Where Are We Headed? Part 3

Subtitle: Ungrateful Resentment

Romans 1:18-22.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on April 03, 2022.

Last week, we looked at the overall endpoint of where we would be headed if God allowed and helped us get there.  Today, we are going to step back to where we are now and show the trap that we have created for ourselves. 

Just as the universe would become a coffin in which we would find ourselves trapped, we are even now entrapped in the mechanism that will take us into what the Bible calls “The Last Things,” or the end times.

Let’s look at our passage.

Facing our true problem

Humanity is much the same as it was 20 centuries ago when the Apostle Paul described the plight of the world.  Yes, our buildings are taller and more sophisticated; our communication methods are more powerful; our weapons are far more devastating, and our wealth is vaster.  However, we are still doing the same things, just with far more powerful technology.  Our great buildings are still full of proud people who are plotting proud plans in the face of God and their fellow man.  Our communications are still used to lie and gossip about one another.  We still use our weapons in order to force our agenda on weaker nations.  We still blow that vast wealth on feeding our flesh rather than glorifying God.  Yes, we are in the same plight because we refuse to face our true problem, which is a spiritual problem that Paul highlights in this passage.

In verse 18, Paul points out that God is going to judge the ungodly for suppressing the truth even though it has been made obvious by God Himself.  We should also notice that the truth that Paul pictures being suppressed is essentially God Himself.  Through the creation, God has made His existence, eternal power, and divinity obvious to all humans. 

The Creator is ultimately something that is other than the stuff of this creation.  The incredibly complex systems that work just perfectly and with little tolerances to allow life on this planet speak of an engineer, a designer.  It speaks of a designer that is powerful enough to create all that we can see and more.  This designer would necessarily be an uncreated one.  Yet, we suppress that great and obvious truth that we call God. 

Friends, you cannot suppress the truth and be headed in a good direction simply because you desire it to be a good direction.  Truth by its very nature is unchangeable.  It simply is what it is.  In fact, it is only truth that can navigate the treacherous waters of this world for today and the future.

Like the young men in the illustration that I used during part 2 of this series, Paul points out the lack of thankfulness and gratitude that people have to God.  We deny His existence, suppress the truth about its necessity and this leads us to a place of not giving Him thanks for the plentiful resources all around us. 

We see this ungratefulness all across our land today.  We are materially blessed more than any society ever, and yet we are full of ungratefulness and still do not have enough.  Like the leech in Proverbs, we cry out, “Give more, and more!”  We are never satisfied.

This ungratefulness may seem perplexing, but you must understand that it is driven by a resentment of the Truth that we are trying to suppress.  This is why we see the purposeful breaking down of the concepts of family, marriage, gender, and even individuality.  All of these were created by God to be immense blessings to us, but our resentment of the Creator drives us to despise anything that could be connected to Him- consequently, we despise even ourselves (at least in our current form).  We despise things that are good gifts and will tear them apart with our own hands in a deluded attempt to be our own benefactor.  Ungrateful people driven by resentment of The Truth cannot hope to build anything that is good, much less a Utopian Paradise.

Verse 22 describes our society perfectly.  We are the apex of all human wisdom, but we have become fools.  We must understand that there are different kinds of fools.  Too often, we only see the moronic fool who is simple and unable to think beyond the moment.  However, there is another kind of fool, the sophisticated fool.  This is a person who is very smart in comparison to most humans, or it can be a group who represent the smartest of a society, even the world.  Yet, because they insist on disregarding the God of Israel, the One True God, they will not be able to navigate the catastrophic choices that are in front of them.

In verse 21, Paul describes how we get to such a state.  The rejection of the Truth about the One True God leads to thinking that becomes futile.  This is the phrase from Ecclesiastes, “Vanity, Vanity, all is vanity!”  Also translated as “meaningless,” futility pictures something that will not be enough no matter how sophisticated it is. 

Secondly, Paul pictures that their hearts become darkened.  Light and darkness are often employed to speak to truth and ignorance, and definitely this darkness comes upon the thinking of the fool.  However, a darkened heart recognizes that our desires, will, and affections take a turn for the worse when we refuse to admit the Truth.  Thus, the fool is not so much a fool because of his or her IQ, but essentially because their mind and heart have attached to futile, darkened things.  The fool is one who persists on a path that will destroy them over the top of all the evidence, that is, the Truth. 

This is what Paul pictures and it completely describes us today.  Even the Church has been closing its eyes and ears to the things that the Lord Jesus made absolutely clear in his word.  Thus, we can become the most sophisticated, the most religious, of fools of all time, quite literally, sophomores.

Falling into a trap of our own making

In Luke 21:34-35, Jesus warns us that Judgment Day will come upon the world like a trap.  The world cannot escape the trap of Judgment Day because it is already trapped by its own refusal to face the Truth of God.  This becomes a trap of our own making.  We can resent God for holding us accountable to Truth and Reality, or we can repent and be thankful that He loves us too much to abandon us to folly.

We are essentially trading our God-given freedom for a “scientific” dictatorship.  It matters not whether it is ran by one, a few, 545 (100 senators, 435 representatives, 9 justices, 1 president), or more.  Ultimately, we surrender our minds and hearts to an elite class that hold us in their sway.  By the way, this is even true within my life as an individual.  I can surrender my mind and heart to an elite idea (science=knowledge) that holds me in its sway.  Keep this individual aspect in mind as we move forward.

These elites are the pinnacle of society and power on this planet.  They have scratched and clawed their way to the top of the pyramid of humanity; they are the capstone.  They see themselves as having the evolutionary right to exercise dominion over all of humanity, and those who are not a part of the elite can come to admire them and vicariously lift them up.  Yet, even the elite are merely the base and slaves of the dark powers of Satan himself, many knowingly and a few unknowingly.

In rejecting God, Who is The Truth, they (I) become unaccountable to all but themselves.  There is no concept of the prophet who has stood in the presence of the Creator and can call all both small and great to repentance.  There is no true freedom of speech because, if you are not one of them, you have nothing to say that they want to hear.  Who do you think you are?  In evolutionary terms, the prophet is a nobody, and they don’t listen to nobodies.  Yet, what if God became a nobody?

Because they represent the smartest, strongest, and most beautiful of humanity (per an ungodly definition), we like sheep are led astray into a path of folly.  Is it not folly to pit all of society against itself into a seething cauldron of identities, all struggling against one another for power and ascendancy?  Who will hold them accountable for such atrocities?

The world’s vision of a utopia is not even its own vision.  It is a remnant of the Heavenly Vision of God.  The world has cast God aside, but then it has plagiarized God’s vision of a world in which there is no evil.  Of course, they have changed all of the definitions of the terms.  Thus, it will be no true utopia, and no true evil will ever be banished from its lands.  They will build a hell full of every wickedness and slap a utopia sticker on it when in truth it is only Pandemonium.

In this way, they abuse true utopia.  Any real thing of this world will fall short of the ideal.  A real parent falls short of the ideal parent.  A real government falls short of the ideal government.  In this life, nothing real can ever compete with the ideal.  Thus, it becomes an eternal mechanism of never being thankful for the enough that we have, and always trying to wring another drop out of water out of the cloth.

Ultimately, we are reduced to a slave-class under those who have crawled and scratched their way into the capstone.  Just as marketing campaigns use all manner of psychology to get you to buy their goods, so too, those in the capstone employ psychological programming against the lowly masses.  We the masses are too dumb to know what is good for us, and so they justify themselves in their deceptions.  This creates a sinister triad of resentment, arrogance, and deceit.  This is the trap that we have made for ourselves.

“Follow the science,” “Protect American interests abroad,” and “Save the planet,” have all become trite sayings that manipulate the masses, but never actually save anything.  Never fear!  They are working on new rallying cries, so that we can create a “Great Reset,” and “Build Back Better!”

This is where we are at, where we are headed without God.  We are moving full steam into a global trap.  However, I have good news for you!  The one who puts their faith in Jesus is never trapped because God is on their side, and they are on His side.  In the midst of the most manipulated generation ever, there is the True Church of Jesus of Nazareth that listens to his teaching and follow his instructions. 

Friend, God knew where this was all headed long ago.  He has pre-positioned the answer for us in this age through the work of His Son Jesus.  Embrace Jesus today, before you get so far down the trap that you no longer want escape.

Part 3 Ungrateful audio

Fire Upon The Earth

Today we will be looking at Luke 12:49-53.

It has often been the dream of man to have a place where everything was peaceful and people coexisted in perfect harmony.  In the 1970’s there was a famous Coke commercial that had a group of young people singing about such things.  It was a bit cheesy however, with a line about buying the world a Coke.  Regardless, even the politics of the day differ not because we can’t agree that a world in perfect harmony would be good.  Rather they differ due to disagreements about how that can be done, and whether it can be done at all.  This brings us to Jesus.

Today, many see Christ as the perfect picture of world peace.  It is true that he is the Prince of Peace and at his birth the angels proclaimed, “peace on earth and good will toward men.”  Yet, our passage today makes it clear that the message of God to mankind through Jesus was more complex than a simple slogan like, “make love not war!”  In this chapter Jesus has been warning his disciples that he would go away and the condition of their hearts would be tested.  How they respond to these tests will affect how Jesus treats them when he does come back.  It is the misconceptions we have about Jesus and the “Messiah” or Savior, that cause us to miss what Christ is actually doing.

His First Coming Brought Fire Upon The Earth

Jesus starts out with a statement of purpose.  “I have come to bring fire upon the earth.”  If this doesn’t sound very much like Jesus to you then it is probably because you have fallen into a common misconception about him.  It is the view that at the first coming Jesus had come to fix everything wrong with the world.  That is, he would remove all the bad guys and put all the good guys in charge.  Of course the people of Israel were wrong about Jesus removing all the bad guys.  Yet, the misconception only changes.  Now we say that Jesus took out the real enemy (Satan and sin’s guilt).  Thus now we can fix it all and the world is on an ever progressing trek towards Utopia because of what Jesus did.  This passage along with many others stands as a roadblock to such thinking.  The statements of Jesus here stand much of modern Christianity on its head, at least in the West.  We tend to labor under the misguided principle that Understanding and Compromise will unarm every warrior and solve every dispute.  It tends to think that people are basically good and the real problem is miscommunication, or perhaps better, malcommunication.  Jesus lets his disciples know that they are not headed into a peaceful situation, nor would it develop down the road.  In fact Jesus is going to make it much worse, i.e. he is bringing fire upon the earth.

The symbol of fire is connected to judgment in general.  However, more properly think of it as making a distinction.  It always burns up the bad and leaves behind the good.  Thus when the Bible uses the image of purifying metals, it is the fire which breaks down the metal so that the bad impurities can be brought out and removed.  The good metal is then poured into a cast and tempered.  So fire is only bad to that which is impure and bad.  However, it is good to that which is pure and good.  Similarly, Paul uses the image between wood, hay, stubble and metal.  Things that are done for our flesh and the purposes of this world are considered wood, hay and stubble. But the things we do for Christ and his eternal purposes are like precious metals and precious stones.  The fire of Christ’s judgment will distinguish which works are worthless and are burned from those works which are valuable and still remain.  Thus the test of fire reveals Truth and Eternal worth.  So what is this fire that Jesus is going to ignite?  The fire could be connected with the Holy Spirit poured out upon believers.  This is true and the picture is given in Acts 2.  However, the context does not point towards the Holy Spirit.  This fire is going to cause division.  I believe that Jesus is the fire (His works and His Teachings).  It is he himself who is the polarizing fire and in fact he is also an accelerant to the underlying divisions that already existed in the hearts of people.  When the truth of Jesus is taught and the life of Jesus is lived out, it is like fire in the midst of a culture that consumes the bad and purifies the good.  It is easy to accept that there is a God.  But, once Jesus says that this is what God looks like and what His nature is like, you are going to have those who disagree.  When Jesus gives commands to his disciples, you will immediately have people who are going to disagree with such narrow commands.  When Jesus says that the cross is the path to salvation (i.e. Utopia), even now we can feel our flesh shrinking back from such a thing.

It is easy to see the fire that is raging throughout the Middle East due to the promotion and rejection of Jesus.  However, we should recognize the same thing is being played out here in the West and especially here in America.

Notice that Jesus first has to go through a baptism.  He had already been water baptized and Spirit baptized at the same time.  So the imagery here is pointing forward to a baptism of suffering culminating in the cross.  Another image Jesus uses is that of a poisonous cup of suffering.  On the night of his betrayal he asks the Father, “if possible may this cup be taken from me.  Nevertheless Your will be done.”  The cross and the death of Jesus were a critical part of this fire that Jesus was igniting.  After he suffered these things, he is resurrected and spends many weeks explaining to his disciples what he wants them to do.  Like a small fire being kicked, the disciples become many different embers catching flame in dry tinder.  This necessity of the cross in the life of Jesus and his followers becomes a stumbling block that our flesh hates and rejects.  “I will not be a doormat!”  “Forget being crucified!  I am going to do the crucifying!”  These harsh rejections of the way of Christ make the fire all the hotter.  As long as God’s people entertain the delusion that God’s path would not involve suffering, we would continue to resist His plan and stand in the way.  Thus Jesus brings fire that polarizes not just the world, but even his own people Israel.  “Who’s on the Lord’s side?  Come on over here to the Messiah who died.”   It doesn’t sound like a winning proposition does it.  A true follower of Jesus is one who has crucified the objections of their mind, heart and soul and cling to Jesus no matter what suffering comes their way.  Why?  They do so because they are convinced that it truly is the path to salvation and Utopia.  However, much of the world today is not enamored with such a vision.  Why do we need God and such a horrible plan of salvation?  We will build Utopia ourselves!  Whether it is radical Muslims hacking heads off of Westerners, or scientists manipulating DNA in a laboratory, in many different ways mankind is seeking a way of its own making.

In verse 51, Jesus comes back to this.  Rather than peace, he would bring division to the earth.  He goes straight to the one institution that is the most resilient against division and that is the family.  Now don’t get Jesus wrong.  He definitely is the Prince of Peace and God really does desire peace for any who will come to Him to receive it.  But the reality is that many would reject his terms of peace.  The work and teaching of Jesus would bring in a good harvest and yet, it would be hated and ignite a war even among family members.  The point here is not that it is inevitable.  Clearly a whole family can serve Christ and live in peace together.  But if they do, it will not be because of the familial tie.  It will be because they have all embraced Jesus and his peace reigns in their hearts.  Believers have peace with God in that we are no longer His enemies.  We are also given the internal peace of God that passes all understanding.  This gives us the ability to live in peace with each other.

However, no Utopian society would be brought to the world through the First Coming of Jesus.  How we deal with this concept of Utopia is at the heart of who Jesus is.  We have two choices before us: the path of the cross, which is submission to God’s way, or the path chosen at the Fall, which is rebellion and rejection of God’s way.  Essentially it is, “We can do it.”  We will do what we want.

The world has many divisions (race, gender, religion, and politics to name a few).  However, Jesus points to the most basic of all biology.  Even families will split over the reality of who Jesus is and what he calls us to be and do.  Remember, “There is a way that seems right in the eyes of a man, but in the end it leads to death.”  Which way will you choose?  The path that looks like death leads to life and the path that looks like life leads to death.  The fire throughout our land is only going to burn hotter.  Israel’s greatest fire was ignited right before its judgment.  We as a nation are at a crossroads and many are in the valley of decision today.  Make sure you don’t allow misconceptions about who Jesus is cause you to choose the wrong path.

Fire Upon the Earth audio