Prophecy/Mystery Combined #14 - Where America is: Spiritually, Morally, Politically and Culturally

[0:00] Thank you for joining with us. And I assume we have who to thank? Roger Phipps for the parking lot being cleared off like it is?

[0:11] And Roger Neff? Rogers? Okay. And Ron Gannon? Thank you guys. We appreciate very much your efforts. You couldn't have done it for nicer people.

[0:22] We are grateful. We are grateful. Would you pray with me please? Father, we are reminded that as the rain comes down and the snow from heaven returns not thither but makes the earth to water the earth to make it bring forth for our blessing and for our sustenance that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater so shall your word be that goes forth out of your mouth it shall not return unto you void but it shall accomplish that thing whereunto you sent it.

[1:00] So we pray this morning for the going forth of your word that it may penetrate hearts and minds in a way that makes a difference. We are so grateful for your faithfulness once again demonstrated in the weather and the beauty of the snow that we see.

[1:17] Thank you for being the God you are and thank you for all that you've made us in and through the Lord Jesus. And we pray regarding the upcoming message that you will give us the necessary wisdom and insight that we each need on the part of not only the speaker but the hearer as well.

[1:35] And to that end we commit this time in Christ's name. Amen. Would you open your Bible please to 1 Corinthians chapter 2 and I will be as brief as I can with some of the announcements while you're turning there.

[1:52] Our message is definitely going to be different this morning. I almost feel somewhat like apologizing for it because it is a one time thing that deserves for lack of a better term it deserves one of those three to four hour sessions that I've always longed for.

[2:13] But we will not have. So you can rest easily. It is where America is spiritually, morally, politically and culturally.

[2:30] And that's a real mouthful to try and cover that in any length of time and connect most of the dots but we shall do what we can. And I want to remind you that even though we are out of the copies from which the insert was taken two minutes with the Bible with Mr. Stam.

[2:51] More will be arriving this week I trust they'll be available next Sunday. And what I would really encourage you to do and I am not exaggerating when I tell you that you will do this as one of the most spiritually profitable things of your earthly existence.

[3:07] I am giving that some dead air hoping that it is sinking in.

[3:21] This is a daily devotional. You've got just a couple of days on the calendar from the insert but the book of course covers the whole year and you would be immeasurably blessed if you went through that day by day.

[3:38] Never mind the fact that January is already gone. I would suggest when it comes and you get your copy that you start in with January anyway and read two or three a day until you get caught up and it is remarkable.

[3:53] It is remarkable the insight you will gain and the dots you will be connecting because this content is so well stated by Mr. Stan. This is an enormous legacy that he left behind and it just saddens me to know that so many Christians deprive themselves of things, of material that would just cause lights to come on and flash in their thinking.

[4:19] It is remarkable and what is it all about? It is all about information. Nothing works, nothing happens, nothing is believed, nothing is done without information.

[4:36] That is so critical and we will be talking about that and the struggle that is going on today. You realize as well as I do this is referred to as the information age and along with good information there is a plethora of bad information.

[4:53] In fact, did you know that bad information outweighs the good? Really, it does. It always has. And someone says that doesn't seem right. Well, it is right.

[5:04] Good information is two plus two equals four. Bad information is it equals anything else and everything else is, everything else is wrong.

[5:15] There is just one item of good information on two plus two equals four and that is it. It is not five, it is not three and that is the only right answer. How many wrong answers are there?

[5:26] Well, there is no end to it. And that is one reason why it is so critical and sometimes so difficult to sift out the plethora of information that is out there and just take the good stuff.

[5:41] And it can be very, very difficult because everybody, everybody operates on the basis of information. It's good or it's bad and the operation then is good or it's bad.

[5:56] This is what makes the world go around. This is life and living. It's information and your response to it. So, let's look at 1 Corinthians chapter 2 and this sets the stage for wisdom, human wisdom, God's wisdom, et cetera.

[6:09] Follow along if you would please. Paul said, and when I came to you brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom proclaiming to you the testimony of God for I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

[6:28] And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. And my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom but in demonstration of the spirit and of power that or so that your faith should not rest on the wisdom of men but on the power of God.

[6:54] Now, this is all about content, information and I want to remind you that Paul was never a great speaker.

[7:06] He denies that in fact. He says, I didn't come to you with wisdom of words. Places where I spoke people would say things like, the guy sure isn't much to look at, is he? And he's not very well versed in his expressions and in his elocution.

[7:22] I've heard a lot better speakers than the apostle Paul. What was it that made this man so valuable? Information. It was his content.

[7:34] It was his content. No one was mesmerized by his elocution and his oratorical brilliance because he didn't have it. But he didn't need it because he had content.

[7:49] And Paul's deficiency in presentation and presence was more than offset by the value of the content. People got so enamored with what he had to say.

[8:03] It didn't make any difference that he wasn't very good at saying it. It was the content that was everything and that's what he's talking about here. verse 6. Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature.

[8:17] A wisdom, however, not of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are passing away. And by the way, it would be a wise thing to transfer this age of which Paul is speaking here in verse 6 to our present day because what he said about the first age here back then 2,000 years ago is still applicable to this generation today and it has applied to every generation since.

[8:53] We speak God's wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory. The wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood.

[9:07] You get that? None of the rulers of this age have understood. Who are the rulers? Well, they're the shakers and movers.

[9:18] They're the people with all the authority, with all the clout, with all the money, with all the influence. They've got everything that makes the world envious of them, but they don't have this understanding that he's talking about here.

[9:33] None of the rulers of this age has understood for if they had understood it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But just as it is written, things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and have not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love him.

[9:52] And by the way, please do not interpret this verse, this quote from the Old Testament, as a reference to heaven, because it's talking about heaven at all. It is true that we're going to discover all kinds of things when we get there that we've never imagined, oh, that's true, but that's not what he's talking about.

[10:10] What he's talking about is the wisdom of this world that none of the rulers understand, we do, or we are supposed to, because we have the information, and the rulers of this world don't have the information, oh, it's available, it's available, but they do not avail themselves of it.

[10:32] And we who are believers do, and herein we find our wisdom. So he goes on to explain what it is that God has revealed to us that man never thought of, never imagined, and then he says in verse 10, for to us, to us, God revealed them.

[10:51] This is stuff, this is content that the world doesn't have a clue about, doesn't have a clue, and you've got the inside track. That's what he's saying. God revealed them to us through the spirit, for the spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.

[11:09] For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? I need to stop here for just a moment, but I need to resist the temptation, not spend too much time here.

[11:24] What I'm saying is this, and what this is saying is, it is the spirit immaterial, non-physical part of your being that is the dominant you.

[11:43] That's the real you. This thing we call the body is just an outward expression of that. That's all. the spirit you have, and every human being has a human spirit.

[12:00] It's part of what makes us human. Even an atheist has a human spirit. And the spirit is the boss.

[12:11] Your spirit is what is in charge of your body. Your spirit is in your mind, or your mind is in your spirit, and the brain is subservient to that.

[12:23] And the spirit and the brain work in tandem in ways that we don't understand. All we know is they connect. But we don't know what that connection is between the material and the immaterial.

[12:35] But the spirit and the spiritual is that which is most important. This is why, this is a reflection of God. When Jesus was talking to the woman at the well, he told her that God is spirit.

[12:52] He didn't say God is a spirit. That's the way most of the translations render it, but that's not correct. There's no article there. It is God is spirit.

[13:02] That means his essence and his character and his nature are immaterial, non-physical. That's one of the things that enables him to be omnipresent everywhere.

[13:18] What is spirit made out of? It isn't made out of anything because when you talk about made out of, you're talking about something physical or material. This is mind blowing stuff.

[13:30] But if you don't have a concept of God as being mind blowing, you just don't understand anything about God because he is mind blowing. He is infinite. Well, let's go on. Let's go on. We'll get in on that later.

[13:42] Who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him. Even so, the thoughts of God no one knows except the spirit of God.

[13:53] Now we, and Paul is talking about himself, the Corinthians to whom he is writing, and for our purpose all believers who are in this body, this union called the body of Christ as believers.

[14:10] For we, we have received not the spirit of the world. That's the spirit we had before. But we have received the spirit who is from God so that we might know the things freely given to us by God.

[14:32] Know the things. This is epinosis, and it means a full knowledge. It doesn't mean that we might suspect or we might have a hunch or we might guess at it, but that we might know. because confidence, assurance, and stability comes only from what you know, not from what you hope or think.

[14:51] Which things also we speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.

[15:02] But a natural man, a natural, this is the human being who is unconverted, who is just as he came forth from his mother's womb, unconverted, unsaved, whatever you want to call it.

[15:17] He is not in the body of Christ. He's a natural man. This is what we all were before we came to faith in Christ. The natural man does not accept the things of the spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him.

[15:34] And he cannot understand them. Doesn't mean that he could if he really tried and worked at it, it means it's beyond him. He just doesn't have the ability. He does not have the necessary equipment to assess and understand spiritual truth.

[15:51] And to him, it comes across as just so much religious gobbledygook that he can't make any sense of. It's almost like speaking a foreign language and expecting someone to understand it, and they just don't get it.

[16:03] And they don't get it because they can't. They don't have the language skill to interpret and understand. And there is a spiritual language and there is a natural language. And the natural language is spoken by the world.

[16:16] The spiritual language is in keeping with the people of God. They are foolishness to him. Nonsense. The word that is used here, I believe in the Greek, is moronic.

[16:31] Moronic. because they are spiritually appraised, understood, assessed, evaluated. But he who is spiritual appraises all things.

[16:46] He is able to get a handle on the things that God has revealed. Yet he himself is appraised by no man. That's a curious thing. Now, many of you have found this to be true in the workplace where you've talked with different employees and they've talked with you and you've asked about value systems and things like and the stuff that's going on in the world and what's happening and whatnot.

[17:05] And they scratch their head and look at you and they say, I don't get you. Where are you coming from? What is it that you believe about this again?

[17:17] It does not compute. Don't expect it to. Because you know what the world would call you? Weird. You're weird.

[17:28] Well, you're not weird. But you are different. Because if anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation.

[17:41] Old things have passed away. All things have become new. When you are in Christ, you think with a different mindset. You have operating equipment that you did not have before and it allows you to assess a lot of things going on that otherwise completely confuse people.

[18:04] But as a believer, you are provided with an inside track to be able to understand, connect the dots, get the picture that the world is absolutely unable to understand.

[18:20] Now, that also makes you responsible for the use of what you have. Because unto whom much is given, of him shall much be required.

[18:36] They are spiritually appraised, but he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no man. For who has known the mind of the Lord, good question, that he should instruct him.

[18:53] We have the mind of Christ. And then he goes on to say, now, I've got a beef for you people at Corinth.

[19:06] I've got a bone to pick with you. And that is, through negligence, through laziness, through willfulness, you just aren't up to speed like you ought to be.

[19:22] Don't you realize what's going on in the world and what God has given you by way of operating assets to contend with it? You people need to get with the program. That's what he's telling these Corinthians.

[19:34] And I, brethren, I could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to babes in Christ.

[19:47] I gave you milk to drink, not solid food, for you were not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you're not able, for you are still fleshly, for since there is a jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like mere men?

[20:03] For one says, I am of Paul, I am of Apollos, I am of, are you not mere, what is Apollos? He says, listen, people, grow, good grief, you've got to grow up.

[20:14] What is this petty nonsense? This backbiting and bickering among yourselves and choosing this one and choosing that one and grow up. That's what Paul's saying.

[20:25] I wanted to give you some good, solid meat that stick to your spiritual ribs, and all I can do is bottle feed you. You're not even at the pablum stage yet.

[20:38] And he, he's, these, the Corinthians were Paul's juvenile spiritual delinquents, and I'm sure they might have kept him awake at night. So with that kind of a background, the message for today is where America is spiritually, morally, politically, and culturally.

[20:53] In the bulletin it says, to say our nation is undergoing rapid changes is a considerable understatement. To be sure, we have never been here before.

[21:08] A multitude of questions asking whether these days are pointing to the wrap-up. Our pat answer remains the only safe and sane answer. Maybe so, maybe no.

[21:20] But we are certain we are closer than anyone has ever been. In the midst of it all, the only mandate and solution that remains is, you guessed it, spiritual.

[21:34] We shall see. And what does that mean when you say the solution is spiritual? Probably most people would think, well that means you have to go to church.

[21:45] Well, I'm not opposed to that as you can imagine being a pastor. I think that's a great start. But if you think that is adequate in itself, you are sadly mistaken because there's a lot more involved than that.

[21:59] I want to talk to you about this spirituality and how it works and why it works and how to assess our world because of it. And I've never been with this kind of a message before, so I almost feel apologetic for it.

[22:17] you're going to find it. I trust you'll be able to connect the dots and get some sense from it.

[22:29] But I must admit I had great difficulty putting this together and getting my thoughts down logically. And I know that the creeping age factor hasn't helped any, but you bear with me and we'll see if we can get through it.

[22:44] And I'll try to have some Q&A when we come to the end of this. Spirituality is the base of our being. It is in the driver's seat of our being and doing.

[22:59] It is out of our spirituality or our immateriality, that is our non-physical stuff, that our materiality acts.

[23:10] The spirit is dominant, not the body. The body is the servant of the spirit. And your body does what your spirit tells it to do.

[23:22] And in your spirit, in your immaterial spirit, this is what God breathed into Adam after he had fashioned him physically.

[23:34] He breathed into Adam's nostrils the breath of life. And Adam became a living soul.

[23:51] So what God breathed into Adam was something of God himself. And it caused Adam to come alive.

[24:05] And that spirit, immateriality of Adam would be with him for his entire life until the time he died physically. And when he did, his spirit left him.

[24:18] This is what Jesus meant when he was on the cross. And he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. And he gave up his spirit.

[24:30] And nobody saw it leave because it is not physical. But the spirit went to God. And that's the part of you, when you believed on Jesus Christ as your Savior, that's the part of you that was changed.

[24:48] That's the part that was made new. That's the part that exits your body when you die, enabling us to say, absent from the body, present with the Lord.

[25:04] All the world knows is, what do you mean absent from the body, present with bodies in the ground? It's buried. It's in a crematorium. It's buried at sea. No. That's the body.

[25:15] That's the physical part. But the part that is the real you is that which was regenerated, that's salvation. And one day, we'll be reconnected with that body so that this mortal will put on immortality.

[25:32] And this corruptible body will put on incorruption. That's when that's going to take place. So, it is out of our immateriality that our materiality acts.

[25:43] The spirit is dominant, not the body. And let me be as quick as I can. And I'm already in trouble with the clock and I've just gotten underway. What's in the human spirit?

[25:56] What is in the human spirit? I just have suspicions. I'm not dogmatic about this. And if you want to fuss with me about it, you're entitled.

[26:07] I understand. But in the human spirit, I think there resides your volition. That's your will. Your IQ.

[26:21] And your intellectual potential. Your creativity. Your imagination. Your memory. Your norms and standards.

[26:35] All of these things I have just mentioned. Are any of those things physical? No. Not a one of them. Does anybody deny they exist?

[26:47] Well, of course not. Where are they? They are a very important part of your being. They're what makes you you. And keep in mind, your physical body is just the extension.

[26:59] And as is common to man, he emphasizes what God de-emphasizes because his ways are not our ways and his thoughts are not our thoughts.

[27:13] And what do we emphasize? A body. We primp it. We fuss over it. We perfume it. We clean it. We sharpen it.

[27:23] We do this. We do it. We clothe it. We do all these kinds of things. All on the body. If we spend as much time conditioning our spirit as we do our body, it might be a different world.

[27:34] In fact, I think it would be a different world. But we're naturally on the opposite side of what God is. So, as one is and as one goes.

[27:48] Now, hear me. I've just got a bunch of statements here that have come to me, and I jotted them down. They made sense when I wrote them. I hope they still do. As one is and as one goes, morally, politically, and culturally, is determined by our spirituality.

[28:12] Get that? Human spirituality is as broad as A to Z.

[28:31] Our spirituality is determined by what is poured into our spirit. What is it that is poured into your spirit constantly?

[28:46] Information. Data. Something to process. Something to evaluate. Something to assess. And your mind is doing it constantly.

[28:57] Every time you see a TV commercial, you're taking in information. You're thinking about it. And maybe your thought is, forget that.

[29:07] Dismiss that. No, I'm not going to send for this. No, I don't believe that. It doesn't work. Or, boy, that's a bargain. That's all information. All day long. Through the radio, through media, through Hollywood, through the arts, through science, through schools, through church, you're getting information.

[29:25] Bombarded with information. And you're responsible to sort all of that out and see what you're going to do with it and how you're going to act upon it. A nation's morality, politics, and culture are determined by the collective spirituality of its people.

[29:49] Got that? A nation's morality, politics, and culture are determined by the collective spirituality of its people.

[30:03] This is little understood, even by Christians, who of all people, ought to understand it. What is it that determines the spirituality of an individual and then contributes to the whole of the nation?

[30:26] Just told you. It is content. Information that is received processed and acted upon. Three kinds of people receive information.

[30:38] First, there are unbelievers. Unbelievers are receiving information constantly. This is what Paul's talking about in verse 14.

[30:49] The natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness to him. Now, if he doesn't accept the things of the Spirit of God, what does he accept? He accepts things that are contrary to the Spirit of God.

[31:05] He accepts information and data from the other side. We've told you in the past a number of times, and I hope you remember this, there are only three possible sources of information.

[31:20] Only three. If you can think of a fourth one, I'd appreciate you letting me know. The first source of information is human.

[31:32] That's probably where we get most of our information. It is from your own mind and your own thinking and the thoughts that you conjure up, and the information you get from school, the information you get from TV, the information you get from your neighbors, the information you get from family members, the information you get from others, the information that you get from experts, the information you get of great minds and thinkers that have perished and gone on but left us an enormous legacy in what they had written and left behind, and we benefit today from the writings of Plato and Aristotle and Einstein and de Vinci and on and on and on.

[32:17] These are all human sources, and we tap into those, and we build big books and call them encyclopedias and put all kinds of information. That's all man-made stuff. That's where most people get most of their information, and you get to process it in your own mind.

[32:35] And the second source is from the adversary. He is referred to by Jesus Christ as the father of lies in whom there is no truth.

[32:49] He's not a good source of information, but he is a source, and you'd be surprised how many people tap into him and what he has to offer.

[33:00] No, he doesn't run around in a red suit with the tail and pointed in horns and all the rest of it. He's much too clever for that, but he is alive and well on planet Earth, and he is operating full steam ahead, and let me tell you something.

[33:14] He is making hay today. I mean, he is scoring big time. And never forget this. Satan loves a high body count.

[33:31] Anything and any way that he can instigate anything that will result in the death of those who are created in the likeness and image of God, that's what he's about.

[33:42] And he has succeeded in destroying millions, millions and millions of people over thousands of years.

[33:57] As God is the creator, his name is, Satan's name is, one of his many names is Apollyon. Apollyon.

[34:08] He's given that name in the book of Revelation, and the word Apollyon in the Greek means the destroyer. The destroyer. He loves to destroy.

[34:20] He is ever God's arch enemy, and as God is the creator, Satan is the destroyer, and he is an expert at it. I must hasten on it. So, unbelievers and their source of information, which is great, and believers, believers, who respond to and develop maturity with information, that's who we're supposed to be, and believers, who believe, but remain immature.

[34:54] Oh, I forgot one other thing, the most important thing. I'm sorry. I told you this was going to be convoluted. Two, three sources of information. The first and the most common is human, including yourself, and the second is Satan, and of course, the third one is the one that really matters.

[35:11] That's divine information, information that we get from God, and we get it via creation, which is referred to as general revelation, and we get it from special revelation, namely, the scriptures that God has provided.

[35:27] So, what we are commissioned to do is to weigh and evaluate everything that is out there by way of information in connection with what the scriptures teach and whether it lines up with the scriptures, because we believe the Bible is inspired of God and that it is breathed out of God.

[35:46] Every time you talk, and as I'm talking right now, I am breathing. I am breathing out words, and the Bible is referred to as theonoustos, theonoustos, and the word theo is the word from which we get the word theology, and it refers to God, and the neustos is the word from which we get pneumonia and pneumatic, and it has to do with air.

[36:11] So, when you talk, you are breathing out air. The Bible is the breath of God on paper. It is theonoustos.

[36:24] It is God breathed. You cannot talk without breathing, and that's a beautiful way of expressing what the Bible is.

[36:35] So, out of these three kinds of people, we've talked about the three sources of information. First, there are unbelievers who reject the creation information in verse 14, and then there are believers that Paul says, we have received this information from God so that we might know the things, and then there are believers who believe but remain immature, and they are those of whom Paul speaks in the first three verses of chapter three that we have already read, and mature believers who do not mature become delinquent, spiritual children.

[37:13] They are ungrown. You know, there are a lot of immature 60-year-old Christians. There's a whole bunch of them.

[37:24] Maybe even most 60-year-olds who are Christians are immature compared to where they could be and should be, and you know, I want to emphasize this. Listen. I think the greatest bang and the greatest enjoyment that is to be had in life is through understanding what it's about.

[37:51] being able to be clued in, to have that inside track, and it's ours for the taking because God has provided it.

[38:04] I really believe God wants you and me to get a bang out of life. I believe that. One of the things that we are to do with this Christian life is enjoy it, and I think this is, I think what Jesus is talking about in John 10, I think it's verse 10, that he has come not only that man might have life, but have it more abundantly, and that's not talking about the acquisition of stuff.

[38:34] It's not talking about a nice car and a nice home and a nice, those things are great, but that's not what life is really. Life is not about stuff. It's not about things.

[38:48] This information that we are talking about is so critical, and it is something that our founding fathers and their generation were much more in tune with, that is, with the spiritual, than what ours are today.

[39:11] In the 1700s, a new era was introduced, and it was referred to as the Age of Enlightenment, kind of like a Renaissance, and one of those who was most affected and influenced by it was our third president, Thomas Jefferson.

[39:36] Man gave us an utterly brilliant, brilliant document in that Declaration of Independence, but he was a child of the Enlightenment, and he disdained the miraculous.

[39:51] In fact, he was convinced that the miracles that were recorded in the Bible were really not true at all, did not actually happen, because they departed from naturalism.

[40:05] If you know anything about a miracle, it's not natural. That's what makes it a miracle. That's by definition a miracle. It's contrary to nature and the way nature operates.

[40:19] And at the same time, Thomas Jefferson was a great admirer of Jesus Christ. Now, this just goes to show you how convoluted our thinking can be sometimes.

[40:33] Thomas Jefferson is said to have a mind that was so brilliant, he could buy and sell most of our collective minds and have change left over. But at the same time, he only had human brilliance to operate with, and it definitely has its limitations.

[40:48] You remember hearing about a conversation, an interviewer was interviewing Thomas Edison, and he asked him if he could explain in a few simple words the difference between knowledge and ignorance.

[41:09] And Einstein thought for a moment and he said, well, knowledge and brilliance has its limits. And you can pick up on the rest of it.

[41:26] Ignorance knows new limits. Well, Jefferson was so enamored with Jesus Christ that he wanted to preserve his sayings and his words, but he thought that the miracles did Jesus a disservice.

[41:41] And the man delicately took his penknife to the New Testament and the Gospels, and he slit out every passage that recorded a miracle so that he was left with the sayings of Jesus but without the miracles because he simply didn't believe him.

[42:05] He was a naturalist. That's where most people are today. They're in the naturalism. Our founding fathers and their generation were more in tune with the spiritual than ours today with the exception perhaps of Thomas Jefferson.

[42:22] Creationism, when our founding fathers were active, creationism was an unchallenged given. Think of that.

[42:34] This is long before Charles Darwin came along with his Origin of Species and his works that have made so much influence and impact.

[42:46] Creationism was an unchallenged given. Creationism pointed to a creator with intention and purpose that established meaning, value, destiny, and accountability to the creator.

[43:04] Without a creator and without creationism, you don't have any of those. You have nothing but abject randomness. We are nothing by virtue of evolution.

[43:18] evolution, we are nothing but a biological accident that just happened to be without anybody making it happen or causing it because there wasn't anybody to do it.

[43:32] This means your life has no real purpose or meaning other than what you give to it. That's all.

[43:43] and it has no particular value. This is one of the things that makes abortion so palatable to so many people.

[44:00] They look upon the need for abortion as a result of an oops and they feel no particular obligation to it and the idea of that baby being fashioned in the form and image and likeness and image of a creator is just complete nonsense to them.

[44:23] They just do not accept that at all. Margaret Sanger was the founder of Planned Parenthood and she was into this big time and the evolutionary theory was adopted by her and by others back then that saw the Caucasian as the epitome of the evolutionary scale and although it isn't generally known it can be easily researched and discovered that Margaret Sanger was the ultimate racist because her intent was to eliminate from breeding all but the Caucasians that African Americans were substandard on the evolutionary scale had not progressed to the extent that the whites have and therefore are actually an impediment on culture these people need to get rid of so huge projects were gotten underway for the sterilization and in many places and times it was involuntary sterilization of black women so that they could not reproduce that was a political thing that you don't hear much of today because it would be embarrassing to them and well it should be but let me hasten one if you've never seen the video by Ken Ham on only one race you certainly should you certainly should talk about races white and black and brown and what not and I remember seeing his video

[46:10] Ken Ham and he said I am not white this is white I am not white and everyone who is a human being is imbued with some degree of pigmentation melanin and that's what determines the color of your skin and it has nothing to do with intelligence or anything like that it just has to do well let's go on Thomas Jefferson had his problems and I'm sure that there was some disagreement you know our founding fathers brilliant as they were they had a lot of things that they disagreed about and they would wrangle sometimes for hours over the wording in the constitution or how it was to be phrased and they would sometimes have some knockdown drag outs and I'm sure that John Adams and Thomas Jefferson probably had some heated moments together and we know that well in fact we know for sure that they did because interestingly enough they were bitter rivals one was the second president and the other was the third president of the

[47:18] United States and they represented opposite factions and they were at loggerheads all the time and Jefferson Jefferson retired from the presidency and moved back to Monticello and Adams remained in Massachusetts and they started corresponding and would you know they actually ended up reconciling their differences and becoming great friends and they exchanged a lot of letters most of which are available today and you can obtain them and read them how their affection for each other grew over the years even though they were miles apart politically and in some of their arguments and I think one of the most fascinating things about it is both of those men Jefferson and Monticello and Adams in Massachusetts they both died on the very same day and it was the 4th of

[48:19] July okay just a coincidence okay you know but it kind of makes you wonder doesn't it on the 4th of July amazing anyway I want you to understand this out of the many writings that both of these men left us John Adams said our constitution was made only for a moral religious people it is wholly inadequate to the government of any other now you think about that he was describing the makeup of the colonies at the time the constitution was drafted 1787 he was talking in terms of the way people were thinking of the way society regarded itself and atheism was just almost totally unheard of

[49:31] I mean there were just a few really outstanding atheists probably the most outstanding was Thomas Payne who wrote common sense and he was a real patriot and the arguments that he presented were very compelling and it helped turn many to the revolution and so on but the government the constitution was drafted at the time for people as they were then in the 18th century have we changed I make my case have we changed yeah yeah we've changed hey the constitution hasn't changed now they were smart enough to know wise enough to know that this constitution is not perfect because it has been drafted by imperfect people so we can't do anything perfect there are going to be changes that will need to be made to it so they wonderfully made a provision for the constitution to be amended to be changed because they knew they knew that civilization was developing they knew from the hundred years prior to themselves how many things had changed and they assumed that the change was going to keep on coming and they were right so this document is not going to be applicable as it needs to be to govern people who are going to be on the earth a hundred years from now we'd better build into it some provision for their being able to change it without rewriting the whole thing so we just call those amendments to the constitution what are we on now the 25th 26th amendment that we've made something like that and there will be more but they're not easily made they have to be in the majority of congress and then they have to be ratified by the states all 50 states have to sign off on it or whatever the majority is in order to ratify the constitution so it isn't easily made but my point is this the constitution and even in its amendments have not changed but our culture has it is not accurate to say that we are now largely a moral religious people because we are not and it is important that you understand this those who are culturally religiously morally inclined now constitute the minority we are not the greater in number we are the lesser we need to understand that now we can talk about who dropped the ball a couple of generations ago and allowed the kind of stuff in our universities and schools that's being taught now to permeate to infect and change these young minds

[52:47] I tell you when I was 25 years of age okay 60 years ago I would never have dreamed not in my wildest imagination that the time would ever come when anybody in this great land would have a favorable word to say about socialism socialism are you kidding me we're too smart for that Americans will never fall for that listen it's changed the culture's changed socialism is not a bad word it's not a bad idea and those who think so usually have a number of years of maturity on them and the younger ones who are idealistic who have very pliable moldable minds presided over by very influential smart articulate professors many of whom are no longer closet communists they are communists out in the open proud of it and propagating it and a communist is nothing more than a socialist on steroids that's the only difference it's just more control socialism is a lot of control over goods and services production distribution assumption everything but communism controls the whole wall of wax everything

[54:46] I mean they control everything and there are people who are opting for that never mind the fact that wherever it has been implemented it has failed they think that's only because the right people were not in charge and who's the right people well of course they are they are well let me get my paperwork together here it is not it is not coincidental that all atheists and many if not most the moral relativists who are atheists who are atheists who are atheists who are atheists who are atheists or are at best agnostics it is not coincidental that they are the ones embracing this and one of the basic tenets of communism in fact you'll find the first probably the very first element is there is no god period man is his only god man is the measure of all things it's also humanism which puts the human at the top of the totem pole and there is no god and there is no basis for moral relative for moral absolutes because everything is to each his own everything is moral relativity and most of you will not recall the name but I do and the man's name was

[56:26] Joseph Fletcher and in the 1960s I think it was the 1960s he wrote a book that was called Moral Relativism and the idea of it was that love was the basis for everything and that was his he was an Episcopal clergyman Joseph Fletcher and wrote this influential book and the basis of it of course was moral relativity and his point was that all decisions were to be made on the basis of love well doggone that sounds pretty good who's going to fault that I mean the Bible has got a whole lot to say about love and John 316 and all the rest of it and you ask him for some examples and demonstrations of love and his example and demonstration of love is when a woman comes to a doctor with an unwanted pregnancy the doctor is loving when he agrees to perform an abortion on that baby it is the loving thing to do and what became the deciding factor as to whether or not abortion was acceptable love and if love is involved who can be against that so it all depends of course on how it is that you are applying that and the situation and another name for moral relativism is and he coined this term too maybe you'll remember it situational ethics right and wrong all depends on the situation and what that does is it leaves you a whole lot of wiggle room and the bottom line is this if you're talking about a moral responsibility if you're talking about moral absolutes here's the problem moral absolutes require someone to be a moral base for promoting and providing those absolutes if you're going to have moral laws you've got to have a moral law giver you've got to have a one moral law giver one north star just one because if you do away with that then everybody becomes their own north star and right or wrong is as the individual determines it and no one has the right to tell anyone that they are wrong about anything or any position they hold do you see what that does to evangelism it has been enormously impacted for the last 40 years because what anyone believes about anything is just as right and just as proper as what anyone else believes about anything so the beauty of it is nobody has to be wrong everybody gets to be right and that's called tolerance tolerance if you preach christianity and that salvation is available only through jesus christ you are spewing hate speech hate speech you are saying you hate those who do not believe now no believer is saying that

[60:27] but that's the way it's interpreted there are those who hate us passionately and they do so because we are an impediment we are an obstacle to this utopia they want to create we are a roadblock we're in the way and we are put in the delicate position of being hated by those who disagree with us but we must not hate them in return keep that in mind we must not hate them in return we may and we should disapprove disagree with but we cannot hate them we have to see them as we ourselves were before we came to faith in christ and remember they are those of whom paul is speaking when he says they do not receive the things of the spirit of god neither can they know them don't expect them to buy into your ideas they don't have the equipment to receive it to appreciate it they only see you as weird a religious nutcase they cannot compute what you are all about that's a radical difference between us and them because christ has come into your life and has shined his light in your heart and has given you a new heart and new ambitions and new interests and new capabilities and new everything but those unregenerate are left in the same position as they've always been same position you were in before you came to faith in christ these people desperately need our patience our understanding our pity our remembering there but for the grace of god go i so let's keep that in mind i want to say just a word in closing about atheists and i've told you about this before but i want you to have it in mind their atheists come in two sizes they're intellectual atheists and these are the people like richard dawkins they are hardcore atheists committed to it they write books richard dawkins has been a bestseller writer and he has sold a lot of books i mean i don't know how many but a whole bunch of books some have translated into other languages and one of them is called the god delusion and you people who believe there is a god and you worship this god this imaginary god you are deluded so he titled his book the god delusion and just sold a ton of these books printed in other languages and listen people are really influenced but do you know what this book is you know what this god delusion it's information it's information and people take it in and they say wow this is a smart guy he's written a book sold a whole bunch of books published in different languages i bet he's right he's a smart guy he's done this he's got this education so people are influenced and affected by this and this is the kind of stuff that we are called upon to go up against in this kind of culture and we have no choice but to do it and i want to close with that verse that i've referred to a number of times and it's found in ephesians chapter 4 where paul says that ephesians chapter 5 in verse 11 paul says we do not participate we are not to participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness but instead even expose

[64:28] them call them out now the question is how do you go about doing that and you must realize if you do and if you make too much noise it will cost you i talked about the constitution and people who are no longer in tune with it and i mentioned earlier i think maybe last week where some feel that we have outgrown our constitution and the word i choose to use is we have abandoned our constitution and can you believe this can you believe this you have to believe it because you know it's to be true the first amendment is in trouble are you serious united states of america the first amendment in trouble freedom of speech and freedom of religion if there is anything that this country is about it's a freedom of speech it's on thin ice can you believe it what does that mean it simply means your ability to speak freely in public is at risk and you could pay a price for doing so that's been happening in a plethora of other countries for decades freedom of speech for those who have the right speech and those who don't cancel silent you don't have the right to say that's hate speech and hate speech is illegal and you need to go to a special kind of re-education camp where they can help you get your thoughts and mind together because you're thinking wrong and you need to be corrected first amendment and amendment number two that's in trouble can you believe that the right to bear arms well why in the world should the citizenry even have a right to bear arms because everybody knows that the government and everyone who is in charge of the government totally trustworthy totally honest totally upfront totally to be trusted well they knew in 1789 when they adopted a constitution that that was not true and that's why they put that amendment in there better give people the right to bear arms because the government the government is capable of getting out of control oh my this is where we are this is where we are and what's our response nothing else has changed our response remains the gospel nothing else left nothing else needed someone said that's all we got that's all we need is the gospel we just keep coming back with it of course it's going to fall on deaf ears it very often does but sometimes those deaf ears find a little opening and eventually that word gets through and it revolutionizes and changes the individual and that's the only thing that is going to work we don't listen

[68:28] there is no political plan forget it there is no political plan that can stand up against what we are seeing develop today you cannot come up with a political panacea to combat it we need something much greater than politics and we've got something much greater than politics we've got the only panacea that the world really needs and it's the same one that has been preached from the time the apostle Paul opened the cage and let the lion loose it is justification by faith it is believe on the Lord Jesus Christ that's where peace and true freedom and true prosperity and true security is found and you won't find it in any political system not the republicans not the democrats not the independents not the libertarians it's only in Christ and we better never lose sight of that message because it's the only thing that can really work well

[69:38] I'm going to close in a word of prayer and I'm going to dismiss anybody that wants to leave you feel free to do so and anybody that would like to stay for maybe 15 or 20 minutes of Q&A will do that as well so you've got that option our father we are truly grateful for information information that you've made available we recognize that we live in a fallen world that we ourselves are fallen individuals but there is a part of us that has been redeemed by the precious blood of Christ and it cries out for others to enjoy that redemption and the peace and the security and the joy that comes from it we know the world is wayward and it knows not where it's going or where of it speaks but we have the truth that you have provided because you are the God of all truth so give us patience and ability and care and concern and compassion and opportunity to deliver that message it's our only hope it's all we've got but it's all we need thank you for providing so much that is adequate for us in Christ's name amen