Truth be told, each of us could have a sign attached to us. One sign would read: “This person tends to lie.” Another would read: “This person tends to use profane language.” Another would read: “This person tends to lust.” Another would read: “This person tends to covet.” Another would read: “This person tends to throw temper tantrums.” Another would read: “This person tends to not pay his bills.” Another would read: “This person tends to get drunk.” You get the idea.

In Isaiah 53:6, the Bible says:

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way.

Notice please that each person has his or her own way of sin. My way isn’t your way and yours isn’t mine, but each of us is particularly susceptible to some specific sin. For this reason we shouldn’t be so quick to judge others or come down so harshly on their sin. You say, “But I would never be guilty of committing that person’s sin.” Perhaps you wouldn’t, but there is some other sin that you are guilty of committing. And I’m guessing that you know what your pet sin is.

The good news is that the Isaiah 53:6 verse ends by saying:

…And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

The “Lord” spoken of there is God the Father, and the “Him” is God the Son, Jesus. Actually, the entire chapter of Isaiah 53 is a Messianic passage concerning Jesus. Writing prophetically under the inspiration of God, the prophet Isaiah speaks of how Jesus will be “wounded for our transgressions,” “led as a lamb to slaughter,” and “cut off from the land of the living.”

Of course, we Christians understand that Christ’s death on the cross pays the totality of our sin debt to God. We’re very quick to claim that truth, aren’t we? But, unfortunately, too many times we use the fact that we have been forgiven of all our sins as a license to sin. The apostle Paul addresses this problem in Romans 6:1-2 when he writes:

What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?

In the verses that follow, Paul goes on to explain how a Christian’s baptism symbolizes that he has died to his old sinful way of living and is now walking in a newness of life. In this new life, the Christian will no longer be a slave of sin or let sin reign in his body. Rather than presenting the parts of his body as instruments of unrighteousness, he’ll present them as instruments of righteousness. Wow, Christian, when you got baptized you didn’t realize that you were committing to so much did you?

And so I’ll close out this post by simply asking, “How are you doing with your pet sin these days?” Are you keeping it in check? Or is some confession and repentance called for? You’ve probably heard that 1 John 1:9 is found within the context of John offering a word to Christians, not lost people. The verse says:

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Like you, I thank God for this verse, and I thank Him that it is written to Christians. However, my point today is that if you find yourself confessing one particular sin over and over again, day after day after day, you need to roll up your sleeves and work harder to STOP committing that sin. If God forced you to literally wear a sign like that baby, the embarrassment would motivate you to change your behavior so that you could lose that sign, wouldn’t it? Well, out of your love for the Lord and appreciation for Christ’s death on the cross, why don’t you go ahead and change your sinful behavior anyway? After all, the Lord doesn’t need a sign to know how you are living.

Since God knew this about them, the bulk of the prophesying He had Jeremiah do involved pronouncing judgment. Even though there were times when God offered some hope to the people, He never lost sight of the fact that they weren’t going to make the necessary changes to avert the Babylonian invasion. For example, in Jeremiah 13:16, Jeremiah says to the people:

Give glory to the Lord your God before He causes darkness, and before your feet stumble on the dark mountains, and while you are looking for light, He turns it into the shadow of death and makes it dense darkness.

You see, the use of the word “before” could imply that there was still a chance for the conquering to be averted. At least that’s what the reader initially thinks. But later on in that same message, in verse 23 to be precise, Jeremiah trumps that chance by saying:

Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard change its spots? Then may you also do good who are accustomed to do evil.

What we can take from this verse is that the person who shuns God can never truly “do good.” Oh, such a person might quit some bad habits, reform a bit, get involved in some charitable causes, or do some nice things, but he will never lead a life that is genuinely pleasing to God, the kind of life that can head off eventual judgment. That kind of change is only possible via a personal, saving relationship with God wherein God changes your very nature, that sinful, Adamic nature with which we are all born.

We’d all do well to remember the unpleasant truth this verse conveys. Once a person becomes accustomed to doing evil, that’s the path he will remain in unless he somehow turns to God and allows God to do a supernatural work in his life. Don’t be fooled by the person’s hollow words, seemingly sincere resolutions, or grandiose promises to change. Putting it bluntly, change is just not that simple. All the self-will, determination, and positive attitude in the world can’t produce it any more than an Ethiopian can change his skin color or a leopard its spots. Mark it down, the people of Judah didn’t change and God eventually allowed the Babylonians to march in and lower the boom. And Jeremiah, despite all his earnest preaching and love for his people, couldn’t alter that inevitable outcome. This isn’t a happy story to be sure, but it’s certainly a real-life one from which we can learn.

And so how can you, as a Christian, ensure that such a thing doesn’t happen to you? The answer is simple: You must do that which is necessary to keep your fellowship with Christ maintained and strong. How do you accomplish this? You do it through such things as: daily prayer, daily Bible study, weekly church attendance, cheerful giving, frequent witnessing, and regular confession and repentance. I know, I know, these things have been promoted so much they’ve become virtual cliches of Christianity. But they’ve been promoted so much because they work!

In Jeremiah 6:16, the prophet Jeremiah says to the people of Judah:

Thus says the Lord: “Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, where the good way is, and walk in it. Then you will find rest for your souls…”

By encouraging the people to ask for the old paths God was telling them, “The things I’ve had you do before will still work and keep you in right fellowship with me.” To those Jews that meant keeping the moral specifics of the Mosaic law, bringing their sacrifices to the temple as acts of worship, offering up their prayers to God, confessing their sins and repenting of them, and looking to God for their guidance and protection. Sadly, though, those people would have none of it. Jeremiah 6:16 ends with the mournful words:

…But they said, ‘We will not walk in it (the good way found in the old paths).’

Now, I do realize that the “old paths” for the Christian today aren’t the same as the ones the Old Testament Jews were to walk. However, the basic template is still the same: adherence to God’s word, worship, prayer, confession, repentance, and seeking God’s guidance and protection. The Christian whose life evidences these things need never worry about rotting or sinking because his spiritual boat will be solid and worthy of sailing the seas of life. As we all know, those seas can sometimes be stormy, choppy, and downright dangerous, but the Christian who is walking God’s in old paths won’t sink. How can he when he has the Lord Himself as his captain?

The church member then went on to explain that sometime ago he had started building a boat for himself in his own yard. He had needed to use copper nails for the job because such nails don’t rust in water. Copper nails are expensive, however, and so he had been carrying home large quantities of them from work. He had rationalized the stealing by telling himself that his employer wasn’t paying him a large enough salary and that the employer had so many nails that he wouldn’t miss them anyway. That reasoning had kept the fellow’s conscience reasonably appeased until Dr. Marsh’s sermon.

Dr. Marsh, of course, counseled the church member to go to the employer, confess the stealing, and make the theft right. But the man just couldn’t bring himself to do it. In his mind such a thing would simply be too embarrassing. So weeks passed, and with each new week the fellow’s guilt only increased. Finally, it got to be too much for him and he broke. He went and confessed all to the employer and offered to pay for the nails. And how did the employer respond to the confession and offer? He said, “George, I always did think you were just a hypocrite, but now I begin to feel there’s something to this Christianity after all. Any religion that would make a dishonest workman come back and confess that he had been stealing copper nails and offer to settle for them must be worth having.”

And now, Christian, I’ve got just one question for you: Have you got any “copper nails” in your life that call for some confession and restitution on your part? If you do, you’d be well advised to confront the issue head on. Until you do, any sense of inner peace you have will be a false one. Remember, you can’t be wrong with men and right with God.

This world is filled with people who will bail out on a difficult circumstance when the sledding gets rough. They won’t be going for help either; they’ll be looking out for themselves. Sadly, too many times this applies to how we Christians relate to following Jesus.

One of the most somber questions that Jesus ever asked is found in John 6:67. Let me set the context for you. A tremendous crowd of 5,000 men (not counting women and children) gathered around Jesus to hear Him teach near the slope of a mountain hovering over the shore of the Sea of Galilee. Jesus miraculously fed this crowd by using a young boy’s lunch of five loaves of bread and two small fish. Following this miracle, the crowd tried to take Him by force and make Him their earthly king. Wanting no part of such an election, He dispersed them, commanded the twelve to get in a boat and cross over to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, and went up into a mountain alone.

That night a terrible windstorm swept down onto the Sea of Galilee, preventing the twelve from making much headway to the other shore. When they reached a state of exhaustion and despair for their lives, Jesus walked on the water, calmed the storm, and joined them in the boat. At that point the boat was miraculously transported to the other shore.

The following morning many of the original crowd got into boats and crossed over to find Jesus. They caught up with Him in a synagogue in Capernaum. Shortly afterward, Jesus accused these people of only following Him for His miracles. Then He launched into a weird teaching about Him being the bread of life and how they needed to eat of His flesh. You talk about throwing cold water onto a fickle bunch! When the teaching was finished, they turned away and never followed Jesus again. Just as He had said, they were only interested in following Him as long as the miracles were rolling and the teachings were pleasant and easy to understand.

It’s at that critical moment that Jesus looked at His chosen twelve and asked the penetrating question, “Do you also want to go away?” Some of them may have, but Peter spoke up before anybody else could answer. He said, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Also, we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Good for you, Peter!

Tell me, Christian, are you right now going through a difficult time with the Lord? Are you confused? Are you frustrated? Are you out of heart? Has He hurt your feelings? Trust me, you aren’t the first to go down such a road. The question is, how will you respond? Will you turn back from following Christ? Or will you, like Peter, understand that turning away from Him is akin to turning away from the source of life and truth? Please understand that I’m not talking about a Christian possibly losing his or her salvation. As the old saying goes, “once saved, always saved.” What I’m talking about is breaking fellowship with the Lord and bailing out on what He is trying to teach you through your difficult times. Trust me, such a bail out might provide a modicum of temporary relief, but in the end you’ll come to know all too well that you should have stayed on the plane with your Savior.

Several years ago, I was in a man’s kitchen. When he found me there he swore at me and kicked me out. That man was a professing Christian, and from that time I decided never to have anything to do with religion. And I never have to this day.

After hearing that, the Christian asked the young man to write the reason down, word for word, and sign it. The young man played along and did so. Then the Christian handed the signed document back to him and said, “Take this, and when you are asked for your excuse on the day of judgment, hand this up.”

We should learn two lessons from this illustration. First, we Christians should mind our behavior. We do untold damage to the cause of Christ when we our lives slip into sin and compromise. Second, there is no valid excuse for refusing to believe in Christ as Savior. If you think you have one, write it down, sign it, and carry it with you always. You can try using it in the afterlife. Don’t expect it to work, though.

I’ll start with Abraham. He was a man who exhibited enough faith to pack up his belongings, leave his hometown of Ur, and begin an epic journey to an unknown land which God promised to show him (Genesis 12:1-5). But what happened when he arrived in the promised land of Canaan? He was greeted there by a famine. So what did he do? He lost faith that God could provide for him during that famine and he went down to Egypt. There he showed his lack of faith in God’s protection by instructing his beautiful wife Sarai to lie and say that she was his sister (Genesis 12:10-20). And would you believe that he even repeated this exact same sin many years later when he was in Gerar and dealing with Abimelech, the king of Gerar (Genesis 20:1-18)? What happened to your great faith, Abraham?

Next, I’ll mention Moses. He was a very mild-mannered man who certainly didn’t have a problem with ego or bravado. As a matter of fact, we can read Exodus chapters 3 and 4 and see that it was all that God could do to get him to return to Egypt and lead Israel. Moses was quick to say, “Lord, who am I to be such a leader? I am not an eloquent man. Please, send whomever else you will.” Numbers 12:3 even says that Moses was more humble (meek, gentle, kind) than all men who were on the face of the earth. That’s an amazing statement! But how did Moses ultimately get himself into trouble and miss out on entering into the promised land of Canaan himself? In a fit of anger and rage he rebuked the people and struck the rock twice when God had commanded him to merely speak to it. He also spoke as if he and Aaron, rather than God, caused the water to gush from the rock (Numbers 20:1-13). What happened to your great humility, Moses?

Lastly, I’ll mention Elijah. He showed astounding courage in going to Ahab, the king of Israel, and proclaiming, “As the Lord God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, except at my word” (1 Kings 17:1). He showed just as much courage, if not more, in taking on and defeating Ahab’s prophets of Baal in a great showdown atop Mount Carmel (1 Kings 18:20-40). But what did he do right on the heels of that landmark victory? He heard that Ahab’s queen, Jezebel, had put a death sentence on his head and he fled. Then, when he reached a certain place out there in the wilderness, he prayed and asked God to take his life (1 Kings 19:1-4). What happened to your great courage, Elijah?

If it sounds like I’m picking on Abraham, Moses, and Elijah, I’m not. The fact is, these are just three of a lengthy list of Bible characters who failed in the very areas in which they were normally strong. This should teach us that we ourselves aren’t immune to this particular problem. So, do you have an area in which you are especially strong in your walk with the Lord? If you do, be sure to keep yourself vigilant in that area. Don’t let yourself get overconfident to the point where you drop your guard. Remember, if it happened to the likes of Abraham, Moses, and Elijah, it can happen to you.

One of the best descriptions I’ve ever read concerning the worldly, carnal, backslidden Christian comes from Charles Spurgeon. In the October 14 evening devotion from his book Morning & Evening, he compares such a Christian’s entrance into heaven to a shipwrecked sailor having to climb up the steep rocks of his homeland just to get home. There is no peaceful sail into the safe harbor. There is no confident expectation of praise for a job well done. There is no triumphant entrance. There is only the exhausted, worn out, frazzled Christian scratching and clawing his way to a place of safety.

My guess is that Spurgeon had 1 Timothy 1:18-20 in mind when he used that illustration. In those verses, the apostle Paul explains to the young preacher Timothy that some Christians have rejected faith and a good conscience and “concerning the faith have suffered shipwreck.” Paul then gives the specific names (Hymenaeus and Alexander) of two such Christians and says that he delivered them to Satan so they would learn not to blaspheme. According to 1 Corinthians 5:1-7, the term “delivered them to Satan” means what we call “church discipline” (excommunication, “churching” someone). This should show us just how serious backsliding is.

Spurgeon closes out his devotion with the following words:

It is dangerous for an heir of heaven to be a great friend with the heirs of hell. Even small inconsistencies are dangerous. Little thorns make great blisters, little moths destroy fine garments, and a little frivolity and mischief will rob faith of a thousand joys. O believer, you do not realize what you lose by your conformity to the world. It cuts the tendons of your strength and makes you crawl where you ought to run. For your own comfort’s sake and for the sake of your growth in grace, if you are a Christian, then be a marked and distinct Christian.

To these words I can only add the question: “Christian, do other people think of you as a marked and distinct Christian? I once heard a preacher say, “Some Christians don’t do enough for the Lord to attract a used demon!” Is that you, Christian? Are you, as not only Spurgeon but also Paul described, living a shipwrecked walk with Christ? If you are, my prayer is that you will do the necessary confessing and repenting today. Remember that 1 John 1:9 is still in the Bible and it still works:

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Yesterday at our local pastors’ conference, the moderator asked each of us to name at least one thing for which we are thankful. The next twenty minutes or so turned out to be the highlight of the conference. Even though the singing was nice and the weekly sermon was interesting, hearing each pastor talk about the great things that God had done for him was spellbinding. Many of them cried as they spoke. All of them spoke in utter humility. One man told of how Jesus had saved him out of a family of bootleggers. Another talked about how wild he used to be before Christ’s transforming power radically changed his life. Another praised the Lord for meeting every need he had ever had. Another described how God had raised up his alcoholic daddy from a seemingly terminal illness to mercifully give that father more days to accept Christ as Savior and have, for the first time, a true relationship with his son. On and on it went like that around the room, story after story. The next time that you get to thinking that all preachers are fakes, hypocrites, or money hungry manipulators, come with me to a certain pastors’ conference that meets on Monday mornings. I know some men of God who are real.

And what word of thankfulness did I offer up when my turn came? Well, I thanked the Lord for how He broke me when I was in my early twenties. That experience changed me from a backslidden Christian into a sold out disciple and set me on the path to becoming a preacher. I also thanked Him for my wife and two boys. And yes, I was one of those who teared up as he spoke. Needless to say, I could have gone on for an hour naming things for which I am thankful (as each of us could have), but we had to restrain ourselves a bit if the scheduled speaker was going to be left any time to preach.

Everybody knows that Thanksgiving is this Thursday. But why wait until then to go to the Lord in prayer and express your gratitude? Have you got 30 minutes today? Then spend it just going down the list of all the things for which you are thankful. Don’t make any new requests. Don’t mention any of your problems. And put down that marble engraver for a while. Just have a time of saying, “Thank you” to the Lord. If you will make the effort to do this, I promise you that it will get your heart and mind prepared to genuinely celebrate Thanksgiving this coming Thursday.

Just as that jumper didn’t grasp that the end of the story hadn’t been written yet, many people don’t understand that we shouldn’t judge God’s opinion of a situation based solely upon the current outlook. Take the great flood for instance. Genesis 6:3 tells us that God instituted nothing less than a 120-year countdown for that judgment:

And the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.”

(By the way, some have wrongly taught that this statement was God limiting the individual lifespan to 120 years. Long after the flood, however, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Ishmael, and Jacob each lived more than 120 years. So, clearly, the 120 years refers to how long it would be before the flood struck.)

Now imagine that you were a citizen of earth during those 120 years. Couldn’t you have said, “So far, so good”? Jesus spoke of the footloose and carefree attitude that people had during those years. He said:

“For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark and did not know until the flood came and took them all away…” (Matthew 24:38-39)

Right here I could really run with the fact that Bible prophecy teaches that this world has some dark days slated for its future. It’s hard to read Revelation chapters 6 through 19 and miss that. But I feel led to present the application in a different way. Rather than focus upon the coming judgment laid out in Bible prophecy, I want to ask you to examine your own life. Have you been engaging in some sin for which you haven’t paid the price yet? If the answer is yes, consider this post to be your wake-up call. God is longsuffering, but He isn’t foreversuffering. Just because you have gotten by with your sin so far, you shouldn’t take that to mean that you are untouchable. The truth is, you’re already on God’s countdown and a flood is headed your way. So why not repent of your sin today, confess it to Jesus, and lay hold of the forgiveness that comes with believing in Him as your personal Savior? If you don’t, all I can say is enjoy the free-fall while it lasts because you won’t like how it ends.