PSALM 94
God of vengeance verse 1- 2
O LORD God – to WHOM vengeance belongs
O God – to WHOM vengeance belongs
show YOURSELF
lift up YOURSELF – YOU judge of the earth
render a reward to the proud
Arrogant thoughts of wicked verse 3- 7
LORD
How long shall the wicked
How long shall the wicked triumph?
How long shall they utter and speak hard things?
and all the workers of iniquity boast themselves?
They break in pieces YOUR people – O LORD
and afflict YOUR heritage
they slay the widow and stranger
they murder the fatherless
yet they say – The LORD shall not see
neither shall the God of Jacob regard it
Thoughts of the righteous regarding attributes of God verse 8- 11
Understand – you brutish among the people – and you fools
when will you be wise?
HE that planted the ear
shall HE not hear?
HE that formed the eye
shall HE not see?
HE that chastises the heathen
shall not HE correct?
HE that teaches man knowledge
shall not HE know?
The LORD KNOWS the thoughts of man
that they are VANITY
God’s relationship to righteous verse 12- 15
Blessed is the man whom YOU chastens – O LORD
and teach him out of YOUR law
that YOU may give him rest from the days of adversity
until the pit be digged for the wicked
For the LORD will not cast off HIS people
neither will HE forsake HIS inheritance
BUT judgment shall return to righteousness
and the upright in heart shall follow it
Knowledge of righteous regarding LORD work verse 16- 19
Who will rise up from against the evildoers?
or who will stand up for me against the workers of iniquity?
unless the LORD had been my help
my soul had almost dwelt in silence
When I said
My foot slips – YOUR mercy – O LORD – held me up
In the multitude of my thoughts within me
YOUR comforts delight my soul
LORD deals with unjust leaders verse 20- 23
Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with YOU
which frames mischief by a law?
They gather themselves together against the soul of the righteous
and condemn the innocent blood
But the LORD is my defense – and my God is the rock of my refuge
and HE shall bring upon them their own iniquity
and shall cut them off in their own wickedness
yea – the LORD our God shall cut them off
COMMENTARY:
DAILY SPIRITUAL BREAKFAST: Young Believers
: 2 Lift up YOURSELF, YOU judge of the earth: render a reward to the proud. (1576 “reward” means recompense given by God, benefit, retribution, reprisal, what is deserved, to repay actions, accomplishment, or to give the wicked his due.)
DEVOTION: Those of us that are genuine believers in the LORD know that those who do evil should be judged by God for their deeds and give a sentence of eternity in the lake of fire.
However, we are not the final judge but we should make sure that we turn them over to the FINAL JUDGE and let HIM deal with them. Too often we would like to see someone who has done wrong be judged immediately by the LORD but that is not how HE works most of the time.
HE gives every human a time to repent of their sins and become a believer in HIM. HE is longsuffering with all of us. HE wants to make sure that there is no one who says “I never had a chance to become a believer and change my ways.”
No one will be able to say those words to the LORD because I believe that everyone who is born to man does have an opportunity to hear the Word of God and make that decision based on the chose given.
Too often we say that there are so many who have never heard the gospel and how can God send those who have never heard to hell. HE doesn’t do it that way. HE gives everyone a choice and no one can stand before HIM and say they never had a choice to either accept or reject HIM.
Too often we limit God. We think that if there was never a missionary in a country then they never had an opportunity to believe. This is not something that can happen. No one can stand before God and say “You never gave me a chance!”
HE is going to judge each individual according to the response to the message of salvation. HE is a just judge. “It is appointed unto man once to die and after that judgment!”
CHALLENGE: Remember most of the time HE uses human being to witness to people and so if we are genuine believer we should tell others we know about the choice they have regarding eternity.
DAILY SPIRITUAL LUNCH: Transitional Believers
: 4 How long shall they utter and speak hard things? And all the workers of iniquity boast themselves? (6277 “hard things” [‘athaq] means unrestained, impudent, overbearing pride evidenced by a superior manner toward others, or insolent.)
DEVOTION: There are people who have nothing good to say about those who follow the LORD or about the LORD. They don’t seem to want to have anything to do with God or with those who believe in the God of the Bible.
We have all met people who don’t think there is a God or that HE is not really in charge of what is going to happen in the future when they die. They are willing to take their chance that they will just die and turn into dust and not every have an afterlife.
These people usually boast of all the sins they have committed and will commit because they are not concerned with the God of the Bible. A majority of people will spend eternity in hell because of the choice they have made in their lifetime.
It is still our responsibility to witness to everyone we can concerning their future. If they reject our message they will have to answer for their actions. However, we will have to answer for not being a witness to those the LORD brings into our world.
God want no one and there is no one that can say that they didn’t have an opportunity to become a believer while they were alive. No one can claim “I didn’t know!”
People say “What about the people in the darkest part of Africa?” and they have that right to say it but the Bible tells us that no one can say to God “You never gave me a chance!” God uses other people to witness to them and HE even uses angels to witness to them but no one will face the LORD and tell HIM HE is wrong for giving them a judgment of eternity in hell.
We all know people who have nothing good to say about Christianity or Jesus Christ. That is their choice but they will have to answer for that choice. We will have to answer for out witness!
CHALLENGE: We are to be witnesses for the LORD. There will be people who reject our witness but that is their choice.
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: 12 “Blessed is the man whom YOU instruct, O LORD, and teach out of YOUR law,” The New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982). (Instruct – 3256 יָסַר, יָסַר, יָסׄר [yacar /yaw·sar/] v. A primitive root; TWOT 877; GK 3579 and 3580 and 3581; 43 occurrences; AV translates as “chastise 21 instruct” eight times, “correct” seven times, “taught” twice, “bound” once, “punish” once, “reformed” once, “reproveth” once, and “sore” once. 1 to chasten, discipline, instruct, admonish. 1A (Qal). 1A1 to chasten, admonish. 1A2 to instruct. 1A3 to discipline. 1B (Niphal) to let oneself be chastened or corrected or admonished. 1C (Piel). 1C1 to discipline, correct. 1C2 to chasten, chastise. 1D (Hiphil) to chasten. 1E (Nithpael) to teach. James Strong, Enhanced Strong’s Lexicon (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2001).
DEVOTION: This psalm is another Royal psalm used to celebrate God as king. As the ruler, God fudge the earth and protect the righteous. Here the righteous are calling for God to punish the rebellious and unruly. The psalmist recognizes the man that is willing to be instructed and to change from his futile ways. This man endures the corrections because he realizes the Lord knows what is best for man. The writer of Proverbs states, “For the Lord gives wisdom; From His mouth come knowledge and understanding; … He guards the paths of justice, and preserves the way of His saints.” (Proverbs 2:6-8) Be wise and learn the truths of God’s ways!
CHALLENGE: A wise person will not “despise the chastening of the Lord, nor detest His correction; For whom the Lord loves He corrects,…” Proverbs 3:11-12 (Dr. Brian Miller – board member)
DAILY SPIRITUAL SUPPER: Mature Believers
: 19 In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy comforts delight my soul.
(8173 “delight” [sha‘a‘] means gladden, take joy in, and pleasure.)
DEVOTION: How easy is it for us to think of ways to get even with those who hurt us? We have all kinds of suggestions that we can give to God regarding our enemies. In fact, we would like to execute our plans on those who mistreat us.
However, the Bible tells us that the one who is to deal with our enemies is the LORD. We are to let HIM handle it because HE can do a better and fairer job than we can. We have a problem, in that, we think we do very few things wrong. It is always the other guy. Sometimes we are right but other times we deserve what we get because of an improper attitude or action.
The psalmist tells the LORD that the wicked seem to be winning. He wonders how long the LORD is going to wait before HE judges them. These wicked seem to be the ruling class in Israel. They are oppressing their fellow Israelites.
The LORD is the ONE responsible for chastening HIS own children. The rich of Israel needed the LORD to show them who was in control. The Psalmist’ world seems to be falling apart. He had thoughts that the righteous were going to be forgotten. He was concerned. He was struggling with what was happening in his world. He knew that the LORD will judge, it is just when.
While all this is going on around him – he thinks about how the LORD comforts him within his soul. Even though his thoughts were negative, he was taking joy in the fact that he knew the LORD was going to comfort HIS people. He was taking pleasure in this fact.
We can have turmoil all around us and yet a peace within us because we know that the LORD is there. Isn’t it great to know that the LORD never leaves HIS children alone? HE is always encouraging the souls of HIS children. HE loves us.
The Psalmist and we need to realize that God is still on the throne. We are not to have fellowship with the workers of iniquity. We are to stand firm in the fact that the LORD is our defense and our refuge in all of our trials. The wicked are going to be judged in HIS time and in HIS way. Leaders have an awesome responsibility before the LORD. If they abuse their authority, HE will deal with them. The war is won!!!
CHALLENGE: We are allowed to struggle with what is happening in our lives, as long as, we allow those struggles to help us rest in the LORD. HE has pleasure in HIS children’s honesty.
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: 23 And HE shall bring upon them their own iniquity, and shall cut them off in their own wickedness; yea, the LORD our God shall cut them off. (6789 “cut them off” [tsamath] means destroy, consume, exterminate, annihilate, silence, or put to an end.)
DEVOTION: Those who are not followers of the LORD enjoy causing problems for the righteous or believers. The LORD allows it to happen to cause the righteous to learn dependence on HIM. HE wants HIS followers to follow HIM. HE wants HIS followers to realize that they can’t control their circumstances as well as HE does.
Too often believers think that if they do everything right according to their thinking they think the LORD should bless them. This doesn’t always happen as many who were true followers of the LORD when through very difficult times.
The example of Christ is the one what we should look at on a regular basis. HE was perfect but HE was always facing individuals who wanted to give him a hard time. HE helped many people but others didn’t care. HE was crucified for our sins. HE never sinned.
One day all those who committed iniquity and wickedness toward those who were followers of the LORD are going to pay for their sins. HE is the righteous judge of the world. They are going to die and spend eternity in the lake of fire with the devil and his angels.
CHALLENGE: Vengeance belongs to the LORD. HE is the judge. We need to turn those who don’t love HIM over to HIM. Taking revenge in our own hands is not right according to the LORD. LET HIM DO IT!!
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DISCIPLINES OF THE FAITH:
BODY
Chastity (Purity in living)
Fasting (Time alone with LORD without eating or drinking)
Sacrifice (Giving up something we want to serve the LORD)
Submission (Willing to listen to others and LORD)
Solitude (Going to a quiet place without anyone)
SOUL
Fellowship (Gathering together around the Word of God)
Frugality (wise use of resources)
Journalizing (Writing down what you have learned from the LORD)
Study and Meditation (Thinking through your study in the Word)
Secrecy (Doing your good deeds without others knowing but God)
SPIRIT
Celebration (Gathering around a special occasion to worship LORD)
Confession (Tell the LORD we are sorry for our sins on a daily basis)
Prayer (Conversation with God on a personal level)
Silence (Letting the LORD deal with some problems and needs)
Worship (Time to praise the LORD alone or in a group)
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DOCTRINES OF THE FAITH:
Scripture (66 inerrant books of the Bible)
Law verse 12
God the Father (First person of the Godhead)
LORD – Jehovah (Covenant keeping, Personal) verse 1, 3, 5, 7, 11,
12, 14, 17, 18,
22, 23
God – Elohim (Creator, Sovereign) verse 1, 7, 22, 23
LORD God verse 1
Vengeance belongs to HIM alone verse 1
Judge of the earth verse 2
God of Jacob verse 7
Creator of ear and eye verse 9
Chasten the heathen verse 10
Teaches knowledge verse 10
Knows thought of man verse 11
Chastens man verse 12
Gives rest in days of adversity verse 13
Doesn’t cast off HIS people verse 14
Not forsake HIS inheritance verse 14
LORD is help of believers verse 17
Mercy verse 18
Comfort to believers verse 19
Defends believers verse 22
ROCK of refuge of believers verse 22
LORD our God verse 23
God the Son (Second person of the Godhead –God/man, Messiah)
God the Holy Spirit (Third person of the Godhead – our comforter)
Trinity (Three persons of the Godhead who are co-equal = ONE God)
Angels (Created before the foundation of the world – Good and Evil)
Man (Created on the sixth twenty-four hour period of creation)
Widows verse 6
Stranger verse 6
Fatherless verse 6
Brutish verse 8
Fools verse 8
Wise verse 8
Heathen verse 10
Thought are vanity verse 11
Workers of iniquity verse 16
Soul verse 17
Sin (Missing the mark set by God on man and angels)
Proud verse 2
Wicked verse 3, 13
Speak hard things verse 4
Workers of iniquity verse 4, 16
Boast verse 4
Afflict God’s heritage verse 5
Murder: widow, stranger & fatherless verse 6
Lie about God: not see verse 7
Lie: God of Jacob doesn’t regard verse 7
Brutish and fools verse 8
Not seeing and hearing the LORD verse 9
Heathen verse 10
Vanity verse 11
Evildoers verse 16
Iniquity verse 16, 23
Foot slips verse 18
Throne of iniquity verse 20
Mischief verse 20
Gather against righteous verse 21
Condemn the innocent verse 21
Wickedness verse 23
Salvation (Provided by Christ’s death on the cross for our sins)
Wise verse 8
Learn knowledge from LORD verse 10
Blessed with chastening of the LORD verse 12
Chastened verse 12
Taught by the LORD verse 12
Rest verse 13
Not be cast off verse 14
Not forsake HIS inheritance verse 14
Judgment shall return to righteousness verse 15
Upright in heart verse 15
Rise up against evildoers verse 15
Help verse 17
Mercy verse 18
LORD holds us up verse 18
Comfort delights soul verse 19
Fellowship verse 20
Righteous verse 21
Innocent blood verse 21
Defense verse 22
Refuge verse 22
Israel (Old Testament people of God)
God’s people verse 5
Heritage of the LORD verse 5
Jacob verse 7
Law verse 12
HIS people verse 14
Church (New Testament people of God)
Last Things (Future Events)
Death verse 13
Pit is digged for the wicked verse 13
Cut workers of iniquity off in their wickedness verse 23
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QUOTES regarding passage
Ver. 7. Yet they say, the Lord shall not see, &c.] The blood they shed, the murders they commit, the mischief they do, the wickedness they are guilty of, so flattering themselves with impunity; such atheism reigns at Rome, but God sees all their abominations, and he’ll let them know one day that he does behold them; see Psal. 10:10, 14 neither shall the God of Jacob regard it; the same as before; this title of the God of Jacob may be considered either as put in by the psalmist, as an argument strengthening the faith of the church of God; that being their covenant-God, he would take notice and care of them, and resent the injuries done them, and avenge them: or else as mentioned by their enemies, sneering at their confidence in God, whom they called their covenant God; that notwithstanding he would not regard or take any notice of what was done unto them, so as to appear in their behalf; all this has been said, if not openly with the mouth, yet secretly in the heart; the language of their actions has abundantly declared this gross atheism of antichrist, and his abettors, who are addressed as follows. (Gill, J. (1810). An Exposition of the Old Testament (Vol. 4, p. 104). London: Mathews and Leigh.)
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7. “Yet they say, the Lord shall not see.” This was the reason of their arrogance, and the climax of their wickedness: they were blindly wicked because they dreamed of a blind God. When men believe that the eyes of God are dim, there is no reason to wonder that they give full license to their brutal passions. The persons mentioned above not only cherished an infidel unbelief, but dared to avow it, uttering the monstrous doctrine that God is too far away to take notice of the actions of men. “Neither shall the God of Jacob regard it.” Abominable blasphemy and transparent falsehood! If God has actually become his people’s God, and proved his care for them by a thousand acts of grace, how dare the ungodly assert that he will not notice the wrongs done to them? There is no limit to the proud man’s profanity, reason itself cannot restrain him; he has broken through the bounds of common sense. Jacob’s God heard him at the brook Jabbok; Jacob’s God led him and kept him all his life long, and said concerning him and his family, “Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm;” and yet these brutish ones profess to believe that he neither sees nor regards the injuries wrought upon the elect people! Surely in such unbelievers is fulfilled the saying of the wise, that those whom the Lord means to destroy he leaves to the madness of their corrupt hearts.
8 Understand, ye brutish among the people: and ye fools, when will ye be wise?
9 He that planted the ear, shall he not hear? he that formed the eye, shall he not see?
10 He that chastiseth the heathen, shall not he correct? he that teacheth man knowledge, shall not he know?
11 The Lord knoweth the thoughts of man, that they are vanity. (Spurgeon, C. H. (n.d.). The treasury of David: Psalms 88-110 (Vol. 4, pp. 143–144). London; Edinburgh; New York: Marshall Brothers.)
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94:4–7. Boastful brutality
These tyrants are not necessarily foreign; they may equally be home-born, like the apostate king Manasseh or the cynics of Isaiah 5:18ff. The taunt of verse 7 has always been plausible in the short run; what escapes the scoffer is the damning display he makes of himself when he fancies he can do as he likes. This is indeed part of God’s purpose in keeping silent: cf. Psalm 50:21. Meanwhile the wording of this lament contains the seed of its own answer in the expressions thy people and thy heritage (5), which will come to flower in verse 14, where they reappear with their implications now unfolded.
The two verses just mentioned, verses 5 and 14, can add both depth and height to the familiar prayer of Psalm 28:9 for God’s church, quoted in the Te Deum and elsewhere in the Book of Common Prayer. (Kidner, D. (1975). Psalms 73–150: An Introduction and Commentary (Vol. 16, p. 373). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.)
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94:4–7. To justify his request, the psalmist lamented the oppression that the proud insolently inflict on the righteous. The speech of the wicked is arrogant. They oppress God’s people, His inheritance (cf. v. 14 and comments on 28:9; Deut. 4:20). The wicked destroy the needy and oppressed (the very ones righteous leaders must help; cf. Ps. 72:4, 12–14). The wicked do all this because they are convinced that the Lord … pays no attention to them (cf. 73:11). (Ross, A. P. (1985). Psalms. In J. F. Walvoord & R. B. Zuck (Eds.), The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Vol. 1, p. 862). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.)
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Praying to the Lord for Justice (vv. 1–7)
God’s requirement for His people is that they “do justly … love mercy, and … walk humbly with [their] God” (Mic. 6:8), for the Lord loves justice (33:5; 37:28) and hears the prayers of those who have been treated unjustly (Ex. 22:26–27; Deut. 24:14–15; James 5:1–4). The word “vengeance” is often misinterpreted to mean “revenge” or “being vindictive,” as though God were having a temper tantrum, but “to avenge” means to uphold the law and give justice to those who have been wronged. Since the Lord is omniscient, He is able to judge motives as well as actions and deal with situations and people justly (Lev. 19:18; Deut. 32:35, 41; Rom. 12:17–21; Heb. 10:30–31). He is the Judge of all the earth (58:11; 82:8) and always does what is right (Gen. 18:25). “Shine forth,” means “show yourself, reveal your power and glory” (50:2; 80:1; Deut. 33:2; Hab. 3:1–5).
We want the Lord to act immediately (v. 3; see 6:3), but He is gracious and longsuffering (Ex. 34:6–7) and we must walk by faith (Luke 18:1–8). The proud and arrogant “belch out” evil words and commit evil deeds (10:2–11), and the godly can do nothing to stop them. Orphans, widows, and aliens in the land were under the special care of the Lord (68:5–6; 146:9; Ex. 22:20–24; Deut. 10:18–19; 14:28–29; 24:17–18; 26:12–13; 27:19; Isa. 1:17; 7:6; 22:3). The helpless are God’s covenant people and He is Jehovah—the Lord—a name used nine times in the psalm (vv. 1, 3, 5, 11, 14, 17, 18, 22, 23). The wicked convince themselves that God does not see their evil deeds (v. 7; 10:11; 59:7), but He does! (Wiersbe, W. W. (2004). Be exultant (1st ed., p. 24). Colorado Springs, CO: Cook Communications Ministries.)
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FROM MY READING:
(Remember the only author that I totally agree with is the HOLY SPIRIT in the inerrant WORD OF GOD called THE BIBLE! All other I try to gleam what I can to help me grow in the LORD!!)
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REGENERATION
…that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. John 3:6
What is regeneration? It is the implanting of a principle of new spiritual life and a radical change in the governing disposition of the soul. The important thing to grasp is the whole idea of disposition. In addition to the faculties of our souls, there is something at the back of them that governs them all, and that is what we refer to as our disposition. Take two men. They have the same faculties, but one lives a good life, one lives a bad life. What makes the difference? The answer is that the good man has a good disposition, and this good disposition, this thing that is behind the faculties and governs them and uses them, urges him to use his faculties in the direction of goodness. The other man has an evil disposition; so he urges the same faculties in an entirely different direction. That is what one means by disposition.
When you come to think of it, and when you analyze yourself, your life and your whole conduct and behavior and that of other people, you will see at once that these dispositions are, of course, of tremendous importance. They are the condition, if you like, that determines what we do and what we are.
There is in every person a disposition that seems to determine the kind of person he or she is. It is this that directs the faculties and the abilities so that one person is artistic and the other scientific and so on. I am making this point to show that what happens in regeneration is that God so operates upon us in the Holy Spirit that this fundamental disposition of ours is changed. He puts a holy principle, a seed of new spiritual life, into this disposition that determines what I am and how I behave and how I use and employ my faculties.
A Thought to Ponder
Regeneration is a radical change in the governing disposition of the soul.
(From God the Holy Spirit, p. 79, by Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones)
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Abraham’s Separation Test
“Wherefore she said unto Abraham, Cast out this bondwoman and her son: for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac. And the thing was very grievous in Abraham’s sight because of his son.” (Genesis 21:10-11)
After Isaac had been weaned, Sarah noticed Ishmael mocking her and Isaac (Genesis 21:9). During the years since Hagar had given birth to Ishmael (at the insistence of Sarah), Abraham had grown to love Ishmael and had no doubt treated him and Hagar with respect. Now this sudden banishment was demanded under terms that were both harsh and apparently arbitrary.
Nonetheless, God approved because Hagar and Ishmael had become the specific illustration of a distinction between the “flesh” and the “heir” (Genesis 21:12). Although God would take care of Ishmael for Abraham’s sake, Abraham must separate himself and his family from that which would never become part of the Messianic line (Galatians 4:23-31).
The contrast of the two sons is a major teaching in Scripture. Galatians 3:16-29 provides most of the main biblical information. The promise was made to “the seed” (as singular) and the focus is on Christ, not Isaac. All people are under sin and are given the promise by faith. When we believe, we become children of God, in vivid contrast to the “son of the bondwoman.”
That faith is outside of physical relationships, and we become heirs according to the promise. That sacred relationship has been verified by God Himself (Hebrews 6:17-20), making us nothing less than joint-heirs with Jesus Christ (Romans 8:17-21). Thus, all who are heirs can never be connected to the “bondwoman” (Galatians 4:30-31).
(HMM III, The Institute for Creation Research)
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| Carl was battling cancer and needed a double lung transplant. He asked God for new lungs but felt odd doing so. He confessed it’s a strange thing to pray, because “someone has to die so I might live.” Carl’s dilemma highlights a basic truth of Scripture: God uses death to bring life. We see this in the story of the exodus. Born into slavery, the Israelites languished under the oppressive hands of the Egyptians. Pharaoh wouldn’t release his grip until God made it personal. Every eldest son would die unless the family killed a spotless lamb and slathered its blood across their doorposts (Exodus 12:6–7, 12–13). Today, you and I have been born into the bondage of sin. Satan wouldn’t release his grip on us until God made it personal, sacrificing His perfect Son on the blood-spattered arms of the cross. Jesus calls us to join Him there. Paul explained, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me” (Galatians 2:20). When we put our faith in God’s spotless Lamb, we commit to daily dying with Him—dying to our sin so we might rise with Him to new life (Romans 6:4–5). We express this faith every time we say no to the shackles of sin and yes to the freedom of Christ. We’re never more alive than when we die with Jesus. By Mike Wittmer ( Our Daily Bread) _______________________________________________________________________ |
Tired of endless disputes, Christians today embrace the idea that what really matters is right relationships, not right doctrine. The idea that one is more important than the other is a faulty premise; both right relationships and right doctrine matter. (p. 47)
The Word of God can be in the mind without being in the heart; but it cannot be in the heart without first being in the mind. This point is crucial to answer the question, What can I do to get the divine and supernatural light into my heart? (p. 63)
We cannot reasonably expect the Spirit to give us the excellent sense of the Scripture in our hearts if we are unwilling to work to get it in our minds. A cavalier approach to Scripture will not do. This only “devotional” reading of God’s Word that pleases him is a devout study of his Word. (p. 64) (R. C. Sproul, The Soul’s Quest for God)
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Jeremiah 31 God establishes a covenant with the children of Israel to write His Law on their hearts.
INSIGHT The primary theme of nearly all the Prophetic Books is warning of judgment for sin. The prophets proclaim the Word of God as their basic ministry, but from time to time, the Lord reveals to them a specific message for the children of Israel. If they do not turn from their sin, a specific judgment will follow. It is comforting to see, however, that in nearly all instances the judgment is to be followed by restoration. God’s judgment on His children is not for retaliation but to get His children to turn from their sin to Him.
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THE ATTRIBUTES OF GOD
Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. Psalm 90:2
We will now consider some of the attributes of God. And by attributes, I mean some of the perfections of God, or to put it another way, some of the virtues of God. Peter says in his first epistle, “…that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” (2:9). That is it. The Christian is meant to show forth the attributes of God–the perfections, the excellencies of God.
Here is another definition of God’s attributes: They are the things about God, certain aspects of His great and glorious eternal nature, that He has been pleased to reveal to us, and that, in a measure, we can lay hold of. All sorts of classifications have been suggested. Some have said that the division should be into the natural attributes of God and the moral attributes of God–that is, into attributes that belong to God in and of Himself and those that have a kind of moral implication. Well, it does not matter very much what we may call them. I would suggest some classification like this: first, the attributes of absolute personality that belong to God, and second, the moral attributes of God.
God is a personality in an absolute sense. Now, what are the attributes that belong to His personality? They are, of course, expressive of His eternal being, and the first one, therefore, that we have to note is the eternity of God, and with it the immutability of God. God is without beginning and without ending; He is everlasting. You will find a great statement of that in Psalm 90: “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God” (verse 2). You will find it in the same way in Psalm 102. His eternity is something that we just assert and at which we wonder.
A Thought to Ponder: The Christian is meant to show forth the attributes of God–the perfections, the excellencies of God. (From God the Father, God the Son, pp. 59-60)
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Things to Flee
“Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.” (2 Timothy 2:22)
There are times to stand and there are times to flee. There are some things so fearful and deadly that it is foolish to try to face them at all. The only rational course, when confronted by them, is to flee!
The most obvious of all such enemies is the wrath of God, for His judgment is terrible and eternal. Therefore, His message to all unsaved men and women is to “flee from the wrath to come” (Matthew 3:7—the first occurrence of “flee” in the New Testament) by receiving Christ as Savior.
It is wise to refrain from all kinds of sin, but certain sins have such deadly consequences, even in this present life, that the Scriptures warn us to flee from them. “But thou, O man of God, flee these things” (1 Timothy 6:11). In context, the apostle Paul is here warning against “the love of money” (v. 10) and those who suppose “that gain is godliness” (v. 5). Those who desire to be rich, he says, “fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition” (v. 9). Therefore, flee from this temptation!
He also warns us to “flee from idolatry” (1 Corinthians 10:14)—that is, from worshipping and serving any part of the creation “more than the Creator” (Romans 1:25). This warning is especially appropriate today when there is such a wide resurgence of evolutionary pantheism.
Also, we must “flee fornication” (1 Corinthians 6:18). This is a deadly danger to the Christian in this day of amorality. Finally, as our text says, young believers (and old believers need this admonition, too!) should “flee also youthful lusts,” if we are to be able to “call on the Lord out of a pure heart.” (HMM, The Institute for Creation Research)
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Getting ‘Unhitched’ from the Old Testament? Andy Stanley Aims at Heresy August 10, 2018
Eventually, we learn to take an individual at his word. Andy Stanley is a master communicator, and he communicates very well and very often. His preaching and teaching often bring controversy, and he quite regularly makes arguments that subvert the authority of Scripture and cast doubt upon biblical Christianity. He returns regularly to certain themes and arguments — so regularly that we certainly get the point. He evidently wants us to understand that he means what he says.
Earlier this year, Stanley brought controversy when he argued in a sermon that the Christian faith must be “unhitched” from the Old Testament. He claimed that “Peter, James, Paul elected to unhitch the Christian faith from their Jewish scriptures, and my friends, we must as well.”
Later, explaining his statement, Stanley told Relevant magazine, “Well, I never suggested we ‘unhitch’ from a passage of Scripture or a specific biblical imperative . . . . Again, I was preaching through Acts 15 where Peter, James, and Paul recommended the first-century church unhitch (my word, I’m open to an alternative) the law of Moses from the Gospel being preached to the Gentiles in Antioch.”
Indeed, in the sermon Stanley did not argue that any specific Old Testament command should be nullified. Instead, he went even further and told his listeners that the Old Testament should not be seen as “the go-to source regarding any behavior in the church.” In his view, the first century leadership of the church “unhitched the church from the worldview, value system, and regulations of the Jewish Scriptures.”
Again, controversy rightly erupted after those comments, spoken earlier this year. But in recent days Andy Stanley has returned to the same theme, this time in a conversation with Jonathan Merritt on his podcast, Seekers and Speakers.
In this conversation, Stanley speaks of outgrowing a childhood belief about the Bible and coming to understand what he presents as a far more complex reality. How complex? Well, Stanley argues that we must know that biblical references to the Scripture “did not mean the Bible.”
Note his words carefully: “This is something I’m trying desperately to help people understand and every time I try to explain it I get misunderstood so here I go again. There was no “The Bible” until the fourth century. When we think about the Bible we think about a book that contains the Jewish Scripture and the Christian writings and such a thing did not exist until after Christianity became legal and scholars could come out of the shadows and actually put such a thing together.”
There is more: “So the early church no one ever said in the early church, ‘the Bible says, the Bible teaches, the Bible says the Bible teaches,’ because there was no ‘The Bible.’ But the point of your question, there was Scripture but every time we see the phrase ‘the Scripture’ or ‘Scripture’ in the New Testament, as you know we have to stop and ask the question, what was this particular group of people referring to because there was no ‘The Bible’ and there was no book that contained all the Jewish Scripture because it was contained in synagogues and as you know virtually no one could read and write.”
Well, wait just a minute. It is true that Jesus and the Apostles did not have the Old Testament and the New Testament bound together in a book (codex) form. It is, of course, also plainly true that the New Testament did not exist until it was given, book by book, by the Holy Spirit to the church in the first century. But it is not true that references to “the Scriptures” or “the Scripture” by Jesus and the Apostles are any mystery to us. They are plainly referring to what we know as the Old Testament. There are references to “Moses and the Prophets” (Luke 16:29) and to the “Law and the Prophets”(Luke 16:16), but faithful Jews in the first century would emphatically have known exactly what the Scriptures are.
As a matter of fact, Mark Hamilton has documented the fact that the Greek phrase, ta biblia, “the books” was “an expression Hellenistic Jews used to describe their sacred books several centuries before the time of Jesus.”
The fact that the Old Testament Scriptures were at the time in scroll form in synagogues rather than book form is plain, but the fact is that the Jewish authorities made their arguments on the basis of appeal to the Scriptures, and so did Jesus and the Apostles. Both Jesus and the Apostles did make their arguments “according to the Scriptures” (see, for example, Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:3-4).
Consider Jesus preaching in the synagogue in Nazareth:
“And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captive and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, ‘Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’” (Luke 4:17-21)
Jesus was powerfully arguing “the Bible says” in a way that his hearers in the synagogue clearly understood, and that pattern is found throughout the New Testament. Geerhardus Vos underlines this fact when he states, with reference to the Kingdom of God: “The first thing to be noticed in Jesus’ utterances on our theme is that they clearly presuppose a consciousness on his part of standing with his work on the basis of the revelation of God in the Old Testament.” In John 5:46-47 Jesus rebuked those who did not believe in him with these words: “If you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?”
Similarly, the Apostles made their arguments for the gospel of Christ with reference to the Old Testament and its testimony to Christ and the saving purpose of God. At no point in the New Testament is the Old Testament dismissed. Rather, as Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount:
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”(Matthew 5:17-19)
The pattern is promise and fulfillment, not rejection and repudiation. This is true even in the case of Acts 15, with the apostles citing the authority of Amos 9:11-12 and even citing the binding authority of Genesis 9:4 on the Gentile believers. Again, the pattern is promise and fulfillment. Andy Stanley argues that the Old Testament should not be cited as “the go-to source regarding any behavior in the church,” but the moral law of the Old Testament remains honored by the church and repeated (even intensified) in the New Testament.
Peter, James, and Paul did not “unhitch the Christian faith from their Jewish Scriptures,” nor can we.
We are looking here at the ancient heresy of Marcion, who argued that the Old Testament must be repudiated by the church. Marcion, who lived about the years 85-160, taught that the Old Testament revealed a Creator deity who is not even the same God who sent Jesus. Unsurprisingly, he also held to a heretical Christology. The Old Testament deity was repugnant to Marcion, who argued that Christianity just make a clean break from Judaism. The Old Testament, he taught, reveals a vindictive law-giving creator deity who bears no resemblance to the merciful redeeming God revealed in Jesus Christ. As Irenaeus, one of the most significant church fathers argued, “Marcion himself divides God in two, saying that one is good, the other judicial, and in so doing takes God away from both.”
Marcion was embarrassed by the Old Testament, and so are many modern people. Andy Stanley, at the very least, seems to fear that embarrassment in others, even if he does not identify with it himself.
He spoke this way with Jonathan Merritt: “I’m convinced that we make a better case for Jesus if we leave the Old Testament or the old covenant out of the argument.” We can make a better case for Jesus than the case Jesus made for himself?
But the embarrassment comes through clearly in Andy Stanley’s comments in the interview. He spoke of people who have “lost their faith” because they read the Old Testament, and then said this:
“It’s the same God. But he was doing two different things. All that differentiating between those things is so important. Again, in this sermon, I said, ‘Hey, it’s time that we face the facts and unhitch our faith and our practice from some of these Old Testament values that we can appreciate in their original context, but we really don’t have any business dragging them into a modern context.’”
To be clear, Andy Stanley does not endorse the full heresy of Marcionism, which was universally condemned by the early church. He actually appears to aim for the heresy of Marcionism, and his hearers are certainly aimed in that direction. He clearly says that God is the same God in both testaments, but says that he reveals himself in two completely different ways. Just like Marcion, he argues that the church must “unhitch” from the Old Testament. He actually says: “I am convinced for the sake of this generation and the next generation, we have to rethink our apologetic as Christians, and the less we depend on the Old Testament to prop up our New Testament faith the better because of where we are in [the] culture.”
The church cannot “unhitch” from the Old Testament without unhitching from the gospel Jesus preached. Speaking of the Old Testament Scriptures, Jesus said “it is they that bear witness about me.” (John 5:39)
Alarmingly, in the podcast Stanley questions whether Jesus actually meant his own references to Old Testament narratives to be taken as historical. He said: “Then a person has to decide, okay, well actually Jesus references the Garden of Eden, or he references in the beginning when God created the first two people, he references Jonah. Then you have to decide when the Son of God references these people and these incidences and these prophets, what did he mean? I am comfortable, not everybody is, but I am comfortable letting the conversation go from there.”
It is very instructive to remember that the most influential theological liberal of the twentieth century, Adolf von Harnack, chose Marcion as his theological hero. Why? Because, like Marcion, he wanted to reduChristianity to what he claimed to be its essence, the benevolent fatherhood of God. All the doctrines of orthodox Christianity, including the doctrines concerning the divinity of Christ, were dismissed as either Jewish or Greco-Roman encrustations.
[By the way, I am sure that Andy Stanley means no anti-Semitism in referring to the Old Testament as the “Jewish Scriptures, but this use does have the implied effect of identifying these Scriptures only with the Jewish people, and not with Christianity. But the Christian identification of the Old Testament as the “Jewish Scriptures” has a dangerous pedigree. In any regard, Adolf von Harnack must also be remembered as seeking to champion Marcion within German Protestantism just as anti-Semitism was rising once again with deadly power in Germany. As Alister McGrath notes, “Sadly, Marcionism is a heresy that seems to be revived with every resurgence of anti-Semitism.”]The issues actually reach deeper. In recent years, Andy Stanley has encouraged getting over “the Bible tells me so.” He actually claimed in 2016 that the church veered into “trouble” when it began to make its arguments on the basis of the Bible. He cited “deconversion” stories in which people told him that they lost their Christian faith when they lost confidence in the Bible. He said: “If the Bible is the foundation of your faith, here’s the problem: it’s all or nothing. Christianity becomes a fragile house of cards religion.”
In the podcast interview, he gives us another glimpse of what he means:
“Now, for you and me, it is much easier for us to embrace all of those things as historical primarily because of how we were raised, but I totally get when a 25-year-old or a 35-year-old comes to faith in Jesus and then starts reading the Old Testament. They’re kind of looking like, ‘Really?’ Well, you know, that’s difficult, but that doesn’t undermine my faith, and I would never press somebody to say, ‘Well if you can’t accept all of it as historically true, then you can’t really be a Christian.’ I think that’s a little bit absurd.”
But another key question is whether one can be a faithful Christian while denying the truthfulness of Scripture. Jesus himself makes the point that without the Old Testament as the Word of God, we really do not know who he is. Then what does it mean to be a Christian?
As we sing, Jesus Christ is the church’s one foundation, but we cannot know him apart from the Bible.
In this latest interview, Andy Stanley also suggests that “Christianity ultimately and eventually created the Bible.” That is consistent with Roman Catholic theology, but not with evangelical Christianity. In the interview Stanley affirmed again that affirmation of the virgin birth is not necessary. He had earlier stated, “If someone can predict their own death and resurrection, I’m not all that concerned about how they got into the world.”
But the New Testament is very concerned about how Jesus got into the world, and if he was not conceived by the Holy Spirit, then he was conceived in some other way. Here we need to remember that the etymology of heresy is rooted in choice. A heretic denies a belief central and essential to Christianity. But heresy also takes the form of choice. You can choose to believe in the virgin birth or not, Stanley argues; he is not all that concerned about it.
Several years ago, I argued that Andy Stanley represents a new face of theological liberalism. In our day, he is playing the role that was played by Harry Emerson Fosdick in the early twentieth century. Stanley may not intend to play that role — he sees himself as an apologist.
So did Fosdick. He sought to rescue Christianity from itself, from its doctrines and truth claims. He cited his own “deconversion” stories as justification for remaking Christianity.
He also sought to “unhitch” Christianity from the Old Testament. In his famous 1923-1924 Beecher Lectures on Preaching at Yale, Fosdick called for a new, modern understanding of the Bible. This would require jettisoning what were for him and many others the embarrassing parts of the Old Testament. He described the effort to retain much of the Old Testament as “intellectually ruinous and morally debilitating.” To the young preachers of that day, Fosdick argued: “The Old Testament exhibits many attitudes indulged in by men and ascribed to God which represent early stages in a great development, and it is alike intellectually ruinous and morally debilitating to endeavor to harmonize those early ideals with the revelations of the great prophets and the Gospels.” Here we go again.
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Harry Emerson Fosdick, The Modern Use of the Bible (New York: Macmillan, 1924), p. 27. Alister McGrath, Heresy: A History of Defending the Truth (New York: HarperCollins, 2009), p. 131.
Irenaeus quote from Judith M. Lieu, Marcion and the Making of a Heretic: God and Scripture in the Second Century (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015), pp. 36-37.
Mark Hamilton, “From Hebrew Bible to Christian Bible: Jews, Christians, and the Word of God,” (PBS FrontLine, April 1998). http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/first/scriptures.html
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