"LIVING BY THE RULES!" OCTOBER 5, 2009

“LIVING BY THE RULES!”
“For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled” (Matthew 5: 18).

“Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away” (Matthew 24: 35).

“The Scripture cannot be broken” (John 17: 17).

“We have come to see that Huxley was right when he said that “a man’s worst difficulties begin when he is able to do as he likes.” The evidences of these greater difficulties lie all about us. And in this age when a great word like “Puritanism” is so often merely a sneer; when scores of voices are perpetrating the fallacy that man can have, and ought to have, absolute, unbridled freedom to do as he likes, and to drive his way down any path of self-expression that he chooses; when so many others (taking their cue from that) begin to believe that almost anything can be justified in the sacred name of “the new morality” – and proceed to talk in a silly conceited way (thinking themselves the champions of emancipation!) about things which are supposed to be clever, but which are not clever in the least, which are indeed just common sins, and rotten, selfish sins at that – in this age we need to have it written upon our minds, as with a pen of iron on the rock, THAT GOD’S WILL, GOD’S TRUTH, GOD’S THRONE, GOD’S EVERLASTING DECISIVE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN RIGHT AND WRONG, THAT DIFFERENCE FOR WHICH CHRIST DIED, STAND AS FAST AND AS BINDING AS EVER, AND CLAIM EVERY DECENT SOUL’S ALLEGIANCE!”

(James S. Stewart – Adapted)

Recently a radio report revealed that students of all levels in American schools and colleges are using the sophisticated technology of computers, cell phones, cameras, etc., to cheat on home work, term papers, and exams—and do not perceive it as cheating, but as merely using available technology as “helps”! The conclusion of the academic investigation was that “we are obviously going to have to come up with a new definition of cheating!”
This is but one symptom of a much larger problem. Ours seems to be a generation which refuses to live by the rules. The response of those in authority appears to be “Let’s change the rules! Let’s redefine right and wrong! Let’s implement better laws!”
What’s wrong with the rule of right and wrong the world already has—that taught in the Holy Bible? Nothing, of course! You cannot change or improve upon that which is divinely inspired, already perfect, incapable of mistake, never becoming obsolete! No matter how many break God’s laws, deny them, ignore them, or blaspheme them, yet they are perfectly intact and fully in authority!
When people break the rules, one does not need to redefine or re-write them, but merely to enforce them! For by these rules—God’s law and Jesus’ teachings—we must live, and will be judged!

Larry Atkin, Preacher