Sermon(Ps 5): By the abundant grace of God

The original Korean text: https://blog.naver.com/stevision/50025222122

 

 

 

Scripture reading

> 1 Give ear to my words, O Lord; give heed to my groaning. 2 Hearken to the sound of my cry, my King and my God, for to thee do I pray. 3 O Lord, in the morning thou does hear my voice; in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for thee, and watch. 4 for thou art not a God who delights in wickedness; evil may not sojourn with thee. 5 The boastful may not stand before thy eyes; thou hatest all evildoers. 6 Thou destroyest those who speak lies; the Lord abhors bloodthirsty and deceitful men. 7 But I through the abundance of thy steadfast love will enter thy house, I will worship toward thy holy temple in the fear of thee. 8 Lead me, O Lord, in thy righteousness because of my enemies; make thy way straight before me. 9 For there is no truth in their mouth; their heart is destruction, their throat is an open sepulchre, they flatter with their tongue. 10 Make them bear their guilt, O God; let them fall by their own counsels; because of their many transgressions cast them out, for they have rebelled against thee. 11 But let all who take refuge in thee rejoice, let them ever sing for joy; and do thou defend them, that those who love thy name may exult in thee. 12 For thou dost bless the righteous, O Lord; thou dost cover him with favor as with a shield. - Ps 5 - <

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It's David's poem, a prayer poem. David is praying in confidence that God will surely hear his prayer. His confidence came from the fact that David knew exactly what the God was, whose prayers he hated and whose prayers he would hear. David is praying with the faith in God, the hope in God and the love for God. (Augustine said we should worship God with faith, hope and love.) If prayer is a dialogue with God, the prayer must be a personal talk in personal relation with God. Right personal relationship is possible when you know another person very well.

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What was David's belief in God? God does not have delight in sins. Therefore sin cannot be rooted in the kingdom of God and flourish there. God drove Adam and Eve out of the Garden immediately after their crime, because he couldn't permit the sin and wickedness to strike root in the kingdom of God. God keeps sins away, and does not allow unrepentant sinners to come near and pray. So David took care not to defile his hands with sins, and not to walk in the way of sin. We have a right faith in God when we believe he hates sins.

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God shuns the arrogant. All people live in sins and in satisfaction with their vain glory like clothes dirty and old. A proud man shows off his own ;righteousness and possession. But what is his righteousness and possession? In fact, weren't almost all his achievements fulfilled by sins and extortion? Those who rejoice in unrighteousness will envy such (self-)righteousness and possession, but it will never be an envy to those who hate sins and are pure in heart. Wouldn't it be funny for a man to brag that he has stuffed his house with goods he stole? So is all the elaborate towers which were built by sins. What a funny bullshit it is if a man boasts of achievements, which in fact were achieved with others' help, as if he had achieved them himself! All humans' health and wisdom is God's gift. Therefore, sin itself is an arrogant man who boasts of his works and contributions before God who gives all humans all kinds of ability to live and knows all their steps. Am I wrong? What on earth are you going to boast about? Even if an 80-year-old man has accumulated a lot of accomplishments, he will have to be a handful of earth in the near future. Shouldn't you need to humble yourself before God who lives forever? Arrogance? Know yourself!

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God hates all evildoers. Those who dislike receiving God in their heart never open their mouths without lying. Some people make false oath by the name of the Lord. Some people swear falsely by their divine office. Falsehood? Devil lied humans into eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge. This is why God hates falsehood so terribly. The first evil act after the creation was a lie. The beginning of all crimes is the lie. It's the root of all crimes. "There is not the God. There is not such a place as the hell. Even if you murder someone secretly, who can punish you later? So if nobody sees you, you may commit sins. And so on." Lie is extremely dangerous because it is very easy to make, but can cause thousands of people to go to hell at once. It is the most wicked evil of all evils because it is produced very easily but wounds many people fatally. God abhors those who love falsehood and tell lies. He abhors the mind contaminated with falsehood, too. The heart of those who think themselves to be righteous is contaminated with falsehood. The heart of the arrogant is stained with lies. If you think you are righteous when you have sinned, you have a false heart. You have a false heart if you are proud of yourself impudently and wantonly when you ignore your position that you have to return to a handful of earth. There are so many fraudsters in this country. God has given them smart heads, but they, with the heads, do not think to do good but only to cheat others. Such cheaters are the very children of the Devil, the father of all lies. Falsehood is evil, and God shuns evildoers living in falsehood. As soon as such evildoers, thinking themselves to be Christians, enter the temple of God, God leaves the temple for a while, because they are abominations to God. God hates those who love to bleed others. There are men with cruel heart. They disregard human life and kill people as a hunter kills animals. Some commit murder to take away a few dollars. Some rape and kill innocent and powerless women. These are bloodthirsty human beings. The first thing God hates is falsehood. The second thing he hates is the cruel nature. Cain brutally killed his brother. A deceitful mind is a work of Devil. So is the cruel mind. People with a deceitful and cruel mind are children of Devil, and the Devil is God's enemy. How can you pray God to give you something when you harbor the mind Devil has given you? You are too brazen! Are you a Christian who lies very well, loses his temper often, has animosity against God's children without reason, and hates them very strongly and wants to kill them? You are 99% a son of Devil, so you have to repent with tears. The Garden of Eden is God's place. Devil entered there and corrupted humans. The church is God's temple. If someone says that Devil does not come in the church and work there, he himself is the spy of the Devil. The ambassador of Devil is he who says that the members of the church should trust and obey pastors and elders without reserve because they never listen to Devil, even if they behave against God's words and human ethics. God does not like Christians who are deceitful, cruel and arrogant. The God that David knows is one who delights in him who is sincere, merciful and humble. David prayed this God to destroy the wicked, to make them fall by their own counsels, and to drive them all out, of course, from the temple.

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Truth does not change. The truth that humans have learned from their long history is that man can't come to God in his own righteousness or receive God's protection or eternal life thanks to his righteousness. Apostle Paul and Reformers including Luther had such a belief. This belief existed not only after the New Testament era. It was 100% because of God's grace that he delivered Israel from Egypt and made them his people. God said that he had chosen Israel and made them his people not because they were a greater people than any other people but because they were the weakest people. Because, if the benevolent God did not choose such a people, the weakest in the world would gradually fall out of competition and only the strongest would survive later, then the world would be as good as ruined. In today's poem, too, we can see the gist of the gospel. V. 7, "I through the abundance of thy steadfast love will enter thy house, I will worship toward thy holy temple in the fear of thee." David says that he can come to God not by his poor righteousness and goodness but by God's abundant steadfast love. Dust-like man as he is, David comes to and prays to God with the faith in the gracious and merciful God. V. 8, "Lead me, O Lord, in thy righteousness because of my enemies; make thy way straight before me." David wants the righteous God to make his way of life straight (righteous). This says well of the doctrine of >righteousness (or justification) by faith<. I become righteous because God makes me righteous. V. 11, "But let all who take refuge in thee rejoice, let them ever sing for joy; and do thou defend them, that those who love thy name may exult in thee." David says by this verse that he is seeing the kingdom of everlasting joy he enjoys with God. David wants that not only he but also everyone who loves God, that is, who loves his name, share this eternal life.

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What is David's faith? It is that the God is a God who hates lies, arrogance and bloodthirsty sins, that the God has delight in bestowing favor on him who comes to him with such faith, that man can come to God not by his goodness and righteousness but only by believing in the abundant grace of God. What is David's hope? His hope is that all wicked men disappear, who lie as frequently as they eat meal, are shamelessly arrogant, and have cruel nature that likes to bleed others. (By the way, my brethren, falsehood results from the corruption of the truth. The fact that there are a lot of lies in this world is the counterevidence that there is true truth somewhere. Therefore you must for a while endure the uncomfortable situation thanks to a lot of liars and swindlers, and thank God for the fact that we belong to the truth. The world of truth without lies is coming soon.) David's hope is also that he will enjoy the eternal life with believers loving God, in the Lord, in the everlasting joy. V. 12, "For thou dost bless the righteous, O Lord; thou dost cover him with favor as with a shield." David hopes that God will deliver those who have a right faith about him from the hands of the wicked, that God will bless the righteous believers. David prayed this prayer to God with the love for God and the love for those who love God.

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Beloved brethren, we should pray to God with right faith, right hope and right love in the time of prayer. Do not put forth your righteousness. There are a lot of your sins you don't realize. If you are a good man, you have become such a man only by the ability, power and nature that God gave you, so you must pray to God in the faith in his righteousness and mercy. Know exactly what kind of character God has as David did, and do not commit the sin of defiling the temple by coming to the temple with sins that have not been forgiven yet to pray for the secular blessings. You will insult God again if you have lived a sinful life and come to God with sinful mind in order to hear the answer to your wishes from him. Do not do such a shallow thing! Pray God to give also the worldly blessings not only to you but also to many righteous believers. Pray to God for many people that they also may gain eternal life. Do not become friends with those whom God hates and commit sins with them. Turn your eyes to those in whom God is interested and whom God wants to help, and be the angel of God for them and help them. Pray God to give strength to help them. Pray to God that lies, haughtiness and cruelty may disappear from the world. This is a prayer by which you love God and neighbors, which God will surely answer, which is beneficial to you, and which is a prayer of high quality.

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May the God, who is rich in mercy, help you pray in right faith, right hope and right love!

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Chong Tack Kim

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                                   - Dongtoma Sunshine Church -