Righteous in a Rotten Town

It's hard walking through a mud puddle without getting some mud splashed on you. And it's harder still, friends, to live in a sin-loving society without being stained by the sin of that society. My Bible tells me it can be done, that a follower of Christ Jesus can be righteous even in a rotten town.

Maybe the town you live in, friend, is full of vice and profanity, and dens of iniquity abound like rats sitting in the sun. I was walking downtown in a busy city, and there on the sidewalk sat a big rat sitting in the sun. I guess he was enjoying a little sunshine in that rat-infested city of sin.

I had to step over that rat because he wouldn't move when he saw me. I was in his territory, after all. Ever since, there has been humanity.

There have been what they call red-light districts in towns. I never knew what a red-light district meant until I saw a house of prostitution in the city of New Orleans many years ago. It literally had red light bulbs over the doors.

If the light was on, it meant the room was occupied. But in our cities today, the entire town has become a red-light district, full of massage parlors and houses of ill fame. I remember what Ralph Barnard told a young pastor who was riding in the car with him as they passed through a certain town.

Barnard pointed at a street and said, young man, there's enough sin going on down that street tonight to bring God's judgment down on the entire country. And there is a passage in the book of Ezekiel, friends, which I'd like to look at today because it can speak to us today in regard to how God sees things in a society. Turn in your Bibles, friends, to Ezekiel chapter 14.

We'll take a look at a couple of verses there today. Chapter 14 of Ezekiel is about the surety of God's judgment on a city, in this case, the city of Jerusalem. But there is mention of three men throughout this passage, and the very mention of these men should grab our attention.

Let's begin reading in verse 12 of chapter 14. The word of the Lord came again to me, saying, Son of man, when the land sinneth against me by trespassing grievously, then will I stretch out mine hand upon it, and will break the staff of the bread thereof, and will send famine upon it, and will cut off man and beast from it. Then God begins a series of statements about sending judgments to a city, and he makes mention of three men over and over again.

Listen to this verse. Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, are in it, they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness, saith the Lord God, implying that a righteous man in a place can make a difference. Abraham had asked God not to destroy Sodom, if he could find so many righteous there, and God said if Abraham could locate them, he would not destroy it, but he only could drum up one, and that was his nephew Lot.

There are several aspects that stand out in this passage that should garner our attention. 1. A town can be known in heaven for its sin. I believe Sodom made a terrible stench up in the nostrils of a holy God, to where even God Almighty couldn't take it any more, and he went down to destroy it.

I believe the old world was so full of corruption and violence in Noah's day that it sent a noxious stink up to the throne room of heaven, to where God said enough, and he drowned the old world because of sin. I believe the town I live in today is so full of vice and sin that it makes heaven reek right now. And I believe the town you live in, is a rotten town as well.

There's enough booze drunk in certain towns tonight that could drown the entire city. There's enough fornication going on in town tonight to have God rain down fire and brimstone out of heaven. There's enough sexual perversion taking place in your community at this instant to condemn the entire city, to bring judgment down upon the whole nation.

It's a truth found in my Bible that a town can be known in heaven for its evil and sin. The second aspect is this. 2. A person in that town can be known in heaven for keeping himself righteous.

Look at righteous Lot and Sodom. Look at righteous Noah in the old world. Look at righteous Daniel in Babylon.

Look at righteous Job and Ur. God takes notice, friends, of his righteous saints who live for him and lies of obedience to him in a disobedient society full of sin. I believe you can be righteous in a rotten town.

I believe your holy life can be like a sparkling diamond against black velvet. I'll never forget the story Stephen Oldford related to me about his pastorate in Manhattan in New York City in the 1960s. He said he took a cab from the to his church in Manhattan, and the cab driver had a Jamaican accent, and the cab driver asked Dr. Oldford where he was going and what kind of work he did, and he told the man he was the pastor of a Baptist church in New York City.

The cabbie replied, Oh, mon, how can you live in such a wicked city like New York? Stephen Oldford said, My good man, I can tell from your accent you are Jamaican. Let me ask you a question. Have you ever seen a bog in Jamaica? Oh, yes, mon.

The bog is black with mire. Stephen Oldford continued. Now let me ask you this.

Have you ever seen one of those astounding white lilies that grows in that bog? Oh, yes, mon. That lily, she's as white as snow. How it grows there, I don't know.

Stephen Oldford said, My dear fellow, you asked me how, as a minister, I can live in New York City. I am a lily in a bog. Like I said, friend, you can be righteous in a rotten town.

And that brings us to our last point, this aspect number three. Your righteous life can make a difference in your sinful town. I remember a church in a small southern town whose members got on fire for God as they grew sick and tired of all the gross sin that had permeated their town and was threatening the spiritual lives of their families.

This church banded together. They spent hours on their faces in the sanctuary of that country church, crying out to God to come clean up their town for the sake of their teenagers and children. At the head of that town was an infamous abortion clinic that had performed thousands of bloody abortions.

It was a bloody factory of murder and ruin. And this group of Christians began to faithfully pray that God would come and clean up their town. Well, in a few months' time, that abortion clinic closed down, and that country church pooled their money together and bought it, cleaned it up, and turned it into a Christian bookstore.

Light had driven out the darkness in that town because some folks had gotten sick of sin and tired of the devil running all over them. Listen, friend, you can be that righteous one in your rotten town. The choice is yours.

It's up to you to make a difference. Let's make a difference for this younger generation that's coming up before us that doesn't know the God of the Bible, that doesn't believe the Bible at all. Let's make a difference with our lives so they too can come to know the Lord Jesus Christ.

Let us pray.