Notes for Xmas Eve MSG

Attitudes, negative to God

Synopsis

Scripture identifies a range of negative attitudes towards God, which believers are encouraged to avoid.

Rejection

Is 53:3

Isaiah 53:3 (ESV) — 3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

See also Le 26:15–16; 1 Sa 8:7; Eze 5:6; Eze 20:15–16; Jn 1:11

Leviticus 26:15–16 (ESV) — 15 if you spurn my statutes, and if your soul abhors my rules, so that you will not do all my commandments, but break my covenant, 16 then I will do this to you: I will visit you with panic, with wasting disease and fever that consume the eyes and make the heart ache. And you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.

1 Samuel 8:7 (ESV) — 7 And the Lord said to Samuel, “Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them.

Ezekiel 5:6 (ESV) — 6 And she has rebelled against my rules by doing wickedness more than the nations, and against my statutes more than the countries all around her; for they have rejected my rules and have not walked in my statutes.

Ezekiel 20:15–16 (ESV) — 15 Moreover, I swore to them in the wilderness that I would not bring them into the land that I had given them, a land flowing with milk and honey, the most glorious of all lands, 16 because they rejected my rules and did not walk in my statutes, and profaned my Sabbaths; for their heart went after their idols.

John 1:11 (ESV) — 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.

Lack of faith

Mk 4:40

Mark 4:40 (ESV) — 40 He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?”

See also Mt 13:58

Matthew 13:58 (ESV) — 58 And he did not do many mighty works there, because of their unbelief.

Pride

Dt 8:14

Deuteronomy 8:14 (ESV) — 14 then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery,

See also Le 26:19; Lk 1:51; Jas 4:6; 1 Pe 5:5; Pr 3:34

Leviticus 26:19 (ESV) — 19 and I will break the pride of your power, and I will make your heavens like iron and your earth like bronze.

Luke 1:51 (ESV) — 51 He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts;

James 4:6 (ESV) — 6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

1 Peter 5:5 (ESV) — 5 Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

Proverbs 3:34 (ESV) — 34 Toward the scorners he is scornful, but to the humble he gives favor.

Stubbornness

Je 5:23

Jeremiah 5:23 (ESV) — 23 But this people has a stubborn and rebellious heart; they have turned aside and gone away.

See also Ps 78:8; Is 48:4; Mk 3:5; Mk 16:14; Ro 2:5

Psalm 78:8 (ESV) — 8 and that they should not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation whose heart was not steadfast, whose spirit was not faithful to God.

Isaiah 48:4 (ESV) — 4 Because I know that you are obstinate, and your neck is an iron sinew and your forehead brass,

Mark 3:5 (ESV) — 5 And he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored.

Mark 16:14 (ESV) — 14 Afterward he appeared to the eleven themselves as they were reclining at table, and he rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen.

Romans 2:5 (ESV) — 5 But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.

Rebellion

Ps 78:40

Psalm 78:40 (ESV) — 40 How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness and grieved him in the desert!

See also Dt 1:26; Is 1:2; Je 2:29; Eze 2:3; Ho 7:13; Tt 1:10; Heb 3:16

Deuteronomy 1:26 (ESV) — 26 “Yet you would not go up, but rebelled against the command of the Lord your God.

Isaiah 1:2 (ESV) — 2 Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for the Lord has spoken: “Children have I reared and brought up, but they have rebelled against me.

Jeremiah 2:29 (ESV) — 29 “Why do you contend with me? You have all transgressed against me, declares the Lord.

Ezekiel 2:3 (ESV) — 3 And he said to me, “Son of man, I send you to the people of Israel, to nations of rebels, who have rebelled against me. They and their fathers have transgressed against me to this very day.

Hosea 7:13 (ESV) — 13 Woe to them, for they have strayed from me! Destruction to them, for they have rebelled against me! I would redeem them, but they speak lies against me.

Titus 1:10 (ESV) — 10 For there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party.

Hebrews 3:16 (ESV) — 16 For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses?

Hostility

Ro 8:7

Romans 8:7 (ESV) — 7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot.

See also Le 26:21; Le 26:23–24; Le 26:27–28; Ho 9:7

Leviticus 26:21 (ESV) — 21 “Then if you walk contrary to me and will not listen to me, I will continue striking you, sevenfold for your sins.

Leviticus 26:23–24 (ESV) — 23 “And if by this discipline you are not turned to me but walk contrary to me, 24 then I also will walk contrary to you, and I myself will strike you sevenfold for your sins.

Leviticus 26:27–28 (ESV) — 27 “But if in spite of this you will not listen to me, but walk contrary to me, 28 then I will walk contrary to you in fury, and I myself will discipline you sevenfold for your sins.

Hosea 9:7 (ESV) — 7 The days of punishment have come; the days of recompense have come; Israel shall know it. The prophet is a fool; the man of the spirit is mad, because of your great iniquity and great hatred.