Human Viewpoint and Shameful Things

RV175-02

Divine Viewpoint

Human Viewpoint

Evolution

Human viewpoint thinking can only be reversed in one way, and that is by learning the principles of Scripture. For in those principles, we have divine viewpoint, and that reverses the whole process. The apostle Paul also warns the Philippian believers that there is a type of person that they are to shun in their associations. This is a person who they should not imitate. He says, "That they should imitate Paul because he is operating on divine viewpoint. There are people in the world who are controlled by human viewpoint thinking, and they should not be associated with in terms of imitating them. Their human viewpoint, in fact, he says, makes them an enemy of the cross of Jesus Christ. And Paul says that he personally weeps for this kind of person in terms of the reality of the eternity that they will someday be facing –the lake of fire.

Paul concludes this section on believers' priorities now by identifying the lifestyle of human viewpoint unbelievers. Please remember that these are the people who dominate American society today. These are the people who are in positions of opinion-making in American society today. These people of whom Paul speaks now are the people who are calling the plays today. It is very important for you as a Christian to be able to identify these who Paul calls the enemies of the Cross of Christ.

Ruin

For example, this word is used in Matthew 26:8: "But the disciples were indignant when they saw this, and said, 'Why this waste?'" Or "Why this ruin?" This is where the woman had the alabaster vial of costly perfume and was anointing Jesus. And they said, "Why did you ruin that valuable perfume in this way?"

In Luke 5:37, the verb related to this word is used in terms of ruining of wine skins.

In the New Testament, this word is actually being used in a moral sense, and that's what it means here. The end of human viewpoint people, whether you're Christian or a non-Christian, is to ruin yourself. This word is use of persons to signify that they will ruin themselves by spending eternity in hell – the loss of their spiritual well-being. And Paul refers to the destiny of the enemies of the cross of Christ as eternal ruin in the lake of fire. This destiny of ruin, of course, began at the dawn of human history. The sin of Adam caused every member of the human race to be born a sinner separated from God. The only way we know that to be true is because the Bible tells us that.

In Romans 5:12, we have: "Therefore, just as, through one man, sin entered into the world (that one man being Adam), and death through sin. So, death spread to all men because all sinned." Now, that's an amazing statement. Because Adam sinned, Adam ruined the human race. When he ruined the human race, all the children that could be born to him and Eve were also ruined immediately by sin. That is a basic fundamental fact of life. Unless you begin with that principle, that people by nature are ruined, you will go far astray in self-destruction. We are born into the human race under the moral guilt of Adam, and we are born with the potential capacity of performing our own sins, which inevitably we do.

So, the eternal destiny of every human being is the lake of fire. Yet God did not create us for the lake of fire, and He has, through Jesus Christ, solved the problem, and provided a way of escape. This is what is referred to as John 3:36, for example: "He who believes in the Son has eternal life, but he who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him." The obedience to the Son is to accept the fact that He is the Savior; to accept the fact that He is the only Savior; and, to accept the fact that He saves on the basis of grace, and He cannot open salvation to anyone who adds any human effort or any works to it. It is very important, whether you agree with the Bible or not, that you at least understand what God has to say about salvation. There are a lot of people in their human viewpoint who have a totally different view, and they must understand that they are in opposition to God's viewpoint enunciated in Scripture. That's the official divine viewpoint.

So, we're born into the human race ruined by sin, and we can't do anything about it. Therefore, humanity has a chance to reverse that only through acceptance of Christ as Savior. That means that all of mankind now falls into two categories: those who are saved; and, those who are lost. The saved are destined for heaven, and for eternal happiness. John 14:1-3 tell us that the Lord Jesus Christ is now preparing a place for us to live in heaven.

Revelation 21:1 all the way through Revelation 22:7 describe the heaven to which Christians are going to come.

John 5:29 says that these who have done the right thing (the good thing) of accepting Christ as Savior are going to be in this heaven. The Bible refers to this heaven under the terms "the third heaven," and "the New Jerusalem." The atmospheric heaven, that in which the bird flies, is the first heaven. The outer spaces, in which Satan dominates, is the second heaven. And the third heaven is the residence of God and the redeemed. This will be the eternal dwelling place of those who are believers. 2 Corinthians 12:2; Hebrews 12:22-24; and, Revelation 21:1-4 all describe this place – this tremendous residence. Actually, what we have is that heaven is a prepared place for a prepared people. It is prepared by faith in Christ.

On the other hand, you've got this overwhelming mass of mankind – the unsaved. They are destined for the lake of fire, and they're destined for eternal suffering. Luke 16:19:31 and Revelation 20:15 are explicitly clear about that. In Luke 16, you have the historical account – not a parable, but a historical account of the rich man who died and indeed found himself in a place of suffering. And he was conscious of the fact that he had had a chance to escape that place, but did not.

These people are also going to be raised, but they will have a part, John 5:29 says, not in the resurrection of life, but in the resurrection of damnation, because they have done the evil thing – the thing of rejecting Christ as Savior. They will forever will be confined to the lake of fire. Revelation 20:15 and Revelation 21:8 tell us that very clearly.

So, what we have for human viewpoint people, who have rejected God's offer of salvation, is indeed a prepared place for an unprepared people. Matthew 25:41 tells us very explicitly that God has prepared that place.

It is obvious to any thinking person that the world is not flooded with divine viewpoint people. That's true. It isn't. It is clear that the world is flooded with human viewpoint people – people whose beliefs, and whose objectives, and whose lifestyle is based in rejection of the Scripture. They deliberately say, "The Bible says this, but the Bible shouldn't say this. The Bible tells me not to do this, but the Bible should not tell me not to do this. The Bible speaks against this, but I still want to be for this." It is very important that you come out clear and honest, and say, "I am a rebel against the authority of God as He expresses it in the Scripture. I have a different viewpoint." That is the attitude of most of the human race.

That's why Jesus says that most people will not find the narrow gate and the straight path that leads to eternal life. From Adam on down, most of the human race will be in the lake of fire. That may offend you. You may be distressed, as indeed we all are, as God Himself is, because He is not willing that any should perish. But what human beings make that choice, to go the human viewpoint route, the price they pay is enormous; it is forever; and, it is irreversible.

So, you have to decide who it is that is your authority: human viewpoint reasoning; or, the divine viewpoint revelation of God Himself.

So, the apostle Paul, in Philippians 3:19, makes it a very succinct statement, and in the Greek language he doesn't even put the verb "is" in there. He just says, "Whose end destruction" ("whose end ruined"). It's a way of being very emphatic in stressing the fact that people who have a human viewpoint have ruined themselves, and are on a course of ruining their lives. And the further they get along in life, and the broader perspective they'll get, the more they will realize how they have ruined themselves. And when they get over to the other side, whether Christian or non-Christian (because remember that Christians can ruin themselves too), they will see how horrendously they have ruined their lives.

Their God is their Appetite

Sensuality

So, we worship the god of sensuality today in a variety of ways to satiate the senses. That's why we have the drug culture. That's why we have pornography. That's why we have illicit and perverted sex. That's why we have gluttony. That's why we have unrestrained pleasures. Nothing gets in the way of the pleasures. The attitudes of self-indulgence; permissiveness; and, lack of restraint – these are the things that characterize human viewpoint people. Human viewpoint people are self-indulgent. Human viewpoint people are permissive – permissive in terms of evils. They are lacking in personal restraint.

This god of sensuality is naturally the God who is worshiped by those who take lightly the doctrines of the Word of God. The apostle Paul, in closing the book of Romans, in Romans 16:17-18 says, "Now I urge you, brethren, keep your eye on those who caused dissensions and hindrances contrary to the teaching which you learned, and turn away from them. For such men are slaves, not of our Lord Jesus Christ, but of their own appetites. And by their smooth and flattering speech, they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting."

People who are keen on human viewpoint are usually very smooth in their speech. They give you an air of sophistication. They really don't know the realities of life. This is like the pastor who had great influence on my life who used to say to me as a teenager, "You want to remember to let people think you're dumb, but do not open your mouth and remove all doubt about the fact, unless you know what you're talking about." The human viewpoint people are very smooth. They think they know what they're talking about, but those who know doctrine can spot them, and realize that they're just dumb. They are out of touch with reality.

So, the apostle Paul here is saying, "Keep your eyes on the sensual type." That type is a smooth talker. He will deceive the undiscerning Christian.

The believer is to control his physical desires in order to conform to sound doctrine. In 1 Corinthians 9:27, Paul puts it this way: "But I buffet my body, and make it my slave. Lest possibly, after I have preached to others, I myself also should be disqualified." Paul is not talking about being disqualified for salvation here. The apostle Paul, as always, was very conscious of the fact that Christians will be rewarded in heaven to the extent that the mission came first. The mission for which God brought them into this world is what they centered on, that became their priority. And to that extent, they would be rewarded.

What the apostle Paul says in the previous verses, you'll see he talks about running a race; about receiving a prize; and, about exercising the self-control in order to be a winner. He talks about running the race, not to box the air meaninglessly, but to keep his body under control. What is he saying? He said, "My sensuality can blow everything for me that God is ready to give me in eternal rewards." After Paul said, "Wouldn't it be terrible for me to have spent my life preaching true doctrine to people, and alerting them to the principle of rewards in heaven, and then for me to blow it because sensuality takes over my life? Sensuality is the governing factor of American society today. Therefore, it is not a small thing.

Furthermore, as Christians, we have another factor that we have to consider. You can give your back of your hand to this, or you can use it for your great blessing. That is that God no longer has a building in which He lives. God no longer has a building in which He worships. God has a temple, and it is your human body as a Christian. It is the temple of the Holy Spirit. In 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, the apostle Paul says, "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body."

Can you think of the horrendous situations that Christians have put themselves in: in improper; immoral; inconsiderate use; and, unwise use of the body, and all the while that they're using the body in that way, God Himself is present. If they are Christians, that Holy Spirit never leaves. He is there as a permanent resident in that human body. A Christian's body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. The wise person recognizes that he should treat it accordingly. The results will be to your blessing, both temporally and eternally as well.

Sensuality in the Ancient World

One of the things that the ancient world had were the bath houses that people went to. To this day, you can go to the remains of those institutions, and on the walls are the most gross pornographic pictures that you'll find in any magazine today. It was all viewed with the same human viewpoint: Indulge your sensual nature. Kick it into high gear.

Gnosticism

This was a very popular religion, and even among Christians, the grace principle was perverted. Grace was transformed into license. The fact that God's grace, even when we sin, covers our sin, and upon confession, brings us back into temporal fellowship – the fact that God has covered all the bases for us, was used by some Christians as an excuse for doing evil. In Romans 3:8, the apostle Paul says, "And why not say, as we are slanderous reported, and as some affirm that we say." Paul has been speaking about the grace of God that covers the worst of our sins, and that brings us into justification with God. And Paul says, "Well, why don't we say, as some people really falsely accuse us of saying, 'Let us do evil that good may come.' Their condemnation is just. Paul says that some people actually accused him of preaching the concept of the gnostics: "Do evil, because you are free in God. You're free in Jesus Christ. You have nothing to worry about." Paul says, "That's a great perversion," and that they certainly don't teach that.

He alluded to this in Romans 6:1-2 also: "What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may increase?" What he has said is that the greater our sin, the greater the grace of God has been. And his point was, "And I don't care how big your sin was in the past, or how big your sin may be at any point in time, even as a Christian. The grace of God is bigger than that sin, and it will take care of it. It has been paid for, and it will remove it.

Paul says, "What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may increase? 'Megenoito.'" That is that favorite little Greek phrase that means, "May it never be. How shall we, who died to the sin nature, still live in it?" The grace principle should not be perverted by Christians. But it is the natural inclination of the old sin nature to worship sensuality. It takes a very strong man (a man with real manhood), and it takes a very strong woman (a woman with real womanhood), people who are really quality people to be able to handle the sensuality of the physical body, and not become a slave to it – to be able to stand in the image of Jesus Christ. It is the natural inclination of the sin nature within us to worship sensuality.

In James 1:14, we read, "But each one is tempted, when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust." The old sin nature is in there, tempting and urging on to sensuality.

Well, the end of sensuality for the unbeliever was demonstrated by that rich man, in Luke 16:19-25, by the fact that he has desires that went out with him into Hades, and he could not satisfy those sensual desires. He now lived in total enslavement and frustration for all eternity.

Please remember that sensuality can go to the other side too. It would be wrong for me not to remind you that sensuality can make a god out of asceticism. Some people (some Christians) are very proud of the things that they don't do; the things that they don't say; and, where they don't go. And they have these legalistic asceticisms that they are very fond of. This is an indulgence of a sensual pride within themselves. The apostle Paul, in Colossians 2:20, touched on this when he said, "If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world (to these human viewpoint principles of the world), why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees such as, 'do not handle;' 'do not taste;' and, 'do not touch.'" This is religious ritual: "I do not handle certain things." The Jews said, "I won't touch a dead body. It makes me unclean before God. I do not taste. I do not touch. 'All of these refer to things destined to perish with the using, in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men. These are matters which have (to be sure) the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion; human viewpoint wisdom; self-abasement; and, severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence."

This is what Martin Luther found – that as much as he abused his body, even to the point of making himself desperately ill, and even to the point where he almost died, he could not stop the sin nature. It takes the power that enabled Jesus Christ to rise above sin. He came into this world, and learned doctrine. He came into this world, and maintained temporal fellowship. He was never a sinner. He was never out of temporal fellowship. But He had the same system for His humanity provided that we have today. The Christian who walks with confessed sin to God the Father enables the Holy Spirit to govern and guide his life. The Christian who rejects that is always out in the human viewpoint orbit. And only at the end of his life will he look back and say, "What a fool I have been." It was nice when we were doing it. The kicks were there. But what a horrendous, eternal price to pay.

Please remember that, in eternity, the one thing that you don't lose is your memory, as the rich man and Lazarus demonstrated. They both had their memories.

So, sensuality may include the fact of asceticism and the religious rituals. Of course, we're coming through a season with a great deal of that. People have gone to church on Christmas, during the Christmas season, and even on Christmas Day, who will never go again until Easter. And they're very proud of their ritualistic performances. But the Kingdom of God is simply not based on these human viewpoint sensualities. Near the end of the book of Romans, Paul puts it this way, in Romans 14:17: "For the Kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit."

There are some churches that couldn't stay in business if they didn't have a lot of eating and drinking; if they didn't have a lot of indulgence of that sensual quality; and, if they didn't have a lot of socializing. That's what draws the crowd. Or if they didn't have a great deal of emotionalism. That also is sensuality, obviously, to an extreme. The charismatics are a prime example of sensuality – the very thing that Paul is talking about, that is a self-destructive act. The charismatic leaders are prime examples of men who have superior capacity to run a pep rally.

I watched a television program this morning of one of the television evangelists in this area that Diane Sawyer took to task on that program, and they were fighting back by showing his worldwide travels. And in every meeting in every city, there he had people swaying with their hands over their heads, and they were gyrating, and they were just as wild and enthusiastic as could be. What did he say? Nothing. He had absolutely nothing to say, but he knew how to manipulate the words to get people shouting enthusiastically, thinking that they were shouting "Lord, Lord" (that they were shouting for the Lord Jesus Christ).

What are these men? Only the Christian who knows doctrine understands that they are cheerleaders. They are cheerleaders par excellence. They know how to get a crowd jumping, and that's all they're doing. Can you imagine what it's going to be like when these people face Christ at the Judgment Seat of Christ, and realize that the very thing that Paul said? The Christian life is not sensuality; it's not asceticism; and, it's not emotionalism, but it is being under the filling of the Holy Spirit and under the direction of Bible doctrine. To know doctrine, and to be in temporal fellowship is the only way you can beat the devil every time. Otherwise, you will fall into sensuality of the worst kind, and you will lose the quality of your manhood, or the quality of your womanhood.

Romans 14:17: "The Kingdom of God is righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit."

Then Philippians 3:19, Paul, having said that the end of human viewpoint is to ruin the person, and that the God of the human viewpoint person is his sensuality, he now says that: "Their glory is their shame." You almost don't have to explain this, do you? The word "shame" in the Greek language means "disgrace." It means something that is a source of personal humiliation. It is something over which your conscience should have a deep sense of moral guilt. It refers to perverseness; immorality; crudity; obscenities; and, plain lack of human dignity. This shame that is practiced in American society today in a variety of ways is considered freedom, when in fact it is abject slavery to the sin nature. It is the opposite of divine viewpoint. Human viewpoint people, interestingly enough, go for things that are shameful – shameful by God's standards, admittedly, not by society's standards.

In Colossians 3:5-9, here's the opposite. This is the opposite in terms of divine viewpoint: "Therefore, consider the members of your earthly body as dead (consider your physical body and all of its parts as dead) to immorality; impurity; passion; evil desires; and, greed, which amounts to idolatry. For it is on account of these things that the wrath of God will come. And in them, you also once walked when you were living in them." Paul looks back and says, "In the days before you were a Christian, when you were a slave of human viewpoint, this is the way you lived. You did all these things. Now you are a son or a daughter of God. Now you have been elevated to the image of Jesus Christ."

Verse 8: "But now you also put them all aside: anger; wrath; malice; slander; and, abuse of speech from your mouth. Do not lie to one another since you laid aside the old self with all of its practices." Now, that is divine viewpoint conduce. And what do we have instead? We have people who do all those things, and they're proud of it. They glory in their shame.

Shameful Things

Hairstyles

In the same way male style hair on a woman is singular. 1 Corinthians 11:6: "For if a woman does not cover her head, let her also have her hair cut off (cut short like men do). But of it is disgraceful for a woman to have her hair cut off or her head shaved, let her cover her head. Let her hair be appropriate." Within any culture, and within any society, there's a distinct difference between male hairstyle and female hairstyle. You can tell a lot about a woman. When a woman comes into your presence, and she's wearing the hairstyle of a man, she is revealing a great deal about her inner psychological perspective; her outlook; and, her attitude. It is a big sign. And when a man comes along with the girly hair of a woman, that tells you a great deal about this individual.

Sometimes I know there it is an imitation. In the rock music business, you have to have long hair. When I go down to the music store, for instrument repairs or music, I walk into that place, especially in the drum and guitar section, and there all these dudes are walking around with long hair, and a little earring on one ear. They're the nicest people. I go in there, and they go out of their way to help me. In fact, I've fallen into taking an earring with me, and I clip it on just before I go, so I don't feel so out of place with the guys when they're being so nice to me to help me, to show that I'm one of them. I haven't gone to the point of putting a wig on yet, but I've consider that. But I know that some of those couldn't be in that business if they didn't do that. But these poor fellows, nice human beings, don't realize that before God, it is a shameful thing what they are doing – to walk around with that shoulder-length hair as if they were women.

Public Nudity

Idolatry

Doctrinal Ignorance

Laziness

Being Unsaved

Discussing Evil

Being a Fool

Women Preachers

Undisciplined Children

Abuse of Parents

Gluttony

Pride

Sin

Ungodly Lifestyles

Taking another Believer to Court

Governing

Tolerance of Sin

Setting your Minds on Earthly Things

The Rich Fool

It was shortly after the flood of Noah, that mankind proceeded to try to build a civilization without God. Satan wanted to counterfeit the coming millennium of Jesus Christ. Man is aware of how things ought to be. Even unsaved people are aware of how things should be, but they're aware of the fact that things are not that way. So, human history has demonstrated that they try to create civilizations on their own, apart from the principles of the Word of God. In all areas of life, man tries to build civilizations on the very things that God forbids government from doing, and forbids people from doing – the principles of morality that God forbids. They try to build a civilization on that. The knowledge of doctrine that was transferred through Noah's family was soon perverted into mythology.

Along came Nimrod with his scheme to build in Babylon a center of a culture that would gather people around them; that would create a unity; and, that would create an international force so that they could stand together against God. They could coerce people into a single unity. And Nimrod's civilization was the epitome of the preoccupation with temporal things. It functioned with great military and political strength. It possessed great material wealth. It functioned on human viewpoints in trying to solve social problems, all of which created more disasters. And it established a system of religion in a mother-child worship cult, which came to fruition in Roman Catholicism in the worship of Mary and Jesus today.

The ultimate expression of satanic pride and defiance of God was the Tower of Babel. With this began this rebellion against God, and the occupation with human viewpoint. This continues to be expressed today in a variety of ways. While man is now intensifying his desire to bring peace on this earth, once more through the United Nations and through human effort, all of which are based upon rejecting the principles of God. ... There will never be peace on this earth until the nations of this world recognize the right of the Jewish people to the Promised Land. What is President Bush trying to do today? He's trying to talk the Jews into giving back part of their Promised Land that has come to them as the result of aggressive acts of the Arabs against them. In self-defense, they were able to recover part of the Promised Land again. What is President Bush saying? "Give it back to the Arabs." President Bush does not realize that when he says that, he is inviting not peace on this earth, but violence.

The plan of internationalism is the plan of human viewpoint. God frustrated that by confusing the languages so people were stopped short. They had to break up the idea of the Babel civilization and go out from there. No matter how people try, they will never create peace on earth, and they will never create the millennium that they seek. All human culture is an incarnation of human viewpoint principles, because it is minding earthly things. You cannot leave out Jesus Christ. You cannot leave out the principles of the Word of God and expect to arrive at peace. All human culture is based on the fact that there is no Creator; there's no fall into sin; there's no divine judgment on sin; there's no Noahic covenant; and, there's no promise of stability in nature. Everything is chance, and everything is man's human efforts.

The apostle Paul said that the people who operate on human viewpoint call the things of the Bible foolishness. And Paul said, "What you call foolishness is the wisdom of God." Isn't that interesting? People will say, "Nobody with any sense would believe what you Christians believe." What do we Christians believe? We believe what the Bible says. That is divine viewpoint. People with human viewpoints think that they're the people with good sense. They reject the Word of God. Why? Because they're rebels at heart. It is not because they've proven that the Bible is false, and it does not conform with reality. There is no basis in man for coming to a knowledge of the truth. He has to receive it from outside of himself through a revelation of Scripture.

The rulers that God places over the human kingdoms of this world, which are trying to make peace without Christ, He says are the low-life type. Please remember Daniel 4:17, where Daniel, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, says this sentence, speaking of what God is going to do to Nebuchadnezzar. This sentence is by the decree of the angelic watchers: "And the decision is the command of the holy ones. In order that the living may know (mankind may know) that the Most High is ruler over the realm of mankind (God rules this world), and bestows it on whom He wishes, and sets over it the lowliest of men." He sets over mankind the lowliest of men. These are lowly men in the fact that they are humble, and godly, and simple, and subject to God. He also sets the lowliest of men over a nation that deserves the base, gross, vile kind. History knows both kinds.

Vice President Quayle

The point of the apostle Paul is, "Brethren, get your priority on your mission. The mission for which God calls you into this life comes first. If you do not do that, you will be the poorer for it as a Christian for all eternity, and you will have the sad memories of what might have been.

Dr. John E. Danish, 1993

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