Sermon Tone Analysis

*Song of Ascents 13. – Apprehending God ~~ Psalm 132*

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*Responsive Reading:   Hebrews 12.18-29*

*Hymn #318 – I Need Thee Every Hour*

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*Text: Psalm 132.1-9*

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*Introduction: *An ascension of heights above heights is the personal knowledge of God.

Is this an idealistic notion or is this a reachable reality?

Can God be known?

Can He be apprehended?

This is the topic which I want to direct our attention this morning:  Apprehending God.

 

*I.

Possessing Nothing - Afflictions*

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A.    “All his afflictions…”  What are afflictions for?

They are to rid us of all our possessions.

Beginning at the beginning, in the garden, God said to Adam, “See, I have given you every…it shall be for food.”

So within man was God and without much in the way of gifts from God.

But by sin, God was forced out and things have taken over.

Now many things usurp and fight for their place on the throne of the heart.

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B.

The human heart is the ever present nature to possess.

With a deep and fierce passion it covets all things to itself.

At the earliest age of a man’s life, this is illustrated.

One of the most used words in the limited vocabulary of a toddler is “Mine”.

This one word defines the old man better than all the volumes and volumes of theology.

All things are his.

All of the gifts of God have taken the place of God.

Self looks to possess and gain all things.

Profit is the bottom line.

Our LORD spoke of this displacement in Matthew 16.24-25.

When persons were condemned to be crucified, a part of the sentence was that they should carry the cross on which they were to die to the place of execution.

It was an instrument of death.

To carry it was burdensome, was disgraceful, was trying to the feelings and was an addition to the punishment.

*So “to carry the cross” is a figurative expression, denoting that we must endure whatever is burdensome, or is trying, or is considered disgraceful to the self.*

“Whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.”

C.

What our LORD was talking about was to become poor, possessing nothing.

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

Those who possess the kingdom are they who have repudiated and abnegated all things from their heart.

They have rooted from their hearts all sense of possessing.

This is what poor means.

They are no longer slaves to the tyrannical control of things and possessions.

The yoke is broken.

Now there is seemingly a contradiction.

If they have abnegated all things, how is it do they possess the kingdom of heaven?

With the absolute surrender of all things comes the free possession of the kingdom of heaven.

This is not merely a teaching, but an absolute for spiritual life.

“For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.”

Let me exhort you to the seriousness of this spiritual principle that must be experiential in your life or you have no life.

Listen to this radical statement by Jesus.

*/“If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot – cannot be My disciple.”/*

D.

Consider Abraham for a moment.

No more dramatic and illustrative picture is given than the relationship between Abraham and Isaac.

In Isaac were all the promises, covenant, hopes and even the Messiah.

Everything hinged on the life of this one promised child.

Can you imagine the love Abraham had for Isaac?

And God says, “Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love.”

Do you think God knew the depth of feelings and love that Abraham had for Isaac?  “Whom you love.”

He knows the depth of your feelings as well and just where your love is.

“Take him and offer him up.”

Can you imagine the deep agony that Abraham experienced?

He must have wrestled with God all that night concerning this request to lose everything.

How could he kill the son of his lineage?

How could he slay the one in whom the promises of God were to be fulfilled?

“In Isaac shall your seed be called.”

But sometime during the middle of the night with his heart aching he found the solution.

He would offer his son as God had commanded him to do and then trust God to raise him from the dead.

Hebrews says, he concluded “that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead.”

But to get to this point he had to lose everything.

He was rich in the eyes of the world.

He had cattle, sheep, camels and land, but possessed nothing.

The sense of possession had left his heart.

There was no more “mine”, for he possessed nothing.

E.    What does your heart possess?

If you possess anything but nothing, let me try to help you.

If you have recognized the symptoms of this possession problem and you long for God, first, put away all your defenses and have the LORD as your defender.

Don’t look to your own heart that is deceitful, but insist upon the open, truthful and honest relations with the LORD.

Secondly, take no careless or casual approach to this matter.

This is holy business.

If you are drastic enough to whole heartedly desire to possess nothing, then coddle no feelings and insist to be heard by God.

Finally, here is the problem with true spirituality; it is not learned by learning facts.

You must experience every bit of it.

You must live through the dying.

There must be an violent expulsion of the old possessive miser, just as Christ expelled the money changers.

A.W. Tozer said this concerning such a testing as Abraham, “At that testing place there will be no dozen possible choices for us – just one and an alternative – but our whole future will be conditioned by the choice we make.”

The loss of all things places us in a position similar to David, searching for “a dwelling place for the Mighty One of Jacob.”

*II.

Pursuing God*

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A.    Now, I want to talk to you about something that is foreign to Christendom, this is evident from the popularity of this latest film on the Passion of Christ.

True Christianity has a real passion for God.

He pursues God.

The believer, like David, seeks for a dwelling place for God.

This is what David is doing here.

“Surely I will not go into the chamber of my house, or go up to the comfort of my bed; I will not give sleep to my eyes or slumber to my eyelids until I find a place for the LORD, a dwelling place for the Mighty One of Jacob.”

Now, I have several questions concerning this psalm.

First, Did David find this place?

Well, we know from Scripture that Solomon built the temple.

Also, how do you house “the Mighty God of Jacob?”

Does He need a house?

And if so, would He need us to build a house for Him?

What abode would be suitable for the LORD?