HopeLives365

Mark Finley: Does the Bible give us any indication of what's going on in our society, why it's going on, and the solution to it? Three aspects we're going to look at.

What's going on in our society, why it's going on, and what can be done about it. First, in a striking sermon in Matthew chapter 24, Jesus talks about the signs of the times. He blends two events. Sitting on the Mount of Olives, Jesus looked out across the Kidron Valley at the temple in Jerusalem and he said, "Not one stone is going to be left upon the other."

He was talking about the destruction that would come in 70 AD when Titus and the Roman armies would come down and destroy the temple. Many of the blocks of that temple are one and a half, two and a half, three tons plus. And when Jesus said not one stone's going to be left upon another, the disciples thought that an event as cataclysmic as the destruction of the temple must be the end of the world.

So they came to Jesus and they said, "What shall the sign of your coming be and the end of the age?" Jesus then went on to talk about wars and rumors of wars. He talked about famines and earthquakes and pestilences—signs in the natural world.

But then he focused in on the very topic we're talking about: lawlessness and violence in our society. And in Matthew chapter 24, verse 12, Jesus says, "Because lawlessness will abound, the love of many grow cold. But he who endures to the end," verse 13, "shall be saved." Because lawlessness will abound. Abound means leap forward. Abound is something in abundance. Abound is something that there's plenty of.

So Jesus, in his last day sermon, said there'll be lawlessness in our society, chaos in our city streets. There'll be conflict on every hand. Then he continues in this narrative in Matthew chapter 24, and you go down to verse 37, and Jesus puts it this way: "But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be."

As the days of Noah. What was it like in the days of Noah? In the days of Noah, the world became so wicked, so godless, so immoral, that God had to destroy this world with a flood. What was it like in the days of Noah? Do we have any indication of that? Fortunately, we do.

In Genesis chapter 6, we find the description of our world in the days of Noah. We're looking there at Genesis 6, if you're taking notes or you have your Bible. If you look at verse 5, it says, "Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually."

Then in verse 11: "The earth was corrupt before God and the earth was filled with violence." Before the flood, there's this corruption, moral infidelity, sexuality that is flaunted. You look at what's taking place before the flood, it's an immoral, sex-centered, thrill-jaded society that's filled with violence.

The world became so corrupt, so wicked, so violent, that God had to destroy it with water. And the flood came. Now Noah preached for 120 years and gave every person an opportunity to repent.

But today, we see a similar society to that society—a world in rebellion against God, a world of corruption, a world of immorality, and specifically, a world where lawlessness reigns and that is filled with violence.

Now, is there a lot of good in the world? There is. Is there a lot of happiness in our world and joy that Christ gives us? There is. But we are living in a world that is largely rebellious against God, and God, like Noah's day, is giving a clarion call for men and women to come back to Jesus.

But we're living at a time that the Bible has predicted. What I want you to see is that what is taking place around us is predicted in the sacred book of the Bible. In fact, the Apostle Paul talks about this. Second Timothy chapter 3, verse 1. We've talked about lawlessness. We've talked about violence.

And in Second Timothy 3, verse 1, this is what we read. It says, "But know this." Now notice, don't guess it. It's not something that might happen. Know this: that in the last days perilous times will come.

Perilous times. What are perilous times? They're times filled with peril, times filled with terrifying fear, times filled with wickedness, corruption, and violence. The Bible has predicted the very state of society that we live in.

Now, what are the reasons behind this unprecedented rise in violence in our society? Although the reasons are complex and there's no simple solution, there are some basic reasons. Now, I certainly wouldn't deny that some of what we see in the violence has to do with mental illness.

I wouldn't deny that some has to do with young people that have been abused in their childhood, young people who have gone through very traumatic experiences in their homes, young people who have gone through experiences which predispose them to violence. Neither would I deny the impact of mass media on our society. I wouldn't deny that at all.

I think the more you see violence, the more violent you become. The average American child on television by the time that they are 12 years old has witnessed well more than 14,000 murders. And you think of the video games that are so incredibly violent today.

So there's many factors contributing to where we are in society. But from a Christian perspective, I want to look at a number of those factors through the eyes of the Bible. You see, if you cut down the tree of Christian morality, the fruit of Christian virtue dies.

Now what do I mean by that? Let's suppose out here I have an apple tree. Take an axe, and this apple tree is filled with apples. I cut down the apple tree, cut it off at its roots. The tree comes tumbling down. Now if I come by in two days or three days, I can still pick apples off that tree. They're going to be okay.

If I come by in five days, I can pick some apples. But pretty soon, sooner or later, what's going to happen to those apples? If nobody picks them and they lie there for two weeks, three weeks, four weeks, they're going to rot, right? You cut down the tree of Christian morality, and the fruit of Christian virtue dies and it withers.

When children are taught that they evolved from lower forms of life and have no higher sense of morality than their own minds, society will plunge into chaos. When there is no clear objective standard of right and wrong, life becomes more no more than the survival of the fittest.

When we are educated by the immorality and corruption and violence in mass media, and when our kids saturate their mind with that, what can we expect to happen in society? What we need is a return to the basic principles of God's word.

Let's go to the book of Judges, chapter 21, verse 25. Now if you've read the book of Judges in the Bible at all, you know that Judges is filled with wickedness and there is violence and corruption and there is rape and it's a situation where when you look at the book of Judges, it's a very violent society that we're looking at there in Judges.

And when you come to Judges chapter 21 and you're looking there at 21 and verse 25, it says: "In those days, there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes." Everyone did.

In other words, there's no standard of right. There is no higher goal than the goal of pleasure. And so everyone does right in their own eyes. You've got your truth, I've got my truth. There's no objective standard. Nothing that ultimately one would be judged by.

So in Judges, you find the king has been banished. There's rape and sexual immorality and crime and violence everywhere. Why? Because the highest standard is one's own mind.

Isaiah chapter 53 and verse 6. Isaiah 53, verse 6. We're getting a profile of the social condition of society based on some mental processes—some things that go on in the mind that contribute to it. Isaiah 53, verse 6: "All we like sheep have gone astray; we've turned to his own way." We've turned to our own way.

Why is there so much crime and violence and immorality in our society, corruption? Why these mass shootings? Because people have turned to their own way. They've rebelled against God's holy word, turned their back on God's standards. They themselves become their own God.

And what does it say in the book of Galatians, chapter 6 and verse 7, one of the most profound passages in all of scripture on the profound impact of our choices. Galatians 6, verse 7: "Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap."

The law of sowing and reaping. You see, if you sow violence on television that impacts the mind of children, you're going to reap violence. If you sow the idea that we simply evolved, where do you find a moral ethic if there is no personal God, if there is no objective standard of right?

What we sow we reap. When you cut down the tree of Christian morality, the fruit of Christian virtue, what? It dies.

Now I contend that some Christian churches that downplay, marginalize, or reject the law of God contribute to the lawlessness we see in our society. And unknowingly, unknowingly, they who have done away with the law of God in the name of legalism have done away with the very basis of morality.

You say, "Pastor, what do you mean by that?" There are those Christian churches that teach that the law of God was nailed to the cross. So if the law of God is nailed to the cross, what is my standard of right? Where do I find a basis for right and wrong?

In the book of Romans, Paul tackles that issue. Now don't misunderstand me. We are saved by grace and grace alone. Sometimes I've heard people say we're saved by faith. No, our faith does not save us. Our faith receives the grace of God that saves us.

So we're not saved because of our works, we're saved because of Christ's works. We're not saved because of what we do, we're saved by what Christ has done.

But the misunderstanding is this: that the grace that saves us or redeems us does not lead us to disobedience; it leads us to obedience. Romans chapter 3, verse 24, 25. "Being justified freely by His grace." That is the good news. Through the redemption that's in Christ, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation by His blood, through faith to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God passed over the sins that were previously committed.

So notice, we are justified freely by the grace of God. As Ephesians 2 says, verse 8, "For by grace are you saved through faith. It is the gift of God, not of yourselves, lest anyone should boast."

Then it goes on to say, but we are His workmanship. So what relationship to the law of God do those who are saved by grace have? What relationship?

Paul concludes Romans 3 and verse 28 to 31: "Therefore we conclude." Now if you come to any different conclusion than Paul, you've come to a wrong conclusion because he's saying, "I'm concluding." "That a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law."

So we are justified not because of what we do. Justified means I stand before God just as if I had never sinned. There is no condemnation, Romans 8:1, to those that are in Christ Jesus.

But then Paul says: "Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law." So when we come to Christ and are saved by grace through faith, His Holy Spirit changes our hearts inside and our one desire is to be obedient and keep His law.

So if our minds are saturated with the immorality and the corruption and the evil that's in mass media, and if at the same time we have the idea that we've evolved, if there is no law of God that is the standard of righteousness—we simply do what's in our own mind.

Or if we're a Christian and we go to church, and the churches in society are so powerless, the churches in society are so weak, the churches in society are so anemic when it comes to spirituality—if indeed they are—and they preach a gospel that says, "Love Jesus and do just what you please to do."

If they preach a gospel that says, "Oh, you're saved by grace, don't worry about obedience, don't worry about the law of God," we produce an entire generation that simply does what they want to do.

I contend again that if any Christian church downplays the law of God or marginalizes or rejects it, they contribute to the problems of society rather than solve them. Peter Marshall, the chaplain of the Senate for many, many years, once got up and he prayed a simple prayer: "Lord, help us to be part of the solution, not part of the problem."

What is the solution to the violence in our society? That solution is a moral revolution where men and women are transformed from within to be obedient to the law of God. You see, I believe that without Christ there is little hope to solve society's deepest problems.

Here's why, according to Jeremiah. Jeremiah 17. Jeremiah 17, and we're going to look there at Jeremiah 17 and verse 9. "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings."

So the heart is desperately wicked. Therefore what do we need? What we need is transformation. What we need is a moral revolution. What we need is the power of God coming into our lives.

What we need is the promise of Ezekiel 36, verse 26. Ezekiel chapter 36, verse 26. What do we need? What can make a dramatic change in the society that we live in? Ezekiel chapter 36 and verse 26. It says, "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I'll take out the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I'll put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, My judgments, and you'll do them."

Now notice what God says. "I'm going to put a new heart in you. I'm going to give you a new love for right. I'm going to change you dramatically from inside." In addition to that, "I'm going to give you a new spirit. Not only will I give you a love for what's right, but I'm going to give you the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit's going to work in your life to empower you to be able to do what's right." You'll not only love what's right, but you'll be empowered to do what's right.

Second Corinthians 5, verse 17: "If any man is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things are passed away, all things become new." What our society needs today are men and women transformed by the grace of Christ, men and women empowered through Christ's grace, men and women changed by Christ's grace, men and women filled with the love of God that go out and change the world.

You're not going to find that in mass media. You're not going to find that on television. You are going to find the life-changing power in the word of God.

I have traveled the world sharing the message of Jesus Christ, and I've seen the mighty power of God come into people's lives and dramatically change them. One night I was preaching on the Solomon Islands. The Solomon Islands had gone through a terrible civil war between the Guadalcanal people and the Malaitan people.

As I traveled to preach there, there were still burned-out cars. We traveled into some of the rebel areas and ministered to people in those areas as well as in the capital city. My meetings were held in a marketplace. It was the most interesting place I've ever held meetings.

I would have we'd have to go into that marketplace 5 o'clock at night after the market got over and clean up, sweep out the rotten husks of the vegetables that were cast aside, take a hose and spray out where they had the meat market that smelled so badly, put up our platform, and I would stand in the open air and preach.

And one night I preached on Jesus, the power of Christ's forgiveness, the power of the living Christ to change your life, this Christ that could make all people new. That society was a violent society. That society was a society where the taking of human life in mass murder was considered to be a very small thing.

Human life was not respected very much there at all. In fact, for some groups of people, killing was nothing, was nothing. After preaching on forgiveness, after preaching on the grace and mercy of God, the power of God to change, I made an appeal. People came forward. We prayed over them.

At the end of the meeting, after talking to people, I noticed a large man standing in the side of the at the side of the market. He was looking at me with piercing eyes. Then he began going like this: "Come here, come here, come here, come here."

I walked over. He said, "I want to talk but not here." Now I didn't know who this man was. I didn't know if he had a machete hidden under his shirt, but there was something about him. There was some kind of sincerity on his face. "Come here, come here."

I came. We walked out into the darkness. He looked at me with those piercing eyes. He said, "You spoke about Jesus, his forgiveness. Could he forgive me? You spoke about the power of God," he said something like this, "could he change me? Could his power change me?"

I said, "Sir, I've never met you before. I don't know who you are, but I know that the power of God could change you. I know that the grace of God would forgive you." He said, "Yes, but you don't know who I am."

I said, "No, sir, I don't." He said, "Let me tell you. I am the leader of the rebels. I was the one that masterminded the stealing and the theft of the only gunship this island has. And you see that river? I took the gunship up that river and I fired on innocent people in villages, killing multitudes of people. I need forgiveness? I need the grace of God? Would God forgive me?"

I stood there that night in the darkness under the stars, embracing, putting my arm around that rebel leader, praying for his forgiveness, praying that the spirit of God would change him. What is it that can change a rebel leader into a committed Christian? What can do that? Only the power of Jesus Christ.

What is the solution for your life and mine? I want to make an appeal to you. Would you like to say, "Jesus, root out all anger in my heart. I do not want to live in harmony with my own ways. What I want to do is give my life to you"?