Amorality

 “But Jesus said unto him, Follow Me; and let the dead bury their dead.” (Matt. 8:22).

The problem God has with the self-sufficient is not that they are bad people. If they knew themselves to be bad, then God could reach them; at least “some of them.” (Rom. 11:14).  At least, then He could call them “to repentance.” (Matt. 9:13). Many are called and some are chosen (Matt. 20:16). But, “they that are with Him are called, and chosen, and faithful.” (Rev. 17:14). “For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end.” (Heb. 3:14). Salvation is nothing to be sought out lightly; but, if we are ever to be saved at last, we must “hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.” (Heb. 3:6). This constant, daily seeking must be ongoing until the end of life. Paul attested to this in the last letter he wrote before his execution, not stating until his last day, that his crown of righteousness was now laid up for him. “For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love His appearing.” (2Tim. 4:6-8).

The standard is very high. “God’s ideal for His children is higher than the highest human thought can reach. ‘Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.’” Desire of Ages, p. 311. “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isa. 55:8,9). “I will have mercy, and not sacrifice” (Matt. 9:13), sacrifice brought forth to God that does not spring from conviction, confession and repentance, is abhorrent to God. It is repentance that needs “to be repented of.” (2Cor. 7:10). He wants to spew it out of His mouth. (See Revelation 3:16).
 

“Except the LORD build [a character that bears the divine credentials], they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the [heart barred against sin], the watchman waketh but in vain. It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so He giveth His beloved [rest in Jesus].” (Ps. 127:12).

Without guilt and being “put … to shame” (Jdg. 18:7) our pride cannot be silenced of its clamoring for the supremacy of our soul. We can never create guilt or put ourselves to shame—real threatening shame. True shame and remorse and repentance must come from without. And that is God’s jurisdiction. He is our schoolmaster, through His Law and by His Spirit, both which He uses to bring us to need a savior from sin. Then He brings us to His Son who takes over to show us His mercy and then to give it to us by His Spirit.

“Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” (Gal. 3:24).

“But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.” (Rom. 8:9). “That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” (Rom. 8:4).

“All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me; and him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.” (Jn. 6:37).

But, “The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away. Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.” (Ps. 1:4-6).

The amoral have no need for a savior.

“For there are no bands in their death: but their strength is firm.

They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued like other men.

Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain; violence covereth them as a garment.

Their eyes stand out with fatness: they have more than heart could wish.

They are corrupt, and speak wickedly concerning oppression: they speak loftily.

They set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue walketh through the earth.

Therefore his people return hither: and waters of a full cup are wrung out to them.

And they say, How doth God know? and is there knowledge in the most High?” (Ps. 73:4-11).

They believe themselves to be good enough and bound for eternal life; yet Jesus declares to them, “Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” (Matt. 6:34). Therefore, the Lord will “despise their image.” (Ps. 73:20). “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.” (Isa. 64:6). On the contrary, “Blessed are all they that put their trust in Him.” (Ps. 2:12).

In all the self-righteousness of the amoral, they stand aloof from the Law of God and will not look at it. Satan has convinced them that it is an evil document and to disdain it. He tells them that if they must read it, for popularity’s sake, they must never take it seriously. They are fully convinced that the Bible is a book of fairy tales, nothing to regard with all the heart and mind; nothing to fear. Satan as brought his favored earthly agency to bear against God’s written word; they have cast it to the ground and triumphantly trampled it. Thus, the devil can create his own church, a church of formalism, routines, and refined convocations of proud hearts. “Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto Me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts My soul hateth: they are a trouble unto Me; I am weary to bear them.” (Isa. 1:13,14).

“Measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves” (2Cor. 10:12), their parties of glamor, applause of human achievement, and reciprocations of congratulations gather on the roof tops like “the children of pride” (Job 41:34) on Dagon’s temple, which Samson destroyed, both it and them.

Amorality insults God more than immorality. Immorality shows its ugly head and brings with it disease and death. It causes the plagues of the Lord that can humble the proud human heart which is naturally bequeathed at birth to every child of Adam. The immoral have hope of salvation; they feel the wrong they do. It affects their loved ones, love that can awaken them to call out to the unknown God with hearts perfect toward Him. This is why the thieves and prostitutes came to Jesus.

“And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with Him and His disciples.” (Matt. 9:10).

But, the amoral have no need for God or Jesus or salvation. A converted heart, reborn after the God of justice and mercy, law and race, they flee from. They profess Christianity but cannot call themselves a Christian or have a testimony to share of how Jesus won their heart and life back from Satan and temptation. They are not just before God, nor have His power to separate from this world or its god. Therefore God calls them the wicked. And what says, is.

Amorality is of the greatest offense to God. When it sees Him drawing His lost children to His heart, the proud self-sufficient amoralist murmurs, “Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners?” (Matt. 9:11). “Why was this waste of the ointment made? For it might have been sold for more than three hundred pence, and have been given to the poor.” (Mk.14:4,5). It boasts, “I fear not God, nor regard man.” (Lk. 18:4). At godly self-sacrificing love, the peeved amoralist scoffs, “He saved others; Himself He cannot save.” (Matt. 27:42).

He heartlessly berates the new disciples of Christ. “They answered and said unto him, Thou wast altogether born in sins, and dost thou teach us? And they cast him out.” (Jn. 9:34). The amoralist arrogantly spews out nothing but self during its interpretation of the reality that Providence is wisely creating to cleanse His movement and shake His enemies out of it. “And one of them, named Caiaphas, being the high priest that same year, said unto them, Ye know nothing at all, nor consider that it is expedient for us, that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not.” (Jn. 11:49-50). “Their tongue walketh through the earth.” (Ps. 73:9).

“Therefore He hath poured upon him the fury of His anger, and the strength of battle: and it hath set him on fire round about, yet he knew not; and it burned him, yet he laid it not to heart.” (Isa. 42:25). The amoralists, after generations of spurning God’s Law and searing their own and their children’s consciences to the divine precepts, feel no compunction to persecute God’s people in the name of God. Thus, “They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.” (Jn. 16:2). “They are corrupt, and speak wickedly concerning oppression: they speak loftily. They set their mouth against the heavens.”

“This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.” (2Tim. 3:1-5).

“Thus saith the LORD, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: but let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth Me, that I am the LORD which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the LORD.” (Jer. 9:23,24).

“They are all grievous revolters, walking with slanders: they are brass and iron; they are all corrupters. The bellows are burned, the lead is consumed of the fire; the founder melteth in vain: for the wicked are not plucked away. Reprobate silver shall men call them, because the LORD hath rejected them.” (Jer. 6:28-30). There’s nothing more He could do for them. They committed the unpardonable sin. They deceived themselves and allowed others to deceive them. He must cut them off, regardless of the infinite pain it causes His heart.

“The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of His indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.” (Rev. 14:10,11).