Well the scripture that I would
bring before you this evening is found in that portion that
we read. So in Psalm 119 we read from
verse 105 to verse 136. But the verse that I would bring before
you is verse 126. Psalm 119 verse 126. It is time for thee Lord
to work for they have made void thy law. It is time for thee, Lord, to work, for
they have made void thy law. Literally, in the Hebrew, the
verse reads, as we see if we take away the italics, time for
Jehovah to work. They have made void thy law. There are two parties spoken
of here in this verse. There is God, the Lord, or Jehovah,
and there is man, or men. They have made void thy law.
Here is the work of God on the one hand, set over against the
works of men on the other. It is time for thee, Lord, to
work, for they have made void thy law. And so we shall consider
these two things for a little while this evening, the Lord
helping us. The work of God and the works of men. But we shall
consider the latter first. So firstly then let us consider
the works of men. For they have made void thy law. For they have made void thy law.
How do men make void the law of God? Well, men make void the
law of God by their mistranslations. of the Word of God. We are, of
course, here taking the word of the Law of God in its fullest
and broadest sense to mean the entirety of the Holy Scriptures. Men make void the Law of God
by their mistranslations of the Holy Scriptures. The New World
translation of the so-called Jehovah's Witnesses. They should,
I believe, be called false witnesses. They relegate, or their scripture
relegates the word in John chapter 1 to a god. A god, with a small
g. It's not only the cults who make
void the law of God by their corrupt translations, there are
those who are professedly evangelical and reformed, who are using corrupt
translations. One could give many instances
to show how the modern versions, or rather perversions, of the
Holy Scriptures, so beloved by contemporary evangelicals, have
made void the law of God. I will just give one example
this evening. In Revelation chapter 19, in
verse 8, we read in the authorised version, and to her, that's to
the church, the bride of Christ, and to her was granted that she
should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white, for the fine
linen is the righteousness of saints. Here is the doctrine
of the imputation of the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ and
that by grace to the Church of God. But the NIV says, fine linen
stands for the righteous acts of the saints. The New King James
Version, which supposedly is based on the same manuscripts
as the Authorized Version, says, for the fine linen is the righteous
acts of the saints. Both of these versions basically
follow the JW's Bible, exactly the same as Jehovah's Witnesses
Bible. They deny the imputed righteousness
of Christ. The ESV, the English Standard
Version, much used by the Banner of Truth and other publishing
houses these days, is even worse. It was granted to her to clothe
herself with fine linen bright and pure, for the fine linen
is the righteous deeds of the Church. a denial of the imputation
of Christ's righteousness and the setting forth of salvation
by works. They have made void thy law."
And as I say, there are many other examples that we could
give to show that many fundamental Christian doctrines are undermined
by these modern perversions of the Bible, including the doctrine
of the Trinity, the deity of Christ, the eternal sonship of
Christ, the virgin birth, the perpetuatory sacrifice of Christ,
a predestination, and so on. All the modern versions undermine
these fundamental Christian doctrines. Men make void the law of God
by their mistranslations of the Word of God. and by their use
of these modern perversions of Holy Scripture. And secondly under this heading,
men make void the law of God when they deny the authority
of the Word of God. And there are many ways by which
men deny the authority of the Holy Scriptures. Men deny the
Bible's authority when they deny the fact that the Bible is divinely
inspired. and thus they void the law of
God. All scripture is given by inspiration
of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction,
for instruction in righteousness. To deny The doctrine of the divine
inspiration of the Holy Scriptures is to deny the authority of the
Word of God. And to deny the authority of
the Word of God is to deny the authority of God himself. These are the true sayings of
God we read in the last, the final and concluding book of
the whole Bible, the book of the Revelation. Men deny the Bible's authority
when they deny the historicity of the Word of God. That is,
the historical narrative of the Word of God. To deny, for example,
the historicity of the Book of Genesis, it completely undermines
the whole Bible. If the first few chapters of
Genesis are myth or allegory, and God did use evolution, as
some suggest, Well then, death did not come into the creation
as a result of Adam's transgression. It was always there, as the world
and its creatures were evolving. And if death is not the result
of man's sin, then the death of Christ could not be the payment
of the penalty for sin. You see, to deny the historicity
of the first few chapters of Genesis actually destroys the
whole Gospel. For they have made void thy law.
And likewise to suggest that the Bible may have something
to say about morals or even salvation, but that its history cannot be
regarded as accurate, is to deny the authority of the Word of
God. Men deny the authority of the
Word of God by setting up their own traditions. And by their
traditions they make void the law of God. Remember what the
Lord said to the scribes and Pharisees. Thus ye have made
the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition. We can think of the Roman Catholic
Church with its idolatry. The law of God says thou shalt
have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee
any graven image Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them nor
serve them." Does not the Church of Rome make that commandment
of God of none effect by her idolatrous traditions? Yes, she makes void the law of
God and many other such like things they do. What of their
doctrine of papal infallibility? To make the Bible fallible but
the Pope infallible? What is that but making void
the law of God? It is a mark of antichrist according
to the prophecy of Daniel that he shall think to change times
and laws. Why he would even think to change
the very law of God itself? For they have made void thy law. Men deny the authority of the
Word of God when they pretend to new revelations. Or when they hearken to new extra-biblical
revelations, we can think of the Mormons or the Moonies. But what of the charismatic movement?
If the rise of the papacy is the manifestation of the false
Christ, Antichrist, then the advent of the charismatic movement
is the false Pentecost. Where there are new extra-biblical
revelations, there must be the undermining of the Word of God.
You see, if the Lord really does speak to us in these ways today,
then we really don't need the Scriptures. If we need these
extra-biblical revelations, well then the Scriptures are not complete
and they're not sufficient. If prophets and apostles continue
still in the church today, as the Charismatics claim, well
then the foundation has not yet been laid. For the Word of God
says that we are built upon the foundation of the apostles and
prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone.
We'll see how the Charismatic movement undermines the whole
foundation of the church. It's a satanic deception. But then, thirdly, under this
heading, there are those who do not deny the authority of
God's word, yet they're false teachers. They make void the
law of God when they preach another gospel. As Paul wrote to the
Galatians, I marvel that you are so soon removed from him
that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel. which is not another, but there
be some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel of Christ. Yes, there are those who would
pervert the gospel of Christ. And we note there in Paul's words
to the Galatians that the true gospel is the gospel of the grace
of Christ. The true gospel is the gospel
of free grace. Free will Arminianism is a perversion
of the gospel of Christ. To say that Jesus died for the
sins of all men, and yet there are those for whom Christ died,
who would finally end up in hell, is to make void the law of God. to say that the believer is under
the law is to make void the law of God knowing this that the
law is not made for a righteous man but for the lawless and disobedient
again Paul writes to the Galatians but before faith came ye were
kept under the law shut up unto the faith which should afterwards
be revealed. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster
to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. No longer under a schoolmaster. The law was given to show us
our sin. For by the law is the knowledge
of sin. That's the whole purpose of the
law. To insist that that which Paul
calls the ministration of death is the believer's rule of life
is to make void the law of God. Fourthly, when sinners sin, they
make void the law of God. Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth
also the law, for sin is the transgression of the law. And fifthly, when sinners seek
to establish their own righteousness, they make void the law of God.
Paul speaks of Israel in Romans chapter 10. He says, For I bear
them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to
knowledge, for they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going
about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted
themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end
of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth."
The law of God demands a perfect obedience that sinners imagine
that their imperfect attempts at obeying God's law, their imagined
good works, will stand them in good stead before an infinitely
holy God. Or they reckon that if they do
all they can and yet fall short, well, Christ will make up the
balance, as it were. As Newton says in his hymn, some
call him a saviour in word, but mix their own works with his
plan, and hope he his help will afford when they have done all
that they can. If doings prove rather too light,
a little they own, they may fail. They purpose to make up full
weight by casting his name into the scale. All such make void
both law and gospel. But of course in the sixth place,
these words, for they have made void thy law, may be speaking
of a whole nation or of those that govern a nation. It was
certainly true of Israel of old, wasn't it? As Stephen stated
before the Jewish council in Acts chapter 7 verse 52. Which of the prophets have not
your fathers persecuted? And they have slain them which
showed before of the coming of the just one. of whom ye have
been now the betrayers and murderers who have received the law by
the disposition of angels and have not kept it. Paul said, addressing the Jews in
his epistle to the Romans, Romans 2 verse 23, Thou that makest thy boast of
the law, through breaking the law dishonorest thou God. Oh,
that as a nation, the Jewish nation, they made void the law
of God. But what of our own nation? Are
we better than they? in no wise. That which was written
in Isaiah concerning Israel of old might truly be applied to
our own nation at this particular time. The whole head is sick
and the whole heart faint from the sole of the foot even unto
the head, there is no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises
and putrefying sores, they have not been closed, neither bound
up, neither mollified with ointment. And as Jeremiah says, for from
the least of them even unto the greatest of them, every one he
is given to covetousness. And from the prophet, even unto
the priest, everyone dealeth falsely. We are a nation given
up to lying and covetousness. Even the professing church, the
prophet and the priest, is corrupt. For our transgressions are multiplied
before thee, and our sins testify against us. For our transgressions
are with us, and as for our iniquities, we know them. in transgressing
and lying against the Lord, and departing away from our God,
speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from
the heart words of falsehood. And judgment is turned away backward,
and justice standeth afar off, for truth is fallen in the street,
and equity cannot enter. Yea, truth faileth, and he that
departeth from evil maketh himself a prey. The true Christian who stands
firm to his principles and will not be conformed to the world,
he makes himself an object of derision and contempt and reproach. He will not receive the mark
of the beast And so he cannot be permitted to buy or sell. That state or that nation that
legitimizes, legalizes that which God has called an abomination
has clearly made void the law of God. What of that nation which,
having legalised and legitimised such things, then goes on to
encourage and promote such wickedness, even to indoctrinating children
into their evil? And what of that nation... What of that nation that permits
the murderer to live? and legalises the wholesale slaughter
of innocent unborn children. And then, having permitted the
murder of unborn children, licenses the use of their body parts for
medicines and cosmetics. It is time for THE LORD to work,
for they have made void thy law." What is the child of God to do
in the midst of such wickedness? What can the remnant, God's elect
in the midst of such a nation as this, do? What are we to do
when faced with such opposition to the truth of God's holy word? When men make void the law of
God. What did the psalmist He appealed
to the Most High. He appealed to the Most High.
It is time for thee, Lord, to work, for they have made void
thy law. He was brought to a realisation
that he was utterly powerless to do anything. He was wholly
unable to effect any change. His only recourse was to God.
It is time for thee, Lord, to work, for they have made void
thy law. It is the Spirit of God who causes
a man, a woman, a child to pray. Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest and causest to approach unto thee. And it is the Spirit
of God who inspires true prayer in the heart and in the soul
of the one that He causes to approach, the Lord by the Prophet. Isaiah says, I, mark the words,
I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall
never hold their peace, day nor night. Ye that make mention of
the Lord, keep not silence and give him no rest till he establish
and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth. And then he says
in chapter 65, and it shall come to pass that before they call,
I will answer. And while they are yet speaking,
I will hear. That prayer that he puts into
the hearts of his people, he will surely hear and he will
surely answer. The Holy Ghost indicts all real,
vital prayer. And prayer indicted by the Lord,
the Lord will surely hear. Well, here is a prayer. Here
is prayer truly indicted of God, inspired by the Holy Spirit,
the Spirit of the living God. It is time for thee, Lord, to
work, for they have made void thy law. And if the Lord has
put this prayer into our hearts and causes us to approach unto
him with a prayer such as this, well then, we have that assurance that he will hear us and answer
us. Well, let us go on to consider
then the work of God. It is time for thee, Lord, to
work, for they have made void thy law. We know firstly under
this heading that there is a time for God to work. There is a time
for God to work. It is time for thee, Lord, to
work. Now, of course, God is at work
continually in providence and in grace. Jesus said, my Father
worketh hitherto and I work. But there are those special times,
those set times when the Lord works extraordinarily and signally. God has decreed in himself from
all eternity by the most wise and holy counsel of his own will
freely and unchangeably all things whatsoever comes to pass and
that includes these special, these signal, these extraordinary
workings of God. Thou shalt arise and have mercy
upon Zion for the time to favour her. Yea, the set time is come. All of God's special works have
their set times. Think of the work of creation,
for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and
all that in them is, and rested the seventh day. And think of
his work of redemption. But when the fullness of the
time was gone, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made
under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that
we might receive the adoption of sons. Then we read in the
next verse, in verse six of that chapter, and because ye are sons,
God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts,
crying, Abba, Father, When is it that the father sends the
spirit of his son into the hearts of the redeemed? Well, it is
in his own appointed time. It's in his own appointed time. I love that hymn of John Cain,
so I think it's certainly one of my favourites, if not my favourite
hymn. Number 76 in Gadsby's selection. There is a period known to God
when all his sheep redeemed by blood shall leave the hateful
ways of sin, turn to the fold and enter in. The appointed time
rolls on apace, not to propose, a call by grace to change the
heart, renew the will, and turn the feet to Zion's hill. Yes,
there is that appointed time in the heart for every elect
sinner, that time when that sinner shall be called by grace. And
of course, God's special work of judgment too has its own set
time, doesn't it? Acts chapter 17, verse 31, Paul
preaching at Athens. He says, because he hath appointed
a day, mark the words, he hath appointed a day in the which
he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained,
whereof he hath given assurance unto all men in that he hath
raised him from the dead. There is that appointed day of
judgment. But how may we know that now
is the time for the Lord to work? That now is the time for the
Lord to work signally and in a special way? Well, it's often
in times of great extremity that the Lord wondrously and wonderfully
works. It is time for thee, Lord, to
work, for they have made void thy law. It was when the earth
was without form and void at his confused and empty. And darkness
was upon the face of the deep. It was then that the Spirit of
God moved. And is that not the state of our nation and of the
world at this present time? Confused and empty and in darkness. It was when the children of Israel
were in bondage in Egypt and sighed by reason of the bondage
and cried for the Lord raised up Moses to be their deliverer.
a man who reproved Pharaoh to his face and resisted him. It was when wicked Ahab was king
and Jezebel was queen that God raised up the prophet Elijah,
another man who resisted the authority of the king and reproved
him to his face. It was when persecution was about
to break out on the heads of the Jews throughout the empire
of Ahasuerus. that Esther was set on the throne,
whose uncle Mordecai would not show respect to or acknowledge
the authority of the prime minister, the wicked Haman. It was when
Saul was on his way to Damascus, with authority from the high
priest to bind all that called on Jesus' name, that the Lord
appeared to him, and Saul the persecutor became Paul the apostle. It was when Europe was engulfed
in the gross darkness and superstition of potpourri, and the light of
the Gospel was extinguished, that the Lord raised up one Martin
Luther, an obscure monk whose feather quill would knock the
triple crown from off the head of the papal antichrist. Oh,
he could not have foreseen what would ensue from that momentous
event in 1517, that which we now call the Reformation. But
God foresaw it, because He worked it. It was His work. It was the raising again of the
two witnesses which had been slain. And after three days and a half,
the Spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon
their feet, and great fear fell upon them which saw them. Yes, and so it shall be at the
end, when the multitudes of Gog and Magog are gathered together
to battle, the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And
they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the
camp of the saints about, and the beloved city. And fire came
down from God out of heaven, and devoured them." It is at
such times as these that God signally works, even in times
of great extremity. And secondly, under this heading,
how does God work? In what ways does he work? Well, he works
either in a way of mercy or in a way of judgment. We can think of God's judgment
at the Tower of Babel, when the Lord confounded the language
of men and scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of
all the earth. We can think of the judgment of the great flood,
the universal flood of Noah's day. We can think of the judgment
of Sodom and Gomorrah for their great wickedness, an ensample
unto those that after it should live ungodly. We can think of
the judgment poured out upon the northern kingdom of Israel,
the ten tribes who had set up the golden calves to be worshipped.
We can think of the captivity of Judah for their forsaking
of the Lord. and their idolatry, and so we
could go on. But the Lord is not only a God
of judgment. He is a God of mercy. He is a
God of mercy. And we see innumerable examples
of the mercy of God throughout the scriptures, beginning with
our first parents, Adam and Eve. You remember how they tried to
hide themselves from God when they transgressed his law and
they try to cover their nakedness? Ah, but the Lord comes, doesn't
He? He seeks them out and He clothes
them. He covers their nakedness and
He gives them the promise of a Redeemer. Oh, what mercy! He says to David, after he had
committed those awful sins of adultery and murder, the Lord
also hath put away thy sin, thou shalt not die. But as I say, there are innumerable
examples of God's mercy to sinners. And so we would be here for the
rest of the night if I were to recount every one of them. It's
really in the Lord Jesus Christ and in his gospel that we see
the most brilliant and indeed perfect example of God's work
of judgment and mercy combined. for multitudes of those who have
made void the law of God Christ endured the wrath of God we made
void the law of God when we fell in Adam he wrought our salvation
when he took upon himself the punishment that was due to our
sins and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all that
is of all the church For Christ, we read, loved the church and
gave himself for it. Now in conclusion, the words of our text may be
rendered, it is time to work for the Lord, for they have made
void thy law. Now is a time of darkness. Now
is a time of apostasy. Now is a time of declension. It's a time of great wickedness.
Iniquity abounds and the love of many waxes cold. It seems
that that old serpent which is the devil and Satan is now loosed
a little season. Now is the time to declare by
our words and by our works whose we are, who we belong to. Do we belong to Christ or do
we belong to Satan? Now is the time to nail our colours
to the mast. Who is on the Lord's side? Who
is on the Lord's side? It is time to work for the Lord.
for they have made void thy law. What greater work for the believer
than prayer. I like what John Calvin says
on this verse, and with this I close. He says this, in short,
this is a prayer that God would restore to order the confused
and ruinous state of things in the world. It remains for us
to learn from David's example whenever the earth is fraught
and defiled with wickedness, to such a degree that the fear
of him has become almost extinct, to call upon him to show himself
the maintainer of his own glory. May the Lord then help us to
pray. May he help us to pray tonight.
May he help us to pray in the days that lie ahead. It is time
for Thee, Lord, to work, for they have made void Thy law. Amen.