37.s. “I will vomit you out of My mouth.”

 

Malachi 1:6 “A son honors his father, And a servant his master. If then I am the Father, Where is My honor? And if I am a Master, Where is My reverence? Says the Lord of hosts To you priests who despise My name. Yet you say, ‘In what way have we despised Your name?’

Revelations 3:15-16: “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.”

We can come up with all kinds of reasons why we are consumed by the busyness of life and have little to no time for God and things of God. Young families find themselves going from work to baseball, soccer, volleyball, football, track, tennis, matches, practice, out-of-town events, and other school activities. They get stuck in being busy and end up having no time for God or things of God. They are consumed by life. Their quiet time for God is listening to a gospel song on the way to work, or when time permits a trip to church.  Prayer is reserved for those awful times in life where trials and troubles overwhelm them. Such is life when God and things of God are put “Second” on the priority list.

It is very easy to discern.  

  1. Neglecting God’s Word.
  2. Complacency
  3. Things of God are not given any thought
  4. There is no thought of having everything you say, think, and do for the honor and glory of Jesus 
  5. There is no meditation on His Word
  6. Joy, love, peace, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, generosity, self-control, and patience are missing
  7. Fear, confusion, anger, division, and worry find places in your mind
  8. There is no fruit for the kingdom of God
  9. Giving of time or money is weak at best
  10. More time is spent on social media than on God’s Word
  11. More time is spent watching TV than in God’s Word
  12. More thought is given to sports and watching and attending them
  13. World and local news is more important than God’s Word
  14. Life seems to be more of a burden than a joy to experience
  15. You no longer hear the quiet whispers of the Holy Spirit
  16. You are no longer aware of sin and the need for repentance
  17. You are tolerant of things that are not godly
  18. Worldly wisdom seems to make sense
  19. You are never satisfied or content
  20. There is a void in your heart and mind but you can’t put your finger on what is missing
  21. God’s coming wrath and judgment and the return of Jesus Christ is given no thought
  22. The great price Jesus paid for your sin is given no thought
  23. There is no discernment between Godly and worldly

There should be no room for neglect or complacency toward Jesus Christ and the things of God in our lives. We should be very growing in our understanding and knowledge of God and His love, grace, and mercy.  We should be ever growing in our desire to, more and more each day, learn to honor and glorify Jesus Christ in how we think, what we speak, and what we do. 

When we allow ourselves room to be neglectful and complacent it does not end well. Nor will we find satisfaction and purpose for our souls.

15.z. “For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness”

John 6:65  And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.” After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” Jesus answered them, “Did I not choose you, the twelve? And yet one of you is a devil.” He spoke of Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the twelve, was going to betray him.

Matthew 12:41   The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.  The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here.  “When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, but finds none.  Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when it comes, it finds the house empty, swept, and put in order.  Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there, and the last state of that person is worse than the first. So also will it be with this evil generation.”

2 Timothy 4:10    For Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me

Hebrews 10:38   but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.”

2 Peter 2:20-22    For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first.  For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them.  What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.”

The Son of God was in their presence.  He spoke wisdom greater than the wisdom of Solomon and preached greater than the preaching of Jonah.  There were in His presence and many rejected Him.  In 2 Peter he says; “it would be better for those who did not know the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back.” Jesus said, “the last state of that person is worse than the first.”  When a person who knows the message of the Gospel and is aware of eternal life through it, and then chooses to reject it, then falls away or is drawn away by worldly passions and pleasures, what is it that so easily pulls them away from Jesus Christ?  How does a person who has tasted what the blessings of forgiveness are and then comes to reject the forgiver?  There are many things that come to mind.  Pleasures and things of this world devour the light of Jesus Christ.  They choose to become blind and deaf to things of God but open their ears and eyes to things of this world.  They choose to believe a lie rather than the truth of the Gospel.

The day of salvation is now.  If you hear His voice speaking to your heart and soul, do not reject Him.  Let Him in.  Hunger and thirst for Him.  A time is coming when the offer of salvation in the presence of the Holy Spirit will cease.  Rejecting it now means you reject eternal life and choose to go to eternal damnation and torment, hell.  You may not ever get another chance.  There are many who say they will choose to believe but sometime later in their lives.  We are not guaranteed a single day in the future.  Think about all of the people who die each day from a host of various accidents.  I am sure they would have said, “if I had only known today was my last day I would have come to Jesus Christ.”  The “day of salvation is now”, do not reject the Gospel of Jesus Christ a single moment longer.

12.f. “He cannot save himself by his treasure and his prosperity will not endure.”

Habakkuk 2:6  “Will not all of them taunt him with ridicule and scorn, saying, “‘Woe to him who piles up stolen goods and makes himself wealthy by extortion! How long must this go on?’ Will not your creditors suddenly arise? Will they not wake up and make you tremble? Then you will become their prey. Because you have plundered many nations, the peoples who are left will plunder you. For you have shed human blood; you have destroyed lands and cities and everyone in them.

Job 20:15-23  He will spit out the riches he swallowed; God will make his stomach vomit them up. He will suck the poison of serpents; the fangs of an adder will kill him. He will not enjoy the streams, the rivers flowing with honey and cream. What he toiled for he must give back uneaten; he will not enjoy the profit from his trading. For he has oppressed the poor and left them destitute; he has seized houses he did not build. “Surely he will have no respite from his craving; he cannot save himself by his treasure. Nothing is left for him to devour; his prosperity will not endure. In the midst of his plenty, distress will overtake him; the full force of misery will come upon him. When he has filled his belly, God will vent his burning anger against him and rain down his blows on him.

God addressed the greedy man, and told him that he was ripe for judgment. The greedy man did his best to protect himself (set his nest on high), yet all his best defense would come to nothing.  The greedy man thinks in terms of nothing but gain, but ends up losing his own soul.  Luke 12:16-21– 16 Then He spoke a parable to them, saying: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully. 17 “And he thought within himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?’ 18 “So he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods. 19 ‘And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, [and] be merry.” ‘ 20 “But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?’ 21 “So [is] he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”

Pride and greed are tempters of all.  they equally find home in the rich and in the poor.  Pride and greed will never object to where they reside.  They are sticky like glue and can attach to the surface of our hearts, minds, and souls with ease.

The Word of God exposes these life sucking leeches within our heart and mind.  The Word of God will set us free from the bondage of their grip in our lives.  The Word of God in a humble servant will do more good in this world than money from all the richest men combined.

But Lot’s wife looked back

Genesis 19:23 The sun had risen on the earth when Lot came to Zoar. Then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the Lord out of heaven. And he overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground. But Lot’s wife, behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt. And Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the Lord. And he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and toward all the land of the valley, and he looked and, behold, the smoke of the land went up like the smoke of a furnace. So it was that, when God destroyed the cities of the valley, God remembered Abraham and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow when he overthrew the cities in which Lot had lived.

Luke 17:28  Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot—they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, but on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them all— so will it be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed. On that day, let the one who is on the housetop, with his goods in the house, not come down to take them away, and likewise let the one who is in the field not turn back. Remember Lot’s wife. Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it.

1 Corinthians 10:6-12     Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did.  Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.”  We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day.  We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents,  nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer.  Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come.  Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.

Hebrews 10:38-39     but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.”  But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.

2 Peter 2:18-22     For, speaking loud boasts of folly, they entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely escaping from those who live in error.  They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved.  For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first.  For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them.  What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.”

Lot’s wife looked back which appears to be for a longing of the way things were.  Living there was a life of what was recorded in Ezekiel 49 Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy.”   Change from this life caused her to turn back with a longing concern for what once was.

What keeps us from turning back or falling back into that which does not honor God?  Is it not by the simple fact that through complacent neglect of His word we are deceived and diluted, by the way of the world, into thinking that which is common and natural and lawful to the culture is somehow ok for us?  Oh, that our heart, mind and soul would thirst for understanding and knowledge of Him and His word.  Oh that our passion was not for this world but rather to serve, honor, glorify, follow and obey Him who is worthy.

Matthew Henry comments “All the people of Sodom were very wicked and vile. Care was therefore taken for saving Lot and his family. Lot lingered; he trifled. Thus many who are under convictions about their spiritual state, and the necessity of a change, defer that needful work. The salvation of the most righteous men is of God’s mercy, not by their own merit. We are saved by grace. God’s power also must be acknowledged in bringing souls out of a sinful state If God had not been merciful to us, our lingering had been our ruin. Lot must flee for his life. He must not hanker after Sodom. Such commands as these are given to those who, through grace, are delivered out of a sinful state and condition. Return not to sin and Satan. Rest not in self and the world. Reach toward Christ and heaven, for that is escaping to the mountain, short of which we must not stop. Concerning this destruction, observe that it is a revelation of the wrath of God against sin and sinners of all ages. Let us learn from hence the evil of sin, and its hurtful nature; it leads to ruin.”