Yielding is a good thing – most of the time. When you yield at a stop sign, when you yield while merging on the highway and when you yield to the Lord. The problem comes in when we start yielding to the pressures of the secular society surrounding us, and just so we are clear, our country has become a secular society regardless of what percentage “identify” as Christians. I think it will also help to distinguish between political pressures and moral ones. A lot of the political agendas out there are largely issues of preference, culture and changing tradition. For example the gun debate; there are many sides, persuasive points, social aspects, legal approaches and constitutional rights at play. But there is no clear biblical position on this issue other than the instruction to obey the laws once in place as long as they do not violate God’s laws. On the other side are moral issues, many of which have been inserted into the political arena, such as chastity, divorce, homosexuality, gender questions, abortion, gay marriage, pedophilia, pornography and the list goes on.
The church is being challenged to find that balance between yielding to God and trying to find that place of compromise with the rapidly changing society around us. Probably one of the first things to find some room for “compassion” was in the area of divorce. Yes, of course, there are scripturally legitimate reasons for divorce and I am not speaking about those. But somewhat like the rape/incest/life of the mother reasons for abortion (not biblical reasons by the way), the biblical allowances for divorce represent only a small percentage of divorces today. But in general, whereas divorce, any divorce, once garnered a societal negative stigma, we now have special Sunday school classes for those who have experienced divorce. Of course that, in and of itself, is not a bad thing. The sad thing is that these classes are often full to the brim of the hurting and wounded. And lest we forget, the reason God stopped listening to the petitions of the people in Malachi 2 was because of the high divorce rate. And this is where I, unfortunately, will likely lose many of you, whether divorce, chastity, homosexuality, abortion, pedophilia and all other biblically listed moral/sin issues, they are a package deal, bound together at their core and that core is yielding to the desires of the flesh. And it doesn’t matter which one raises its ugly head above the surface in a given situation, be assured ALL the rest of these abominations are hovering just below the surface exactly like the bulk of the iceberg hidden out of sight but one can be assured that it is there none the less. This is why scripture says “Whoever breaks one commandment is guilty of breaking them all” James 2:10
The journey down the sexually immoral “rabbit hole” is one single ever widening road with many on ramps and inter woven loops eventually encompassing any and all possible deviant concoctions. Fortunately there are also many off ramps as well for those who recognize their sin, repent and yield their hearts back to the narrow and hard to find pathway that leads to God. I, for one, still have to resist the temptation to get back on the pornography on ramp having exited it some years back. You see, I know where it can lead and there is nothing good or eternal down that road as it grows ever wider and wider to include more and more options. And so it is with the package deal. No, it is not clear how everything is connected at first and you may think you are just biding your time on your little corner of the ice. But hiding just beneath the surface of your particular “poison” are ever increasing and lethal traps from our enemy reaching up to grab you.
And just to be clear, the super highway of immorality is already flowing at breakneck speeds with some aspects already out in the public eye and others still very well hidden from view. Hollywood, proponents of progressive “right side of history” thought and “compassion/inclusion” advocates are systematically baby spoon feeding the church small morsels of compromise in areas in which we are expected to yield to social pressures so as not to be seen as narrow, rigid, uncompassionate and “old fashion”. Recently Lauren Daigle refused to identify homosexuality as a sin when asked point blank, saying “You know, I can’t honestly answer on that” adding that she has “too many people that I love” that “are homosexuals”. But the truth is the same today as it was in Hosea’s day (8:7) “When they sow the wind, they will reap a storm!” It is inescapable that when you grab any part of the tiger, you get the whole tiger. For example, we were once told that abortions would only be necessary, safe and rare. And now, with a newly proposed bill in Virginia, you can decide, POST LIVE BIRTH, if you want to allow your baby to live according to an interview with the VA governor,
Here is one of the authors talking about the bill. Be sure to notice it is even hard for her to bring herself to actually admit that abortion would be allowed till the very end.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0kC1B__CJ4
Fortunately, due to huge backlash from the governor’s interview the bill was defeated yesterday in subcommittee in a 5-3 vote. Woe to those 3.
So you want sex outside of marriage or homosexuality? You WILL get pedophiles and the decriminalization of sex with children in the deal. You want feel good marriages with the option of no fault divorce? You WILL get affairs, pornography and all “shades” of deviance. You want to embrace same sex marriages? Every kind of gender confusion and corruption to include pre-pubescent boys being allowed to perform in gay sex clubs comes in the package (that has happened already FYI). You think “a little” pornography is OK? Porn is never static; it always spirals down into the ever increasing dark reaches of a hell which can never be satisfied. When you choose to compromise even the slightest of God’s moral decrees you cannot escape the harm, descent and consequences from breaking those laws anymore than you can defy the law of gravity. God commanded these laws, not to rob our fun, but to ensure the greatest joy within the boundaries of His moral laws.
We are certainly not supposed to sound off with arrogance, pride or an “in your face” manner our uncompromising standards, but our standards must nevertheless be just that, uncompromising, unmovable and scripturally based, God ordered standards from which we must not be moved. Will we be hated and ostracized for that? Yes, of course we will! But then that should come as no shock to those who read scripture as it clearly indicates that if we are not being loathed by the world then we must be doing something wrong.
The moral fiber of our country has been completely compromised and has crumbled to the ground. We live as God’s ambassadors and servants in a foreign and heathen land. Our job as God’s people is to dig through the rubble in search of those who would repent, be saved and join you on that narrow road that leads to life keeping in mind the sad truth of scripture that only a few will find that lightly traveled road. Matt. 7:14
“Gradually, though no one remembers how it happened, the unthinkable becomes tolerable, and then acceptable, and then legal and then applaudable!” – Joni Eareckson Tada
“If you believe what you like in the Gospel, and reject what you don’t like, it’s not the Gospel you believe, but yourself” – Saint Augustine
whosesideareyouonanyway - milton odom 