SermonStudio

The more confused a society, the more necessary are examples
of righteousness. The contrast is that between light and
darkness. If we do not let our light shine, the darkness takes
over. How terrible to live in a world of total blackness without
a spot of light. Christ lighted the lamp; we must keep it
shining. If we are on the wrong road, going in the wrong
direction, there is little hope. The path of righteousness leads
home, to eternal life. That's where the Good Shepherd is leading
us.
"He leadeth me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake."
The Good Shepherd cannot put up with just any kind of living. He
wouldn't be good, if he allowed the sheep to destroy each other.
If we have taken poison, we may survive only by the use of a
stomach pump. "Come ye out from among them. Be ye separate." We
are admonished. Christ delivers us from evil and restores us in
righteousness. The misuse of life is Hell.
Into this milieu of lostness, God comes upon a cross. That is
the only way he can get the attention of such a world. He suffers
with us, and upon our privileged hells he opens the door of hope.
He restores my soul by leading me into right living. Back in the
days of propeller planes, my wife and I were returning from
England, flying all night long across the Atlantic. As always, I
was looking out the window. I was watching a bright star just off
the tip of the wing. Every 20 minutes the plane would shift to
the right and my star would move ahead of us. This bothered me.
Was our pilot lost? Then I caught

on. He was having to correct our course because we were being
blown off course by a strong north wind. The pilot was
compensating for the wind drift.
When was the last time we checked our course? Where are we
going to end up if we keep this course? Are we really growing as
Christians, or are we gradually giving in to the pagan lifestyle
of the world about us? Are we on course toward the city of God,
or are we drifting? We check our course by our understanding of
God and what he wants for us. We check by the spirit and life
that we see in Jesus. That night I didn't correct our course; the
pilot did. I cannot maintain my life course, alone. God guides me
and enables me, when I let him.
The Psalmist reaches out for the effective concern of God for
our lives:

Have mercy on me, O God, according to thy loving kindness:
according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my
transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my
sin ... .
Behold thou desireth truth in the inward parts: and in the
hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom ... .
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit
within me ... .
Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with
thy free spirit.
(Psalm 51:1-12 -- Selected verses)

Again and again I have felt my life's course corrected by an
invisible, but wise and loving hand.
They say that "dishonest mortar" was responsible for the
terrible destruction of the San Francisco earthquake. This might
also account for the terrible death toll of other earthquakes.
Sadly we admit that there is much "dishonest mortar" in us, in
our nation, in our world today. Our civilization may be about to
collapse about us. But God does not want it to. Our Bible is the
textbook for moral and ethical living. But it is evident that we
are not living by the text. It frightens

us, these overpowering forces of evil active in the world about
us. I fear that we are not only the victims of evil but also,
sadly, a part of the cause.
I was intrigued by an article written by David Chaney. He
suggested that it would be nice if we all lived in "Gotham" where
all the evil was visible, separate, outside ourselves. It would
be great to have "Batman and Robin" destroy all this evil, and
let us go on undisturbed about our business and pleasure. But
life is not set up that way. The battle between good and evil is
not outside us, but inside us.
The face of evil is nine-tenths hidden. Evil is the original
fifth column. Its infiltration is subtle and deep. No Batman can
save us; for we, the people, are the villain. Evil is not
separate from man; it is deep in man's nature. The battle between
good and evil is not fought out in the air over the rooftops of
Gotham. It is constantly being fought out in the souls of men,
where selfishness, greed, blindness, lust, prejudice and
littleness corrupt the heart and destroy human relationships.
The novel, The Hall of Mirrors, by John Wilson, shocked me
awake, as I looked at myself and my fellow human beings in the
"hall of mirrors." Sir Thomas Gilling, the most respected medical
person in all of England, was involved in a lawsuit with Dr.
Lines. As the trial proceeded, we discovered that in the
courtroom even a great man's rationalizations will not stand up
before cross examination. Under legal bombardment, Sir Thomas,
himself, begins to see how from a depressing childhood he had
allowed his ambitions to break the heart of his father, to make
him lose the girl that he loved, to push him into a life on the
surface great, powerful and respected, but in the light of inner
truth, eaten out, full of holes and ambiguities. At the end of
the trial, he sadly remarks: "Perhaps all men of his age and
station should be stripped naked before the world, for the good
of their souls." Then he adds, "It was not everyone who was
privileged with a dress rehearsal of judgment day." Through some
experience like this we might all find how far we have missed the
straight path.

In this trial we see life revealed. Mistakes can be made. And
often we claim more for a situation than there is in it. Sir
Thomas Gilling observed: "I had known this in my heart since
childhood." God gives to us the gift of appraising ourselves in
depth, so that we really know when our integrity is valid, and
when we are playing false. These awful things revealed in the
courtroom happened to normal people living normal lives. They
were destroyed by facts. These things can happen to some people
like you and me, when we allow emotions and motives, pressures,
prejudices and half-truths to get all mixed up in our
relationships with other people.
At times the face of evil is hidden deep within one's own
subconscious nature. "Cleanse thou me from secret faults," O God.
These things haunt us. Some people go to the psychiatrist in
order to get these hidden ambiguities dug out of the depths of
their subconscious. Christ has a way with hidden evil. When a
person can honestly seek his love, his strength, his wholeness,
and accept this deep in their subconscious being; then Christ
invades the subconscious, and in his own presence drives out the
evil, puts love and right in its place, heals the wound and
releases a new person into life.
A terrifying sequence in Michael Crichton's book, Sphere,
illustrates this. Trained in engineering, Norman, Harry and Beth
descend 1,000 feet to the ocean floor in a kind of depth
laboratory to investigate a strange space ship discovered there.
In the process many dangers were encountered, and Beth and Harry
were so disoriented that they tried to kill Norman. He escaped
and activated a small transit submarine to reach the surface,
1,000 feet above. He had only 19 minutes before a terrific
explosion would crush the lab and the submarine. Nineteen minutes
before death.
Norman had decided that it was right to leave them to die to
save his own life. As the tiny vessel rose rapidly toward the
surface, a battle was waged between good and evil deep within his
soul. "I am justified; they tried to kill me." The minutes were
flying by. Beth's voice came over the intercom, "Save me! Save
me!" Norman's response was that it was too late.

He couldn't save them and save himself. He was right, he was
sure. As he was about to reach the surface and safety with 14
minutes before the explosion, that deeper consciousness would not
let him go on. His surface mind was saying: "I hate them. It's
not my responsibility. I want to save myself." But he had to go
back, even though he was afraid to go back. He was right at the
surface, and was free. "I must go back; but if I go back I will
die."
"He pressed the controls halting his ascent. As he started
back down, he saw that his hands were shaking." They were 1,000
feet below and there were only 14 minutes left before death.
It was awful. He got to the bottom. He had to break into the
depth lab. The hatches were all locked. He finally got in. The
warning system kept calling the time, 10 and then 9 minutes till
the explosion. Harry was unconscious; Beth was crazy. He had to
get them into their diving suits, with the minutes ticking away.
He got them out and into the transit submarine against impossible
odds.
He started their ascent. "Attention please," the computer
called out, "one minute 20 seconds till explosion." It would take
2 1/2 minutes to get to the surface. They could be crushed by the
explosion. They reached the 800-foot depth and Harry cried out,
"We'll never make it." "Thirty seconds." "Ten seconds," Harry
continued, "Nine ... eight. Brace yourself." The explosion rocked
them, turned them upside down, then sent them up in a giant
surge. They burst out on the surface. Harry was screaming, "We
did it! We did it!" They were alive.
Norman mused, psychologist that he was, "as consciousness
widened, there was still more unconsciousness beyond. There was
always more, just beyond reach." In his struggle, Norman had
broken beyond selfish consciousness into the infinite
consciousness of the Eternal. And that was where the ultimate
right was. He had tapped it; or it had tapped him. The deep inner
truth had overcome his surface rationalizations, and he was
saved. "He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his
name's sake." He does, he does, if we let him.

But we must listen to that deep inner whisper that denies our
rationalizations.
In a terrible air plane explosion in England a number of years
ago, human bodies were scattered over 15 miles; where was God in
all of this? The hidden face of God is just as much a problem as
the hidden face of evil. What is God doing? God is right in the
middle of this, with the living and with the dying, seeking in
the struggles of life and death to bring his struggling children
through to mature spiritual life, ready for the Eternal. God is
in the suffering of Christ revealing his true self to a suffering
humanity. God is in the struggle for justice in a world not yet
perfected. A Batman Messiah will not swoop in and do it all for
us, while we sleep or pursue our pleasures, uninvolved. The
Christ in us seeks to defeat the evil in us, and thus saves us
and saves the world.
Does he lead us in paths of righteousness? God is in Christ,
invading his world with love sufficient eventually to defeat the
world's evil. God is incarnate in the midst of life's crises and
conflicts. Christ still suffers on the cross that continues to be
built by man's evil, and in his suffering breaks the back of that
evil, and slowly is bringing humanity to sanity and to love. God
is continually in Christ breaking the power of the crucifixion by
the power of the resurrection. In the process of life, the hidden
face of God is revealed in the final victory of love, and through
the struggles of our own sweat and blood and tears.
This is the secret: "Christ in you," the hope of victory over
the evil of the world. The hope of the new age. Christ in you
wrestling with drugs, with home problems, with youth problems,
with corporate problems, with world problems -- working constantly
at the problems of our world. This is the moving power changing
and transforming us. Christ in you, saving the world. No evil can
stand against Christ alive in humanity. Christ made alive in us,
this is our potential -- "The Grace of God that taketh away the
sins of the world." He promises to lead us in "paths of
righteousness."

With all this in mind we dare to look at America at this
moment of history. At some time in the future, historians may
look back and say: "America fell out of her own excesses." They
were a great nation of ideals zapped into oblivion by permissive
immorality. They forgot the basic values that must be transmitted
to children as the source of their future strength and vitality.
Before her fall, a large percent of her population indulged, in
an orgy of self-pampering, overdosing, loafing, sponging,
splurging, cheating, playing fast and loose with corporate money,
shoplifting, looting, philandering, disregard of marital ties and
parential responsibilities, and even murder. There were child
prostitutes, spouse-swapping, youth addicted to sex-exciting
movies and television scenes, millions of alcoholics, drug
addicts everywhere, vice displayed openly on the streets and no
remorse shown. They were no longer willing to work. They were
content with sub-standard workmanship until other nations took
over the world market. They were content to live on borrowed
money and had not the character to face it and begin paying back
their mounting deficit. Their members of congress were taking
bribes and putting friends on the public payroll. Their schools
and universities had abandoned the responsibility for the moral
development of their students. The military industrial complex
was bleeding their economy to death. Sex was for sale everywhere;
it was a part of business promotion. Their media was glorifying
all of this and promoting it.
The historians may say, "For 300 years America was a miracle
to all the world ... but they squandered their heritage. It's a
wonder they survived as long as they did."
As we look at ourselves in the Hall of Mirrors, we arenot
surprised to see this description of New York written by Bryon
Rufus Newton and copied in The Saturday Review:

Vulgar of manner, overfed,
overdressed and underbred:
Heartless, Godless, Hell's delight;
Rude by day and lewd by night;

Bedwarfed the man, o'ergrown the brute,
Ruled by ($) and prostitute;
Purple-robed and pauper-clad,
Raving, rotting, money-mad;
A squirming herd in mammon's mesh,
A wilderness of human flesh;
Crazed with avarice, lust and rum,
New York, thy name's delirium.

The little Christian church in Corinth found itself crushed by
a similar pagan environment. Paul, writing to them with the
insight of the Holy Spirit, warned them: "I could not speak to
you as spiritual, but as physical, even as unto babes in Christ
(1 Corinthians 3:1)." Perhaps we in the church today are just
physical, not spiritual. We do not speak and act as spiritually
empowered persons; we are just stumbling physical persons. A
Christian is to be given spiritual awareness, spiritual power. As
spiritual persons we can be sustained in righteousness and be an
example and an encouragement to the community around us. Only
then are we "light" and "yeast" for the saving of the world in
our time. And now we become effective agents of love and
righteousness in the life of a dying world. Paul encourages us:
"We are laborers together with God: you are God's handiwork, you
are God's building (1 Corinthians 3:9)." The spiritual is the
ultimate truth; the physical, alone, just won't cut it.
Before it's too late, could we repent and cry out, "out of the
depths have we cried unto thee, O God." There is still a chance.
History has not closed the door, yet. All through the scriptures
there is the promise: "I will lead you out of captivity." "I will
save you." "I will restore you in righteousness." "I will yet
lead you in paths of righteousness for my name's sake," sayeth
our God.
It has been quaintly said: "Satan might come into your back
yard. But you don't have to put an umbrella over him; fan him,
feed him and serve him ice cold lemonade." Too many of us are
giving in, little by little until we are supporting evil.

But the power that lifts us up is greater than the power that
drags us down. There are still millions of good people in
America. There is a strong remnant. And God brought that remnant
back to Jerusalem again and again.
But that was when they repented, prayed and followed.
Paul directs us: "Don't let the world squeeze you into its
mold; but let God remold your mind from within (Romans 12:2)." Be
in the world, but be not of the world. Christians should live in
the world, be a part of it, but not be dominated by it.
Christians are not to be narrow, stiff, self righteous; but
loving, healing, helping. They are to show moral stamina,
character, humility, winsomeness. They are to change the world by
serving the world." For God has called us out of darkness into
his marvelous light." I cannot change America; but I can let God
change me; and that will help change America.
Many families are now at the crossroads; which way will it be?
Will we take the shortcuts, or the real highway to the city of
God? We belong either to the evil forces at work in our country,
or we belong to Christ.
Let us do our own thinking. Don't yield to unchristian
standards. Don't let the boss or business pressures force us to
give in to unchristian practices. We can become a part of an
oasis of love and high moral living in the midst of a confused,
mixed-up world. We can help arrest the avalanche of national
moral let-down and decay. I will say "no" to the wrong and "yes"
to the right. By the grace of God we can have the courage to
belong to Christ. This is made possible by a Christ-possessed
mind.
We worship God not only at church, but in the home, at work,
and in all life's relations. It takes a genuine break with evil
and a true devotion to the good. We will never get beyond the
valley of the shadows except by the paths of righteousness.
"He leadeth me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake."