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Themes: "Sin's Blindness, Ignorance, Way that Seems Right, Sin's Deception
Many years in the land we now call Germany lived a man called Kaiser Wilhelm. He was the leader of the nation and a brilliant man. If anyone didn't think he was brilliant, they could just ask him and he would be happy to tell them how brilliant he was.
Privately, among themselves, other leaders called him "William the Sudden" because he swung so rapidly between his feelings of optimism and despair. He was so temperamental that people hardly knew what to expect from him.
Those who worked around him did all they could to make sure that he didn't get upset or hear bad news. They wanted him to always think that everything was going well and that he had no problems.
What would you call a friend if he didn't warn you when something was wrong or didn't tell you that you were in danger. Many people do not like the Bible because they do not want to hear "bad" news. They do not like to hear that they are in danger of perishing and being in hell. But would God be a true "friend" if He didn't tell the truth?
The men who worked around the Kaiser decided on a plan to make sure that the Kaiser only heard and read the best news. Each morning, they brought him his own special edition of the newspaper. It was a special imperial edition of which there was only one copy. This made Wilhelm feel very important. He had his own newspaper. No one else in the country had their own newspaper.
To impress him even further, they newspaper he received each morning was printed in gold. He really felt important. Many people want to fell good about themselves and want God to say nice things about them. But the gold paper really wasn't being kind to Wilhelm.
What was different about this newspaper was that it was made up of only certain items from all the world press. These articles had to say good things about Germany, the Kaiser and the war. If a newspaper said anything bad about the Kaiser, they cut it out and threw it into the trash. If an article said something good, they cut it out and placed it into their newspaper.
In this way, they Kaiser read all the good news. It made him think that everything was going well. It made him feel happy.
The men who did this actually tricked the Kaiser. You wouldn't want someone to do that to you, would you? And yet millions of people refuse to listen when God speaks through His word about sin, punishment, and repentance. They just want to hear nice things about God's love and goodness. The "good news" of the gospel is for those who find that because of sin, they need a Savior.
The message preached by John Baptist, the Lord Jesus and His disciples has always been the same: "Repent - change your mind - and believe the gospel". God does have good news for you. It is about His Son and the Eternal Life He offers because of the blood He shed on the cross. But that good news is for the ungodly, sinners, enemies of God. The Lord Jesus said, "I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." Luke 5:32.
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Peter Orasuk
