The Wisdom of This World is Foolishness with God—Psalm 14 Psalm 14:1-3 1 The fool has said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none who does good. 2 The LORD looks down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there are any who understand, who seek God. 3 They have all turned aside, they have together become corrupt; there is none who does good, no, not one. Rom 3:9-20 What then? Are we better than they? Not at all. For we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin. As it is written: There is none righteous, no, not one; There is none who understands; there is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; they have together become unprofitable; there is none who does good, no, not one. (Ps 14:1-3; Ps 53:1-3; Eccl 7:20) Their throat is an open tomb; with their tongues they have practiced deceit; The poison of asps is under their lips;(Ps 5:9; Ps 140:3) Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. (Ps 10:7) Their feet are swift to shed blood; Destruction and misery are in their ways; And the way of peace they have not known. (Is 59:7-8)There is no fear of God before their eyes. (Ps 36:1) Even good, moral people are under the sentence of death. And the morality of man is filthy with God. Without knowledge of the LORD’s character, the moral man is in direct violation of the first three Commandments, and thus, mouths and hearts of the seemingly upright are filthy. “Just so far as God is truly known will He be duly feared. They have no realization of His majesty, no concern for His authority, no respect for His Commandments, no alarm that He shall judge them. But concerning His covenant people, God has promised, ‘I will put my fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from me’ (Jer. 32:40). Therefore do they tremble at His Word (Isa. 66:5), and walk softly before Him… The man who lives in the fear of God is conscious that ‘the eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.’ (Prov. 15:3) [but]... the one who is deterred from committing certain sins because the eyes of men are upon him; and who hesitates not to commit them when alone, is destitute of the fear of God.” (A. W. Pink) There is no one who does good, but some have been saved. “Some of us have sought after God. Some of us have become believers. Surely this ‘no one’ must be hyperbole. If no one seeks after God then how do any come to know the Lord and experience his salvation? If no one seeks after God how did any of us come to Jesus? The answer to that question is easy. No one comes to Christ Jesus unless the Father draws him or her. [Jesus said] No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. (John 6:44) Sinners seek God only when sought by God. No one looks unless God initiates. We love [Him] because He first loved us (1 John 4:19).” capturedbychrist/1/category/bible%20romans/1.html 1 Cor 3:19-23 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He catches the wise in their own craftiness; and again, The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile. (Ps 94:11) Therefore let no one boast in men. For all things are yours: whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas, or the world or life or death, or things present or things to come-- all are yours. And you are Christs, and Christ is Gods. Rom 3:19-20 Now we know that whatever the Law (Torah) says, it says to those who are under the Law (Torah), that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the Law (Torah) no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the Law (Torah) is the knowledge of sin. The Torah can only speak to those who seek the Lord through learning of biblical precepts. More specifically, students of Law or Commandments will eventually conclude that they cannot be save them by keeping the Ten Commandments. The Commandments can only condemn them to death. John Wesley was on a decade plus journey before he finally cried: “I see that the whole Law of God is holy, just, and good. I know every thought, every temper of my soul, ought to bear Gods image and superscription. But how am I fallen from the glory of God! I feel that I am sold under sin. I know that I, too, deserve nothing but wrath, being full of all abominations; and having no good thing in me, to atone for them, or to remove the wrath of God. All my works, my righteousness, my prayers, need an atonement for themselves. So that my mouth is stopped. I have nothing to plead. God is holy; I am unholy. God is a consuming fire; I am altogether a sinner, meet to be consumed.” “The solidarity of the human race is to be seen not only in its common bondage to sin but its common guilt before the Law of God.” [Commentators Commentary] Psalm 14: 4 Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge, who eat up my people as they eat bread, and do not call on the LORD? Rom 3:22-26b For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. This is true knowledge that the world mocks. “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. (Isa 29:14) Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?” (1 Cor 1:18-20) A keystone truth in the Word of God is that we all have the bloodline of Adam, but Jehovah set forth Jesus as a propitiation by His blood saying to Moses: For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul. (Lev 17:11) It is faith in the blood of the innocent sacrifice which enables God to forgive. Yea, it gives us confidence to approach the throne of grace. It is the means whereby a guilty sinner is justified before a holy God. John R. W. Stott explains: “Justification is not a synonym for amnesty, which strictly is pardon without principle, a forgiveness which overlooks—even forgets… wrongdoing and declines to bring it to justice. No, justification is an act of justice, of gracious justice. … When God justifies sinners, he is not declaring bad people to be good, or saying that they are not sinners after all; he is pronouncing them legally righteous, free from any liability to the broken Law [Commandments], because He Himself in His Son has borne the penalty of their Law–breaking.” “Propitiation” is understood at the mercy seat on the Ark of the Covenant which is located in the holy of holies in center of the Tabernacle of the LORD... In the ark were the tablets of the Mitsvah which Israel had broken. The broken Mitsvah demanded judgment and death for the transgressors. The Mitsvah could not save them; it could only condemn them. It could not take away sin; it could only reveal sin. It could not give life to sinner; it could only kill the transgressor. (M R Dehaan)But the “propitiation” or mercy seat was over the ark, above the broken Law [Mitzvah], between it and God, who came down upon it in the shekinah pillar of holiness and fire. The mercy seat is a perfect picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. The mercy seat was made of beaten gold— which represents deity in Scriptures. Christ was beaten prior to His death on the cross. Upon this mercy seat was sprinkled the blood from the special sacrifices on the annual Day of Atonement. We find that Jesus is “both just… and the justifier of those who believe” in Him. Yea, all who call on Him will be saved. Psalm 14: 6 You shame the counsel of the poor, but the LORD is his refuge. 7 Oh, that the salvation of Israel would come out of Zion! When the LORD brings back the captivity of His people, let Jacob rejoice and Israel be glad. “‘Ye have shamed the counsel of the poor, for the Lord is his hope’ (ver. 6): that is, ye have despised the humble coming of the Son of God, because ye saw not in Him the pomp of the world: that they, whom he was calling, should put their hope in God alone, not in the things that pass away.” [St. Augustine: Exposition on the Book of Psalms] “‘Who will give salvation to Israel out of Sion?’ (ver. 7a) Who but He whose humiliation ye have despised? is understood. For He will come in glory to the judgment of the quick and the dead, and the kingdom of the just: that, forasmuch as in that humble coming ‘blindness hath happened in part unto Israel, that the fulness of the Gentiles might enter in,’ [Romans 11:25] in that other should happen what follows, ‘and so all Israel should be saved.’ For the Apostle too takes that testimony of Isaiah, where it is said, ‘There shall come out of Sion He who shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:’ [Romans11:26; Isaiah 29:14] for the Jews, as it is here, ‘Who shall give salvation to Israel out of Sion? When the Lord shall turn away the captivity of His people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad.’ (Ver. 7b) It is a repetition, as is usual: for I suppose, ‘Israel shall be glad,’ is the same as, ‘Jacob shall rejoice.’” [St. Augustine: Exposition on the Book of Psalms] Perhaps Israel is the regenerate while Jacob is the unregenerate.
Posted on: Fri, 25 Oct 2013 08:53:29 +0000
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