“They tested and rebelled against the Most High God
and did not keep his testimonies,
but turned away and acted treacherously like their fathers;
they twisted like a deceitful bow.
For they provoked him to anger with their high places;
they moved him to jealousy with their idols.
When God heard, he was full of wrath,
and he utterly rejected Israel.
He forsook his dwelling at Shiloh,
the tent where he dwelt among mankind,
and delivered his power to captivity,
his glory to the hand of the foe.
He gave his people over to the sword
and vented his wrath on his heritage.
Fire devoured their young men,
and their young women had no marriage song.
Their priests fell by the sword,
and their widows made no lamentation.
Then the Lord awoke as from sleep,
like a strong man shouting because of wine.
And he put his adversaries to rout;
he put them to everlasting shame.” [1]
“When God heard, He was full of wrath” [PSALM 78:59a]. Earlier in this Psalm, Asaph wrote, “When the LORD heard, He was full of wrath” [PSALM 78:21a]. Therefore, twice in this Psalm the Psalmist informed us that some action of some statement incites God’s wrath. What did the LORD hear that incited His wrath? Or what moved God to wrath? The question is vital if we are to avoid displeasing God. No one who seeks peace with God would want to incite His wrath. So, it is obvious that we would want to know what displeases God, that we would want to understand what angers the Living God so that we do not fall under His wrath.
As you know, this current series is entitled, “Sins That Cry Out to Heaven.” Though the precise wording in this Psalm doesn’t say that whatever the sin is that is in view cries out to Heaven, it is apparent the Psalmist speaks of a sin that stirs God’s wrath. Apparently, even a cursory reading leads to the understanding that according to this SEVENTY-EIGHTH PSALM, there exists what many appear to consider an acceptable sin that ignites the LORD’s wrath. To be quite pointed, the text informs us that God’s wrath is revealed against a spirit of rebellion. I caution those who profess to know the Risen Saviour—rebellion leads to death. The reason this is so is because rebellion inevitably leads to a confrontation with the Living God.
REBELLION AS GOD SEES IT — We are told in Scripture, “God is not a God of disorder but of peace” [1 CORINTHIANS 14:33a CSB]. The context in which Paul makes this particular statement was while addressing spiritual anarchy. People were seeking to inflate their ego by insisting on speaking in what they called an ecstatic language. Their actions confused the church; and thus they dishonoured the Lord. It is no less accurate to say that unrestrained ecstatic speech in the service of a church in this day is confusing. Thus, such ecstatic speech exposes a rebellious spirit. Rather than humility before the Lord, the one speaking in an ecstatic language seeks to promote herself or himself.
So, that is a command to be observed for the assembly when it is gathered. However, the principle of orderly conduct is no less essential when we consider the family, or the state, or even the natural order of things. God is not a God of disorder, a God of confusion. Years ago, as part of a prize for winning the Sigma Xi research competition during graduate studies, I was given a gift certificate to be used at the medical school bookstore. One of the books I purchased was entitled, “Order in Nature.” I can’t say that the book was especially memorable except for emphasising the concept that all nature displays order. The evidence points to a master hand behind what is witnessed in nature. Though the author likely did not mean to imply a Designer for nature, his argument was precisely that—an argument for a Designer. If there was a Designer, and there is a Designer, then He is not honoured through promoting disorder.
Have you ever noticed the continued emphasis in the Word on seeking peace? For instance, after instructing wives to seek harmony through fostering a submissive attitude toward their husbands and instructing husbands to honour their wives by endeavouring to actually listen to them, Peter encourages all believers to seek unity. He writes, “Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing. For
‘Whoever desires to love life
and see good days,
let him keep his tongue from evil
and his lips from speaking deceit;
let him turn away from evil and do good;
let him seek peace and pursue it.
For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous,
and his ears are open to their prayer.
But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.’”
[1 PETER 3:8-12]
Peter’s instruction echoes what Paul taught when he wrote, “I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all” [EPHESIANS 4:1-6].
Paul instructs all who would follow the Lord Jesus, “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight” [ROMANS 12:14-16]. These instructions are not primarily about our interactions with the world—they are teaching us the necessity of getting along with those who share this Holy Faith!
What the Apostles have written is but amplification of Jesus’ High Priestly prayer. You will recall that Jesus asked the Father, “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world” [JOHN 17:20-24]. Clearly, peace among the people of God, unity in the Faith, harmony in the worship of the Living God, looms large in the view of the Master. That which promotes a spirit of rebellion is opposed to the Lord Himself.
Perhaps you will recall an incident that is recorded in the First Book of Samuel. Saul had led the armies of Israel as the LORD gave Israel a great victory over the Amalekites. The king had been instructed to utterly destroy not only the enemy but to destroy all that they possessed as an offering to the LORD. The people, however, with Saul’s permission, spared the best of all that they took in combat for their own use. Samuel, at last, came upon the scene. This is the biblical account.
“The word of the LORD came to Samuel: ‘I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following me and has not performed my commandments.’ And Samuel was angry, and he cried to the LORD all night. And Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning. And it was told Samuel, ‘Saul came to Carmel, and behold, he set up a monument for himself and turned and passed on and went down to Gilgal.’ And Samuel came to Saul, and Saul said to him, ‘Blessed be you to the LORD. I have performed the commandment of the LORD.’ And Samuel said, ‘What then is this bleating of the sheep in my ears and the lowing of the oxen that I hear?’ Saul said, ‘They have brought them from the Amalekites, for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen to sacrifice to the LORD your God, and the rest we have devoted to destruction.’ Then Samuel said to Saul, ‘Stop! I will tell you what the LORD said to me this night.’ And he said to him, ‘Speak.’
“And Samuel said, ‘Though you are little in your own eyes, are you not the head of the tribes of Israel? The LORD anointed you king over Israel. And the LORD sent you on a mission and said, “Go, devote to destruction the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed.” Why then did you not obey the voice of the LORD? Why did you pounce on the spoil and do what was evil in the sight of the LORD?’ And Saul said to Samuel, ‘I have obeyed the voice of the LORD. I have gone on the mission on which the LORD sent me. I have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and I have devoted the Amalekites to destruction. But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the best of the things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to the LORD your God in Gilgal.’”
Mark carefully what follows as it informs us of the LORD’s view of rebellion.
“Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices,
as in obeying the voice of the LORD?
Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,
and to listen than the fat of rams.
For rebellion is as the sin of divination,
and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry.
Because you have rejected the word of the LORD,
he has also rejected you from being king.”
[1 SAMUEL 15:10-23]
The LORD didn’t ask Saul to select the best for sacrifice. God demanded all the spoils of war to be sacrificed! Saul’s responsibility was to fulfil the revealed will of the Living God, not to become an arbiter of what was acceptable and what could be dismissed.
God did not see this as a minor lapse of judgement or some inconsequential faux pas; God saw this for what it was—the exaltation of Saul’s will over the revealed will of God. Thus, Saul was guilty of rebellion; and the cost of his rebellion was far greater than he could ever imagine. His disobedience, his rebellion, would cost him his throne and bring death to nearly his entire family. Saul’s family would bear the opprobrium of his rebellion throughout generations to come. No one should ever imagine that God is casual about rebellion, especially when rebellion is against His will.
Throughout the Word are warnings against presumption. Presumption is equated with rebellion; it is the exaltation of self-will over the will of God. As Moses recounts the wilful sin that compelled Israel to wander in the wilderness for a period of forty years, he recited the words of the LORD, saying, “The LORD said to me, ‘Say to them, Do not go up or fight, for I am not in your midst, lest you be defeated before your enemies.’ So I spoke to you, and you would not listen; but you rebelled against the command of the LORD and presumptuously went up into the hill country” [DEUTERONOMY 1:42-43]. God saw Israel’s presumption as rebellion. They showed themselves as exalting their self-will rather than submitting themselves to be followers of the LORD.
Judicial decisions of the priest were to be accepted as the will of God. To do otherwise was rebellion against the Lord. Thus, Moses instructed the people, “If any case arises requiring decision between one kind of homicide and another, one kind of legal right and another, or one kind of assault and another, any case within your towns that is too difficult for you, then you shall arise and go up to the place that the LORD your God will choose. And you shall come to the Levitical priests and to the judge who is in office in those days, and you shall consult them, and they shall declare to you the decision. Then you shall do according to what they declare to you from that place that the LORD will choose. And you shall be careful to do according to all that they direct you. According to the instructions that they give you, and according to the decision which they pronounce to you, you shall do. You shall not turn aside from the verdict that they declare to you, either to the right hand or to the left. The man who acts presumptuously by not obeying the priest who stands to minister there before the LORD your God, or the judge, that man shall die. So you shall purge the evil from Israel. And all the people shall hear and fear and not act presumptuously again” [DEUTERONOMY 17:8-13].
Not only are false prophets rebellious, but they are guilty of attempting to lead the people into rebellion. The LORD warned, “The prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die. And if you say in your heart, ‘How may we know the word that the LORD has not spoken?’— when a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the LORD has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him” [DEUTERONOMY 18:20-22].
Well might the child of God plead with the Father,
“Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins;
let them not have dominion over me!
Then I shall be blameless,
and innocent of great transgression.”
[PSALM 19:13]
To harbour a rebellious heart, to promote rebellion, is to enter onto a path that leads to transgression against Holy God. To be presumptuous is to open oneself to grave sin inviting divine judgement. Presumption is a blatant attempt to elevate oneself to the position of God Himself. Whenever any of us who name the Name of the Lord begin to allow such sin to find lodging in our life, we are swiftly moving toward domination by that which will inexorably shove aside reason and stifle any desire to honour the Lord.
In a commentary this past June, Sam Roher wrote, “In the absence of moral restraint, sin begets sin. The very word ‘sin’ is not popular in our modern culture. But until we acknowledge the reality of evil, sin and lawlessness, we can never obtain what most people want—love, peace, and joy.
“It was sin and evil for the police officer to take the life of George Floyd. It is sin to view any life as less sacred than another. It is sin to destroy the property of others, to be in rebellion to authority and to break any number of laws. It is sin to justify angry rebellion as legal ‘protesting’ or ‘peaceable assembly.’ It is sin for public officials to justify rebellious rioters as ‘understandable’ actions arising from the sins of previous generations. It is sin to excuse destruction of people’s livelihoods by burning their neighbors’ businesses to the ground. It is sin for public officials to incite lawbreakers and encourage further division among their fellow citizens by their callous and incendiary comments. It is sin for the Chinese Communist Party to issue propaganda in worldwide social media characterizing Americans as hypocrites for condemning the rioters in Minneapolis as wrong while encouraging the protesters in Hong Kong who wish not to live under the iron fist of Communist leaders. It is sin for all people not to condemn these evil actions we see as sin!” [2] Amen!
We who name the Name of Christ must cease all efforts to excuse sin. For too long the churches have played down the contaminating nature of sin through our failure to confront such wickedness. Pastors, especially, must declare the abhorrent character of sin as “sinful beyond measure” [see ROMANS 7:13].
JUDGEMENT FOR REBELLION — The rebellion harboured in the human heart deceives the rebel into exalting his own strength; at the least, rebellion is expressed through relying on oneself rather than leaning on the LORD. Rebellion denies the truth advocated by the Wise Man,
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart,
and do not lean on your own understanding.”
[PROVERBS 3:5]
Rebellion is born in the heart, but breaks forth in deliberate action against God. Rebellion leads to the LORD’s own people denying His goodness, His loving kindness. Rebellion invites divine judgement—without exception. You may be certain that God will not tolerate the rebel; the Lord will not bless the rebel. The rebel may appear to prosper for a brief moment, but that prosperity is nothing more than a gossamer film masking the poverty of soul, because the rebel can never enjoy the blessing of God. It is a dreadful thing to be held in thraldom by one’s own rebellion.
It is time to resign from our futile attempts to be the centre of the universe. Christians must renounce every effort to reign over life. I am not the centre of the universe, nor are you the centre of the universe. If we are followers of the Christ, He rightfully has become the centre of our life. We enthroned Him on the throne of our life. His will must reign supreme; what we want is no longer relevant. Because we are called by His Name, we seek what glorifies His Name. We want to know His will, not merely to see our desires fulfilled. I’m somewhat extreme in this case, but I even ask God’s guidance in choosing what suit to wear on a Sunday morning. He knows what impact my dress will have on someone who watches our programming or how the manner in which I dress might affect someone sharing our service. Job testified, and I concur, “He knows the way that I take” [JOB 23:10a].
Consider just a few examples of God’s judgement of rebels. In the Book of Numbers we read of rebellion promoted by a religious leader. Korah, a Levite, incited rebellion against Moses and Aaron. Taking his posse of 250 prominent men from within the congregation, Korah confronted Moses openly. He challenged God’s leader, saying, “You have gone too far! For all in the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the LORD is among them. Why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the LORD” [NUMBERS 16:3]? These rebels wanted to be leaders! They focused on what they saw as privilege without seeing the responsibility that leadership imposed. So, they confronted Moses and Aaron.
Moses was horrified at what was happening. He fell on his face, cautioning Korah and those who followed him that they must appear before the LORD. The LORD Himself would reveal those whom He had chosen. In their arrogance, Korah and his posse didn’t realize the danger in which they stood. They went up to the Tent of Meeting carrying censers as though they would present offerings before the LORD. There, Korah commanded the congregation to appear, as though he was in command. Many people whom God had led to this point foolishly obeyed this rebel and came to the Tent of Meeting. Then, God commanded Moses and Aaron, “Separate yourselves from among this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment” [NUMBERS 16:21].
Moses and Aaron, realizing the judgement that was about to executed on the rebels, pleaded with God to show mercy toward the people—they had acted foolishly, irresponsibly. The prayer which Moses and Aaron offered before the LORD was pointed and passionate. “O God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, shall one man sin, and will you be angry with all the congregation” [NUMBERS 16:22]?
Moses and Aaron demonstrated that they were truly leaders by pleading for the people, though the people had been swept along in the rebellion. True leaders do not rejoice in the judgement of the rebel; they grieve because of the pain that is about to be visited not only on the one deserving of judgement, but pain that will be experienced even by those who did not rebel, though they associated themselves with the rebels. Judgement always reaches far beyond those who deserve the divine sentence. Those who love God cannot rejoice in the pain that will be visited so broadly.
Then, Moses warned the congregation, “Depart, please, from the tents of these wicked men, and touch nothing of theirs, lest you be swept away with all their sins” [NUMBERS 16:26]. The old man still commanded the respect of those people who responded by moving away from the tents of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram.
What Moses said next must surely have chilled the souls of these men and all who had joined in their rebellion, and their families must surely have been taken aback by what was said next, as Moses warned, “Hereby you shall know that the LORD has sent me to do all these works, and that it has not been of my own accord. If these men die as all men die, or if they are visited by the fate of all mankind, then the LORD has not sent me. But if the LORD creates something new, and the ground opens its mouth and swallows them up with all that belongs to them, and they go down alive into Sheol, then you shall know that these men have despised the LORD” [NUMBERS 16:28-30].
Immediately after warning of what would happen, the divine text informs us, “As soon as [Moses] had finished speaking all these words, the ground under [the rebels] split apart. And the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, with their households and all the people who belonged to Korah and all their goods. So they and all that belonged to them went down alive into Sheol, and the earth closed over them, and they perished from the midst of the assembly. And all Israel who were around them fled at their cry, for they said, ‘Lest the earth swallow us up!’ And fire came out from the LORD and consumed the 250 men offering the incense” [NUMBERS 16:31-35]. Many were buried alive, and the remainder were burned up by the fire of the LORD. By this action, the LORD revealed the serious consequences of rebellion against His Name.
Standing against evil is commendable; standing against righteousness is condemnable. How will you know the difference? The answer to that question is to remember the maxim: anything that exalts man at the expense of God’s glory is evil; anything that turns people toward obedience to God and His will is righteous. Any action or thought that promotes our own reputation without exalting Christ must be seen as evil. Either He is Lord over our life, or we are in full control of what we do. Either we are serving Him and seeking His glory, or we are attempting to boost our own stature. The thing that is easily forgotten when we attempt to exalt ourselves, is that we are mortal. Whatever we do to enhance our own stature is transient at best. Life passes all too quickly, and when it is past, our presence will be forgotten. Like a stone thrown into a stream, our efforts at exalting ourselves may make a splash, but the ripples will quickly subside, and the flow of the stream will soon remove every trace of what was done.
I confess that I’ve not always acted as I should during this pastorate. We’ve had individuals who were rebellious against the Lord and against His people, and I hesitated to pronounce the Lord’s judgement against them. Even associates that shared pastoral ministry with me, slandered the congregation and left and I sought to make peace rather than warning them as straightly as I should have. Individuals made slanderous charges against me and against the leaders of the assembly, leaving in white-hot rage because they couldn’t get their way. Others have been exposed as whoremongers and adulterers. They left and I did not lead the congregation to act by publicly rebuking them for their rebellion.
It is clear that rebellion must be dealt with decisively and quickly. Paul admonished the Corinthian congregation, “When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to deliver [the rebel] to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord” [1 CORINTHIANS 5:4-5].
The Apostle continued by pointing to why such action should be taken, writing, “Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth” [1 CORINTHIANS 5:6-8].
To my shame, I failed to rigorously apply Scripture in these several instances; and through my failure, I did those rebels no favours. In several instances, they were allowed to slink away, thinking they had somehow preserved their dignity. However, they had dishonoured the Lord; and I dishonoured the Lord, bringing reproach on my own head for not acting more in line with Scripture by demanding an accounting of the rebels. God, however, has graciously set aside my sin, and I shall not quickly sin against the Saviour in this manner again. The assembly must hold the rebel accountable before the Lord.
DELIVERANCE FOR REPENTANT SAINTS — As the Psalmist draws this Psalm to a conclusion, he writes of all that God has done to bless the nation. The Psalmist writes,
“[The LORD] rejected the tent of Joseph;
he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim,
but he chose the tribe of Judah,
Mount Zion, which he loves.
He built his sanctuary like the high heavens,
like the earth, which he has founded forever.
He chose David his servant
and took him from the sheepfolds;
from following the nursing ewes he brought him
to shepherd Jacob his people,
Israel his inheritance.
With upright heart he shepherded them
and guided them with his skillful hand.”
[PSALM 78:67-72]
God’s sovereignty is displayed prominent in these closing strophe. The Psalmist informs us that the LORD did not choose as we might have chosen. God rejected Joseph; He refused to choose the tribe of Ephraim. For His own reasons, the LORD chose Judah. God chose David, and His purpose in choosing became evident only after the fact as David shepherded Israel and guided the nation expertly. What is important to see is that the LORD was in full control of events when Israel clamoured for a leader. They could not choose according to their own criteria. Rather, the LORD chose whom He willed.
We cannot often see the purpose behind what God is doing at the moment—we are incapable of seeing the conclusion of a matter before the issue is brought to an end. We have a limited knowledge based on our observations over the brief time we are allotted, but we know that our knowledge is incomplete. The Lord God, however, dwells in eternity—He sees the end from the beginning.
How humbling to witness the words of the Living God that were delivered through the Prophet Isaiah.
“Remember this and stand firm,
recall it to mind, you transgressors,
remember the former things of old;
for I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is none like me,
declaring the end from the beginning
and from ancient times things not yet done,
saying, ‘My counsel shall stand,
and I will accomplish all my purpose,’
calling a bird of prey from the east,
the man of my counsel from a far country.
I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass;
I have purposed, and I will do it.”
[ISAIAH 46:8-11]
We must not fall into the trap of imagining that we can argue with God and prevail. We must not allow ourselves to think that we are capable of compelling God do our bidding. God is sovereign, we are not. We must know that because He is God, we can find mercy when we come to Him with hearts that are humble. The Lord has promised,
“Thus says the One who is high and lifted up,
who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy:
‘I dwell in the high and holy place,
and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit,
to revive the spirit of the lowly,
and to revive the heart of the contrite.’”
[ISAIAH 57:15]
If the Second Psalm is to be taken seriously, we dare not trifle with the Son of God. You will no doubt recall that this Psalm concludes with this stern warning:
“Pay homage to the Son or he will be angry
and you will perish in your rebellion,
for his anger may ignite at any moment.
All who take refuge in him are happy.”
[PSALM 2:12 CSB]
According to what is recorded in this Psalm, refusal to pay homage to the Son incites God’s wrath; and His holy wrath ensures the destruction of anyone against whom His anger is focused. Contrasted to that wrath is the promise of blessing when we take refuge in Him. There is blessing promised for all who take refuge in God’s Son. This is not an invitation to merely mouth the words, but it is a promise that the Living God will ensure that each one who looks to the Son of God as Saviour will be assured of deliverance from the penalty of sin. You will have deliverance from the power of sin over your life, and you will know that you have deliverance from the presence of sin at Christ’s return.
Rebellion is bound up in the very essence of our being. It could be fair to say that we humans are defined by our rebellious nature. By nature we resist any situation that compels us to accept what we don’t want to accept. It is part of our human condition. Our first parents rebelled against God and plunged us into this condition. Our first mother was deceived. In turn, our first father chose to side with her and they embraced their own desires rather than doing what God had commanded. The account of this rebellion is well known, but I believe that we will benefit by refreshing our memories. The passage demonstrating this rebellion in our first parents is found in the third chapter of Genesis, the first book of the Bible. There, we read this account, “Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made.
“He said to the woman, ‘Did God actually say, “You shall not eat of any tree in the garden?”’ And the woman said to the serpent, ‘We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, “You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.”’ But the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’ So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths” [GENESIS 3:1-7].
Satan lied and mankind died. Even a cursory reading of this account makes it apparent that Eve was deceived—she believed Satan’s lie and disobeyed the Living God. However, Adam rebelled—he was deliberate in exalting his will above the will of his Creator. Adam chose to violate the command of the LORD, choosing what he wanted rather than obeying the Lord’s command. It is evident, then, that rebellion lies at the very heart of our human condition. We now live under the curse that arose from Adam’s sin. We are subject to death, living in rebellion against the will of the Lord our God. It is only when we are born again, when we are born from above and into the Kingdom of God, that we have the capacity to obey God. And even after being born from above, the old nature is tragically very much a part of our brokenness so that we struggle to do what we know the Lord wills and commands.
If we will be delivered from divine judgement, we must bring ourselves into compliance with the mind of the Lord. We must give up the idea that we can exalt our will against the will of the Living God. Each person who insists on doing what he or she imagines to be best is moving inexorably toward confrontation with the Lord. Each of us must be born again. To be born from above, we must receive the Son of God as Master over our life.
This is what is written in the Word of God. “If you declare with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For one believes with his heart and is justified, and declares with his mouth and is saved. The Scripture says, ‘Everyone who believes in him will never be ashamed.’ There is no difference between Jew and Greek, because they all have the same Lord, who gives richly to all who call on him. ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved’” [ROMANS 10:9-13 ISV]. Believe on the Lord Jesus and you shall be saved.
Then, having been saved, you must refuse to give ground to the flesh. Scripture is quite clear in warning that we must not make concession to the flesh. Paul writes, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
“You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him” [ROMANS 8:1-9]. You, however, have put faith in the Risen Saviour. Therefore, you need not live according to the dictates of the flesh. You can live to glorify the Risen Christ. Do so now. Amen.
[1] Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2016. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
[2] Sam Roher, “Nationwide Unrest Reveals Deep Moral Chasm in America,” Townhall, Jun 28, 2020, https://townhall.com/columnists/samrohrer/2020/06/28/nationwide-unrest-reveals-deep-moral-chasm-in-america-n2571276, accessed 28 June 2020
