Truly we were often traveling through a world of woe.”
–D.C. Adkisson (Walker)
“Woe to the world for such temptations to sin and influences to do wrong! It is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the person on whose account or by whom the temptation comes!”
–Matthew 18:7 (Amplified)
——————————-
“Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!”
–Isaiah 5:20 (NKJV)
“You are headed for trouble” (CEV) and that is a fact. This “woe” perhaps more than others mentioned is the most prevalent in our society, or at least the most clearly seen. As sin progresses, it grows and “at times sin seems to work up to some terrible climax; and that climax is invariably followed by calamity.” (Lloyd-Jones) Need I mention the days of Noah or the destruction of Sodom? Here Isaiah is warning the people of his time, that because of their perversion judgment is coming, and the same is being said to our generation.
A great truth is this: “when people no longer feel shame; they sin openly; they are proud of it and even boast of it.” (Lloyd-Jones) Look around you how perversion is flaunted and pushed in your face. Bizarre, macabre, perverse and they have no shame. Gone is hiding in the darkness, now there seems to be delight in their sin and how “weird” they can be. They have lost their moral sense.
To be perverse is to reverse morality, as we see in this woe. It is a deliberate overturning of moral standards. Isaiah is warning that without repentance nothing is left but disaster. What once was regarded as sinful is no longer sinful. No wonder believers cry, “How long, oh Lord, how long?”
What is beauty? It seems it is the abnormal, the ugly, and the foul. Faces that once were found in carnivals are common place. They are portraying what’s in their heart as the face is the mirror of the heart. Martyn Lloyd-Jones states, “We have almost reached the stage in which not to be a pervert is to be abnormal. The pervert is glorified.” The new slogan is: “Evil, be thou good.” (Lloyd-Jones)
The sad commentary of the Book of Judges is “everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” Man seeks to be autonomous; seeks to be his own god. This is complete, perverted idolatry. Man makes himself his own deity and it can change with a whim, for all is relative. Deconstruction (Post Modernism) has made havoc with moral standards–they are gone. Hence we understand why the “Antichrist” is called the “Man of Lawlessness.” Anarchy is seeking to reign. Man was meant to live a higher and nobler life thus the standards of morality, but now, anything goes. “Sin always presses people to something further.” (Lloyd-Jones) In reality they are falling into the trap of Satan, back to the days of Noah and the days of Sodom. “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” (Romans 3:18, NIV)
John tells us that “men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil” (3:19) Paul shows us the perversion of the terrible times of the last days. Read 2 Timothy 3:1-7, and get this into your brain, they are “lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God…. Have nothing to do with them.” Compromise–NO! Tolerance–NO. Sin is sin, no matter what man says, it is what God says that counts. We need to pray what Paul wrote, “in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, and that they will come to their senses and escape the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will.” (2 Timothy 2:25-26, NIV)
——————————-
“Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!”
–Isaiah 5:20 (NKJV)
“You are headed for trouble” (CEV) and that is a fact. This “woe” perhaps more than others mentioned is the most prevalent in our society, or at least the most clearly seen. As sin progresses, it grows and “at times sin seems to work up to some terrible climax; and that climax is invariably followed by calamity.” (Lloyd-Jones) Need I mention the days of Noah or the destruction of Sodom? Here Isaiah is warning the people of his time, that because of their perversion judgment is coming, and the same is being said to our generation.
A great truth is this: “when people no longer feel shame; they sin openly; they are proud of it and even boast of it.” (Lloyd-Jones) Look around you how perversion is flaunted and pushed in your face. Bizarre, macabre, perverse and they have no shame. Gone is hiding in the darkness, now there seems to be delight in their sin and how “weird” they can be. They have lost their moral sense.
To be perverse is to reverse morality, as we see in this woe. It is a deliberate overturning of moral standards. Isaiah is warning that without repentance nothing is left but disaster. What once was regarded as sinful is no longer sinful. No wonder believers cry, “How long, oh Lord, how long?”
What is beauty? It seems it is the abnormal, the ugly, and the foul. Faces that once were found in carnivals are common place. They are portraying what’s in their heart as the face is the mirror of the heart. Martyn Lloyd-Jones states, “We have almost reached the stage in which not to be a pervert is to be abnormal. The pervert is glorified.” The new slogan is: “Evil, be thou good.” (Lloyd-Jones)
The sad commentary of the Book of Judges is “everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” Man seeks to be autonomous; seeks to be his own god. This is complete, perverted idolatry. Man makes himself his own deity and it can change with a whim, for all is relative. Deconstruction (Post Modernism) has made havoc with moral standards–they are gone. Hence we understand why the “Antichrist” is called the “Man of Lawlessness.” Anarchy is seeking to reign. Man was meant to live a higher and nobler life thus the standards of morality, but now, anything goes. “Sin always presses people to something further.” (Lloyd-Jones) In reality they are falling into the trap of Satan, back to the days of Noah and the days of Sodom. “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” (Romans 3:18, NIV)
John tells us that “men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil” (3:19) Paul shows us the perversion of the terrible times of the last days. Read 2 Timothy 3:1-7, and get this into your brain, they are “lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God…. Have nothing to do with them.” Compromise–NO! Tolerance–NO. Sin is sin, no matter what man says, it is what God says that counts. We need to pray what Paul wrote, “in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, and that they will come to their senses and escape the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will.” (2 Timothy 2:25-26, NIV)