Cleanse the inside by replacing inner sins with Truth (The Truth of God). VIDEO Sermon-(first and second half of the video no YouTube) - (Full Sermon Video is on Truth of God Website).
Fred R. Coulter—November 9, 2019
Fred R. Coulter—November 9, 2019
Greetings, everyone! Welcome to Sabbath services! Today we’re going to cover quite a subject. Let’s look at some of the things in the Old Testament, and then the New Testament.
1-Kings 8 will prove the unity of Scripture between the Old and New Testaments. This is Solomon’s prayer, and he covers many, many things in it. It’s a long prayer. We can see that this is very similar to the New Testament, which we will cover later.
1-Kings 8:31: “If any man sins against his neighbor, and if an oath is laid upon him to cause him to swear, and if the oath comes before Your altar in this house, then hear in heaven, and do, and judge Your servants, to declare the wicked to be wicked, to bring his way upon his head, and to justify the righteous, to give him according to his righteousness” (vs 31-32).
That’s very similar to what we have in the New Testament.
Verse 33: “When Your people Israel are crushed before the enemy because they have sinned against You, and shall turn again to You and confess Your name, and pray, and cry to You in this house, then hear in heaven and forgive the sin of Your people Israel, and bring them again into the land which You gave to their fathers” (vs 33-34).
Here we have repentance, confession and forgiveness! It’s very interesting when you consider about Solomon, and you start reading how he became philosophical in the book of Ecclesiastes. Here is when he was still young, the temple was being dedication, and this is part of the prayer of dedication of the temple.
Verse 35: “When the heavens are restrained, and there is no rain because they have sinned against You, if they pray toward this place and confess Your name… [and also their sins] …and turn from their sin when You afflict them, then hear in heaven and forgive the sin of Your servants, and of Your people Israel, for You shall teach them the good way in which they should walk, and give rain upon Your land, which You have given to Your people for an inheritance” (vs 35-36).
This next one is very interesting, and also very New Testament when you understand it.
Verse 37: “If there is famine in the land, if there is plague, blasting, mildew, locusts; if there are creeping locusts; if their enemy encircles them in the land of their cities, whatever plague, whatever sickness, any prayer, any supplication from any man of all Your people Israel, who shall each know the plague of his own heart…” (vs 37-38).
· What is the plague of his ‘own soul’?
· Is that referring to just the outward plagues?
or
· Is that referring to the sinfulness of the human mind?
Trying to capture this human mind and keep it going the way that God wants is quite a challenge, indeed!
“…and shall spread forth his hands toward this house, then hear in heaven Your dwelling place and forgive, and do, and give to every man according to all his ways, whose heart You know; for You, You only, know the hearts of all the children of men” (vs 38-39).
Here Solomon had it exactly right. It was quite a thing!
Verse 46: “If they sin against You (for there is no man who does not sin)… [understanding that all of sin comes short of the glory of God] …and if You are angry with them and have delivered them up before the enemy and they have been led away captive to the land of the enemy, far or near, yet, if they shall think within themselves in the land where they are carried captives, and repent, and pray to You in the land of their captors saying, ‘We have sinned… [repentance] …and have done perversely… [confession] …we have done wickedly,’ and so return to You with all their heart and with all their soul, in the land of their enemies who led them away captive, and if they pray to You toward their land, which You gave to their fathers, to the city which You have chosen, and the house which I have built for Your name” (vs 46-48). This sounds an awful lot like the teachings of Jesus!
Verse 49[transcriber’s correction]: “Then hear their prayer and their cry in heaven Your dwelling place, and maintain their cause, and forgive Your people who have sinned against You, even all their sins which they have done against You, and give them compassion before their captors, so that they may have compassion on them” (vs 49-50)--find grace and favor in the land of their captivity!
Verse 52: “For Your eyes shall be open to the prayer of Your servant, and to the prayer of Your people Israel, to hearken to them whenever they call to You.”
Think about this for just a minute; think about the children of Israel today. Are they turning to God in their troubles? Maybe some few are! Think about the children of Judah in the Holy Land. Are they turning to God in their troubles? That’s an interesting thing, indeed! There they are right in the land!
Verse 53: “For You have separated them from among all the people of the earth to be Your inheritance, as You spoke by the hand of Moses Your servant when You brought our fathers out of Egypt, O Lord GOD.” That goes back to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob!
Verse 54: “Now, it came to pass as Solomon finished praying all this prayer and petition to the LORD, he rose from before the altar of the LORD, from kneeling on his knees with his hands spread up to heaven. Then he stood and blessed all the congregation of Israel with a loud voice, saying, ‘Blessed be the LORD…’” (vs 54-56).
Think about this because just a few chapters over—that we covered during the Feast of Tabernacles—look at all the trouble that Solomon got into himself, and he started out so well! The old saying is: it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish, IF you finish!
Verse 56: “Bless be the LORD, Who has given rest to His people Israel, according to all that He promised. There has not failed one word of all His good promises, which He promised by the hand of Moses His servant.”
Think of all the history of Israel. Because they didn’t chase out and go after the enemy the way that God said, He left them in the land as a thorn in the flesh to test them whether they would love God and keep His commandments or no.
This also tells us something very important: How important to God is it concerning our own individual choices? He gives choices to us! In the recent Church at Home {churchathome.org} The Delusion of Drugs, there’s a clip that shows someone who has been on drugs a long time. The whole family is there and they keep talking to him and saying:
‘You can recover. Why don’t you come with us and we’ll help you?’ NO! then the mother would say, ‘Look, I can help you so much, and these people here, we’re all going to help you. Why don’t you come?’ NO! Then someone else says, ‘We’ll be able to do this, that and the other, why don’t you stop the drugs and come?’ NO!
He said at least seven or eight times and finally it showed the whole family group—must have been about a dozen—and he stood up and walked out! Quite a thing! So, whatever we choose today, if it is good, that’s fine. But:
· What are we going to choose tomorrow?
· What do we do when we make bad choices?
· Or do things that are not right?
Verse 57: “May the LORD our God be with us as He was with our fathers. Let Him not leave us nor forsake us.”
In the New Testament--Heb. 13—and God says, ‘I will not ever, no, not ever leave you.’ That’s quite a thing! Actually in the Hebrew there are five negatives that:
· He’s not going to leave you
· He’s won’t forsake you
· He won’t turn His back on you
Verse 58: “To incline our hearts…” How do you incline your heart to God? By knowing that:
· everything we have comes from God
· be thankful for what God has given
· use what God has given, whether much or little
It’s the attitude in how you use it!
“…to Himself, to walk in all His ways and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments which He commanded our fathers. And let these my words, with which I have made supplications before the LORD, be near the LORD our God day and night…” (vs 58-59).
Here we have it written for us! This is in about 1000B.C. Here we are 3,000 years later reading the same words, and it tells you that human nature is exactly the same today as it was back then.
“…so that He may maintain the cause of His servant and the cause of His people Israel at all times as the matter requires, that all the people of the earth may know that the LORD is God; there is no other” (vs 59-60).
Think about how the world would have been completely different IF from this time forward Solomon would have kept this attitude and helped the people of Israel keep this attitude, and then the successor kings that came along.
Verse 61: “And let your heart be perfect with the LORD our God… [New Testament doctrine] …to walk in His statutes and to keep His commandments, as at this day.” That’s quite a thing!
Psa. 74 is written by Asaph, one of the priests. This is just before they went into captivity. This is when the temple was being destroyed in 536B.C.
Psalm 74:1: “O God, why have You cast us off forever? Why does Your anger smoke against the sheep of Your pasture? Remember Your congregation, which You have purchased of old, the rod of Your inheritance, which You have redeemed; this Mount Zion in which You have dwelt. Lift up Your feet unto the perpetual ruins; all this destruction the enemy has done in the sanctuary” (vs 1-3). Here he’s seeing everything being destroyed.
Verse 4: “Your enemies roar in the midst of Your congregation; they set up their own banners for signs. They seem like men who lifted up their axes against the thick trees” (vs 4-5).
Verse 7: “They burned Your sanctuary to the ground… [v 8]: They said in their hearts, ‘Together let us rage against them’; they have burned up all God’s meeting places in the land.” All the synagogues were destroyed!
Verse 9: “We did not see our signs; there is no longer any prophet; neither is there among us any who knows how long.” How long is this going to be?
Think about this prayer, because there is something that is really missing here.
Verse 11: “Why do You withdraw Your hand, even Your right hand? Draw it out of Your bosom and consume them, for God is my King of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth, You divide the sea…” (vs 11-13).
Verse 14: “You crushed the heads of leviathan in pieces… [v 15]: You break open the fountain and the flood…”
Verse 16: “The day is Yours, the night also is Yours; You have established the light and the sun. You have set all the boundaries of the earth…” (vs 16-17).
Verse 18: “Remember this--that the enemy has reproached, O LORD, and the foolish people have blasphemed Your name.” Quite a prayer! Very earnest!
What is missing? This is the same way that the Jews look at enemies today, but what is missing?
Verse 19: “O deliver not the life of Your turtledove unto the wild beasts; forget not the lives of Your afflicted people forever. Have respect unto the covenant; for the dark places of the earth are full of the houses of cruelty” (vs 19-20).
What was the covenant with God? Deut. 28; Lev. 26!
Verse 21: “Oh, let not the oppressed ones return ashamed; let the poor and needy praise Your name. Arise, O God, plead Your own cause; remember how the foolish man reproaches You daily. Forget not the voice of Your enemies; the noise of those who rise up against You increases continually” (vs 21-23).
What is missing? Nothing about confession of sin and repentance!
You can rage against the enemy all you want. You can cry out to God all you want to come and kill the enemy. But unless there’s repentance, it isn’t going to be! Same way with today.
For the carnal people in the world, God will accept something less than what’s required for conversion, because they’re in the world and they’re unconverted.
Psalm 78:34: “When He slew them, then they sought Him…” Every time there’s a great disaster, people return to God somewhat, but never under repentance and conversion.
“…and they turned back and sought after God earnestly. And they remembered that God was their Rock, and the Most High God was their Redeemer. Nevertheless, they flattered Him with their mouths, and they lied to Him with their tongues, for their heart was not steadfast with Him; either were they faithful in His covenant” (vs 34-37).
In Psa. 74 Asaph says to remember the covenant. God never forgot it! God was never slack in it! Who did the forgetting? The people! But in spite of all of that, because of His promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob:
Verse 38: “But He, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity and did not destroy them; yea, many times He turned His anger away and did not stir up all His wrath, for He remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passes away and does not come again” (vs 38-39).
That’s quite a statement about Israel! IF they would have done like Solomon said, then it would have been different.
Let’s look at the opposite, Dan. 9. This is quite a chapter because it is so profound that it ends up with the prophecy of the Messiah. As we read this, you will see why Daniel was one of the most righteous. Not that he necessarily did everything perfectly as far as the law is concerned. Notice the two differences:
Psa. 74—Asaph is saying, ‘God, go after the enemy; look at what they’re doing, see what is happening. They’re destroying us They got us all bottled up! And so forth.
· Not a word of repentance!
· Not a word of the cause why all these things happen!
Remember the history of the temple, Jeremiah was called by King Zedekiah to ask what’s going to happen, because the enemy was all around.
Jeremiah said, ‘You’re going into captivity! But you can avoid the destruction of the city and the destruction of the temple if you just surrender to Nebuchadnezzar.’ Then he would have probably left him there as a vassal king.
What did Zedekiah[transcriber’s correction] do? He said, ‘Leave and don’t tell anyone you were here. If they find out you were here, tell them thus and such’ Well, Zedekiah tried to escape with his sons. Quite a lesson! If God tells you to do one thing, and you turn around and do the other thing, it isn’t going to work! It wasn’t successful! The troops of Nebuchadnezzar caught the king and his sons—who left by night—by a secret way out and brought them before Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar had the eyes of the king removed!
So, it’s a fearful thing to go against God in whatever it is!
Daniel 9:2: “In the first year of his reign… [Darius the son of Ahasuerus (v 1)] …I, Daniel, understood by books the number of the years, which came according to the Word of the LORD to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years.”
Notice the complete change of attitude compared to Asaph, v 3: “And I set my face toward the LORD God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes. And I prayed to the LORD my God and made my confession…” (vs 3-4).
What does it mean “…understood by books…”? (v 2). He probably had Jeremiah’s, Isaiah’s and perhaps maybe some of Ezekiel’s prophecies!
Notice how Daniel approaches God. Asaph said, ‘Lord, look at what they’re doing to Your people.’ Here’s what Daniel said:
“…‘O LORD, the great and awesome God, keeping the covenant and mercy to those who love Him, and to those who keep His commandments’” (v 4).
John 14:15: “If you love Me, keep the commandments—namely, My commandments.”
Daniel 9:5: “We have sinned… [confessing sin] …and have committed iniquity and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, and have turned aside from Your commandments and from Your ordinances”--turned their back on them!
Verse 6: “Neither have we hearkened unto Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings, our rulers, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.”
He’s rehearsing what went on before they went into captivity. But most of them were just like Asaph, ‘O God, You’re doing all of this, why don’t you come and destroy the enemy.
God is waiting for them to repent! ‘When are you going to repent and confess your sins? When are you going to turn to Me. I’ll forgive you.
We have the promise given with Solomon. ‘If they turn to You, You will forgive them.’
Verse 7: “O LORD, righteousness belongs to You, but to us confusion of face, as at this day to the men of Judah and to the people of Jerusalem, and to all Israel who are near… [those in Babylon] …and who are afar off… [wherever the Israelites were by that time] …through all the countries where You have driven them because they dealt treacherously with You.”
In reading this I think about the Code of Jewish Law and all of that; how they set that in place of God’s Law, though it has some of God’s Laws in it. But the laws and commandments of men cannot make you right with God; it’s just impossible. I think about the Protestants. If you watch TBN and you look at what these ministers do, it’s quite a thing. They use the name of God over and over again, and we’ll see later what Isaiah has to say about that.
Verse 8: “O Lord, confusion of face belongs to us, to our kings, to our rulers, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against You…. [that’s quite a confession there] …To the LORD our God belong mercies and forgivenesses even though we have rebelled against Him” (vs 8-9).
Think about the two worst kings, one in Israel—Ahab—and God sent Elijah there to tell him that he was the most wicked man in the world and ‘God is going to destroy you and the dogs are going to lick up your blood and Jezebel’s blood.’ What did Ahab do? He listened! The Bible says he put on sackcloth and ashes and walked ‘tenderly.’
So, as Elijah was on his way going back, God said to him, ‘Go back to My servant Ahab.’ What’s that, Lord! ‘He has repented!’ So, Elijah had to modify the prophecy and say, ‘It’s not going to happen right away, it will happen later.’ Sure enough it did happen!
Then you have the king of Judah—Manasseh—who got involved in witchcraft and false spirits and demons. He built idols and had homosexual booths built around inside the temple area. The king of Nineveh came and took him away captive to Babylon, because they controlled Babylon at that time, and there he repented and came back and cleaned up the temple, tore down the idols and the booths.
So, never say that you have sinned a sin so bad that God can’t forgive it. Unless you blaspheme the Holy Spirit and rebel against God and have no remorse, your sins can be forgiven.
Verse 12: “And He has confirmed His words, which He spoke against us and against our judges who judged us by bringing upon us a great evil, for under the whole heaven it has not been done as it has been done upon Jerusalem…. [quite a confession] …As it is written in the Law of Moses, all this evil has come upon us….” (vs 12-13)--Deut. 28; Lev. 26.
Think about what’s happening with us to today in America. Think about what is happening with Judah over there in Jerusalem and what is called ‘the Holy Land.’ They blame all the enemy! The enemy is doing this! Let’s build up our fornications! Let’s detect them and catch them before they do it. But not a word of repentance and turning to God! That would change the whole picture.
How can you say you’re clean from sin when you have all this abortion and drugs going on? Impossible!
“…Yet, we did not make our prayer before the LORD our God… [confession their fault] …that we might turn from our iniquities and understand Your Truth” (v 13). We’ll see in a minute when you turn your back on Truth!
Verse 14: “Therefore, the LORD did not hesitate concerning the evil that He brought upon us, for the LORD our God is righteous in all His works, which He does, but we did not obey His voice.”
There we have the three words: obey My voice! Amazing! Today we have no excuse; we’ve got the whole Word of God, all the voice of God, all written for us! And all the teachings of Christ written for us!
Verse 15: “And now, O LORD our God, Who has brought Your people out from the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and has made a name for Yourself, as it is this day, we have sinned, we have done wickedly!” Quite a difference from Psa. 74!
Verse 16: “O LORD, I pray You, according to all Your righteousness, let Your anger and Your fury be turned away from Your city Jerusalem, Your Holy mountain. Because of our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people have become a reproach to all those who are around us.” Complete abject confession and repentance!
Verse 17: “And now, therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of Your servant, and his supplications, and cause Your face to shine upon Your sanctuary that is desolate for the LORD’S sake…. [quite a thing] …O my God, incline Your ear and hear. Open Your eyes and behold our desolations, and the city which is called by Your name. For we do not present our supplications before You on account of our righteousnesses, but because of Your great mercies” (vs 17-18). Getting self completely out of it!
Verse 19: “O LORD, hear; O LORD, forgive; O LORD, hearken and do. Do not delay, for Your own sake, O my God; for Your city and Your people are called by Your name.”
· Who came immediately? Gabriel!
· What did Gabriel bring? The prophecy of when the Messiah would come!
ü first when the city would be built
ü next when the Messiah would come
ü then the gap between His crucifixion and the last seven years, which is filled in with the book of Revelation
Quite a thing! Very moving, indeed! Just think how God honors prayers when there is the right repentance, confession, then God forgives! (watch for second half posting soon).
1-Kings 8 will prove the unity of Scripture between the Old and New Testaments. This is Solomon’s prayer, and he covers many, many things in it. It’s a long prayer. We can see that this is very similar to the New Testament, which we will cover later.
1-Kings 8:31: “If any man sins against his neighbor, and if an oath is laid upon him to cause him to swear, and if the oath comes before Your altar in this house, then hear in heaven, and do, and judge Your servants, to declare the wicked to be wicked, to bring his way upon his head, and to justify the righteous, to give him according to his righteousness” (vs 31-32).
That’s very similar to what we have in the New Testament.
Verse 33: “When Your people Israel are crushed before the enemy because they have sinned against You, and shall turn again to You and confess Your name, and pray, and cry to You in this house, then hear in heaven and forgive the sin of Your people Israel, and bring them again into the land which You gave to their fathers” (vs 33-34).
Here we have repentance, confession and forgiveness! It’s very interesting when you consider about Solomon, and you start reading how he became philosophical in the book of Ecclesiastes. Here is when he was still young, the temple was being dedication, and this is part of the prayer of dedication of the temple.
Verse 35: “When the heavens are restrained, and there is no rain because they have sinned against You, if they pray toward this place and confess Your name… [and also their sins] …and turn from their sin when You afflict them, then hear in heaven and forgive the sin of Your servants, and of Your people Israel, for You shall teach them the good way in which they should walk, and give rain upon Your land, which You have given to Your people for an inheritance” (vs 35-36).
This next one is very interesting, and also very New Testament when you understand it.
Verse 37: “If there is famine in the land, if there is plague, blasting, mildew, locusts; if there are creeping locusts; if their enemy encircles them in the land of their cities, whatever plague, whatever sickness, any prayer, any supplication from any man of all Your people Israel, who shall each know the plague of his own heart…” (vs 37-38).
· What is the plague of his ‘own soul’?
· Is that referring to just the outward plagues?
or
· Is that referring to the sinfulness of the human mind?
Trying to capture this human mind and keep it going the way that God wants is quite a challenge, indeed!
“…and shall spread forth his hands toward this house, then hear in heaven Your dwelling place and forgive, and do, and give to every man according to all his ways, whose heart You know; for You, You only, know the hearts of all the children of men” (vs 38-39).
Here Solomon had it exactly right. It was quite a thing!
Verse 46: “If they sin against You (for there is no man who does not sin)… [understanding that all of sin comes short of the glory of God] …and if You are angry with them and have delivered them up before the enemy and they have been led away captive to the land of the enemy, far or near, yet, if they shall think within themselves in the land where they are carried captives, and repent, and pray to You in the land of their captors saying, ‘We have sinned… [repentance] …and have done perversely… [confession] …we have done wickedly,’ and so return to You with all their heart and with all their soul, in the land of their enemies who led them away captive, and if they pray to You toward their land, which You gave to their fathers, to the city which You have chosen, and the house which I have built for Your name” (vs 46-48). This sounds an awful lot like the teachings of Jesus!
Verse 49[transcriber’s correction]: “Then hear their prayer and their cry in heaven Your dwelling place, and maintain their cause, and forgive Your people who have sinned against You, even all their sins which they have done against You, and give them compassion before their captors, so that they may have compassion on them” (vs 49-50)--find grace and favor in the land of their captivity!
Verse 52: “For Your eyes shall be open to the prayer of Your servant, and to the prayer of Your people Israel, to hearken to them whenever they call to You.”
Think about this for just a minute; think about the children of Israel today. Are they turning to God in their troubles? Maybe some few are! Think about the children of Judah in the Holy Land. Are they turning to God in their troubles? That’s an interesting thing, indeed! There they are right in the land!
Verse 53: “For You have separated them from among all the people of the earth to be Your inheritance, as You spoke by the hand of Moses Your servant when You brought our fathers out of Egypt, O Lord GOD.” That goes back to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob!
Verse 54: “Now, it came to pass as Solomon finished praying all this prayer and petition to the LORD, he rose from before the altar of the LORD, from kneeling on his knees with his hands spread up to heaven. Then he stood and blessed all the congregation of Israel with a loud voice, saying, ‘Blessed be the LORD…’” (vs 54-56).
Think about this because just a few chapters over—that we covered during the Feast of Tabernacles—look at all the trouble that Solomon got into himself, and he started out so well! The old saying is: it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish, IF you finish!
Verse 56: “Bless be the LORD, Who has given rest to His people Israel, according to all that He promised. There has not failed one word of all His good promises, which He promised by the hand of Moses His servant.”
Think of all the history of Israel. Because they didn’t chase out and go after the enemy the way that God said, He left them in the land as a thorn in the flesh to test them whether they would love God and keep His commandments or no.
This also tells us something very important: How important to God is it concerning our own individual choices? He gives choices to us! In the recent Church at Home {churchathome.org} The Delusion of Drugs, there’s a clip that shows someone who has been on drugs a long time. The whole family is there and they keep talking to him and saying:
‘You can recover. Why don’t you come with us and we’ll help you?’ NO! then the mother would say, ‘Look, I can help you so much, and these people here, we’re all going to help you. Why don’t you come?’ NO! Then someone else says, ‘We’ll be able to do this, that and the other, why don’t you stop the drugs and come?’ NO!
He said at least seven or eight times and finally it showed the whole family group—must have been about a dozen—and he stood up and walked out! Quite a thing! So, whatever we choose today, if it is good, that’s fine. But:
· What are we going to choose tomorrow?
· What do we do when we make bad choices?
· Or do things that are not right?
Verse 57: “May the LORD our God be with us as He was with our fathers. Let Him not leave us nor forsake us.”
In the New Testament--Heb. 13—and God says, ‘I will not ever, no, not ever leave you.’ That’s quite a thing! Actually in the Hebrew there are five negatives that:
· He’s not going to leave you
· He’s won’t forsake you
· He won’t turn His back on you
Verse 58: “To incline our hearts…” How do you incline your heart to God? By knowing that:
· everything we have comes from God
· be thankful for what God has given
· use what God has given, whether much or little
It’s the attitude in how you use it!
“…to Himself, to walk in all His ways and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments which He commanded our fathers. And let these my words, with which I have made supplications before the LORD, be near the LORD our God day and night…” (vs 58-59).
Here we have it written for us! This is in about 1000B.C. Here we are 3,000 years later reading the same words, and it tells you that human nature is exactly the same today as it was back then.
“…so that He may maintain the cause of His servant and the cause of His people Israel at all times as the matter requires, that all the people of the earth may know that the LORD is God; there is no other” (vs 59-60).
Think about how the world would have been completely different IF from this time forward Solomon would have kept this attitude and helped the people of Israel keep this attitude, and then the successor kings that came along.
Verse 61: “And let your heart be perfect with the LORD our God… [New Testament doctrine] …to walk in His statutes and to keep His commandments, as at this day.” That’s quite a thing!
Psa. 74 is written by Asaph, one of the priests. This is just before they went into captivity. This is when the temple was being destroyed in 536B.C.
Psalm 74:1: “O God, why have You cast us off forever? Why does Your anger smoke against the sheep of Your pasture? Remember Your congregation, which You have purchased of old, the rod of Your inheritance, which You have redeemed; this Mount Zion in which You have dwelt. Lift up Your feet unto the perpetual ruins; all this destruction the enemy has done in the sanctuary” (vs 1-3). Here he’s seeing everything being destroyed.
Verse 4: “Your enemies roar in the midst of Your congregation; they set up their own banners for signs. They seem like men who lifted up their axes against the thick trees” (vs 4-5).
Verse 7: “They burned Your sanctuary to the ground… [v 8]: They said in their hearts, ‘Together let us rage against them’; they have burned up all God’s meeting places in the land.” All the synagogues were destroyed!
Verse 9: “We did not see our signs; there is no longer any prophet; neither is there among us any who knows how long.” How long is this going to be?
Think about this prayer, because there is something that is really missing here.
Verse 11: “Why do You withdraw Your hand, even Your right hand? Draw it out of Your bosom and consume them, for God is my King of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth, You divide the sea…” (vs 11-13).
Verse 14: “You crushed the heads of leviathan in pieces… [v 15]: You break open the fountain and the flood…”
Verse 16: “The day is Yours, the night also is Yours; You have established the light and the sun. You have set all the boundaries of the earth…” (vs 16-17).
Verse 18: “Remember this--that the enemy has reproached, O LORD, and the foolish people have blasphemed Your name.” Quite a prayer! Very earnest!
What is missing? This is the same way that the Jews look at enemies today, but what is missing?
Verse 19: “O deliver not the life of Your turtledove unto the wild beasts; forget not the lives of Your afflicted people forever. Have respect unto the covenant; for the dark places of the earth are full of the houses of cruelty” (vs 19-20).
What was the covenant with God? Deut. 28; Lev. 26!
Verse 21: “Oh, let not the oppressed ones return ashamed; let the poor and needy praise Your name. Arise, O God, plead Your own cause; remember how the foolish man reproaches You daily. Forget not the voice of Your enemies; the noise of those who rise up against You increases continually” (vs 21-23).
What is missing? Nothing about confession of sin and repentance!
You can rage against the enemy all you want. You can cry out to God all you want to come and kill the enemy. But unless there’s repentance, it isn’t going to be! Same way with today.
For the carnal people in the world, God will accept something less than what’s required for conversion, because they’re in the world and they’re unconverted.
Psalm 78:34: “When He slew them, then they sought Him…” Every time there’s a great disaster, people return to God somewhat, but never under repentance and conversion.
“…and they turned back and sought after God earnestly. And they remembered that God was their Rock, and the Most High God was their Redeemer. Nevertheless, they flattered Him with their mouths, and they lied to Him with their tongues, for their heart was not steadfast with Him; either were they faithful in His covenant” (vs 34-37).
In Psa. 74 Asaph says to remember the covenant. God never forgot it! God was never slack in it! Who did the forgetting? The people! But in spite of all of that, because of His promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob:
Verse 38: “But He, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity and did not destroy them; yea, many times He turned His anger away and did not stir up all His wrath, for He remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passes away and does not come again” (vs 38-39).
That’s quite a statement about Israel! IF they would have done like Solomon said, then it would have been different.
Let’s look at the opposite, Dan. 9. This is quite a chapter because it is so profound that it ends up with the prophecy of the Messiah. As we read this, you will see why Daniel was one of the most righteous. Not that he necessarily did everything perfectly as far as the law is concerned. Notice the two differences:
Psa. 74—Asaph is saying, ‘God, go after the enemy; look at what they’re doing, see what is happening. They’re destroying us They got us all bottled up! And so forth.
· Not a word of repentance!
· Not a word of the cause why all these things happen!
Remember the history of the temple, Jeremiah was called by King Zedekiah to ask what’s going to happen, because the enemy was all around.
Jeremiah said, ‘You’re going into captivity! But you can avoid the destruction of the city and the destruction of the temple if you just surrender to Nebuchadnezzar.’ Then he would have probably left him there as a vassal king.
What did Zedekiah[transcriber’s correction] do? He said, ‘Leave and don’t tell anyone you were here. If they find out you were here, tell them thus and such’ Well, Zedekiah tried to escape with his sons. Quite a lesson! If God tells you to do one thing, and you turn around and do the other thing, it isn’t going to work! It wasn’t successful! The troops of Nebuchadnezzar caught the king and his sons—who left by night—by a secret way out and brought them before Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar had the eyes of the king removed!
So, it’s a fearful thing to go against God in whatever it is!
Daniel 9:2: “In the first year of his reign… [Darius the son of Ahasuerus (v 1)] …I, Daniel, understood by books the number of the years, which came according to the Word of the LORD to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years.”
Notice the complete change of attitude compared to Asaph, v 3: “And I set my face toward the LORD God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes. And I prayed to the LORD my God and made my confession…” (vs 3-4).
What does it mean “…understood by books…”? (v 2). He probably had Jeremiah’s, Isaiah’s and perhaps maybe some of Ezekiel’s prophecies!
Notice how Daniel approaches God. Asaph said, ‘Lord, look at what they’re doing to Your people.’ Here’s what Daniel said:
“…‘O LORD, the great and awesome God, keeping the covenant and mercy to those who love Him, and to those who keep His commandments’” (v 4).
John 14:15: “If you love Me, keep the commandments—namely, My commandments.”
Daniel 9:5: “We have sinned… [confessing sin] …and have committed iniquity and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, and have turned aside from Your commandments and from Your ordinances”--turned their back on them!
Verse 6: “Neither have we hearkened unto Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings, our rulers, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.”
He’s rehearsing what went on before they went into captivity. But most of them were just like Asaph, ‘O God, You’re doing all of this, why don’t you come and destroy the enemy.
God is waiting for them to repent! ‘When are you going to repent and confess your sins? When are you going to turn to Me. I’ll forgive you.
We have the promise given with Solomon. ‘If they turn to You, You will forgive them.’
Verse 7: “O LORD, righteousness belongs to You, but to us confusion of face, as at this day to the men of Judah and to the people of Jerusalem, and to all Israel who are near… [those in Babylon] …and who are afar off… [wherever the Israelites were by that time] …through all the countries where You have driven them because they dealt treacherously with You.”
In reading this I think about the Code of Jewish Law and all of that; how they set that in place of God’s Law, though it has some of God’s Laws in it. But the laws and commandments of men cannot make you right with God; it’s just impossible. I think about the Protestants. If you watch TBN and you look at what these ministers do, it’s quite a thing. They use the name of God over and over again, and we’ll see later what Isaiah has to say about that.
Verse 8: “O Lord, confusion of face belongs to us, to our kings, to our rulers, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against You…. [that’s quite a confession there] …To the LORD our God belong mercies and forgivenesses even though we have rebelled against Him” (vs 8-9).
Think about the two worst kings, one in Israel—Ahab—and God sent Elijah there to tell him that he was the most wicked man in the world and ‘God is going to destroy you and the dogs are going to lick up your blood and Jezebel’s blood.’ What did Ahab do? He listened! The Bible says he put on sackcloth and ashes and walked ‘tenderly.’
So, as Elijah was on his way going back, God said to him, ‘Go back to My servant Ahab.’ What’s that, Lord! ‘He has repented!’ So, Elijah had to modify the prophecy and say, ‘It’s not going to happen right away, it will happen later.’ Sure enough it did happen!
Then you have the king of Judah—Manasseh—who got involved in witchcraft and false spirits and demons. He built idols and had homosexual booths built around inside the temple area. The king of Nineveh came and took him away captive to Babylon, because they controlled Babylon at that time, and there he repented and came back and cleaned up the temple, tore down the idols and the booths.
So, never say that you have sinned a sin so bad that God can’t forgive it. Unless you blaspheme the Holy Spirit and rebel against God and have no remorse, your sins can be forgiven.
Verse 12: “And He has confirmed His words, which He spoke against us and against our judges who judged us by bringing upon us a great evil, for under the whole heaven it has not been done as it has been done upon Jerusalem…. [quite a confession] …As it is written in the Law of Moses, all this evil has come upon us….” (vs 12-13)--Deut. 28; Lev. 26.
Think about what’s happening with us to today in America. Think about what is happening with Judah over there in Jerusalem and what is called ‘the Holy Land.’ They blame all the enemy! The enemy is doing this! Let’s build up our fornications! Let’s detect them and catch them before they do it. But not a word of repentance and turning to God! That would change the whole picture.
How can you say you’re clean from sin when you have all this abortion and drugs going on? Impossible!
“…Yet, we did not make our prayer before the LORD our God… [confession their fault] …that we might turn from our iniquities and understand Your Truth” (v 13). We’ll see in a minute when you turn your back on Truth!
Verse 14: “Therefore, the LORD did not hesitate concerning the evil that He brought upon us, for the LORD our God is righteous in all His works, which He does, but we did not obey His voice.”
There we have the three words: obey My voice! Amazing! Today we have no excuse; we’ve got the whole Word of God, all the voice of God, all written for us! And all the teachings of Christ written for us!
Verse 15: “And now, O LORD our God, Who has brought Your people out from the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and has made a name for Yourself, as it is this day, we have sinned, we have done wickedly!” Quite a difference from Psa. 74!
Verse 16: “O LORD, I pray You, according to all Your righteousness, let Your anger and Your fury be turned away from Your city Jerusalem, Your Holy mountain. Because of our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people have become a reproach to all those who are around us.” Complete abject confession and repentance!
Verse 17: “And now, therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of Your servant, and his supplications, and cause Your face to shine upon Your sanctuary that is desolate for the LORD’S sake…. [quite a thing] …O my God, incline Your ear and hear. Open Your eyes and behold our desolations, and the city which is called by Your name. For we do not present our supplications before You on account of our righteousnesses, but because of Your great mercies” (vs 17-18). Getting self completely out of it!
Verse 19: “O LORD, hear; O LORD, forgive; O LORD, hearken and do. Do not delay, for Your own sake, O my God; for Your city and Your people are called by Your name.”
· Who came immediately? Gabriel!
· What did Gabriel bring? The prophecy of when the Messiah would come!
ü first when the city would be built
ü next when the Messiah would come
ü then the gap between His crucifixion and the last seven years, which is filled in with the book of Revelation
Quite a thing! Very moving, indeed! Just think how God honors prayers when there is the right repentance, confession, then God forgives! (watch for second half posting soon).
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