To the pure, all things are pure; but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their mind and their conscience are defiled. They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him, being detestable and disobedient and worthless for any good deed. – Titus 1:15-16
As I’m sure many of you have been following, Planned Parenthood has been getting lambasted on social media in the aftermath of the sting operation by Center for Medical Progress. This is not to discuss the video in question – although the casual brutality of Deborah Nucatola, the Planned Parenthood senior director of medical services, while discussing the vivisection and murder of children, was horrifying – not titillating, as Slate speculated. That very sort of comment is the problem we need to address, however – to the defiled, nothing is pure. You can’t have a righteous anger. It can only be frothing rage. You can’t be appalled by the sheer casual brutality in which dismemberment and murder is discussed. You have to be sexually excited by the discussion – as abjectly filthy as the very idea of that prospect is to us. Yet, that is what their support base is fed – in tiny morsels of untruths. You can’t have a genuine horror at the atrocity being perpetrated on children just like our own- in my case, like mine, in my wife’s womb, and of a similar age to the ones spoken of being torn apart, crushed, and murdered in such a cavalier fashion. You can’t possibly imagine, for instance, the tiny body of your stillborn daughter – purposefully torn apart by a murderer like those who haunt abortion clinics. It’s titillating. The very thought of such abomination makes me physically ill – but that’s what they think of you, folks. While yes, it is lurid – and grotesque – it is an accurate depiction of what actually happens when they murder children – every day. But, you know – nobody can actually believe that matters. What about women’s rights to reproductive health? (Well, except the 26 million we’ve murdered. But they, apparently, had it coming.)
Yet, of course, as Planned Parenthood assured us today, they do apologize for the tone of Ms. Nucatola’s remarks. Right. As if the symptom is the actual cause. No, while that tone “does not reflect that compassion” that Planned Parenthood says it has as their “top priority” – notice what they said there. “Our top priority is the compassionate care that we provide.” To the crushed and/or vivisected baby? Oh, wait. What? Do they really think the actual concern is that talk of crushing and vivisection of the baby is horrifying people because it is inconsiderate of the living patient? Now, don’t get me wrong – I don’t believe that for a minute. However, it is obvious that they don’t care about the babies. They are tissue, remember? Back to that in a second. It is equally apparent that they know that we do, however.
See, it is simultaneously crafted to gull the unwary into thinking that they intend to be compassionate to the babies AND the mothers – but to also put one in the eye of their critics who know better – and actually read English proficiently, by the by. What they actually just said was that it was inconsiderate to literally describe what they do to other human beings – after all, a lack of euphemisms (aka compassion) drives away paying customers. Got to have that bedside manner intact so they won’t be bothered so much by our sucking their babies’ brains out through a tube. After we punch a hole in their heads. This is the problem, folks. Yes, yes, all sorts of people hashtagged #PPSellsBabyParts – the problem is, the other side doesn’t care. Nobody who has deceived themselves into thinking murdering over a million children per year for their own convenience is okay will bat an eyelash over “use for medical research.” Nobody. Not one. Why? Because you don’t have any common ground with such a hellish worldview, Christian. They redefine human beings into unpersons, reduce them to “parasitic tissue,” schedule their murders, fry their skin off, suck their brains out, hack their limbs off, dump them into an incinerator – but it’s an issue for them that someone uses that corpse for science? Think about this. Not only do you have nothing in common with such a hellish worldview, but you want nothing in common with it.
The real issue, as always, is a heart issue. A mind issue. Their conscience is defiled. A man who is convinced that a proper solution to the slaking of their own lusts – or that of another’s – is to kill the one person innocent of that crime is a monster of gargantuan proportions. In our last post, we spoke of the modern Molech. Caananite society was to be wiped from the face of the earth for precisely this reason – the murder of innocents on the altar. Except nowadays, the altar is that of our own convenience and “liberty”. Liberty from the consequences of our own sinful actions – and isn’t that a handy scapegoat? The one incapable of defending themselves. It is a horror, an abomination. A blight on the face of this earth that rivals that of every death camp Germany ever built. Yet, in their minds, it is just our titillation at the carnage. Their minds are defiled. Sin has a noetic effect. This, friends, is what “nothing is pure” means. It means that our hatred for sin is seen as perversion, and that their murders are seen as virtuous exercise, and a loving, compassionate thing to do. Everything is topsy turvy. They call evil good, and good evil. Those woes? Just a myth!
There is no reasoning from there to here. The entirety of man is depraved. You cannot appeal to his “better nature”. Man is a slave to sin. He does his master’s bidding – and finds it very good. He loves it. Not only that, but the checks on sin have been removed, and common grace’s blessing is slowly withdrawn from us, as a people. There is no commonality, no point of contact which we both, as antithetical worldviews, possess as a point of contact. There is nothing that you can point to, from that system, that you can grab on to, and say, look, this is real, this is rational. Everything is topsy turvy. Their liberty is slavery. We are not only down the rabbit hole, we are in the midst of the Red Queen’s coterie, and pleading for a single sane ear to heed us, in the busily chattering crowds of sycophantic drones. You will find none. All is madness, death, and vanity.
But God. I know you like those two words. I know I do, too. You probably know this already, but if you don’t, look up the instances where “But God” is used. Your pastor probably won’t thank me for it – because that’s a great sermon transition I just ruined for him – but trust me, it’s worth it.
But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, so that no man may boast before God. But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, so that, just as it is written, “LET HIM WHO BOASTS, BOAST IN THE LORD.” – 1 Cor. 1:27-31
See, while there is horror, abomination, and depravity all around us – But God. He chose us. The foolish. The base. The despised. It is by His doing that we are united to Christ, to His wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption! So, why do we want common ground with that horror, abomination, and depravity, anyway? The next verse in Titus, to return to that book, is very important.
Chapter 2 starts with this:
But as for you, speak the things which are fitting for sound doctrine.
Another but – but with our practical command. They will do what they do. Sinners gonna sin. As for you – speak fitting things. Sound doctrine. In verses 5 and 7, notice a word that shows up in both. Pure. Notice in verse 4 – so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children – needed, timely advice – the elder are to instruct the younger. They are both to be sensible. σωφρονέω, in opposition to the ἀδόκιμος νοῦς of Romans 1:28. The μεμιαμμένοις – the defiled – have a mind that is μιαίνω – defiled. The ἁγνάς – the pure – have purity – ἀδιαφθορία. This continues throughout the rest of the chapter. Purity of doctrine. Sound in speech, beyond reproach.
For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds. These things speak and exhort and reprove with all authority. Let no one disregard you. – Titus 2:11-15
Grace instructs. Deny ungodliness, and worldly desires – desires that have been twisted into lesser echoes of their initial created state. Live sensibly – with a clear mind – be transformed by the renewing of your mind. See sanctification above. Live righteously, for God – in this present age. (Which is now, folks!) Looking ahead to the hope heralded by the return and appearing of the glory of Christ. We were redeemed, in order that He might purify us. That is the answer for the depraved mind. For the defiled mind. The only point of contact for fallen humanity is in their creation in His image. In their innate knowledge of Him, as His creatures, which they cannot escape, and is ever before and within them; ineradicably stamped upon every molecule, and upon their very soul, tattered and torn though it may be. Press the antithesis between what they know they are, and what they say they are. Push every inconsistency of their patchwork belief system to absurdity. But keep bringing it back to who they really are. A person made in the image of God – who knows what He should do, doesn’t do it, and thus sins against his Maker. Someone who needs to repent of their sins, cast themselves upon His mercy, and seek the one who is Just and Justifier. The only one who can make them clean, and forgive their trespasses. They can’t repair their soul. They can’t make themselves love good, and hate evil. They are slaves. But God…
We know the only One who can set men free – even from their abominable slavery to the slaughter of innocents, and so many other heinous offenses against the Most High. These things speak and exhort and reprove with all authority. Let no one disregard you.