In God--Not Man--We Trust

With my whole heart, I believe the Word of God is inspired, breathing, living, and active.  It is a book of the present, and the future, just as much as it is a historical record, or a collection of songs, poems, and insightful proverbs.  I believe it exists to give insight and inspiration, but also to remind us that God exists outside of time and space, and that He is everywhere—past, present, and future—at the same moment.

Have you ever opened the Word, and felt like you were watching something unfold in the present?  I read this passage this morning in 2 Peter.  I didn’t set out to read it initially, but it was referenced in another passage I was reading in Jude, and so, I looked it up.  In light of the recent events happening in our nation, and in the world, it hit me squarely between the eyes.  This is a Word for NOW, just as much as it ever was a word for then, when Peter stroked the letter on paper during the first century.  He references “false teachers”, and I believe it encompasses any who attempt to sway influence over others.  Take a look:

2 Peter 2:2-21 KJV

² But these, like natural brute beasts made to be caught and destroyed, speak evil of the things they do not understand, and will utterly perish in their own corruption, ¹³ and will receive the wages of unrighteousness, as those who count it pleasure to carouse in the daytime. They are spots and blemishes, carousing in their own deceptions while they feast with you, ¹⁴ having eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease from sin, enticing unstable souls. They have a heart trained in covetous practices, and are accursed children. ¹⁵ They have forsaken the right way and gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; ¹⁶ but he was rebuked for his iniquity: a dumb donkey speaking with a man’s voice restrained the madness of the prophet.

¹⁷ These are wells without water, clouds carried by a tempest, for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.

¹⁸ For when they speak great swelling words of emptiness, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through lewdness, the ones who have actually escaped from those who live in error. ¹⁹ While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage. ²⁰ For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. ²¹ For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them.

You cannot have missed the way that those whose lives are full of self-promotion and self-admiration (mostly those in Hollywood would fall into this category) have become self-appointed preachers, and their message is one of moral superiority.  They preach tolerance, but are the most intolerant; they preach liberty and freedom, but would dole it out to you on their own terms, not yours.  They set themselves up as paragons of politically-correct morality, but use lewdness, foul language, and even violence to promote themselves.  They enslave those they influence, telling them how to think, and it must sound logical and right, or they could not influence those who had escaped error and the pollutions of the world, and entangle them once again.

Don’t get caught up in their manipulations.  Let GOD be true, and every man a liar.  Don’t listen to the “great swelling words of emptiness” and accept them at face value.  More than anything, apply scripture as the most important litmus test! 

Look at how this passage in Jude parallels the message of 2 Peter 2!  Were they reading each other’s mail?  Or was the Spirit speaking the same message to the sheep who KNOW His voice?

Jude 12-13, 16 KJV

These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;

¹³ Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.

+++

¹⁶ These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaketh great swelling words, having men's persons in admiration because of advantage.

Read it in the New Living Translation:

Jude 12-13, 16 NLT

¹² When you come together to eat the Christians’ love suppers, these people are like hidden rocks that wreck a ship. They only think of themselves. They are like clouds without rain carried along by the wind and like trees without fruit in the fall of the year. They are pulled out by the roots and are dead now and never can live again. ¹³ They are like the waves of a wild sea. Their sins are like the dirty water along the shore. They look like STARS moving here and there. But the darkest place has been kept for them forever.

+++

¹⁶ These people are grumblers and complainers, living only to satisfy their desires. They brag loudly about themselves, and they flatter others to get what they want.

I’m sorry…but does that sound like 98% of Hollywood, or what?  And the irony of the phrase “they look like stars”?  Am I the only one who saw that?

Well, I digress.  But I suppose my message is this:  don’t get carried away with the smoke-and-mirrors, with the flash in the pan.  While the gospel preaches helping your brother, remember that they were speaking to the CHURCH, not the secular government.  We are supposed to align ourselves with the Word of God, not the promises of man.  We are supposed to champion TRUTH—God’s truth.  I’m all for voting, and making your voice heard, but remember: God is the one who sets up kingdoms, and takes down kingdoms, and yes, you can insert ‘governments’ in place of ‘kingdoms’.  He uses wicked kings and righteous kings alike to carry out His plans.  HE is the King of kings—so don’t forget that He is right, every single time.

But always, always remember—it is RIGHTEOUSNESS, and not LAWLESSNESS, that exalts a nation. 

Proverbs 14:34 NKJV

³⁴ Righteousness exalts a nation,
But sin is a reproach to any people.

God, you’ve blessed America, over and over—but Lord, put a heart for righteousness in this nation, that we may not be enslaved to the systems of man.  Instead, grant that we would use Your Word alone as the focal point, the guiding Light of our lives.

In God--not man--We Trust.