Dr. Bob Jones, Sr., used to tell the story o f the young boy who was told that he was to hammer a nail into the bam door each time he did something wrong. He did, and after several years, the door was full of nails. Then he was instructed to pull one out every time he did something right and good. More years passed and finally the nails were all out. In dismay, the boy approached his father and made the most truthful observation, “Dad, it bothers me that the scars are still there.” Sin is like that. It produces scars. Many adults have had their consciences “ seared” and sin has become such a pattern that they are past the point of suffering much from guilt. But youths, in their tender years, times of sensitivity and responsive ness are scarred by sin and guilt is a serious emo tional pressure. Early adolescents and older teens are a large part o f the psychiatric clientele — and sin and guilt have brought them to this, and often to the BIG HANGUP! I I I . PASSION n, The Bible reveals that it is a characteristic of unregenerate man that he is a victim o f passion— evil desire (I Thess. 4:3) and is guided by the lust of his physical body (Eph. 2 :3 ). Man is literally “ guided by his glands.” Perhaps, in the midst of the 20th century sex ual revolution, we are able to see this as clearly as at any time in history. We live in the “ sexy six ties.” Passion is open and advocated. Like Israel of old, we have gone “ a-whoring!” We are ob sessed with sex. Hugh Hefner, vocal propagandist of a barnyard morality set for the gratification of passion at all costs, says, “ Sex is a function o f the body, a drive which man shares with animals like eating, drinking and sleeping; it is a physical de mand that must be satisfied. I f you don’t satisfy it, you will have all sorts of neuroses and repression psychoses. Sex is here to stay. Let’s forget the pru dery that makes us hide from it—throw away those inhibitions, find a girl who is like-minded and let yourself go.” Young people today are on the experimental jag. They are living in a liberated society trying to find answers and because o f the lack o f re straints, the confusion around morality and the search to belong and know fulfillment and meaning in life, have turned to sex. Movies, dirtier than ever, and magazines, as well as TV, are emerging as sexual propaganda media, and the youth of to day are buying what is being sold. But sex is a one-way street to nowhere. Illegiti mate births (101,800 known to unmarried girls 15-19 in 1964, the latest year for figures, and 5,400 known to girls 14 and under) have increased to a scale where teenagers account for 40% o f them. Venereal disease reaps its harvest. According to the American Social Health Association, 1 out of
California, disc jockey, gets as many as 10,000 calls an hour from teenagers. Some telephone just to talk because they say no one at home talks to them. The emptiness of the economic world, — dad either hates his job or spends all his time at it in a mad race to make more money, while isolating his children; the emptiness of the marital world — quarreling parents, lack of love in the home, divorce, insecurity; the emptiness o f the political world—the constant inability to find peace, quell discontents, meet the needs of people and tell the truth—all these characteristics of society bear hard on the aura of purposelessness that pervades our day. Everything seems pointless. Some learn to adjust and join the mass, the mainstream of society, which goes on searching for purpose and meaning. Others are secret “ cop- outs.” On the public side they conform, but there is an unknown dimension to their life. As far as most people know, they are standard stuff, but se cretly they may be involved in sexual activity, fre quent or infrequent use of drugs or some criminal adventures. The blatant “ cop-out” is the Bohe mian, the “ hippie,” the social rebel who breaks all social mores and blasts free of all institutions in a final escapist’s search for reality and purpose. Or maybe he just gives up searching and seeks the oblivion o f drugs and free love and perhaps, ulti mately, the BIG HANGUP! I I . PAST .. --------- The past poses a treacherous threat to the health o f the present. Paul says, in Romans 3, “There is none righteous, no not one . . . there is none that doeth good, no not one.” As a result, he says, in verse 19, every one bears the guilt of his sin before God. Sin produces guilt and guilt is an intolerable burden. Psychologists indicate that the most common denominator in all emotional and re lated problems is guilt, though some have a differ ent name for it. The Bible tells us that it is the common denominator in 100% o f all problems. Man cannot live with guilt. Today’s society is trying to shed guilt by elimi nating its cause—sin. Everything is relative; there is no right or wrong. Sin is, at best, a prenatal pre dilection, an idiosyncrasy of individuality or, per haps even poor secretion of the endocrine glands. But the attempt has failed. There is no escape and man still has to live with sin and guilt: everything from the rash to psychosis results. Young people don’t escape guilt. I cannot num ber the times young people have approached me in a school, camp or at my office and tearfully unbur dened a heart crying for relief from the guilt pro duced by the sin of some tragic moment. Sexual in volvement, cheating, lies to parents, narcotic habits, acts of crime and a multitude of other things have left unbearable imprints that make life miserable.
THE KING'S BUSINESS
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