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James 3:2 For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body. This is the divine objective. Anything that mitigates against this model of human development is wrong, is sin, and is wicked. God hates it. So, how do we deal with being wrong? Every culture on earth has devices for deferring guilt and covering sin without confession and repentance. Every culture has devices for redefining wrongness as some sort of evolutionary phase which will end in goodness. The Bible believer has NO such option. When we are wrong, we better figure it out fast, for God punishes his children when the are wrong, sin, and deny it, redefine it, or indulge in it. |
"If a critic tells a particular lie, that particular lie can be pointed out. If he misses a specific point, that point can be explained. If he is really wrong in this or that, it will be on this or that that the insulted person will eagerly pounce. But “malice and spite” are vague words which will never be used except when there is really nothing to pounce on. If a man says that I am a dwarf, I can invite him to measure me. If he says I am a cannibal, I can invite him to dinner. If he says I am a coward, I can hit him. If he says I am a miser, I can give him half-a-sovereign.
But if he says I am fat and lazy (which is true), the best I can answer is that he speaks out of malice and spite. Whenever we see that phrase, we may be almost certain that somebody has told the truth about somebody else."
G.K. Chesterton on Malice and Spite
The Illustrated London News, 13 November 1909.
WRONG AS DEFINED BY HUMAN REASON
We begin with a TED video on being wrong. The thing that is frustrating about this video is that Kathryn Schulz is a rather famous lesbian. Please watch her presentation though. She is generally very correct in her assessments, but the amazing thing is that she has virtually no sense of being wrong about her lesbian choices. She also ends with the classic line that being wrong has great virtue because good things evolve from bad things.
This notion that wrong (AKA sin) is a great place to start pleasing God parallels the Calvinist, Mormon, and Muslim doctrine that God planned on evil in order to glorify himself. Being wrong is NOT an essential resource God needs to glorify himself. Being wrong is a result of the fall in Eden six thousand years ago. If the results of my total depravity are part of the divine model from eternity, then God is depraved, and we must suspect he may be wrong about arranging for our salvation.
Please watch the video all the way through. It shows how some sinners can be very moral and correct in one area and filthy in another. Be careful, friend-- this lady's moral dilemma is also found in the lives of many devout Christians, though not often with the same sin she is dealing with. Some who read here will assume that because Miss Schulz is a lesbian she has the problem, not us.
Isaiah 53:6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. Or, all of us are wrong. All of us need to repent of things all the time. All of us need to be eager to learn how and why we are wrong.
End of video
The part that I liked so well in this video is when Kathryn made the point that FEELING right is nor necessarily BEING right. We all know this, but we all seem to deny it when we see wrong in our own life. We go by our own feelings rather than by external evidences, the first of which is God himself. We refuse to take outside input, and we end up wrong and suffering the consequences. No explanation will cover the fact that we were wrong and refused to reconsider. The consequences, as with the doctor at Beth Israel Hospital mentioned in the video, can be deadly to us, but worse to innocent people around us.
So, what is Kathryn Schulz ignoring in her splendid lecture?
Her analogy of Wile E. Coyote is one of my favorites for such discussions, and you who have read here for years will have seen it over and over as the classic example of stupid denial. While this analogy serves her argument very well, sadly, Kathryn refuses to look down at reality, at the obvious, and has not dealt with the following:
1. Lesbians, if they are Evolutionists, deny the whole story of evolving species over alleged millions of years. If same sex relationships had ever become the norm for humans, we would have gone extinct. The modern notion that, "We must take charge of our evolution" is tossed into a cocked hat. She is simply wrong if she is an evolutionist.
2. Lesbians, if they are Creationists, slap God in the face, for he said to Adam and Eve, "Be fruitful and multiply". Lesbians recruit, but they cannot multiply. If God had created another woman and another man in Eden, and if Adam had gone wagging his tail over the the sodomite, and if Eve had gone to the other lesbian woman and offered to be her Butch, there would be no human race. Kathryn is dead wrong if she is a Creationist.
3. Lesbians, if they look at the gender plumbing arrangements, must deny the obvious. Kathryn talks about paying attention to external information. Well, there is something grossly missing on the external of lesbians. In order to enjoy sexual pleasure (I must get graphic so no one can avoid the obvious) these poor rebels must buy double ended sex toys that resemble a man's two ended penis and use the thing with each other. The sensation is one of having a man service them with the plumbing God gave him, but the nasty old man is eliminated.
What is the climax here? Lesbian sex is a cheap substitute for the male participation which, if the man is a loving husband who wants to satisfy his spouse (or visa verse), sexual union is controlled by the sense of touch, mental self-discipline, and God-given love, which is not possible with sex toys. [ Never accuse me of not dealing with the issues please. ] If there is a left brain / right brain make up of men and women, then again, you have two lefts or two rights. Something is missing when God, the Master plumber, is denied what he has given us to enjoy.
There is something else grossly missing in sodomite sexual unions. Sex, while the Bible makes it very clear that it should be a pleasure, is also about procreation and having babies. Sodomite sex is a hedonist relationship based on self-love and indulgence. It is well known to those who have done the research that sodomite relationships almost all end in separation due to unfaithfulness. The very nature of this incomplete sexual union, and the lack of pregnancy as a result, drive sodomites to shop around on each other.
Thus, it is wrong!
Contrary to what Kathryn claims, being wrong is not the foundation to progress and joy in life. Even if we figure out we are wrong, and that is usually easy to do for a Bible believer, wrongness is NOT a virtue. When "something else happens instead" of what we expected, being wrong is NOT the point. God is the point, and sin is the point. We sin, we are wrong, or we are disrupted by other sinners. God takes charge, and what happens in the end it his mercy at work. This may well be why Kathryn does not face her lesbianism-- she is hoping it will all work out in the end. It will not be because God does not fix wickedness, he judges it. So Kathryn will one day face the ultimate "external information" in the final verdict given to her by God himself.
Kathryn Schulz is wrong, and she is in rebellion, if for no other reason, because she refuses to consider the FACTS of sex and procreation. The only thing men will say about a rooster that tries to mount another rooster is, "That is one dumb rooster- let's put him in the frying pan." It is the measure of national and societal stupidity that a majority of people who get something right in their own personal lives vote for, or approve of, perverted wrongness for others. This is now the cultural norm in the USA.
Romans 1:32 Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.
So, Kathryn is in denial, and SHE IS A LIAR. No good will come of her rebellion. And, her faulty presuppositions are the same ones world leaders have, and we know the end of that-- Great Tribulation. But, the Lord's Church is also inhabited by many believers who are wrong, in sin, and who refuse to face that fact.
HERE IS THE PUNCH LINE.....
What about you? What about me? Are we in denial, arrogantly lying because we like our apologetic, our comfort zone, our sin. Or, are we simply playing dumb in order to avoid taking responsibility?
Lesbians lie, right? Well, do preachers lie? Do deacons lie? Do YOU lie?
I believe that almost every one of us knows some area of life where we are hedging on truth, that is, on the external facts as delivered to us by the Bible and the Holy Spirit. We sense we are wrong, but, like Wile E. Coyote, we refuse to look down. We have the stupid notion that the divine cartoonist, as it were, will not draw us in a dead fall and total panic if we refuse to listen to the Spirit of God. He is loudly calling out, "You are wrong".
James
4:16 But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil.
17
Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.
We need to add a caveat here. There are Christians, especially new believers, who are wrong but do not yet know it, as the verse suggests. We who have dealt with the area of wrongness in their life need to be as patient as God is. How patient is he? Well, if this new believer is not lying, covering, joking about, of hiding the area of wrongness in his life, we who suppose we are spiritual need to mind our own business. If we say anything about this, it should be to the believer who is wrong, and then, in extreme humility and with the intention of being part of the solution if they need help leaving their sin.
Romans
15:1 We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not
to please ourselves.
2 Let every one of us please his neighbour for his good
to edification.
Galatians
6:1 Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore
such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be
tempted.
2 Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.
You are evil. You are in willful sin. What next? Let us consider the various possible ways in which we go from being wrong to being utterly wicked.
LET
US NOW REVIEW SOME OF THE WAYS
WE EVADE LOOKING AT OUR WRONG- AKA SIN
LIE
Make a cover story. Obamacare is chaos, they say. The answer, "We will fix it by the end of November." It is still a train wreck, and now the man needs another lie to answer the first lie and the second lie and the third lie. Beware my friend of bold lies. People just do not forgive us of that easily.
Revelation 22:14 Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.
15 For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.Liars are in very bad company in verse 15.
DENY
IT
Denial is still a lie. As in, "I am always right because I am a _____________." In the blank try, pastor, Calvinist, Reformed, Baptist, Spirit filled tongues speaking exceptional Christian, Whiskeypalian, Preterist, CEO, First Sergeant, President, "I am new in the faith", "a poor country boy and don't know better", blah blah blah.
I love little John's theology. "It's not empty." That is not a lie. It is the truth, but it does not answer the question. This is where we go when we get caught red handed (or faced). We find an escape route in the details. That does not work with God, and it seldom works with our God fearing friends.
EXPLAIN IT AWAY
"I may have seemed to be wrong, but I was _________________". The following are various alibis used to fill in the blanks.
"Feeling bad"
So is the one you sinned against. Try again please.
"Distracted"
Who isn't? This is one of the most lame excuses for being wrong.
"Sincere"
Right, and Charlie Brown believed the Great Pumpkin would rise out of the pumpkin patch
on Halloween.
"Badly informed by __________"
Very handy because you can pass the buck. Used a lot by politicians, CEOs, and two year olds.
The President said, "No one told me we were spying on our friends around the world."
Adam said, "I sinned because of the woman thou gavest me."
Eve said, "I sinned because the devil made me do it."
And, they did not become gods, as Satan promised them. What lie are YOU believing?
"I had a flat tire"
If you REALLY had a flat, go ahead and use this one. Otherwise, take responsibility.
If all the flat tires we hear about were real, we should invest in Firestone Tire Company at once.
"We are all totally depraved"
This works for Calvinists, just as it did when Calvin burned a Christian at the stake.
And, Reformed theologians today use Total Depravity to cover for John Calvin 500 years later.
It is still wrong, and time will not change that.
"Making a hypothetical suggestion"
There is no such thing as a hypothetical sin any more than there is a hypothetical Gospel.
"It was all in fun, I was not serious"
You sure sounded serious when you did the sin. I sure wish that had worked with the policeman
when I turned left in a NO LEFT TURN lane in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
"I did it to the glory of God"
Saul was told by Samuel to kill ALL of the Amalikites in a coming battle.
After the battle Samuel paid King Saul a visit:Samuel speaks: 1 Samuel 15:18 And the LORD sent thee on a journey, and said, Go and utterly destroy the sinners the Amalekites, and fight against them until they be consumed.
19 Wherefore then didst thou not obey the voice of the LORD, but didst fly upon the spoil, and didst evil in the sight of the LORD?
20 And Saul said unto Samuel, Yea, I have obeyed the voice of the LORD, and have gone the way which the LORD sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites.
21 But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice unto the LORD thy God in Gilgal.
22 And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.
23 For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king.What a famously spiritual explanation. We disobeyed so that we could worship the Lord better. One must wonder if, in fact, Saul intended to put the animals into his flock, but he was a bright fast thinking and fast talking boy. His pious alibi was rejected by Samuel out of hand, and King Saul later died for his disobedience.
I have heard many fast talking preachers tell me that their sin, arrogance, or sloppy doctrine and preaching were what God lead them to do. This is cute-- blame God. What blasphemy! Whether it comes from the Pope or a Fundamental Baptist preacher, this is reason to put the jack boot on church discipline for a long time.
The way some creeps set up God for the blame later is to say, "We believe we should do such and such, and it will be a great blessing, Lord willing." LORD WILLING? You jerk-- figure out if it is the Lord's will BEFORE you open you big mouth, or take action, please.
STAND MUTE BEFORE THE COURT
This is the most benign form of lying. At least nothing stupid is said right out loud. In fact, we have very few leaders today in the Anglo Saxon nations who can simply say, "I choose to leave that question unanswered." The alternative is to say, "That is a matter of national security, so I cannot talk about it." Of course, that is a bold face lie too.
When we stand silently instead of answering we are lying. Withholding the truth is not telling the truth. The only place in the Bible, that I know of, where God's people lied was to save the lives of the innocent. The Hebrew midwives told Pharaoh that the Hebrew women gave birth before they could get to them to kill the baby boys as Pharaoh commanded them. God praised them for that. David lied to protect the Levites who aided him in his escape from King Saul, and God commended David for that. But, when we lie to protect ourselves, especially when we are WRONG in some issue, we are as guilty as snot. We are wicked before God.
CHEAP REPENTANCE
Repentance without restitution and restoration is cheap repentance, as in"I am sorry", or,"I will not do that again" or,"If I offended you I am sorry. I did not mean to do that."
DAMN YOUR "IF".....
REPENT AND CORRECT IT
As in, "I apologize, I was wrong. What can I do to correct this?"This last one is the most expensive, the most cleansing, and the most likely to gain you respect from the world at large. It is also the least often heard from politicians, lawyers, preachers, CEOs, Policemen, TSA agents, government officials, Presidents, and Kings. Certain people simply are never wrong, and even the media accepts this for a long time until the level of denial and lying totally saturate the environment.
This is happening as I write with President Barak Obama. He lied for five solid years, and the media pretended all was status quo. All the US politicians and Presidents before him lied from time to time. It is a sorry commentary on American history that this nation learned long ago to accept lies from its leaders as normal and acceptable behavior.
Finally, after getting a pass on his lies for a long time, Obama lied to millions of Americas telling them that Obamacare would not disrupt their lives. In fact, Obamacare was a train wreck and caused as many as l00 million Americans to go into personal crisis over their health care. Barak Obama lied and lied and lied trying to find his way out of the mess. So, the media finally joined the average American, totally reversed their policy of ignoring President Obama's lies, and painted him as a vile degraded liar. Even his own party members fled from him in terror, though they had before defended his lies.
EXTERNAL EVIDENCES THAT WE ARE WRONG
"What is that in thine hand?" God asked Moses. (Exodus 4:2)
The physical evidence is the most obvious, and it is often the one we least like to own up to. A man holds a porn magazine in his hands. What damnation! There is no way around such evidence. The lady holds a man's arm in affection as she chats with him in the church foyer. She is violating the "touch not" rule of the Apostle Paul in I Corinthians 7, but she gets a rush out of charming men whom she is not married to. Her husband may even stand by and look dumb as snot like Frank Sinatra used to as he followed his half naked wife into a gathering.
Then, there is the belly hanging out yonder so far that we cannot see out toes. The evidence is visual, but it is amazing all the ways we learn to justify our gluttony. "All the fat belongeth to the Lord", says one lard ball preacher. It is supposed to be a good joke to invite the folks laugh at his sin and wrongness. All the passages where the Lord claims the fat of the sacrificial animal for himself have absolutely nothing to do with fat people out of control. If that were the case, then you who are way overweight should go have the doctor cut that fat off and burn it on the bar-b-que while you friends stand around and sing, "All to Jesus I Surrender."
Here is another one used to imply that fatness is the direct result of holiness:
Proverbs 28:25 He that is of a proud heart stirreth up strife: but he that putteth his trust in the LORD shall be made fat.
To use the Word of God in a twisted manner, entirely out of context with our sin, is blasphemy. Someone who really loves us should at once rebuke us. Eating fat in the Bible is associated with good health, rewards for hard work, and with celebrating a great day in the Lord. But, BEING a big fatty is sin, wrong, and needs to be repented of and taken action on by laying that fork down sooner.
There are so many ways to be wrong, that is, to sin, that we cannot discuss them all here.
Jesus talked about the second look being the same as adultery. Do we make sure to hold the first look a good long time while we piously avoid the second look? Who are we kidding?
Do we let our imagination go into wicked territory without mouthing what is in our mind? What happened to, Psalms 19:14 Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer.
Do we somehow think that our thoughts are not wrong because we simply don't speak them? Come now my friend, God is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. What we fantasize about is what we would do if we could get away with it.
Do we praise God in prayer and in prayer meeting while we hold discontent in our heart about our job, our car, our spouse, or our place in the order of the peck? When we do not have the best, or enough (by our measure), are we not unthankful? The soul that is satisfied before God always has enough. Call your thoughts anything you like-- it is covetousness, and our pious thanks in public is a mockery against the provision of God to us.
Do we pray that God will bless the missionaries while we refuse to talk to a friend we know is not born again? All the alibis from here to Timbuktu will not fool God the Holy Spirit.
I knew a preacher who told everyone he had a metabolism problem which caused him to put on weight no matter what he ate. One day I walked into MacDonald's to have coffee and a turn over. There sat the preacher with the metabolism problem with three Big Macs in front of him, and he was alone. We chatted a while, but I never again had to hear about his metabolism problem. He had a SIN problem, and after that encounter both of us knew it.
As you might guess, I am not overweight. I have this little alibi that research tells us that being a bit overweight will give us a reserve in case we contract a really wasting sickness of some sort. So far that alibi is working, I can see my toes, and I can walk about three miles an hour for two miles, and I am 70 years old. But, I regularly get on the scales because my fat theology is on the edge of heresy from time to time. That means cut back on carbs and discipline the fork for a couple of weeks. I like good food. So did some of the most godly men in the Bible. But, I have noticed that there were no Bible men who really exalted God, and were used by him and commended to us by him, who were said to be lard balls.
Am I ever wrong? Stupid question. I just don't like YOU to tell me about it. I trust you understand that I said that in jest. The best thing you can do for a friend who is in serious wrong is come along side and bring it up between the two of you, and ONLY two of you.
A cop I know saw a leader in a church go into a bar one night with a lady on his arm. The lady was not his wife. The cop went to the man when they were alone, and his question was very godly and appropriate-- "Brother, I saw you going into such and such a bar with a lady on your arm who was not your wife. Can you explain that for me if you were in God's will at the time?" The man in the wrong repented at once, and later, the man came to my friend the cop and almost cried as he thanked him for confronting him. My cop probably saved the man's marriage. What the cop did was NOT law enforcement, it was brotherly love.
I had a friend in a church I pastored who had come out of gross backslidden debauchery to return to Christ. He began to shuck off things, and all I did was encourage him. I said very little about things that were still clearly wrong in his life. When he had a massive urge to go on a drunk we had an understanding that I would drop what I was doing and go with him the the local KOA and shoot pool until the urge subsided. All they had at the KOA was a soda pop machine. One day I got into his pick up to go with him, and I poked the glove compartment button. It banged open showing Willie Nelson, AC-DC, Motley Crew, and other cassettes of that sort. I shut the door and said nothing about it. The next time I got in the truck I did the same thing, and the only one left was Willie Nelson, a great improvement. My friend said, "Hey pastor, all I got left is Willie Nelson. I'm working on it." I said, "Praise the Lord" and changed the subject. I never did that again. Remember, we were very good friends. Take NO liberties like that with a brother to whom you are not 100% committed to and trusted by.
GO THOU AND DO LIKEWISE, AND.....
Luke
6:41 And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye,
but perceivest
not the beam that is in thine own eye?
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