Subject: MAN'S OWN WAY
Date: Fri, 02 Feb 2007
DEAR FOLKS,
We are living in a day when man wants his own way. Even in the Church we see this manifested. When some don’t get their own way, they will do very foolish things. The Bible has some things to say about this:
Isa 53:6
All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
Man is in his present condition because it is his own way. Man’s rational mind is what got him into trouble and what keeps him in trouble.
The Bible speaks of the way of Cain.
Jude 1:11
Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core.
The way of Cain rejects God’s revelation;
Cain rejected God’s revelation of the kind of sacrifice that was necessary. He rejected the opportunity to change his mind:
Genesis 4:7
If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.
Cain’s way is the way of emotionalism.
Genesis 4:5
But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell.
Cain was driven by emotions and he threw a fit when God rejected his offering sincerely submitted.
The way of Cain has appeal.
Genesis 4:21
And his brother's name was Jubal: he was the father of all such as handle the harp and organ.
Man’s way is called the “way of sinners".
Psalms 1:1
Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
The words “standing in the way of sinners” does not mean to stand up and block their way; it means to join them in the way they are going.
MANY ARE IN THE DELUSION THAT IF WE DO OUR BEST GOD WILL ENDORSE OUR WAYS
Acts 26:9
I verily thought with myself, that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth.
This shows how blind a lost sinner can be. This is the reason the Islamist can kill those who do not join in their religious heresy. That’s some way to grow your religion; threaten to kill those who don’t convert.
MAN’S WAY SEEMS RIGHT TO HIM
Proverbs 16:25
There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.
We must come to the place where we accept what God says over what seems right to us. This is the way of faith.
MAN STILL HAS PROBLEMS WITH “HIS OWN WAY” AFTER HE IS SAVED
Lot was lured in by Satan by the “well watered plains of Jordan;
Genesis 13:10-11
And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered every where, before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar. Then Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan; and Lot journeyed east: and they separated themselves the one from the other.
Abraham went to Egypt to survive the famine in Genesis 12:
1. Abraham built no altar in Egypt.
2. He lied about his wife and got into trouble.
3. The main thing is that there is no record where he sought the Lord and asked for the removal of the famine. He came up with his own way.
Demas is another illustration of choosing your own way after you are saved;
2 Timothy 4:10
For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica; Crescens to Galatia, Titus unto Dalmatia.
What about the man who loses his job and he has a family to support. What if he gets a job offer from the liquor store? Should he take the job?
MAN’S WAY PUT JESUS ON THE CROSS
Isaiah 53:6
All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
We are not to compromise with the world that put Jesus on the cross. We are not to compromise with our own flesh because it is desperately wicked.
Romans 7:24
O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
Then he answered his own question in verse 25:
"I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin."
God’s way for the sinner (and we are all sinners) is the cross. Do you see that the cross is our only hope? It is God’s way to save sinners and restore failing saints.
God help us to repent of our own way and glory in His cross.
