Doing As We Please

We pointed out last week that the crying need of our day is for people to turn back to God. For anyone who is half way observant, it is obvious that many of our problems today come as a result of people having left God and God’s righteousness out of their lives. Those people of today who advocate and emphasize materialism, along with those who advocate the existential philosophy of "whatever seems to be right at the time and under the circumstances becomes right." The humanists who deify man and advocate that man is adequate to know, plan and expedite everything which is good for and needful to man. These all decry the very idea of God and a standard of moral righteousness. These all are like Israel of old, when "every man did that which was right in his own eyes." Judges 17:6; 21:25.

Isaiah says that it was even so in his day and that it would be true when the Lord Jesus Christ came into this world that "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way:" Isaiah 53:6. God sent Prophets to cry out against such rebellion against God and His righteousness. When King Saul rebelled against God through his disobedience, God sent Samuel to let him know that "rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry." 1 Samuel 15:23. Samuel also told Saul that "to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams." Verse 22. God has ever punished those who sinned and stood in rebellion against Him and His will. God continues to do so. Peter states, "For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?" Paul tells us that when the "Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power." 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9. "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad." 2 Corinthians 5:10.

Today the majority of people seem to think, like those of old, that they can do as they please. They have no regard for God and His righteousness, very little regard for the laws of the land, little respect for others and in many instances very little for their family or friends. We are living in a time of extreme selfishness. Greed is rampant on every hand. Paul warns "This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away." 2 Timothy 3:1-5. Everyone of these sins is rampant today. The only answer to and cure for this condition is for people to turn back to God. We must obey God and not man. Acts 5:29. Joel, the prophet, said to the people of his day, "Therefore also now, saith the Lord, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God…." Joel 2:12-13. People today need to likewise repent and turn to God. Do God’s will, in God’s way, for God’s purposes and He will bless them.

Howard I. See

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