This is NOT of God: Not What I Did and Not What Greek Letter Organizations Do (PT 2)
- Whitney Nicole
- Dec 28, 2023
- 7 min read
Before putting my fingers to keys, I prayed and asked God for wisdom, grace, and truth to pour out in what I type. He brought me to the concept of the threshing floor and specifically these verses repeated in like manner, in Matthew 3 and Luke 3: “His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire” (v. 12 and 17, respectively). My text note (Luke 3:17) states, “The chaff represents the unrepentant and the wheat the righteous. Many Jews thought that only pagans would be judged and punished when the Messiah came, but John declared that judgment would come to all who did not repent – including the Jews” – God’s chosen people (NIV Study Bible © 1985, p. 1569).
“Repentance is a radical change in one’s life that involves forsaking sin and turning or returning to God” (NIV Study Bible © 1985, p.1466). It is made evident by "sorrow for sin and a determination to lead a holy life" (NIV Study Bible © 1985, p. 1569). In this hour, God is calling all men everywhere to repent. And this repentance is for both the believer and the unbeliever.
Since Satan sought kingship for himself and was thrown down for his pride and rebellion, he has gone out into the world seeking to win the hearts of men and create a kingdom of his own. We need not look further than the Garden (Genesis 3) to see his work on full display as he deceived Eve to believe the lie. The lie that God and His provision wasn’t sufficient. The lie that God would withhold a good thing from her. The lie that God didn’t really mean what He said.
Since the Garden, deception has not been a foreign concept to God’s created beings, even among those who profess His name. Let’s look at an example of this from Jeremiah 7:
“This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: ‘Stand, at the gate of the Lord’s house and there proclaim this message: ‘Hear the word of the Lord, all you people of Judah who come through these gates to worship the Lord. This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Reform your ways and your actions, and I will let you live in this place. Do not trust in deceptive words and say, ‘This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord!” If you really change your ways and your actions and deal with each other justly, if you do not oppress the alien, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not follow other gods to your own harm, then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your forefathers for ever and ever. But look, you are trusting in deceptive words that are worthless. ‘Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal and follow other gods you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house, which bears my Name, and say, ‘We are safe – safe to do all these detestable things? Has this house, which bears my Name, become a den of robbers? But I have been watching! declares the Lord. ‘Go now to the place in Shiloh where I first made a dwelling for my Name, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of my people Israel. While you were doing all these things, declares the Lord, I spoke to you again and again, but you did not answer” (v.7-13).
In this excerpt, Jeremiah addresses the people on their way to the temple. These were the church goers. And the charge that the Lord brought before them is unrepentant sin and their trust in deceptive words that they could continue in them without judgment. The remainder of the chapter and much throughout the rest of the book, the people of God enraged the Lord by their sinful practices and idolatrous worship to other gods. Repeatedly, the people scoffed at the Lord’s prophet who brought these charges before them, and they refused to repent.
But the people believed they had good cause. In Jeremiah 44, beginning at verse 15, it reads: “Then all the men who knew that their wives were burning incense to other gods, along with all the women who were present – a large assembly – and all the people living in Lower and Upper Egypt, said to Jeremiah, ‘We will not listen to the message you have spoken to us in the name of the Lord! We will certainly do everything we said we would: We will burn incense to the Queen of Heaven and will pour out drink offerings to her just as we and our fathers, our kings and our officials did in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. At that time we had plenty of food and were well off and suffered no harm” (v. 15-17).
Because these men were full and prosperous in their idolatry, they refused the word of the Lord to repent. Because a lineage of fathers, kings, and officials all participated in these practices, they refused the word of the Lord to repent. And in this same day, because of deceptive words, because of multitudes taking the broad path, and because of false prophets and teachers who propagate doctrines of demons from pulpits, many will refuse the word of the Lord to repent still.
But whose word will you trust? Whose example will you follow?
In the New Testament, these same warnings to repent of sin and turn to God are repeated among the Lord’s apostles and disciples. Take for example Paul’s words about the sinful nature which runs counter to God’s Spirit: “The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God” (Galatians 5:19-21).
In the Blue Letter Bible Study for this chapter, Guzik reminds believers that they are truly "saved by God's grace and Jesus' work alone, not by what we have done, are doing, or promise to do." Rather, we have “a high moral obligation to fulfill – not to earn salvation, but in gratitude for salvation, and in simple consistency with who we are in Jesus.” Both believers and unbelievers can find themselves transgressing God’s law, but only one will be declared righteous at His final judgment and saved. Those who have put their confidence not in their good deeds but in the one sacrifice given at the cross.
So, what do we make of this statement that those who do these things will not inherit the kingdom of God? Are the believers never to transgress and commit such acts? This side of heaven, it’s pretty impossible. But this is what it does mean: Guzik states, “To walk in these works of the flesh is to be in plain rebellion against God, and those in plain rebellion against God will not inherit the kingdom of God.” The kingdom of God is both God’s rule in the hearts and lives of His people and as in this passage, it speaks of his new kingdom where all will be made new. “To live like this” is not speaking of stumbling on our journey to redemption, but it is to “continue in these sins, ignoring the voice of the Holy Spirit telling [us] to ‘stop.’” It is to continually practice these things with no repentance and turning to God for help to be set free on earth as it already is in heaven.
When it all boils down, the sin that will walk men into rebellion against God and eternal separation from Him is unbelief. It’s not believing in who He is and what He has said. How do you know you don’t just believe what they said about Jesus but you actually believe in Him? That Jesus is Your Savior and Lord? That God is the only god and the only one worthy of worship? I like these two tests of the heart Matt Chandler shared in a sermon: “Do you love God? And do you have a desire to be pleasing to Him?” Belief will always demonstrate itself in action. If you believe that God sacrificed His only Son for you, your heart will be filled with overwhelming gratitude and you will love Him because He first loved you. If you believe Jesus is Lord then you will want to honor and please Him with your life. And if you believe God is the only god and worthy of praise, the Spirit within you will fight your soul to place any other god before Him and in His presence.
2 Peter 1:3 states, “His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.” Knowledge of Him. Without right knowledge of God, we won’t be able to live the life He’s called us to. If we don’t know who He is – His magnificence and character. If we don’t know what He has done – His acts that make demons and earth shake. If we don’t know what He has said – His promises, standards, and judgments. We will be led astray. And more than missing His intent for us in this life, many may miss the glory of Him in eternity. Without right knowledge of God, we will create a god that fits our image and desires, one who will only show kindness and patience and never justice and judgment. But we serve a God who balances His every attribute in perfection.
If I had to give a synopsis of why this was the next message to be brought forth in this series (I thought would be concluded today), it is because God is serious about His Word. He is serious about people perverting it to fit their purposes rather than His. He is concerned, just as He was in Jeremiah’s day, that His people are listening to deceptive words not His own and are forgoing the life and liberty He came to give them. So, as God prepares His bride for His return, He wants to remove the spots and blemishes. He wants to present us holy. Not that we will attain perfection, but that our hearts will desire to be perfect before Him. That we will be able to proclaim that we fought the good fight. That we sought to live as sojourners in a home not our own. That our allegiance remained true to our King because we received our directives from Him. God is removing the veil that has concealed the truth from us. The question we must all ask ourselves is when He does, will we trust the truth He shows us? Will we believe in Him?
For further contemplation of these words, consider the following:
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