"Where Are the Leaders?" - Ronald L. Dart

now that the ashes have cooled in los angeles now that i've had time to think about a lot of the things that have happened i still have a lot of images that remain in my mind and i know you do too a lot of them have to do with the insanity in the streets the view from helicopters the view from passing cars the burning city that we've seen again and again and again played over to us along with of course the beating of rodney king all these images all of us have but one reporter when all this was over pointed out a significant fact he said there were 30 million black people in this country who did not riot over the rodney king verdict i'll never forget that when he made that statement because it was it was timely it was useful it was fact one of the few useful things the media did during that whole riot time one of the more encouraging images that i have also is the an image of a multi-ethnic group of people with brooms and wearing wearing gloves and out there doing what they could sweep up clean up try to make sense out of the mess of people putting together bags of food from outside outlying areas even from simi valley and loading them up in trucks and taking them down to the people who couldn't get to a grocery store because the grocery store near them had been burnt out in the process a group of folks pitching in helping neighbors cleaning up you know it wasn't all together bad news in the sense that the people this country are really not so bad there is still an enormous reservoir of goodwill out there of people who are ready to help their neighbor of people who wouldn't harm a fly of people who will go out of their way to help someone who needs it we always get the stories of the people who do the bad things and we oftentimes don't get reminded of all the people who do good things along the way inquiring minds then will want to know okay who then or where then does the blame lie and all these things that happened in los angeles since there are so many good people out there and there are the people are ready to blame the jury people are ready to blame the system people are ready to blame the police blame this person fingers are pointing all over the place after it has been said and done forget the blame i know precisely where the responsibility lies and i'm going to tell you that today the responsibility lies with the leadership in this country leadership from top to bottom from the highest level to the most basic level from the east coast to the west coast from the canadian border to the mexican border of the gulf of mexico the black leadership white leadership hispanic leadership asian leadership leadership of every stripe every color every shape every size every function the problem lies with leadership in fact the most frightening thing about all these riots to me was the utter lack of effective leadership anywhere on the scene there was no moral leadership but you know but then there can't be moral leadership unless you have moral authority and you can't have moral authority unless you have some foundation for strong morals there could be no effective leadership particularly during the crisis because no moral high ground had been established before the crisis ever started when that riot was just barely getting underway there were a few buildings in a flame and a relatively few thousand people in the streets at the time one reporter commented that it was different this time and it was chilling the way he put it when it was it was to me one of the one again one of the very few things that were said by the media through the whole thing that clicked into place he said this time there is no honest broker there is no one that people will look to there is no one who can speak with credibility to both sides there is no one in a position of a more of the moral high ground who can say stop and people would say well yeah i can see your point who could say this you know address the problems and the difficulties everyone out there was seen as compromised or corrupted or having taken sides long since having adopted a position or perhaps of being a liar who would say whatever was to be said to meet whatever situation came along no one who could serve as an honest broker all the leaders could do was get on television and plead for calm and let's don't do this and this is wrong but all the people they were talking to weren't watching television they were out in the streets stealing television it was a long long time too late for that and after listening to that reporter i i couldn't help thinking about what one of god's prophets said long long ago the scripture in question is back in ezekiel the 22nd chapter ezekiel and jeremiah writing about the same time say much the same things i'm only going to take you to ezekiel this afternoon for his particular poignant comment on this god speaking through ezekiel about all the things that were going on among his people said in verse 30 and i sought for a man among them that should make up the hedge that you stand in the gap before me before the land that i should not destroy it but i found none this is just a a harbinger or just a an opening thing just and just an indication of what can happen and the problem we face is that when the time does come when it is not just a corner of a city but when the problem is greater than that and much more far-reaching than that and the danger is much more imminent someone will stand up and look around and say who will speak for us who will speak to us who can give us some leadership who can give us some guidance for god himself will look around for a man to stand in the gap and to make up the hedge and he said i could find none but what about the leaders where were they when this statement was made you have to go back a few verses to verse 23 to get a little bit of a feeling for why it was that there was no one to stand in the gap why it was that there was no one there to make up the hedge listen to what he says the word of the lord came to me saying son of man say to her you are the land that is not cleansed nor rained upon the day of indignation there is a conspiracy of her prophets in the midst thereof like a roaring lion ravening the prey they have devoured souls they have taken the treasure and their precious things they have made her many widows in the midst thereof her priests have violated my law and profaned my holy things they put no difference between the holy and the profane neither have they showed difference between the clean and the unclean they've hid their eyes for my sabbath and i'm profaned among them among who all right here's one major category of leader the religious leaders they are categorized in two ways prophets and priests and what does he say about the prophets and the priests but one of the things is that they've taken the treasure and the precious things these men instead of out there taking care of the needs of the people instead of establishing a moral high ground instead of establishing their credentials as leaders among the people we're out there to make a fast buck it's not at all unlike what's going on in our world today when you have when people will stand around decrying the leadership of congress and why we can't get any leadership out of the white house well let's send a preacher up there to talk to them but who shall we send jim baker jimmy swaggart where is the moral authority from the preachers for you see the preachers have abandoned god's law and upon what are you going to base moral authority where are the foundations for it what does it stand on they no longer tell you that there's any difference between the clean and the unclean or the holy and the unholy moral authority folks comes from morals and morals are a sense of what is right and what is wrong and it has to be based upon a premise in the first place that there is such a thing as right and there is such a thing as wrong and when there are no preachers who will preach this is right this is wrong where are you oh i know there are some in fact one of the most effective i have ever heard in my life as far as just the the courageous condemnation of sin from the pulpit is none other than jimmy swaggart he was good at it he was uncompromising i suspect frankly that one of the reasons jimmy swaggart hated sin so much was because he realized what it was doing to him but he did preach but his authority to preach is gone so it is with so many of these men who have hid their eyes from god's law have said well god's law is done away with and consequently have left themselves with nothing to stand on how can you expect them to preach that was one category of leader in verse 27 it talks about the civil leaders that is another category of leader not the religious but the princes of the country her princes in the midst thereof are like wolves ravening the play pray to shed blood to destroy souls to get dishonest gain all they were after was money there are times quite honestly brethren when you look around in our own congress and you see the same thing you say what are these men up there for why do they why are they bothering to run for reelection well one thing it allows them to do is to raise a lot of money it can raise a lot of money that they can take with them when they retire what are they after where is the leadership where is the courage where is the willingness to take a stand i don't ever see any of it oh there's probably one here or one there but nobody wants to listen to them one of the reasons folks why our congress and why our government lies to us all the time is because we don't want them to tell us the truth they tell us the truth and we'll vote them out of office so who do we blame because that we have a government that lies to us all the time it goes back to the prophets again in verse 28 it says the prophets have dobbed them with untempered mortars seeing vanity and divining lies saying thus saith the lord god when the lord hasn't spoken and in fact wouldn't speak to them the people of the land have used depression they've exercised robbery they've vexed the poor and needy and they have oppressed a stranger wrongfully you know we don't get off either do we the leaders are corrupt the religious leaders are corrupt the people are corrupt they rob they vex the poor and the needy and they oppress the stranger wrongfully you know i don't know if if that phrase jumped at you off the page like it did me when you think of what's been happening in los angeles and other cities around this country one of the clear things that came out of this is that the oppression of the poor the oppression of the stranger has been a constant in this country for who knows how long the poor become a political football to toss back and forth from one half from the house of representatives to the senate to the white house and back again the question of helping the poor the question of doing things that make a difference with the poor the question of really trying to accomplish something with the poor it never goes anywhere people just play politics with it they make promises they have no intention of keeping but of course if they kept them or even tried to keep them we'd vote them right out of office if they promised the wrong thing we would never vote them into office in the first place the people want a liar in government lying politician in our country has become redundant you know you don't need to add lying to it just call him a politician this question of the treatment of the position of the stranger among us has been a subject of more misunderstanding than i could ever tell you not only in our country at large but even in the church from time to time because the fact of the matter is that people use the word i guess the word that is probably most abused in this regard is not the word stranger it is the word gentile we see the pattern among the jews in jesus own time of how they had separated themselves from the gentiles would not eat with the gentiles made the gentiles sit over here and they'd sit over here they would not come interact with them at all and somehow or other there gets to be this assumption that well that must have been the way it was in the old testament that the gentile was kept separate and the gentile couldn't worship god like the jews could they could not have access in that way some of the confusion i'm not going to try to go through all this with you today but some of the confusion arises out of the fact that there are at least four words in the old testament and hebrew that wind up being translated by the one word stranger in english and there's an enormous amount of misunderstanding that grows out of these things because there are certain things the stranger is told he cannot do for example he tells aaron and the sons of aaron that they have a task of certain things having to do with the offerings and the in the sacrifices around the temple then it proceeds to say that if any stranger has anything to do with those he'll be put to death that word stranger actually is a different word from the one i'm going to come to in a moment but what it means is anybody who is not a son of aaron in this context basically it means others simply the sons of aaron were allowed not allowed to do it i mean we're allowed to do it but the jews were not allowed to do it ephraimites were not allowed to do it manasites were not allowed to do it it wasn't a question of israel it was a question of anybody other than levi was not allowed to do it now i want you to turn back with me to leviticus the 19th chapter because right in the laws that i'm going to read to you now lie a great deal of the difficulty of the pain the suffering the heartache that exists in our country today that erupted in such a violent way in los angeles just a matter of days ago in leviticus 19 and i'm going to begin reading in verse 33 if a stranger sojourn with you in your land you shall not vex him alrighty point one a stranger comes to sojourn that is to be a pilgrim or to live for a while in your land you are not to vex him but it says more the stranger that lives with you that dwells with you that takes up residence with you shall be unto you as one born among you you shall love him as yourself why because you were strangers in the land of egypt and because i am the lord your god notice this a stranger an outlander somebody from another country comes to settle in your land he is to be like one born in the land that means that all those laws both protecting the rights of and imposing burdens on israelites every single one of those laws applied to the stranger who came and took up residence in israel there were two kinds of strangers that might be present at one time one is the stranger who's passing through and they weren't allowed to vex him either but he is treated in one way he has certain rights privileges and obligations but the one who comes and settles in the land gets his green card as it were becomes a part of the community it says you are to treat him like he was born in the land he has all the rights that you do he has all the responsibilities that you do we have violated that principle of this country again and again and again and again we have violated it with nearly every immigrant group that has ever come to this country since it was established from the irish to the poles to the germans to the italians to the blacks whom we brought here ourselves as slaves and then released later on we have violated it with the asians who came in on the west coast and worked on the railroads and helped build them we have violated as a people with every foreigner who has ever taken root on our shore well everyone some of them probably have been well treated here and there but we have been violating this law ever since we started as a people why in the world should anybody ever be surprised that some of this stuff comes home to roost on us after a while when god told us how to treat these people in the first place it's there it's been in the book all along and one wonders somehow how you get you know to where we are now you also have to realize that in israel of old there was a law there was a moral authority there was a right and wrong way god was their ruler god had given them a law they had a worship they had a god they had all these things they had a state religion as a matter of fact a gentile or a stranger who came in and settled in israel and took out his green card also accepted the religion of israel this is why the words of ruth to her mother-in-law were so important your people will be my people and your god my god when the gentiles of old came to settle in israel and to take out their green card and to settle down in residence and and buy property and to have an inheritance and to pass it on to their children do whatever it was that they did they accepted israel's god the obligations of israel's god were that were upon them the rights to worship israel's god were theirs the huge difference between us and them they violated this law too by the way in afflicting the stranger but the big difference between us and them is we have no faith as a people we have faith as individuals we have faith in churches but as a people as a nation as a country we have no faith the founding fathers had faith and they never imagined when they wrote into our constitution that congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion or that congress shall not abridge the free exercise of religion it never crossed their minds that as time went on that congress would use this freedom of religion and that the courts would turn it into freedom from god never crossed their minds if it had the constitution would have been written differently from what it was today but the poor stranger who comes and settles among us can't accept our god because we don't have one and so consequently he never is able to make the kind of commitment to the to the community that a stranger could have made to the community of israel had he wanted to and had he been committed to it and had he chosen to go that route we left off the service of god i'm sorry to say in this country very very early just while i'm at it i might as well demolish a couple of other cherished ideas about the strangers who come among us in uh is it numbers the 15th chapter and beginning in verse 14 numbers 15 if a stranger sojourn with you or whosoever be among you and your generations and will offer an offering made by fire of a sweet saver to the to jehovah as you do so shall he do he's going to worship god he's going to worship god the way you do you tend to make the assumption well the gentiles who lived among israel that is the stranger who lived there they could worship god they could keep the sabbath day they could do those things but they couldn't come up to the temple and do any of those things wrong wrong if they were going to serve god they were going to serve god exactly like you do he said one ordinance shall be both for you of the congregation also for the stranger that sojourns with you in ordinance forever in your generations as you are so shall the stranger be before the lord one law and one manner shall be for you and for the stranger who sojourns among you he comes to live among you to cast his lot with you he has the right to worship god he has the obligation to keep god's law all these things were binding upon him there are some surprises in this area really when you begin to look for it and examine it in deuteronomy the 16th chapter there's another rather large surprise deuteronomy 16 and i'll begin reading in verse 9. weeks shall you number unto you begin to number the seven weeks from such time as you begin to put the sickle to the corn you shall keep the feast of weeks unto the lord your god with a tribute of a free will offering of your hand you'll give it to the lord your god according to the blessing that he has blessed you with and you shall rejoice before the lord your god you your son your daughter your manservant your maidservant and the levite is within your gates and the stranger and the fatherless and the widow that are among you in the place which the lord your god has chosen to place his name there you know it's interesting that the stranger is often equated with the widow and the fatherless and i think the reason that that is done is because he is a displaced person he's a refugee as it was he is assumed to be in the bible the stranger is at a disadvantage in your community and you are the bible is throughout the bible there is enormous care taken again and again and again for people who are at a disadvantage and the minorities that is those people who are at a disadvantage the bible cares for the woman who has no husband the child who has no father and the stranger who has no other home to which he can go he said you will remember that you were a bondman in egypt and you shall observe and do these statutes you shall observe the feast of tabernacles seven days after you've gathered in the corn the wine you shall rejoice in thy feast you your son your daughter the manservant the maidservant the levite the stranger the stranger is supposed to keep the feast of tabernacles folks right here in the law of god and when the millennium comes we know that the other nations like the egyptians will be keeping the feast of tabernacles but maybe you forgot that it was right back here in the law that the stranger who was going to live in israel and be a part of the economy of israel would keep the feast of tabernacles right along with him and they were to make provision for that and allow that to work and then there is this other scripture which those of you in my bible study uh heard not too long ago back in ezekiel right toward the end we're dealing with a prophecy of the of the millennium and the millennial kingdom ezekiel 47 and i'm going to read in verse 22 it shall come to pass that you'll divide the land by lot for an inheritance to you and to the strangers that sojourn among you which shall beget children among you they shall be to you as one born in the country among the children of israel they shall have an inheritance with you among the tribes it shall come to pass that what drive the stranger sojourns there shall you give him his inheritance saith the lord god so the stranger could not be dispossessed we're paying right now the price for that and we will pay it again and again and again those of us who are in the church should have a long time been able to get over that because if there's anything that's clear in the new testament that isn't in christ there is neither june or greek bond nor free male nor female but that we are all one in christ jesus and there is no room for discrimination based upon race or national origin or anything else for that matter not at all there comes a time in the decline of a nation when leadership all but disappears the story of this is told rather bitterly frankly back in the beginning of the book of isaiah isaiah is a is a good read actually you may want to get a better a different translation from the king james version although it is beautifully written in the king james isaiah is a powerful prophet and a very good writer and expresses these prophecies very very well he's talking about israel and he says in verse 2 hear o heavens and give ear o earth for the lord has spoken i have nourished and brought up children and they have rebelled against me the ox knows his owner the ass his master's crib but israel doesn't know my people don't consider and folks i lay i lay an enormous amount of that in our own society today was we are this way i lay it right at the feet of the preachers right at the feet of the preachers because there was a time in this country when the preachers preached out of the bible there was a time when they preached out of the old testament there was a time when they said the law of god ought to be obeyed there was a time when they all kept the sabbath day nearly all of them oh it was on sunday but they called it the sabbath they kept it as the sabbath they closed businesses because it was the sabbath at least they tried made a shot at it of some sort and when they preached they preached it that way the old circuit riding preachers who came out here in west texas preached in the old testament all the time the fact was that the way of life and out here in west texas fit the old testament better than it did the new they thought at least the scriptures there applied to the people they could find a way to live by them a sinful nation a people loaded with iniquity a seed of evildoers children that are corrupters they have forsaken the lord they provoke the holy one of israel and anger they've gone away backward why would you be stricken anymore why will you do this why are you going to have to go through this why are we going to struggle this your country verse 7 is desolate your cities are burned with fire your land strangers this different word by the way devoured in your presence and it is over desolate is overthrown by aliens the daughter of zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard like a lodge in a garden of cucumbers like a besieged city just you know nothing that just one little building as it were standing up except the lord of hosts had given us a remnant while we would have been like sodom and gomorrah that's what they said god comes back and says oh listen to the word of jehovah you rulers of sodom he turns right around and calls the city of jerusalem sodom and well he might do so yeah also hear your god you people of gomorrah to what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to me they were continuing to come up to the temple they were continuing to cut the throats of animals and bleed them out and go through the whole rigmarole of putting meat on the altar he says what are you doing this for i'm full of the burnt offerings of ram and the fat of beasts and i don't delight in the blood of bullocks or lambs or he goes i'm tired of it i'm i'm fed up with it away with it it's iniquity he says even your solemn meeting verse 13 your new moons your appointed feasts my soul hates they are a trouble to me i'm weary to bear them i've had it now why why is it that with all of the efforts to worship god you can even equate it to they're going to church and going to church and going to church he says what are you doing this for when you spread forth your hands i'll hide my eyes from you now yeah you come on to church you can hold up your hands and close your eyes to the heavens while you pray god says i'll hide my eyes from you you make all the prayers you want to i'm not going to listen to you why the answer is because your hands are full of blood oh you may not have killed anybody yourself but you're responsible wash yourself make yourself clean put away the evil of your doings from my eyes stop this evil learn to do well seek judgment relieve the oppressed judge the fatherless plead for the widows look there's all these categories of helpless people out here go do something about that change the way you deal with people is what he says it's incredible how much this keeps rolling back home again and again throughout the prophets is your murderous attitude that even if you haven't taken the knife in your hand your attitude is that way he says come let's reason together saith the lord though your sins be as scarlet they'll be white as snow though they're red like crimson they will be as wool if you will be willing and obedient you shall eat the good of the land if you refuse and rebel you will be devoured with the sword there is so much condemnation that falls upon the head and the shoulders of these people because of what they have done later in virgin chapter 3 beginning in verse 1 behold the lord of hosts does take away from jerusalem and from judah the stay and the staff the whole stay of bread the whole stay of water now this is just the beginning of the things he's taking away listen to what else he takes away he takes away the mighty man the man of war the judge the prophet the prudent that is the person who is wise the ancient the captain of 50 the honorable man you want to find an honest broker you want to find somebody to stand in the gap who can talk to both people i mean people on both sides of an issue he's gone he's just gone the honorable man he says is taken away the counselor the one whose advice is like standing before the oracle of god he's gone the cunning artificer the eloquent orator and oh are they gone gone there's no one around who can even make it seem like give a speech the president of the united states can't even talk in complete sentences unless they're written out for him the eloquent orators are gone frankly it may be just as well for without the moral authority behind what they speak an eloquent orator can do more damage than you could ever imagine adolf hitler was somewhat of an eloquent orator i'll give children to be their princes that's youths babes shall rule over them the people will be oppressed every one by another every one by his neighbor the child shall behave himself proudly against the ancient and the base against the honorable we're not talking here about race we're talking about class just class when a man shall take hold of his brother of the house of his father and say look you have clothing you be our ruler and let this ruin be under your hand in other words we got this total mess this this absolute wreck and he comes over and gets him by the hand he says hey come along here and govern this ruin the day he will swear saying i will not be a healer my house is neither bread nor clothing don't make me a ruler of the people folks we're there we're there if you think this current crop of political candidates out there are the best people in the country to do the job you're wrong but the best people in the country don't want to have anything to do with it they don't want to have anything to do with it they don't want to have to be put in a position of getting up in front of television cameras and lying they just want to be in that position they don't want to lay their life on the line it's not worth it anymore they don't want to lead to people who are not willing to to take the hard choices and follow down the hard route and if people aren't going to follow if people don't want it what's the point in leading you can look all over the place and find people all right but they don't want to lead when a nation gets like our nation is today i frankly suspect anyone who does want to lead something is wrong somewhere for jerusalem is ruined judah is fallen because their tongue and their doings are against the lord to provoke the eyes of his glory the show of their countenance witnesses against them they declare their sin like sodom they don't even hide it woe to their soul they have rewarded evil to themselves say you to the righteous that it shall be well with him for they will eat the fruit of their doings the ones that do right woe to the wicked it will be ill with him for the reward of his hands shall be given to him you'll get it what is coming to it as for my people well youth oppress them you know gangs of young thugs running up and down the street they're your oppressors women rule over them not because there's anything wrong with women is this here it's because when the men cease to lead when the men cease to provide the kind of leadership that ought to be there then the women are called upon to do it oh my people they that lead you cause you to er and they destroy the way of your paths that is as true of our people today as it ever has been in the history of mankind that our people who lead us cause us to go astray and destroy the way of our past this is where it all goes it's all right here as to what's going to happen the lord will enter into judgment with the ancients of the people and the princes for you've eaten up the vineyard the spoil of the poor is in your houses what do you mean you people that beat my people to pieces and grind the faces of the poor do we do that yeah yes we really do when we allow in this country banking and lending institutions to charge a 24 interest rate of the poor we are allowing them to grind the faces of the poor period because the things that the one of the reasons why people are poor is because they don't know how to manage money that's not their fault necessarily nobody ever taught them nobody ever gave them a chance nobody ever explained it to them and in some cases they're just weak that's one of the reasons why they are poor and you don't help the poor by giving them credit i don't know what law ought to be passed i don't know what we ought to do about it all i can tell you i think we're beyond it but i will tell you that in charging 24 interest of poor people we are grinding the faces of the poor and we're breaking the law of god and we're going to pay we're going to pay a whole lot more in fact than we're ever going to get out of it moreover the lord said because the daughters of zion are haughty and walk was stretched forth and necks and wanton eyes walking and mincing as they go and making a tinkling with their feet oh everything is so sweet and so nice the lord will smite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of zion and the lord will discover their secret parts you know strip them off naked leave them standing out there with scabs on them in that day the lord will take away the bravery of their tinkling ornaments about their feet and the calls and the round tires like the moon the chains the braves mufflers see all you went out to get rid of your chains and bracelets and buffers well no that's not what it's talking about at all there's not a thing in the world wrong with jewelry what the point is and you see it in the whole context of it that these women had become so vain so arrogant and of course so sexually liberated and active that god says this is where this is where it's going to go folks you want to get naked we'll get naked the glasses the fine and all that stuff is going to go it shall come to pass verse 24 that instead of a sweet smell there will be a stink instead of a girdle there will be a tear instead of well-set hair baldness instead of a girdle around it there'll be burning instead of beauty your men will fall by the sword the mighty in war her gate shall lament and mourn and she being desolate shall sit on the ground this is where this is where it all goes but why why is it that that whatever allows that type of thing to happen how is it possible that that a nation could so lose its way a nation or a people could get so far off the track so far away from god because things were not always this way with us as a people they really weren't there was a time when we had men of incredible vision and leadership who were in charge and leading in this country we had men who would stand up in public and quote the bible i mean then really mean it when they did so we had leaders who read the bible in the white house not that george bush doesn't i don't know if he does or not but the fact of the matter is this must be while the bible could also be taught in school and why you could begin a school day with prayer and when you could talk about morals in school this was a different world back then how did it change the apostle paul writing so many generations later told us how it happened he speaks of it beginning in verse 15 of the first chapter of the book of romans as much as in me i am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at rome also for i am not ashamed of the gospel of christ it's the power of god unto salvation to everyone that believes to the jew first but also to the greek for therein is the righteousness of god revealed from faith to faith as it is written the just shall live by faith for the wrath of god is revealed from heaven against all the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness notice the word hold in your king james right version should be it means to hold down or to suppress the truth we're not talking about here about people who never knew the truth we're not talking about people who never imagined that there might be a god we're talking about people who knew better but who suppressed what they knew because that which may be known of god is manifest to them god has showed it to him in fact the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his eternal power and godhead so that they are without excuse i don't care how many degrees they have after their name i don't care how much how how wise or how ignorant god says you can stop and you can go outside and you can look at the stars and you ought to know that there is a god because when they knew god they did not glorify him as god neither were there thankful but became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened there's a little a little parallel in here a little parable if you will of the history of this country but when we started in this country we knew there was a god we knew him the problem was that when we knew god we didn't glorify him as god or didn't continue to do so we didn't we weren't thankful not continually but became vain in our imagination he says their foolish heart was darkened professing themselves to be wise they became fools and they changed the glory of the uncorruptable god into an image made like corruptable man now paul was probably talking about graven images but the fact of the matter is that our educational system the one that your children your children go to school right now it may not be as bad here in east texas as it is other places around the country but some of your brethren in other cities can tell you how it is that the educational system in our country has changed the glory of the uncorruptable god into an image like corruptable man because they teach not morals based on law not morals based upon what god says not morals based upon a clear standard that this is right and this is wrong they teach ethics what i mean maybe they teach ethics some places they don't teach anything what's the difference between teaching ethics and teaching morals there is a difference you know morals simply is a a set of right and wrongs that says this kind of behavior is right this kind of behavior is wrong ethics is a system of thought based upon a a system or a set of values humanism or humanistic ethics for example is one category of ethics humanism basically as it considers ethics is based on a system of thought that is and this is out of the out of the dictionary non-theistic that's an interesting way of saying godless rationalist that holds that man is capable of self-fulfillment ethical conduct without recourse to the supernatural i'll just translate that for you it is a system that is godless rationalist and holds that man can do it all on his own without any help or advice from god thank you very much that's what it's all about and so there is a philosophical system there is an ethical system it's humanistic which says basically folks we're human beings and we ought to be able to figure out what we ought to do to make this world work haven't we done well aren't we doing just marvelously with making the world work well then how come we're grinding the faces of the poor how come we're repressing the stranger that lives among us we're doing so very well there's nothing wrong with the rich getting richer the problem is when the poor get poorer and we could do something about it as a people there is a problem there i'm not talking about the poverty that the poor bring on themselves jesus said the poor will always be with you what i am talking about the poverty is the poverty that is brought about by oppression and by exploitation and let us not sit there and pat ourselves on the back and say that there isn't any of that kind of poverty going on in our world because the truth is all of us know better than that he said they made the glory of god like four-footed beasts and creeping things what happens to their mind once they have put god off to the side god gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts to dishonor their own bodies among themselves who changed the truth of god into a lie and worshiped and served the creature more than the creator who's blessed forever amen for this cause god gave them up to vile affections you won't know what the source of homosexual behavior is we have stumbled upon it here it is because they have abandoned god turn their back on god you know i'm not talking about an individual homosexual because i really believe there are some people who are homosexuals in the world today who got there without ever having the foggiest idea how they got there or when it all happened to them i really believe that's true but i have no i no doubt in my mind whatsoever about where it comes from at its root this paul makes it clear enough it comes about because people have turned their back on god and god gave them over to a reprobate mind he gave them up to vile affections even their women did change to the the natural use into that which is against nature they became lesbians likewise the men leaving the natural use of the woman burned in their lust toward one another men with men working that which is unseemly and receiving in themselves the recompense of their error which was fitting hepatitis gonorrhea syphilis aids the gay community we want to euphemize it has been long been known as a major reservoir of venereal disease of sexually transmitted diseases in this country i you know it's just there it's a fact of life even as they did not like to retain god in their knowledge god gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient boy what an understatement what an understatement being filled with all unrighteousness fornication wickedness covetousness maliciousness full of envy murder deceit malignity whisperers almost sounds like the house of representatives backbiters haters of god it makes you sick it really makes you sick that when i make that statement everybody here recognizes the truth of it that just too close to home backbiters haters of god despiteful proud boasters inventors of evil things and disobedient to parents without understanding covenant breakers without natural affection implacable unmerciful who knowing the judgment of god that they that commit such things are worthy of death not only do the same but have pleasure in them that do them where is it all going you know here's where it all comes from where is it all going i'm going to go back to malachi and i'm going to read it because the king james translation of malachi is very very difficult and i'm not going to use that one for you today i'm going to use the living bible because i think he has done an excellent paraphrase in this particular area micah the 6th chapter and i'm not going to comment a lot i'm going to read it because it is all here again this is a prophecy looking ahead toward god's people at the end time and this is where the whole thing goes micah 6 verse 1 listen to what the lord is saying to his people stand up and state your case against me let the mountains and hills be called to witness your complaints as god to the people and now old mountains listen to the lord's complaint for he has a case against his people israel he will prosecute them to the full o my people what have i done that makes you turn away from me well why not let's ask that question what is it that god has done that has caused us as a people to turn away from it why is it that we have chosen to pursue our constitution in such a way that doesn't just give us freedom of religion but that gives our people freedom from god it's a totally different thing tell me why your patience is exhausted answer me why have you worn out on me i brought you out of egypt i cut your chains of slavery i gave you moses aaron and miriam to help you the people asked having seen it verse 4 how can we make up to you for what we've done you ask shall we bow before the lord with the offerings and yearling calves i know let's go make some more sacrifices no for if you offered him thousands of rams and ten thousands of rivers of olive oil would that please him would he be sacrificed let's go ahead and sacrifice your oldest child that going to make god happy with you finally would he forgive your sins then of course not no he's told you what he wants and that's all it is what does he want oh listen to this beautiful statement to be fair and just and merciful and to walk humbly with your god boy that's tough what horrible demands god makes upon us how difficult life is under the service of god the lord's voice calls out to all jerusalem listen listen to the lord if you are wise the armies of destruction are coming the lord is sending them for your sins are very great is there to be no end of getting rich by cheating the houses of the wicked are full of ungodly treasures and lying scales how do you think some of these really really filthy rich people got that way just doing everything by the book real honest all the way up and down the line i suppose there are some but an awful lot of it gets done by cheating shall i say good to all your merchants with their bags of false and deceitful weights am i going to just be real happy your merchant down here says big sale half price went and put the merchandise up in the first place at 100 bucks when he intended to sell it for fifty dollars all along and cuts it to half price and sells it to 50. right with the fellow that that's going to give you a real special deal it's normally 50 but in your case i'll make it 60. how could god be just while saying that your rich men are wealthy through extortion and violence your citizens are so used to lying that their tongues can't tell the truth well if it isn't true of everybody out here in society at least it is in washington therefore i will wound you i'll make your hearts miserable for all your sins you will eat but never have enough hunger pains emptiness will still remain and though you try and save your money it's going to come to nothing at the end what little you succeed in storing up i'm going to give it to those that conquer you you'll plant cut crops but you won't harvest them you'll press out the oil from the olives but you won't get enough to even even anoint yourself you'll trample the grapes but you won't have enough juice to make a bottle of wine the only commands you keep are those of omrae the only example you follow is that of ahab two of the rotten kings of israel they ever had you'll follow those people therefore i'm gonna make an awesome example of you i will destroy you i'll make you the laughing stock of the world everybody that sees you is going to snicker and sneer woe is me verse chapter 7 verse 1 it is hard to find it is as hard to find an honest man as grapes and figs when the harvest days are over not a cluster to eat not a single early fig however much i long for it he's not talking about figs folks he's talking about leaders the good men have disappeared from the earth not one fair-minded man is left they are all murderers turning against even their own brothers you know when i read this and it is painful to think about it i realize that it doesn't fit us perfectly but it is going to because we have begun to travel down the same road that these people have traveled we are doing things the same way they did them we are making the same mistakes they made we have long since turned our back on god as a people and this is where it goes to where a man finally says the good men have disappeared there's not a fair-minded man left there's nobody i can go to for leadership or for judgment they go at their evil deeds with both hands and how skilled they are in using them the governor and the judge alike demand bribes the rich man pays them off and tells them who to ruin you don't think that happens sure it happens justice is twisted between them the best of them are like prickly briers the stratus is more crooked than a hedge of thorns but your judgment day is coming swiftly now your time of punishment is almost here confusion destruction and terror will be yours wanna know what it'll be like it's gonna be like this don't trust anyone not your best friend not even your wife for the son despises his father the daughter defies her mother the bride curses her mother-in-law yes a man's enemies will be found in his own home as for me i look to god for his help i wait for god to save me he will hear me don't rejoice against me my enemy though i fall i will rise again when i sit in darkness the lord himself will be my light i'll be patient while the lord punishes me for i have sinned against him then he will defend me from my enemies and punish them for all the evil that they have done to me god will bring me out of my darkness into the light i will see his goodness then my enemy will see that god is for me and be ashamed of taunting me saying where is that god of yours now with my own eyes i see them trampled like mud in the streets that's where it finally goes i'm sorry to tell you this but in our own country it's going to get worse much worse before it gets better you know all these years mr ken armstrong has taken a lot of criticism a lot of heat for being negative for being a jeremiah for talking about things like these but i'm sorry folks i don't really care much what people want to hear it is going to get worse much worse but there is a lot that we can do there are out there a lot of innocent people being hurt and as time goes by and as we were able to reach out to the with with the telecast and also with brethren doing personal evangelism there is out there out there a lot of innocent people who are being hurt who are going to need help and compassion and love and support that's what the church is for as we go out and do the work if we do what we are supposed to do that is to make disciples of all nations and to baptize them we are going to have more and more people coming among us and as those people come among us more and more of those people are going to be hurt had occasion not long ago to baptize to anoint the first person that i've ever anointed who was hiv positive and beginning for the first time in his life to suffer some of the symptoms that go along with it they're going to be more and more people who are hurt we can also help build hold out hope to people because our message is that christ is coming again and christ is a leader and christ does have the moral authority to lead our people we can proclaim that god's law is right that there is such a thing as moral authority that there is a right way that there is a wrong way and that you can turn your life around you can put it right and you can get right with god we can do that we can give attention also there's another thing we can do we can give attention to our own moral example the way we live our lives not that we have any righteousness of our own our moral authority our own personal moral moral authority would never be enough but we can do irreparable damage with a bad example and we all know it we can cause people to stumble we can hurt them we can turn them off against the truth because of the way we live our lives the way we live our lives can make a big difference to the people with whom we come in contact in the church and out of the church something you can do is to clean up your life give some attention to your own moral example we can also preach christ we can preach christ we can preach christ and him crucify that is that he died for your sins that you can be forgiven of your sins that the past can be put behind you that you can be healed and your life can be made right we can preach prophecy to warn what has happened in the past and what's coming again so that people can see so they can turn around so they can put their life right finally we can pray our father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come you

Channel: BornToWinCEM

Views: 1,582

Rating: 4.891892 out of 5

Keywords: Born to Win, Ronald L. Dart, CEM

Id: QaKeQalDTyI

Length: 58min 10sec (3490 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 29 2020