Guest pastor

Rich Lowry’s editorial printed in National Review and reprinted in the Whitman Gazette (Thursday, January 9, 2014) was a fair exercise in sarcasm. His point is well made. The stars of music, sports, movies, television, medicine, business, politics, military, IRS, FBI, NSA, NRA, BSA, WOW, and a host of others, keep letting us down. They appear to be racing one another in a seemingly endless death spiral into absurdity, recklessness, selfishness, and immorality. This is new?

Not for those who are informed by the one source that has been tried, tested, vilified, considered absurd, and has consistently come out on top: The Bible.

The Bible speaks plainly to a problem that every man, woman, and child on this planet faces.

We all wake up and look at ourselves in the mirror and realize that we really do have this problem.

It is the source of all of this absurdity, recklessness, selfishness, and immorality.

To quote a famous movie line, “There is something terribly wrong with this country.” What is wrong can be declared in one word – sin.

It is the giant pink elephant in the room that no one wants to acknowledge.

Any time someone stands up and says something is wrong, sinful, or evil, they are immediately vilified as “hateful.” Why?

Those who are evil, (and that’s all of us) hate it when the lights are turned on and our evil deeds are exposed. Here is what the Bible has to say about this. In the Book of John (3:20), it says, “For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. “ What do these celebrities say when they are caught red-handed doing evil? The list of excuses is truly enormous.

One thing we like to do is negotiate our way out of the consequences of our evil.

“It wasn’t my fault.” Then there is the obligatory appeal to some extenuating circumstance that lets them off.

Or how about the old, “Everyone does it?” This is a plea to base our morality on the lowest common denominator.

Here’s a good one, Psalm 14:1 says, “The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they have committed abominable deeds; There is no one who does good.” In this case we just remove the standard entirely.

There is indeed a world-wide conspiracy to get rid of God.

We are all active participants in the conspiracy.

Each one of us knows that we are evil.

Every one of us hates to have that evil exposed.

Worse is to see the comparison between our evil state and God’s perfect righteousness.

What can we do to flee from the face of a perfect, holy, just, and righteous judge? While we may not have asked the question in quite that way, we have all felt the fear of being exposed and longing to hide from the shame.

One way we hide is by gathering together with like-minded sinners.

The Apostle Paul makes this point in the Book of Romans (1:28-31) when he says, “And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.

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As proof of Paul’s argument, look at our collective thirst for reality TV. The public’s taste for titillation knows no end.

We are a culture of voyeurs who watch to see the car wreck, the scandal, longing to hear and see all the lurid details.

We can say, “Well, well, at least I’m not as bad a Miley Cyrus.

I’m not twerking in front of thousands.” Sorry, you lose.

That argument will not make any headway before God.

You were watching her twerk and got personal satisfaction from it.

We call that lust.

In Matthew 5:27-28, Jesus says, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery’; but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

It’s time to wake up and smell the coffee. We will all stand before a holy, perfect, righteous, and just judge who will not score on a curve. In Ken Burns’ Civil War documentary, Shelby Foote, a noted Civil War historian, was filmed saying, “A young private was brought before Robert E. Lee for some infraction of the rules. He was trembling in fear. Gen Lee said, “There’s no need to be afraid. You’ll get justice here.” The private replied, “That’s what I’m afraid of.” We all need to be terrified enough to search earnestly for the way out of this mess.

And here is the way out. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” Yes, believe in Jesus and you will be saved. But this belief is not one that says, “Jesus was a real dude who lived a long time ago and I believe in him. I also believe in the tooth fairy, Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and Hello Kitty.” This kind of belief wins no everlasting life.

When ‘whoever believes’ has real faith, it means, they abhor, hate, despise, loath, and/or detest their own evil deeds, attitudes, emotions, motives, words, and actions because they have accepted God’s perspective of those things. They are mortified by the fact that they have offended God. They beg for His forgiveness. And when He does forgive them, they are forever grateful and bind themselves to Him as a servant was bound to a loving employer.

Go to a Bible-believing/preaching church to learn more.

Pastor Fredrick A. Tribble

Endicott