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[0:00] Let's turn to, if you have your Bible, Proverbs 23. I will go back, go back there and I'll just, thanks to our help.

[0:11] I almost had to laugh when Peter was talking about artificial intelligence. We have so much trouble with this computer stuff. And you wonder, you know, yeah, your brain is much more complex than anything in that cupboard there.

[0:27] So it's amazing, isn't it, what God can do. Now, people might know I've got a bit of a library at home.

[0:39] And really it's, I like to call it my treasure trove. It's where all my treasures are. I've got this vault with all these gold ingots called books.

[0:51] And here's a couple of books I dug out and have given me a bit of inspiration this morning. An Age Without Standards. It's a really good one, that one. If anyone wants to borrow it afterwards.

[1:02] I've got a feeling there's a couple at the back there that like to borrow books and read books and they're giving me a big smile. An Age Without Standards. That's about 40 years old, that one. But there's a lot of good stuff in that one.

[1:13] And this one, The Death of Truth. The Death of Truth. And that's what I wanted to talk about this morning. We know the Lord Jesus, as Peter was saying, He's full of grace and truth.

[1:25] Full of grace and truth. The one of whom we speak. And I want to put to you today that truth matters. Truth matters. And so I'm just trying to get that to work.

[1:38] If we can just put that on the slides on. Because I've got quite a few slides here. And I really must start with an apology this morning. I had a bit of time to get another sermon ready.

[1:49] And so I want to apologise that this is quite a long sermon. But I don't make any apology for the content of the sermon. The content of the sermon.

[2:00] Because the content is what really counts. That truth matters. So if you've got your Bibles, Proverbs 23. 23. A contrast between lies and truth.

[2:14] Proverbs 23. Proverbs 23. Looks like we're going to have some trouble with the technology again. Surprise, surprise. Proverbs 23.

[2:26] 23. Buy the truth and sell it not. Also wisdom and instruction and understanding. Buy the truth and sell it not. Now in 1991, Richard Dawkins wrote an essay called Viruses of the Mind.

[2:41] And he calls theistic religion a kind of disease, a virus. And he says, parents who teach their children such things are practising mental child abuse.

[2:52] Mental child abuse. Now it just looks like we've got it happening here. So here we have buy the truth and sell it not. Also wisdom and instruction and understanding. Here's this man, Richard Dawkins.

[3:03] And apparently he's written a new children's book. An atheistic propaganda book for children today. He says, parents who teach their children about God are practising mental child abuse.

[3:19] Now he's writing this atheistic propaganda for children. Dawkins argues that humanity would be better off without belief in God. Now I put to you today. We see the fruit of such a philosophy in an increasingly sick society.

[3:35] An age without standards. We see the fruits of this philosophy. There's a fight going on. A fight going on for hearts and minds. Truly we're seeing a culture war.

[3:47] A war against God. Truly history is repeating itself. This has all happened before in the Roman Empire. The decline and fall of the Roman Empire.

[3:59] Man shaking his fist at God. Permissive morality is ramping up all around us. In all the pillars of society, art, music is defiled and debased.

[4:15] Look at what the children are looking at today. The MTV. The latest rock and pop videos. It's flesh. Flesh. Flesh.

[4:27] Our health system is failing. Many are turning to drugs and substance abuse. There's an addiction to violence. That's another sign of this moral slide. And our public education system is graduating illiterates.

[4:43] They can't even read and write. Godless philosophies are shaping the minds of the next generation. And for many, science, falsely so called, has become a substitute for God.

[4:54] And the pursuit of happiness, for many, is just the pursuit of pleasure. With no regard for what's right or wrong in the sight of God. No wonder the Bible tells us of such a day to come.

[5:07] When people will be lovers of themselves more than lovers of God. Many place self at the top of their number one priority list. The love of self.

[5:19] And friends, this has all been foretold. As Paul told Timothy, 1 Timothy 3. This note also that in the last days perilous times shall come.

[5:31] For men shall be lovers of their own selves. You know? Lovers of their own selves. I've just got to take a selfie here. Lovers of their own selves.

[5:42] Covetous. Boasters. Proud. Blasphemers. Disobedient to parents. Unthankful. Unholy. What a world. Without natural affection.

[5:53] Not real love. Truthbreakers. You can't count on their word. They break their promises. False accusers. Incontinent. Just no control. Out of control.

[6:05] Fierce. Despisers of those that are good. Traitors. Heady. High-minded. Lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. Having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof from such.

[6:20] Turn away. Isn't there a strong lack of restraint today? Heady. High-minded. Lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. And such that the abnormal is accepted and people abandon themselves to whatever thrills and delights the body.

[6:37] Until their body winds up in a Christless grave. Moral pollution abounds. People have trial marriages these days. Try before you buy.

[6:50] Trial marriages. Serial marriages. Don't just stop at one. Have multiple marriages. Now gay marriages. What next?

[7:03] All the while men have a divided heart. Defying God. Not only do they deny him, but they defy him. They hate God.

[7:13] They pretend like he doesn't exist. Yet the pathway they take is downward. A downward spiral to hellish living. And it's going to get worse.

[7:24] Friends, it's going to get worse. 2 Timothy 3.13 it says, But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.

[7:36] The evil characteristics of this godless age are alike to the decadence of the failed Roman Empire. The failed Roman Empire. Ancient Rome.

[7:46] And the man called Nero. It was a place that had unbounded self-indulgence. Debauchery and cruelty. People were obsessed with the arena. The sports of the day.

[7:59] And they were bloodthirsty and brutal. The warped views and morals of this nation were reflected in the degraded public amusements. And the immoral theatre shows.

[8:10] It was bankrupt as far as morals. Full of crudity and frivolous entertainment. Gluttony. Nero was a psychopath. Rome was a welfare state.

[8:20] A basket case. And the masses were kept satisfied by breads and circuses. Likewise today, isn't it? Meaningless prevails. Vice, corruption, chaos.

[8:33] Look at the news in France lately. There's a war going on in the streets of the city of Paris. We've become pagan. Shameless. Indecent.

[8:43] And it seems like our world is bent on making the abnormal normal and the shameful acceptable. There's an evident decay, isn't there? Today.

[8:54] Yet most people just meekly follow along unquestioning. We don't say anything. Lest we offend.

[9:05] We don't question what is going on. That would be hate speech. When Lenin foisted communism on his people, this godless religion called communism, he called it freedom.

[9:22] It's like 1984, isn't it? Truth is lies and lies is truth.

[9:33] Black is white. White is black. Right is wrong. Wrong is right. Meanwhile, megabanks are plotting against nation-state sovereignty.

[9:44] There's evil forces at work. Hard at work. Behind the scenes. Gearing up. The populace for global enslavement. The Bible tells us of such a time as this.

[9:57] And you've got to read between the lines when you read the news and see what is going on. There's a change of gender. Men who are called doctors today are playing God as they decide who is worthy of living and whose life should be cut short.

[10:14] There's a tragic reality of the slaughter of millions of unborn children. And we're paying for it as taxpayers through Medicare. Those charged with helping to sustain our health and well-being and our trashing the beginning and the ending of life.

[10:30] It's a throwaway society, isn't it? We are disposable. We are the problem if we believe as some that the humanity needs to be removed in order to save the planet.

[10:43] There's too many of us. It's a world where some people are thrown on the garbage heap. A world where society accepts suicide as all too common.

[10:57] A world without God means life without hope. As it says of the Christless, it tells us they are having no hope without God in the world. If you don't have Christ, the Bible says you have no hope.

[11:11] No hope. A world having no hope without God. No wonder people are crying out. It's hopeless. I can't see a future.

[11:22] Civilisation is crumbling. And it tells us that in the Bible, what you sow, you shall reap. Plant potatoes and you're going to reap potatoes. Plant sin and you'll reap a whirlwind.

[11:36] In this age where man has the power to destroy himself, doctors are tinkering with the very genes of mankind. Not just genetically modified food, but ultimately genetically modified people.

[11:51] And destruction abounds. And educators are training our children. Our children. Our children. That it's okay to question the very identity, the very core of who they are.

[12:03] Of whether they are even male or female. Or something else in between. Confusion reigns, doesn't it? Madness prevails. Even from the very top levels of our nation and government systems.

[12:18] Corruption. Fact is, we've been robbed. You have been robbed. The Bible tells of a people robbed and spoiled. In other words, we've been pillaged.

[12:30] We've had everything thieved off us, taken from us. We've been robbed blind. And tells of people snared in holes, hid in prison houses.

[12:41] They are for a prey, for a spoil. We are held captive. It's a prison planet. Our true liberty has been taken away from us by our oppressors who govern us.

[12:56] And virtue and decency and integrity have been stolen from us. We've been robbed. Like that pickpocket that just brushed by you on the way to church this morning.

[13:07] Is the wallet still there? Robbed. Virtue and decency and integrity taken from us. From our children. From our grandchildren.

[13:18] God is routinely dishonoured. His sacred name is downgraded and treated as a swear word. We've been robbed of truth and of reason. The thief has gone and taken it.

[13:29] The Bible calls the devil a thief, amongst other things. And many today live lives without purpose because they've been robbed. Life without God, without Christ, without purpose.

[13:43] A world without meaning. No hope, no rules, no order, no standard. No one to answer to. Ultimately, so they think. No wonder a lawlessness prevails.

[13:56] But reality is they're storing up wrath against themselves. It's hells of men treasuring up. Storing up wrath to come. In that righteous judgment of God to come.

[14:09] The hardness of unrepentant hearts. The context tells us of those who do not obey the truth. Judgment awaits you. If you neglect, if you refuse the truth, judgment awaits you.

[14:22] Meanwhile, alcohol and drugs have taken people's reason away. They can't think anymore. They're living in a fog. Australia is sick. And there are spiritual reasons, deep spiritual reasons.

[14:34] Why so? Why so? We've lost our God consciousness. The spiritual dimension. We go willy-nilly about our lives without sparing a thought, with scarcely a thought.

[14:46] For God. For what matters? Truth matters. Truth matters. That's what matters. Truth matters. You know, I've been challenged lately. I'm a long-time Christian, but I've not been very disciplined in my Bible reading.

[15:00] Truth matters. I've been challenged with a Bible reading scheme that helps to read through the Bible multiple times a year.

[15:14] And it just takes a little bit of commitment, a little bit of taking time aside. I put to you, truth matters. It matters. It matters. That's why he's given us this book, so we can read it and take its promises to heart.

[15:30] The spirit of the age is an antichrist spirit. There's a growing culture of non-commitment. Don't commit. Don't commit to a church. Don't commit to Christ.

[15:42] It's just free and easy. Lost. The devil is the father of lies. And people have fallen for a lie. It's held off the devil.

[15:54] The father, your father, the devil, was the Lord addressing the Pharisees. That he is a liar and the father of it. Christianity is routinely mocked in our world today.

[16:11] And we are public enemy number one. The crosshairs are always on us as a Christian. In our workplaces, in our lives, in our families. As a Christian standing up for the Lord, you're in the target sites.

[16:26] But we must stand up for the truth. We must stand up and speak up. The sobering truth is that most every man is lost.

[16:40] How many were saved in Noah's day? Eight. Of the whole world. That's sobering, isn't it? Humanism holds the sway over many today.

[16:51] It holds to the intrinsic goodness of man. That's a lie. You are not intrinsically good. Neither am I. I know what I am. I'm intrinsically bad.

[17:03] As all men have sinned. And come short of the glory of God. But thank God, the gift of God is eternal life. We don't have to pay the wages of sin, which is death.

[17:14] But rather receive the gift of God, which is eternal life. Yet some, most, are lost. And they're groping in the dark. Their minds blinded. As it tells in 2 Corinthians 4.

[17:26] In whom the God, small g, the devil of this world, has blinded the minds of them. They're like blind men walking around, bumping into things, stumbling, falling, slipping, slopping, falling.

[17:38] Because the devil has blinded the minds of them. They're groping in the darkness. No wonder darkness prevails. If there is no God. As some would tell you, everything is devoid of reason.

[17:54] There's no purpose to life. You're just a bit of scum that's evolved into a higher life form. There's no standards, no goals, no right or wrong.

[18:06] There's no restraint. No discipline. No accountability. No wonder there's an all-out rejection of God. As our children are trained this in the schools and in the media.

[18:18] The God-hating, Christ-rejecting world has their ears and tells you, cast off the fetters. But the Bible says there's an authority, bigger and higher and more gracious, thank God.

[18:33] He's full of grace and truth. Thank God for that, isn't it? Thank God the Saviour is full of grace and truth. And the authority of God that tells the story of the Saviour of your soul, if you but trust him, the authority of God has been rejected and denied, cast aside.

[18:56] Like it tells us elsewhere, the truth is cast on the street. It's just blowing along like a crumpled up piece of litter of garbage. That's what they treat the truth like today.

[19:07] And the message instead we're bombarded with is a poison to the minds. No wonder that violence, horror, warped values and sensuality prevails in people's thinking.

[19:19] Why? Because it prevails in the people's programming. On the idiot box. What prevails? Violence, sensuality, warped values.

[19:30] No wonder minds have been blinded. The devil loves it. And it tells elsewhere of cunningly devised fables. It tells of how some have followed such things.

[19:43] Instead of trusting in the Lord. It's been well said that when men cease to believe in God, they do not believe in nothing. They believe in anything.

[19:54] Anything goes. There's no restraint. There's no truth or error. It's whatever you feel like. That's the culture. It's culture shock, isn't it? Where virtues are lost and vice prevails.

[20:07] And I know some of the people I rub shoulders with go to the astrology pages every, like religiously. They go to the newspaper. Oh, what did my stars tell me today?

[20:19] Astrology. Witchcraft. False ideas just prevail and are trumpeted as truth. People swallow the lie. Then we have people like Al Gore.

[20:31] There's so much radical environmentalism scaremongering going on. A news story I saw just yesterday says Al Gore and the other climate alarmists think the only way to save the planet is to adopt socialism.

[20:45] Save the planet. Adopt socialism. Some are saying save the planet. Kill yourself. That's where the problem. Humankind is the problem. Well, in a way that's true, isn't it?

[20:57] Since Adam, this planet has been in all sorts of climate trouble because of sin. And there's been this subtle slide, this deceptive, this drift, this great meltdown.

[21:11] And we've become a sick society such that unnatural affections are accepted. That's the norm today. Unnatural affections. This conditioning.

[21:23] Australia is a nation moving towards sunset. And at the heart of it all, what is the problem? At the heart of it all is you're religious. Jesus, every man, every woman, in the heart of all of us, there's this ingrained sense of worship.

[21:39] We have to worship something. It's inbuilt. In our DNA, this sense of worship, inbuilt into the very fibre of our being as humankind.

[21:51] Yet people act as if God is dead. And so self takes that vacuum, that due place for God. And the end result is chaos and lawlessness. We see this indulgence of the pop culture, popular culture, where there's godless obsession with rebellion and personal gratification.

[22:10] It's like it's a substitute for the worship of the true God. What is it? It's idol worship. They actually call them idols. Don't they? They idolise them and they call them their idols.

[22:24] I know when I was a younger man, my sisters had the Bay City Rollers posters over the walls of their room. I can't think why anyone would have any attraction to the Bay City Rollers.

[22:36] But if anyone can remember that far back. But some people idolise such foolishness and worship such idols today. Rock stars and film stars and sports stars become virtual objects of cult worship.

[22:51] Really, it's a substitute, isn't it? It's a substitute to take the place of the real God, the true God. And so we see this prevailing entertainment and the systems and values that underpin them are really the equivalent of the Philistines of today.

[23:11] When we tune into that wavelength, we're tuning into the Philistines. The enemies of God. When we see rock videos and lyrics constantly pushing out messages of permissiveness and promiscuity.

[23:26] Do you think it's wholesome? To see such things? Is that wholesome? Does that honour God? Is there modesty and truth?

[23:38] Or is it the opposite? Destruction. Destructive philosophies. And the Bible tells us of that. In Colossians 2, Paul warns.

[23:49] He says, beware of this. This deceit. This philosophy. Man-centred philosophy. What is that today? Atheism. Materialism.

[24:01] Evolutionism. Humanism. False beliefs abound. And the so-called New Age. There's a book called this. The New Age or Old Lie. Really, the New Age is really the old lie of Genesis 3.

[24:16] The old liar is still fooling people today. And they label it the New Age as if it's something new. But really, it's his old tricks. There must be no room for compromise.

[24:27] Like Adam and Eve. It's kind of interesting. I was just looking at that lately and how Adam blamed Eve and Eve blamed the serpent.

[24:39] They didn't own up. Yes, I've sinned. They didn't come before God, honestly. And humanistic reason promotes this kind of idea that if there is no sovereign God, therefore there's no ordered, regulated universe.

[24:54] All is chance and chaos. Don't we see that? As I say, the lawlessness in France at the moment, for example, and other places. God gives all of us a clear choice.

[25:06] And the decision is yours. What will you do with him? As Peter said soon, what will you do with Christ? Who is he? And what will you do with him personally? Well, we cave into the pressure, the peer pressure.

[25:22] Just weakly go along with the flow. Be like a sponge, just soaking up the values. Of an unbelieving world without question. We'll just become just like the Philistines. We'll just become like them.

[25:35] And while our conscience condemns us, we are without excuse. The Bible says they are without excuse. The invisible things of him, they're seen, clearly seen. The creation of the world, the things that he has made.

[25:47] His eternal power and Godhead. They are without excuse. This sense of right and wrong, as I say, worship is inbuilt. The sense of right and wrong, conscience is inbuilt in us too. It's our inbuilt warning system.

[26:01] Our sense of right and wrong, it's we're wired that way. Yet some people's consciences can be seared and debased, defiled. The burning question is, what will you do with him?

[26:14] It says of some, they knew God, yet glorified him not. They became vain in their imaginations.

[26:25] Their foolish heart was darkened. If we reject the creator of life, our foolish heart will be darkened. By the deceitfulness of sin.

[26:38] God's light will be shut out. And we see that today, not only where some are so, their heart, their foolish heart is so darkened that they're prideful of their sin.

[26:49] Gay pride. How can you be proud of something God says is sin? It should be gay shame. Shame.

[27:02] Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. They changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like a corruptible man. We see these ones who designed statues and idols and icons and bowed down before them.

[27:19] The glory of God is not such that we can put it in a picture or a statue. And some would teach that man is merely a trousered ape. An ape wearing trousers.

[27:31] That's all we are, just an ape with trousers on. A trousered ape. The myth of evolution. It's truly one of the greatest delusions of all time. And this lie has deceived many millions.

[27:45] It's been called the great brain robbery. It's ignorance. It's enslavement. And Romans 1 says, Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves.

[28:01] Man stands guilty, condemned before God. And it's a downward spiral. God gave them up. God gave them up. God gave them up. To their own destructive ways.

[28:13] They changed the truth of God into a lie. Worshipped and served the creature more than the creator. Who is blessed forever. Amen. It tells us of these days of some, that environmentalism is, just obsesses people now.

[28:27] And you're just as valuable as that ant you're going to step on when you walk outside the door today. That's what it says.

[28:39] It's a new barbarism. A dark age. And these values are being ingrained in our youth. A historian, Max Lerner said, We're living in a Babylonian society, perhaps more Babylonian than Babylon itself.

[28:57] Satan was the original rebel and then he had Nimrod at the Tower of Babel, the first Antichrist. Men wanted to make a name for themselves, to lift a tower to heaven.

[29:08] But they denied God. It was a godless world. A godless government. Where self-fulfillment was the ultimate aim. And it's the same today, isn't it?

[29:20] It's Babylon again in our world today. And it tells us, For this cause God gave them up. God gave them up. God gave them up unto vile affections.

[29:34] Women changing the natural use into that which is against nature. Nature tells us it's wrong. Verse 27, Likewise the men, burning in their lust one towards another, working that which is unseemly, receiving the recompense of their error.

[29:51] And in Australia's public schools today, this is normal. This is the norm. Where children are indoctrinated with these warped values. Our children are being brainwashed with these warped gender values.

[30:05] And as far as the one book that is called The Word of Truth, it's out the window. People consider these days that their sense of morality, conscience or ethics is just a matter of personal preference.

[30:19] Not the unbending authority, the standard, which is God's Word. And such a person's conscience is fooled. His system of determining what is good and bad has been warped.

[30:31] And his hard-heartedness has deceived him such that he doesn't know what's fundamentally right or wrong anymore. In such a people, God has given them up.

[30:42] God has given them over. And he's given them over to a reprobate mind. A mind that is contrary to God. This war against God is happening now.

[30:54] It's happening today. It's happening this week. A war. The conflict of the ages. And we must fight the good fight with all our might. It tells us of this day, of a time where people will be filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, so sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness.

[31:16] People will be full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity, whisperers. A whole host, a whole kit bag full of everything that is gross and wrong.

[31:29] People will be backbiters, haters of God, despisers, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affliction, implacable, unmerciful.

[31:47] They know the judgment of God, but they are still carrying on and having pleasure in the same, with those who do the same. Friends, this is welcome to our world.

[31:58] This is Australia in the 2019, isn't it? This is our society, this is our world. It's corrupt and it's getting more so and it's due the rightful judgment of God.

[32:13] Our nation stands on the threshold of judgment. It was interesting to hear my brother talk about the Jehovah's Witnesses visiting and we had them at our place just a couple of days ago as well.

[32:27] The enemy is on the march. Where is the church? We stand on the threshold of judgment. Every sane person has a God-given conscience like an inbuilt judge in the courtroom of their mind and society is becoming ever more tolerant.

[32:45] We've been conditioned. It's a slow, subtle conditioning that has happened to us such that we don't see that it's wrong anymore because we've lost the standard, an age without standards, the death of truth.

[33:03] We've lost it, people. We've lost it as a nation. We've lost the Bible and so we're ever more tolerant to whatever comes next, whatever is the next degraded passion and alternative lifestyle that will be accepted.

[33:18] You know, what we accept as society in general today would have been anathema just 10, 20 years ago, wouldn't it?

[33:30] Now it's, that is normal. What will the new normal be? God help us. God help us. You can only imagine.

[33:41] I don't want to even plant those thoughts in your mind what it could be. And some churches will be just like this. Let's just go with the flow. Blindly and foolishly accepting what the Bible clearly calls sin.

[33:58] Thanks be to God. He can do a spiritual work. Our conscience can be renewed and changed through the blood of Christ. Our conscience can be cleansed, purged, washed.

[34:13] And the Lord is that true and living God we can come to know. Friends, His word is authentic. This is authentic. This is authority.

[34:25] It's confirmed through fulfilled prophecies. There's many so-called holy books. This is the one that has fulfilled prophecies and some yet future.

[34:37] It's good to get aware of that. And I know there's many here that love, as we all should have, a love for His appearing. That's yet future. It's yet future. Are you ready?

[34:48] Are you ready? It's prophesied. Everything has come to pass up till the present. And then there's still some yet future. Get ready. Get your Bible and get ready.

[34:59] Get your heart ready. We can know the truth, the truth that sets men free. And there's many infallible truths, many infallible proofs in God's word.

[35:09] It's infallible, unfailing. It's the word of the living God. It tells us of the one, the Lord Jesus Christ, amongst other names, He is called the true and faithful witness.

[35:27] And the authority, the principle of authority is very, very important. Will we be in an age without standards?

[35:38] Or will we have some authority? We're building on our lives on the truth of God. The issue of truth is a foundational one. And in uncertain times, there's a sure certainty we can know.

[35:51] The Bible calls itself a more sure word of prophecy. We do well to take heed. So our source of certainty in this fickle world is not the views of man or the dictates of government or the common average views of the culture.

[36:11] We set the standard by God's truth. Because God's truth is the truth. It always has been the truth. It always will be the truth. It doesn't change.

[36:21] But the society we live in, I'll put to you today, is in danger. It's under God's judgment. And social engineers are at work. They want to reinvent our society.

[36:33] And the educators are working hard. Here's what a man called Horace Mann said of public schools. He says that it's a means for the state to control people.

[36:45] He was the father of the American public education system. The educators have children under their spell. They push the agenda of the activists.

[36:58] It's like it's a kind of indoctrination process that goes on in the schools. Now that's not to say there's lots of good stuff goes on in schools. But we know that there's an underlying philosophy that they plant in there.

[37:13] Another man, Samuel Bloomfield, said, those who control the schools control the future. Now students are there as a passive captive audience. Contrast that with children raised in values of the Christian faith with those that are raised with values alien to the Christian faith.

[37:37] Brothers and sisters, mums and dads, we're witnessing the demise of the family. And as parents we need to be ever watchful. And God's helping us to raise up godly seed.

[37:51] Train up a child in the way he should go. When he is old he will not depart from it. Let me leave you with this challenge here today in this tyranny that is all around us that is bent on destroying Christian values.

[38:07] When the world's educators are working to shape the children like wax and children are being indoctrinated with such lives we've got to watch over our children and we've got to watch over our own heart.

[38:19] It tells us keep thy heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life. We're witnessing a disintegration of everything that was rightful and decent and orderly.

[38:32] Not that it's been perfectly so but we're seeing a disintegration from what was into a more and more sinful and slumbering society.

[38:43] There's a shifting of world views as God's truth is spurned and people swallow the sugar-coated lies. It's a crisis. We're approaching tipping point and our world's culture is morally bankrupt yet there is great hope.

[39:01] And friends we should not be afraid to be truth tellers. Be truth tellers. The wicked flee when no man pursues but the righteous are bold as a lion.

[39:13] As believers the fight is on. The time is now. The battle for truth is in our day now. And this recurring theme is through the word of God from Genesis to Revelation.

[39:25] The battle against evil. The battle for truth. The battle for God's people to confront the secular tide. God's people experience bondage of Egypt oppression and yet God's deliverance and that's a recurring theme of bondage and then deliverance.

[39:49] Bondage and then deliverance. This world is bound held captive. We need God's deliverance today. And a one world religion is really already being formed.

[40:02] A global enslavement that takes this anti-Christ philosophy it's taking hold. A world that shirks moral responsibility that says feel good about yourself doesn't matter about how so.

[40:17] It misses the whole point of life. Life in all its fullness is the divine plan of God. It's Christ died for sinners. Christ died for the ungodly.

[40:28] Christ died so we can have life everlasting by putting our trust in him. And this is the message. We must be truth tellers. In a world where God is giving them over.

[40:43] Romans 1 he's also sustaining a godly remnant. We are the counter culture. And friends we can look at the world around us and see those the world would applaud hold up as our heroes and heroines.

[41:02] The Bible says be not envious against evil men neither desire to be with them. We're not meant to be called and attracted to those the world worships and idolises.

[41:15] Don't desire to be with them but rather be with God. Be with God. He calls us out. He calls us to himself.

[41:26] He calls us to be salt and light. Buy the truth and sell it not. Truth matters. In a world where the death of truth seems the prevailing culture, truth matters ever more so.

[41:43] Buy the truth and sell it not. He calls us to love the truth. And friends, just to leave one personal challenge here this morning, the Lord Jesus addresses us and he says, if you continue in my word, then are you my disciples indeed.

[41:59] And you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. He tells us we can know the truth and he says if we know the truth, the truth shall make us free. What is the truth?

[42:10] All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. What is the truth? The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

[42:20] The Lord Jesus died on the cross so he could take our place, our penalty, our punishment, our shame, our guilt and take it all away and wash us completely from our sin and set us completely free.

[42:33] He says, you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. Unless you know the author of the truth, unless you know the one who is the way, the truth and the life, the Bible says you're lost and hell bound.

[42:46] It's important that you come to know the truth and if you know the truth, the truth shall set you free. Friends, there's just one last comment to close.

[42:57] I was moved when I read some verses of late of three men of God in the Bible, Abraham, Isaac and David, it says these same things.

[43:08] Abraham, Isaac and David, it says he built an altar and he called on the name of the Lord. He built an altar and he called on the name of the Lord. Nowadays we don't build an altar and put a sacrifice of an animal there but we need to come to the altar.

[43:27] We need to come to God and say, Lord I come, I lay my life down, I come, I sacrifice, I give myself to you, I lay myself down, I give myself unto you and I call on your name.

[43:43] Build an altar and call on the name of the Lord. Maybe today's a day as really the first Sunday of the year that we build an altar and call on the name of the Lord.

[43:56] Give your heart to God, say God I'm a sinner, I need to be saved, I come and I lay myself on the altar, I ask you Lord to take my life and let me be used of you.

[44:08] I give myself totally and wholly as a living sacrifice to you. I lay my life down, my own will, my own way, my own going, my own mastery of myself, I yield it unto you and I build an altar, I call on your name as your word tells me that if I call on the name of the Lord I shall be saved.

[44:30] I call you, Master, Lord, I call on you, King of Kings, Saviour, Mighty God, to save my soul.

[44:41] And for each believer here Lord we pray, let it be that we will rededicate ourselves to you, to build an altar and to call on the name of the Lord. In Jesus name, Amen.

[44:52]  Amen. Amen.