Shawn Snobelen - Be Not Ashamed - Class 3 - What is Truth

Automatically transcribed. Accuracy is good but not perfect, and words are sometimes wrong. Trust the audio over the text.

1. 0:00

   Get straight into our class. This is the Watch and Lake 2024 Bible School. This is our brother Sean Snowblind’s third class on the topic of what is truth. Brother Sean, please. Well, thank you brother and and good morning everyone. Once again, welcome to class 3. What is truth? You know, yesterday we discussed Paul’s statements about us all being without excuse as God has revealed Himself everywhere all around us.

2. 0:46

   However, as we know, despite this revelation, people still rejected God, leading to ungodliness and unrighteousness and suppressing the truth that should have been very evident before them. And so the problem is we we live in a world today that is in many ways worse than any other time in history as it relates to the ungodliness and unrighteousness of man. We live in what’s called a pro, a post truth. Age now.

3. 1:15

   What does that mean? I mean, we’ve heard the term. Well, essentially what it means is that we live in this context where we’re beyond truth, that people are much more likely and willing to accept information that aligns with their own personal worldview than anything that is actually structured in. Reality, even if it’s information that’s false or misleading. Now it may sound to you like, well, that’s crazy, Why would anybody do that?

4. 1:40

   Well, The thing is, brethren and sisters, we actually do it ourselves when we choose to listen to things that kind of play to our nature or make us feel good, right? So we live in this this age, this environment of feelings over facts. Right, and I’m sure you’ve heard that term as well. And so the key verse that’s up on the slide, the Lord Jesus Christ speaking in in John 8, he says to those who were around him that believed him is the context of the statement. He says If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples. And you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. And so in in keeping with our enduring theme for this week of being not ashamed of the gospel, the question I have for you this morning is do you believe that the truth will set you free? And I know these are fundamental basic questions and, and probably the knee jerk reaction is to always say, well, yes. But again, do we live in that reality? Do we live with that truth in our hearts that’s going back to believing in the existence of God and believing in God’s future because that’s the future where we will be set free from this body of sin.

5. 2:52

   And so the challenge that we have every single day of our lives is that those who continue to perpetuate the lie from the Garden of Eden, they have a very compelling message. They say things that we want to hear. The inclination of human nature is towards self gratification. And that’s a very, very powerful elixir.

6. 3:12

   And the only antidote to it is the truth of God. Turn over to John 18. And and we often go to this, this series of verses when we’re talking about what is truth. And I just want to touch on it very quickly because of course, this is the statement that Pilot makes. And I just want to make a, a point, hopefully from this.

7. 3:29

   And, and, and Pilot was an awful, evil man. He was a Roman governor. Many of us, I think, probably even know the historical facts about this man and what happened after this particular event and all the horrifying things that he did. But in in this particular moment, he asks a question that that I think rings in our ears, right? He knew Christ either by reputation or by the things that he’d heard.

8. 3:52

   Maybe he’d even seen him. I’m not really sure. But he did understand who this man was in the context that he knew that the leaders had handed him over because of envy, that he was not guilty of the crimes that they had slated against him. And even Pilate’s wife had came, came to him and said, look, I’ve had a dream.

9. 4:08

   And in the. Dream, I was told, have nothing to do with this righteous man. We know because Pilate also said that he found none of the accusations to be true. And so in John 18 and 37, Pilate asked the Lord Jesus Christ, so are you a king? And Jesus responds, You say that I’m a king for the purpose. For this purpose was I born, and for this purpose have I come into the world to bear witness to the truth. And everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice. And I think what the Lord Jesus Christ is referring to when he says truth here was.

10. 4:40

    The truth that he was preaching, but also the truth about sin and the truth about death and the truth about the reality of God’s existence. It’s like when Paul picks it up in Romans 1 and he says the gospel of God. Paul meant everything that God had given us. And I think that’s the intent here because Pilate wouldn’t necessarily have known the gospel truth.

11. 5:07

    Pilate, however, is not a spiritual man. That maybe. Perhaps he was a a practical man. In this particular case, he had to be a political man and despite recognizing the innocence of the Lord Jesus Christ and maybe even, I like to think, recognizing the divine significance. Of this event asked the question out of indifference, cynicism, maybe just being resigned to the fact.

12. 5:38

    That he was involved in powers that were beyond his control. And he says what is truth? What is truth anyway? It certainly reflected A prevalent skepticism of the time. And I think we can understand that today because truth for a lot of people seems like this very elusive concept, almost like a throwaway word, right?

13. 6:03

    That’s manipulated to 1’s own needs and benefits. And I think in this sense, pilots already living in a post truth world. But he could just throw this away and be resigned to the fact that no matter what the reality of the situation was the innocence of this man standing before him. The most significant person in the history of mankind was on trial before him.

14. 6:29

    It didn’t matter. What is truth If truth didn’t matter? It wasn’t going to save the Son of God from death. Then what is truth anyway? And I think it’s this cynicism about truth that is is prevalent today. The truth is not just a a tool that’s used for our convenience. It’s become a weapon for intimidation and control. It’s being manipulated for advantage and often disregard to maintain.

15. 6:59

    Power. And unlike Pilot, we cannot become jaded or cynical or indifferent about the abuse of truth in our lives, in our society, in our cliches, in our families. And we can’t just think, Wow, what is truth anyway? Now I said I’d show a slide about, about what postmodernism is. And, and we’ll go through this. We went through this with the teens and, and they got it pretty quick.

16. 7:27

    And, and we’ll talk if I have time, we’ll talk about something that whether Bernard showed me last night, which is, which is pretty cool, which is basically to say that nothing’s changed, right? Nothing’s changed at all. So we think about pre modernism. And modernism and postmodernism. So we live in the postmodern age now.

17. 7:47

    I want to just look quickly, what was the prevailing worldview through these different philosophical periods? What was the truth and how was it treated? What were ethics and morality like? And what was the society like? Just so we understand how we got to today, right? So in the pre modern world, we’re talking about any, you know, before the 17th century, the Renaissance parade, the Enlightenment, all those things that happened before, right? The worldview was corrupted, but predominantly God centered, right?

18. 8:13

    There was an emphasis on divine authority. I’m not saying it was perfect. I’m just saying that was the underpinning of most Western society, right? The church, you know, ruled things that the revelation of God was the primary source that guided truth in those particular societies. And truth was considered at the time to be absolute, certainly grounded in Scripture and the divine revelation and the teachings of religious authorities. And so there was an understanding of what was right and wrong on the basis of the biblical truth, ethics, ethical frameworks.

19. 8:47

    Morality was generally based on God’s moral authority. And so those commandments came out and there was a clear understanding of right and wrong and the rule of law. Again, I’m not saying it was perfect, it certainly was not, but at least that was the basic worldview at the time. Social structures were futile. They were hierarchical, they were monarchical, but whatever. And I’m not saying that was was right or wrong, it just was the fact of the day.

20. 9:10

    So as we moved into modernism, we sort of passed the threshold of the 17th century. Last night we were talking about the scientific revolution, which came in in the 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th centuries, right? And science explodes. Well, that was reflected on the world view at the time. So modernism became more reason centered, right?

21. 9:29

    It was more based on the scientific perspective, empirical evidence. Right. Truth was objective. But it was based on scientific inquiry and logical reasoning, right? So the shift from a sort of a God centered to an objective reason, sort of more human centered, right. Ethics. Well, ethics were the focus became about human rights. But as human rights reflect on the greater good of the whole. So, you know, the social contract was to be benefited by these emerging human rights.

22. 10:01

    The universal principles of justice and equity were starting to prevail. The social structure, you know, went from monarchies and feudal systems, etcetera, to the emergence of democracy and representative democracy started to come into Western cultures, right? the US Constitution was drafted in the late 1700s. So in this particular time, we were transitioning through all these different changes in society.

23. 10:24

    So postmodernism arrives in the 19th into the 20th century and now in our day today. And the worldview is no longer God centered. It’s not even based on reason and objectivity. It’s become human centered, prioritizing sort of the individual perspective and experience as as an overarching narrative against the overall social structure, which disrupts the social order, right.

24. 10:49

    If it’s every man for himself, society’s not cohesive. It becomes fractured and fragmented. Truth is now perceived as subjective, cultural relative, you know, varying from person to person, culture to culture. And that is confusing and fracturing society, ethics and morality. Well, now it’s, it’s about relativism. It’s about subjective truth, subjective morality, right. We talked about the word the other day about Otto’s Nomus, right?

25. 11:13

    A law unto one’s selves. And so that’s what’s happening today. You can just see it in the in the rise of immorality and lawlessness. And the social order right overall in this era is not marked by governance for the sake of the people, the rule of law for the sake of society. But it’s about deconstructing and tearing down all of those institutions, right, Brother Kitson, you don’t mention in this, I think it’s first or second class about how it’s much easier to tear something down, that is to build something up. And that’s that’s the prevailing thought of today is tear everything down.

26. 11:47

    All these colonial powers, the educational system, authority, police, governance, right? And that’s why we’re seeing all of this lawlessness. And so I think just showing this chart helps us understand where we came from and now where we sit today in this world. You know, it reflects a shift from what was generally A cohesive society at certain points based on a generally God centered approach to this fragmented focus on individualism.

27. 12:19

    I think at. No other time in history can. Can we really apply Judges 20 and 20/21/25 to say in those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did that was right in their own eyes. And not only is everybody doing what is right in their own eyes, it’s supported by law. And so we wonder why the world was in chaos. You know the the mainstream churches now have already capitulated.

28. 12:48

    Right, the Anglican. Church was gone 50 years ago. Like just accepting literally everything. You know, there’s the, there’s the pastor from the Temple church in, in Toronto called Greta Vosper. She’s an Anglican. Minister. She’s an atheist. She doesn’t even believe in God. She’s written books about being an atheist and the church initially challenged her position on the pulpit, but she was able to get her way and so she is still today.

29. 13:16

    It’s on the website I checked. She’s still a practicing minister in the Anglican Church, and she. Doesn’t even believe in God. In fact, her book was something like to believe or not to believe. It’s about how you live, right? So it doesn’t matter what you believe, It’s just how you live. But of course, we know that how we live is based on what we believe.

30. 13:36

    And so the world has changed dramatically that the Anakin church, all the other mainstream, even even the Roman Catholic Church, which I mentioned this before to some of you here that for the longest. Time, their conservatism on certain things was a bit of a help for us. It was a bit of a fence, a bit of a barrier because they were very conservative about, I mean, I’m not saying they had a literalistic view of, of scripture because clearly they got a lot of things wrong. But in terms of, of the, the family and traditions of those types, right, They pushed back.

31. 14:07

    They didn’t allow transgenderism and gay priests. That’s only starting to happen now. And I always thought when Pope Francis got in, I said that’s the guy that’s going to blow things wide open for the Roman Catholic Church. And it’s already happening. So that traditional mainstream Christian Church is done. Doctrinally, course, we already knew it was done, but now structurally and traditionally, it’s over.

32. 14:37

    So the world is the world has changed. It’s worse than ever. The issue is that all of this comes straight into our pockets through our phones. And so we have humanism that’s created this antigod social order, subjective truth and moral relativism. We’ll look at in just a SEC this aggressive promotion of alternative lifestyles that personal rights trump social rights. That is a reality now.

33. 15:01

    The disrespect for authority has been happening for generations, but it’s really focused now crime and disorder, this whole thing with gender ideology, which is just anti science, it’s anti family, It’s it’s anti everything and obviously anti God. And so so the question is, with all this stuff going on, how are we affected as believers?

34. 15:21

    What is our worldview like? What is our perspective on life? Because when you think about it, you’re look, we’re all Bible believers and followers of Christ. So that’s the core center of our worldview. But we don’t all believe exactly the same things. We have different perspectives on different things. I think that’s realistic to say. But what are we influenced by?

35. 15:44

    What are the influences that are just on the sides and around the corners and, and in the front and back of our minds, right. So the things that influences us, the things that we associate with, affect our general worldview. And our worldview? Changes sometimes it changes daily by the events that hit us and the people that we speak to around us. And The thing is, as we age, I’m not sure if this is a good thing or bad thing, but I think as we age, as we get older, we kind of get more set and said in that mindset, right? Kind of the grumpy old man.

36. 16:14

    Thing. Kind of. Takes over, you know the words of Paul or echoed here, evil communications corrupt good manners, which really means in the Greek evil communication corrupt good morals. And So what is corrupting us rather than sisters? And so our worldview is the lens by which we perceive the world. It’s events, our role in the world.

37. 16:38

    All those things are crucial for us to get right if we’re going to live a faithful life of the believer. Isaiah 5 and 20 says woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter again.

38. 16:52

    I don’t. I haven’t lived in every social order ever, but I don’t think you could apply that at any time except this particular social order where all of those things are literally happening before our eyes. So The thing is, it’s like if you’re moving with society, you don’t, you don’t see the change that happens to you, right?

39. 17:12

    Because you’re moving at the same speed. But if we’re anchored in the truth, then we will see everything as it passes by. So the question is, I made this mistake with the young people. They’re sharp when they see something on the screen. What is the? Average amount of time in hours that the average person spends looking at a screen. Any screen, computer screen, tablet, cell phone, TV, whatever bunch you probably saw it right came up. Don’t answer if you know, hey guys, how many hours a day average?

40. 17:49

    This is average 9. So it’s 11 hours a day now in North America, the average person. So that means some people it’s a lot more. And I’m sure. For all of you, it’s near 0, but you think about 11 hours a day you go no, that’s not possible 11 hours a day check your phone check the app on your on your iPhone, which I think are evil by the way, should have an Android either Either way, I’m just kidding check the amount of hours you spend. It’ll tell you, it’ll tell you how many hours check it and just that and it’s.

41. 18:22

    I bet you it’s going to be at least. Two to three hours a day, you’re on your phone. Now some of that is legitimate, maybe all of it is legitimate, but those are the stats. Now think about this. If you take the average lifespan of a person, which is let’s just say 3 score and 10, and you just take an average of four hours.

42. 18:38

    Let’s just be, let’s go easy. 4 hours and you Add all of that up. Full. Time. How long is that in the average life of a person that they’re literally doom scrolling on a screen? 12 years? It’s 11. Yep, you can live a little longer than me, probably because you’re a firmer. 11 straight years. 24 hours a day. That’s the average person.

43. 19:06

    That’s the lifespan on a phone. You know, for older. Adults the The use of social media is going through the roof right now. This year, 2020, 468% of our age group here are on social media, in particular Facebook with the kids. Don’t even know what that is anymore. Facebook What’s that, 70? Percent of us are on YouTube and this is not every now and again, this is this is every day, this is day, this is ours.

44. 19:32

    Younger adults, 78% use Instagram, 62% use TikTok. Now look, I’ll say something right now about TikTok it and you know what? I got a lot of teens nodding their head in class today. It is the worst social media platform in the history of mankind. It is the most left wing, pervasive anti Israel, anti God, anti truth platform literally that’s ever come out of all the ones that are bad. Don’t go on TikTok.

45. 20:04

    He gives her on TikTok. Honestly, you got to get them off. It’s it’s it’s so bad. 40% of young adults. Between the age of 16 and 28, get. All of their. Information on TikTok. All of it.

46. 20:23

    Like, that’s a, that’s a scary thing, you know, The, the, the, the. The Gaza protesters, generally speaking, when they were when they were spoken to, got. All of their. Information about Israel and Gaza on TikTok. Enough said. I checked the stats and I’m 100% correct. There are now 5.6 million podcasts currently available on the major streaming platforms that we have.

47. 20:49

    We’re now into podcasts like crazy. Look. I think there’s a lot of. Podcasts out there. So don’t get me wrong, right? There’s a lot of things that we can learn from experts. There are Christadelphian podcasts out there and they’re great. But we also watch podcasts on everything we’ve we’ve become obsessed with. Oh, just listen to that latest podcast on you know, it’s on sports, it’s on work. It’s on how to be a better mother, how to be a better father, how to be a better gardener, how to invest better. You know how to.

48. 21:14

    Grow your empire, whatever it is. I I listen to some podcasts. I’m not immune, but are we getting more advice from the world than we get from God?

49. 21:27

    You know, I love Brother Frank Abel’s description many, many years ago about when the Internet came into our homes, so you’ve probably heard it, he said. It’s just literally like a sewer pipe pouring into our living rooms and. When you hear that, you’re like. Ah, gross. It couldn’t be more true. We have access to everything, everything we want.

50. 21:53

    And you know, we all have this problem. I don’t have a phone up here to show you, but it’s like doom scrolling, right? What do you what do you look, hang on, what are you looking for? We all have a problem with just scrolling for content, content, content, that next thing, the next funny thing, what’s going to what’s going to wake me up? What’s going to entertain me, right? And and it’s, you know, a lot of people say when they’re asked about doom scrolling or watching Netflix or whatever it is, you know what it’s I’m just escaping. Just, I’m just, I need some time to unwind. I just need to just switch off the brain and just let, let it in for a little bit.

51. 22:35

    The problem is, before long, we’re always escaping. Like we never stopped to let the truth back in. And we were talking about this the other night, How? Look, it happens with Marty and I. I know it seems like we’re perfect. We’re not. Ten o’clock rolls around. You’ve watched the program. And just like we haven’t done the barbering, it’s like it’s. It’s too late.

52. 23:00

    I mean, how often do we literally say that it’s? Too late to read the word of God. I don’t need to lecture anyone about the utter waste of time that media has. But. But here’s the thing. Every time we switch off from God. We. Separate ourselves from his character. And here’s something that a writer on this topic recently stated, and I think this is very appropriate.

53. 23:25

    The Internet, social media, Netflix, whatever literally does our thinking for us. It keeps us stimulated and yet distracted so that we do not have to confront who we are or what type of person we’ve become. And I read that and I thought, it’s like mind blowing.

54. 23:55

    Our number one source of truth must be God’s Word. It must be the filter by which we see the world. Listen to what Jeremiah says in Jeremiah 15 and 16. Said when your words. Came to me. I ate them. They were my joy, my heart’s delight. For I bear your name, Lord God Almighty. I never sat in the company of revellers. I never made merry with them.

55. 24:23

    I sat alone because your hand was on me and you had filled me with indignation. How often, brothers and sisters, when we’re sitting watching a program on on Netflix, are we filled with indignation? Maybe after we feel kind of bad, we feel kind of dirty. We need to be filled with indignation. Turn to Psalm 119.

56. 24:52

    I. Think this is an even more beautiful way to say this very thing? Psalm 119 starting at verse 97, it says. Oh how I love your law. I meditate on it all day long. Your commands are always with me and make me wiser than my enemies. I have more insight than all of my teachers, for I meditate on your statutes.

57. 25:17

    I have more understanding than the elders, for I obey your precepts. I have kept my feet from the evil past so that I might obey your word. I have not departed from your laws, for you yourself have taught me. And this is the beautiful part. How sweet are your words to my taste?

58. 25:34

    Sweeter than honey to my mouth. I gain understanding from your precepts. Therefore I hate every wrong path. Your word is a lamp to my feet, a light to my path. I have taken an oath and I have confirmed that I will follow your righteous laws. How often when we watch something or we scroll through something, do we taste the bitterness of it?

59. 25:53

    And I and I think that’s the point, brethren and sisters, that the more we consume the Word of God, the more distasteful the things of the world will be, the less time we spend consuming God’s Word. The more palatable the things of the truth will be. Look, it’s hard to switch off the world. Marnie and I have thrown away so many CD sets and VHS tapes and then, you know, disconnected from Netflix multiple times and and.

60. 26:20

    It just. Keeps coming back and then you know, but. We got to keep training ourselves to switch it off. The more often we switch it off, the easier it will be. We have to create a boundary, and that’s what that word separation means. It’s to mark off a boundary, A separation between US and godly morals and the things that are out there.

61. 26:38

    And we need to consume the word of God every day and it’ll be that reset that we need to see. So the question is, how can we tell truth from deception and and and the teens are. All over this clearly, when we consume the word of God. It becomes the filter by which we can determine truth from lies. First, John four and one, dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are of God. Because many false prophets have gone out into the world, so is that the filter by which we discern the difference between right and wrong.

62. 27:13

    Now one of the teens in in the in the workshop. Said at the end, you know, I said, OK, so would you? I put some questions up on the screen and then they discussed it amongst the group and he came back and and I said, OK, you know, group at the back. He said, what you need to do is that every time you see something in the world, you immediately refer to the Bible, look it up and go, Nope, that’s not right. He said.

63. 27:41

    Then you shut that off. Now this is coming from a 16 year old kid and. I’ll tell the the parents who it was after. And I just thought what a mature thing. Now putting that in practice is a little bit harder, but how often do we see? Something and then go Nope, not correct off.

64. 28:02

    You know what I mean? Like like that’s that’s the mechanism that we have to build into our brain. Now I did this for the sake of the kids. So we’ll do this really quickly. Why does Why does Christ call us sheep? Why aren’t we? A predator I might, you know, you say, what’s your favorite animal? You’re not going to go, that’s a sheep, right? My favorite animal is the black Puma. Like they are incredibly beautiful and powerful. And just you know what I mean?

65. 28:36

    And and yet we’re not. God didn’t label us as predators, as aggressive predators. He labeled us as sheep and we’re going to talk about sheep a little bit more, God willing in in class 5. There’s a reason why we are to be identified with that type of character. And then Christ says he is wise as serpents and gentle as dubs. So I’ll ask you the question.

66. 28:57

    Why did he say that? Why, why and how are we to be wise as. Serpents. Non rhetorical, sorry. So certain snakes are very discerning. They have incredible senses. So it’s not to be like a snake, it’s to use those characteristics they can. Their whole body is a feeling member. Right. They don’t hear like we do. They have.

67. 29:28

    Some of them are. Different, but they feel vibrations up to their jawbone that they interpret into sound. Some, some surf, some snakes to be careful. They see like we do, but they also have infrared vision where they can detect things at night. And really for the serpent, it’s all about determining the difference between prey and predator. That’s what their senses are for. Do I either run or do I attack?

68. 29:51

    Oh, and also finding a mate. Why doves? Well, the answer from the teens was immediate. They’re innocent, they’re harmless, they’re pure, they’re lovely. One of them said they’re always white. And I go, that’s not true.

69. 30:07

    There’s black doves. Listen to what Paul says in Romans 16 and 19. And I think he takes that these two animals and just kind of flips it upside down and puts in a way that maybe we can understand. He says, for your obedience is known to us all so that I may rejoice over you, but I want you to be wise to what is good and innocent to what is evil, using those two same characteristics.

70. 30:32

    And so when we’re presented with the deceptions of the world. Are we equipped to be wise to what is? Good and innocent to what is evil and that’s the intention of the Lord Jesus Christ commands. So we look at social relativism and and and subjective truth and relative morality. We have a huge problem in this world right.

71. 30:54

    I hear things like it’s my truth and my lived experience and. Truth is just a social construct and all these different things, right? And so it appeals to our human nature because you know who doesn’t want? Society to do everything for you, right? To appeal to your individual need. Because that’s the world we live in, right?

72. 31:18

    It’s that my truth Trump’s yours. It’s that my world Trump’s. What I do is more important than what you do. That that’s that’s the narrative of postmodernism. It’s hyper individualism. Sometimes they call it. Humanism 3.0 It’s still all humanism, right? We talked about the change in how we term different things, right? We’re not, not all of us, but some of us, very small amount of us, right? Of switched over to these new terms. Well, that’s my partner, not my wife. Gender pronouns of the new thing, right? You can turn yourself whatever you want. Your gender is fluid.

73. 31:55

    Today I’m he, him. Tomorrow I’m a day then, right? You have to accept me today as a man. Tomorrow I’m going to be different. We have to accept there are people getting sued for using the wrong pronouns. That’s the new law in Canada, right? You misgender somebody, you lose your job, right, If you’re in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong person. You know, we talked about how that. You know, we live in a world where. People now will say that yes, a man can become a woman, but that’s why you see feminine hygiene products in male bathrooms.

74. 32:30

    And I may have mentioned this. To some of you, but my first taste of this was like 8 years ago when we first moved back down to Victoria and I went to, to you Victoria. We were working there, doing a job there, and I went to find a bathroom in the Student Union building and I couldn’t find a men’s. Bathroom They were gender neutral, all of them. It’s.

75. 32:51

    Not like they said, oh, let’s just add a. Bathroom, you can have your male, you can have your female, and you can have your other, your universal, your whatever. No, no, no, they don’t want that. They don’t want compromise. Postmodern is not about compromise. It’s about capitulation. I didn’t go to the bathroom like I went, I went and found a Johnny on the spot somewhere. Like it was, it was so bizarre and I, I didn’t think about it for another couple of years.

76. 33:15

    Then I realized, whoa, this is already happening. And that’s just, that’s just a minor thing, but these things are challenging to our Christian sensitivities. Our understanding of truth and it chips away at us. It wears away at us. The more often you see something, and this is a problem with doom scrolling, the more often you see the same thing, the more normal it becomes.

77. 33:39

    And so we’re. Being normalized in this new philosophy instead of being normalized in the truth of God and it begins to challenge how we view the absolute truth of scripture. Think about the Word of God as an. Anchor that pins you to the ground, I mean in a good way, and the world can move by, but you’re stable. You understand everything that’s happening and then you can challenge the reality that’s happening around you by the stability that you have in the Word of God. Now we now I think we’ve quoted this first before second Timothy four and three for the time will come and people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears and what application of that.

78. 34:21

    You think itching? Ears is kind of like the word can also mean tickle. Teens love this. It’s like it’s almost creepy. The time will come when people not endure sound teaching, but they want to hear things that will tickle their ears. And so in, in, in doing that, they will look for and they will find and they will accumulate for themselves teachers who will suit their own passions.

79. 34:53

    And, and we tend to do that. We tend to hang out with people that we like. That’s that, right? That do things that we do and that believe the things that we do. And in the truth, that’s fantastic. We should definitely do that. But we also need somebody to be objective about the things that we are doing. And this is the problem with this relativism. Turn to Second Timothy 4 and verse one. Just read a little bit more of this particular verse. Starting at verse one, I charge you in the presence of God and the Lord Jesus Christ who is to judge the living and the dead and by his appearing at his Kingdom to preach the word, be ready in season and out of season to reprove and to rebuke and to exhort and with complete patience and teaching. So when we come across these things in our community, in our cliche, in our family that are tickling the ears of the people that we know or even, or even ourselves, we have to be. Ready at all times, brothers and sisters, to teach, to reprove, to rebuke to.

80. 36:05

    Not. Endure those things, otherwise they’ll wander off to miss. As for you, the apostle Paul says to Timothy, always be sober minded to endure suffering, do the work of the evangelist and to fulfill your ministry. There is only one truth to modernize that term. Let’s just say it is the meta truth. It is the precondition for truth itself, and that is the word of God. And so we have to preach it.

81. 36:32

    We can’t shrink back from speaking it. We’re commanded to rebuke and to reprove and to exhort with all patients and doctrine. And so when we see something, we can’t fear speaking out about it. We have to do it in the right. Way. We have to approach it with love and with compassion. But the problem is because of everything that’s going on in the world and those philosophies come into the ecclesia, we are shrinking back from saying things.

82. 36:55

    We’re not standing up for truth all the time because sometimes we don’t know, oh, it’s, it’s not the right time. I don’t know what to say to that person. I’m not sure if they’re how they’re going to react. And those are those are all. Realities, I get it. It’s, it’s not easy speaking to somebody about an issue that you might see or a problem, but if we do nothing, then we are done as a community. Here’s the other thing that happens with, with moral relativism, OK, and, and, and, and this is, this is something that is, it’s banging at our door and that is that society. When I say downplaying the problem of sin, what I mean is that in society they don’t even care about sin, but the issue is that that impacts our brain and it starts for us to desensitize us on things and we start to downplay the problem of sin. Isai 59 starting verse 14 says as justice is turned back and righteousness stands far away for truth is stumbled in the public squares, the uprightness cannot enter. Truth is lacking, and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey.

83. 38:07

    And then it says, And the Lord saw it, and it was, and he was displeased of him that there was no justice. And he saw that there was no man. And he wondered, Is there anyone who would intercede?

84. 38:22

    And then his own arm brought him salvation, and his righteousness upheld him. And he put on righteousness as a breastplate. And as the helmet of salvation was on his head, he put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and he wrapped himself in zeal as a cloak.

85. 38:36

    Sometimes, brethren and sisters. We are that person that needs to intercede and when we see these things going on in our life around us, we have to step in with the sword of the Spirit. Do not be sieved. The the apostle Paul says in Galatians 6. Do not be deceived. God is not mocked for whatever one sows that he will also reap.

86. 38:58

    And so we’ve become increasingly reluctant to speak out against sin, even in our own communities. Look, sin is not a popular subject. Not even for believers. I mean, I mean, really scripturally, we like to think we’re in a post sin environment in the sense that we have forgiveness and we prefer to talk about love and, and, and we’ve already heard before that we, you know, we like to hear more.

87. 39:26

    Positive subjects. You know, why can’t we talk about more positive subjects? Well, yes, the truth is is amazing. It’s very positive, but we have to deal with the issue of sin 1st and claiming to be without sin distorts our view of self and it disconnects us from the reality of of God’s truth. First, John one and eight, if we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. But the beautiful part is that if we confess our sins, He is faithful and he is just.

88. 39:55

    And He will forgive our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. That is the positive message of salvation, but it only comes after we confront the reality of the sin that so easily besets us. And these are the things we need to see through the lens of truth. That are happening in our lives and in our families, our extended families and in the truth and in the broader community.

89. 40:23

    We don’t need to spend a lot of time on this because we know exactly what happened in the time of King Jehoiakim. But I, I, I put it in here because it’s, it’s AI think it’s a powerful reminder of, of sometimes the things that we unconsciously do. Look, we can read through the Bible from beginning to end and find all kinds of our favorite verses. But I bet you our favorite verses are not about the deceitfulness of our heart, right? And so when Jehoiakim was up in his winter palace and he was sitting in front of the fire and God came to Jeremiah and says, you need to take these judgments and these prophecies and this truth, and you need to have it read before the king. And Jeremiah was under house arrest and Baruch was not able to go up into the palace.

90. 41:10

    And so we had to send it through a bunch of different people. But as we know the story, it eventually Jehudai stands before the king. I can imagine what it would have been like to stand before him and read the. The judgment from God himself to this wicked king and he listened to a few lines on the scroll and I just love how the truth is given to us that it’s just so detailed and raw you.

91. 41:36

    Just pull out his pen knife and just cut that off. Threw that in the fire. Jude. I would read a few more lines. Cut it off. Throw it into the fire. In the end, the whole scroll was was burned up in the fire. You know, sometimes, brethren and sisters, we read things in the Word of God that we don’t like to hear and and it’s. It’s not always about saying, look, I really wish I could do that.

92. 42:06

    But sometimes it’s about, I think God might be wrong about this thing. And we might change a practice, we might change a doctrine, we might change a principle, we might change a belief, we might just. Tweak it a little bit so that. We can, maybe. Justify, you know where we’re at. And tomorrow we’ll talk about how tolerance can lead to acceptance, which leads to justification.

93. 42:26

    And that’s. It’s a whole other issue, but I think the stark reality of what Jehoiakim did should, should echo in our minds that we cannot cut away truth or reinterpret it to suit our own desires to remove the Word of God, the things that we don’t like because it makes us feel uncomfortable or ashamed. Or that we won’t speak to other people because we feel it’ll make them uncomfortable and ashamed. All of these things the prophet Isaiah says in 66. All of these things my hand is made. And so all of these things came to be, declares the Lord. But this is the one to whom I will look, he who is humble and contrite spirit, and trembles at my word. Sometimes the things that God says to us will make us tremble, but they will correct us and measure and bring us back to truth.

94. 43:17

    And to say that as to is to lead into the fact that the truth of God is A2 edged sword. And we love to quote this as well. I love this particular verse in Hebrews 4. Let’s turn it up because you know, we quote it all the time. We, we can’t be ashamed of the truth And we say that the the word of God is A2 edged sword and we can go out and we can slay the evil right?

95. 43:37

    And it’s very powerful. Hebrews 4 and 12 For the Word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any 2 edged sword, piercing even the dividing asunder of the soul and spirit into the joints in the marrow, and is the discerner of the thoughts in the intense of the heart. And we think about, you know, the mechanism of the priesthood and bringing the offering. And they would inspect the offering from the outside and look and yes, it looks perfect, but then they would open it up and make sure it had all the internal organs, that there wasn’t something hidden within.

96. 44:05

    And that’s what the Word of God has intended to do to us. It’s to open us up because the Word of God cuts both ways.

97. 44:14

    It says in Jeremiah 17 and 10, The Lord is I. The Lord search the heart, and I examine the mind to reward each person according to their conduct and according to what their deeds deserve. So the sword will divide asunder the soul and the spirit. It can be profoundly structural to us rather than sisters. It can cut us right to the bone, and it will open us up as it is intended to do.

98. 44:43

    God doesn’t intend to mortally wound us by the Word that He speaks, but if we resist it, it will. But He does want to open us up. He wants to know what is inside our heart. He wants to discern what is going on in our mind. Wouldn’t you rather know now, brethren and sisters? So that we can correct our path before we stand at the judgement seat before Christ, God’s Word.

99. 45:09

    Can correct us and it can heal us. Just like David when he when he heard the cold hard truth of what Nathan had to say to him about his sin, it cut him asunder. He was exposed, his heart was opened. What was his response? Brought him to his knees. It humbled him by the truth of his actions. It changed him.

100. 45:33

     He repented, and he was restored of God. The truth, brethren and sisters, will. Hurt. It will wound us. If the truth doesn’t hurt us, we’re not living. It right, But by God’s grace we’ll be healed by those same words. We’ll be rebuilt in the image of God and not of man. And and so, brethren and sisters, truth is also missing. If we don’t.

101. 46:07

     Speak it. The word of God will just stay static on the page if we’re not the voice by which it is spoken. And so if the truth is absent from our cliches, from our families, from our own mind, and I find this happening more and more and more where we stand back and we just let things happen. We don’t we don’t speak out, as I said, because we fear maybe there’s some moral confusion, maybe we feel will push people away by the harsh, harsh reality of the truth. You know one of the things that came up. We talked about it yesterday with the teens was, you know, when, when do you make that decision to cut somebody off? And so we often feel that we can help somebody by keeping them with us, that that that association, we can convert them, we can save them.

102. 46:52

     And that may in fact be the case. But oftentimes, you know, we get pulled off in their direction as opposed to us pulling them in ours. You know, as I said, you can’t save a mortally wounded man with just a Band-Aid and kind words. In our desire to avoid being judgmental, we may end up doing the opposite by enabling and tolerating those things that should be confronted and addressed. Turn to Ezekiel chapter. 33 This

103. 47:23

     is the stark reality of those who are intended to be Watchmen within the community, and certainly here in the community of God. Ezekiel 33 starting in verse 2.

104. 47:40

     Son of Man, speak to your people and say to them, If I bring the sword upon the land, and the people of the land, take a man from among them, and make them their Watchmen. And if he sees the sword coming upon the land and blows the trumpet and warns the people, then if anyone who hears the sound of the trumpet and does not take warning, and the sword comes and takes him away, his blood shall appear upon his head. He heard the sound of the trumpet and did not take warning, and his blood was upon himself. But if he had taken the warning, it could have saved his life. But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet so that the people are not warned and the sword comes and takes any one of them, then that person is taken away in their iniquity.

105. 48:20

     So there’s there’s two things that have to happen. We as Watchmen need to blow the trumpet to deal with these issues in our community and those of us in the. Community need to listen. And respond and change our ways. It is our responsibility as shepherds to speak the truth. And as sheep to listen to it, Apostle Paul says in Ephesians chapter 4 and 23 says Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body. He says in First Thessalonians 5 and 11. He says therefore encourage one another and build one another up just as you are doing.

106. 49:11

     There’s no truth if we don’t speak it, brothers and. Sisters and there’s no truth and we don’t listen and so we have to do both as hard as it is sometimes to call things out or to stand up for truth. You know one of the great answers that came today when I. Asked How do we stand up for truth? How do we?

107. 49:30

     How do we speak truth? This is one one of the younger in the group. This is what he said. He said when you’re talking to somebody at school, you’re like a friend at school and they want to talk to you about, you know, stuff that’s gross and stuff that’s not godly. And he said you’ve got to keep redirecting the conversation back to good things, back to the truth.

108. 49:54

     He said you got to keep correcting them. He said. He actually said it was really weird. You got to control the narrative, which is kind of a modern term, but but it but it works. You got to control the narrative. And he goes and if you get to a point where they don’t listen, you got to walk away.

109. 50:10

     And I thought this is a very mature thing for 13 year old kid to say. And certainly that was what the table had talked about. We have to determine when that moment is that we’re no longer able to course correct and we have to walk away. We have to stay centered on the truth. So when we think about the deception of the darkness of the world, when we think about being unashamed of the truth of God, what it means when we’re confident to speak it and to defend it, even at the risk of being cancelled, of being belittled, or like Paul, who is ready to die for the things that he believed.

110. 50:51

     Turn over to Psalm 40. We’ll just close with this particular verse. This is one of the cross references we find from Romans 1 and 16. I like to. Think it may very well have been used by the Lord Jesus Christ in his words in Luke and the Apostle Paul in his. And here’s David writing about the great. Distress that he had endured, and how that his God had drawn him up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure as He.

111. 51:22

     Says at the start Psalm 40 and verse 9. He says through all of this. He says, For I have preached righteousness in the great congregation. Lo, I have not refrained my lips, O Lord, Thou knowest I have not hid Thy righteousness within my heart. I have declared thy. Faithfulness and Thy salvation I have not concealed by loving kindness and Thy truth from the great congregation. You know, whatever I’m I’m down or I’m struggling spiritually. And maybe it is for a lot of you. The best place to go, I feel, is go to the Psalms. And Marty pointed this out to me at one point, that in many of the Psalms, David starts out in distress. He’s struggling, he’s under trial, he’s being persecuted. And as he communicates with God, he gets pulled back to center, and often times at the end of the Psalm, he’s back elevating his God in his life and thanking him as being his rock. And so we can blame social relativism. We can blame postmodernism, we can blame moral issues, we can blame historical revisionism.

112. 52:37

     We can blame postmodernism for everything. But there’s one thing we can’t do. We cannot blame God for his truth. It’s right there in front of us, always waiting for us to. Open it up. And to use it to discern the very thoughts of our heart, so that it might save us, that it might purify us, that it might rebuke us, that it might correct us, and that we might be reunited with our Father in heaven. So what is truth, brethren and sisters? It is the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes.

113. 53:18

     The trick is we have to believe it, and when we believe it, brethren and sisters, we have to practice it, and in practicing it, we speak it. And that is our task is to be unashamed of the truth, so that everyone else who hears the word of God might also be saved.