Ps 51:1-6 "Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness:
according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my
transgressions.
(2) Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. (3)
For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me. (4)
Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight:
that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou
judgest. (5) Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother
conceive me. (6) Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in
the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom." (KJV)
How do you see God?
How do you view your relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ?
How REAL is Jesus to you today?
Something that the Lord has been speaking to my lately has been the need
for the Body of Christ to move from a religion-based faith to a
reality-based fatih.
This may hurt some people's feelings, but I am convinced that much of what
we call faith and trust in God is really a superficial learned responseˆ
rather than a genuine internally driven moral conviction born out of an
intimate relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.
I believe this mentality and condition has been the instrument that has
effectively stripped the church of it's power and impeded the progress and
the advancement of the Kingdom of God.
But David said in Ps. 51:6, "thou desire TRUTH in the inward parts...
Truth = 'emeth-
1) firmness, faithfulness, truth, sureness, reliability, stability,
continuance, realism
God wants us to GET REAL where it counts the most...IN OUR INNERMOST
BEING!
In this Psalm, we find David- who it is said "Was a man after God's own
heart."-now having to respond to the TRUTH that nothing is hidden from the
eyes of God.
We see Davidˆ after having been confronted by the Prophet Nathan regarding
his adulterous relationship with Bathsheba and the conspiring to mured
Uriah the Hittite- NOW having to evaluate the condition of his own heart
and in doing so his very relationship with God.
A man, who from his youth:
? had known the presence of God
? had led Kings into the presence of the Lord
? had experience the manifest miracles of signs & wonders
? had known the voice of God and the sweet fellowship of communion with
Him
Yet now we see David, a broken man, crying out for mercy to the God that
He had forsaken by following the flesh rather than Him who had been with
him all along.
Something had happened:
? between his being anointed king by Samuel
? between the days spent tending his father's sheep
? between slaying lions, bears and giants
? between trusting God while fleeing for his very life
I believe that somewhere along the way he had busied himself with the
things of God to such a degree that he had somehow alienated himself from
the Person of God.
For however long that it was........God ceased to be REAL to him!
How else can you explain a man, who as a young boy, ran out on a
battlefield to face a giant with nothing more than a sling shot and a few
stones while declaring, "you come to me with a sword and a spear, but I
come to you in the name of the Lord!"
There was an awareness. There was the tangible conscious presence of God
in his life. The was a knowing that God was there. It was REAL.
For all the times of extreme light, David suddenly found himself overtaken
by darkness. What had been so REAL in the light had become hidden and
obscured by the DARKNESS. AND THE DARKNESS WILL CAUSE YOU TO ACT IN WAYS
THAT YOU WOULD NOT ACT IN THE LIGHT.
Ps 143:1-6 says, "O LORD, hear my prayer, listen to my cry for mercy; in
your faithfulness and righteousness come to my relief. Do not bring your
servant into judgment, for no one living is righteous before you. The
enemy pursues me, he crushes me to the ground; he makes me dwell in
darkness like those long dead.
So my spirit grows faint within me; my heart within me is dismayed. I
remember the days of long ago; I meditate on all your works and consider
what your hands have done. I spread out my hands to you; my soul thirsts
for you like a parched land. Selah."
Prov 2:13 speaks of those, "Who leave the paths of uprightness, to walk in
the ways of darkness;"
Isa 5:20 "Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put
darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and
sweet for bitter!"
I remeber when I was in high school, that one night we had a big game
against our cross-town rivals. The atmosphere was intense as the momentum
swung from one side to the other. It was a key game that had post season
implications. So there was a lot riding on the outcome. The game was of
such importance that it drew the local news media out who brought along a
camera man to record the events.
During the end of the second half, tensions had began to arise and the air
was thick with anxiety from both side of the gymnasium. The opposing team
had the ball and the point guard was advancing the ball towards the
mid-court line when all of the sudden˜the lights went out in the
gymnasium. A room that had been lit up like the midday sun was now pitch
black.
It seems, that the cameraman had wanted to get a better vantage point for
filming, and had selected a spot right in front of the light switches. It
seems that he decided to "lean back" against the wall for a little
comfort, when his back press down all the light switches at once. It
wasn't but just maybe 10 seconds of darkness by the time he figured out
and corrected his mistake˜but that was all that it took.
In that 10 seconds of darkness, the complexion of the game changed. In the
darkness, things happen that do not happen in the light. People act in
ways that they do not in the light. When the lights came on, their point
guard was laying on the floor with a bloody nose. No one was around him
and the ball that had had been dribbling was rolling loose on the ground.
We ended up taking the ball and the game.
I found out the next day what had happened......
GET REAL:
In order to get REAL, one must get Righteous- now I am not talking about
some pious-looking self righteousness, but a righteousness that is born
out of a REAL experience with the Lord Jesus Christ˜that produces the
FRUIT of righteousness in one's life!
A righteousness that doesn't jut change how you act OUTWARDLY but changes
who you are INWARDLY, that then manifests itself naturally .
Matt 13:43 "Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom
of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear." KJV
There are characteristics that come forth out of the life of one who will
walk in righteousness----- and one of them is the countenance of that
individual.
Countenance is the way that you are "looked upon and perceived by others
outwardly."
God said to Cain in Genesis 4 after Cain had killed his brother Able "why
has your countenance fallen." OR (pp) "your unrighteous act is showing all
over you"
How many of you know that righteousness is a product of GRACE.
Now how many of you know what GRACE is?
"The divine influence of God upon an individual's heart and it's
reflection in the life of the believer."
Isa 53:1 says it this way, "Who hath believed our report? and to whom is
the arm of the LORD revealed?" (KJV)
Who has believed what God has said and who's life shows it?
Walking in righteousness will revolutionize your prayer life----
1 Pet 3:12 "For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears
are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that
do evil." (KJV)
righteousness produces:
Forgiveness
Mercy
two key ingredients that you must walk in, in order for your prayers to be
answered.
RIGHTEOUSNESS CANNOT BE AN OUT-SIDE IN THING, BUT IT MUST BE AN INSIDE-OUT
THING.
Matt 5:20 "For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed
the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter
into the kingdom of heaven." (KJV)
The scribes and the pharisees had the OUTSIDE thng down pat. They seemed
to "look" t he part, they "seemed" to act the part˜but what they were
presenting was merely an optical illusion with no real substance or truth.
>>>This past June when we went to minister in Hollywood, Calf., one
afternoon we decided to go into the WAX MUSEUM and see the wax figures of
the stars. They had everyone from John Wayne to the cast of the Star Wars
movies.
>>>These were the "very best" of wax reproductions˜and from a distance
they looked pretty realistic and could pass for the genuine article, but
once you got right up on them˜the less they looked like John Wayne or
Sylvester Stallone or Marilyn Monroe---- it just didn't look real CLOSE
UP.
How does your RIGHTEOUSNESS look CLOSE UP.....now I am not talking about
the "wax" reproductions that we pull out of our closets on Sunday morning,
that as long as we keep eveyone "at a distance" we look like the "movie
star" that we claim to be˜but what does the righteousness of God look like
upon a closer examination??
Let me back up two steps before I take three forward........
First>> what is righteousness as defined by the Word of God?
integrity, virtue, purity of life, rightness, correctness of thinking
feeling, and acting
or in a nut shell "Right Standing with God......"
Are there areas in YOUR LIFE that are not in RIGHT STANDING with GOD?
How about your thought life?
2 Cor 10:5 "Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth
itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every
thought to the obedience of Christ;" (KJV)
Phil 4:8 "Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things
are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure,
whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if
there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things."
(KJV)
How about your words?
Matt 12:37 "For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words
thou shalt be condemned."
Matt 12:36-37 "But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall
speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy
words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned."
(KJV)
Prov 18:8 "The words of a talebearer are as wounds, and they go down into
the innermost parts of the belly." (KJV)
Prov 15:26 " The thoughts of the wicked are an abomination to the LORD:
but the words of the pure are pleasant words." (KJV)
Prov 6:16-19 "These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an
abomination unto him: A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed
innocent blood, An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be
swift in running to mischief, A false witness that speaketh lies, and he
that soweth discord among brethren." (KJV)
