Series: Life, Everlasting, Part 3
Message: The Work of the Spirit? Part A
Our scripture focus today is Psalm 116:13, but I want to read the entire Psalm…
116:1 I love the LORD, for he heard my voice; he heard my cry for mercy. 2 Because he turned his ear to me, I will call on him as long as I live. 3 The cords of death entangled me, the anguish of the grave came upon me; I was overcome by trouble and sorrow. 4 Then I called on the name of the LORD: "O LORD, save me!" 5 The LORD is gracious and righteous; our God is full of compassion. 6 The LORD protects the simplehearted; when I was in great need, he saved me. 7 Be at rest once more, O my soul, for the LORD has been good to you. 8 For you, O LORD, have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling, 9 that I may walk before the LORD in the land of the living. 10 I believed; therefore I said, "I am greatly afflicted." 11 And in my dismay I said, "All men are liars." 12 How can I repay the LORD for all his goodness to me? 13 I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the LORD. 14 I will fulfill my vows to the LORD in the presence of all his people. 15 Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints. 16 O LORD, truly I am your servant; I am your servant, the son of your maidservant ; you have freed me from my chains. 17 I will sacrifice a thank offering to you and call on the name of the LORD. 18 I will fulfill my vows to the LORD in the presence of all his people, 19 in the courts of the house of the LORD-- in your midst, O Jerusalem. Praise the LORD.
During this series so far, we’ve discussed…
Breath…when you put your faith in Christ and you received the breath of God the Spirit of God came upon you. You can feel that breath dwelling in you and working in you. You can feel the power of the Spirit in you, convincing and assuring you of life everlasting.
Next, we talked about: “Who is your Lord?” We talked about God’s expectations, accomplishments and blessings. We discussed the blessings of a surrendered and yielded life to Jesus, and we know exactly “Who our Lord is.”
Where to now? Well, first let me say that on any given Sunday you may or may not feel that you receive a message that talks to your heart. You may or may not feel some conviction… But on Monday, regardless of whatever you feel on Sunday, regardless of what you think you receive from the Spirit, either through me, through the scripture passage, or even through someone during fellowship time, you’re going to be right back out there in the world with its advertisements and its godless people. And, that world out there is gets you dirty. Sometimes it gets you so dirty, that rather than a washing in the gentle Words of Jesus, you need that cleansing sandblasting shout to the Lord to crack the crude that’s accumulated.
13 I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the LORD.
Psalm 116 falls into the six psalms, known as the Egyptian Hallel” (praise) Psalms, which are Psalms 113-118, and all were used at Passover. The theme of each Psalm fits the season during which Israel celebrated redemption from a condition of slavery, with Psalm 116 reflecting a personal thanksgiving from the individual for God’s work in bringing Israel out of Egypt.
13 I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the LORD.
Last Sunday night we were looking at Titus 1:8 and I said,
“Only by falling completely and totally in love with God will we be able to have a God-centered desire to be holy.”
When you love someone, you naturally want to do good things for them. That is what you see here in this particular passage in Psalm 116: 13. In verse 12, the Psalmist says, “How can I repay the LORD?” What is it that I can do, individually, as a child of God that could possibly be accepted by Him? Is there anything that I can do?
First, remember what we’ve said in previous messages, “Make sure your heart is right.” Meaning, make sure you understand what direction you’re aiming your service. We’ve said that we only serve for one reason, and that is to give glory and honor to God. And, that is what the Psalmist is indicating.
“How can I repay the LORD for all his goodness to me?”
The writer of Psalm 116 knows exactly where his power, knowledge, and wisdom comes from. He knows exactly to Whom he needs to direct his praise and worship, as well as his service.
What does he do next? He gives thanks to God by lifting up the cup of salvation…
That’s what I want to spend a little time looking at…the cup of salvation.
When James and John’s mother asked Jesus if her sons could sit on the right and left of Jesus when He came into His Kingdom, Jesus asked,
"Can you drink the cup I am going to drink?"
Jesus, in the garden of Gethsemane, prayed to God, “if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me.”
In both of those scriptures, Jesus spoke of the ordeal that was before Him. It referred to the cross, the portion that had been appointed for Him.
Here, in Psalm 116, it refers to the saving grace and mercy of the Lord on His people. Salvation does belong to the Lord and He calls whomever He desires to come unto Him. When that person responds, they are filled with the Holy Spirit. The psalmist is thankful for God’s salvation, and desires to express his thanks to God. Each one of us that have put our faith in the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ can and should offer that cup of salvation in thanks, to God.
Additionally, when we put our faith in the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, not only did we receive the cup of salvation, but we are now the vessel, the cup, the very dwelling place of the LORD.
You, essentially, become the cup. You are the vessel, and we should be lifting that cup, we should be lifting up ourselves to the Lord and fulfilling our vows to Him on a daily basis.
What are those vows? Well, you promised to follow him wherever He leads, wherever He goes. But, not so fast…are we ready to do that?
We need to realize what it says in 2nd Timothy 2:20-21
In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for noble purposes and some for ignoble. 21 If a man cleanses himself from the latter, he will be an instrument for noble purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work.
Yes, we love God and want to serve God. Yes, we want to repay the LORD for all His goodness to me, but are we clean enough to serve Him? Does He need to go through a reclamation program in order to be an instrument for noble purposes?
Queen Isabella of Spain bragged that she had had only two baths in her life--one when she was born, and the other when she married Ferdinand. By the way, they gave her a third when she died.
Can you imagine if that was applied to mean a spiritual bath? What shape would a person be in if they’ve only had two spiritual baths in their lifetime.
Elsewhere it’s been said, “In order for something to become clean, something else must become dirty. But you can get everything dirty without getting anything clean.” Can you think of what got dirty in order for you to become clean?
Last week I mentioned the prayer from Martin Luther. Let me mention it once more:
"Lord Jesus, you are my righteousness, I am your sin. You took on what was mine, you set on me what was yours. You became what you were not, that I might become what I was not".
Jesus took on our sin, our filth, in order for us to be cleanses and appear righteous before God.
Let me give another illustration…
I have a drinking cup that I sometimes use here in the church. When I am through with it, rather than rinsing it out, I stick it in the freezer in the kitchen. Usually there is a little bit of liquid left over which freezes, and I don’t have to put a lot of ice in it the next time I use it.
What if I was to grab that cup, pour it full of water and offer you a drink? What would you do? Well, I know there might be one or two here that wouldn’t hesitate to take a drink…but, there are more than one or two people here that had an unpleasant shudder run through their bodies when I mentioned it.
“Pastor, how could you offer me a dirty cup? Can’t I wash it first and use it?”
What if I grabbed a paper cup from the ‘used paper cup’ bin and got some water for you? That thought that just ran through your head was even worse than the first, wasn’t it?
Yet, time and time again we come to God, after we’ve been out there in the dirty world, expecting Him to fill us when we haven’t emptied or cleansed ourselves.
Many restaurants today wash and rinse their cups and put them in a sterilizer. It’s got the ionizer, the heat, and the air to make sure nothing survives on the surface of that cup. When you’re given that cup, it’s ready for you to drink from without any cleaning, any work, on your part.
That’s what it means to lay everything you have before Jesus and ask Him to wash, rinse, and cleanse your heart before you’re put to the Master’s use. We have the opportunity to go to the grandest wedding of all time, yet sometimes we choose to go dressed as a bum because we don’t ask Him to clean us up.
That’s what it means to lay everything you have before Jesus and ask Him to wash, rinse, and cleanse your heart before you’re put to the Master’s use. We have the opportunity to serve the Creator of the heavens and earth, yet sometimes our hearts are so muddied with selfishness we end up only serving ourselves.
That’s what it means to lay everything you have before Jesus and ask Him to wash, rinse, and cleanse your heart before you’re put to the Master’s use. We have the opportunity to lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the LORD, yet sometimes when we do so, we are so tainted and corrupted by the world, and we’ve been so tainted and corrupted for so long, that we don’t know the difference any more.
Don’t we take a lot time and effort in keeping our clothes clean, our houses clean and picked up, our cars clean, our shoes clean, and our work areas clean? But for our inside, where we’re actually pretty filthy, we take hardly any time at all.
We take so much time and effort in making sure we look good and smell nice, but inside we sometimes reek from the influence of the world, or, for lack of a better word, we stink.
Jesus told the Pharisees…
Matthew 23:25-26 "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26 Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.
Are you ready to lift up the cup of your salvation and call on the name of the LORD?
Are you ready to fulfill your vows to the LORD in the presence of all His people?
Now all of that was for those that want to serve the LORD but may have some type of stumbling block in the way. A hindrance of some sort. But, there is some more…
Out of genuine love, the Psalmist asked, “How can I repay the Lord for all his goodness to me?”(v.12)
Certainly, we can follow the example of the Psalmist who said:
12 How can I repay the LORD for all his goodness to me? 13 I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the LORD. 14 I will fulfill my vows to the LORD in the presence of all his people.
Many people have heard the gospel and know that Jesus promised that if we accept and obey him that we will never thirst again. They receive the cup of salvation, but that’s all. They see the cup of salvation right there in their lives, but they don’t go any further. They have the cup of salvation, but they never lift it up to taste and see that the Lord is good.
We could never repay Jesus for his death on the cross for our sins. He loved and died even when we did not care or seem to notice. He is the living water, our river of life. He satisfies our desires in ways that this world never could offer. He gives us life and makes us produce good fruit. The fruit of the Spirit. He satisfies our every need with good things. (See Psalm 37)
As Christians, we are able to lift the communion cup, ourselves, in witness of our acceptance of Jesus as Messiah and as the forgiver of our sins.
Think about this. If a friend, whom we know really means it, tells us to call them if we need anything—He or she may be insulted if we never ask for anything. If we never contact Him…
The Apostle Paul tells us that when we accept God’s gift of eternal life that God has promised to meet our needs. “And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches.
Listen to this song…
All Who Are Thirsty (sung by Kutless)
Words and original Music by Brenton Brown and Glenn Robertson
All who are thirsty
All who are weak
Come to the fountain
Dip your heart in the stream of life
Let the pain and the sorrow
Be washed away
In the waves of his mercy
As deep cries out to deep (we sing)
Come Lord Jesus come
[repeat 3 times]
