“My People…are destroyed…for a lack…of knowledge”. (4:6)
Start that quote for most believers as you are walking out of church to your car and they can finish it…with a somber, pious nod of agreement. Pause. … “So what time does the game start?” -- Ever notice how quickly that ‘switch’ can change within us?
And have you ever taken the time to walk that quote back and figure out WHY…God’s people are seemingly and needlessly being destroyed?
Well…for one, as stated, it’s due to a ‘lack of knowledge’
I’m sure you know what the ‘beginning of knowledge’ includes, yes?
“The Fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.” (Proverbs 1:7)
Then God declares that: “There is no fear of God before their eyes” (Rom 3:18)
Want to take a guess why there is a significant absence of a ‘fear of God’ today?
We don’t even recognize God’s judgments anymore.
We, for some odd reason, were told ‘THAT' God’ no longer exist.
Yet God declared through Jeremiah: “My people do not know the judgment of the Lord.” (8:7)
I’m going to let you in on a little secret here…sin still gets judged…today, despite what you might hear elsewhere. “Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. (Eph 5:6; Col 3:6; Acts 3:23) …maybe…that’s why Jesus came to set us free…from sin? What a novel concept.
And because of watered down teachings of the Word today, we don’t even make a remote connection with ‘sin and judgments’. That is downright offensive to many people.
Not long ago, I heard a very well known preacher make this statement before thousands of people…referring to the passage in John 9 and the healing of the blind man. The disciples asked Jesus if the man was blind because he sinned or his parents sinned. (Ever wonder why they even asked that question to begin with?) This well-known preacher stated that many of God’s people “mistakenly”equated judgment with ‘bad behavior’…so when Jesus declared that this man’s blindness was not connected to any sins he or his parents may have committed, that Jesus was in effect ‘dispelling the notion that sin (or bad behavior) can bring judgment’.
I wish he would have addressed another person Jesus healed in John 5 when He told him to ‘go and sin no more or something worse may come on you.” (5:14)
I would submit that one reason we don’t draw any connection to ‘sin and judgment’ today is we seem to struggle even defining what ‘sin is’…even though everyone admits that we all do it all the time and will continue to sin until Jesus returns to take us home.
Ask the common church member to define sin and you may get a perplexed look and then after they regroup, a bold declaration that sin is ‘missing the mark’.
Hmmm…ok…. I can see that being applied to my golf game as I’ve never shot a perfect round of par golf. And let’s not talk about my non-existent archery skills.
How about if I tell you this…we don’t really know what sin is because there is no teaching of the Law today.
And sin…is…the breaking of the Law. Sin is…lawlessness. (1 John 3:4)
And why is there no teaching of the Law anymore?
Good question…one Jesus had for the Pharisees in Mark 7 where He accused them of ‘laying aside the commandments of God and teaching the doctrines of men.”
So let’s rewind the tape and look at this from another direction.
When we are not taught the law of God, we don’t understand what sin is.
When we fail to understand what sin is, then we cannot understand judgment.
And where there is no understanding of judgment, then why would anyone grasp the concept of the ‘fear of God’.
The fear of God is the beginning of knowledge.
My people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge. (Hosea 4:6)
So now Psalm 34:11 makes more sense where it states: “Come and I will teach you the fear of the Lord.”
Believe me when I tell you this kind of talk can really stir things up within us. Yet please note all I am sharing here with you are bible verses that seemed to have been looked over or pushed aside all these years when we were dutifully being instructed in ‘my church’s doctrine.’
Let me go on record here and emphatically stating that ‘keeping the law…saves no one.” That was never the purpose of the law. You might make note as well that God never had a regret over giving us the Law. It’s not like He thought…”Gosh, that was a bad idea…maybe I should go to Plan B.”
The law was set in place, and still stands today, as it was made for the lawless and ungodly and sinners… (take a look at 1 Tim 1:9-10)
Did you know that the law brings ‘wrath’? (Rom 4:15)
And the ‘wrath’ of God still comes on the disobedient- (Eph 5:6)
Did you know exactly what Jesus came to save us from? – The wrath of God. (Rom 5:9)
Oh, and in case you forgot, Psalm 78:49-50 tells us exactly what the ‘wrath of God’ is.
Many, many people today have been led to believe that the ‘grace of God’ was like some ‘get out of jail card for free’ so that when we continue to sin, we are immune to any wrath or judgment or repercussions for disobeying. Nice thought but it’s a lie. You may be familiar with Romans 6:1-2?
I’d imagine some of you were told that the law was ‘done away with’. I hate to burst your bubble, but it wasn’t. Even Jesus made it know He did not come to abolish or do away with the law but rather, to fulfill it. (Matt 5:17)
Paul writes in multiple places how the law is ‘holy and just and good’ (Rom 7:12; 1 Tim 1:8-9) but it is not for the righteous person but for the lawless and insubordinate and ungodly and sinners, etc…
Then go take a look at Galatians 5:18 where it reads quite plainly: “IF you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.”
So what if you are not being led by the Spirit? Hmmmm…never really thought of it that way, did you?
But IF…we are being led by the Spirit…then Romans 8:13 says we are ‘putting to death the deeds of the sinful nature” and the result of those who are following the Spirit and Not the flesh nature…the ‘righteous requirements of the law are being fully met in us.” (Rom 8:4)
This whole idea of 'having to follow Jesus/Spirit' sure messes up our current theological thinking. And even worse, it starts to infringe on our personal lives and desires and plans.
Please tell me there is an 'easier gospel and Jesus' out there to follow. Oh, there is...plenty of them. Better read the small print though before you start down that wide and crowded path.
If your brain is starting to cloud over and get mushy…simply from reading the Word of God…guess where that spirit of ‘confusion’ is coming from? We know God is not the author of confusion. (1 Cor 14:33)
Let me give you another way of looking at what wading through all this may be like for you. Suppose you learned at a young age to pitch a baseball or swing a golf club in a particular manner. And over the years, you did well with it. Well enough to get the attention of the next level of competition like college or even the pros. But when you made that step up, you were told you were going to be ‘re-taught’ how to throw or swing. That actually happens all the time to athletes.
Can you imagine how challenging that would be if you were comfortable and relatively successful with the way you had always done things?
Yeah…well…we have some things God needs to ‘re-teach’ us.
If you hunger for truth and greater freedom and power…better submit to the new “coach”.
To those whispering to themselves…”Yeah…But….”
…Becoming a Christian has nothing to do with trying to ‘keep some law’ and ‘sin less’.
It has everything to do with surrendering your life to Jesus…coming to Him with ALL your heart and allowing Him to LEAD you to put to death the sinful nature, freeing you from the chains of sin, and becoming a new creation in Christ where you actually can ‘walk like Him’ (1 John 2:6) since you have become like Him according to Romans 8:29.
He did NOT come and declare: “Believe on Me and just say you are sorry over and over and over for continuing to sin…I got your back!” He came and declared that we are to “Repent!”…which means to Turn.
I am telling you as sincerely yet as passionately as I can…We. Have. Been. Asleep.
Please don’t do like they did in Matt 22:5 and ‘make light of it’.
Better grab a pen and notepad…we have much more ground to cover. (Oh, bring your bible too. )
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