1. Stance on Sin
The late president Calvin Coolidge returned home from church one Sunday afternoon and found his wife sitting in the chair. Unable to go that day, she was interested in what the preacher had to say. She asked her husband what the preacher spoke about and he said, ¡°Sin.¡±
Like most women, a one word answer was just not satisfactory, so she pressed him for more details. Finally he responded to her by saying, ¡°Well, I think he was against it.¡±
2. God IS against sin
a. Reason for the DBR
b. Reason he disciplines his people
c. Reason for the destruction of some nations
4 ¡°Do not say in your heart, after the LORD your God has thrust them out before you, ¡®It is because of my righteousness that the LORD has brought me in to possess this land¡¯; whereas it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD is driving them out before you. 5 Not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart are you going in to possess their land; but because of the wickedness of these nations the LORD your God is driving them out from before you, and that he may confirm the word which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. Deuteronomy 9.4-5
3. God sometimes disciplines us by giving us what we want (Quail)
18 And say to the people, ¡®Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, and you shall eat meat, for you have wept in the hearing of the LORD, saying, ¡°Who will give us meat to eat? For it was better for us in Egypt.¡± Therefore the LORD will give you meat, and you shall eat. 19 You shall not eat just one day, or two days, or five days, or ten days, or twenty days, 20 but a whole month, until it comes out at your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you, because you have rejected the LORD who is among you and have wept before him, saying, ¡°Why did we come out of Egypt?¡± Numbers 11.18-20
4. Consider Romans 1.18-32
5. Occasions when God gives in to us:
I. Idolatry in Worship (1.22-25)
A. God Prohibits Idolatry (Exodus 20.3-6)
1. We become like what we worship
2. Reason God is zealous/jealous about us
B. Yet We Practice It
1. Ignoring God
2. Empowering demons ¨C 15 ¡°But Jeshurun grew fat, and kicked; you grew fat, stout, and sleek; then he forsook God who made him and scoffed at the Rock of his salvation. 16 They stirred him to jealousy with strange gods; with abominations they provoked him to anger. 17 They sacrificed to demons that were no gods, to gods they had never known, to new gods that had come recently, whom your fathers had never dreaded. Deuteronomy 32.15-17
3. Babylon ¨C all the gods you could ever want
¡°The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron; with a point of diamond it is engraved on the tablet of their heart, and on the horns of their altars, 2 while their children remember their altars and their Ashe¡ärim, beside every green tree, and on the high hills, 3 on the mountains in the open country. Your wealth and all your treasures I will give for spoil as the price of your sin throughout all your territory. 4 You shall loosen your hand from your heritage which I gave to you, and I will make you serve your enemies in a land which you do not know, for in my anger a fire is kindled which shall burn for ever.¡± 5 Thus says the LORD: ¡°Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his arm, whose heart turns away from the LORD. Jeremiah 17.1-5
4. American Idols? $$ -- inflation/printing ¨C soon much money and unable to buy
II. Immorality in Lifestyle (1.26-27)
A. God Knows the Best Lifestyle for Us ¨C Matthew 19.4ff
1. Pagans ¨C no morals ¨C Rome was a cesspool of immorality
2. God gave instructions
B. We Want to Change God¡¯s Standards
1. Way past divorce on demand and remarriage
2. Now ¨C ¡°Alternative Lifestyle¡±
a. Tolerance and acceptance
b. Examples of Curricula in schools ¨C ¡°Normal Relationship¡±; Preachers arrested for hate speech crimes ¨C Europe/Canada/soon to be USA; San Diego Preacher arrested for leading a bible study in his home; some churches are adding ¡°Bail¡± to budgets
3. Aggressive Gays and Lesbians [Nazi Leadership ¨C Gay Lifestyle//trying to ban Bible
4. Christians have been silent ¨C ¡°PC¡±; getting what we appeared to want
III. Imagination in High Gear (1.28-32)
A. Do Your Own Thing
1. Selfishness
2. Ingratitude
As an Occupy Wall Street couple strolled down the street, he fellow said to his traveling companion: ¡°I am going over to pick up my unemployment check. Then I¡¯ll drop in at the university to see what¡¯s holding up my check for my federal education grant. After that I¡¯ll pick up our food stamps. Meanwhile, you go over to the free clinic and check your tests, pick up my new glasses at the health center, then go to the Welfare Department and apply for an increase in our eligibility limit. Then I¡¯ll meet you at 5 o¡¯clock at the Federal Building for the mass demonstration against the rotten Establishment.¡±
B. Reality ¨C Can¡¯t Make it on our own
I know, O LORD, that the way of man is not in himself, that it is not in man who walks to direct his steps. Jeremiah 10.23
1. Overindulgence
Richard Wumbrand, in Voice of the Martyrs wrote: ¡°The great hindrance to spreading the gospel in communist lands was not the Iron Curtain. We have easily broken through that. The hindrance is the Silk Curtain of easy living.
I saw in Miami an ocean show in which a barefooted man fought with an alligator. He hit him with a stick on his head and drew him by his tail. The alligator snapped occasionally at him but never did him any harm.
I asked the man: ¡®You seem healthy. You can make your living in some other manner. One day the alligator will bite you, and you will be gone.¡¯ He answered, ¡®Out of the question.¡¯ Marveling about his assurance, I asked him if he had an agreement with the alligator. He said: ¡®No, but before every show the alligator is over-fed. An over-fed alligator does not bite.¡¯ This is the situation of many Christians in the free world.¡±
2. God can discipline us with the negative in giving us what we want
3. He can bless in the positive by giving us what we want ¨C if it is the right want
3 Trust in the LORD, and do good;
so you will dwell in the land, and enjoy security.
4 Take delight in the LORD,
and he will give you the desires of your heart. Psalm 37.3-4
4. We have one major decision ¨C God or me?
