E04: Living Life in the Light of God's Word - A True Dependence on God

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

Job 12:10

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

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

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.

Romans 6 · chapter mention

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

John 14:15

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.

John 6 · chapter mention

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

John 6:67

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.

Matthew 4 · chapter mention

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

Philippians 1 · chapter mention

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

John 11 · chapter mention

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.