“This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.” —John 3:19-21
“For nothing is hidden, except to be revealed; nor has anything been secret, but that it would come to light.” —Mark 4:22
“For nothing is hidden that will not become evident, nor anything secret that will not be known and come to light.” —Luke 8:17
Those who are in sin hate exposure. When you take up the responsibility to fulfill the commands of Jesus to expose sin and darkness, bringing the Word of God into conflict with hidden sin, you follow in the footsteps of the prophets. You dash the cries of “Peace, peace!” into pieces. You are a living, breathing, talking reminder that the only right and good path is that of repentance, and yet repentance is the farthest thing from the mind of him who would obstinately hide his sin.
God in His providence has brought us all a perfect example of this very thing, to weep over, pray about, and learn from – the sad case of the Christian business owner Darren Yarbrough of Yarbrough & Sons Heat and Air, of Blanchard, OK. Mr. Yarbrough is a deacon at First Baptist Church of Blanchard, OK, and his wife helps lead a ladies’ Bible study group.
Mr. Yarbrough’s company accepted a contract to renovate the HVAC system at a medical facility in Oklahoma City some time ago. Whether he knew the planned-for nature of that facility is impossible to know (and he ain’t telling), though a modicum of research would have given him all the information he would have needed to know he should at least dig further into the matter. I mean, what else do you think the “Trust Women Foundation” might do? Take a wild guess.
But let’s say he didn’t know. His company proceeded to perform their doubtless quality work as per usual. And then one day they received a phone call from a concerned local Christian, informing them that they were building a child sacrifice center. The receptionist told this Christian that the owners were on vacation and unavailable, and proceeded to treat him rudely. This Christian asked his friend, a Southern Baptist pastor from a nearby town, to stop by and politely reiterate the gravity of the matter. When he arrived, he found that the owner was not in fact on vacation. Rather, both he and his wife were at the building.
The conversation that ensued was not only revealing of the heart of the man – that he loves money more than righteousness – but also that his wife is nearly incapable of self-control, given the way he had to snap his fingers at her and tell her to pipe down, twice.
The obvious and clear correct thing to do, once you have discovered you’ve been constructing a modern Auschwitz, is to leave the job behind. You sustain whatever temporal damage you must. You eat whatever penalty. You get sued if you can’t avoid it. You do what you can to impede the progress of the construction of the killing facility.
Above all, you do not continue making sure this death camp’s HVAC system functions well. There is no excuse for this. It is a no-brainer. That is the bare minimum.
Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked. —Psalm 82:4
A consistent theme throughout Scripture is the mile-wide gap between godly reasoning and wisdom, illuminated by the Holy Spirit, and worldly reasoning and wisdom, led by the pulsing of the glands, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life. Yet because nobody wants to just come right out and say “I am doing this because I love money and status” or things like that, people cover up their sin with excuses and “reasoning”. Often this takes the form of shaming and slandering the one(s) exposing the sin and calling out for repentance.
“Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” —Matthew 5:11-12
They do that because it’s one of the biggest weapons in the devil’s arsenal. Old Reliable. Cloud the issue, cast aspersions, invoke Political Correctness, and redefine love, grace, and harassment such that they become as biblically unrecognisable as they are appealing and comforting to others who wouldn’t want their own sin to be exposed. The one who is trained in the truth is able to distinguish between truth and error.
But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil. —Hebrews 5:14
Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! —Isaiah 5:20
Some easy ways to understand when someone is reasoning in a worldly, sinful fashion are: hypocrisy and inconsistency, twisting words to redefine them, and asking loaded questions so as to cast one’s opponent in a bad light and try to trap him in a false trap. There is a reason why the Pharisees and other enemies of truth talked this way throughout biblical history.
When servants of Jesus responded to the request to call Yarbrough & Sons to repentance by telephone and social media (for example on their Facebook reviews page) (also on their Facebook wall, which has since been scrubbed clean), did Yarbough & Sons repent? Sadly, no. Rather, it would seem that the owner’s son, a student at Oklahoma Baptist University (of which 1st Baptist Blanchard’s pastor Andy Finch is a Trustee), got the green light to prepare and then spam a “First and Final Statement” from the company to all the reviewers who called out their very public sin and asked them to repent.
Cursed is he who accepts a bribe to strike down an innocent person.’ And all the people shall say, “Amen.” —Deuteronomy 27:25
Then, when the author of the previous article about this situation at Pulpit & Pen article contacted Mr. Yarbrough by telephone, asking to meet face to face to discuss like Christian brothers ought, Mr. Yarbrough referred him to the aforementioned Facebook statement and that his pastor had reviewed and approved. Mr. Yarbrough also told the author to talk to his attorney and that his name and phone number had been given to local police.
Does any one of you, when he has a case against his neighbor, dare to go to law before the unrighteous and not before the saints? Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? If the world is judged by you, are you not competent to constitute the smallest law courts? Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more matters of this life? So if you have law courts dealing with matters of this life, do you appoint them as judges who are of no account in the church? I say this to your shame. Is it so, that there is not among you one wise man who will be able to decide between his brethren, but brother goes to law with brother, and that before unbelievers? Actually, then, it is already a defeat for you, that you have lawsuits with one another. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded? On the contrary, you yourselves wrong and defraud. You do this even to your brethren. —1 Corinthians 6:1-8
Despairing of a righteous response from Mr. Yarbrough or anyone else at the company, the author contacted the pastor of First Baptist Church, Dr. Andy Finch.
What else is there to do, especially when the pastor can’t give any more time or attention to this matter because he has to go to an Easter egg hunt?
Woe to him who gets evil gain for his house to put his nest on high, to be delivered from the hand of calamity… Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed and founds a town with violence! —Habakkuk 2:9, 13
He does not put out his money at interest, nor does he take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things will never be shaken. —Psalm 15:5
“In you they have taken bribes to shed blood; you have taken interest and profits, and you have injured your neighbors for gain by oppression, and you have forgotten Me,” declares the Lord GOD. —Ezekiel 22:12
Cry loudly, do not hold back; raise your voice like a trumpet, and declare to My people their transgression and to the house of Jacob their sins. —Isaiah 58:1
He said to His disciples, “It is inevitable that stumbling blocks come, but woe to him through whom they come! It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea, than that he would cause one of these little ones to stumble. Be on your guard! If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. And if he sins against you seven times a day, and returns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ forgive him.” —Luke 17:1-4
What value have “honesty” and “integrity” when your interpretation of those principles leads you to build a place where people can pay to rip their baby’s face off? Why wouldn’t honesty and integrity be communicated by walking off such a project and trusting Almighty God to sustain you through whatever negative repercussions may come?
What do “compassion” and “empathy” mean when you turn your face away from those most in need of compassion and empathy – preborn children?
How are perseverance in a job once begun or lack of bias commendable when you serve as an accomplice to murderers?
How are progressive business practices righteous when you assist in the sacrifice of children? Would an Israelite stonemason receive praise from God for knowingly giving a fair price and faithfully finishing an altar to Molech?
How do exposure of sin and wholehearted calls to repentance constitute harassment, defamation, or lack of empathy? How is publicly shaming someone who is in unrepentant, public, grave sin anything other than the proper biblical action?
How is it unloving to obey the words of Scripture and try to restore a brother who is sinning?
How can someone claim that Jesus did not try to inspire fear, properly understood? Why do Yarbrough & Sons puff out their chests on social media (all the while refusing to meet with individual abolitionists on their own turf and referring all inquiries to their attorney) and boast they do not fear us? And why don’t they fear God?
The story is not finished, sadly. Yarbrough & Sons has doubled down. Now we Christians who have cared enough for the souls of these folks and the babies, part of whose blood will soon be on their hands, are a “pro-life cult” who have engaged in “harassment” and “cyberbullying”. They characterise our intent as a desire to “harm (their) reputation and get people to boycott” them. They choose to complete the contract to build this child sacrifice center because a breach of contract is illegal, rather than trust in God. Their pastor approves. They think this is “liv(ing) the gospel”. They do not discriminate. They’ll “provide HVAC to all people unconditionally”.
You hear that? Brothels, casinos, crack houses, meth labs, sex traffickers, and Nazi gas chambers alike – Yarbrough & Sons will be sure that you fulfill your desires in air-conditioned comfort. Because hey, you can’t just go around turning down good business.
May God have mercy on them.
[Contributed by: Alan Maricle]
Editor’s Note: See also Jordan Hall’s commentary on the Pulpit & Pen radio broadcast for today, March 25, 2016.
