A Serious Call to a Genuine Christian Life
By Pastor Matt Black
21
April 2007
Saturday Men’s Prayer Breakfast
Psalm 63
Opening Hymn: 527 Revive Us Again
[Announce the text and give title] Open your Bibles to Psalm 63. The title of this morning’s message is “A Call to Live a Genuine Christian Life”.
[Creation of Longing] First and foremost, if a human being is going to seek God, he must have come to the end of himself. To be thirsty for God, he must be sick of what he is currently taking in to his life. A genuine Christian life is all or nothing. Crucifixion and resurrection is what the Christian is called to. Death to self, and alive to God. It is costly. He must not only desperately want God, but only and exclusively want Him, and Him alone. In fact, he must have absolutely no other agenda than to be a slave of Jesus Christ. He must have no plans but to seek his highest pleasure in the Person of God Himself. And then that human being, filled with the Spirit of God must live out his devotion to God in his life. He must live out his prayers.
[Context] David understood what this was. The very reason David was thirsting for God is because he realized he had no one and nothing else. This was true whether he was in a desert or in a palace. David lived out his hunger for God—he was a real genuine, bonafide true believer. David knew no one but God could satisfy him, and he could be satisfied even in the most barren times in his life. God illustrated this to David in a profound ways throughout his life. First, you see, Samuel had anointed David to be king. David’s seven brothers all passed before Samuel while David was in the field keeping the sheep. God promised little David the kingdom that day. He was probably 13 or 14 years old that day. He did not become King until he was 30, and along the way, probably around the age 22, he became an exile and a fugitive. He knew he was to be King of Israel. God had said so. God’s prophet had anointed him. Yet he woke up in caves and had the dust of the wilderness that made body and soul dry. David had nothing out there in the wilderness, except the promises of God. David had come to the end of himself. He had absolutely nothing but God!! There was no difference between David’s prayers and his life. For a true Christian, there is no difference between his devotions and his devotion.
Later on in His kingdom, he again had to flee to this same wilderness when his own son, Absalom hijacked the kingdom from David. Again, he went from being on top of the world to a wanderer. That was a bad week for David! He had no other promises but the promises of God. He was emptied of himself. His situation was dry like his soul.
It is probably in the latter situation that David writes this Psalm.
[Reannounce and read the text] Read with me from Psalm 63:1-11,
“<<A Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah.>> O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is; 2 To see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary.
3 ¶ Because thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee. 4 Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in thy name. 5 My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips: 6 When I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night watches.
7 ¶ Because thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice. 8 My soul followeth hard after thee: thy right hand upholdeth me. 9 But those that seek my soul, to destroy it, shall go into the lower parts of the earth. 10 They shall fall by the sword: they shall be a portion for foxes. 11 But the king shall rejoice in God; every one that sweareth by him shall glory: but the mouth of them that speak lies shall be stopped.”
[Prayer for illumination] Pray with me…
[Introduction] Dwight Lyman Moody once famously said, "It remains to be seen what God will do with a man who gives himself up wholly unto Him." Then Mr. Moody said to himself: "Well I will be that man." People are willing to follow Christ just so long as it doesn’t inconvenience them. I tell you, Mr. Moody had true vital Christianity. Everything else is a fake. So many people who claim to know Christ have a fat head and an emaciated soul. They know so much and live so little. They are so well fed and so well dead. They know their systematic theology well, but have systematized God right out of their lives. With heads puffed up with theological knowledge, their heart and life is empty of God and filled with love for the world. Their Christianity costs them little. They are willing to stay on the cross a little while as long as there’s something in it for them. They have all the information about God correct. They even believe it in a way. But they don’t follow His directions. Let me illustrate how our current, comfortable, and cold “Christianity” lives.
[Illustration] Imagine you are totally lost in a strange town. You have an address on a sheet of paper, but you have no idea where it is. You are lost and you know it. You’ve asked five or six people where the address is. They are all strangers to the town just like you. Finally, you see a gas station and question the attendant. “Do you know where this address is?” “Of course” the attendant says, “I live right across the street. In fact at that address there is a yellow awning.” Immediately you believe this man. You know he’s credible. Now the man proceeds to tell you exactly how to get there: “Alright” he says, “What you need to do is go to that first stop light, but pay no attention to it, because you need to go to the second stop light—you can’t miss it—and take a left at that light. Now you can’t mess this up—just go all the way down the road until you come to a dead end where the road comes to a “T”. You can’t go wrong here, you can only take a left or a right, and you need to go right. Take that road until you come to one of those European style round abouts. Will see a filling station near there, and there will be a big fat police man directing traffic. There are five roads that connect into that round about. You need to go around the round about until you come to the fourth road. If you come to the fifth, you’ve gone too far. So you go to the fourth, and go about a hundred yards. Right there on your right will be a yellow awning with the house number that is on your sheet of paper”
Wow! This man obviously knew what he was saying. You believe him. You are somewhat relieved. You know you need to get there, but now you are not in such a hurry. You sit in your car feeling that you’ve arrived, but you just want to enjoy yourself a little more. That is how many professing Christians are. They seem to know Christ. They have great knowledge, and they seem to believe the claims of Christ. Yet they do not act on them. They sit in the car biding their time, not following His directions! Jesus said, “If you love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15).
But what a difference it is when the man in our illustration actually follows the directions. He comes to the first stop light, and of course, he pays no attention to it and he goes to the second stop light and turns right. So far so good. The man was right on the money. He goes right to the end like the man said, and it dead-ends into a “T”. Just as he said. Take a right and go to the roundabout. There it is—a European style roundabout. There’s the filling station. There’s the fat policeman directing traffic. Five spokes are there around the round about. So you go around to the fourth road. You knew you didn’t want to go to the fifth because that would be too far. You go down the fourth road about a hundred yards and there on your right is the yellow awning, right at the address and house number that was written on your paper. You get out of your car, ring the doorbell, and the familiar face that you were expecting to see answers the door. Now you’ve arrived. You’re no longer lost, but you are living out the directions the man gave you.
[Proposition] The whole point of the message this morning is really found in verse 7. David says, “Because thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice.“ David lived out what he prayed. God was his sufficiency and satisfaction in the most barren times in his life. He asked God to be his help, and then he stepped out on faith and lived a God-dependent, God-saturated life even when he woke up some mornings in a cold dry wilderness. David prayed totally dependent on God, and David lived totally dependent upon God. Listen this morning, the Christian life is not simply to be believed, but to be lived out.
A Christian bears the name of the holiest man that ever lived: Jesus Christ. A man cannot bear that name and not live out the holiness of that name. He must pursue God and realize his union with Christ in his prayer, and in pursuits of life.
[MAIN POINT 1] The Christian life is not simply to be believed, but to be lived out. And first and foremost, it is to be lived out in prayer.
Hebrews 11:6, “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” You see faith is more than belief. It is trust. Christianity is a diligent and intense pursuit of God. Our problem is that we’ve told people that they can be forgiven and they can stay out of hell. That’s true, but if that’s all you tell a person, you have not told the whole truth, and anything less than the whole truth is a lie. The whole truth is that God forgave you and saved you from hell so that you could have Him. If you leave Him out, all you have is humanism. All you have is a man-centered universe. God did not save you for your sake, He saved you for His sake! This salvation is not a one time experience, but a whole life!!! And that life is chiefly characterized by knowing God in prayer.
David says in verse 1, “O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is;”. How should we purse God in prayer?
[Subpoint 1] The pursuit of God in prayer begins by way of an end to self. David knew the most foundational desires of his soul could not be satisfied in himself or by the pleasures of this world. He knew he didn’t need to be King to satisfy these desires. He knew he didn’t need to be rich to be satisfied. Those were all things that human beings have done for millennium without a walk with God. He had come to the conclusion that actually nothing he could do could accomplish what he needed. God and God alone could offer his soul the deep satisfaction he was longing for. God will not be found without an end of self. Christianity from beginning to end is a call to die to self and to live to God. Galatians 2:20, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” So prayer begins by with an end to self. Crucifixion to the self life. Confession of selfishness and sin. Much sorrow!!
[Subpoint 2] The pursuit of God in prayer yes begins with an end to self, but continues with an experience of God. David says he wanted to experience God. It wasn’t duty but desire! It wasn’t a declaration of Christianity, but a demonstration of it!! He says “I’m thirsting for you God”. How was this thirst going to be fulfilled? It would only be fulfilled by David actually experiencing God. He says ‘I thirst’ verse 2, “To see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary”. I want you to see several things about this experience.
[1] This experience of God was early. Verse 1, “O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is;” This means that he sought to experience God first thing. He knew he it couldn’t wait. He sought God early in the sense of urgently. Nothing else was more important. Everything else had to be put aside. This is the actual experiencing of the first commandment of having God alone occupy the place of God and no other. It is letting God occupy total exclusivity in your heart.
[2] This experience of God was earnest. Verse 1, “O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is;” David cried out to God as a desperate man, as a little baby crying for milk from his mother. He didn’t care what was going on. Time stopped. He was focused on one thing and one thing only. There was an serious earnestness, like that of when someone is in serious trouble calling out for someone to help them.
[3] This experience of God was exclusive. Verse 1, “O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is;” David prayed not primarily for his own earthly needs or for the needs of others. The primary focus of prayer for David was an exclusive enjoyment of God. He wanted God. He didn’t care if God gave him things on this earth. He wasn’t using God as a cosmic Santa Claus or genie. He wanted God himself. His person. His presence. His love poured out on him.
[4] This experience of God was exciting. Verses 3-4, “Because thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee. 4 Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in thy name. 5 My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips”. This experience of God was not comparable to anything on earth. Actually it was worth the total abandonment of his life that he might gain it. He says the experience of God is “better than life”. This kind of experience filled David with overwhelming praise, to the point where he raised his hands to heaven. He was addicted to God, absolutely addicted. He was satisfied with God! He was FAT with God! The marrow and fatness of God filled him up and overflowed out of his mouth!!!
[5] This experience of God was nocturnal. Verse 6, “When I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night watches”. This addiction to God was something that would fill David with such energy of the Spirit of God that he would be up all night.
[Illustration] Think of the Lord Jesus as our example. Hebrews 5:5ff tells us that “Christ glorified not himself” but (skip down to verse 7), “Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared”. Christ cried. He feared, or worshipped God with the deepest reverence and seriousness of soul. We read of Christ in Luke 6:12, “And it came to pass in those days, that he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God.”
[Application] How many Christians do you know have a prayer life like this? Do you realize that such an apostasy has settled upon the church in our day? Listen to 2 Timothy 3:1ff, “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. 2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, 4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; 5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.” Do you know that is a good description of the professing church of the 21st century! Matthew 7:21ff, “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? 23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”
That brings us to our second point.
[MAIN POINT 2] The Christian life is not simply to be believed, but to be lived out. And first and foremost, it is to be lived out in prayer. But secondly it is to be lived out in the pursuits of life. David pursued God in prayer and then it flowed right into his pursuits of life.
[Subpoint 1] Like David we need to learn God-dependence in the pursuits of our life. Everything that David did in life was actually a pursuit of God. He says in verse 7, “Because thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice. 8 My soul followeth hard after thee: thy right hand upholdeth me.” Notice the words “help” and “uphold”. In fact there was a real strength that David experienced from God that was not a result of sleeping or eating or exercise. Remember David was probably very hungry. He was not in the palace but the desert. He was definitely working on a lack of sleep since he would at times stay up all night and seek God in the “night watches” (verse 6). He was experiencing such supernatural strength that he said he could rejoice “in the shadow of thy wings”. David was being carried to heaven. He was “seated in the heavenly places”. As Paul would later write, he was granted something amazing in prayer that he lived out in his life—he was granted a power that was not limited, but was “according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man” (Ephesians 3:16). Listen, I’ll say it again, the church does not need another declaration of Christianity! The church needs a demonstration of Christianity in power and in the Spirit!!
[Subpoint 2] Secondly, Like David we need to learn God-allegience in the pursuits of our life.
[1] God must be our only allegiance because He alone is able to destroy the soul, not man. Look at verse 9, “But those that seek my soul, to destroy it, shall go into the lower parts of the earth. 10 They shall fall by the sword: they shall be a portion for foxes.”
Ø Matthew 10:28, “And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”
David lived a life abandoned to God no matter who was against him. He was ready to take on the world, standing alone for His God. How many men are willing to stand alone if you are the only Christian on earth? Do you fear God that much?
[2] God must alone be our allegiance because He will share his glory with no one. Everyone who glories in anything else is lying. Verse 11, “But the king shall rejoice in God; every one that sweareth by him shall glory: but the mouth of them that speak lies shall be stopped.”
Ø Isaiah 42:8 I am the LORD: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images.
Ø Jeremiah 9:24 But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the LORD which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the LORD.
God will be worshipped. You were created to glory in him. To take up the name of Christ and not live a life of holiness is a lie! There is a name for this lying in the Bible. A person who calls himself a Christian, but does not life the life of Christ through him is called an apostate. Above all other creatures in the universe, more than demons and heathens and atheists, God hates apostates, and they will be the first to be cast into the Lake of Fire (Matthew 7:21). These are those who profess to know Christ but do not live out the Christian life. John 15:2, “Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.” And verse 7 of John 15, “If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.”
Hebrews 10:25ff, “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching. 26 For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, 27 But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. 28 He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: 29 Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace? 30 For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people. 31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”
A person cannot call themselves a Christian and disregard (do despite) the Spirit of grace! Sodom and Gomorrah had no Bible, and look at how they were judged. How much more we who profess Christ and own a Bible! If you do not live a holy sold out life, you will most assuredly one day awake in hell’s torments.
Hebrews 12:14 Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:
[3] If God alone is our allegiance, our life will be a life of holiness and it will cause others to be holy. “the mouth of them that speak lies shall be stopped.”
If you think you are a Christian because of what you believe you are totally deceived. There is something that God hates more than pagans and atheists who deny him in their foolish ignorance. It is people who take up the high Name of Jesus on their lives and do not live out of his power in their lives. The Christian life is not a profession of faith. It is not a fat head, but a fat soul of thirsting after God and a demonstration of power and the Spirit. You are not a Christian unless you are living a holy life! You cannot be a Christian. Sin for the Christian is like a cancer. [Give examples from 1 John].
Conclusion: I want to close by looking at Jeremiah 17:5ff, “Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD. 6 For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited. 7 Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is. 8 For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit. 9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? 10 I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.”
Are you making man your trust or are you thirsting after God? Are you experiencing God in prayer and living out your thirst for Him in the pursuits of your life? Is there a passion? A peace that passes understanding? A power and demonstration of the Spirit of grace? A joy unspeakable and full of glory? Is your mind in perfect peace because it is stayed on Jehovah? Are you addicted to God or is their something else in your life that you desire. Asaph said, “Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee” (Psalm 73:25). Is God your desire?
Closing Hymn: 528 Do You Really Want Revival?