1 00:00:00,000 –> 00:00:07,120 You’re listening to a sermon from Pastor Colin Smith of Open the Bible. 2 00:00:07,120 –> 00:00:15,160 To contact us, call us at 1-877-OPEN365 or visit our website, openthebible.org. 3 00:00:15,160 –> 00:00:17,760 Let’s get to the message. 4 00:00:17,760 –> 00:00:20,280 Here is Pastor Colin. 5 00:00:20,280 –> 00:00:25,200 I’d be grateful if you’d open your Bibles at Psalm 63 as we take our last journey together 6 00:00:25,200 –> 00:00:28,420 into the secret life of the soul. 7 00:00:28,900 –> 00:00:33,740 If you were here last time, you may remember that Jesus Christ invites the whole soul to 8 00:00:33,740 –> 00:00:35,860 come to Him. 9 00:00:35,860 –> 00:00:40,700 And we saw the true conversion involves the mind embracing God’s truth. 10 00:00:40,700 –> 00:00:43,540 It involves the heart being filled with His love. 11 00:00:43,540 –> 00:00:46,520 The will being aligned with His purpose. 12 00:00:46,520 –> 00:00:51,400 The imagination grasping a new vision of life lived for the glory of God. 13 00:00:51,400 –> 00:00:55,400 The memory offering up the past so that God can redeem it. 14 00:00:55,400 –> 00:01:00,700 And the conscience laying down its burden at the foot of the cross of Jesus Christ. 15 00:01:00,700 –> 00:01:08,580 It is the whole soul embracing the Lord who invites us with our innermost being and our 16 00:01:08,580 –> 00:01:11,459 whole selves to come to Him. 17 00:01:11,459 –> 00:01:15,760 And I want to suggest to you this morning that one of the greatest tragedies of the 18 00:01:15,760 –> 00:01:25,480 modern church is that too often we have reduced a relationship to a passport. 19 00:01:25,480 –> 00:01:28,040 Let me explain what I mean. 20 00:01:28,040 –> 00:01:31,220 A passport is a marvelous thing. 21 00:01:31,220 –> 00:01:33,480 You can’t travel without it. 22 00:01:33,480 –> 00:01:40,120 My passport is important to me but I keep it in a file and I only bring it out when 23 00:01:40,120 –> 00:01:44,639 I need it, which is usually once or twice a year. 24 00:01:44,639 –> 00:01:49,459 There are a lot of people who are passport believers. 25 00:01:49,459 –> 00:01:51,519 That is, they believe in God. 26 00:01:51,519 –> 00:01:55,559 They believe that after the short life there is a vast eternity. 27 00:01:55,559 –> 00:01:58,620 They believe in heaven and hell and sometimes they even pray. 28 00:01:58,620 –> 00:02:03,120 They want to make sure, and this is their primary concern, that when they take their 29 00:02:03,120 –> 00:02:08,000 final journey, they won’t have any problems in heaven’s immigration hall. 30 00:02:08,000 –> 00:02:12,399 They want to know that everything will be well, so they have asked one question, what 31 00:02:12,399 –> 00:02:15,500 do I have to do to get a passport to heaven? 32 00:02:15,500 –> 00:02:19,220 They have been told, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. 33 00:02:19,220 –> 00:02:23,660 Ask Jesus into your life, so they do this. 34 00:02:23,660 –> 00:02:28,039 It seems to them rather like filling up an application for a passport really. 35 00:02:28,039 –> 00:02:31,460 Do you believe that Jesus died for your sins and rose again? 36 00:02:31,460 –> 00:02:32,460 Yes. 37 00:02:32,460 –> 00:02:34,460 Are you applying for the gift of eternal life? 38 00:02:34,460 –> 00:02:35,460 Yes. 39 00:02:35,460 –> 00:02:40,039 Are you ready to forsake your sins and begin living a new life? 40 00:02:40,039 –> 00:02:41,339 Yes. 41 00:02:41,360 –> 00:02:45,660 Having completed the process, the applicant is now confident that when he comes to the 42 00:02:45,660 –> 00:02:51,600 immigration calls of heaven, he can show his passport and all will be well. 43 00:02:51,600 –> 00:02:52,679 What does he do with it? 44 00:02:52,679 –> 00:02:59,080 He takes his faith and he puts it in a safe place. 45 00:02:59,080 –> 00:03:03,720 He knows that when he faces a crisis, he can turn to God, but of course he hopes that this 46 00:03:03,720 –> 00:03:06,919 won’t be too often. 47 00:03:06,919 –> 00:03:11,160 Even as I’m describing this, you will immediately realize that this is a whole world 48 00:03:11,360 –> 00:03:16,940 away from anything that the Bible describes to us, that there is a whole dimension that 49 00:03:16,940 –> 00:03:23,199 is missing in this person’s understanding of what it really is to be a Christian. 50 00:03:23,199 –> 00:03:27,979 Jesus Christ did not come into the world to offer us a passport. 51 00:03:27,979 –> 00:03:32,039 He came into the world to invite you into a relationship. 52 00:03:32,039 –> 00:03:37,479 And the tragedy of the modern church, is that there are many people who call themselves 53 00:03:37,940 –> 00:03:42,220 believers who know little or nothing about it. 54 00:03:42,220 –> 00:03:49,220 A.W. Tozer made a shrewd observation on Our Times when he said, ëthat the whole transaction 55 00:03:49,619 –> 00:03:56,619 of religious conversion has been made mechanical and spiritless. Christí, he says, may be 56 00:03:58,960 –> 00:04:05,800 ëreceivedí without creating any special love for him in the soul of the believer. 57 00:04:05,800 –> 00:04:12,800 The man is ësavedí but he is not hungry and thirsty after God. 58 00:04:14,600 –> 00:04:21,600 Iím sure that we recognize that description. I wonder if it describes you. 59 00:04:24,899 –> 00:04:29,179 Come with me on a journey into the boardroom of the soul. Weíve seen that when a person 60 00:04:29,179 –> 00:04:33,940 comes to faith in Christ, the Spirit of God comes to that soul, He takes the chair that 61 00:04:34,079 –> 00:04:39,540 God has set in the boardroom of every soul, reserved for himself, and begins to give new 62 00:04:39,540 –> 00:04:43,440 direction to the members of the board. It is a wonderful thing when the Spirit 63 00:04:43,440 –> 00:04:48,100 of God comes to inhabit a life. But I want to remind you this morning that 64 00:04:48,100 –> 00:04:55,100 even a chairman can be overruled. So picture with me the chairman calls a meeting 65 00:04:57,279 –> 00:05:02,459 and the members of the boardroom of the soul take their chairs round the table. 66 00:05:02,459 –> 00:05:08,519 For the last ten years says the chairman, this soul has belonged to Christ. 67 00:05:08,519 –> 00:05:13,920 There is nothing more wonderful in all the world, but things are not as they should be 68 00:05:13,920 –> 00:05:18,359 in this soul. When you came to Christ says the Spirit, every 69 00:05:18,359 –> 00:05:23,760 one of you embraced Him, He became the center of each of your worlds. 70 00:05:23,760 –> 00:05:29,160 But now what was once a great fire has become like a smoldering candle. 71 00:05:29,200 –> 00:05:33,040 We need to talk. What’s happened? 72 00:05:33,040 –> 00:05:38,799 Well, says mind, I’ve learned a great deal over these last 73 00:05:38,799 –> 00:05:45,660 years, and I’ve come to understand that this soul is eternally secure. 74 00:05:45,660 –> 00:05:49,440 This has been a wonderful release for all of us on the members of the board, because 75 00:05:49,440 –> 00:05:54,760 it means that our entrance into heaven does not depend on our performance. 76 00:05:55,359 –> 00:05:58,700 That’s right, says the Spirit. 77 00:05:58,700 –> 00:06:04,260 But where are you going with that truth, mind? 78 00:06:04,260 –> 00:06:10,000 Well, it’s occurred to me, says mind, that since the destiny of this soul does not depend 79 00:06:10,000 –> 00:06:16,000 on our performance in the Christian life, we are there for free to do our own thing. 80 00:06:16,000 –> 00:06:21,959 I’ve shared this idea with the others that now that we’ve got it all sorted out, we can 81 00:06:22,160 –> 00:06:28,739 actually pursue our own agendas again and they have found this suggestion very attractive. 82 00:06:28,739 –> 00:06:32,799 Well, not all of us, says conscience. 83 00:06:32,799 –> 00:06:35,679 Well, most of us did, said mind. 84 00:06:35,679 –> 00:06:39,320 And frankly, conscience, if you disagreed, you didn’t put up much of a fight. 85 00:06:39,320 –> 00:06:45,619 He says, well, I have found mind’s suggestion very helpful. 86 00:06:45,619 –> 00:06:50,820 The idea that I could pursue my own agenda and because we’re eternally secure it will 87 00:06:51,160 –> 00:06:52,540 still be all right in the end. 88 00:06:52,540 –> 00:06:55,720 I find that wonderfully attractive. 89 00:06:55,720 –> 00:06:57,820 Heart smiled and nodded enthusiastically. 90 00:06:57,820 –> 00:07:04,459 Yes, said memory, it’s business as usual, just like the good old days. 91 00:07:04,459 –> 00:07:11,459 What it amounts to, said imagination, is that this soul is now ten years down the line a 92 00:07:12,179 –> 00:07:16,559 Christian version of what it was before. 93 00:07:16,559 –> 00:07:20,619 We have Christianized the old life. 94 00:07:20,619 –> 00:07:26,459 After living the best of both worlds, each of us pursues his own agenda with the security 95 00:07:26,459 –> 00:07:33,320 that all will be well in the end. 96 00:07:33,320 –> 00:07:37,779 After they had all spoken, there was a strange quiet. 97 00:07:37,779 –> 00:07:44,779 One by one, they looked towards the chairman, who had remained silent while they spoke. 98 00:07:45,660 –> 00:07:52,660 And now they saw that he was weeping. 99 00:07:58,359 –> 00:08:05,359 Suddenly, the members of the board knew that they had deeply grieved the Spirit of God. 100 00:08:05,839 –> 00:08:13,779 Clearing his eyes, the Spirit said to each of the members of the board, 101 00:08:13,779 –> 00:08:24,700 gentlemen, we must adjourn this meeting. Search yourselves. I will pray for you. 102 00:08:25,380 –> 00:08:37,940 Then we will reconvene to set a new direction. Now, I wonder if that picture is describing 103 00:08:37,940 –> 00:08:50,799 the reality for some of us in the inner life. There was a time when we embraced Christ, 104 00:08:51,159 –> 00:08:59,419 but the reality is that we have now settled for a contentment that we are eternally secure, 105 00:08:59,419 –> 00:09:11,359 and we’re pursuing our own agenda. And the New Testament speaks about grieving the Spirit of 106 00:09:11,440 –> 00:09:24,559 God. The chairman weeps. He weeps because this is not what Christ died to bring you into. Not a 107 00:09:24,559 –> 00:09:37,200 passport, a relationship. Imagine a woman who is desperate to be married. The idea of having a 108 00:09:37,840 –> 00:09:45,219 wedding is the thing that matters to her. The thought of wearing a ring, that’s what gets her 109 00:09:45,219 –> 00:09:53,500 going. She’s in love with the thought of being married but after the wedding she shows precious 110 00:09:53,500 –> 00:10:01,039 little interest in her husband. The problem for some of us is that we have an interest in 111 00:10:01,200 –> 00:10:08,099 status of being Christian. We want to be seen and known as Christian. We want to know that we 112 00:10:08,099 –> 00:10:18,299 are heaven-bound but, beyond that, we have shown precious little interest in Jesus. Our Christianity 113 00:10:18,299 –> 00:10:29,099 is all at the level of status and has precious little to do with the dimension of relationship. 114 00:10:29,520 –> 00:10:42,739 It was Valentine’s Day last week, so let’s have a little bit of romance this morning. We celebrated 115 00:10:42,739 –> 00:10:51,719 it, of course, British style. We opened the file, checked that the wedding certificate is still 116 00:10:51,719 –> 00:11:03,280 there and put it away again. No, no, we didn’t! We had a wonderful evening 117 00:11:03,280 –> 00:11:07,919 together, and this is the truth and I’m grateful for it. I was able to say to 118 00:11:07,919 –> 00:11:12,760 Karin from the heart, you know, we are closer now than on the day that we were 119 00:11:12,760 –> 00:11:19,880 married. And we are! Now everyone here knows what that means. We’re closer now 120 00:11:20,559 –> 00:11:24,520 than on the day that we were married. Of course we’ve lived in the same house for 121 00:11:24,520 –> 00:11:30,299 twenty years, so we’re not talking about any kind of proximity issues. We’re not 122 00:11:30,299 –> 00:11:34,559 even talking about the status of marriage. We’re not more married or less 123 00:11:34,559 –> 00:11:41,460 married than we were at any time. That status has remained unchanged. When a man 124 00:11:41,460 –> 00:11:48,580 says, or a woman says, we’re closer now, they’re talking the language of the soul. 125 00:11:48,580 –> 00:11:53,859 We’re not talking status of relationship, we’re talking experience 126 00:11:53,859 –> 00:12:00,299 of relationship. And the Bible is full of that kind of language, in regard 127 00:12:00,299 –> 00:12:07,739 to your walk with God. And the point that E. W. Tozer was making, and that is the 128 00:12:07,739 –> 00:12:13,179 burden of this message today, is that in the modern church we have so largely 129 00:12:13,179 –> 00:12:17,960 lost that, having become consumed simply with the question of what is my standing, 130 00:12:18,179 –> 00:12:24,979 we have lost the question of the intimacy, the closeness, the beauty of a 131 00:12:24,979 –> 00:12:32,679 growing relationship with Jesus Christ. What do you know about this, in your walk 132 00:12:32,679 –> 00:12:41,000 with God? Could you look up into the face of God, my faith, and say we are closer 133 00:12:41,299 –> 00:12:49,780 now, and I love you more than on the day I pledged my faith in Jesus Christ 20, 134 00:12:49,780 –> 00:12:58,619 30, 50 years ago. Or could it be that like the sad couple you have settled for 135 00:12:58,619 –> 00:13:07,820 the mere status of the name Christian but have lost the fire of love for 136 00:13:08,020 –> 00:13:15,080 Christ? Now we often learn from models and so this morning I want us simply to 137 00:13:15,080 –> 00:13:20,159 look in the Psalms at what a soul with an all-consuming passion for God looks 138 00:13:20,159 –> 00:13:26,960 like. Please open your Bibles at Psalm 63. And I want, beginning from verse 1, for 139 00:13:26,960 –> 00:13:35,559 us to see first that spiritual passion is ignited by experiencing God. Notice 140 00:13:35,559 –> 00:13:39,239 that these are the words of a believer that we’re focusing on this morning. 141 00:13:39,239 –> 00:13:47,880 Oh God, you are my God. This is David speaking. He knows God, he loves God. 142 00:13:47,880 –> 00:13:53,479 I’m speaking to believers this morning from this psalm. He speaks in verse 2 143 00:13:53,479 –> 00:13:58,500 about his own experience. I have seen you in the sanctuary. I have beheld your 144 00:13:58,500 –> 00:14:03,700 power and your glory. This was before the temple was built, the place where God 145 00:14:04,640 –> 00:14:08,159 would meet with the people. He was surrounded by a tent, they called it the 146 00:14:08,159 –> 00:14:12,940 sanctuary, and David says I’ve been to that place where you meet with men and 147 00:14:12,940 –> 00:14:18,159 women, and I have seen, felt. He’s not talking about with the eyes, he’s talking 148 00:14:18,159 –> 00:14:23,000 about with his own soul. He has apprehended the greatness and the glory 149 00:14:23,000 –> 00:14:29,520 of God. For us Christian believers the place where we meet with God, and where 150 00:14:29,580 –> 00:14:34,719 His beauty is revealed to us is in the cross of Jesus Christ, and for us the 151 00:14:34,719 –> 00:14:40,820 equivalent might be to say I have come to see the overwhelming love and grace 152 00:14:40,820 –> 00:14:45,479 that you pour out in Jesus Christ through his death and through his 153 00:14:45,479 –> 00:14:52,280 resurrection, and that has been poured out upon my soul, I have seen and 154 00:14:52,380 –> 00:14:59,780 apprehended something of the beauty of it. He could speak about this and 155 00:14:59,780 –> 00:15:04,559 remember it from the reality of his own experience and it is the fact that he 156 00:15:04,559 –> 00:15:15,119 has seen this power and this glory of God that drives his pursuit of God. Just 157 00:15:15,200 –> 00:15:22,619 outside my hometown of Edinburgh, there’s a little town called Musselburgh, tiny 158 00:15:22,619 –> 00:15:28,700 little place. As far as I’m concerned, important for one thing, there’s a little 159 00:15:28,700 –> 00:15:36,559 ice-cream shop there, it’s called Luka’s and I tell you they sell the best ice 160 00:15:36,559 –> 00:15:43,159 cream I have ever tasted anywhere. It would be no hardship for me, given half 161 00:15:43,219 –> 00:15:47,580 an opportunity to drive 10 miles out of my way simply to get there. 162 00:15:47,580 –> 00:15:52,979 You might think that was crazy but in all probability you’ve never tasted the 163 00:15:52,979 –> 00:15:59,299 ice cream. And if you had, you’d understand the motivation. Now you see 164 00:15:59,299 –> 00:16:05,219 that’s what’s David is saying here. He has seen the glory of God. 165 00:16:05,219 –> 00:16:10,719 He has tasted something of the beauty of the Lord, and it’s the fact that he 166 00:16:11,080 –> 00:16:19,880 has experienced God that ignites this holy passion that burns within him. 167 00:16:19,880 –> 00:16:25,400 There is all the difference in the world between a scribe and a prophet. A scribe is 168 00:16:25,400 –> 00:16:32,080 one who has studied. A prophet is one who has seen. One can talk 169 00:16:32,080 –> 00:16:36,419 about what he has learned but the other can talk about what he has tasted, what 170 00:16:36,619 –> 00:16:42,859 has experienced. There is all the difference in the world. God has made you 171 00:16:42,859 –> 00:16:48,820 with a body and your body is equipped with five senses through which you can 172 00:16:48,820 –> 00:16:52,799 experience the material world, the senses of sight and sound and taste and touch 173 00:16:52,799 –> 00:16:59,940 and smell. But in the same way God has created your soul with the capacity to 174 00:17:00,059 –> 00:17:06,280 know and experience him. And the Bible repeatedly uses analogies from our 175 00:17:06,280 –> 00:17:13,160 physical senses to encourage us to understand that the soul has capacity to 176 00:17:13,160 –> 00:17:20,540 be able to apprehend the living God. So for example Jesus says my sheep know my 177 00:17:20,540 –> 00:17:26,280 voice. My sheep hear my voice. He’s not talking about us going around 178 00:17:26,300 –> 00:17:31,319 listening with our physical ears for audible voices, but he’s saying in the 179 00:17:31,319 –> 00:17:38,640 same way as your ear apprehends sound, God has made your soul with the capacity 180 00:17:38,640 –> 00:17:43,640 when you come to faith in Jesus, to discern his voice and to know him. Your 181 00:17:43,640 –> 00:17:51,800 soul has that capacity. Or from the Psalms, taste and see that the Lord is good. 182 00:17:51,800 –> 00:17:55,719 In the same way as God has made your body with the capacity to taste ice 183 00:17:55,719 –> 00:17:59,760 cream, and to be very excited about it and drive five miles out your way to 184 00:17:59,760 –> 00:18:04,839 find the place where the best stop is, so God has made your soul with a capacity 185 00:18:04,839 –> 00:18:15,079 to savor the beauty, the glory of the Lord. God has built that capacity 186 00:18:15,079 –> 00:18:19,859 into you. This is what Adam and Eve enjoyed. Of course they had combined not 187 00:18:19,859 –> 00:18:23,680 only the capacities of the soul but also the capacities of the body because they 188 00:18:23,680 –> 00:18:27,479 actually saw, God actually heard his voice. And their souls therefore were 189 00:18:27,479 –> 00:18:33,060 filled. We have now been born into a world that is alienated from God and 190 00:18:33,060 –> 00:18:37,479 therefore we do not see him, we do not hear his audible voice. Yet within the 191 00:18:37,479 –> 00:18:42,060 soul that is the capacity that when we come to faith in Jesus Christ we may 192 00:18:42,060 –> 00:18:47,400 truly be able to fellowship with him. That we may be able to taste and to see. 193 00:18:47,839 –> 00:18:51,520 That we may be able to discern the very voice of God, that we may have a 194 00:18:51,520 –> 00:18:59,760 knowledge of relationship with him. We talk about witnessing, people sometimes 195 00:18:59,760 –> 00:19:04,319 say we have a great difficulty with witnessing and some people have the idea 196 00:19:04,319 –> 00:19:08,260 that witnessing is mugging up a little presentation of the Gospel and then 197 00:19:08,260 –> 00:19:13,219 looking for an opportunity to download it on some unbelieving person. But you 198 00:19:13,219 –> 00:19:15,140 don’t even have to be a Christian to do that. 199 00:19:15,140 –> 00:19:20,660 Cults can train anyone to do a presentation of a message. Anyone can 200 00:19:20,660 –> 00:19:25,300 learn an outline of the Christian gospel and repeat it. That’s the sort of thing a 201 00:19:25,300 –> 00:19:32,319 scribe does. But Jesus said to his disciples, you will be my witnesses, and 202 00:19:32,319 –> 00:19:37,640 what he meant was you’ll be able to tell something that you’ve seen. To witness is 203 00:19:37,699 –> 00:19:43,199 to declare something that you can personally verify is true. I saw it all, 204 00:19:43,199 –> 00:19:48,900 officer. He came around the right turn, swung into the left lane, hit the 205 00:19:48,900 –> 00:19:54,880 barrier, and crashed into the wall. It happened at 509 I remember because I saw 206 00:19:54,880 –> 00:20:01,599 the clock on the Town Hall. That’s the language of a witness. You could study 207 00:20:01,599 –> 00:20:06,000 the report of the crash in the paper the following morning. That would make you 208 00:20:06,000 –> 00:20:10,660 like a scribe, but it would not make you a witness. The witness is one who has 209 00:20:10,660 –> 00:20:15,640 personally experienced an event. David says, that’s my position. 210 00:20:15,640 –> 00:20:21,680 I have seen something of your power and of your glory. I have seen you in the 211 00:20:21,680 –> 00:20:28,839 sanctuary. I have apprehended something of your greatness and because I’ve 212 00:20:28,839 –> 00:20:38,520 tasted, that has ignited my spiritual passion. Now here’s what I want to say to 213 00:20:38,520 –> 00:20:48,979 you from that this morning. Don’t sell yourself short. If you don’t 214 00:20:49,199 –> 00:20:59,359 know what he’s talking about, don’t settle until you do. Authentic 215 00:20:59,359 –> 00:21:05,680 Christianity is not about signing up to some formula, like sending in an 216 00:21:05,680 –> 00:21:14,180 application for a passport. It is by faith entering into a relationship in 217 00:21:14,400 –> 00:21:20,880 which the Spirit of God makes the presence of God real to us, and gives to 218 00:21:20,880 –> 00:21:28,099 us a glimpse within our own being, through his word, of the beauty and the 219 00:21:28,099 –> 00:21:35,219 glory of God. And if you have no sense of that at all, even in your memory, if you 220 00:21:35,219 –> 00:21:38,800 don’t know what I’m talking about, please don’t settle until you do. 221 00:21:38,800 –> 00:21:47,760 Jesus says, ask, seek, knock. Your soul has been made with a capacity to know God. 222 00:21:47,760 –> 00:21:55,520 Don’t settle for a formula, any more than you would settle for a Valentine’s Day 223 00:21:55,520 –> 00:22:02,380 in which you check out the presence of a certificate in a file. Jesus Christ has 224 00:22:02,380 –> 00:22:08,119 come into the world to bring you into a relationship, and it is that knowledge of 225 00:22:08,180 –> 00:22:26,520 His glory that ignites spiritual passion. Ask, seek, knock. God made you for this. 226 00:22:26,760 –> 00:22:42,699 Don’t sell yourself short. Spiritual passion is ignited by experiencing good. Secondly, 227 00:22:42,699 –> 00:22:49,000 spiritual passion is intensified when God seems distant. Look at what David says here, 228 00:22:49,040 –> 00:22:55,500 my soul thirsts for you.” Now his problem is not that he’s an unbeliever, the problem is 229 00:22:55,500 –> 00:23:00,660 not that he’s in some kind of rebellion with God. The fact that his soul thirsts for God is 230 00:23:00,660 –> 00:23:07,439 the greatest evidence that he has indeed authentically experienced God. But now the God 231 00:23:07,439 –> 00:23:13,739 who he has known and apprehended seems strangely distant. And many of us as Christian believers 232 00:23:13,979 –> 00:23:20,680 will be able to identify with this experience. We have known something of the beauty and 233 00:23:20,680 –> 00:23:27,500 the glory of the Lord but now we’ve come into a passage of life where God seems to be distant 234 00:23:27,500 –> 00:23:34,500 from us. That’s David’s experience. There are times when God hides His presence. Isaiah 235 00:23:35,780 –> 00:23:42,780 says in Isaiah 45 and verse 15, “‘Truly you are a God who hides yourself.’ And you may 236 00:23:43,099 –> 00:23:49,420 say, why does God hide Himself from me when He knows that I love Him. Well, when God hides 237 00:23:49,420 –> 00:23:55,699 Himself, you will begin to seek Him. And the fact that you seek Him and like David, hunger 238 00:23:55,699 –> 00:24:00,859 and thirst after Him is one of the greatest statements that can ever be made about you.” 239 00:24:00,859 –> 00:24:06,579 You see, the passport believer doesn’t care when God is distant because he’s never known 240 00:24:06,599 –> 00:24:12,599 what it was when God was present. But David has glimpsed something of the presence of 241 00:24:12,599 –> 00:24:19,599 the Lord, and having tasted, there is a hunger in his soul. When he feels that God is distant 242 00:24:23,420 –> 00:24:30,420 from him, he says, my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you as in a dry and weary 243 00:24:30,680 –> 00:24:36,180 land. David, of course, was in the desert. You’ll see that from the top of the psalm 244 00:24:36,180 –> 00:24:42,020 when he wrote this. It’s probably the case that this happened during the rebellion of 245 00:24:42,020 –> 00:24:49,020 Absalom. David’s son rose up against him and David was forced away from Jerusalem, away 246 00:24:49,079 –> 00:24:53,780 from the palace and from the throne and now he finds himself with his loyal men out there 247 00:24:53,780 –> 00:24:59,459 in the desert. And so, here’s this extraordinary situation of a king on the run in the desert. 248 00:24:59,800 –> 00:25:05,540 He’s moving from one oasis to another and he can’t stop in one place because there are 249 00:25:05,540 –> 00:25:11,920 folks pursuing him for his life. And as he moves from one oasis to another, there are 250 00:25:11,920 –> 00:25:17,979 times when he becomes desperately thirsty. And when he says he’s thirsty, he’s not talking 251 00:25:17,979 –> 00:25:24,199 about just wanting a drink with dinner, he’s saying this is a vital necessity. I have to 252 00:25:24,199 –> 00:25:30,300 have a drink in the desert, thirst becomes an all-consuming passion. Eventually, he gets 253 00:25:30,300 –> 00:25:37,119 to an oasis and his thirst is quenched, his body is restored and now he sits down to write. 254 00:25:37,119 –> 00:25:43,400 And he thinks about his experience in the desert physically. And he says, oh God, You’re 255 00:25:43,400 –> 00:25:53,079 my God. And what my body longs for in relation to water when I am in the desert, is what 256 00:25:53,079 –> 00:26:06,739 my soul feels. I thirst after You. You look at Christian history, and you’ll find that 257 00:26:06,739 –> 00:26:15,319 all of the great believers have known this hunger, this thirst within their souls. When 258 00:26:15,319 –> 00:26:21,800 you’ve seen, when you’ve tasted the beauty, the glory of the Lord, then at times, when 259 00:26:21,800 –> 00:26:28,760 He feels distant from you, the evidence of your faith is that there is a hunger and a 260 00:26:28,760 –> 00:26:32,380 thirst within your soul. It’s a wonderful thing. 261 00:26:32,380 –> 00:26:40,420 Listen to this from William Cowper, writing the song Oh, for a Closer Walk with God. He 262 00:26:40,420 –> 00:26:48,339 says, Where is the blessedness I knew when first I saw the Lord? Where is the soul-refreshing 263 00:26:48,339 –> 00:26:54,540 view of Jesus and his word? What peaceful hours I once enjoyed, how sweet their memory 264 00:26:54,540 –> 00:27:00,359 still, but they have left an aching void the world can never fill. 265 00:27:00,359 –> 00:27:06,780 Now, that’s a man who knows God, that’s a man who has tasted, that’s a man who has seen 266 00:27:06,780 –> 00:27:11,020 the glory of the Lord, and now is walking through a passage in life where God seems 267 00:27:11,020 –> 00:27:17,939 distant and the evidence of his consuming passion is that this thirst is in him, like 268 00:27:17,979 –> 00:27:23,939 the body would experience thirst in a dry land. Lesley writes these words, 269 00:27:23,939 –> 00:27:31,839 You call me, Lord, to seek your face. It’s all I long to seek. 270 00:27:31,839 –> 00:27:38,839 You see, the Christian life is a life marked by the pursuit of God. 271 00:27:38,920 –> 00:27:46,219 Oh, that God by His Spirit would shake us out of the kind of lethargy that is 272 00:27:46,219 –> 00:27:54,400 content whether we feel His presence or not. The Psalmist says, I can’t continue 273 00:27:54,400 –> 00:27:59,719 without the sense of your presence. And in that cry there is worship that 274 00:27:59,719 –> 00:28:07,000 ascends to the Living God in the dry land. Some of you in the dryness of your 275 00:28:07,079 –> 00:28:14,739 experience are worshipping much more than you think, because you care. And you care 276 00:28:14,739 –> 00:28:20,780 because the Spirit of God has implanted a thirst within you that arises from the 277 00:28:20,780 –> 00:28:30,939 fact that you have seen, and therefore you long. Spiritual passion ignited by 278 00:28:31,540 –> 00:28:40,619 experiencing God. Intensified when God seems distant. Thirdly, spiritual passion 279 00:28:40,619 –> 00:28:48,699 is satisfied in the presence of God. Look at this in verse 3. Because your love is 280 00:28:48,699 –> 00:28:57,920 better than life, my lips will glorify you.” Remember David’s situation as he 281 00:28:57,920 –> 00:29:01,780 writes. He’s been forced out of Jerusalem. He’s running for his life. 282 00:29:01,780 –> 00:29:06,540 There are folks who are after him to kill him, and he does not know what the 283 00:29:06,540 –> 00:29:14,140 future holds. He may not last another week, and he’s looked at life, and he 284 00:29:14,140 –> 00:29:25,880 knows how uncertain life is. But he says there’s something better than life. Your 285 00:29:25,959 –> 00:29:34,660 love, O Lord, is better than life. If I had to choose between life and your love, 286 00:29:34,660 –> 00:29:45,739 it’s a no-brainer. Your love is better than simply continuing to exist. I may 287 00:29:45,739 –> 00:29:51,180 not last more than another week, David could have said. He’s looked that 288 00:29:51,239 –> 00:29:58,319 reality in the face and he’s able to say that even if life itself is taken away, 289 00:29:58,319 –> 00:30:04,719 I have something better. I am safe in your love and that greatest of all 290 00:30:04,719 –> 00:30:11,819 gifts and possessions is mine. There’s nothing more tragic than for a man to 291 00:30:11,819 –> 00:30:19,520 come to the end of his life, feeling that everything is behind him. Here’s a man 292 00:30:19,560 –> 00:30:26,920 with a crown and a throne behind him, but he knows that the best things are ahead 293 00:30:26,920 –> 00:30:35,839 of him and a man who knows that is free. He’s free. You see, another word for this 294 00:30:35,839 –> 00:30:42,979 spiritual passion we’ve been talking about here is his worship. Worship is 295 00:30:43,020 –> 00:30:52,400 ignited by experiencing God. When you know him, you will worship him. Worship is 296 00:30:52,400 –> 00:31:03,000 intensified when God seems distant. Worship is satisfied in the presence of 297 00:31:03,000 –> 00:31:08,900 God. Think about Jesus, how he could say, I 298 00:31:08,900 –> 00:31:13,880 have seen you in the sanctuary. He not only saw the glory and the power of God, 299 00:31:13,880 –> 00:31:20,819 he reflected it personally in his own very being. When he went to the cross, the 300 00:31:20,819 –> 00:31:26,040 father became strangely distant. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me. And 301 00:31:26,040 –> 00:31:35,180 in these moments he offered his highest worship. God did not leave him in the 302 00:31:35,180 –> 00:31:41,619 grave but as Psalm 16 tells us, raised him ups and brought him into that 303 00:31:41,619 –> 00:31:45,819 position where at the right hand of the father there is fullness of joy and 304 00:31:45,819 –> 00:31:52,339 pleasures forevermore. The best definition of worship I’ve ever heard 305 00:31:52,339 –> 00:31:58,699 was given by William Temple many years ago. I have adapted it slightly. Worship, 306 00:31:58,699 –> 00:32:05,060 he said, is the submission of all our nature to God. It is the quickening of 307 00:32:05,060 –> 00:32:10,140 conscience by his holiness, the nourishing of mind by his truth, the 308 00:32:10,140 –> 00:32:15,079 purifying of imagination by his beauty, the opening of the heart to his love, the 309 00:32:15,079 –> 00:32:20,479 submission of his will to of will to his purpose and focusing of memory on his 310 00:32:20,479 –> 00:32:28,339 faithfulness. Come with me one more time into the boardroom of the soul. The 311 00:32:28,339 –> 00:32:31,819 members have been searching themselves and now they are drawn together by the 312 00:32:31,900 –> 00:32:42,199 Spirit of God. Tell me about your experience of God, said the Spirit. Oh 313 00:32:42,199 –> 00:32:58,439 yes, said memory. We have tasted, we know that the Lord is good. Do you not miss 314 00:32:58,739 –> 00:33:08,800 him, says the Spirit? I do, says heart. I’ve never known a love like His before. 315 00:33:08,800 –> 00:33:19,359 Can you be satisfied to continue the way things have been? No, says imagination. 316 00:33:19,839 –> 00:33:30,680 There’s so much more for this soul. You know, the problem here, says the Spirit, 317 00:33:30,680 –> 00:33:38,959 you’ve settled for a contract when God invited you into a relationship. 318 00:33:38,959 –> 00:33:47,000 What are you gonna do? I want to be nourished by His truth says mind, 319 00:33:47,040 –> 00:33:54,959 I want to be filled with His love says heart, I want to submit to His purpose says will, 320 00:33:54,959 –> 00:34:01,719 I want to be quickened by His holiness says conscience, I want to be purified by 321 00:34:01,719 –> 00:34:08,360 His beauty says imagination, I want to be focused on His faithfulness says memory. 322 00:34:08,360 –> 00:34:16,199 The business of this soul will from now on be to seek the Lord and to pursue one 323 00:34:16,399 –> 00:34:22,919 holy passion from this day on all the activity of this soul will be worship 324 00:34:22,919 –> 00:34:35,919 and the motion was carried unanimously. Let’s pray together, Almighty God thank 325 00:34:35,919 –> 00:34:40,379 you that you have made this soul in such a way that through faith in Jesus 326 00:34:40,580 –> 00:34:52,120 Christ it can know you and love you. That thought alone is awesome to us. 327 00:34:56,459 –> 00:35:01,300 Many of us in this sanctuary this morning have glimpsed something of your 328 00:35:01,300 –> 00:35:07,820 beauty, your glory and at the foot of the cross of Jesus Christ have come to love 329 00:35:07,860 –> 00:35:17,699 you. We confess this morning that we could love you more that we have 330 00:35:17,699 –> 00:35:25,459 some times presumed upon the strength of your commitment to us and been 331 00:35:25,459 –> 00:35:37,300 neglectful of our response to you. So we’re asking that you will take all that 332 00:35:37,300 –> 00:35:41,219 that is within me and lead me in the 333 00:35:41,219 –> 00:35:50,159 pursuit of that growing and deepening walk with you a life that is 334 00:35:50,159 –> 00:35:56,139 worship. That will be for the glory of the Son of God who loved me 335 00:35:56,139 –> 00:36:09,379 and gave himself for me. Hear this prayer, bless the Lord o’er my soul and all 336 00:36:09,379 –> 00:36:18,520 that is within me. Praise his holy name through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen 337 00:36:19,040 –> 00:36:20,199 Amen 338 00:36:23,020 –> 00:36:27,260 You’ve been listening to a sermon with Pastor Colin Smith of Open the Bible. 339 00:36:27,820 –> 00:36:32,340 To contact us, call us at 1-877-OPEN365, 340 00:36:32,340 –> 00:36:38,100 or visit our website openthebible.org