Proverbs 15:12, The Devil’s Psychology!
September 18, Proverbs 15:12
Hebrews 12:1-13 “Come now and let us reason together”.
The Devil’s Psychology!
I’m OK! You’re OK! That’s the devil’s psychology, and many have bought into it “hook, line and sinker.” This psychology produces “schools without failure” because we are assured there are “no right answers”! It also produces “salvation without guilt,” Robert Schuller style! Among many evangelicals this humanistic, self-esteem, non-judgmental, psychology is king.
1. Folly Reject Reproofs: Here is a typical report from a church where the “Toronto Blessing” was in full swing. The minister said his people are receiving these manifestations because, “When you enter this hall, you enter a totally nonjudgmental environment.” In other words, whatever you do, roar like lions, laugh like jackasses, shout like drunkards, rock and roll in the aisles, fall slain in the Spirit, or whatever you do, no one will criticise you. This is a “do your own thing” approach applied to Christianity, and is the latest technique on “how to receive Holy Spirit baptism”! The leaders of this current charismatic craze are continually telling their audiences to “break free of all inhibitions! Don’t think! Don’t try to understand it! Let your mind go! All barriers must come down! All are brothers and sisters. All are one in Christ.” Of course, this must include Roman Catholics, liberal Protestants, other “faiths”, and those with no faith at all. This does not sound like the teaching of our Lord or the Apostles. If fools and scorners reject reproofs, what does this say about the “free-for-all” going on today in the name of the Lord Jesus? This is, like the older modernism, seeking to win the man’s favour by accommodating itself to the prevailing “spirit of the age.” This is producing a “spiritualised humanism”! Sound theology is discarded as irrelevant.
2. Faith Receives Reproofs: How often Solomon refers to this matter of reproof, rebuke, correction, and the like? Here we list a few examples, Pr. 3:11,12; 5:12; 6:23, and there are many more. As you read and compare them, you will see it is the fool, the scorner, who hates criticism, but the wise receive it and learn from it. This is the Divine method. Happy is the man whom God correcteth. Job was cautioned not to despise the chastening of the Almighty (Job. 5:17; 33:19). Why? Is it not because the Lord loved him! This same word appears when God invites sinful, idolatrous Israel to, Come now and let us reason (be set right, justified) together (1:18). Micah says the Lord has a controversy with his people and he will plead (set straight, chide) with Israel (6:2). Why? Even God’s afflictions are proofs of His goodness that leads His wayward children to come to true repentance (Rom. 2:4). Reproofs, then, have a positive, not merely a negative, purpose. Sinful man’s criticism of God is always destructive, but God’s criticism of His own is always constructive. Oh, beloved, faith does not despise God’s reproofs! His hurts are foretokens of His healings. Moody put it well when he remarked, “The rough hewing of reproof is only to square us for the heavenly building.”
Thought: Lay your hand upon your mouth when God’s hand is upon your back.
Prayer: Lord, help me to accept the reproofs of Thy Love.