May it please God to bless us
together this evening as we meditate in his word. Let's turn to the
book of Psalms and Psalm 22 and we'll read verse 29. The book
of Psalms, Psalm 22, I'm reading verse 29. All they that be fat
upon earth shall eat and worship. All they that go down to the
dust shall bow before him, and none can keep alive his own soul. The Word of God is very clear
and very direct. And this particular psalm, of
course, speaks very wonderfully about the Lord Jesus Christ. It's perhaps one of the most
prophetic portions in the Word of God, and especially with the
detail it gives. And we should be very thankful
that we have such statements in the Word of God to encourage
us. But there are also very many
words which perhaps do not speak directly about the Lord Jesus,
but speak in any event to the Church of God. And this 29th
verse seems to be one of those where we read that all they that
be fat upon earth shall eat and worship. And that can be taken
in two ways, either in a natural way or in a spiritual way. It's good if there are those
who are blessed, are worth much, are able to truly worship. And then also, all they that
go down to the dust shall bow before him, and none can keep
alive his own soul. Well, the reality is, of course,
that everyone will go down to the dust when they die. We were
made from dust, Adam was made from dust, and all will return
to dust. And may we always recognize,
therefore, that we are Naturally our bodies are not immortal,
they are mortal. But the truth is that our souls
are immortal, that we shall live forever. And then David tells
us, and none can keep alive his own soul. And that means what
it says, none can keep alive his own soul. Naturally, you
and I need food and drink to live naturally. And you and I
need exactly the same. We need spiritual food and the
water of life to keep alive our own soul. Otherwise we shall
perish. Now, naturally, Sometimes there
isn't a great need for a great deal of food or drink, but there
is sufficient. And perhaps sometimes in our
spiritual life we may come very low, very low. But let us be encouraged to realize
that we can't keep ourselves spiritually alive, but it's God
who does. And that means that we cannot
produce or have any credit for it ourselves. But we should desire
therefore and we should praise our God if our soul is kept alive. Even perhaps in times of famine,
times perhaps of spiritual famine, the Lord doesn't leave us to
die but he keeps our soul alive. Now the great blessing is that
God knows precisely what he will do in our lives and sometimes
the Lord does bring his people down to a low state. A low state where perhaps sometimes
they doubt the reality of their religion. but in such a condition
like that, when they come down to wonder whether their soul
is alive and realise that they can't keep themselves alive and
you and I won't be able to naturally. It doesn't matter what we can
do, we may try and read the Word of God, we may try and pray often,
but unless the Lord comes and grants us His grace to draw near
to Him, we will find that prayer appears to be barren. We don't
appear to really get through to God. And yet here we have
this statement, therefore, to just remind us that we can't
keep alive our own soul. And as much as we may read the
Word of God, Unless the Lord comes and opens our spiritual
understanding, it will just be as mere words, just words of
a book. And so how necessary it is to
realise there is a God who is gracious, a God who does not
deal with us as our sins deserve, And sometimes we may come to
that situation to believe that we do deserve to be cut off,
that we do deserve to be ignored by God. And therefore we cannot
come and say, well, I'm a great person, I deserve notice. We don't deserve any notice because
all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. We have
all offended. the greatness of our God. And
so, none can keep alive his own soul. Well, what does that mean?
It means that it brings us to total dependence upon God. Total dependence. And that's
a good place, because then we're not depending upon our prayers. We're not depending upon our
religion. depending upon that what God
has given us and what God does give us and that drawing which
the Lord grants to us to draw us near unto himself and we shall
we should be very thankful then that we have a God who is mindful
of us and to prove for the benefit of our souls, that we cannot
keep our soul alive. It's not a pleasant lesson to
learn. It's a very difficult lesson
and it's a very hard lesson. But it's a good lesson because
it makes us dependent upon our God and it makes us cry unto
him. It makes us call unto him. And it may be like the psalm
begins. This 22nd Psalm in the first
two verses where David says, and of course we know that it's
what the blessed Savior spoke, my God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? Well, David was a man of God,
wasn't he? Sometimes you and I may feel like that. It seems
that God has forsaken us. But bless God, he hasn't. forsaken
us. He never forsakes his children. My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping
me, and from the words of my roaring? O my God, I cry in the
daytime, but thou hearest not, and in the night seasons, and
am not silent. You see, such a condition is
not are pleasant to our flesh and indeed it brings us, we trust
and pray closer to God because we realise how needful it is
that God looks down upon us and God remembers us in our distress
and God doesn't cast us off but God comes to us and grants us
His favour and grants us his blessing. Now, if our souls are
to be kept spiritually alive, what is it that we need? We need,
surely then, spiritual food and we need spiritual drink. We need the water of life and
we need the bread of life. And what a glorious truth it
is But both of those things are centred in the Lord Jesus Christ. And perhaps we have to be reminded
often that we haven't perhaps sought the Lord as we should. We haven't perhaps remembered
the Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble. We perhaps
forgotten to remember the Lord waits to be gracious. And perhaps
we've forgotten the need for this spiritual food and we found
ourselves taken up with things that do not profit our eternal
soul. There are so many things that
can come in and yet there are so many things that can bring
us back to the truth of God. And what a mercy it is then when
the Lord looks upon us and he doesn't then cast us off. Sometimes it appears like that,
that we can't keep alive our own soul and we may think the
Lord's forgotten us and the Lord's cast us off, but no, he's waiting
to be gracious. Perhaps it's because we're not
hungry enough. Perhaps we haven't got sufficient
spiritual desire. Perhaps we've found ourselves
in a barren state. Perhaps in a time of famine. You know the Word of God speaks
to us about a famine of the hearing of the Word. Well if that's so,
it won't be a happy condition and a happy situation to not
receive spiritual food from the hearing of the Word. And we need
to earnestly pray then that the Lord will deliver us and bring
us out of such a condition and once again bless us with the
revelation of himself. Because it is the revelation
of himself which will produce liveliness and health in our
souls. so that we will be amongst the
living, the living in the Jerusalem who shall indeed praise thee
as Hezekiah did in his day when he was brought near to death
and the Lord visited his soul and he was able to declare the
living, the living, he shall praise thee as I do this day. When Hezekiah had reason to praise
God, and it's a good thing when you and I have reason to Praise
God. Praise God because he's come
to us. Praise God because he's come and touched our hearts.
Praise God who's given us that true spiritual desire to feed
upon the Blessed Saviour himself. Nothing else really will do. Nothing else really will do. How easily we can look everywhere
else but it is essential really that we look to the Lord Jesus
Christ and rejoice indeed in what he has done in his great
and glorious finished work. The Lord Jesus in the sixth chapter
of John, it's a long chapter, and it speaks about himself being
the bread of life. He draws the analogy of the ancients
who passed through the wilderness and they had the manna to eat. And the Lord said, our fathers
did eat manna in the desert, as it is written. He gave them
bread from heaven to eat. And what a blessing that was.
For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven and giveth
life unto the world. Well, Jesus said to them, I am
the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never
hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. It's a very clear statement.
It just seems so often we are, we seem to be reluctant to come
to our God, casting all our care upon him and pouring out our
heart unto him. He knows about us. We seem sometimes
reluctant to do that. And what a mercy then when the
Lord graciously comes and touches our heart and blesses us with
something of the reality of true religion. Again the Lord went
on in this sixth chapter in verse 49, your fathers did eat manna
in the wilderness and are dead. Yes, they ate natural food, but
they were dead. They died. This is the bread
which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof and
not die. If you and I are fed with spiritual
bread, it'll be bread for our soul, it'll be food for our soul,
and therefore we shall not die. We may perhaps feel like this, None can keep alive his own soul.
You may feel very destitute. That's not a bad thing, to be
hungry and thirsty for the truth of God. I am the living bread. This is the Saviour speaking.
Here is the place of rest. Here is the refuge. I am the
living bread which came down from heaven. If any man eat of
this bread, he shall live forever." Live forever. Yes, we shall not
fail. Live forever. And the bread that
I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the
world. Now, naturally, you and I can't
understand that. The Jews couldn't understand
it. The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, how
can this man give us his flesh to eat? Well, we know the Roman
Catholics pretend in the sacrament that the flesh of Jesus is partaken
of, but of course it's not. It's just a fallacy. Then Jesus
said unto him, very, very I say unto you, except ye drink the
flesh of the Son of Man, eat the flesh, of the Son of Man
and drink his blood, ye have no life in you." So when we read
this word, none can keep alive his own soul. The truth is, if
you and I are not feeding on Christ, however little that may
be, if we are not feeding on Christ, the very solemn and tremendous
truth is that we do not possess life, spiritual life. We may possess natural life,
but that will fade. You and I have to die, don't
we? We won't live forever. But if we possess this spiritual
life, and if we've been fed with spiritual food, we shall live
forever. Jesus goes on to say, Whoso eateth
my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life." Well, tonight,
do we desire eternal life? I hope we do. I hope we all desire
that we shall live forever with Jesus. And if that is so, we
will be partakers of this spiritual food. And that will mean that
by the grace of God, you and I will be able to think and to
meditate upon what the Lord Jesus Christ has done in order to redeem
our soul. Remember, it is what he has done. It hasn't got to be done, it's
done. The Lord Jesus came. He fulfilled the will and purpose
of his Father. He did all that was necessary.
to keep the holy law of God which we failed to keep and make it
an honourable law, which it is. What a blessing that is then
for us to realise this great truth, whoso eateth my flesh
and drinketh my blood hath eternal life. And obviously the alternative
is true. If we do not partake of the flesh
of Christ and drink his blood, we do not have eternal life.
It's very clear, isn't it really? And the Lord says, and I will
raise him up at the last day, for my flesh is meat indeed,
and my blood is drink indeed. Well, as we think in those terms,
as we consider him, the Lord Jesus Christ, Is it food to our
souls? And remember, this is not a natural
feeding, it's a spiritual feeding. And is it food to our souls when
you and I come to Calvary? When you and I come and stand,
as it were, before the cross of the Saviour, and as the Lord
gives us faith to behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away
the sin of the world, and gives us faith to believe that blessed
Saviour died, that we might be blessed with the gift of eternal
life, and that was the only way that you and I would receive
the gift of eternal life, through the sin-atoning death of the
Lord Jesus Christ, and then to ponder what it really meant,
the cost of our salvation, to think that the second person
in the Trinity, the true God, the great Redeemer died so that
you and I might live. Now is that food to our souls? Perhaps. It's a long time since
we've been to Calvary. Perhaps we haven't been there.
And perhaps that's why our soul appears to be almost dead. None can keep alive his own soul. If you and I keep away from Calvary,
we won't benefit from the great gift of spiritual food. And therefore we shall feel as
though There's no life because outside of Christ there is no
life. There is no life. And so the
Saviour really presses this point home and it's good if it's pressed
home to our hearts. For my flesh is meat indeed and
my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh
my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him." What that really means
is we are united to the Lord Jesus Christ. United to the Lord
Jesus Christ and not something which is going to pass away.
Because this is the glorious and blessed gift of God. And so the Savior tells us, this
is that bread which came down from heaven. Not as your fathers
did eat manna and are dead. He that eateth of this bread
shall live forever. Well, that's a great truth, isn't
it? to eat this bread and then realise that by the grace of
God we live forever. Well, these words you can read
in the sixth chapter of John, they're very true words, they're
very encouraging words, they direct us very clearly to the
need to feed upon the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. And none
can keep alive his own soul. It perhaps is a lesson that we
have to learn We have to learn, as we find ourselves, really
not spiritually alive, although the Lord never leaves us to spiritually
die. It may be that we're very far
off, as it were, far off, and there's just a glimmer of life,
and we seem as though we are dead, and we have to recognise
that We can't keep our own soul alive. The Word of God is very
clear. None can keep alive his own soul. And that really means that we
think and we have confidence in keeping our soul alive. You see, we may think, well,
I know what I'm going to do. I'm going to read this and read
that and pray this and pray that. And by doing all these things,
I should keep my soul alive. They're all good things, nothing
wrong at all, blessed things. But you and I are dependent upon
the Spirit of God giving us a spirit of prayer and opening his words
to our spiritual understanding so that we do bless God. We are fed and we are brought
to the Saviour. It's no wonder, is it? when the
Apostle Paul, when he wrote to the Hebrews, and he came towards
the end of that epistle in the 12th chapter, he spoke to them
in these words, and he said, wherefore seeing we also are
compassed about, we're so great a crowd of witnesses, let us
lay aside every weight, everything that detracts us from Christ. That's a pretty straight word,
isn't it? Let us lay aside every weight,
and the sin which does so easily beset us, it's very tempting
to say, well of course, that is my besetting sin and we try
and allow ourselves some latitude and think well we can continue
in that because that's our besetting sin. No, says the apostle, let
us lay aside every weight and the sin which does so easily
beset us and let us run with patience the race that is set
before us. There is a race, it's not an
easy race, it's a difficult race but the Lord is with his people
in that race. He doesn't leave them to themselves.
And he gives us this gracious encouragement, looking unto Jesus. That's how we are to run this
race. You see, if we fail to look unto Jesus, if we try and
run it ourselves, we won't make any progress. And we'll find
that we come into a situation like this that we realize we
can't keep alive our soul. We've forgotten the gracious
admonition of the Word of God. How good these words are to be
kept looking unto Jesus, the author. If he's begun that good
work in our hearts, and bless God if he has, and let's not
forget it. Let us remind ourselves of his
work in our hearts. Looking unto Jesus, the author
and the finisher, the good hope, the good hope, the sure and certain
hope that he will finish his work that he has begun. There
are no failures with Christ, who for the joy that was set
before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set
down at the right hand of the throne of God. Oh, this is the
blessed Saviour. My friends, consider what he's
done. endured the cross, the son of
God, endured all that pain and all the agony, despised the shame
on your and my behalf, amazing love, wonderful blessing, that
almighty God should have been so gracious to such unworthy
worms of the earth and come and touch their hearts and directed
them to himself. And so that we might be found
constantly looking unto Him, He now is set down at the right
hand of the throne of God, there to intercede for us. Oh, what
a Saviour we have. My friends, as we might find
ourselves perhaps like this, thinking that we are not hardly
alive, we can't keep ourselves alive. No, very true it is. What are we to do to remember?
the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, is at the right hand of the throne
of God to intercede for us. So that if we come to our Father
in heaven, praying to Him as the Great and Holy Father, realise
we as unworthy sinners can approach through our Saviour, our great
and glorious High Priest, who will present our prayers unto
our Father. The throne of God, there he is
today. Ever since that time when he ascended from this earth,
when he went up from Bethany into glory, there he sits until
that great day when he will return to the earth. What a day that
will be. And then the apostle therefore
encourages us And this is a great statement that you and I should
remember. For consider him, often consider
the Saviour. Look up, consider him that endured
such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied
and faint in your minds. Sometimes you might think, well,
My path's a really hard path. My life is a really difficult
life. I have much to bear. Other people don't seem to have
such a difficult life as I do. Well, be that as it may, if you
get into a rut like that, I'll tell you what to do. The Bible
tells us, consider Him. Look out of yourself. Pour not
on yourself too long, lest it sink thee lower. Look to Jesus,
firm and strong. What a blessing that is. And
here we're encouraged, consider Him. And then we're told a little
about Him, just to put things in a right perspective, that
endured such contradiction of sinners against himself. Perhaps you and I have contradicted
Almighty God. The Lord may have told us what
to do, how to act, what to say, and we have contradicted the
great God. Well, we're told, he endured
such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be worried
and faint in your minds. Ye have not yet resisted unto
blood, striving against sin." There is a striving against sin. There is a striving to do those
things which are right. And bless God when He gives us
that grace, as James tells us, draw one into God, and he will
draw near to you. Now it may be a very testing
time in our lives for that, to actually find ourselves drawing
near to God. We might find it exceedingly
hard and very difficult, but nonetheless we should realise
that is the encouraging word of God, to draw near to Him.
The devil will give you every excuse why you need not. Give you every excuse why you
need not listen to the great admonition to draw near to God. And he will say, well, of course,
you can't do that. You've got no strength. You've
got no ability. And you need God to draw you.
Well, he does. draw near to God. He does draw us. And to therefore
stand against the wiles of Satan, who will pretend that it's no
good anyway, there's no reason and there's no purpose. Resist
the devil, he may flee from you. Yes, what a blessing that is,
when you and I therefore receive this wonderful favour of grace
to resist the devil and to draw near unto our God. And so the
Apostle goes on in this twelfth chapter when he tells us, And
ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto
children. My son, despise not thou the
chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him. And sometimes but nor will it
bring us into these conditions where it seems like this, that
we can't keep alive our own soul, which is very true, and we seem
so far off and we forget to look to Jesus. And therefore it may
be the Lord chastens us in this condition and he brings us into
a condition where we feel to be far off from God. What a blessing
then when the Holy Spirit comes in and opens our spiritual understanding. And as the apostle goes on to
say, for whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth and scourgeth every
son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God
dealeth with you as with sons. What son is he whom his father
chasteneth not? But if he be without chastisement,
whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards and not sons. What a blessing it is to know
the Lord is dealing with us, perhaps in what we think is a
very strange way, a very difficult way, a very hard way, to come
into that situation where We seem to have no life in our soul
and we realise that we can't keep our own soul alive. Then it is that we give God all
the glory when he comes then and changes our position and
directs us from ourselves to himself. then it's a mercy to
realise that the Lord hasn't forgotten us and he hasn't cast
us off. And none can keep alive his soul. Well, it's because we are not
feeding upon the Saviour. And there is very much food in
the Word of God for our souls. There's very much to encourage
us as you and I trace out the life of the Saviour and trace
out the great and glorious plan of salvation which of course
was first of all indicated by God himself in the Garden of
Eden and it was ordained for the benefit of the whole Church
of God. And as the Holy Spirit may direct
us to see that that promise was given for the whole Church of
God of which we form a part, that would be very humbling.
That would be a great strength. It would be a wonderful encouragement
if we realise that we are indeed sons and daughters of the Most
High God. But the problem's been that we've
wandered off, and perhaps we've almost been like the Bride of
Christ in the Song of Solomon, that we've become very, you might
say, lazy in the things of God, just like she did. when she was
comfortable in her bed and she couldn't be bothered to actually
get up and to open the door. It's very easy to allow the things
of time to come in and crowd out the things of God. And if that does so, then we
may feel that our soul is dead and it may be almost dead. And
we need the Lord to enliven us. We need the Lord to revive us. And our prayer may be from the
bottom of our heart, Lord, now revive me again. To be revived
in spiritual things so that we are spiritually minded and not
carnally minded. Because to be kindly minded is
death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace and
joy. What a blessing it is then, that
you and I are found on this earth at this time, with so many things
to distract us. Perhaps you might think there's
never been a time when there are so many things to distract
us, many things that crowd into our mind and we seem to forget
that Jesus is the one thing needful. What a blessing when the Holy
Spirit comes to us and kindly directs us to that great truth.
Jesus and he alone is the one thing needful. One thing is needful,
said Jesus to Martha, and Mary has chosen that good part which
shall not be taken away from her. Oh, may you and I be blessed
for choosing that good part. And what was that part? Sitting
at the feet of Jesus. She wasn't a long way away, was
she? She was very close. she might hear his words. Everything that he spoke, she
would have heard. The quietest words that he spoke,
she would have heard. What a good position that is
to be found in, isn't it? Not a long way off, not wandering
off. Although Martha was doing good
things, you know, and the Lord said, you know, busy and coming
about with much serving. All these things may be right
and proper and good, but Mary has chosen that good part which
will not be taken away from her. Well, none can keep alive his
own soul. You won't keep alive your soul
by getting involved in so many things. that you forget the health
of your own soul. It's important that we do consider
the health of our own soul. It's important that we are found
spiritually alive and to realise that you can't keep your soul
alive yourself, but to be able to come and to pray constantly
and earnestly for that health of soul and that nearness to
the Saviour, to be close to Him, to hear His words, to hear His
voice, to be encouraged, to be directed, to be strengthened,
to be corrected, whatever we need. Because all of us have
a different need, but the Lord knows what we need. Let us not
dictate to God. Let us come often think with
those very simple words that we read of in the Old Testament
when that servant of God came and said, oh that thou wouldst
bless me indeed. And enlarge my coast. He wanted
spiritual blessings. And so may you and I desire spiritual
blessings. And as we read these The short
little phrase here, none can keep alive his own soul. May
you be very aware of it. And may we be found constantly
looking unto Jesus, that great and glorious saviour, because
when we are with him and meditating upon what he's done, we will
receive food for our souls, which will give us strength in our
spiritual life, so that we may know that we are spiritually
alive and bless God for his grace, for his love, for his mercy to
such unworthy sinners. Remember, none can keep alive
his own soul. Amen.