This weekend, the theme of our service highlights the necessity for us as humans created in God’s image to rely upon God our Creator. Why is this so important? What fallout threatens if we choose to rely on ourselves rather than God? Death, all manner of sin and injustice…the list goes on. One specific consequence is moral confusion.<\/p>\n
As we will see this weekend, in 2 Chronicles 16 when war threatens Judah King Asa chooses to rely not on God for deliverance but upon his own wisdom and the help of foreign armies, namely Syria, with whom he makes a covenant. It may look politically savvy on the surface, but the devil is in the details. To make this happen, Asa plunders the treasure house of the LORD in order to buy Syria’s loyalty. These treasures themselves shined as evidence of the victory God gives when his kings rely on him (v.<\/em> 2 Chronicles 14:14; 15:18). Now, if anyone in any other circumstance would have plundered the treasure house of the LORD, Asa would likely have their head. These were God’s treasures<\/em>. And yet because Asa chose to rely on himself, moral confusion sets in. Suddenly what God’s wisdom would condemn, human wisdom permits.<\/p>\n The moral rot continued for Asa even after God via his prophet Hanani admonishes him for his sin. God’s prophet soundly rebukes him for his sin of not relying on God, and Asa, instead of repenting, angrily digs himself deeper by throwing Hanani stock-bound in prison. Then Asa compounds this sin against the prophet by inflicting cruelties upon the people (2 Chronicles 16:7\u201310). Asa\u2014a king with the right desire to guard and keep the people of his kingdom from her enemies\u2014chose to rely on himself, which led to choosing to rob from God, which led to choosing to silence and persecute God’s prophet, which led to choosing to attack the people of his kingdom. Asa ends up inflicting upon his people the very terror he originally sought to deflect. Such is the insanity of sin. Asa’s single choice to rely on himself rather than God wove a web of moral confusion that Asa found himself trapped like a fly in. He can no longer distinguish good from evil.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Moral confusion is the fallout of spurning God and his wisdom. And judgment awaits the morally confused. Hear Isaiah,<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 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).<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Again, what leads to such moral confusion that man would call evil good and good evil; darkness light and light darkness; bitter sweet and sweet bitter? Isaiah puts such confusion in parallel with self-reliance,<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and shrewd in their own sight! (Isaiah 5:21).<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Woe, judgment, proves to be the end game for such self-reliance and moral confusion. But final judgment not only speeds toward the morally confused like a freight train. The moral confusion itself is a judgment from God<\/em>. Paul makes this clear in Romans 1:28,<\/p>\n <\/p>\n And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done (Romans 1:28).<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n So when you see moral confusion in your context or in your own life, you not only see a clear sign and symptom that you and humanity have sinfully chosen to rely on self rather than God, you see a clear sign and symptom of divine judgment.<\/p>\n So look around you. What do you see? In our Western context, particularly our American context, you see a society, a people, that cannot distinguish good and evil, light and dark, bitter and sweet. You see a people that cannot distinguish between a man and a woman. You see a people where men cosplay as women, and invite young children into their lust-driven deviance under the guise of “art” and “story hour”…and you see parents willingly bringing their innocent children to such events to use them as props for their social media virtue signaling<\/em>. You see a people that subjects vulnerable children to evil, irreversible body mutilation while calling it virtuous under the morally-confused category of “gender-affirming care.” You see school systems subvert parental authority by secretly socially transitioning gender-confused children from female to male, and you see the state back up the school by threatening to remove the children from their parents who do not consent or approve. You see the murderous slaughter of over 1 million unborn children (1.126 million in 2025 to be precise) praised as righteous. You see the virtue of compassion twisted and wielded as a weapon to justify evil acts. You see the sin of “pride” and sexual immorality celebrated in parades made up of “women (who) exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and…men (who) likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men” (Romans 1:26\u201327).<\/p>\n But don’t stop at looking out. Look in. Look into your own heart. What do you see? Do you see moral confusion in your own heart about even some of the above issues? Do you see within yourself a tendency to call good what Scripture calls evil and call evil what Scripture calls good? Do you see within yourself a propensity to look past your personal sin? Do you often justify your own sin? Do you find you overcomplicate moral categories that Scripture makes straightforward? Do you divorce truth from love and justify your anger or hatred toward others in the process? Do you rely on yourself rather than on God?<\/p>\n When you see moral confusion around you and within you, you see not only a sign and symptom of self-reliance, you see a sign and symptom of divine judgment. But God has a purpose in mind for such divine judgment. He intends it to wake you up and lead you back to him (1 Corinthians 5:5). So what do you do, saint, when moral confusion abounds within and around you? The answer is simple. Thank God for his judgment that leads you back to him, repent of your own sin, and rely on God for determining what is evil and what is good.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil (Proverbs 3:7).<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This weekend, the theme of our service highlights the necessity for us as humans created in God’s image to rely upon God our Creator. Why is this so important? 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