“NO LAW – NO ORDER!”
BY: J.FARRELL FISHER, OCTOBER 1-2, 2017
Try to imagine among fallen humanity, alienated and separated from Holy God and His eternal purpose for them, choosing to live as if Holy God didn’t exist! How long could that state of ‘life’ exist before it totally disintegrated or fell apart or came to a meaningless existence? Not very long, if at all!
Lawless living is no substitute for the blessing of the presence of God in one’s life! Willful living for ‘self’ alone IS “No Law – No Order”! Willful living for one’s ‘fleshly’ purpose alone is “godless existence” with eternal tragedy as its reward! If there is no law, if there is no order, whether in the universe or a life, there is no meaning for the universe or for one’s life purpose – but there is meaning, there is purpose! It’s why Holy God promised the coming of His Son to, yes, bring “the law of eternal love and Holy Purpose and Presence out of “disorder”!”
Do you remember Isaiah called by God to be a prophet? In Isaiah 6:1-3 the prophet wrote: “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one cried to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory!” But because of Satanic deception and godless living, “No Law – No Order” became daily darkness across the world and in the hearts and minds of deceived lives!
But, having encountered the Lord, something happened in Isaiah and he responded: “Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.”
Hear me! Because there is no law, because there is no order, unless Holy God manifests Himself to men, you and I would be in deep, deep trouble! In Isaiah 9:2 the prophet wrote: “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them a light has shined.” Walkers in darkness? Dwellers in the land of the shadow of death? But, yes, the “hopeless in the shadow of death” have the grace and mercy of God “in Christ” unveiling to them “The True Light”!
Oh, and King Jesus revealed for Israel, for a needy, lost world the reality of “light” that exposes their existence and ours in a land of “no law and no order” which is spiritual darkness! In Matthew 5:16-17 Jesus first quoted Isaiah 9:2, then said, “upon them..light has dawned.” Christ Jesus is God’s Light to a dark and deceived world, with Matthew 5:17 telling us, From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
But what ‘kingdom’ have you chosen to be a part of? Do you ever sense a ‘kingdom’ of self-will or self-pleasure? Are you aware of the ‘kingdoms of darkness’? Are you aware of the end result of the ‘heathen raging’, manifesting, and unveiling’ their ‘kingdom idols’?’ Are YOU ever shamed, shocked, and, yes, sympathetically removed from a ‘love of the world around you’ to a passionate turning to the God who has exposed to you another “Kingdom-Rule” under the Lordship of Christ? What ‘kingdom’ does Satan unveil to you?
In Matthew 4:7 Jesus said to Satan, “It is written again, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God.’ Verses 8-11 follows: Again, the devil took Him (Christ Jesus) up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to Him, “All these things I will give You if you fall down and worship me.”
Then Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.” Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him.”
Question! “Has the kingdom of God been established in you through the shed blood of the Lamb of God, or are you still bound by the realm, the rule, the regulations in the ‘religious activity’ of the world, the old sin-nature, or the, yes, powerful influences of the devil himself?”
I hate to be the one to tell you, but apart from being redeemed by the blood of the Lamb of God, “new-born” in Spirit, and raised up to be a representative citizen of the Kingdom of Christ, you are bound, blinded, and belittled by Satan as one of his ‘captives in the “kingdom of darkness”, where there IS “no law and no order” because, ruled by your ‘flesh’, you’ve determined what you want to be ruled by, and your ‘law’ and your ‘order’ is all you desire! In 1 Timothy 3:7 Paul alerted us about “lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.”
In 2 Timothy 2:24-26, as he was instructing young, new believers, he wrote: “And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.”
“No law – no order”? Why is that? Because godless men and women are bound to the fleshly demands of, yes, the world, the flesh, and Satan himself, and not recipients of Holy God’s presence in them, His promises for them through Christ, and His power abounding in and through Christ’s Resurrection Life in them! “No law – no order”? Because Christ Jesus is not automatically born into every birthing across the world of fallen humanity but is birthed by ‘flesh’ with the nature of mankind that must willingly become “Spirit-birthed” as God the Father calls them to Himself through the loving service of Christ at the Cross!
“No law – no order”? Because the fallen world fell away from God willfully, sank into sinful shame, and, as the “Fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God’”, there still is a world of indifference to the love of God for every man: “God so loved the world”, but the same cannot be said that “all men love God!” Sadly, fallen men are so bound to their conception about what earthly life is all about that they do make ‘common sense’ strides to laws of nature but remain, many, to be bound, blind, and indifferent to the eternal wisdom of the Creator and Savior of the world, yes, void of the spiritual wisdom the Lord Jesus unveils!
“No law – no order”? Oh, yes and no – there are ‘laws’ and there is ‘order’ because Almighty God set it all into motion, and fleshly men can learn to ‘fly to the moon’ and yet know nothing about being “reconciled to God”! In fact, in 1 Corinthians 3:19 Paul was inspired to write wisely: “For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.” In the same letter, 1 Corinthians 6:9-11, Paul said: “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and By the Spirit of our God.”
“No law – no order”? You are aware that there are ‘profound minds intellectually’ who are sadly void of any spiritual understanding. It was William Cowper, in his writing “Light Shining Out of Darkness” who said: “Blind unbelief is sure to err, and scan His work in vain; God is His own interpreter, and He will make it plain.” And He has! “God so loved the world!” God so loved the world that He GAVE His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in (trusts in, relies upon, adheres to) Him should not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16). John 3:17 then enlightens us more as we read, “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world THROUGH HIM MIGHT BE SAVED.” But ‘unbelieving men and women live contented in their spiritual blindness’!
“No law – no order”? In “The Cry of the Human”, written many, many years ago by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, she wrote: “There is no God,” the foolish saith, But none, “There is no sorrow”; And nature oft the cry of faith In bitter need will borrow. Eyes, which the preacher could not school, By wayside graves are raised; And lips say, “God be pitiful,” Who never said, “God be praised.”
Without a doubt, there are those who deny God for themselves literally as the one true and living God in their minds and hearts, but others will acknowledge His reality without any leaning toward Him because in themselves they sense all they need or want , for them, “I can live a good life without God’s help,” which may be true for their ‘flesh’ but live bankrupt, empty lives in His Spirit-realm – and that decision determines one’s eternal destiny, Heaven or Hell, even a “blessed life” or a life under the “curse” with its eternal consequences or a life blinded in Satanic deception, content to be satisfied in the kingdom of darkness, deception, and, yes, death apart from, even resentful of those who walk in “the Kingdom of the Light of the Lord Jesus”!
“No law – no order”? That choice of life introduces one early to the reality of eternal barrenness, to a life void of spiritual Fruit and fruitfulness, and to a life with a high, proud opinion of ‘self’ but unsympathetic to the need of the Savior! To live ‘godless’ or ‘faithless’ or ‘needless’ of the Redeemer, is to unveil a life, heart, and mind that, yes, exposes a criminal mind easily exposing the inner man: godless, in ‘love’ with one’s self and his/her destructive sin-nature, and certainly revealing a ‘superficial thinker’ who expresses no need of reconciliation with Holy God through Christ alone – he’s determined he’s able and doesn’t need God’s help! Listen to them! For what they say reveals a darkened heart or a “new life”, a blinded mind or a “new mind”, a fleshly intent of self-indulgence or the eternal intent of gladly being the “tabernacle” where the Resurrected Christ lives to be Himself in them and through them, or a successful-appearing lifestyle but absent of any True Faith and open to any lawless deed, like the Las Vegas murderer!
But if one, convicted by the Holy Spirit, convinced by the Holy Spirit, then confesses and surrenders and yields to Christ by the Spirit and opens their hearts’ doors to His presence, what HAPPENS? “CONVERSION”: “born again”, “raised to new life”, “commissioned by the Lord and Savior”, “releasing rivers of living water”, “birthing a true babe in Christ hungering for the milk and meat of the Eternal Word of God”, “understanding they are the vessel now – He’s the content”, not ‘my way’, but His Way, not ‘my desires’, but His eternal purpose and plan, His will, not our fleshly ways any longer!
Cecil Frances Alexander, in his writing “All Things Bright” wrote: “The rich man in his castle, the poor man at his gate, God made them, high or lowly, and ordered their estate.” And, it doesn’t matter – rich man or poor man; the man or woman who has yielded, trusted, and surrendered to Christ’s Lordship becomes the true wealthiest and most eternally significant man or woman on the face of the globe, and willfully lives to extend Christ’s “Kingdom-Rule” through them!
But around you, because they “choose” to live apart from His Kingdom-Rule, men and women, denying the need of God as their Lord and Savior, many enraged by a sense of injustice, “I deserve better than what I am and what I have,”, many gripped in the fleshly state of meaninglessness, others gripped in anger with the ‘right’ to make things ‘right’ for themselves, others suffering from loneliness and the motivation to be recognized, even if it’s criminal activity, will choose ‘dark paths’ rather than the “Highway of Holiness”!
Look at fallen humanity that surrounds you every day! Examine the ‘closed minds’ even to the reality of Holy God! Have you ever been astounded by those around you who treat the reality of God with a spirit of irreverence, living in those closed minds without a thought of His Calvary sacrifice to set them free from their bondage to sin and Satan, living captive to their sin-blinded minds rather than receiving the free gift of divine grace, mercy, and love in Christ that sets the captives free, breaks the chains that binds them, and floods the heart and mind with holy reverence of being graced as the tent, the tabernacle, the earthly abiding place and residence of the King of kings and Lord of lords?
You may have been living in “the cloud of conscious minds” that visualizes humanity as ‘god unto himself’, but the Holy Word unveils the awesome Holy God who created mankind in His likeness but with humanity having the, yes, ‘free will’ to choose His Lordship, His Will, His purpose, or to think, feel, and respond as they decide for themselves – Holy God has not, will not, does not force Himself on mankind apart from them “choosing for themselves whom they will serve”, ‘flesh or Spirit’, ‘wrong or righteousness’, serving ‘self’ or blessing others with the Redemptive Truth, maximizing ‘self-will’ or being “Master-ed by the only Savior and Lord”!
A very old hymn is entitled “Crown Him With Many Crowns”, speaking of course of Christ and His gracious, merciful crown. It Says: “Crown Him with many crowns, The Lamb upon His throne; Hark! How the heavenly anthem drowns All music but its own! Awake, my soul, and sing Of Him who died for thee; And hail Him as your matchless King thro’ all eternity.
Crown Him the Lord of love! Behold His hands and side, – Rich wounds, yet visible above, In beauty glorified; No angel in the sky Can fully bear that sight, But downward bends his wondering eye At mysteries so bright.
Crown Him the Lord of life! Who triumphed over the grave; Who rose victorious to the strife For those He came to save; His glories now we sing, Who died and rose on high; Who died eternal life to bring, And lives that death may die.
Crown Him the Lord of Heaven! One with the Father known, One with the Spirit through Him given From yonder glorious throne! To You be endless praise, For You, Christ, for us did die; Be Thou, O Lord, through endless days Adored and Magnified.”
Have YOU crowned Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of your life? Have YOU yielded to His Lordship as King of your heart? Have YOU crowned Him as Sovereign King over you, your family, your calling and ministry in life? Are YOU the “CHOSEN OF GOD” to be His tabernacle of the Holy Presence of His Son and our Savior? Do YOU receive Christ Jesus’ word about those of Redemptive Faith being “salt and light” in a deceived, self-centered, self-serving world, but you are contented blinded to His Kingdom of Light, Liberty, and unending love, grace, and mercy?
I’d say it’s time to look to the God who made you, lost you, but bought you with a price. Consider that the Resurrected Christ desires to make His personal home YOUR heart! He so desires to extend His Kingdom-Rule through the “new creations” bought by the blood of the Lamb of God and, yes, ready to be the “vessel” for His Resurrection-Life-pouring out through YOU! Why not now?