The Sum Of Thy Word

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Hi D____,

It is always good to hear from you. Recently a group of young Christian men were discussing marriage. They are all single, and they all agreed that the only thing worse than being single would be to be unequally yoked together with someone with whom they could not agree:

Amo 3:3 Can two walk together, except they be agreed?

2Co 6:14 Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?

So I will also mention this verse of scripture for your consideration.

Luk 21:19 In your patience possess ye your souls.

God knows what we each need, and He provides for us what He wants us to have, and gives it to us when He wills. We are fools to contend with Him, and yet we all do at our appointed time.

Yes, the body of Christ is really always going through extreme testing just by virtue of living in this extremely corrupt world. That is one of the main reasons we need each other to exhort and encourage one another.

Heb 3:13 But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
Heb 3:14 For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end;

You asked:

You are right. “People without eyes to see” will always attempt to force the scriptures say whatever fits with their doctrine instead of adjusting their doctrine and lining their doctrine up with scripture.

“… You made us to err from your ways, and hardened our heart from your fear” accords with “It was not you that did it, but God… (Gen 45:8), I will harden Pharaoh’s heart… (Exo 4:21), an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him… (1Sa 16:14), The Lord hath made all things for Himself, yes even the wicked for the day of evil… (Pro 16:4), the Lord has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these your prophets” (1Kg 22:22), Can there be evil in the city and the Lord hath not done it? (Amo 3:3), and [God] works all things after the counsel of His own will” (Eph 1:11).

I could go on and on with scriptures which demonstrate that God is “working all things after the counsel of His own will”, but none of these, or any other verses of the sum of God’s word, will change the mind of a blinded Babylonian who is steeped in the great false doctrine which teaches that God gave mankind a will which is free from God’s sovereign will.

God really does make us to err from His ways and “hardens [our] hearts from His fear”, and there is no one who can resist or withstand His will.

2Ch 20:6 And said, O LORD God of our fathers, art not thou God in heaven? and rulest not thou over all the kingdoms of the heathen? and in thine hand is there not power and might, so that none is able to withstand thee?

The scriptures are full of stories which deliberately lead us to believe that our decisions have superseded God’s will or have caused God to change His mind, and those stories serve to keep that “idol of the heart” called the ‘doctrine of free moral agency’ firmly in the minds of those who have not been given eyes to see or ears to hear the things of the spirit.

Gen 3:17 And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;

Deu 28:45 Moreover all these curses shall come upon thee, and shall pursue thee, and overtake thee, till thou be destroyed; because thou hearkenedst not unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which he commanded thee:

There are plenty of scriptures like these which seem to be saying that the reason God pours out His wrath is: “Because you listened not unto the voice of the Lord your God”.

“The sum of God’s Word” adds these thoughts to those listed above which demonstrate that it is God who “makes us to err from His ways and hardens our hearts from His fear.”

Psa 119:160 The sum of thy word is truth; And every one of thy righteous ordinances endureth for ever. (ASV)

I sometimes give the example of telling you that, Lord willing, I will be in Buford, Georgia tomorrow morning. Buford is twelve miles south of me. If then someone tells you that they saw me in Gainesville, Georgia, a city which is twelve miles north of me that same morning, have I lied to you, or have I contradicted what I told you I would do? No, not at all. I could very easily be in Buford as late as 10:00 A. M. take care of business for an hour, and still have plenty of time to be in Gainesville by 11:30 A.M. Both would be true. I was in Buford that morning, and I was in Gainesville that same morning. The sum of my word would be true.

Now let’s apply that same principle to these two verses you quote:

Isa 63:17 O LORD, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servants’ sake, the tribes of thine inheritance.

Pro 19:3 The foolishness of man perverteth his way: and his heart fretteth against the LORD.

Now let’s ask: Does the foolishness of man pervert his way? Well, of course it does. But where in Proverbs 19:3 are we told that the Lord did not make man foolish? It certainly does not declare anywhere in that verse, or anywhere else in the Bible, that God does not make man foolish. The fact is that the Bible does tell us that “The thoughts of the heart and the answer of the tongue are from the Lord”.

Is there a single word in Proverbs 19:3, or anywhere else in scripture, where we are told that God never causes men’s hearts to “fret against the Lord”? Of course there is not one word to that effect anywhere in that verse or anywhere else in scripture. The exact opposite is true when we are told that God hardens our hearts from His fear.

So we should never ever say, “Yes, but what about this verse…” and then try to make one verse cancel out another. That would amount to ‘taking away from the things written therein’ (Rev 22:18-19), and there are very serious consequences for those who attempt to pit one verse of scripture against other verses of scripture. As a brother told me, “It doesn’t say ‘Some of thy word is truth’, rather it says, “The sum of thy word is truth.”

So let’s always be careful to see “the things of the spirit” in the Words of God, and then we will find it much easier to add only scripture to scripture. We must be very careful to always compare spiritual things with spiritual”, then we will never be guilty of ‘taking away from the things which are written in this book’.

Rev 22:18 For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:
Rev 22:19 And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.

I hope this helps you to see that man’s foolishness and man’s fretting against God is “made” to be so by God Himself, and in no way keeps God from honestly saying that man’s foolishness perverts his way, and causes his heart to “fret against” God. God causes man to do all mankind does. That is the Truth of scripture. It is also the Truth of scripture that “man’s foolishness perverts his way”. Both are absolutely just as true as the fact that I can go to both Buford and Gainesville in the same morning.

Your brother in Christ,
Mike

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