W. Robert Godfrey: Barbarians at the Gate

these Easterners really don't understand Northern California I'm an East Bay boy my father's parents grandparents and great-grandparents are buried in the Oakland Hills and if the plot were only a little bigger we could develop it and make a lot of money because it's a beautiful view of the Golden Gate Bridge so it's always wonderful to come back to Northern California my mother's family are buried in Hayward and my great-great-grandfather who emigrated from Scotland to the Northern California is buried in Sebastopol so I figure I have good roots here and it's always a great treat to come back and I know even though dr. Thomas appears not to that it was Mark Twain who said the coldest winter ever spell was the summer in San Francisco my favorite San Francisco story is that after the World Series earthquake and the bay bridge had been closed and all of the on-ramps to the bay bridge that I knew from San Francisco to get back to the East Bay had fallen down I had had lunch in San Francisco and I asked the cashier as I was paying for my lunch what's the best way to get on the Bay Bridge and it was just a classic San Francisco moment she thought and she thought and she thought and finally she said why would you want to do that so mr. Larsen there is no life east of San Francisco for a San Franciscan and we East Bay types know our place and are unwilling to stay in it anyway it is great to be here with you tonight and to address this remarkable theme I always Kris kid Chris Larson about the terrible titles he usually gives me I actually had the title once at a conference Ligonier conference part 2 but this is a great title barbarians at the gate that's really inspired by the reality that when the great church fathers st. Augustine Lay Dying literally the Roman Empire was collapsing about him and there were literally barbarians attacking the city of Hippo in which he was dying and it it draws us back to Augustine and to his experience because one of the greatest of Augustine's writings was his great treatise on the City of God day Civitas a day and he worked on that great treatise from about 410 to about 426 so for some 16 years at the prime of his life he was writing this great treatise that was inspired in part by the sack of Rome in 410 by the Barbarian Alaric and Rome that Citadel of civilization in the minds of Romans the San Francisco of Italy that that great city suddenly found itself taken over by the barbarians for a few days and it led many people to ask the question how could this be happening to us how could it be happening that the greatest city in the history of mankind the greatest empire in the history of mankind I'm not saying this was accurate but it's what the Romans said to themselves how could it be that the greatest city and the greatest empire especially when it's now Christian could be falling to the barbarians and there were still pagans in Rome who said well we can answer that question for you it's because Christianity is not true and because Christianity has weakened the Empire and because the old gods are now punishing us for not worshiping them less than 20 years before the barbarians had taken the city the Emperor Theodosius had declared the Empire to be a Christian Empire and he had removed the fabled altar of sacrifice to the goddess victory from the Roman Senate and the day that happened the pagans said the gods will punish us that gods will punish us Christianity is destroying us and now the barbarians were at the gate and Christians were saying how could this happen and pagans were saying what is happening and everyone was asking what should we do when there are barbarians at the gate and I thought this was a great title makes up for all your past sins because do you ever feel there are barbarians at the gate we find ourselves in a situation I think remarkably parallel to that of Augustine Augustine felt he was a citizen of a great nation that had been a Christian society and many of us as Americans feel we have been part of a great nation that had at least been a significantly Christian Society what's happening what's going on and even more importantly how should we live how should we respond what do you do when the barbarians are at the gate so I'd like to begin with some words from Jesus that's always a good place to begin from Matthew 5 verse 14 through 16 where Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount very familiar words you are the light of the world a city set on a hill cannot be hidden or do people place light a lamp and put it under a basket but stand it on a stand and it gives light to all the house in the same way let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your father who is in heaven you are the light of the world Jesus first said that to a handful of disciples sitting on the side of an insignificant hill in an insignificant part of an insignificant Roman Protectorate and what must the original hearers have thought as they looked around who us we are the light of the world have you thought about it in those terms you are the light of the world it's why their television cameras outside covering the conference all the local news stations wanted to be here they knew this was the most important thing happening in the Bay Area this weekend but whether the news cameras are here or not whether the examiner and the Chronicle are here or not whether New York tribute is there still in New York an Oakland Tribune whether the newspapers come whether the television stations come whether it's recognized or not Jesus has declared it to be true that his disciples are the light of the world and we are the light of the world because we reflect his light that's what we're told just before the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount aren't we where there is a quotation from Isaiah about Jesus and about his the beginning of his ministry in Galilee and in Matthew 4 verse 16 we read the people dwelling in darkness had seen a great light for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death on them a light has dawned Jesus was the great light that had come into the world and he was giving light to his disciples so that they could be lights throughout the world and that was their calling that was their responsibility and that was their calling no matter what circumstances they found themselves in if they were a small number of people in an unimportant part of the world they were still the light of the world if they were one of the greatest theologians in the history of the church in one of the greatest empires in the history of mankind they were the light of the world and the responsibility of Christians in every circumstance in every time if history in times of prosperity and in times of despair is to be who Jesus has made us to be you know she doesn't say become the light of the world if you're his disciples if you believe in him if you are connected to him you are the light of the world that's what he's made you the only thing you can really do is try to hide your light you don't have to become light but the advice Jesus gives and when Jesus gives advice it's more than advice it's not like you know what your mother says when Jesus gives advice it's really worth taking don't hide what I've given you let it shine wherever you are whatever your opportunities are whatever your circumstances are let it shine many of those who heard him on this day went out to face persecution and in facing persecution they had to let their light shine in Augustine's day it was very different they the Christians had had this sense that they had triumphed there were some when the Emperor Constantine was converted who said all of the prophetic anticipations have been fulfilled the promise to Abraham has been fulfilled in thee shall all the nations of the earth be blessed now that the Emperor's converted all the nations on the earth have been blessed we've arrived this is the post-millennial state that's established there people really believe that but these glory days this heyday didn't last and there were barbarians at the gate Augustine would die in 430 and 476 just 46 years later is the traditional date of the collapse of the Western Roman Empire when the last emperor romulus augustulus it's a great latin name means Romulus the little Emperor the Emperor it was forced to abdicate so Augustin really is witnessing the collapse of all that he'd known of all that he'd held dear he really was facing a world where the barbarians were not Christian and what would become of the church what would become of Christians what would what was the future of civilization and of Christianity and was facing that reality that he he stopped to reflect and to write what would become one of the great defenses of Christianity and one of the great reflections on a fait ology of history his great work on the City of God the city of God's really composed of two halves the first ten books are a kind of historical apology for the truth and value of Christianity and the Roman Empire and then the last 12 books are really an examination of all of human history and the conflict of the two cities the city of the earth and the City of God most of the focus of most discussions of Augustine's great book is in that latter part his theology of history we could say but I want to look with you at the first ten books a little bit because you know historians love historical anniversaries and I just happened on the fact I didn't really plan this I just realized that after I got into this this year is actually the sixteen hundredth anniversary of the completion of the first part of his great work sixteen hundred years ago in 415 Augustine finished his first ten books reflecting on the state of the church the value of Christianity as a defense against the pagans and I think it's worth for those of us who feel there seemed to be barbarians at the gates again today for us to pause and take a lesson from Augustine as to how he responded to the situation in in which he found himself he wanted to encourage Christians he wanted to shut the mouths of the pagans and he wanted to give Christians a strategy for thinking about the circumstances in which they found themselves and continuing to advance the cause of Christianity and so I want to follow the thought of Augustine a little bit in this treatise on the City of God and then try to relate it to where we are today the first thing that Augustine did was to realize that the pagans were saying it was Christian virtue that was destroying the Roman Empire and particularly the Christian virtue of mercy what a terrible thing to preach mercy what a terrible thing to preach forgiveness what a terrible thing to preach a weak crucified God we need a strong God we need victorious gods the pagans said how can you build an army of people who are merciful that was part of the question it's not a bad question and Augustine brilliantly turns the tables on the pagans and he says now wait a minute these Christian virtues that you think are so terrible are in fact the virtues of the noble Roman pagans any quotes Caesar and a variety of other pagan Romans on the virtue of mercy and he says so they're our virtues are your virtues so don't come telling me how terrible we are I thought is this a strategy we could use today what do what do pagans say about us today we have new pagans you know they're not the old pagans but they're still pretty pagan but what can we say about the charges brought against us today what are those charges well we're intolerant and onion flexible and judgmental and exclusivist you are a deplorable group of people I can tell just by looking at you well I think we ought to say that's not really true what characterizes us what are our virtues that we'd like to communicate in this pagan world I'd like to say we are the people who believe in life and we are the people who believe in love and we are the people who believe in freedom aren't those your virtues pagans right those the things you're forever talking about those are the things we believe in the problem of our civilization just as the problem of Augustine's civilization the weaknesses we find in our civilization as Augustine said the weakness is found in his civilization come not from Christian virtues but come from pagan vices Augustine again quoted pagan Romans Sal Osten juvenile juveniles maybe the most timely juvenile had the great statement who will watch the Watchers that needs to be put in stone in Washington who will watch the Watchers but juvenile said what's wrong with the Roman Empire immorality self-indulgence lack of discipline well maybe the new pagans are the old pagans maybe there's a lot of similarity I'm beginning to wonder if we as Christians ought not to start talking about a third American Revolution no the first american revolution that we study in school from the 18th century led by people like washington and jefferson the great patrician landowners that gave us our republic and then in the early 19th century that we don't study usually as much at least i didn't when i was in high school of course that's sort of before the flood the second American Revolution in the 1820s was as one great historian put it a transition of power from the snobs to the mobs it was the democratization of America it was moving away from patrician control particularly the Senate to much more broad-based Democratic control and much good came from that but today I'm wondering if we ought not to start talking about a third American revolution a revolution of radical secular individualism the only thing that matters is my individual rights and you're getting out of my way to exercise those rights and it's curious to me as a historian to hear the kind of talk we hear today oh you can't say that that's hate speech what happened to free speech here we are not far from Berkeley remember the free speech movement from the 1960s oh but you can't have free speech anymore because that is hate speech what about freedom of worship oh well that again is a kind of hate speech you can't claim rights of worship as you live out your life what's interesting to me as a historian is that it's I always thought that rights of free speech and free worship were actually written down in the Constitution whereas rights of privacy rights of abortion don't seem so explicit in the Constitution to me and we really are seeing a third American Revolution that's overturning the rights established in early American revolutions on establishing new rights intent on silencing those who want to defend the old rights and how should we as Christians react to this we've had a revolution of language this is a very minor matter but it really bugs me so I'm I'm up here I get to say it have you noticed the contemporary perversion of pronouns they has become the indefinite pronoun to refer to singular nouns if you don't want to make any gender specificity so if you say the teacher we used to say the teacher he and that meant men or women and then for a while we tried to teach her he or she and we got tired of that so it's now the teacher they what are we talking about here I know this is a minor matter you're all looking perplexed really makes me mad in our church we used to have a communion form calling us to self-examination before communion and the communion form said let each Christian examine his heart oh that's sexist language so they changed it let the Christians examine their hearts so I used to be called to examine my heart now I called to examine my heart and your heart a minor matter but it's barbarian it's a anyway no don't clap it'll encourage me and my wife's in the front row already shaking her head but part of the problem of radical secular individualism is not just that it overturns traditional rites but it overturns traditional institutions and and one of the very clearest ways we've seen this in recent decades in this country is the attack of secular individualism on the institution of the family the family has to be redefined the family can no longer be what it always has been in the history of Western civilization the family cannot be anymore what natural law makes clear it ought to be that's Paul's argument in Romans 1 it seems to me the family cannot be what Christians have always said the family is now the family has to be anything any individual wants it to be and what is that really leading to it's leading to the destruction of the family as an institution as a key building block of society I was watching CBS Morning News only a few days ago some of you may have seen it three or four or five days ago and they were interviewing an editor from Cosmopolitan magazine that kind of people I turn to for profound cultural insight and they had had a survey of sexual attitudes apparently we we don't have enough you know information about sex in this society so and one of the questions was how many dates do you think it's appropriate to go on before you have sex and one of the three anchors of CBS Morning News said I don't I think it's fine to have sex on the first date and the other two anchors were shocked and conservative saying they thought you ought to wait till the second or third date and I'm thinking to myself now I know I'm old but I'm thinking to myself this is what American families are listening to as they're eating Cheerios in the morning before they go to work in school this same group a few months ago had reported a survey that said that 70% of Americans believed in spanking children and the three of them looked at each other and said I'm just amazed not one of the three knew a single soul who believed in spanking children of course the fact that they lived amongst the wealthy elite in Manhattan may have had something to do with the fact that they didn't know any real Americans I'm really getting the look from my wife Mulan mother but but you see what a revolution is going on in attitudes about the family about the stability of the institution of the family about sexual morality and about the the notion that apparently there is no price to be paid for flaunting what we would have called libertine immoral sexual values on morning television in America anymore the barbarians aren't at the gate the barbarians have taken over the media and and how do we react to that well if you're old as I am you just get mad but that's not really a profitable thing to do that's not really being the light of the world but you know another institution that's really been taken over is is education and the schools for 500 years from the time of the Renaissance just before the Reformation and contributing to the coming of the Reformation until about 1950 1960 Western civilization knew what education was about and what it wanted to accomplish and since then we've had steady experimentation amongst people who don't really know what they want to accomplish with education except they know what they don't want to accomplish they don't want children in schools to know anything about the content of the Bible so those children could actually read history literature study art representing the history of Western civilization there's a revolution going on a revolution that is angry at Christianity and Christians and wants to tear things down and build a new as citizens I think we should be angry as Christians we need to be the light of the world and I keep telling myself stop being angry and think more as Augustine thought how do we communicate to this generation how do we convince them that Christianity is not just some pass a group of old angry Christians and I'm I'm glad to look around here and I see a lot of young people here that's very encouraging and we don't want to be just old angry Christians talking about the good old days like a bunch of fools if you weren't here when I started out the church history series look it up in Ecclesiastes 7 verse 10 so we have to think how can we shine in this world whether the barbarians are at the gates or in the Citadel's and I read recently a very scholarly intriguing book by kyle harper entitled from shame to sin and it was a study of how christian sexual ethics took over from pagan sexual ethics in the late roman empire just the time before augustine was something I'd never really thought a whole lot about how did that change come about we hear from too many voices today about the really good old days in pagan Rome when anything went how did pagan sexual immorality come to be replaced by Christian sexual morality not that the church always got it all together right but there was a revolution that took place over a period of about two hundred years and maybe that's the first lesson we have to learn Americans are not a patient people we want things done now we want a quick fix we want a program that will set things right right away and part of what I think we need to realize as Christians in the late Roman Empire realized is that we may well be in for a very long haul before things turn around are you willing to commit 200 years I mean not you and me through the whole time but are you willing to realize that we may have to see that this is a multi-generational campaign that we need to begin that we may need to be building in small ways for a future that is going to be way out in front of us I think that's why the Reformation Bible College is such an attractive valuable thing to do building in a small way towards educating Christians so like Augustine they can evaluate the situation in which they live they can respond to encourage Christians and to challenge pagans and can continue to build for the future and make the case for Christianity stevelawson was talking about the importance of truth to long American Christians have thought if we only had enough emotion to convert everybody everything would be fine but emotional conversion is not doing it there has to be a truth presentation for Christ the light that we need to shine in the world has to be a light of truth challenging the lie that is dominating the life of many of the new pagans who really stands for life in this culture those who want to protect the unborn or those who want to kill them and to what extent is abortion in this country a racial genocide who's raising that question who's speaking about that euthanasia is coming it's come to Oregon California hates it when anybody else gets there first who stands for life when you face euthanasia one of the first things Adolf Hitler did when he became Chancellor of Germany was to introduce euthanasia for the disabled and he had to stop it because the Germans rose up in protest who speaks for life who stands for life who's going to tell the truth about drugs and what they do to life do you walk through the streets of San Francisco and see what drugs have done to people who are living on the streets this is life who stands for life or love sex on the first date is love the growing number of single mothers abandoned to raise children on their own this is love this is freedom it's a lie it's a culture of delusion and destruction and Christians have to not just get angry about it not just rant about it but Christians have to say have you really thought about this have you really thought about what your claim to to life and to love and to freedom is meaning for you and for those around you you see Christianity really is light shining in the world Christianity really is truth that promises life and life that's more abundant part of the way that we need to shine in this world is to say that Harper in his book about changes of sexual ethics in the late Roman period said there were two key components that Christianity stood against that was found in pagan Rome the first was determinism pagan Romans believed that your sexual desires and your sexual practices were just determined by the Stars and there was nothing you could do about it and part of the attraction of Christianity was a declaration of freedom you are not determined to be anyway your lusts carry you but there can be freedom from lust and sexual immorality in Christ and that resonated with people over time and today what are we here oh well people are just born that way it may not be astral determinism but it's biological determinism and psychological determinism that's being promoted on every side today and we as Christians ought to say we believe in freedom that's not to say we can change every attitude every feeling in any immediate simpliciter or maybe even eventual sense but Christ can set you free from what is the wages of sin and the other great problem amongst the pagan Romans was coercion slaves had no freedom they had to engage in sex whenever their masters wanted it prostitutes had no control over their bodies or their lives they were slaves to sex women who had limited freedom children had very limited freedom and Christianity came along and said no sex without consent no coercion but what do we find today seems a rising tide of rape on college campuses linked to drugs and social coercion is this really the society the brave new world that's going to be built or should we as Christians as the light of the world again say we believe in life we believe in love we believe in freedom we are opposed to coercion we are opposed to determinism we are opposed to what claims to be the liberation of women but is in fact the real war on women and in the spirit of Augustine we ought to turn all of these claims back and say this is not light this is not progress we ought to say if you want freedom you need Jesus because it's Jesus who said you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free but the truth Jesus is talking about is preceded by his words to his disciples if you abide in my word you are truly my disciples and then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free and so I think we need to undertake a whole new strategy a whole new vision a whole new commitment to the careful patient loving kind in other words very different from the spirit of this address a very kind and loving effort to say to the world around us the increasingly pagan world around us don't come to church for an emotional experience come to church for the truth and when you discover that truth you'll discover real life and real love and real freedom and real joy because that's true it's what Jesus came for it's what jesus promised it's what jesus promised for sure in the life of the world to come but it's what he promised also now for his disciples the foretaste already David in Psalm 31 wrote in verse 21 blessed be the lord for he has wondrously shown me his steadfast love when I was in a besieged city I think David is speaking metaphorically there but the barbarians were at the gate and the experience of David and how did he respond well life had been really hard for David at the center of this Psalm that's the emotional heart of this song at the center of this song he'd written because of all my adversaries I've become a reproach especially to my neighbors and an object of dread to my acquaintances those who see me in the street flee from me I have been forgotten like one who is dead I've become like a broken vessel for I hear the whispering of many terror on every side as they schemed together against me as they plot to take my life the barbarians were after him he's desperate and then he calms down and his light shines through and he says but I trust in you O Lord I say you are my God my times are in your hands now there's a verse for us my times are in your hands this is the same David who earlier in the psalm at verse five had said into your hand I commit my spirit you have redeemed me O Lord faithful God we have a God we can trust in the worst of times we have a God we can trust with our times and we are a God who comes and rescues and delivers his people and the psalm ends with David's appeal to all the faithful he ends by saying be strong and let your heart take courage all you who wait for the Lord Christians in every age have waited for the Lord we're lady waiting ultimately for his return but we're also waiting for what he's going to do through us and in us and with us in our time our times belong to God not just the future but the present and what we're called to now is to be the light of the world to tell the truth to live lives of love and freedom and good works so that in the strength of our living for Christ by the power of his spirit and according to his word those whom the Lord is gathering his elect out of this world will say I see the light shining in your life and you can say it's the light of Jesus and he can shine in your life if you know the truth and so let us not lose heart it really doesn't matter what the Bavarian but Bavarians barbarians comes in reading too much World War two history it doesn't really matter what the barbarians do because God will win the victory and our times are in his hands so be strong and let your heart take courage all you who wait for the Lord let's pray together well Lord you have said the most incredible thing about us that we are the light of the world and what we tend to feel is weak and insignificant and maybe even hopeless but remind us that the great light has arisen and that the times are in his hands and that he will accomplish his purposes and not one of his elect will be lost and that when he has finished his purposes for this world he will return in glory to make all things new and in the meantime O Lord use us let our lights shine let us be beacons let us be centers of love and of Hope of life and freedom as we point to Christ and gladly confess all that we have comes from his hand hear us and use us we pray in Jesus name Amen

Channel: Ligonier Ministries

Views: 8,900

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Id: CoD7k6LO7sQ

Length: 46min 33sec (2793 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 26 2015