Isaiah 5:20-21 English Standard Version

²⁰ Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! ²¹ Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and shrewd in their own sight!

This verse came to mind yesterday as I listened to an old television show that was filmed without a live audience. The writers had to tell the sound effects technicians where to place the canned laughter so that the audience would know where to laugh. This was to tell us what is funny.

So much of what is laid before our faces today is saying to us, “This is right so accept it.” It is presented with the intention of acceptance which gives the appearance of what is right like canned laughter. If we hear acceptance by others we are expected to accept it as being right.

Those who declare “I have the right” do not determine what is holy and good. Their free will and acceptance by others who are afflicted with the same maladies does not determine what is right in the eyes of God. They neither believe in God nor His sovereign right to justice. They cannot be punished if there is no God.

This modern “canned laughter” is the scriptwriter telling us what is good, what is light, what is sweet, and that this is what we should accept. They expect that if we see it, eventually we will accept it. Just like the old time canned laughter where we were being told what is funny and where to laugh, they expect our acceptance.

Read the Word of God. Believe the Word of God. Live by the Word of God and know His Word is true.

“Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and shrewd in their own sight!”

Woe in deed.

Hebrews 4:12 English Standard Version (ESV) For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

We left of yesterday with John’s proclamation that Jesus Christ is the Word. Now we come to this issue in Hebrews which tells us that the Word is living and active. We have gone over passages about hiding the Word in our hearts.

Psalm 119:11 English Standard Version (ESV) I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.

The majority of passages related to the word and the heart are contained in the Old Testament. That is man’s effort to help himself. Christ had not come, lived, died and been resurrected during those days. The relationship between the written word and the heart was literary education, understanding, and human effort.

Now that we live after the cross and have accepted Christ by faith, we take Him, the Word Himself, into our hearts. It is no longer a matter of human effort alone. We have been given the Holy Spirit in order to keep the truth, the Word, alive and active in our hearts. He is the one who is able to divide those parts of us that we were unable to do without His help.

There is a difference between soul and spirit. We did not know that as we do now. Joint and marrow are two different aspects of our ability to move and where life blood is renewed. There is a difference between our actions and our lives. They are not the same thing.

The last and most important is the issue of thoughts and intentions of the heart. Our thoughts are easily influenced by everything earthly and fleshly. The heart belongs to Christ and is not influenced by anything that is of the world. It is the mind that has to be transitioned from self-talk to listening to the heart that belongs to Christ.

It is more than a matter of reading and believing as we did in our old lives. It is a matter of living by faith.