An Honest Horse Thief

Introduction

Well, good morning, ladies and gentlemen. It’s great to see each of you today. I’m really excited about being in Orlando, Florida. I think it’s been some five years since Lee and I were here last time. We’re glad to be back again and glad to have the opportunity to study the Bible with you throughout this week. There are little yellow cards out in the foyer, and I know they’ve been mailed out to a number of people that have a list of the lessons that will be presented. We’re going to try to be evangelistic in the lessons that we present throughout the week. Each of the lessons that we’ll present are lessons that you can feel very comfortable in bringing your friends and neighbors to, lessons that will help them to see clearly the will of God.

We certainly pray that there will be people in the course of this week who will obey the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now, if you’ll note on Monday night, the Monday night lesson is something about have you read the devil’s Bible? We’ve made a change in that. It’s a change that we just made last evening. There’s an awful lot of uh being an awful lot being said right now in the community, not only in Florida, but in Texas and across the country about the movie, The Passion of the Christ. That movie was released last Wednesday afternoon, and it’s showing on almost 3,000 screens across the country today. And with all the discussion that is going on about that movie, we felt like it might be a good thing for us to take Monday evening and just talk about that.

You’ll probably be talking with some of your friends at work, or maybe if you’re in school, you’ll be talking with them tomorrow. And so this is a key evangelistic opportunity tomorrow night, then. Tomorrow night, we’ll be talking about the truth, about the passion of the Christ. And we’ll be doing just a little bit about the movie, but the lesson tomorrow night will primarily focus on the cross of Jesus and the nature of crucifixion. It will be a great time to bring a friend or a neighbor. When you hear someone talking about it at work tomorrow, you say, Hey, listen, we’ve got a preacher at South Bumby tonight that’ll be talking about that. That’ll be at 7 30 tomorrow night. Bring someone with you. It’ll be a time wherein they can benefit by studying the word of God.

Let’s seize the moment on this in regard to the passion of the Christ. Well, today, this morning, I want to talk to you about an honest horse thief. That’s the title of our lesson. And someone says, Well, I don’t understand how a man who is a horse thief could be honest. It was about two years ago that there was a story in the magazine Arizona Highways, a story about an honest cowboy. Well, he was honest to some degree, at least. It seems as though the cowboy was caught stealing someone’s horse. In fact, he was caught red-handed. And he was taken before the judge, and there was some confusion in the courtroom, and the judge asked the young man, he said, Are you the plaintiff or the defendant in this case?

And our friend, the young cowboy, said, Judge, I’m the one who stole the horse. Well, there was a lawyer who overheard that, and he figured that this cowboy needed some first class defending. But if he was to have a chance, the facts of the case must be ignored. And so what he did, he brought in this cowboy’s widowed mother. He brought in the cowboy’s wife and his two little baby children, and then he put his arm around the cowboy and said to the judge and jury, Now, does this look like the kind of man who would steal somebody’s horse? Well, the emotion of the moment was just too much for the jury, and they quickly brought back a verdict of not guilty. Cowboy was released. The judge asked the cowboy if he had anything he wanted to say.

Cowboy sort of grinned and said, Judge, does this mean I get to keep the horse?

As he was leaving the courtroom, a friend asked this cowboy, he said, Well, did you steal that horse or not? And the cowboy said, Well, I sure thought I did, but after listening to that their lawyer, now I ain’t so sure. Folks, this story may be funny, but it has a tragic parallel in the spiritual world. The word of God puts us on trial every time we read it. And so much of the word of God is so easy to understand that you have to have help to misunderstand it. And I want to tell you that there are plenty of people who will give you that help so that you can misunderstand the word of God. Invariably, invariably, without without exception to this. People who have no axe to grind and people who are not part of some party spirit, they understand what Jesus said in Matthew chapter 19 and verse 9.

Listen to what Jesus said about divorce and remarriage. He said, I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality and marries another, commits adultery. And whoever marries her who is divorced commits adultery. People who read that passage about divorce and remarriage, well, they’re sort of like the cowboy. They know right off who stole the horse when they read this. They understand it clearly. But then there’s the brotherhood lawyer who steps to the rescue and he tugs at people’s emotions and he reminds people of how that the the words of Jesus may cause great sorrow if we if we follow this passage. And so he talks about a hundred reasons why we should not accept what Jesus said. And he pronounces people who are guilty of adultery.

He pronounces them innocent, says not guilty, regardless of what God says. And if anyone stands up and wants to defend the truth of the Bible, that person is shouted down as being too narrow-minded, as being insensitive. And suddenly, in the minds of many people, a passage that was abundantly clear is now not so clear. A simple passage has been brutalized of its simplicity. A person looks at it and says, Well, I thought I understood that passage, but after hearing Brother Smooth talk, Brother Smooth talk talk about it, I’m not so sure that we can understand what that passage means. And so it goes.

And as a result, souls are being lost today. But let’s go back to a horse thief for a moment, because there’s another tragic parallel in the spiritual world, and that is one of personal accountability, personal responsibility. This cowboy that we talked about a moment ago, he stole the horse. He still had it in his possession. Everybody knew he took it, but somehow it turned out that he wasn’t responsible for stealing it. And why is that? You know, our present religious world and even the non-religious world are both about the same. It seems as n as though nobody is really responsible for their own actions anymore. And and why is it that we have to find somebody else to blame for our deeds? We can take what we’ve done wrong and we can shift it to somebody else, or sometimes we don’t necessarily shift it to somebody else.

1. Victimization: The Victim Religion

We just don’t accept what is our responsibility. I want to begin this morning by talking to you about victimization. If there was a new political party in America, we could call it the victim party. If there was a new religion, we could call it the victim religion. You see, you see, folks, we like to see ourselves as victims. Maybe this cowboy that we talked about. Maybe when he was a boy, uh a little boy, he wanted to have a pony, but he never got a pony. Maybe people promised him a pony, but he never got the pony. And and now, as an adult, because he was denied that pony, he just can’t help but to steal somebody’s horse. You see, it’s not really his fault that he steals horses because it was all the way that he was raised.

It was his mom and his dad, and the environment in which he was raised, he’s not responsible for taking that horse. He’s a victim. A woman goes into McDonald’s restaurant and buys a cup of coffee and spills it in her lap while driving. She sues McDonald’s and she wins the lawsuit because McDonald’s sold her a cup of coffee that was too hot. You see, she was victimized by McDonald’s. Or now, as if that wasn’t enough. People today are suing McDonald’s restaurants because they get fat if they eat a whole bunch of Big Macs and fries. They’re victims of McDonald’s. A man in your state, a man in Florida, initiates a lawsuit against the tobacco company. For thirty years he puffed on that weed, and every cigarette he ever smoked came in a package that says, Cigarette smoking causes lung cancer.

But never mind that. The man, of course, smoked anyway. The man, sure enough, contracted lung cancer, and he sued the tobacco company, and he won the lawsuit because the tobacco company victimized him. Never mind that he bought the cigarettes, he lit them, and he smoked them. He was a victim. You see, folks, we like it. We love this idea of being victims because when we’re being victims of other people and of and of governments and of families and corporations, well, then we can say to everybody, it’s not my fault. Nobody can hold me accountable for anything. You know, it’s interesting today that almost every group you meet, almost every group you meet has their own Bible. Have you ever noticed how many Bibles there are today?

There’s a student’s Bible, there’s a women’s Bible, there’s a men’s Bible, there’s a Bible for this, a Bible for that. And they sort of rewrite things and reword things to make it fit that particular group and what that group wants to believe or what they want to say. Well, I’m just wondering, folks, if maybe we should have a victim’s Bible. You ever think about that? Let’s have a victim’s Bible. And maybe we could start with poor Adam. Maybe we should rewrite the Bible. What do you think of the idea of rewriting your Bible to make it fit this new religion of victimization that we have in America today? I see some of you already shaking your heads no. You don’t believe in rewriting the Bible, do you?

I don’t either. I don’t think we should rewrite the Word of God. But folks, if we begin to make these arguments, claiming that we’re merely victims, you know, we can’t help what we’ve done. We’re the victims. Then we might as well rewrite the Bible. In fact, I think Adam would have sort of liked that. You remember what the Bible said in Genesis chapter 3 and verses 11 and 12, where the Lord said unto Adam, Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat? And Adam said, The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate. You see, poor Adam. You see, he sees himself right off as being a victim. It’s this woman’s fault.

It wasn’t my fault, Lord. This woman, she gave it to me. I wouldn’t have done it had it not been for her and Lord. Remember, you gave me that woman, so it’s partly your fault. I’m not sure who to blame, whether it’s you or the woman, but it’s not my fault. That’s the implication of Adam’s language. Folks, you think Adam was right in this? In trying to shift the blame and declaring himself not guilty? You see, Adam, instead of being the perpetrator of the crime, he’s the victim of the crime, isn’t he? And so we need to rewrite the Bible. We need to fix all those Adam passages. Look at this scripture in Genesis chapter 3 and verse 17. Again, the Lord speaks to Adam, and he said, Because you have heated the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree which I commanded you, saying you shall not eat of it.

Cursed is the ground for your sake. In twirl you shall eat of it all the days of your life. God is going to pronounce a curse upon Adam here, because Adam is guilty. But you see, if Adam is only the victim, then this thing needs to be rewritten. Then he said to Adam, because you have heeded the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree which I commanded you, saying you shall not eat of it. Saying you shall not eat of it. But it wasn’t really your fault. Blessed is the ground for your sake. In ease you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Do you think we should rewrite the Bible? The next time you claim to be the victim, when you’re not a victim, when it’s your own responsibility, and you would shift to somebody else.

Just remember this. You think we shouldn’t rewrite the Bible. But there’s an awful lot of Christians who like this idea of being victims. Notice another passage with me, Genesis 3, verses 22 and 23. The Lord God said, Behold, the man has become like one of us to know good and evil, and now, lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat and eat forever, live forever. Therefore, the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden. We’ve got to rewrite that passage also, you see. The Lord God said, Behold, the man has become like one of us to know good and evil. And now let him put out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat and live forever.

Therefore the Lord God kept him in the Garden of Eden. You see, if Adam is not responsible for his own actions, then God can’t punish him. Notice this in the book of Job. Did you know that Job talked about Adam? Job said this. He said, If I have covered my transgressions as Adam by hiding my iniquity in my bosom. You see, Job recognized the Bible truth, the gospel truth found in the book of Genesis. Job recognized that Adam was guilty of transgression, that Adam tried to hide his transgression. And Job says, if I’ve done that, I’ve done wrong. But the truth is we need to rewrite this passage. If we’re going to fix things up for poor Adam, you see, Job said, If I’ve covered my victimization as Adam, by hiding my unfair treatment, all that all that Adam was really doing was hiding the fact that he was a victim.

Paul wrote about Adam in the book of Romans, chapter 5 and verse 12. Therefore, just as through one man, that one man being Adam, just as through one man sin entered the world and death through sin, and thus dead death spread to all men because all sin. You see, that verse needs to be fixed also. Folks, here’s what Paul did not write of Adam. Therefore, just as through one man victimization entered the world, and understanding of victimization, and thus light spread to all men because all have been victimized. There’s a lot of people who would like for the Bible to read that way today. I don’t believe in rewriting the Bible, do you? You don’t believe in it either, but I’m going to remind you one more time that it that if you go out and you do wrong, and then you claim, well, I was just a victim, I couldn’t help it, it wasn’t my fault.

You might as well be rewriting your Bible today. First Corinthians chapter 15, verse 22. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. That’s what Paul wrote of Adam. What’s really behind this business of rewriting, of claiming victimization, rewriting the Bible or changing these things. I’ll tell you what’s behind it. Here’s what Paul did not write of Adam. For in Adam, we can all claim to be victims, and thus we have no need of Christ the Savior. You see, folks, if I’m a victim, I don’t need a Savior. I don’t have responsibility to God. There’s not something I have to do to get right with God. If I am merely a victim of circumstances, a victim of other people or a victim of God, however you want to express it, it’s not my fault.

2. The Bible Principle of Accountability

I don’t need Jesus. I don’t need someone to die for my sins. You see, the whole gospel can be changed if we can sell this business of victimization. And that’s what’s really behind it all. I am not accountable to God. That’s the issue. However, when you begin to really study the Bible, you’ll see quickly that you are accountable to God. Let’s talk about then the Bible principle of accountability. And I want to look at several passages. These are passages that you know about, passages that you are familiar with, that talk about our responsibility to God. Such verses as Galatians chapter 6, verse 7 and 8, where the apostle said, Do not be deceived. God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that will he also reap.

For he who sows to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the spirit will of the spirit reap life everlasting. Every man who’s ever planted a crop knows about this. Every farmer who knows about knows about this. Everyone who planted a garden in their backyard knows about this, that you’re going to reap whatever you sow. There are consequences then to actions. I remember a young man, his first name was Keith. He was a friend of mine in Indianapolis back in the late 1960s. It was just before I became a Christian. Keith and I were part of an organization that was supposed to be helping folks in the local community. One morning I got up and looked at the front page of the Indianapolis Star, our local newspaper, and there was my friend Keith’s picture on the front page of the newspaper.

He had been arrested in a big drug bus the night before. All of us who had been his friends had no idea that he was involved in drugs and illicit activity or illegal activity of any sort. We thought he was a fine, upstanding member of the community. But it was interesting. The caption below the below Keith’s picture. They quoted him. He says, Why? Why did this happen to me? The truth is he was as guilty as a man could be. But he cries out and says, Why? Why does this happen to me? I’ll tell you why, Keith. It’s because you’ve broken the law, you’ve gone out and you’ve done all sorts of illegal, immoral, and illicit activities, and now you’re asking why. Don’t have to ask why.

The principle is God is not mocked. Whatever a man sows, that will he also reap. He was reaping the results, at least temporal results, of his drug activities. That’s why it happened to him. Isn’t it amazing? People go out and do all sorts of wrong things and then can’t figure out why they’re in trouble in the end. They think they got bad breaks in life. They think people have treated them wrong. They think somehow the system is against them. When you do wrong, you ought to expect consequences. Look at this passage in the book of Proverbs, chapter 6, and verse 27 and 28. It says, Can a man take fire to his bosom and his clothes not be burned? Can he walk on hot coals and his feet not be seared?

If you look at the context of this, it’s talking about a man going into his neighbor’s wife. Talking about a man committing adultery. And it asks the question, can you take fire to your bosom and your clothes be burned? Don’t expect to go out and commit adultery and there not be any consequences. I’ve heard men sometimes say to their wives after they got caught. Oh, well, she didn’t mean anything to me. How many times do men say that? You say you hear it all the time. Men have that already made up in their minds when they’re committing adultery. That if they get caught, though they think they’ll never get caught, but if they do, they think, well, I can just say she didn’t mean anything to me.

The truth is, mister, your wife didn’t mean anything to you. That’s what the problem is. You made vows on your wedding day. You said, Till death do us part, you’ll keep yourself to this one, and to this one only, for better or for worse, rich or poor, sickness and hell. And that’s what didn’t mean anything to you. It was your vows that didn’t mean anything. Don’t talk about this girl not meaning anything to you. It’s your spouse at home that didn’t mean anything to you. And men, I’ve had men come into my office crying and say, I don’t know why my wife won’t forget me. I don’t know what all the big deal is. Why she won’t forgive me. And I I told her I’m sorry.

I told her it didn’t mean anything. Yeah, but it meant a lot to your wife when you did that. You crushed her and you hurt her in a way that she could not be hurt any other any other means as bad as you’ve hurt her in this way. You need to expect consequences for your actions. Can a man take fire to his bosom and his clothes not be burned? Notice this passage in the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 30 and verse 19. God says, I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you that I’ve set before you life and death. Blessing and cursing, therefore choose life that both you and your descendants may live. Folks, the choices we make determine the outcome of a thing. How many times do young people get involved in immoral sex, get involved in drugs, get involved in alcohol, and they say, Well, you know, I just meant to go this far.

I didn’t mean for anything bad to happen. Folks, when you pick up the tail end of a rattlesnake, you’ve got the whole rattlesnake. And while the tail will never bite you, the other end will. And when you start down that road, you’ve got consequences to the to the actions that you’ve chosen. Today, the big you know what the big worry is that young people, and I realize we don’t have our high school kids in here, but you know what the big worry is for high school kids who get involved in immoral sex? Am I going to get pregnant? Oh, I hope I don’t get pregnant. You’ve got a four time, four times greater chance of contracting STD, that’s sexually transmitted disease. Four times greater chance of contracting STD than getting pregnant.

And yet most people, most young people think nothing about that. Young girls can contract a sexually transmitted disease that will prevent them from ever having children the rest of their life. And there they are worried about they might be pregnant.

God says, I’ve set before you life and death. That’s what this book is about. Don’t make the mistake that the Bible is just, you know, I was talking to someone just a few days ago, said, Well, you know, that’s okay for little children and old ladies, but it you know it doesn’t have anything to do with real life. No, this is the book about real life. And in this book, God sets before us life and death. He sets before us blessing and cursing. God wants to bless you, and he wants to give you life, life above the ordinary. Jesus in John chapter 10 and verse 10 said, I’m come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly. More abundantly is the idea of life above the ordinary, extraordinary life.

God wants to bless you in such a way that there’s no other way you can find these kind of blessings. And it’s all about the choices that you make. God says, therefore choose life. You choose life by your actions. Actions do have consequences, don’t they? Hosea chapter 8 and verse 7, they sow the wind, they reap the whirlwind. The stalk has no butt, it shall never produce meal. If it should produce, aliens would swallow it up. They sow the wind, they reap the whirlwind. You know, it’s interesting. We talk about how the actions have consequences. Think about that word consequences. Actually has as Latin origin, con, which is with, okay? Like chili concarni. That’s chili with meat. Okay. With, okay? Con sequences. Consequences. It’s the idea of with the sequence.

Actions have consequences. You set in, you set in motion a sequence of events when you choose certain actions. And when you choose certain actions, you ought to expect, okay, now where does this thing lead? Because there’s a sequence of actions that come along with that. God holds us accountable personally for our actions. Romans chapter 14, verse 11 and 12, as it is written, where it is written, as I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, every tongue shall confess to God, so then each one of us shall give account of himself to God. You see, there are some things that we do that affect us in this life more than other things, maybe. Some things that we do cause us to cause us to lose our life, cause us to lose our health.

Some things we do can cause us to lose our freedom. We may go to jail because of something we’ve done. But on the other hand, we may do we may do a lot of wrong things, and we may escape some of the consequences of this life. But we’ll not escape the consequences of the life to come. As I live, says the Lord, every knee is going to bow to me, every tongue is going to confess to God, so then each one of us shall give account of himself to God. Ladies and gentlemen, maybe there may be some things that I might do that I might never get caught by the law. Maybe I’ll never get caught by my wife or by my brethren or by anyone in my family.

But nobody escapes the judgment of God. I will have to give account to him. Notice this passage in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 10. We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body according to that he has done, whether it be good or whether it be bad. Nobody escapes the judgment of God. And so, what should we do then? When we sin, we ought to accept the responsibility for our own actions. Or, you know, sometimes, folks, have you ever thought about this? Even in times when we do not sin, but we’ve done something that has a bad outcome. There wasn’t any sin involved. We didn’t do anything really wrong, but it had a bad outcome.

We don’t like to accept responsibility for it. Just because we don’t want to be responsible for that outcome, even though there was no sin involved. Let me give you an illustration. You ever have an accident in the car? Was it something you did that caused the accident? Maybe it was just a careless moment. It wasn’t something that was necessarily sinful, but it was just a careless moment on your part. I had a meeting back in 1995 in Leesville, Louisiana. That’s uh east of where I live in Texas and quite a bit north. 150, 200 miles, something like that, and I had just finished. Just finished restoring my 1965 Mustang. Just finished. And I thought, you know, why don’t I just drive that Mustang to that meeting?

It’ll be a fun trip. I’ll kind of, you know, you baby those old cars. You don’t abuse them. It’ll be a fun trip. I’ll drive through the secondary roads where there’s not much traffic, run 55, 60 miles an hour like that. Just kind of cruise along and go to that meeting in that Mustang. And that was a great idea, I thought. And it all went well. But let me tell you what happened. And I’m going to tell you already, the outcome is the outcome was good. You know, you know, you get to maybe you’re not a car person. Listen, I don’t chase wild women, I don’t gamble, I don’t drink whiskey, but I sure do love them old cars, okay? That’s my weakness in life. And I and that that that old Mustang, my daughter, we’ve had it for ten years.

My daughter had driven it to high school, she’d driven it to college, and when she got married, we gave her another car and I kept it and I rebuilt it in 1995. Anyway, I’m driving on this two-lane road and going north in Louisiana, and a little red Ford escort passed me. And I don’t pay attention to that. That car passed me. But just right after it passed me, there’s a 53 Chevy pickup sitting off the side of the road for sale. And I’m kind of looking like this at this Chevy. And as I as I turn around, that escort has stopped dead in front of me in the road, making a left-hand turn. And there’s a car coming the other way. And so I slammed on the brakes of that Mustang, cut it to the right, slid one way, cut it to the left, slid around that escort.

Scared the daylights out of me, and I don’t know what that person did the escort thought. But it was so close that I could feel the front end of that Mustang just grinding, the metal crunching and all of it coming apart. It was that close, but fortunately I missed. Whose fault was that? Could I have said, well, how dumb that was for that escort driver to pass me when he’s gonna be turning left in just a half a mile. That silly driver, what was he thinking anyway? I could have blamed that driver, but no, it wasn’t that driver’s fault. It would have been my fault and my fault only. But you know how often? How often we have an accident or do something that has a negative outcome, and we’re not willing to accept the consequences of our own actions.

Ladies and gentlemen. We need to do that, we need to accept the consequence for our own actions, whether there’s sin involved or not. How often, when a person makes uh makes a bad choice, uses bad judgment. Do you hear, do you hear someone say, Well, I have no one to blame but myself? It was my choice. Let me give you an example. There’s a lady I know in Beaumont who was who invested in a stock called e-digital. E D-I-G is the is the ticker symbol on it. And how does she get involved in this stock? Well, she overheard two ladies in the office, one saying to another, hey, I’m going to buy some more of that e-digital stock. You know, some of us bought it 50 cents, and it’s gone all the way up to 25 dollars, and it’s dropped back now to 15.

This is a great time to buy. And these ladies discussed that between themselves. But this one lady overhearing that, she goes home and tells her husband, listen, we’ve got to take our money out of the bank and we’ve got to go buy this e-digital stock. Because it’s pulled back from 25 to 15. This is a great buying opportunity. Your husband says, We don’t know anything about that stock. Well, I’ve I’ve I’ve been talking, I’ve these folks in the office, they know about it. We’ve got to buy it. And so they took a little bit of money, three or four thousand dollars, and they went out and they bought e-digital. And e digital dropped to thirteen dollars. Kind of reminds me of one fellow who bought bought stock at fifty, bought stock at fifty.

And it dropped to 30, he bought more of it, thinking, well, it’s it’s a good time to buy more. Dropped to thirty, he bought more, dropped to 20, he bought more, dropped to 10, he dropped dead. E digital, ladies and gentlemen, the last time I saw it was 65 cents. Buy at 15, now it’s 65 cents. That lady, she could have said, she could have said, those two women in my office don’t know anything about stock. I wish they’d never recommended that stock to me. They never recommended it to her at all. She overheard a conversation. But the lady didn’t say that. She told her husband, she said, you know, I was very foolish. I didn’t know anything about that stock. I merely heard a rumor.

And I reacted. And I’m so sorry. It was my fault. I have no one to blame but myself. How often do you hear people do things like that? Most of the time, we’re going to shift the blame to somebody else. And of course, the real issue has to do with sin. We find it real easy to blame somebody else. Look what you made me do. I wouldn’t have done this had it not been for you. You led me down this path. Oh, sometimes you’ll hear people say, Yes, I’ve sinned. I’m responsible. Sometimes you hear that, but that’s rare when that’s the case. You see then the principle of accountability and acknowledging responsibility for our own actions. And now, ladies and gentlemen, let’s do an examination. Can we do that this morning?

3. Examination: Moral Issues

Are you convinced about accountability? Are you ready to examine yourself? You see, it’s okay to talk about Adam, isn’t it? It’s okay to talk about the horse thief or the smoker. But what about examining yourself? I want to address three issues this morning. First of all, I want to ask some questions about moral issues. A young man named John. High school senior. Involved in a prank. Called into the principal’s office. Lied about it and lied about it and lied about it. I didn’t do it. I wasn’t there. I was at home studying. Later, when witnesses were called in. It was made very clear that John was there. He was part of the prank. Why did you lie, John? Well, I couldn’t help it. I couldn’t help it.

I was in real trouble. They weren’t going to let me walk. I wasn’t going to get, I wasn’t going to get my letter. They weren’t going to let me walk in graduation. I couldn’t afford that. I had to lie. I had no choice. And so you were the victim of circumstances that wasn’t really your fault? Is that the truth about it, John?

Here’s a man in his 30s. His name is Bob. Bob works for one of the auto plants in the north. One of his friends was over one day and said, Bob, man, that drill, that looks just like one of the ones we have at work. In fact, a lot of these tools are similar to what we have at work.

Did your boss let you borrow these from work? And Bob says, Well, no, not exactly. Well, the truth is, not at all. Bob stole those tools from General Motors. And why did Bob steal them? Well, you know how it is. You know how it is, Jim. In our plant, our boss is pretty mean to us, and we don’t get paid enough as it is. And so, you know, if we take a little bit of this or a little bit of that, it’s a big company. They’ll never miss it. And so Bob, he was victimized by General Motors, General Motors didn’t pay him enough, and so he was justified in stealing from his employer. Is that the deal? Poor Bob. He’s another victim, isn’t he? Or here’s a here’s a young college student.

Never had a drink before in her life. But she’s out with three other girls. And they’ve got some of these fruit coolers, some of these wine coolers. And Jessica drinks with them. First time she’s ever drank in her life. In fact, she does more than drink. She gets she gets drunk. Her parents learn about it. She’s sick the next day.

4. Worship Issues

But Jessica says, I couldn’t help it. They put pressure on me. I had no choice. These are my friends, Mom. Dad, you don’t understand what it’s like when people put the pressure on you and they’re going to make you drink. And so Jessica was victimized. She was a victim of her friends. It wasn’t her fault. You see what we do with moral issues? That’s the kind of stuff that we do, folks. That’s you and me. That’s the way we act. I’m sure I didn’t hit you on any of these, did I? Let’s talk then about worship issues. If you miss services on Sunday morning.

You know, it’s amazing to me how that you can have a family of six. Here’s one kid who has the snipples, and the whole family has to stay home with that with that kid on Sunday morning. Now I realize that there are people who really are ill, and they need a parent or someone to stay home or need a spouse to stay home with them. It’s kind of like this cartoon I saw one time.

This fellow sitting out in a boat. Appears to be all day long. You see the sun over here and you see the sun over here. Well, I couldn’t go to church today. He’s sitting in the boat fishing, by the way. I couldn’t go to church this morning because I had to stay home with my sick wife. And besides, those pews at the church are really hard, and besides, the preacher preaches a really long time. Now it didn’t bother the fellow a bit to stay out in that boat for a really long time and to sit on that hard bench in the boat, and his wife somehow didn’t need him Sunday afternoon while he was out fishing. But you see, he didn’t go to church on Sunday morning because well he was the victim of circumstances.

You ever do something like that? Or what if you miss Sunday evening worship? Do you say, well, you know, I just couldn’t make it? I think it’s interesting sometimes the lies we make people tell. Here’s someone that didn’t make Sunday evening services, and you called them on the phone and say, uh, hey, we missed you at service tonight. Well, just couldn’t make it. Well, were you sick? Well, just couldn’t make it. Was there an emergency? Was there an illness, a problem, something I can help you with? And then sometimes people make up some kind of a story because they know you’re pressing them, and what you’ve done, you’ve made them tell a lie. Because the truth is they had no intention of being there for Sunday evening services.

No intention at all. But they say I just couldn’t make it as though they were victim of circumstances. What about if you’re late for Bible class? You say, oh, well, I know we come in 20 minutes late, but we couldn’t help it. We all overslept this morning. Nobody ever oversleeps Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. We all make it to school on time. We all make it to work on time. We don’t oversleep. But somehow on Sunday morning, consistently we all oversleep. We say that like we’re victims of the alarm clock. And the truth is it’s often the case that we didn’t really make concrete plans to be on time in the first place. Let’s be honest with ourselves. You see, this is about examination, isn’t it?

5. Family Issues

Let I I’m I’m sure I didn’t hit you yet, did I? Well, let’s talk about family issues. If you’re a young person and you disobey your parents, what do you say? Well, they weren’t fair to me. They promised me this, they told me they’d do that, and they didn’t do it, so I don’t have to do what they say. Oh, is that right? You know, sometimes parents are unfair. But you still have to dis you still have to obey your parents. There’s no excuse for disobedience. Or what about this? A husband fails to love his wife, and he says, That woman, that woman frustrates me so much. How many of you men in here are married men today? Raise your hand if you’re a married man.

Come on, we got more than that. Come on. There they go. There go the hands up. Okay. You saw all those hands? That’s how many men are frustrated with their wives from time to time. That’s how many. Because every man is going to be frustrated with his wife sooner or later, and it is no excuse for not loving your wife. The Bible in Ephesians chapter 5, verse 25, husbands love your wives as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. Husband is to love his wife as he loves his own body. But you see, if I say, Well, I don’t love my wife because that woman frustrates me so much, then I’m claiming to be a victim. A victim of my wife. Or if a wife fails to submit to her husband, you know the Bible in Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 33 that says that the wife is to reverence, she’s to respect her husband.

Ephesians 5.22, 524, she’s to submit to her husband. She’s to be subject to her husband. But a woman comes along and says, Well, my husband doesn’t deserve that kind of respect. My husband, he often uses bad judgment. He shouldn’t be submitted to. I shouldn’t be expected to submit to him. And so you’re a victim of your husband. Is that right? You have a right to disobey God because your husband, you say, doesn’t deserve respect. You see, folks, each of these cases attempts to avoid personal accountability and responsibility. And they also constitute playing games with God. We’re playing little word games with God. Oh, yes. We may be able to fool our brethren and get our brethren off our back. Fool our family, get our family off our back.

Conclusion

We may even fool ourselves in playing such games, but you you can fool your family, you can fool your brethren, but you cannot fool God. I like this chiasm. I like this chiasm from Abraham Lincoln. It was Lincoln who said, You can fool all the people some of the time. You can fool some of the people all the time, but you can’t fool all the people all the time, to which we would add from God, God says, you can’t fool me at any time. Ladies and gentlemen, it is time for us to accept responsibility for our actions. Whether we’re spilling coffee in our lap after visiting McDonald’s.

Whether we’ve stolen something, whether we’ve told a lie, whatever it may be, we are accountable to God. Don’t try to play games with God. Don’t try to fool God because it will not work. May our God bless us then to be persons of responsibility, to raise ourselves up above the rest of the world, to be noble persons who say, Yes, I accept my responsibility for my actions.

Thank you so much for your time this morning.