Transcript
It is, I think, no secret that we live in changing times.
Values that in the Western world we have a long-held dear and that much of our civilization
is built on are increasingly being dismantled and they're being replaced by other values.
Let me give you four, three, four examples of how that manifests itself in our current
society.
Some of these you will be very familiar with because they've been in the news a lot.
Some of these perhaps not so much because they're happening behind the scenes but they
are everything is potent and far-reaching.
The first changing value that we have seen in the last 30 or 40 decades in particular
is what I would call the rise of radical feminism.
Now feminism in the sense of equal pay for equal job or the ability to have a voice at
the table by women has been around for many decades going back all the way to the beginning
of the last century.
But radical feminism is a lot more than that.
Radical feminism isn't satisfied with equal pay for equal job.
Radical feminism in its extreme version is looking to remove the biological bases of
the sexes.
No longer is a woman a woman because she is born a girl or a man a man because he is born
a boy.
There is a separation between biological gender and personality gender if you will.
And so I may be born a boy but I really feel like a girl or I may be born a girl but I
really feel like a man.
Hence the rise of all the discussions in our society concerning transgender ism a transgendered
person is a person who feels he or she is the wrong gender in keeping with the biological
body and gender now for a lot of people in today's society is on a continuum between
masculinity and femininity.
You may be a boy here you may be a girl here biologically but in between is a whole range
as many as 12 now of sexual identity preferences that you might adopt.
And so just a week and a half ago in Cleveland Ohio city council seriously debated a proposition
that would allow transgendered persons to use the bathroom of their choice and not only
the bathroom but the locker room and the shower rooms can you imagine what that does when
you have your little girl in a bathroom and a transgendered person of the opposite sex
comes around parading naked.
You can imagine the backlash to that in Cleveland Ohio is pretty significant a lot of people
were at that meeting for that discussion I don't recall that any decision on that has
been reached but that is where we're heading in society.
Second area where we see values change and this you know about all too well is the rise
or the legitimization of homosexuality and same sex marriage until I believe 1982 homosexuality
was a criminal offense in Canada and until the early 70s it was considered a psychological
disorder for which people needed to be treated.
Can you imagine today going on record saying homosexuality is wrong or is disordered you
could laugh out of court and same sex marriage well that has never been heard of in previous
generations until recently in fact I have it on good authority that you can study any
ancient culture you want including cultures that practiced homosexuality extensively none
has ever gone on record saying they ought to get married or they should be allowed to
get married and yet that's where we find ourselves in the western world today.
Third area that I would address is changing notions of criminality if you're following
the news then you will know that in the city of Ferguson Missouri the whole city is on
edge the National Guard has been mobilized why because the grand jury is expected to
come out with a judgment perhaps already tomorrow on whether or not officer Darren Brown should
be charged with the shooting death or Darren Wilson pardon me Darren Wilson should be charged
with the shooting death of Michael Brown the young man who was caught jaywalking and whose
death at the hand of the policeman created incredible riots the whole city is on edge
why because we live in a day and age where the definition of criminality is changing
see it used to be that here is the law given transcendently by God we'll talk more about
that in a moment and that everybody was equal before the law poor and old young and white
and brown and whatever else because that's what scripture dictates Deuteronomy 16 talks
about not giving preferences to the rich or giving preferences to the poor but everybody
is judged equally well that has rapidly been changing in today's society and it has been
changing because criminality is increasingly less an issue of personal responsibility than
it is a function of my response to the way that society has treated me and so if I am
disadvantaged sociologically or financially or economically then a different set of rules
apply to me then they apply to somebody else and so this past week saw the oddity of the
Jordanian Parliament the Jordanian Parliament celebrating as heroes the two young Palestinian
men who invaded a Jewish synagogue slaughtered and I use that word advisedly because they
used meat cleavers slaughtered four Israeli American rabbis and shot a Druze policeman
and the Jordanian Parliament says we celebrate the Parliament said we celebrate them as heroes
why because it is said their response is a natural response to the ongoing occupation
see our definition of criminality is rapidly changing in the Western world one more example
just very quickly of how values are changing and this may surprise you it's the redefinition
or the redefining of multiculturalism I've always thought of multiculturalism as an emphasis
on people of different backgrounds and nationalities living together in mutual peace and respect
wouldn't you think that would make sense well that's not where it's gone in today's society
the leading critics of today's society move that definition much further along and multiculturalism
now is the philosophical position that no single culture in the world is superior to
another culture in fact Western culture with all of its accomplishments is often critiqued
as being inferior to some primitive African culture because who is to say that our culture
of thrift hard work and economic development is in any way superior to a culture where
you have people eating each other for example that's extreme but that's where it's going
the result is that increasingly there is a devaluation of the values that we have embraced
as a Western world and those values are not beyond criticism that's not the point but
they're being replaced by other values that are other cultural values that are equally
important and so we find ourselves in a situation for example where you've heard this now for
years Christmas greetings get thrown out the window right because now it becomes seasons
greetings why well because that's claiming superiority of a Christian tradition and it's
going to make other people feel bad so we have to dial down our values so that everybody
else feels okay do you get where I'm going with that and these are only four examples
of what is happening in the world in which we live now leave aside for a moment the question
of is this a good thing or a bad thing or is it an indifferent thing the pros and cons
I'm sure to each of those but what I want us to understand this morning and that's that's
what I'm trying to get at is what do you think is the driving force that has made these kinds
of cultural changes possible in as few as three or four decades understand societies
are very hard to change and values that are embraced in a peep among the people can last
for generations and yet here we are 10 20 30 40 years in and our value system in many
ways is in the process of being turned upside down there's a lot of factors that have gone
into that including the use of cultural media and all kinds of other things but the driving
force is the appeal to justice and the appeal to fairness why should a woman get equal pay
with a man and why should a woman have an equal voice at the table and be able to apply
for any job that he applies for if she's capable of doing it it's an issue of justice and fairness
why why is cleveland city hall arguing about letting a transgendered person
a person who is other than what they are biologically parade naked in a locker room
or a washroom or a bathroom at the expense of other people who use that facility
if it isn't an argument for justice and equal rights you see that and why
why should homosexuals be allowed to get married whenever in the course of human history they have
been allowed to get married because it is a question of human rights it is a question
of justice and see that's what puts christians in a bind because as we saw last week and as i briefly
referenced earlier on if anybody in the world is committed to justice it ought to be god's people
because in the bible the term righteousness and justice are always synonymous you can replace one
with the other and god is a god of justice the kingdom of god when it comes at the end of history
is a kingdom of absolute justice and absolute righteousness and so when society pushes upon us
cultural decisions in the name of justice and in the name of righteousness most christians don't
know where to go with it they feel intuitively there is something wrong here about where we're
going as a society but they don't know where we got off the rails and they don't know how to respond
to it and so the result is that christians lose their voice in the public square because the world
doesn't mind if you are religious as long as it doesn't influence the decisions that you make how
you live your life or how you vote and at the same time in losing your voice the world gets
bolder and more brazen they push through legalization of things until black becomes white and white becomes
black and you end up exactly where isaiah is talking about when he says in chapter 5 verse 20
woe to those who call evil good good evil who put darkness for light light for darkness
bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter you see the inversion of values here it is possible
to become so twisted in your thinking that right becomes wrong and wrong becomes right
unless you think that only happened in ancient history this is precisely where roman's one ends after paul describes the process
by which a society goes down the drain listen to roman's one verse 32 he lists a whole list of things
that people do that are wrong we'll refer to that later on and then he says although they know god's
righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death they not only continue to do these
very things but they approve of those who practice them and i've talked about that verse before
understand with me that it's one thing to do something that is wrong and know that it is wrong
you and i may sin might even steal or lie or carry on who knows it's one thing to do things that are
wrong and know that what you're doing is wrong isn't that true because then at least you know
what needs to be done to change it you have a guilty conscience you can be held accountable
they not only do those things that's bad enough but what else do they do
they approve those who do you know what that means that means their value system now has changed
and it's no longer bad to lie it's no longer bad to steal it's no longer bad to commit adultery
it's no longer bad to fool around with your neighbor's wife it is okay because the values
have changed bitter has become sweet and all the other stuff that isaiah is talking about
that i submit to you is increasingly where we're finding ourselves in today's society so the
question is how do we get there and equally important how do we get out of there well we
don't have a lot of time but let me summarize and say that roman's chapter one lists for us
four decisions deliberate decisions that a people make that lead them inevitably down this path
you don't just wake up one morning and have your whole value system changed
you don't just wake up one morning and say well from now on all of the bad things that i used to
think were bad are now good no no it is a process and i'm going to belabor the process for a few
moments because the solution to the downward slide of our society lies in understanding the process
so that we can identify it and stand against that so roman's chapter four roman's chapter one talks
about four progressive choices four progressive choices that a people group make to end up where
they end up choice number one is they exchanged the truth about god for a lie listen to how roman's
puts it beginning at verse 18 the wrath of god is being revealed from heaven against all godlessness
and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness since what may be known about
god is plain to them because god has made it plain to them for since the creation of the world god's
invisible qualities his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen being understood
from what has been made so that men are without excuse what's paul saying that what are you saying
is that anybody that has ever been born into this world lived in whatever time and society in which
they live they can know two things about god simply by looking at nature number one god exists
number two god's all-powerful everybody has the general revelation and the implication then is
people ought to be seeking after god because if he created us and he is all-powerful wouldn't it
be a smart thing to try to get to know him and to try to live the way that he wants you to live
doesn't that make good sense but see we don't want to do that why because by our wickedness
we suppress the truth we don't like god telling us what to do so we make excuses that there
is no god or that if he is he is not fair so that i can be justified in deciding for myself the
difference between right and wrong remember back in the garden the choice adam and eve made
was the choice not to listen to god concerning the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that god
says is going to kill you they decided to make that choice themselves so that they could be god
in place of god and so the result of all of that is this the result of that is that god
give me a moment here
in the kingdom of god as you know god is at the center and in biblical justice it's god
who decides right and wrong and then it is our obligation to practice that in our relationships
with each other but when by our wickedness we suppress the truth we rob ourselves of god's
input because we don't believe that he exists or that he has a right to speak into our lives
and now justice in the secular world is not based on a transcendent god who speaks his values into
our lives it is based on our own self-righteousness and now what happens is that without the north
star to guide us it's only a question of time before we rewrite the difference between right
and wrong on the basis of our own experience and our own likes and dislikes to remember god said
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is going to kill you adam and eve looked at the tree
of the knowledge of good and evil and what it did look like good for food a delight to the eyes
and desired to make one wise the downward decline of an individual the downward decline of a society
always begins with a dethroning of god and then it doesn't matter whether you become an atheist
or whether you just begin to ignore it you just stop listening to god you stop believing the
scriptures you start making up reasons why god doesn't mean what he says that he means
you become the master of your own soul the captain of your own identity destiny you define the
difference between right and wrong that is where the process starts by wickedness we suppress the
truth and even as christians i hate to tell you this we're not immune to this are we
because most of us read the bible pretty selectively and things we don't like
we find a thousand and one reasons to say well i don't really believe that or i don't really have
to believe i have to practice that as if we're wiser than god i love those chapters in the book
of joe where god comes along and he thunders and he says where were you when i created the world you
smarty pants i know much better than you do because i know the end from the beginning step one
is we exchange the truth for a lie step number two we reject or isaiah 24 puts it this way
they have rejected the law of the lord almighty and spurned the word of the holy one of israel we
just talked about that and step number two is they exchange one god for another although they
claim to be wise they became fools and they exchanged the glory of the immortal gone for
images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles they exchanged the truth of
god for a lie and worshiped and served created things rather than the creator who is forever
praised amen we are inherently religious people that is to say we inherently know
that we depend on something or somebody outside of ourselves to give us life
and if we reject a true god of the universe who created us and who sustains us by his word of
power then we've got to find other gods and the problem in finding other gods is that whoever you
look to to meet the deepest needs of your life now becomes the source of authority in your life
and here's the irony look at this again here is the irony we reject the biblical notion of justice
we don't want god telling us what to do we want to figure it out for ourselves but we need somebody
bigger than us telling us what to do now here's the big question mark who do you think in today's
society plays the role of god who decides the difference between right and wrong who decides
who ought to be punished and who ought to be rewarded well it becomes the state
it becomes the legislators the politicians the judges and the juries they decide what is right
and wrong and they decide now whether you're good or whether you're bad
and and what law you're going to be held accountable by and they do that based on what
is society when a judge rules today on issues of pornography or on issues of what is acceptable
what is the basis on which that judgment is made by what is acceptable in society
but what is acceptable in society changes all the time and if you don't have god to determine
what is right or what is wrong then it's only a matter of time before you slide down in the sewer
and so in england just this past week of the week before big uproar about a new sex education
program that is being imposed on the children in school it's called the brooks traffic light
curriculum and it looks like this you won't be able to read all of this perhaps from where you're
sitting but green behaviors are deemed as normal acceptable behaviors among kids this is for the
ages 13 to 17 amber behaviors are the behaviors that are said to be awarding sign of teachers
and red behaviors are behaviors that that need to be addressed and stopped this is meant as a
teaching tool for teachers understand this to determine what is appropriate or what is not
appropriate now here is what the big scandal is because this particular item down here
says that green behaviors includes and i'm going to read this and if you got young kids with you
block their ears for a moment consenting oral or penetrative sex with others of the same or
opposite gender who are of similar age and developmental ability now here's my question
to you do you want your 13 year old in school being taught it is okay for him or her to go out
and have sex at the age of 13 really now this is being communicated in all seriousness and the
teachers are expected to use this as a guideline while you say what is amber behavior or what is
red behavior well you can download the thing if you look for traffic sex traffic uk online comes
out of australia i think originally and you'll shake your head but that's where we are because
if it's not scripture who determines what's right or wrong then what does well it's what we become
accustomed to and what was wrong 20 years ago is normal now and i can guarantee you the way society
is going that what is normal now or what is viewed as wrong now will be normal in another five ten
or 20 years that's the slide of today's society aren't you glad you came to church today
i emphasize this because if the church doesn't wake up and understand what the issues are
we will not only lose the battle for society which is pretty much already gone
but you lose the battle for your children because your children are caught up in this
every day of the week so it begins with a rejection of biblical truth concerning god
it now deteriorates into a place where something other than god becomes the guiding life in in my
life and really do i want some secular teacher imposing their values on my child in school
number three gets worse number three they exchange what is natural for unnatural because
roman's one goes on because of this god gave them over to shameful lusts even their women exchange
natural relations for unnatural ones in the same way men also abandoned natural relations with women
and were inflamed with lust for one another men committed indecent acts with other men here you
have the rise of homosexuality now hear me well i've said this before i'll say it again we need
to have great compassion for people who struggle with sexual identity issues there are few things
in life more painful or harder to deal with and don't ever go pointing fingers or preaching at
somebody who finds himself in that situation from a self-righteous position because truth of the
matter is their struggles aren't any different from our struggles in terms of sexuality and in
terms of a propriety nature of life that said understand also that according to scripture
whatever the root causes of homosexuality may be they are tied in to the decisions we make as a
society in terms of rejecting god creating other gods and then being given over to same-sex
attraction doesn't mean that every given individual who finds himself in that particular situation
is at fault and has followed those it just means that as society opens up the door whatever the
dynamics are things begin to change at a fundamental level because rebellion against god now comes to
expression in fighting against the person that he has made me to be and when a society hear me well
when a society accepts that as normal blindness has settled upon society and judgment will not be far
away because god can only let sin go until it reaches full measure and then he has to step in
all right one more step just very quickly the end of the process is that they exchange truth for
error and error for truth verses 28 to 32 since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the
knowledge of gone he gave them over to a depraved mind to do what ought not to be done a depraved
mind is a mind that no longer can think straight that normalizes what is wrong and makes wrong
what is normal biblically they have become filled with every kind of wickedness evil greed and
depravity they are full of envy murder strive deceit and malice they are gossips slanderers god
haters instantly arrogant and boastful they invent ways of doing evil they disobey their parents
they are senseless faithless heartless ruthless paul loves lists and the reason he loves lists
is because he doesn't want anybody to miss the point because remember when you're depraved it's
about everybody else never about you so he paints a big target and he says this is you you fall in
this list and then he goes on to say although they know god's righteous decree that those who do such
things deserve death they not only continue to do these very things but they also approve of those
who practice them and now we have come full circle not only do we do things that are wrong
but we approve things that are wrong and now that becomes the law of the land and i'm going to end
with this example i've used it before but it illustrates where we have come from you will
recall justin trudeau went on record a little while leader of the liberal party of canada
to say and this is the exact quote of what he said the policy going forward is that every single
liberal mp will be expected to stand up for women's rights to choose and now if you want to be a
candidate for the liberal party of canada you cannot be pro-life but you must be pro-choice and
what used to be against the law 20 30 40 years ago now has become right so the values are inverted
and that is where we find ourselves today and then the big question of course is how do we
get out of that predicament and i guess lord willing we'll have to try to come back to that
some other day as we move into the christmas season because the point of the christmas message
is that god didn't just turn his back on us but he came into the world through his son to break
this cycle so that every knee could bow before god we could worship the true god we can understand
the issues of proper sexual identity and we can be straight in our thinking about what love for god
and love for our neighbor means and the challenge for you and me in today's society
is to reject those values that are so antithetical to the word of god and to have the courage the
wisdom and the boldness to let our light shine because we are the light of the world and we are
the salt of the earth and the challenge for god's people is to leave that out like daniel and his
friends did many years ago in the middle of a in the middle of a very pagan culture knowing that
god is greater and that at the end of history guess what darkness doesn't win darkness doesn't
win truth wins jesus triumphs you and i do well you and i do well to be on his side
for when the curtain falls the sheep and the goats are going to be separated for all eternity