THE SCORNER

        THE SCORNER

       The Word of God speaks often of the Scorner.  He is a despicable twit.  The Scorner will refuse to forgive the person he holds in contempt regardless of how much that person humbles himself before the Scorner or how diligently he seeks resolution with the Scorner.  The Scorner may give an outward show of resolution to the arbitrator, but will eventually find another issue to continue his diatribe against the person he holds in contempt.  This is a sure way of knowing you are dealing with a Scorner.

          This is a description of a carnal nature waging war (James 4:2-3).  It involves the age-old battle that began back in the Garden of Eden.  It is the battle for the Lordship of the will.  The Scorner fights for self-gratification in order to get his own way.  It is a battle for control and leadership.  It is just a giant ego trip to nowhere.  Even if he wins, he loses.  It is a no win situation.  The Scorner loses.  The person he attacks loses.  The local church loses, but most of all, the cause of Christ loses. 

          Humble spirituality is always more concerned about righteousness and reconciliation rather then faultfinding.  Carnality focuses on faultfinding.  In the extreme sense of faultfinding, this is a classic symptom of the Scorner. 

In James 3:18, godly wisdom in this area is shown by the motivational desire to make peace, not wage war. 

          It is important to understand the make-up of the local church.  Is the local church made up ONLY of mature Christians who know how to resolve problems and handle conflict?  Hardly, it is made up of believers at all levels of spiritual growth.  There are essentially five basic levels of spiritual maturity in any local church.

• 1. It is made up of BABBLING BABIES who need constant attention.  They need to be bottle fed and have their diapers changed (they make a lot of messes).
• 2. It is made up of TEMPER TANTRUM THROWING TODDLERS who throw themselves down and throw a fit to try and get their way.  Do not let them get by with it.
• 3. It is made up of ADULATING ADOLESCENTS who constantly struggle with the transitions between knowledge and application, between preaching and practice, who always seem to think they know more than they know and who think more highly of themselves than they ought.  It is at this level of spiritual growth that many Christians have major problems with their spiritual authorities (as pastors).
• 4. It is made up of YOUNG ADULTS, just starting to grow strong in development of their own personal values and priorities and who are beginning to reproduce through personal evangelism.
• 5. It is made up of MATURE CHRISTIANS, who, for the most part, are faithful in their service and discipleship ministry, but occasionally fall back into one of their childhood practices.

          These are the kinds of people that make up the local church.  Therefore, we should expect personal conflict in the local church and learn to resolve it Scripturally.  If we have a disagreement with a brother or sister in Christ, we should judge our own motives first by asking a few questions of ourselves.

1. Are we doing everything in our power to practically and tangibly show love to that person?

2. Are we working to help overcome a fault we perceive to be there or do we just condemn him/her for it?

3. Are we doing everything WE can to promote him/her in his/her cause for Christ and to help him/her succeed in his ministry for Christ or are we undermining that ministry and destroying his/her credibility?

          It is the Scorner (male or female) that we must watch out for.  The Scorner is an unforgiving person who holds another person in contempt and is often indignant towards people, frequently castigating someone because the Scorner has been offended for some reason.  The source of this contempt is either conviction of some sin that the Scorner is not willing to repent of or self-righteousness.  The Scorner’s spirit is closed to the truth of his sinful selfishness and to anyone that he thinks sees him for what he is (a scorner) and understands what his real spiritual condition is.

          Scorner’s are often self-righteous people who hold everyone to a higher standard of living than they have for themselves.  Contempt for those that do not meet their hypocritical evaluation criteria is the common way they manifest their self-righteousness and the way a scorner is exposed. 

          My wife noticed a woman in one of our churches who obviously held me in contempt.  She never laughed at my jokes and frequently showed her contempt for me by non-verbal communication (mannerisms such as folding her arms over her chest when she closed her heart to what I was saying or rolling her eyes in ridicule to what I said).  I shrugged my wife’s comments off not giving them much consideration.  However, not long after that, this person began to attack through Loaded Guns, doing much damage.  When I finally left the church many years later, I was told she celebrated my leaving as a victory for herself.

          The contempt and carnal indignation of the Scorner comes from his/her own unwillingness to forgive or look beyond a person’s faults to his potential in Christ and help that person grow in the grace of Christ.  The Scorner does not see people with compassion or with a heart to help them grow. 

The Scorner wants to be rid of the person held in contempt and will do about anything to get rid of him.

          The Scorner is a dangerous person in a local church.  Be sure, if you have one, he/she will eventually be the source of serious conflict to the Pastor or within the local church.  The reason this is true is due to the spiritual dynamic of preaching.  As the pastor preaches the Word of God, a spiritual dynamic is taking place.  The Spirit of God uses the truth being preached to confront the carnal Christian’s lifestyle.  If that believer is not willing to yield his will to the will of God as the Spirit of God brings conviction, the hardening to the will of God will bring about guilt.  The carnal Christian will then begin to rationalize about the area of his life he is not willing to yield to God’s will in order to justify himself.  In doing so, his rationalization will generate contempt for the message preached and, ultimately, contempt for the preacher that preaches it.  The conscience will become “seared” and the heart will become hardened and closed to any future confrontation resulting in running, covering, and hiding or attacking the Messenger.

          In my experience, when a Scorner reveals himself by contemptuous actions, this is usually the dynamic behind his contempt.  The Scorner’s contemptuous actions seek to rid himself of the person he holds in contempt rather than seeking a solution to this conflict that is going on in his own soul through confession, repentance, and yielding to God’s will.  The Scorner’s taking offense is often a mask of his own guilt about something he is not willing to yield to God. 

“Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them” (Psalm 119:165).

          The problem here is simple.  The solution is equally simple.  The Scorner is under conviction about something the Spirit of God reveals about his life that is out of harmony with God’s Word.  The solution involves confronting the Scorner with the fact of his own self-deception regarding whatever it is he is unwilling to yield to the Lord.  Unless Christians understand this dynamic, the Scorner will frequently be successful in driving the person held in contempt out of the Church, often the Pastor.  God forbid that any church allows this to happen to their Pastor. 

          That is why God tells us to deal swiftly and harshly with the Scorner.  However, if the Pastor is the person being held in contempt and being attacked by the Scorner, the deacons of the church need to surround him and protect him from the Scorner.  The deacons should be the people dealing with the Scorner.  The Pastor (or any person being attacked by the Scorner) will not be able to resolve this.  The Scorner’s contempt will keep him/her from seeking resolution because the Scorner’s focus is on revenge and destruction (even though they will deny this).  This is also why God tells us that when we try to deal with the Scorner, we should expect retaliation and implosion.

“He that reproveth a scorner getteth to himself shame: and he that rebuketh a wicked man getteth himself a blot” (Proverbs 9:7).

          According to this verse of Scripture, the Scorner will seek to bring “shame” upon the person who seeks to correct him and the Scorner will try to put a “blot” upon his character (the “wicked man” is synonymous with the Scorner).  Expect this kind of response from the Scorner.  The word “shame” in the above verse is from the Hebrew word qalown (kaw-lone’).  In the strictest sense, it means to expose a person’s nakedness (pudenda).  In other words, expect this person to do just about anything to destroy the character of the one held in contempt or to demean that person in the eyes of other people.  A Scorner will find something (even if he has to make something up or exaggerate some fault) to denigrate the person who seeks to reprove him.

          The following verses list other things you can expect from the “scorner.”  These things do not mean you should not do what you are supposed to do in reproving the Scorner, it is just that God wants us to be aware of what can be expected from the Scorner when the Word of God brings him/her under conviction and he/she is not willing to repent.  These responses are things that will make the Scorner evident to everyone.

“Reprove not a scorner, lest he hate thee: rebuke a wise man, and he will love thee” (Proverbs 9:8).

“A wise son heareth his father’s instruction: but a scorner heareth not rebuke” (Proverbs 13:1).

“A scorner seeketh wisdom, and findeth it not: but knowledge is easy unto him that understandeth” (Proverbs 14:6).

“A scorner loveth not one that reproveth him: neither will he go unto the wise” (Proverbs 15:12).

          Because Scorners can be such a difficult people to deal with, they intimidate many people.  Scorners count on intimidation.  They have learned that intimidation is a very powerful tool in getting their way.  If the Scorner is allowed to play his little game of carnality in the church for very long, expect him to gather a following and expect war. 

          God tells us to deal swiftly and harshly with the Scorner.  There is too much at stake to play Patty-Cake with this type of person.  Deacons should especially learn to discern the characteristics of Scorners and be willing to deal with them before they can attack the Pastor and his family (and Satan will eventually lead them there by that ring of carnality he put in mankind’s nose at the fall). 

          God wants the Scorner dealt with swiftly and harshly to avoid the corruption of the “simple” in the church.  The word “simple” in the following verses is from the Hebrew word p@thiy (peth-ee’).  It refers to the person easily influenced by someone else or to the person easy enticed or seduced into error.  It refers to a naïve person who does not understand the spiritual dynamic of truth, conviction, guilt and a proper Biblical response to that dynamic.

          This is the type of person the Scorner USES.  The “simple” person needs to be protected from the Scorner.  Primarily, the Scorner needs to be publicly dealt with clearly and directly to avoid the spiritual corruption of the “simple.”

“Smite a scorner, and the simple will beware: and reprove one that hath understanding, and he will understand knowledge” (Proverbs 19:25). 

“When the scorner is punished, the simple is made wise: and when the wise is instructed, he receiveth knowledge” (Proverbs 21:11).

          The source of the Scorner’s carnality is his pride and self-righteousness.  He becomes his own measuring stick for all other people of what is right or good.  If anyone does not bow down to the Scorner’s opinion, that person automatically becomes another target of the Scorner’s contempt. 

“Proud and haughty scorner is his name, who dealeth in proud wrath” (Proverbs 21:24)

          There is only one solution to the problem of the unrepentant Scorner. 

“Cast out the scorner, and contention shall go out; yea, strife and reproach shall cease” (Proverbs 22:10).

“The thought of foolishness is sin: and the scorner is an abomination to men” (Proverbs 24:9).

Anonymous comments will not be allowed. 
Numerous studies and series are available free of charge for local churches at: http://www.disciplemakerministries.org/ 
Dr. Lance Ketchum serves the Lord as a Church Planter, Evangelist/Revivalist. 
He has served the Lord for over 40 years.

Destroyed Foundations!

Destroyed Foundations!

 
         Faith is a choice, but biblical faith is not a blind leap into the darkness. God does not define faith in that way. Biblical faith finds its foundations in the inspired Words of God. In other words, biblical faith begins with believing that the Bible is the very Word of God. Faith apart from the knowledge of God that comes through the knowledge of God's inspired Bible is really not faith at all in that it has no foundations.

"¹ To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. In the LORD put I my trust: how say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain? ² For, lo, the wicked bend their bow, they make ready their arrow upon the string, that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart. ³ If the foundations be 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 try, the children of men. ⁵ The LORD trieth the righteous: but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth. ⁶ Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup. ⁷ For the righteous LORD loveth righteousness; his countenance doth behold the upright" (Psalm 11:1-7).

          Every new generation of Christianity morphs itself into some abstract of reality. This generation of professing Christians at the beginning of the twenty-first century are four or five generations away from ever having to really "earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints" (Jude 1:3). In most part, we are a generation whose only knowledge of Liberalism is some abstract sense of outcomes and dictionary definitions. There are few alive today who actually wielded the Sword of the Lord in the middle of the onslaught of the attack of theological Liberalism as it sought to undermine and destroy the very foundations of the faith. Most professing Christians have very little comprehension even of what theological Liberalism is. They certainly do not understand the birth children of theological Liberalism known as New Evangelism, Ecumenicism, Theonomic Reconstructionism, or even such things as the New Age Movement.  

We are a generation of Christianity that has grown into some abstract sense of spiritual immaturity when in fact we do not even know what spiritual maturity looks like, let alone what is involved in being spiritually mature. We have bathed ourselves in the socially engineered propaganda provided by Liberalism inviting it into our homes in the forms of public Humanistic education, television, worldly music, and Hollywood films. The foundations have been destroyed while we stood on the sidelines and watched it happen. We have allowed true biblical Christianity to be marginalized by the world by allowing Bible doctrine to be minimized in our churches.  

We have this lofty idea about ourselves as we see ourselves standing above the problem when in fact we are very much a part of the problem. This was exactly the condition of the nation of Israel when God raised up the prophet Isaiah. The vision of the Lord that Isaiah received is a vision every Christian living when the foundations have been destroyed MUST see. We must understand Isaiah's vision of God because this vision reveals to us the basic meaning of destroyed foundations.  

Every new generation must have a renewed vision of God and our purpose in His plan because every new generation of Christians are an extension of the foundation upon which the next generation must build. Each new generation of Christians are the foundations that are being destroyed by compromise and corrupted, liberalized doctrine. A foundation of Christianity is destroyed when that generation is weakened in its resolve to fight the fight of faith and to battle against the world's efforts to incorporate us into something that distorts the image of God.

"¹ In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. ² Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. ³ And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. ⁴ And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. ⁵ Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts. ⁶ Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: ⁷ And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged. ⁸ Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me" (Isaiah 6:1-8).

        We often read this text and miss its instructional intent. Although the focus is upon Isaiah's vision of God in all His glory and holiness, the emphasis of the text is upon how that understanding of God changed Isaiah's view of his own spirituality. In turn, Isaiah's understanding of the Person of God changed Isaiah's view of even the most spiritual in the nation of Israel. The statement of Isaiah 6:5 is profound in ways we cannot even comprehend. "

Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts." The Hebrew word translated "I am undone" means Isaiah was brought to silence as he viewed in awesome terror the holiness of God. Yet, even that does not give us the total meaning of Isaiah's transformational understanding of humanity compared to the character and nature of God. Isaiah saw his own character and nature compared to God's.  

          Most of us are like Isaiah. We are saved and no longer live like the rest of the world. However, we confuse having a knowledge of righteousness with being righteous. We see ourselves as part of the solution to the world's problem when in fact we are, in most part, still partners with the world and part of the problem. This is what Isaiah saw when he saw himself and the rest of the best of Israel compared to God. The foundations are beginning to crumble under our feet because we do not see that our feet are part of the crumbling.  

Generation after generation of Christians degenerate and morph into abstracts of the real thing because we lose the historical context through which previous generations fought. Liberalism was birthed out of German Rationalism, Higher Criticism, and Lower Criticism. These were professing Christians that questioned everything. The verbal plenary inspiration of the Scriptures was questioned, critiqued, and morphed into every abstract of reality possible. The outcome was that very few professing Christians any longer trusted their Bibles as the foundation for absolute truth. The Liberals considered this outcome progress. Once the foundation of verbal, plenary inspiration was destroyed, the Liberals began to attack the cardinal doctrines of the faith. The foundation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ was destroyed for many by destroying faith in the virgin birth, and the deity of Jesus. The foundation of the doctrine of redemption was destroyed by destroying the doctrine of substitionary atonement and the elimination of any teaching on the Blood of Christ. Liberalism left Christianity emaciated and powerless to engage the world because Christianity now held in common the world's values. The problem was that in the transition this new Christianity ceased to be true Christianity.  

True Christianity was demonized and radicalized by Liberalism and then marginalized into cultural irrelevancy. From that position of irrelevancy many began asking the same question David asked. "

If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do" (Psalm 11:3)? Their answer to the question was to try to make God relevant to the world once again. From this, the already compromising New Evangelicalism morphed into the Emerging Church and even more corrupt, inclusive forms of Ecumenicism. The corruption of separatism and militant Fundamentalism morphed into soft separatism using Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) and became a new kind of New Evangelical converging itself with all forms of theological corruption in the pursuit of something called cultural relevancy.  

Like Isaiah, this generation of Christianity does not even comprehend the problem, let alone understand it, and therefore becomes part of the problem. They do not understand the problem because the problem is not that God is irrelevant to the world. The problem is that God has been made irrelevant to world because the God of the Bible is no longer the god the world knows. God has not changed. The world has created a false, liberal idol that has replaced the God of the Bible.  

The world is always changing by becoming more ungodly and antichrist with every generation. The problem is that the liberal world has changed Christianity when they recreated God in their image. Although most Christians may not be as unbelieving and as corrupt as the unbelieving world, in most cases we are just a few steps behind them.  

Thinking themselves to be somewhat righteous by comparing their lives to the way the world lives, they fail to look back over our shoulders to see just how far short of the glory of God they really are. We have raised a generation of children who think it is more important to be cool and sexy than it is to be holy and righteous. We are now a generation that has been so corrupted that somehow we have even convinced ourselves we can be both cool and sexy as well as holy and righteous. The foundations have been destroyed!  

Because we have lost the historical context of the struggle between righteousness and truth with unrighteousness and deception, we cannot even understand what David is asking in Psalm 11:3. Historical context is more than just important. Historical context is CRITICAL! In Psalm eleven, Saul is the king of Israel. Saul has surrounded himself with counselors who were feeding his paranoia regarding David usurping the throne of Israel. There was no danger of David doing that, but this is what Saul had allowed his mind to be filled with. In I Samuel 26:20, David states his belief regarding Saul's pursuit of David's life - "

for the king of Israel is come out to seek a flea, as when one doth hunt a partridge in the mountains."  

David has also surrounded himself with friends who were bad counselors. In Psalm 11:1-3, David is actually questioning the counsel he is receiving from his friends, "^1b how say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain? ² For, lo, the wicked bend their bow, they make ready their arrow upon the string, that they may privily shoot at the upright" (Psalm 11:1b-2). David's friends were telling him to take himself out of harm's way and go hide in obscurity in the mountains. Yes, Saul wanted to kill David. Yes, Saul was corrupting justice and promoting unrighteousness in Israel. Is the solution to these kinds of problems running away and hiding thereby silencing the voice of justice and righteousness by securing your own safety? When righteousness is threatened by unrighteousness, should the righteous flee in fear?  

What should the righteous do? The point of the discussion is that the best thing the righteous can do is BE RIGHTEOUS in the midst of unrighteousness! When the foundations of righteousness have been destroyed, true believers should become part of a new foundation of righteousness!  

This is why it is important to understand human nature and the subtlety of our propensity for Centrism. Because of our corrupted nature and our hatred for rejection, when confronted with a choice between radical unrighteousness and radical righteousness, our natural propensities for acceptance leads us to put ourselves somewhere in the center of these two radicals. Most people will do that because that is where the vast majority of people involved in making the same choice will put themselves. There is an innate tendency for the doctrinally shallow and spiritually weak to follow the majority.  

Do you think Satan understands that aspect of our corrupted character? Of course he does and he uses it against us. This is what defines progressive Liberalism. This is why and how every new generation of Christianity progressively digresses away from biblical normalcy morphing themselves into some abstract of the real thing.  

The second thing Satan depends upon is biblical ignorance. There are three progressive essentials necessary in order to avoid personally becoming part of destroying the foundations of righteousness. These three progressive essentials keep us from becoming progressive Liberals.

1. Knowledge of God's Word (II Timothy 2:15)

2. Understanding what you know ("Through thy precepts I get understanding: therefore I hate every false way." Psalm 119:104)

3. Wisdom is knowing how to apply and live what you understand

"¹ Hear, ye children, the instruction of a father, and attend to know understanding. ² For I give you good doctrine, forsake ye not my law. ³ For I was my father's son, tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother. ⁴ He taught me also, and said unto me, Let thine heart retain my words: keep my commandments, and live. ⁵ Get wisdom, get understanding: forget it not; neither decline from the words of my mouth. ⁶ Forsake her not, and she shall preserve thee: love her, and she shall keep thee. ⁷ Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding. ⁸ Exalt her, and she shall promote thee: she shall bring thee to honour, when thou dost embrace her. ⁹ She shall give to thine head an ornament of grace: a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee. ¹⁰ Hear, O my son, and receive my sayings; and the years of thy life shall be many. ¹¹ I have taught thee in the way of wisdom; I have led thee in right paths. ¹² When thou goest, thy steps shall not be straitened; and when thou runnest, thou shalt not stumble. ¹³ Take fast hold of instruction; let her not go: keep her; for she is thy life" (Proverbs 4:1).

Herein lies the problem that defines why the foundations are so easily destroyed. Every new generation begins with NONE of these three essentials to the continuation of righteousness. We begin with complete ignorance of God's Word and no comprehension of its value to our lives and existence. Therefore, we have not real motivation to learn the Word of God or invest the thousands of hours necessary to understanding the Word of God. We are naturally untrusting of people and our ignorance keeps us from being able to choose the right people to help us know what God's Word says. Human nature normally rationalizes that the majority is correct and therefore chooses what the majority chooses. Human nature avoids what the majority considers radical. The majority way is what Jesus calls the "broad way."

"¹³ Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: ¹⁴ Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it" (Matthew 7:13-14).

Our natural propensity for Centrism leads us to constantly morph ourselves into some manufactured abstract of the real thing until there are hundreds and thousands of levels of corruption. Most people have little comprehension of grammar and syntax and so they do not even have the most basic tools necessary to understand God's communication through words and language. They certainly cannot understand the use of the anthropomorphisms, similes, metaphors, or colloquialisms used so often by God in His Word. Such ignorance cripples them in the basics of understanding and applying the Word of God. Because learning all of that is hard work, most people never even make the effort. Hence darkness engulfs the light and evil commands the high ground through cultural apathy and indifference to God.  

Theological Liberalism has created political Liberalism. Political Liberalism has morphed out from theological Humanism into secular Humanism. The transition takes place from a Humanistic view of God to removing God altogether from the view. When God is taken out of theological Humanism all that is left is secular Humanism. Removing the very notion of God from the discussion is the goal of political Liberalism and secular Humanism. This is the purest and heinous form of Antichristism. Secular Humanism seeks to completely remove moral absolutes based upon the Bible with their own moral absolutes based upon political correctness.  

Removing all moral absolutes based upon the Bible and replacing those moral absolutes with politically correct absolutes are the hidden philosophies within the Common Core Curriculum being promoted by our national government. This is certainly evident in the curriculum's sex education where experimentation regarding gender oriented sexually is encouraged. Liberalism hides its real agenda behind the clouds of noble causes where the ignorant and careless are easily duped as dopes.  

"If the foundations be destroyed, what shall the righteous do?" The answer is found in Psalm 11:4-7. The answer is that there is a message for which the righteous are responsible to proclaim when confronted by the destroyed foundations of unrighteousness in any generation. The solution against the unbelief of scientific Empiricism is not a debate that offers the axiomatic defenses of apologetics. The solution against the unbelief of scientific Empiricism is the declaration of God's existence and God's sovereignty over His creation regardless of their rejection of His existence. The answer to unbelief is a message. The answer to the unbelief of Liberalism is a proclamation that there is a holy God upon His throne and unbelievers will be judged by Him in the near future. "It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment" (Hebrews 9:27). The message is Psalm 11:4-7.

"⁴ The LORD is in his holy temple, the LORD'S throne is in heaven: his eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men. ⁵ The LORD trieth the righteous: but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth. ⁶ Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup. ⁷ For the righteous LORD loveth righteousness; his countenance doth behold the upright" (Psalm 11:4-7).

The point of these verses is that even if the foundations of righteousness in this world have been destroyed, the foundations of righteousness in Heaven have not been destroyed. Even though the "born again" Christian seems powerless in the midst of the onslaught of unrighteousness, he is not. We can say with Job, "For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth" (Job 19:25). Psalm 11:4-7 tells us that we can know that God alone creates a majority in His sovereignty. Therefore, join that majority and proclaim that majority!  

It would appear that Liberalism, as in the days of old, has once again risen to a position of dominance. A nation founded upon the governance of God's Laws of righteousness has been corrupted by the very courts of Law designed to protect the Rule of Law. Moral absolutes defined and established by belief in the inspired Words of God have been replaced by the Humanistic moral absolutes of political correctness. Constitutional Law and justice have been corrupted and replaced by case history Law through the undermining of Fluid Constructionism. Churches, that once proclaimed belief in sola scriptura, have abandoned the Word of God for cultural relativism. It would seem by all appearances that righteousness is dead and its foundations have been destroyed. What does this tell the true believer living in the days of destroyed foundations? This apparent defeat tells us we are close to the revelation of the righteous One.

"³ Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, ⁴ And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. ⁵ For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: ⁶ Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: ⁷ But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men" (II Peter 3:3-7).

The point of II Peter 3:3-7 is similar to Psalm 11:4-7. God is still upon His throne! Unbelief, the advances of Liberalism, and the world's attack against everything that is holy and righteous is just a façade of victory. Do not run and hide.  

Do not let the world silence your voice or relegate your testimony to hide yourself away in obscurity. We are not the first of God's people to face this kind of dilemma. Noah faced it and preached the righteousness of God (II Peter 2:5) for the one-hundred and twenty years he spent building the Ark. The unrighteous world mocked him and ridiculed him daily as he spent all his time and resources to build and ark of survival against the judgment of God that would come in something called rain. The message to unbelievers has never changed. As we watch the advances of Liberalism and unbelief capture the hearts and souls of this world, the message we have from God is repent and believe! There is no compromise! No unbelieving Christ rejecter will be spared! God is consistent in His dealings with mankind and God's judgment is an imminent historical constant in this world.

"¹ But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. ² And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. ³ And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not. ⁴ For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; ⁵ And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; ⁶ And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly" (II Peter 2:1-6).

What is the point of religious freedoms in a society that rejects belief in God or in most part radicalizes and ridicules people of real biblical faith? According to Bill Nye the science guy, belief in a literal interpretation of a book that is thousands of years old is an endangerment to our next generation's ability to advance and compete on a global scale where other societies are not hampered by such archaisms. Or, consider the new Catholic Pope's proclamation that belief in a literal Hell or a God of wrath and condemnation no longer fits in with our New Age view of a God of love, peace, and tranquility within the vast diversities of religious beliefs. Do any of these proclamations of pseudo-wisdom change God's eternal dynamics in any way? They certainly do not. Paul's proclamation to the corrupters of the Gospel speaks just as loudly two-thousand plus years after he declared it as the day he declared it.

"⁶ I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: ⁷ Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. ⁸ But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. ⁹ As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed" (Galatians 1:6-9).

The main point of Psalm 11:4-7 is that the true believer's victory over the apparent domination of unbelief and unrighteousness will not be found in human alliances. Yet this it seems is the solution to which humanistic thinking first leads us. We rationalize that evil is advancing and unrighteousness is prevailing therefore we must become more inclusivistic in our alliances. We make such rationalistic and logical deductions without even considering that such thinking is humanistic and pragmatic. We have example after example of God's condemnation of this kind of rationalism in His dealings with the nation of Israel. When God's people make ungodly alliances to reinforce their strength by increasing their numbers, they do so at the sacrifice of their alliance with God. God hates this kind of thinking for it is really a manifestation of unbelief.  

We know that after the exodus and the twenty-six year record of the events recorded in the book of Joshua, the very next generation abandons their faithfulness to God and begins to incorporate the pornographic compromises of paganism in their midst - ONE GENERATION! The point before us is just how fragile a culture is when a culture loses its emphasis upon maintaining the purity of faith and doctrine. In one generation after the miraculous victories of the land of Canaan the miraculous is taken for granted. God is forgotten and the promises made in their covenantal declarations to Joshua are broken. Take a careful look at two Bible texts that record events just two years apart - Joshua 24:15-22 and Judges 2:10-15.

"¹⁵ And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD. ¹⁶ And the people answered and said, God forbid that we should forsake the LORD, to serve other gods; ¹⁷ For the LORD our God, he it is that brought us up and our fathers out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, and which did those great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the way wherein we went, and among all the people through whom we passed: ¹⁸ And the LORD drave out from before us all the people, even the Amorites which dwelt in the land: therefore will we also serve the LORD; for he is our God. ¹⁹ And Joshua said unto the people, Ye cannot serve the LORD: for he is an holy God; he is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins. ²⁰ If ye forsake the LORD, and serve strange gods, then he will turn and do you hurt, and consume you, after that he hath done you good. ²¹ And the people said unto Joshua, Nay; but we will serve the LORD. ²² And Joshua said unto the people, Ye are witnesses against yourselves that ye have chosen you the LORD, to serve him. And they said, We are witnesses" (Joshua 24:15-22).

"¹⁰ And also all that generation were gathered unto their fathers: and there arose another generation after them, which knew not the LORD, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel. ¹¹ And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and served Baalim: ¹² And they forsook the LORD God of their fathers, which brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of the people that were round about them, and bowed themselves unto them, and provoked the LORD to anger. ¹³ And they forsook the LORD, and served Baal and Ashtaroth. ¹⁴ And the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel, and he delivered them into the hands of spoilers that spoiled them, and he sold them into the hands of their enemies round about, so that they could not any longer stand before their enemies. ¹⁵ Whithersoever they went out, the hand of the LORD was against them for evil, as the LORD had said, and as the LORD had sworn unto them: and they were greatly distressed" (Judges 2:10-15).

"In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes" (Judges 17:6).

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Numerous studies and series are available free of charge for local churches at: http://www.disciplemakerministries.org/ 
Dr. Lance Ketchum serves the Lord as a Church Planter, Evangelist/Revivalist. 
He has served the Lord for over 40 years.