If God is not first in our lives then where is He?

Deut. {32:15} But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked: thou art waxen fat, thou art grown thick, thou art covered [with fatness;] then he forsook God [which] made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation.


Growing fat means what? That you have plenty, in fact that you have more than enough to eat. You are overeating right? To grow fat you have limited activity and excess intake of food- barring any medical conditions and let's suffice it to say that Jeshurun didn't have a medical condition. Jeshurun was being gluttonous, he was grown thick, covered in fat and... to top it all off, he forsook God which made him! He lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation!


How many of us forsake God and lightly esteem the Rock of our salvation? How many of us grow satisfied with what we have, with the things we've acquired, how many of us are happy with our lives and the excesses in them and we seek the excesses rather than God? We grow fat with our own desires, our own wants, our own pleasures and we forsake God for them. Denying ourselves is something shunned as being a good work and God forbid we try to do good works thinking they'll save us. Good works will never save us, never. But not denying ourselves, not taking up our cross, not living for Christ, as Christ, not living for God we are forsaking Him. We console our consciences by saying God would want us to be happy. God would understand. And yes, God understands He really does and He knows when our hearts are caught up in ourselves rather than in Him, He knows us better than we know ourselves.


Do we want to forsake God, to lightly esteem the Rock of our salvation? What is the end of that?


Deut.
{32:16} They provoked him to jealousy with strange [gods,] with abominations provoked they him to anger. {32:17} They sacrificed unto devils, not to God; to gods whom they knew not, to new [gods that] came newly up, whom your fathers feared not. {32:18} Of the Rock [that] begat thee thou art unmindful, and hast forgotten God that formed thee. {32:19} And when the LORD saw [it,] he abhorred [them,] because of the provoking of his sons, and of his daughters. {32:20} And he said, I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end [shall be:] for they [are] a very froward generation, children in whom [is] no faith. {32:21} They have moved me to jealousy with [that which is] not God; they have provoked me to anger with their vanities: and I will move them to jealousy with [those which are] not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation. {32:22} For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains. {32:23} I will heap mischiefs upon them; I will spend mine arrows upon them. {32:24} [They shall be] burnt with hunger, and devoured with burning heat, and with bitter destruction: I will also send the teeth of beasts upon them, with the poison of serpents of the dust. {32:25} The sword without, and terror within, shall destroy both the young man and the virgin, the suckling [also] with the man of gray hairs. {32:26} I said, I would scatter them into corners, I would make the remembrance of them to cease from among men: {32:27} Were it not that I feared the wrath of the enemy, lest their adversaries should behave themselves strangely, [and] lest they should say, Our hand is high, and the LORD hath not done all this. {32:28} For they [are] a nation void of counsel, neither [is there any] understanding in them. {32:29} O that they were wise, [that] they understood this, [that] they would consider their latter end! {32:30} How should one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, except their Rock had sold them, and the LORD had shut them up? {32:31} For their rock [is] not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves [being] judges. {32:32} For their vine [is] of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah: their grapes [are] grapes of gall, their clusters [are] bitter: {32:33} Their wine [is] the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps. {32:34} [Is] not this laid up in store with me, [and] sealed up among my treasures? {32:35} To me [belongeth] vengeance, and recompence; their foot shall slide in [due] time: for the day of their calamity [is] at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste. {32:36} For the LORD shall judge his people, and repent himself for his servants, when he seeth that [their] power is gone, and [there is] none shut up, or left. {32:37} And he shall say, Where [are] their gods, [their] rock in whom they trusted, {32:38} Which did eat the fat of their sacrifices, [and] drank the wine of their drink offerings? let them rise up and help you, [and] be your protection. {32:39} See now that I, [even] I, [am] he, and [there is] no god with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither [is there any] that can deliver out of my hand. {32:40} For I lift up my hand to heaven, and say, I live for ever. {32:41} If I whet my glittering sword, and mine hand take hold on judgment; I will render vengeance to mine enemies, and will reward them that hate me. {32:42} I will make mine arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh; [and that] with the blood of the slain and of the captives, from the beginning of revenges upon the enemy. {32:43} Rejoice, O ye nations, [with] his people: for he will avenge the blood of his servants, and will render vengeance to his adversaries, and will be merciful unto his land, [and] to his people.


God is an exacting God and He will claim vengeance as His, not ours, but His. When a person hurts another God claims the right to punish in ways we have no power to punish with. If our pain can lead one to Christ praise God that our pain was not in vain. We have to seek God not forsake Him. We have to esteem the Rock of our salvation, not lightly regard Him.


If God is not first in our lives then where is He? Who is first in our lives? We have to ask ourselves these questions, we have to learn the answers because God knows and He will hold us accountable for knowing as well.


2 Tim. {2:15} Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.


Show thyself approved unto God.


1 Tim. {5:22} ...keep thyself pure.


1 Tim. {4:16} Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee.


Ro. {14:22} Hast thou faith? have [it] to thyself before God. Happy [is] he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he
alloweth.


We are to look to ourselves. We are to take heed to ourselves. We are to have faith before God. We are to show ourselves approved unto God. For those who say it is wrong to take our lives under scrutiny, that we are wrong to believe that our actions mean something, I say the Word of God says otherwise.


No, all the scrutiny in the world will not save us, but out of our love for God we will do His will and know what we are doing. We can't use the excuse in the day of the Lord that we were confused, not when the Word of God enlightens us.


By faith we seek Christ and repent, confessing our sins and giving our lives over to Him fully. By the mercy and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ now and forever.


Amen.

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