Bible Ballistics: Evil or Good? February 16, 2014 Vol.3 No.14
After a bit of a stressful week in the hospital with my husband, I had a lot running through my mind and heart. (Just so you’ll know, all is well with us and we’re back home and doing fine). Lots of things going on around us–competition at the Olympics, major sports stars and movie stars making ‘bold’ announcements to much public applause, government scandals still looming in regard to the IRS and State Department, a looming debt problem that is multiplying exponentially. Seemingly our world, in particular our nation, is floundering for direction. What’s the problem? Is there a solution?
Isaiah 5:20-21 says, “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! 21 Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!”
We have become a people who refuse the way of the Lord? Where are we headed when we reject and/or deny the Word of God? Isaiah says, “WOE” (great sorrow or distress) is the destination of those who twist God’s standard.
Paul describes our days in 2 Timothy 3:1-6, “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. 2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, 4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; 5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.”
Although this is a long list, and one we’ve talked about recently, I want us to focus on verse 4-5, which zeros in on the cause of the peril—that men are, “lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God”, and that they have a ‘form of godliness, but denying the power thereof…’. They want to claim God’s name but not His ways. (See Matt 7:20-23)
Hearts that are set on self and pleasure rather than God. As Jesus Himself said in John 3:18-20,
“He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.”
Men love ‘darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil….’ They hate the light “lest his deeds should be reproved” (shown to be wrong and fixed in Jesus). They don’t want to be ‘fixed’ because they ‘call evil good and good evil’.
Although God gives every man, woman and child the right to choose; there are consequences to every choice. As free as we are to make our own choices, right or wrong, we are NOT free to set the consequences.
2 Peter 2:9, “The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished:”
While God will deliver His own from temptation, He will also ‘reserve the unjust’ to judgment. Peter describes in this chapter, those who walk their own ways, in lust, uncleanness and despise order (especially God’s order); who are presumptuous, self-willed, and have no fear of the justice of God toward evil.
And Romans 1:32 says, “Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.”
Explaining here that the ultimate end of choosing sin over God’s way is not only the rejection of God but also the propagation of that rejection. Not an ignorance of God’s law, but a rejection of it. Paul makes it clear in all of Romans 1 that men ‘know the judgment of God’. In our world, our nation, it isn’t a lack of knowledge of the standard of God but clearly a rejection of that standard and a desire to lead/cause others to reject God’s ways. Willfully choosing to go against God and calling others to join in.
This is where we live! In a nation that has rejected God’s word and His standard. So, where will we, who claim God, stand? On His ‘stand’ard? On the world’s way or God’s? Have we, and will we allow truth to be diluted to call good evil, and evil good? Where will we individually and personally draw the line? Will we ‘stand’ for right or fall for the ‘wrong’? Will I/we accept ‘sin’ as alright, to be ‘politically correct’? Will I say it’s ok to grant ‘rights’ that are Biblically ‘wrong’, or am I willing to speak the truth in love—but speak the truth? Will I speak truth regardless of the cost? If it costs me jobs, or position, or popularity? If it costs me my possessions? What price am I willing to pay for ‘truth’???
Proverbs 16:25 says, “There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.”
Are we willing to do what God says is right, or to fall for the lies of the enemy that call people to approve of what ‘seems’ right to man? No matter how much ‘applause’ the wrong might receive, it’s still wrong. So which way are you walking? In the way that ‘seems’ right or the way that is ‘right’, and ‘true’…..? Are we so weary with the battle that we’re caving into the pressure of the world? Or are we willing to be like Jeremiah and trust God to defend and protect us when we speak truth—His truth (See Jeremiah 1:19).
Remember– ‘Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.’ John 14:6.
Only ONE truth—Jesus.
Only ONE way—Jesus.
Only ONE way to life—Jesus.
Which way are you going??????
The right way or
the wrong way???
You are free to choose but the consequences are set by God.
