- Aug 10, 2006
- 14,949
- 3,821
- 74
- Country
- United States
- Faith
- Christian
- Marital Status
- Married
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.
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.
