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                         The Sin That Baffles God

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By David Wilkerson
September 3, 1990
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          Nothing baffles me more than Christians who remain
          fickle, even though they sit under a clear, strong
          gospel message! I can't understand how some of God's
          children can be so committed to Him one moment, and
          then turn around and become so cool the next.

          This sin actually baffles God! It both bewilders and
          frustrates Him! In His Word, God speaks His mind to a
          people who had received a very clear call to
          repentance. The Lord sent the prophet Hosea to Israel
          with this message.

          "Come, and let us return unto the Lord; for he hath
          torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will
          bind us up... Then shall we know, if we follow on to
          know the Lord... he shall come unto us as the rain, as
          the latter and former rain" (Hosea 6:1-3).

          God's message was clear but the people were fickle in
          their response! They wavered in their hearts: unstable,
          inconsistent, moving quickly from hot to cold! God
          exclaimed of them, "What shall I do unto thee?" (6:4).

          It is as if the Lord was saying, "Nothing works! Tell
          Me, angels, seraphim, elders, martyrs - tell Me, earth,
          moon and stars: What am I going to do with these fickle
          children?"

          "O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O Judah, what
          shall I do unto thee? For your goodness is as a morning
          cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away" (6:4).

          Many times I've asked God this same question: "Lord,
          what's it going to take to get some of your dear
          children off the fence? What more can we do to rid them
          of their vacillation? We never know where they stand
          spiritually. They are so changeable!

          "Lord, we warn them sharply, we prophesy to them. And
          just when they seem to have been gripped by the Spirit,
          they run back to their idols!"

          This fickleness is wonder to heaven. God sees it and
          seems to say, "I'm in a quandary about what to do with
          these people! What more can I do in My vineyard, that I
          have not done? I've dug it, fertilized it, watered it,
          pruned it and put a wall around it - yet the branches
          remain spoiled!"

          Beloved, God cannot endure stiff-neckedness. That is
          what He faced with Israel! They had promised to obey
          Him, to walk according to all His words. But instead
          they disobeyed and hardened their hearts. And God said,
          "I will not go up in the midst of thee; for thou art a
          stiff-necked people; lest I consume thee in the way"
          (Exodus33:3).

          When the people heard those awful words, "they mourned:
          and no man did put on him his ornaments" (33:4). This
          put God in a quandary! The people were so changeable!
          One moment they were hardened to His voice, and the
          next moment His word melted them! But God knew that
          their repentance was not deep. He instructed Moses,
          "Say unto the children of Israel, Ye are a stiff-necked
          people: I will come up into the midst of thee in a
          moment, and consume thee: therefore now put off thy
          ornaments from thee, that I may know what to do unto
          thee" (33:5).

          God seems to have told them, Don't move! I don't know
          what to do with you yet - you are such a changeable
          people!"

          You may be saying, "How can God be in a quandary,
          baffled by people? He knows all things. He knows what
          is in the heart!"

          Yet Jesus faced the same dilemma with the Jews. He
          said: "But whereunto shall I liken this generation?"
          (Matthew 11:16). In other words, "What can I do about a
          generation like this? John the Baptist came neither
          eating nor drinking, and they said he had a devil! Now
          the Son of Man comes eating and drinking, and they call
          him a glutton. These people neither dance to the music
          nor mourn with the mourners! No one knows where they
          stand! They are divided, uncommitted. They don't know
          what they want. What can you do with such people?" (See
          11:16-19).

          As the Lord spoke through Hosea, He seemed to hurt the
          most over Judah's fickleness: "O Judah, what shall I do
          with thee?" It was bad enough that Ephraim was not
          committed, but Judah was a people close to God's heart!

          God had a tender relationship with Judah. These people
          had walked closely with the Lord, kept His ordinances
          and at one time obeyed all His commandments. They had
          enjoyed such sweet communion with the Lord.

          Now Judah was turning fickle, changing! As Scripture
          says, their goodness was "...as a morning cloud, and as
          the early dew it goeth away" (Hosea 6:4).

          I am sure that in years past during my walk with the
          Lord, at times God must have said, "David, what am I
          going to do with you? I'm not sure of you! I've done
          all that is possible to keep you, warn you, establish
          you. But sometimes you are fickle toward Me. You take
          sin so lightly - you are cold toward Me!"

          Thank God I am not like that anymore! Now I can truly
          say that God knows where I Stand. My heart is not
          divided! I have set my love on Him, and He is in no
          quandary about my love or my walk with Him!

          I want to show you the marks that distinguish a fickle
          Christian. Few such Christians would believe they are
          fickle; in fact, their first reaction often is, "Not
          me!" But you see if you fit this description of a
          changeable, divided, fickle believer!

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             A Fickle Christian Repents Often - But Not Deeply

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          He is moved upon easily, but not for long! He responds
          to the voice of God quickly - but runs aside just as
          quickly!

          Saul exemplifies the fickle child of God. He began so
          right with the Lord, He was humble and full of God's
          Spirit: "God gave him another heart... and the Spirit
          of God came upon Him, and he prophesied" (1 Sam
          10:9-10).

          Saul surrounded himself with men "whose hearts God had
          touched" (10:26). When he called Israel to battle, "the
          fear of the Lord fell on the people" (11:7). Yet in
          just two years later Saul was operating in the flesh -
          with no trust in God and no heart for Him!

          At Gilgal, before going to battle, Saul refused to wait
          for the prophet Samuel to arrive before offering the
          sacrifice. Instead, Saul acted as priest himself and
          disobediently offered the sacrifice.

          On another occasion, Saul was so zealous for God's
          holiness that he was ready to kill his own son Jonathan
          over an act of disobedience! The king built an altar to
          the Lord. Yet almost immediately after that, he
          disobeyed God's order to slay Agag and all that
          belonged to the Amalekites!

          Saul was always vacillating! One moment he was kneeling
          in God's presence at the altar. He erected, and the
          very next day he was compromising and doing things his
          own way. How quickly Saul responded to spiritual
          things; how easily his heart was moved - and yet he was
          still full of rebellion!

          When an evil spirit came upon Saul, he called for David
          to play the harp. As David played and sang, Saul was
          refreshed and the evil spirit departed. Yet later, in a
          rage, Saul called in messengers in the middle of the
          night, saying, "Bring (David) up to me in the bed, that
          I might slay him" (1 Samuel 19:15).

          As long as Saul was in a deeply spiritual moment, he
          would respond to God and speak of God. But the next day
          he would be another man!

          David fled to Samuel at Ramah. As Saul approached
          Ramah, David, Samuel and all the prophets were
          worshipping and praising God. The king, while still a
          distance away, could hear the singing and praising -
          and his spirit was stirred!

          Saul flung open his heart, "and the Spirit of God was
          upon him also, and he went on, and prophesied, until he
          came to Naioth in Ramah. And he stripped off his
          clothes also, and prophesied before Samuel in like
          manner, and lay down naked all that day and all that
          night" (1 Samuel 19:23-24).

          What an open, tender heart! Saul set aside his royal
          robes and worshiped all night long, crying out to God,
          melting in His presence!

          Surely, now, David was safe. The devil must have fled.
          And surely Saul was no longer fickle! How could there
          have been such a powerful move of the Spirit on a man,
          and it not change him?

          But a few days later Saul was found raging at Jonathan:
          "Wherefore now send and fetch him unto me, for he shall
          surely die" (20-31). Twice David came upon Saul during
          a chase, and twice Saul repented - only to go right
          back to his hateful ways! David heard him confessing
          finally, "I have sinned: return, my son David: for I
          will no more do thee harm... behold, I have played the
          fool, and have erred exceedingly" (26:21).

          But it was too late! Saul's word was worthless - his
          heart was too divided! He was so changeable that no one
          around him knew from day to day where he stood. So
          David fled to the land of the Philistines.

          How often I've seen this "Saul syndrome" in believers!
          They're so easily moved and so often confessing,
          weeping and promising - but with no depth!

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             A Fickle Christian Makes Zealous Promises and Then
                               Breaks Them!

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          He begins with great zeal and promise - but seldom
          follows through!

          Jehu king of Israel was marked with this
          characteristic. The Bible says he was furiously driven!
          And the driving is like the driving of Jehu the son of
          Nimshi; for he driveth furiously" (2 Kings 9:20).

          What zeal for God this man had in the beginning! How
          mighty he was in destroying sin, how quick in avenging
          and defending God's holiness! When he saw wicked
          Jezebel looking proudly out of her window, he yelled,
          "Throw her down. So they threw her down... and he trod
          her under foot." (9:33).

          Jehu took Jehonadab aboard his chariot and said, "Come
          with me, and see my zeal for the Lord" (10:16). But
          Jehu was fickle! He had no deep-seated love for
          holiness - he had only a surface zeal!

          Scripture says: "Thus Jehu destroyed Baal out of
          Israel. Howbeit from the sins of Jeroboam... Jehu
          departed not from after them, to wit, the golden calves
          that were in Bethel, and that were in Dan... But Jehu
          took no heed to walk in the law of the Lord God of
          Israel with all his heart; for he departed not from the
          sins of Jeroboam" (10:28-31).

          In Jehu's final days, his chariot could be found in
          Bethel, parked outside the idolatrous temple that
          Jeroboam erected! In his last few months of life, Jehu
          spent his time kneeling before a golden calf, praying!
          Imagine this king, stretching out his arms toward a
          dumb idol and begging for a little hope, embracing an
          idol as he faced death!

          You say, "How could this be? He was such a powerful man
          of God! He was ruthless toward idolatry. He had
          gathered together all the false priests and worshipers
          of Baal into their temple and killed them all. He took
          out all their idols and pounded them to dust!"

          But Jehu never departed from the idolatry of Jeroboam.
          He had a fickle heart! The man who once was furious for
          God's holiness died at the feet of an abominable golden
          calf!

          In three short years that Times Square Church has been
          in existence, I have watched in horror as some
          Christians - at one time "on fire" and charged up about
          what God was doing, committed to the message of
          holiness - drift away only months later! Today they are
          different people!

          The church is no longer the center of their life. The
          fellowship of the saints is no longer precious to them.
          I see them on the street and they are embarrassed. They
          come only once a week, or they just roam about.

          Their fire is gone! They are tired of hearing abut
          repentance, and now they have new-found friends in the
          world. Many of them will end up dead - groveling in
          some empty ritual when the day of judgment arrives!

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              A Fickle Christian Gladly Embraces Shepherds and
                                  Prophets
                  But Ends Up Annoyed and Angry at Them!

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          King Amaziah of Judah was such a man. He had hired
          100,000 men of valor out of the ten backslidden tribes
          of Israel. But to the people of Judah, this was an act
          of unbelief!

          "There came a man of God to him, saying, O king, let
          not the army of Israel go with thee; for the Lord is
          not with Israel... And Amaziah said to the man of God,
          But what shall we do for the hundred talents which I
          have given to the army of Israel? And the man of God
          answered, The Lord is able to give thee much more than
          this" (2 Chronicles 25:6-9).

          Amaziah was willing to suffer a great loss because he
          had a measure of the fear of God in him. He said to his
          staff, "We've heard from God! The man of God has spoken
          and it's a strong word. It proves me dead wrong - but
          God has spoken!"

          Because Amaziah obeyed, he won a great victory. His
          enemies were cast down and he "strengthened himself,
          and led forth his people" (25:11).

          But Amaziah backslid! A spirit of idolatry gripped his
          heart! Scripture says of him: "And he did that which
          was right in the sight of the Lord, but not with a
          perfect heart" (25:2).

          He had a fickle heart! Coming back from the victory
          over the Edomites, "he brought the gods of the children
          of Seir, and set them up to be his gods, and bowed down
          himself before them" (25:14). How incredible that these
          gods could not save Edom from Amaziah's armies - and
          yet he set them up as his own gods!

          "Wherefore the anger of the Lord was kindled against
          Amaziah, and he sent unto him a prophet" (25:15). This
          prophet cried out, "Those gods could not even deliver
          their own people out of your hand - so why do you seek
          after them?"

          In Times Square Church we have young Christians who
          seek careers in show business. They see the
          destruction, the emptiness, the drug addiction, and the
          suicide - yet they chase after the lifestyle of rich
          and famous people. These people are divorced miserable,
          empty, shallow, searching for fleeting moments of
          happiness. Still, Christians do not learn, and they
          continue to go the same way!

          Amaziah became irritated by the word from this prophet.
          He lashed back, "Are you my counselor? Stop talking!
          Why be struck down?" (see 25:16).

          What a cold reception the prophet received! It was a
          stinging rebuke: "Prophet, don't interfere! You have
          not been appointed to run my kingdom. Keep yourself! I
          know what I'm doing!"

          This is where the fickle-hearted Christians end up:
          They no longer tremble at God's Word. They no longer
          have deep respect for men of God. Instead, they have an
          attitude that says, "I hear from God, too I don't need
          a prophet or shepherd interfering with my life!"

          I have felt that cold Amaziah rebuff, right in this
          church. I once trembled in the Spirit as I brought a
          corrective message to a young man, but he didn't
          receive it. I told him, "I've heard from God, and what
          I prophesy to you is the truth!" He looked at me coldly
          and said, "I hear from the same God!"

          When the prophet to Amaziah was rebuked, he cut short
          his message: "Then the prophet forbore [stopped]"
          (25:16) - meaning he knew his message was not going to
          be received. But he gave one last warning: "I know that
          God hath determined to destroy thee, because thou hast
          done this, and hast not hearkened unto my counsel"
          (25:16).

          If you turn away from God's true prophetic warnings,
          you set yourself on a destructive path! You won't live
          long, because you will be destroying yourself!" Now
          after the time that Amaziah did turn away from
          following the Lord they made a conspiracy against him
          in Jerusalem; and he fled to Lachish: but they sent to
          Lachish after him, and slew him there" (25-27).

          After the killing of Naboth, King Ahab had to face the
          prophet Elijah. Elijah thundered, "In the place where
          dogs licked the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick thy
          blood, even thine" (1 Kings 21:19).

          Ahab trembled at this and repented! "And it came to
          pass, when Ahab heard those words, that he rent his
          clothes, and put sackcloth upon his flesh, and fasted,
          and lay in sackcloth, and went softly. And the word of
          the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, Seeth
          thou how Ahab humbleth himself before me? (21:27-29).

          Was this repentance and humility real? Did Ahab really
          respect God's Word? Did he have a high regard for
          shepherd s and prophets who told the truth? No! He
          turned right around and disobediently went to battle
          against Syria with King Jehoshaphat of Judah!

          Ahab had surrounded himself with false prophets: "yes"
          men! Jehoshaphat asked him, "Is there not here a
          prophet of the Lord besides that we might enquire of
          him?" Ahab replied, "There is yet one man, Micaiah...
          but I hate him; for he doth not prophesy good
          concerning me, but evil" (22:7-8).

          There it is in all its ugliness; Ahab's fickle heart
          was exposed! All along he had harbored hatred for God's
          holy prophets. He wanted only to be encouraged and
          flattered, pampered on his road to success! He wanted
          no hard preaching - and his repentance had no depth
          whatsoever!

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              A Fickle Christian Comes Under God's Judgment.

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          "Therefore have I hewed them by the prophets; I have
          slain them by the words of my mouth" (Hosea 6:5).

          God has but one option for fickle Christians.
          "Therefore, I will hew them (cut them down) by the
          prophets and slay them by the Word."

          God's true prophets are not flatterers! They do not
          prophesy good things to compromising Christians! They
          are God's hewers! They carry a two-edged sword in their
          hands to show God's people the difference between holy
          and the profane. They do not deal with trivia!

          God is doing the hewing and cutting in His church right
          now by putting so powerful a word in the mouth of His
          servants that it becomes judgment! It is God speaking,
          and that is awesome!

          In Ezekiel 11, Pelatiah, a prince of Israel was giving
          wicked counsel to the people. The Spirit of God fell on
          Ezekiel, and he spoke a word of warning to Pelatiah and
          to the people. Then Ezekiel said, "It came to pass,
          when I prophesied, that Pelatiah the son of Benaiah
          died (Ezekiel 11:13). Pelatiah was literally slain by
          the word of God!

          God's Word is so strong and so powerful that one day it
          will destroy and consume the Antichrist. "Then shall
          that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume
          with the spirit of his mouth" (2 Thessalonians 2:8).

          But a true prophet never curses others - he grieves and
          weeps when he sees the Word consuming. When Ezekiel saw
          Pelatiah fall dead, "then fell I down upon my face, and
          cried with a loud voice, and said, Ah Lord God, wilt
          thou make a full end of the remnant of Israel?"
          (Ezekiel 11:13). When judgment fell by the word he
          preached, Ezekiel cried for mercy!

          The truth cuts. When a true man of God speaks as the
          oracle of the Lord, the axe is laid to the root. A
          two-edged sword comes out of his mouth! One edge cuts
          away sin and rebellion to heal and restore; the other
          cuts to destroy. I have seen Christians literally die
          in days, weeks or months from the time they brushed
          aside the warnings of holy shepherds.

          At times I have felt like Jeremiah, when he said to
          God, "I am in derision daily, every one mocketh me...
          Then I Said, I will not... speak any more in His name.
          But His word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut
          up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I
          could not stay" (Jeremiah 20:7,9).

          How can you be sure your shepherd is speaking this kind
          of holy word from God's heart? "If thou take forth the
          precious from the vile, thou shalt be as my mouth"
          (Jeremiah 15:19).

          That is what this message is all about - it's a warning
          to rid your soul of the vile sin of fickleness! Why
          such strong warning? "Thy judgments are as the light
          that goeth forth" (Hosea 6:5).

          Right now God's judgments are breaking out on all
          sides! Russia has fallen under the rod of God. Arab
          countries are trembling. The nations and the islands of
          the sea are raging. It is judgment day, and God will
          not put up with lukewarmness, treachery or
          double-mindedness!

          God is uncovering all iniquity - He is blowing a
          trumpet in Zion! And to all who hear the trumpet He
          says, if you "cast off the thing that is good: the
          enemy shall pursue (you)... (You) shall reap the
          whirlwind" (Hosea 8:3,7,).

          Yet here is the hope; When God's sword cuts away sin
          and rebellion, He always brings oil for the wound.

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          If You Are a Fickle Christian, Embrace These Words From
                                 The Lord:

              -----------------------------------------------

          "Return unto the Lord thy God... say unto him, Take
          away all iniquity, and receive us graciously...

          "[And] I will heal their backsliding, I will love them
          freely... I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall
          grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots... His
          branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the
          olive tree... They that dwell under his shadow shall
          return; they shall revive as the corn, and grow as the
          vine...

          "Ephraim shall say, What have I to do any more with
          idols? I have heard him, and observed him: I am like a
          green fir tree. From me thy fruit is found" (Hosea
          14:1-8).

          God promises to raise up and restore His people - a
          people who have laid down their idols, who no longer
          have fickle hearts.

          Give your heart over totally to God - and watch Him
          restore to you what has rotted away in His vineyard.
          Then, in you, His "fruit will be found!" (Hosea 14:8).

          ---
          Used with permission granted by World Challenge, P. O.
          Box 260, Lindale, TX 75771 USA.

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