It was not just a coincidence that I first presented this sermon, which is entitled "Show Me," in the "Show Me" state of Missouri . "Show Me" is not a bad motto for those of us who live in these days just before the coming of Jesus. I know you may be wondering, "But Pastor O'Ffill, we are supposed to live by faith and not by sight. How can you say that 'show me' is the way we should be living?"

To explain, I don't mean to infer that we should live according to what we see, hear, and feel, or, in other words, by our five senses. When I say "show me," I don't mean that. What I mean is just the opposite--that the time has come in which we must reject what we see, hear, and feel, and put our full confidence in the Word of God. A person who is not using the Scriptures as the one and only operating manual as the third millennium begins could very well be a candidate to buy the Brooklyn Bridge .

In the Bible we read the stories of what happened when people chose to ignore a "thus saith the Lord" and decided they would let the popular culture dictate what was right and wrong. There is a way of expressing that thought these days, and that is, "Do what is politically correct." I suppose you could say it several other ways--"Go with the flow," yield to "peer pressure," or even be "contemporary."

The Bible is also the story of those who chose to reject the world and its sinful ways and to not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Of course, Jesus was the role model for this kind of worldview. Through the ages there have been many others who loved not their lives unto death. I say, "loved not their lives unto death" because those who follow the Word historically have not done well in this world's culture. Listen to this:

Hebrews 11:36-39, "And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; (Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth."

Since that text was written it has been estimated that at least 50 million people were killed during the Dark Ages. The reason was that they refused to accept the culture of the time, which during those years was dominated by the Papacy. They lost their lives for such insignificant things as insisting on being baptized by immersion, refusing to confess their sins to the local priest, or even for possession of a copy of the Bible, which was forbidden for the common man.

Most of us have had it good as far as having the freedom of worship is concerned. Maybe we have even had it too good. Something that doesn't cost anything is not worth anything. I visited a site in Peru where ten thousand people lost their lives up to the year 1810. I saw the room where their mock trials were conducted. In one of the rooms there is a small statue of Jesus which has a movable head. When the authorities would ask the statue if the accused was guilty, someone from behind the curtain would make the head of Jesus nod up and down to signify, "Yes."

When the person had been found guilty by the image of Jesus, they were taken downstairs to be tortured. Everything is still there just like in the old days. There is the garret where they were choked to death. There is the place where their feet where burned. There is a machine where they were stretched to pull their bones out of joint, and then there is the pit where they were thrown live to die over the rotten bodies of others who had been thrown in before. The pit still has bones in it.

Some years ago I was traveling in Ethiopia and met some young adults who had spent two years in prison because they refused to teach adult literacy classes on the Sabbath. They were tortured, hung up by their wrists, and covered with vermin (bugs and rats) all because they remembered the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Speaking of honoring the Sabbath, while I was there they told me of a young man who was awarded a scholarship in Europe . The free airline ticket called for him to travel on Sabbath. He remembered the Sabbath day to keep it holy and turned down the trip.

I just threw in this reference to persecution for honoring the Sabbath because these days there is a movement in some places among those who claim to be Sabbath-keepers to downgrade the Sabbath. You will recognize the phenomena. It doesn't suppose to do away with the Sabbath; rather it moves forward under the smokescreen of "doing good" on the Sabbath.

When you hear someone say that we ought to do "good" on the Sabbath, ask them what they mean. If they say it means that we should build houses for Habitat for Humanity or mow a little old lady's lawn on the Sabbath, then remember what I am saying. We must not forget that, although Jesus said that it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath, He Himself had already set the parameters for what was good to do on the Sabbath when He gave the instructions for Sabbath-keeping as they are recorded in the Old Testament. I fear that if current trends continue, the sanctity of the Sabbath is at risk among those who profess to keep it holy.

What does all of this have to do with "show me?" Only this--that those who profess to be the people of God have always (and there is no exception to the word always) fallen away from the faith when they have tried to blend into the woodwork of the local culture.

As you may have noted, there are two cultures on this planet. One is the culture that springs out of compliance to the Word of God, and the other is the culture which is native to the world and its sinful ways. The dominant culture, the majority culture, the politically correct culture, is the one that has to do with the world and its sinful ways. The other culture the Bible calls the "way that leads unto eternal life," and it describes it as narrow, and worse still, it says that the majority would not find it.

Let me ask you -- please show me from Scripture where the people of God at any time in this world's history have been called by God to follow the culture of this world. Show me from Scripture where the people of God at any time in the history of this world have been given a green light to try to acculturate the gospel or to present the gospel in the setting of contemporary culture.

On the contrary, Scripture tells the story of the struggle of truth against error. Of course, it also gives specific cases where, without margin for error, there was an attempt to mix truth with error. In every case when this was attempted, the truth lost out.

I have come to the conclusion that truth is more vulnerable than error. I used to wonder why a Hindu temple could be constructed in a Christian country and still be 100% Hindu, or a Muslim mosque or a Buddhist temple could be constructed in this country and still maintain the integrity of their own doctrines. And then I was not able to understand how a Christian church established in a pagan country could easily become contaminated with the ideologies of the local cultures.

I understand now how this happens. This occurs because truth is pure and error is impure. This means that the impure cannot be contaminated because it is already contaminated, while truth, which is pure, is vulnerable to contamination.

And so when truth and error are mixed, error wins. This is because truth cannot commingle with error and maintain its purity. Listen to this text in 2 Corinthians 6:14: "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?" Ephesians 5:11 says, "And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them."

Although there may be truth in error, when truth is mixed with error it becomes an enemy of itself because it tends to lend credibility to error.

I am afraid that we are making a life and death mistake when we conclude that somehow our culture has nothing to do with truth and error, light and darkness, good and evil. Our culture is the way we live, and the way we live definitely has to do with truth and error, light and darkness, good and evil. Let us wake up before it is too late, and understand that our culture is in reality the way that truth and error, light and darkness, and good and evil are played out in the lives of people.

Hitler wrote Mein Kampf, and World War II played it out. The writings of Mao were played out in the death of at least 50 million people. No, culture is never neutral. It is either pure or impure, right or wrong, good or evil. We seem to have forgotten what is written in Ecclesiastes 12:14, "For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil." Our culture is the way we live, and the text is clear that everything we do is subject to the judgment of the Almighty.

There is a mindset these days that declares Christians have been guilty of preaching our culture and not the gospel. It is being said that when we go overseas, we have carried our culture and imposed it upon the people as if it were the gospel. I don't know if you have ever had the occasion to live overseas. I have lived in South Asia and in South America and have traveled in most of the major culture areas with the exception of the South Pacific Islands . The impression is that when the missionaries found a people group naked and living in caves, they should have simply preached the gospel to them. Whether or not the people accepted the gospel, they could continue to live naked in caves.

Speaking of living naked, we seem to have forgotten that the first result of sin was that the human race became naked, and the first act of restoration performed by God Himself was to make clothes for them. (Have you noticed that this generation seems to be determined on trying to take its clothes off?)

You may call it what you want, but I don't feel badly that the gospel brings along with it sanitation and clean drinking water. I don't feel badly that the preaching of the gospel has taught the people to read. I don't feel badly that the gospel outlawed the practice of suti in India , where the widow was expected to throw herself on the flaming bier of her deceased husband. If some want to believe that this is imposing our culture on others, so be it. But we need to understand that we have been privileged until recently to live in a Judeo-Christian culture, and it would not be unreasonable to expect that the lifestyle the Christian missionary brought would clash with the local culture, including filthy or immoral lifestyles, if that were the case.

I was visiting at the site of Fernando Stahl's first mission station in the Altiplano of Bolivia. There the government has erected a statue in his honor, because through his Christian work among the local people there resulted significant land reforms. I am not suggesting a liberation gospel. I am only saying that where the gospel goes, people have been liberated. (I also realize that there are perversions of the gospel that do just the opposite.)

Of course, there are some who insist that Christian missionaries impose their culture when people who once sat on the floor now sit in chairs. I really don't understand this. I have been in churches in South Asia where the people continue to sit on the floor -- the women on one side and the men on the other, the shoes at the door. Christianity has not taken that away. If you visit in the homes of the people, you will find that whether or not a person sits on a chair or on the floor may not have so much to do with the culture as with the pocketbook.

If the truth be known, much of the way that we live has to do with how much money we have. I came to this conclusion when I lived and traveled overseas that, if I had as little money as most people in the world have, I would probably live the way they live. People who ride on donkeys and live in grass houses tend to upgrade as they are able, to bicycles and then to motor bikes, and the grass house gives way to a brick house. A person can call that Western culture if they like, but I don't think it is necessarily so.

When we talk about culture, there is the matter of eating. I am sure you are aware that there is no cooking as good as mother's cooking. There are cultures that eat with their fingers. Others eat with chopsticks. Still others use chapatti bread to lift the food to their mouths. And then there is the group that uses spoons and forks. All of these are cultural differences.

No matter your cultural method of eating, there are principles of eating that the gospel brings to all cultures. One is that the gospel teaches certain principles of health and cleanliness, and the other is that the gospel teaches what is fit to eat and what is unclean according to the Scriptures. The eating of blood is forbidden in Scripture, and of course this will impact the Masi custom of slitting the throat of their cows and drinking a mixture of blood and milk.

I do not feel that we are westernizing the Masi in East Africa in removing that cultural habit. It is simply bringing the Word of God to them, and when that happens the culture that was pre-Jesus will disappear.

In certain parts of the world the women go topless. The gospel changes that. Of course, there are cultures where one tribe raids the other and steals their women for wives. The gospel changes that, too.

We need to be aware that sin is a culture. There is the Mafia; it is a subculture. There are the pimps and prostitutes; they are a subculture, to say nothing of the world of the drug traffickers. These are all cultures or subcultures, because culture is the way that we live. Our homes are little cultures. Each family has its own unique culture, its own way of life and special way of doing things. What is permitted in a family and what is prohibited is its culture.

I repeat, the culture of a people is the way they live, and the way they live is essentially their worldview. The religion of a community and its families is essentially the base on which their culture is built. You may ask, "What about a community that has no religion?" There is no such place, because even a society of atheists has its dogma or value system which is, in fact, its view of the basic rules for human behavior, which in turn becomes its religion. A religion is, after all, simply the sum of what a person or a society values most.

I am therefore baffled that someone might say that we should preach the gospel without preaching our culture, because nothing will impact the culture as will the gospel. The converse of that is also true -- that the gospel can actually be overthrown by the culture. This is why we can appreciate the whole matter best when we understand that we were born into and exist in a great controversy -- a controversy that at its core is a war between Christ and Satan. This war plays itself out around us and among us as a struggle between the ideologies and forces of good and evil, right and wrong, the sacred and the profane, the pure against the impure, the moral against the immoral.

Someone may say, "But that is only as you see it. What is essentially right and wrong is a matter of personal opinion." I can see how a person would say that, especially if they were the first person who had ever existed. But that is not the case. We are not the first family or society of families that has existed. The human race was up and running long before the stork brought us.

Inasmuch as we are only recently arrived on the scene, we must not be so arrogant as to assume that history began the day we were born, or that we invented from scratch our lives as we know them. The Scripture says there is nothing new under the sun. We don't actually create; there is only one Creator. We do have the power, though, to modify that which is already here, and this is because when God created man and woman He gave them dominion -- that means the ability to manage and modify what was already here.

But we must understand that the earth was here before we arrived, and we must recognize that we do not so much create as we do discover; we do not so much make history as we repeat it. The wise man has written that there is nothing new under the sun.

Inasmuch as the world was here before we got here, we do not have the option to decide who will be the captains of the teams. That, too, was decided before we got here. We do get to decide, however, which side we will be on. But inasmuch as this game was being played before we arrived, we will not get to be the ones who decide what the rules of the game are.

Strangely, though we did not get to choose the captains or make up the rules, we do get to decide how we will play. Of course, there is a Judge who decides when the game is over and whether or not we played by the rules. This game of life definitely has penalties. Inasmuch as the penalties may not be exercised all at once, the game appears to be one in which it is all right to play however one wishes so long as the majority of the other players let them get away with it.

It is amazing that in our present culture it seems perfectly acceptable to play the game of life any way the majority will permit except God's way. I have a friend who recently was healed of alcohol and drug addition. I know that when I say "healed of alcohol and drug addiction," someone may declare that "once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic." If that is true, then I suppose we would have to call everyone here a liar, because I suspect many of us are guilty of having told a lie.

I don't know why a person who used to be an alcoholic, but doesn't drink anymore, should have to introduce himself as an alcoholic or even a recovering alcoholic. Those of us who have told lies at one time or the other in our lives are not required to introduce ourselves as recovering liars! A person who is not living a homosexual lifestyle need not, and indeed must not, be counted as a part of the constituency of the practicing homosexuals.

Anyway, my friend who has let Jesus Christ set him free was telling me that he is amazed when he goes to AA meetings that no one seems to want to hear what Jesus is doing in his life. You may have heard that in the Twelve Step Program admitting that one's life is out of control and that only a higher power can deliver them from insanity is where it all begins. The only problem is that the higher power is à la Carte. You can have your higher power be anybody or anything--a head of cabbage, if you wish. My friend told me that he is amazed how those who come don't mind his discussing his higher power as long as it is not Jesus.

My friend also told me that he is confounded that many of those who have attended for ten or more years will say that if they miss a meeting they stand a good chance of drinking again. Having heard this, I have come to the conclusion that assigning Buddha or a head of cabbage as their higher power may be able to contain a person's addiction, but only having Jesus as our Higher Power will set us free.

You see, when Jesus healed people when He was here on the earth, He did not send them away with a prescription or in bandages and splints. He set them free. Our Jesus is a full-service Savior; however, He is counterculture. If you have an addiction problem and are also fooling around with someone else's wife, He will not simply treat the addiction. He will insist on treating all the problems. Believe it or not, the gospel of Jesus doesn't contain the practice of sin, it actually cures it.

Our culture is the way we live. We live in a culture that as a whole is in rebellion against the culture of God. There is no possible way that the prevailing culture of this world and the culture that is represented by the gospel of Jesus Christ can be harmonized. Though we may have forgotten, the kingdom of heaven is not built on the foundation of the kingdoms of this world and their respective lifestyles but on their ashes. It may seem a little dramatic, but nonetheless it is true.

We were born into a game that was already in its last innings, and those who are playing by the rules of the Almighty will win. We must not think that what God allows is His will for our lives. This may sound strange, because we like to say that God is in control. We must understand that, while He is in control of the ship, what is going on onboard the ship may have nothing to do with His will; and the fact that He is apparently doing nothing about it should not be interpreted as meaning that what is happening is part of His plan. It was not the plan of God that Lucifer rebelled or the plan of God that man would fall. It is safe to say that what He may permit in your life and mine is not necessarily His will.

We make a serious mistake if we are not clear on this. When we read in the Old Testament about the judgments of God, it gives the impression that whenever a person disobeyed God they were struck by lightening. Therefore, the fact that we are not struck by lightening must mean we are doing the will of God. We seem to have forgotten that the Scriptures are simply highlighting history that occurred over a period of four thousand years. Spectacular judgments, as well as spectacular miracles, were few and far between. Yet when we read the Bible, we get the idea that every time a person displeased God, something immediately happened, or that when Jesus, and subsequently the apostles, were here anyone who got sick was miraculously healed.

This not being the case, we make the mistake of our lives if we think that what is going on in the church must somehow be all right because God doesn't strike us dead or the ground is not opening up to devour us. As we begin the 21st century, we must understand that the church was not to be a subculture of the larger culture but a counterculture, or we might say, an alternative culture. Unfortunately, the church, instead of being a counterculture, is more and more becoming a subculture of the larger culture.

The church was meant to be a place where a person goes to get a new start. The Bible calls it being transformed. Increasingly more and more members of the church are reflecting that they are being less transformed and more conformed to the lifestyles and values of the culture of the world.

Our culture is a reflection of our value system. Our homes, our dress, our diets, our entertainment, our conversation are all demonstrations of our value system. A person who is at least fifty years old can see that in the past two generations there have been dramatic shifts in value systems in this country. In the past we had a Judeo-Christian base for our value system. Unfortunately, at the present this is less and less the case. The church, which was to have the Word of God as its foundation of faith, has largely abandoned the Scriptures in favor of a democratic approach in which the members form a loose confederation which manifests itself as "live and let live."

In the society at large this kind of a culture is not hypocrisy, because a society can set its own rules, which are often the laws of the jungle. Yet in the church there are at once severe conflicts, because the church claims to have an allegiance to God. Theoretically the church is to be the place where man goes to worship God and learn to practice His will in his daily life. Yet in practice the church is becoming like the culture around it. It may not yet be like the world, in which the rule is "I'll scratch my back, and you scratch yours," but the church seems to be saying "now you scratch my back, and if you do it to my satisfaction, I will scratch yours if I have the time."

You may have heard it said another way, "I want a church that meets my needs." It is no surprise we would feel this way, because this is precisely a reflection of the society in which we live. The emphasis of the society here at the new millennium is not exactly new. Human nature has always been selfish, but this society has carried selfishness to its logical conclusion in that it has made selfishness legitimate. It might be said selfishness is now an institution. These days a person who is selfish is relevant and up with the times. A person who thinks in terms of "me, myself and I, ours and us" is open-minded, but a person who uses the Word of God as the standard, seeks first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and lives for the best of others, is often seen as a legalist, judgmental, and a Pharisee.

Can it be shown from the Word of God that the church is supposed to be a place where the members go to have their needs met? But what about the fact that Jesus met people's needs? He indeed healed the sick, but did He ever make anyone rich and famous?

One day a person came to Him and asked His help to settle the matter of an inheritance. Jesus told him to look somewhere else for that kind of help. If we are going to use Jesus as a model of how to meet needs, we must be honest and establish which needs are legitimate and which are not.

The call that prepares a people for the coming of Jesus is a call not to mix it up with the contemporary culture but a call to come out and be separate from it. The issues that face us as Christians in our contemporary culture are not if we should take our hats off when we enter church or leave them on. Neither are the culture issues that face us as Christians concerning whether we worship with our shoes on or leave them at the door. The issues are deep and based on everlasting principles.

What we are going through is not making history; rather we are in truth repeating history. The aspect that makes this so critical is that many professed Christians who in the past lived their lives in a manner inconsistent with the aims and principles of the gospel now feel secure enough about themselves to bring their worldly lifestyle to church.

This may be a natural result. To live a life one way during the week and come to church as someone else is hypocritical. However, to come into the presence of God in the pretext of worshipping Him with blemished sacrifices and strange fire is even worse. We don't need a prophet to tell what is going to happen if we persist in doing it our way. A third grader who has learned to read the story of Cain, who decided he would serve God according to his own cultural standard, could tell you the point to where many of us have come and what the result will be.

The issues facing us in the presentation of the gospel to the world of the 21st century is not whether or not we should eat with chopsticks, or with our fingers, or with a spoon and fork. The gospel of Jesus Christ for this generation has to do with Phillipians 4:8, "Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things."

The issues that face us are laid out in Exodus 20:2-17:

2. "I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt , out of the house of bondage.
3. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
4. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:
5. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Me;
6. And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love Me, and keep My commandments.
7. Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh His name in vain.
8. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
9. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work:
10. But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:
11. For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
12. Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.
13. Thou shalt not kill.
14. Thou shalt not commit adultery.
15. Thou shalt not steal.
16. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
17. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbor's."

Everyone in every culture knows whether or not they are giving the right change or if they are fooling around with someone else's wife. The idea that culture is king or that culture is somehow above or apart from good and evil, right and wrong, is a mistaken idea. God will bring every work into judgment. Every aspect of our lives is either to His glory or it isn't.

The call to the people of every nation and of every language with all their fallen cultures is: Come out of her, My people, love not the world neither the things that are in the world, because if you continue and persist to love the world, the love of the Father will be crowded out and you will at last become an enemy of God.

The call to those in Latin America and in Asia and Africa, the call to those in Europe and in North America is the same, and that is the one found in Colossians 3:2, "Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth."

Our attempt to bring the culture of the world into our lives and into our worship will have eternal consequences. If you wonder what will happen if we do, read the Old Testament. The continual apostasy of the nation of Israel and the final disbanding of the ten tribes is a direct result of their trying to contemporize their religious faith and make it relevant. The history of what is called the Dark Ages is what happens when the gospel and the popular culture get together. The papacy was, after all, just a continuation of the pagan Roman Empire . In other words, when the early church contemporized the gospel and mixed it with the local culture, the result was the Dark Ages.

It is being inferred that the culture in which we live is above the judgment of Almighty God. I am not from Missouri , but like the people of Missouri , I say "show me." Show me from the Word of God that we can live as we see fit or worship as we see fit or as the culture dictates. Show me. To the contrary, culture is not the test of what is right and wrong. The Word of God is the test. It is to be a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path as darkness covers the earth and gross darkness the people.

Friends, we have come to the time in which we must put our full trust and confidence in a "Thus saith the Lord." 2 Timothy 3:16 declares, "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness." That means the Word of God must be the yardstick by which the culture is measured, and we must resist the trend to test the Word of God by what the culture says.

There exists a phenomena that makes it difficult to accept the Scripture as authoritative in the context of modern life, particularly in this country, and that is, we live in a republican form of government which is more and more taking on the characteristics of a pure democracy. In a republican form of government the people elect leaders who then establish the laws and are accountable to administer them. In ancient Greece , the people themselves in effect administered the government. It was not so much a rule of law as a rule of the people.

We have long prided ourselves that we are a people of law. This law, although it could be changed, was not subject to being changed on a case-by-case basis. Though we are still governed by a rule of laws, there are two things that are impacting our government. One is that we are now spending more time debating the procedure of law than the law itself, and at the same time we are interpreting the law according to what is termed "political correctness." The proliferation of polls and surveys are impacting on government as we have known it. By going directly to the people to govern us, we may one day find ourselves not a nation of law but of the whim of the people.

I mention this because this same mentality has now crept into our religious life. There was a time in which the Bible was our spiritual rule of law. Those times are now changing. We are more and more seeing the Bible as something that must be interpreted and re-interpreted in the light of time and culture. There was a time in which the Scriptures were seen as that which transcended time and was for all time. They were seen as applying to all cultures in all times. It would seem that for an increasing number this is no longer the case. Where in other times we would test the culture by the Word, we now find that there are those who would test the Word by the culture.

There is talk of calling in the United States a Constitutional Convention in which the Constitution of our land would be unsealed and subjected to change. To do that in the politically charged, agendized culture of our time would very likely result in emasculating the document which has been one of a kind in the history of this planet.

God graciously gave us His Word. He had no agenda in doing so other than to save us. His kingdom is not at risk, inasmuch as He is the I AM and His kingdom is from everlasting to everlasting. His Word was to be a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. It was to be the beacon that would guide us through the storms that would rage in the last days. And now what? It is being attacked by many of the very ones that it was intended to save.

I visited a patient in the hospital one day who had had a stroke, and oxygen was being administered as well as a feeding tube in his nose. The nurses found it necessary to restrain his arms; otherwise he would remove the very things that had been placed there to preserve his life.

And so God has given us His Word to preserve our lives; but, alas, we are trying to rip out the tube, which is the one thing that can save us. It is as though somehow we have come to the conclusion that all roads lead to heaven and we have simply to agree that everyone is right. Whoever says we must follow the Bible as it is written is wrong; rather, if we follow the Bible, it must be interpreted in the light of the present cultural norms. It is just that ridiculous.

We must remind ourselves that Sodom and Gomorrha were about culture. If we persist in living outside the Word of God, we will one day meet the justice of our Holy God. We may not like to hear about it or to think about it, but the flood and the destruction of the cities of the plain are clear examples that the mercy and patience of God toward sinners is not open-ended.

Listen to these texts, first from 2 Peter 2:

"For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly."

And then,

"But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, Looking for and hastening unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless" (2 Peter 3:10-14 AV).

The reference to the earth and its works is about culture. The reference to all holy conversation and godliness is also about culture. No, my friends, culture is not amoral. It is either according to the will of God or it isn't. Scripture is clear that God will bring every work into judgment and every secret thing. Make no mistake, in the end it will be the Word of God that judges the culture and not, as many seem to suppose, the other way around. Don't look now, but your culture is showing.