Evil is called wicked in God’s Word. This devotional reading looks at how the slavery of sin causes bitterness.
Nuggets
- Sin in the unregenerated world is bitter and possessive.
- Sin in the unregenerated world is slavery.
- Sin in the unregenerated world occurs so frequently that it is habitual.
Just as non-believers are identified in God’s Word by several terms, so is sin. It is called wickedness, death, a curse, and evil.
Boston calls it wickedness. Let’s see what he has to say.
Let's Put It into Context
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Devotions in the A World without God series
The foundation of this series is Boston’s sermon The Unregenerate World Described.
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The headings are Boston’s words.
The State of Sin and Wickedness
“For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity” (Ac. 8: 23 ESV)
Sin in the unregenerated world is bitter and possessive.
We have to set up the event that was happening in Acts. There was a man named Simon, who was a magician in Samaria. He had amassed a great following. When Philip came to town, Simon believed in the message of the gospel.
Peter and John were dispatched to pray over them so they could receive the Holy Spirit. Simon was dazzled by the power. He offered money in exchange for the power to call upon the Holy Spirit.
Simon didn’t get it, did he? God’s power can’t be bought or sold. We don’t receive it so we can make a name for ourselves and create or increase a following for ourselves.
Peter put Simon straight. His heart wasn’t right. It was still filled with sin and wickedness.
Let’s break this down a second.
Simon was a goat who thought he was a sheep. He had made what he thought was a profession of faith, but it wasn’t. “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Mt. 7: 21 ESV).
Barnard listed three things that showed his confession was not genuine. He remained covetous, ambitious, and a hypocrite.
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Covetousness is when we want something that belongs to someone else. Simon saw the power that Peter and John had and wanted it for himself.
Maybe it was partly because he had previously had a following. He may have thought Peter and John were cutting into it. He wanted to be top dog. If he could add this ability to his arsenal, he probably felt his status would be restored.
But that made Simon a hypocrite. He was giving a false appearance of submitting to God. He hadn’t gotten his confession down to the heart level.
Nothing else matters if our heart is not right with God.
But let’s make sure we understand gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity.
Gall of Bitterness
Think about it. Adam and Eve thought they were going to get a sweet bite. That bite turned bitter real fast.
I know. We tend to focus on their devastation over their loss of relationship with God.
But they had to have been disappointed that sin was not as it appeared to be. That would become part of human nature.
The suffering didn’t stop with them. Down through the ages, the bitterness of sin has shown that its shiny appearance is a lie.
We know Jesus suffered greatly during His life on earth. We know we are called to suffer along side Him.
“Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God” (InPet. 4: 1-2 ESV).
- The “… same way of thinking …” part means we have to have the mind of Christ. Our attitude has to be right.
- There is a correlation between our suffering and denouncement of the wickedness of the unregenerated world.
- We have to give up our human passions and replace it with the desire to serve God.
What we should never gloss over is that the hall of bitterness brings us to ruin. This is not always seen in physical ruin.
It always presents itself in spiritual ruin. Before we gain salvation, we are spiritually dead. After conversion, though we may not lose our salvation, our relationship with Hod may be ruined and need rebuilding.
Bond of Iniquity
Sin has a stranglehold on this world. “The iniquities of the wicked ensnare him, and he is held fast in the cords of his sin (Prov. 5: 22 ESV).
Burn nailed it. He wrote, “Sin is the servitude of the mind which it imprisons in the sphere of matter.
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Sin — and faith, for that matter — starts in the mind. We make a conscious decision whether or not to give into our sin or to follow God’s Will.
Sin completely corrupts our lives. “They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one” (Ps. 14: 3 ESV).
Corrupted means godless. We said in a devotion a long time ago that sinners were practical atheists. I can see that.
We sin because we don’t think there is a God to correct us. We don’t think He has sovereignty to reign over us.
Under the Dominion and Reigning Power of Sin and Wickedness
“But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed” (Rom. 6: 17 ESV)
Sin in the unregenerated world is slavery.
One thing worldview people may not always realize is that, without God, we are obedient to sin. We serve either sin or righteousness. “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters” (Mt. 12: 30 ESV).
I love what Burn had to say. He wrote, “Sin’s code is the ten commandments with the ‘nots’ omitted; and the world swarms with men and women who yield the most constant and earnest obedience to each.”
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Part of that is because it has control and power over us. Sin isn’t some weak sister that is just sitting off in the corner.
The pull of sin is strong. God’s Word is clear that sin puts us in bondage. “Jesus answered them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin’” (Jn. 8: 34 ESV).
Another part is because we choose to let it have power and control over us. We choose whether we are branded by God or by Satan.
Where does our obedience lie? That is the test.
Obedience has to come from the heart.
We think sin is easy and fulfilling, but it isn’t. “Good judgment wins favor, but the way of the unfaithful leads to their destruction” (Prov. 13: 15 ESV).
Habitual Practice of Sin and Wickedness
“The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’ They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds; there is none who does good” (Ps. 14: 1 ESV).
The unregenerated world’s denial of His existence and His sovereignty over their lives occurs so frequently that it is habitual.
The Psalmist said that a fool refuses to acknowledge the existence of God. This makes them theoretical atheists.
How can worldview people look at this intricate world and say there is no God? How can they deny the power needed to create such a place? How can they see its beauty and not see the Creator’s love for them?
Don’t they know our intelligence needs to come from Someone with a higher intelligence? Don’t they realize that our intuitions and instincts had to be put there by Someone?
If they can’t acknowledge that God is real, they can’t go any farther in their search for religion. They won’t realize that God is looking for a relationship rather than religion.
God’s Word doesn’t set out to prove that God is real. We have to accept that from verse “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1: 1 ESV).
We have to accept that God is self-existent — He was not created by someone or something else. Also, we have to accept He is all-knowing and all-powerful. Our acceptance is not complete unless we accept God is an infinitely perfect Being.
A fool doesn’t do that.
Some worldview people know there is a God but don’t care. They aren’t afraid that God, Who says He is a God of love, will judge them harshly. This makes them practical atheists.
The sad part is that, while some sinners are theoretical atheists, we are all practical atheists. Practical atheism is worse than theoretical atheism. They acknowledge God’s existence but refuse to submit to Him.
Tucker gave us some pretty good reasons why worldview people are practical atheists.
- They don’t want to serve God because they can’t see or understand Him.
- They don’t like God having power and jurisdiction over them.
- They just don’t want to meet Him.
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Even after we have earn salvation, we still have some practical atheism in us. Have we ever said we could do something without God? Or worse, have we said we were going to do something our way anyway?
There are times when we turn away from God. We can still be hypocrites and liars at times. We’ll still set our eyes on this world.
Satan will work on us to deny the gospel or get us to try to rewrite God’s laws. Maybe we disregard what we feel is threatening.
We have to ask God’s forgiveness when we fall into that. Our hope should be to be sanctified to withstand this temptation.
Townsend gave us a good description of how fool is used in God’s Word. He wrote, “The ‘fool’ in Scripture is the man who makes a wrong choice of good; who, when two objects are placed before him, one a lesser good and one a greater good, chooses the lesser in preference to the greater.”
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“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction” (Prov. 1: 7 ESV).
Why would someone choose this temporary life over an eternal life? This is what they know and can’t envision anything else. They don’t want to envision anything else.
The problem lies within the heart. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jer. 17: 9 ESV).
What is in our heart signifies what is in our minds. It is the foundation of the judgments we make.
Our souls are eternal and belong to God. That makes us temporary stewards of them in order to serve Him.
Without the presence of God, our souls cannot be happy. Sin may give us an appearance of happiness, but it is only an illusion.
God will not let this disobedience go on for eternity. He will end it. “I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds” (Jer. 17: 10 ESV).
The deciding factor of whether we spend eternity in Heaven or hell is wether we deny Him or not. The righteous Judge will judge us on established standards — those written in His Word.
As we have taken God out of our schools and government, don’t we see how man’s moral condition has taken that same slide? Don’t we see as more and more churches flounder and close that chaos reigns in the world?
And worldview people want to eliminate God all together.
One day, they will be in such a place. Hell is hell because it doesn’t have the presence of God.
They aren’t going to like it then.
But, to me, that doesn’t really address the habitual.
Let’s look at it this way. “The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, but the prayer of the upright is acceptable to him” (Prov. 15: 8 ESV).
Boston said the best thing we do is our sacrifices to God. We are to be a living sacrifice.
But an unregenerated world offers unapproved sacrifices and not to God. The kicker is that fools don’t even know it. “Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. To draw near to listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they are doing evil” (Ecc. 5: 1 ESV).
Part of that is because it has become habit.
No, they probably don’t see it as sacrifice, because then they would see it as worship. They don’t do that.
They just see it as their ways. “He who slaughters an ox is like one who kills a man; he who sacrifices a lamb, like one who breaks a dog’s neck; he who presents a grain offering, like one who offers pig’s blood; he who makes a memorial offering of frankincense, like one who blesses an idol. These have chosen their own ways, and their soul delights in their abominations” (Isa. 66: 3 ESV emphasis added).
Okay. That is kind of a convoluted statement.
Macculloch interpreted it for us. Sacrifices — offered the wrong way — were being accompanied by crimes. The biggest ding was they weren’t being offered with pure hearts. They compromised with the worldview and incorporated some of their ceremonies and superstitions into their worship.
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Yeah, Isaiah was taking about Israel. I am sure not all worshiped God as they should any more than disciples do.
How much worse for those not believing in God!
Making the Connections #1
How do we get obedience to the heart level? Well, it’s a process.
The process is called sanctification. It is where we are changed to become more like God.
Rainsford helped us figure this out. He wrote, “The gospel is not only a directing power, but a transforming influence; you cannot believe it without being moulded by it.”
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This isn’t a flip-the-switch download. It is more a timely change.
You know, like the potter with clay. “But now, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand” (Isa. 64: 8 ESV).
You don’t just plop the clay on the potter’s wheel, and poof, it’s a pitcher.
It was a process of being taught. That takes time.
Making the Connections #2
We are known to be disciples by the fruit we bear. “A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit” (Mt. 7: 18 ESV).
The fruit we are to bear is the fruit of the Spirit. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law” (Gal. 5: 22-23 ESV).
Yes, these morals make us good people. But God isn’t interested in just that.
These are rewards for being obedient disciples. More importantly, these are the attributes of God, those we are to imitate.
How Do We Apply This?
- Be knowledgeable about God, His Will, and His Word.
- Watch the company we keep.
- Watch what we allow into our lives through where we go and what we read.
- Prefer the future life to the present.
- Be in awe of Sovereign God, our Creator.
- Pray for God’s power to deliver us from any atheism still contained in our hearts.
- Resist any atheistic thoughts Satan puts in our minds.
- Don’t indulge in secret sins.
- Set our minds in God.
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Father God. We thank You that You designed the Plan of Salvation so that the chains of bondage of sin can be broken. Our souls want to be with You for eternity. Amen.
What do you think?
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