Good morning, trust you've been appreciating and the worship music and engaged in it. It's been a great day that God's given us this morning, and trust it will take us even deeper as we meditate upon His Word. Scripture text today is found in Proverbs 26, verse 11, you can turn there, 26, 11, it's also in your bulletin.
No, recently I made a certain mistake, as we sometimes do. I think I was moving my wife's car and accidentally left the keys in my pocket. I knew I shouldn't have put them in there to begin with. I just should have taken them back into the house, but put them in there and move around the house for a few hours and whatever you're doing, I can't remember a lot of things. And then driving to the church office, getting close to being here, realized that I was headed their own direction because those keys were still in my pocket. What do you do when you're headed the wrong direction? You turn around, right? You turn around. Then there was, I think it was last year, that I put the laptop in my car and as I put my laptop in the car, I headed off to the eastern shore, got about halfway there, and they get a phone call on my cell. Hello, who's this? Of course I put it on speaker. Who's this? This is Andrew. Dad, you got my laptop. So what do you do? You're halfway to the eastern shore, headed the wrong direction. You turn around. Fortunately, he met me halfway. That's what you do. When you're headed their own direction, you turn around. For me, that was way back, 1976, 1973. Some of you, your lies were headed their own direction. Maybe you can remember the time when you realized it just wasn't putting somebody else's computer in your car or having a friend's keys in your pocket, but your whole life was a mistake in that you were making wrong poor choices. And then someone beautiful came into your life. You asked forgiveness for what you've done for your life's choices. Then through the death and resurrection of Christ, trusting in him, you found that you had turned around, and now you're headed in a far better direction. And I trust you're still headed in that direction. For those of us who have genuinely been regenerated, born from the inside out, from the top down, we are turned around 180 degrees, and we're moving in a great direction. Which brings us to Proverbs 26, verse 11. What do you do when you're going in the right direction? You keep going forward. You keep pressing onward and upwards. Verse 26-11 says, like a dog that returns to his vomit is a fool who repeats his folly. Quite graphic, isn't it? Like a dog that returns to his vomit is a fool who repeats his folly. What's the lesson that God wants us to learn in this text? I believe it is that now that we are forgiven in Christ, we are to forget the past, forget the glamorous of the past, and to press on to better things to keep moving forward. Now when I say, forget the past, let me clarify, I don't mean that you forget your blessings. In fact, we know from Psalm 103 that, right, we're told praise the Lord, oh my soul, and forget not all his benefits, right? He's blessed you in so many ways. Those you want to remember, but that other, the old stuff that has pulled us down, and we saw the despair of it, and we which led us to Christ when we saw we were spiritually bankrupt. And those attractions and glamour from the past, we are to forget that way of thinking and way of choosing, don't be fooled, I mean into making the same mistakes. This text is about not returning to the foolishness that we've left behind, that we're not returned to the old lifestyle. In Luke 1732, Jesus gives a warning to his followers, he says, remember, lot's wife. Do you remember, lot's wife, lot's wife looked back and was turned into a statue of salt. It was a miracle temporal judgment that apparently, lot's wife, her heart was still back in that city she was leaving, saw them, and God's judgment was falling upon the people who made those kind of choices at saw them, and Demora, and as she looked back, it was told not to, but she looked back and she was frozen in space, in time, in history, and rightly so. What good are we if we're not going to keep moving forward to something far greater and something far better, if we're just meditating and looking back to what we left? Like a dog who returns to something that had thrown up, so even to look back, we find this example of lots of wife, a warning for us to take pause. Are you taking pause on the life you left? Some of you don't remember because you were little, you don't remember when you came to Christ. Others like myself and some of you, you remember quite vividly. You were delivered from alcoholism, you were delivered from certain immoralities that you were not proud of, and now you've moved, moving in a better direction. Luke 962, Jesus instructs all of us saying that no one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God. So what is the past, he's instructing us to do? In brief, to forget the old past and to press on to the new. Can you say, forget the past and press on to the new, do it. Now let me share with you five principles as I was trying to think how do I approach this text. We said this text alone and you look at it and it's like, wow, a dog returning to its throat up. It's like a fool who repeats his folly. What can we say about that? You think about the Bible as a whole and not just his first. Here are some principles I think that God can help us in this lesson of moving forward. When you're tempted to turn back, remember we are no longer fools but children of God. Say to yourself, and you don't have to say that aloud, I am no longer fool but a child of God. That's a great thought. The first John 3.1 following says, see what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God. And so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved we are now children of God. And what we will be is not yet appeared but we know that when he appears we shall be like him because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself just as he is pure. What he's saying is that now we've been adopted into God's family through Christ. We are a child of God no longer a fool doing foolish things. That's the words of the Proverbs. And so we purify ourselves as we remember a children of God. We adjust our lives when we're tempted to fall back. We take pause. And if we've started to drift back, we adjust. We ask forgiveness. We purify ourselves so that we don't fall into the ways of the past. Titus 3.3 following says, for we are self or once foolish. We ourselves were once foolish. This obedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hated one another, when the goodness and loving kindness of God, our Savior appeared, he saved us. He rescued us not because of the works done by us in righteousness but according to his own mercy by the washing of regeneration and renew of the Holy Spirit. And so when you are tempted to go back to the glamour of the past, remember we are no longer fools. We are in Christ. We are no longer fools. We are children of God. Secondly, when tempted to turn back, remember children are teachable. Fools are not. Children are teachable. Fools are stubborn. In Matthew 183, here's a great verse for us. You know it. Unless you change, King James says, unless you be converted and become as a little child, you can never enter the kingdom of God. That's a powerful verse, isn't it? Unless you become, unless you're converted and changed and become like a little child, you can never enter the kingdom of God. And so that's what happened when we came to Christ. We were converted. We changed. We said we're sorry for what we've done wrong. And now we become children of God and as God's children, we become teachable, like children. That's what sanctification is about. We have the justification, we're justified by grace through faith, it's the gift of God not of work so that none of us can boast. And now we're on the road of sanctification. Compare a child to a fool for a minute. A child is teachable, fool stubborn. A child grows and learns, they're not perfect, but they're growing and they're learning. The fool is static and repeats the same mistake. Childs like soft clay, fools like a hard rock, a child is more like a sponge, but a fool well, like that rock, it's not going to do anything, it's unsurrendered, it won't move one bit when it's instructed. In fact, it's interesting in Ezekiel 36, Ezekiel 36, God talking to his people as he will be converting them and he says this in Ezekiel 36, 26, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you. I will remove from your heart of stone, remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. Basically, if you had a heart of stone, it wouldn't make any difference what I said to you and ask you to do. Come here, you know? Well, what are you going to come? Absolutely not. The words are just bounce off, but if you had a heart of flesh, it's tender, it's soft, you see it's pliable, like a sponge and it receives the words, it takes it in, responds to what has been spoken, absorbs it. So when tempted to turn back, remember you're a child of God, children are teachable, fools are stubborn. Thirdly, when you're tempted to go back to the glamour of the past, remember that sometimes the past seems attractive, and actually is attractive at times, the past may seem attractive but to God it may seem repugnant, that really hits this text. Why would a foolish person, why would a person go back, a dog returned to his vomit? We're not told in this text, we have to think a little bit, that's what they do, don't they? Stuff that probably bothered their stomach, stuff they needed to get rid of, it was out of there, and here they are going back, why would a person do that? It's a pretty powerful image, if we think about it, not to get your attention, sometimes because we're not thinking correctly, there are things that appear alluring, attractive, and so we are lured into our past, but in God's eyes it may be quite repulsive. Imagine this for a minute, they're going to build a new museum, a 21st century museum is opening, it has some of the best artwork and craftsmanship in the entire world, and you're in this new museum and you're going from room to room, you're looking at pottery, you're looking at drawings, you're looking at some of the most beautiful paintings and sculptures, and it's really good stuff, some of it you don't like that much, but there are certain things you really get your attention, you're attracted by these beautiful pieces, art pieces, perhaps made of copper, bronze or silver, maybe even some gold pieces, so as you're moving around, I go into these different rooms, you finally get into a run room and the entire room is fabric design and that room catches your attention. You like the rugs, tapestries, the weaving, that really is some good stuff, and as you're looking at things, you say, man, you can't believe the kind of work that's been made, and you would mind having some of that in your own house, just like to take it off the wall and you've got a nice place for it on your own wall, at your house, and as you're looking at all these great pieces, you realize that you're standing under the most magnificent piece of all. It's a huge tapestry, woven, that is just massive and gorgeous with incredible detail and design, one of a kind tapestry with copious detail, rich color, and combinations of burnt orange and deep blacks and some beautiful reds and rich blues and all in some fabulous design that just is breathtaking. You thought, there's anything in this time museum, this was what I'd like to have, and you don't want to leave the room, but there's so much more to see, so you go out and you're after you're ready to move on, the tour guides taking you to some different places, and eventually you get up on the second floor, and you get near the railing, near the steps, and you look down, and you go, go, go, what is that? That thing is hideous, and the tour guide says to you, that, my friend, that hideous thing down there, that is that beautiful tapestry that you'd like to have hanging in your house. Honey, we're looking at it from above. You see on the backside of that tapestry, it isn't so pretty, isn't it? You see all sorts of uneven strings and knots, and there are threads, it's just a big mass of ugliness on the backside of this so-called beautiful tapestry. You know, sometimes certain choices appear to be attractive, but as God looks from above, it's quite repugnant. What this world may consider attractive, God may consider repulsive. What society may consider worthwhile, God may consider worthless, as a dog returns to its regurgitation, a fool, is a fool who returns to his falling. When we're tempted to turn back, that something that does appear glamorous still, does still pull on us because of its attraction. Let us remember that God sees it from above, and it may turn him off completely. Fourthly, God thinks better things of his children, did you know that? I love that thought as a child of God. God thinks better things of his children. You who are born into the kingdom of God, adopt it in, you are now a beautiful person inside, and second Corinthians 517, one of my favorite scriptures, reminds us of this. If anyone is in Christ, he or she is a new creation. Your new creation, the oldest past, the newest come. You have a new heart. You don't have a perfect heart. God is still working on you, but by faith in Christ, God declares you to have a new heart. You have a new mind. Some days your friends will wonder where that mind is. Some days you may wonder where it is, but you know that is your default. Now, your default is you have a new mind. You have a new beginning. We have a new father. We have a new family. We have God's spirit in us. And Philippians 1, 6 says he was begun to good work. Guess what? He will complete it until the day of redemption. And so when God looked at you, his child, he thinks better things of you. He knows that when we are Lord to turn back, you know what? God is going to win the day. And that is our hope, not in our own ability to turn ourselves around, but Christ has begun to good work in us. We go back to Christ. Oh Lord, help me here. Help me. Wear the new mind. Help me put the old monocide. And I love what is told there in Hebrews to this group of believers who are considered not just considering not just sinning or going back to something glamorous, but throwing off Christ altogether. And he says there in Hebrews 6, 8, but if a piece of land bears thorns and thistles, listen, if a piece of land bears thorns and thistles, thistles, it's worthless and near being cursed. And its end is about to be burned. And its end is to be burned. And he says, though we speak in this way, yet in your case beloved, we feel sure of better things. We feel sure of better things, things that belong to salvation. Apparently there are some out there who turn away from Christ, some who profess our relationship with Christ. Even Judas had a professed relationship with Christ and yet we know his heart had never been made right to begin with. In fact, that's the application in 2 Peter 2. We find it's really about apostasy, apostasy, the application of this text here from Proverbs. And Peter says as he applies the text, 2 Peter 2, 21, for it would be 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 Proverbs says has happened to them. The dog returns to its vomit and the sow or pig after washing herself returns to wallow in the mire, in the mire. As I said, apparently there are some who have a connection with Christ but have never turned in their hearts. And therefore they abandoned him. They came out from him because they were not of him, as John tells us elsewhere. But not us who believe, we by the grace of God, we will keep following. We will keep renewing our faith. And that's what we're called to do here by implication in this text. In Hebrews 6.39, he says this, we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed but are of those who have faith and preserve their souls. You know the evil one and the flesh is no matter where we go, he's out to get us. And our old nature may try to pull us back, but you know, Christ will win the day and so we'll keep looking back to him. So fourthly, when tempted to turn back, we press on. Because God thinks better things of you and we claim that through faith that we have a new nature, a new Lord, a new life. And we have a new future which is the last point. Not only does God think better things of you who are in Christ, he views you as acceptable and morally beautiful. But lastly, God has promised us better things, far more glamorous than the glamorous of the past. And that's what I'm looking forward to. Romans 8.18, the context is paying there, but I'm going to broaden it to a pleasure. The Romans 8.18, Paul, he says, I consider that the present, that is the sufferings, but also the pleasure. So the present is not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us, for the creation, weight, and eager expectation, for the children of God to be revealed, for the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and be brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. The children of God will be brought into a tremendous freedom and glory that's not worth comparing to the brokenness or the glamorous of this fallen world. You know, in Hebrews 11, I won't have expounded here, but in Hebrews 11, it gives a long list, right, of people of the faith, and you know what it says? It says they all died without receiving what they were looking forward to, but guess what? They greeted it from a far, and they acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. Do you know that? You're a stranger, you're an exile. You don't belong here in this earth and this condition. God's got something better. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return, but as it is, they desire a better country, that is a heavenly one, and therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for it's prepared for them a city. Can I get an amen on that? We got a city coming, folks. It's a beautiful city. It's going to be far more fun than the funs of the places of sin for a season. Let me leave you with this last this loose paraphrase from Anglican writer James Packer. He speaks of the joy. It's the end of the road for the believer as we keep pressing on. Listen to what Jeff Packer says, and I'll read it. It's a loose paraphrase. Christians inherit the destiny which fairy tales can only imagine. Yes, to some degree we may have happy life here on earth, but by God's mercy we will live happily ever after. We cannot visualize heaven's life and the wise person would not try to do so. Instead, let us think about the meaning of heaven. The believer will find all their heart's desire, joy with their Lord, joy with other people, joy in the ending when all frustration and distress is ended. Wow. Joy when every one of ours has been met. What was said to the child, quote, if you want sweets and hamsters in heaven, they will be there. End quote, no felt need or longing will go unsatisfied. What our wants will actually be, however, we hardly know. Except the first and the most important. We shall want to be, quote, always with the Lord and quote, who sacrificed his life to give us a beautiful future. And so in gratitude, when we're tempted to return to the glamour's, the yesterday, the glamour's of today. Instead, let us press on to the new something more beautiful than we might ever conceive in this broken world. Amen.