Title: 13
Author: JBG
Last saved by: Matthew C. Lawson
Company: Auth CO

© 2001  Joe Griffin

01-02-13.JSH-440 /

The Inscrutable Question: Disorder Is A Product of Human Sin, James 3:14-16; Chaos Is A Product of Angelic Sin, Isa 48:15; Ezk 28:16
	11-	James gives us another concept of disorder.  He informs us that it is the result of creature rebellion against the divine order.  The application can be not only to human sin and failure but also that of Lucifer and the fallen angels:
James 3:14 - If you have bitter jealousy [ pikrÒj plus zÁloj: / pikros + zelos ]and selfish ambition [ ™riqe…a / eritheia ] in your heart [ stream of consciousness ], do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth.
v. 15 - This wisdom is not that which comes down from above but is earthly [ ™p…geioj / epigeios / ], natural [ fuciÒj / psuchios ], demonic [ diamonièdhj / diamoniodes / ].
v. 16 - For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist there is disorder [ £katastas…a / akatastasia / ] and every evil thing.
Yeager, Randolph O.  The Renaissance New Testament.  Vol. 16.  (Gretna: Pelican Publishing Co., 1985), 578-79:
v. 14- The lying tongue is only an outward manifestation of a jealous heart.  The tongue is the tool with which the carnal Christian, wallowing in personal insecurity, transmits his animosity to society.  It is the spark, alight from the raging inferno of hatred in the heart, that sets a church afire, splits it, and ultimately brings revolution.  James had analyzed their problem.  Antisocial conduct was only the outer symptom of inner insecurity.  The tongue will not cease until the spirit is healed and quiet.  The next verse speaks to the cause of the depraved heart.
v. 16 - Envy, insecurity, and ambitious rivalry, which, in turn produces social mayhem described here as mass confusion and every low, vile and every evil work.  If envy and rivalry exist, so also do confusion and evil.  Satan takes the low ground within the church and from it he attacks the high ground and soon commands the field, because he deludes some of the soldiers of the Lord into believing that they are not important and that it is important for them to be important.  Thus the unguarded tongue with its innuendos and insults soon speaks blasphemies, other weak saints retaliate, and the fight is on and the forest fire burns out of control.
From the ashes we sigh and wonder where we went wrong.  The sad picture in verses 14-16 can be erased forever with the application of the wisdom from above.
	12-	James’s warning is directed to the local church.  Those who have inordinate ambition, smoldering embers of bitterness, and unchecked arrogance will eventually cause disorder in the body which will result in evil things.
	13-	Wisdom from above in the form of Bible doctrine resident in the souls of the congregation puts us on guard against such types.
	14-	Maintenance of order in the church requires loyalty to divine mandates while executing the royal law toward those who disrupt or sow discord among the brethren.
	15-	Nevertheless, these same problems are exactly what occurred in the angelic community under the leadership of Lucifer.
	16-	He was jealous of the Lord, assumed He could do as well, and then began a quest to achieve a coup d’état.
	17-	Such is contrary to the order required by God for the local church and for the angels.
	18-	Therefore, we learn from these several verses that God is a God of order based upon his absolute integrity and immutable standards of righteousness.  Further, it is impossible for the Lord to deviate from this position:
James 1:17 - Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.
	19-	James speaks of the Lord’s immutability and perfection.  And these two attributes demand that anything He creates must be perfect.
	20-	Such must be the case with the creation of the universe as we see in:
Genesis 1:1 - In the beginning [ of the universe ] God [ specifically, Jesus Christ ] created [ arB bara ] the heavens and the earth.
	21-	This original creation could not lose its perfection unless something sinful intruded within its boundaries.   The fact that sin at some point did intrude is undeniable.
	22-	However, some reject the idea that this sin was Lucifer’s and therefore they explain the chaos of Genesis 1:2 as being a part of the original creation.
	23-	As a result they reject the idea of the fall of Lucifer and the Angelic Conflict.
	24-	To subscribe to this ignores the Invisible War and makes believers vulnerable to demon influence.
	25-	Isaiah introduces the doctrine of the Angelic Conflict by quoting Lucifer’s Five Assertions in chapter 14.  Lucifer’s First Assertion places him inside the universe at the point of his sedition.
Isaiah 14:13a -	“I will ascend into heaven.”
	26-	This begins the attempted coup, brings about the loss of perfection, and, as a result, the order of the universe.  Isaiah gives us more information in:
Isaiah 45:18 - For thus says the Lord, Who created [ arB bara: out of nothing ] the heavens [ the universe ] (He is the God who formed [ rxy yatsar: to mold preexisting matter ] the earth and made [ hcu asah: from a preexisting pattern ] it, He established it and did not create [ arB bara: out of nothing ] it a waste place [ WhT tohu ], but formed [ rxy yatsar: to mold preexisting matter ] it to be inhabited), “I am the Lord, and there is none else.” 
	27-	What was once perfection has now been brought into a state of chaos.  And we contend that the sin of Lucifer is what caused the imposition of divine judgment upon the universe.
Ezekiel 28:16 -	“By the proliferation of your egotistic thought and ideas your stream of consciousness was filled with the violence of rebellion and you sinned.  Therefore, I have evicted you as defiled from the throne room, the mountain of God.  And I have disgraced you, O covering cherub, from the stones of fire.”

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