Fashions change but God does not

Carrying on from my last entry, I am going to end my series on sin tonight though I have not said all that could be said. Since starting on this series I have come across an excellent book called The Sinfulness of Sin by Ralph Venning (a Puritan Paperback). I am half-way through and recommend it highly – the author is a far better writer than what I am.

I want to end by reminding you that though some sins become so common that they become acceptable in a society but that does not make them any less sinful. In Australia there is a man – an ex-Roman Catholic priest, I understand, who is a homosexual. He calls himself Pope Alice. Pope Alice is organising a kind of protest to coincide with the Pope’s visit to Sydney for World Youth Day. Pope Alice says he wants to bring it to the attention of the church that they need to shed aspects of a medieval religion and update their thinking.

Well, guess what, Sodom and Gomorra were destroyed for the “medieval” sins Pope Alice has embraced. If you care to read one of my earliest posts on sin, I showed that sin is not so much the things that we do but sin is rebellion against God. The things we do are the outworking of that rebellion. Homosexuality has always been sinful and will always be sinful. But so is adultery – so you live with your partner and you are not married. How fashionable is that!? God still calls it adultery and it is still wrong. Young man, young lady, you’re disrespectful to your parents and to your elders – it seems to be the way it is today. But I read in my Bible that God says, honour your parents, and elsewhere, respect the elderly. Listen to the swearing and blasphemy on television – even on the cooking programs – and no one is ashamed. In fact this kind of behaviour is laughed at and even encouraged.

This is what God says, Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! This is what our new morality is – we are not enlightened, we are simply calling evil things “good” but they’re still evil.

Jesus came to deal with sin: to pay the price for all the sin you’ve committed; to forgive you if you ask Him; to cleanse you from your sin so that in God’s sight it’s just as if you never sinned; and to help you become strong in the battle against sin by helping you to say “no” to sin and “yes” to righteousness. All you have to do is mention all these things in this paragraph to God.

Until next time, so long.