Psalm 94:1-7 ESV
O Lord, God of
vengeance,
O God of vengeance, shine forth!
Rise up, O judge of
the earth;
repay to the proud what they deserve!
O Lord, how long shall
the wicked,
how long shall the wicked exult?
They pour out their
arrogant words;
all the evildoers boast.
They crush your
people, O Lord,
and afflict your heritage.
They kill the widow
and the sojourner,
and murder the fatherless;
and they say, “The
Lord does not see;
the God of Jacob does not perceive.”
Among the proud and the wicked today are those who are
destroying the gospel of our salvation so that the sinner does not repent of
his sin, and so he does not follow our Lord Jesus Christ in righteousness and
in obedience. And, the author of this act of treason against our Lord and against
his gospel message is Satan, our enemy.
Thus, they have cut short (condensed) the gospel message in
order to make it more acceptable and appealing to the flesh of mankind. But,
this is a lie, and its purpose is to deceive naïve and gullible minds, many of
whom want to have their itching ears tickled, because they want to remain in
their sins while believing that heaven is guaranteed them.
In altering the gospel message, thus, they have relaxed
God’s boundary lines for us, and they have diluted and/or altered his promises
to us, too. For, what they teach is that we can be saved from our sins and have
heaven guaranteed us when we die, and this by a mere profession of faith in
Jesus Christ at one point in their lives – done deal! And, according to most,
it doesn’t matter how much they sin from that point forward, for it is all
covered by God’s grace.
But these lying promises, which are not from God, are
superseding God’s true grace to us. Yet, they are calming and soothing
themselves in God’s grace, but it is a false grace, a cheap grace, not the true
grace of God. For, they just scratch the surface of God’s grace, but what they
teach is an add-on to his grace, which is a lie, and which is Spiritless, i.e.
void of the Spirit of God. Thus, it will collapse, because it is not of God,
but of man.
Psalm 94:8-11 ESV
Understand, O dullest
of the people!
Fools, when will you be wise?
He who planted the
ear, does he not hear?
He who formed the eye,
does he not see?
He who disciplines the
nations, does he not rebuke?
He who teaches man
knowledge—
the Lord—knows the thoughts of man,
that they are but a breath.
Those who have bought into this cheap grace gospel, thus,
are dull of mind, Spiritless, and foolish in their thinking and reasoning. For,
they want to believe that God, who is fully righteous and pure, is really okay
with them continuing on in their sinful practices while ignoring his
commandments.
They want to believe that God’s grace covers all their sins
in the sense that God no longer sees when they keep on sinning, and that sin no
longer matters to him. They want to believe that a righteous and holy God loved
them enough to die for them on a cross in order to save them from their sins,
but that once they “believe” in him, sin no longer matters to him.
So, God wants to remind the people of this world that he is
still God. He is still on his throne. He is still all powerful, and completely
faithful to everything that he said he would do. And, he is still fully
righteous, holy, pure and just, and he will keep his promises. He will judge
the people of this world, and those who profess faith in him, with his
righteousness.
For, the gospel of our salvation is not cheap. It cost Jesus
his life in order to deliver us out of our slavery to sin. And, it requires
that we die with Christ to sin and that we live with him to his righteousness
if we want to be saved from our sins and have eternal life with God. For, it
says that if we walk according to our flesh, we will die in our sins. But, if
we walk (in lifestyle) according to the Spirit, then we have eternal life with
God (Rom. 8:1-17).
Psalm 94:12-15 ESV
Blessed is the man
whom you discipline, O Lord,
and whom you teach out of your law,
to give him rest from
days of trouble,
until a pit is dug for the wicked.
For the Lord will not
forsake his people;
he will not abandon his heritage;
for justice will
return to the righteous,
and all the upright in heart will follow
it.
For, you see, the purpose of our salvation is not just so we
can escape hell and so we can go to heaven when we die. The purpose of our
salvation from sin is to deliver us out of our bondage (addiction) to sin, and
to free us to now become slaves of God and of his righteousness (Rom. 6:1-23).
For, Jesus died that we might die with him to sin and live
with him to his righteousness. He died that we might no longer live for
ourselves but for him who gave his life up for us. He who knew no sin became
sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God. And, when he died on
that cross he bought us back for God with his blood so that we are now God’s
possession, and so we now honor God with our lives (1 Co. 6:20; 2 Co. 5:15,
21).
So, the Lord disciplines those he loves that we may share in
his holiness. He corrects, rebukes and chastises us so that we stay on the straight
path, and so we don’t wander off onto a crooked path. He sets boundaries for us
which say “No!” to ungodliness and worldly passions (fleshly lusts), and which
instruct us to live godly, holy, upright and self-controlled lives while we
wait for his soon return (Tit. 2:11-14; Heb. 12:1-11; Eph. 4:17-24).
Psalm 94:16-23 ESV
Who rises up for me
against the wicked?
Who stands up for me against evildoers?
If the Lord had not
been my help,
my soul would soon have lived in the land
of silence.
When I thought, “My
foot slips,”
your steadfast love, O Lord, held me up.
When the cares of my
heart are many,
your consolations cheer my soul.
Can wicked rulers be
allied with you,
those who frame injustice by statute?
They band together
against the life of the righteous
and condemn the innocent to death.
But the Lord has
become my stronghold,
and my God the rock of my refuge.
He will bring back on
them their iniquity
and wipe them out for their wickedness;
the Lord our God will wipe them out.
When we are faced with temptation to sin, the Lord is there
to help us to not sin. He will lead us and guide us in the way that we should
go. He will strengthen and help us and empower us to resist Satan, and to flee
temptation, and to draw near to God with full assurance of faith. For, he
already conquered sin, Satan and death for us, on our behalf. We just have to
take up that armor of God each day and surrender our lives to the Lord.
Also, when we are faced with persecution, rejection, abuse,
false accusations, and the like, for righteousness’ sake, because we are
walking according to the Spirit, and we are separate from the world, and
because we are sharing the true gospel of our salvation, we are not to be
afraid. God is with us, he is for us, and he will carry us through.
He will give us everything we need to conquer our foe, to be
strong and courageous, and to continue to do his will and to walk in his ways
and in his truth. He will cheer our hearts. He will encourage our spirits. We
will know his love and his kindness towards us in unique ways in which we know
without a doubt that he is both with us and for us, and that whatever we are
going through, it serves a purpose, even if we don’t yet see that purpose.
And, one day our Lord is going to return for us, his people.
And, he will take us to be with him forever. And, he will judge all who
practice evil. And, our crying and our suffering will be no more. But, in the
meanwhile, we trust him with our lives and with our circumstances, and we
believe he is sovereign over our lives and that he has a purpose for it all.
So, we submit to his purposes, and we rest in his love, and we trust in his
grace.
Bow the Knee
Noblesse
Bow the knee; trust the heart of your Father
when the answer goes beyond what you can see.
Bow the knee; lift your eyes toward heaven
and believe the One who holds eternity.
And when you don't understand
the purpose of His plan,
In the presence of the King, bow the knee.
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