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God’s Order
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For this cause left I thee
in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting,
and ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed thee: - Titus 1:5
How do you know what is right
and what is wrong? So many are perplexed or confused in this matter.
There are those who think it is perfectly alright to do things that have
always been considered wrong by Christian people, and even by the lost
people of the world. It isn’t unusual now to find regular church
attendees who think fornication is not always wrong, or that adultery is
not always wrong. Most who wear the name Christian in 2005 think that
the way you dress or the things you do to your body have nothing to do
with right and wrong. You are to just go on your “feelings” and do what
“is right for you.”
Then on the other hand you have those who are constantly looking for
something else to add to their “do” or “don’t” lists. Anything that will
make them look more religious they are quick to grab onto. There are
those who think it is wrong to even acknowledge the birth of Christ
because of what the materialistic world does with Christmas. I have even
read whole articles written on the evil of “Ground Hog Day.” There are
many who think themselves spiritual and are continually seeking
something for which they can condemn others. Of course, no matter who
they meet, there is always something that they can point out as proof to
show that that person isn’t as spiritual as they are themselves.
Neither one of these two types of hypocrites is spiritual. They are both
just living a religion that they have made up in their own heart. They
are both trusting and relying on their own deceitful heart for guidance
in making judgments about what is right and wrong. What we are about to
talk about is the key for understanding right and wrong. If you don’t
understand about God’s divine order for his creation, then you don’t
understand much about God at all. If God’s order is not the standard you
use to measure right and wrong then you are just following the world’s
philosophy of “doing what is right in their own eyes.”
God is THE Creator. He created everything that we see and much that we
do not see. Everything that God created is in perfect order. It is
highly organized and arranged so no person could ever reasonably say
that it just “happened.” The more man learns, the more he can see the
order and organization of the creation. I read an article recently which
told that many scientists who were agnostics or atheists have become
believers in “intelligent design” simply because of DNA. As their
understanding of DNA has opened up it is simply impossible for a sound
mind to deny that it was designed by Someone – it could not possibly
have just “happened.” The farther we look into the heavens the more
order and organization we see. Man has not yet been able to even build a
clock that keeps time as perfectly as the stars and the planets in their
movements. We have to adjust our atomic clocks often in order to stay in
time with the universe. It is in perfect order. As we look at smaller
and smaller things we see the same truth – that everything is arranged
in perfect order and works just as God meant for it to.
There is one exception and that is man. He doesn’t want to abide in his
place in God’s order. The reason he doesn’t is because of sin. The Bible
tells us that God is not the author of confusion – everything He has
anything to do with is perfectly ordered and arranged. Chaos is of the
devil. It is because of evil and rebellion against God. Man does not
want to do things God’s way – he wants to do things his own way and that
is the essence of sin. That is where it begins, and so that is where we
should begin when we are trying to discern between right and wrong and
good and evil.
Being conformed to God and his ways is what true godliness really is. To
be contrary to God’s order is to be ungodly. If everything that God made
is so highly organized and perfectly arranged you can be sure that He
means for our lives to be in order. God has a specific order for his
church. He has a specific order for the home. He has a specific order
for our lives.
To every thing there is a
season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: – Eccl. 3:1
There is a time to be a child,
a time to be young, then a time to grow up and put away childish things,
and then there is a time to be old. In our day of confusion the main
concern of little girls and boys of 7 or 8 years old is boyfriends and
girlfriends, and of who is “going with” whom. That is out of order!
Little girls should be playing with baby dolls and little boys with
trucks and toy guns. Little girls should be playing with BABY dolls –
NOT Barbie dolls. Playing with baby dolls is what comes naturally and
conditions their minds to be mothers, and that is according to God’s
order. Barbie dolls condition their minds to think about being sexy
glamour girls, and that is out of God’s order.
The same thing applies to young people who refuse to grow up. Many of
them today are still acting and thinking like children when they are 20
or 30 years old. That is out of order! There is a time to put away
childish things and be an adult. Then we see older people who refuse to
grow old gracefully. They paint, primp, and pump in an attempt to
deceive themselves and everyone else that they are still young. They are
out of order! God didn’t mean for life to be that way. “To everything
there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven.” There is
an order to life and God designed that order. If you refuse to accept it
and live according to that order, you are ungodly, no matter what else
you do to make yourself appear religious.
There is an order for the home. Man is the head of the home, according
to the plain teaching of the Bible. This doesn’t mean that he is the
brutal dictator and his wife and children obey him out of fear. If that
is the case he is as much out of order as any rebellious wife. The home
is a picture of God the Father, God the Son, and the Bride of Christ,
which is the Church. The order of the home is based on love – not on
military-type levels of authority. The man who doesn’t intend to love
his wife and treat her as a lady and provide and protect her and the
children she bears him should not get married. The woman should never
get married who resents being a “keeper at home” as is clearly stated in
the Bible as God’s order for the home. If she thinks that cooking his
meals and washing his clothes is demeaning and humiliating, she should
stay single and live her lonely, miserable life in an apartment
somewhere by herself where she won’t destroy the lives of a man and any
children she might bear. The woman who rules over her husband is ungodly
and so is the husband that allows her to do so. The order for the home
as God has defined it is based on love. The husband bears his
responsibility to his wife and children gladly because he loves them.
The wife bears her responsibility because she loves her husband and her
children. In time to come her children will rise up and call her
blessed, and her husband will praise her. God's ways are always better
and He designed them to have a happy end.
Can you imagine the Church acting toward Christ as many women act toward
their husbands? Can you imagine that Christ would not be able to make a
decision or take any action without first consulting with us? A
Christian can no more live after the world and its pleasures and be
right with God than a wife can lay with other men and be right with her
husband. By the same token, can you imagine Jesus forsaking his Church?
Can you imagine Him forcing his will upon us? No, of course not! That is
because it is a relationship based on love. We serve Him because we love
Him, and we love Him because He first loved us. He treats us with
kindness, patience, and love.
There is an order for the church. It is NOT just “two or three met
together.” It is to be organized and with leadership, according to the
guidelines given clearly in the Word of God. It is not to be chaos and
confusion. There is order in worship. True worship is not total
confusion, as you see in many “churches” of our day.
Anything that works against God’s order is wrong. Anything that
identifies you as one who is not living after God’s order is wrong.
Therefore, the clothes we wear make a difference. We are making a
statement with the way we dress. We are identifying ourselves as
Christians or as members of this world system. With the clothes we wear
we are making a statement about whether we agree with God’s order or
not. This is a simple truth that the entire world used to understand. If
a man wears a dress would it cause you to think he might be unhappy with
the fact that he is a man? Of course it would! You would think he was a
pervert and you would be right! He is a man, but not happy with the way
God made him and with his place in God’s order. He doesn’t want to work
like a man and carry the responsibility of a man – he wants to be a
woman. But what about a woman who wears “that which pertaineth to a
man?” (Deut. 22:5) We live in a society that has a double-standard in
these matters. What is OK for a woman is not OK for men. But when a
woman dresses like a man, and cuts her hair like a man, she is simply
saying that she is not happy with the way God made her, and that she is
refusing to submit to her place in the divine order. She does not want
to bear the responsibility that God assigned to her. She wants to be in
the man’s place. She wants to be the head and make the decisions, and
she resents anyone – including God Almighty, who tells her otherwise.
This is all confusion and it brings us to the same place in these last
days where Noah’s generation was some 4000 years ago. Jesus likened
Noah’s day to Sodom and so we know that the world was full of sodomites
and every other perversion of God’s order that man could invent.
And God looked upon the
earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his
way upon the earth. Gen. 6:12
Why is wrong for men to marry
men, or women to marry women? Why would it be wrong for a man to marry
an animal? Because it is out of order! It is not according to God’s
divine order! God did not design things that way and nature itself
teaches us that. The sad state of the world in Noah’s day, and in the
day in which we are living, was brought about because man rejected God’s
order and especially the order for men and women. When the distinction
between the sexes is erased or confused sodomy and perversion always
follow, and it isn’t long after that until God’s judgment falls.
There is a way which seemeth
right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. - Prov.
14:12
It may seem all right to most
church members in 2005 to live and think the same way as the ungodly
world, but they are going to find out when they stand before God that it
isn’t. God designed everything and laid it in order. When we reject that
order we are ungodly. When we seek to live according to God’s order we
are denying ungodliness, and living godly in this present world.
God’s order is the only standard with which we can truthfully and
reliably discern between right and wrong. It is the only means we have
to know what really pleases God and what doesn’t. If you can grasp this
one truth it will open your understanding and you will know the reasons
WHY certain things are right or wrong. The world keeps changing, but
God’s order never changes. Drop your anchor here and get a hold on
something solid you can base your convictions on. Don’t just believe
something because someone else does. You are to be able always to give
an answer to him that asks you of your faith (1 Pet 3:15). You can do
that if you understand that your life is to be lived according to God’s
divine order.
Mike Miller
(12/18/2005)
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