The Wayside Pulpit No.89
Casting off all Restraint
As churches of Jesus
Christ, many of us are bringing shame upon the Master because of a modern
tendency to cast off all restraint. It appears in varied forms in different
places, but essentially it betrays the same feature, namely a desire to
break out of traditional moulds, remove ancient boundary markers, and divest
ourselves of things we feel are like strait-jackets. Let me explain.
When I was a small boy in
primary school, back in the late 1930s, I can remember what our exercise books
were like, and whether they were with squared paper for arithmetic, or lined
paper for English, or even plain paper for drawing, on the outside back cover
one always found a copy of the Ten Commandments. Mention this to youngsters
today, and it produces instant amusement or incredulity. But seventy years ago
it was the norm. I'm not saying that everyone kept the 10
commandments, but the fact that authorities deemed it necessary to print them
for all school-children points to a nation-wide reverence for God's standards.
All that changed during the Second World War, and never returned. In the
years since 1945 we have seen in the British nation a gradual whittling away of
laws that were never questioned twenty years before. I do not need to make a
list. It is apparent to all and sundry.
To what shall we liken
God's moral code? Imagine a circular area about 50 yards in
diameter. It is enclosed by fence-panels, and written on each panel is one
of God's laws. Those living in the world (depicted by the enclosure) are aware
of the laws. They are constantly in the sight of everyone (just like the
copybooks I mentioned earlier.) God lives within this enclosure. It is a region
of light, law, and justice. Beyond the enclosure is beyond His character.
In a world of this type, to break one of the laws means jumping over the
fence at that point, and landing in forbidden territory. To do so would be to
violate one's conscience. But anyone looking back at the fence from outside
would find writing there, endorsed on the panel. It would say
"Repent and be saved." The gracious provision of God would draw men
back into the safety region.
This analogy has now
departed altogether. Men have removed the fences, so that sin is no longer
recognised. To talk about sin is more or less obsolete. In fact it is one of
those words that is frowned upon in modern society, because it is
uncomplimentary, rude, and critical. We pride ourselves upon the greater
"freedom" we have to "do our own thing." Without
sin, there is no need of salvation. Without sin, the conscience is dead.
Without sin, Jesus died in vain. The cross was unnecessary. It has no relevance
to modern society.
But this is not the end.
Man has recently started to erect new fences, defending acts of lawlessness,
which sometimes even attract sentences in human courts of "justice"
if violated. God is no longer Judge. Man is in charge of everything. In these
days, to criticise sexual deviants, to abhor the act of abortion, and to
defend the "right" of a child never to be disciplined, are heinous
crimes in the eyes of many. We have cast off all restraint. Why
therefore do the churches still look for the rise of an Antichrist in the
future, as though "the man of lawlessness" is not recognised in all
his lawless behaviour? Daniel told us that the "little horn" would
cast truth to the ground. He would do it effectively and succeed. In the Book
of Revelation, John was told that the Antichrist would have the power to
overcome the saints of God for a season. Hasn't he been doing it with
increasing power and success in the last half century?
There is a blindness
pervading the churches. They are not able to see the evidence before their
eyes. I have before me a document downloaded from the Internet, written by a
former President of a certain denomination in the
Charismatics have often
asserted that Christ nailed the Law to the cross, so that it doesn't apply any
longer. They have divested themselves of the straitjacket. They often treat the
Law as somewhat of a joke. We have heard this on tape, and shook our heads
in despair. In 1919 Rudyard Kipling wrote a poem entitled "The Gods
of the Copybook Headings." His lines showed him to be something of a
prophet. The tenth and last stanza runs as follows -
"And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world
begins
When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,
As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn,
The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!"
[For a previous treatment
of this subject, see "The Fence Breakers", Prophetic Telegraph No.
15, May 1987.]