A BIT OF MORAL OUTRAGE!

A BIT OF MORAL OUTRAGE!

Matt 21:12-13

12 And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves,

13 And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.

Whenever I got a “whooping” from my Momma it wasn’t so much the sting of the belt as it was the incessant “teaching” that went with it. Graduate level moral training was punctuated with the slap of leather! Listen to a sample lesson: “You WON’T (slap) sass (slap) me young (slap) man (one final slap)!” The lessons may have been ignored later but they were never forgotten.

Jesus’ one demonstration of moral outrage is found in Matthew, Mark and Luke. You could hear it throughout the Temple. “It is (slap) written, My (slap) house (slap) shall be called (slap) the house of prayer (slap); but YOU (slap – slap) have made it (slap) a den of thieves.” Three out of four gospel writers took out their pencil because this was good stuff worthy of record.

1. So, where is the moral outrage in our present time?

Isa 1:4

4 Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward.

We have set our gaze toward the well-watered plain of Sodom, little considering that the place that promises so much progress and abundance is also full of wickedness!

2. Where are those who choose honor as a way of life?

Ps 15:2 [where is the one that] walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart?

3. Where is the one that will speak out against moral decay?

Eph 5:11

11 And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove [expose] them.

Isa 1:7

7 Your country is desolate; your cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers [illegal aliens?] devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.

4. Where are the men who will treat their wives as something more than sex objects and their children as more than biological inconveniences?

Col 3:19-21

19 Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them.

20 Children, obey your parents in all things: for this is well pleasing unto the Lord.

21 Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged.

5. Where are those men and women who will not be pushed around by the ruling mediocrity?

Rom 12:2

2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

Rom 12:2 TLB

2 Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world.

Once the Temple was rid of the money changers there was then room for the blind and lame. The whole atmosphere had changed – but the chief priests were strangely displeased.

Matt 21:14-15

14 And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple; and he healed them.

15 And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying in the temple, and saying, Hosanna to the Son of David; they were sore displeased,

Dear Lord, because our world is so corrupt, please install in me a strong moral backbone. AMEN