THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION

Psalms: Living By Faith In God

XII. Handling The Loss Of The Godly And Of Truth

(Psalm 12:1-8)

Introduction: (To show the need . . .)

In today's world, there has been a big loss of the godly and of truth, and we need to know how to handle it:

(1) Ken Ham, Founder and CEO of Answers In Genesis, claims, "Over the years, many people have told me" that "things they were taught at school or even in church caused them to doubt God's Word, often leading to unbelief." (Ken Ham, "But We Had God's Word!", Answers, January-March 2022, p. 14) Mr. Ham then explained what caused this, writing, "We live in an era that really began in the 1800s. At that time, atheists (and deists) who rejected the Bible as God's Word and rejected the global flood of Noah's day began to popularize the idea that fossil layers were laid down slowly over millions of years. Sadly, at that time, a church leader in Scotland accepted the idea of millions of years and added them into a supposed gap between the first two verses of Genesis. This gap theory became very prevalent in many churches" to where "(m)any of the great Bible teachers of past generations taught" it "and some taught the day-age theory [that the six days of Genesis 1 each comprised millions of years of evolution], theistic evolution [that God used evolutionary processes to create over millions of years], and so on." (Ibid., p. 14-15)

(2) A similar departure from truth occurs today in the realm of the COVID-19 vaccine issue: When "(t)he CEOs of vaccine-makers Pfizer and Moderna joined . . . (r)abbis, cardinals, imams and representatives of Christian denominations . . . in opening a unique Vatican conference on COVID-19 . . . Dr. Anthony Fauci . . . who leads the U. S. pandemic response, opened the meeting by saying the pandemic had confirmed to him that faith and science are constantly evolving." (Nicole Winfield, "Vatican conference features Fauci, Francis – and Aerosmith, Republican-American, May 7, 2021, p. 3B) By this statement, Dr. Fauci was countering "the religiously inspired resistance to taking COVID-19 vaccines that were . . . developed using lines of cells derived from aborted fetuses," and in harmony with Dr. Fauci's effort, "(t)he Vatican has declared that all COVID-19 vaccines are not only morally licit, but that people have a moral responsibility to get the jabs to protect others," Ibid.

Due to such endorsements by prominent religious leaders, many people think that the cell lines used to develop the vaccines came from a few babies who were already dead by abortion decades ago so that the connection between the vaccines and abortion is so remote that there is no moral problem in taking the vaccines. (Monica Seeley, "Exploring the dark world of vaccines and fetal tissue research: Part 2," Catholic World Report, May 26, 2021; cwr.com) However, that belief both errs and opens the door to compromise with evolutionary values: Pamela Acker, a vaccine expert who spent nine months in a lab to perform vaccine research on the use of the HEK-293 cell line that was used to develop the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, claimed "'probably hundreds of abortions'" led to that cell line, that the fetuses were taken "'via cesarean section'" where they were "'still alive when the researchers started extracting the tissue,'" producing "'extreme amounts of pain'" for the babies. (Jonna Marcaida Calagui, "Vaccination Expert Says Unborn Babies Used For COVID-19 Vaccines Were Alive During Tissue Extraction," January 14, 2021; christianitydaily.com) Pamela Acker's book, "Vaccination: A Catholic Perspective," explains that evolutionary thinking by scientists who perform such research has led them to treat human fetuses so brutally, for they view man as a mere animal, not existing in the image of God. (kolbecenter.org/product/vaccination-a-catholic-perspective/) Thus, the pressure is on for Christians to compromise the Genesis 1:26-27 view that man exists in God's image with an evolutionary value system that condones the development of vaccines by the brutal killing of live human babies.

Need: So, we ask, "How can we handle the big decline in the godly and in truth in today's world?!"

I. David called for God to help since the godly "come to an end" (gamal, B. D. B., A Heb. and Eng. Lex. of the O. T., p. 170) and the faithful "disappear, vanish" (pasas, Ibid., p. 821) from society, Psalm 12:1.

II. The psalmist explained this issue, noting that the departure from truth had led to this crisis, Psalm 12:2:

A. Those who were the "godly" (hasid, Ibid., p. 339) and the "faithful ones" ('emunim, Ibid., p. 52-53) in Psalm 12:1 were being replaced by ungodly and unreliable people who lied and deviously flattered, Psalm 12:2 ESV.

B. Thus, there was a great breakdown in truth in society with the result that there was a growing distrust of one's neighbor, what only tended to fragment society and cause all kinds of suffering for vulnerable people.

III. Thus, David asked God to punish the wicked and deliver the afflicted, and God answered him, v. 3-5:

A. He asked God to cut off all flattering lips and every boastful tongue that claimed, "With our tongue we will prevail, our lips are with us; who is master over us?" as if they were not answerable to God! (Psa. 12:3-4 ESV)

B. God responded, saying, "Because the poor are plundered, because the needy groan, I will now arise . . . I will place him in the safety for which he longs," Psalm 12:5 ESV; Ryrie St. Bible, KJV, 1978, ftn. to Psalm 12:5.

IV. These words from the Lord were so edifying to David that he praised God for them, Psalm 12:6:

A. David claimed that the Lord's words were ethically and morally "clean, pure." (tahur, Ibid., B. D. B., p. 373)

B. He added that God's words were precious, like silver that is refined in a furnace of clay, purified seven times so that they were as "valuable as fully refined silver," Psalm 12:6b. (Ibid., Ryrie, ftn. to Psalm 12:6)

V. Accordingly, David expressed confidence that the Lord would keep His people safe and protect them from such wicked men who do so much damage with their deceitful, manipulating speech, Psalm 12:7.

VI. David made a final observation about the wicked, that they strut arrogantly about when what is vile is honored among men, Psalm 12:8 ESV; Ibid., Ryrie, ftn. to Psalm 12:8. The prevalence of sins committed by deceitful speech is directly proportioned to the degree that what is vile is honored in society!

Lesson: When confronted with men who arrogantly misused their words to deceive vulnerable people, doing them great harm because what was vile was being honored in society, encouraging such wicked behavior, David sought God's intervention by prayer, and the Lord provided it in keeping with His invaluable, edifying Word.

Application: (1) May we trust in Christ Who died as our Atoning Sacrifice for sin that we might receive God's gift of eternal life, John 3:16; 1 Corinthians 15:1-11. (2) When facing the loss of godly, reliable people in society since vileness is honored, what encourages the wicked to strut about harming others with their words in thinking no one will hold them accountable, may we call on God for help and highly prize and heed His Word for great blessing.

Conclusion: (To illustrate the message . . .)

(1) Heeding David's example of highly valuing and greatly respecting God's Word, we note that Scripture addresses each problem mentioned in our introduction: (a) First, on the "gap theory" view that God created the universe in Genesis 1:1, but that Satan then fell into sin and entered the world to corrupt it so that God destroyed it, producing the chaotic state of Genesis 1:2, that there is thus a time gap of many millions of years between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2 (Bruce K. Waltke, Creation and Chaos, 1974, p. 19), the historical and original Hebrew text's literary contexts do not allow for such a theory (as follows): (i) The Hebrew letter waw that introduces verse 2 is a "waw conjunctive" that merely introduces an added idea where the waw introducing verse 3 is a "waw consecutive" that presents an event that follows another event in narrative sequence (Ibid., p. 21-22) (ii) Also, utilizing the literary structure of other Ancient Near Eastern cosmogonies [accounts of the origin of the universe], Moses used an independent clause in Genesis 1:1 to introduce his overall theme of God's creative work followed by a circumstantial clause in Genesis 1:2 to describe the chaotic state of the world before God put it in order and then he started at Genesis 1:3 to describe the sequential steps by use of a series of waw consecutives by which God first formed and then filled the universe. (Ibid., p. 22-36; George Buchanan Gray, The Forms of Hebrew Poetry, 1972, p. 52-53) (b) Second, on the belief that God used evolutionary processes over millions of years in Genesis 1 to create the universe, the content of that chapter does not permit it: (i) Each "day" is composed of an "evening" and a "morning," parts of a 24-hour period! (ii) Everywhere else in the Pentateuch (5 books of Moses – Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy) where "day" appears with a numerical adjective as in Genesis 1-2, "day" is a 24-hour period. (Ibid., Ryrie, ftn. to Gen. 1:5) (iii) The order of creation events cannot allow for evolution, for plant life came before the stellar bodies (Gen. 1:11-19) and birds came before land animals (Gen. 1:20-25), etc. (iv) Eve was made from Adam's rib, what demands special creation, Gen. 2:21-22. (c) Third, on abortion, (i) Exodus 21:22-23 with (ii) Psalm 51:5 reveal that human life begins at conception, that taking the life of a fetus at any trimester kills a human being! (d) Fourth, on Dr. Fauci's claim that "faith and science are constantly evolving" like the universe allegedly evolved according to evolutionists, (i) Psalm 119:89 ESV claims God's Word is forever firmly fixed in the heavens and (ii) 2 Timothy 3:13-4:1 claims Scripture counters all deception we face as a set rule of truth until Christ's kingdom so that God's truth is absolute and eternal, never changing! Whatever Scripture teaches on creation or abortion is fixed truth throughout man's history! (e) Fifth, on the evolutionary value system that treats man as an animal leading to human fetuses being brutally treated to harvest cell lines from them to develop medicines, God's unchanging Word asserts that man is made in God's image, so those who murder human infants demean the image of God in man, a capital offense! (Genesis 9:6)

(2) Heeding David's example, may we pray to the Lord for His "help" in an era of waning godliness and truth!

May we trust in Christ Who died as our Atoning Sacrifice for sin that we might receive God's gift of eternal life. When facing the loss of godly people and the truth in society, may we call on God for help and highly value and thus resolutely heed His unchanging, authoritative, holy, precious written Word for blessing.