“He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and
set my feet upon a rock, and
established my goings. 3 And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall
see it, and fear, and shall
trust in the Lord.”
Psalms 40:2-3 (KJV)
I wish to share this with you
today in hopes that it will bolster your faith, strengthen your foundation and
assist you in this New Year. It surely
has accomplished this in my life.
My verse for this year comes
from the passage we use as our text. It
is actually a portion of this section of this scripture, the last phrase of
verse 2 of Psalm 40: “[He] set my feet on a rock, making my steps secure.”
(HCSB)
That is true in my life; it is
true of your life? God stooped down and
took me out of the “desolate pit… the muddy clay and set my feet on a rock,
making my steps secure.” (HCSB) This is
what He accomplished in my life when I was nine years old, and is what He does
every day of my life, for the last thirty nine years of my life.
My steps are secure because of
the rock, that Rock is Jesus. He is the
center and circumference of my foundation.
So every day I want to live as life that is founded and secure in
Foundational Living. There are four
corners to this foundation which hold this house and make it strong,
withstanding the calamites and pressures of this life. Those pillars are faith, freedom, prayer, and
praise. We will explore those in the
next blog, but for now, I wish for us to look at the Foundational Living; what
put us on this foundation that is sure and secure?
Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I
will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: 25 And the rain
descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house;
and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. 26 And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth
them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the
sand: 27 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds
blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.
Matthew 7:24-27 (KJV)
We are able
to know the safety of Foundational Living because He Sought Us. God in mercy and grace came to us to save us
and redeem us from the curse of sin and of the law. He did not have to search for someone to do
the work; He knew beforehand, in His foreknowledge, that His Son would be the
one to perform this deed.
His Son
came to His own, but His own did not receive Him or recognize Him. He was the Messiah, sent from the Father to
seek out the lost sheep of Israel. But
because they would not surrender to Him He sought all that were lost and
without hope.
Yes, while you and I were in
our sin, encumbered in this life, weighed down with our rebellion and pride,
God sent His Son. While we were trudging
through this life, the mud holding tightly to our feet, our bodies cast into a
smothering pit, God sent His Son. His
Son came to seek us out and “set my feet on a rock, making my steps secure.”
(HCSB) Praise Lord for this wonderful,
boundless love He had for us to seek us while we were in our sin!
It is this same picture we see
of God in the Garden of Eden at the beginning of time and at the fall of
man. Adam and Eve had sinned and knew
they had caused a separation in their lives, because we find them hiding as God
walks through the Garden in the cool of the day. He calls to them when He cannot locate them,
and Adam answered, “”I heard You in the Garden, and I was afraid because I was
naked, so I hid.” (Genesis 3:10
HCSB) When God asked Adam how he knew he
was naked, he said, “The woman You gave to be with me-she gave me some fruit
from the tree, and I ate.” (Genesis 3:12 HCSB)
That is how He finds each one
of us-we are naked, blind, crippled and afraid.
We are stuck in the pit, walking in the miry clay of life, destined to
be lost, without hope; but God said, “I will not leave you that way…”
He Sought Us out so that He
might buy us back. Yes, He Bought Me; He
Bought Us! Remember what Paul said to
the Church at Rome
This purchase involved a
sacrifice. Go back to the Garden with me
and look at the scene that takes place as God sets outside the Garden the two
sinners, God’s created man and woman.
The scripture says, “The Lord God made clothing out of skins for Adam
and Even, and He clothed them.” (Genesis 3:21
HCSB) There is the Garden we see God
creating again, this time clothing for His two precious creations. How do you think those skins came to be? Where did they come from?
In The New Testament, we find
these words: “According to the law almost everything is purified with blood,
and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” You see where the skins came from for Adam
and Eve; they came from animals and these animals were used in a sacrifice to
God for the forgiveness of their sins.
We see the same thing happening when Abel offered a sacrifice, Noah
offered a sacrifice, and Abraham offered sacrifices, as the same thing
continued through out the entire Old Testament.
It was shadow, a partial, a part of what Christ did for all men-both Jew
and Gentile-on the cross of Calvary . The sacrifices before Christ were for a time
and a season, but Christ death on the cross and His free gift of life for all
of us is for time and eternity. As one
writer put it, the sacrifice of Christ was “once and for all.” Amen!
Thanks be to God for the gift of sacrifice in His Son that bought my
pardon for once and for all!
If there is no sacrifice; there
is no hope! Without the shed blood of
Christ on the Cross of Calvary we are without anything to hold on to, to secure
our foundation. Or to aid us in this
life, which leads to the next point.
He Sought Us, He Bought Us and
He Sanctifies. That’s right, He holds us
and causes us to show His righteousness to a lost, dying world. Look back at Psalms 40:
8 I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart. 9 I
have preached righteousness in the great congregation: lo, I have not refrained
my lips, O Lord, thou knowest. 10 I
have not hid thy righteousness within my heart; I have declared thy
faithfulness and thy salvation: I have not concealed thy lovingkindness and thy
truth from the great congregation.
11 Withhold not thou thy tender mercies from me, O Lord: let thy lovingkindness and thy
truth continually preserve me. 12 For innumerable evils have compassed
me about: mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to
look up; they are more than the hairs of mine head: therefore my heart faileth
me. 13 Be
pleased, O Lord, to deliver me: O Lord, make haste to help me.
Psalms 40:8-13 (KJV)
Our own righteousness is as filthy
rags, but when we are in Him He shines forth through our sin stained life, to
show Himself in all His Glory. It is for
His glory that He forgives our sin, casting them into the sin of
forgetfulness. It is for His honor that
we show His forgiveness and live for Him in our lives. It is for Him we are made into instruments of
use for His purposes, trophies of His Grace.
Yes, there are times when we falter
and fall. It is the curse of a fallen
nature and a fallen world. We tumble,
stumble and at times through our own vain thoughts and ways sin and when we do
we know we have because of the Spirit of God that lives within us. But it is His pleasure to forgive and
cleanse; to pick us up, dust us off and say, “Go and sin no more.”
We are being made into His perfect
imagine. We are not there yet; no, we
are not perfect yet, but one day we will be just as He is now. Until then we seek Him everyday; gaining His
strength for the challenges of life and His help to avoid the pitfalls we will
encounter. Through fellowship with other
believers, the study of God’s Word, and prayer we find that we are being made
into His perfect imagine.
He Secures Us. We are held tightly by the hand of God as He
places us on the rock, and that Rock is Jesus, and we have hope here and
hereafter. Many will say that when Jesus
said He would give abundant life, they will focus that on the life to
come. I do not doubt that! When I see verse like those in John 14 and in
the Revelation, I am reminded of what a wonderful reward we have; a reward of
life and hope that is come.
In this life, in the here and now,
we need hope and help as well. It is
here, as we are firmly placed on the rock, secure in our standing and secure in
our walking. As we hold tight to this
rock, we have abundant, overflowing life.
Lastly, He Protects Us. Look back at the last verse of Psalm 40:
14 Let them be ashamed and confounded together that seek after my
soul to destroy it; let them be driven backward and put to shame that wish me
evil. 15 Let
them be desolate for a reward of their shame that say unto me, Aha, aha. 16 Let
all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee: let such as love thy
salvation say continually, The Lord
be magnified. 17 But
I am poor and needy; yet the Lord thinketh upon me: thou art my help and my deliverer; make no
tarrying, O my God.
Psalms 40:14-17 (KJV)
Our protection is in Him and in Him
alone! He will fight for us, He will
wage war with those who stand against us, He will take up our cause. We do not have to waver or faint; He is ever
at our right hand, holding us firmly to His side, making the path smooth for
us.
If you have never entered into a
relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, then may I have a word with you? Without Jesus Christ as the Savior of your
life, you are hopeless and homeless.
Without the forgiveness of Christ for your sin, you are a sinner that
has made the choice to spend eternity separated from Him and His love and His
grace for you. He ask that you would
open the door for Him.
Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice,
and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with
me. 21 To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my
throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.
Revelation 3:20-21 (KJV)
The
Bible says that he or she that is without Christ is a sinner and is subject to
death. (Romans 6:23) We know that the
Bible says we have all sinned and have come so short of the glory of God.
(Romans 3:23) As a sinner we are subject
to judgment, but God did not send His Son to judge the world, but that the
world might be saved. (John 3:17-21)
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that
whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
John 3:16 (KJV)
Friend,
the Bible also tells me the GOOD NEWS!
Paul says it best in Romans 10…
9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and
shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt
be saved. 10 For
with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession
is made unto salvation. 11 For the scripture saith, Whosoever
believeth on him shall not be ashamed.
Romans 10:9-11 (KJV)
13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Romans 10:13 (KJV)
Will you call on Him today? Believe that He is who He says He is and
confess your sin to Him. He will forgive
you! He will save you! He will love you! He will walk with you!
5 Trust in the Lord
with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. 6 In
all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.
Proverbs 3:5-6 (KJV)
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