Romans 3:9-20 & Genesis 6:6
9 “What then? Are we better than they? Not at all. For we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin. 10 As it is written: ‘There is none righteous, no, not one; 11 There is none who understands; there is none who seeks after God. 12 They have all turned aside; they have together become unprofitable; there is none who does good, no, not one.’ 13 ‘Their throat is an open tomb; with their tongues they have practiced deceit’; ‘The poison of asps is under their lips’; 14 ‘Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.’
15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood; 16 Destruction and misery are in their ways; 17 And the way of peace they have not known.’ 18 ‘There is no fear of God before their eyes.’ 19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. 20 Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.”
Genesis 6:6 “And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.”
Last week, my family and I and several other pastors attended an associational meeting in the US. During the meeting, we had a workshop on Human Trafficking. This was an eye-opening experience, and we learned that this was a global problem with people from all over the world being bought and sold for their work. We also had a session on sex trafficking, and this was seriously heartbreaking. This dear brother who led the sessions is one of the hands-on people who deal in the trafficking intervention ministries.
They attend hotels where the vast majority of people there are sex workers; they live in dangerous conditions and expose themselves to many hurts and injuries. He often just came and sat in the vehicle to give out hygiene kits, free water, and food as needed. Imagine a hotel with hundreds of rooms rented by the pimps for a weekend, and client after client comes in for 3 or 4 days, and this goes on weekend after weekend. Many of these ladies have kids, and they share childcare duties as the other moms do their business.
Often, as Christians, we tend to live in a bit of a bubble. We forget that there is real evil in the world done by people who use and abuse others for money and power. We forget that there are real women and real children who live through these horrors each day. These are the people that need our prayers! In addition to our prayers, they need actual help, actual hands-on people to give them some hope. Too many of us Christians are not helping; most of us just don’t know where to start, and many don’t want to see the true evils of this world.
This dear brother is also involved in helping kids escape the sex trafficking industry. Yes, he actually rescues kids and helps them get back to some sort of normalcy, whatever that means. We learned that the majority of kids that are taken are boys, that they can earn their captors in the range of $400-500K in a year, and once used up, they are often abandoned after having been physically, emotionally, and mentally scarred for life. Many are never coming home, and we learned that there is an estimate that some 40,000,000 are missing worldwide.
Yes, you read that right – 40,000,000. The task may seem overwhelming and seemingly insurmountable; however, with there being over 1 billion Christians in the world, this brother and many like him are trying to do what they can to make a difference.
In our text of Romans, we see God lay out the evil that is mankind. We are evil to the core. There is nothing good in us, not even a small amount. We don’t think we are that bad, and by doing so, we cheapen the price that Jesus paid for our souls to redeem us from hell. In Genesis 6:6, we are reminded that the evil on the earth became so bad it grieved God that He had made man. In Genesis 1-2, we were the pinnacle of His creation; we were good. But in Genesis 6, God was grieved that He had made us. We know what happened next: the Great Flood of Noah was sent to kill everyone except those that got into the Ark. Sadly, just 8 people made it through that judgment.
Jesus told us in the Bible, but as it was in the days of Noah, so it would be near the end. I cannot imagine how grieved God must be, looking at the state of the earth and the people right now. We are abusing children at an alarming rate; there are people who take these innocent ones and use them up for sex by the millions. The people hurting these kids have no remorse; they are just commodities to be bought, sold, used, and discarded.
By the way, unless we become too arrogant and judgmental, were it not for the grace of God and the salvation we have in Him, we could be one of ‘those’ people. We often forget that we are reprobate sinners who Jesus has saved. Take the time to thank God that Jesus came looking for us and that He has saved us.
The level of evil out there is deep. The level of disregard for God is even deeper, and the simple hatred for mankind, for children, is real. I don’t know what God will do to these men and women who steal and abuse children. By God’s grace, many of these evil persons can still be saved. They are alive and live under the loving, kind, merciful grace of God. But woe to those who die without Jesus.
Hug your kids, hug your grandkids, love on them, be vigilant, and protect them; evil persons are coming for them. I do not see how our world can become any more evil than it is right now. I cannot imagine what that will look like. I don’t want to imagine what that will look like.
By the way, there is nowhere on earth that is safe from human trafficking – nowhere. Rural areas are just as susceptible as cities; these predators are everywhere. We, as dads, usually take more care to protect our daughters, but I learned that 50-60% of the kids trafficked are boys. We need to keep an eye out for all of our kids.
What can we do in the shadow of a very daunting task? We need to open our eyes; men and women are evil. Find out if your church is helping a man, a woman, or a team that may be actively helping to find these kids. Many of the kids taken are in the foster care system. What if more Christian homes opened their doors to foster kids and our churches helped out?
Most churches in North America need more foster parents for kids, and this is a way we could rescue, protect, and preserve some of the children out there. I will admit that the task at hand is overwhelming; frankly, it haunts me.
Not taking action is not an option; we must do all we can. Jesus is coming soon; let Him find us working to share the Gospel, showing God’s love, serving the most vulnerable, and letting our lights shine in a dark and evil world. Jesus is the light that will kill the darkness.
John 1: 1-5, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him, nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.”
God bless you,
Dr. Sean Gooding
Pastor of Mississauga Missionary Baptist Church
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