from the 42nd Psalm for our text this evening. Psalm 42, the first two verses. I was thinking as I continue to convey to you the idea that being a Christian, that proclaiming oneself to be one of his redeemed by his blood, by claiming that one is a follower of Jesus Christ, entails considerably more than what generally is done. There is a A substantial lack, I believe, of real understanding among the so-called Christian community about what derives from what advantages accrue to those who are in Christ. David, the psalmist, great lover of God, in spite of all of his foibles and all of his temptations and all of his sins and all of his inconsistencies, was a great lover of God. And if there is anything that marks out David as being one of God's elect, it is his true heart of repentance and his sincere hunger for his God. And one would have to come to the conclusion, if he truly read the scriptures covering the life of David, that David hid himself in his God, that it was his God who dominated his life, that it was his God who gave him direction. that it was God who gave him his nourishment and sustained him. It was God who fed him and kept him. It was God who loved him. And it was God who finally brought him to himself. And so these two verses, probably more than any other two verses in the Old Testament, define and describe the condition of the heart and the soul and the mind of David. He knew that being God's carried with it immense benefit, but he knew he could not gain the benefit until first he hungered after him. That's what he said. As the heart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before my God? Let's pray. Father, we come before you this evening and we thank you for giving us this time out, this respite. from the busyness of our week and of our lives, so that we may think about, reflect upon, meditate upon Thee. So I ask this evening, Holy Father, that by the power and might and teaching and conviction of Thy Spirit, who is given to each one of Your people without measure, that we might be drawn to a place, even as our brother David was, of hungering and thirsting after you. I pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Probably all of you are familiar, at least to some extent, maybe vaguely, maybe with some great familiarity, with the so-called Beatitudes. You know, all of those rather short lists of blessings. One of them was, and is, blessed are they who do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. If there's one thing that's evident today, it's the fact that within the realm of evangelical Christianity, there are all different kinds and brands of Christians. There are those who are energetic, seemingly powered by the Holy Spirit of God, who say wonderful things, but who find their lives still, in the last analysis, when faced with crises, are somewhat void of the great comforts that ought to be theirs. I must tell you that for one to be able to derive, to garner all the benefits that are accruing unto him, or should accrue unto him, in Christ Jesus, one must go through the daily exercise of condition, of feeding, and of learning. There is no simple shortcut to godliness. It is growing, feeding, and learning. And furthermore, it's with an eye fixed upon the goal, the objective, the mark of one's high calling in Christ Jesus. Now if you notice this text, David had one objective in view. While he was yet here on this earth, he hungered after God. He thirsted after God. He wanted his God. He wanted to be in the presence of his God. And so the plaintive kind of rhetorical question at the end of the second verse is, when shall I come and appear before my God, or to put it in more current terms, When shall I be with him in his presence? When shall my hungering and my thirsting after him be satisfied and fulfilled, so that I shall be his and he shall be mine? We shall be together forever. I was thinking about the Apostle Paul. The Apostle Paul said almost the exact same thing, but in very different ways. He said, for me to live is Christ, but to die is gain. It's the same thing, really. You say, as long as I live this life in the flesh, I live it unto my God, unto my Savior, but when shall I be with Him? When shall I be in His presence? I want to talk to you about who Christ is, what He is, for those who are in Him. The book of Colossians, the third chapter, When the Apostle Paul addressed the churches in Colossae, one of the things that he admonished them was to set their affections on upward things, not on earthly things. And he exhorted them that if they did that, then their life would be very different from their lives if they did not do that. Where the treasure is, the Lord Jesus Christ said, there is the heart. The affections are where you value most. The Apostle Paul said, do not place any inordinate, undue value upon anything in this life or upon this earth, because you are dead and your life is hidden with Christ in God. And when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall you also appear with Him in glory. And if you would, you ought to bracket out the statement that Christ, who is our life. Christ is our life. We live in Christ. We live and move and have our being in Him. Without Him, there is no life. I'm reminded of the popular commercial which depicts, you know, three or four or five or six guys, men, macho, doing their thing either out in the wilderness hunting or in a campsite or frying some fish in a pan or sailing a schooner out on the ocean and they kick their feet up and they pull out a few cans of beer out of the ice chest and they snap them open and they say, hey guys, doesn't get any better than this. Oh yes it does. It does now, and it does later. Living is not that. As nice as it may be to be in those places and enjoying doing those things, living for a child of God is in Christ. Christ is his life. We live in him. When Jesus was addressing a rather large crowd, mainly of Well, all Jews, but dotted with a pretty fair sprinkling of Jewish religious leaders who were called Pharisees, some of them Sadducees. He began to explain to them in words which were beyond their comprehension. They couldn't understand what it was that he was saying, but I'm always amazed and sometimes even amused at how it was that the Lord Jesus Christ persisted in saying things to large numbers of people, which he obviously knew they would have no idea what he was talking about. They didn't have any conception of what he was saying, but he said it just the same. And I think, I wonder why he did that. Why did he dispense the energy and waste the time and go to the places where he would be saying these things which would so mystify his hearers that there wasn't a prayer that they would understand them? In fact, one time his apostle said to them, why do you speak to them in parables and to us plainly? And he said, because I don't really want to expect them, nor do I wish for them to understand. And yet he talked to them. And I thought, why did he do that? And if the Savior, who is life and light and wise, did that, I wonder maybe if we oughtn't just to say what Jesus said, repeat what it is that He said. He said to those who had no conception of what He was saying, you know, He said, Your fathers, your forebears, they ate this manna and the wilderness that came down from heaven and every day it perished. And they had to get a new supply. He said, but I am the bread that comes down from heaven. He that eateth me, he shall never hunger. And I am living waters, and he that drinketh of me shall never thirst. He said, I am the bread of life. Now think about that. You know why they didn't understand what it was that he was saying? Because there was no life in them that desired to eat that bread. There was no desire at all for them to eat that bread. They had no natural desire. There was no nature or inclination for them to eat of the bread of life. But God's people God's people ought to desire their Christ. God's people ought to desire that their lives be hid in Him. God's people ought to know and realize and experience and enjoy the very person of Jesus Christ. Back in the 110th Psalm, I enjoy the Psalms often because I think they're so prophetic and yet they seem to be so disjointed. I don't know how you feel about it, but when you can be reading along in a Psalm and David will be will be rehashing about the glories of how it was that God delivered him. And suddenly, almost mysteriously, there's interjected a statement or two about not David at all. It doesn't even fit David's life. It has nothing to do with David, but has to do with someone who would far, far, far away in years, years yet to come, be of David's lineage, who would fulfill the things that David just seemingly spontaneously blurted out. Like suddenly, while he was worshiping, he said, and thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. In the context of what David was saying, it made no sense. But in the context of what the scripture teaches, and particularly and especially we who have the advantage of the hindsight or the aftersight of having the New Testament scriptures at our disposal and in our possession, we know exactly what he meant. And I was thinking about life in Christ. And I thought, to live is Christ. Our life is hid in Christ. Jesus Christ is the bread of life. And all the time that you read in the Scriptures, when you read about hell and damnation and death, it's always referring to those who have no hope of life. But when God is speaking, when the Scriptures are speaking of life, He is speaking to His people. Believe me when I tell you, dear ones, if you are in Christ Jesus, you are living. You have life in Him. Why settle for the dregs when you can eat the best? Why go for the bottom when you can reach the top? Why feed at the roots when you can eat of the fruit? Why live in the dumps when you can live on the hill? Why follow the crowd when you can follow the Christ of glory? Why live for yourself when he lives for you? Why? Why do we do that to ourselves? Why do we find these things which so easily, seemingly distract us so readily, and pull us down and dominate our lives, so that we find that there is no real joy of radiation in Christ Jesus? It's just a perfunctory exercise, because to do otherwise, we know, would be foolish. But to enjoy Christ? We don't do much of that. So this Melchizedek, the Lord Jesus Christ, who was a priest after the order of Melchizedek, who was made not after the law of a carnal commandment, but was made after the power of an endless life, speaks of marvelous dynamic force and power available to God's people. I don't like to even speak in terms of what our potentials are. Although they're great, I would like to speak in terms of the possessions which are already ours. See, being in Christ has a lot to do with going to heaven. But in real practical terms, It has more to do with living here. And as long as we breathe the breath of life, and our hearts do tick, and our minds do send out, the brains send out its electric impulses, living in Christ has a great deal more to do with now than it does with then. That's our hope, and we fully expect to realize our hope to be with Him, but in the meantime, living is living in Him. We have far, far, far more than someone who knows not Christ as Savior. So let me make one last plea, and the plea is really for the Lordship of Jesus Christ. I am not one of those who subscribe to the school that it's possible for one to be saved from the condemnation of hell and know nothing about the Lordship of Jesus Christ. I believe that one, one is saved, Christ is not only his Savior, but he is his Lord as well. And I do not see how the scriptures allow there be any division at all. It's a happy state we are in to have Christ as our Lord. Can't have a better Lord. Everyone has a boss. We all answer to someone But isn't it comforting to know that the one who is truly the Lord of everything in our lives is a holy, compassionate, harmless, undefiled Savior and Lord? Why do we... Why do we keep rooting down? Why are we always routing with our snoots in the ground? What do we need to do to really apprehend the vibrancy of the life of Christ. We need to look to Him. We need to hunger for Him. We need to thirst for Him. The only way that you'll ever get an appetite for Him and the only way that you'll ever get a thirst for Him is to begin to unlock the regions, the reaches of your mind and your heart by looking at His Word and seeing the delicacies that are there and then you'll want more and more and more and more. The true bread of heaven is Jesus Christ, and there is no other manna to satisfy the hungry soul. The true water of life is Jesus Christ, and there is no other water to assuage the thirst of a thirsty soul. For me to live is Christ. To live is Christ. Christ is your life.