Good morning and welcome in everybody. 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.
When I was in high school, I used to do a lot of snorkeling around our lake. I would strap on my fins and my goggles, and before I knew it, I was like a fish in the water, swimming through areas that most people would never get to see. In some respects, I guess it was like landing on the moon or walking across the dunes of Mars. For a few hours during the hot summer afternoons, I was an aquatic astronaut, bringing up rocks and interesting things that I had found on the bottom of the lake. But whenever I went diving, there were occasions that you didn’t realize how deep that you actually were. A lot of the time, I would be completely focused on all of the new things around me, and would follow the contour of the floor bed. But when you do this, it can be really hard to discern how deep that you actually are in the water. The floor bed is not level all the time, and if you were not paying attention, you could quickly find yourself deeper than you could ever imagine.
This reminds me of the Christian Life.
When you follow the contour of this world, it can be very deceiving. It can make you feel like everything is fine, right up until the moment when you finally realize how far away from God that you actually are. The world wants to suffocate us, by pulling us into the depths of sin, and those who are not paying attention will eventually find themselves way over their head.
“There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” Proverbs 16:25
This world can capture one’s attention like the scenery at the bottom of a lake, taking our focus off of the things that God wants us to be doing with our lives. Each day that passes, another moment of fresh air is being depleted from our hearts, and unless it’s replenished through repentance, people are going to perish. Sin wants to pull us down into the depths of the sea, choking us with its pleasures, and depriving us of life.
Mark 4 ¹⁸ And these are they which are sown among thorns; such as hear the word, ¹⁹ And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful.
The teachings of God’s Word can be suffocated in one’s life, just like running out of air on the bottom of the lake. This results when one’s mind becomes preoccupied with Earthly things, rather than focusing on the will of God. The deeper into the world that you dive, the further away from God you will become, depriving us of the life-giving oxygen that we need to survive. We must quickly head for the surface and draw nigh unto God, turning away from the world, for a breath of fresh air.
James 4 ⁸ Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. ⁹ Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. ¹⁰ Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.
When I was young, I spent most of my summer vacation swimming down by the beach. Like many others back then, we would save up all of our bleach bottles to use them as markers in the lake. We would anchor them to the bottom with a rope so we knew where the drop off was. Although I was a certified lifeguard, some of the other children didn’t know how to swim, and if they were going to go out beyond those markers, they were risking their own necks. God’s Word is a marker on the shoreline of life, showing us our boundaries and keeping us inside of the swimming area. But for those who are going to venture outside the teachings of our faith, are asking for trouble, testing the patience of a merciful God and mocking the kindness of His grace.
Hebrews 10 ²⁶ For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, ²⁷ But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. ²⁸ He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: ²⁹ Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace? ³⁰ For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people. ³¹ It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
Sin results from trusting in your own heart, rather than the will of God. It is to follow your own counsel rather than the counsel of Christ. Some people will follow love rather than following God, but the only way that we can understand true love is by submission to the will of God. Sinners love sinners, fornicators love fornicators, adulterers love adulterers, but without repentance, all of them will be cast into a lake of fire. Earthly love is not the answer, Jesus is! No one should ever follow their own heart, because it can never be trusted. With some of the older vehicles that I have owned, I carried an extra gas can with me. I could never depend on some of the fuel gauges because I would run out of gas without any notice at all. I didn’t trust the gauges and neither should any man trust his own heart. To do so is to walk on the path of the foolish, finding yourself stranded in the middle of the woods, and miles away from the nearest gas station.
“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” Jeremiah 17:9
A man of God has a heart for God, which means that his greatest love is satisfied through serving the Lord Jesus and becoming obedient to His purpose. Like Moses, like John the Baptist, like the Apostle Paul, each of us need to be transformed from sinners into saints, and success all depends on who or what you are going to love most in this world. Jesus loved the Heavenly Father unto death, faithfully obedient all the way to the cross. If we desire eternal life, we are going to have to swim to the surface and do the will of God from our hearts.
1 John 2 ¹⁵ Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. ¹⁶ For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. ¹⁷ And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.
If you ever go snorkeling, be careful about how deep that you get. Following the landscape of this world can be very deceiving and you can plunge in deeper than you ever imagined. If this happens, some people will look up and realize that they are far too deep to swim to the top. Judas and Esau were the same way. Many people are going to come short of the kingdom of God. Rather than trusting in Christ, they will suffocate in their own sins. Instead of repenting and coming quickly to the surface, they will be ensnared by the world, trapped on the bottom, without oxygen, and surrounded by waters that are…..
…..Over Their Head
Let’s think about these things for right now. We can be found on your web browser by searching, tlkjbc where you can find our diaries distributed through various platforms. We are not associated, nor affiliated with any other religious groups. You can get our entire podcast feeds directly, along with transcripts at tlkjbc.com or I suppose that you could find us somewhere up here, in the Great Northern Minnesota woods. Peace to you all, and Lord willing, we will talk with you some more tomorrow. Till then, bye bye everybody.
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