RIGHT - IN THEIR OWN EYES

Right – In Their Own Eyes



“In those days …every man did that which was right in his own eyes.” Judges 17:6. When mankind resorts to following his own imagination, especially concerning what is right and what is wrong, God, for the most part, gets left behind. Although they won’t admit it, most people today live their lives, at least in some respect, in accordance to God’s word. When people blatantly disregard God’s laws and live according to what they themselves believe to be right then invariably up becomes down and wrong is seen as right. Those who are completely opposed to anything biblical and who radically reject the teachings found within the pages of God’s word are doomed, or better stated damned.



Here’s a little side note:

For those of you who don’t yet get just exactly what it means to be damned, it speaks of those who are lost – those who have no hope – they will find themselves in a place of torment when their end comes. For those who reject Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior it means an eternity in Hell. If you don’t believe in Hell, yet you continually reject God’s free gift of salvation, you will.



Today as marriage is being attacked or distorted many refuse to believe that God gave us our institution of marriage many thousands of years ago back in the Garden of Eden. God’s idea of the appropriate form of marriage has been well established in most cultures today. Another of God’s laws which is now characteristic of most of earth’s civilizations is the fact that murder is not condoned, not in any fashion. In the book of Exodus we read the verse “Thou shalt not kill” Exodus 20:13. The Hebrew word used here actually means murder (Thou shalt not murder). This is God’s sixth commandment and has been His standard for thousands of years. The prohibition on stealing, lying, and adultery are all well established bans which were recognized long before secular man’s laws were even thought of. It amazes me when I ponder these things; just where do folks think all these, and many more, directions for our lives came from?



It’s true that people, for the most part, don’t read the Bible. But many of its truths are continually passed down even through generations of secular law givers. If there is no God why hold to His precepts? Why not allow complete abandon and live like the devil? Because whether they like it or not the knowledge concerning God is in every man. “For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:” Romans 1:20.



People today have an excuse for everything. But God says there is no excuse, that the ignorance of His power and Godhead is inexcusable. This means they who don’t believe there is a God have no excuse for holding such a non-defendable position. There will be no defense as these folks make their final appeal to God while they stand before Him awaiting judgment. Imagine walking into a courtroom and standing before the judge completely defenseless with only the claim, “But judge I didn’t know murder was against the law”. How much credence would any judge give such a defense? Ignorance of the law is no excuse.



Today we live in an age that is ripe with the “spirit of wickedness”, which can be attributed to every man doing that which he feels is right in his own eyes. We are bombarded with clichés’ which constantly remind us of our individuality. We are encouraged to break the rules, to place no boundaries on our liberties, to let loose our inhibitions, to embrace humanism, and to come to grips with the promise of no remaining taboos. According to today’s secularist every old fashioned taboo should be removed from today’s “enlightened” society.



If it feels good do it, after all we’re only human. Today’s message from the secularists is always the same: “Make your own rules; you answer to no one, the universe revolves around you.” But the result of taking that path can only be disorder. “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” Proverbs 14:12. Without God’s truth and intervention in the affairs of mankind there would not even be a mankind.



Today’s culture demands the populous has the right to do whatever they want, whatever pleases them, whatever they can derive pleasure from is considered to be right and acceptable. Instead of looking to the Bible for answers man looks to his fellow man, who is just as corrupt as himself.



“If you want to be truly happy follow your heart.” Wait a minute, what does Jeremiah say? “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” Jeremiah 17:9. The heart is deceitful? Yes. That’s what God says about the heart, so should we follow something that is deceitful and desperately wicked? Who would want us to follow the heart if it is only going to deceive us? I’ll give you one guess.



Satan, of course; he conspires to deceive us and he succeeds continually. All those above clichés are his invention or better stated his intervention. Humanism is his concept because it removes God from the world. “Well, without God the playing field becomes more equal.” Not hardly. Without God there remains only His enemy. God’s enemy hates all humans; this fact is well known by all believers in Christ. Without God’s protection, the playing field becomes horribly skewed toward Satan’s agenda, which is evil, death, and ultimately Hell.



Where humanity is headed, and even in many cases already resides, is exactly where Satan wants us. It’s a hard pill to swallow when a person learns they’ve been following Satan all their lives. God has always been close but He doesn’t interfere with our will. Yes, He sent His Holy Spirit to direct us toward Jesus Christ, God’s only begotten Son, but God will not force us into a believing, faith filled, and loving relationship with Jesus. That must be a decision we make on our own.



Opposition to God’s word is folly. Even when folks say they accept some of the Bible as truth but they don’t believe that the entire Bible is from God they are only following their true father, the devil. An evil scheme of Satan’s is to discredit the Bible, to show that the Bible is corrupt, misleading, and full of myths and should be disregarded. Many folks would rather follow Satan and his lies than read and believe the truth of God, hence, the overcrowding nature of Hell.



The world belongs to Satan, he stole it from Adam, and he’s had an almost complete autonomy concerning earthlings for around 6,000 years now. There are currently two groups of people on earth: Earth dwellers (those who belong to this world – Satan) and Christians (those individuals who’ve given their lives to Christ and as such are only sojourners here).



Man can and does ignore God, but man cannot remove God, not from his mind, his heart, or from planet earth for that matter. Man can only make the decision to attempt to remove God from his life. When man becomes convinced that he has achieved success in removing God from his life he begins to see everything differently, as right in his own eyes. This is exactly where Satan wants mankind. This has been Satan’s goal from the beginning. Eliminate God and everything falls into Satan’s grasp. Those who fall into the clutches of God’s enemy will finally get what they’ve pursued all their lives, an eternity without God. Earth dwellers are those who, knowingly or not, exclusively follow Satan. Remember there is no neutral ground; there are only two to chose from, Jesus Christ or Satan. Jesus said “He that is not with me is against me;” Matthew 12:30a. There are many folks, almost innumerable numbers, who should study those words more carefully.



God wants us to pursue a relationship with Him and to live according to His word. But when in our own eyes we see all forms of evil as pleasure, always enticing us, and we allow ourselves to be led by evil in an attempt to be fulfilled, sooner or later, nothing we do or try will be fulfilling. We will ultimately end up like Solomon preaching “Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.” Ecclesiastes 1:1-2.



Here we are staring at the end of all time, we are all looking eternity in the face and people are still consumed with pursuing pleasure, seemingly more than ever before. There continues to be purveyors of pleasure in all walks of life, always bent on pulling the masses toward destruction. All this perceived pleasure is fleeting, temporary at best. No matter how close we get to the end, the end will never be in sight for those whose tendencies are focused toward doing what is right in their own eyes.



What are your sights set on today? What or who are you looking to for your own peace of mind? There can only be one who can bring peace to you. You might concede that all is vanity, but with Jesus Christ in your life, your life doesn’t need to be lived in vain.



Folks, doing what is right in your own eyes can produce some horrible consequences. One very severe consequence ultimately arises as a result of rejecting God’s free gift of salvation. That severe consequence is an eternity of torment in Hell without possibility of reprieve or pardon.



Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, never mind what you think you know or what others tell you about the existence or non-existence of God Almighty. Come to your own decision regarding Jesus Christ. Come to the correct decision that will forever endear you to the Son. Jesus Christ is God and He is the way, the truth, and the life. And if you truly want to see Heaven when your time on earth runs out, remember this – Jesus Christ, the only begotten of the God, gives life, and life more abundantly. And He leads all who will follow Him to Heaven. All those who will place their faith, their trust, and lives in His hands are in for a great escape.



God bless you all,



Ron Graham

twotug@embarqmail.com

All scripture is from the KJV and God breathed