GETTING THE CART BEFORE THE HORSE

Isa 5:20 Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
5:21 Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight:
5:22 Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink:
5:23 Which justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him!
5:24 Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust: because they have cast away the law of the LORD of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.
5:25 Therefore is the anger of the LORD kindled against his people, and he hath stretched forth his hand against them, and hath smitten them: and the hills did tremble, and their carcases were torn in the midst of the streets. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

Intro. Old timers can remember how difficult it was to back up with a team and a wagon. In fact, it was impossible with a four horse or more hitch! Very few truck drivers on the highway today can back up with a set of doubles. Some things just aren't designed to operate in reverse.
Many of man's current problems stem from putting the cart before the horse and trying to reverse God's prescribed order of things.

I In human relationships:
A. Single people living like married people and married people acting like they are single.
Marriage gives Purpose and protection to the husband; ( from disease and loneliness). Statistically married men live longer.
To the wife (protection and a stable environment in which to nurture children)
To the children (security and guidance).
To Society: Much of society's problems are directly related to the breakdown of the family through government intervention in parental control and by the emancipation of immature young people by supporting them to lead promiscuous lives, spawning an entire generation who know nothing but poverty and not even knowing who their father is, much less having him as a constant in their lives.

B. Women: who leave nothing to the imagination in their dress in public. Forget about being provocative and enticing to strangers and try being pleasing to your husbands. When women hid their charms from all but their husbands, men were pleased with marriage because that's where the excitement was. But when women show off in public and appear at the breakfast table looking like last week's noodle casserole, it is no wonder that he finds others more attractive while other men find HER attractive.

C. Husbands: remember too that kissing a man with a two day growth of stubble is like trying to show affection to a porcupine! She married a well-groomed, considerate man and deserves a well-groomed, considerate husband.

D. Husbands and Wives: vows mean something.
Ecc. 5:4 When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for he hath no pleasure in fools: pay that which thou hast vowed.
Once you have chosen a mate and committed your life to that person, the 'shopping' is over! "Looking to lust" is adultery.
Matt 5:28 But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.
Admiring another person of either sex is not the same as 'looking to lust'. My father used to say, " You can't keep the birds from flying over your head, but you can keep them from building a nest in your hair".
Proverbs 5:18 Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth.

Song of Sol 4:8 Come with me from Lebanon, my spouse, with me from Lebanon: look from the top of Amana, from the top of Shenir and Hermon, from the lions' dens, from the mountains of the leopards.
9 Thou hast ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse; thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes, with one chain of thy neck.
10 How fair is thy love, my sister, my spouse! how much better is thy love than wine! and the smell of thine ointments than all spices!
11 Thy lips, O my spouse, drop as the honeycomb: honey and milk are under thy tongue; and the smell of thy garments is like the smell of Lebanon.
12 A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed.
13 Thy plants are an orchard of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits; camphire, with spikenard,
14 Spikenard and saffron; calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense; myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices:
15 A fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, and streams from Lebanon.

Can't talk like a poet? Then tell her she's as cute as a bug's ear or a speckled pup under a little red wagon; Or, as beautiful as a schematic for a computer on the finest parchment with india ink; Or like an Excalibur with 49 coats of hand-rubbed lacquer, but stay away from such endearments as, " There's another gray hair, woman, you're getting old!"

II. Getting the cart before the horse in familial relationships

Family members should receive at least as much concern and respect as we show outsiders.

1. Try serving your family a 'company' dinner on the 'good china'. Not because it is a special day, but because they are special people.

2. Be as attentive to your own children as you are to their friends.

3. Consider each other as brother and sister in the Lord just as you do other church brethren.

4. Children: The Bible says you are to honor your father and mother. Why are you more polite to your friends' parents than to your own? If you smarted off to your friends' parents the way you do to your own, they would surely send you home.

5. If you would turn off the television to talk to a neighbor, why not do it to visit with your own family?

6. Friends: We seem to think that the closer the friendship, the less sensitive we need to be. Step on a stranger's foot and "I'm sorry, it's all my fault; please forgive me, etc. etc." Step on a friend's foot and the usual reaction is, "Keep your big feet out of my way!" Friends are priceless. Treat them with dignity.
Proverbs 27:9 Ointment and perfume rejoice the heart: so doth the sweetness of a man's friend by hearty counsel.

III Getting the cart before the horse in Morality.

A. A young lady states that she is saving herself for marriage and she is labeled as 'cold' or at least called a 'Pollyanna' or 'better than thou' or even held up to ridicule.

B. Ship a pregnant lobster across a state line and be subject to a fine. Destroy an egg in a condor's or eagle's nest and go to jail. Kill a million or so babies and be hailed as a HERO who has done mankind a great service!

C. Homosexuals being hailed as liberated intellectuals while those who believe God's prohibition of such a 'lifestyle' is valid are greeted as cerebral troglodytes. Homosexuality and the shedding of innocent blood are two of the reasons God has sent judgment on nations in the past. See Genesis 19:1-25 and Joel 3:19

D. Vicious killers make fortunes writing books to 'illuminate' the rest of the population as to the thrill of crime. Drug and sexual offenders being put through a program and then rewarded with counseling jobs.

E. Our children are given mental garbage to 'expand' their horizons while the Bible is ridiculed or banned (Suzy has two mommies)

F. The humanist is praised as he dethrones God and deifies man. 'Evangelicals' are ridiculed, but make no mistake about it , humanists are very evangelistic in their indoctrinating our school children from K thru college.

IV Getting the cart before the horse in Spiritual things.

A. Churches started our educational system to educate children so they could take the gospel to the heathen. Now, we allow the heathen to educate the children so they will discard the word of God.

B. Churches are to be the light of the world and show the way for those in darkness to come to the truth, yet many churches and members seek enlightenment from those in the world on how to make it through another day.

C. Churches are to enforce God's standards of righteous living in their membership.
I Cor 5:4; In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,
5 To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
6 Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?
7 Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:
8.Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
9 I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators:
10 Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world.
11 But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat.
12 For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within?
13 But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.

II Thess 3:14 And if any man obey not our word by this epistle, note that man, and have no company with him, that he may be ashamed.
15 Yet count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother.

Titus 3:10. A man that is an heretic after the first and second admonition reject;
Often, however, we are more concerned with family ties and misguided love for the offender than we are for the love of God and His commandments.