5. The Persistence of the Ungodly Psalm 78:17-22

Text: “And they sinned yet more against Him by provoking the Most High in the wilderness…Because they believed not in God, and trusted not in His Salvation.”

Psalm 78:17;22.

Good morning, Alarmed Christian!  It seems like each day you and the author open our eyes after sleep, we become alarmed at the increase in sinfulness we encounter in the lives of those all around us; it is as though Satan has caused them to fall into a deep trance from which they shall never recover until they open the eyes of their sous in a Christ-rejecter’s Hell.  Oh, that the souls of our nations would awake from their sinful sleep!  Oh, that our nation’s rebellion against all things Christian, pure, and Godly would cease!  Have mercy, Holy Lord God, and quicken these souls that lie like Spiritually dead and dry bones in this ever-growing valley of vile sin

Read Ezekiel chapter 37, verses one to ten, and catch the vision of today’s sinful nations.  Only Spiritual Regeneration can deliver ungodly nations from certain doom.

Verse 17. “And they sinned yet more against Him. It was bad enough to mistrust their God for necessities, but to revolt against Him in a greedy rage for superfluities was far worse. Ever it is the nature of the disease of sin to proceed from bad to worse; men never weary of sinning but rather increase their speed in the race of iniquity.  (C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, page 333)

Charles Haddon Spurgeon has such a wonderful way of setting forth clear truth and defining it as he goes.  This was another reason why I decided to try to reintroduce his wonderful and powerful Treasury of David to this 21^st Century church world-wide.

Note: Charles Haddon Spurgeon (19 June 1834 –31 January 1892) was an English Particular Baptist preacher. Spurgeon remains highly influential among Christians of various denominations, among whom he is known as the "Prince of Preachers". He was a strong figure in the Reformed Baptist tradition, defending the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith, and opposing the liberal and pragmatic theological tendencies in the Church of his day. (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia.)

Sin: Mankind sins naturally, because we are all born natural sinners, in Adam’s fallen image. (Genesis 5:3) (Psalm 51:5) (Romans 3:22-23) However, Scriptures warns over and over again about mankind committing ‘wilful sin’, and this is the rebellious sin here mentioned in Psalm 78.  They sinned wilfully against God.  Their disobedience was a wilful rebellion.

“He does not say that they sinned only, but that they sinned against God. And they sinned yet more against Him, namely God. Against what God?  Against Him Who had delivered them by great and unheard-of wonders out of Egypt, Who had led them as free men across the Red Sea with a dry foot, Who had continued to lead and to protect them with pillars of cloud an fire by day and night and had given them to drink abundantly of water drawn from the arid rock.  Against this God, they had added sin to sin.  Simply to sin is human, and happens to the saints even after they have received grace: but to sin against God argues a singular degree of impiety.”  (Wolfgang Musculus, 1497-1563)

Think now, alarmed Christian!  Let your alarm sound against the personal sins you and I have committed AFTER we have been saved – it will be a good remedy against the blight of self-righteousness. We should all cry out with the apostle Paul, “O wretched man that I am!”.

“Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.”  (Philippians 4:8)

 Verse 18. “And they tempted God in their heart. Christ cannot die again, and yet many crucify him afresh, because such would be the legitimate result of their behaviour if its effects were not prevented by other forces.  The sinners in the wilderness would have had the Lord change His wise proceeding to humour their whims, hence they are said to tempt Him.” (C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, page 334)

Sinful mankind is often defined as having eyes bigger than our bellies.  Greed is sin.

Verse 18. “…Asking meat for their lust. God had given them meat for their hunger in the manna, wholesome, pleasant food, and in abundance; He had given them meat for their faith…But all this would not serve, they must have meat ‘for their lust’; dainties and varieties to gratify a luxurious appetite.  Nothing is more provoking to God than our quarrelling with our allotment, and indulging the desires of the flesh.”  (Matthew Henry, 1662-1714)

These rebellious sinners were most persistent in their tempting of the Lord God – there would be little mercy shown them, once a God of righteous judgment chose to react. The arrogance of such vile, rebellious sinners only seems to increase, as God’s merciful hand is restrained from punishing their rebellious, and often gross, sin.  Nothing has changed today.  For example: legal rights to protect homosexuals, has only paved the way for arrogant and public parades of the gross sin of Sodomy; sin that the Living Lord God has proven He detests.  Fire and brimstone rained down upon the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah when God’s patience was pushed to its Holy limit.  Our Lord God is unchanging, immutable, watch out!

“Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination (vile sin).” (Leviticus 18:22)

“And likewise, also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet (a fit reward) (monkey-pox? Aids?)” (Romans 1:27)

Thought: Main reason for gross sin: “Because they believed not in God, and trusted not in His Salvation.” (Psalm 78:22) Gross sin is caused today, by persistent unbelief!