Prone to Wander
Ann Ratcliff
Midland SDA Church
May 28, 2011
I’m going to ask you all three questions and I don’t want a show of hands or anything, but I’d like you to answer these questions in your mind and heart.
First of all, how many of you have sinned? Think about that.
Now, how many of you after becoming aware of your sin, repented; asked forgiveness or whatever you needed to do to make things better again. Think about that.
Ok, now, how many of you have ever sinned again after repenting? Maybe 30 seconds later—maybe 10 minutes later, maybe an hour or two later? Think about that.
My message today is this: no matter the nature and quantity of your sins, God is always ready to hear your genuine repentance and restore you to a right place with Him.
He tells us this many places in Scripture. One passage where he speaks clearly as a loving Father to his children is in Jeremiah 31: 17-20 that was read by Gerri.
“There is hope in your future, says the Lord. That your children shall come back to their own border.
I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself, ‘you have chastised me and I was chastised like an untrained bull. Restore me and I will return for you are the Lord my God. Surely, after my turning, I repented, and after I was instructed I struck myself on the thigh;
I was ashamed, yes even humiliated because I bore the reproach of my youth.”
Is Ephraim My dear son? Is he a pleasant child? For though I spoke against him, I earnestly remember him still. Therefore my heart yearns for him; I will surely have mercy on him says the Lord.”
So in this passage we have an example of genuine repentance by a child of God, and genuine forgiveness by God.
Let me tell you about a man named Robert Robinson. He was born in England in 1735. His father died when he was a young boy and his widowed mother, while she had great ambitions for him, was poor and the best she could do was to send him to learn the trade of a barber.
Unfortunately Robert Robinson didn’t take much to training to become a barber. One night he and some companions got drunk and on a whim went to the meetings of George Whitfield an evangelist preaching nearby.
Despite his drunken state, that visit planted a seed in Robert and at the young age of 20, he had an actual born again experience. Subsequently, he made himself available to ‘supply the pulpits’ or in other words be a substitute preacher in some of the independent evangelical congregations around the area. And so became somewhat of a preacher.
He was converted at the age of 20 and three years later, he wrote a beautiful poem that was soon set to music. Take your hymnals and turn to page 334. Let us remain seated while we sing the first two verses of Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing, the poem written by young born again Robert Robinson.
Robert Robinson left the church; lapsed into a life of sin and licentiousness and turned his back on his God.
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How can people do that? How can a person who has written such moving words turn away? How can people who have been converted and reconverted; who have had a born again experience -- How can people who have really known God, who have known the true Gospel message, who have known the most precious message there is? How can anyone turn away from that?
Sadly, we have countless examples of people who have done just that; who have turned their back on the precious love of God. I want to highlight about 4 people who fall into this category:
First, Moses.
We all know that Moses was born during the time that the Israelites were slaves in Egypt. But we know that Moses was raised in the court of the Pharaoh being found in the basket in the river by the Pharaoh’s daughter. We also know that his birth mother manipulated things so that she could be caretaker for the first 12 years of his life and she was able to teach him about his true identity and lineage as a Hebrew man.
When he was grown we read in Exodus 2:11-12, “Now it came to pass in those days when Moses was grown, that he went out to his brethren and looked at their burdens. And he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his brethren. So he looked this way and that way, and when he saw no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.” Then he fled.
So Moses was a murderer.
We know that God spoke to Moses from a burning bush. He asked Moses to help deliver his people out of Egypt and into the promised land.
God spoke to Moses a lot. God told Moses, I will be with you. I will take you as my people and I will be your God. I will strike Egypt with all my wonders to make the Pharaoh release the Israelites.
Moses was witness to many of God’s ‘wonders’.
God changed a rod into a serpent.
God gave him leprosy and then healed him.
God turned the water in the river to blood.
God sent a plague of frogs and lice and flies, and boils and hail and fire, and locust.
God even killed the first born sons of the Egyptian people.
Finally after Pharaoh let the Israelites leave Egypt and go to the promised land, God performed more ‘wonders’. When the Israelites were finally on their way, God parted the Red sea.
God sent manna from heaven as food to nourish the weary travelers.
God had a cloud guide the travelers by day and a pillar of fire by night.
God turned the bitter water sweet.
God got water from the rock.
God gave Moses many detailed instructions about how to live, what to eat, how to build the tabernacle, how to offer sacrifices, how to keep away from sin etc.
So Moses was a special person chosen of God. Moses and God communed often. Moses followed God’s instructions over and over again—even when he could see no purpose to them, even when it was dangerous to do so, even when it looked like he might lose his life. And remember Moses had killed a man, himself.
And that wasn’t all. Towards the end of the Exodus, Moses got so impatient with the Israelites, he disobeyed God and smote the rock in order to produce more water for his thirsty people. Moses took this deed upon himself and did it in irritation and exasperation.
After all that God had told him and shown him, he mistrusted God and assumed power that belonged only to God. He threw away his relationship with God right then.
This rash act was done in haste, in a fit of passion and impatience. It was however a grave sin not only because Moses disobeyed God’s specific instructions, but because it ruined the symbolism God was using to help teach the people.
But when all was said and done, Moses regained God’s trust, he repented his sins and was deemed worthy of the description in Hebrews 3:5 which says “And Moses indeed was faithful in all His house as a servant for a testimony of those things which would be spoken afterward.”
So, despite his disobedience, his impatience, his exasperation with the Israelites, here then was a man who was chosen by God to actually receive the 10 commandments literally!!! And one of those commandments says “Thou shalt not kill”. And Moses was a murderer. He killed that Egyptian.
Yet he repented, he was forgiven and was even invited to the Transfiguration! This certainly shows us the power of repentance and acceptance of God’s forgiveness. What better invitations can you get than those!
Then there was David.
We first know him as a young shepherd boy; he was the baby of his family. He wrote songs. Many of his songs told of his communion and experiences with God.
We know that he was anointed by the prophet Samuel as a leader of his people.
We know that David became the ‘darling’ of the Israelites when he killed the Philistine giant Goliath. So we know he was brave and trusted in the Lord.
He grew up in the court of King Saul and eventually the King became very jealous of David. Jealous enough to seek to kill him.
David flees, afraid for this life. He seeks protection with the enemy.
With an angry King at his heels, in the midst of long time enemies, David’s faith faltered. He lied, he flip flopped with his loyalties. He gave his protector enemies the impression he was going to fight for them.
He got himself into lots of trouble—he eventually got thrown out of the enemy camp, his wives and children were taken captive, his town destroyed by yet other enemies.
So here we have a young man, well versed in the faith, loving God and singing his praises, yet when things get tough, he is not above lying and deceiving those around him.
Then David became king. He had wealth, he had power, his exploits were legendary, his enemies feared and respected him, his people loved him, his soldiers would do anything he asked.
Then he saw Bathsheba. Then he had her come to him. Then he had her husband killed. Then he attempted to cover this all up.
The writer of some of the most beautiful songs of praise, committed adultery, murder, and deception, not to mention coveting and stealing someone else’s property. These were certainly high stakes sins if you ask me. What was he thinking?
Then Nathan comes to him and through a parable confronts him of these terrible choices he made. David ‘gets it’ and repents genuinely.
God accepts this repentance and although he had to suffer many, many consequences, he was restored to God’s favor.
Psalm 51 is the poem he wrote after being confronted by Nathan. Turn to Psalm 51:10
“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.”
Note that David asks for God to ‘renew’ a steadfast spirit. If he asks for ‘renewal’, this means that he already had a right spirit before, and David wants that steadfast spirit again—to be put back to a right spirit.
It is appropriate and a sound request to ask God for renewal.
So in David, we see a devout young man, who grew up to be a liar, a deceiver, an adulterer, and a murderer. But we also see a man who was able to offer heartfelt repentance. We can still read his songs about that.
Despite all of David’s sinful choices, God saw fit to have him mentioned in the Hebrews 11 litany of those whose faith should be an example to us all.
So David, like Moses, embraced the true faith, but in tough times turned away from the leading of God. Like Moses, he understood his transgressions, turned back to God, and was forgiven, again knowing the fullness of God’s love.
Those are not the only Old Testament characters that could illustrate this message. If you think about it, you all could come up with many, many more.
Let us move to the New Testament. These are the pages of Scripture that tell us about the son of God, Jesus Christ who lived and worked among the people on earth for 33 years. He knew real people, he walked down real streets, ate real food and preached a real Gospel.
With the son of God in their midst, of course no one who knew Jesus or who heard Jesus turned away from the Gospel message after hearing it, did they?
I mean, these people have literally walked with him, they have broken bread with him. For some, he washed their feet! They heard the Gospel from his mouth.
They saw him work miracles: they were with him when he fed the 5,000, when he walked on water, when he healed the sick and yes, when he raised the dead.
They knew him and they loved him, so they could never turn away, right?
Wrong!
There’s Peter.
We first know of Peter when Jesus sets out to gather his disciples. He said to Peter and his brother, “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.” And they did.
We are told in the Gospels that Peter was present when Jesus healed his mother-in-law in Luke 4:39, when he cast out demons in Luke 4:41. Remember the time when Jesus told Peter to let down the net one more time after he had been fishing all day and had caught nothing. Peter wearily let down the net again and caught so many fish the net almost broke (Luke 5:6).
Peter walked on water too. He had faith enough to say in Matthew 14, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.” And when he heard Jesus say “come”, he got out of the boat and walked on the water toward Jesus.
Jesus was a good teacher and Peter was a good student. And yet Peter was impatient, was a little too zealous at times telling Jesus, Oh Lord you will not be killed, no one would do that!!!! He was a little too eager to defend Jesus—cutting off the ear of the soldier who had come to arrest Jesus.
But Peter was special to Jesus and Jesus was special to Peter. Peter acknowledged to Jesus “you are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”(Matthew 16:16). Jesus told him “And I also say to you that you are Peter and on this rock I will build my church (Matt. 16:18).
He was chosen to be in the Garden of Gethsemane to watch and pray with Jesus but, he fell asleep.
Up until now Peter had been Peter. He was doing the best he could with the personality he had.
Then he blatantly sinned. Peter denied the Lord.
Times were tough. Jesus had been arrested and most of the disciples had fled. Only Peter and John followed the mob that had Jesus. Peter wanted to know what was going to happen to Jesus but he did not want to be identified as a disciple for he was afraid.
Three times someone mentioned the possibility he may be connected with this Jesus. Peter denied it. The third time he used cursing and swearing to deny his Christ.
Peter though, unlike David, did not need a Nathan with a parable to confront him of his sin. After that cock crowed, he knew immediately what he had done and was repentant as only Peter could be.
After Jesus was gone, Peter preached the gospel message saying “… we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.” (Acts 4:20). He preached from first hand experience. He healed the sick. He even raised the dead (Tabitha).
So Peter was the rock, the zealous follower.
Yet he said strongly and firmly “I do not know the man.” (Matt 26: 74) speaking of Jesus. He said it not once, but three times.
We know that the risen Christ gave Peter a chance to say “Lord, you know that I love you”. Three times. And we know that the Lord said to Peter, “then feed my sheep.”
And Peter did just that. He was instrumental in growing that little band of believers. By the time of his death, he was strong and true for Jesus. He had “grown in the grace and knowledge of his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”(2 Peter 3:18)
In our busy world it is excruciatingly easy to “deny” Christ, isn’t it.
Finally, Jesus himself tells a story to perfectly illustrate the redemptive love of His father. This story is the Prodigal Son.
The younger son took his inheritance early and set off to live it up and get away from his familiar, perhaps boring family.
The father allowed him to do this, so away he went, off to do whatever he wanted to do in a far away country. He lived it up. But his money didn’t last forever and he needed to replenish his purse. He got a job feeding pigs.
So he finally realized he made a big mistake. Perhaps living back with the family is not so bad after all. He would certainly eat better.
He swallows his pride, realizing that because of his actions, he has no business being a member of the family. Perhaps his father will take him back as a hired servant.
The homecoming in a nutshell is the story of redemption—the son realized he was not so worthy as to be his father’s slave, however the father would not hear of it.
Father goes out to meet him even when he is a way off. Father meets him where he is.
The father doesn’t put him on probation; the son is restored immediately to his place in the family.
The father does not ask questions, does not exact any guilt from the son.
The father does not say “I told you so.”
The father just gives his son the best welcome he knows how to give.
So here Jesus tells us of a family, a good family where the son made a very bad choice, he turned his back on those he loved.
But he realized his mistake and he came back. Unbeknownst to him, he was always loved by his father even while he had turned away in sin. Such is God’s love for us.
So there you have it. A number of examples from scripture that illustrate the message that no matter the nature and quantity of our sins, God is always ready to hear our genuine repentance and restore us to a right place with Him.
I know there are many more examples and if we had time we could talk about people who are not necessarily written up in scripture. People like us, who have shared our own testimonials.
Wait you say, this is dangerous. If the Lord will accept us back after we have gone our own way, after we have turned our back on the Lord, after repenting and asking for forgiveness, then why can’t we just have a grand old time in sin and debauchery with the idea that eventually we’ll repent and ask God for forgiveness and all will be well until we have some more wild oats to sow. We can do this for at least 70 times 7 can’t we?
How much joy have you had in living your life not having a relationship with God? Oh maybe you’ve had some excitement and some entertainment for a time. But if you have had a relationship with the Lord you know sin is not a lasting pleasure. It just doesn’t work that way. Sin produces its own wages just because it is sin.
God has given you a free will. And when you exercise that free will to follow Him, then it makes your choice all the more powerful, all the more wonderful.
Remember Robert Robinson, the young man who wrote the words to the hymn? Here’s the rest of the story: For many, many years, he led a debased, sinful life. At one point he had occasion to ride on a stagecoach. One of his fellow passengers was a woman who had a hymnbook open on her lap and was going over a hymn. She looked up and exclaimed to Mr. Robinson, that she just loved this one hymn, the words had been such an inspiration for her.
Upon seeing the words of the hymn, Robert Robinson said, “Madame, I am the poor unhappy man who wrote that hymn many years ago and I would give a thousand worlds if I had them, to enjoy the feelings I had then.”
From that encounter with the woman in the stagecoach, God used the very words he had written to draw him to repentance and restored him into a life of fellowship with God.
Sing with me now the third verse of this wonderful hymn on page 334 now knowing how the Lord used the author’s own words to renew his spirit and bring him back.
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So if you ever feel like you have sinned one too many times or committed a really big, terrible blunder of judgment; if you are struggling under the burdens of wrong choices, if you are ready to give up in despair, then remember---
Remember how Moses, a murdering, disobedient person, in the end, was lifted up as a true and faithful servant.
Remember how David transgressed mightily, but in the end was lifted up as a true and faithful servant.
Remember how Peter vehemently denied he knew Jesus, but in the end, he was the one Jesus chose to feed his sheep.
Remember the object lesson from Jesus in the son who turned his back on his father, but came home again to a wonderful welcome.
Remember the Lord tells us in Jeremiah chapter 31: 20, “There is hope in your future, says the Lord.”
Therefore, have the courage to repent and try again, be sure there is hope, the Lord will never cast away the truly repentant soul.