3. Rebellious Generations! Psalm 78:8-11

Text: “And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not steadfast with God.”  

Psalm 78:8.

Good morning, obedient Christian!  You seek to stay close to your Lord God daily: in close fellowship with Him through the Lord Jesus Christ, and God the Spirit Who lives within you and I and all who are born again in Christ. 

Our fellowship with the Lord God is a Spiritual exercise that other, unregenerate, souls cannot have; and it is a two-way fellowship at all times: we speak to the Lord God in sincere and reverent prayer, and the Lord God speaks to us through the pages of His Holy Word in our Bibles, and by the inner voice of God the Spirit.

“Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.  Which things also we speak not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing Spiritual things with Spiritual.  BUT the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are Spiritually discerned.”  (1 Corinthians 2:12-14)  

At all times our fellowship with the Living Lord God Jehovah, is a two-way fellowship.  One cannot ever have a one-way relationship, with God or man; it takes two parties.

Sadly, not all men/women are called to such obedience in the Spirit of God, the spirit of this world, Satan, has blinded these folk’s minds, and they have become increasingly more rebellious against the Living Lord God, and His blessed Son, Jesus Christ.

“But if our Gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ, Who is the image of God, should shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake.”  (2 Corinthians 4:3-5)

Apostasy, easy-believism, humanism, coupled with all varieties of false and pagan religions have, over the past number of generations in the United Kingdom of Great Britain & Northern Ireland, been permitted to grow and thrive throughout the land without much hindrance. 

‘Multi-faith’ tolerance has grown into, and promoted a stubborn rebellion against the founding religion of our British nation – Bible-based, born-again Christianity.

God’s Word clearly states: “Jesus answered and said unto him (Nicodemus), Verily (truly), verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again (Spiritually regenerated by God), he cannot see the Kingdom of God…That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit (capital S.) is spirit.  Marvel not that I said unto thee, YE MUST BE BORN AGAIN.”  (John 3:3-7)

Generations now, of our British nation have ignored Christ’s admonition to Nicodemus, and have gone their own way, forsaking the great Bible truths that made Britain to be GREAT Britain.

These rebellious generations have failed, miserably, to teach God’s great truths to their children – and now the nation reaps the harvest of corruption and unbelief.  God is angry with our nation, and our God is a consuming fire of wrath against all vile sin.  Take heed.

“Verse 8. “And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation. There was room for improvement.  Fathers stubborn in their own way, and rebellious against God’s way, are sorry examples for their children; and it is earnestly desired that better instruction may bring forth a better race.  It is common in some regions for men to count their family custom as the very best rule; but disobedience is not to be excused because it is hereditary.  The leprosy was none the less loathsome because it had been long in the family.”  (C.H. Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, page 333)

Verses 9-11. The Result of Disobedience to God:

Verse 9. “The children of Ephraim…armed and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle.”  Without faith in God, through Jesus Christ’s Atonement Sacrifice for our sins, an army has no courage to do battle with a nation’s foes.  The Spiritual Battle today is for the precious souls of our British nation – rebellion against God’s Ten Commandments is undermining our power to prevail against all sin and the Spiritual decline of our nation.  Oh, for a return of the New Model Army of Cromwell’s Puritan Christian warriors!

“Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.  No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please Him Who hath chosen him to be a soldier.”  (2 Timothy 2:3-4)

Verse 10. “They kept not the Covenant of God, and refused to walk in His law.  When Israel under Joshua were faithful to the Living Lord God, they were blessed with great victories and as God’s face shone upon them, the very walls of great Jericho fell down.  When they permitted Achan to bring sin into the camp, “…the men of A`-I smote of them about thirty and six men: for they chased them from before the gate even unto Shebarim, and smote them in the going down; wherefore the hearts of the people melted, and became as water.” (Joshua 7:1-6)

“Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people.”        (Proverbs 14:34)

Verse 11. “And forgat His works, and His wonders that He had shown them. Had the Lord God not delivered Britain from the Spanish armada; the great plagues of early centuries; the planned invasion of Hitler’s Nazi armies –we would not be a free nation today.  It is time to remember God’s faithfulness to us as a nation and as sinful individuals, and seriously repent.

Thought: Rebellion against God and against His Word, brings certain national doom.  Obedience to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and God’s Commandments, exalts nations and precious souls.  Turn, turn now, to the Holy and risen Christ Jesus and be blessed.

2. Spiritual Listeners Become Spiritual Teachers Psalm 78:2-7

Text: “All Scripture (66 Canonical Books of KJV Bible) is given by inspiration (God-breathed truth) of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man/woman of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.”

2 Timothy 3:16-17.

Good morning, Christian Bible Students/now Bible Teachers.  Sound Bible Students are raised up by God to become sound Bible Teachers – they are taught that, what treasure God gives us, must be willingly and militantly shared with others whom the Lord God has brought under the sound of the glorious Gospel.  We have only ONE MESSAGE: Jesus Christ, and Him Crucified for sinners; and arose again the third day according to the Scriptures.  Praise His Holy Name!

The Gospel: “Moreover brethren, I declare unto you the Gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; by which also ye are SAVED, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.  For I delivered unto you first of all that which also I received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures: and that He was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve: after that, He was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present (when Paul was writing his epistle), but some have fallen asleep (died).”  (1 Corinthians 15:1-6)

 When we ‘Spiritually listening, Christians’ read our KJV Bibles, or sit under a sound Bible preacher/teacher to hear a message from God’s inspired Word: we listen with Spiritual ears on our hearts, ever desiring to see Christ in whatever sermon we sit under. 

Reading and studying Gods’ Word in our Bibles, we seek to see Jesus on every page – all the types and symbolic and prophetic images of Him in the Old Testament, and every literal or symbolical Holy teaching in the New.  We listen and read with Spiritually granted ears and eyes, and we “…grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.  To Him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.”  (2 Peter 3:18)

Verse 2. “I will open My mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old.  Can we not clearly see Christ Jesus speaking here from an Old Testament Psalm?  Of course, we can!  No one taught like this God-man using the medium of parables and quotations from the Old Testament pages – most of them revealing in prophetic form His own Holy Person, the promise of His incarnation (God in bodily form); His first coming as the promised Messiah, to teach, to heal, to walk among us for thirty-three years in pure Holiness; His going to the Cross as a lamb to the slaughter for to bear away, like the Scapegoat, the sins of ‘His people’; His victorious rising again to justify us, ‘His people’ and give us an Eternal Standing before our Holy Father in Heaven.  Hallelujah!  We praise Thee, King Jesus Christ our Redeemer Lord!  Amen.

Verse 2. “I will utter dark sayings of old. The letter of this song is precious, but the inner sense is beyond all price. Whereas the first verse called for attention, the second justifies the demand by hinting that the outer sense conceals an inner and hidden meaning, which only the thoughtful will be able to perceive.”  (C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, page 332)

Spiritual-tuned listeners/readers are ever seeking Christ’s face in what we read/hear.

Verse 4-7. “We will not hide them (parables of Spiritual truth) from their children, showing to the generation to come the praises of the Lord and His strength, and His wonderful works that He hath done.

Having been gifted with the glorious Gospel of Christ Jesus and Him Crucified for the sins of ‘His people’ – how can we not but pass this wonderful Eternal life giving knowledge to our children, and their children – and unto all those with whom we come in contact daily?

We have, by God’s good and Sovereign grace, discovered a vast TREASURE of Spiritual riches.  Only a doomed miser would ever dream of not sharing this Eternal Treasure with other sinners!  “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.”  (Romans 10:17)

Verse 4. showing to the generation to come the praises of the Lord and His strength, and His wonderful works that He hath done.  The cloth that is dyed in the wool will keep colour best.  Disciples in youth will prove angels in age.  Use and experience strengthen and confirm in any art or science. The longer thy child hath been brought up in Christ’s school, the more able he/she will be to find out Satan’s wiles and fallacies and to avoid them.  The longer he/she has been at the trade the more skill and delight will he/she have in worshipping and enjoying the blessed God.  The tree when it is old stands strongly against the wind just as it was set when it was young.”  (George Swinnock1627-1673

It is a shame and a blight on the church of the Lord Jesus Christ -international and universal – that our children are not being disciplined in the school of Holy Scriptures as were generations of British/American children that carried the torch for the risen Christ and kept our nations focused on God’s Ten Commandments.  How low our societies have fallen from goodness and grace!  How deceitful our governments and politicians, and merchants have become, so steeped in lies, corruption, and sharp practice.  Children are being slaughtered by evilly influenced gunmen in schools.  Babies are being murdered wholesale by heartless abortionists daily – and our politicians are rushing headlong to champion such practice!

Verse 7. “That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep His Commandments. We dare not follow the vain and vicious traditions of the apostate church of Rome, neither would we compare the fallible record of the best human memories with the infallible written Word, yet would we fain see oral tradition practiced by every Christian in his family, and children taught cheerfully by word of mouth by their own mothers and fathers, as well as by the printed pages of what they too often regard as dull, dry task books…”  (C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, page 332) (Proverbs 22:6)

Thought: Oh that our generations might now turn to Christ and have hope once more!

Psalm 78: The Power of God’s Inspired Word! 1. God’s Plea to ‘His People’ Psalm 78:1-3

Text: “Give ear, O My people, to My law: incline your ears to the words of My mouth.”

Psalm 78:1.

          “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit (Capital S!) saith unto the churches.”

Revelation 2:29.

Good morning, Spiritually listening Christian!  You, like the author, have been blessed by the Lord God with what I call ‘ears on the heart’, the gift of being able to listen to what we read in our Bibles, or hear from pulpits of Bible-believing churches, and Spiritually discern the content – looking for the Lord Jesus in every sermon and reading of His Word, Old Testament and New, and glorying in the wonder of the ‘mind of Christ’ we have received. 

 God’s Word does not, therefore, go in one ear and out the other, but remains within our hearts, ready to be brought to remembrance by God the Holy Ghost, living within each true and regenerate Christian believer.  What a blessing it is to have a discerning ear to hear!

 “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit (Capital S!) saith unto the churches.”  (Revelation 3:22) 

However, not all blessed with natural hearing abilities actually hear with the heart, and receive God’s precious gift of saving faith; faith to hear and believe, and receive faith to trust in Christ for Salvation; to know the exceeding sinfulness of our sin; Christ’s absolute righteousness; and the certainly of the fearful judgement to come upon all unbelievers! 

God, here in Psalm 78, is speaking to a particular people, ‘His people’, whom He has called by His grace, and promised to save from our sins, and grant us Christ’s Eternal Salvation.  He cries out, “Give ear, O My people…”

“And thou (Mary) shall bring forth a son, and thou (Joseph) shalt call His Name Jesus: for he shall save HIS PEOPLE from their sins.”  (Matthew 1:21)

This concept, general doctrine, is clearly taught and manifest for all Bible-believers to read in God’s inspired Word.  The Gospel message of Salvation from sin through the blessed Sacrifice of Christ upon that cruel Cross, is preached throughout the nations for all to audibly hear. 

However, the Word preached only profits those to whom the Lord God Almighty has elected to receive faith with which to truly believe, and receive Salvation in Christ alone, and for His glory alone.  Check it out, Reader!  Be a Berean!  Check everything for yourself from the written Word to see if it is indeed true.

“For unto us (those that would be saved) was the Gospel preached, as well as unto them (those who would never be saved): but the Word preached did not profit them, not being mixed (united by) faith in them that heard it.”  (Hebrews 4:2)

God’s gracious gift of believing faith is not imparted unto all, only those to whom He, in His Sovereign will has pre-ordained to receive such faith, and be gloriously saved from our sins. 

A GIFT is only given to those the GIVER personally decides to give it.  God is the Divine Giver of His gift of saving faith – He is completely Sovereign in His choice of recipients. “…Salvation is of the Lord!”  (Jonah 2:9b)

“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from Above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with Whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.  With His own will begat He us with the Word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of His creatures.” (James 1:17-18)

“For by grace are ye saved though faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the GIFT of God: not of works, lest any man should boast.  For we (the saved) are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained (pre-ordained) that we should walk in them.”  (Ephesians 2:8-10)

If this Bible truth has caused your heart to throb with love for the risen Christ Jesus – rest assured that Psalm 78 was written with YOU in mind, dear Christian friend.  Psalm 78 is our God’s plea to us, His chosen children.  Let’s you and I seek to listen with Spiritual ears.

Verse 1. “Give ear, O My people, to My law: incline your ears to the words of My mouth. When God gives His truth a tongue and sends forth His messengers trained to declare His Word with power, it is the least we can do to give them our ears and the earnest obedience of our hearts.  As the officer of an army commences his drill by calling for ‘attention’, even so every trained soldier of Christ is called to give ear to His words. Men lend their ears to music; more then should they listen to the harmonies of the Gospel; they sit enthralled in the Presence of an orator; how much rather should they yield to the eloquence of Heaven!” (C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, page 332)

“Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier o Jesus Christ.  No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please Him Who hath chosen him to be a soldier.” (2 Timothy 2:3-4)

“Inclining the ears does not denote any ordinary sort of hearing, but such as a disciple renders to the words of his master, with submission and reverence of mind, silent and earnest, that whatever is enunciated for the purpose of instruction may be heard and properly understood, and nothing be allowed to escape.”  (Wolfgang Musculus 1497-1563)

Thought: “Take My (Christ Jesus) yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.  For My yoke is easy, and my burden (load) is light.”  (Matthew 11:29-30)