Lawlessness & Disobedience
Warrior Chicks:
Lawlessness & Disobedience
· Confronted with truth, we can respond in 2 ways…we can become angry and defensive and dismiss the very revelation that we need….or we can be humble and broken and let the pain and repentance raise us to another level of godly character
· Sometimes when reading God’s Word we come across things that may seem uncomfortable or even painful…but they are TRUTH’s from God’s Word that are really meant for positioning us for His protection…or for His blessing…or even for another person’s salvation!
· Lately, God has been challenging me to change my mindset about certain things…what I have formerly depended on…things that I used to get upset about…things I used to say…the more I study the Bible…the more I learn how far off I was in some of my thinking
· Some of it was just because of the way I was raised…the culture I live in….even the way the world just seems to “reason” about certain things
· In many ways I had been programmed to think differently from what the foundational truths of the Bible actually say!
· This is the exact thing that Satan desires…he loves to make what brings us or keeps us in bondage…actually appear desirable or even good,…and then he so messes up our thinking that we actually think that what would bring us FREEDOM is actually BONDAGE!!!
· This is why the Bible warns us: “Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren.” James 1:16
· “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” Romans 12:2
· We are part of the Kingdom of God…His Kingdom is ruled by a King…the laws of His Kingdom are not subject to popular opinion or even what we may believe to be good for us.
· “If they obey and serve Him (GOD), they will spend the rest of their days in prosperity and their years in contentment. But if they do not listen, they will perish by the sword and die without knowledge.” Job 36:11-12
· What is the PROMISE in this verse?...provision and protection
· What is the COMMAND?... Submission to His authority
· What is the WARNING? ..perishing/dying
· What is the MESSAGE?...there is freedom in submission and bondage in rebellion
· How can you PERSONALLY APPLY this verse to your life?
· Let’s look at these verses…
· “For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it…The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart—These, O God, You will not despise.” Psalm 51:16-17
· dictionary definition of CONTRITE…feeling regret and sorrow for one’s sins or offenses…a contrite heart is one that hungers for the will of God
· What is the PROMISE?
· What is the COMMAND?
· What is the WARNING?
· What is the MESSAGE?...we can make great sacrifices…serve long hours…give up sleep…do all sorts of things in the ministry…get caught up in all this sacrifice and think we are pleasing God but the truth is in all this activity…our core motivation could really be self-will
· How can you APPLY it to your life?...been there, done this….for lots of years my relationship with God was one of serving and doing…many mistakes were made because of this….because I had no RELATIONSHIP with Him…I was not really under His authority….
· That’s the big kicker here…God’s Kingdom is based on AUTHORITY and submitting to that authority….I can look back over my life and see the huge pits I fell in because I was not submissive to God’s Authority…and sometimes I was not even submissive to the authorities that God had put in my life…
· Listen to this Scripture…”Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. FOR THERE IS NO AUTHORITY EXCEPT FROM GOD, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment o themselves.” Romans 13:1-2
· The MESSAGE?...God appoints all existing rulers…no one can get into a place of legitimate authority without God’s knowledge…to rebel against those authorities is to rebel against the ordinance of the Lord,
· The PROMISE?...God ordained authority
· The COMMAND?...
· The WARNING?...rebelling or resisting will bring judgment on yourself
· APPLY it to your life…
· (WE ARE GOING TO REALLY GET INTO THIS PARTICULAR SCRIPTURE NEXT WEEK!!!!)
· Watchman Nee (in his book called Spiritual Authority) wrote…”Before a man can subject himself to God’s delegated authority he must first meet God’s inherent authority. Our entire relationship with God is regulated by whether or not we have met authority. If we have, then we shall encounter authority everywhere, and being thus restrained by God we can begin to be used by Him.
· For us to live under His protection…we must walk under submission to Him!
· Before we can talk about walking in submission to Him…let’s first define what SIN is…
· What’s the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear that word SIN-?
· (adultery, perversion, drunkenness, drug abuse, gambling, murder, theft, witchcraft…hatred, strife, jealously, unforgiveness…)
· THINK ABOUT THIS…Way back in the Garden of Eden…Adam didn’t jump into bed with another woman, he didn’t smoke a joint…but what he did do was so SERIOUS that it brought all creation into captivity and bondage….WHAT DID HE DO THAT BROUGHT SO MUC DESTRUCTION TO MANKIND????
· Simply put…he was not OBEDIENT to what God told him.
· Sometimes we get away from this very core definition of sin…it is DISOBEDIENCE…without remembering this, we can very quickly be led into DECEPTION!
· The Bible says in 1 John 3:4…”Sin is lawlessness”
· The Greek word for lawlessness is ANOMIA…it means the condition of being without law, because of ignorance of it or because of violating it.”
· So SIN is the rejection of the law, or will of God and the substitution of the will of self
· Lawlessness means not to submit to the law or authority of God
· LET’S LOOK AT A PARABLE of JESUS:
· LUKE 14:15-24
· The man giving the supper represents the Father, and the servant is Jesus Himself.
· V.17…”Come, for all things are now ready”…He is speaking to the church, not unbelievers who have never heard the Gospel
· Starting at v. 18…the excuses start flying….”I bought me a piece of land”…that is not a sin…but when POSSESSIONS become more important that immediate submission to God…it falls under the core definition of SIN…it’s lawlessness
· V.19…the guy bought oxen and wanted to test them…buying stuff that is necessary for our livelihood is not a sin..but when it becomes more important that instantly obeying the Word or will of God…it is sin
· V.20….I have married a wife…getting married is not the sin…it’s when the desire to please a mate becomes more important than submitting to the will of God..it is sin
· V.24 tells us what Jesus said about these people who made these very polite excuses…”For I say to you that none of those men who were invited shall taste my supper.”…they originally held honorary invitations…now they were barred from attending….NOT because of sexual misconduct, or drugs and stuff…but because of simple DISOBEDIENCE to the Word of God…..
· This shouldn’t surprise us though…if we just think back to Adam and what got him kicked out of the Garden…it was simple DISOBEDIENCE!
· V.23…He says to go get the people of the highways and hedges…in Scripture these people represented the prostitutes, pimps, thieves, gangs, murderers, drug abusers, alcoholics….
· The Lord knows that in these last days, many of these people will realize their lives are empty and have brought them nothing but sorrow…when they hear the call of the Master…they will respond with instant OBEDIENCE!!!
· In contrast…those who attend church and consider themselves godly…but only obey God when it is convenient or doesn’t interfere with their schedules or pleasure…will find themselves shut out from God’s banquet…or presence!!!
· SIN in this parable is DISOBEDIENCE to God’s Authority
· Another parable…Matthew 21:28-33
· (READ it)
· the MESSAGE?...the core meaning of sin is ultimately DISOBEDIENCE to the authority of God…it is not confined to adultery, murder, theft. And all that stuff
· the “leaders” in this parable were proud and confident because they were involved in the “gross” sins…but with their limited definition of SIN…they were easily deceived into committing what they claimed to avoid ever so diligently…SIN….or DISOBEDIENCE to divine authority!
· In Matthew 24 the disciples start questioning Jesus about what it would be like about the end of the age. He explains some of the conditions that would be everywhere in the days preceding His second coming….”Because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. But he who endures to the end shall be saved.” Matthew 24:12-13
· LOVE here in Greek is “agape”…agape love is the kind of love Jesus tells believers that they are to have for one another…John 13:34…”AGAPE one another, as I have AGAPED (loved) you.”
· This type of love expresses the deep and constant love and interest of a perfect Being towards entirely unworthy objects…it’s the unconditional love of God
· Romans 5:5 and John 14:17 says this is love that the world cannot receive…..so….this love can only be found in people who have received Jesus as their Savior
· Jesus said “Because lawlessness will abound, the LOVE of many will grow cold”…..he is talking to the people of the church…about AGAPE love
· He was saying lawlessness is going to abound in the CHURCH in the last days
· Matthew 7:21 says “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who DOES THE WILL of My Father in heaven.”
· We have so wrongly taught in churches that all you have to do is to say the “sinners prayer” and you get to go to heaven…we have placed no emphasis on keeping His commands…or on OBEDIENCE
· God’s GRACE empowers us to serve God in the way He wants…Hebrews 12:28…”Let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably”
· So what can keep us from falling into lawlessness and into deception
· DECEPTION is when you believe with all your heart that you are right when, in reality, you are wrong
· Jesus warns us to beware of this in Matthew 24…4 times alone! The first words out of His mouth were “Take heed that no one deceives you.” Matthew 24:4
· So, what is the root cause of this deception?.....
· James 1:22 “But be DOERS of the Word, and not hearers only, DECEIVING yourselves.”
· When we HEAR, but do not OBEY…deception enters our hearts and minds!
· Ezekiel 33:30-31 “As for you, son of man, the children of your people are talking about you beside the walls and in the doors of the houses; and they speak to one another, everyone saying to his brother, “Please come and hear what the word is that comes from the Lord,” So they come to you as people do, they sit before you as My people, and they hear your words, BUT THEY DO NOT DO THEM; for with their mouth they show much love, but their hearts pursue their own gain.”
· Many people in our church love good preaching and teaching…but when it comes down to reality, they still love their own lives more then they love God’s will.
· Another thing to consider…2 Thessalonians 2:7 “For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work.”
· Remember when we talked about that a couple of months ago!!!!
· Satan is the master of deception…think about it…he led a third of the angels in an uprising against God….
· Matthew 24:24…Jesus warned us that Satan’s delusions and deceptions would become so strong in the last days that if it were possible, even the elect would fall prey to them
· Why should this surprise us!!!!? If he could lead millions of angels in heaven…why would it be difficult to mislead millions in this earthly environment…
· After all…he is called the “prince of the air”
· Paul even warned the church in 2 Corinthians 11:3…”But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted.”
· There are some people in church that blatantly disobey God…knowing full well what they are doing…they are not deceived…they are treading on very dangerous territory toward spiritual death….
· But the majority in church that are disobedient are the DECEIVED….ignorance has opened the door to deception…the secret power of lawlessness
· Ignorance is the breeding ground for deception…
· Isaiah 5:13 God said, “Therefore my people have gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge”
· It’s not enough for you to listen to messages every week and listen to someone else read the Word of God…that is what a “HEARER” does….you must become a “DOER of the Word”…
· You have to seek the heart of God in the Scriptures…ask Him to reveal the meanings and apply the meanings to your life
· How do you receive revelation knowledge?....walk humbly before God….God said in Isaiah 66:2…”But on this one I will look; On him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at My word.”
· If you tremble at His Word…that means you instantly obey Him, whether you see the advantage or not…