The Deadly Cost of Compromise - #9774

A Word With You

Now don't accuse frogs of being dumb. Not that you ever would. I mean, I've been told that if you take a frog and you put him in a pot of boiling water (which, why would you do that?) he'll be smart enough to jump out. He knows he's going to die there.

On the other hand, if you put that frog in some lukewarm water, he's going to start swimming around in there. He's going to go, "Oh, it's cool in the pool!" And if you turn it up ever so gradually, the water is going to start to bubble, and steam, and he'll just keep swimming, and diving, and looking up at you with those big old eyes. Until finally the water is boiling and he'll never know what hit him. He'll slowly become comfortable in something that will ultimately kill him. Maybe just like us.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Deadly Cost of Compromise."

It's amazing what erosion can do. It can create whole geological masterpieces, and it can destroy a life a little bit at a time. Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Genesis 13, and I'm reading verses 12 and 13. It's about Abram, his nephew Lot, and they're choosing where they're going to live in Canaan. And, of course, at that time the city that more than any other symbolized man's rebellion against God was the city of Sodom.

Here's what it says, "Abram lived in the land of Canaan while Lot lived among the cities of the plain and pitched his tents near Sodom. Now the men of Sodom were wicked and were sinning greatly against the Lord." It's interesting how Lot's disintegration began. It only began by pitching his tent in the direction of Sodom. If you would have said to him, "You know, one day you're going to live there, Lot. One day you're going to be a part of those people." He would have said, "No! All I'm doing is camping in the neighborhood."

But you see, while Lot started to be in Sodom, pretty soon Sodom was in Lot. And by the time God brought fire and brimstone, Lot had so lost all of his credibility no one in that city would listen to him, even some of his own family members. He tried to get them to follow God and follow Him out of that city and, literally, Genesis says, "they laughed at him." Why would they believe this man who had become so much like the environment around him?

See, the Devil destroys Christians. But not in the way you might think! Not by explosion, but by erosion. James 1:15 tells us a lot about how a spiritual disaster takes place. It says, "Desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full grown, gives birth to death." Notice, it starts just as a desire. You've got to fight sin when it's on the beach, not when it's in your backyard. And the desire is the place to stop it because it will inevitably always kill. Sin always fascinates, but then it assassinates. It kills your reputation, your self-respect, your self-worth, your closeness to God. There are awful consequences. You say, "Well, look, I'm only pitching my tent in the direction of Sodom. I'm only with friends who do wrong. I don't do what they do. I'm a little friendly with someone outside of my marriage; but we're just friends, it's not serious." But those flirtations are eroding you. Maybe you're walking along the sexual cliff saying, "Well, I don't plan to go all the way." Oh yeah, but you're being eroded. There are more lies in your life maybe than there used to be; recurring thoughts of sinful activity. Do you see what's happening? Slowly but surely your resistance is going down and you're going down.

Listen! Run! Don't walk from Sodom; run from it. Run the other direction today. Don't wait for the fire and brimstone. Don't wait until the water's boiling. Don't be eroded. There is nothing ahead in Sodom but death.