THE WAR AGAINST WICKEDNESS
I think we would all agree that our world is filled with wickedness. It is not something new to our world or our time or this generation even, the world has been filled with wickedness for as long as we have recorded history. The word translated “wickedness” is found throughout both the Old & New Testament. Its’ meaning simply refers to sin, to evil that is both planned and carried out.
The number of abortions carried out in our country just this year is well over 300,000. Many states are working to pass legislation to allow homosexuals to be married, getting the same rights and privileges as heterosexual couples. Almost 1 out of every 2 homes in America claim that pornography is a problem in their home. 60% of the world’s illegal drug market is in the United States which has only 6% of the world’s population. Political corruption from Watergate to Monica Lewinsky show that wickedness is not immune to our leadership, and with Enron and the corporate wickedness we have seen on the news it is easy to see that there is a problem with wickedness in our world today.
Of course, according to the evil we are speaking of, it is not just about the evil we see in the headlines of our local news. There is a multitude of wickedness we don’t speak of very much, such as gossip. Three ministers went out on an outing together. As they shared the afternoon they began to confide in one another. Thinking that confession is good for one another, the first minister told of his addiction to pornography. The second minister confided that he had cheated on his taxes. The third minister said, “Well guys, I struggle with gossip and I can’t wait to get back to town and tell everyone what I have discovered today.”
And with gossip as one of those sins we cover by saying that we are just sharing our concerns, there is always prejudice. Now I believe that when I speak of prejudice we all think the same thing, a judgement we make based of the color of a person’s skin. But, folks prejudice is so much more, and something I believe that all of us, myself included are guilty of at some time in our lives, (if not on a regular basis.) When we make a judgement about someone without going more than “skin deep” we are guilty of prejudice. The truth is, that the Bible tells us that only Jesus has the right to judge, He alone KNOWS all, we do not. Prejudice happens when we feel we know the circumstances of a persons’ problems without really knowing all the facts. This is part of a wickedness that dominates our society and our world. Perhaps one of the greatest sources of wickedness comes in the form of greed, the Bible tells us that the ROOT of all evil is the love of money. A lust for money and power is something prevalent in our world today. The “need for greed” is plastered in our headlines and seen in our cities, towns and businesses throughout our great country.
One day a man called the church office and asked the secretary, “Little lady, let me talk to the chief hawg of the feeding trough.” The secretary said, “Sir if you are referring to the pastor, I will have you know he is a decent man of God and does not deserve to be called such things.” The man replied, “I am sorry if I offended you little lady, I was just hoping to make a donation to the church in the sum of 50,000 dollars.” “Hang on sir, I see that fat pig coming now.” Greed is a source of wickedness.
If you have you Bible with you please turn with me to the book of Jonah. This prophet also dealt with the wickedness of the world and we can learn so much from this book that applies to our world today.
JONAH 1:2-3Jonah 1:2-3 "Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me." 3 But Jonah ran away from the LORD and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the LORD.
PRAYER
The first thing I see in this scripture, is something we probably look over because we have read, and been told this story, so many times that we miss some of the finer points in this great story. Jonah was directed to preach AGAINST Ninevah. WHY? Because the Lord said that its’ WICKEDNESS had come up against Him. Today the world’s wickedness comes up against the Lord and it is the responsibility of Christian soldiers to preach against it. To lead by example, to stand up and be heard, to fight the war against wickedness.
1. DO WE STAND, PREACH, AND LIVE AGAINST WICKEDNESS?
The question here is DO we stand, preach and live against wickedness. To simply live our lives, and watch the wickedness of the world, IS NOT ENOUGH. Jesus once told us that if we were ashamed of Him and His Words He would be ashamed of us when the day comes (Luke 9:26) if we do not make a stand in our small amount time here on earth, think of the implications in the eternal life we are headed for.
What exactly do we do to take a stand, I think it is easy to see that Jonah ran, but we must truly ask ourselves if we do the same thing. How many times in any given day are we afforded the opportunity to stand for Christ? Do you hear others take the Lord’s name in vain? Do you hear people talk about living and letting others live the way they want, “Live and let live”? Do you see politicians headed down the wrong road and do nothing about it? Do we see teaching opportunities with young Christians but chose not to offer advice because of what they might say?
Our everyday lives give us unlimited opportunities to be warriors for Christ. We are given the chance to stand for Jesus, and yet, I think many of us, much like Jonah of old, turn and run from God.
II. DO WE RUN & WHY?
Every time we pass up a chance to fight for good and righteousness we are running from a battle that has been entrusted to us. We are no better than Jonah. It is truly as if we are ashamed of the Gospel, of being called a warrior for Christ. We are more concerned with acceptance by a world full of non-believers and nay sayers than we are with the eternal implications of passing up the battle. WHY?
I think there are two reasons, first is simply the fire has burned down to a smolder. For a moment, reflect with me to the day you accepted Jesus as Lord. The emotion was high, but was that all there was? I have heard so many stories about those people headed for church that stop at a store and curse out the clerk because they don’t have the right type of cigarettes stocked. I have heard many a waiter tell me that the people coming from church to the restaurant are the worst customers and the worst tippers. I have heard so many stories from the unsaved about “church people” acting so very different from Jesus that it is truly a sad thing. We cannot be only Sunday Christians, and we can not allow the fire that burned in our hearts to become a smolder.
Salvation is a gift, but many of us are like the man that got a week of private lesson at the health club as a gift from his wife. He called and made reservations with someone named Tanya, who said she was a 26 year old aerobics instructor and athletic clothing model. His wife seemed very pleased with how enthusiastic he was to get started. This is how he described the ordeal.
DAY 1. They suggested I keep this “exercise diary” to chart my progress this week. Started the morning at 6:00 am. Tough to get up, but worth it when I arrived at the health and Tanya was waiting for me. She was something of a goddess, with blond hair and a dazzling white smile. She showed me the machines and took my pulse after five minutes on the treadmill. She seemed a little alarmed that it was so high, but I think just standing next to her added about ten points. Tanya was very encouraging as I did my sit-ups, though my gut was already aching a little from holding it in the whole time I was talking to her. This is going to be GREAT!
Day 2: Took a whole pot of coffee to get me out the door, but I made it. Tanya had me lie on my back and push this heavy iron bar into the air. Then she put weights on it. Legs a little wobbly on the treadmill but I made it the full mile. Her smile made it all worth it. Muscles feel GREAT . .
DAY 3: The only way I can brush my teeth is by laying the toothbrush on the counter and moving my mouth back and forth over it. Driving was okay as long as I didn’t try to steer. I parked on top of a Volkswagen. Tanya was a little impatient with me and said my screaming was bothering the other club members.
DAY 4: Tanya was waiting for me with her vampire teeth in a full snarl. I can’t help it if I was a half hour late, it took me that long just to tie my shoes. I hid in the men’s room until she sent Lars in looking for me.
DAY 5: I hate Tanya more than any human being has ever hated another in the history of the world. If there was any part of my body that was not in extreme pain I would hit her with it. She thought it would be a good idea to work on my triceps . . . . well, I have news for you Tanya, I don’t have triceps. And if you don’t want dents in the floor stop handing me those barbells.
DAY 6: I got Tanya’s message on my answering machine, wondering where I am. I lacked the strength to use the TV remote so I watched eleven straight hours of the Weather channel.
DAY 7: Well, that’s the week. I am so grateful it’s over. Maybe next time my wife will give me something a little more fun like a root canal or a kidney stone.
The SECOND reason is simple FEAR. Many of us fear what others will say about us, that we will be labeled as “fanatics” and over zealous, and this keeps us from making a stand for Christ. Jonah was one, so we are in good company, and there are others if you study the Bible carefully. Moses was worried about what to say and how to say it, Peter changed his tune when he was threatened, and I believe we do the same thing many times.
III. WHEN GOD SHOWS JUSTICE
Now we see justice being served by God for this “running”. Just as a soldier is punished for going AWOL, or deserting in the midst of battle, Jonah sees that God is angry with him and the waves of the Sea come up. Jonah is sleeping through it, trying to pretend it isn’t happening and hoping that justice will GO AWAY. But look at this next passage with me.
Jonah 1:6 The captain went to him and said, "How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god! Maybe he will take notice of us, and we will not perish."
WOW, we could learn from the captain of the ship. How can we nap, how can we allow the world to lull us into a complacent state? It is time to GET UP and call on our God for the strength to fight the good fight. We can no longer take a passive stand against wickedness, we cannot accept the lie of political correctness. We must realize that when we do nothing it is just as bad as doing wickedness itself. I believe that God takes notice of our unwillingness to “get up” and call on him, and thus justice is served. I also see in this passage that the world knows what to do when things are not the way they should be, CALL ON YOUR GOD!
In the midst of the tragedy of 9/11 we saw so many people start praying and so many people flooded the churches that they had not attended in many years prior. It is time to stop running from God and take a stand against wickedness.
IV. JUSTICE SERVED - SWALLOWED - PRAYER - 2ND CHANCE
After Jonah acknowledges that justice is being served he is tossed into the sea and this takes us to the next passage.
Jonah 1:17 But the LORD provided a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was inside the fish three days and three nights.
Now I believe this verse teaches us a lot more about our God and His justice. God provides a GREAT fish to swallow Jonah and Jonah is INSIDE for three days and three nights. Now of course theologians compare this aspect of the story to that of our Lord and Savior, but I ask that you see a bigger picture here. When Jonah became complacent, when he was disobedient to God’s call to PREACH against wickedness, when he ran from God’s service, God made the seas into turmoil. When Jonah admitted he was running from God, he was thrown into the sea and then swallowed up. I sincerely believe that when we run from God He allows our world to swallow us up and for a period of time that’s where we stay. The fact that the scripture says three days and three nights shows a completion and perfect number, three days is symbolic of closure, of completion. And then do you know what Jonah does?
Jonah 2:1-2 From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the LORD his God. 2 He said: "In my distress I called to the LORD, and he answered me. From the depths of the grave I called for help, and you listened to my cry.
Folks, he prayed! He called out to God and he says that God listened. How many times I have found myself in this place? Driven to my knees because I refused to listen to the one that is in complete control! How many times have you found yourself running from what it is that God has intended for you to do, only to be swallowed up by the world and the problems associated with wickedness and then we call out to God and God listens to our prayers? The result of God’s justice is to be turned over, to be allowed to venture off the path and into the world that we are supposed to be in BUT NOT OF! Listen to Paul’s words as he writes to the church in Rome:
Rom 1:21-25 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. 24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator-who is forever praised. Amen.
This truly ties in with our story about Jonah and the lesson today. How many people, ourselves included, know of God, know God personally, but find ourselves exchanging the things of the world, the very things that God has created, for the glory that God deserves? I have been guilty of this, I know of many that have been, and perhaps you do as well. It is easy to be swallowed up by the world around us, and when we allow this to happen, we become ineffective warriors for Christ.
But back to the story, after being swallowed up, Jonah prays and says that God hears him and then in chapter 3;
Jonah 3:1 Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time: 2 "Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you." 3 Jonah obeyed the word of the LORD and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very important city-a visit required three days.
Please hear these very important words: ( a second time) & (Jonah obeyed)
Our God is a God of MANY chances, He wants us to follow Him to be His warriors. He has a plan for each and every one of us, and God is patient, he affords us many chances to do His will.
Jonah is given a second chance and he OBEYS!
Many times God affords us a second chance, he allows us to be taught by the error of our ways. Many times it is simply that we do not see the infinite wisdom in God’s plan, we do not see His battle strategy. Listen to this little story;
This is a story as told by Wade Martin Hughes, Sr. Kyfingers@aol.com
I have been pondering a story of a weak sickly man. The man was so sick and he could not afford going to town to the doctor. The man lived in the deep back woods in an old log cabin, his condition seemed to grow worse. Out in front of his cabin was a huge boulder. The rock was massive in front of his place. One night in a very real vision, God told him to go out there and push the huge rock all day long, day after day. The man got up early in the morning, and with great excitement he pushed the rock until lunch, then he rested a while and pushed the rock until supper time. The man loved pushing against the rock, it gave him meaning. The dream was so real that it was with great excitement he pushed against the rock. Day after day he pushed. Day rolled into week, and week into months, he faithfully pushed against the rock.
After 8 months of pushing the rock, the weak sickly man was getting tired of pushing the rock so much, in his tiredness he started to doubt his dream. So one day he measured from his porch to the rock, and after daily pushing the rock, he would measure to see how much he had moved the rock. After two weeks of pushing and measuring, he realized he had not moved the boulder not a 1/32 of an inch? As a matter of fact, the boulder was in the same place as when he started.
The man was so disappointed, he thought the dream was so special and now after 9 months he saw his work had accomplished nothing, he was tired and his dream seemed dashed upon the rock.
The man sat on his porch and cried and cried, he had invested many hundred hours into nothing. Nothing, it was all nothing!
As the sun was sitting in the west, Jesus came and sat down next to the man as he cried. Jesus said, "Son, why are you crying?" The man replied, "Lord, You know how sick and weak I am, and then this dumb dream gave me a false hope and I have pushed with all that was within me for over 9 months, and that dumb old rock is right where it was when I started." Jesus was kind and said to him, "I never told you to move the rock, I told you to push against the rock." The man replied, "Yes, Sir, that was the dream." Jesus told the man to step in front of the mirror and look at himself.
As an act of obedience the man stepped in front of a mirror and looked at himself.
The man was amazed, he had been so sickly and weak, and what he saw in the mirror
was a strong muscular man. The man realized that he had not been coughing all night.
The man started thinking of how well he felt for several months and the strength that he had built by pushing on the rock. Then the man realized, that the plan of God was not for the rock, but for the man.
So, I suggest to you today, that God is building people. God is building churches.
The storms, the trials, the heartaches, the disappointments, are all but part of the process. We should never use people to build the church, we must use the church to build people.
Don’t start measuring your success, trust the God that will take the process, and build
His people. God is stretching you, God is growing you! Understand the plan!
Trust His Hands! I believe that even Jonah did not fully understand God’s plan, listen to this last passage of scripture.
Jonah 4:1-3 But Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry. 2 He prayed to the LORD, "O LORD, is this not what I said when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. 3 Now, O LORD, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live."
We may never understand the reason for the work we are called to do, I too have had my doubts, but I am here to tell you that we serve the God that is at war with wickedness and he wants us to be His soldiers. He wants us to call out to Him and find strength in him.
We have seen that God calls us to preach against wickedness, also that many of us turn and run, whether from our fire going out or simple fear of being rejected and chastised. Running will result in God’s justice being served and we cannot sleep and become complacent during this time. We must wake up, pray and call out to God. All of us, like Jonah are afforded that opportunity, a second chance, a new day.
Folks, make today that day! Are you ready to fight the good fight? Have you wandered from the only true God? Have you fought acceptance of the only one that can give life eternal? I invite you to come forward as we sing this invitation and accept Jesus as Lord, be baptized into a personal relationship with Him that will give you the strength of His Holy Spirit. Become a part of His elite army and stay excited about the war against wickedness. If you have any doubts. Leave them here today, come forward and let me pray with you. Find strength in the fellowship of this humble church and join the battle.
INVITATION
