Confronting Our Culture in Truth and Love
Confronting Our Culture in Truth and Love
7/19/03 and 7/20/03
Joshua 5
13 Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, “Are you for us or for our enemies?”
14 “Neither,” he replied, “but as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.” Then Joshua fell facedown to the ground in reverence, and asked him, “What message does my Lord a have for his servant?”
15 The commander of the Lord’s army replied, “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so.
[1]
-Joshua asked if the Lord had come to help him and the people in the battle they were facing.
-He wanted to know “whose side God was on?”
-The angel said, the real question is; “whose side are you on?”
-God never changes. Situations change and cultures change but God and the truth of God remains the same.
-Our role as Christians is to reinterpret the truth of God to this generation. You don’t do that by changing God and His truth.
-We are dealing with some complex issues in our day but we mustn’t act as though God is some old grandfatherly type who has become irrelevant to modern life.
-Jesus wasn’t as all confused by the truth or insecure because someone said He was outdated.
-Pilate said smugly at the judgment of Jesus;
37 “You are a king, then!” said Pilate.
Jesus answered, “You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”
38 “What is truth?” Pilate asked.
/[2]/
-Jesus said stuff like;
6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. [3]
15 /My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. 17 Sanctify b them by the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. [4]/
-Notice that Jesus is saying that the world doesn’t have the truth. He is sending His disciples into the world to confront the culture with the truth….in love…..not to condemn but to free.
14 /Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. 15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. [5]/
-The answer is to truly love people but to love God and the truth even more.
-The people who aren’t living in the truth aren’t the enemy; they are victims of the enemy.
-My family and I were on vacation with friends in England and Scotland. I lived there and preached there for about 20 years now.
-I have been to a lot of countries but this time it smacked me in the face how totally secular Britain is and it is probably the godliest in Europe.
-The whole culture just reeks of sexuality and drunkenness and sin.
-It is close to totally secular.
-The reason that is significant to us is that we have the choice in this nation to follow suit or follow God.
-England had a revival instead of a revolution like the French. 300 years ago God shook the world through John Wesley and his group. It affected America as well.
-What happened? The church bowed to the pressure to accommodate the culture.
EXAMPLES:
The Anglicans were fighting about the place of homosexual minister sin their churches. The talk shows were discussing it constantly and making fun of the Church of England.
(They want the culture to feel accepted. The truth is; the mainline denominations are hemorrhaging people to churches who are speaking the truth of the Word of God. Being honest doesn’t cause you to lose people but to gain people. The people said Jesus’ teaching wasn’t like the Jews of the day because His teaching had authority. My frustration with college in the seventies was that the truth was whatever you wanted it to be. Everyone had questions but nobody had answers.)
We watched a talk show where they were discussing stealing. They had a Buddhist and someone in favor of “file-sharing” or downloading songs. It was such a comedy because they were trying to defend their positions with no source of right and wrong or truth. I thought as I watched it, without the Bible nothing is really wrong or right.
-We have to recognize the difference between the secular and the truth.
1sec•u•lar \ˈse-kyə-lər\ adjective
[Middle English, from Old French seculer, from Late Latin saecularis, from saeculum the present world, from Latin, generation, age, century, world; akin to Welsh hoedl lifetime]
(14th century)
1 a : of or relating to the worldly or temporal 〈secular concerns〉
b : not overtly or specifically religious 〈secular music〉
[6]
-Read article from “Watchman’s Journal”
-What is God’s answer? YOU ARE!
-Specifically it is the Church of Jesus Christ.
1 Timothy 3
15 if I am delayed, you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God’s household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth. [7]
(Paul to Timothy)
-Someone has said that the local church is the hope of the world.
-Someone else said that the most powerful change agents in our culture are the leaders in local churches.
-Jesus said it this way;
Matthew 16
/on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades c will not overcome it. [8]/
-He said we are the salt and light or preservative of the culture…HOW DO WE DO IT?
1. SETTLE IN YOUR OWN HEART WHAT THE TRUTH IS.
-Do you believe that you have to change the Bible in order to stay up with the times?
-Is the Word of God your final authority?
-Let’s look at the example of homosexuality. The Supreme Court is attempting to equate homosexuality with racism.
-In our culture the radical homosexual community seeks validation and acceptance so badly that they would like to change the laws to say they are ok.
-Well we have the Supreme Court of the U. S. versus God. Where is your vote?
Romans 1
21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.
24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.
28 Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.
/[9]/
Leviticus 18
21 “‘Do not give any of your children to be sacrificed a to Molech, for you must not profane the name of your God. I am the Lord.
22 “‘Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable.
23 “‘Do not have sexual relations with an animal and defile yourself with it. A woman must not present herself to an animal to have sexual relations with it; that is a perversion.
/[10]/
1 Corinthians 6
9 Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders 10 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
/[11]/
-Yea but shouldn’t we change in order to stay up with the culture? Not according to God.
-There was a well known denomination that changed doctrine when I was growing up. People left by the hordes. They knew in their gut that God doesn’t make policy changes to reach more people.
-If homosexuality was wrong and against the law but now it is ok. Is it ok or is it going to be ok to marry a cat soon? How about a child?
-What is your standard? Is it the culture? Is it the majority? Or is it God?
-Settle it. THY WORD IS TRUTH.
2. SPEAK THE TRUTH IN LOVE
-Again, people aren’t the enemy; they are victims of the enemy. They are the POW’s in the war against God that satan has been conducting.
-It is easy to be mean.
-You have to put yourself in their place or even better yet; think back to your captivity.
-The love and goodness of God led you to repentance.
-Someone calling you names or shouting at you through a bullhorn didn’t help much.
-Be the church. Be examples of Jesus.
-Jesus accepted people without accepting their sin.
-He loved them just like they were but He loved them too much to leave them that way.
-All you have to do is watch the shows where people have issues whether it is feminism or whatever and you see the hate and venom coming out.
-What a breath of fresh air to see someone deal with an issue and not be shouting and attacking everyone they talk to.
-Have a tender heart and thick skin.
-Rescue the prisoners because Jesus died for them and they are worth it.
3. ARE YOU WALKING IN THE LIGHT?
-A little compromise left unchecked always leads to more of the same.
-Are we compromising in order to be more like the world?
-Lot hung out with the sodomites and the world got in his wife’s heart. She looked back when God was trying to deliver her.
-The Bible says, “REMEMBER LOT’S WIFE.”
-Do you want a house more than you want a revival? Do you want respect and acceptance more than a chance to free someone?
1 John TLB
5 This is the message he has given us to announce to you: God is light and there is no darkness in him at all. 6 So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness. We are not living in the truth. 7 But if we are living in the light of God’s presence, just as Christ is, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from every sin.
8 If we say we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and refusing to accept the truth. 9 But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from every wrong. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts.
/[12]/
-If there is something in your life giving you trouble, drag it into the light.
-Walk in the truth. Be honest with yourself.
-I heard about Brian Houston in Australia where the great music comes from.
-His dad was involved as a minister in sexual immorality. He took his own dad’s papers away.
-Some people would say that isn’t love. God says it is real love.
-You are the salt and light when you live it.
-Pure and simple. BE A CHRISTIAN.
Summary
I have given the example that if someone is asking for directions to your house for a bar-b-que and you said, take whatever road you want. That is ridiculous. In the same way….there is a path that seems right to a man but in the end it leads to death.
· DECIDE WHAT IS TRUTH
· SPEAK AND LIVE IT IN LOVE
· BE AN EXAMPLE
2 Timothy 2
22 Flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. 23 Don’t have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels. 24 And the Lord’s servant must not quarrel; instead, he must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful. 25 Those who oppose him he must gently instruct, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, 26 and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will.
/[13]/
----
a Or lord
[1]The Holy Bible : New International Version, Jos 5:13-15. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996, c1984.
[2]The Holy Bible : New International Version, Jn 18:37-38. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996, c1984.
[3]The Holy Bible : New International Version, Jn 14:6. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996, c1984.
b Greek hagiazo (set apart for sacred use or make holy); also in verse 19
[4]The Holy Bible : New International Version, Jn 17:15-19. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996, c1984.
[5]The Holy Bible : New International Version, Eph 4:14-16. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996, c1984.
[6]Merriam-Webster, Inc. Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. Includes index. 10th ed. Springfield, Mass., U.S.A.: Merriam-Webster, 1996, c1993.
[7]The Holy Bible : New International Version, 1 Ti 3:15-16. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996, c1984.
c Or hell
d Or not prove stronger than it
[8]The Holy Bible : New International Version, Mt 16:18. Grand
Rapids: Zondervan, 1996, c1984.
[9]The Holy Bible : New International Version, Ro 1:21-29. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996, c1984.
a Or to be passed through the fire
[10]The Holy Bible : New International Version, Le 18:21-23. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996, c1984.
[11]The Holy Bible : New International Version, 1 Co 6:9-11. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996, c1984.
[12]Holy Bible : New Living Translation., 1 Jn 1:4-10. Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House, 1997.
[13]The Holy Bible : New International Version, 2 Ti 2:22-26. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996, c1984.