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[0:00] Our beloved nation of Australia, Proverbs 14 verse 34 says, righteousness exalteth the nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.

[0:30] What of our nation? How can our nation grow that we as a people can be blessed and have a brighter future? The answer, righteousness. Righteousness raises a nation. Righteousness lifts a people, sin drags a people down, sin creates condemnation and damage.

[0:58] And you end up in the miry clay as against the rock of righteousness. And friends, it starts with our world view. As we look at our nation, everyone has a world view.

[1:11] Every one of you has a world view, a concept of belief, whatever your background or learning or political leanings or your life status. All of us have a world view.

[1:23] It's our basic beliefs that make up who we are. Your world view. It's evidenced by what you believe. How you answer questions like, who am I? Where did I come from? What will happen when I die? Is there a God?

[1:38] Where did the universe come from? Where did the universe come from? What is truth? What is right and wrong? Good and evil? What is my purpose? That is what they call your world view.

[1:52] It's where you stand. It's where you stand. As we've heard before, God can change our world view around. When we repent, there's a change of our mind, of our mindset that happens at conversion.

[2:04] A biblical world view happens. A biblical world view happens. When we start from Genesis 1, verse 1, and view the world as God does, as God sees the world from its beginning.

[2:17] The people in the world, the problems in the world, the governments of the world, the issues of our world, the problems, the solutions, the future, as we see it through the lens of God's work.

[2:29] That's a biblical world view. That's a biblical world view. And friends, this is the only world view that makes sense. Because it's based on absolute truth. Absolute truth. From cover to cover, you can rely upon his word to you, the biblical world view.

[2:49] Yet, in contrast, the world's core beliefs are such things as wealth brings security. Power is important. Pleasure. This life is all there is. That's the world's world view.

[3:05] But such beliefs are a faulty foundation to build a life upon, to build a nation upon. Righteousness exalted a nation. But sin is a reproach to any people.

[3:25] Australia, where did it start? It was built on Christian values. I know even South Australia, I was hearing of Wayne, those godly men, those godly men that helped found our city, our state.

[3:38] Where is our nation now? Where is Australia today? Where is our nation? I'll put it to you, it's headed in a downward spiral. A downward slide. Away from truth. Away from godliness.

[3:54] Sin is a reproach to any people. The Christian values that once made our nation strong, they're ever being eroded and undermined on every hand.

[4:07] Morality and godly character has declined. Why? Because biblical values are declining. People are turning from God's word. Sin is a reproach.

[4:19] There's weapons of mass destruction that are arrayed against our nation today. Weapons of mass destruction that threaten the very foundations, the very fabric of our nation.

[4:33] Of what has made Australia. We are becoming a morally bankrupt, lawless people. We're witnessing the destruction of a nation.

[4:45] Yes. Like happened with Rome. Ancient Rome. We've become so addicted to entertainment and pleasure, to bread and circuses.

[4:56] Yes. And we're headed down the same direction that Rome went. We know it was destroyed.

[5:06] It's a brave new world, they're calling it today. A brave new world. Letting go of all moral restraints. The masses kept in a permanent daze with recreational drugs, carnal pleasures and mindless entertainment.

[5:22] This is Australia today. A people on the verge of amusing themselves to death. Sin is a reproach. Sin is a reproach in media, for example.

[5:35] The media. Today the media is filled with unchristian messages, anti-christian messages. Programming is shaping the nation into the future. Godless values are mocked and scorned as society continues to be more godless day by day and every day.

[5:54] As families read the papers, they watch the news, they see a movie, they listen to the music. The message is constant. It's as if the world has an addiction to Christianophobia.

[6:09] Now you hear lots of other so-called phobias today of what Christians can be against. But the world is against Christians today. The secular media is targeting Christians.

[6:23] We're bombarded with propaganda, with messages that are anti-Christian. Sometimes blatant, sometimes more subtle. And the godless media are the puppet masters pulling the strings to set the agenda for the future of your nation, of our nation.

[6:39] And of the future of the Western world. Even news reports today, they've blatantly got this bias against Christians, haven't they? Often mocking and scorned against Christians, or what Christians stand for.

[6:57] And TV, movies, music, promoting non-Christian values all the time. Foul language. It's just people don't blush anymore.

[7:09] Friends, people don't blush at the immorality. Do we stop and think what is becoming of Australia? What is becoming of our nation?

[7:19] What is becoming of our nation? How it's affecting us as young minds are bombarded, saturated with music that's saturated with obscenities? It's like the F word doesn't mean anything anymore.

[7:33] Of course, our children can also sit back and relax and be entertained by the witchcraft of the magical Harry Potter and such like.

[7:45] Some might think nothing of it. Oh, just harmless entertainment. But there's a message being driven home. Driven home.

[7:56] And you can switch on the tube and see music videos with scantily dressed girls dancing along seductively to lewd lyrics. Singers like Lady Gaga poisoning the minds of even young children as they adopt these heroes of the world to look up to, to copy, to mimic, to follow.

[8:18] Do we stop to question what is happening? What is happening? What is the message that is being communicated? What are the values that these media are selling us?

[8:32] Fact is, it is a worldview. It's a worldview that's contrary, that's contradictory to Christ's worldview. It's a worldview that is explicit, that's violent, that's suggested, that's feeding the sex-addicted and sex-crazed society with pervasive pornography and perversion that fills every message, every media.

[8:56] Hollywood has become a modern-day Sodom. Movies are filled with blasphemy. God's word says, Hallowed be thy name.

[9:07] Yet his name is just treated as something fit for the gutter. Hallowed, regarded holy, regarded as honoured and worthy is his name.

[9:17] Yet it is dishonoured and disregarded. The godless worldview, it permeates every form of media. And we're seeing it even in such what you would think of as relatively harmless things, like toys.

[9:30] And Christian, sorry, you see it in toys, you see it in cartoons, even these days. We now have tattoo barbie.

[9:41] What is that telling our young girls today? Whatever your view about tattoos might be, is that such a thing that we would want to promote?

[9:51] So, lewd clothing for very young girls is becoming more so the case. Sin is a reproach. A reproach. It's a shame.

[10:02] It's a reproach. Something that's shameful, that's awful. It's degrading.

[10:14] Consider Australia's shame. Consider Australia's immodesty. Consider Australia's reproach. Sin is a reproach in media.

[10:26] Sin is a reproach in government. In the halls of government now, as we heard earlier, of those that are in power today, of the political scene of our nation.

[10:37] Many politicians actively campaigned against Christian values. They were blatant. The basic values that Australia was made by are being eroded.

[10:50] And what does it lead to? Think of the health of our society, of our communities, of marriages. Ultimately, it all depends and stands upon obedience to God and His truth.

[11:02] Isaiah 5, it says, Woe to them that call evil good and good evil. They put darkness for light and light for darkness.

[11:15] Our governors and legislators today, as we heard earlier, they're calling good what God calls evil. Gambling is hurtful to society, yet our governors, our state endorses it, virtually promotes it.

[11:31] Meanwhile, freedom of religion is under attack. It's a moral meltdown today, friends. It's a moral meltdown in our nation. From the highest level in our land, we're plagued by evil and wickedness.

[11:46] It's deep and pervasive. Oh, for a government that is wise and just in its decisions. That will be founded on God's Word. Sin is a reproach in media.

[11:57] Sin is a reproach in government. Sin is a reproach even in religion. Even more so in religion. As you see today, what makes religion? What is religion today?

[12:09] Today, secularism is the religion of today. You've got the religion of the likes of Oprah Winfrey, for example. Oprah Winfrey.

[12:19] Her religion is a religion where Jesus did not come to die on the cross, where there is no heaven, no hell, no sin, no salvation, no doctrine, where all spiritual paths in the world are equally valid, and where God, with a small g, is in you and in everything else you see.

[12:43] We're told to expect this in God's Word. In the last days, mockers will come, 2 Peter 3, verse 3, walking after their own lusts.

[12:55] It's a culture war. It's a war on God. And scoffers today reject Bible truth. They turn their ears away from it. Traditional Christian values are being abandoned.

[13:05] Even in churches, they're trying desperately to be cool, to be with it, to be relevant. Now, we would love to see people reached, but we don't want to tune down the message.

[13:21] We don't want to tone it down. We don't want to say something that God doesn't say. We want to say what God does say. Sin is sin. Church is trying to be cool.

[13:36] I just read a recent story. There's a US church in Seattle. They just held a meeting lately where people were coming up to the front, onto the stage during the service, coming onto the stage to receive a tattoo while the service was going on.

[13:54] I think it's going to draw a crowd. It's going to bring the people in. Friends, where have we come to this point? Sin is a reproach. Sin is a reproach. And meantime, the number of mosques in the US, I'm told, has increased by more than 50% in the last 10 years in the US.

[14:13] And recently in our own nation, for the first time, a federal politician has been sworn into office using the Koran. It's happening now.

[14:24] It's happening here. Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but a hearing, the words of the Lord.

[14:38] And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east. They shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it.

[14:49] Amos 8, verse 11, Sin is a reproach. Sin is a reproach. Sin is a reproach in marriage. Our Christian values and heritage and traditions are under attack.

[15:02] God gave them up to vile passions, it says in Romans 1. What used to be taboo is welcome with open arms now. What used to be forbidden is now accepted homosexuality, coming out celebrations, adultery, bestiality, porn, violence, broken families, decadence, polygamy, sinful conduct.

[15:27] It's been promoted widely. Romans 1.32, Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.

[15:41] We're facing an assault today, an assault today on the very fabric of society, the very freedom and virtue that we once had, if only in part.

[15:53] It's undermined completely now. The biblical design of marriage. God tells us to stay pure till marriage. Staying pure protects our health.

[16:06] We're seeing the destruction, deliberate destruction of marriage today, the sacred union between one man and one woman, the God-ordained institution of marriage in the family.

[16:18] Sin is a reproach. Sin is a reproach for our children today. We may ask, what hope is there for our children today? Our children are under attack, even from the womb, before they're even born.

[16:32] We see an abundance of violent, sadistic video games. You could say we're a pill-popping nation. Very young children today being prescribed antidepressants from a very young age, before they're even in primary school.

[16:46] Antidepressant drugs. The public school system is full of non-Christian ideas taught as facts. We know of evolution.

[16:57] It's brainwashing our children in the public schools where biblical creation is denied. It's been said that those who control what young people are taught and what they experience, what they see, hear, think and believe, these people will determine the future course of the nation.

[17:16] Friends, no wonder many families are turning to homeschooling. No wonder. Parental authority is under attack as teachers and administrators spend all their time and effort controlling the children that have little time or energy to listen, that they're struggling to be able to teach because of the lawless world we're living in where parents don't have authority and then the educators, what hope have they got if the parents won't be handed.

[17:49] And the world today is also vainly trying to deal with the immoral trends through sex education. Even of the very young, the very young, yet sexually transmitted diseases are exploding.

[18:01] It's been said that one out of every four teenage girls in America has at least one sexually transmitted disease. Sin is a reproach.

[18:12] Much of the continent of Africa has been devastated by AIDS. Wickedness is plaguing our nation, friends. Why? Because we've violated the word of God.

[18:23] We've violated his law. We've broken it. And this is the result. This is the result. The truth is that society has rejected the absolute truth. And this is what we get.

[18:36] We need to uphold the authority of parents to educate their children. Sin is a reproach. Judgment is coming to Australia.

[18:49] We neglect the Bible at our peril. Aussies today, neglect the Bible at your peril. Romans 1.18 Australia has forgotten God.

[19:21] Sin is a reproach. The rejection of the truth has seen this increasing wickedness as we're becoming an increasingly pagan nation. And the Christian voice is being silenced on every hand.

[19:34] Friends, what must we do? A plea to you today. A burden for the nation. As Malachi had, a burden for the nation of Israel.

[19:44] We need to get a burden for the nation of Australia today. A return to righteousness. Righteousness exalts the nation. Righteousness will raise our nation as there is a return to biblical truth, to the law of God, to the society's foundation, the biblical standard.

[20:09] To refresh those noble virtues and values, that decency and dignity that we can know under God. that God's work can be the foundation for stable marriages and happy homes, to underpin and strengthen the families where God is honoured according to the Ten Commandments against adultery and for honouring parents.

[20:38] Simple truths in the Ten Commandments. Yet our nation is in a mess. Why? It's lost the order and harmony that God gives through obedience to his word.

[20:49] And our nation needs a spiritual awakening today. Friends, we need an awakening. We need a reviving again. Our only hope for a well-ordered society is for a return to biblical truth, to wholesome living and character, to resume our godly heritage and to return to Bible truth.

[21:12] There is hope for Australia. There is hope for our nation. We see in the record of Scripture through the book of Judges as there were cycles through the nations as there was a decline in unfaithfulness and godlessness.

[21:26] There was a renewing at times of a returning again, of a reviving again, of obedience again, to times of God-fearing and revival. What will our legacy be?

[21:39] The legacy for your children and mine. Will it be a godly legacy that we leave behind? Will this nation have something to show? Will it be built on the foundation that will last?

[21:52] There is hope for every one of us individually and corporately to renew our faith and purpose. It's been said that government begins with a man's heart, either for good or for worse.

[22:05] Government, it's not about who we elect really necessarily, it's about the government of your heart, isn't it? The kingdom of God is within you. Do you know him? Is he your king?

[22:16] Is he the one ruling and reigning and master? The government begins in a man's heart and righteousness exalted the nation. One by one, as a nation of people we can be those righteous ones.

[22:28] Righteousness exalted the nation. If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

[22:47] Of course, that's a promise to Israel, but we can take the truth of that too. Australia needs healing. Australia needs salvation. And friends, we neglect and reject the instruction and authority of God's word at our peril.

[23:02] We need each one of us, as was challenged earlier, to speak out when we have opportunity to, to speak out to politicians, to people in power, to be a voice, to be heard, to declare God's truth while we can on the streets of our city, in the courts, in the governments of our land that the truth might not be mocked but heralded.

[23:30] And the only necessary thing for evil to succeed is for good men to do nothing. It's a famous quote, isn't it? The only thing necessary for evil to succeed is for the good men to do nothing.

[23:44] What will you do? Will you take action? You know, there's some godly political groups, there's some godly endeavours that are seeking to halt the tide, to be the salt, to shine the light.

[23:59] And there's much that we could do to support causes such as that. It's time, it's time for God's people to refire, to refresh the love for the truth, hard truth if it be so, to refresh that conviction of sin, that needful true repentance, righteousness, exalteth the nation.

[24:20] This decaying condition of our land, of our state, of our nation can be halted as it calls for courage, for each one of us to stand in our little circle of influence and be his light, to be his soul in our increasingly corrupting world as we're seeing today, as I've said, the de-Christianisation of society, these weapons of mass destruction as it were, as we see a raid against us, the media, the government, we see in the school system, we see in the way that children and marriage is treated, morality is scorn, Bible truth is, if anything, it's spoken against by the media or mocked, but there's a desperate need for the truth today, and not for it to be debated, but to be proclaimed.

[25:13] Truth isn't something to be debated, it's something to be proclaimed, and as God's people, we can be that transforming power, in the workplaces where we have influence, in the streets and homes and the environments, the society, the contacts we can make, we can be that soul, we can be that transforming power for righteousness, it's the truth that makes men free, you can be a Daniel, you can be a Daniel, you can be a Nehemiah, you can rebuild what the devil is demolishing all around us, you can rebuild the altar as Elijah, you can influence the culture, you can refresh the gospel witness, you can obey the Lord and honour his word, righteousness exalteth a nation, you can be that people, you can be one who can stand.

[26:13] Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for each one gathered here that we've heard the exhortation to repentance today, we've heard the burden for our nation, we've heard the fact that sin is a reproach but righteousness raises us out of the depths of that miry clay and sets our feet on the rock Christ Jesus.

[26:43] Lord, help us each one to be founded upon that firm foundation of your word, of your person. Lord Jesus, that we might know what it is to be the people who can be a transforming influence, that we can be urged to greater godliness, to greater faithfulness.

[27:03] Forgive us, Father, when we have failed. Forgive us, Father, when we have failed to live up to your truth. Let us make it live and put it into action that our nation can be saved, Lord, that we might be part of holding back the tide, that those weapons of mass destruction can be halted.

[27:36] Yet, Father, we know that ultimately the end days are ones of challenge and we pray, Lord, that you help us to stand firm, whatever happens. In Jesus' name, Amen.

[27:48] I love to tell the story of hunting things above of Jesus and His glory.