Psalms 119:21-24 ESV
“You rebuke the insolent, accursed ones,
who wander from your commandments.
Take away from me scorn and contempt,
for I have kept your testimonies.
Even though princes sit plotting against me,
your servant will meditate on your statutes.
Your testimonies are my delight;
they are my counselors.”
The Insolent
Who are the insolent? They are those who do not show due
respect for other people. They are also the brazen, the shameless who show
scorn for others, marked by contemptuous disregard of others. They are
evildoers, meanies, abusers, users, manipulators, liars and cheats. Their flesh
is their god whom they worship and give all their love and adoration to. For
they live for self-pleasure and self-gratification regardless of who they hurt
in the process.
And there are a good number of them who profess faith in
Jesus Christ, from what I can ascertain, especially since porn addiction
statistics often have about 75% of Christian men viewing porn and about 35% of
pastors, and smaller percentages of females doing the same, but a large number
of children, especially boys, are now engaged in porn viewing. And Christian
sites helping people overcome porn addiction show how huge this is.
So, any Christians who somewhat regularly view porn, or who
keep going back to it, or who express their sexual addictions and immorality in
other perversions of what God intended to be wholesome, they are being insolent
toward God and toward their spouses and children, because they are totally
disregarding what their actions do to those closest to them, and they show
contempt for our Lord and for his commands and disciplines, too.
And they are separating themselves from the Lord and from
what he has provided for us in the way of restrictions and disciplines, which
are for our own good, for they want their sin more than anything else. They
want their sin more than their marriages and more than they want a relationship
with Jesus Christ. For they are addicted to sin, and especially relating to
sexual sin, the sin has become their god which they worship instead of God.
Now, this is not confined to the area of sexual sin, but
that is a huge problem among Christians today which is destroying the lives of
the addicted and which is destroying marriages and families, and which has a
stronghold on many people’s lives today. They end up putting aside all sense of
reason in order to feed their addictions and many innocent people end up being hurt
and/or destroyed because of it. And many addicted have no conscience.
Not Facing Reality
The insolent, in order to avoid confrontation or having to
deal with their heart issues, for truly this is a heart matter, they will make
up all kinds of excuses for why they are not living in freedom and for why they
continue in their pet sins. One of the ones I have heard from people is “I didn’t
know” when they did know, and they have known for a long time. They are not
lacking in knowledge. They are lacking in surrender to Jesus Christ.
They will also make cutting and hurtful remarks to their
spouses or to those closest to them who know what is going on in order to
silence them. They may make these remarks to the faces of the intended
recipients or they may badmouth them to others behind their backs so that
others will not like them but so they will like the addict, instead. But the
cutting remarks are usually in order to avoid having to deal with their sinful
addictive behaviors.
So, oftentimes those who love and care about the addicted,
and who want to see them be free from addiction and for them to be faithful
spouses and loving parents end up on the receiving end of abusive behaviors
directed against them coming from the addicted who truly do not want to be
free. And if this is in a church setting where sin is permeating the church,
and you speak to this issue, you may have people want to silence you.
For the popular gospel message today here in America does
not put sin to death in the sinners but it caters to them and it entertains
them and it coddles them in their sins and makes room for them to continue
living in sin guilt free. So, if you are one who loves the Lord and his
commands and who teaches the true gospel and who exposes the lies, don’t be
surprised if you have some people who may plot evil against you to silence you.
But no matter what Satan throws at us, God is still
sovereign, and nothing can touch us unless God allows it for a purpose, and our
Lord will carry us through every difficult situation. So we need to rest in the
Lord and trust him to work all things for our good, and just keep obeying his
word and seeking his counsel and doing what he says to do. For following Jesus
Christ means sharing in the fellowship of his sufferings, becoming like him in
death. And so we have to trust the Lord with our circumstances.
[Matt 5:10-16; Matt 10:16-25;
Matt 24:9-14; Matt 28:18-20; Lu 6:22-23; Lu 21:12-19;
John 15:1-21; Jn 16:33; Acts 1:8; Acts 14:22; Acts 26:18; Rom 5:3-5; Rom 12:1-8; 1 Co 12:1-31; 2 Co 1:3-11; Eph
4:1-16; Eph 5:17-27; Phil 3:7-11; Col 3:16; 1 Thess 3:1-5; Jas 1:2-4; Heb 3:13;
Heb 12:3-12; 1 Pet 1:6-7; 1 Pet 2:9; 1 Pet 4:12-17]
Oh,
to Be Like Thee, Blessed Redeemer
Lyrics
by Thomas O. Chisholm, 1897
Music
by W. J. Kirkpatrick, 1897
Oh, to be like Thee! blessèd Redeemer,
This is my constant longing and prayer;
Gladly I’ll forfeit all of earth’s
treasures,
Jesus, Thy perfect likeness to wear.
Oh, to be like Thee! full of
compassion,
Loving, forgiving, tender and kind,
Helping the helpless, cheering the
fainting,
Seeking the wandering sinner to find.
O to be like Thee! lowly in spirit,
Holy and harmless, patient and brave;
Meekly enduring cruel reproaches,
Willing to suffer others to save.
O to be like Thee! while I am pleading,
Pour out Thy Spirit, fill with Thy
love;
Make me a temple meet for Thy dwelling,
Fit me for life and Heaven above.
Oh, to be like Thee! Oh, to be like Thee,
Blessèd Redeemer, pure as Thou art;
Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy
fullness;
Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrYhiK2nQBg
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