Human Religion Won’t Work - part 5a

Saturday, 28 March 2009

Human Religion Won’t Work - part 5a
What Nation Would Abandon God?

part 1

Jer 2:11 "Has a nation changed its gods, Which are not gods? But My people have changed their Glory For what does not profit."

Rom 3:1-8 "What advantage then has the Jew, or what is the profit of circumcision? Much in every way! Chiefly because to them were committed the oracles of God. For what if some did not believe? Will their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect? Certainly not! Indeed, let God be true but every man a liar. As it is written: "That You may be justified in Your words, And may overcome when You are judged." But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unjust who inflicts wrath? (I speak as a man.) Certainly not! For then how will God judge the world? For if the truth of God has increased through my lie to His glory, why am I also still judged as a sinner? And why not say, "Let us do evil that good may come"?; as we are slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say. Their condemnation is just."

A. What Advantage? — "What advantage then has the Jew, or what is the profit of circumcision? Much in every way! Chiefly because to them were committed the oracles of God."
1. The Glory and exaltation of Israel — "...my people have changed their glory..." a. The Glory was God’s Presence — i. Over two hundred times in the Old Testament, we read about the Glory of the Lord, and this Glory was the very Presence of God, manifested before the children of Israel.
Exo 29:42-43 "This shall be a continual burnt offering throughout your generations at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the LORD: where I will meet you, to speak there unto thee. And there I will meet with the children of Israel, and the tabernacle shall be sanctified by my glory."

Exo 33:18-19 'And he said, "Please, show me Your glory." Then He said, "I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion."'

Exo 33:22 "So it shall be, while My glory passes by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and will cover you with My hand while I pass by."

ii. Under the Old Covenant, the Glory of the LORD was symbolized by the Ark, and when the Ark was captured, it was said that the Glory had departed.

1 Sam 4:22 'And she said, The glory is departed from Israel: for the ark of God is taken."'

iii. In the earthly ministry of Jesus, the Glory of God was the personal Presence of Christ Jesus Himself.

John 1:14 "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth."

iv. In the New Covenant, the Glory of God is at God’s Throne, accessible through prayer because of the blood of Christ, and operational in our lives by the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

Heb 10:19-20 "Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;"

2 Cor 3:18 "But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord."

2. Israel was exalted by having been given God’s Word.

Deut 26:16-19 "This day the LORD your God commands you to observe these statutes and judgments; therefore you shall be careful to observe them with all your heart and with all your soul. Today you have proclaimed the LORD to be your God, and that you will walk in His ways and keep His statutes, His commandments, and His judgments, and that you will obey His voice. Also today the LORD has proclaimed you to be His special people, just as He promised you, that you should keep all His commandments, and that He will set you high above all nations which He has made, in praise, in name, and in honor, and that you may be a holy people to the LORD your God, just as He has spoken." (see also Deut 28:1-14)

3. Israel was exalted because she had the way of salvation revealed to her.

Eph 2:11-13 "Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh; who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands; that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ."

4. Glory Rejected in Favor of Lies — "...My people have changed their Glory For what does not profit."

5. Israel declined and fell into ruin because of ignoring God’s Word.
a. The unread book
2 Kings 22:8-13 "Then Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the scribe, "I have found the Book of the Law in the house of the LORD." And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, and he read it. So Shaphan the scribe went to the king, bringing the king word, saying, "Your servants have gathered the money that was found in the house, and have delivered it into the hand of those who do the work, who oversee the house of the LORD." Then Shaphan the scribe showed the king, saying, "Hilkiah the priest has given me a book." And Shaphan read it before the king. Now it happened, when the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, that he tore his clothes. Then the king commanded Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam the son of Shaphan, Achbor the son of Michaiah, Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah a servant of the king, saying, "Go, inquire of the LORD for me, for the people and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that has been found; for great is the wrath of the LORD that is aroused against us, because our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book, to do according to all that is written concerning us."

b. There was no man of God in the Land — the men of Israel had become such spiritual wimps that God called Huldah to be the prophetess of that day.

2 Kings 22:14-20 "So Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam, Achbor, Shaphan, and Asaiah went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tikvah, the son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe. (She dwelt in Jerusalem in the Second Quarter.) And they spoke with her. Then she said to them, "Thus says the LORD God of Israel, 'Tell the man who sent you to Me, Thus says the LORD: 'Behold, I will bring calamity on this place and on its inhabitants; all the words of the book which the king of Judah has read; 'because they have forsaken Me and burned incense to other gods, that they might provoke Me to anger with all the works of their hands. Therefore My wrath shall be aroused against this place and shall not be quenched.' But as for the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the LORD, in this manner you shall speak to him, 'Thus says the LORD God of Israel: "Concerning the words which you have heard; because your heart was tender, and you humbled yourself before the LORD when you heard what I spoke against this place and against its inhabitants, that they would become a desolation and a curse, and you tore your clothes and wept before Me, I also have heard you," says the LORD. Surely, therefore, I will gather you to your fathers, and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace; and your eyes shall not see all the calamity which I will bring on this place." ' " So they brought back word to the king."

c. Israel had followed the political, religious, and philosophical examples of the heathen nations around them.

2 Kings 21:1-15 "Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hephzibah. And he did evil in the sight of the LORD, according to the abominations of the nations whom the LORD had cast out before the children of Israel. For he rebuilt the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed; he raised up altars for Baal, and made a wooden image, as Ahab king of Israel had done; and he worshiped all the host of heaven and served them. He also built altars in the house of the LORD, of which the LORD had said, "In Jerusalem I will put My name." And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the LORD. Also he made his son pass through the fire, practiced soothsaying, used witchcraft, and consulted spiritists and mediums. He did much evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke Him to anger. He even set a carved image of Asherah that he had made, in the house of which the LORD had said to David and to Solomon his son, "In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put My name forever; and I will not make the feet of Israel wander anymore from the land which I gave their fathers; only if they are careful to do according to all that I have commanded them, and according to all the law that My servant Moses commanded them." But they paid no attention, and Manasseh seduced them to do more evil than the nations whom the LORD had destroyed before the children of Israel. And the LORD spoke by His servants the prophets, saying, "Because Manasseh king of Judah has done these abominations (he has acted more wickedly than all the Amorites who were before him, and has also made Judah sin with his idols), therefore thus says the LORD God of Israel: 'Behold, I am bringing such calamity upon Jerusalem and Judah, that whoever hears of it, both his ears will tingle. And I will stretch over Jerusalem the measuring line of Samaria and the plummet of the house of Ahab; I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down. So I will forsake the remnant of My inheritance and deliver them into the hand of their enemies; and they shall become victims of plunder to all their enemies, because they have done evil in My sight, and have provoked Me to anger since the day their fathers came out of Egypt, even to this day.'"

d. Israel had despised, persecuted, and killed the prophets that God had sent to correct them.

Neh 9:26 "Nevertheless they were disobedient And rebelled against You, Cast Your law behind their backs And killed Your prophets, who testified against them To turn them to Yourself; And they worked great provocations."

e. When God sent His Son, Israel ignored Him too, they rejected Him and sentenced Him to die.

Acts 7:52 "Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who foretold the coming of the Just One, of whom you now have become the betrayers and murderers,"

1 Thes 2:15 "who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they do not please God and are contrary to all men,"

6. Application — we in this land have been blessed with God’s Word from the beginning.
1. Our nation was founded by God-fearing people who loved the Bible.
2. Our nation and our laws were established upon Godly principles from the Word.
3. Providence demonstrated the reason for God’s bounty to us by the modern missionary movement which burst from our shores to all corners of the world.
4. Godly men and women gave until it hurt to establish schools of the prophets to produce Godly preachers and missionaries.
  Harvard University — (1636), founded by the General Court of Massachusetts only sixteen years after the landing of the Pilgrims, is the oldest university in the United States. Originally called the College at Cambridge, being established in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it was renamed after its first major benefactor, Rev. John Harvard (1607-1638), who donated his library and half of his estate. The declared purpose of the college was:
  To train a literate clergy.
  The Rules and Precepts observed at Harvard, September 26, 1642, stated:
  When any Scholar… is able to make [write] and speak true Latine in Verse and Prose.… And decline perfectly the paradigims of Nounes and Verbes in the Greek tongue… [he is capable] of admission into the college.
  Let every Student be plainly instructed, and earnestly pressed to consider well, the maine end of his life and studies is, to know God and Jesus Christ which is eternall life, John 17:3 and therefore to lay Christ in the bottome, as the only foundation of all sound knowledge and Learning. And seeing the Lord only giveth wisedome, Let every one seriously set himself by prayer in secret to seeke it of him Prov. 2, 3.
  Every one shall so exercise himselfe in reading the Scriptures twice a day, that he shall be ready to give such an account of his proficiency therein, both in Theoreticall observations of Language and Logick, and in practicall and spirituall truths, as his Tutor shall require, according to his ability; seeing the entrance of the word giveth light, it giveth understanding to the simple, Psalm 119:130.
  That they eshewing all profanation of Gods name, Attributes, Word, Ordinances, and times of Worship, do studie with good conscience carefully to retaine God, and the love of his truth in their mindes, else let them know, that (notwithstanding their Learning) God may give them up to strong delusions, and in the end to a reprobate minde, 2 Thes. 2:11, 12. Rom. 1:28.
  That they studiously redeeme the time; observe the generall houres… diligently attend the Lectures, without any disturbance by word or gesture.…
  None shall… frequent the company and society of such men as lead an unfit, and dissolute life. Nor shall any without his Tutors leave, or without the call of Parents or Guardians, goe abroad to other Townes.
  Every Scholar shall be present in his Tutors chamber at the 7th houre in the morning, immediately after the sound of the Bell, at his opening the Scripture and prayer, so also at the 5th houre at night, and then give account of his owne private reading.… But if any… shall absent himself from prayer or Lectures, he shall bee lyable to Admonition, if he offend above once a weeke.
  If any Scholar shall be found to transgresse any of the Lawes of God, or the Schoole… he may bee admonished at the publick monethly Act.
  Ten of the twelve presidents of Harvard, prior to the Revolutionary War, were ministers, and according to reliable calculations, over fifty percent of the seventeenth-century Harvard graduates became ministers. Of note is the fact that 106 of the first 108 schools in America were founded on the Christian faith.
  Harvard college was founded in "Christi Gloriam" and later dedicated "Christo et Ecclesiae". The founders of Harvard believed that:
  All knowledge without Christ was vain.
  The word Veritas, on the college seal, means divine truth. The motto of Harvard was officially:
  For Christ and the Church.
  The dedication inscribed on the wall by the old iron gate at the main entrance to the Harvard University campus, as well as in the catalog of the Harvard Divinity School, reads:
  After God had carried us safe to New England and we had builded our houses, provided necessaries for our livelihood, reared convenient places for God’s worship and settled the civil government, one of the next things we longed for and looked after was to advance learning and perpetuate it to posterity, dreading to leave an illiterate ministry to the churches when our present ministers lie in the dust.
  Princeton University’s official motto was:
  Under God’s Power She Flourishes.
  The first president of Princeton University, the Rev. Jonathan Dickinson, stated:
  Cursed be all that learning that is contrary to the cross of Christ.
  The requirements of Princeton University, during President John Witherspoon tenure, 1768-1776, included:
  Every student shall attend worship in the college hall morning and evening at the hours appointed and shall behave with gravity and reverence during the whole service. Every student shall attend public worship on the Sabbaths.… Besides the public exercises of religious worship on the Sabbaths, there shall be assigned to each class certain exercises for their pupils.… and no student belong.
5. Our nation became an example to the world in our schools, our churches, our mission organizations.
7. But, except for a Godly remnant, our nation has rejected its very foundations.
1. Our nation was founded by God-fearing people who loved the Bible. — But there is a constant effort to push God-fearing people aside and to the background.
  Our nation is becoming more secular. You hear it in Congress whe a speaker will say, "I'm a ________, but I don let that influence my vote."
2. Our nation and our laws have been perverted from the Godly principles of our establishment.
  The gay marriage issue is just one example of this.
3. While God blessed us with bountiful riches as a nation, to be used in the propagation of the gospel, we have perverted those riches and diverted the money to become the most pleasure-seeking society in the history of the human race.
  Church services have been canceled because of the Super Bowl and attendance would be so poor it wouldnt be cost efective to heat the church and turn on the lights.
4. The schools established by the people of God for the purpose of producing holy prophets of God have been turned into centers of pagan learning and anti-Christian philosophy.
  We've covered that above.
5. We have imitated the beliefs and lifestyles of the pagan world.
6. Instead of showing the way to God, our nation is the home of the pornography industry.
  Porn is a MULTI-BILLION DOLLAR industry. The porn stars consider it a job not what it actually is, fornication and adultery.
7. Too many Bible-believing Christians are just going along to get along, or are satisfied to sit in their padded pews and hope the rapture comes before it gets too bad.
8. While the nation is going to hell in a hand-basket, too many professing Bible-believing Christians are too stuck up to do anything about it, and spend all their time being self-satisfied about how salty they are instead of being salt and light in the world.
8. Pulpits
1. Too many pulpits in this land are silent.
2. Too many pulpits are pre-occupied with tickling the ears of dead church members and licking the boots of influential people.
3. Too many pulpits are filled by uncalled men because God’s prophets have been burned out, turned out, culled out, and shut out!
4. Too many pulpits are occupied by called men who have been beaten into submission by their critics!
5. Too many pulpits are being abandoned by called men because of their critics!
9. Listen to me!
1. Some of you are going to go off to seminary, and that is good. I think a good seminary education can be a wonderful intellectual foundation for ministry.
2. But don’t let them turn you into a slick professional package in a fancy stuffed suit.
3. Don’t let them file all the rough edges off you until you have no points.
4. You find yourself a church out in the bushes somewhere where they will let a man of God preach the Book of God.
5. You get those folks fired up with holy fire. Don't preach smooth, feel good sermons.
6. You come down here to the rescue field every now and then to catch fire and then take it back to your people!
10. "What advantage then has the Jew, or what is the profit of circumcision? Much in every way! Chiefly because to them were committed the oracles of God."

The oracles of God have been committed to Christians in this generation, and we will answer for how we handled them!
© Charles T. Buntin
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