Refusing to Listen to The Truth

“To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.

O my God, in you I trust;

    let me not be put to shame;

    let not my enemies exult over me.

Indeed, none who wait for you shall be put to shame;

    they shall be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous.

Make me to know your ways, O Lord;

    teach me your paths.

Lead me in your truth and teach me,

    for you are the God of my salvation;

    for you I wait all the day long.” (Psalms 25:1-5 ESV)

Those of us who profess to believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of our lives should be those who want to know and to do the will of God for our lives. If all we are looking for is to have our sins forgiven so that when we die we get to go to heaven, and not to hell, then we are following a false gospel message and a false god. And if all we do is just call on God when we want something, and whenever we need something, as though he is a genie in the sky there to grant our every request, then we have the wrong god.

If our faith in Jesus Christ is genuine God-gifted and God-persuaded faith, then we have died with Christ to sin that we might live to him and to his righteousness. We should no longer be living in sinful addiction, living to please the sinful cravings of the flesh. But now we should hunger and thirst after righteousness. And we should long to be taught from the Lord with regard to what he has planned and purposed for our lives. We should want to know his ways that we might walk (in conduct, in practice) in them.

Now, if our lives are truly surrendered to Jesus Christ, to do his will, and to no longer live to please the sinful cravings of the flesh, and so we are now walking in the ways of righteousness, and no longer in wickedness, and so we are also sharing the truth of the gospel with other people so that they can come to know him in truth and in righteousness, then we will be faced with much opposition. And the opposition is not going to come just from people who do not profess to believe in Jesus, but from many who do.

So, why is that so? Well, in America, it would be because a false gospel message is what is being popularized and largely accepted among those professing faith in Jesus Christ, because it does not require death to sin and walks of obedience to our Lord. All one has to do is profess faith in Jesus and he is promised forgiveness of all sins and eternity in heaven, but regardless of how one lives (conducts his life in practice). And they are being taught that we who teach the truth (they call a lie) are the liars, and not the liars.

Many of these, therefore, who are rejecting the full gospel message taught by Jesus and by his NT apostles, in favor of a sugar-coated gospel which does nothing to put sin to death in the sinner, and which does not require we obey our Lord’s New Covenant Commands, are in the category of the “wantonly treacherous.” Why? Because they are following after the lusts of the flesh, and not after God, and so they are also standing in opposition to the gospel truth and to its messengers by refusing to submit to God.

They may be those who hear the truth of God’s word with their physical ears, but it makes no connection with their hearts and minds. The messages go in their ears and right back out. They don’t connect because the hearers refuse to really listen to them. But it isn’t that they don’t know. They do know! They just don’t want to listen to the truth, for the truth is going to tell them that to be a follower of Christ they must die with him to sin and now follow him in obedience. But they desire to feed their sinful flesh, instead. 

“Good and upright is the Lord;

    therefore he instructs sinners in the way.

He leads the humble in what is right,

    and teaches the humble his way.

All the paths of the Lord are steadfast love and faithfulness,

    for those who keep his covenant and his testimonies.”

“The friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him,

    and he makes known to them his covenant.

My eyes are ever toward the Lord,

    for he will pluck my feet out of the net.” (Psalms 25:8-10,14-15 ESV)

Do you see what this is saying here? And this is not just Old Testament teaching. It is what the New Testament teaches us, too. It is not enough to just give lip service to the Lord and then think you are now on your way to heaven, but while you still deliberately and habitually follow after the lusts of your flesh, instead, and while you shut out the truths of God’s word that you do not want to hear and accept so that you can continue in your sin. For if sin is what we obey, and not obedience to God, its end is death, not life.

Jesus said that if anyone would come after him he must deny self, take up his cross daily (die daily to sin and to self) and follow (obey) him. But if we refuse, and we decide to keep doing our own thing, then we don’t have the hope of salvation from sin and eternal life with God, which are only promised to those who listen to the Lord and who obey his commands. For we must humble ourselves before God, submit to his will, obey his commands, and show him honor and respect, or we do not have life in him.

[Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; Rom 12:1-2; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Co 10:1-22; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-24; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:1-17; Titus 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,15-17; 1 Jn 3:4-10; 1 Pet 2:24; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2]

Now the Lord will sometimes use secular (non-religious) songs as a means of communicating his messages, too, depending on the message. The song, “All I Ask of You” (with a few phrases removed) is one of those. For the following lyrics express God’s words to us, that we would let him be our freedom, that we would let him shelter us and be our light, and that we would find our hope and our peace and safety in him, and not in the things of this sinful world. All he asks of us is that we love him, which means we die with him to sin, we submit to him as Lord, and we obey his commands.

All I Ask of You

by Andrew Lloyd Webber

No more talk of darkness,

Forget these wide-eyed fears;

I'm here, nothing can harm you,

My words will warm and calm you.

Let me be your freedom,

Let daylight dry your tears;

I'm here, with you, beside you,

To guard you and to guide you.

Say you love me every waking moment..

Say you need me with you now and always;

Promise me that all you say is true,

That's all I ask of you.

Let me be your shelter,

Let me be your light..

Then say you'll share with me one love, one lifetime;

Let me lead you from your solitude.

Say you need me with you, here beside you..

Share each day with me,

Each night, each morning.

Love me, that's all I ask of you

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uahlf4fo3iQ 

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