Tag: judgement

Stiff Necked Children

Submit to God   

As I was preparing a short devotion for a men’s breakfast about submitting to the will of God I became more interested in the subject and found more information than I needed.  That led me to expand my thoughts and to write this post.  There is much difficulty in Christians submitting to God. Starting with myself I might add.

I have always been a guy that wants to be in control.  Control and submission are like oil and water I regret to say.  I know the control issue is an issue of the flesh and the submission issue is something done through the spirit.  And so the battle rages on.  Why do I have such a problem doing this?  I believe most people in the Christian community continue to be hard headed and fail to submit as well, why ?

It’s not a new phenomena as we see in the Old Testament writings.  Submission to God has always been avoided by the human race.  And this occurs even when we know that the wrath of God will come.

In a discussion with my pastor this morning we agreed that less than one percent of God’s Church today is in submission to God.  What a rebellious society we are living in.  God’s word says to submit to His will, however most of us are not doing it while claiming to be Christians.  What is the answer to this and how can we please the Lord?  It’s clear that without submission there is eventually a price to pay.  At the very least something negative will occur in our lives that we could have been protected from if we had submitted to God’s will.  We know this yet we continue.

The definition of submit from Merriam Webster is to yield oneself to the authority or will of another or to surrender. Definition of surrender is to give oneself up into the power of another or to yield. The definition for yield is to give way to pressure or influence: submit to urging, persuasion, or entreaty.

“Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” (James 4:7)

God’s word, the Holy Bible, clearly indicates we are to be in submission to God.

 

 

 

“Now be ye not stiffnecked, as your fathers were, but yield yourselves unto the LORD, and enter into his sanctuary, which he hath sanctified for ever: and serve the LORD your God, that the fierceness of his wrath may turn away from you.” (2 Chonicles 30:8)  This was written by Hezekiah after the Assyrians came and took the northern kingdom. They took the people captive and there was not much of the people left.  He is telling them to turn back to God. He is saying if they would turn back to God then God will provide and their families that were taken away will returned. He is practically begging them to turn their hearts to God and worship Him. He told them if they were to turn back to God then surely God would bless them because God is gracious and merciful.

For the people that will not submit to God and reject His grace and mercy, their lives do not go very well and then destruction occurs. God is merciful and compassionate, but He won’t protect us forever if we choose to remain out of His will and fall under the control of Satan.  Eventually you will reap what you sow and everything that goes around comes around. When that happens to people they blame God for the judgement that comes on them. But the only thing that can keep you from the judgement is God’s protection.

“Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace: thereby good shall come unto thee.” (Job 22:21)  In other words, submit to God and you will have peace and some good will come of you. 

And Moses and Aaron came in unto Pharaoh, and said unto him, “Thus saith the LORD God of the Hebrews, How long wilt thou refuse to humble thyself before me? let my people go, that they may serve me.” (Exodus 10:3) In other words – how long will you refuse to submit to me???

“Serve the LORD with fear, rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.” (Psalm 2:12) The bottom line: Blessed are those who put their trust, or, happy are those who put their trust in Him. Submit to God’s royal son.  

“Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:10)  Jesus tells his disciples not to worry about daily needs and to seek first the kingdom of God and all His righteousness, then all these things will be added to them.  So let us have a good look at this, we know that the Kingdom of God is where the Lord reigns. That is where God is. If we have God reigning over our lives then we have the Kingdom of God within us.

So then, if we keep our priorities in order and do what is right we would, “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.”

Moses said to the children of Israel, “Set your hearts unto all the words which I have testified to you this day, and you shall command your children to observe and do all the words of this law. It is not an option for, it is your life.” (Deuteronomy 32:46)

“I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.” (John 5:30)

In other words- submit to the father…He (Jesus) is declaring that He is in perfect harmony with the Father with all the work He is doing. Then He told Philip, “The works that I do I do not of Myself, but the Father that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works.” And this is the same kind of testimony he gives here, “What I’m doing, I’m only doing because I’ve seen the Father do it. I’m doing the works of the Father in your midst.”

Jesus modeled submission to the Father. We would be wise to take the example. 

“And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” (Romans 12:2)  No transformation without submission. Do the will of God. 

“Not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart; and 7 With good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men.” (Ephesians 6:6)

Do what you do as unto the Lord, not to please men but to please the Lord, as a good witness for Him.  Submit to the Lord. 

“Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” (Romans 8:7)  You will need the help of the Holy Spirit to be able to submit to God. You won’t be successful on your own fighting the battle of the flesh.

“So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.” (Romans 8:8)

“And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.” (1 John 2:17)

This passage is from a commentary by Check Smith:

You see, our problem is that we so often lose sight of eternity. As we are in this world we get so involved in the worldly things, that our vision becomes clouded and we lose the sense and the consciousness of the eternal. And when you lose the consciousness of the eternal, then Satan can just really do a trip on your mind.  The seventy-third Psalm, Asaph speaks about that trip that Satan did on his mind, when he got his eyes upon the world and the people in the world. He said, “Now I know that God is good, but when I sought to understand a few things I was almost wiped out. Because I began to look at the prosperity of the wicked, I began to see how they got along and they didn’t seem to have any problems,” and this that and the other. And Satan just really started to put a real trip on him. And he said, “When I sought to know these things, I almost slipped.” He said, “It doesn’t pay to try and serve God. It doesn’t pay to try and be good. And when I sought to know these things I almost slipped. Until I went unto the sanctuary of God and then I saw their end.” In the sanctuary of God his vision was corrected and he got sight now of the eternal.  “God, what are You doing? God, how can You say You love me? God, if You love me, why is this happening to me?” It’s because I have my eyes on the temporal, material advantage and God is looking at the eternal plan and the eternal advantage. It’s important that we step back and we get the long view and realize that the world is gonna pass away and the lust thereof. He who does the will of God abides forever.[1]

So why are we – men and women alike so hard headed?  We must learn to listen and we must obey and submit.  We are stiff-necked children.  We want it our way and we keep doing it our way. We want to be in control instead of letting God take the wheel.

Let’s try it Gods way.

Pray that we will kindle a deeper relationship with God. Pray that all Christians would be convicted toward turning to God and another great awakening takes place. Praise the Lord, King of Kings.  Pray for healing in our land and that our nation would turn back to God.  Lord have mercy on us. Please save us from ourselves Lord for we have lost sight of eternity!

 

God bless you,

The Tubthumper

[1] Smith, C. “C2000 Series on 1 John 2:12 – 3:24 by Chuck Smith.” Blue Letter Bible. Last Modified 1 Jun, 2005. https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/smith_chuck/c2000_1Jo/1Jo_002.cfm

 

It Grieved Him at His Heart, Part 2

“And God saw that it was good,” remember that.

The end of chapter one says, “And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.”  Six days in and all is good!

Now there is a heaven and an earth but no man yet to till the ground. We now have the story of Adam and Eve.  There were no wild plants or grains growing on the earth so far. There was no rain.  What watered the land so far were springs that came forth from the ground.  God decided to make man to care for what he had made and so He formed a man from the dust of the ground.  Keep in mind he made man in his likeness (like Him).  The Lord breathed life into the man’s nostrils which created life and now we have a living person. A man named Adam. God then planted the Garden of Eden and put Adam in the garden. In the center of the garden the Lord placed a tree of life and He also put in a tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  Man was supposed to care and watch over the garden and He gave the man a stern warning, “You can eat of every fruit and tree in the garden except one- He told man that if he were to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that he would surely die.”

Then the Lord said that it was not good for man to be alone.  The Lord caused the man to fall into a deep sleep and then took out one of the man’s ribs and made a woman out of the man’s rib.  This process by God is the design of marriage. It is why a man leaves his mother and father and becomes joined to a wife with the two being united as one. (The institution of marriage.)

We have just finished the creation and origin of all things. It took six days to create and one, day seven of rest.   We will now go through the stage of corruption.

The woman was convinced by the serpent who was the shrewdest of all the creatures that she should eat from the tree that God had forbidden. She ate some fruit from the forbidden tree and also convinced the man to have some.  As soon as they ate it they realized they were naked and saw things they never saw. They hid themselves because they were naked and when God came walking through the garden He could not find them.  God was not pleased with this outcome.  He then cursed the serpent. “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” (Genesis 3:15) You might think is about men and women hating snakes but it has a much deeper theological meaning. It could be interpreted this way, “And there will be intense hatred between Satan and Christ. Eventually, Christ will crush the head of Satan, while suffering a heel wound in the process.”  This verse is known as the “Proto-Evangel,” the first Gospel.

He said to the woman, “I will sharpen the pain of your pregnancy, and in pain you will give birth. And you will desire to control your husband, but he will rule over you.” Because the man listened to the woman and also ate from the tree the Lord cursed the ground and caused it to be a struggle to grow food from it because now it will have weeds and thistles. The lord declared that now man will sweat in order to eat and live and will one day return to the dust he was made from.  This is where we had paradise lost and God’s judgment rendered, Adam and Eve were banished from the Garden of Eden and will need to cultivate the ground to be fed from the dust that he made them. It seems the Lord now have the first of a grieving at His heart.  The subtlety of Satan has worked and Adam has sinned.  Can you feel it?  They were overtaken by the three deadly temptations that many centuries later the apostle John would warn us all to beware of. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life.  Adam has been declared the first human sinner. In actuality, Eve ate first but because Adam was supposed to be the head of the human race he was responsible. (See Romans5:12)

We will now be introduced to God’s redemptive power and His holiness and grace.  We see his holiness as he pronounces five judgements. The five judgements were on man, (Gen 3:17) on women, (Gen 3:16) on all of nature, (Gen 3:18) on the serpent, (Gen 3:14) and on the devil. (Gen 3:15) We see His grace, as God deals with sinners. He showed grace as he sought out Adam in Genesis 3:9, “And the Lord God called unto Adam.” This is where God took the first step to reconcile man back to himself. He showed grace in promising them a Savior in Genesis 3:15 as mentioned above. He showed His grace in clothing them. (Gen 3:21) He showed grace in removing them from the Garden of Eden. (Gen 3:24) This was an act of mercy and not an act of judgement. If God had not removed them from the Garden it would have been a situation where all of mankind would have eaten from the tree and lived forever in total immorality. The next time we read of the tree of life is not until the end in the first two verses of Revelation 22.

As we get into chapter 4 we know that Eve has given birth to two sons.  And we witness the very first murder of mankind and the very first human liar. Yes, man killing man started way back then. This is nothing other than the effects of pure sin. We see the murder of Abel by his brother Cain, and Cain being driven from the blessings of God. Can you feel God’s heart grieving?  Remember all the times God said, “It is good.”

Before we move on to condemnation and the Great Flood. I want to mention the ministry of Enoch in Genesis chapter 5.  Enoch is one of only two men who walked with God prior to the flood. The other man was Noah who will be introduced next post. We know Enoch walked with God because God apparently had told Enoch that when his son Methuselah died the world would be destroyed by a terrible flood. This might be why Methuselah lived longer than any other human in the history of the world.  Methuselah lived to be 969 years old before he died. That was a prophecy of God and the reason Methuselah lived so long may have been because God was not willing that anyone should perish.  He was giving sinful mankind as much time as possible to repent.  (See 1 Timothy 2:4 and 2 Peter 3:9)

Enoch was a man of great faith and he preached of God’s second coming centuries before even his first coming took place. He was the first recorded preacher and he was the first of only two humans that got to heaven without physically dying. The other man that was directly taken up to heaven by the Lord is Elijah. He was taken up in a whirlwind. Enoch was taken up by God at the age of 365, he just was not there anymore because God took him.

Depending upon your level of belief and faith that may sound strange.  Someday however, millions of Christians will experience the very same thing as it is written.

Click here to jump to the next post when we will look at “The Condemnation of all Things.”

God bless you all;

 

 

The Tubthumper