Sermon Transcript — March 3, 2007
It's very nice to be back in this neck of the woods. I've been gone, I think this is the first Sabbath I've been back here for about six weeks now. I had a long trip, almost a month long trip through the Indian Ocean, Africa, and Europe which went very well.
We have new people who are requesting to become part of the United Church of God in a couple of different African countries. We will have a full-fledged feast site in the Island of Mauritius out in the Indian Ocean this year. We're hoping to open that for transfers and just lots of good news. Perhaps I'll have a chance to give you more of an update on that at some future time, maybe the Bible study. Perhaps I can show some slides or video and give you more of an update.
We also just returned a couple of days ago from the last cycle of the Council of Elders meetings which were held in San Diego. We were foolishly hoping that we would have warmer weather there than here and arriving there, actually it was just about as cool as it was here, but there was a bit more sun, at least.
I will just mention that those Council meetings went very well. The news that we received, the updates we received were extremely exciting and encouraging. There are just upward trends in almost all indicators right now, and it's just a very exciting time. We're able to try to think “outside the box” a little bit and think of ways that we can be more effective in preaching the gospel and caring for the flock, and you'll be hearing more news updates about that as different plans roll out. But I would just say that we came back extremely encouraged and uplifted by that session of meetings.
Shortly after my twentieth birthday I lived in Wat Pho for a week. That's a Buddhist temple in Bangkok, Thailand. No, I wasn't thinking of converting to Buddhism. I was already a baptized member of the church at that time, but I had spent the previous six months working in the Ambassador College educational project in northern Thailand in the golden triangle teaching English to Laotian refugees.
As we arrived there, this project had been co-sponsored by Ambassador College, and also Wat Tii and Wat Pho, which were Buddhist temples both in Bangkok and also in Los Angeles and the abbot of these two temples told the men that were coming over to volunteer to teach that if we ever needed a place to stay and we were low on funds we could stay in one of the temples in Bangkok.
So, at the end of the time that I was there, at the end of my six months, I didn't have much money left. I was planning a trip to Burma, as it was still called at the time. My dad kindly sent me a little bit of money but I had to watch how I spent it, so I decided I would take the abbot up on his offer and I stayed for a week with the Buddhist monks in Wat Po.
They were very kind to me. They let me sleep on the same comfortable beds that they had, which is a hardwood floor, and I ate almost all of what they ate. They were very kind to point out which was clean and which was unclean. They understood about our dietary beliefs which they didn't share, but they were very careful to point out what I could eat and what I couldn't eat. And so I spent a week there while I was waiting to get my Burmese visa.
One of the interesting things that I learned while I was there was that different religions have different concepts of time. The Buddhist religion along with Hinduism from which it sprung see time as circular and cyclical. They believe that there is an endless succession of births and rebirths both of the world and the universe and of people. According to Hinduism we're now at the tail end of a cycle of four hundred and thirty-two thousand years which is itself a tale end of a cycle of four million three hundred twenty thousand years, and when we finally get to the end of that, the whole thing will collapse, be reborn and start all over again. It goes on ad infinitum. There's no end to it.
But of course we understand that Christianity, as it is revealed to us in the Bible does not have that conception of time. In the Bible, time is linear. There is a beginning, one beginning to the creation. There is a physical life and there will be an end to the universe as we know it and to physical life at some point that will cease.
Today many people mock the idea that there will be an end of the world. That used to be a common belief, especially in the western world, but now many people treat that as religious superstition. They say that things are going along just the way they always had, and yet the Bible is very clear about that point. The Messiah, Jesus Christ himself said there would be an end to the world, or an end to the age, as it's sometimes translated. In Matthew 24 His disciples asked Him, "What are the signs going to be? How will we know when we're getting close to the end?" And Jesus told them. He gave them some of those signs.
A few chapters later in Matthew 28, right at the end, He told them, I am with you until the end of the world. There is an end time that's going to come. There are things going on in the world all around us right now which fit very neatly with the description which Jesus gave of those signs which would precede His second coming and the end of this age, or the end of this world. It doesn't seem to be very far off now and the more we pay attention to the news the more convinced we will become of that as time goes on.
The Bible also warns us about certain other things, certain other conditions that are going to exist just before the return of Jesus Christ. These are not external conditions like wars and rumors of wars and disease epidemics and things of that nature. Other signs are predicted in the Bible that are going to be happening in people's minds and in their hearts. The way people think is going to change. Their moral values will change the closer we get to the time of the end. Perhaps you recognize that I'm referring, among other places to II Timothy 3. I'll invite you to turn there if you would.
II Timothy 3:1-5. I'm going to read, while you're following along in whatever translation of the Bible you have, I'm going to read the New Living Bible, which is not one that we would normally take for doctrinal precision, but it does add a certain amount of color, and I think might help us understand or get a different feel for what these words contain, these verses here.
II Timothy 3:1 - You should also know this, Timothy, that in the last days there will be verydifficult times.
Verse 2 - For people will love only themselves and their money. They will be boastful and proud, scoffing at God, disobedient to their parents, and ungrateful. They will consider nothing sacred.
Verse 3 - They will be unloving and unforgiving; they will slander others and have no self-control; they will be cruel and have no interest in what is good.
Verse 4 - They will betray their friends, be reckless, be puffed up with pride, and love pleasure rather than God.
Verse 5 -They will act as if they are religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly. You must stay away from people like that. That's the New Living Bible.
As you look through there, and no doubt the words were a bit different in the translation that you have, notice how many of these characteristics that are prophesied have to do with what's happening in people's hearts, and in their minds. Their thinking will become degraded, if you will. People are not going to think the same way that they might have done in the past. There will be a hardening of people's hearts, and there will be a twist in the kind of thinking that they practice by which they live.
A little later in II Timothy 3:13, it talks about evil men and imposters. That also is going to be on the rise. They are going to grow worse and worse, it says, deceiving people and being deceived. So these passages tell us that there is going to be a degeneration in the way people think. Many people, probably most people in the world are not going to be thinking clearly or properly. They're going to lose sight of fundamental values and fundamental truths, and they're going to attach themselves to fables, as other passages in the Bible tell us.
When we see all of these signs foretold, violence, and terrorism, and sexual perversion, and just a twisted way of thinking, we see that really is what's on our news day in and day out whether it's in print, on our television screen, or on our Internet websites that we may consult for news.
The values of yesteryear, which were mostly Bible based during the time of our grandparents, things like honesty, truthfulness, self-reliance, families based on a married father and mother, conjugal fidelity, respect of authority, all of those things are going by the wayside. People don't see the value in those anymore, and they're being rapidly replaced by other more modern "values" of which the highest seems now to be tolerance. That's a term that we often hear. Tolerance. Everybody wants to be tolerant. Nobody wants to be intolerant. That is a bad word. In fact, that's just about the worst thing you can call someone today, is to say, "You're intolerant."
Of course, there is a problem with the idea of what tolerance is. In fact, we've had a shift in our understanding of tolerance. Professor Greg Kuple of Viola University explains it this way: "The classical definition of tolerance," he said "was to be egalitarian regarding people, but elitist regarding ideas."
What he meant by that was, we need to treat other human beings as if they are of equal worth and value as we are. So we treat them with politeness; we treat them with respect, but we can also recognize that some ideas are better than others, and some ideas are more functional and work better than others. Not all ideas are the same, and we may be polite and respectful toward someone, but disagree with what they think or what they do. That's the classical definition of tolerance.
Now that's gotten shifted around according to Professor Kuple, and we have it sort of stood on its head. Now the modern idea of tolerance, if you will, is that we're supposed to be egalitarian concerning ideas but elitist about people. That is, we're supposed to believe that all ideas are equally valuable; all views, all points of view are equally valuable; no one is better than any other idea. And if you don't agree with that, if you think your point of view is better than somebody else's point of view then you're a bad person; so you're not as good as somebody who accepts this idea that all points of view are equally valid.
Of course there's a problem with that, isn't there? Because to say all points of view are equally valid and none is more important than the others, that's a point of view, isn't it? So if you disagree with that point of view, and you believe that's not to be the case, that point of view is equally valid to the other point of view and you end up chasing your tail. There's a contradiction in that idea of tolerance and yet that is the accepted idea of tolerance today.
I was talking about some of this with the teens during the Bible study in between services today and some of them confirmed that yes, that's kind of, they may not come right out and say it that way, but that's kind of the idea of tolerance. You're supposed to accept what everybody does and what everybody thinks and never disagree with anyone about their opinion on things. And so there is a flaw in that.
Tolerance, in our society now, has come to mean that we are expected to accept and even to approve of anything anyone may choose to do. We may not even think in our own minds that's not good because if we do that we're practicing intolerance, maybe even hatred. Sometimes we get feedback in the "Good News Magazine" whenever we write an article and we talk about certain ways of life that are explained in the Bible to be inappropriate and not right, we get people writing in to us and saying, "How can you speak so hatefully?" As if to disagree with someone's idea means we hate them, and that's not true. You can treat someone with respect and as a valuable person but not agree with what they think, or not agree with what they do. That doesn't take away from the respect that we have for them.
This is most often applied to sexual practices, you know, nothing's forbidden anymore. But it's also applied to religion. We're not supposed to think that any one religion is any better than any other religion. We're certainly not supposed to say anything like that and so now anything is considered sort of normal.
Sexual practices that would have been considered despicable even twenty or thirty years ago, now we watch it on sitcoms and we hear, it's explained to us by experts that that's just another lifestyle, and it's just as valuable or valid as any other lifestyle that we might choose.
In 1968, in France there was a period of great social upheaval. Most of the university students went on a sort of strike. They torched things, they built barricades. It's easy to build barricades in Paris because there are still a lot of cobblestone streets, so all you need is a shovel and you dig out some cobblestones. You can pile them up and block traffic and they did that. '68 is sort of a by-word in France. When you talk about '68 everyone knows what you're talking about. And probably the most famous slogan that came out of this unrest in Paris especially, but all through France in 1968 was something that was painted on lots and lots of walls.
The slogan was "Elle ay l'e dente l'e" I'll translate that for you. It means, "It is forbidden to forbid." That was their slogan. "You can't tell us that anything's off limits anymore. We will do anything we please and society or religion or no other function out there, no other organization or organism out there can tell us that something is right or wrong. We're gonna decide everything for ourselves."
That is the twisted idea of tolerance today. There are no moral values that are superior to any others, all lifestyles, all behaviors are just as good as any other behavior if you think they are. You can have your truth, I'll have my truth. You have your values, I'll have my values. You live your life the way you want, I'll live my life the way I want, and they're all equally good. We're all equal, there's no better way than any other way. Probably, as I said, about the worst thing that you can call someone today in society is intolerant. Bigoted, intolerant, and increasingly those terms are being directed at those who believe in the Bible, and I'll explain a little more about why that is in just a moment.
I think it's important that we understand some of the trends that are happening in our society. It's happening all around us and we need to be aware of it.
I'm not talking about going out and practicing violence or beating somebody up to make them agree with you, the simple fact of not agreeing with someone, even politely and civilly can be condemned as hate speech.
This happened not too long ago, just in the last couple of years up in Canada where a hate speech law was passed making it illegal to say anything about different sexual relationships, especially homosexuality. And one fellow up there in Saskatchewan took out a newspaper advertisement, paid for it out of his pocket, and he listed on one side of the advertisement; he put Romans 1, Leviticus18:22, Leviticus 20:13, I Corinthians 6:9 and 10. He didn't quote them. He just put the scriptures there so the people would have to look them up themselves, and then he made a comment afterwards with little symbols that that indicated homosexual marriage was not biblical.
He was found guilty of hate speech and fined a thousand dollars to be paid to each one of the four men who brought the lawsuit against him. And the court officially ruled in Canada, this is not too far from home now that certain parts of the Bible in certain circumstances, in a certain presentation are hate speech.
Now don't think that's not gonna end up here because they're already working, different people are already working are already working on laws like that in our own country. The Bible will no doubt pretty soon be considered as hate speech; at least certain parts of it. It's already happening, as I said, in Canada. And it's not enough just to be silent. You're actually expected, we will be expected increasingly to give our approbation to things with which we do not agree.
I can give you another example that happened, this time happened to my wife. Before we moved to Cincinnati my wife was a part time high school teacher. She taught French in a upscale suburb in St. Louis and she had to go through, you know, teachers have periodic training and updating of their skills and what have you.
At one point she had to go through, with all the other teachers in the school, a training program which they called, "Honoring all Voices." You can probably see where that's going already with a title like that; "Honoring all Voices," and they dealt with, among other things; now some of what they said there was appropriate, we don't want to discriminate against people or treat anyone improperly; we need to be polite and civil and respectful to everyone regardless of what they think or what they do, but it was interesting also.
One part of this presentation explained how the world was divided up. And this is information for teachers that they're expected to pass along to the children that are going to high school and I would, we've not checked, but no doubt similar things are happening in most parts of the country. St. Louis is a fairly conservative part of the country.
When it came to what they call non-traditional lifestyles, and I don't think I need to define that for you, you can probably fill in the blank what a non-traditional lifestyle is. They were told that there are only three categories of people, so see where you fit in here because you've got to be one of these three. That's the way they're dividing the world up now.
Either you are a victim, that's the first category. The victim is someone who practices a non-traditional lifestyle and automatically by doing that you're a victim because society is being so mean to you by not approving of your lifestyle.
Or you can be category number two. You can be an ally. The allies are people who are not practicing that alternate lifestyle but are supporting them; encouraging them; fighting their battles for them; picketing, demonstrating, all of that type of thing to make sure that everyone is nice to and approves of the people practicing this non-traditional lifestyle.
Okay, I see probably you don't feel like you're not fitting into either of those categories yet. I don't either, but do you know what the only third alternative is? The title of the third alternative is oppressor. That's the term.
So, I can see a lot of you are identifying with being oppressors. I did too, but that's the nomenclature. Those are the terms that they're using now. That's how they divide the world up. That's what they're teaching the teachers who are teaching our children in school. That's the world view that is being transmitted to. And of course the Bible, or biblical values, has no place in any of that.
Is that true? Is that exact? Are we to accept all behaviors as equal? Are we as Christians to accept that all ways of life are equally acceptable morally speaking; equally acceptable before God. If we find out that someone has been unfaithful to his wife or to her husband are we supposed to say, "Well, that's just as good as my lifestyle, not for me to pass judgment." That's his truth; I've got my truth; it's all the same. Is that the way we're supposed to be? After all, aren't Christians supposed to be tolerant? We hear about tolerance being taught in the Bible.
If we are to be tolerant, how are we supposed to be tolerant. Of what, and of whom and how are we supposed to be tolerant? What does the Bible say about that? That's what I would like for us to spend some time looking at today.
Let's try to understand, But I have to warn you, seeing things the way the Bible presents them, seeing this question in the light of the teaching of the Bible is going to require us to take a step back from our society. We're going to have to take a step back from the current views of our society. What's propounded in our news magazines and newspapers and programs on television and movies and music and literature, and just about every other societal force that you can find. You're going to have to take a step back from that. We will. And it's going to take a bit of courage, because to really look at things, look at the world the way the Bible presents it, we have to swim against the stream in our twenty-first century world. We can't just take the easy way. If we're going to stick to what the Bible says, we're going to have to swim against the current.
I'd like to read a quote for you now from David Limbaugh's book, Persecution. It's been mentioned in some of our publications. It's quite an interesting book although it's a bit discouraging. I had to read it over time because you start reading some of the things that are going on in our society and you just think, "Aah, it's just so depressing to see the persecution, the thesis of the book is that Christianity's being persecuted now.
The forces in our society are trying to get the Bible and Christianity completely out of our public life. They don't want it to have any place. And Mr. Limbaugh quotes Nancy Piercey at one point, another writer, and I'd just like to read two paragraphs of what she says. This is on page 336 and 337 if you're interested in David Limbaugh's book, Persecution. Nancy Piercey says, "The most significant change in modern times is a divided view of truth which means that challenges to Christianity come in two different forms. On one side there's post-modern relativism where nothing is true or false, right or wrong. In the typical public school classroom today English teachers have tossed out their red pencils as though correct spelling or grammar is nothing but social constructs imposed by those in power." And if any of you have had any classes in education at university, you will have been taught many things like this.
When I was studying at Washington University in St. Louis we were flat out told, "Get rid of the red pens. Don't use red anymore. It's too judgmental." So this is very true. This stuff is actually happening.
"Post-modern categories, that is, there's no right or wrong, just differences of opinion; post-modern categories are applied, especially to areas like morality and religion, reducing them to nothing but subjective personal experience or a quaint, ethnic custom." And that is indeed, how religion is viewed in the modern world.
"Paradoxically, however, (to continue) if you go down the hallway to the science classroom you will find that the ideal of objective of truth still reigns supreme. Darwinian evolution is not open to question and students are not invited to judge for themselves whether it is true or not. Evolution is treated as public knowledge that all are expected to accept regardless of their private beliefs. The reason for this sharp contrast is a split in the concept of truth itself.
The influential apologist Francis Shafer used the imagery of two stories in a building. Truth has been divided into a lower story, the first floor perhaps, where concepts are rational and verifiable. And then there's an upper story, second floor, of non-cognitive experience which is the locus of personal meaning." In other words you kind of decide for yourself, its however you feel about it.
"Sociologists described it as the fact-value split. Facts here on the first floor; values on the second floor, and we may consider it truth, but your truth can be different from my truth. The fact realm includes whatever qualifies as public knowledge, scientific, objective, and rational. The value realm includes religion, morality, the arts, and humanities which have been reduced to merely private, subjective experience."
In other words, to simplify that a little bit, you may have - there's no absolute truth in religion. It's just whatever you think. And even some people who claim to be Christians in America are buying into that. They believe it's possible for Muslims, also through the Koran to get to heaven, just like the Christian's through the Bible will get to heaven. Won't they be surprised when they wake up and they're not in heaven. Or someone else following some other book, he can get to the same place as well. That really is taught even by some liberal Christian groups today.
This is the view that's being taught to your children. They're going to public school and that's really being taught to us as well, although we may not always be aware of it, but that's the message that our society's giving out all the time. You can have your truth. I can have my truth, and your truth is no better than my truth. And so students kind of cobble together whatever they want to believe.
I read a story recently about a teacher in a, I think it was a seminary, and he had a student come up to him and explain to him that he believed that the Biblewas absolutely infallible; every word was true. He also believed in reincarnation. And the teacher said, "Well, you can't do that because they contradict each other." He said, "These are my beliefs. I can believe whatever I want." Don't confuse me with the facts. Don't bring logic into this. I like the idea that the Bible is the infallible word of God and I like the idea of reincarnation, so that's what I believe." And that's as far as it went.
I've got my truth. You've got your truth. This is the kind of fuzzy thinking that comes out of our educational system and it opposes what the word of God says. It opposes, it is in opposition to the Word of God.
The Bible doesn't divide truth into a two story building. The Bible presents truth as one monolithic block. Jesus said to the Father in prayer, Thy Word is truth. What God says is true. There's no subjectivity about it. It's not however you decide you're going to interpret it. It is what it is. Christianity is not subjective. It is factual; it is objective; it is truth, not simply opinion.
And since today people want to place Christianity into the subjective domain, that is, it's just your opinion. It's kind of what you feel. They don't want to accept that there are non-negotiable values attached to their behavior. That's why there's such an assault on Christianity. Because people who really stay close to what the Bible says believe there's an absolute standard. There are some things that are good ; there are some things that are evil. There are some things that are right and some things that are wrong and boy, they hate that attitude. "You can't believe that." It makes them feel bad if you believe that. It makes them feel bad even if you don't even talk about it very much. It makes people feel bad. They don't want any authority over them to tell them that what they're doing might be wrong.
Now, let's come to the Bible because that's really what counts. Let's look at some of what the Bible teaches on this topic, and I'll start with the one passage that is almost always quoted by people who are pushing this idea of tolerance. Can you guess what their favorite scripture is in the Bible? It's usually Matthew 7:1 that says,
Matthew 7:1 - "Judge not, that you be not judged." Now usually they close the Bible right after that. That's all they want to hear. "Judge not, that you be..." See, Jesus Himself said, "Don't judge people." If you don't judge nothing is forbidden. Jesus wouldn't have judged people committing fornication or adultery or getting an abortion or practicing homosexuality. He wouldn't have judged any of those people because He said, Judge not, that you be not judged.
That's not taking that passage all the way out to the end. In fact, let's turn there, and let's see what Jesus said in context because when we look at it in context, we're going to see that just to close the book after Judge not, that you be not judged, it was not a blanket statement that nothing is better than anything else. On the contrary, it becomes very clear when we read it.
Matthew 7:1 - Judge not, that you be not judged.
Verse 2 - For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure same measure you use, it will be measured back to you.
Verse 3 - ...why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not consider the plank in your own (eye?)
Verse 4 - Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me remove the speck from your eye;' and look, a plank is in your own eye?
Verse 5 - Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see more clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.Oh, so there are some things that aren't right.
There are specks and there are planks that need to be removed. Everything is not all equal. All ideas are equally good. There are some good ideas and there are some bad ideas. There are some very destructive ideas, so when Jesus said, "Judge not, that you be not judged," He was saying, "Judge yourself first." Don't go around worrying about everybody else. Take care of yourself first. You have a critical attitude toward others and you're always looking for what's wrong with them, then that's the way God will look at us, and we certainly don't want Him looking at us that way. But there are planks, and there are specks. There are things that are inappropriate and wrong, and we're supposed to be getting them out of our lives. They have no place in the Christian life. If you'll drop down to verse 24, let's see - John 7:24. Let's look at that.
We can't just close the book after Matthew 7:1 because elsewhere Jesus completed the understanding we're supposed to have of this topic. He said in John 7:24 -
John 7:24 - Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment. There is an appropriate judgment. There is an appropriate discernment of what's right and what's wrong that Christians are supposed to have, and we'll come back to that in just a moment and define a little bit more what the word judge here means; what it is in the Greek.
Before we do that, just go one chapter over to John 8. This is the one passage I read with the teens in their Bible study a little while ago.
John 8:3 , Jesus is teaching....the scribes and the Pharisees brought to him a woman caught in adultery. And when they had set her in the midst,
Verse 4 - they said to Him, "Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act." It would be interesting to know how they managed that. Did they, you know storm trooper-wise kick some doors open and then find two people in bed with each other that weren't supposed to be. It must have been something like that. And so here's this poor woman dragged out of her house, we don't know what she was wearing, maybe had a robe thrown around her or something and here she is standing in the middle of this crowd jeering at her, demanding that she be punished, and then:
Verse 4 - they said to Him, "Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act.
Verse 5 - "Now Moses, in the law, commanded us that such should be stoned....what do you say?" Now they knew that Jesus taught the importance of mercy and forgiveness; that he forgave people's sins. He would even say as much. They probably, the Pharisees always thought they were really smart. They thought they had Jesus in a bind.
"His teaching is mercy and forgiveness, but the law says this, so whatever He says here we're going to be able to accuse him." We're either going to be able to say, "Ha, you taught mercy over here and now you're saying she should be punished," or they say, "You're violating the law by saying she should be forgiven." So they thought they had him over a barrel. That happened several times, and they always came out on the short end of the stick, as you know.
Verse 6 - This they said, testing Him, that they might have something of which to accuse Him. But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with His finger, as though He did not hear. That's quite interesting when you think about it. Imagine that scene in your own mind; Pharisees all pumped up. They think they're going to get an answer and they're all ready for action and, you know, they're gonna drop the bomb on Him, and He seems like He doesn't hear them. He just stoops down and He starts writing in the dirt.
There's been a lot of ink spilled over what He was writing in the dirt there. It would be interesting to know, some people think He was writing, "Where is the man?" Logical question. Usually takes two to commit adultery. How come only the woman showed up here? Was it a set up? Did they have some guy go and commit adultery with this woman just so they could bring her to Jesus? That's a possibility. Or maybe, and I like this idea myself; I don't know if its any more valid or not. Maybe He just started, of course He knows what folks are thinking. Maybe he just started writing down the sins of some of the Pharisees that were accusing the woman in the dirt. He could have done that as well.
"My, oh, John, you did this, and Philip, you did this." And they're probably watching and looking to see what He's writing in the dirt and what do they do? Well, they keep pressing Him for an answer, you know. They've got this plan set up. They don't want to let Him get out of it, and they continue to ask Him. So finally,
Verse 7 - He raised Himself up and said to them, "He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first." And if He had, if He'd been listing some things in the dirt there; it would have been rather embarrassing. Nobody wanted to pick up a rock at that point.
Verse 8 -And again He stooped down and wrote on the ground." Maybe He decided to lengthen the list a little bit.
Verse 9 - Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.
Verse 10 - When Jesus had raised Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, "Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?"
Verse 11 - ... She said, "No one, Lord." And Jesus said to her, "Neither do I condemn you. Go and ..." live your life the way you were before. Go your way, 'cause your life is just as good as their way of life. No, obviously that's not what He said. We know what He said, "...go and sin no more." Jesus expressed respect and love for this woman as a human being, but He said, "What you're doing is a violation of God's law and you need to stop it." It was wrong.
It is perfectly possible to show love and respect for someone and to treat them civilly while totally disagreeing with what they think and what they do. Of course nowadays as we've already seen, that's often treated as hatred. You hate me if you disagree with what I said. No, we don't hate you. We just, you're sinning; that's wrong. You need to stop or you won't be able to inherit what God wants to give you.
Jesus didn't condemn the sinner, but He did condemn the sin. Some behaviors are not acceptable before God. There is no moral relativism. That's a construct that man has come up with and it holds no weight with God, not at all.
Love the sinner; hate the sin. Popular culture today would have us believe that that's impossible. "If you disagree with what I think, if you disagree with my behavior, you automatically hate me." That's kind of the way things are presented, and it's false. If you say Islam is a false religion, then you hate Muslims. If you condemn sexual immorality, you hate the person who's living that life, and that's false. The Bible shows that to be clearly false. The example of Jesus Christ shows that to be a lie. You can correct someone's behavior or thinking without hating the person or disrespecting the person who committed the act.
Now I said a moment ago that we would look at the word judgment that we saw in John 7:24, or judge. It comes from the word krisis in Greek and it means, when we judge righteous judgment it means to distinguish or to decide mentally or judicially. It means by extension to judge before a court, to condemn, to punish, to avenge, to conclude, to damn, to decree, to determine, to judge, to order, to call in to question, to pronounce a sentence. All of those are possible definitions or ways of expressing the Greek.
You get the idea that it's pretty clear that there's a good and a bad or a right and a wrong. That is part of righteous judgment; recognizing what's right and what's wrong. There are absolute standards of that.
Let's turn over to Romans 14 because we do need to look at a couple of things that are mentioned here. Romans 14:4, this is another favorite passage of those who preach this twisted version of tolerance today.
Romans 14:4 - Paul saying here, Who are you to judge another man's servant? To his own master he stands or falls. Indeed, he will be made to stand, for God is able to make him stand. So we're not supposed to have a hypercritical attitude toward one another. That's one of the things foot washing teaches us at Passover. We're supposed to consider ourselves servants of one another, to consider others as greater than ourselves. That's the kind of attitude of humility Christian's are supposed to have. Not a hypercritical attitude, looking for what's wrong and criticizing and sniping.
We're not supposed to be judging motives or judging the value of a person. This is not a very good person, not a valuable person. All have the potential to be children of God in the family of God. Our negative opinions or our judgments of one another don't really make any difference in the grand scheme of things. All they can do is hurt people, both the person doing the judging and the person who gets judged.
But if we go a little farther in Romans 14, go down to verse 10 now, there's a particular kind of judgment, righteous judgment that we should be practicing. Paul continues,
Romans 14:10 - ...why do you judge your brother? Or why do you show contempt for your brother?... That's the kind of judgment we're not supposed to do. We're not supposed to show contempt for anyone....we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
Verse 11 - For it is written: "As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to Me, and every tongue shall confess to God." So this is where the accent should be - each of us shall give an account of himself to God.
Verse 12 - We need to be paying attention to ourselves. What is my standing with my Creator right now? Where do I stand with Him? I don't need to worry about what somebody else is doing. What about me? Where do I stand?
We are to judge our own behavior because we're all one day going to stand before that judgment seat and give an accounting of the way we've lived our lives, and there won't be any moral relativism there. God won't say, "Well, I'll guess I'll judge you by your truth. "What did you think truth was. There's one standard for everybody, one immutable and unchanging law.
Hebrews 5:14 talks about that as well and this is certainly something we should have in mind. I'm sure we do as we're coming up now, just about a month away from the Passover and the holy days, the Days of Unleavened Bread. It says where the writer of this letter was telling the Hebrews they should have been a little farther along in their spiritual development.
Verse 12 - ...by this time you should (ought to) be teachers, ... and you still need people to teach you. You haven't been growing as much as you should have. In verse 14 he said,
Verse 14 - ... solid food belongs to those who are of full age, those who are mature, that is, those who by reason of use..., experience, thought, attention, ...have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
There is good; there is evil. There is an absolute standard of what is good and what is evil and even if our whole society doesn't believe that anymore, they kind of laugh at that, "Good and evil, yeah, well we're all just sort of on the same scale, maybe a little to the right or to the left, one big continuum."
That's not the way God sees it. There is good; there is evil, and we're supposed to be learning the difference between the two. And we're supposed to be attaching ourselves to what's good and rejecting what is evil. That is the goal of our lives in one sense, certainly one of the goals of our lives.
We want to be mature Christians who by reason of experience in use and practice have our senses exercised to discern good and evil. That kind of judgment, that kind of righteous judgment is really a way of life. It's the way we look at the world. We're supposed to be looking at the world and discerning out there what is good and what is evil and going toward what is good and practicing that and making it the focal point of our lives and staying away from what is evil.
And Satan, of course, who's behind all the relativism out there would like to muddy the waters to the point that people don't even really believe that there is a good and evil anymore. It's just kind of whatever you choose. It's all subjective.
That's not the way God sees it. One of the scriptures we read with the teens also is in Isaiah 5:20. You'll recognize it when I read it to you.
Isaiah 5:20 - Woe to you who call evil good and good evil... And that's really the situation we've got in the world today. If you want to stand up for proper Christian biblical values, you're a dangerous person trying to foist off your ideas, force your beliefs on somebody else. That's all too often the way it's presented in the world today.
We need to be intolerant of sin. We need to be intolerant of sin in ourselves. That's where it needs to start based on the scriptures that we've just looked at. Our Father in heaven has us focus on this topic this time of the year, year after year as we approach the Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread. He has us reflect again on the topics of sin and repentance and forgiveness and changing directions; to move from what is evil to what is good, to move from a wrong way of living to a right way of living, and He has laid out for us in the pages of His Bible absolute standards about it. He doesn't leave us in doubt. It's quite clear.
There are absolute standards. No, we can't divide the truth into objective and subjective categories. There is simply truth. Truth is truth is truth. God will judge the world based on truth and He will be intolerant of certain kinds of behaviors and lifestyles. He'll be intolerant of that. He will not accept that. He loves the sinner but He will not accept the sin. He requires a change of behavior, and that's what the Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread teach us. We are reminded of those key topics that underline our Christian walk with God at this time of the year.
Turn back with me now if you would to Romans 1:18. Do you ever wonder how the world got to be in such a messed up situation? All these different religions and ideas and all the different problems that are out there on every country and every continent you can find? It doesn't matter how wealthy or how poor the country is. It doesn't matter what their history's been like, there are big problems everywhere. Sometimes more in one place than another. The world's not a real happy place.
Romans 1:18 explains to us at least partially how it got to be that way. The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,
Verse 19 - because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them.
Verse 20 - For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, beingunderstood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. From what is stated here, God feels like the proof that we can see in the complexity and the perfection of creation cries out overwhelmingly that there must be a mind behind that. There must be a Creator. And if you reject that to go with some other theory you're without excuse, it says here.
Now does that mean that down deep in the heart of everyone preaching evolution there's this little thought that maybe that's not really true? I don't know, but it seems to indicate that. It says if you abandon the truth that there is a Creator God who put all this together and designed it all, you're without excuse, it says.
Verse 21 -because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. When you push God out of the picture, when you don't want Him to be in charge of your life, when you're not willing to submit to Him your thoughts get twisted. You start seeing things cock-eyed. You start seeing things wrong and in a distorted way. And that's what's happened to humanity when our ancestors pushed God out of their mind and said, "We want to do it ourselves," their thinking became twisted, and it's pretty much stayed that way ever since.
Verse 22 - Professing to be wise,... they thought they knew better, ...they became fools,
Verse 23 - and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man - and birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things.
Verse 24 -Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, God let them go the way they wanted to go, "to dishonor their bodies among themselves,
Verse 25 - who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather then the Creator... that's humanism; man is the highest that there is? ...That's the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. He talks about the sexual immorality that came out as a result of that and Verse 26 and 27, and then in
Verse 28 - ...even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge," (again, they're always pushing that out of their minds, at least that's what human nature does) "God gave them over to a debased mind, a degenerate mind, one that's not functioning like it should to do those things which are not fitting;
Verse 29 - ...filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness, they are whisperers,
Verse 30 - backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
Verse 31 - undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; Now notice
Verse 32 - who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them." There are some ideas out there that lead to death. There are some practices; there are some ways of life that will lead to death if there is no repentance and change.
The Creator of the universe is intolerant of certain kinds of behavior. It's a serious matter, and that's one reason why He has us focus on that every year at this time. He doesn't want that straying very far from our thoughts. This is very important to God. He is intolerant of sin. He will not accept it. He makes no allowance for it other than through the sacrifice of Christ that we can be forgiven of it and repent and with His power turn away from it and go a different way. We must walk a different path, walk a different path.
We're going to have a big challenge, I believe as the years go by because as Christians we cannot change the world. We can't. We can be a voice out there that proclaims to those who will hear it, the "Good News" that something better is coming, and that's our mission. As long as we are physically capable of doing it we need to proclaim that there's a better way of life, God's way. But we can't change the world. The world is going to go the way the world goes.
What we can do, however, is not allow the world to change us, not allow our Christian values to slip, not allow our understanding of what is good and what is evil to become fuzzy. There is good. There is evil. The Bible says so.
Matthew 24:9 - These are some of the signs Jesus gave that identified the times just before His coming, and He talks about tribulation, Christians will be killed, ...you'll be hated by all nations for my name's sake. And I wonder if some of that doesn't just have to do with the fact that Christians are going to maintain their moral absolutes and the world won't want to hear that. It's going to bother them that people think there is right and there is wrong. By their simple presence there, others will feel guilty and they don't like to feel that.
Verse 10 says that, "...many will be offended, will betray one another,..."
Verse 11 - "...false prophets will rise up and deceive many.
Verse 12 - "...because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will wax cold." People are going to fall away and they're going to get tugged back into the world again. If you've been in the church of God very long you've had the heartbreak of seeing people you knew and loved go that route. We hope and pray the story's not over for them. God may still work with them and bring them back at an appropriate time, but it's a sobering thought.
Verse 13 says, ...he who endures to the end shall be saved. Not he who lets his love wax cold, gets sucked back into the world again. Part of our mission as Christians in the end time is to hold fast and to - in a world that is going to become more and more immoral, more and more sinful, more and more violent, and more and more condemning of anyone who tries to hold the line. That's you and me, by the way, and our brethren around the world.
That's part of the mission that we have. Hold the line in our own lives. Don't go beat people up and make them do what we do. Hold the line in our own lives.
Let me quote to you Philippians 2:14 & 15 - I'll just read it to you. You can jot that down and check it later if you want.
Philippians 2:14 -Do all things without murmuring (complaining) and disputing,
Verse 15 -That you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation.... That was true when Paul wrote that, probably just as true, if not more so now. And he finishes by saying, ...among whom you shine as lights in the world.
Of course we understand it's not us, it's Jesus Christ working in and through us through the power of God's holy spirit. That's who we're supposed to be. That's what we're supposed to be about. Hold fast in the middle of a world that's going rapidly downstream.
Those of you who've been in the church awhile have heard probably many times the various stories, the analogy of the frog in hot, or cold water. Perhaps some of the younger folks haven't heard that. I've been surprised sometimes, I grew up in the church, so I have this catalog of sermons that I've been hearing since I was old enough to distinguish the words, so I know all the analogies; I know all the old examples we used to use, to hear many times. Sometimes our younger people haven't heard them, so I'm going to repeat this one.
The Frog in Hot Water -
Frogs are cold blooded creatures, so they don't sense temperature changes the same way that warm blooded creatures do. If you're warm blooded you're very sensitive to temperature changes. That's why we wear warm clothes; we have overcoats when it's cold outside, etcetera.
If you take a frog and drop it in boiling water, it will hop out if it can because that's a huge temperature change. It senses that it doesn't want to be in that hot water. It recognizes that as a danger. It can sense that extreme temperature change. But if you put a frog in room temperature water and put a very low heat under it and bring the water to a boil, please don't do this at home, by the way. If you did the frog would not sense the incremental change in temperature and it would stay there until it died. It would boil to death because it doesn't sense a very gradual rise in temperature, and I think you can see the analogy there.
We're in a world where the moral temperature is continually rising. Sometimes we notice it. Something may catch our attention. And the older we are probably the more noticeable it is because we can compare farther back, and the difference is more extreme.
It will be especially challenging for our younger folk because you came into the world when standards had already slipped a great deal from the time your parents and your grandparents were born, so that's your frame of reference. You have a different base plate, if you will. You have a different base line, a new starting point so you may not be quite as tuned in to the sinking spiritual spiral in the world, the way things are slipping.
We don't want any of us to be frogs that just sit there in the middle of it, not aware of what's happening, affected by it until harm comes. We do sometimes see this affecting people in the church. Not always young people either, sometimes older people.
I had a comment, in fact, I've made this comment myself. My parents would teach me about dating or the way boy-girl relationships were supposed to happen, and I told my parents, "Yeah, but that's back to the olden days. You know, the world has changed a lot and nobody does that anymore. Now they do things differently." And in my mind, you know, 1950s, '60s when my parents were married. That was like Abraham's time. That's ancient history. "You gotta live with your time. People don't do that anymore."
And I had long discussions with my mom about that and she helped me work through that, thankfully, with God's help I finally came to realize that there are some things that are timeless. It doesn't matter what society's doing, there are some principles that never change about the way relationships are supposed to be conducted, and sometimes I smile at summer camps or in other places I talk with teens and I say, "Yeah, I explain of the principles my parents explained to me, and they say, "Yeah, well that was back in the olden days" The same cycle repeats itself. "People don't do that anymore. I don't know anyone that does that anymore."
There are some things that do not change but what happens in the world affects us. This idea of relativism affects us.
I was talking with a minister, oh its been some time ago now, and it was mentioned that it's a very rare occasion now when someone is suspended from services for a very serious sin and I don't remember the details. In fact, I don't think he even told me what the details were because I didn't need to be involved in it, but when he sat down and had a talk with the member and said, "You know, you're not going to be able to come back to church until you get this rectified, and you repent and you change and you get back right with God. And the minister was quite surprised to see this look of shock and disbelief on the person's face.
And he said, "You can't tell me I can't come to church. You can't tell me that. I have just as much right to be there as anybody else." And the pastor had to gently tell him, "I'm sorry, my friend, that is not the case. There are some kinds of behaviors that are not acceptable in the church of God. Now we hope you will go home and study this and pray about it and repent. We hope to welcome you back into the fold, to be a part of the life of the church, but you cannot stay here and just live your life any old way you please. We're tolerant of weakness and mistakes. We hope there'll be repentance, but some actions and some activities cannot be tolerated."
It's rare, but there are occasions when someone can't come to church for awhile because they've crossed over that line and that's biblical. The Bible's the book that tells us that that's the way we're supposed to do it. Now I'm not trying to, as I said, this is a rare thing. I'm not trying to make this a downer or be down on anyone, but we're in a world where people don't think judgments like that can be made. And they can. The Bible tells us they can, and they should under certain circumstances.
We are affected by what happens in the world, and when we look at Revelation 18, there is a particular warning that is given to the church which I think we should all reflect upon. It's especially appropriate as we come up on the spring holy days once again. Revelation 18:1 - This is a prophecy of the great Babylonian system that's going to be revived just before the return of Christ will fight against Jesus Christ upon His return. A great mix of military power and economic power. Religious power as well that's going to dominate much of the world, and it's going to be a false power. It's going to be fighting against God.
Revelation 18:1 - After these things, John said, as he's looking at a vision, I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was illuminated with his glory. This is something very important that's going to happen.
Verse 2 - And he cried mightily with a loud voice, saying, " Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and has become a habitation of demons, a prison for every foul spirit, and a cage for every unclean and hated bird!" The seat of that power in the future is going to be made desolate and some of the demonic influences that were behind it apparently are going to be imprisoned there by God's power.
Verse 3 - For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, the kings of the earth have become rich through the abundance of her luxury. This great power. It's going to be awfully alluring. It's going to offer power and wealth and ease and domination, all things that human nature loves to have. But in Verse 4 it says,
Verse 4 - I heard another voice from heaven saying, "Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues." Keep yourself separate from the wrong systems of the world. Don't get sucked into it. Don't get deceived by it. Don't let the water temperature heat up on you while you're not paying attention to what's going on.
Verse 5 - For her sins have reached to heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities. Her sins have reached to heaven, (and) God has remembered her iniquities.
Verse 6 - Render to her just as she rendered to you, and repay her double according to her works; in the cup which she has mixed, mix for her double.
Verse 7 - In the measure that she glorified herself and lived luxuriously, in the same measure give her torment and sorrow; for she says in her heart, "I sit as queen, and am no widow, and will not see sorrow."
Verse 8 - Therefore her plagues will come in one day - death and mourning and famine. And she will be utterly burned with fire, for strong is the Lord God who judges her.
He has an absolute standard of judgment, and He will apply it. He will apply it in the time of the end. Come out. We can't do that physically, that's not what it means. We're not supposed to go and live as hermits on a mountain top someplace; but we can come out spiritually, and stay out morally, and not get entangled with that system.
We must remain intolerant of sin in our lives. Two more passages:
Matthew 24:21 - ... then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be.
Verse 22 - And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect's sake those days will be shortened. We understand it's talking about physical survival, not spiritual salvation here. For the elect's sake because there will be a group of people faithful and submissive to God and His way who accept His judgments, who accept His moral values, who accept His laws and His way of life, because of that humanity will be allowed to survive.
That's a pretty weighty responsibility. One which we could not really take up were it not for God's power in our lives and His Holy Spirit which we must have to be able to do what He asks us and tells us to do. But this passage says there must be and there will be - there must be a group of people faithful to God and His view. The survival of the human race at that time depends on there being a group called the elect.
I think that we should understand that that's part of the responsibility God has given us. It's not something we could do on our own, but He has put part of that responsibility on you and on me. He'll give us the strength to be able to go all the way through to the end, endure to the end, but there's more riding on your life and your behavior and your decisions than just your life. You're a part of something bigger than yourself. Luke 12:32, before we close -
Luke 12:32 - Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom. God will give us everything that we need. He'll give us the help. He'll be with us. He'll never abandon us.
Verse 35 - Let your waist be girded and your lamps burning;
Verse 36 - And yourselves be like men who wait for their master, when he will return from the wedding , that when he comes and knocks they may open to him immediately. Weddings tended to happen at night in that time, and it could take a long part of the night; sometimes the bride and groom didn't get home until two, three, four in the morning so the servants had to be wait and be ready. They needed to open the door any time he arrived.
Verse 37 - Blessed are those servants whom the master, when he comes will find watching. And of course there is certainly an application here, watching themselves, their own condition, their own spiritual state. Assuredly I say to you, that he will gird himself and have them sit down to eat, and will come and serve them. That was unthinkable in those days. After the wedding, the master never did something like that. But Jesus Christ will.
Verse 38 - And if he should come in the second watch, or come in the third watch..., prior to midnight, after midnight, ...and find them so, blessed are those servants.
Verse 39 - But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and would not have allowed his house to be broken into.
Verse 40 - Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. We must be morally and spiritually ready. This time of year is one that is given to us for us to take our spiritual compass bearings and find out where we stand. Be aware of what is happening in the world around us. Be aware of how that can affect us if we're not careful, and we must not allow ourselves to be pulled along by a wrong spiritual current. And if, as we take stock of ourselves we realize I've let this slip or I've let that slip or I haven't seen this the way I should have, then it's the time for us to renew our relationship and our commitment with God.
Brethren, we need to clearly understand this truth. Sin and righteousness are not matters of personal opinion. God sets the standards to which we must comply. We need to study those standards and we need to spend our lives with God's help and guidance getting into compliance with those standards.
Are we to be tolerant as Christians? Yes, tolerances for differences in people. Tolerance for human weakness, tolerance for ignorance, respect and civility for everyone whatever their beliefs or thoughts may be. Love for the sinner, and when it comes to sin, Christians must be absolutely intolerant.