The Word for the week: Psalm 12 - Part I by Pastor. Chandran Lite inchristwc.org/wordoftheweek/news_item.asp?NewsID=66 The Faithful have vanished. (12:1) We shall study this Psalm under three heads.1) Spiritual decay.2) Societal decadence.3) Savior’s Defense. 1) Spiritual Decay: A professor of a great law school used to begin his first class every year by putting two numbers on the black board; 4, then 2. Then he would ask this question “what is the solution?” one student would say ‘6’; another, ‘2’; another would come up with ‘8’. At each answer the teacher would shake his head in the negative. Then the professor would point out their one fatal error. He would say the reason why people cannot find the solution is because you have failed to ask the key question- What is the problem?- Unless you know the problem you cannot find the solution. Our world has a problem, without understanding the problem it tries to find solution-the problem is a spiritual problem-problem of sin. David in verse 1 laments by saying “the godly are no more, the faithful have vanished from among men- there is a complete decay of spiritual life among men. The godly no longer exist. The faithful have vanished. Lying and deceptions are universal. God is totally left out of human equation. So, what is going wrong with our Father’s world? The first President of India, Dr. Radhakrishnan, with his spiritual and moral insight, brought out the crisis that was facing India. In his book “Towards a new world’ he writes “the crisis that is facing us is not a material or an economic crisis; it is not an intellectual crisis. It is a moral and spiritual crisis”. He continues to hit the nail on the head by touching the central nerve of the crisis facing humanity. He continues “it is due to cursedness in human nature which still persists, the moral blindness, a spiritual affliction which we are unable to overcome”. Martin Luther defined sin as ‘departure from God’- Solomon in his God-given wisdom writes “God has set eternity in the human hearts”-(Ecc 3:11).Saint Augustine stated that our hearts will not find their rest until they find their rest in God, because our hearts are designed for God. Anything less than God is not going to satisfy us. Why has man become ungodly to the point of questioning the very existence of God? What has gone wrong with him-who is blessed with “eternity in his heart” The great philosopher-cum-theologian has an answer. ‘He wrote, “It is not vain O’men that you seek within yourself the cure for your miseries. All your insight has led you to the knowledge that it is not in your selves that you will discover the true and good. The philosopher promised them to you but they will not be able to keep their promise for they did not understand your nature, how then could they have given a solution for the ills that they themselves have not understood. Your principal malady is pride which has separated you from your God and the sensuality which binds you to the earth”. Why has man gone astray from God? According to Pascal principal malady of man is “pride” which has separated him from God! Paul, in his letter, Romans, first chapter, traces the source of moral and societal decadence to spiritual decay (Rom 1:21-23).Spiritual decay is the source of all human and societal problems (Ps 14:1-3). Man in his inborn proud nature denies God, and defies His authority T.S.Eliot insightful words are worth recalling here. He wrote “Men have left God not for other gods, they say, but for no gods, all this has never happened before…what have we to do? But stand with empty hands and palms up turned in an age which advances progressively backwards”. When God becomes an ‘optimal extra’, when God is reduced to a “topic of conversation” our lives, and our society will progressively move backwards. Then, what is the role of the church? The iron lady, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, ones said, “The task of the church is to teach the life of faith”. The historian Christopher Davidson stated “The church has been the soul of western civilization”. Edward Gibbon who wrote the monumental work ‘The decline and the fall of Roman Empire, came up with 5 reasons for the decline and the fall of the Roman empire. One of the reasons was ‘Decay of religion’. Religion failed to serve as light and salt of the society. Religion fails, even today, to play a vital role. To put it in plain terms, man essentially is a spiritual being. Without God he is a mess and is a miserable entity. We may be “Nice” people in our intellect, social status, education, and life style, but God wants us to be ‘New” people. (II Cor 5:17) only if you are “in Christ” you will become a new person. Without relationship with Christ there is no newness in us. C.S. Lewis said “A world of nice people, content in their own niceness, looking no further, turned away from God, would be just as desperately in need of salvation as a miserable world-and might even be more difficult to save”. Are we living in a godless and plan less world as the Noble Prize winner Biologist, Jacques Monod said? No! It is a world created by a God who has a plan and a purpose for you and me! Monod in his scientific arrogance commented. “There is no plan; there is no intention to the universe. Man is like a gypsy lives on the boundary of an alien world.” We are created to glorify God (Is 43:7). We, as a body of Christ, have a role in reintroducing godliness to the spiritually decaying world--- of course taking our own Godliness into serious consideration. May God help us to do so. May God Bless you! Pastor Chandran Lite
Posted on: Sun, 10 Nov 2013 15:27:39 +0000
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