Self-willed Despisers of Authority - By Sandra T. Lloyd - s_tlloyd@verizon.net
2 Peter 2:10 promises that a day of punishment awaits those that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness. The phrase evokes images of a pigs love of filth and a dogs propensity to consume things his own body has expelled.
The authority in our lives, is that which rules us, whatever it is. Whatever has mastery over us. In civil matters, our government has a certain amount of authority, whether we like it or not. The police have some degree of authority in municipal government. The IRS has way too much authority. Parents (still) have (a little) authority. Your boss has authority. Authority is a fact of life.
Despisers of authority have a certain end.
To despise means to disdain. The word "despisers" refers to those who reject utterly, and also carries the flavor of resentment and disdain.
Why do we have laws? What does morality stem from? It has to be based on something. Why would the majority of people "know" that it is wrong to kill someone, if there was not some universal determiner of what is wrong?
It is simple. Kids are constrained to obey because there are parents/teachers/ others who have very real authority over them. Authority is only as legitimate as the power which it has to enforce itself. The fact that the human race has a conscience, itself is evidence there is Someone in ultimate authority over us. But as a people, we the human race, choose to disregard this. Verse 9 of this passage says that the Lord knows how to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished. That's just a parent telling his child, whom he loves and cares about, that there are consequences and they will be delivered. God gave us His Word for that purpose, to warn us. But many will have none of it. They will ignore the warnings.
We have a natural tendency to rebel and if we will not submit to God's authority, we will then be a slave to the flesh. It is one or the other. There are no other choices. Submit to the God of the Universe, or be given over to the natural ends that accompany the following of your baser impulses.
The despising of authority in any form, is definitely a clear indication of the hour in which we are living. Look around. Corrupt leaders have even made a mockery out of the concept of authority, since authority also entails responsibilities. People have good reason to disdain corrupt authority, and that indignation also springs from an inner knowing that authority has a corresponding accountability that comes with it. Human authority is subject to corruption, but Godly authority is not.
There was a time in this nation when even those who were not believers, still knew the truth of the Bible, and had some respect of it. But little by little, as choices were made, to reject the authority of God, and spend life catering to the flesh and fulfilling the lusts of the flesh, the nation itself began to change. And the rebellion became bolder and more defiant unto arrogance. The arrogance has now progressed to that point of despising authority and scoffing at it. A false confidence, I might add, assumed on the part of humans who fail to grasp the grace of God and HIs forbearance for the sake of mercy, they assume that because He has withheld His wrath thus far, it is not forthcoming. All I can say is, you should have read the whole Book, because it is coming. We are in fact living in an age of Grace, a certain level of permissive-ness, that ultimately will prove that no matter what God had done to facilitate obedience, we would tend toward self-will.
Seventy years ago in this nation, there was no such thing as a "Comedy Club". Comedians are now regarded much like the proverbial (and literal) "rock star". They became legends. Steve Martin, Robin Williams, Freddie Murphy. They pushed the envelope, joking in their time, about things a person , at one time simply did not make light of. Now, nothing is off-limits, even death, hell and religion. When everything became "fair game" as a joke people moved beyond being making light of sin, to blatant and serious and open rebellion in their disdain of Godly authority.
When the stigma upon homosexuality began to be lifted in this nation, was back when the night-time Soap Opera spoof called "Soap" came on television. As a kid, I and many others thirty and forty years ago, were ignorant of homosexuality. So lightly was it treated, that my earliest impression of a gay man, was just one who was effeminate, and funny. Of course as a youngster in my generation, most "kids" hadn't the early introduction to the sexual aspect of opposite-sex relationships, much less the nature of that other kind. And I didn't even know there were also women whose affection was toward other women. It was all still "in the closet". Why? Because those who practiced it at that time still knew it was wrong. But as more and more persisted in what was known to be wrong, they were given over to it. As it is practiced openly, and begins to permeate the fabric of our society it serves to sear the consciences of the next generation. This is a harm to others, to little ones, which God will not hold sinners blameless of either, mind you. So, when a son or daughter in this current time announces their "coming out" I do believe that some of the blame (and therefore wrath) lies not on the shoulders of the young person, but those before them who rebelled. That includes Christians and especially pastors, who stopped preaching the truth about sin. Having said that, however, there are plenty today who did grow up having been taught that it was wrong and unacceptable, like Katy Perry. for instance, and they are what they are by personal choice to reject God's authority and all Godly counsel.
Ones own rebellion and embracing sin, lead to a searing of the individual conscience, while there also is a "national conscience" and "societal conscience". God put the conscience in us, "writing His law upon our hearts" (Romans 2:15). Con means "with", science means "knowledge".
God will, and MUST punish sin! He is offended by rebellious hearts, because His law is designed to keep us from harm.
False teachers crept into the church, who despised authority, and methodically have worked to undermine and eradicate it within the church, until we are left with guys like Osteen who lie and tell you that all God is about is goodness and light and helping you fulfill every lust desire your stinking flesh can think up.
When we look around today at what is happening in this nation, America is now fully characterized by this rejection of authority. The following of the flesh and all its dark desires, is foolishly viewed as enlightenment. When in reality it is darkening. ( Woe unto them who call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter, Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!....Which justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him! Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust: because they have cast away the law of the LORD of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel. And if you want to know more about those "woes" and what they portend, just see Revelation 9 thru 16! ). It is darkening to a society, and it is personally darkening, placing scales over the eyes. Eventually making the rebellious one blind to truth entirely. They are then utterly susceptible to delusion. Literally a form of madness. This is why we often scratch our heads at how stupid some of the "smart people in charge of things" can seem to be. Power can corrupt. Lucifer being our prime example.
Terrible rebellious nature leads to a reprobate mind if followed. When we take the law lightly, and when we take the Bible lightly, it opens the door for all our fleshly passions to rule us.
2 Peter enumerates perverse things that God's people should never participate in.
Defiance grows bold over time, and builds up all the more of God's wrath against the rebel. The first and smallest rebellion begins a process that sears the conscience, renders it scarred and hard and non-functional.
Show me someone who refuses to yield to authority, and I will show you a person who is miserable indeed. Gays are not miserable because people "discriminate" against them. They are miserable because they persist in rebellion. Against God's authority, and try as they might to throw off condemnation, the Scriptures say they will die in their corruption which they have chosen.
When the pathway of self-will is followed to its natural end, it results in humans who have become like brute beasts, driven solely by their baser instincts and passions, lusts and urges. God gives them over to depravity, to work in themselves that which is unseemly. (Thayer defines unseemly as being "of one's nakedness or shame, Webster, as gross, vulgar, obscene, impure, corrupt, unrefined, as well as dull, or stupid).
The progression from rebellion to making light of sin, set the stage for the conditions we find our nation in where homosexuality is becoming rampant. Refusal to be ruled by God, the only alternative left is to be ruled by sinful flesh, and reap the ends thereof. Having cast off all restraint, they become like animals, no rational thought. We as a nation have reached the point in the progression where we approve the evil and openly rebellious life. Spiritual laws are like natural laws, whether you believe them or not, they remain true nonetheless. The nation's lawlessness is now so systemic that entire generations are being born to a society that promotes this condition of being ruled by the flesh as a good and desirable thing, being promoted from their earliest days, and this animal-like living is all they know. Many don't even know there is a better way to live. Except that God also put eternity in our hearts, and so each is born with an intrinsic sense that "I was born for more than this". Which is why our young people are so angry. In my humble opinion. But lest young people use that as an excuse, we are all a product of the generations before us, however, we are also going to give an account of what we did. So one can recognize the problem of the previous generations, and choose to submit to Godly authority and not follow in the example set before them.
When a homosexual person says "I was born this way" they are right, only in that we all are born with a sin nature. Homosexuality is one of the consequences of giving sin nature free rein.
Brute beasts, animals, those in open rebellion, given over to what they prefer, to reject God and live according to the flesh, they will live and die for no purpose. Is there any wonder of the high incidence of suicide among those who have lived their whole life in defiance of God?
God is a consuming fire. But He is also a God of mercy.
2 Peter 2:13. promises them to be back with harm for the harm they have done. They will suffer wrong as the reward of wrongdoing. Cheated out of the (Satanically whispered) "reward" of their wrongdoing (that is to say, the fulfillment of being able to say "I did it my way"). The fulfillment of worldly lust without fear of the wrath to come, will leave you bankrupt and empty, this fulfillment of the flesh, it will not result in the satisfaction that you seek. It simply. Can. Not. Because you were made for something more. We fell out of God's grace, and lost the perfection our race was born to. (There is only one race, and that is the human race). The natural desire to yearn for some elusive "Nirvana" is residual from the state we were created for and lost. All God wants for you, is to restore that. But the prerequisite is that you have to yield and submit to His authority. He is God, not you. HE has the power to put your soul in hell. He doesn't want to, though. He so much doesn't want to, that even before He created man, knowing that if he gave man free will, man would rebel from His authority, He also planned for Messiah to come and lay down His own sinless life to pay the ransom to free us from our sinful fallen condition and flesh. When you remain in rebellion, and die in your sinful state, instead of gladly accepting the remedy God offered at so great a personal price, what an insult that is to His grace and mercy and love toward you. Christ submitted to death, which had no rightful "jurisdiction" over Him. He said, Himself, no man taketh my life from me, but I lay it down willingly, and have the power to take it up again. And He did so, he raised himself up, alive once again. We Christians serve a loving and merciful God, and we tell you about Him not to condemn you but to free you from the condemnation that you already live under.
Those who "did it their own way", will find out that there is a reality about a life of sin. The end of it will be eternal suffering. To humble oneself is all that is required to avoid this, to simply be willing to turn from your sin nature, and allow God to restore you and make you into a new person, but it is too much for some They have embraced their pride instead. They see God's authority as slavery to be thrown off, but they are deceived. The slavery is in the flesh and the end result of a life lived according to the impulses of the flesh, is eternal separation from all that is good.
It is all really rather elementary. And all you have to do is accept truth, in order to be set free from your false paradigm that is keeping you enslaved to the flesh, with plenty of support from your enemy Satan, I might add.
But you know, even as I say these things, I realize that the sheer number of those who have been given over to their own determination to sin, has become so high now, and has filled such a majority of the ranks and positions of civil authority, and they have so taken pleasure in all others who have rejected God, that they are actually shaping our law and policy now in America, and have been for some time. I've been awake a good while now, but it is unfortunate how long I was slumbering. It is also unfortunate how many are still slumbering. But that is why I and others do what we do here, and it's why I am fasting this week. Because I know that we are going to reap what has been sown. We have no right to ask for mercy, and yet God tells us that we can anyway, and He would rather have mercy than sacrifice, but we make the sacrifice necessary by our rebellion. Without the shedding of blood, the e is no remission of sins. What kind of God would be that way? The God whose world you live in, and who is currently letting you live and enjoy the blessings He generously bestows on both the just and the unjust. Its His world, and He actually is, letting you live in it. It's his right to do anything with you that He darn-well pleases. The only reason you or I or anyone even have any concept of how God is calls Himself a loving God, is because He loved us enough to write that "obscure old relic" called the Holy Bible, that is so despised by the unbelieving world. His grace is going to expire, though.
Consider yourself warned.
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