PLANTING GOD’S FLOWERS IN THE DEVIL’S DIRT
Topic: COMPROMISE
Illustration: Don’t Negotiate With Satan
A hunter raised his rifle and took careful aim at a large bear. When about to pull the trigger, the bear spoke in a soft soothing voice, "Isn’t it better to talk than to shoot? What do you want? Let’s negotiate the matter." Lowering his rifle, the hunter replied, "I want a fur coat." "Good," said the bear, "that is a negotiable question. I only want a full stomach, so let us negotiate a compromise."
They sat down to negotiate and after a time the bear walked away alone. The negotiations had been successful. The bear had a full stomach, and the hunter had his fur coat!
Satan says to you, "Let us negotiate." But there are some things that cannot be negotiable.
We cannot negotiate or compromise the church with the world.
Everywhere you see a compromise struck in the Bible you also see a loss.
Adam compromised God’s law and fell right in with his wife’s sin. He lost paradise.
Abraham compromised the truth and lied about Sarah. He almost lost his wife.
Sarah compromised God’s Word and sent Abraham to her servant, Hagar, who bore Ishmael. We lost peace in the Middle East.
Esau compromised for a meal with Jacob. He lost his birthright.
Aaron compromised his convictions about idolatry. He lost the privilege of seeing the Promised Land.
Samson compromised righteous devotion as a Nazarite. He lost his hair, his strength, his eyes, and his life.
David compromised the moral standard of God and committed adultery with Bathsheba and murdered Uriah. He lost his child.
Solomon compromised his convictions and married foreign wives. He lost the united kingdom.
Ahab compromised and married Jezebel. He lost his throne.
Ananias and Sapphira compromised their word about giving. They lost their lives.
Judas compromised his supposed love for Christ for thirty pieces of silver. He lost his eternal soul.
When we compromise with the world we lose our fellowship with God.
We compromise when we Justifying Wrong Behavior
When a person tries to justify his wrong behavior by pointing to the conduct of others, he isn’t aiming high enough.
This is also true if he patterns himself after someone who gives the Lord only partial obedience.
A college student learned this lesson when he was reprimanded by the school president for misbehavior. The young fellow offered this lame excuse for his questionable conduct:
“But, Sir, you’d find it difficult to locate 10 men in this school who wouldn’t have done as I did if they had been in my circumstances.”
The president replied, “Has it ever occurred to you that you could have been one of those 10?”
Daniel 1:1-20
The life of Daniel is the story of a young man that “Lived a Life Without Compromise.” The setting for the book of Daniel is during the third year reign of Jehoidakim king of Judah. Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon occupied the territory of Judah.
Nebuchadnezzar’s father, Nabopolassar was the reigning monarch of the kingdom of Babylon. While Nebuchadnezzar was gathering the treasurers and hostages in Judea when an emergency call came from Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar’s father had died and he needed to go back home.
Among the hostages Nebuchadnezzar took with him back to Babylon were Daniel and his three friends. Daniel was from a royal family and only a teenager at the time as were his three friends also teenagers. They were forced to travel 1,500 miles to Babylon.
Daniel 1:3-5: Nebuchadnezzar was a smart political leader. He chose the most gifted princes from Judah and planned to train them to team up with him as political leaders. Nebuchadnezzar ordered his chief officer to “bring in some of the Israelites from the royal family and the nobility – young men without any physical defect, handsome, showing aptitude for every kind of learning, well informed, quick to understand, and qualified to serve in the king’s palace. He was to teach them the language and literature of the Babylonians. The kind assigned them a daily amount of food and wine from the king’s table. They were to be trained for three years, and after that they were to enter the king’s service.”
Daniel 1:8: “But Daniel (along with his three friends) resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and win, and he (Daniel) asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way.”
With unshakable conviction, Daniel and his companions revealed their extraordinary gifts of wisdom and character. Whether they should eat the king’s food was much more than a questions of expedience or health. It related to the integrity of their vows of consecration as Hebrews to the God of Israel.
Regardless of the cost they would not defile themselves by eating any food dedicated to false gods.
Daniel and his friends were committed to living a life without compromise.
The Danger of COMPROMISE is this;
1st there is a NATURAL DRIFT FROM HOLINESS
People do not drift toward holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord.
1. We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance;
2. We drift toward disobedience and call it freedom;
3. We drift toward superstition and call it faith.
4. We cherish the indiscipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation;
5. We slouch toward prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism;
6. We slide toward godlessness and convince ourselves we have been liberated.
2nd It is impossible to compromise with sin and conquer it at the same time.
You can’t have it both ways!!
Paul Harvey tells the story of the uncertain soldier in our Civil War who, figuring to play it safe, dressed himself in a blue coat and gray pants and tiptoed out onto the field of battle. He got shot from both directions! Ouch!!!
1. What about times when we are tempted to compromise our faith or beliefs?
2. Will we stay strong or try and wear the blue and gray? Think about it!
3rd When you try to please everybody, you will end up pleasing nobody.
When an individual or a congregation has the attitude of compromise in regard to spiritual values and truths, dark days are ahead. All who strive to be Christians feel a certain amount of pressure from the world. Through the strength that Christ gives, we can overcome the world and its temptations.
A man starting a fish business put out his sign that read, "Fresh Fish For Sale Today" and invited all to visit his place of business on opening day. Many came and congratulated him on his new business, but one suggested that he change his sign. "Why the ’Today’? It is today." So he removed the "Today".
Someone else said, "Why, ’For Sale’? Everybody knows you have fish for sale—or else why the store?" The words "For Sale" came off the sign.
Another said, "Why the word ’Fresh’? You are a man of integrity, that guarantees your fish to be fresh." "Fresh" came off the sign.
Only one word was left, "Fish" and one complained about it. "I smelled your fish two blocks away."
The individual or congregation that tries to satisfy everybody ends up by pleasing nobody. If we start compromising, we will end up serving the devil. The man should have put up his sign and then stood by it. This is what we are to do in life. Accept God’s will for our lives and stand on His promises.
4th He who offers to God a second place offers him no place.
Jezebel tempted Israel to serve Baal and God. Through such compromise she hoped eventually to win them over completely to the worship of Baal.
A person commits spiritual idolatry when such say
1. “one religion is as good as another,” or,
2. “one church is as good as another,” or,
3. “it does not matter what one believes, as long as he is sincere,” or,
4. “They are all aiming for the same place—heaven.” Or,
5. “There are many roads to heaven, just as there are many roads to Rome.”
Running from one religious teacher to another, in order to satisfy and justify a sinful self, is spiritual idolatry. All such have Jezebel for their leader, and not Christ.
Christians dare not compromise. Compromise is never progress. It leads always to spiritual darkness and death.
Summery
5th Some people want to be vaccinated with a mild dose of Christianity so as to be protected from the real thing.
“Jesus did not say discuss me; he said follow me.”
We do not make terms with Christ; we surrender to Christ.
We do not compromise with Christ; we submit to Christ.
Christianity does not mean being interested in Jesus Christ; it means becoming like Christ.
"The choice before us is plain:
Christ or chaos, conviction or compromise, discipline or disintegration.
THE WORLD NEEDS MEN...
1. Who cannot be bought;
2. Whose word is their bond;
3. Who put character above wealth;
4. Who will not lose their individuality in a crowd;
5. Who will be as honest in small things as in great things;
6. Who will not say they do it" because everybody else does it"
7. Who will die for a conviction than to live with a compromise.
