The Rebellion of Korah - 7

Well, we are continuing in our study through the General Epistle of Jude, the 25 verse, one chapter epistle that comes right before the Book of the Revelation. And we have been camping a bit in verse 11, where Jude gives us warning about those who defy the authority of God.

He's talking about the intruders that he has recognized infiltrating churches across the Roman world of that day. And he says in verse 11, woe to them for they have gone in the way of Cain, have run greedily in the error of Balaam for profit and perished in the rebellion of Korah. Three examples from Old Testament history. Cain, who was the first murderer and was guilty of defective worship, hypocrisy in his worship, for his heart was not in it, innovation in worship, for he did not follow the instructions that God had given for the way that God must be worshiped, and he paid the price.

Balaam, who marketed religious influence for material gain and counseled the people of God to enter into unrighteous alliances in order to gain financially by that counsel. And now today, Korah, who coveted a position that was not given to him by God and rebelled against God appointed authority, and he was severely judged in the process. These three examples in Jude 11 are given to us in ascending order of judgment.

They're not in chronological order. If they were in chronological order, then Cain indeed would be first, but Korah would be second because his account is in number 16. And Balaam would be third, for his account comes a little bit later in Numbers 22 and following, but the order is that of ascending judgment. Cain sinned and was banished from his homeland, was required to wander for the rest of his life.

Balaam sinned and lived for a while and then was slain in battle as the people of God and the people of Moab and Midian fought together. Korah was judged immediately, struck not dead actually, for the earth swallowed up and he went directly down to hell, he and those who accompanied him, and thus his judgment is the strongest warning of all toward those who rebel against the authority of God. And so now we look today at Korah, and we're going to ask the same five questions about him that we did in the first two. Number one, who was Korah? Number two, what did he do? Number three, what does this reveal about him? Number four, what does this reveal about the intruders in Jude's day?

And number five, how does this apply to us? Korah. Who was Korah? Well, consider first his name, and we learn by searching the scriptures that there are several men in the Old Testament who bear that same name. One or more of them are descendants of Esau, as you will find in Genesis 36 and following. Some of them, according to 1 Chronicles 6 37, were temple musicians, very likely descendants of the Korah that we find in our passage today.

And others of them were temple gatekeepers, again as we find that in the Old Testament, and no doubt other tasks as well. And 11 of the Psalms have a heading that contains that name Korah. I'll read the one at the heading of Psalm 84, which says to the chief musician on an instrument of Gath, a Psalm of the sons of Korah, probably descendants of the Korah that is in our passage today.

But that's what we know about his name. But what about his identiketi, this particular Korah, the one that is referred to in Jude, verse 11, the one about which is said, perished in the rebellion of Korah? Which Korah does God the Holy Spirit have in mind here? And the Korah that is in view is the one that we read about in Numbers chapter 16, who was one of the generation of Israelites who lived in Egypt under slavery and was redeemed from slavery by the work of God in that great redemption, and therefore traveled out into the wilderness with the people of God, was selected as a member of the tribe of Levi to serve the Lord and the tabernacle that was constructed in the wilderness and was now standing as we read about the events in Numbers chapter 16. He was a Levite, and he was, if you'll study the genealogy carefully, apparently a cousin of Moses. What did he do in his service in the tabernacle? He may have been a musician.

That would seem likely, as likely as any other possibility. Or he may have been a gatekeeper, or he may have been involved in other tasks that involved the worship of God of the tabernacle. But the one thing that he was not was a priest because God had restricted the priesthood to Aaron and to his sons. To qualify for the priesthood, one had to not only be of the tribe of Levi, but also a descendant of Aaron in the tribe of Levi. And Korah was not a descendant of Aaron. And therefore the priesthood was assigned only to Aaron and to his sons. And Korah was not of that number and did not qualify. And therefore the priesthood was not open to him.

Only other areas of Levitical service were allowed to him. But before we can leave the consideration of who Korah was, I think we have to recognize the greatness of his influence upon others. Because as the account shows us in Numbers chapter 16, he influenced many Israelites to sin. Korah apparently had leadership abilities, and he utilized them not for good, but rather for evil. He, in the passage we just read, gathered not only two other men who were of the same mind that he was to lead the others in rebellion, but he also enlisted the help of 250 renowned men who were themselves leaders in the congregation. And before it was over, he had corrupted in rebellion thousands of the people of Israel, maybe even into the hundreds of thousands before he was done. And it is no wonder therefore that he is remembered in Scripture as a prime example of rebellion against divine authority, not only in Scripture, but also in rabbinical literature. He is frequently mentioned in that regard. That's who Korah was.

Now, secondly, what did he do? And I read the account in Numbers 16, and I could have kept reading because there's more to the account than what I read, but 35 verses is a lot to read in a public service like this, and so I stopped at that point. But what did Korah do? Well, actually, before we get to Numbers 16, we have to pick up that one phrase out of Jude chapter 11, which tells us that Korah was guilty of speaking against God's appointed leaders.

When we read, he perished, or they, the Intruides, perished in the rebellion of Korah. The Greek word there, antilogia, carries the idea of strong verbal opposition. Anti means against, logia, you probably hear of the word logos there. We're mostly familiar with the word logos, the Greek word for word, and the verb form is lageo, to speak a word. And so this word means to speak against.

Of all the translations that I consulted, the King James comes closest to the accurate meaning of that word because it says that Korah was gainsaying against Moses and Aaron. Gainsaying, speaking against, that's what gain is, against. So he was a gainsayer. He spoke against God's leaders and even against the authority of God himself.

But what else did he do? Well, now moving to Numbers chapter 16, we learn that he organized a mutiny against Moses and Aaron. He enlisted two other men who were equally resentful of the authority over them. And their names are Dathan and Abiram, and they were not of the tribe of Levi like Korah, but rather of the tribe of Reuben. And Korah in particular resented Aaron and his appointment to the priesthood denied to Korah.

And Dathan and Abiram particularly resented the authority of Moses who had leadership over the entire nation of Israel. You'll see that, for example, Korah in verse 10, and that he has brought, Moses is speaking now, that he's brought you near to himself, you and all your brethren, the sons of Levi with you. And then this last phrase, and are you seeking the priesthood also? You who have been privileged to serve the Lord as Levites in the tabernacle, a privilege denied to all the 11 other tribes aren't content with that.

But are you now demanding the priesthood as well? Korah was resentful against Aaron and his position as the priest and the progenitor of the priestly line. But Dathan and Abiram in verse 13 are more resentful of Moses. Is it a small thing, Moses still speaking, that you have brought us out of the land?

Oh, this is them speaking, I'm sorry. Is it a small thing that you have brought us up out of the land flowing with milk and honey? Strange that they would refer to Egypt as the land of milk and honey, a rather telling misrepresentation, a rather telling memory loss on their part. For them, the land of Egypt was scarcely the land flowing with milk and honey. Canaan, the promised land, was the land flowing with milk and honey. But is it a small thing that you, Moses, have brought us up out of the land flowing with milk and honey to kill us in the wilderness?

And this telling phrase, that you should keep acting like a prince over us. They resented Moses' governmental authority, that he was acting like a prince, he was acting like a king in their words over the nation of Israel. And so these three men, one resenting the Aaronic priesthood and the other resenting Moses' governmental authority, combined forces together to organize a mutiny against Moses and against Aaron. And they enlisted 250 other national leaders, that takes us back to verse two. They rose up before Moses with some of the children of Israel, 250 leaders of the congregation, representatives of the congregation, men of renown.

Probably these are men that would be referred to elsewhere as elders in Israel, leaders in the congregation, recognized for their positions of leadership. And so 250 other national leaders joined them in this rebellion. And they gathered together to accuse Moses and Aaron of usurping authority that did not rightfully belong to them.

So what did Korah do? Number one, he spoke against God's appointed leaders, rebellion. Number two, he organized a mutiny against Moses and Aaron.

But number three, he, and this is critical, he misused scripture. Look at verse three, number 16. Then they gathered together against Moses and Aaron and said to them, you take too much upon yourselves for, now listen to this, all the congregation of Israel is holy, every one of them. And the Lord is among them, that is all of them. Why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the Lord?

What is Korah referring to? He's referring to the word of God given to the nation of Israel through Moses in Numbers, or rather Exodus, 19-6. And God said to Israel, and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. You shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. God indeed had said that the whole nation would be priests. God indeed said that the whole nation would be considered holy. That is what God said. Did God therefore mean that all the tribes of Israel, all the people of Israel could serve as priests?

No, he obviously didn't mean that. Did God mean that everybody in the nation of Israel had equal authority, that nobody had authority over everybody else because they were all kings and priests? Indeed, that is the word of God. God declared Israel a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

Words, by the way, that are picked up in the New Testament by Peter and applied to the church, but that's another subject for another day. But God declared Israel a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. And Korah distorted that statement to mean that everybody has equal authority. Those who rebel against God in the religious context of Christianity in our day and of the worship of Israel in that day are prone to do so by twisting and misusing scripture, to present an authority that they claim gives them the right, the privilege, the authority to do what they are doing, but inevitably it is a misuse and a twisting of scripture.

We see the same sort of thing in our day. For example, we are told by the Spirit of God that in Christ there is no bond or tree, there is no male or female, all are one in Christ. So we find people saying that means that women have equal authority in the church as men. You people who teach otherwise are not paying attention to that verse.

That means that women are not required to submit to the leadership of their husbands. You who teach that from scripture are misapplying this verse. Everybody is equal in Christ, male, female, bond, free, Gentile, Jew, everybody has the same equality and authority. Now is that what that verse means?

Well clearly not. And to make that verse mean that means you have to assume that scripture contradicts scripture. How do we know it doesn't mean that? Because of the other scripture that spells out God's order of authority in the home, God's order of authority in the church and so forth. And so we know because we are convinced that a holy God cannot contradict himself and we are convinced that the Bible is indeed the inspired word of God, therefore when we come to scripture, if we see something that might on the surface appear to be a contradiction, that's our clue to study it more carefully and find how to reconcile what might seem to be contradictory statements to make them join together in such a way that they don't contradict.

In other words, it fleshes out the meaning of the text. Whatever this text means that there's no male or female, there's no bond or free, does not mean that there's no God-ordained authority in the home. It does not mean that there's no God-ordained authority in the employment realm. It doesn't mean that because scripture can't contradict itself.

So whatever it means, it has to be understood in a different context than that. It has to be able to mesh with what these other verses say. And that's the way we study scripture.

That's the way we learn and grow. We have to take all the scriptures that we can find on a subject and study them all together until we come to an understanding that includes the meaning of all of them. It does not contradict any of them, but those who misuse scripture will do just like this. This is what Satan did with Jesus in the wilderness. He took, he quoted scripture, didn't he? The devil. But he misused it and misapplied it. The scripture promises that God will care for his children.

Why? He's going to protect them from dashing their foot against the stone. Therefore, cast yourself off the temple and prove the promise of God.

Prove who you are, that God will protect you from that. Well, that's a total misuse of that scripture. Yes, God promises to protect his children, but not if they defy him, not if they put themselves deliberately in harm's way and dare God to fail to protect them.

That's probably a quick trip to heaven if you are in fact saved, or a quick trip to eternity if you are a rebel at heart. But Korah misused scripture, not surprisingly. What else did he do? Well, he forced a confrontation. We read about it in verses 4 through 19, how he gathered them together and forced Moses now to take leadership and to tell them, these 250 men, you all bring your censors and Aaron brings his censors and we're going to let God show who he has given the priesthood to. And beyond forcing a confrontation, we read it here, he experienced divine judgment. He and Dathan and the Bairam were swallowed up by the earth. Someone has said, well, that must have been an earthquake. Well, it might have been somewhat like an earthquake, but Moses himself in proposing this says, if they die like normal men, then God hasn't spoken by me.

But if God does something new, something that hasn't happened before, and they die in what is obviously an act of God's direct divine judgment in a manner that has not been experienced in the world up until this time, then you'll know that God is displeased with what they are doing. And so it may have been something like an earthquake, but not exactly. It may have been something like a sinkhole, but not exactly.

It was something that has never happened before and probably never since. But the earth opened up and swallowed these men and they went directly down to hell, body and soul. And the 250 leaders who joined them were consumed by fire that fell from heaven, divine judgment. But finally, what did Korah do?

And I touched on this before, but he encouraged extensive rebellion. And because the text goes on, I couldn't keep reading at all because that would have taken me basically to the end of chapter 17. But there was more that happened after this. Look at chapter, let's see, 16 verse 41. I didn't get that far, but look at verse 41. On the next day after Korah and his company were swallowed by the earth and the 250 leaders were destroyed by fire. On the next day, all the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron saying, you have killed the people of the Lord. After that demonstration of God's divine judgment and God's indication of the leaders that he has chosen, distinguishing Moses and Aaron from others that he had not chosen for that particular task. The whole congregation is still in rebellion against Moses and Aaron and God. Don't you see how the rebellion of Korah spread wider and wider and wider until eventually it touched the attitudes and the rebellious hearts of all the people of Israel, nearly all the nation. And that brought about in the next chapter that confrontation that involved Aaron's rod that budded.

You've all heard of that. But that was the final act which seems to have put the rebellion down for now. Moses said, all right, you leaders of all 12 tribes, you come and bring your rod and we'll put your names on each one and we'll put it in the ark and then the next day we'll come back and take a look at them. And when they came back, the rod of Aaron had actually sprouted branches and was bearing almonds, obviously a divine miracle of God, and demonstrated that Aaron was the one that God had chosen for the priesthood. The tribe of Levi alone was the one that God had chosen to serve him in the tabernacle. The fact that all are holy in one sense and all are a kingdom of kings and priests in one sense does not mean that everybody had equal authority, that everybody had the equal opportunity to serve God according to their chosen way. It meant that God still assigned authority and positions of service according to his sovereign rule.

And that needs to be recognized as well. So moving from what Korah did, we take up thirdly what this reveals about him, and several things are obvious. Number one, he had a rebellious heart.

That's pretty clear, isn't it? And what that leads us to realize is he had a rebellious heart because, like all of us, he was born with innate rebellion against his Creator, but he failed to subdue his rebellious spirit when he had knowledge of God, had scriptures from God, had every reason to know that it was his responsibility to subdue his rebellious spirit and bring it under the rule of God Almighty. He had a rebellious heart which he refused to suppress.

What else about him? Well, not surprisingly, therefore, he resented authority. Because he had a rebellious heart, he resented authority.

He resented human authority, Aaron and his authority as the priest, Moses and his authority as the supreme ruler over Israel at this time. But if you remember my reading number 16, if you were following closely, you saw a couple of times where Moses said to Korah, you are rebelling against God. You're rebelling against Aaron. You're rebelling against Moses. But because God has made these choices, God has indicated his will in this matter. Your unwillingness to accept my leadership, your unwillingness to accept Aaron's position of leadership means that you are rebelling against God's authority. You are resenting authority, not only human, but also divine.

What else about Korah? Well, we learn in all of this that he had an envious spirit. The reason he resented Aaron and the reason he rebelled against Aaron and against Moses in this way was because of envy that was in his heart.

We see that in one place in Psalm 106. We read in verse 16, when they envied Moses in the camp and Aaron, the saint of God, the earth opened up and swallowed Dathan and covered the faction of Abiram, and fire was kindled in their company, the flame burned up the wicked. And it began with that phrase when they envied Moses in the camp. It was envy. And that envy in envying Aaron and his position in the priesthood, and Abiram and Nathan envying Moses in his position of governing leadership, that produced in their hearts resentment against these men and eventually mutinous opposition against them. So Korah had an envious spirit. What else does this teach us about Korah? It teaches us that he was clever because this mutiny was well organized and large, seemingly overwhelming before Moses realized that it was going on.

How did he do that? How did he manage to organize all of these people, not only these two men from the tribe of Reuben, but these 250 leaders throughout the camp? And we don't know how many others. He had them all lined up, had them all organized. They all had their assignments. They were all ready to strike at the signal that came from him. And it was not until he had all this in place that he openly and publicly confronted Moses and Aaron. And that's when Moses realized what was going on. How was he able to do it so surreptitiously? It seems impossible, but he did it. And that demonstrates to me that this is an intelligent man.

This is a clever man. But the final thing we can say that this tells us about Korah is that he deserved severe judgment, which he received. But we see why he deserved that judgment. Which brings us, therefore, to question number four. What does this reveal about the intruders into the churches in the days of Jude?

Because that's why this illustration is given from history. Back to Jude, verse 11. Woe to them, who? These infiltrators that have come into the church who are actually messengers of Satan, but they present themselves as people of God, Christians, those who are serving the Lord God. Woe to them, for they have gone in the way of Cain, they have run greedily in the air of Balaam for profit, and perished in the rebellion of Korah. What does Korah's example tell us about these intruders that they are likened to? The intruders are likened to Korah in Jude's epistle.

Well, it makes it clear to us that they, like Korah, have rebellious hearts. They come mouthing Christian vocabulary. They come claiming to be followers of the Lord Jesus Christ.

They come speaking nice words about the church and the congregation and the people of the church and all of these things that will gain them entrance into the church. But unseen to the human eye, unseen only by God, is that they actually have rebellious hearts, and all of this is a ruse. All of this is to disguise who they are and what they are really doing. They really have rebellious hearts. What else does it suggest about them? It suggests that they, like Korah, are envious. I mean, if they're opposed to God and they don't want to be true followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, why don't they just go their way? Why do they want to come into churches?

Why do they want to create mischief within the churches of the Lord Jesus Christ? Because they have envious hearts at the blessings they see upon the people of God. Now, they're not willing to submit to the Lordship of Christ. They aren't willing to repent. They aren't willing to give up the sin of their sinful hearts.

They aren't willing to embrace the Lord Jesus Christ truly so that they might come into the church of God in a way to receive similar blessings. But nevertheless, they notice the blessings of God upon His people and they envy that and they resent that. And their response is to try to destroy as much of that as they possibly can.

They envy others. What else does it tell us about them? It tells us that they, like Korah, resent authority. They may mouth submission to authority, at least initially, but when they get in, they're going to do what they can to undermine the authority that God has vested within the leaders of the church. They resent authority.

What else does it tell us about the intruders? They, like Korah, scheme rebellion. They come in falsely for the purpose of damaging and destroying, for the purpose of stirring up trouble, stirring up problems. We sometimes shake our heads in disbelief at the number of church splits, the number of church fights, the number of problems that we see in so many of the churches of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Some people say, well, if that's the way churches are, I don't want anything to do with it. Ah, Satan, what a victory there, didn't he? Those were his messengers in there creating those problems and it had the effect on some people he hoped it would have. They scheme rebellion. But what else does it tell us about these intruders? It tells us that they, like Korah, will be severely judged.

It is absolutely certain. Our text in Jude tells us that they perished. That's translated as a past tense, isn't it? They perished in the rebellion of Korah. Jude is writing about men who are alive at the time he writes, but he writes about their judgment in the past tense as if it's already happened.

They perished in the rebellion of Korah. It's an aorist tense verb, but it's used in a perfective sense. So I'm told I can't explain that.

Don't ask me. I'm just telling you what I've read. But we see language like that a lot. We, for example, find Jesus inaugurating the new covenant when he had the disciples in the upper room over the Passover meal before his crucifixion. But he talks as if the crucifixion is already over and it's already done. This cup is the New Testament in my blood. Now, his blood hasn't been shed yet, but he speaks as if it already has. It is so certain.

That's the point. It is so certain. It is so unstoppable. It is so sure that it's as if it has already happened because there's no possibility that it won't happen, that it can't happen. It is sealed, signed, settled and guaranteed by Almighty God. And sure enough, within a few hours Christ died on the cross and a few more hours he rose again from the dead. And at that crucifixion on the cross, he shed his blood and there he inaugurated the new covenant that he had already pronounced inaugurated with the commencement of the Lord's table.

And it's the same thing here. These intruders, these rebels, these mischief seekers, these envious people, these pretenders who are not really yielded to the Lord Jesus Christ at all and are not faithful to Christ and wanting to advance the cause of Christ, just the opposite, their severe judgment is as certain as if it's already happened. That's encouragement to the people of God. God knows who they are and God will judge them surely. God will not let them go one step further than what can serve his purposes. But also it's a warning to those who are already in the churches who are receiving this epistle like true Christians who are in the same churches. You'd better repent or you're going to hell like Korah. It's certain if you don't repent of your sin.

They have perished because their doom is certain. Which brings me therefore to question number five. How does all of this apply to us?

Well, several things. Number one, we need to acknowledge our own innate rebellion. We need to acknowledge that the Bible is speaking truth when it tells us that we were conceived in iniquity and born in sin. That means that from our very conception, because we were conceived of fallen sons and daughters of Adam, from our very beginning, we had a fallen nature, a sinful, corrupted nature. We were born into the world that way. We were born with innate rebellion against God and against his word. And you can deny it all you want, and some people do. Some people have staked out their philosophy on the premise of the basic goodness of man.

Man is basically good. These things that make him look evil are aberrations, but that's not what the human family is really like. The human family is basically good. That's not what the Bible says. The Bible says the human family is basically sinful. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

There's none righteous, no, not one. We're all born with hearts of rebellion against God. We need to acknowledge that. We need to own it.

We need to confess it. And we need to seek God's help to subdue it, because if we don't subdue it, we will end up like Korah in the same judgment that he received. How does this apply to us? Number two, it reminds us that we must submit to divine authority. That, dear friends, is a primary issue in salvation. It's not just, certainly isn't just walking an aisle, praying a prayer, asking Jesus into your heart. It's a matter of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and his substitutionary death upon the cross. But the real issue here is to reverse your defiance, to reverse your rebellion, to reverse your unwillingness to live under the authority of Christ.

That's the difference. Those who are unwilling to believe are like the Jews in Christ's day. We will not have this man to rule over us. And folks, if you won't have this man to rule over you, then you are going to hear him say someday, depart from me, you workers of iniquity.

I never knew you. No matter how religious you are, no matter whether or not you're a church member, no matter or not whether you made a profession of faith, the real issue is, have you surrendered your heart to Christ? Have you subdued your heart to him? Have you acknowledged his right to rule over you? He is Lord. He is your creator. He has that right.

But from your birth, you are resisting and rejecting that right. And now the issue is, will you bow to his authority? And dear friends, that's the difference between the saved and the lost. And if you are saved today, it's because you have yielded to his authority. And if you haven't yielded to his authority, if you're still fighting that, then you are still lost. But even as submitted children of God, we also recognize that our Adamic sinfulness, which has not yet been eradicated and won't be till we get to heaven, works endlessly to try to pull us back to a heart of rebellion against him. And though that can never succeed completely with a child of God because of God's preserving work, there will be instances, maybe quite a few, in the hearts of the children of God when that old rebellious nature riles up and begins to act like Cora in resenting divine authority, in resenting human authority that God has ordained. We've got to recognize that, and we've got to acknowledge and confess it and ask God to help us to subdue it and keep yielding it back to the Lordship of Christ. How does this apply to us? Number three, we must guard against envy. If you'll read the Gospels carefully, you will remember that envy is the primary motive of the religious leaders against Christ.

The Bible tells us this. It was for envy that they put him to death. They were envious of the crowds that followed him. They were envious of the powerful words that he spoke. They were envious of the authority which he exercised and the power that he seemed to exercise over the minds and hearts of so many people. They were envious of that. They resented that, and they killed him for it. We better guard against envy. We also read in the New Testament that envy was the primary motive of the Jews in their opposition to Paul. They resented his success in preaching the Gospel and people coming to his ministry in numbers that they couldn't generate.

And out of envy, they opposed him, and they tried to stop and kill him and would have if they could have. You see, envy is a greater problem than most of us realize because it's inward. It's largely hidden.

It's going on inside. Other people can't see it unless we begin to act in the power of it. And unchecked envy leads to more visible signs of our sinful heart. It leads to more visible sins like chorus did eventually. But we can harbor envy in our hearts sometimes a long time before it manifests itself. But we better recognize it now, confess it now, subdue it now, ask God to rid our hearts of it now because it is a powerful emotion.

It is a powerful attribute that brings disastrous results. Going a step further on that, that tells me that every one of us need to gladly submit to God's appointed place of service in our lives because the envy of chorus was that he resented not being given a more prominent place of service. He was given a privileged place of service, denied to many, but that wasn't enough for him. He sounds very much like Lucifer who had the highest position in heaven under God, and that wasn't good enough for him. He wanted to be equal to God. How powerful is this envious motive within our hearts?

It can control us. You can say you believe in the sovereignty of God, but you can act like you don't. You can affirm that you believe in the sovereignty of God, but then resent that God doesn't give you this.

God doesn't give you that. God doesn't promote you in this way. God's sovereign. He has the right to promote whom he will. He has a right to demote whom he will.

And that's his choice. He's the sovereign ruler. He places his servants where he wants them to serve. Therefore, we must gladly serve God wherever he places us without resentment, thankful for the privilege of serving him. What else does this teach us? It teaches us that we must learn to submit to human authority that God has appointed.

God has appointed a certain structure of authority in the home. Let's quit resenting it. Let's submit to it.

We will if we are true believers. God has arranged a certain structure of authority in the church. Let's not rebel against that.

Let's submit to it. God has ordained the existence of human government. And yet I see a lot of people, a lot of Christians who live their whole lives with a seething resentment against human government, human authority.

They're always kicking against it. You better get over that, friend, because if you are not submitting yourselves to the authorities that God has appointed, you are not submitting yourself to the authority of God. Read Romans chapter 13. It's very clear about that. Be careful how you get swept up in politics. There's plenty that's wrong on the left. I can almost hear the amens.

There's plenty that's wrong on the right. We need to hear an equal number of amens because sin resides in all human hearts. Resentment of authority can be found on both sides of the aisle. Sin is where rebellion lurks in the hearts of all people. But God's true children submit to human authority that God has ordained. Now it's true if authorities command us to act contrary to the commands of Christ, then Christ's command always prevails. It trumps everything else. But otherwise, unless that happens, we have, listen to me, no righteous justification for rebellion against government, no matter how much we may not like it.

If you don't like it, take it up with the one who placed it there, God Almighty. The powers that be are ordained of God. Is that what the Bible says in Romans 13?

It is. The powers that be, the powers that exist, exist as being ordained by God. Submit to that. And realize the corrupting influence of discontent. If you are a discontented person who hasn't really submitted all of these areas of your life to the rule of Christ and sweetly surrendered to it, you are going to criticize, you are going to gossip, you are going to stir up resentment and envy in those around you, in your family, in your church, among others. And you are going to be a tool in the hand of Satan, the enemy of Christ, to try to bring about destruction to the work of Christ. Now, thankfully, you'll never completely destroy the church that Christ is building and guarantees that the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. But he didn't say that individual local churches couldn't be destroyed. The church will never be destroyed.

But plenty of congregations have been destroyed. And we better recognize how that happens and guard against it. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word that instructs us. Help us to receive it and believe it and to act upon it, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.