TURN FROM YOUR WICKED WAYS
II Chronicles 7:14
INTRODUCTION: There was a fellow named Louie who was deep in debt, and was thinking of ending it all. When he confided in his neighbor, his neighbor said, "That’s ridiculous! I can give you a pill that will put you in a state of suspended animation. I’ll say you died and after the funeral I’ll ship you to another state where you can be revived and start a new life." Louie agreed, and the next day he was laid out in the funeral parlor with everyone lined up to pay their last respects. One of his creditors walks up to the coffin and said, "Louie, why did you do it! So you owed me $15,000. What’s $15,000 between friends?" A 2nd creditor went up and said, "Louie, all you had to do was ask. I would have extended the $50,000 you owed me indefinitely." A 3rd creditor goes up to the coffin and says, "Louie, you dirty rat! You borrowed $200,000 from me and now I’ve lost my house and business. You may be dead but I’m going to get my vengeance. I’m going to take this knife, stick in your heart and twist it once for every dollar you borrowed from me." When he heard this, Louie opened one eye and ever so slightly, lifted his index finger and said, "You - I’ll pay." Folks revival begins when we realize that we are dead in our sins, there is no way out and that living that way is no way to live. God will not bring revival to those who harbor sin in their lives. READ TEXT There was a cartoon several years ago in the Saturday Review of Literature which showed little George Washington standing with an axe in his hand and lying next to him on the ground is the famous cherry tree. He has already made his admission that he did it -- after all, he "cannot tell a lie." But his father is standing there exasperated saying, "All right, so you admit it! You always admit it! The question is, when are you going to stop doing it?!" That is what God says over and over again to His people, "When are you going to stop sinning so I can renew my Spirit in your life and restore you to myself?" Folks, God desperately wants to revive His people. He wants to work in their lives in a powerful way, but that can only happen when His people, those who wear His name, throw themselves at His feet in complete surrender, desperately seek His face in prayer and fasting, and then stop doing the sinful things they do. In our text there are two terms that we need to come to a perfect understanding of. The first is the word "turn." It means to turn back, to with draw, to lead away. It is the Hebrew equivalent to the Greek word "metanoeo" which means repent. Probably the best way to define it is with the word "abandon." That is what God calls upon His people to do when He says "turn from you wicked ways." He means for them to drop their sinful habits and walk away, to abandon them and never to return. Now with "wicked ways" we can search the Bible from cover to cover and come up with thousands of items that fit under this umbrella. Wickedness and the ways of wickedness are as abundant as the stars, and we don’t have the time, and I am afraid the patience, to cover them all. Instead we will use three categories of wicked ways to help us understand what God demands us to walk away from if He is going to come back to His people in a powerful way.
I. ABANDON SELFISH DESIRES
A. One of the greatest sins man commits is the sin of selfishness. We have this innate sense; an insatiable urge to please ourselves no matter what it demands or who it hurts. And it never fails to amaze me just how great and how powerful this curse of Satan is. Friendships, family relationships, businesses, even whole churches are torn to shreds because someone had to set himself ahead of everyone else; someone demanded that it must be all about them.
1. In the book of Judges, the people of Israel ride this roller coaster of fellowship with God and separation from God. They go through seventeen different Judges and with each one they either go down the hill of sin and punishment or up the hill of repentance and restoration. The reason all this happens is found in two verses, Judges 17:6, 21:25. This is selfishness in its finest form.
2. In Deuteronomy 12:8, as Moses was preparing the second generation of God’s people to enter the promise land, he said, "You shall not at all do as we are doing here today – every man doing what is right in his own eyes." Why? Verse 9, "because you have not yet come to the rest and the inheritance which the Lord your God is giving you."
3. When we rebel against God with our selfish desires, we are not only shaking our fist in His face, we are forfeiting and counting as nothing the promises He has given to those who follow Him. We are telling Him that all the blessings of rest, perfection, and salvation are nothing when compared to what we want!
B. Consider the story found in II Kings 5. Naaman was commander of the army of Syria. His king called him great and honorable, but one thing plagued him, he was a leper. Through the urging of a captive Israelite girl, Naaman was sent to Israel to be healed of his leprosy. There he encountered Elisha, one God’s most powerful prophets, and Naaman was told to go wash in the river Jordan. Do you remember what his response was? II Kings 5:11 tells us that he became furious because he thought the prophet should have come out to him and healed him with a prayer and a wave of his hand.
1. Furthermore, Naaman says in verse 12, "The waters in my homeland are better than the filthy waters of the Jordan. If I want to wash I will go home and do it. And he left in a rage." Naaman was not about to humble himself and bathe in the muddy Jordan, even if it meant becoming clean of the deadliest plague of all. After all, he is the mighty warrior, the great commander. He was too selfish to do what God said do.
2. Galatians 5:20
3. Proverbs 18:1, "An unfriendly man pursues selfish ends; he defies all sound judgment."
4. Philippians 2:3
5. James 3:13-16
C. Revival is not like Burger King; you cannot have it your way. If we want to be reconciled to God and find His presence in our lives in a might way, we must abandon our selfish ways.
II. ABANDON SINFUL EXCESS
A. Gluttony is what we are talking about here. Most of the time when we talk about this sin we talk about eating too much, and then we pat out bellies and laugh it off. But to God it is serious business. Gluttony is the sinful excess sin-filled men undertake. In one sense it is eating until over full, then throwing it up and eating again to over full, then repeating the routine.
1. In Deuteronomy 21, parents with rebellious children and told to bring the child before the elders of the city, pronounce him as a glutton and a drunkard, then he would be stoned to death. This is the image of one living a slothful life doing nothing more than wallowing in the sinful excesses of food and alcohol and the punishment it deserves.
2. In Proverbs 23:20, Solomon tells us not to keep company with those who practice such things. They are lazy and poverty-ridden because their entire focus is finding more excess. Later on in Proverbs 28:7 Solomon says the one who keeps such company brings shame upon his family.
3. Yet there is more to gluttony that just the overindulgence of food. Gluttony also describes the sinful excess of life itself. It is the mentality of never being satisfied, of always having to have more, whether it be prestige, or power or popularity or physical things such and money and possessions. We often call this keeping up with the Jones’s, where we ought to call it what it really is, a sin of the flesh before God.
B. In the New Testament we are introduced to three King Herods. The first one is found in birth story of Jesus. He was the one who decided to have all male children in Bethlehem under the age of two killed because he feared losing his throne. He is a good illustration of selfish desire. The second King Herod is the one who had Roman soldiers, strip, mock and beat Jesus before His crucifixion. He is a good illustration of plain old meanness. We find the third King Herod in the book of Acts.
1. He is the one who aligned himself with the Pharisees of the day and helped persecute the church. He had James the brother of John beheaded for preaching the gospel. He also imprisoned Peter for the same reason and when Peter escaped with the help of an angel of the Lord, Herod blamed the guard for his escape and had them guards executed. But it is the events in Acts 12:21-23 that we are interested in.
2. It is there that King Herod parades out before the people, dressed in the finest of clothing, and gives speech designed to awe and sway the people. (Josephus, the first century historian says he was dressed in garments made of pure silver and positioned himself in the light so he glistened and astounded the people.) The crowd began to praise him and call Him God. According to Josephus and Acts 12:23, he enjoyed this very much and he did not stop them, but reveled in this false worship and exaltation. For that reason God stuck him. Verse 23 says he was eaten by worms and died. He loved the sinful excess.
3. It is interesting to notice that the same Hebrew word used for gluttony is used to describe the ungodliness of the people of Israel in Jeremiah and Lamentations. There it means worthless, vile and despised. That is how God sees people who are interested in nothing more than the finding the overabundance of everything they can. Gluttony is not a harsh enough word.
a. James 1:21 – "overflow of wickedness"
b. Hosea 13:2 – after the death of Ephraim the people sinned "more and more, making idols for themselves"
c. Matthew 23:5-7
d. I Corinthians 11:17ff – gluttons at the Lord’s Supper – both spiritual and physical gluttony.
e. Philippians 4:12
C. Revival will not come so long as we live life like it is a buffet; we can get all we want so long as we keep going back. God wants humble people who are dependent on Him and are not out to get all they can get.
III. ABANDON SATAN’S SEDUCTIONS
A. You know it is one thing to fall into one of Satan’s traps – after all each and every one of us have unfortunately had that experience. It is another thing altogether to fall into that trap and then stay in it. This is at the heart of this characteristic of wicked ways. We will always be the hunted, that is guaranteed in Scripture, but that does not mean we have to surrender before the battle is finished. And when we give in and remain under Satan’s influence that is exactly what we have done.
1. You know, Eve knew better that to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. God had plainly warned her that it would bring death. But what did she do? She let Satan talk her into it. But that is not the worst part. The worst part is that once she found herself in such a position, she stayed in it. Genesis 3:7 tells us that she and Adam attempted to clothe themselves with leaves and hid from God.
2. In other words, she wallowed in her sin. She and Adam both knew what they had done was wrong, but instead of changing things, they put lipstick on a pig and called it a beauty queen. That is exactly what happens when man finds himself in the clutches of Satan and would rather stay there than admit failure.
3. The same can be said of Judas. Many have tried to portray him as a victim of circumstances, or an insincere man who never really believed in Jesus. I am convinced that he knew exactly what he was doing and exactly who Jesus was. He just found himself in one of Satan’s traps and instead of seeking help or bailing out, he stayed with it until it not only cost him his life but his eternal soul.
4. Do you remember the man who worked closely with Paul for so many years and through so many tough times who walked out when the call of the Prince of this world tickled his fancy? His name was Demas and Paul said of him that he had forsaken God because he loved the world more than God himself. Same scenario as Judas – found himself in the clutches of Satan and decided to wallow in it.
B. It’s like the story I heard once of the guy who went fishing. He wanted to know how deep the water was so he went out to the dock and asked an elderly gentleman who was sitting there fishing, "Sir, if I was to fall off right here, would I drown?" The old man replied, "No you wouldn’t drown if you fell in. You will drown if you stayed under." Folks, its not our occasional stumble with sin that hinders revival and our relationship with God. It’s staying under.
1. Jeremiah 35:15, "Each of you must turn from your wicked ways and reform your actions… then you will live in the land I have given to you."
2. Hebrews 6:4ff
3. II Peter 2
4. I John 1:7-10
B. Folks, God will send Revival when we turn from our wicked ways. When we realize and admit our own sinfulness and then abandon the works of Satan in our lives.
CONCLUSION: In the Spring of 1995, revival broke out on many college campuses across America. One characteristic of this visitation from God was students dealing with sinful habits that they had previously let linger in their lives. At Asbury College in Wilmore, KY one student named Brian was interviewed by Christian Reader magazine. This is what he said; I was a leader in campus. We had invited Wheaton students to come and share. At first, I was praying for other people, but then I began to think about my own struggles. I stood in line for three hours with one of my best friends all the time thinking, "How can I get up there and admit I am less than perfect?" Yet, I wanted that stuff out of my life. And I found I wasn’t alone. A number of us when forward and stated our desire for purity. My deepest desire is to be pure in heart and thoughts before God. The desire to be pure, to turn from wicked ways, is what God is looking for in His people so He can send revival. Are you willing to turn, to abandon all the sinful things of your life and come before God seeking His forgiveness and blessing? Invitation
