12 7 Walking With God
7 Walking With God
INTRODUCTION
Think of the beauty of the following words: "And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him. " (Genesis 5:24). These words suggest harmony, agreement, concord, fellowship, companionship. In Amos 3:3 the question is asked: "Can two walk together, except they be agreed?" Do you think you could walk with God if you do not agree with him? Paul teaches the same great lesson in 2 Corinthians 6:14-16 when he puts to us the following questions: "What communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial [or Satan]? Or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people." Please get the lesson: We must be in concord and agreement with God if we are to walk with him.
Here we have a problem to solve. God’s ways and thoughts do not agree with ours. In Isaiah 55:8-9 it says: "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." What are we going to do about this? Will God get out of his thoughts and ways and walk with us in ours 7 or will we have to get out of our thoughts and ways and walk in his? You know as well as you know that you live the correct answer to these questions. In Jeremiah 10:23 the writer exclaims: O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself; it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps." We cannot afford to think, for one moment, of holding to our thoughts instead of God’s thoughts. Solomon says: "There is a way which seemeth right unto a man; but the end thereof are the ways of death." (Proverbs 14:12). Just because a way seems right does not make it right. The "way" here that seemeth right is the doctrine that just so you serve the right Object, the true and living God, any way will do. Please note that "way" here is singular in number. It has reference to a doctrine, a theory. But you will also note that this way or theory gives birth to a multiplicity of ways. It says the "end" of this "way, " the fruitage of it, are "ways of death. " The most popular doctrine on earth today is the theory that just so you worship the right object, the true and living God, any way will do just so you are honest and sincere in your worship. You can see that this theory gives birth to as many ways of worship and service as we have likes and dislikes. The doctrine is of the devil, and we should hate it. David says: "I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right; and I hate every false way. " (Psalms 119:128). Moses said unto the children of Israel: "Ye shall not do after all the things that we do here this day, every man whatsoever is right in his own eyes." (Deuteronomy 12:8).
THE SECOND LIE THE DEVIL TOLD MAN
It is well that we get fixed in our hearts the second lie the devil ever told, so far as the record goes. We know very well that, as a result of that first lie, man fell and was driven from the Garden of Eden. To get man down is not enough. He wants to keep man down, so he gets busy to influence man to so change God’s way that God cannot accept what he does, hence keeps him down. This is exactly what sound thinking would expect to see the devil do, and this he most certainly did. Let us read together:
"And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto Jehovah. And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And Jehovah had respect unto Abel and to his offering: but unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell. And Jehovah said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen? If thou doest well, shall it not be lifted up? and if thou doest not well, sin coucheth at the door; and unto thee shall be its desire; but do thou rule over it. And Cain told Abel his brother. And it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him." (Genesis 4:3-8).
Here is the first religious difference and controversy that ever arose between men, and it came up in the first family that existed on God’s earth and between two brothers in the flesh. It is highly important that we get this lesson right here. Whatever Cain’s mistake was, it has ever lived since his day, and will continue to live so long as the devil is allowed to operate on earth. For more than four thousand years after Cain’s day, in A. D. 66, we find our God warning his people with the following words: "Woe unto them! for they went in the way of Cain, and ran riotously in the error of Balaam for hire, and perished in the gainsaying of Korah." (Jude 1:11). So the "Way of Cain" was still living and people were running riotously into it when Jude wrote in A. D. 66. It is true that the way in which Abel walked still lives, and will so continue so long as faithful souls live on this earth. In A. D. 64, Paul, in Hebrews 11:4, declares: "By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he hath witness borne to him that he was righteous, God bearing witness in respect of his gifts: and through it he being dead yet speaketh." So here we have it—two brothers in the flesh, believers in the same God, worshiping God at the same altar, yet one is in the way of life and salvation and the other in the way that leads to death. May we ask for the:
DIFFERENCE IN THE WAYS OF CAIN AND ABEL?
They did not differ in that one believed in God’s existence and the other did not, for they both believed in the same God. It was too close to the beginning for the devil to try to get these sons to doubt God’s existence. Their father and mother had walked with God, talked with God, and seen him face to face. As soon as they fell, God at once extended his arm to lift them up and bring them back to their lost Eden. In doing this, he established an altar of worship on which altar he called for a bleeding victim as their sacrifice for a sin offering typifying the coming of the Lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world. (John 1:29).
These two sons did not differ in that, though they believed that God existed, one was regular and prompt in his worship and the other was not. Cain was just as prompt in his worship as was Abel. Here they are: two brothers in the flesh, believing in the same God, believing this God should be worshiped, and they both worshiped God promptly, yet one in the right way and the other in the wrong way. What is the difference?
Well, here it is. Satan slipped in and taught that God should be worshiped, that you could not think of having any other object of worship, but the how you worship him is not important, just so you are sincere in your worship. Cain fell for the doctrine, hence brought an offering of his own choosing, an offering God had not "testified of" or said bring, but Abel brought not an offering of his own choosing, but rather one that God did "testify of" or said bring. (Read Hebrews 11:4). Can you not see that they differed in the way of worship? This difference is not a difference between atheism and Christianity, but it is a difference that comes up between believers who worship God. It is identically what Solomon was talking about when he said: "There is a way which seemeth right unto a man; but the end thereof are the ways of death." (Proverbs 14:12). Note that this "way" that seemeth right unto us is in the singular number. It has reference to a theory. That theory is just so you worship the right object, any way will do if you are honest and sincere. It gives birth therefore to a multiplicity of ways. The worshipers spoken of in Matthew 15:9 where Christ says, "But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men" were worshiping the right object, the true and living God, but they were doing this according to the teaching of men —Cain’s way. This is the second lie the devil told man. Cain fell for it, but Abel stood up and contended for the good and right way—viz., that the true way of worship is to worship the right object, the true and living God, and this worship must be done in his own way. Here is the good and the right way. I know of no doctrine so popular as that of Cain, or rather the doctrine that the devil got Cain to accept. It looks right to man. God says it looks right to us. This is why it is so dangerous. Does not Paul warn us in 2 Corinthians 11:13-15 of "false apostles" and of the fact that even "Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light"?
We often think of Cain’s great sin in murdering his own brother, but you must drop back of the actual murder to find the trouble. Let us read it together: "For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother’s righteous." (1 John 3:11-12).
What were their works? It says that in the process of time Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto Jehovah. How could this be evil? For no other reason than that he pushed God out of selecting the offering and brought one of his own choosing. Remember it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps. We had better let God direct us as did Abel, for Abel brought an offering that God "testified of" or said bring, hence it was an offering of faith. This God declares is righteous, but that it is evil to bring offerings of our own choosing. May God help us to see the importance of letting God have his way. Who is it that cannot see that Abel’s way binds us to the heart of our God, while Cain’s, though pretending to love and follow God, actually leads us from him.
THE PROBLEM SOLVED The only solution to this problem is to let God tell us the way in which to walk, and walk in that way. We find God in his own way and in his own thoughts, and never can we find him out of them. In Exodus 18:20 : it says: "Thou shalt teach them ordinances and laws, and shalt shew them the way wherein they must walk, and the work that they must do." Leviticus 26:3; Leviticus 26:12 says: "If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them... I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people." In Isaiah 64:5 it says: "Thou meetest him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness, those that remember thee in thy ways." Jeremiah 6:16 says: "Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls." We can find rest only where we find our Lord. (See Matthew 11:28-30). But our Lord is to be found in "the old paths." He cannot be found in the doctrines and "commandments of men." Jesus while here said: "I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things." (See John 8:28). Jesus, while living in a fleshly body as you and I are now living, spoke only where his Father spoke, and stayed silent where his Father was silent. When we so live by turning our backs on our own ways and walk only as God directs, we are walking with Jesus. Read again Matt. l.:9 where Christ says: "But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrine the commandments of men." In verses 13 and 14 of that same chapter he says that those who were teaching the "doctrines of men" were blind guides and that every plant they planted shall be rooted up. Those teachers had a zeal for God, but it availed them nothing. Romans 10; Romans 1-3 says: "Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God."
Let me beg you, then, my good friend, to read your Bible for yourself. Isaiah 34:16 says: "Seek ye out of the book of the Lord, and read." You will not fail. John tells you to "believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world." 16). John 4:1). Paul tells us to "be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive." (Ephesians 4:14).
I know of no better words with which to close this study than the following from the lips of our Lord: "But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth: for such doth the Father seek to be his worshippers. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship in spirit and truth." (John 4:23-24). To worship in spirit means to worship with the whole heart. To worship him in truth means to let the worship be directed by his word. 5:10, He himself declares: "Thy word is truth." (John 17:17). And Paul says in Romans 1:9 that his service to God was done "with my spirit in the gospel of his Son." This is service tin spirit and in truth. This is the good and the right way. It always has been and will ever be God’s right to tell man how to work and worship, and then for man to plant his feet in this way and live and die there and go to heaven when he leaves this old earth.
Those who thus walk with God while living need not fear being deserted in the end. With David we can sing:
"Jehovah is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures;
He leadeth me beside still waters.
He restoreth my soul:
He guideth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for thou art with me; Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me."
SECRETS DISCOVERED IN SACRIFICING FOR OTHERS
Strange and gracious discoveries are made in the fraternal and sacrificial life. We go about distributing comforts, and we find comfort. We take heart-ease to our neighbors, and we return to find the gift of peace. We go down the roads of life, lighting lamps of happiness for our neighbors, and lo! on our return blessedness is shining in our own dwelling. We scatter flowers of good will and beneficence, and 10! Eden blooms in our own garden. We come to our life through the welfare of our fellows; by lighting their streets we find our way home.
— Selected.