Missing the Mark Series: Ungodliness

Missing the Mark Series: Ungodliness

Let's turn our Bibles, in our Bibles, to Isaiah chapter 5 together this evening. Isaiah chapter 5, please. Verse number 20. Isaiah chapter 5. Let's begin the reading in verse number 20. Woe unto them that 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. Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine and men of strength to mingle. Woe unto them that are evil to drink wine and men of strength to mingle. 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 consume with the chaff, So their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust, Because they have cast away the law the Lord of hosts. and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.

It seems like to me that if it's possible, and I think it is, that with each passing year, the situation gets more drastic with this calling evil good and good evil. There's, you know, we've come to such an hour where it's just getting, it seems like it gets more extreme with time, the absurd lengths that men will go to to call that which is good evil and that which is evil good. And so much so that any time when someone stands up and says, no, that's not the way that it is, they're viewed oftentimes as being judgmental or they're being viewed as way out there. And yet, it does remind us of what Ahab said to Elijah, right? You're the one that's troubling Israel. You're the one that's troubling Israel. And Elijah said, no. No, you're the one in your idolatry that is troubling, troubling Israel. This would have never come to the point that it was in Israel were it not for prophets and priests who were enabling it. Prophets and priests who were, by their teaching, egging it on, we might say. They were enabling it by the things they were saying, as well as the things they were not.

There are many passages we could look to, but I think of one where the Lord said, you've made the heart of the righteous sad, but you've not basically called the wicked to turn from his wicked way. In Ezekiel chapter 22, I think of this passage. Ezekiel chapter 22 and verse 25. It says there, Ezekiel 22 verse 25, that there is a conspiracy of her prophets, in verse number 25, it says, there is a conspiracy of her prophets in the midst thereof, like a roaring lion ravening, ravening the prey, that they have devoured souls. They have taken the treasure and have, and precious things. They have made her many widows in the midst thereof. And then it says in verse 26, her priests have violated my law. They have profaned mine holy things. They have put no difference between the holy and profaned. Neither have they showed difference between the unclean and the clean. And have hid their eyes from my sabbaths, and I am profaned among them.

The priests and the prophets, false prophets, were speaking in many places we see where the Lord said they were speaking a vision of their own heart or something that proceeded from their own heart, but the Lord said, I haven't given them that word to say. They're just making it up in order to appease. They're making up what they're saying. They're moving the goalposts. You know, I never like playing a game with someone or being in business with someone or doing something with someone who moves the goalposts, so to speak. That's no fun, but if you ever look at children, there's usually going to be one in the group that moves the goalposts. You know, the rules change with each round as it fits that child. You know, and some of them are more subtle about it. Girls tend to be more subtle about it, and the boys just kind of, they just come right out there. But, you know, we can't change, we can't move the goalposts of God's word. What he says is so. What his word defines, what he, his character is, and what he calls sin is, it's not something we can change just because it doesn't fit pragmatically. It doesn't fit the situation like we want it to fit the situation at the moment.

I think about politicians, just if a politician is a typical politician, what they believed usually four years ago is not what they believe now. They change their position all the time. Because they're like chameleons. It's whatever will get me elected, not whatever's right, not principle, you know. I'm not saying every one of them is that way, but the vast majority of them are that way. They will change with the wind. And yet the Lord was getting on, and the Lord was calling out these prophets and priests for, you know, I'm the Lord, I change not. The Lord changes not. My, the understanding of what's good and what's evil, does not change. And I have a problem with these prophets and priests who are telling people what they want to hear rather than saying, what does the Lord say about it? What does the Word say? Well, the reason this was the case was that the fear of God was gone. The fear of God was not, the fear of God certainly wasn't in those prophets and those priests, those false prophets and priests. They were saying these things because they were not conscious, they were not acting as those who were conscious that I will give an account to God for what I have said, what I've done. And every one of us will. Every one of us will.

Daniel, we think about what his name means. God is my judge is an example of one who knew that even in Babylon, he couldn't just do, he could change some things that were not, sinful, like we said this morning, as long, you know, obey the laws of the land. But when it came to right and wrong, you know, he and his friends would be willing to, if it meant going into a fiery furnace for their faith and doing what was right and what was pleasing to God rather than what, living in the fear of man. And for the favor of men, they would go to the fiery furnace if that was the need because they were not going to bow down to an idol. Daniel would be willing, to go into and suffer the consequences of doing right by going into the lion's den because he was going to worship God and God alone, not Nebuchadnezzar.

And so this is what these men lacks, the fear of God. Look with me at one more passage here in Jeremiah chapter five, if you will. Jeremiah chapter five, if you will. Jeremiah chapter five and verse 21. There's a few statements in particular I want to see in this passage that stand out. Jeremiah 521 says, hear now this, verse 21, hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding, which have eyes and see not, which have ears and hear not. Fear, fear ye not me, saith the Lord. Will ye not tremble at my presence, which hath placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass it? And though the waves thereof toss themselves, yet can they not prevail? Though they roar, yet can they not pass over it?

For this people hath a revolting and rebellious heart. They are revolted, and gone. Neither say they in their heart, let us now fear the Lord our God, that giveth rain, both the former and the latter, in his season. He reserveth unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest. Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have withholden good things, far from you. For among my people are found wicked men. They lay waste as he that set saith his snares. They set a trap, they catch men. As a cage of, is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit. Therefore they are become great and waxen rich. They are waxen fat, and they shine. Yea, they over-pass the deeds of the wicked. They judge not the cause of the wicked, they judge not their due. They 함 to trick, They aim the root of good that beget good things. the cause of the populace. Yet they prosper, and the right of the needy do they not judge. Shall I not visit for these things, saith the Lord? Shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this? A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land. The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means, and my people love to have it so. And what will ye do in the end thereof?

In these passages so far we've seen a nation that does not fear God, a nation that does not confess or repent of its sin, a nation that does not tremble at God's word, and presence, a nation that calls evil good, good evil, a nation that makes its own rules, and doesn't submit to God's word, and how he defines sin, and what he calls good, and what he calls evil. We see that such a nation God will have to visit. And that's true of an individual, as much as it is of a nation. An individual that does not fear God and that will not tremble at his presence and will not call what God hates and love what God loves will invite upon himself, ultimately, though God is long-suffering, will invite upon himself the judgment, the visitation of God in the form of judgment.

One of the fundamental characteristics of the ungodly, we've said it many times before, in Isaiah 57, verse 20, is that, well, we've seen it tonight, they don't fear God, but we see that one of the things about the wicked is they're like the troubled sea, Isaiah says. The wicked are like the troubled sea when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There's a restlessness. There's not a peace. There's no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.

And it is because they are ungodly. You and I can only be godly because of grace. And the only way we can receive grace is that we first, we have to tremble before God and be humbled by Him and say, God made me. I'm not God. I'm not God. I have sinned and come short of the glory of God. God have mercy on me. That's the approach. That's the only right approach to God. The soul that is lifted up in Him is not upright. In fact, the soul that's lifted up is the soul that doesn't fear God, is the soul that makes His own, moves His goalposts and makes His own rules and calls what He wants to call evil and good and good evil and good and good evil. And yet, the soul that realizes and confesses before God, I have sinned. Like we said this morning, I believe God's Word is true. We saw this tonight in these verses we read. In fact, wasn't it back there in Isaiah? The indictment the Lord gave was that they, in Isaiah chapter 5, wasn't it that they have cast away the law of the Lord of hosts? They've thrown it away. They have taken, they might as well take the book and pitch it. They've thrown it away. Because it does not, that's not the guide by which they think. The guide by which they think is the same guide by which the prophets and the preachers speak a vision of their own heart thing. They follow their hearts. They follow their own hearts. And they have despised, it says, they have despised the Word of the Holy One of Israel.

Well, how do we get into a place where people call, where a society, where a culture can say, evil? People as good and good as evil and they can do it at church. They can do it under the name and under the umbrella of supposedly God blessing it. God is blessing it. How can we come to a point where that is the case? Well, it is an extreme example. It is the end result of what we saw this morning. Disobedience. Resisting God's Word at His will, right? Not complying with God's Word. Well, if you don't obey God's Word, then what do you have left? You've got your own heart to follow, right? Every man does that which is right in his own eyes. Well, I'm just going to do what I think is good. You do you, I do me. We're all going to do our, and we all just live and let live and we all just do what we feel like. There's no accountability. We're just going to do whatever feels right and we're going to love each other. We're just going to do what feels good and we're just going to love each other. Well, the Scripture says, though hand join in hand, yet will I punish. In so many words, I remember one of the prophets talked about that. Though hand join in hand, yet the Lord is going, the Lord's going to visit. The Lord will visit. It is not, merely, you know, live and let live that's going to deliver anybody from the judgment. We must, we must be delivered from our sin. Our sins.

Well, it's interesting that there is in that passage in Titus 1, let's look over there, Titus chapter 1, there's that word again. Well, I didn't turn to this passage this morning, but the word, disobedient. This is the word apatheia. This is that word to refuse to believe and to comply. This is a willful disobedience against God that is one of the things that defines the ungodly. Titus chapter 1, verse 16, it says, they profess, with a mouth, that they know God. Isn't that what we read about Israel, right? Jesus said that about it. They profess that they know God, but in works, they deny Him. Listen, being abominable and apatheia. They are disobedient. They refuse to heed what God is saying through His word. You can talk all you want about God and Jesus Christ and, you know, love and faith and all these things, but if you don't listen to what God's word says, it's just hot air. It's just hot air.

People say, what do you believe in? A lordship salvation? Well, depending on how you define that, yes, actually I do. I mean, you can make it a work. I don't believe in a works salvation, but I do believe that if you're saved, you're going to obey, right? Not perfectly. It's not a performance-based salvation, but yes, if you believe, I mean, just like we saw this morning, tied up in that word of disobedience is both unbelief and noncompliance. You can't separate those two things, ultimately. And so, we see because they don't believe the word, or they don't want to believe the word, they don't comply with the word. And therefore, they have to make up their own version. They have to make up, their own approach. They have to move the goalposts where they want them to be.

You know, if golfers were able to move the cup across the green to right in front of where they are so they could just tap it in, that would be mighty convenient, wouldn't it? Let me just cut a new hole right over here close to where I am, and then, you know, this game will be a lot easier, right? Well, that doesn't mean, you know, if we stop grading our children's, and we just say, you get an automatic A+. Does that change the reality of how bad or good their work is? No, it doesn't. It just means we're lying to them, right? We're lying to them about their grade if we say, well, you all just get an A+. Well, there's no incentive to even try then if you're just going to get an A+. If everybody's just going to heaven, if there's really no, if good is not really, if evil is not really evil and good is not really good, then why even try, right?

We just all need to get along and tolerate and celebrate each other. If that's the new gospel, right? But that's not the gospel. In fact, God's Word has been redefined with a new dictionary, and there's not really a lot of concern about what God is actually saying. It's about how we feel. Do you feel judged? Do you feel uncomfortable? Does that make you uncomfortable? Maybe we should be asking, how does our sin make God feel? What did Jesus do for, because of our sin? That's the better question. God's purpose is that we would fear Him, but that we would love Him with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. And then, only as we love God with all of our heart, we would love then our neighbor as ourselves.

You remember that passage, 2 Timothy, you know, you remember it, 2 Timothy 3, where Paul is outlining the things that are characteristic of the perilous times of the last days. And he says that key statement right there at the beginning of that list of things he says characterize the perilous times. He says that men will be lovers. He didn't say lovers of God. He said they'll be lovers of their own. He said they'll be lovers of themselves. Whatever makes me feel good is the standard. Whatever floats my boat. Whatever makes me feel good, self-esteem, that's what's good. So, that's a slippery slope, isn't it? What made people feel good or what even made an individual feel good 20 years ago, 50 years ago, 100 years ago, people feel good. It's going to keep, you know what the devil's going to do with that when, when you love yourself and you don't fear God, a nation is going to slide to hell in a handbasket, go downhill, and things that we talk about, you know, sins seem kind of innocent back, you know, just a few years back compared to what things are being done now and are being declared like Sodom declared its sin. And it's, but it's still, it's still the same principle. Just because a, just because, just because someone has not committed gross sins doesn't mean they don't need a savior.

Because given enough time and opportunity, every one of us, apart from God, we will go to the, we'll go to the lowest common denominator. You might say, well, I just started off with a, you know, people start off with a little drug, a light drug, and they end up in heavy drugs. They drink a little bit and they end up drunks. They, they start with just a little bit of this and before you know it, it's just to the, to the extreme. And that's the way this sinful nature goes. Idolatrous hearts, we might say. Self-love produces perilous times, produce, you know, these exceeding fierce times. I've heard it said, just, this is not even necessarily a Christian take on this, but I've heard people say, was it, was it soft men produce hard times? Um, uh, good men produce, uh, uh, or, or, or real men produce good times or something like that because they, they take the sacrifice and they do the right thing and they, you know, so on and so forth and they raise a family and they work the job and they do the things, but then you get the soft people that come along and then they ruin everything because they, because they don't have any values. They don't have any character. They don't have anything that they're living for other than themselves. And, and even just from a, a horizontal perspective, that's true, but it's, it really comes down to this fear of God, doesn't it? It comes down to this fear of God.

Men will be lovers of their own selves. They will have a form of godliness, but will deny the power thereof. Paul, Paul tells Timothy, and from such turn away. Don't act like that. Don't think like that. Don't participate with that. Don't have anything. You don't have anything to do with that. You be, you are a peculiar people and you are to be zealous of good works. Don't, when in Rome, don't do as the Romans do. Don't follow your own heart. Don't do what feels good per se. Do what is good. Do what is right because God has shown you the way. Don't sin against the light he's given you. Love him with all your heart and say, Lord, help me to do the right. Help me to be zealous of good works because of your grace in my life. Put, put a desire. He already has put a desire, but may there be a burning desire to be different for your glory because you have redeemed me. You have saved me from my sins. You've called me out of darkness. You've called me into your marvelous light and helped me to show, threw forth the praises of your grace. Having called me out of that darkness into your marvelous light, help me to obey you, Lord. Help me to serve you. Help me to do your will and not my own will. We sing that hymn. Not my will, but thine, Lord. Leave me to Calvary. Make my life a living sacrifice. Crucified for thee. For his glory. Because the Lord has already given everything to us.

So instead of fearing God and humbling themselves, we see in those passages we've looked at tonight, Isaiah talked about it. Jeremiah talked about it. We saw it there in Ezekiel, talking about it. We see that instead of fearing God, Israel, and humbling themselves before him in love, we see that Israel celebrated, accommodated, sinned because of their idolatrous hearts. The people loved to have it so, it said. The priests accommodated what the people loved because they didn't fear God and therefore, what they were worshiping was not the true God. They were drawing near with their mouth. Their hearts were really far from the true God. They were worshiping an idol. They were worshiping a God of their own making, which wasn't really a God at all.

It wasn't the God of the Bible. It was a God that was a figment of their imagination. Our view of God is going to affect our view of sin, isn't it? Our view of God. Who is our God? Is your God love of self? Love of my own self? Or is my God the one who has in his word told me who I am? And told me who he is and what sin is? Holy Bible, book divine, precious treasure, thou art mine. And he goes on in that little song, I may not remember all the words correctly. Mine, to chide me when I'm wrong, you know, tell me of a Savior's love. Show me in so many words there. I can't remember all the words, but it's talking about show me my sin and to show me what's right, what's wrong. It's what God, that's what that Holy Bible, book divine has been given to us to do.

When we reject God's definition of sin, we come up with all kinds of solutions that aren't solutions, don't we? We come up with all kinds of vain solutions because we haven't actually identified the problem. How many hours and how much money will a company waste if they don't, I think about HVAC or, you know, David's going in this direction with the aircraft mechanic thing, you know, if he goes that way. How many? How many hours could be invested in trying to fix a problem without properly identifying what the problem is? And you can put all kinds of money into it, time and energy, and it's not actually solving anything. It's just making the problem worse because it's not really the problem. We throw a lot of money and education at things and yet, and yet, I hear, you know, I hear at least in certain parts of our country that there's, you know, there's high schoolers that can't even read. I mean, there's so many problems. That's not a people aren't smart enough to learn problem. It's the fear of God. Lack of the fear of God problem is what it is. And we have the reason that we have these things.

In 1 Peter chapter 3, let's look over there. 1 Peter chapter 3, verse number 10. There's this wonderful promise we have here in this passage. 1 Peter chapter 3, verse number 10. It says here, For he that will love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil and his lips that they speak no guile. In other words, be genuine, don't put on. Let him eschew evil. Let him hate it with an abhorrence for it. And do good. Let him seek or pursue peace and insofar as he can. For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous and his ears are open unto their prayers. But the face of the Lord is against them that do evil. If we hate what God hates, we hate sin, not only in somebody else's life, but in our own life, we hate sin. And we separate, we separate in the fear of God from that sin and we put it aside and we comply with God's word and not just merely our lusts and what we feel will be best for us. And we love the Lord with all our heart. Desire him and put him first in our lives. Well, we see here in this passage, he that will love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil.

Let him put away his power. Let him put away hypocrisy. Let him put away that which is displeasing to God. Let him do good. Seek peace and do it. Live in the sight of God. Listen to what God says is good and pursue that. Don't pursue your own lusts. Don't follow after those things and think you're going to be fulfilled. Don't call what you don't like evil just because it doesn't make you feel good. In fact, God's word, actually has to make us feel bad about ourselves before we can feel good about what he wants. It has to reveal and expose and judge our sin. And Paul will tell Timothy, the time's going to come they're not going to put up with sound doctrine. They don't want to hear it. They don't want to be judged by the word. So they'll say, we'll hire any teachers who will scratch our itching ears. And we'll tell us what we want to hear. And we'll make us feel good about ourselves. We'll take those teachers. Because we don't want to hear about our sin anymore. That's too negative. That's too negative. We want to feel good about ourselves.

No. He that will love life and see good days, listen to what God says. Don't cast away the word like we read in that first passage in Isaiah. Chapter 5. They have cast away the law. They have despised the word. They've despised it. Don't despise. Don't resist the Lord. But let him have his way with you. Let him have his way with me.

Well, evil men and seducers will wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived, Paul says. But what did he tell Timothy? He said, Timothy, you continue in the things, which thou hast learned. More than ever. I think it's just so clear in my heart and mind now. More than ever. With all the confusion, with all the deception that's going on, we better take heed to that, haven't we? Continue in the things thou hast learned and hast been assured of. Knowing of whom thou hast learned them. And know that the Scriptures God has taught you. God's Word. This is not the… There's never a time to cast away God's Word, but this is definitely not the time to lay aside God's Word. We must take heed as into a light, Paul Peter says, shining in a dark place until the day dawn. Until the day star rises in our hearts. Continue in the things thou hast learned and been assured of. God doesn't change just because we're in Babylon.

God's Word doesn't change. Just because it's not popular anymore. It doesn't change. God hasn't changed. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. So let us not disobey Him just because it may be the thing to follow your own heart. Let us instead let all guile be put away. Hypocrisy. You know, what did we read tonight? We read, you know, that they want somebody to tell them what they want to hear. Well, I don't want to be lied to. I want to hear the truth. Even if it hurts. We need the truth. We need the truth to clear up even the confusion and the fog. May God help us to see good days. May God help us to do what's right in His eyes. May God help us not to try to move the goalposts, but continue in the Word. Not to cast away the Word and say, you know, I'm just tired of doing what's right. I'm tired of being told there's something that needs a change in my life. I just want to do what I want to do.

Let's pray. Father, thank You for these words from Your Word. Thank You for the example that we have of how even in the Old Testament we have those prophets who patiently continued in the things You had told them to say and to do. Even when it was not the in-season thing to do. It was not the popular thing to do. It was not traveling with the crowds. But it was actually going against the flow to do that. And Lord, we just pray that You'd help us likewise to take heed unto Your Word. Not to cast it aside. Not to sell the truth, but to buy the truth. But to lay hold of the things that You've told us and to show forth Your praises. Help us, Lord. It is not our business to move the goalposts. It is our business to hold forth the Word of life. It is our business to take heed to that light that shines on us. It shines in a dark place until the day dawns and the day star arise in our hearts.

It is our business to continue in the things that we have learned and have been assured of. Knowing of whom we've learned them is our business to acknowledge if there's sin in our lives, if there be any wicked way in us. Lord, help us to help us to acknowledge and confess that and to and to grow. We said this morning we cannot grow. We cannot grow if we are living in disobedience. We can only grow through obedience. Help us to it's that little children's song so simple but so true. Read our Bible. Pray every day and really take that to our hearts and grow, grow, grow. May it be true in our lives. We pray may we may we not redefine sin but may we if it's there in our lives may we confess it. And may we may we shine that light to others that they may be able to see the wonderful grace of Jesus that can change their lives as well. Bless us now as we conclude this service. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.