Goodmorning and welcome in everyone. Today, we are going to take a look at a passage of scripture, but before we do that I wanted to tell you a little story.
Andrew and I like to jump in the boat and go catch fish on occasion. There’s a lot of lakes in northern Minnesota and we catch sunfish, bass and Northern Pike. When the fishing season begins, we need to prepare our fishing rods with fresh fishing line. Sometimes when you’re casting out on the lake, especially with an old push button fishing rod, the line can get extremely tangled inside on the spool, so tangled that there’s nothing that you can do but throw it on the bottom of the boat and grab a completely different rod. It isn’t good for anything anymore.
This reminds me of the Christian Life.
When we decide to become a christian, there is no turning back. Before a person even considers becoming a Christian, they need to understand what they are doing. They must count the cost beforehand, considering if you are going to complete what you have started.
The Christian Life is about turning from sin to become a new creature. Through God’s grace in Christ Jesus, He washes our past sins away through Holy baptism, so that we can have a fresh start as we begin to turn away from all of those things that are displeasing in his sight. Sadly, there will be those who after they have lived the Christian Life, even for many years, will depart the faith. After being freed from sin, through obedience to the teachings of Christ, they get entangled with sin all over again.
2 Peter 2:20-22 For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.
There are many animals who become entangled in snares. Once they get caught in it, they simply can’t get out of it. Many people have used gill nets for the same purpose. They throw a gill net into the water to catch fish. The fish become so entangled in the net, that they cannot free themselves or cut loose from it. Some people will turn away from the Christian Life and get involved with the things that they used to do in their past. Christianity is about turning away from that old sinful lifestyle, so we can live a life that is pleasing unto the Lord Jesus.
In the church we are undergoing a sanctification and purification process from sin. That means we shouldn’t have a desire to live in sin anymore. If any man sins, we do have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, but the point is that we should not desire to sin. We might make a mistake. We might goof up and do something wrong. You might say something and slip up, but God gives us grace so that we can eventually do His perfect will from our hearts. He gives us lots of Grace, 70 * 7, and wants us to be that forgiving with others in the church. God gives us grace so we can clean up our lives from sin that pollutes our soul.
Sometimes when I think about pollution, I think about a giant oil spill in the gulf of Mexico. I have visions in my head of seabirds who land and get stuck and entangled in the oil that is floating on top of the water. They cannot fly anymore. They were once free and clean, but now they are entangled in that oil and cannot get out, which leads to their death. That’s very much like the Christian Life. We cleanse ourselves from sinful living and are trying to do things that please God, but some people are going to turn away from that heartfelt desire and start to live in sin all over again. They return to what they left behind.
After they get all cleaned up through the knowledge of Christ Jesus, they turn away from the church, and they turn back to the world from which they left in the first place. Their love for sin becomes greater than a love for Christ. When someone is overcome, it means that they refuse to repent, and won’t change their way, they just pick up living their old life of sin all over again. Lots wife did the same thing when she was saved from the punishment of Sodom and Gommorah. If she had not turned back to the past, she could have been fine, but she couldn’t let it go and was destroyed. When we choose to become a Christian there is no turning back. Those who do so, will suffer far worse things than they ever have dealt with in their life before. it would have been better off if they never had never become a Christian in the first place.
Matthew 26:24 The Son of man goeth as it is written of him: but woe unto that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! it had been good for that man if he had not been born.
The people in our passage have been educated in the way of righteousness, but eventually turn away from it to return to a life of fornication, lasciviousness and other sin. They know that it’s wrong, but they simply don’t care anymore.
………..But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.
Vomit is something that is expelled out of your body. It is something that you’re stomach rejects. As a Christian, we expel sin from our lives, like throwing it up and getting rid of it out of our bodies. These people purify their own lives, but then they return to that vomit of sinful living. The things that were once expelled from there body, they put right back in.
Proverbs 26:11 As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly.
A woman gets cleaned up from all of her sin, and begins to live a life of obedience to God. She faithfully serves Christ Jesus, doing what’s good in right, but then completely turns away from it, choosing to jump back into the mud of sin. She has become so ensnared in sin, that she doesn’t even care about returning to do the will of God. When a person gets to that point, it’s like jumping off the deep end of a pool that doesn’t have any water in it. Its going to hurt. What do they expect, if they turn away from the one who gave His own precious life for their salvation, and died on the cross to save them from their sin?
With willful impenitence, they choose to walk off on the teachings of Christ, choosing their own direction, only to get entangled with sin all over again; caught in the snares of darkness, and trapped within…..
…..The Gill Net
Let’s think about these things for right now, and Lord willing, we will talk with you some more tomorrow. Till then, bye bye everybody. ❤️
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Teufer Lake King James Bible Church 