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[0:00] Colossians 2, if you've got your Bibles. Now, I'm going to give you a bit of a philosophy lesson here this evening. You can see some big words on the screen here. And the message is about philosophies, but I don't want to dwell on that over much, but really just to set the scene for what we've faced within our world today.

[0:22] And I know there's university qualified people here tonight. I know philosophy and the study of philosophy of itself is not something that, you know, a study of philosophy is not wrong, but an adoption of philosophy can be wrong.

[0:36] I know I was actually enrolled in a PhD that I deferred and ended up not continuing. I know, you know, there's nothing wrong with university study. University study is a good thing.

[0:48] But often we see what universities are teaching now is more and more godless and less and less godly. You know, in times past, universities were built with some kind of Christian ethos, at least in the early stages of many established universities throughout the world.

[1:06] But we see now there's this godless philosophy that seems to have overtaken. And it's like how modern culture is shaking its fist in the hand of God. It's shaking its fist in the face of God.

[1:18] It's a world that's in rebellion. And one of these things that we see is these various philosophies that are emerging around the world. Some have been around for a while, but there's this escalating of these godless philosophies.

[1:32] Can't even say it. There's people that are rejecting faith in the Bible as the authority, and they're trying to find other authorities and other ideologies. And many are following after these godless philosophies.

[1:44] So I just wanted to touch on some of that, and I thought I'd write them down so you kind of follow along a little with me when I get to that part. But we're starting here at Colossians 2 verse 8. Colossians 2 verse 8.

[1:55] And Paul gives this great warning here. In Colossians 2 verse 8, he says this, Beware, lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.

[2:13] This word spoil, it has got the sense of to take by force, to captivate, to take to capture, to take someone captive. And it's saying, Paul's saying here that these philosophies, these vain deceits, these empty ideologies, after the traditions of men, they're after the rudiments of the world.

[2:33] They're worldly in their foundation. And Paul says beware of them. So we do well to take heed and to beware. Now, as Christians, there's nothing wrong with us reasoning.

[2:44] The Bible says much that it's a reasonable thing to be a Christian. It's actually a logical, reasonable thing to believe the Bible, to believe in the Saviour, to believe in His Word. In the Word, our Lord says, Come, now let us reason together.

[2:59] God is reasonable. He reasons with man. And we see, yet there is this unreasonable philosophy, which I want to talk about and take this kind of crash course in philosophies tonight, just sort of coasting over the surface of these, really.

[3:12] But what of this word philosophy? What of the word philosophy? It means the love of knowledge or the love of wisdom. And the Bible is actually pro-philosophy in that sense, because the Bible is pro-wisdom.

[3:25] It's pro-knowledge. You know, the highest form of knowledge, the highest form of wisdom is the fear of God. That is the ultimate. And the Bible says in Proverbs 2, verse 6, For the Lord giveth wisdom out of his mouth, cometh knowledge and understanding.

[3:41] Proverbs 3, verse 13, it says, Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding. And so the Bible is packed full. It's covered a cover, crammed with knowledge and wisdom and understanding, if we would but open its pages and take it in our hearts.

[3:59] And it's a blessing, the Bible says, to find this true knowledge, this true wisdom. And through life, we're all embarking on that search for it, aren't we? We're all searching for knowledge, for wisdom in our life.

[4:12] And it's life's journey. Yet that which the world calls wisdom is vain. Worldly wisdom is vain. Paul says, he says, beware. He says, watch out for this.

[4:23] He says, look out, lest any man take you captive. God lets philosophies can captivate. They can captivate our hearts and our minds. And these are many poisonous ideologies, I put to you.

[4:35] Largely poisonous ideologies. And we're facing this unrelenting tide of destructive philosophies. We're seeing through the education system. You could call it the brainwashing system of sorts.

[4:50] And what underlies much of the tertiary education system I put to you today. That we're constantly being bombarded with these anti-Christ messages, with messages and ideologies that are contrary to Christian truth and the gospel.

[5:07] And our children, even in kindergarten these days, they're being indoctrinated, quietly indoctrinated, as they're given all kinds of graphic information.

[5:19] And I won't labour the point, but we're seeing the world is teaching children from the earliest of ages to be lemmings, to be marching to the beat and the tune of the Pied Piper over the cliff.

[5:35] We need to be counter-cultural. We need, as mums and dads, as parents, as grandparents, we care about our children and our grandchildren. We need to be counter-cultural people.

[5:48] So we actually counteract and combat these ungodly philosophies. Paul talks about the hostile elements that are against us. He talks about the rudiments of the world. This has got the sense of the basic elements, of the fundamental principles, of primary foundational principles.

[6:04] You could call it presuppositions. In other words, what we start off as the foundation level of what we believe and upon which all other beliefs rest.

[6:15] Paul's saying not to get carried about by these secular kind of presuppositions. In other words, the foundational principles we need to be founded on is the sure foundation. As our Lord says, not building a house on the sand that the waves scatter and erode, but building our lives upon the rock.

[6:34] And he talked about his word. His words being the rock to build our lives, our foundation on. And so, yeah, there's this unrelenting tide of destructive philosophies.

[6:45] And it's going on all the time. And Paul says, look out. He says he's warning you. He's warning us. Don't get carried away with these things. These foundational principles of reasoning that the world uses, that the non-believers use.

[7:00] Paul's saying don't have anything to do with these kind of presuppositions, these worldly secular presuppositions, but have a mindset, a mind, a worldview that's framed by the word of God.

[7:14] And as thinking beings, we cannot help but have various views about nature, about the universe, about truths, about ethics. We all come to a position of our own.

[7:26] But God helping us, it's got the foundation right. That's what matters. Paul's here warning us about anti-Christian philosophies. And these are happening in our days, as I'll talk a little about these, and it kind of twists people's mind and thinking about what is truth?

[7:45] What is reality? What are the ethics? Is it contrary to the word of God? That's what we need to ask ourselves as Christians. And as believers, we want to pattern our thinking after Christ, our actions after him.

[7:58] Our lives should be shaped according to what is God's will? What is God's thoughts and ways? In Isaiah 55, 7 through 8, it says, Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

[8:18] And the Lord says this, For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. So we want to be patterned and framed according to God's ways and will.

[8:30] That our philosophy, our way of thinking, is it Christ-based? Is it Christ-centered? Will we bow our will to the master plan?

[8:42] So what are some of these worldly philosophies that we warned about? You know, I'm just going to touch on some, and this is by no means a fulsome list. These are just a selection of some philosophies.

[8:54] And I've listed a few, really, of the popular philosophies of our day that we can take some note of. And I think they're like branches of the same tree, if you like. They all have that wrong, faulty foundation.

[9:07] It's not God's word that it's founded on. And so we see, for example, anarchism. Anarchism. You know, there's this sense of anarchy at the moment.

[9:18] This sense of, this teaching, this idea of advocating the absence or elimination of rulership or government.

[9:30] You know, overthrow the government. Wouldn't that be a good idea? Well, who's going to govern us then? You know, what are they saying lately? Defund the police. I mean, honestly, how far do you go with that?

[9:41] If there's no police, there's no law and order, there's no one to protect you. There's no one to protect our property and our livelihoods and our well-being.

[9:52] If you take it to the nth degree, what that would ultimately mean. And of course, there's people protesting at the moment who've got a bit more reason to say, no, that's not the way, that's not what we mean.

[10:03] But there's some radicals out there that are saying, defund the police, get rid of the police force. Yet the Bible says in Romans 13 that these people are for us. They have been placed for our protection.

[10:15] They've got a ministry. They've got a service to render to us. The government, the governing authorities, let's hope they do the right thing, but it is biblical to have government, to have some form of government, and to uphold the keeping of law and order.

[10:29] That's a good thing, generally so. And in 1 Peter 2 verse 17, amongst other things, it says, honour the king. Now in Peter's day, the king was Caesar. Here's the most godless, you know, an emperor that the people would worship and revere as a small g god.

[10:48] Peter says, nevertheless, honour Caesar. He's saying honour the king. There's a sense where there's still some rightful reverence, some rightful level of order, even under an ungodly king, even under an ungodly dictatorship, you could say.

[11:04] There's a sense where there's still that biblical sense, there is a sense and a need for law and order. Anarchy is an overthrow of law and order. The Bible says, no, don't do that.

[11:15] You know, we should honour the king, and we should pray for the kings, the governors. And as we try to pray for the prime minister, the opposition leader, we're not flying some political flag here.

[11:26] We're just saying there's a sense where, as biblical people, we pray for our government. We pray that our government will make wise decisions. And we know there's a history, that is a sad history of evil things that have happened in our nation's past, which we are ashamed of in many respects.

[11:45] Nevertheless, as things stand, we've got a government we should pray for, we should honour, and upholding of law and order is a good thing, the Bible says. Another philosophy is atheism.

[11:57] Of course, the ultimate godless philosophy is this idea of a belief in non-belief. And it's sad, really, that some 30% of Australian populations say they have no religion.

[12:09] That's pretty sad, isn't it? 30%, 3 out of 10, say they've got no religion. You know, the Bible says, David says this in Psalm 14, verse 1, as you would be familiar, I'm sure, the fool has said in his heart, there is no God.

[12:24] The fool has said that. They are corrupt. They have done abominable works. There is none that doeth good. The Bible says, the fool has said in his heart, there is no God. You know, step outside and see the universe and see the squillions of stars.

[12:39] Look at your own self and the trillions of cells in your body and say there is no God. You are a fool. You are a fool. There's no other word to put you in any other category but that.

[12:50] It's the most foolish thing to disbelieve. To be an atheist is the most foolish of foolishness. Another philosophy is humanism. Humanism is the belief that God, sorry, humanism is the belief that people can achieve happiness and live well without religion.

[13:07] You know, we can live happy enough without God. Who needs God? You know, that's what people would say. And humanists consider that man is the measure of all things, that the human mind is considered to be the ultimate standard.

[13:19] The human mind, you know, we've evolved so highly that we are the ultimate standard of all that will be judged. And humanism is really, it's a religious system. The deity of this worldview, of the humanist worldview, is man himself.

[13:34] Man sits on the throne of his own belief system. That's humanism. Now, the Bible says this in Proverbs 14 verse 12, there is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.

[13:47] It's a deathly way. It's a dead end. The end is death. Eternal death. The second death. Hell is the end of a life that says I'm going to do it my way.

[14:00] They might say it, they might sing it, but it's the wrong way. My way is the wrong way. His way is the way that I want to be my way. Amen. There is a way that seems right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.

[14:13] In humanism, godlessness is glorified as if it's something that's good, where truly it is a vanity of vanities. Here's another philosophy, feminism.

[14:23] Feminism. Now, feminism is increasingly being pushed on society. Now, we're not against the elevation of women in that godly and rightful space that women are to be honoured and women are to be upheld.

[14:40] Women are to be, you know, us husbands are supposed to praise them. We're supposed to, and our children should rise up and praise them. And women should be elevated in that godly place that God has placed them and they are rightfully to be honoured.

[14:56] But feminism takes another track. Feminism is allied with all kinds of radical themes, such as eradicating gender inequality and promoting women's rights and interests and issues such that it goes to this radical extreme, that they oppose traditional gender roles.

[15:15] So, in other words, they oppose, feminists oppose biblical roles. So, the responsibility that God has given man is undermined. The man of the home has the responsibility before God as the primary leader, as the initiator and provider for the home.

[15:33] It's the man's role. The buck stops with the man. But feminism takes that away and it says it's women's rights to abort, really to murder, her unborn baby. Saying women can do what they like.

[15:45] Well, respectfully, women, it's not your body. It's the baby's body. You know, we don't have a right to abort a baby. And then the feminists take this track of lesbianism, the right for women to marry women.

[16:01] You know, that's just, it does your head in. It's abomination. And feminism takes this complete liberation from sexual boundaries and morals. And a rejection, really, of God as the ultimate authority in life.

[16:16] when you take it to the nth degree, what feminism is doing is rejecting God's created order and purpose for our lives. It's rejecting God's word as the guide and the manual for life that it is.

[16:32] Because God's word has all the answers that we need for men and women. It has all the fulfillment, the worth, the value that we need and purpose. It's in his word. It's for us.

[16:42] He is for us. He is for you. Men and women. And of course, the Bible clearly makes a distinction between the genders. We're not some kind of amorphous, you know, we're all the same.

[16:53] No. Women have certain capacities. Men have certain capacities. God's ordained it that way such that there would be a harmony in the home. Feminism is contrary to that.

[17:04] It takes away that godly order and purpose for living. Another philosophy is hedonism. Hedonism. Now this is a philosophy that means you're driven by pleasure.

[17:15] It's saying that pleasure is the ultimate. You know, if it feels good, just go and do it. That's what they say. The Bible says this. It says there's pleasures of sin, but they are for a season.

[17:27] For a season. Only that. Yet in contrast, following God or following the Lord, it says, at his right hand are pleasures forevermore.

[17:40] You know, the pleasures start here and they go forevermore. As a Christian, the ultimate pleasure, isn't it? It's the ultimate satisfaction to know him, him to know his life eternal.

[17:51] It's the ultimate, I mean, I'm not meaning to denigrate it, it's the ultimate high, really. I mean, it's the ultimate, it's the ultimate blessing of blessings is to know him. It's to know him.

[18:01] That's the ultimate pleasure and his pleasures, it says, are forevermore. To know him and to delight in him, to delight in his will. It tells in contrast of a man called Solomon, of course, he had some wisdom and he made some good choices, but Solomon made some poor choices too.

[18:18] And it tells of Solomon in the book of Ecclesiastes, it lists everything that he tried, everything that he pursued in his life to find some meaning in his life. And it tells of how he spent all these, he took all these different tracks through his life to find some reason for living, to make his life worthwhile.

[18:36] And Solomon's list gives various things such as laughter, wine, building houses and gardens, farming and agriculture, owning lands and having workers and amassing silver and gold and accumulating wives and concubines.

[18:52] He had everything a man could ever want. But he summed it up at the end that this was all emptiness. None of it had any meaning. It was chasing after the wind.

[19:04] And hedonism is just that. It's a chasing after the wind. Hedonism is the chasing after godless pursuits. It's a vain and empty philosophy. Another one. Next one.

[19:15] Materialism. Materialism. Another philosophy that the world is just captivated by, isn't it? As if it's you've arrived when you've got multiple fancy expensive cars in your drive and you've got multiple mansions and you name it and you've got lots of wealth that that's kind of arrived.

[19:35] You've arrived. Materialism. As if material possessions can be some and physical comfort is more important than true spiritual values. Materialism.

[19:47] What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and he loses his own soul? What if you had the wealth of the world? It's not enough. It's never enough. And it's really like that with those who chase after wealth.

[20:00] It's never enough. They always want more. These millionaires, they've got to have another million or two. It's like it's not enough. And the way of thinking, really, this materialistic way of thinking is a grave mistake.

[20:12] In Ecclesiastes 5 verse 10, Ecclesiastes 5 verse 10, it says, Here that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver, nor here that loveth abundance with increase.

[20:23] This is also vanity. They're never satisfied. There's never enough. There's got to be more and more and more. This greed overtakes them such that they covet for more and more. This greedy grasping.

[20:34] This material wealth and gain can never satisfy. It's never enough. The Bible commends those poor in this world but rich in faith.

[20:45] That's what matters. That's what counts. Even if you be poor in this world but if you be rich in faith, wow, you've arrived then. Amen? Brother?

[20:56] Sister? The Bible speaks about the deceitfulness of riches. Mark 4 verse 19. So materialism is another dead end philosophy, right? Another one is relativism.

[21:07] Here's the relativism. It's another popular kind of philosophy. Relativism. In other words, everything's relative. Oh, your truth is your truth and my truth is my truth so there is no truth.

[21:18] It's the view, the meaning, the value of human beliefs and behaviours that they have no absolute reference. There's no absolutes. You know, just do what you like. You believe what you want to believe.

[21:29] We can all believe what we want to believe and, you know, there's many ways to heaven or that kind of idea. It's all relative. Truth is relative. But absolutism is therefore wrong.

[21:41] You know, if you were to dare to say, actually, there's a book I can hold in my hand. This is absolutely true. This is the final authority. This is infallible. It's inerrant. This is to be depended upon for life and eternity.

[21:53] Oh, that's such a terrible thing to say. That's so wrong. The only real virtue is openness and tolerance, they would tell you. And the intolerance is really the ultimate and only sin.

[22:04] Oh, you're intolerant. You're saying that Jesus is the only way to heaven? How intolerant of you. That's what they would say. That's the only sin in their mind. In other words, they would say there's no absolute authority.

[22:16] There's no final authority. But clearly for us as believers, yes, there is. There actually is. We may not like all of it because sometimes it means we've got to change, doesn't it?

[22:26] Sometimes God might speak to us and say, wow, there's some things that need sorting out in me. But the point is this Bible is eternal. It's infallible. It's the reliable standard of truth.

[22:38] And truth, let's face it, truth is something that does not change. You know, they can change the definitions in the dictionary. They can add new words to it. And, you know, there's words that change meaning and such like.

[22:50] But truth is always truth. Truth doesn't change. The truth is always the truth. It's the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth. That's what they still call it in the court system, isn't it?

[23:01] The Bible is the voice of God and it's therefore, it speaks with full authority. Friends, you can know it's not about relativism as if it's some airy, fairy, fuzzy, wuzzy, you know, whatever your warm and feelings are.

[23:17] It's about, there is something you can say, yes, this is true. I believe God. Every man is a liar but I believe God. I believe him. And the voice of God, it speaks with full authority today, even to our soul.

[23:28] These are the authoritative words of God and of his spokesman as he's recorded it for us for our learning, for our comfort and it has divine authority.

[23:39] It's stamped, authorized. That's what mine says. This is authorized. It's authorized from heaven. It's got the authority of heaven stamped upon it. It carries his divine authority and the deepest of truths are here.

[23:52] Relativism is sinking sand. It's wishy-washy, quagmire. There's no stand, there's no, there's no standing there. It's just sinking sand. And then we see another philosophy of secularism.

[24:06] Secularism, secular means of the world. Secularism says, man does not need God. It's a system of doctrines and practices that disregard and reject any form of religious faith and worship.

[24:18] Secularism says, I'm all right, Jack, I don't need a God to tell me what to do. It just wants to eliminate all religious elements from society. The secularism or secular humanism, it teaches that there's no objective or absolute truth that defines right and wrong.

[24:34] There's no black and white, it's all warm and it's all grey. The Bible warns us against the worldly and the unspiritual. Secularism is of the world and the things of the world.

[24:45] Our Lord says, come out of the world. He says, though we are in the world, we are not of the world. Secularism is framing your life's purpose on what the world wants and is on about and that's another faulty philosophy.

[25:04] Another one is scepticism, another philosophy. Really, scepticism, the sceptics, they're unbelievers. Scepticism is basically unbelief. It's something I don't believe. It questions, is there a possibility of certainty in any knowledge?

[25:18] When you boil it right down to it, scepticism is a belief in nothingness. They believe in nothing. Nothing.

[25:30] Just nothing. Another philosophy people get ensnared by is socialism or effectively communism or Marxism and we see what people are calling these days cultural Marxism.

[25:43] Marxism is this philosophy that stands for revolutionary communism. socialism. It's almost like there's some people that have just gone so far, so far. Is that left?

[25:54] So far. They've gone so far left. They've gone so far to this extremity that they actually want to pull down everything that is modern society today.

[26:07] They want to overthrow the capitalist system with a classless society but of course ultimately they're going to be running it. what's that animal farm? I read that as a kid and the animal farm this idea well there's some government that's going to be superseding the present government and we've all got your best interests at heart and when they actually get in power they're just as bad if not worse.

[26:30] This sense of this overthrow the overthrow everything's bad so we're going to replace it with our ultimate system but really the objective the objective of Marxists is ultimately the abolition of the state and forming a communist society a takeover and this is what radical movements under cover of different names are trying to do right now inflaming riots and racial divides it's not necessary even in our own city and these movements this kind of socialistic Marxist thing they're founded upon ungodly philosophies and that's not to say some of the things that people are protesting about are problems in our society but we don't join with these radicals who want to tear everything down and burn everything up and loot and destroy and demolish and then form their own little kind of in America they've got some kind of little state that they've framed and I know I saw some reporter saying and having a bit of a chat to these kind of revolutionaries in this city in America is it New York at the moment or Seattle wherever it is they've got and it's kind of funny they've got these they've taken the police barricades and they've made their own wall and you're saying what are you doing oh we're building a wall oh just like someone else I know and you know and oh we've got rid of the police but we've got our own police now so it's like they've still got a kind of police they've still got people marching around with guns and you know this kind of this disorder in the order and you think what is going on and we see right back in the early days of socialism of communism of the overthrow of what was the Russian government system or China and it's the same pattern but really at the heart of it is ungodless it's ungodly philosophies they just want to destroy they just want to tear everything apart so we know socialism or communism at the heart of it is anti-Christ it's anti-Christian and the groups that are doing a lot of this work when you actually look at their philosophies they're anti-Christian they're not Christian at all just lastly this on my list here is nihilism it's another philosophy nihilism and this is another crazy kind of ideology what it actually asserts existential nihilism

[29:00] I don't know what I'm no expert on these things but what I've read what nihilism this existential nihilism says is that life has no purpose there's no purpose this is all pointless purposeless there's no goal there's no intrinsic value humankind is just you know we're just another evolved creature out of the swamp and basically what a nihilist tells us what the nihilist philosophy teaches our children and our students in universities today is that life is utterly pointless it's utterly pointless and so we've got no God to answer to we just live like the devil and just do our own thing there's no no one to answer to no accountability life's pointless so just live it up and just get blotto and just you know do whatever you want to do look out for number one that's what it's saying really what I'm saying friends today and I'm not wanting to labour these things but just to give you a bit of a picture this is philosophies of the world today isn't it just some and really all these various philosophies at the heart of them they're all the fruit from the same tree and it's an evil tree it's an evil tree this is not godly or anything godly people should have anything to do with it's evil fruit that comes from these philosophies in contrast to bible truth we've got something that is a polar opposite to all of this stuff amen we've got something that is just a bright and shining light against all of this darkness and we can answer the question what about the truth whatever happened to the truth we still have the truth and there is a book and this book is still in your hands today and this book still says the same as it always has said you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free amen the truth shall make you free not some philosophies not some political ideologies not some human machinations will set you free or give you some nirvana the truth shall make you free free truly free free indeed the biblical worldview is the primary reason for being not some meaningless philosophies of man they're empty false hells as they're vain they're empty you've been purposefully designed by god your creator you're not your life is not pointless you have a point you have a reason to be you've been purposefully made by your god and creator yet the bible the world rejects this largely friends we're in the minority we are the ultimate minority group as christians as bible believing christians it's said that there's only 4% of people this is in america which is quite a bible kind of friendly country in some ways only 4% have a biblical worldview that's in america it's a very minute proportion of the world actually think biblically and think wow actually I'm going to do what god says with my life

[32:11] I'm going to actually take the bible truths and apply them to my life so Paul urges us today we have need to be alerted and alarmed by these godless philosophies this is what they're getting in the universities I don't know someone might be able to echo that that's the case of course not every university lecturer is swayed this way but by and large it's steering this way in this direction and Paul says this he says beware lest any man spoil you through the philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition of man after the rudiments of the world and not after Christ I urge you today to have some biblical convictions have biblical convictions that you won't shake that that will be too high a price to deviate from that we're not just fighting philosophies we're fighting against spiritual forces and wickedness in high places we're waging war a war that is waged against God and the truth

[33:12] Paul tells Timothy this in 1 Timothy 6 verse 20 he says keep that which is committed to thy trust avoid profane and vain babblings and oppositions of science falsely so called the world calls evolution science honestly I mean there's things that the world calls science and scientific that are ridiculous there's these opposing ideas and views that are contrary to the truth they're profane and they're vain and where do they come from the pit of hell from the evil one himself this is a spiritual fight brothers and sisters we battle against all the wiles of the spiritual enemy and wiles it means kind of the strategies the tactics of the enemy he's got all kinds of schemes and ideologies it's a multi faceted attack against you and me and he'll use anything he can throw at us any fiery dart any ungodly philosophies anything to shut down churches like this one anything to silence

[34:15] Christians anything to silence opposition to Christians and these various ideologies they're pervasive it's in the media it's in you know the ones who are reading the news have got this kind of mindset many of them it's kind of underlying the messaging that we're getting bombarded with all the time it's pervasive it's all over it's all across the world so it's that it's easy to absorb it without even thinking that we are doing that so it's no wonder for our next generation for this generation for you and me for our kids and grandkids to be affected by all of this it's it's in the culture you know I'm not praising Aussie culture it's corrupt the government is corrupt the education system is corrupt you know the political system is corrupt morality is slipping away there's a lot to be desired and the youth culture is becoming more and more paganised isn't it more and more pagan you know we were doing some door knocking and as one lady said

[35:23] I'm a pagan and I thought oh that's interesting and when we got talking with her she said oh I believed in she believed in a couple of gods some obscure gods from I don't know India or somewhere or other so she was a believer in these kind of gods I guess they were kind of statues or idols that she worshipped or you think but there's this paganisation in other words anything but God any other God but God any other God but him any other God but Christ and we're seeing this godless philosophy these worldviews taking over for instance this prevailing spirit it's all over the world and we should be waking up to it we should be aware of it Paul says beware of it this increasing hostility you know in the workplace you know what it's like you start to kind of buck the trend and oh you're one of those Bible bashers or you're one of them you know that you would dare to be different this hostility towards biblical Christianity and yet these godless philosophies like evolution they're being pushed on the next generation and taught as fact yet really

[36:30] I've heard it put there's 40 trillion reasons not to believe in evolution 40 trillion 40 trillion because 40 trillion is the approximate number of cells in a human body just look at yourself your reason not to believe in evolution you've got 40 trillion cells saying I am made I am designed I have purpose every one of those 40 trillion cells every single one of them is incredibly complex of itself and purposefully designed to fit together to make your body work most of the time it does doesn't it God is shouting with a bullhorn in the ears of every unbeliever to see the truth to hear the truth 40 trillion reasons in this topsy-turvy world we have the answer to turn the world upside down that's why we care about evangelism that's why we care about this message and taking it to a world that is in darkness that is hell bound that is lost Christian values are under attack but we're not so much about promoting

[37:33] Christian values as in promoting the Christ here's the answer here's the one who says you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free we must stand for him for his truth and for the centrality of the Bible we're at war with a culture that is taking multitudes to hell and meantime Hollywood and the media have declared open warfare on the family on the Christian culture on godly principles they hate it the Hollywood makers of movies generally hate Christianity and it's underlying their messaging all the time and the intellectuals in universities and these so called brilliant minds these scholars of today call Christianity a virus of the mind a virus of the mind you know and what did what did that communist guy call it the opiate of the masses you know it must be eradicated at all costs you know we must be eradicated you know when they bring the brown shirts in to take us all away now this is being a little realistic am I extreme to say one day brothers and sisters we might have to face it stand or bow stand or bow who are you going to bow to a lot of people bowing at the moment who do we bow to one and only

[39:05] God a one and only God and there's a lot of mind control going on and friends think of the children of the next generation how do we protect them from these activists these are activists but is the church active sometimes we're not as active as we ought to be amen the world's active they've got activists they're out there working hard by any means possible to get their message across what about us do we care about this message that it matters do we want to communicate it such that we're saturated with this word that we love it that we live it we believe it it's called the perfect law of liberty you know if we were to be we are the true revolutionaries we should be rioting and protesting in the streets with bullhorns and placards and banners and marching and shouting and singing and tearing down the idols of this world the statues

[40:06] I'm being a little kind of descriptive here but the sense like in the old time of church history they tore down the statues of Mary and the crucifixes and they had an iconoclasm where all the icons they destroyed all the beautiful artworks that pictured pictures of Christ because the bible says not to do such a thing and they were pretty radical weren't they now I'm not saying go out and do that down at the local catholic church but I'm just saying there's that sense where we should be countercultural we should be activists for the cause of Christ we should be radical radicalized fundamentalist in that sense and I hope that no one's watching on YouTube is going to censor this message but there's that sense where we should have an activist mentality because we've got the perfect law of liberty it's another name for the bible and we've got the message that sets men free free truly free that breaks the chains off their hands and feet of their minds but in the universities of our day there's this erosion of truth it's really an act of sabotage they want to overthrow the last skerrick of Christian faith and decency that remains and for all the faults of our forefathers well there's something decent that they did build they want to tear it all down and have a pointlessness just pointless a pointlessness to replace it a kind of relativist anything goes or you know just whatever feels good just whatever makes you feel whatever ticks your boxes you know or just this you know just overthrow everything just destroy everything start again and we'll build some communist nirvana where someone else is going to be ruling and dictating and dominating and domineering over us or where oh should we just live a life that's all about amassing wealth and well you know just feathering our own nest and just building our own little selfish world or do we actually believe the bible do we actually believe this is true what is the result of all of this it's really a sabotage of everything that is decent and righteous and we're reaping this as a culture fatherlessness fatherlessness what a sad world it is children growing up without fathers you know the devil wants to destroy family units and tear them apart tear down the very fabric of society and it's like the lunatics are in charge of the asylum when you think what some of these people are saying and doing honestly change the name of victoria i mean the state of victoria it's i mean honestly what is going on in these people's heads you know and it's like there's this shift there's no absolute truth anymore you know just whatever you feel like is okay with you it's okay with me and this anti-god mentality it's not the enemy it's the enemy's plan it's like back in genesis where the serpent deceived eve by his cunning ways and paul says watch out that you don't get your thoughts led astray from devotion to christ he's calling us to combat such things as this these empty philosophies they're weak and failing they're weak as water i've seen some commentaries of late that people are warning about what's happening now i'm not meaning to be an alarmist here that's maybe another one alarmism there's a sense of this alarmist idea that it's going down the usa is going down you know maybe it is well thank god we're not there but it's almost like we're witnessing the failure of a nation they've abandoned the truth such that they've gone and swallowed all this stuff and people are commenting there's a virtual revolution an insurrection going on right now they're saying get armed get prepared you know get ready to flee to the mountains there's this

[44:06] failure of a nation look i put to you i'm not meaning to sound alarmist here and go overboard here with what some people are saying but it's like there is a chaos that's deepening when we abandon god and truth chaos prevails chaos that's what this is chaos no government no reason for being it's all pointlessness just look out for number one just have a good life have a good time no one to answer to no accountability and it is like the crisis is worsening all around the planet we need to be beware we need to be beware think of your children of your families impart to them impart to them while you can while they're in your home while they're under your roof impart to your children impart to them what's going to build their character impart to them that which really matters that which counts they're getting intentionally indoctrinated all the time by this stuff you know what they're teaching our children just it boggles the mind the biology the graphic biology they're getting right it boggles the mind what they're getting taught you know

[45:31] I don't want to labour it because it's I'd rather not speak of that which is done in darkness but darkness is prevailing you know no morality there's no sense there's no moral filter anymore oh it's just you know the physical act right there's no moral filter anymore about actually there's a morality context here and all of this is ramping up people what are we doing are we activists or is the church weakening where worldly standards are accepted this slippery slope another ism is gradualism gradualism what was the church like 10 20 years ago what's it like now gradualism this slippery slope just slippery slope just inch by inch and it's sliding away sliding away from biblical ideals this transformation is gradual it's incrementalism many people are turning away from God and that rather than turning to him sound doctrine is being rejected people would laugh and they do laugh at messages like this and churches like this people scorn and mock preaching like this friends faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God this is what matters black lives matter the bible matters all souls matter black white brown yellow matter the bible matters that's what matters the souls matter

[47:08] I'm not discounting I stand with aboriginal people and people of any colour I've got some colour in me we've all got different pigmentation it's not the point it's about your soul it's about are you right with God it's about this truth this is what matters and this is what matters this is a smoke screen that we're being given today it's another philosophy it's another thing to cause divide and division and hatred and it's a smoke screen it's one of these things it's just getting people to get all excited racism that's a problem it's a worldly philosophy the Bible talks about we're of one blood we're of one blood we've all got the same essential DNA we've just got different coloured skin let's put that aside it's irrelevant faith comes by hearing hearing by the word of God this is what we need we need Christ's lordship we need Christ's lord in the home in the heart it's the answer and friends the repeated warning of scripture is do not be deceived let me cut it to the point here and it's really just cutting it down to one simple statement here who is on the lord's side that's what matters that's what matters are you on the lord's side that's the crystal clear call from scripture are you on the lord's side and another scripture in

[48:26] Amos 3 verse 3 it says can two walk together except they be agreed these philosophies have got no place in our heart and mind they're godless they're godless our mindset is governed by the truth we believe that we are absolutists we believe in absolutism this is absolute absolute and our true source of wisdom is the word friends there's much more I could say but I just want to draw it to a close and you could read the context further I know I've really lifted out that scripture of Colossians 2 verse 8 from the context and just to kind of wrap up just some brief reference to the context here Paul prays for these folk at Colossae he prays for these saints at Colossae and he says he prays for them that their hearts might be comforted he prays that they be knit together in love he prays that they have the riches of the full assurance of the understanding of the acknowledgement of the mystery of God of the father of Christ in whom I hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge if you want philosophy go to the one who is full of wisdom and knowledge in him

[49:32] I hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge to be fully a wise man a wise woman go to the maker of wisdom the one whose name is wisdom our Lord he is wisdom embodied and he goes on to talk about how we should be walking in him we should be grounded we should be built up we should be established and he says beware of those things and there's much more we could beware of but then he goes on to close with this he says for in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily and ye are complete in him who is the head of all principality and power the fullness is in him it's in Christ everything that you need is in him everything that you would benefit from for your soul's sake is found in Christ and friends like I say the

[50:34] Bible is not against reasoning it's logical to be a Christian it's logical it's reasonable it's rational it makes sense to believe it makes absolute sense and I'm not really much of an apologist for all of this kind of stuff or all of the countering all the godless thinking of evolution and such but to me it's very simple that it's crystal clear and God is not unreasonable like I referred to before there's that scripture that says come now let us reason together though your sins be as scarlet they can be as white as wool that graphic colour of your sin he can wash it away he can wash it away he can wash the stain of your heart that guilt that shame and really that's what it boils down so I know I've not really laboured much scripturally here it's more just setting the context here but the ultimate and absolute is to know him who is as it says there he's the the fullness is in him and it's saying that in him is hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge if you're searching for knowledge if you're searching for wisdom if you're searching through all the vain philosophies and you tick them off and cross them off the list no that's wrong that's wrong that's wrong there's one thing that's right it's God you can trust in him in him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge he will hold you fast he will give you hope you can know with assurance that you haven't bound simply trust him let me close with a prayer now and just a challenge as we close the bible says

[52:26] God says come now let us reason together and there's many reasons why trusting him is the best and most vital thing that you can do with your life some would say life is pointless some would say it's all relative some would say there is no truth there's nothing to believe in and it's all vanity but God's word tells us that there is a saviour and whom to know is life eternal and it tells us if we believe we trust in the Lord we receive his gift we receive his saving act of the cross on our part if we but simply believe and trust him then everything changes and we are made a new creation I pray if you're here hearing this your heart is maybe still a little on the fence the

[53:33] Bible says who is on the Lord's side choose you this day whom you will serve choose you this day this day stop putting it off get it right now I'm going to jump off that fence and I'm going to go yes I'm with you Lord I trust in you and I put my heart's trust in you I pray that's your your choice today let's pray Lord we thank you for every heart for our time together here Lord may it be fruitful for our thinking Lord to ponder these things and reflect upon our souls standing with you Lord in a world of chaos and increasing mayhem that there is a solid rock that we can stand upon that sure foundation we pray there's any here present yet to trust you they'll say Lord you're coming again for me I'm saved I'm yours I'm your child I'm your son your daughter I belong to your family you've saved me for time and for eternity because

[54:34]  I've trusted in you I pray that prayer that might be real for someone here today help us Lord as men and women with families with loved ones we care about help us to be communicators of this truth that we those that would be godless activists in Jesus name Amen