Ten years later…what have we learned? The 10^th Anniversary of the 9/11 Attack on America…
              
             Pastor Bob Leroe, Cliftondale Congregational Church, Saugus, Massachusetts

&“Once you were dead because of your transgressions and sins. You used to live like the rest of the world, full of sin, obeying Satan, the power of the air. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God. All of us used to live that way, following the passions and desires of our evil nature. We were born with a sinful nature, and we were under God’s wrath just like everyone else. But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ, even when we were dead in transgressions--it is by grace you have been saved.” -Ephesians 2:1-5

C.S. Lewis observed that human depravity should surprise Christians the least. Only those with a naďve, idealistic view of the world are shocked by terrorism and war. Believers detest such things, we’re sickened by them, but we expect them…because we understand fallen human nature. The human race has been defiled and disabled by sin. When God first created man and woman, they were innocent, but they fell and, in their rebellion, they turned from God. The Bible is clear that from the day sin entered the world, we’ve been ruined by the Fall and genetically altered: we’re tainted, polluted, broken, and corrupted by our sin nature. “To err is human.” We are imperfect children of disobedience. We’re unresponsive to God’s call. We’ve lost the ability to fully trust and fully obey God.

Sin produces such a fatal defect in people. Sin is part of our nature, what’s been called the Lucifer gene in our DNA. Sin permeates to the core of our lives like a defect of the heart, which Jeremiah describes as “deceitfully wicked” (17:9). Eric Hoffer noted, “We are beasts masquerading as men.” We hope for a brighter tomorrow, but there can be no Heaven on earth while there is sin within us. We know what it is like to be forgiven, but we do not know what it is like to be whole.

9/11 tells us what people are capable of…Scripture tells us why. The ultimate enemy is sin. Understanding human depravity helps us to make sense of what happened ten years ago. Education and diplomacy will not resolve this sickness; neither will war. We’ve been taught the Golden Rule; we’ve committed it to memory, but we haven’t committed it to life. We know right from wrong, but we still choose sin.

9/11 destroyed the myth that people are basically good. It destroyed the denial of evil. It revealed the fallacy of moral relativism, that we can do as we like. In a world without absolutes, anything can be justified. If there is no right or wrong, all we’re left with is arbitrary preferences. It showed us that we live in a broken world in desperate need of redemption. We can have all the peace rallies we want, but until we find peace with God, there will be no peace. Since God has spoken, it matters how we live and treat one another.

9/11 destroyed the myth that we don’t need God; that we can get by perfectly well

without Him. The height of sin is not to feel any need of the grace of God. Pride is the

essence of sin. Self-made people find the very idea that Jesus died to take our punishment offensive; they aren’t asking to be rescued. In Romans 8:7-8, Paul says, “The sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.”

It takes events like 9/11 to remind us that we live in a fallen world. 9/11 is a reality check. Charles Spurgeon remarked: “He who doubts human depravity had better begin to study himself.” Sin blinds and deludes us into thinking we’re OK. A Moslem terrorist wrote, “No man believes he is evil.” John the Apostle writes, “If we claim to be without sin we deceive ourselves” (I John 1:8).

Some people may conclude that God is dead, or He has forsaken us. What we learn from 9/11 is that the human race is dead—spiritually and morally.

God does not create unbelief in people’s hearts. Unbelief is a condition of the human will. God is not the Author of sin, but He can raise those who are spiritually dead. After explaining the extent of our depravity in Ephesians 2, Paul continues, verses 4-5: “But because of His great love for us, God, Who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ, even when we were dead in transgressions--it is by grace you have been saved”. The more we understand our utterly lost condition, the more we will appreciate our deliverance.

We want our children to feel safe in an unsafe world. Our true safety comes from God alone. Our “safe place” is not where we live; our safe place is in Christ. He is our life! If we base our safety on anything other than Christ, we will come to realize how utterly insufficient that security is.

Chaplain (COL) Bob Jenkins, a friend of mine who was at the Pentagon that day, has a message for us this 9/11: “Let us focus on our faith, and not on our fear.” Faith is something we hold onto, regardless of what happens. Faith sustains us. Faith is refusing to panic when events rush out of control. Faith is confidence in God’s faithfulness in an uncertain world, on an uncharted course, toward an unknown future. No matter what happens, God will be with us, and there will ultimately be justice—if not in this life, in the life to come.

So let’s not be discouraged by all the evil in the world. When others are, there’s our chance to tell of sin’s Remedy. What Christ has done for us is not a reward, but a rescue. Christ took the initiative in saving us. And when He returns, all that is wrong about this world will be righted. There will be a new Heaven and a new Earth.

Meanwhile, walking with our Lord may not always be an easy road, but it is a safe one. We can echo the confidence of Psalm 118: “The Lord is with me; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?” An early Christian martyr said, “You may kill us, but you cannot harm us.” Jesus is our “safe place”, and He will never leave us.

To the Terrorist…

You who would hold the sky captive,
The sea prisoner,
The land in chains…
You who hide in caves,
Retreat to the wilderness,
Disappear behind false names and forged papers…
You who smuggle guns and arms,
Hide rockets in cities and bombs in homes,
Build weapons against the innocent and the bystander…
You whose designs are destruction,
Whose plans are fear,
Whose joy is hate…
You who harden your hearts
And wrap yourselves in death…
What evil has robbed you of your love,
Your compassion,
Your goodness,
Your humanity?
What lies have invaded your minds
So that you choose to die in order to kill?
We who love our lives and liberty
Stand firm and strong against terror.
We will defend our nation and our people.
We will protect our land and our homes.
And we pray for you to find hope and comfort
In lives of peace.

  Website> www.cliftondalecc.blogspot.com