Workers Of Iniquity

I. EXORDIUM:

Are you a backslider?

II. AUDIENCE PROFILE:

Believers

III. OBJECTIVES:

To show that if you are a backslider, you will be treated the same by the LORD like unbelievers. So return to the LORD before He returns.

IV. TEXT:

Psalms 125:5 (Amplified Bible)

125:5 As for such as turn aside to their crooked ways [of indifference to God], the Lord will lead them forth with the workers of iniquity. Peace be upon Israel!

Jude 1:20-21 (Amplified Bible)

1:20 But you, beloved, build yourselves up [founded] on your most holy faith [make progress, rise like an edifice higher and higher], praying in the Holy Spirit;

1:21 Guard and keep yourselves in the love of God; expect and patiently wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah)—[which will bring you] unto life eternal.

V. THESIS:

Praise, worship and thank You very much LORD JESUS, because You have given me gifts and fruits of the HOLY SPIRIT and faith that overcomes the world. Let there be peace upon Israel.

VI. TITLE:

Workers of iniquity

VII. EXPLICATION:

A. Authors: Authorship of many is uncertain, generally attributed to King David.

B. Date written: c. 1440 to 450 B.C. ( From Moses to Ezra)

C. Purpose: 150 songs to praise and worship GOD

D. To whom written: Sometimes to GOD, sometimes to author

E. Main Themes: praise and worship, prayer and praise

VIII. MAIN BODY:

A. Backsliders who turn away from GOD

"As for such as turn aside to their crooked ways [of indifference to God],"

Turn aside or "natah" in Hebrew meaning:

1. to stretch or spread out

2. to bend away

3. decline

4. go down, be gone, let down, outstretched, overthrown, put away, prolong, cause to yield

Crooked ways or "aqalqal" in Hebrew meaning:

1. winding

2. crooked way

Psalms 40:4 (Amplified Bible)

40:4 Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) is the man who makes the Lord his refuge and trust, and turns not to the proud or to followers of false gods.

Psalms 101:3 (Amplified Bible)

101:3 I will set no base or wicked thing before my eyes. I hate the work of them who turn aside [from the right path]; it shall not grasp hold of me.

Proverbs 14:14 (Amplified Bible)

14:14 The backslider in heart [from God and from fearing God] shall be filled with [the fruit of] his own ways, and a good man shall be satisfied with [the fruit of] his ways [with the holy thoughts and actions which his heart prompts and in which he delights].

Hebrews 10:38 (Amplified Bible)

10:38 But the just shall live by faith [My righteous servant shall live by his conviction respecting man’s relationship to God and divine things, and holy fervor born of faith and conjoined with it]; and if he draws back and shrinks in fear, My soul has no delight or pleasure in him.

Example:

King Saul:

1 Chronicles 10:13-14 (Amplified Bible)

10:13 So Saul died for his trespass against the Lord [in sparing Amalek], for his unfaithfulness in not keeping God’s word, and also for consulting [a medium with] a spirit of the dead to inquire pleadingly of it,

10:14 And inquired not so of the Lord [in earnest penitence]. Therefore the Lord slew him and turned the kingdom over to David son of Jesse.

Backslidden Israel:

Jeremiah 2:19 (Amplified Bible)

2:19 Your own wickedness shall chasten and correct you, and your backslidings and desertion of faith shall reprove you. Know therefore and recognize that this is an evil and bitter thing: [first,] you have forsaken the Lord your God; [second,] you are indifferent to Me and the fear of Me is not in you, says the Lord of hosts.

Zephaniah 1:6 (Amplified Bible)

1:6 And those who have drawn back from following the Lord and those who have not sought the Lord nor inquired for, inquired of, and required the Lord [as their first necessity].

We don't trust or depend on oneself, or lift our self, we say "Praise the LORD!" and not acknowledge ourself as the executor of our good future but GOD alone, and we are nothing apart from Him. Our lifestyle here even on earth is by faith, even the whole world chooses not to believe, we choose to believe and depend on the LORD. If we stop living by faith, then that's the sin that has no forgiveness; it simply means we turned our backs on GOD and face sin again.

Jeremiah 17:5 (Amplified Bible)

17:5 Thus says the Lord: Cursed [with great evil] is the strong man who trusts in and relies on frail man, making weak [human] flesh his arm, and whose mind and heart turn aside from the Lord.

So if you have a successful career, a beautiful house and car, don't say, "My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth" but say But you shall [earnestly] remember the Lord your God, for it is He Who gives you power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day.