Longing for Christ: The Essence of True Fulfillment

"first you may find yourself in a sense as a preacher becoming even a cast away but when you put at the center this blessed knowledge PA it had a vision of the living Christ the Risen Lord and yet you see what he hungers for and Longs for and pants after is this further deeper more intimate knowledge of him personal knowledge a personal revelation of the Living Lord in a spiritual sense it's everywhere you see there's nothing higher than this look at the agent John writing his farewell letter to the Christians and this is what he tells them in the first chapter of his first epistle he says my great desire is that your joy May be fulfilled how is that joy to be fulfilled well it's this he says that you may have fellowship with us that you may share with us as partners the Blessed experience that we've got and what is that well he says our fellowship is with the father and with his son Jesus Christ they have Fellowship it doesn't mean that you're just engaged in God's work it means that of course but that's the lowest level the highest level is really to know God himself this is life eternal that they might Know Thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou Hast sent and indeed we have the authority of Our Lord himself not only in the verse I've just quoted but in that other statement of his when the men came to him and asked which is the first and the greatest may I ask another question and I think it is these simple questions that rarely tell us the whole truth about ourselves what are you looking for in heaven or let me ask a question that perhaps should come before that do you ever look forward to being in Hidden that's not being morbid I like the way in which Matthew Henry Once put it we are never told in the scriptures that we should look forward to death but we are told very frequently in the scriptures that we should look forward to heaven the man who looks forward to death is simply wanting to get out of this world because of its problems and its troubles that's not Christian at all that's Pagan but the Christian has the positive heaven and therefore I asked do we look forward to being in heaven yes and in addition what do we look forward to when we get to heaven what is it that we're Desiring is it the rest of Heaven is it the deliverance from trials and troubles and tribulations is it the Peace of of Heaven is it the joy of Heaven all those things are to be found there thank God but you know that's not the thing to look forward to in heaven it's this it's still the same thing it is the vision of God blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God the vision Splendid the summon Bon standing in the very presence of God to gaze and Gaze on thee do we long for that my friends is that heaven to us is that the thing we see above everything else as the thing to cover and to long for well the Apostle Paul again puts it in his own language and this is the more Christian form of it what is to die well it is to be with Christ there's no need to add anything to that and that is why I believe we are told so little about in a detailed sense about the life in heaven and in glory people often ask that question why aren't we told more about it there sir well I think there are two answers to that question the first is this that doing to our sinful State any description which we might have we would misunderstand It's So Glorious that our language is inadequate and imperfect it can't describe it but I think there's a second reason it's the one I'm referring to now and it's even more important it is an idal curiosity that desire to know more I'll tell you what heaven is to be with Christ and if that doesn't satisfy you well then you don't know Christ that's all what is Heaven to Me whom have I in heaven but these says this men I don't want anything else whatever thou art that is hidden just to look at thee to be with Christ it's all it's everything it's enough it's more than enough whom have I in heaven but the oh my friends how much do we know of this experience we are not modernists we are not liberals we are better than these other people I know but what a poor standard there are certain things we don't do we've had certain experiences we've enjoyed certain blessings all right but this is the test do you know him do you long for him just to be with him to be conversing with him do you pent after him are you thirsting after the Living God and for this intimacy with the Lord Jesus Christ that's Christian experience how much time do we take to spend with him and to think about him and to speak to him to pray to him whomever in heaven heaven but thee and in the same way he goes on to say and there is none upon Earth that I desire beside thee again let us notice that the psalmist says this of course because that was as I've already indicated the very essence of his previous trouble it was because he was Desiring certain other things on earth he'd very nearly gone these ungodly look at them no bends in their death their eyes stand out with fatness their business flourishes their children not ill there are no bends in their death look what they're having on Earth and in this world and he wanted those things but he no longer wants them he's seen through all that not now there is none upon Earth that I desire beside thee God Alone in heaven God Alone on Earth the scripture again is full of this listen to the Lord Jesus Christ putting this in his way I'm going to You Luke 14:26 If any man come to me and hate not his father and his mother and wife and children and Brethren and sisters yay and his own life also he cannot be my disciple don't worry about that word hate it's simply a strong word which is meant to say this that any man who puts anybody body or anything in his life before Christ is not a true disciple of his to be a true disciple of Christ means that he comes first on Earth before everybody before everything Christ at the center Christ the lord of my life Christ on the throne of my being that I love him first before everyone and everything none on Earth that I desire beside thee does he come I wonder first in our lives even before our loved ones and nearest and dearest even before my work before my success before my busyness before anything else even while we are here in this world and on Earth he should be our Supreme desire to me to live is what it's Christ Christ himself to be walking through this world with him to be having fellowship with him in the light that's the test and you see it was because he had come to that that the Apostle Paul is able to say the remarkable and amazing things that he says in the fourth chapter of the epistle to the to the Philippians he tells us there that he has learned in whatsoever State he is there with therein to be content I know he says both how to be a Bast and how to abound why well things no longer Captivate things no longer control it's Christ it's Christ I want if I have Christ I have all if I've got nothing to eat I have Christ if I've only amies I still have Christ is Christ I'm living on I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me you're made independent of circumstances and surroundings of accident and living on him and by him and for him other things tail into insignificance do we desire him above everything as we are going through this Earthly pilgrimage the psalmist had come to that let me go on to the next thing which is this he tells us that he finds complete satisfaction in him the whole statement means that doesn't it but he puts it in particular whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none on Earth that I desire beside thee My Flesh and my heart fath but God is the strength of my heart and my portion that's it my portion forever his portion his Supply his satisfaction his everything there is nothing that he can desire but that God gives it him what is god well he's a son and the field he gives Grace and Glory there's no end to it I mustn't keep you he finds that God satisfies him completely his mind his heart his whole men do you find complete intellectual satisfaction in God and in his holy word do you feel that you've got all philosophy here and that you need nothing Beyond it it is here God satisfies the Mind completely to overflowing and the Heart the affections he fills everything Ransom healed restored forgiven who like thee his prey should s that's it God is all and in all he's everything my portion my complete satisfaction I desire nothing else I want nothing in addition or read the Psalms and you'll find that overflowing with it read the3rd s that's exactly what the men saying there Health thy diseases and thy sicknesses casts his sins behind you gives you strength and power everything there is nothing you can ever need or desire within or without God will give it he's fully Satisfied by this blessed glorious God and then that brings him to the last he rests confidently in God he desires God for himself and for his own sake rather than what he gives he desires nothing but God he finds complete satisfaction in God and he rests and reposes confidently in God listen to it my flesh and my heart fail there are those who say that he was describing an experience at the time as well as in the future future and probably they may be right because you know you can't pass through a spiritual experience such as this man pass through without your physical body suffering I believe this man's nerves were in a bad State his very body was suffering you may have had digestive troubles he may have had other troubles his even physical heart may have been misbehaving in a sense My Flesh and my heart form he was in a bad State physical and in any case looking to the future he knows that a day is bound to come when his flesh and his heart will fail he'll become an old man his faculties will fail him his strength will falter he'll become feeble he won't be able to feed himself perhaps he'll be lying helpless in a bed everything seems to be going and slipping away it's all right says this man even when that happens God the same God still is the strength of my heart now it's generally agreed that the word that was used which is translated here as strength is the word Rock but God is the rock of my heart and my portion forever I rather like that because you see it conjures up an image in our minds and the image is this oh yes says this man I know him now in such a way that I can rest quietly and confidently in him I know I can even say this he says though a day may come when I shall feel the very foundations of Life quaking and shaking beneath me God will be the rock that will hold me he cannot be moved he cannot be shifted he's the Rock of Ages and whatever I am and whatever is happening and when my physical flame is dissolving and when Heaven and Earth are passing away God The Rock will still sustain me and I shall never be moved God is the rock the strength of my heart forever oh the Bible is never tired of saying it listen to another saying it visualizing terrible conditions which may come to pass this is the comfort and the consolation that is given underneath yes you're dropping in space your foundations of Life have gone everything you've built on is crashing you don't know where you are no what's going to happen and you're going down into an abyss no no underneath and they're always there underneath are the Everlasting Arms they'll always hold you you'll never finally collapse you'll be held when everything is gone God is the rock oh listen to Isaiah putting it it's the same thing he talks about that foundation stone that sure tried tested foundation stone that has been set and what he says is this he that believeth shall never make haste a better translation is this as you get it in the New Testament he that believeth shall never be confounded he that believeth shall never be put to shame why he's on the Rock he's got this stability he's got this foundation and it cannot be moved nothing can move it it's God himself and on this rock though my flesh and my heart May Fail I shall never be moved I shall never be taken by surprise I shall never be put to shame God will see me right very well let me try and sum it up in a hymn which our less is is not in our himm book but let me read it to you this is the final confession of the Christian my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness I dare not trust my sweetest frame but holy lean on Jesus name on Christ the solid rock I Stand All all other ground is sinking sand when darkness seems to Veil his face I rest on his unchanging Grace in every high and stormy Gale my anchor holds within the veil on Christ the solid rock I stand all other ground is sinking sand his Earth his Covenant and blood support me in the whelming flood when all around my soul gives way he then is All My Hope and stay on Christ the solid rock I stand all other ground is sinking sand that's it my friends do we know it are we on the Rock do we know him don't live on your work don't live on your own business on your own activity don't live on your experiences live on nothing they'll all go you'll have the devil suggesting to them that they can be explained psychologically you become old and tired the greatest tragedy I think I've ever known in this world was to see a man who' been engaged throughout a long busy active life in Christian work dying for months and apparently having nothing to fall back back upon he had without knowing it but he'd been living on his own activity a terrible state to be in let's live on nothing let's trust to nothing but to him who is the Rock of Ages the Everlasting God on Christ the solid rock I st all other ground is singing s" [00:22:39]