Which Way to Go?

“They count it a pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are stains and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, as they carouse with you, having eyes full of adultery that never cease from sin, enticing unstable souls, having a heart trained in greed, accursed children; forsaking the right way, they have gone astray, having followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; but he received a rebuke for his own transgression, for a mute donkey, speaking with a voice of a man, restrained the madness of the prophet” (2 Peter 2:13-16 NASB).

The subject matter is of false prophets and teachers, but what is described for us here is not limited to just them, but to anyone who has these specific qualities and character traits. So we are going to broaden the subject here to include all people for whom this description applies, teachers or not.

Sadly, this describes many people who profess faith in Jesus Christ but who are still living for the flesh and not for the Spirit of God; who are still walking in the ways of the world and not in the ways of God. Outwardly they give the appearance of being of God, and of being disciples of Christ, but their hearts have not changed. They are still living for self and not for God, so they are not truly born of God, but they are still of the carnal nature. 

Although they bear the name “Christian,” they are still very fleshly. Although they profess faith in Jesus Christ with their lips, their actions speak the opposite of that faith. For their hearts are given over to the flesh to please the flesh, and not God, and so this is what they truly live for. This is what they crave and run after, the things that are sinful and worldly and immoral and dishonest, etc., and not what is godly, upright, and morally pure.

Many of them do, indeed, have eyes full of adultery that never cease from sin. It doesn’t mean that they are sinning 24 hours a day, seven days a week, but that they deliberately and habitually sin against the Lord, in practice, as a matter of life course. They never get to the point to where they actually walk away from their sinful lifestyles and now walk in purity of faith and in obedience to our Lord in holy living. Sin is still their habit.

For self is still on the throne of their lives, not God. Selfishness is what rules them, not selflessness. So they are given over to self-pleasure and to doing what makes them feel good in their flesh. Yet they may be on a teeter-totter going back and forth between trying to do good and doing evil, instead, because they are still of the flesh, operating out of the flesh, but they are unstable souls who are double-minded and thus not committed to Christ.

Although they know the right way, i.e. they know right from wrong, and they know when they are doing evil and not good, still they will choose to do evil and not good habitually, deliberately, and premeditatedly. And they may be full of excuses, too, for why they keep returning to their vomit over and over again and for why they cannot forsake their sins to follow Jesus in obedience to his commands. And this is because they want sin more than God.

And many of them are following the ways of false gods and the idols of man and of false prophets and teachers and pastors and teachers, or they are those false prophets and teachers themselves. And many of them are living in sexual immorality doing all sorts of evil, who are people of depraved minds and hearts who refuse to surrender their lives totally over to Jesus Christ. For they truly do not want to give up their sinful addictions.

And even though they may have people who care about them who are like Balaam’s donkey, warning them that they are headed the wrong direction, and of the consequences if they continue on the wrong course, rather than listening to those who are listening to God, they will reject their voices. And they may even do evil to those who are doing good to them, out of spite and anger and resentment and bitterness. For they want their own way instead.

But hopefully the truth of the gospel of Christ will enter into some of their hearts and that they will turn from their madness and that they will now follow Jesus Christ with their lives, daily by the Spirit putting sin to death rather than continuing to walk in sin. We can always hope, and we can always pray to God that it would be so. For not one of us walks by faith apart from the Holy Spirit, and none are saved by our human effort.

So, the encouragement here for us is to not be like them. For, as those who profess faith in Jesus Christ, we are to live godly and holy lives, pleasing to God, born of the Spirit and not of the flesh. And we are to follow our Lord Jesus in obedience to his commands (New Covenant), and sin should no longer be what we practice. For if sin is what we practice, and not obedience to God, we will not inherit eternal life with God.

[Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Co 10:1-22; 1 Co 15:58; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; 2 Co 9:8; Gal 5:6,16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-24; Eph 5:3-6; Php 2:12-13; Col 1:9-14,21-23; Col 3:5-11; 2 Thess 1:11-12; 2 Tim 2:21; Tit 2:11-14; Tit 3:8; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 10:23-31]

Behold Our God

By Jonathan Baird / Meghan Baird / Ryan Baird / Stephen Altrogge

Who has held the oceans in his hands?

Who has numbered every grain of sand?

Kings and nations tremble at his voice

All creation rises to rejoice

Who has given counsel to the Lord?

Who can question any of his words?

Who can teach, the one who knows all things?

Who can fathom all his wondrous deeds?

Who has felt the nails upon his hands?

Bearing all the guilt of sinful man

God eternal, humbled to the grave

Jesus, Savior, risen now to reign

Behold our God, seated on his throne

Come, let us adore him

Behold our king, nothing can compare

Come, let us adore him

You will reign forever (let Your glory fill the Earth)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCwb1vEXyv4

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