Spot Remover Needed

“Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.” (Jer 13:23 AV)

The word ‘…accustomed…’ here means taught and disciplined.  Without getting into a debate about total depravity, this word does not mean a fatal condition which one cannot escape.  This condition of evil is something attained.  Not something which one is forced to live with.  This is important to realize.  The context is unrepentant Judah.  They started out completely surrendered to the LORD.  Back in Joshua’s time, they vowed to follow the LORD and His law.  They faltered in their immaturity of Judges.  But God gave them kings that led them in the ways of the LORD.  They also refused to deal with kings that did not.  Judah learned to worship idols as well as lust after the flesh from their ungodly neighbors.  This is where this word comes in.  Their neighbors taught them to backslide.  Their neighbors, through treaties and trade, gave the tools of discipline that resulted in Judah being perpetually backslidden.  What we want to consider this morning is the condition of perpetual and habitual sin that becomes so ingrained that nothing can change it.  Like the color of one’s skin or the spots of a leopard, bad habits can become a permanent lifestyle.

Working at a restaurant is not the best place to work if one wants to eat healthy.  I worked in a pizzeria for about seven years.  You would think being around pizza for twelve hours a day would make one disgusted with it after a while.  Not so.  There was a bad habit we pizza makers had upon which management frowned.  Working as hard, fast, and long as we did, we often went without eating.  So, we would help ourselves to a pepperoni sandwich. A very simple snack and one which the cook could sneak without much notice.  Take a single slice of pepperoni, put come mozzarella cheese in the center, fold it over, and throw it in one’s mouth.  It wasn’t so much about eating the profits as it was customers seeing us throw something in our mouths while over the ingredient counter.  It got to be such a habit it was almost automatic.  The temptation of being around food while not having the down time to eat was too overwhelming.  We could not help ourselves.  But it was still wrong.

We can get into habits of evil, that if not rejected and fought, will become a permanent habit of life.  Think on that one.  A permanent state of defeat.  Like being overweight; which I am.  My phone as notified my that I am officially obese.  If I do not change my habits, I will die that way.  It is not so much the condition as it is the stigma of permanent defeat.  Having to admit that we have permanently lost is something that should bother us.  Perhaps the consequences of our choices will never change us.  But the fact that we lost should.  If we are to change the spots, we need a new discipline.  If we are to change what we are, then what we do cannot continue.  It is that simple.