verse 10, where it proclaims about God in His
hand is the life of every creature in the breath of all
mankind. He's not a person who has ever
lived. Who did not live because of the
grace of God? What would happen if we really
understood that we'd wake up each morning with a song of
Thanksgiving in our heart, a shout of praise, a prayer of
thankfulness for the fact that we've been given another day to
live for the glory of God. We would get on our knees and
thank the Lord for those who live alongside of us, for our
wives, for our husbands, for our children, those who has given
life to enjoy with us and to serve Him in.
The psalmist understands this. It's important that we depend
upon God's grace to live. In Acts 17, Paul speaking there
to a group of pagans, he says, For in him we live and move and
have our being. Oh, what a gracious God who
allows us to be, who allows us to live, who willed us into this
world only by his grace. And so the psalmist begins
there, depending upon God's grace because of life, not just
physical life, but spiritual life.
May I insert this? The only reason that any of you
are spiritually alive this morning is because God
graciously regenerated you to new life spiritually.
You were not born into this world spiritually alive.
In fact, Jesus himself said you must be born again or you cannot
see the Kingdom of God. That regeneration, and that is
an act of God's grace and a work of God's grace must occur
spiritually so that you can live spiritually.
So the Psalm is here, of course, looking at physical.
Life but also a spiritual life that we've all in Christ been
graciously given his word reveals that to us.
Ephesians chapter 2 verse one when the apostle Paul says this
As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins.
What were you sick? Nope.
Feeling a little ill? Not at all.
Limping around? No.
Having a spiritual medical condition?
No. You were beyond all those
things. You were dead spiritually
because of sin. We must understand that that
apart from God's grace, none of us will live again spiritually.
He says, As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and
sins in which you used to live when you followed the ways of
this world and of the ruler of the Kingdom of the air, the
spirit who is now at work and those who are disobedient.
You know what he's saying, You're spiritually dead.
You're following Satan, the system of this world.
He says in verse 3, all of us also lived among them at one
time. This is the Apostle Paul saying
that that I also lived among them at one time the same.
Spiritually. Dead.
He's just gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature
and following its desires and thoughts like the rest.
We were by nature objects of wrath.
It's a pretty gloomy thing, isn't it?
When we talk about where we once were, but in verse 4, everything
changes. It says But because of his great
love for us, God. But because of his great love
for us, God. Who is rich in mercy, made us
alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions.
It is by grace you have been saved.
Paul, understanding that spiritual life comes from God's
grace. The Psalm is here depending upon
that, he says. It's by grace you've been saved,
he says. And God raised us up with Christ
and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.
In order that in the coming ages He might show the incomparable
riches of His grace expressed in His kindness to us in Christ
Jesus, He. He reiterates it again in verse.
8 For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and
this is not from yourselves. It is the gift of God, not by
words. Why?
So that no one can boast. We're God's workmanship created
in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance
for us to do. What is he saying here?
Paul spent those 10 verses to tell you exactly what the
psalmist is saying here. We must depend upon God's grace
for spiritual life. And apart from God's grace, we
are spiritually dead. We are children of Satan.
We are followers of this world's system.
We are under the wrath of a holy God.
That is exactly what he just said and in order for us.
To be saved from that, God must grace us with new life in
Christ. Oh, it's a sad.
Thing that there are many in the church who would like to argue
against that Please take your arguments elsewhere.
Scripture has spoken. We were dead spiritually, and by
His grace God has made us alive in Christ Jesus.
The end of the discussion the. Psalmist, understanding the
importance of dependence upon God's grace in order to live, to
live physically and to live spiritually.
Why? Because without grace, you have
neither. And so if you are alive today,
may you thank God for His grace allowing you to live.
If you are alive today and you are saved, you have been
forgiven in Christ Jesus. Thank Him for the spiritual life
that you have received in Christ because you once were dead.
And then? In your life, depend upon His
grace for everything He says. Do good to your servant and I
will live. We see dependence upon God's
grace in the area of life, physical and spiritual.
But he doesn't stop there. He says I will obey your word.
Let. Me just tell you this, this,
this verse is probably better rendered like this.
Let me live so that I can obey your word.
Well, what a thought that the psalmist says.
I I need your Grace to live both physically and spiritually.
So that I can live to obey your word, because it is in obeying
His word. And it is the whole reason for
our existence. It is the whole reason that we
have been born again, that we have been saved in Christ.
It is for that whole reason. So that we can glorify God with
our obedience. Remember what Paul said in
Ephesians the 10th verse there in the in the 2nd chapter that
we read. What did he say?
That he prepared good works in advance for us to do those good
works. All of his grace.
We get to be obedient to the things that God has planned for
our lives. To be obedient in what an honor
and what a privilege that is. And we depend upon him to obey
these things. The whole reason that we live is
to obey. That's what the psalmist is
saying about himself. He lived to obey.
He did not obey to live. He lived to obey.
Oh, I want you to see the difference.
That's not just to play on words.
Many people think that if I obey all of God's commands and He
will see that I'm doing good, and He will grant to me eternal
life, that's not grace. That's.
Works. But the psalmist understands
this, that I must depend upon God's grace.
I must depend upon God's grace to live physically, spiritually.
And I must depend upon God's grace to obey the things that he
has in Christ crafted me to do, because it's He who's doing this
good work in us. What a lesson for all of us to
learn, to learn to obey God out of the appreciation for His
grace, to know that He has granted us life and life eternal
for the glory of God the Father by His grace.
Not so that we can just abuse that grace.
Isn't that what many people think?
Many people think, well, I have grace, therefore I can indulge a
little because of grace. And many people, unfortunately,
in the modern church, that's how they live their lives.
With the mentality of saying instead of asking for
permission, I'll just ask God for forgiveness.
Instead of looking at the word of God and saying God has
already forbidden such things, I will ask God for his grace to
obey such things. That's what the psalmist is
doing here, different than we can even probably comprehend in
our minds and in our day. He was simply living out of
appreciation for the grace that he had received.
He wasn't doing like those who Paul was concerned about when he
said in Romans chapter 6. Verse one.
What shall we say then? Shall we go on sinning so that
grace may increase? Paul says by no means in verse 2
we died to sin. How can we live in it any
longer? Paul was saying.
Grace is not something that ought to be abused.
Grace is something that ought to be appreciated, and we can truly
measure how much. We appreciate God's grace by the
obedience that comes out of our lives because if you truly
trusted God's grace and saving you and giving you life, you
will then truly trust God's grace to teach you how to
obediently live that life. You will be living a life, an
obedient life toward God because you love him.
Why? Because he first loved you.
Well, I'm so thankful that in our church, many people
understand that principle. We don't do things that we do so
that God will look at us and say, I love them because they do
good things. No, the good that they do is
because of the grace of God, because he's loved them and they
love Him. And they prove that love by
their obedience. They prove that love by
continually depending upon God's grace in their lives, even
beyond initial salvation. They live obedient lives because
they love God. It's not not what Jesus said in
John chapter 14 verse 15. It's very familiar to you, I
know, but I'll read it again. If you love me, you will obey
what I command. Doesn't get any simpler than
that, does it? And so many times we're afraid
to to reverse that and give the negative side of that.
But here's the reverse negative of that.
If you don't obey what I command, you don't.
Love me when we say it like that, that becomes quite
offensive, doesn't it? But that is exactly what Jesus
said. And if we're going to obey Him,
we're going to have to trust in His grace to do and to live
according to His will for our life.
Not just trusting grace and salvation, but every day, Lord,
grace me with the strength from Your Spirit.
Grace me with the promises from Your word.
Grace me with whatever I need to live in obedience to You.
Why would you even pray that? Because I love you so much.
Because You first love me. And I want to bring glory and
not shame and reproach to You. I want to bring glory to your
name. I don't want someone saying and
you call yourself a Christian because you do bear his name if
you're in Christ. I want people to take note that
there's something different, and that difference is the grace of
God, the grace of God that gives me life.
Physically. Spiritually.
The grace of God that allows me to obey Him in every area of my
life, showing my appreciation for the fact that He loved me
when I was unlovable and wretched and sinful.
So Psalmist gets that. Do good to your servant and I
will. Live, I will obey your word.
Do good, your servant. Be gracious to me now.
Live, and I'll live to obey your word.
Oh, what a message that could be, A message in and of itself.
But he doesn't stop. This is just the first part of
this eight verse stanza. He goes to the next thing after
seeing that if we're truly depending upon God, we will be
be depending upon His grace both to live and to obey.
He moves into what's next there, that if there is true dependence
on God, there will be dependence upon God's direction, His
direction in our life. Watch what he says verse. 18 He
says, Open my eyes, that I may see wonderful things in your
law. Again, using one of those
synonyms for the word of God, he says that I may see wonderful
things in your law. He says I'm a stranger on earth
and do not hide your commands from me.
What is he talking about here? He is talking about dependence
upon God for direction in our lives.
First in the form of revelation. Look at this illumination that
we see here. He says open my eyes that I may
see wonderful things in your law, leading us to know this,
that the psalmist knows unless God opens his eyes to see these
wonderful things, he cannot see them.
That's why it's so important that when we approach the word
of God, Lord, open my eyes. Give me eyes to see.
Give me eyes to see your truth. Illuminate your word for me.
Give me the revelation that you desire to reveal to me from
Scripture and into my life. Show me those wonderful thing.
Isn't it sad that so many people approach the word of God as if
it's not wonderful? It's just this book of rules
governs my life, tells me what to do and how I have to do it,
and I don't want anybody telling me what to do.
The psalmist says don't let me have that attitude.
Open my eyes so that I can see how wonderful Your law is, so
that I can value your every statute, your every precept,
your every command, to know that there is a reason higher than me
as to which I have received this, and to trust in you and to
obey you in all manner. He's depending upon God's
direction in the form of revelation.
Where would we be had God not revealed things to us?
He's trusting God for the quickening of the once dead
eyes. Oh, you remember when you
couldn't see Christ, you couldn't see your need for
Christ, you couldn't see your need for forgiveness and eternal
life, But then God opened your eyes and how did he do that?
Someone preached or someone spoke to you the word of God,
because it's impossible for you to be saved without the word of
God. So many people going around
sharing their testimony. I'm giving my story.
Stop giving your story. Teach the Word of God.
You only talk about your story when it's applicable to whatever
it is that you're teaching in the Word of God.
Because when you teach the Word of God, what happens?
Eyes are opened. Centers are drawn to Christ.
Faith and repentance happens. Dead souls are quickened to new
life. Dead eyes begin to see things
that they've never seen before. Oh, what wonderful things that
we see now that we once did not see prior to God opening our
eyes to see them. Look at the psalmist's
dependence upon that. Lord.
Open my eyes. I'm like a little puppy who
can't see. I need You to open my eyes so
that I can see. He's trusting in the power of
God to reveal Himself and His instructions to Him.
And again, he says they're wonderful things.
They're not burdensome, they're not difficult, they're not
impossible. Everything that God has
commanded of us in Christ Jesus, those things are possible for us
to live out under the power of the Holy Spirit by the guidance
and revelation and illumination of the Word of God.
He's not put a burden on you. He's lifting a burden off of
you. The psalmist gets this.
He's depending upon God's direction in the form of
revelation, not only that, in the form of wisdom or insight.
So we have illumination, that revelation, but we also have
that insight, that wisdom. Watch what he says.
Do not hide your commands from me.
Why? Because I'm a stranger on the
earth. What does that have to do with
anything? That's what we would say in our
modern church culture, right? The reason that we would say
this is because we're not really strangers on this earth most of
the time. In fact, departing from this
earth is our greatest fear. It should not be so in the
church because as the believer who has confessed Christ as Lord
and Savior as he thinks about eternity, it ought to excite
him. It ought to excite her.
You ought to say, when I leave this world, I am finally going
home to a familiar country with a familiar king and familiar
people. That ought to be our desire.
That was the desire of the psalmist.
He said I'm a stranger on earth, and we know this.
He wasn't always a stranger, and one time he probably felt quite
at home here on the earth, just as I once did, living a life of
sin. But he says I'm a stranger on
earth, do not hide your commands from me.
So he says, open my eyes, give me illumination, give me
revelation into truth. And then he says, give me
insight and wisdom from that truth.
Proverbs 26 that's for the Lord gives wisdom, and from his mouth
come knowledge and understanding.
Proverbs 910 it says to fear the Lord or the fear of the Lord,
excuse me, is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge of the Holy
one is understanding well, they're in Proverbs we see some
understanding into God's wisdom and insight that he gives that
we ought to depend upon for direction in our lives.
It's sad to think that so many people even in the church aren't
depending upon God for wisdom and insight and direction in
their life. They only run to God when their
plans fall. Through.
Haven't we all been guilty of that?
We had it all mapped out nice and neatly and it just didn't
work out the way we planned. And so then and only then do we
run to God and depend upon Him for direction.
And you deal with all the heartache and all the pain of
trying to do things on your own. All those years.
And some of us, we live the consequence of that forever in
this life. The psalmist understanding God's
wisdom, his insight and the importance of that.
Even Peter understood the importance of the insight that
you receive from God's Word. John chapter 6.
Even John gives Peter credit, which is interesting because you
you remember the race to the tomb.
John wanted everybody to know. About that race, not the
competition that was going on between the two.
But he records Peter here in John chapter 6 verse 67, when
many were departing from Christ and abandoning Christ.
Christ asked this question, he said.
You do not want to leave too, do you, Jesus?
Asked the 12. Then Simon Peter jumped up with
the right answer. He's Lord, he said.
Lord to him. Shall we go?
You have. The words of eternal.
Life. What was Peter doing?
He was valuing the wisdom from the word of God, because Christ
was the word made of flesh living among them, and he valued
this. He depended upon.
He said, where else can we go? We have to.
Depend upon you, you're the only one who has the words of life
and life eternal. What did he understand?
We need God's wisdom. We need God's wisdom.
Navigate through this dark and evil and wicked world and the
culture that we live in. It's why in Proverbs you see
that nugget of wisdom there in chapter 3, verse 5.
Some of you have memorized this since you were children, but it
says trust in the Lord with all your heart.
Lean not on your own understanding.
He goes on to say, in all your ways, acknowledge Him and He
will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes.
Fear the Lord and shun evil. Well, that's the one that we
often times leave out of our memorization of that particular
passage of scripture. Don't be wise in your own eyes.
Well, how many times have we suffered heartache and pain
simply because we used our own wisdom, thinking that we had it
all figured out, only to realize we had nothing figured out at
all? Let us depend on God's
direction, His wisdom, and lean not on onto our own
understanding. Spurgeon.
Said this, he said. While we wander here, we can
endure all the ills of this foreign land with patience, if
the Word of God is applied to our hearts by the Spirit of God.
But if the heavenly things which make for our peace were hid from
our eyes, we should be in an evil case.
In fact, we should be at sea without a compass.
Now pay attention to what Spurgeon is.
Saying or he's using, he's using illustrations from his day.
For a sea captain to go out upon the seas without a compass would
be foolish because eventually he's going to get so far out
into the ocean that all he sees is ocean.
There is no shoreline, there is no mountain peak, there is
nothing. There is no lighthouse.
There is nothing for him to receive direction.
Spurgeon says that that if we were to have the wisdom in the
direction of God's word removed from us, we would be like that
sea captain without a compass out on the sea.
He goes on and he says in a desert without a guide.
Well the same goes for the desert.
When you eventually get to the heart of the desert, all you see
is dunes and all you see is sand and it all looks the same.
And unless you have a trained guide to get you through that,
the person who knows where all of the the Oasis are, where you
can receive a drink of water and the correct path to get to your
destination, you will face death.
Spurgeon goes on to say not only on the sea without a compass or
in a desert without a guide, he says in an enemy's country
without a friend. What is he saying?
He's saying we need God's wisdom and insight to navigate this
crazy world. So many times we're not leaning
on the wisdom and insight. From the Lord and from His word
to navigate this crazy world. We lean on the thought wisdom
and thought insight of this world to learn how to navigate
this world. It's the blind leading the
blind. But the psalmist here says, no,
I'm a stranger on earth. What is he saying?
I need you, Lord. This is not my home.
I do not know my way around this wicked place any longer and so
please do not hide your commands from me.
Why we we learned this in the intro message.
His word is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path.
The psalmist is simply saying I have no direction if I don't
have your wisdom and insight. Oh, I would to God that the
church understood that, that you would stop listening to the
foolishness of the world, That you would stop listening to the
foolishness, foolishness of the psychology of man, and you would
trust in the Word of God and the Word of God alone for all wisdom
and all direction in your life. You say that's impossible.
No, you've already given up. It's not impossible.
The Word contains for us all things that we need for life and
godliness. God is not hiding these things
from us. We are simply ignoring them,
refusing to allow the Word to be our compass on the high seas and
our guide in the desert and our stranger in a foreign land.
But we need it. We need to learn to depend upon
direction from God's Word in the form of His wisdom and His
insight that He gives us. God is faithful to give us the
wisdom that we need. Is that not what James says
about our Lord? He says this in verse 5 of
chapter 1 in James epistle. He says if any of you lacks
wisdom he should ask God who gives generously to all without
finding fault and it will be given to him.
So we ask God for wisdom. Where do we find that answer?
We find it in the pages of Scripture Church.
Please understand that He has spoken to us.
His Word is canonized. It is final.
And in here we have all of the instructions, all of the wisdom
and the insight that we need. And James says the first step is
admitting that you need wisdom if you have it all figured out
and you know everything. And we know that there's plenty
of those people. You have it all figured out and
you know everything. And you, you are all.
Wise in your own mind, you are not depending upon wisdom that
comes from the Lord. Isn't it interesting how so many
quote educated people are atheists because they simply
claim to be wiser or smarter than God?
They've got it all figured out. And God says about them that a
fool has said in his heart that there is no God, the man with
all the intellect in the world, who's done all the research and
come to the conclusion through all of his years of research
that there is no God. God says that man is a fool.
Because he knows nothing about true wisdom.
True wisdom comes from the Word of God.
When God speaks, it is an all wise God speaking nothing but
pure wisdom, the purest of gold. So are you depending upon that?
Are you or do you seek your answers elsewhere?
Church, please listen to me when you go through crisis.
If your first instinct is not to go to the Scriptures to seek
God's thoughts on this particular subject, you are not
depending upon God. Many times we don't go to God's
Word until after we've gotten everybody else's opinion.
And here's the thing, everybody else's opinion really doesn't
matter. The psalmist gets this.
I'm a stranger on earth. Do not hide your commands for
me, he says. If you hid your commands for me,
I would have no direction in this life.
What would happen if the believers in our time lived like
that? The only direction that I have
and the only direction that I need is found in the words of
God. Oh, wouldn't we value the
Scriptures a little bit more each day?
We value the Scriptures a little bit more in our lives as we are
sanctified and we become more like Christ depending on them,
depending on God's direction that is revealed in them.
We see the psalmist here giving us encouragement to do that.
Thirdly, there's true dependence on God.
There will be, as we have seen, dependence upon God's grace,
dependence upon God's direction, and thirdly, dependence upon God
constantly. I love that this is included in
here because it helps me, because I, like you, am an
inconsistent human. But we can all pray as David
once prayed. Create a steadfast spirit in me,
oh Lord, make me constant. Make me consistent.
If there's true dependence on God, there will be dependence
upon God constantly. Look what he says verse 20.
My soul is consumed with longing for your laws.
At all times? At all times?
What kind of dependence is this where you would depend upon God
and His Word constantly? Well, first I want you to see
what the psalmist says about it. It's a soul dependence.
It's deeper than the inconsistencies of your mind or
your human habits. It is a dependence that comes
from your soul, he said. My soul is consumed with longing
for your laws. And a believer's soul should
crave God's Word like a newborn baby craves his or her mother's
milk. In fact, Peter makes this
illustration in first Peter too, where he says this in verse 2
like newborn babies crave pure spiritual milk so that buy it.
You may grow up in your salvation now that you have
tasted that the Lord is good. The sad thing is, is so many.
Of us just stop on that first taste that salvation.
God is good and he's good because he saved me.
Then we don't crave him from our soul like that baby craves its
mother's milk. Church, listen to me.
Just as that baby must be fed, just as we as adults must be
fed. I'm I'm sure some of you already
here in your stomach growl saying when is this going to be
over so I can eat? None of you look like you're on
the brink of starvation. So I think you can handle the
next two hours until I'm done. But here we see a soul depending
and longing upon the Word of God all the time, like a baby
depends upon his mother for his nourishment, for his food.
Your soul needs to be fed. It must be nourished.
You know what? All the problems that people
like to talk about in the church, the church has this
problem and the church has that problem.
And we all could be guilty of pointing out those things.
But let me. Just tell you this as a whole,
you know what the church's problem is?
They're malnourished. They're malnourished at best.
On a Sunday morning, a church might get a little snack.
Never to be fed into their souls, never to be challenged in
the depth of their very being by the Word of God.
The psalmist says that my soul is consumed with longing for
your laws, that that, that is what my soul is all about.
Feasting from your table, from your truth, from your Word.
There ought to be that deep yearning for God's people to be
filled with His Word. Is that true in your life?
Is that true in your deepest and inmost part of your being?
Because that's really what you are.
You are what you are and your deepest.
And inmost being well, I'm thankful that God has raised up
people who that's true and is raising up more people to who
that's true who longed to have their souls fed.
I'm thankful to be able to preach to a congregation that
most of the time I see the tops of your head as you were looking
along in Scripture, as you were taking notes.
I'm thankful that there's not someone in the back tapping
their watch saying we got to go leave when you have to leave.
But you wouldn't leave halfway through lunch if you were still
hungry. And your soul is hungry and you
need to realize that. And your soul is for is hungry
for nothing other than the truth that comes from the Word of God,
and it must be fed. There's so many times church
remains malnourished, not hungry for the word of God, not
feasting on the word of God, or if.
They do receive them that food, they become anorexic.
They walk out the door bulimic or spiritually, they walk out
the door and then they vomit up what they just in took, never to
bring in the nourishment of their soul.
They forget about it before they leave this parking lot, never
one time meditating on it ever, ever again.
It's not feasting on it, it's just snacking on it.
I pray that you see your soul needs the Word of God and that
your dependence upon God's Word in the depths of your being
would grow even this very moment.
The psalmist here had a soul dependence, but also a steadfast
dependence. He said at all times, Oh, what a
heart. Shouldn't that be our heart at
all times? A longing for the Word of God,
and a longing for God through His Word.
Can't be a seasonal thing well, you know what I'm talking about
and most of you live a cyclical Christian life you have to go to
the next cool thing to get fired up now we've trained kids
unfortunately this way in many church circles we take them to
some hype camp they. Get hyped up about something.
They think it's Jesus, but they really don't know.
But they call it Jesus because they don't have anything else to
call it. And they did sing a song, I
think, about Jesus and said something about the Bible.
But anyway, so they get hyped up for a minute, but it doesn't
last. But the ladies go to retreat, or
the men's go men go to retreat. And there's really no steadfast
dependence upon the word of God at all times.
And So what happens? They have to go from thing to
thing. Oh, let's go to the next cool
thing. Let's go to the next hype thing.
Let's go to the next exciting thing.
That's why we have a lot of church hoppers as well.
That's why the seeker sensitive movement is is so prevalent in
America. Is there?
They're experts at giving you the next cool thing, right?
You want a roller coaster? We'll roll a roller coaster
coaster across the stage. You want flames and fire?
We'll do that. You want a guy to jump out of a
parachute? Yeah, anything but preaching the
word of God. Give us anything but true
sustenance for our soul. We wonder why they don't have a
steadfast dependence. They're getting filled with junk
food all the time. Isn't it true?
You can fill your kids up with junk food, but it gives them no
nourishment. The psalmist here says, I, I, I,
I want to be steadfast in my dependence upon your laws.
I'm longing in my soul for them at all times.
He's not settling for a partial longing and a partial feeling.
He's depending upon God and depending upon God's Word truly
and constantly in his life. I know it's easy to depend upon
God in certain situations, isn't it?
When the bottom falls out, there's no other answer.
It's not what the psalmist is saying.
He said at all times, his church, let me tell you this,
when you don't think you need God, that's when you need him
the most. When you think you got it all
figured out and all everything's come together, that's when you
need him the most, Salma said. At all times.
At all times with consistency and steadfastness.
Not some seasonal spell or some seasonal longing or trend.
That would be like a little baby who only nurses at its mother's
breast once a week. With no desire or longing for
anything more. I know this.
I don't know every mother in the room, but I know this.
Every mother in the room would be wanting to go to the doctor
as soon as possible to get their baby checked out.
They would go there and they said something's wrong.
My baby's not taking to my milk. My baby is not nursing properly.
Why? Because the mother knows how
urgent that is. If they don't get the
nourishment that they need, they will not thrive.
And if they do not thrive, they will die.
Church, listen to me. We look at that and common sense
tells us, man, then that would be a problem.
Being in the church so many times, we don't have a steadfast
dependence upon God and upon His word in our lives.
We come once a week. We come once a week to suckle
from the supply and then don't think it's a problem that we
don't have a deep longing in our soul the rest of the week.
Christian It ought not be so. It's what causes malnourishment
in churches. The church is full of
malnourished babies with no real or constant appetite for the
things of God and for the Word of God.
Unfortunately, many of them don't even seem to think that
there is a problem. There's a problem.
Why? Because Jesus said there was a
problem. Matthew chapter 4, verse four.
Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that
proceeds from the mouth of God. Christian, are you feeding your
soul? Are you steadfastly depending
upon the nourishment from the Word of God that we receive as
His children because we need it? You need a steadfast dependence
upon God's Word. So we see the psalmist here in
this Third Point point and his dependence upon God constantly.
My soul is consumed with longing for your laws at all times.
Not on a Sunday morning, Not on a Thursday night men's Bible
study, Not during your D group during the week, ladies.
Not during the student ministry on Sunday nights, not the
children's ministry at all times.
Maybe we have a dependence that's constant.
Next, and finally, we see this. If there's true dependence on
God, there will be dependence upon God's refining, his
refining work in our lives. Look what the psalmist says in
the last few verses. He says in verse 21, you rebuke
the arrogant. How does he know this?
He was once arrogant. He knows how it goes.
He said you rebuke the arrogant who are cursed and who's strayed
from your commands. How does he know this?
He's strayed from his commands, removed from his scorn and
contempt. For I keep your statutes, since
others have their opinions about me, but the truth is I keep your
statutes. He's calling himself to account
here. He says in 23, though rulers sit
together and slander me, your servant will meditate on your
decrees. Your statues are my delight.
They are my counselors. We see here one who is truly
depending upon God does not. Let.
That dependence end with salvation.
They trust God for continual refining in their lives as they
are being sanctified. He approaches the work of that
refinement, that sanctification, from two places here, one God's
work and changing us. Anyone here thankful that God
does change us, that we are new creations in Christ?
And we are. Truly transformed, He depends
first on God's work in changing us and then God's work in
counseling us. Because we need both, don't we?
I need the changing power of God, and I need His constant
counsel in my life. The psalmist here showing his
dependence upon that refining. Let's look at the first one,
refining through that change, through God's transformation.
In fact, we know that Romans 829 says for those God foreknew, He
also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of His Son.
He might be the first born among many brothers.
What? What is that saying?
It's saying this, that God is transforming and conforming us
into the image and the likeness of Christ, and that is God's
will for our lives. There is a refining that is
going on. If there is not a refining that
is going on, you are not yet born again.
Because the moment that you were born again, that refining in
your life begins, the sanctification process is
already in motion. You were becoming more like.
Christ, you're being transformed.
It speaks of that that Paul speaks of in Philippians chapter
1. This good work that he'll carry
to completion. So He is doing this good work in
US, refining us, transforming us.
We must depend upon God to do this, trusting in that
constantly. Why?
Philippians 213 says. For it is God who works in you
to will and to act according to His good purpose.
God is doing this work. We must depend upon Him to do
the work that He has sought to do, and that is to refined you,
to make you what He desires for you to be.
To trust God, as the Psalmist is doing here, to move us from
arrogant and rebellious to humble and obedient in our
lives. Oh, just as I've already said, I
guarantee the Psalmist knew the danger of arrogance.
He knew that the danger that it would bring upon the life of
anyone who walked in arrogance. And he knew that he must trust
in God to change him and to transform him from what he once
was into what God desires him to be.
What does God desire him to be obedient to his commands, to not
stray from them, to walk in consistency with the Word of
God. So he's trusting God for this.
He's not only trusting God for that, he's trusting God to keep
him firm and focused on his word.
Look at 23, he says. Remove from me scorn and
contempt, for I keep your statutes, he said.
There are people saying ugly things about me, he says, but I
keep your statues. Look, keep me firm.
Don't let me get focused on these things.
Verse 23, same thing. The rulers sit together and
slander me. Your servant will meditate on
your decrees. You know what his answer is?
It's not to seek revenge on his critics.
His answer is to plant himself in the word of God and to be
focused on that and to be firm in that and that to be his hope.
So many times the critics have just just totally derailed many
people, haven't they? Many pastors quit ministry
because the critics became too much for them to handle.
They did not meditate in the Word of God.
They did not focus on the Word of God.
They did not trust in God's power through the Word to just
refine them and to carry them through this process and to
deliver them and to defend them. Not only does that.
Happen to pastors, it happens to husbands, and it happens to
wives. When marriage gets difficult,
why bother? No one cares anyway.
You can't listen to the negative critics, even if they belong to
the home that you live in. You answer to a holy God.
You were being refined by and through His Word.
Stay firmly focused in His Word. Look at your life, husbands, are
you doing what the Word of God says for you to do as a husband,
to love your wives as Christ loved the church, and are you
giving yourself for her? Then keep doing that.
Wives, are you submitting to your husband in everything?
Yes. Then keep doing that so that you
can say, as the psalmist says here, I've kept your statutes in
regard to this and let God do everything else.
Just stop. Don't get in His way.
Just continue to keep trusting in him to keep you firm and
focused to continue to transform you.
I wish I had a dollar for every time I had a wife come to me
burdened for her husband, wanting to change him because
he's not the godly husband that she wants him to.
Be he's not the godly husband that God wants him to be.
That ought to be your chief concern, and you want to go to
God on your knees and say, God, let me pray for him like I
should, and let me do what Scripture says and win him
without words through my godly example and through my prayer
husband. Same for you.
Trust in the Word of God to do what the Word of God does.
The Word of God refines and it transforms.
The psalmist understanding this completely, the transformative
power of God's Word, he's depending upon it so that this
process of refinement continues in his life.
With the trust in that in our lives, with the trust in that in
the lives of others. For example, that husband that
you want to fix, or that wife that you want to fix.
God is the only one who has the power to transform lives.
Trust him, hold on to the promises of scripture and pray
through this and God will show you just how faithful he is.
Psalmist here. Not looking at the negative side
of things, but focusing only on God and his word.
His mind being constantly renewed through the scriptures.
Paul talked about this in Romans 12, doesn't he?
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be
transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Then you will be able to test and improve what God's will is,
is good, pleasing and perfect will.
How's your mind going to be transformed?
Your grandma nailed it and she said garbage in, garbage out
right? You didn't know how proverbial
she really was. Instead of putting the things of
this world into your mind constantly, again to put the
things of the word into your mind constantly and watch and
trust in God's refining power as He transforms you by that very
word that he has spoken. So we see there is psalmist here
depending upon God's refining, refining through God's
transformation within refining through God's counsel.
He says there in that last verse 24, your statutes are my
delight. They are my counselors.
What's he doing here? He's valuing the word of God.
He's valuing the opinion of God. He's valuing sound counsel that
comes from the. Scriptures Again, Christian,
listen to me. Don't let the last place that
you look for advice be your Bible.
It ought to be the first place, Husbands, it ought to be before
you talk to your wives. Wives, it ought to be before you
talk to your husband. You ought to go to the Word of
God, seek your answers there, then share them with one another
at the treasure that you have found in His Word and the wisdom
and the counsel that you need for that situation.
You're going to have to value God's opinion more than you
value man's opinion. This is we saw in our scripture
reading in verse 5 of Psalm 146. Blessed are those whose help is
the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord their God.
Where do you get your help? From Where?
Do you get your counsel from Again, you're you're foolish to
get your counsel from the world. If you claim to be a Christian,
your counsel should come from the Word, not from this.
Wicked world. They're just most of the time
going to tell you what you want to hear.
Anyone here thankful when the Word of God tells you opposite
of what you wanted to hear? But it's what you needed to hear
and it's what your life needed so that you would continue to be
conformed to the image of Christ, that refining would
continue to happen in your life. You heard it, it hurt, but isn't
He so faithful that when it even when it does hurt, He comes and
He heals you. He heals you from your hurt and
He gives you the strength and the direction that you need
because His Word is that double edged sword.
It does cut and it serves its purpose.
But God is always faithful to heal you and to strengthen you
and to raise you up in obedience to that which you have received.
Are you valuing God's Word as sound counsel?
The psalmist did. Are you receiving God's Word as
sound counsel? What many people like to do
today is they like the world's ideology.
They like to follow the world's psychology and their philosophy.
We as Christians are called to a different place.
We're called to receive God's Word as sound counsel and then
to rest in God's Word as sound counsel.
He's spoken on it. It's done.
There's no need to look anywhere else.
You don't have to go to Doctor Phil, to Doctor Oz, to Oprah, to
whatever doctor's coming down the pipe.
He's going to tell you some kind of secular, worldly thinking.
No, God Himself, the sovereign God over all, has spoken.
But are we listening? Are we what?
Resting in that to which he said Psalm 16, seven.
It says, I will praise the Lord who counsels me even at night.
My heart instructs me. What is He saying at night?
I'm afraid when I don't know what tomorrow holds.
I'm trusting in God's Word. I'm not trusting in my feelings.
I'm not trusting in my circumstance or my situation.
I am trusting and resting in the counsel of God's Word.
I don't know how a person goes to sleep at night without the
promises of God. That could be a very scary
thing, couldn't it, if you didn't know the promises of God.
What. What happens if I don't wake up?
Here's the thing. I know exactly what happens if I
don't wake up. What happens if I leave here
today and this is the last day that I.
Spend on Earth. I know exactly what happens.
How do I know that? Not because someone in this
world revealed it to me, Because the Word of God reveals it to
me. The Word of God is my counselor.
I hope because of His Word. His Word defines us.
Wasn't it true? The more that we go to His Word
for counsel, the more refined we become, the more sanctified we
become. Just as Jesus pray, sanctify
them by truth. Your Word is truth.
Then before you know it, you've learned to trust in the Word of
God and nothing else. May we be those kind of people,
the Psalmist here, not trusting in the opinions and the
philosophies of man, but in the very words of an all wise, all
knowing God. So true dependence upon God will
depend upon His power and Word to refine us and to sanctify us
in our lives. So we ask that.
Question Are you depending upon God?
Is it marked by dependence upon God's grace, dependence upon
God's direction, dependence upon God constantly, and dependence
upon God's refining continually in your life?
Are you trusting and depending upon Him?
Believer, are you? For everything, Everything is
the psalmist displayed here. From life to salvation to
sanctification to daily direction and wisdom in your
life. Are you?
I would ask that you not answer that question quickly or
hastily. Now you really look at your life
in light of what we've seen today in the Word, and you come
up with that answer truthfully to the unbeliever who is here
today, who crept in. You've not yet depended upon God
at square 1. You've not yet depended upon God
to save your soul through the Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, I know that you're not depending upon God truly in
any other area of your life, because you must first depend
upon Christ, the One who God sent, His only begotten Son, who
died in the place of all sinners who will believe and trust in
Him as Lord and Savior who? Depend upon him.
More than they depend upon water and more than they depend upon
air, they depend upon Him for eternal life, eternal salvation.
And so I ask those who don't know Christ, have you ever
depended upon Him? If you have not, your journey
depending upon God has not yet begun.
But let me give you some good news.
It can begin today. It can begin today as He opens
your eyes to the truth that you are a Sinner and you are in need
of a Savior, that Christ is that only Savior and you must depend
upon Him. There is no other name given
under heaven whereby men must be saved other than the name of
Jesus. Would you call on Him today?
Would you depend on Jesus to forgive you and to cleanse you
of all of your sin, to give you eternal life that He and He
alone can give because He is the resurrection and the life, just
as John Chapter 11 tells us? And would you today begin to
depend on God, not only for salvation, but everything in
your life? Let's pray together.
Father, in the name of Jesus, we come to you, thanking you for
your word, thanking you that it is true.
Lord, I pray as we have been challenged today by your spirit
through the preaching and the teaching of your Word.
God, I pray that your will would be done now in the lives of
those who have heard the message today, and that we would examine
our lives and we would ask ourselves a difficult question.
Are we truly depending upon God? I pray for the one who has not
yet depended upon Jesus to save them from sin and the wrath that
is to come. I pray that today they would
call upon your name, Lord Jesus, to save them, and that you would
give them the mercy and the grace that only you can give,
and we'll give you all the glory for it in Jesus name, Amen.
You have been listening to Key Life Fellowships Pulpit Ministry
podcast. Join us each week for more
teaching from God's Word. If you would like to speak with
one of our pastors, please visit us on the web at
keylifefellow-ship.com. Thank you again for joining us
today.