Sunday, February 20, 2011

The Back of a Billboard


     Imagine driving down the interstate and the many advertising billboards one may see in a given day.  By way of marketing and advertising many of them have images of a “cool, mountain stream” and guys fishing and a cooler of beer or the picture of a sports night at a friend’s house with all the beer and chips and good times or the night on the town just the two of them, a romantic setting in a restaurant with a bottle of Champaign.  All and all it looks so wonderful.  It must be amazing to be an adult our young people might think – “we can finally do what we want to do and enjoy ourselves and have a ‘good time’.”  It is possible that even worse could happen: our young people go out and find a way to get alcohol by some immoral means or person who cares nothing for their souls or the consequences that are about to be produced by these actions.
     We are not usually able to see the backs of billboards because of the way they are strategically positioned along our highways for obvious reasons as seen in the picture above.  They are dirty, nasty, and rusted.    No one wants to see the back of the billboard.  As consumers, they want us to buy their products or services.  Much the same way, advertisers do not want us to see the consequences and devastating effects of sin.  It is truly an ugly sight.  The effects of sin in an individual’s life will break the heart of those closest to them.  There are immediate consequences to the sinner (Prov. 11:6), as well as eternal consequences to be considered (Romans 6:23; Isaiah 59:1-2). 
The front of the billboard gives that enticing picture which appeals to our “fleshly lusts” and the back of the billboard symbolizes sin’s end result and consequences.  Peter warns us to “abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul” (1 Peter 2:11).  The war of which Peter speaks is that battle within man’s own heart: the spiritual vs. the flesh.  James teaches us of the progression from temptation to sin and even the end result:
“But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death” (James 1:14-15).
     The progression from temptation to death is met with our “own lust.”  This is why Peter warns us to abstain from fleshly lusts.  It is truly a war within each of us.  If each temptation we face is an attempt to appeal to my own lust, then I must arm myself, as did Jesus.  He faced temptation and that which might have appealed to his own desires at that time.  Consider that Jesus had been fasting “forty days and nights” and He was hungry (Matthew 4:2).  His fleshly desire would have been for food. 
“And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.  But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:3-4).
     The apostle Paul admonished the Roman Christians to “put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof” (Romans 13:14).  We learn that we are to not give opportunity for the temptation.  Through Bible study, which produces faith in God (Romans 10:17) and prayer for help, I can get through the temptations, which befall me (Philippians 4:6-8; Hebrews 4:14-16).  The apostle Paul also reminds me that there is a “way to escape” the temptation (1 Corinthians 10:13).
     The backside of the billboard is filthy, dirty, rusty and ugly.  So is SIN and what it does to our lives!  May we heed the warnings of the apostle John:
“Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.  For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.  And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever” (1 John 2:15-17).
     Not only does sin bring about immediate consequences, which are devastating to our lives and to those around us, but also there are eternal consequences.  Paul warns of these consequences:
“Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.” (Galatians 5:19-21).
“Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Corinthians 6:9-10).
 “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ” (Romans 6:23).
     John also reminds Christians if we do give into temptation to sin how “we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous” (1 John 2:1).  He also tells us “if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).  May we like Christ only desire to do the will of God (1 Peter 4:2).