FORGET NONE OF HIS BENEFITS
volume 20, number 13, April 1, 2021
“Yet in spite of all this her treacherous sister Judah did not return to Me with all her heart, but rather in deception,” declares the Lord.” -Jeremiah 3:10
You are at a party one Thursday night in north Jefferson County. You had to get up very early that morning for a business meeting so by the time you get to the party you are already very tired. On top of that you ate two dishes of pasta and had a couple of glasses of wine. It’s getting late so you tell your hosts you must leave. In walking out the door you tell them that you are planning to take the back roads leading east back to Trussville, Alabama where you live. One of your friends overhears that comment and says, “The bridge is out going over the Warrior River. They began construction last week.” You hear what your friend is saying but you dismiss it. After all, signs have been up for over a year warning of construction and the bridge being out of commission. Even last week on your way home from a business call you drove right by those signs over the bridge and there was no construction whatsoever. The night is moonless and foggy. You are very sleepy but you really need to get home so you proceed on the short cut. Just as you are approaching the Warrior River you see the familiar sign, “Bridge Out, 1/2 Mile.” You drive on. About twenty seconds later you see another sign, “Bridge Out, 1/4 Mile.” You keep driving, Finally you come to the bridge and you see warning lights flashing. Finally you see a flood light illuminating the bridge, making it very clear to you that the bridge, in fact, is out. If you were to continue you would drive right off the road into the Warrior River, some fifty feet below.
The warning signs in Scripture are plenteous. “He who commits adultery is a fool. He who would destroy himself does it,” (Prov.6:32). “Marriage is to be held in honor among all, and the marriage bed is to be undefiled; for fornicators and adulterers God will judge,” (Hebrews 13:4). “Do you see a person wise in their own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for them,” (Prov.16:12). “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God,” (1 Cor.6:9,10). “If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified them, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know Him who said, ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ and again, ‘The Lord will judge His people.’ It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God,” (Heb.10:26-31).
Would you not agree that our tendency is often to pay scant attention to the warnings of Scripture? “I am fudging a little bit in business but I don’t think it is a big deal. Everybody exaggerates a bit on what they promise to deliver. God must be ‘okay’ with it since nothing really bad has happened to me.” “I am faithful to my wife but I really need a little bit more. An out of town liaison once in a while is not really that big a deal is it? I would never leave my wife for another woman.” Paul the apostle warns us that fornicators, adulterers, idolators, homosexual, drunkards, thieves, and those who love money are not going to make heaven, no matter what their profession of faith. But we really don’t think He means it. We really don’t think our sin is a big deal. We confess our sins from time to time but we rarely make progress in overcoming them to some degree. Why is that? And what does this have to do with revival?
We have been looking a great deal at 2 Chronicles 7:14 concerning the topic of revival which we agree is vital for our nation. God has clearly stated the remedy, the means by which revival will come. We must humble ourselves. We must pray. We must seek the face of God. And we must turn from our wicked ways. I pointed out a couple of weeks ago that the motive for turning from our wicked ways is not merely to gain some measure of peace or relief from problems. Rather it is a vivid fear of hell, eternal separation from God. Without a healthy fear of God manifested in a fear of going to hell when we die we will not get serious about turning away from our evil ways. Then I showed the object away from which we turn—sin, Satan, death, and the flesh; and the object to which we turn—God.
But now we briefly take up the manner in which we turn. Yes we are to turn to God but what does that look like? After all, Jeremiah records the words of Yahweh to Judah, the wayward, idolatrous “sister” of Israel. They were committing harlotry, just as Israel did, with stones and trees. Repeatedly Jeremiah called the people of Judah to return to the Lord but they gave only feigned obedience to Him (Ps.66:3). They did not return to Him with all their heart. Rather they returned in lip service, deception. So what does it mean to return to God with your heart? Consider these admonitions from Scripture. “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands you sinners and purify your hearts you double minded,” (James 4:8). “You will seek Me and find Me when you search for me will all your heart,” (Jere.29:13). “Rend your hearts and not your garments,” (Joel 2:13). You have turned to God with all your heart when your eyes are finally open to see the grave danger of your sin or the sin you are contemplating. You know the warnings. You hear the preacher or your friends warning you “not to go there.” But until now you have blown it off. You have thought you can handle the issue just fine. But now God has taken you from darkness to light. Now you see the horrific nature and consequences of your sin. You see that your sin could be a terrible stumbling block to your children or other believers. After all, Jesus said that if any of us cause a little one to stumble then it would be better for him to have a millstone hung around his neck and cast into the sea (Mark 9:42). The Holy Spirit has turned you from darkness to light, from the dominion of Satan to the kingdom of God. This is not a one time event. Yes, this is true in the context of salvation but it also has a necessary daily dimension as well.
My friends, until we see the truly wretched nature of our sin and what it does to us now, what it could potentially do to us in eternity, and how it adversely affects our loved ones, friends, and even people we do not know, then we will never hate our sin, and if we do not hate it, then we will not make progress in mortifying it.
What are your current “wicked ways?” Could it be the way you speak to your spouse or your children? Could it be your secret life of soft porn? Could it be unethical business practices? Could it be your love of money, position, or power? God will not hear from heaven if we fail to humble ourselves, if we fail to pray, if we fail to seek His face, or if we fail to turn from our wicked ways with the proper motive, with the proper object in mind, and with the proper manner, doing so from the heart. Your sin can destroy you, your family, your good name, your testimony, and maybe even your soul in hell. Heed the warnings of Scripture. May God open our eyes to the dreadful nature of secret sin and may we make Biblical progress in Biblical holiness.
FORGET NONE OF HIS BENEFITS 
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