WHICH THING OUGHT NOT TO BE DONE

Genesis 34:7, ". . .Because he had wrought folly in Israel in lying with Jacob's daughter, which thing ought not to be done."

Jacob has settled into the promised land. It is not his yet, it is a covenant property. The land promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their descendants. It was not theirs until the book of Joshua, when they defeated the enemies of the land. They defeated all the -ites from the promised land. Even though he is in the land, he is surrounded by the citizens of that land, the Hivites.
As they got settled into this new land and new city, there is always the need to check things out. The boys were no doubt busy with the flocks and the set up of the tents. Dinah, being the only daughter to Jacob and to Leah, decided to venture out to visit the other young woman of the city. Now as see goes to meet and greet with them, the young prince of Shalem, Shechem by name, sees her. He professes to Jacob that he loves her. Love at first site, so he says. But in actuality, it was only lusts. For he seduced, allured, overpowered and took her 'and lay with her and defiled her.'
Here is the only daughter of Jacob; she is young; she is new to the land; and now she is defiled. In the verse for our theme, 'things that ought not to be done'; this is one of the most understated things to say to our young people, 'Don't commit fornication or adultery'. It is almost taboo to speak of these things. Yet, for Dinah, she is defiled by a Hivite and once the deed of sin is done, innocence can never be restored. The state of being naive is such a blissful time, yet when the deed of sin is done, it is all gone, never more to return. Oh, how many a young people have ruined their lives by one moment, one decision, one yielding to sin. These things ought not to be done.

Where is the prince of Israel, jacob, the descendant of righteous Abraham? He is sitting silently, holding his peace to the men that have defiled his only daughter. It is the boys that rise to defend her and squelch the sin that has been done. Look at their response in verse 7, 'And the sons of Jacob came out of the field when they heard it: and the men were grieved, and they were very wroth, becasue he had wrought folly to Israel. . .' they were grieved, they were wroth. Such should be the response of all toward sin.

Let us look now at this in light of our approach to sin. Is our motto, our edict, 'These things ought not to be done'? Yes, the one thing that ought not to be done to Dinah was to defil her. But what thing ought we not to be doing in the sight of the Lord? What is there that grieves and offends the Holy Spirit? What is there that brings reproach on His Holy Name? What is there that robs us of our joy? Name them, and see that these are the things that ought not to be done.

1. Neglect; this is our first mention of things that ought not to be done. The neglect of the so many things in our personal and public life for spiritual discipline- Neglect of Bible; neglect of prayer; neglect of being in His presence; neglect of forsaking ourselves together in worship and service; neglect of time to develop intimacy with God; neglect of being filled with His Spirit; neglect in sharing the Gospel. All these things are sign of such a spiritual sickness that requires of God for His mercy and restoration to renew us. This was not meant to be for any Christian to be in a sad state of neglect. God intended and provides a way for us to stay obedient and not reach a place of neglect. But when you examine your life and you see the neglect becoming more rampant; when you see it missing more than it is hitting, than you know that your state of decay is rapidly upon you. God has made a way for us to avoid and flee from neglect. He has sent the Spirit to speak to us, 'this is the way now walk in it.' He has given us promises and direction in His word to 'take heed' lest we fall prey to Satan and become those that neglect His ways.


2. Failure - Another thing that ought not to be for the church is failure. How can one who has the power and presence of God upon them and with them fail? To declare failure in your ministry, church, family or daily living is to say that God has failed. God cannot fail.

KEEP THE WORD OF GOD

A theme ran through the devotions this morning, that leaves me contemplating. How necessary for us to understand the Word of God and keep it. The first devotion was from Watchman Nee, in which he shares this story: He felt led as a young man to go to an island where pirates were and share Christ. He apparently had gone and preached and there was a receiving of the message of Christ. As he sought to rent a home there and establish himself, his parents spoke and told him not to go there. He was now faced with the 5th commandment, 'Thou shalt obey thy father and mother.' Yet his soul was desiring ot serve Christ there. He obeyed his parent, and later on he was permitted and allowed to go to the island. In all this I see two things of unknowing. First, the will of the Lord was there for God's own purpose and He used Nee's parents to enforce His will. The timing of the Lord is everything. We do not understand the timing of God. 'As high as the heavens are above the earth, so are my thoughts higher than your thoughts, and My ways higher than your ways.' His will and timing are the unknown things to us. We simply must accept them, 'Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" Most certainly He will. Does your faith allow for you to believe this and accept it?

Secondly, AB Simpson's devotion shared the account of Uzzah who stretched forth his hand to steady the ark of the covenant. But the Word of the Lord was given, 'touch not the ark'. They were to use the staffs to carry and control the ark, not the hand of unholy men. And because he touched it, even though, for good reason and purpose, he disobeyed the Word of the Lord. His punishment was instant death as God struck him right there and then.

In both of these accounts, God has spoken, His Word is declard and given. We are left with one option, obey and live. For if we disobey, we shall not see Him. That which the Word of God has spoken and declared to us, we are to obey. Our disobedience is what has costs us so much. Have we not seen it from the very beginning? God spoke to ADam and Eve, touch not the tree. Yet, when she reached out and touched the tree and ate, and gave to her husband, Adam, sin entered in.

He speaks, for the reason of His Presence being glorified. Our disobedience removes His glory. Uzzah disobeyed and died; Adam and Eve brought sin into the world and death; 'The wages of sin is death'. The disobedience of parents, as related to the story of Watchman Nee, is the warning at the end of that commandment, 'that your days may be long upon the earth.' In all these things we see the price to be paid for not keeping the Word of God. How merciful He is to us. How precious are His ways to preserve us and help us. The Spirit is given, the Bible laid out before us in order that we might keep His Word.

THE SIN OF DISOBEDIENCE

Jonah 1:10 - 16, "then were the men exceedingly afraid, and said unto him, Why hast thou done this? For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them. v.11 Then said they unto him, What shall we do unto thee, that the sea may be calm unto us? for the sea wrought, and was tempestuous. v. 12 And he said unto them, Take me up, and cast me forth into the sea; so shall the sea be calm unto you: for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you. v.13 Nevertheless the men rowed hard to bring it to the land; but they wcould not: for the sea wrought, and was tempestuous against them. v.14 Wherefore they cried unto the Lord, and said, We beseech Thee, O Lord, we beseech Thee, let us not persih for this man's life, and lay not upon us innocent blood: for Thou, O Lord, hast done as it pleased Thee. v. 15 So they took up Jonah and cast him forth into the sea: and the sea ceased from her raging. v. 16 Then the men feared the LOrd exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice unto the Lord, and made vows."

There are several notable things in this small passage of which I would like to address. These are factors that are in our personal lives, and within our family life. The church is not removed from this truth either. As we conditions in our present estate today, we see many of these same parallels unfolding. May we learn from this, make the needed correction of attitude and serve the Lord correctly. Oh, brethren how much this has costs us all ready. Let us begin:

The beginning question: 'Why hast thou done this?' One of the many questions in the Bible. Questions to make us stop and think and answer about our current witness and living conditions with God and man. what had Jonah done? He had been told to go to Nineveh and preach. What did he do? He went in the opposite way and disobeyed the Word of God. Now these sailors are in the midst of a storm that seems to them to sink them. Their lives are in jeopardy. Do you see the hand of a merciful God? He could have just sunk them, but He allows for them to remain in order taht this Gospel truth might be presented to all the world. AS they are in distress they ask the right questions, 'who are you? where are you from? and 'Why did you do this?' The question of God's chidlren disobeying should always be, 'why did you do this?' And the worst answer is, 'I don't know.'

Jonah knows exactly why. There is no mystery here; God told him to go east, he went west. He went in complete disobedience. And when such definance is chosen and enacted, God will make them answer for it. Gratefully, He made him answer on earth instead of taking his life and making him give an account in front of throne in eternity. Do you know your sin? are you living in disobedience? Does the Holy Spirit convict you of sin present that needs to be dealt with? Why dely? Confess, repent and allow for God's joy to be restored. Oh, how long we hold on to sin and sorrow because of refusing to let sin go. 'Why do we do this?' Why do Christians willingly chose to sin? It is has costs us much. Too much and we should learn this lesson before the punishment gets worse.

Men chose to sin because of many factors. Our flesh fails us and we openly sin. Love of self, love of this world, love of sin causes us to embrace sin instead of fleeing from it. Our lose concept of God and His holiness and fear causes us to chose sin. We don't consider the high costs of sin in the sight of God and we lose care of whether we are holy or not. Satan comes and leads us to sin. Ever the one to be crafty and deceptive, he has lured many a saint away from God.

Jonah's sin for disobeying was pride. He hated these people. He was in love with his own kind and did not want them to be spared. We read his response to God; 'I knwo that you were merciful and full of lovingkindness' and that you would spare them if they repented. but I did not want them to repent.' Hate of your fellows man is reason to withhold the Gospel from them. Our attitude almost says, 'I hope they get what is coming to them.' Instead of loving all of God's people, we pick and choose who we want to be with us. When pride and bias fill a heart, there is no room for a loving God Who desires for none to perish. These two things cannot exist inthe same place. Just as light and darkness cannot exists in the same room. Sin adn holiness cannot exists within the same place; righteosuness and unrightesouness cannot do it. 'choose you this day Whom you will serve?'

When the sailors ask 'Why' he did it. Jonah is very honest about it. He speaks the truth of the matter to them. He is unashamed of what his actions has caused. They are in a life threatening moment because of his choice to sin. Dear reader, hear me on this. Your sin is a life threatening situation for yourself and those that you loe. do we not understand that when God's hand goes out to slay the unrighteous, wicked, disobedient servant that many innocents die as well. You talk about a selfish person. To not care that you sinned or what it may costs you and those around you is one of the greatest follies. 'I chose my sin, and I don't care.' You are almost asking for God to strike you right there where you stand.

You may say that many don't say that or think that. But their actions reveal this heart within them. They continue in sin, even though they know it to be wicked.

HE HATH BROKEN ME ASUNDER

Job 16:12, ' I was at ease, but He hath broken me asunder: He hath also taken me by my neck, and shaken me to pieces, and set me up for His mark.' As we come through the Bible we see instances over and over of brokenness upon the people, cities, and individuals. As we look around in the lives of family, friends, churches and our communities we see brokenness of lives, marriages, and homes. It left me to ponder, 'What is Brokenness?' I know what my brokenness is. What is it that God seeks and what is it that God causes in this brokenness of lives and life? Defined as: 1. violently separated into parts : shattered 2: damaged or altered by breaking: as a : having undergone or been subjected to fracture b of land surfaces : being irregular, interrupted, or full of obstacles c : violated by transgression d : discontinuous, interrupted e : disrupted by change f of a tulip flower : having an irregular, streaked, or blotched pattern especially from virus infection 3a : made weak or infirm b : subdued completely : crushed, sorrowful c : bankrupt d : reduced in rank 4a : cut off : disconnected b : imperfectly spoken or written 5: not complete or full 6: disunited by divorce, separation, or desertion of one parent When you begin to align the problems and scenarios of lives today, they matched up with each one. The brokenness of lives are found here in this. Job was living, growing old and established. He knew God and walked with God. He was found perfect in the eyes of the Lord. This 'perfect' scares most in the church today and they denounce it. But we must have it, we must be perfect in our hearts, lives and experience unto God for His glory. To come up short of this is to miss what God desires and wishes for us. But with all this Job became an instrument for Satan to seek his destruction. And in one week, everything that Job had was broken. His life was broken to pieces in one fell day where he lost his possessions (oxen, asses, sheep, camels); then a touch deeper to brokenness, which was his children were killed; and his health was broken and boils covered his body. And as his friends gathered to bring comfort to him in his grief, they began to judge and rail on him that he was in great sin and this was why all these bad things happened. He lost his friends. Here is the picture of brokenness. Losing everything but the very breath you breathe. As we go down through this we will look at the comparison of Scritpures, using the term 'broken' and the 6 definitions. We will see just where the lives of most people are -- broken. And the only rememdy, the only hope, the only sure foundation, the repairer of the breah is the Lord God Almighty - Father, Son and Holy Spirit. 1. Violently serparated into parts; shattered; Mark 2:4, 'And when they could not come nigh unto Him for the press, they uncovered the roof where he was; and when they had broken it up, they let down the bed wherein the sick of the palsy lay.' Here we see in this portion of Scripture, the breaking up of the roof, to accomplish their purpose of getting the man to Christ. The necessity of getting job done is to break out of the mold of tradition and routine and find a way of completeing the task. 'Violently separating into parts', it is to dismantle it. Is it necessary to dismantle one's life? To shatter their life? Yes, in order to complete the task it is. What do we see? We see God allowing men to live their lives of religion, tradition and what has been or once was and never seeing that their is something else to accomplish for God. When you consider some of the great saints they had to lose their lives in order to gain God. I think of Hudson Taylor, who left his common European dress and mannerisms to become like the Chinese in order to win them. I think of Reece Howell who gave up wearing a hat, when everyone (out of tradition) wore a hat. God removed them to break the man from his ways. Break it down in order to put it back together for a greater purpose. Many a life is in the mundane existence of being; no purpose, no cause. God sometimes allows for the brokenness of life to get them where He desired for them to be all along. They failed to seek and find Him, He now allows for that way to be before them. When the violent dismantling of one's life is taking place we must immediately fly to our Lord. Where else is there refuge? where else is there strength? How shall we view this for the church? 'violently separated into parts; shattered' Can we not look around and see the formation of so many cults? so many denominations? Separated into parts by disagreements and theology. Looking uponthose that are covered in the blood with contempt and disdian. My how SAtan has won at this. I tell you the example before us is John Wesley and George Whitefield. Both at two differnt opinions of their respective theologies but still working for the King and Lord. And even though they disagreed upon these things, and their ministries reflected it in their preaching, they still remained a humbleness toward one another. This is what needs to be remembered about God's people, it is not about you, it is about Him. They did that through all their life. The church is shattered into fragments, broken across the board and missing the opporutnity to work and labor together to win the world. I am excited that as of late, some of those parts are starting to be mended and reared back up for a healthy God-like attitude toward one another. And we must look at an atlas and see this world is divided up into parts, groups across the globe. each as their own, yet each their own respective people in the eyes of God.

PROFANING THE NAME OF THE LORD GOD

Ezekiel 36:21, 'But I had pity for mine holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the heathen, whither they went. v. 22 Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord God; I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for mine holy name's sake, which ye have profaned among the heathen, whither ye went. v. 23 And I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst of them; and the heathen shall know that I am the Lord, saith the Lord God, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes.' It is one of the most sought after things in a Christian's life, to know God. We learn to recognize God in our experiences. We see what He has done in our past, for ourselves and man in general. We lay hold of the teachings in the Blessed Book that defines and helps us to udnerstand more and mroe about Him. We sing the hyms that should reflect our prayers, 'More About Jesus would I know'. And yet we see here that God's children of Israel had fallen so far away from Who He was that they profaned His Holy Presence. They were His children through the promise of Abraham and the covenant that was given to Abraham's descendants. We are able to look at their 1500 years of histroy in the Old Testament we see their rejection of His promise. As Adam was made perfect and without sin, as soon as sin entered in his image of God was marred. Made in the image of God we are, yet sin has grossly disfigured us. So much disease, so much blights, mars and repercussions for active sin in destroying who we are. And why not? Because man has not learned that lesson yet; 'the wages of sin is death'.

SEEING THE LORD

Moses - Exodus 32 Shew me Thy glory Isaiah 6 - 'In the year the King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord, high and lifted up' Ezekiel 1: 1, 'Now it came to poass int he thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the river of Chebar, that the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God.' Acts Sir, we would see Jesus. Hebrews 12:2, 'Looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith. . .' Not things about Him; not things from Him; but seeing the Lord is the necessary thing!

PRAY FOR US

Jeremiah 42 - 44; background passage of this entire account; Jeremiah 42:2-22; v. 2 "And he said unto Jeremiah the prophet, Let, we beseech thee, our supplication be accepted bbefore thee, and prayer for us unto the Lord thy God, even for all this remnant; (for we are left but a few of many, as thine eyes do behold us:) v. 3 That the Lord thy God may shew us the way wherein we may walk, and the thing that we may do. v.4 Then Jeremiah the prophet said unto them, I have heard you; behold, I will pray unto the Lord your God according to your words; . . .v. 20 For ye dissembled in your hearts, when ye sent me unto the Lord your God, saying, Pray for us unto the Lord our God; and according unto all that the Lord our God shall say, so declare unto us, and we will do it." There is much to this entire passage of Scripture from Jeremiah 42 - 44. We will center in on these three words, 'Pray for us' found in verse 2 and verse 20. In verse 4 we have the answer of Jeremiah upon the requests of the people for him to pray for them. He say, 'I will pray for you'. There are many found round about us that need prayer. And it is, that many prayers are offered up for ourselves and others. It is quite often that someone outside of the church will come and ask a Christian or ask the church to pray for them. This is mostly found in times of tragedy, sickness, and distress. They only see that they need prayer in such times. Unfortunately, they really don't care if you pray for them after the initial shock and event. For when life levels out, they don't need God nor the prayers of the saints anymore. In this portion of Scripture of Jeremiah, we see the great tragedy that has befallen Judah. Israel has been carried away by the Assyrians. And now it is Judahs turn because of their continued sin and disobedience. They are at the point of being carried away into captivity just as God had forewarned them. In a previous chapter, Jeremiah 39, Babylonian soliders enter Jerusaleum and King Zedekiah flees but is captured. The thing to note of this is that Jeremiah had forewarned him of all this. All the destruction of Jerusaleum, the losing of his two eyes that Nebuchadnezzar put out and the killing of his sons in front of his eyes could have been avoided. But he would not listen to the word of the Lord. It is much the same today. Now what we find is that most, I believe, are ignorant of the full Gospel. Yes, many, upwards towards 90 to 99% of all people say, 'I believe in God'. Well, the devils believe God also, but that does not make them saved or children of God. They only know of God's existence and a vague understanding of Who He is. Even in the churches, we find God's Own people know so very little of Who He is, what He has done or can do. With this ignorance, their knowledge of God's promises and directives on prayer are mostly in error and left undone and untouched. This is one of the reasons Satan is ruling, reigning and destroying so many lives today. The statement, 'Pray for us' is their only words of religious rhetoric. they don't know what else to do or say. It is a coined phrase that they have heard and been taught by religionists. They don't pray for themselves nor do they know how to pray effectively for others. Worst of all, they don't the God to whom they are praying. They are left to ask for prayers from someone who does know God and does know how to pray. It is not their desire to correct these wrong, they simply out of selfish desire want what they are asking prayer for. It has nothing to do with the glory of God, it is all about self. How vain the words are, 'I will pray for you'; and that is the closest they will get to actually praying. They say the words, but they never do the action of praying. We see this delusion of prayer filtering further and further into the church. We have almost got to the point that all you have to do is think the words and it covers the actual deed of doing it. We read of the dilema here in Jeremiah and they are coming to the one prophet that we know of that spoke for God throughout the good times and now the bad times. It seems Jeremiah was the voice of God leading the people to repent before it was too late. Alas, but they would not obey Him. And now they come to Jeremiah, for He was a man of God, and they ask him to 'pray for them'. And they are really asking, 'What is the will of the Lord?'; in other words, 'What should we do?' As Jeremiah prays, he is talking to God, but God is going to talk to him. The mindset of many is fly into the presence of a holy God, bark your demands and requests and run away as fast you came. This is not prayer. the effectiveness of prayer is the two way conversation. As you speak to the Father of His glory, promises, confessions, supplications, petitions, and intercession. The confidence of faith is leading that not only has God heard, but He is able and willing to answer 'abundantly above all that we can ask or think'. God many times, gives the affirmation to our faith, 'I have heard you. And in My time and according to My will, I will answer the desires of your heart.' continue. . .