Rev. David Holwick P COMMUNION
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
May 6, 1990
Deuteronomy 5:4-22
|
I. Decay of moral standards in Western society.
A. Appropriate words in Isaiah 5:20 -
"Woe to those who call evil good and good evil,
who put darkness for light and light for darkness."
B. Decay of morals in 20th century.
1) Changes in Roxbury township.
a) More police.
b) More crime.
c) Unthinkable is now commonplace.
C. Any hope for civilization, or sign that fall is imminent,
like fall of Roman Empire?
II. Abandonment of absolutes.
A. Absolutes are old-fashioned.
1) It is arrogant to say you have the truth.
2) What about millions who disagree with you? Whole societies.
3) Life is complex - there are no simple answers.
B. Everything has become "relative."
1) Do what you think is right in any given situation.
2) Principle has crept into many ethical systems.
a) Joseph Fletcher is a key proponent. He writes:
Is adultery wrong?
One can only respond, "I don't know. Maybe. Give me a case.
Describe a real situation."
Or perhaps somebody will ask if a man should ever lie to his
wife, or desert his family, or fail to report some income
in his tax return.
Again the answer cannot be an answer, it can only be another
question.
#1166
3) Every situation is unique.
a) All is grey, not black and white.
C. Spheres of change.
1) Media.
a) Signs of change.
1> Adultery is an everyday subject in mass media.
2> Phil Donahue and gays who marry and adopt.
A> Newsweek article on future family. Pro-gay.
3> Calls to mind Daniel's description of the Antichrist:
"He will speak against the Most High and oppress his
saints and try to change the set times and the laws."
Daniel 7:25
b) Change-makers:
Ted Turner is the outspoken chairman of Turner Broadcasting
System and creator of CNN.
At a recent National Newspaper Association meeting in
Atlanta, Turner said the Ten Commandments were outmoded.
As far as he was concerned they are not relevant to current
global problems.
Turner said, "I bet nobody here even pays much attention
to 'em, because they are too old."
"Commandments are out."
To fill the gap, Turner offered his own "Ten Voluntary
Initiatives."
They include: to help the poor, to love and respect
planet Earth, and to limit families to two children.
He also called Christianity a religion for losers.
#1081
2) Schools.
Dr. Gerald Grant did a 25-year study of Nottingham High
School in Syracuse, New York.
Harvard University Press published his book, which he
called, "The World We Created At Hamilton High."
In 1953 the students had high achievement and social
conformity.
Today the principal has a full-time bodyguard, school
closings due to violence are common and drugs and sex
are sold on school grounds.
On one visit Dr. Grant noticed a teacher who was visibly
upset - a group of students had verbally assaulted her.
Had she reported the incident?
No, she said. "It wouldn't have done any good."
"Why not?" Grant asked.
"I didn't have any witnesses."
To Grant this summed up what is wrong in our schools.
Moral benchmarks have crumbled.
Teachers and students are equals.
Nottingham High's drug counselor claims to be unqualified
to tell students what is right and wrong.
Teachers do not try to tell students how to live.
#654
D. Apology to America's Parents:
Dr. W. R. Coulson, one of the founders of value-free education,
recently said he is sorry for the way this philosophy has
affected the nation's youth.
He stated:
"Youthful experimentation with sex, alcohol, and drugs - has been
shown to follow value-free education quite predictably.
"We now know that after these classes, students become more prone
to give in to temptation than if they'd never been enrolled.
Moral absolutes are routed."
#1019
III. The necessity for absolutes.
A. Gray areas? Gray is combination of black and white.
1) Take away black and white, and gray ceases to exist.
2) An ethical system based on relativity breaks down.
B. Implications of relative ethics.
1) Sin is usually justified, conventional morality put down.
2) Our souls tell us this is wrong. (KKK murder)
I have vivid memories of a photograph I saw years ago.
It appeared in a newspaper during the racial turmoil that
swept the United States in the 1960's.
The picture is of a black American with his hands tied
behind his back.
A chain was looped around his neck and fastened to a tree
limb.
As he hung there, members of the Klan took a butane torch
and burned the initials KKK into his chest.
They kept burning him, slowly, until he died.
As a Christian, I feel that what they did was wrong.
If situation ethics is true, then what they did might be wrong.
Or it might be O.K. It all depends. #1167
C. Everyone believes in some absolute.
IV. The Bible and absolute morality.
A. Ten Commandments are well-known example.
1) Definite ideas about how to live.
B. Principles behind God's Law:
1) It gives us a perfect standard to live by.
2) It convinces us that we are imperfect - we fail to keep it.
a) Sin is shown for what it really is.
b) Martin Luther and the Law as a mirror of our wrinkles.
3) Made-up ethical systems are ones we can keep.
a) God's Law smashes our self-righteousness.
b) Luther: "The law is a whip that drives us to the Cross."
V. Jesus and Salvation.
A. God expects perfection.
1) Only way to earn way into heaven.
2) Jesus was only perfect man.
3) On our own, all of us are lost.
B. But Jesus didn't just earn his own way into heaven.
1) His blood on cross can wash each of us, make us worthy.
2) We can't do this, but God can.
C. Trust in Jesus for your personal salvation.
1) Have you made the decision?
***************************************************
I. Ethical systems.
A. Option #1: Based on God.
1) God reveals through the Bible how he wants us to live.
2) He lays down absolutes.
B. Option #2: speculative ethics.
1) You have to figure it all out on your own.
II. Relativism.
A. Yet Christians must be careful not to be simplistic with ethics.
1) Areas of grey exist in most human situations.
2) But non-believers push the grey to both ends, so that
black and white no longer exist.
III. What we believe affects how we live.
IV. Carl Henry, an American Baptist theologian:
A. We are exposed to different systems every day.
B. Often we don't recognize these systems.
1) Therefore we don't know how to respond.
2) Many Christians get sucked into this mindset.
Copyright © 2024 by Rev. David Holwick
Created with the Freeware Edition of HelpNDoc: Full featured multi-format Help generator