Sermon(Ps 11): The firm law of God

The original Korean text: https://blog.naver.com/stevision/50025251446

 

 

 

Scripture reading:

>> 1 In the Lord I take refuge; how can you say to me, “Flee like a bird to the mountains; 2 for lo, the wicked bend the bow, they have fitted their arrow to the string, to shoot in the dark at the upright in heart; 3 if the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do”? 4 The Lord is in his holy temple, the Lord’s throne is in heaven; his eyes behold, his eyelids test, the children of men. 5 The Lord tests the righteous and the wicked, and his soul hates him that loves violence. 6 on the wicked he will rain coals of fire and brimstone; a scorching wind shall be the portion of their cup. 7 For the Lord is righteous, he loves righteous deeds; the upright shall behold his face. (Ps 11) <<

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It is David's poem. My brethren, do you know when Saul, the first king of Israel, was deserted by God? It was when Saul first challenged and disobeyed the authority of God. Before Saul could go to war with the Philistines, he ought to offer a sacrifice to God at the worship of God ministered (or performed) by Samuel the priest. But Samuel's arrival was delayed, the threat of the Philistines was increased, and the soldiers began to desert from the army. So Saul became impatient, and he offered sacrifice to God even though he was not a priest. As soon as the ceremony of the worship of God finished, Samuel arrived. He saw what had been done. Samuel declared God's judgment on the spot. >>And Samuel said to Saul, “You have done foolishly; you have not kept the commandment of the Lord your God, which he commanded you; for now the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel for ever. But now your kingdom shall not continue; the Lord has sought out a man after his own heart; and the Lord has appointed him to be prince over his people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you.” (1 Sam 13:13, 14)<< God deserted Saul after the first disobedience of Saul, and chose David as the king of Israel immediately after Samuel's declaration, trained David for many years, and made him a king in due course.

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Solomon became a king after David, and Israel was divided into Israel (the north kingdom) and Judah (the south kingdom) after Solomon. My brethren, do you know when the destruction of the northern Israel was declared? The declaration was made already in the days of the first king Jeroboam in the prophecy that the north kingdom would be destroyed and the people would be taken captive to other countries. Jeroboam made images of calf and seduced the people to worship them as the God. And he appointed priests at his will. Prophet Ahijah, who had prophesied to Jeroboam that he would be the king of ten tribes of Israel (1 Kings 11:29-39), declared to him that he and people of northern Israel would go to ruin. “Therefore behold, I (the God) will bring evil upon the house of Jeroboam, and will cut off from Jeroboam every male, both bond and free in Israel, and will utterly consume the house of Jeroboam, as a man burns up dung until it is all gone. (1 Kings 14:10)” “The Lord will smite Israel, as a reed is shaken in the water, and root up Israel out of this good land which he gave to their fathers,, and scatter them beyond the Euphrates, because they have made their Asherim, provoking the Lord to anger. And he will give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam, which he sinned and which he made Israel to sin. (1 Kings 14:15, 16)”

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Brethren, whether you are an individual or a country, if you behave crookedly from the beginning, God will discard you at once and seek for another one who is suitable for his purpose. Some may think that God's punishment is quite slow, seeing that the judgement was fulfilled long after the declaration. But it is just their delusion. In order for a country on the other side of the Euphrates to be strong enough to conquer and take the northern Israel, it had to be greater than Egypt. Israel was between Egypt and Assyria, therefore Assyria, a country over the Euphrates, must build up its strength as much as Egypt in order that it could swallow up Israel. (It took a long time.) So the judgment of God was fulfilled long after it had been pronounced. What I'd like to say is this: >After Israel had been divided into two kingdoms, the northern Israel went the wrong way, beginning from the first king. And God immediately declared the destruction of the North Israel, and immediately started to gather forces of people living beyond the river of Euphrates into a powerful nation (Assyria); and as soon as the nation had enough power, God used it to overthrow the northern Israel and to take its people captive to Assyria.<

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What I am saying is that God's law is stern and accurate, and his judgment is very quick in fact. Verse 3 reads as follows: "If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?" This means, "If the foundations of the kingdom of God is shaken and collapsed, how can the righteous live as the righteous?" And this means, "If God does not enforce the right law strictly, who will live righteously without sinning?" In fact, this is the very case that makes us to fall into temptation if we do not see the history of individuals and nations in faith. Seeing the wicked sinning and living well and proudly, many of the righteous who were suffering from them cried loud to God, "How can it be so?" But the Bible exhorts you, "Fret not yourself because of the wicked, be not envious of wrongdoers (Ps 37:1)! .... For the wicked shall be cut off; but those who wait for the Lord shall possess the land. Yet a little while, and the wicked will be no more; though you look well at his place, he will not be there (Ps 37: 9, 10)." The Bible encourages us not to complain over the wicked, but to wait silently for the judgment of God.

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David was a man of faith, and a wise man. People said, "You are weak and your enemies are strong, so flee to a mountain like a bird and save your life!" David also knew that he was in danger of life, that his foes had fitted their arrow to the string to shoot at him. But he did not see his weakness, the strength of his adversaries and the current crisis, but looked at the righteous God who was enforcing the immutable strong law. For David, God was like an unshakable rock. God was one who promised his saints and certainly fulfilled the promise. In the eyes of David, the law of God was more accurate than the movement of celestial bodies, and never swerved from the right path, and it was more powerful than the law of nation. Therefore David didn't flee to a mountain like a wretched bird but, depending on God, escaped to him and gained his help. David could make such a wise and sure choice because he knew who the God was. He who wants to be a warrior of faith overcoming strong enemies rather than to be a bird chased by foes all the time is a man of faith and wisdom like David. The ground of God is solid and he who escapes to him can find a good refuge in him.

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The Lord is in his temple. The temple is a place prepared for humans by God. Whoever comes to the temple can spiritually meet him there. However many sins he may have committed before, God will forgive him all his sins and accept him if he comes to the temple with repenting heart that seeks for the merciful God. Not just anyone can come into the place where a president or a king is. But God the Highest one who created the world allows man to build temples and meets there whoever wants to come to the temple and meet him. How fortunate we are! The temple tells us the fact that God is much interested in us and loves us. When you don't have strength, wisdom and helpers, and if you go to the temple (the church) then, God will meet you there and hear your prayers and grant you your wishes. It is God's law to forgive him who repents his sins and beseeches God for forgiveness. It is God's law to help surely him who takes refuge in God and asks him for help. >The God who is in his temple< says to us of this truth.

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God's throne is in heaven. The ground is low; the sky is high. The God on the throne in heaven watches all the righteous and the wicked on earth with eyes like a flame of fire. The throne symbolizes sovereignty and judgment. The power of God is higher than the stars, and the authority of God's judgment make his decision the final decision. My brethren, God's judgment is always right. You must not say, based on your short-sighted view, that God's judgment is unfair, that his judgment on the wicked is very slow. If God says, "You are a sinner," you're a sinner; if he says, "You are a righteous man," you're a righteous man. If God pronounces, "I forgive you," nobody can condemn me as a sinner. Therefore no man can any more file a lawsuit against me in the court of God if I've become a righteous man before God by the righteousness of Jesus although I've sinned before. My brethren, the God in the highness is watching over your deeds today. He is searching your heart. Show him your clean heart, loving heart, merciful heart, God-fearing heart, and your heart thirsting for the righteousness, and heart having compassion on the sinners. Drive these away from you: greedy heart for the possessions of your neighbors, lewd heart for other women, deceptive heart, contemptuous heart, and arrogant heart. You can wear new clothes only after you take off your old dirty clothes! Are you living double-hearted? You must not think you're a man a little better than the wicked. He who would live in double-hearted mind is polluting his clean mind with his dirty mind. He, inviting the Holy Spirit into his heart, intends to keep him in a stinking dirty place. Christians should shake off their filthy desires, clean their heart and live with the pure Holy Spirit in their heart. Do not think that you'll have a clean heart if only you receive the Holy Spirit. Clean your heart first with the love for the Holy Spirit, so that he loves you and comes to you. If your heart is dirty, the Devil will assert a strong right of ownership to it.

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Even the loving God hates some kind of people. He hates >the wicked and those who love violence< (v. 5). Everyone knows who wicked men are. Violence is to use force illegally. Violence includes an arbitrary lynching that ignores God's law. He is a bonehead who reveals his existence by sword-violence, fist-violence, verbal violence and sexual violence, etc. God abhors such a man who is foolish enough to throw away reason God gave him and to live by such dirty violence. The wise know that God will surely requite double those who harass others with violence, so he never resorts to violence. It is also violence not to punish the enemy by legal procedure but to avenge oneself on the enemy by one’s own law. This isn't right, either. By the way, the Bible teaches Christians to forgive those who use violence, but on this condition: Christians should forgive them even 490 times when they apologize for their faults. Therefore you must not force any Christians to forgive, with the Christian love, those who refuse to apologize to them. The fault and the responsibility for the destruction of relations 100% lie with them (the wicked). This is the law of God. The Bible has not a law that you should forgive unilaterally those who do not beg for forgiveness. Of course, you can forgive such men voluntarily. But it is not an obligation. (However it is obligatory that Christians should forgive those who beg their pardon.) Nevertheless it is wrong for Christians to give personal retaliation or aggressive hatred to those who refuse to beg pardon. But you don't have to deal with those who, being proud, do not apologize, compulsorily with Christian love. And if you are harmed by such obstinate people, you have the freedom and right to punish them for the damage you've suffered, by civil and criminal actions. (Nevertheless, you'll be greatly rewarded by God if you love and help your enemies because you'll reveal the glory of God then.) To the woman who was taken from the scene of adultery, Jesus said, "I do not condemn you." This is different from >forgiveness<. Namely, Jesus was saying that he would suspend the death penalty for adultery. It belongs to the freedom of Jesus who is a loving person. And Jesus was then neither a Jewish government official nor the victim of the adultery. So Jesus as a third person may well say, "I do not condemn you, either." Because Jesus was there as a common Jew, an ordinary person. (I've explained about this adulteress in detail in the writing >Two women<.) Anyway, it is a firm law of God that God hates and punishes those who love violence and do not beg forgiveness.

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God judges the wicked who refuse to repent, with >fire, brimstone and a scorching wind<. This is God's strict law that will make the righteous so satisfied. The righteous will feel relieved and be satisfied with great peace then when at last the wicked who refuse to repent will be punished with fire and scorching wind. This is the stern law of God: After all, to give the wicked eternal defeat and frustration and to give the righteous eternal great success and victory. If we children of God are like cool water in a hot summer day to God by working faithfully for God every day, God will get us to feel refreshed someday. Lazybones who are lazy and are like smoke to God's eyes, making him angry and dissatisfied, when can you see the God who can give you satisfaction? What pitiful human beings!

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God is righteous, loves righteous deeds, and allows the honest to see his face. If we see God directly, all our problems are brought to an end and begin to be solved. God loves the honest Christians. My brethren, be such good ones, and see the face of God. Live so!

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May God feel satisfied and refreshed about your deeds, so that all of you do anything successfully with God’s help.

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Chong Tack Kim

                                      - Dongtoma Sunshine Church -

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