Dependence on the Divine (Part 1)
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Sign seen in a textile mill, "When your thread becomes tangled, call the foreman." A young woman was new on the job. Her thread became tangled and she thought, "I'll just straighten this out myself." She tried, but the situation only worsened. Finally she called the foreman. "I did the best I could," she said. "No you didn't. To do the best, you should have called me."
Being dependent on others is not the way natural to fallen man. Man since his time in the garden saw that the independence that comes from the knowledge of good and evil was good for food and able to make one wise. We can decide what is right and what is wrong for ourselves. Therefore we can decide what is right and what is wrong for our own lives. Therefore we can decide what is right and what is wrong for our own destinies. But how is that working out for us?
In our lives in our culture and even in the church Jesus is the last resort not our first response. We go at it in our own strength with worldly wisdom and when we get to the place where we just cannot make it happen then we go to the Lord. Prayer… the last resort of a scoundrel. We think that our lives are independent of God until we need Him not to be. Almost deistic in a way… He did His thing we are set up… You guys are all good to live life. Just gimme a call if you need me.
The reality of the christian life is that we need God always. Always in all ways and at all times for all time. We were not created to be independant of God. God asks us to do the impossible because were were never supposed to do it alone. A chair does not do a good job of getting us connected to the internet, but thats not what it was created for. A laptop computer is not comfortable to sit on, but thats not what it was created for. And human being is not able to be independent of God, but thats not what it was created for. We need the Lord. He will cause us both to will and to do of His good pleasure. Lets check it out.
Teach me your decrees, O Lord;
I will keep them to the end.
Give me understanding and I will obey your instructions;
I will put them into practice with all my heart.
Make me walk along the path of your commands,
for that is where my happiness is found.
Give me an eagerness for your laws
rather than a love for money!
The grass withers the flower fades but the Word of our God stands forever.
Teach Me
Give Me
Make Me
Save Me
The first thing we will look at today is the wonderful thing to be taught by the Lord. The second thing is the gracious gift of God to give us understanding. The third thing we will explore is the desire to make us walk in the paths of the Lord. And finally we will see that wonderful act of God was done for us for life and for salvation.
Thesis: Though sin and the pattern of this world causes us to yearn and thrive in independence, it is the power of the Holy Spirit and the truth of the scriptures that will cause us to see that the ultimate place in life is to be in total dependence on Christ and Christ alone.
I. Teach Me
- The posture to be teachable.
A. What we will find in the Heh section of this psalm is a picture of one of the main principles of Christianity… dependence on God. And what an amazing thing it is for us to be taught by God.
“Look, God is all-powerful.
Who is a teacher like him?
B. It is a declaration of the psalmist for the Lord to instruct, to direct and to reveal to us the glories of the Word of the Lord. Today God has given us the once and for all revelation though the Son Jesus. And we pray to the Lord as we meditate on His Word that He will transform us, change us, and motivate us with His divine spark that comes from the power of His Word. We pray that God will continue to open our hearts to comprehend the revelation. The revelation is there what we need is the Lord to help us get through all the junk we got wrapped up in our minds that cause us to lose sight of what is clear. He is the great teacher.
James Boice writes, “This verse speaks of matriculating or to be enrolled in God’s school.
Charles Spurgeon, “What condescension it is on our great Jehovah’s part that He comes down to teach those who seek Him! The lesson desired is thoroughly practical. The holy man did not just want to learn the statutes, but also the way of them, the daily use of them, their meaning, spirit, direction, habit, and objective.”
C. And the wonder of the second part. “And I will keep them to the end.” The hebrew phrase carries the idea of a reward. It could be worded kinda like this maybe… Learning Gods Word from God and keeping Gods Word by God are their own rewards. It is the greatest of rewards more valuable then even millions in gold and silver.
D. If we learn and keep Gods Word as Christians we will begin well. If we learn and keep Gods Word then we will also finish well. Do not give up on God’s word today. Do not lose faith in the Word of God today. Do not be deceived. God’s Word is even more than we think.
II. Give Me
- Help me to understand.
A. We not only need to be taught, we also need the power to learn. We not only need to understand by we also need to obtain an understanding by the grace of God. In a way it is like saying we need the Lord to give us the ability and understandning to learn and apply what we have learned to everyday life.
B. And not only this, but we are to observe it with our whole heart. The Hebrew LEV is best translated heart but it here is understood as heart as conscience. Understood as mind.
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,
We have always and always to win the battle of the mind. Majority of the battles we face as Christians begin and end in the mind. If we can win the battles of the mind we will win the battles as a Christian. Lose the battle of the mind and we will lose everywhere else.
John Stott writes, “Anti-intellectualism is part of the fashion of the world and therefore a from of worldliness. Has God created us to be rational beings and shall we deny our humanity which He has given us? Has God spoken to us, and shall we not listen to His Word? Has God renewed our minds through Christ and shall we not think with it?”
C. One of the things that is clear with those who want control… the dumber we are the easier we are to control. So our culture continues to cultivate non educated. The rich believe that they depended on the ignorant to do the jobs no one educated wants to do. But now it is the uneducated who don’t want to do their jobs and now don’t have to.
D. But the problem with us is not ignorance it is sin. So ignorant people who want to be independent in sin are not easier to control they are even worse. We have been trying to dumb down the generations for years now, but now things are more out of control then ever before. Because it is a battle in the mind but it is not necessarily ignorance, it is a mind not directed by the Word of God. We know of educated who are immoral and uneducated are moral. The battle of the mind is not for worldly wisdom and knowledge, but for the very Word of God.
III. Make Me
- Make us walk in your ways.
A. Lord you have caused me to love Your way, now cause us to walk in Your way. And when I walk in your way… Happy Am I. And it is by the grace of God that we do this...
For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.
This is what the Lord says:
“Stop at the crossroads and look around.
Ask for the old, godly way, and walk in it.
Travel its path, and you will find rest for your souls.
But you reply, ‘No, that’s not the road we want!’
The Lord directs the steps of the godly.
He delights in every detail of their lives.
B. One commentator put it this way… We pray and the Lord grants us the courage and now we need Him to give us the strength. So much of what the Lord requires of us on the straight and narrow is way to much for us. We need the strength of the Lord to bring us through and to cause us to walk. We need the power of God to do what it is that He desires. Seriously… you think you will be able to love your enemy without the strength of the Holy Spirit working in us?
C. Michal Horton says it is the law that tells us that we have to go to the island to have life. We know this? But how are we gonna get there. That is where the gospel comes in. The law tells us where and the gospel is the power that gets us there. We need the power of God in our live to accomplish all that he has called and commanded us to do.
D. The psalmist is showing us that it is not enough for us to know by the grace of God, but also have to do with the grace of God. By the grace and mercy of God we learn, we understand, and we walk. He will cause us both to will and to do of His good pleasure.
IV. Save Me
- Salvation belongs to the Lord.
A. And it is the law of God that shows us that we need the Lord to teach us, to give us understanding, to cause us to walk in His ways… and to Save us. Because the law showed us we needed to be saved. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. All we have to do is think of all the times we have transgressed the 10 commandments. The times we did not love God, the times we committed idolatry, the times we took the name of the Lord in vain, the times we did not keep the sabbath, the times we did not honor father and mother, the times we lied, the times we stole, the times we killed, the times of adultery, the times of coveting.
For the person who keeps all of the laws except one is as guilty as a person who has broken all of God’s laws.
B. The Bible says there is no one righteous no not one. There is no one on earth who always does good and never sins. We are all by nature children of wrath. We are dead in our trespasses and sins. If we say we do not sin then we make God to be a liar.
C. The consequences are dire. The eternal fire, eternal darkness, outer darkness, the wrath of God, the place of weeping and gnashing of teeth. Hell my friend. If this is the case then who can be saved? With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.
D. Jesus died for our sins according to the scriptures and he was buried and he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures. The saying is trust worthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners. He came to seek and to save that which was lost. He became sin who knew no sin that we might become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.
E. The promises continue… If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead you will be saved. All who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. If you confess your sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of the living God and by believing you will have life in His name.
F. And it will not end here. He will by His grace teach us, give us understanding, and cause us to walk. He will bring our good beginning to a good end. And I am confident of this … not because of our efforts and our abilities… but because of His efforts and Abilities… because he who began a good work in you will be faithful to bring it to completion at the day of the Lord.