Psalm 119:126 It is time for you, LORD, to work: for they have made void your law.… For they have made void thy Law. Rendered it ineffective. Put it aside, as if it were stone impossible, ineffective thing. that was all very well as an ornament, but of no real use in this workaday world. There are many who still treat God's Word in this way. They do not take the trouble to deny its claims, to oppose its demands, or to doubt its teachings; they simply "shunt it off on a side line," and along the main track their trains go hurrying to and fro, heedless of the Word of God on the siding, it may remain there forever for all they care, and at least it is safely out of the way. They "make void God's Law." Can we set out some of the ways in which this is done? First, however, it is necessary to present the claims of God's Word to direct and control man's life. It is no mere storehouse of excellent sentiments; it is an actual chart, guide, adviser, of a good man's conduct. It must come into closest relation to life and conduct. And it is precisely this demand on its behalf which the man who would live unto the "devices and desires of his own heart" resists. It wants to be effective, he wants it to be ineffective. I. MEN MAKE VOID GOD'S LAW BY SIMPLY NEGLECTING IT. And this is the most successful way. It gains the end with the least trouble, and involves no conflict with conscience. The Bible on the shelf, only dusted, is void enough. It does nobody either good or harm. II. MEN MAKE VOID GOD'S LAW BY MISUSING IT. And this they do when they employ it for bolstering up their sectarian opinions; regard it as a storehouse of material for doctrinal conflicts rather than as a guide to practical life. III. MEN MAKE VOID GOD'S LAW BY THROWING DOUBTS UPON IT. Such doubts have been thrown in every age, and do but take on some new form for each new age. The mischief of the doubts is their plucking away from us the sense of authority in the Word. It is the serpent's perpetual whisper, "Yea, hath God said" To which the proper answer is, "Yes, he has." IV. MEN MAKE VOID GOD'S LAW BY FAILING TO DO WHAT IT ENJOINS. The test of right treatment of God's Word is obedience. "Surely in vain made he it, the pen of the scribes is in vain," if men hear and do not; know and obey not. For them the Law is void. - R.T. Parallel Verses KJV: It is time for thee, LORD, to work: for they have made void thy law. |
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