Exposition by Max A Forsythe
Christ Covenant Reformed (PCA)
One
educational law enforcement program uses a popular song from a television series
during the recruitment drive each year.
It’s title, I believe, is “Bad
Boys.” “What
ya gonna do when they come for you” goes
the refrain.
The particular show in question usually details the life and times of the
good guys in their patrol cars in the ongoing war against crime.
This is about as far as the public media go in exposing wickedness for
what it is. How very seldom is anything bad called “bad.”
That might be
too judgmental!
And being judgmental is in our time the worst crime imaginable!
But because we are Christians, we know that some things are bad, badder,
worse and even worst!
But how bad really is bad?
This is the question I would begin with today.
Many
public school officials recognized the 1995-1996 school year as the worst year
in memory.
That year, one of my students even told me to shut up, and by the time I
had her written up, I had to fill out four more forms on students who agreed
with her.
Our discipline director shook his head and wondered out loud, “how
bad can it get"?
Time was, when skipping study hall and chewing gum were the "worst
crimes”
imaginable in public schools.
Some schools even have to confiscate guns.
When students get into name calling I don’t even worry about it if they
will quiet down, take their seats and follow directions.
Our discipline director, who has more trouble than any one person can
deal with, thinks I should take those issues seriously.
“But,”
I argued, “the
names they are calling each other are truthfully apt descriptions of their
behavior.”
I’m not one to punish someone for telling the truth!
In our time we are relearning a few common terms for sons raised without
the benefit of a firm father’s hand -- what they really can be when they
become all that they [wannabe].
The
time has passed for the effectiveness of God’s Word, once publicly taught, to
encourage a minimal form of godliness.
That public use of the commandments did indeed hold back sinners from the
worst of sins.
How bad is bad?
The disrespect for authority that I experienced this week might have
gained a public flogging at one time.
But still, as God’s Word shows us in our passage from Romans, things
could indeed be much worse.
How
bad is bad?
It is not often any more that I am shocked by human behavior.
Yet this week’s issue of
World managed to sear my conscious at how low the human condition
can descend.
There is an article that details the harvesting of human organs from
prisoners in Communist China for transplants.
When a prisoner is executed the body is quickly dissected for body parts.
This was documented by first hand interviews with Communist Chinese
officials and patients who paid for the transplanted organs that they needed.
The
same magazine is also investigating second hand reports of something even worse.
In a history book, I once read of a famine in Asia where starvation was
so widespread that babies were sold in the market place for nutritional value.
Because of that historic reference, and the common pagan belief that
certain ailments can be cured by eating similar body parts from animals, the
current rumor that aborted fetuses are being made available for consumption has
a ring of truth to it.
In Europe, fetal material is only finding its way into makeup, and in
America the goal is to use fetal cells for research and for the treating of some
brain disorders.
How bad is bad?
Look
at the passage in Romans before us today.
Putting aside the degrading references which ought not to even be
mentioned in public, let us focus on the cause of all badness and sin.
Verse twenty-five is indicative of the worst case scenario:
“they
exchanged the truth of God for a lie.”
Now look at verse twenty-eight. “Furthermore,
since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave
them over to a depraved mind.”
Finally,
verse thirty-two says, “although
they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death,
they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who
practice them.”
During
last year’s celebration of the Fourth of July, I tuned in to what was billed
as a patriotic celebration.
There on the screen was a whole crowd of singers with little red ribbons
on their lapels singing about the worthiness of a land that was free from any
judgmental attitude, and free from personal judgment.
A close pastor friend
reported that the Louisville paper condemned the president of the
Southern Baptist Seminary because he went on public record against the practice
of sodomy.
As popular as Andy Roony is on Sixty Minutes, he almost lost his
career because he observed that people who practice sodomy might shorten their
lifespan by that practice.
This
is the height of wickedness.
This is blasphemy.
This attitude is the unforgivable sin against the Holy Spirit -- to
suggest, to put in print, to insist that the Word of God which is good and
gracious is in fact despicable.
The depravity, envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice listed here in
this passage all are indeed forgivable sins, if those who commit them will
repent and beg for God’s forgiveness.
How bad is bad?
The worst that mankind can lower himself to is to approve those who
practice the sins deplored in this passage.
The fact of these forgivable sins is bad indeed, but God can allow people
to go to the very depths, beyond receiving the due penalty for their perversion
all the way to sin against His Holy Spirit by degrading His authority over His
creation and suggesting that He and His goodness are a lie.
May we have the wisdom to see this vital difference in the nature of sin
as we minister to sinners dying in a sinful world.
Amen.
Resources Used: The Holy Bible, New International Version
Places Preached:Belz, Mindy. "Unspeakabel delacacy", TWorldv(20 May 95).
Christ Covenant REFORMED (Presbyterian Church in America) Post Office Box 13926 - Columbus, OH 43213-7926
Rom01f.htm 21 May 95
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