The Truth of It | Ep. 43

g'day I'm Martin Isles and this is the truth of it and today I want to bring you a talk that I recently gave in Adelaide Australia it's a talk that's all about truth of course but it is also about what's really wrong with the world today and what do we have in our hands to fix it and you might note that this is a change of pace that's true and it's because we'll to be perfectly honest with you it's not every single week that I feel like I have something really meaningful to contribute to the news cycle of the last week sometimes the news cycle doesn't throw up interesting things sometimes it doesn't strive things that I think I have some insight on and in those weeks I thought well you know rather than pretend that I have something to say when I don't what I will do instead is use those weeks as opportunities to either give a talk here in the studio or to show you one that I have given myself recently in my travels which I know and I'm confident will help you to continue to grow more broadly in your knowledge of the truth of it and so without further ado here it is [Music] the today's conference really is under the title not ashamed and it's impossible to talk about that phrase not ashamed without thinking about where it appears in the Bible which is in Romans chapter 1 verse 16 for I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for salvation to all who believe that is what the Apostle Paul said and I want to pick that up I want to pick that up I want to pick up the whole chapter because it seems to me one of the things we're trying to do is come to grips with a very fast changing culture a very rapidly changing society and we're trying to come to grips with that and we're trying to understand what our faith what scripture what God has to say to help us to meet that culture in that society that's why I do the truth of it I want to particularly tell younger people that their faith does comprehend the world they see every single day but when the Apostle Paul wrote that phrase I'm not ashamed of the gospel he actually wrote a phrase like that in a society of very very much like our own now he wrote to pagan Rome and you know there's a lot of people out there who are looking at the cultural shifts that are taking place in Australia in the West at the moment and they're starting to say this looks very much like and more and more like a neo-pagan society and you say well in what ways well let me just take a few examples do you know in ancient Rome there was that practice which we're all familiar with where people would have children and due to the inconvenience they might decide to leave that child out to die Charles children Infinite's after birth were disposed of on the cities rubbish heaps and you say well we wouldn't do that today we were so sophisticated well we've obviously got this practice which is in the medical industry and had sanitized and it's you know brought up to acceptable in modern standards but it is abortion and not only that but what people don't realize is that hundreds of babies every year around this country are born alive and left to die on operating theatre tables because of botched abortions and the like this is happening in our time and in ancient Rome it was the Christians who went out and got those children and raised them as their own in modern Australia is so often the Christians who stand for life josè a society where children were seen as an as a burden but also it was a society where sexual Expressionism was rife it's interesting to me that the the rainbow has taken this pinnacle place in society it's really become the litmus test of whether you're an acceptable individual well how do you react to it and you know in ancient Rome they had polyandry and they had androgyny and I had all of these things and these things were so often associated with you know the most sacred place in society the temples and the temple worship that's where you found it that's where it took place and you know it's almost like an ancient version of what we're today call pride and you know if you were a Christian in ancient Rome you could expect to find yourself at the fringes of society the Christians didn't participate in temple worship and ritual and all the rest of it and they quickly found themselves on the outer misunderstood not really well comprehended and all sorts of rumors were spread about what they really got up to in their church services and meetings and what they really thought and believed about things and so I found myself debating in the National Press Club recently and questions being put to me we're along the lines of but what do we do when a Christian organization takes this action or that action and it was completely preposterous and I had to actually say to them what do you think we believe we think we're all half mad where are these crazy cultish practices you know being found in modern society and the room laughed at me because they actually think that we hate they actually think that we're bigots they actually think we've got all kinds of phobias they really do believe it it was the same in ancient Rome it even interests me that you know you had the Circus Maximus and I was in Sydney speaking the other day and I said you know the Circus Maximus had about roughly the same capacity as the aliens at Olympic Stadium in Sydney and so you had a society which coined that idiom bread and circuses because that's what the people look for and there's a very modern Australian phenomenon where if you hit someone with something that's just a bit too hard to think about they'll turn the football on and they'll check out we live in a society that doesn't like to face some of those hard truths shows even a thriving feminist movement in ancient Rome which I dare not say any more about but you had so many cultural trends and one of them was even this the only same-sex marriage that I can find that's ever been recorded in history that's been celebrated in the west before say 2001 was in ancient Rome you had emprah Nero he married two boys one he called his husband the other called his wife and that was after he'd kicked his own pregnant wife to death and what you might call a domestic violence outbreak a society so much like our owners so when we come to these principles of culture that are explained to us in the light of God's call on our lives in Romans chapter 1 we find so much in pagan Rome that we can learn for neo-pagan Australia or neo-pagan Adelaide as the case may be and Paul basically goes on from Romans 1:16 to start to unpack through the rest of that chapter the culture in which the people are living he goes on to say many other things in the book which we'll get to but the culture in which they're living and he says you know there's something about this culture it demonstrates something it proves something to us it proves something that and I take the next breath that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men I want to pick something up in that the word is is revealed now currently not merely future although future is for sure but there's something right now that proves this to be true and that's not just a cry of condemnation from Paul and we want to skip over it because judgy and we want to move on to the next thing but that's not what he's doing you know you read second Corinthians and you see that Paul's heart is intensely pastoral he really cares and what he's trying to do is two things he's trying to actually explain he's trying to explain the society in which we live it's a lesson an explanation of what we see around us and it's also a warning to it's a love of neighbor statement but actually in this there is pain now in this there is whoa and there is disaster now people suffer now under this sin of ungodliness and unrighteousness and he's warning people it has consequences so you know in my job all the time we all are constantly witnessing the consequences of this world and we recently for example and this always lingers with me we had Walt hier come out to Australia Walt for those who don't know is one of the first ever gender reassignment patients in the world he underwent a gender reassignment in the 1950s what lived as a woman a trans woman for a number of years before he realized like so many others had to go down that pathway that this irreversible surgery had not solved his problems how he became an alcoholic he became suicidal and all of those things but you know eventually Walt D transitioned and what became a Christian he's a wonderful Christian man and he now runs a counseling ministry called transgender regret and he travels the world counseling people in exactly the same situation as he was in and he has seen thousands of people now he's even referred some people to us in Australia who have as soon as two days after surgery realize what a terrible mistake they've made and you know we're in a society now where we're giving children scalpels rather than counseling I said to Walt you know why is it that this is such a widespread phenomenon what this is happening everywhere you say and we we certainly are getting the sense that there's a tsunami coming I said but why are you the only one who's actually out there talking about these things and his answer was he said well Martin I'm 80 I said yes so he said I'm the only one nearly that's well enough to talk about what happened to me because it was so long ago it takes years for people to build up their broken lives because he says in more than 50% of cases when he goes and talks to people he says what went wrong he said they can always answer the question he said in more than 50% of cases they'll say child sexual abuse he said in the nearly all of the remainder of cases they'll cite some comorbidity like autism or some kind of mental health concern but see rather than heal them they got given a scalpel unquestioningly and went down that path there's consequences now this hurts now no I recently was speaking at the walk for life here in Adelaide just a couple of weeks ago amazing event but one of the things about that walk the part of the speech that that I put in there that's that I found profoundly moving was the stories of post abortive women and I read a number of stories there about women who have gone through grief and some very brave women spoke at that rally and told their own stories it was so powerful to hear stories of women who you know they they had driven suicidal over what was done women who you know every time they hear a baby cry all they can think about is the child that's now not with them you know women who have had massive complications and had driven to the end of themselves those stories were incredible and we deny this to our dying day but there's consequences now in this life this is hurting people it matters even the issue of sexuality I often say if it wasn't for modern medicine and sexual health clinics we would not be able to live the way we live with our sexuality in this culture and get away with it we just wouldn't but science technology and wealth masks a great darkness but see we think we get away with it because we treat the immediate symptoms we don't get away with it it wreaks a havoc on people's psychology like they can scarcely believe and you know even in this chapter Paul says you know people who go down this life they receive in themselves the result of their error it's here in Romans 1 these are things that God has rejected and they are the things that God that will destroy us but see there's something we need to know about this we look at these issues and they concern us and they move us by the way this is why when people say you know you know why why would you impose on people you know why do you go out there and speak the truth on these issues and impose on people and they don't want you to well firstly someone's values are going to be imposed but secondly I just want to say how dare you try and check out of your obligation to love your neighbor to that degree that you would leave people in this state leave people to hear voices that would tell them these things and do nothing about it that's not what we're to do we're to love God and therefore love our neighbor and that is why we do what we do that is why we try and change things but see it's really important that we understand what the real problem is because we can miss diagnose the problem and misdiagnosis have caused us to give a lot of false answers to the problem you know I travel around and very often people say well what's gone wrong well we've rejected Western culture that's what's gone wrong I said you know what if you believe that you're going to preach the past and it isn't gonna succeed nobody cares about the past anymore or it's the rejection of logic we just need to bring common sense into the situation persuade people with facts and reason that's all right you'll preach research and you'll preach surveys and I can tell you what you will fail in a truth rejecting society that says I don't care what's true it's not gonna work you won't change someone's mind or you'll say well no it's just because people aren't educated they need to be taught which I say I think that's made the whole problem a lot worse there's a lot of misdiagnosis going on Joe the Apostle Paul just says it how it is he says you know the real problem is ungodliness it's a rejection of God men have forgotten God the real problem is that we live in an age of spiritual darkness it's that simple and throughout human history that has always been the case it's always been the story that the real problem has been human rebellion against God and his ways and that's why Paul says ungodliness and unrighteousness there's an order there reject God and then you reject his ways there's nothing authoritative for your life there's nowhere there's no boundaries there's no trajectory there's no principles except those which you invent for yourselves and that's why the Bible of course says that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom right what's the antithesis of that well deny God and it's the beginning of Sorrows and you know one of the undercurrents in people's lives is actually so much of this I've discovered how about so as I've got older but that sounds a bit stupid doesn't it I've discovered that regret drives people in such profound ways there's so many people you meet and the whole government of their activities is driven by regrets I always say to young people if you can get through your life in your 20s and your teens without regrets without serious lifelong regrets that torture you you'll be a hoof you'll be a long way ahead and that's the number one of the reason to avoid sin in your life if only for personal gain this is this is what happens that there is an ongoing thing right now it's a problem of spiritual sickness but see that Roe brings me to the point that Paul also makes which is it's not easy living this way it's difficult a proverb says the way of the transgressor there's the person outside of God's Way it's hard it's difficult it's challenging and major reason given here is that the truth that we are trying to deny which is ultimately the truth of God always threatens to make itself known there's this great revelation here which is that our culture doesn't face an evidence problem if evidence were the answer they'd be convinced it faces a people problem a spiritual problem Paul actually says you know it's super obvious what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them it's as obvious you know is this to adopt Paul's language into a modern terms the Convention Center we're in right now is not the product of an explosion in the brick factory the convention center we're in right now is the product of many brilliant minds who've been educated for years and years about a lot of very complicated things and they've all come together and tough the marvel of our modern arrangement of things is that we have a convention how much more so are the fingerprints of God on his creation which an infinity of human minds will never plumb the depths of it's ridiculous of course it's obvious and we read this we gotta copy that obvious it is that obvious you know I'm flying in a plane the other day beautiful sunset out the window and I see God say oh you're so dumb no you're dumb but you know Paul notes three things he says the obvious things are the fact that there is such a thing as eternity there is power creative power and there is the divine that's seen to ever Paul says for his invisible attributes namely his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world and the things that have been made so they are without excuse I never forget you know and by the way amazing story that I could tell if I had the time but basically about the discovery of the four elements wind fire water earth and how there's so much of the thinking behind that was to try and find that animating principle behind the universe the thing that might have been around from you know eons past got that eternal aspect that thing that might drive the being and the change in the force of the universe water you know it could be water it's got power in itself waves on the beach etc they carves out great canyons and it could have been here forever who knows air and so on and then of course you get four elements you can't have the animating principle behind the universe four times so you know thought develops and you get the log-off's and they're all talking about what the logos is and of course the great revelation of john 1 is that John says the logos is what Jesus Christ he was in the beginning all things were made through him without him was not anything made that was made but you see this is the quest of the ages to find the qualities that Paul is describing here and a modern example of this is a while ago I was driving along in the car and on the radio that were having an interview with one of the scientists that was working on the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland which is that great big tunnel under the mountains of Switzerland where they're trying to fire all sorts of particles together and try and find something and they actually articulated what it was they were trying to find before they found it and this scientist was having this conversation he was saying you know the thing that we're looking for is something that existed in the moments before the big bang something that was always there you know and also we're looking for something that actually ignites it that infused the energy and the power into the Big Bang and made it happen and gave it the force that it requires I think an eternity power yep great and you know you know what we you know and then the guy goes here and what is this thing he said oh well you know it's it's actually the Higgs boson or or it is actually God I nearly said hallelujah until he said particle what willful blindness is that you even call it the god particle the thing you're searching for that animates all of existence paul says look it's obvious it is obvious it is not an evidence problem but the thing that makes it even stronger if you get to romans 2 is people's conscience paul says our conscience also bears witness and is always telling us that there's something more there is something more and that is why this evidence this reality has to be suppressed and it has to be suppressed fastidiously and continually and that's what Romans 1 says they suppress the truth about God in unrighteousness and you know all of the verbs around that they're all active doing words you know you could actually translate it to say and they go on suppressing the truth about God it's like you know when you're as a kid and you're in the pool and you're trying to it does these you know it for some reason I always try and touch the bottom of the pool with whatever it was it was floating on the surface and you have a volleyball right very hard to get to the bottom and to hold it under the surface you've always got to be kind of doing this you know as you're swimming along as it threatens to pop up and it's like that it's an ongoing thing to keep it down that it might not be knowing and you know this is a day-to-day effort in the world around us you know what are the taboos in society and polite company what are the two things you never talk about politics and religion the two things that give us meaningful life no you're not going to talk about that too controversial too hard rather turn the forty on I used to work in a big law firm in Brisbane and one of the things that I'm so glad I'm not anymore let me put it that way but I was in one of these big law firm and this is an environment in which people people work tremendously long hours huge ridiculous was even a couple of cases while I was there of people falling asleep on the floor in their office overnight and then getting up and going again in the morning and they worked like dogs all week and the most exciting thing that happened in the day was that you went over the road and bought sushi and people would talk about it for two hours beforehand it's coming lunch break you know that was the life and then on the weekend you know 459 p.m. you know already the bottles of alcohol are coming out of the fridge and that's it they don't know who they are from 5:00 p.m. on a Friday until Monday morning and I used to look at that and think what is wrong what's going on is it just me do you know what was going on and you know people will deny it to their dying day but that is suppressing the truth about God in unrighteousness the evidence threatens a sober thought threatens a non busy moment threatens because it's always there but you know it's a public square effort as well such as to personal day to day it's a public square if it is Ralph allow what was his true crime it's interesting I was reading an opinion piece in The Australian by somebody who's usually quite conservative on these matters and I said look I don't agree with what is Ralph allow said but look I think he should have the right to say it and so then by the way I don't agree with what he said because if what he said is correct if those are the criteria for hell then I'll see you down there to which I was going yes right but here's the problem the one thing people will not tolerate is the notion that they might be judged and found wanting before God the notion that actually there might be a God who demands something of us the notion that actually there might be eternal consequences to a temporal life those themes will not be tolerated you know so much of the legislative programs in our Parliament's can be described according to what Paul says in Timothy where he says you know pray for Kings pray for those who hyper Asians pray that our lives of godliness would be lives of peace why because God desires all people everywhere to come to a knowledge of the truth and you know so much of what the government does whether it is to suppress Christian witness or change the law really could be described in that phrase they are opposing the knowledge of the truth school freedom legislation that was in the federal parliament at the end of 2018 there was a piece of legislation which was unbelievably bold all that it really did was target faith schools only no other group and faith-based schools what would have happened to that legislation passed had they taught their beliefs about anything really but particularly controversial issues they would have been subjected to lawsuits there's no doubt and there was a great you know fanfare and PR campaign of the media that that's not what this is about that's what it was about and you know you look at that and you think why well I'm so glad I went to a Christian school there's a lot of people at my Christian school who were not Christians when they started and they weren't from Christian families but today Vic I just got a message on facebook from one the other day actually they're now Christians following god there's two pastors of large churches in brisbin's who were converted at my Christian school in my year level why would you go after Christian schools opposition of the knowledge of the truth why would you go after Christian families now I did a segment on the truth of it the other day talking about what they call conversion therapy laws which basically have an endgame of saying if you're a parent and your child identifies this way or that and you you know try and encourage them out of it all you want techni to get proper medical care or anything then you're going to be in trouble with the law why would they do that why would that foster agency over in w.a not enable a Christian couple to foster children you know the thing I'm most grateful for in my life maybe apart from salvation but is that I grew up in a Christian family what do you do opposition's that ollie to the truth target the Christian family Whittle them down so much of what is going on can be explained this way you know I used to actually think in my even see that this was a fight for freedoms that we're looking for freedom of speech and freedom of religion and freedom it's interesting the only people that really get in trouble and lose their freedom of people who tell the truth you know it's never the person that goes out there and says you could be an asexual non-binary gender queer and find out who you really are who gets in any trouble the only person who gets in trouble is the person who says you know actually I think there's only boys and girls there's two genders boom you finished these are the sorts of things that attract opposition time and again I know people say when we started the human rights law reliance I'll surely you take on cases where people just lost their freedoms but wasn't particularly religious do you know what there's barely any it's not actually so much a fight for freedom as it is a fight for truth and its opposition to the knowledge of the truth that we see and you know it's almost like it's a spiritual battle and the truth is the target not so much freedom it's a societal thing the suppression of the truth it's happening all around us that even explains Kathy clubs case which I've mentioned many times why get in the way of a lady who's making simple offers of help to women who might be aborting their children and saving the lives of hundreds of babies in the process why because the truth must be stopped why would the New South Wales Transport Minister tear down a billboard that makes a simple statement that our heart beats at four weeks truth opposition to the knowledge of the truth the lies seldom get attention I mean I think Wendy's flat-out getting them to take down sexually explicit billboards it's so hard but these ones get all the attention but also I think this is why we need to expect in a culture like ours we need to expect people to react to truth so a lot of what we do people say oh you know how do you do what you do and stay positive and all this a lot of its just expectations management how do you imagine people are going to react well negatively well because there's why well the world's our fallen world and if you're in a fallen world there's gonna be a bit of an uphill push to get a fallen world to accept the light when it's in darkness what's the nature of people well people have fallen so it's always gonna be difficult to get people who you know the Bible makes very clear are in the dark to see the lives and they're not going to necessarily welcome it every time you need God to help you with that but you know this project has actually ushered something in and it's in a pagan world it's particularly strong and it's mentioned here in Romans he's not you know once upon a time in our history revelation was authoritative and what the church had to say about things was really important and that was the guide for life where the age of reason came in and then reason became authoritative and the way we think about things and it was all about the brain and Christians obediently followed and said well let's start making objective arguments with circular reasoning right because it's the age of reason and it works Nietzsche was right it wasn't going to work for long because you find out that your reason when untethered from something stable like God it's just what you think and that's what's happened we're in a situation now where the authority is not reason it's not God it's you it's how you feel about things and so we are walked into an age now a full-blown self worship the age of self is the way exchange the truth about God for the lie they worshiped and served creature rather than creator who is blessed forever and it turns out that this whole business of suppressing the truth is a protection racket for something because if the truth about God is knowing then my position as creator gets dethroned my position is as Nietzsche said must we not ourselves appear God become gods simply to appear worthy of it what's it the death of God it's a great big protection racket so that I can put myself on the highest pedestal it's the age of was the timeless sin of the human race Adam and Eve what was the sin to be as gods it says in Genesis 3 how culture is in the throes of this is the age of self-love self-esteem self-confidence self-care being my best self and the selfie it's all about self it's a generation in which I don't know if you've noticed this but the word identity is used more than any other what's the identity it's just who I am and that word it's all pervasive why because we care about self we care about Who I am it's the generation you know that's decommissioned blasphemy laws laws that said you couldn't insult God and what's in its place vilification laws laws that say you can't insult my sense of identity is that not worship of creature rather than created is that not a reversal of the very thing kind that this section is talking about as you're the worst sins you can commit in this generation firstly is judging don't judge because being me is a much higher priority than being judged by haters who hold me back and you know what I need to do is tell myself I'm beautiful powerful and enough and move on let's shake it off how'd you know we've fallen into the trap of thinking that principle of wisdom about hypocrisy that Jesus gave us says we cannot make wise conclusions about anything and we can't make wise conclusions about whether something is right or wrong whether a person might be doing right or wrong can't judge don't judge there's no standard other than me and if you judge me you hate me if you judge me you're tearing me down another sin in this generation is telling the truth how often have we heard the cry I'm offended or good sometimes we need to be offended it's called character change realizing you're wrong changing moving on moving on moving upwards no but offended I'm offended is the ultimate barrier to progressing with the conversation you know imagine what this does to the way a new generation reads the Bible what does the Bible say about itself it's a sword that pierces it's a mirror that shows up our faults so that we might change you know you're not look in the mirror and see you know your tie crooked or you know your hair out of place and fail to fix it and the bible's meant to continually show us those things that we might fix it's meant to be a fire and hammer to break hard hearts into pieces and to to purify people you know what in a world in which you know even the subject object difference between you know me and other thing a world that's been turned on its head says no I don't like that verse I'll just read the other one no no I prefer these scriptures are not those scriptures and you know I feel as though we've obediently gone down that line with culture as we've actually started I was in the quraan gift section the other day no offence to Quran but it be careful it's great shop awesome job shop there so the qur'an gift section the other day and it's interesting you never have you know vengeance is mine I will repay on any other gifts you never have any verses that talk about anything that doesn't make you feel good I think we've believed that the gospel has bad bits but the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men is not good we should go easy on that it's all true it's all good it's all supremely you actually I'm so glad that vengeance is God's and he will repay I can't imagine a world without justice I was a youth camp a while ago and I said how can a good loving God judge people I said how can he not are you serious a Hitler was just a mistake by the way he's someone who followed these dreams but anyway that's another story it's not good advice don't give it to kids but generally that means Hitler's just a mistake and there's no justice that means what this guy did up in Brisbane to his wife and children there's no justice there is justice there is justice it makes us all live differently it's a wonderful thing all truth is good truth but in a culture where we no longer see wisdom in the fear of God but we say that which will give meaning and direction for my life is the promotion of myself we've inverted the whole thing and you know that is foolishness by a biblical definition and that's exactly what we see we see actually a world that has lost its mind professing to be wise they became schools says palled you know I used to own when I was a kid one of my first ever laptops there's a huge fan of Lamborghinis there's a time of my life when I thought I might own a Lamborghini one day those days are gone sure I'll Drive a cure instead it's fine my traces are in heaven but you know I had a Lamborghini laptop as a substitute for the real thing I went to the International Motor Show went to the Lamborghini section is like a 12 year old and I bought a Lamborghini laptop and Lamborghini cufflinks and this Lamborghini laptop was made of carbon fiber it had leather black leather with yellow stitching and a genuine Lamborghini you know badge on it and when you turn it on at revs like a Lamborghini engine and I love that thing and you know what it was actually one of the best laptops on the market it was surprised to say but it was very very powerful very very expensive but you know one day I was typing particularly quickly on a laptop and as I was going for it my fingers somehow got caught under one of the keys and it's snap right off and would you believe it it was the e key how hard it is to use a computer no matter how good it is no matter how much fire power it has with no e key you can't even say yes you know you can't do anything and I was in a real pickle and you know what in a culture that said no to God and suppress the truth about him it's like we've lost the e key we can never make sense doesn't matter how much firepower we put into the issue there'll always be a floor doesn't it how clever those scientists on a Large Hadron Collider are they'll never find God and therefore they never find the answers that's the reality of our time and the result is chaos and destruction and we are living in a culture that is losing its mind because its mind is not governed by the knowledge of God what is moral I say what's more how often do you hear people say we did what was right for us I do what was right for me number one justification for family breakdown was it right for me well who cares what about what was right happens to be a different thing what's best for my life is to discover myself follow my dreams love myself boy we wonder why we're raising a generation of narcissistic and fairly unfriendly people it's no surprise what causes should I join I was talking to Steve about this before climate change right is the big cause why it doesn't require anything of me it's such a big issue it's so far out of my control that all I have to do is get angry and go to a protest I don't have to change my character I don't have to check myself in any way whatsoever it's easy those are the issues the things that don't confront me you know how should I conduct my sexuality that's the example that Paul gives and you know he gives it here because it's actually the thing that is obviously not right because of our biology when we say God is not the Creator and my biology doesn't matter and my Anatomy is irrelevant we do what we want but you know we've taken it a step further in modern society I've said I'm six foot seven with hairy hands but I'm a woman and I'm beautiful and you'll tell me that I am right we've actually started to say no we're all creators now we're in the seat of God and what we say will go and you know in such a society the volcano of human nature erupts unchecked unleashed there is no limit on what people will do and when people don't have a limit on what they will do I tell you what the true nature of the self comes out and this is really where Christianity bumps up against culture in so many ways I'd sit in a conversion therapy interview with 60 minutes although it went straight over their heads I think but I said look the difference in this really is what is it that is good and reliable and what is it that we should pursue in order to be happy and to live a good life is it in here or is it up there is it me self identity is a doubling down or is it to say no I give all that away and I sacrificed myself as Romans 12 says give it all up why for the knowledge of God in the call we've gone on my life I'm same-sex attracted well big deal you know it's very important that you know we acknowledge all of that but it doesn't change the fact that me as someone who's not same-sex attracted has to live the same life as the same sex attracted person none of us get to follow our sexual desires whatever they may be because we follow God you know Christopher was on ABC radio the other day and they said can you not understand how that somebody you know might feel really offended and that you've questioned them and their inner identity and he said well of course because that's my story the fact that you know I am NOT good and not okay the fact that there's something wrong with me and I need Christ and his forgiveness that was said to me by a leading LGBT activist who she said she said look can you she said you know you shouldn't even bother trying to make churches lgbt-friendly because no one wants to walk into a building and find out that there's something terribly wrong with them and I said but there is something terribly wrong with them and the room was just sort of nearly freaked out just for a second and I said no no I said there's something wrong with all of us there's something wrong with me I'm a sinner before God and I need his salvation and you know Jesus himself this is this is the difference this is the difference where is good what is to be pursued what is worthy self or something outside of self I often say to people you know really we only as human beings get a single compliment in the whole Bible and I challenge you to find another one there's only one and my goodness we love it we repeat it all the time you know we cling to this compliment we are made in the image and likeness of God hey that's enough yeah unfortunately you turn the page and things change there was a fall and every descriptive word of the human condition is negative people who are dead in trespasses and incense you know people who who who are following the walking according to the the Prince of the power of the air it says people whose righteousnesses are as filthy rags people none that does good no not one all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked there we have reprobate minds whatever that means love quoting the King James it's up there with superfluity of naughtiness it says that but actually we are sinners and we've lost sight of that too I think pagan culture infects us and makes us think too highly of ourselves and cling to too much of ourselves and you know what that always does it brings God down from his throne slowly and if the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom we are in danger of losing our minds and we are in danger of walking down this pathway of darkness even just a little bit that Paul describes in a world that's lost its mind you know I do fear that sometimes this comes too close to us and we need to check ourselves but this madness is it's destroying us I mean what does Paul say here he says yeah the list of sins filled with all manner of unrighteousness evil covetousness malice full of envy murder strife deceit maliciousness gossips slanderers haters of god insolent haughty boastful inventors of evil disobedient to parents foolish faithless heartless ruthless unchanged human nature what does it do and he goes on here to say effectively that this destruction that's being wreaked by this in a culture is enormous and you know it's interesting that even though that whole mantra is repeated and repeated and repeated people are not getting happier you know we're dealing with the most depressed and anxious generation that the West has ever seen a generation not only there's depressed and anxious because of deep psychological unrest that comes from this mode of living I mean regret for one thing but also a generation that was handed scalpels instead of counseling because their mind to a supreme generation that was robbed of their parents because that was their parents preference you know a generation that was never disciplined when they grew up because we went along with the world's view of human nature and we said but I was over disciplined when I grew up so I'm not going to commit that sin well it's not ended very well a generation that was told to be themselves follow their dreams let nothing stop them now they respond with rage and vitriol and anger at anything that threatens their sense of self or questions the life that they're living hromas one tells us that this is a spiritual disaster and that really is the problem with our world and that really is why we stand here and we look at a world and we say we must do something we must do something for love of God we must do something for love of nature this is a world in which if we don't do that it's gonna come for us anyway we can either step out and hit the landmines as Christopher was saying or we can wait and get devoured anyway because standing by as a bystander is not going to be enough this world will demand and indeed is starting to demand approval and if you do not approve and you don't wave the flag and you don't fall in line you will be in trouble because that's how this section finishes they will approve the call for approval will go out and the LGBTQ issue for example has become the litmus test of whether you'll be accepted in society and people will interrogate you to find out where you stand on it happens to politicians all the time vilification laws mean you cannot cause any offence conversion therapy says that even if you don't a therm if you accept but don't affirms as the policy paper not good enough Joe Douglas Murray writes in his recent book he says you know and we're seeing so much now of this being pushed in our face as if to say we'll see how you like this bigot I was getting on a plane coming from Sydney to Adelaide Mardi Gras in Sydney tonight and they had rainbow flags just draped all over the check-in area and all the staff were wearing their rainbow badges and all this kind of stuff and I felt I heard Douglas Murray's words in my head it was sort of like how do you like this bigot for well you know this is this is a culture that will make us approve so what should we do and this is what I want to finish with rather than leave us all down on the floor you know we need to have an answer we need to know what we can do and you're this great hope in the answer and the answer was given first as the Apostle Paul so often does in an age where so many of the tools that we'd normally use have been taken from us she was an age in which the truth just isn't quite enough anymore because people say well that might be true but I don't care there's a higher value and it's how I feel as how I feel about it it's an age in which all the research and studies and all the rest of it can only take us so far people don't care anymore it's an age in which so many of the tools that we used to use are taken from us as age which we can't even remind people of the past because they don't care for the past it's all about the me in the here and the now but you know those tools they might be worn out they might be blunted they might be indeed taken from us but the Apostle Paul says there's one that remains and I'm so glad it's the one that remains I'm so glad that people are more and more being channeled towards this one that remains because it's one that doesn't rely on your power it's one that doesn't rely on your strength it's one that doesn't rely on my will it's the power of God it's one that's above my jurisdiction and outside of my paygrade and it's the power of God for salvation in what the gospel but here's something and I hope this isn't controversial what is the gospel Paul's about to tell and he doesn't say Jesus came Jesus died Jesus rose again the end he goes on for 16 chapters as he unpacks his thesis statement about the gospel and he starts by talking about the truth of God as creator and God's wrath righteousness revealed his wrath against sin then his righteousness revealed in faith in chapter 4 his righteousness revealed in Christ in chapter 5 his righteousness revealed in our lives as we're change in chapter 7 and 6 and then his righteousness revealed in his dealing through history and 9 10 11 then he gets to chapter 12 and you know what by that stage he hasn't asked us to do a single thing not one thing it's just been a flood of theology this is what God has done or as he describes it in chapter 12 verse 1 the mercies of God this is all that he's done all that he's done all that he's done and then he says therefore and I tell you what he opens up the machine-gun of do this do that do this do that until you're left to just or flat on the floor dizzy because you know the gospel yeah the first principles are Christ his death and resurrection but in a pagan culture they don't just need to know about christ redeemer they need to know about God Creator and they need to know about his way according to Romans 1 just as much and I don't know that's a belt must be check your time Jonathan will be rocky 5 minutes early they need to know about that but you know what else they need to know about they need to see God revealed in the change lives of those who have been saved they need to see God revealed in actions that shine like a city set on a hill that cannot be hidden as Jesus says they need it in their face they need a pride from Christians so we're not hiding in plain sight and that is the full measure of the gospel call on our lives and when we say all of this and when we live all of this and by the way it includes the way we live in civil society and how we relate to the state Romans 13 it's all in there when we're so changed you can bet that all of a sudden God's work will be done in God's Way and we don't need to over stress about exactly what will happen I've had so many stories from people all around the place where I think I never would have imagined that happening well good because it's God's work and we just need to be there to be used so that his power is at work in the world and that's why our motto is truth made public because if the truth is made public and if that's made public in word and deed in life you can be sure things will change you can be sure the work of God will be done in this time and in this age and that's why we do everything we do and that's why we don't just go out there with studies and articles and secular reason we do all of that but there's nobody who should be in any doubt but the reason this all makes sense is because God is the author we trust of all that we say and think in this world and that it is because of the change that's been brought into our lives that we do what we do then you'll see the spiritual sickness of this age may just start to be unpicked unpacked and God will transform people by his power not by yours or by mine thank you very much hey one more thing you know I've been looking at the metrics and I figured out something you guys are watching the videos and not subscribing so please help us out a great deal by hitting like button and then hitting subscribe hitting the bell as well so you get the 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Channel: ACL – Australian Christian Lobby

Views: 11,488

Rating: 4.9492245 out of 5

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Id: iY8gtYsUXkE

Length: 50min 52sec (3052 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 11 2020