Date: 22nd April 2007 (Sunday AM) Ref: A0306

Place: Kambah P.S.

Title: None Dare Call it Evil

Text: & 2 Timothy 3:1-5

Illust: Last Monday, tragedy struck the campus of Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia. A lone gunman Cho Seung-Hui went on two separate shooting rampages at the university. After killing two students in a dormitory, he later entered an academic building and chained shut the front doors. Then he proceeded to walk through the second floor, and with two pistols shot and killed another 30 students and instructors. Before he could be stopped by the police, he shot himself. – At times like this everyone asks the question; how does this happen or more importantly why does this happen?

I. Sick? No Evil!

A. Dodging Responsibility

i. We live in a culture/ society that want to classify every form of aberrant behaviour as a mental illness. – Something in their past, some way they could have been counselled, maybe they were picked on. ~ Maybe they were, but what this breeds is a society refusing to accept the responsibility for their own actions.

ii. It’s not my fault, I was mentally ill, I was on medication, I was drunk, I was stressed. My dad & mum are to blame. It’s my culture, I was just doing what my friends were doing

A JUDGE has saved the political career of a suburban councillor after overturning a conviction against him for criminal damage. ~ Banyule councillor Dean Sherriff, 34, appealed his sentence for assault, careless driving and criminal damage charges in the County Court. He also sought to be punished without conviction. The charges relate to an incident in which Cr Sherriff chased his victim, ran up the back of his car and then smashed his windscreen at Epping on October 18, 2004. The attack happened in front of the victim's sons, aged 1 and 4. ~ The County Court heard that at the time of the offences, Cr Sherriff was suffering extreme paranoia brought on by strong medication. [1]

He chased another driver, rammed the back of his car, jumped out & smashed his windscreen & it’s not his fault, it’s his medication!

iii. Every possible excuse to avoid accepting personal responsibility. People have even started to psychoanalyse Cho Seung-Hui. Indeed they had been for a number of years.

The background check conducted by the owner of Roanoke Firearms revealed nothing of Cho's deviant displays over the past two years, because the authorities Cho brushed up against kept it that way. Stalking two students, taking pictures of women under desks, terrorizing his teachers, setting a fire in a dorm room – all met with laissez faire and leniency from police.

Cho had passed through the university disciplinary system, but that, too, resulted in counseling recommendations rather than consequences. Cho was not even considered a suspect in earlier bomb threats the university received, and for which, it transpired, he was responsible. Police and campus authorities responded to Cho's stalking, pyromania and voyeurism by medicalizing his misbehavior. As the nation's pseudo-experts generally advise, Cho was referred to a mental health facility[2]

In the Bible Saul is the classic case of this human tendency. He is charged by God with destroying the Amalekites which he fails to do. Samuel comes to him with a word of rebuke:

1 Samuel 15:19 Why haven’t you obeyed the Lord? Why did you rush for the plunder and do what was evil in the Lord’s sight?” (NLT)

Saul’s response is typical of our generation

1 Samuel 15:20-21 20 And Saul said to Samuel, “But I have obeyed the voice of the Lord, and gone on the mission on which the Lord sent me, and brought back Agag king of Amalek; I have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. 21 But the people took of the plunder, sheep and oxen, the best of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal.” (NKJV)

It’s the peoples fault. – I am not responsible

B. Nope Evil

i. Ok this may be the standard response of people in our culture but what is God’s view? How does God view the actions of people like Cho, like Cr Sherriff, like Saul, like you?

1 Samuel 15:11 “I greatly regret that I have set up Saul as king, for he has turned back from following Me, and has not performed My commandments.” (NKJV)

ii. Truth is that actions are evil, people are evil. Noun 1. The quality of being morally bad or wrong; wickedness. ~ I know this goes against the grain of how our society wants to work & this may be confronting to some of you but sometimes we need a good dose of reality.

Enter the tele-experts. Understandably self-serving, they work to place bad behavior beyond the strictures of traditional morality, making it amenable to their "therapeutic" interventions. .... To listen to the nation's psychiatric gurus is to come to believe that crimes are caused, not committed. Perpetrators don't do the crime, but are driven to their dastardly deeds by a confluence of uncontrollable factors, victims of societal forces or organic brain disease. [3]

iii. The Bible says:

Proverbs 12:20 Deceit is in the heart of those who devise evil, (NKJV)

Proverbs 21:10 The soul of the wicked desires evil; (NKJV)

iv. Note the characteristics of evil/wickedness – It is devised (planned) desired (pursued) involves deceit, lying. ~ Lets look even a bit deeper & Proverbs 2:10:15

Speaks perverse things

I can not even nor do I want to repeat the words to most of the billboard top 100 rap songs but just recently:

The No. 1 rap track is by a new sensation who goes by the name of "Mims." The "song" is "This Is Why I'm Hot." It has topped the charts for the last 15 weeks. Here's a taste of the lyrics that young men and women are cranking up in their cars: This is why I'm hot Catch me on the block Every other day Another <deleted> another drop 16 bars, 24 pop 44 songs, nigga gimme what you got . . .. . . We into big spinners See my pimping never dragged Find me wit' different women that you niggas never had[4]

And that is mild – Our society is a culture that speaks perverse things and calls it art – No! God calls it evil / wickedness.

Walk in ways of darkness

The Eagles have been rocked in the past month by Ben Cousins' battle with drug addiction, Daniel Kerr being caught on police tapes in a drug sting, Michael Braun swearing while accepting an award and Adam Selwood's appearance at the tribunal for sledging.

An elite private school which charges up to $20,000 a year in fees, waited two days to call police after a student was allegedly stabbed by another while waiting for a school bus. A Haileybury College year 10 student had to get eight stitches and spent two days in hospital after being stabbed by another Haileybury student with a large knife.

Movies are increasingly violent, perverse, & grossly sexually immoral – God calls it evil

Rejoice in doing evil

God calls homosexuality evil. Yet we have every year parades, the biggest being Mardi Gras – “The Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras has grown from a local gay pride event to being arguably the most spectacular gay and lesbian event in the world

A senior government adviser has called for the closure of 24-hour pubs, saying it is contributing to the violence associated with young people's abuse of alcohol. - NSW crime figures released on Wednesday showed huge increases in the incidence of alcohol-fuelled violence among young men over the last 10 years. NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research director, Don Weatherburn, said the rise in violence was caused by domestic assaults and fights between "tanked up" males outside late-trading pubs.

We’re out partying and having a good time, sure we might drink a little bit too much, sleep around a little – but we’re all just having fun! – Not hurting anybody! – God calls it evil

Delight in the perverse

During a concert in Trinidad, Rapper Akon managed to get seven girls onstage, and to compete they had to dance like whores. ...The crowd roared their approval of the eventual winner. Akon then proceeded to have his way with the petite young lady: turning, twisting and even flipping her body, while mimicking sexual positions and acts all over the stage – The girl it turns out was 14 y.o.

Saturday September 29th is the night of this years Sleaze Ball; the perfect way to celebrate the end of winter. Anything goes as long as it is sleazy. – We delight in the peverse – Coca Cola, Virgin Blue, Fosters, Ikea, Wrigley Chewing Gum

Celebrate diversity. - God calls it evil.

II. Call it Sin

A. Not Culturally Acceptable

i. I know it’s not culturally acceptable to call something evil when it is:

A 15-YEAR-OLD boy has admitted bashing and assaulting an 83-year-old grandmother - even as she prayed to God. The terrified woman was so convinced she was going to die in the vicious attack on August 23 last year she prayed: "Lord God, into your hands I command my spirit", the Supreme Court heard yesterday.

The boy's barrister, Gerard Mullaly, said his client was "overwhelmingly immature" and "unable to control his impulses".

Immature???? – No he is evil / wicked.

ii. This is what our society has come to, we rejoice in what God calls evil & then when people act as they have been conditioned instinctively we react with horror & perplexity and then try & explain it away as immaturity, sickness or some other factor’s responsible.

iii. A society that rejects the commandments of God as being true & righteous and believe that they create their own morality

Isaiah 1:4 Alas, sinful nation, A people laden with iniquity, A brood of evildoers, Children who are corrupters! They have forsaken the Lord, They have provoked to anger The Holy One of Israel, They have turned away backward.

A few comments typical of the view many have for the commandments of God.

We don’t see the point in seeking solace in a concept, god, that is just not there. what kind of solace is self-delusion?

Those of us that are enlightened enough to know that there is no mystical place where we all hold hands and sing with our dead relatives while Jesus plays a harp after we die, understand that life is an incredible wondrous and temporary thing.

If praying to a mythical god makes you feel better after a tragedy then rock on, but don’t presume that your belief in fantastical, supernatural beings somehow gives you moral superiority.

B. Sin is Sin

i. Let’s call it what it is – Sin.

1 Samuel 19:1 Now Saul spoke to Jonathan his son and to all his servants, that they should kill David; (NKJV)

1 Samuel 19:4 Thus Jonathan spoke well of David to Saul his father, and said to him, “Let not the king sin against his servant, against David, (NKJV)

ii. Saul wanted to kill David, today he would be diagnosed with a mental illness and be able to put forward a defence of temporary insanity & stress to escape responsibility for his actions. – Saul’s son Jonathan doesn’t get it wrong he calls it as it is – Sin!

Proverbs 5:22 His own iniquities entrap the wicked man, And he is caught in the cords of his sin. (NKJV)

iii. Sin has consequences. There is no escaping these.

1 Corinthians 6:9 Don’t you realize that those who do wrong will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Don’t fool yourselves. Those who indulge in sexual sin, or who worship idols, or commit adultery, or are male prostitutes, or practice homosexuality, (NLT)

Don’t read here any exceptions, except if your teachers were mean to you, or you were stressed or you were just doing what your friends, the music culture says. Your medication

III. Last Days

A. Perilous Times

i. In our text & vs.1 – a clear indication of the last days is that it will be perilous times. This word perilous means:

Harsh, savage, difficult, dangerous, painful, fierce, grievous, hard to deal with. The word describes a society that is barren of virtue but abounding with vices.

ii. Sound familiar. These are the times we live in.

In America a school student has been suspended and more disciplinary action could follow a possible hate crime ... On April 11, a white student placed a ham steak in a bag on a lunch table where Somali students were eating. Muslims consider pork unclean and offensive.

Two members of Gideons International in Florida were arrested, charged with trespassing, and booked into jail after the school principal called police while the two men were distributing copies of the Bible on a public sidewalk earlier this year.

iii. Perilous times indeed; a sign of the end times. There is a war on Christians & Christianity while other minorities and special interest groups are protected and indeed receive preferential treatment.

B. The Daily News

i. What we have in our text is a summary of the daily news, a clear concise overview of our present society: & vs. 2-5 ~ brutality, disobedient to parents, unholy, unforgiving, no self control. A love for hedonistic pleasure.

ii. This general corruption is tragically not just in the world but also sadly the church & vs. 5

South Melbourne priest Bob Maguire says church leaders across Australia can pray for rain "until they go black in the face" but it won't solve the water crisis

iii. It is important we do not become conned by our society to believe that what the world says is gospel. Whether that be popular culture, psychiatry, politicians or any other person. – We need to line up with what God says. It is only when we will face up to the reality of sin that we are in a place to accept the only answer. – Repentance.

iv. Little repentance today because there is little understanding of personal responsibility for sin. On judgement day there will be no excuses

Luke 13:27 But He will say, ‘I tell you I do not know you, where you are from. Depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity.’ (NKJV)