12
T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
January, 1934
( pQawlessness: ^^lie 0 *Cnell o f (f )u r ( f losing I f l g e frP-fr l T f ì § y - SI.ÄAJS ö f l H f - n n i ^ S B y LOUIS S. BAUMAN* Long Beach, Calif.
“Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth: . . . Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast cre ated, till iniquity [ lawlessness ] was found in thee” (Ezek. 28:14, 15).
attempt to cover up, an effort to get away from God, end ing in sorrow and suffering and death! T hrough L awlessness , th e A ntediluvians F ell “And it came to pass • • • that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fa ir; and they took them wives o f all which they chose. And God saw that the wickedness o f man was grea t. . . And God said unto Noah, The end o f all flesh is come” (Gen. 6:1,2, 5, 13). Whoever these “sons of God” may have been, men or angels, it is evident that, even as the angels that sinned, they “left their own habitation” and, in lawlessness, fell. The inevitable followed: “The earth also was corrupt be fore God ; and . . . filled with violence” (Gen. 6:11). Then came judgment! Corruption, violence, and judgment were but the results. Lawlessness was the cause. T hrough L awlessness , th e P ostdiluvians F ell “And God . . . said unto them, Be fruitful, and multi ply, and replenish the earth. And they said, Go to, let us build us a city, and a tower, . . . lest we be scattered abroad upon the face o f the whole earth. . . And the Lord said, Behold, , . . this they begin to do: . . . Go to, let us go down . . . So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face o f all the earth: and they left off to build the city” (Gen. 9:1; 11:4-8). Man said to God, “Go to” ! And then man said to man, “Let us” ! God immediately accepted the challenge. God said to man, “Go to” ! And then God said to Elohim, “Let us”! And “us” won! When men or nations shut the Eter nal out of their activities, and in pride build the towers of their civilizations to dizzy heights, they have only farther to fall into the abyss of confusion and ruin, for fall they will! This present generation of men, with its sputtering jargon of voices, groping about for light on the problems that stagger, only to find itself in deeper night—this bab bling Babel is asking between its babbles betimes for the “why” of all its confusion. There is a “why” ! Men have said, “Go to,” to God! T hrough L awlessness , S odom and G omorrah F ell "Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire” (Jude 7). This means that if the archaeologist is to be believed, one of .the world’s most advanced civilizations went into decay because it “despised dominion, and spake evil of dig nities” (v. 8). Peter tells us that Lot “vexed his righteous soul from day to. day with their unlawful deeds” as they continued to “despise government” (2 Pet. 2 :8-10). God held back His wrath until law and order gave way to mob violence (cf. Gen. 19:1-13). Then judgment, swift as lightning from heaven, fell. It always has been so—it always will be so. T hrough L awlessness , the K ingdoms of I srael and J udah F ell “They mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath o f the Lord arose against his people, till there was no remedy” (2 Chron. 36 :16). “This is a rebellious people . . . children that will not hear the law of the Lord : which say . . . to
JL L o t hxng has been revealed more clearly by the God who sees the end from the beginning than that the sun of our age, even as the sun of every previous age, will set over seas foaming out their shame in raging waves of lawlessness (cf. Jude 13). The entrance of sin into God’s universe is a great mys tery. But of one thing we may be sure, sin was conceived in lawless ness. “The anointed c h e ru b ” (Satan) that fell, and in falling broke the heart of God, was driven from “the midst of the stones of fire” when lawlessness was found in him. And lawlessness quickly gave birth to violence (cf. Ezek. 28:16). T hrough L awlessness , A ngels F ell “God spared not the angels that
Louis S. B auman “ Ye have not passed this way heretofore” (Josh. 3:4). “Thev feared as they entered info the cloud” (Lk. 9:34). “ Jesus himself drew near and went with them” (Lk. 24:15). An old skipper, caught off of a perilous lee shore, fought through a welter of wind and wave into a safe but strange harbor. Next morning, gazing back upon the jagged teeth of a thousand jutting rocks, he shuddered: “Did we—did we pass there in the darkness?” Yes—we passed! The God who did not slumber nor sleep in 1933 will not slumber nor sleep in 1934.
sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment” (2 Pet. 2:4). _ “Chains” are for the lawless, and the lawless are they who “despise government” and “speak evil of dignities.” “As natural brute beasts” (v. 12), the lawless recognize no law except the law of force and violence. They “count it pleasure to riot” (v. 13). They incite the mobs which, “while they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption” (v. 19). Jude confirms the pro phecy of Pe ter: “And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in . . . chains. . . ■ . Likewise also these filthy dream ers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities” (Jude 6, 8). When angels “left their own habi tation,” they crossed the “thou shalt not” of Jehovah, and joined Lucifer in his lawlessness. T hrough L awlessness , M an F ell “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, ; . . o f the tree of the knowledge o f good and evil, thou shalt not eat o f it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. And when the woman saw . . . she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her hus band with her; and he did eat’’ (Gen. 2 :16, 17; 3 :6). In these verses, we have the first “thou shalt not” of God for manSthe first law given with penally attached for transgression. The first rebellion of man was against this law, with the consequent shedding of blood (Gen. 3: 21) and the unsheathing of the sword (Gen. 3:24). This first sin involved no act of immorality. It was Simon-pure lawlessness. As. ever, there followed in its wake, fear, an
Pastor, First Brethren Church.
Made with FlippingBook flipbook maker