Notes for Divine Directives-3
How Do I Know What is Good and What is Evil?
Revelation 2:7 “Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches.
Matthew 6:33 But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be provided to you.
Isaiah 53:6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way;
Isaiah 45:18-19 For this is what the Lord says— he who created the heavens, he is God; he who fashioned and made the earth, he founded it; he did not create it to be empty, but formed it to be inhabited— he says: “I am the Lord, and there is no other. I have not spoken in secret, from somewhere in a land of darkness; I have not said to Jacob’s descendants, ‘Seek me in vain.’ I, the Lord, speak the truth; I declare what is right.
Exodus 20:2-3 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. “You shall have no other gods before me.
We who have come to God through Jesus and have embraced His salvation and Spirit into our life, must accept that He and He alone tells us what is right and what is wrong.
One of the fruits of the eternal life in us is a voracious hunger for God’s word.
Jeremiah 15:16 When your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart’s delight, for I bear your name, Lord God Almighty.
Psalm 119:12-16 Praise be to you, Lord; teach me your decrees. With my lips I recount all the laws that come from your mouth. I rejoice in following your statutes as one rejoices in great riches. I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways. I delight in your decrees; I will not neglect your word.
Psalm 19:7-11 The law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul. The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes. The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever. The decrees of the Lord are firm, and all of them are righteous. They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold; they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the honeycomb. By them your servant is warned; in keeping them there is great reward.
Isaiah 66:2 Has not my hand made all these things, and so they came into being?” declares the Lord. “These are the ones I look on with favor: those who are humble and contrite in spirit, and who tremble at my word.
There is a difference between what we think is good or what culture tells us is good and what God says is good.
2 Peter 1:4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
I Kings 3:5, 9 At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon during the night in a dream, and God said, “Ask for whatever you want me to give you.”… give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong.
Genesis 3:6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good…
There is a good that leads people away from God.
Matthew 24:3-4 As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. “Tell us,” they said, “when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”
Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you.
The definition of deception: you believe with all your heart that you are right, when in reality you are wrong.
Most of the moral issues that people wrestle with today are in fact a blending of good and evil so that those that advocate what God has called evil do so by saying it is actually good.
James 1:16-17 Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.
There is nothing good for us outside of God and what He has said.
2 Timothy 3:13-16 evildoers and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,
Joshua 1:7-8 Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.
We have lived so long in a toxic environment that our sensors are corrupted. We can’t tell the difference between good and evil any more.
Ephesians 5:25-27 Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.
Proverbs 14:12 There is a way which seems right to a person, But its end is the way of death.
Proverbs 3:5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;
Hebrews 12:14 Pursue peace with all people, and the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.
The word “pursue” means to chase after with the intent to apprehend. God is telling us that we must chase after holiness with the intent to apprehend it.
Revelation 4:2-8 At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it... From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings and peals of thunder. In the center, around the throne, were four living creatures… Day and night they never stop saying: “‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty
The first thing the devil has done has been to pervert holiness in the church.
The second thing Satan has done is to redefine holiness teaching so that everything has already been done by Jesus and it doesn’t matter how much you sin, God’s grace covers everything.
One, love God’s word-it’s the only way you won’t be deceived.
2 Thessalonians 2:9-11 The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with how Satan works. He will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie, and all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved… For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie
Two, hold onto God’s word so you don’t get shipwrecked in life.
I Timothy 1:19 holding on to faith and a good conscience, for some people have rejected their moral compass and have made a shipwreck of their faith.
