We're living in an era in the history of the world where we have witnessed an unprecedented denigration of the very concept of truth, where truth is reduced to the level and to the status of a personal preference. The truth may be bent and distorted and twisted to suit our own desires. When truth is distorted in a society, what are the consequences? What happens when God's covenant people have teaching and have doctrine, but it's false? That's what we'll consider today as we hear the warning, in fact, the indictment from the Old Testament prophets to Israel. This is the Wednesday edition of Renewing Your Mind.
I'm Nathan W. Bingham. I remember as a young man being in a courtroom and hearing someone testify to something that I knew was blatantly false, I was shocked and I couldn't restrain myself and I yelled out something to the effect of, that's a lie. I was asked to be silent and proceedings continued, but we should esteem truth to the point that to hear a lie is a shocking thing. That was in the world. How much more should we esteem truth among the people of God? Well, here's R.C.
Sproul to continue his series on truth. Many years ago, I worked on the staff of a large church in Ohio, and I was the minister of theology and evangelism in that congregation. And back in 1971 when I left that congregation to start Ligonier Ministries, the folks of that church gave Vesta and me a very lovely farewell dinner, and they presented us with a gift. And the gift was a parchment that had been reproduced in beautiful style and framed in glass, and on this parchment was part of the text of Psalm 15 in Latin.
And we deeply appreciated that gift, and that plaque has since hung in our living room for all of these years that has transpired. And the words of Psalm 15 begin really with a question. The version I'm reading now goes like this, Lord, who may abide in your tabernacle and who may dwell in your holy hill? The older version was, who shall ascend into the mountain of the Lord and who shall dwell in His holy place? And of course, that rendition is those who have pure hands and a clean heart and so on, but in the translation I'm reading now, the answer to the question, who will abide in the tabernacle of God, who will dwell in His holy hill? The answer is this, he who walks uprightly, he who works righteousness and speaks the truth in his heart. Now, that's an interesting thing because the question that we're faced with is, what kind of person is a person who will be invited to dwell in the presence of God?
Who will be permitted to ascend Mount Zion, to go up the holy mountain and enter into His presence? And the answer that God gives is only those people who behave in an upright manner and who speak the truth in their own heart. Now, I know that we're living in an era in the history of the world where we have witnessed an unprecedented denigration of the very concept of truth. You're told that we live in the age of relativism, where truth is reduced to the level and to the status of a personal preference. The truth may be bent and distorted and twisted to suit our own desires.
And this, of course, represents a major departure from the biblical concept of the sanctity of the truth. We remember David when he came before God in his great act of contrition that he records in the 51st Psalm. When he makes this observation in his prayer, he says to God, O God, thou dost desire truth in the inward parts. So the truth to God is not something that we play with at the peripheral aspect of our lives, but it is something that is to be rooted and grounded in the deepest part of our being. In our hearts, in our souls, we must speak the truth. Now, in contrast to that, we find the complaint that is uttered in Isaiah chapter 59.
Let's take a look at Isaiah 59 and look at this, let's see, beginning in verse 11 of chapter 59 of Isaiah. "'We all growl like bears,' the prophet says, "'and moan sadly like doves.'" Now, why are we growling and moaning? Well, he gives us the answer to that. He said, "'We look for justice, but there is none, for salvation, but it is far from us. For our transgressions are multiplied before you, and our sins testify against us. For our transgressions are with us, and as for our iniquities, we know them.'"
Now, listen to how he develops this concept of the sin that separates us from God. He goes on to say this, "'In transgressing and lying against the Lord and departing from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood. Justice is turned back, righteousness stands afar off, for truth is fallen in the street.'"
What an image. He has an image here not of a human being that is slain and whose corpse is littering the sidewalks on the street, but now he personifies this concept of truth and says what has happened to the nation of Israel is that they have risen up against the truth of God and taken that embodiment of truth and executed it, so the truth is now lying like a corpse in the street. It has been slain by the sin of the people. This is an incredible foreshadowing of what takes place not figuratively or metaphorically, but literally in the New Testament age when we see one who comes on the scene of history who is defined as the very incarnation of the truth and the people rise up against Christ and kill him. Here truth is literally slain, not in the street, but on a cross.
But this vivid imagery of the Old Testament describes truth in terms of a human person that has been murdered and whose body has been thrown into the street. Now let me just back up here a minute and say to you that if you read the Old Testament carefully and you see the passionate concern of the prophets of God who were anointed by His Holy Spirit to give the message of God to the people, to call the people to repentance, we see that at the heart and soul of the concern of their preaching is a concern for truth. I don't think it's an overstatement to say this, that the greatest threat in the Old Testament to the security of the Jewish nation was never the military power and might of hostile enemies. It wasn't the Philistines that destroyed Israel.
It was not the Amalekites or the Assyrians or the Babylonians. If we listen to the voice of the prophets, we will see that the greatest peril, the greatest threat to the security of the nation of Israel was always and ever the false prophet within their gates. That the nation's corruption, the nation's fall was inseparably related to the departure of the people from the sanctity of truth. We need to learn from that, friends, because this was a major issue to the people of God in the Old Testament. Let's look at another example of this as we look in the teaching of the prophet Hosea. In the fourth chapter of the book of Hosea, we read these words, "'Hear the word of the Lord, you children of Israel, for the Lord has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land.'" Another translation renders it this way, the Lord is bringing charges against the inhabitants of the land.
This solemn assembly that is called by the prophet to Hosea is announced in the legal terminology of the Jewish people. One of the roles that the prophet played in the Old Testament was that of God's prosecuting attorneys, that God had entered into an agreement with his people, entered into a covenant relationship with Israel. And when the terms of the agreement were violated by the people, God institutes a lawsuit.
This is what's going on here. God subpoenas the people and brings them to his tribunal. They are dragged, as it were, into court, and charges are leveled against them for violation of the covenant. And so it's been said that one of the most important roles of the prophet in the Old Testament was as covenant lawsuit prosecutors. And we see that vividly here in the fourth chapter of Hosea when it begins with this call to solemn assembly, "'Hear the word of the Lord, you children of Israel, for the Lord brings a charge against the inhabitants of the land.'" Now what we're interested in in terms of our study of the biblical concept of truth is this question, what are the charges? Whenever a lawsuit is brought, it's always appropriate as the trial opens that the charges be read in the presence of the accused. So the accused might have an opportunity to give their defense or their rebuttal against the charges. Well, now in this case, the prosecution is God, and the prosecution announces the charges. This is not the state against Arendtthal James Simpson. This is the cosmos against the nation of Israel.
And here are the charges. There is no truth or mercy or knowledge of God in the land. By swearing and lying, killing and stealing, and committing adultery, they break all restraint with bloodshed upon bloodshed. Therefore, God announces, the land will mourn, and everyone who dwells there will waste away with the beasts of the field and the birds of the air.
Even the fish of the sea will be taken away. Now this grim description of the state of affairs in Israel is grounded in the absence of truth, and it is a truth that is related directly to what else? The truth about what?
The truth about God. There is no truth nor justice or knowledge of God in the land. Now notice that this lawsuit is not brought against the Babylonians. The Babylonians did not have the oracles of God.
They didn't have the Decalogue. They didn't have the Scriptures. They were a pagan nation. It wouldn't be surprising for us if we would hear an Old Testament prophet describe one of the pagan nations like the Philistines or the Amalekites or somebody in antiquity and have the prophet stand up and say, wait a minute, there's no truth around here, and there's no knowledge of God in the land. But it's highly significant for our understanding and for our application that we see that this indictment that comes from God to His people is an indictment on Israel, the nation that had been experiencing favored status in the presence of God. They had been the recipients of the special revelation of the Word of God. If any nation had been blessed in all of the ancient world with the presence of the knowledge of God and with the truth of God, it was Israel.
And now at this period in her history, God looks down at His nation. He sends the prophet Hosea, and the prophet Hosea brings charges. There's no truth. There's no justice.
How can there be justice if there isn't any truth? And there is no knowledge of God in the land. Now, it doesn't say that there weren't any preachers, and there weren't any prophets, and that there wasn't any religious cultists meeting on a regular basis. Israel was still religious.
Israel was still coming together for the solemn assemblies, for the feasts, and enjoying all of these religious events. They had a constituted priesthood. They had their ordained clergy.
They had all the accouterments of a church. But despite this church, there wasn't any truth, and there wasn't any knowledge of God. There's a sense in which the knowledge of God and truth are redundancy, because you can't know truth except as how it relates ultimately to the knowledge of God. And the knowledge of God that was to be experienced and taught and preached in Israel was to be the truth of God. And as I said, the people had religion, the people had doctrine, the people had teaching, but it was not the truth of God. It was falsehood. It was false doctrine. It was false teaching. And of course, the lion's share of the responsibility for this came upon the priests and upon the false prophets who were teaching, again, their own ideas, their own opinions.
They were teaching everything but the Word of God. And as a result of this, the picture of the nation that is described here by Hosea is a picture of unbridled cultural decadence. Now you may say, so what? That's centuries ago. Who cares what happened in Israel? I'm convinced that if Hosea came to our country today, the same charge would be made. There is no truth, there is no justice, there is no knowledge of God in our land. And then the agony of this is pointed to the ultimate result of this lack of truth and lack of knowledge of God in the land. When Hosea, under the inspiration of the Spirit, cries out in the name of God, my people perish for lack of knowledge. My people are perishing, they're dying. They're not dying because they don't have enough food, they're not dying because the economy has been disrupted, they're not dying because they're being conquered by some foreign enemy who comes in with the sword or with tanks or with bombs. They are dying because there is no knowledge of God in the land. In other words, the fatal infection was the infection of falsehood.
And the first casualty before any of the people perish is the casualty we've already mentioned. Truth itself was slain in the streets. Now let's listen to the conclusion of this indictment from Hosea. Now let no man contend or rebuke another, for your people are like those who contend with the priest, therefore you shall stumble in the day, and the prophet also shall stumble with you in the night, and I will destroy your mother. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Now what kind of knowledge? The very next breath, Hosea says, because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for me, because you have forgotten the law of your God, I will forget your people. The knowledge that has perished is the knowledge of God, and it goes deeper here. God announces that it's not simply that this knowledge has disappeared because people lost the manuscripts or they lost the scrolls and the education didn't focus attention on the things of God, but it was a result of the rejection of the people.
The people had rejected the knowledge of God, and the priests went along with it, and the false prophets went along with it, and therefore, the prophet says, the whole land mourns. Reading this to me is like reading this morning's newspaper in America, where we have a crisis of values, a crisis of faith, a crisis of justice, which rests in the fundamental problem of the rejection of the knowledge of God. Take for a moment with me how much time, how much energy, how much money we spend in acquiring knowledge.
We stagger at the rising costs of a college education, and yet people will sacrifice beyond measure to make sure that their children get a college education. Somehow we still understand, at least partially, the value of knowledge. We know that we won't get a very good job unless we bring a special sense of knowledge of a given discipline or a given field to the task. But how much value do we place upon the knowledge of God? What are we saying here when we say it's more important to me that I know how to do the job of an electrician, or I knew how to do the job of rocket science, but it's not important for me to master the things of God. When we neglect the knowledge of God, our nation mourns.
That was one of the reasons R.C. Sproul founded Reformation Bible College, so that even for those not pursuing pastoral ministry, there was an opportunity to study the things of God and be grounded in His truth before pursuing their calling in another discipline. I'm Nathan W. Bingham, and this is the Wednesday edition of Renewing Your Mind, and I'd love to meet you if you live near Chattanooga, Tennessee. On June 23rd, the Renewing Your Mind studio will be on the road and will be having an evening of teaching, fellowship, and giveaways as we celebrate three decades of Renewing Your Mind with other Renewing Your Mind listeners. If you'd like to attend this free event, space is limited, so please visit renewingyourmind.org slash Chattanooga and register today.
And be sure to browse Ligonier dot org slash events to see cities and dates for other upcoming Renewing Your Mind live events, including in California and even Australia. This week, we have a special resource package for you to thank you for any financial support you can provide to fuel the daily outreach of Renewing Your Mind. So when you make a donation at renewingyourmind.org or when you call us at 800-435-4343, we'll send you a thin-lined Bible, a copy of R.C. Sproul's book, Everyone's a Theologian, which is an overview of systematic theology, plus we'll unlock the complete series that you're hearing this week on Renewing Your Mind in the free Ligonier app. So that's a series, a book, and a Bible when you donate at renewingyourmind.org or when you use the link in the podcast show notes, but respond today, as this offer is while supplies last. Is God angry? And if He is, what has provoked His wrath? Don't miss Thursday's episode here on Renewing Your Mind.
