God is With the Righteous

Psalms 14:1-3 ESV

 

“The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’

    They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds;

    there is none who does good.

 

The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man,

    to see if there are any who understand,

    who seek after God.

 

They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt;

    there is none who does good,

    not even one.”

 

Now, this is speaking of our sinful condition outside of a genuine walk of faith in Jesus Christ, our Lord (see Romans 3:10-18). Not one of us does good, for we are all born into this world with sin natures, in the image (likeness) of Adam, the first man to sin against God (Rom 3:9-26; Rom 5:12-19; 1 Co 15:21-22,42-49). So we all come up short, in our own flesh, of attaining God’s divine approval and his righteousness (Romans 3:23).

 

And there is nothing we can do in and of ourselves to be approved by God or to be good enough or to earn or deserve our own salvation. We can’t even come to faith in Jesus Christ unless God the Father first draws us to Christ (John 6:44), i.e. unless he first convinces us of his righteousness and holiness, and of our absolute sinfulness, and of our need to repent of (turn away from) our lives of sin to follow Jesus Christ in obedience.

 

And we can’t even muster up our own faith in Christ, either, for Jesus Christ is the author and the perfecter of our faith, and so our faith comes from God, and it is gifted to us by God, and it is not of our own doing (Hebrews 12:1-2; Ephesians 2:8-10). So we don’t even get to define what that faith looks like, either. God and his Word teach us what it means to have genuine faith in Jesus Christ, which saves, as opposed to worldly confessions of him as Lord, which are giving lip service only (1 John 2:3-6; 1 Peter 2:24).

 

Psalms 14:4-6 ESV

 

“Have they no knowledge, all the evildoers

    who eat up my people as they eat bread

    and do not call upon the Lord?

 

There they are in great terror,

    for God is with the generation of the righteous.

You would shame the plans of the poor,

    but the Lord is his refuge.”

 

Now here we have the evidence that our Lord is speaking of those (in the previous section) who are without faith, for many are those who are evildoers who eat up his people (not literally), and who do not call upon the Lord. For they are those who consume, destroy, and devour God’s people with little to no regret or remorse, and with much greediness and delight. For they steal from them, reduce them to poverty, plunder and defile them, and they persecute and murder them, too.

 

But let me stop and talk about who God’s people are today. We are all who have trusted in Jesus Christ to be Lord and Savior of our lives. We have been crucified with Christ in death to sin, and we have been raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. We are those who are walking (in conduct, in practice) according to the Spirit and no longer according to the flesh. Sin is not our practice, but righteousness and obedience to Christ are our practice.

 

And now let me say this, too. Not everyone who professes faith in Jesus Christ is in the category of being God’s people nor are they all considered to be the righteous. For making a profession of faith in Jesus Christ, if not accompanied by true repentance (dying with Christ to sin) and by walks of obedience to God in righteous living, is giving lip service only to God. For Jesus said that not everyone who says to him, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven but only the one DOING the will of God the Father.

 

So, people can profess faith in Jesus Christ and be convinced that all their sins are forgiven and that heaven is their eternal home, and that they are now part of the family of God, but they can still be the corrupt who do abominable deeds and in whom nothing good exists. And they can indeed be among the evildoers who devour and persecute the truly righteous in the sight of Almighty God. For they have not died with Christ to sin and they are not obeying him, in practice. At least this is the case today here in America.

 

[Matt 7:21-23; Matt 24:9-14; Lu 9:23-26; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14,24; Rom 12:1-2; Rom 13:11; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; 1 Co 1:18; 1 Co 15:1-2; 2 Tim 1:8-9; Heb 9:28; 1 Pet 1:5; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:5-17; 1 Pet 2:24; Tit 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Heb 3:6,14-15; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15]

 

Psalms 14:7 ESV

 

“Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion!

    When the Lord restores the fortunes of his people,

    let Jacob rejoice, let Israel be glad.”

 

Well, salvation has come through Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God who is God, the second person of our triune God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ died on a cross about 2000 years ago because his enemies put him to death. But this was the will of God that Jesus should suffer, for in his death, he who knew no sin became sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21). For he put our sin to death with him that we might now die with him to sin and live to him and to his righteousness (1 Peter 2:24; Romans 6:1-23; Titus 2:11-14).

 

He Lifted Our Burdens

 

An Original Work / February 15, 2014

Based off Isaiah 9:2-7

 

People walk in darkness.

They abide in their sin.

It has power o’er them.

True belief escapes them.

 

Jesus Christ came to save them.

He gave His life up for them;

Crucified; died for our sin,

So we might be forgiven,

And have life up in heaven.

 

Many come to know Him.

God’s love now o’erflows them.

They rejoice in vict’ry.

Their sin is but hist’ry.

 

We were once bound in slav’ry.

Jesus lifted our burdens;

Set us now free from Satan,

So we now walk in freedom.

Sin has no more dominion.

 

Praise be to our Savior!

He showed us His favor.

He took all our burdens;

Cast them all upon Him.

 

He is our mediator;

The Light which shines in darkness.

Counselor in our troubles;

He gives peace now in our hearts;

Joy which is everlasting.

 

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