PRÉCIS ON THE BINARY GOSPEL: THE STAGGERING CONSEQUENCES OF OUR CHOICE TO OBEY OR DISOBEY

SCRIPTURE. “Their sorrows shall be multiplied who choose another god; their drink offerings of blood will I not offer or take their names upon my lips. The Lord is my chosen and assigned portion, my cup; You hold and maintain my lot. The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; yes, I have a good heritage.” – PSALM 16:4-6, AMPC

KEY TERMS

• “MULTIPLIED SORROWS.” ‘Atstsebeth’ [עַצֶּבֶת]: “From a primitive root meaning, ‘an idol’ (that brings grief, pain, worry, anger and vexation); as with, ‘he that winketh with the eye brings hurt;’ causes a fear [and avoidance] of discipline; comes with being brokenhearted and the spirit being broken; clearly refers to emotional suffering; uneasiness or pain of mind which is produced by the loss of any good, or of frustrated hopes of good.”

• “PLEASANT PLACES.” ‘Na’iym’ [נָעִים]: By Contrast: “Delightful, sweet; to be agreeable [to God]; lovely, beautiful; pleasing; agreeable; grateful to the mind or to the senses; as a pleasant ride; a pleasant voyage; a pleasant view; enjoyable, attractive, friendly, or easy to like; causes a feeling of happiness or pleasure; gratifying, cheerful, enlivening.”

QUOTATION. “Silence is not power. It’s not strength. Silence is the means by which the weak remain weak and the strong remain strong. ‘Silence is a method of Oppression.’” ― NAOMI ALDERMAN, Disobedience, 2006; edited

COMMENTARY. “David flees to God’s protection, with cheerful, believing confidence. Those who have avowed that the Lord is their Lord, should often put themselves in mind of what they have done, take the comfort of it, and live up to it. He devotes himself to the honour of God, in the service of the saints. Saints on earth we must be, or we shall never be saints in Heaven. Those renewed by the grace of God, and devoted to the glory of God, are saints on earth. The saints in the earth are ‘excellent ones,’ yet some of them so poor, that they needed to have David’s goodness extended to them.

David declares his resolution to have no fellowship with the works of Darkness; he repeats ‘the Solemn Choice’ he had made of God for his portion and happiness, takes to himself the comfort of the Choice, and gives God the glory of it. This is the language of a devout and pious soul. Most take the world for their chief good, and place their happiness in the enjoyments of it; but how poor soever my condition is in this world, let me have the love and favour of God, and be accepted of Him; let me have a title by promise to life and happiness in the Future State; and I have enough. Heaven is an inheritance; we must take that for our home, our rest, our everlasting good, and look upon this world to be no more ours, than the country through which is our road to our Father’s house. Those that have God for their portion, have ‘a goodly heritage.’ Return unto thy rest, O my soul, and look no further.” – MATTHEW HENRY, An Exposition of the Old and New Testaments, 6 vols., 1708-1710; edited

DK. I have developed the habit of referring to God’s Word as ‘Binary,’ meaning, there is “no shadow of turning” in the Godhead (James 1:17), nor something between “Yes” and “No;” there is only the one or the other (Matthew 5:37). By extension, we are either “In Christ,” or “Not of Christ,” period. Full stop. End of the matter. One hundred percent, or zero percent.

There is this subtle teaching that since we are imperfect, God’s Grace covers pretty much everything, so long as we say we are sorry now and then. Recent allegations against TD Jakes, for example, of years of homosexual liaisons was met with this:

“Even if everything was true, all I got to do is repent sincerely from my heart.” – L. Blair, Christian Post, Dec. 24, 2023

Now I don’t know if the allegations are indeed true, but that answer is a stab wound into the very heart of the True Gospel of Jesus Christ. It subtly implies that my lifestyle is not important to God, so long as I insert a “Please forgive me, Lord” into our sacred conversations with God in the midst of years of abominable behavior.

True Repentance demands a change of mind and of conduct!

Therefore, let us commit to a full life of truth, holiness and love for all our days, no longer looking for permission to sin so much as for the power to not sin – to belong to Him 100%, or not partially, as is the case with so many Americans today. Selah.

PERSONAL NOTE. I was engaged in a great struggle over whether or not to run the Jakes Story. After some of the most intense prayer in memory, I sensed I was to publish it. And this: I discern oceans of darkness around this man. Therefore I simply report, but you must decide. DK