Five Hazards in the Christian Life — Jerry Jennings

Israel’s Warning in Deuteronomy

I'll read with you in Deuteronomy, Deuteronomy chapter 7, verses 1 and 2. When the Lord thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and hath cast out many nations before thee, the Hittite, the Girgashite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Pezrite, the Hivite, the Jebusite, seven nations greater and mightier than thou.

And when the Lord thy God shall deliver them before thee, thou shalt smite them and utterly destroy them. Thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor show mercy unto them. Now, verse 17, if thou shalt say in thine heart, these nations are more than I, how can I dispose them?

Thou shalt not be afraid of them, but shalt well remember what the Lord thy God did unto Pharaoh and unto all of Egypt. Notice in chapter 8, verse 10, verse 10, chapter 8, verse 10. And the Lord delivered unto me two tablets of stones written, I'm in 9, I'm sorry, I should get in chapter 8, verse 10.

When thou hast eaten an artful, then thou shalt bless the Lord thy God. For the good land which he hath given thee, beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God, in not keeping his commandments and his judgments and his statutes, which I command thee this day.

Notice with me in chapter 9, verses 1 to 5. Here, O Israel, thou art to pass over Jordan this day, to go in to possess nations greater and mightier than thyself, cities greater and fenced up in heaven, a people great and tall, the children of the Anakins, whom thou knowest and of whom thou hast heard say, who can stand before the children of Anak?

Understand therefore this day that the Lord thy God is he which goeth over before thee, as a consuming fire he shall destroy them, and he shall bring them down before thy face, so shalt thou drive them out and destroy them quickly.

As the Lord hath said unto thee, speak not thou in thine heart, excuse me, after that the Lord thy God hath cast them out from before thee, saying, for my righteousness the Lord hath brought me in to possess this land, but for the wickedness of these nations the Lord doth drive them out from before thee.

Chapter 10. In chapter 10, I will just read one verse, verse 12. And now Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul?

The Five Hazards of Compromise

And what I have upon my mind this afternoon is the hazards of compromise. The hazard of compromise. Chapter 7, verse 17 to 21, we read about the hazard of fearing our foes. Chapter 8, verse 10 to 18, the hazard of self-satisfaction.

Chapter 9, verse 1 to 5, the hazard of spiritual pride. Chapter 10, verse 12, the hazard of deliberate disobedience. Chapters 1 to 6, then, Moses was reminding Israel of their past with the purpose of preparing them for the future.

Perhaps he was thinking, if we forget the past, we're apt to repeat it. Isn't that true? That happens every day, doesn't it? What do you remember about 9 -11? Do you remember anything about that, or have we forgotten that?

Do you think that's going to happen again? I think it's going to happen again in due time. They had been slaves in Egypt, and they had been pilgrims in the wilderness, and soon they're going to be citizens in the land.

And God, in all of his mercy, is giving them a heads up. It was a truthful warning. God's love is the greatest quantity of truth that exists in this world today. I take it as the most powerful moral energy that exists in the universe today.

There are brilliant men and women that have sent rockets up into the heavens, and even landed them on the moon, and things like that. And it takes tremendous power and thrust to push them rockets up into the sky.

But the greatest power that exists in the world today is the love of God, and that is the only power existent that can take a poor lost sinner to heaven. And it takes the power of God to do that. So we read about five hazards.

God wanted them, and he also wants us, I believe, to recognize, and not only to recognize them, but to avoid them. You know, if we don't hear about them, these hazards, then we can't recognize them, can we?

And if we can't recognize them, then it's impossible to avoid them. And if we fail to avoid these hazards, they will ruin us. And they'll ruin us spiritually, and they'll ruin us morally. God has spiritual lighthouses, and he has them on the reef of time.

Lest the rocks and lest the pitfalls wreck us. And it is simply a token of his affection for us. If he didn't love you, if he didn't love me, then he wouldn't warn us about these hazards that exist in our life as we move through this wilderness on our way home to glory.

So I want to say a little something about the hazard of compromise. Chapter 7, verses 1 to 2. I think God's intentions are clear. To expel the heathen nations from the promised land. And he had a reason for doing that.

They were morally and spiritually wicked and worldly. Isn't that the world that you and I are moving through? It's not the world that you and I are living in as a people of God. It's the world we're moving through.

It's the world that we try to avoid. It's the world that God wants us to be set apart from and separated from. And he's not trying to make our life miserable. He loves you and he loves me. And he knows that the wickedness of the world and all of its spiritual immorality is a danger to you and a danger to me.

And he doesn't want that danger for you. Nor does he want that danger for me. And the reason being is that he loves you and he loves me as well. And you wouldn't want to expose your children to wickedness and danger either.

And God doesn't want to expose his children to wickedness and to danger either. And that's why he has a desire that we be set apart for the glory of God. Because we're something special. I know that everybody in the room has got something special in their house.

And they just set it apart from everything else because it's a special thing. And it has a special place. Where you're special to God and I'm special to God. And so he sets us apart. And not only that, he wants us to be separated from the world.

Because he knows full well, as you and I know full well, the world will never help us. The world will only hurt us. The world morally, the world politically, the world religiously can not do anything to help you and I spiritually.

But can do a lot to harm us, you and I, as we move through this wilderness. And I think that he has this intense concern about you and concern about me. Because of the purchase price that Christ has paid upon the cross of Calvary.

It's a tremendous price. And you and I can't even imagine in our minds the price, the infinite cost that God has paid to purchase you as to be a child of God. To be one of his. That he could set you apart because you're important to him.

And to separate you from the world. He's paid a tremendous price. And the lovely person of the Lord Jesus who stooped, came into this world of sin. And it's a world of sham as well. As well you know, it's a world of sham just like I do.

And God wants us out of his love for us to be separated from us. That it might not harm us. He don't want you to be harmed. And he doesn't want me to be harmed either. He wants to protect you and he wants to protect me.

And the reason being he sees potential in you. There's tremendous potential in this room today. Because there are a great number of young people. And there is potential in these young people for the glory of God.

Not for this world. But for the glory of God. To move through this world in a manner that would be pleasing to him. And bring glory to him. And bring others to the person and work and worth and welcome of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So God has an unchanging principle of separation. I don't know why it is that some brethren, some Christians just don't like that word. They're afraid of that word separation. They don't like that word separation.

I don't really understand that. Because it isn't God trying to deprive you of anything. It's God or me. He is trying his very best to protect us from this present evil world. And believe me it's an evil world we're moving through today.

It's perilous times. We're not looking forward to peril. We're in perilous times. Perilous times that we move through today. Things are different than they were years back. So this principle of separation is found in the Old Testament.

A good number of places. I could tell you where I found them. And in the New Testament as well. And because these principles of separation are found in these places. In the Old Testament as well in the New Testament.

We got to stop and consider it's the Word of God. It's God's Word. This principle of separation. In relation to you. In relation to me. I would think that a fair minded spiritually discerning saint. Can clearly see we live in days when dress, deportment, dialect.

Makes it increasingly difficult. The things that you see. The things that are going on in the world today. Makes it increasingly difficult to discern the saint from the sinner. That's sad isn't it? There used to be more of a distinction.

Between the people of God. The people of the book. You know at one time we were known as that. In the assemblies of the Lord's people. We were known as the people of the book. I wonder in my mind today.

And I'm not being critical. But I wonder if we could still be considered the people of the book. And I know. I remember in a day gone by. When I gathered out into the assembly of the Lord's people. About 1974.

That there was a very clear distinction. Between the Christians. In God's assembly. And the people of the world. I recognized. I used to recognize a lady when she was in the assembly. And I knew who she was.

And I met her. At Walmart one day. And I didn't recognize her. I didn't know who she was. That distinction was gone. And so I didn't know who she was. She had to come up to me. And introduce herself to me.

I think maybe that is a notable hindrance. To the cause of Christ. And perhaps even to the interest of the gospel. Of Jesus Christ. I want to think about the hazard of. The fear of men. I think Moses was encouraging Israel not to give in.

Or to give up. And God don't want you to give in or give up either. And he doesn't want me to give in and to give up. And I know what it is to be. To have a fear in my heart of men. To be intimidated by other men.

And you may know something about that too. And it's not a very good feeling. And even at my age. I feel that from time to time. I'm intimidated. By other men. And I have a fear of them. The fear of men.

Maybe it's a snare. And a snare is a whole lot different than a trap. A trap will hold you. Catch you and hold you. But a snare. It just gets tighter and tighter and tighter. The God who preserved you.

And the God who preserved me. And that nation. That was preserved in the land of Egypt. Was a nation that God protected. And he protected them in the wilderness. And he'll protect you. And he'll protect me.

In the wilderness as well. And will maintain and sustain us. In the land. He keeps us. He maintains us. And he sustains us. As we move through this wilderness. You know when I went out in the Lord's work.

Full time. I said to my wife. I said let's go. There used to be a buffet. I can't remember the name of it. In La Crosse. And I said. Let's go to that buffet. And get ourselves a good feed of food. Because we'll probably never get a good feed of food again.

And so we went to the. But I have. You can tell. I've had many good feeds of food. Since that. You know the Lord that calls you. Is the Lord that keeps you. He's not only the Lord that keeps you. He's the Lord that equips you.

To do what he calls you to do. Whatever it might be. And he did the same. With the nation of Israel. In the wilderness. He maintained him. And sustained him. In the land as well. And he can sustain you.

In the land. We're moving through the land. And the God who calls. Is the God who enables. And he's also the God who equips. And these young preachers. Here in the room. Today. They've learned that. I had to learn that too.

After I left that buffet in La Crosse. I learned. I learned that. I'll just tell you a little story. You want to hear a story? Kids like stories. Even adults like stories. I remember a time that I was having meetings.

In Waniwak. And I'm not going to name names. Waniwak. Wisconsin. And I was there with a man. By the name of Joel Portman. And we were preaching away. And preaching our hearts out. And my wife called me one night.

And she said to me. She says you know. I got ten dollars. She says. That's all we got. I said we got more than that. Because I got ten dollars. So she had ten dollars. And I had ten dollars. And I said don't you tell anybody.

That's all we got. You just tell the Lord about it. And I'll tell the Lord about it too. So I took a little walk. And I was telling the Lord. Now you know. I'm very happy to go back to a secular job. And work.

But if you want to keep me in the work here. The Lord's work. Then you're going to have to help me a little bit here. The meeting was over that night. There was a young brother who walked out of that meeting.

He put four hundred dollars cash in my hand. I took it home. And I'll tell you from that time on. My wife told me. From that time on. That there never was a shortage. There was always enough money there.

To pay the bills. And meet our needs. But not our greeds. And He'll always meet your need. He'll always meet my need. Not our greeds. God who calls. No matter what He's called you to do. He'll equip you to do that.

You can be sure of that. And He'll also enable you. To do that as well. I can do all things through Christ. Which strengtheneth me. And so can you. And Paul the Apostle knew something about that. And he's just passed that on to you and me.

For your encouragement. And my encouragement. I want to think about the hazard of self-satisfaction. Someone has said. And I wrote it down. The devil's wiles are more dangerous. Than his warriors. The devil's wiles.

More dangerous. Than his warriors. I take it that Moses is warning about the perils of prosperity. Can you remember the hard times? You remember the hard times? Maybe none of you have ever had hard times.

And so you can't remember the hard times. I can remember the hard times. I can remember the time when I'd go to work. With a popcorn ball. In my lunch basket. And about two nickels to rub together in my pocket.

And those were hard times. You get sick and tired of popcorn balls. And when I'd get home. I had an old single shot shotgun. And I had a dog. I called that dog Happy Harrigan. It was the happiest dog I ever knew.

And old Happy Harrigan. He'd get me a pheasant up. I wouldn't have to get far from the house. Well it didn't matter if it was a rooster or a hen. Because I was shooting them out of season anyway. And putting them on the table.

See? One day I come home. And my wife Judy's coming up the road. Dragging this here shotgun with her. And she got this bird. And I thought she had a pheasant. She had a hawk. But we didn't eat the hawk.

We didn't eat it. But those were hard times. I can remember them. But you know what? We were happily. Not in the early days. But after we were saved. We had hard times after we were saved as well. But you know?

We were really happy. God had saved us. We were on our way to heaven. And we had new friends. And things were different. Life was starting to make some kind of sense. And we were just happy depending upon God.

For everything. And we depended upon Him for our food. And we depended upon Him for our raiment. And we were so eager to hear. What He had to say. In the Word. And so eager to obey Him. In them early days.

I can remember them. They were wonderful. And we were really, really eager to go to meeting. Are you there Wednesday night? If you're not there. It must be that you're not very eager. To go to meeting.

But we were just absolutely eager. To go to meeting. And we were just delighted to be with the Lord's people. They were wonderful. We didn't know people like that. Before we were saved. The kind hearted.

Tender and they could even smile. Am I right? And then along comes something else. Right? Times of ease. Times of enough. And then. Do we need to be reminded of? Deuteronomy 8 and verse 18. It is He who gives you the power to get wealth.

You got some coins you can rub together today? Do you know where you got that? God gave you the power, the ability, the intelligence to get wealth. My parents were very wealthy people. And you want to know something?

They got it all on their own. Yeah. They got every dine that they ever had. They got it all on their own. God never helped them one bit. Well I got. Well I don't have news for them anymore. They're gone.

I could have had news for them. If it hadn't been for the goodness of God. They would not have had what they had. And what they were enjoying insofar as things that they could see and feel and touch they didn't want for anything.

They do today. Because they were more interested in they thought that true treasure was money in the bank and land and buy more land and raise more corn and buy more hogs and that's how the whole thing went for years and years and years and they made money piled the banks full of money and then they lost the most precious possession you know what that was?

Their soul. Never had an ounce of interest in God nor God's salvation or where they were going to spend eternity not even an inkling in their mind that there was a possibility they might end up in a lost eternity and they did.

I spoke to my mom many a time and she turned her back on me. And when she was 97 years old I said to her, come on now don't you really now don't you ever think about eternity and where you going to spend it honestly?

And she said to me, she said those aren't good thoughts we don't think about those things. And I told my mom I said mom you need to think about those things because you're going to slip into eternity one of these days your foot will slide in due time and then where will you be?

And I says I know where all your wealth is going to be and it ain't going to be in a U-Haul trailer following her south of the cemetery. Wealth. You know there is a time coming there is a time coming and it's drawing very near when God will once again remind this whole world who controls the wealth of the world.

The Hazard of Spiritual Pride

And there's that hazard of spiritual pride isn't that something? Spiritual pride that's awful isn't it? You don't want to know something worse than that? Preacher pride. Preacher pride that's an awful thing but it exists along with spiritual pride there's a hazard of spiritual pride.

Chapter 9 verse 1 to 5. Moses is reminding them and while he's reminding them we could borrow that language because he's reminding us as well he's reminding this old man standing up here for sure it's not their goodness that brings blessing and benefit but it's God's grace.

It's not your goodness it's not my goodness that brings blessing and benefit into your life and blessing and benefit into my life it's the grace of God. Mr. McKinley's wife told me years ago in about 1975 she said it's all grace from beginning to end all the way through life you're saved by the grace of God and everything beyond that is all based upon the goodness and the grace of God.

I'm going to go a little further with this. I think that that should really humble us and it should really take away that haughtiness from us. You know bragging and boasting you know what it's not. It's not a mark of spirituality bragging or boasting.

I had a man call me one day and he was boasting. He was bragging and I said to him you be careful that you don't dislocate your shoulder. He knew what I meant. He got so mad at me. He says I'm going to take you off my telephone list as if that was going to bother me.

And then it was two years before he ever spoke to me again. And that's just because I kind of teased him a little bit about the fact that he was bragging and he was boasting. And I said you know that's not a mark of spirituality.

It's a mark of carnality. Isn't it brethren. It's a mark of carnality and spiritual immaturity. And it's an open invitation for divine chastening. Let me say a little something about the hazard of deliberate disobedience.

The Hazard of Deliberate Disobedience

I picked that up in chapter 10 and verse 12. I don't think that the issue is do's and don'ts and ought nots. But it has something to do with the heart. It has something to do with the inner man. When I was first saved I was saved in a Baptist meeting.

I never was a Baptist. I was just saved there. I was like oh Billy Kelly I just got saved heard the Baptist people preaching the gospel and and I was saved. And you know in the early years there before I ever come to the assemblies I heard a lot of you ought not ministry.

You ever hear that. You ought not. You ought not do this. You ought not do that. You ought not do the other thing. And I heard all kinds of you ought not ministry. I don't think I've heard much of it since.

But it has to do with the ought nots and the do's and the don'ts. I don't really think that's the issue. It's the heart. It's the inner man. Not that heart that's pumping blood. But the inner man dwelling in the body looking out of our eyes today.

You know if we are spiritually healthy happy and in harmony with the word of God and the will of God with a with a desire to be devoted and consecrated and to be obedient it will be a pleasure. Christianity will be a pleasure and not a drudgery.

And God never meant your Christianity to be a drudgery. He never meant mine to be. He never meant divine things to be a drudgery to the people of God in the Old Testament days either you can see that in the feast of Jehovah they didn't come to Jerusalem seven times only came three.

And they came when it was convenient for them. So God isn't trying to make Christianity a drudgery. Oh Carl can't get his last name. He was from Saginaw Michigan. I used to hear him say I don't. I don't find my Christianity a drudgery.

It's not a problem to me at all. I think it's a joyful experience. That's what God meant for your Christianity to be is a joyful experience. We should be the happiest people in the world. We should have a teacup face.

No teapot face. That's what Fisher Hunter used to say. He said do you have a coffee pot face. Or do you have a teapot face. Well a teapot face is a face that's a smile. He wasn't Irish either brother.

He's from Scotland. He was Scottish. And he used to say that do you have a teapot face. That'd be a smiley face. Or do you have a coffee pot face. He didn't like coffee. So I guess that was a face that was frowning.

You ever go to the mall. You're probably sitting there thinking I hope not. But sometimes you just follow your wife to the mall you know. And she goes to the to the bath and soap bubble place. You know there's that that one room and she gets in there and gets that smelly soap and lotion and all that there stuff.

She comes out smiling with a big bag full of you know soap and hand cream and face cream and foot cream and the whole nine yards. And you're like me sitting on the bench over there and you're so happy that in front of the bath and bubble they put a bench with a back on it and you can lean against that thing.

See. And it's very interesting because you get a changing crowd all day long. You can sit there eight hours and get a changing crowd changing faces. And boy I'll tell you you see more coffee pot faces than you do teapot faces.

People just look so sad coming down the tramway and I'm thinking to myself I wonder what my face looks like. I hope I'm smiling or I got some kind of a smile on my face instead of you know one time Joel and I'm gonna quit as soon as I tell you this story.

Joel and I were having meetings up in Minnesota and there was a little place called Hackensack, Minnesota. Now you know right where it's at. Alright it's up above Bemidji. You know where Paul had them big feet and he had an ox and bathed a blue ox and all that Paul Bunyan.

And we were having meetings up there and we rented this little place out in the country and we swept the flies out set up some chairs and invited folks in and we weren't getting big crowds. You know we were getting a few.

We were getting a few of them Minnesotans in there and so anyways here come a lady one night and she was a reporter from the Hackensack Star. Ah big circulation I suppose in this newspaper Hackensack Star.

She wanted to know if she could sit in to the meeting and I said well sure you're welcome come on in. And she says well I'm gonna when we're done I want to take some pictures. And I said well as long as you don't take too many.

I was okay. So anyway in about two days I got one of them newspapers called the Hackensack Star and opened this thing up. And here was a story about these two old timey preachers that were preaching the old fashioned gospel meetings to twelve stoic Minnesotans.

Apparently she didn't see any smiling faces. She called them all stoic twelve stoic Minnesotans. Well there were twelve stoic Minnesotans in there. They didn't seem to smile too much. But anyways they were in the room and we were smiling because we were happy that there was somebody coming out anyway.

So are you happy? You and I have the best of it. We have the best of it in this life and a bright and glorious future before us. And we're moving through this world in harmony with the divine persons and with the people of God.

And it is wonderful. And we should be smiling and we should be happy. And you know it's so great that we won't be saying what's wrong with it. We'll be saying what's right with it. That's really the question.

Isn't it. You know I hear that once in a while. Well what's wrong with it. And I just come back with this question what's right with it. And I think the word is fear him. Chapter ten verse twelve exhorted to.

We are exhorted as they were to fear him to fear God. I'm not trembling. I'm not afraid. I think it's the idea of being awestruck and love him and obey him and serve him. And John Nelson Darby has put it this way for thy good.

It's for your good and for my good to fear him to love him to obey him and to serve him.