"LOOKING DILIGENTLY" (Heb 12:15-16)
Dec 8th, 002
Int. William Jay said: "W are here admonished not to fail of the grace of God. There is a difference between failing of the grace of God, and falling from it. We are persuaded the Scripture gives no real countenance to the doctrine of falling from grace."
1.
(Deu 29:18) "Lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turneth away this day from the LORD our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations; lest there should be among you a root that beareth gall and wormwood;"a. Israel’s hosts drank deep into Egypt’s superstitions.
b. Not long after entering in the wilderness, they made a golden ox.
c. It was contemptuously called by Moses a golden calf, in imitation of the ox so solemnly adored in Egypt.
d. Sin is the root which beareth gall and wormwood.
2. The mixed multitude never wholly ceased from idol worship.
a. "Have ye offered unto me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel? {26} But ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun your images, the star of your god, which ye made to yourselves."
I. WE SHOULD LOOK DILIGENTLY FOR THAT ROOT OF BITTERNESS.
A. THE ROOT OF BITTERNESS SOMETIMES CAUSES COVETOUSNESS.
1. (Josh 7:25) "And Joshua said, Why hast thou troubled us? the LORD shall trouble thee this day. And all Israel stoned him with stones, and burned them with fire, after they had stoned them with stones."
2. Peter said to Simon the Sorcerer: (Acts 8:23) "For I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity.
a. Gill said of Simon the Sorcerer: "He was under the power and dominion of covetousness, ambition, and hypocrisy; and in a way pernicious to himself, infectious to others, and ungrateful to God, and to good men; and that instead of the root of the matter, the truth of grace being in him, there was nothing in him but the bitter root of sin; which bore gall and wormwood, and everything that was nauseous and disagreeable:"
3. (Eph 4:31-32) "Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you."
II. WE SHOULD LOOK DILIGENTLY SO AS TO AVOID DEFILEMENT.
A. AVOIDING CONTACT WITH THE WORLD KEEPS ONE FROM BEING DEFILED.
1. (Lev 19:31) "Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them: I am the LORD your God."
2. Immorality is a cause of defilement.
a. (Num 5:20) "But if thou hast gone aside to another instead of thy husband, and if thou be defiled, and some man have lain with thee beside thine husband:"
3. A weak conscience sometimes leads to defilement.
a. (1 Cor 8:7) "Howbeit there is not in every man that knowledge: for some with conscience of the idol unto this hour eat it as a thing offered unto an idol; and their conscience being weak is defiled."
III. WE SHOULD LOOK DILIGENTLY TO AVOID FAILURE.
A. FAILURE CAN NEVER BE BLAMED ON GOD.
1. (Deut 31:6) "Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the LORD thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee."
a. Creatures shall fail,
b. Resources shall fail,
c. Hopes shall fail, but
d. God will never fail us! (Heb 13:5)
2. ( 1 Kings 17:16) "And the barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruse of oil fail, according to the word of the LORD, which he spake by Elijah."
3. (Ecc 3:22) "It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not."
4. (Lk 22:32) "But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.
B. FAILURE CAN ALWAYS BE BLAMED ON MAN HIMSELF.
1.
(Job 11:20) "But the eyes of the wicked shall fail, and they shall not escape, and their hope shall be as the giving up of the ghost."2. C. H. S. said: "One of the most eminent and beloved bishops of the Church of England had a book which he intended no one to see but himself, but he omitted to destroy it before he died; and in this book he had written under his name this sentence, "A man who has failed to accomplish his ideal." Yet he was, indeed, a good man."
3. When John Knox was on his death-bed, his friends said of him in his presence, "How pleasing for him now to remember the great deeds he has done for the gospel of Christ!" He replied, "I bid yon hush. Do not by such remarks add to the reproaches of my conscience, which upbraids me for the many things I have left undone, and the numberless things I ought not to have done; God be merciful to me a sinner!"
C. FAILURE IN THE CHRISTIAN LIFE CAN BE AVOIDED THROUGH BEING DILIGENT (Vr. 15)
1.
a. The old plumber was admonishing his young helper, who was always taking coffee breaks. "When I was an apprentice," he said, "we used to lay the first two lengths of pipe -- then the boss would turn on the water and we'd have to stay ahead of it."
2. (Prov 10:4) ".........
the hand of the diligent maketh rich."a. Young Anderson and old Patterson had grocery stores in the same block. Eggs were the subject of their frequent price wars, with Anderson one time lowering the price of eggs by one-half. The next day Patterson had met the price. So on the third day Anderson lowered the price another third.
This pattern continued until finally Anderson went to the older man in despair and said, "I surrender. We've both been selling eggs at a loss for a long time."
"Not me," laughed Patterson. "You see, I've been buying my eggs from you."
3. (Prov 12:24) "
The slothful man roasteth not that which he took in hunting: but the substance of a diligent man is precious."4. (Prov 13:4) "The soul of the sluggard desireth, and hath nothing: but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat."
That once I used to own;
The barn had fallen to the ground.
The fields were overgrown.
The house in which my children grew.
Where we had lived for years --
I turned to see it broken down.
And brushed aside the tears.
I looked upon my soul one day.
To find it too had grown
With thorns and nettles everywhere.
The seeds neglect had sown.
The years had passed while I had cared
For things of lesser worth:
The things of Heaven I let go
When minding things of Earth.
To Christ I turned with bitter tears.
And cried, "O Lord, forgive!
I haven't much time left for Thee,
Not many years to live."
The wasted years forever gone,
The days I can't recall;
If I could live those days again.
I'd own Him Lord of all.
-- Theodore W. Brennan
5. (2 Pet 1:10) "Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall:
6. Shortly after he opened his first plant, Thomas Edison noticed that his employees were in the habit of watching the lone factory clock. To the inventor who was an hard worker, this was incomprehensible. He did not indicate his disapproval verbally. Instead he had dozens of clocks placed around the plant, no two keeping the same time. From then on clock watching led to so much confusion that nobody cared what time it was.
7. Years ago, we had a clock at the back of the auditorium. We had one man who after about 15 minutes into the worship hour, would start looking over his shoulder to check the time. We simply removed the clock and gave it to one of the members of the church to take home and put in his kitchen where it still works today. This put a stop to the "clock watching" in church.
a. God’s people go to church to worship, not watch clocks.
IV. LOOKING DILIGENTLY TO THE THINGS OF GOD WILL EVENTUALLY PAY OFF.
A. CONSIDER THAT SOME OF MAN-KIND’S GREATEST CONTRIBUTIONS THROUGH THE USE OF DILIGENCE.
1. Edward Gibbon spent 26 years writing The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
2. Noah Webster worked diligently for 36 years to bring into print the first edition of his dictionary.
3. Cicero, the Roman orator practiced before friends every day for 30 years in order to perfect his public speaking.
4. Oliver Wendell Holmes: U.S. physician, poet, and humorist. He joined the Harvard faculty in 1847, and later became dean of its medical school. He won national acclaim with his poem "Old Ironsides" (1830).
a. He said: "I find the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving: To reach the port of heaven, we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it, -- but we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor."
5. "Let's build a bridge across the Niagara," someone proposed nearly a century ago. Great idea, it would save miles of travel and solve many problems. But how were they to begin? The canyon walls were too steep, and the rapids were too wild to get that first strand across from cliff to cliff. Then someone got a bright idea. They'd offer a ten dollar prize to the kid who could fly a kite from one side to the other. That's how the first string got across. It was then connected to larger string, and it in turn was connected to a slender cable. And the slender cable was connected to the strong cable that made the entire construction possible.
When the project was first announced, the critics laughed at the project. When they heard that a "kite was going to solve the problem," the sophisticated engineers had a field day. Well, history had the last laugh. One young boy, Homan Walsh, flew the first string across the chasm with his kite in 1848. He succeeded and the process worked just as it was envisioned. The boy collected his ten dollars; the great suspension bridge was started with a single string."
B. SOME FOLK GIVE UP IN THEIR SERVICE FOR GOD BEFORE THEY EVER GET STARTED.
1. (Mk 9:23) "Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.
Conclusion: -- Edgar A. Guest wrote the following poem.
"Somebody said that it couldn't be done,
But he with a chuckle replied
That maybe it couldn't, but he would be one
Who wouldn't say so 'till he tried.
So he buckled right in with the trace of grin
On his face. If he worried, he hid it.
He started to sing as he tackled the thing
That couldn't be done, and he did it.
Somebody scoffed: "Oh, you'll never do that;
At least no one ever has done it;"
But he took off his coat and took off his hat
And the first thing he knew he'd begun it.
With the lift of his chin and a bit of a grin,
Without any doubting or quiddit,
He started to sing as he tackled the thing
That couldn't be done, and he did it.
There are thousands to tell you it cannot be done,
There are thousands to prophesy failure;
There are thousands to point out to you, one by one,
The dangers that wait to assail you.
But just buckle right in with a bit of a grin,
Then take off your coat and go to it;
Just start in to sing as you tackle the thing
That "cannot be done," and you'll do it."