October 11, 2009
Morning Worship
Text: Psalm 103:1-5
Subject: What Christ Did
Title: Accepting the Fullness of the Cross
We live in perhaps the greatest nation to ever be created in the history of the world. I believe we all know that the initial reason for our greatness is the fact that we were founded on the very principles of life expounded in the Holy Scriptures.
Have you ever read the Declaration of Independence? It begins like this.
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
I don’t know why some think we need to take God out of our government when He was there from the beginning.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…
I want to stop there and look at those three things that are guaranteed us – life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. These are the basic building blocks of our nation. Now let me ask you a question. Would you give up life in order to have liberty and happiness? Of course not! If you weren’t alive to enjoy it what difference would it make? What would life be like without liberty? Ask the people in China or Cuba. How would you do with life and liberty but were not allowed to pursue happiness? What would be the point? The fact is all of these things are promised us in this document, so why wouldn’t we take advantage of all that is ours acording to this document of freedom?
Now we have another document that has given us many promises as well. It is the Holy Bible, the Word of God. I want you to take you through five verses of Psalm 103 to show you what has been done for you and why you should be satisfied with nothing less than the whole promise. You can have the fullness of the cross.
Lord open my eyes to see and my ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to the church.
I. CONFESSING WHO GOD IS. 1 Praise the LORD, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. This is an exhortation to praise the Lord with your whole being. There are two realities mentioned here that are so closely intertwined that it is nearly impossible to separate them and that is the “soul” and “my inmost being” which refers to the spirit man. Hebrews 4:12 helps us understand how closely connected these are. 12For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. The soul is the non-physical part of a man that defines who he is. It is his mind, emotions and personality. The spirit of a man is the inner man that defines, not who he is, but whose he is. For those who do not have a relationship with God the Father through Jesus Christ, their spirit man is dead. There is no spiritual life in them. For those who do know Jesus the spirit man is alive and well. In John 3:5-6, 5Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. 6Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. Paul wrote to the church in Rome, Romans 8:16, The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. It is when we have the breath of God breathed into us that our spirits come to life. So if we have that kind of relationship with God our first response should be that we recognize His preeminence and sovereignty by praising Him. We praise him with our minds, our emotions, our personalities, our spirits and with our bodies.
II. UNDERSTANDING WHO GOD IS. Once again David says, Praise the LORD, O my soul; I want you to see this one thing. Praise is not an automatic thing. We have to tell ourselves to praise God. We have to remind ourselves to open our mouths and lift up our hands. We have to submit the natural man to the influence of the Spirit. Praise the LORD, O my soul; David continues, and forget not all his benefits— Let’s do a little word study to see what David is telling us. The Hebrew word that is translated forget means to be oblivious to… Webster defines oblivious as being totally unaware or neglectful. Can you see how both of those attitudes would affect your response to the work on the Cross? Don’t be unaware of what God has done for you. And especially don’t be neglectful. James 1:23-25, 23Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror 24and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does. What is it that we are not to be oblivious to or neglectful of? God’s benefits! The word benefit means treatment or service. That is applicable to the life of Jesus who is the Servant / King. Don’t be unaware of the service He has provided you. Don’t be neglectful of the treatment Jesus is offering for sin and sickness. There was an eighty year old man who was out fishing at a pond one day and he looked over and saw a frog sitting on the pond bank next to him. The frog looked at him and said, “If you will pick me up and kiss me I’ll become the most beautiful woman in the county and we can get married.” He kept on fishing. “Did you hear me? If you’ll pick me up and kiss me I’ll turn into a beautiful woman and we can get married and live happily ever after.” That goes on for a while, then the old man reaches down and picks up the frog and puts it in his pocket. The frog asks, “What are you doing? Aren’t you going to kiss me?” “I’ve been married to a beautiful woman for sixty years. But a talking frog, that’s something you don’t see every day.” We must be careful not to overlook the promises that God has made to us.
III. KNOWING WHAT GOD DID. Verse 3 tells us what took place at the Cross. who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases… Let’s break this down to make it really clear what is taking place. 1) God forgives… the word forgive means to pardon or to make one not guilty. How can you be judged as “not guilty” when you are guilty? Through the Cross of Calvary! 2) God forgives all – every one. The meaning includes the sense of wholeness. This Hebrew word comes from the root word that means, “to be made perfect” 3) God forgives all your sins … sin means moral evil, perversity or fault. That shows us a clear example of God’s mercy. He is a holy God who forgives sin. And 4) heals – mends, cures, repairs thoroughly, make whole as a physician. 5) all – every one 6) diseases – malady or sickness. Isaiah 53:4-5, 4 Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.
IV. LIVING OUT GOD’S PLAN. 4 who redeems your life from the pit … This is a reference to the kinsman redeemer according to the Law of Moses. What does it mean to redeem. I remember as a kid when Mom went shopping she always went to stores that gave away trading stamps. Maybe some of you don’t know what that is. A store would give you actual stamps that you would put in a book and when you filled a book you could return or redeem the stamps for things from a catalog. Kroger had Top Value Stamps. The National food stores and some gas stations had Eagle stamps. You could do the same thing with stamps from tobacco products. The only way those things could be purchased was with those stamps. Jesus redeemed your life. Now this is interesting because this is not talking about salvation. The word that is translated “life” is talking about the flesh or physical body. He has redeemed your life from the pit. Before the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ the souls and spirits of the righteous dead were held in Sheol or Hades. It was separated from the place where the unrighteous dead were held. It was because of the resurrection of Christ that we have the promise of an eternity in a reconstructed physical body that will never fail. and crowns you with love and compassion… There is a Hebrew word for “crown” used as a verb that describes the act of placing a crown on someone’s head as an act of separation for God’s purpose. This is not that word. This word means to encircle for protection. When God crowns us with His love He places His hand of protection upon you. He wants to keep you safe. Deuteronomy 32:9-11, 9 For the LORD’S portion is his people, Jacob his allotted inheritance. 10 In a desert land he found him, in a barren and howling waste. He shielded him and cared for him; he guarded him as the apple of his eye, 11 like an eagle that stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, that spreads its wings to catch them and carries them on its pinions. That is how God crowns you. The word compassion also carries with it a reference to the womb. It is that familiarity as between a mother and the child inside of her. Jeremiah 1:5, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.
V. RECEIVING GOD’S BEST RIGHT NOW. Jesus redeemed our lives. Now I want to take that a step further. He not only redeemed us for eternal life in an eternal body, but he also redeemed our bodies for this life so that we can carry out the work that God has ordained each of us to do. 5 who satisfies your desires with good things… It is God who satisfies. What does He satisfy? He satisfies your desires. Interestingly enough the word “desires” literally means “your mouth”. The things that God satisfies are the things that you ask for out of your mouth; the things you ask for according to His will; the things you confess according to His word and in His name. So that when you ask in His name he satisfies you with good things. What is it that qualifies something as being good? You remember the story about the rich young ruler who went to Jesus and said, “Good master, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Mark 10:18, “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. So if God alone is good then the things that He desires for your life must be what are good. 5 who satisfies your desires with good things… so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. Now wait a minute, are you telling me that God will keep you young? I’m not saying that you will never get older. What I am saying is that what you confess with your mouth is probably what you are going to receive. If you say that you can’t do the same things that you did when you were younger then you won’t. There is no doubt that because of the fall the human body ages. Let me show you how much your confession will determine what you receive from the Lord. First, He wants your youth to be renewed like the eagles. The word renewed means to be rebuilt or repaired or to cause to be new. Second, in Numbers 13 we see the story of the spies that were sent into the Promised Land to bring back a report to Moses. Of the twelve that were sent only two gave a positive confession. 30Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.” 31But the men who had gone up with him said, “We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.” Then we hear from Caleb again in Joshua 14 beginning with verse 6, 6Now the men of Judah approached Joshua at Gilgal, and Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite said to him, “You know what the LORD said to Moses the man of God at Kadesh Barnea about you and me. 7I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the LORD sent me from Kadesh Barnea to explore the land. And I brought him back a report according to my convictions, 8but my brothers who went up with me made the hearts of the people melt with fear. I, however, followed the LORD my God wholeheartedly. 9So on that day Moses swore to me, ‘The land on which your feet have walked will be your inheritance and that of your children forever, because you have followed the LORD my God wholeheartedly.’ 10“Now then, just as the LORD promised, he has kept me alive for forty-five years since the time he said this to Moses, while Israel moved about in the desert. So here I am today, eighty-five years old! 11I am still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out; I’m just as vigorous to go out to battle now as I was then. So if your confession is based upon what you think you can do that’s what you will receive. But, if it is based on what God can do and wants to do, what do you think is going to happen in your life? It is God who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
Our declaration of Independence promises us three basic principles of life. We aren’t satisfied with two out of three. These 5 verses from the Psalms promise us these things.
1. All sin is forgiven.
2. All diseases are healed.
3. Your life is redeemed.
4. You are crowned (encircled) with love and compassion
5. Your desires are satisfied with good things.
6. Your youth is renewed.
#1 is the initial work. Everything else stems from those things. It is God’s desire for you to have them.
Would you allow God to minister to you today?
