The Way of Death and the way of Life
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What is the way of death
What is the way of death
25 There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.
The scripture reveal that the way of death is what seems to be right to man
There are two ways,
The way of life and the way of death, there is no in between.
Deuteronomy 30:19 “19 I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live;”
The way of death, is the way of the Devil, Because the scripture say that ,Hebrews 2:14, That the devil is the one that has power of death.
The way of life, is the way of God.
So why is it that The way that seems right to man is not the way of God, The way of life, but rather the way of Satan, the way of death.
We find our answer is the Story of the Fall Genesis 3
Genesis 3 (NKJV)
1 Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?”
2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden;
3 but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ”
4 Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.
5 For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.
7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.
First of all he made the way of God, which was good to be evil, by perverting it.
God gave you that command to really keep you from becoming like him. It is not really because he trying to keep you from death.
He catered his way according to the desire and feelings of her heart.
The enemy caters his way to fit our desires, emotion and makes it very pleasant to the eyes. It will feel right to our feelings and desires.
In that sense we will see the way of death to be good and the way of God to be evil
God does not cater his way to our feelings, desires or understanding but rather to his own will and desire. To what is right, pure and just in his sight.
NOTE: the way of death, the way of the enemy always seems right in our sight because it is connects with our feelings and emotion, with our desires and it is very attractive.
God disinguishes his ways from ours
6 Seek the Lord while He may be found, Call upon Him while He is near.
7 Let the wicked forsake his way, And the unrighteous man his thoughts; Let him return to the Lord, And He will have mercy on him; And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon.
8 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord.
9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.
Thoughts (represents mindset), our mindset and God mindset are different. our ways and his ways are difference.
The difference is as wide the distance between the earth and the expanse of the universe.
God’s way is Perfect
30 As for God, His way is perfect; The word of the Lord is proven; He is a shield to all who trust in Him.
Not in the sense we understand perfection, (what may be perfect in our eyes will be imperfect in his) but in his own sense of the term.
Our ways are not perfect
God’s way is righteous and right
17 The Lord is righteous in all His ways, Gracious in all His works.
9 Who is wise? Let him understand these things. Who is prudent? Let him know them. For the ways of the Lord are right; The righteous walk in them, But transgressors stumble in them.
Our ways are not rigtheous ,(Isaiah 64:6) our righteousness is filthy rags.
God’s way is just and true
3 They sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying: “Great and marvelous are Your works, Lord God Almighty! Just and true are Your ways, O King of the saints!
Our way is not Just and true
isaiah 59:8 “8 The way of peace they have not known, And there is no justice in their ways; They have made themselves crooked paths; Whoever takes that way shall not know peace.”
our way is the way of falsehood
God’s way is evelasting
6 He stood and measured the earth; He looked and startled the nations. And the everlasting mountains were scattered, The perpetual hills bowed. His ways are everlasting.
God’s way is past finding out
33 Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!
The enemy will exploit this difference.
He will make what is the high way of God to become low in our sight.
He will make what is our low way to become the high way.
He does this by appealing to our feelings and desires and carnal mind.
Matthew 16:21–23 (NKJV)
21 From that time Jesus began to show to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day.
22 Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, “Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You!”
23 But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.”
Satan appealed to Peter’s emotions and his carnal mind
The Lord Call Satan an offense to him, because he is only mindful of the things of man.
Satan in our day has made a way that keeps people from the ways of God because it appeals to their feelings and desires.
People choose the way of death, because it is broad, it is comftorble, and it is attractive.
You have to be carefull if you tend to favor things that appeal to your emotions and feeling, that tend to make your feelings comftable.
Your ideals are attached to your emotions and feelings and not the word of God.
You will be very vulnerable to be decieved by the enemy
Sentimental defination; “marked or governed by feeling, sensibility, or emotional idealism” (emotionaly sensitive)
You can be emotional in terms of having a broken heart before God like David or Paul but not be sentimental.
Sentimal is being emotionaly sesitive
2 Timothy 4:1–4 (NKJV)
1 I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom:
2 Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.
3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers;
4 and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.
They will seek teachers that will cater their doctrine to their desires.
People who tend to indulge in a specific sin , will leave one church and would go to another seeking some teacher who will teach them what will appeal to their feeling and emotions.
13 “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it.
14 Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.
There is a reason
How do we know the way of God
How do we know the way of God
Through the work of the Spirit of God.
1 Corinthians 2:6–16 (NKJV)
6 However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing.
7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory,
8 which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
9 But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”
10 But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.
11 For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.
12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.
13 These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
15 But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one.
16 For “who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
God’s way is revealed to us by his Spirit.
The natural man can not undertand nor know the ways of God because they lack the spirit of God.
His way is not something that is taught by human wisdom but rather by the spirit of God.
That spirit of God, transformes our mind to be like his mind. Then we will be able to discern his ways, be able to know what is pleasing to his eyes.
1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.
2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
May God transform our mind
Isaiah 2:2–3 (NKJV)
2 Now it shall come to pass in the latter days That the mountain of the Lord’s house Shall be established on the top of the mountains, And shall be exalted above the hills; And all nations shall flow to it.
3 Many people shall come and say, “Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, To the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, And we shall walk in His paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth the law, And the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
This is the place wherein we are taught God’s way by the spirit of God.
We have to also desire to know and walk in the paths of God.
God revealed his ways to Moses because he sought it
7 He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the children of Israel.
13 Now therefore, I pray, if I have found grace in Your sight, show me now Your way, that I may know You and that I may find grace in Your sight. And consider that this nation is Your people.”
To seek the way of God, you have to be humble as Moses was.
9 The humble He guides in justice, And the humble He teaches His way.
David Prayed that God will teach him his way
11 Teach me Your way, O Lord, And lead me in a smooth path, because of my enemies.
Let us pray
God to teach us his way
to help us walk in his paths and ways.