The Truth of It | Ravi Zacharias Scandal: A lesson for us all | Ep. 61

and it is the ravi zacharias scandal [Music] i'm here because this morning i woke up and i read the newly released report on that and that is the final report into the investigation against the allegations that were made of him and those allegations came up after he died principally and they were allegations of impropriety of largely a sexual nature and the rzim ministries board decided to commission an inquiry and they've been very transparent they've released that report as it was tended to them by the group that was making the investigation and i'm not going to read any part of it now because uh it is to say the least well totally unedifying the contents are shocking they're really shocking i mean for those of you who are relying on the interim reports and so on it's it's far worse the situation the level of misconduct the level of sin is very very serious and these were sustained patterns of behaviour backed by patterns of deception over many years it wasn't or a number of years it wasn't a one-off and it's so bad that you do start asking questions and think well was this man a wolf in sheep's clothing was this what's going on now that's in god's hands to know and to judge now and the issue i'm not raising the issue to dwell on that side of it i'm raising the issue because i actually do have something to say which i think is important and it's what occurred to me this morning when i woke up and read this report this should be something that causes us to consider ourselves for a moment because as much as we're disappointed by what we see in here it's important to remember something we must be alarmed at the nature of the human heart jeremiah 17 9 says this a very strong verse if you think about it the heart it says is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked who can know it and our hearts actually share the same disease as human beings they're all sinners hearts they're all fallen hearts they're all human hearts and that should fill us with concern as we come across yet another sober reminder of that simple truth we're told that often in scripture we don't like to believe it and yet it must be true you know it's the source of that old quote there but for the grace of god go i and that is why we're told in scripture above all that we must guard our hearts because they are sinful hearts because they are deceitful hearts because they are wicked hearts and we don't even know them as jeremiah said proverbs chapter 4 23 to 27 says guard your heart with all diligence fall from it flow the springs of life rid yourselves of a deceitful mouth and keep devious speech far from you let your eyes look directly ahead and let your gaze be fixed straight in front of you watch the path of your feet and all your ways will be established do not turn to the right or to the left turn your foot from evil it says there that out of the heart flows the whole course of a person's life and the siren songs of temptation and evil and sin they'll come up on the right they'll come up on the left and they'll be urging you to turn aside and it says here fix your eyes ahead or a new testament language fix your eyes on christ on jesus and do not be drawn away and the heart you see can get you in the most dreadful trouble it can get you the most dreadful trouble and i say as proverbs says guard it and pray that god will help you to guard it and one of the easiest one of the best ways to guard it actually is to be full of truth and to think on truth and live by truth because your heart will take you emotionally this way and that but the mind can actually be a great anchor for it that's one way guard your heart and i'd like to make this point there's a connection close connection of deception with this idea too in jeremiah and proverbs and once we are off track once we are doing wrong it is true that the main way we sustain ourselves is by deceit we come up with whatever denialism or whatever elaborate permission structure it takes to let us keep on doing what we're doing we deceive ourselves the hearts drawn away initially by evil desire it comes up on the right to left we're drawn into it and then it clings to that position by deceiving itself now that is something where we are given to we are prone to as human beings and we pray that god preserves us from it now you might say well martin i could never ever do the things described in that report to which i say well there's a big part of me that shares the sentiment that says well no i can't imagine anybody doing that what's going on what's wrong with a christian leader to do that why and yet you know you've got to be careful because maybe that's maybe that's our problem i remember reading a survey of christian leaders that have fallen into sin and had been removed from their leadership posts or gone through some kind of restoration process and over 70 percent of them reported that they'd actually done something of which they believed themselves to be either entirely or almost entirely incapable it was something that took them completely by surprise i recently heard someone ask what i thought was a very inappropriate question they said if the devil was going to take you down how would he do it i think it's inappropriate for two reasons firstly it's just invasive and secondly satan's not omniscient so i don't know if it's a good idea to say it out loud and give him the extra data but my reply was this something i think it would be something that hasn't even occurred to me because that is so often how it happens and this anecdote all this evidence this survey shows that that's how it happens and we read in scripture who can know their own hearts very few people very few people really know and that's why jesus spoke about hypocrisy a lot he knew that our tendency was to see clearly the faults in others the errors in others the bad things in others but not see clearly the condition of our own hearts not to see clearly our own problems and he said that's why it reminds us in matthew 7 you know the measure you judge we judge back at you he says just bear that in mind you see clearly the problems with others but what about yourself you do not see back clearly the problems with you and he gives that illustration he says you're going to see clearly a speck in someone's eye and lean forward and say hey you've got a speck in your eye he says you just can't see that you've got a beam in your own eye a whole piece of wood and that is such is the deceitfulness of the human heart is that we don't see ourselves clearly and these are just crucial principles basic lessons for the christian life and i say none of this to minimise what ravi has done what it appears he's done what the report seems to say i minimize none of that it is evil it is wicked people were hurt his whole ministry is in smoldering ruins there will be young christians who are seriously stumbled by this and god will judge and that's a fearful thing but if we focus exclusively on that we'll be drawn into that and we will lose some of some of our perspective and the perspective i want us not to lose is this it is our own condition and the reminder that we too have sinners hearts and therefore we too must guard our hearts because look how far they can lead us astray i recall facing something of a crisis when i was 15 and i fell into that problem that i just mentioned which is that obsessing over the fault in the other person which is real you know it's not that it's not there but obsessing over it and losing perspective and i was in the middle of a rant because i i'd come across several people in quick succession i'd realized that they were basically leading double lives and they weren't real you know they weren't living as christians at all despite outward appearances and i was full of energy and i was probably shouting and the person next to me must have had enough of it and they grabbed me by both of my shoulders they looked me square in the face and they said you know what your problem is they said you need to stop worrying so much about other people and start worrying about yourself and you know it hit me like a bullet i never forgotten that it stuck with me for the rest of my life it's true i can't actually control others i can't stop the disappointments and the disappointments will come and this is not the last the disappointments will come i can't prevent the fakes the fakes will always be out there indeed i should expect it because that's what the human condition is like but for the super abounding grace of god which i pray he extends to each one of us but here's the thing i can't control those things but i can control me by god's grace guard your heart says the scriptures for his deceitfulness is so great it is given to wickedness and out of it flows the issues of life and it is true the only way you can have the law of god written upon your heart is through christ and that can change you but it requires a person to take up the call to live the christian life and to understand these basic principles that was the truth about the ravi zacharias scandal and some of the lessons for us hey thank you so much for watching if you liked what you saw then make sure to hit the like button if you want to never miss another video again make sure to subscribe or you can right now watch more videos right here cheers

Channel: ACL – Australian Christian Lobby

Views: 148,144

Rating: 4.8998194 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: 5Pzko7Ly6OY

Length: 8min 56sec (536 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 17 2021