In his sermon titled 'The Moral Revolution: How We Got Here,' Paul Carrington begins a series called 'Pulling Down Strongholds,' aimed at equipping Christians, especially the youth, to confront cultural challenges with a biblical perspective. He references 2 Corinthians 10 to emphasize that the church's role is not just defensive but offensive in spreading the light and truth of the Gospel. Carrington likens the current cultural climate to the biblical times of Daniel, suggesting the church is under pressure to conform to societal norms that contradict biblical teachings. Over the next four weeks, the series will address topics like homosexuality, gender issues, and the corporate push for transgenderism, aiming to equip believers to approach these issues with compassion and truth. The sermon highlights the rapid moral changes in society, driven by a desire to redefine human nature, truth, and reality, as seen in the increasing acceptance of LGBTQ+ rights. Carrington warns against the dangers of cultural Christianity, which lacks a true foundation in faith, and identifies four major 'axe blows' — evolution, contraception, no-fault divorce, and cohabitation — that have contributed to the moral revolution. He emphasizes the importance of adhering to the authority of God's Word, viewing the current cultural shifts as a spiritual warfare, and encourages believers to stand firm in their faith, recognizing the ongoing battle as an opportunity for the church to be a beacon of light and truth.

Well, good afternoon. This afternoon we begin a new series entitled, Pulling Down Strongholds. And we've begun this series really with a special eye towards the young people, not exclusive to them, but with a special eye to help us all really to think about the various things that are confronting us as a church, that are confronting the broader culture, and that help us to then develop a way of thinking about it so that we can actually not just simply defend but also be on the offensive. So far away is the church from being a defensive institution. It's really the light of God in the world.

And you remember that when the Lord Jesus Christ, he sent his disciples into the world, he made that declaration that all power has been given to me both in heaven and in earth. And really the story of the New Testament is individuals and groups of people going into some of the most debauched dens of iniquity to bring the light and truth of the gospel. And so we've entitled this this series called pulling down strongholds and it's coming from 2nd Corinthians chapter 10 where it reads this, for though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God, for the pulling down of strongholds, casting down arguments in every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. And so this afternoon what we're going to be doing is we're going to be looking at one facet of pulling down strongholds called the moral revolution really. And we're going to be focusing on how did we even get here you know how did we arrive at the state that we're in right now as a nation and again how can we equip ourselves so think of yourselves almost like in the time of of Daniel or the three Hebrew boys where the image of gold is being built and the demand is that everyone bow down and worship.

That's much like the age that we're living in today. And so we want to really address that and look at it. Over these next four weeks, we're really going to be dealing with the moral revolution in the sense of how did we get here? Next week we'll be talking about homosexuality, and then the following week gender, and then the fourth week we're going to be looking at kind of the corporate onslaught and this push to make gender discussion or transgenderism normal in our age. And so really the goal of the elders is not to inspire anger or to inspire fear or even self-righteousness.

God forbid, God forbid that we end up like the Pharisee who says, Oh God, I thank you that I'm not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. That's not the purpose of what we're doing here today. We really want to let this soak in and not allow us to become self-righteous or angry or anything like that, but look at it all through the eyes of Christ. We're not smarter or more morally righteous, but we're simply beneficiaries. We're sinners that have been saved by grace, and it's through that lens that we're going to be looking at these various topics and I love this you know John Newton wrote this hymn and one of the verses I'm just going to read from from the from the hymn itself listen to this and this is how we want to think through these various topics specifically the one that we're dealing with today.

He says this, Legion was my name by nature, Satan raged within my breast. Never misery was greater, never sinner more possessed. Mischievous to all around me, to myself the greatest foe. Thus I was when Jesus found me, filled with madness, sin, and woe. Yet in this forlorn condition, when he came to set me free, I replied to my physician, What have I to do with thee?

But he would not be prevented, rescue me against my will, had he stayed till I consented. I had been a captive still." And so we look at the topic today, specifically around the sexual moral revolution that's happened. And what we really want to do today is equip ourselves to pull down strongholds, because strongholds really take residence in the hearts and souls of people. You can look at someone and not really know what strongholds they have Locking them down and as we go through this series We'll deal with things that cut close to home things like Hollywood or other areas of life This one might be a little bit easier for us to deal with personally but what we want to do is equip ourselves with a way of thinking so that as we go out into the world we have a proper biblical framework to address it because it's hard to overstate this the fact that we are arguably living in the midst of the greatest Moral changes that have ever happened in the history of the world right now as you're breathing air That's what's happening around us in the world the rapid changes around us are a really outpacing Technology right when you think of the phone on your hip or all the technology around you the moral changes taking place in our society are outpacing that all under the banner of progress.

And what is it attempting to do? It's attempting to overthrow human nature itself, absolute truth and even objective reality, what God has actually said. And I was reading an article yesterday in the New York Times, just to give us a sense. New York Times is a very, very liberal newspaper. And they had an article entitled, A Rainbow Wave.

2018 has more LGBT candidates than ever. And it makes this comment, quote, a record number of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender candidates are running for office in November, a priority for activists who say that many of the most important civil rights, quote unquote, battles are happening close to home. And so under this fake war of civil rights that they're simply taking what happened in the 60s and replaying them today, That's what's happening. And Al Mohler this week speaking of the LGBTQ, LGBTQ plus movement, he said this, the genuinely revolutionary nature is fully apparent. Listen to what he says, requiring nothing less than turning the world upside down.

This revolution requires the total redefinition of morality, cultural authority, personal identity, and more. This revolution requires a new vocabulary and a radically revised dictionary. Ultimately, the moral revolutionaries seek to define or redefine reality itself. And this revolution has no stopping point. You see, that plus sign at the end of LGBTQ plus is a signal of more challenges sure to come.

And so it's under this understanding that we're addressing this aspect and we want to frame everything under the idea of this being a spiritual war. This is not a cultural war But I think what we'll see today is this is a spiritual war and as we just read up right up above earlier the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. What we don't want to do, What we don't want to do is argue for conservatism. The last thing we want to do today is just kind of make an argument for the good old days, you know, kind of Mayberry and the 1950s. That's not what we're trying to do today, but we want to argue from the Scriptures.

What does God actually say? This is where we want to place all of our weight. There was never an ideal time where sin was not in the human history, but we want to look back and say, well what does God say about the matter? And so we're going to be taking our time to go through Romans chapter 1. If you have a Bible, you can open up to that.

We're not going to go through all of it, but we're going to look at a handful of verses. When Paul goes to Rome, again, a bastion of iniquity, right? Just like you would say Corinth or Ephesus or any of these other places. He goes into the city or he writes a letter, I should say, to these people that are in the city. He hasn't actually gone there yet.

And after his introduction and greetings, what he wants to do is lay a foundation for the grand reason that propelled him to write. And there's really two things that he looks at here in chapter one of Romans. There's really two opposing forces. One is the gospel of God on the one side and then the sinful state of man under sway of Satan on the other side. And so verse 16 begins like this.

In chapter 1 16 he says, For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. As it is written, the just shall live by faith. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them. For God has shown it to them.

For since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. Because although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. And then look at this in three areas. It brings up this idea of God giving them up or giving them over.

In verse 24, therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness in the lusts of their hearts to dishonor their bodies among themselves who exchanged the truth of God for the lie and worshiped and served the creature, rather than the Creator who is blessed forevermore. Amen. For this reason God gave them up to vile passions, for even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman burned in their lusts for one another, men with men committing what is shameful and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due and Even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge God gave them over to a debased mind to do those things which are not fitting being filled with all unrighteousness sexual immorality and it goes on to list a litany of vices and sins that man has plunged himself into because he simply would not have God over him. And so there's something where Paul starts off, he says, for I am not ashamed of the gospel.

There's something in every single age, not that there's anything to be ashamed of in the gospel, but there's something in every single age that makes the gospel not acceptable. And it's generally hated and despised among men and that's because it goes against man's most fondly cherished views of who he actually is this kind of idea of man being independent and Having no accountability is dashed when you bring the gospel to bear And so what's common to the Jew as well as to the Gentile is this is this human pride and boasting and feeling pretty good about ourselves. Yesterday we were just over at Costco doing some groceries on the on the way home from the abortion mill and there was a young lady that had a t-shirt that kind of describes the modern view man has of himself. It says, a kind heart and a good soul. That's how man projects himself and thinks about himself with no necessary intervention from God.

I'm doing quite well myself, thank you. And that's how man carries on. But the gospel insists that man is broken. On the other side, it also insists that redemption is available for any single individual, no matter what kind of sins that they've committed in the past. It really doesn't matter, but a faithful presentation of the gospel, like what we see in here in chapter 1 of Romans, is that it strips man of every ground of boasting, and it introduces him to himself so that he can see his need for the Savior.

And that's exactly what the Apostle Paul is doing here in chapter one of Romans. He's saying, I'm not ashamed of the gospel because in it, it is the vehicle or the the power of God unto salvation. For everyone who believes it doesn't really matter what background you're from. And it's not to be presented with arrogance or anything like that, but with a spirit of love, with that recognition of that song we just read from John Newton, this idea that I was once in that state, dead in my own sins, and can I bring water, can I bring bread to a sinner, another soul that was in the same condition as myself? And so in verse 17 we meet this idea of the just shall live by faith, this congregation of believers who have been justified and freely pardoned.

And by virtue of the fact that we've been justified and we've been made part of the body of Christ, we've been made stewards of the grace of God, by doing that we've taken sides in a war. And broadly speaking, our hermeneutic is, thus saith the Lord. What does the Lord say? That's the way I will pattern my life that's the way that the world should function and operate BB Warfield said it like this when scripture speaks God speaks That's really how we we see things as Christians in the world. And really and truly there should be no debate whatsoever, whether or not a man is a man or a woman is a woman or all these other things that are are being discussed and debated.

When it comes to these matters of sex and gender, marriage, family, everything comes together right in the first two chapters of Genesis. This is what Al Muller kind of calls the infrastructure of the creation of God, right there in the very first two chapters of the book of Genesis. But this is pretty much a stench in the nose of most modern-day liberals today, this idea that God has actually spoken and defined and made very clear decisions on what man is and what his responsibility is before the living God. And so all of this to say our greatest weapon as believers is the truth. We have the truth, but the truth mixed with compassion.

This idea that we can speak it without having hatred for the person that we're speaking to. And so we don't want to just have fake compassion, right? Compassion cut off from truth is not really compassion at all, but what we all want to agree upon today together is that we can love sinners and simultaneously tell them the truth. That's really our position as those who have been justified and so this is where the war begins because where our hermeneutic is thus saith the Lord, the hermeneutic of the world is did God say? And so you've got this clash or collision coming between the world and between what Christianity says.

Our cry is, the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein. The cry of unregenerate man is, let us break their bonds in pieces and cast away their cords from us. And so this is the basis for for everything that we're going to be looking at for the rest here because man's rebellion is really against a sovereign holy God. This is a spiritual warfare where man is trying to attempt to redefine himself and it's such a frustration to so many people that see Christians holding to some ancient book like this thing is archaic. What relevance does it have as we march forward into progress.

But of course the Word of God stands sure and that's our trust and our confidence and that's what we're going to be basing the rest of our argument on for the rest of this time this morning this afternoon. And so in verse 18 it says this, how did we get here? Well verse 18 explains the long story it says, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth and unrighteousness. And this is really the depiction of unregenerate man living under the light of natural revelation but destitute of the gospel. He doesn't have and know the gospel.

And it's all summed up. Everything going forward from now on is summed up with those two words of unrighteousness and ungodliness. And so this idea of wrath, God shows his wrath from heaven against these things. You know, the idea that God is love is true, but God is also just. And we have to have these two things understood.

If a God is to love all that is holy and all that is good, by extension, he has to hate that which is unholy and defiled and perverse, right? A God of love has to also be a God that hates certain things as well. And one of the things he does hate is sexual immorality. And so what man is arguing for in his suppression for the truth, he's arguing for things like we heard this morning, God didn't make us. We evolved from mud or from some single-celled organism or were the result of a cosmic accident.

We don't want to say that we bear the image of God. We would much rather say that we draw our parentage from apes and other creatures. This is how far man has fallen in his unregenerate position. And he's built entire ideologies and systems that justify sin. That's what that word suppress actually means, that man has to actively keep down his conscience.

It's like he has to lock his conscience in a maximum security prison or you can picture somebody being smothered with a pillow. That's what man is actually doing. He's taking an active position. He's not just simply innocent. I don't know.

And this is the amazing thing as human beings We have that uncanny ability to convince ourselves That we don't know the very thing that Paul insists that we do know Which we'll see here in a few minutes, and because of that, this ability to try to make things unknown that we really do know. What do we read in verse 20? It says that we are without excuse as a human race. All of our defenses have evaporated. They've gone away.

It's the opposite of justification. Man is now held guilty to a standard that he'll never be able to attain. And so it goes on in verse 22, professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. And notice something here that man never stops worshipping, does he? He never stops worshipping.

What does he do? He exchanges the truth of God for the lie. But he continues to be a worshiper because man by nature is a worshiper. All of us worship something or someone. And that's how we know that this is a religious war because it's centered not so much on if we worship, that's a given, but it's a matter of who we worship.

And where we find ourselves right now as Christians in this world is we find ourselves really kind of in this, we're being reflected on almost as though we're closed-minded bigots, you know, our beliefs are hateful and our positions are backward in this race for progress where it's the idea of teaching biblical manhood and and womanhood is increasingly being viewed as intolerant, something that you cannot and should not do. And it's beyond acceptability. It must give way to what is called the new morality. And that's what's really being pushed today, this idea of a new morality, and this is the religious idea. Think of like the the Inquisition in the past.

In the same way, you're being summoned to cultural orthodoxy. You're being asked to come along and get along, otherwise being risked, being expelled, or being denounced, or figuratively burned at the stake of public opinion. You see that happening all over the place. And the plea from the quote unquote champions of tolerance is no longer for equality. They don't want simple equality.

And you can just ask the Christian bakers and florists who decided that they didn't want to be involved in say a sodomite or homosexual wedding. It's this idea of no surrender, that you must come along. And this is the idea that you must not only come along, but we want full embrace and celebration. And so how does a Christian function in a world like this, where Even if God's word is to be at least preserved in some way, it has to be twisted or distorted or put under a candle, under a bushel basket, if evil is to continue to go forward in the way that it is. And it's this kind of systemic moral coercion where people are being forced to do things and believe things and say things that aren't true at all.

And so what happens is the church itself becomes a target over the long term and that's going to be the ongoing battle that we're all going to have to face. And so the idea is not to just simply circle the wagons, no, but the idea is always remembering that who reigns? Jesus Christ, he reigns. He is going to have all of his will. And one little word from the Lord is more powerful than a thousand words from men.

And so in verse 23, what do we see? We see this idea of people exchange the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. I mean think about this for a minute. This is what Spurgeon says, he says, it is very easy to make a beast of yourself when you have made a beast to be your God. And that's exactly what's happened.

You can make a beast of yourself when what you worship is a beast, a golden calf, or some other, even if it's not an actual idol. The thing that you fabricated in your mind is the idol that you bow down before, and it could even be your own human heart, which is the most beastly of all the beasts in the world. And so what happens as a result of man denying the first commandment, that you shall have no other gods before me. It says in verse 24, the most fearful thing you can possibly consider. It says, therefore God gave them up.

You want to go that way, go that way. I mean can you think of anything more fearful? If you're a child, the worst thing that you could ever have happen is for your parents to take the reins away and just say you go and do and be what you want to be. And that's what God does to man who's not just simply innocent, but he's actively suppressing the truth and he's denying the very things God has told him, the very wonderful things God has held out for him, and what does he do? He says, I don't want it.

He's deemed God the most worthy one to be worthless so that he can pursue the things that he holds most to. And so all of these things, God doesn't give up his sovereignty and he doesn't let man go as far as he could go. God still reigns. He's still on the throne. But what is he doing?

God is never the author of evil. He's not to be blamed. How come you're letting these people go? These people are like a horse galloping, gathering speed, frothing at the mouth to get away from God as far as they can and as fast as they can. How can God be held accountable for that?

So he says, okay, you go and see where this ends up. And so in verse 25 we get to this matter of worship again. What did they do? They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator who is blessed forevermore. And so verse 26 and verse 27 really needs very little explanation.

You see the vile passions that man is given over to. The pagan creed is my body, my way. It's my body and I'll use it in any way I please, is what the pagan world says. But what are they doing? It's a thumbing of the nose at the living God who says, you've been made in my image, you've been created for my glory.

And so man becomes the trampler of God's glory by defacing him of his own self. This is the state of man. So much hatred toward God, he would much rather align himself and say, I came from apes or I have no purpose, I'm going nowhere, than to say I've been made in the image of God. And God is bringing all things to a head and summing up all things in Christ. It gives you a real picture of the depravity of the human heart, what vile creatures we become when left to ourselves.

It's really a very sad testament. And then it says in verse 28, they did not like to retain God in their knowledge. And so what happens because of this willful rejection, it says God gave them over to a debased mind. It's like underneath my Bible, if I if I have nothing underneath it, right, debased, there's nothing, it just falls forever and ever. There's nothing at all to hold it back.

Because they've given themselves to futile thoughts, empty thoughts, There's nothing at all. They've moved from a foundation to something that has no foundation. They say, let us parade our brokenness instead of being ashamed and repentant for it. And there's no frame for human experience. We came from nothing.

Life has no purpose. We're going nowhere. Let us eat drink and be merry for tomorrow we die That is the state of man left to himself and this is how we got to the place that we're in Robert Haldane says it like this. This is the great unhappiness of man, not only not to feel his malady, but to extract matter of pride from what ought to be his shame. It's very, very sad.

And so what does all of this say in Romans here? It's really this idea that it's not just fire and brimstone that typifies God's wrath, but also it's manifest in the form of giving up. May God never ever give up on any individual here in the midst. Let us never go so far astray. Even those that don't know the Lord and you're growing up in Christian homes, hear the word of the Lord, submit to your parents, honor God.

And in due time, if God were to grant you life being born again but don't don't go far afield this world will devour you and destroy you and that's what that's what the Apostle is saying here and so that's the long story of how human nature got to where it is, or got us to where we are. But the shorter story, if you look at modern-day America today, right, we're no longer debating gay marriage. That's not even a debatable issue. What we're doing right now is we're forging into totally uncharted territory, the territory of transgenderism, what it actually means to be a human being. And you think about it for a moment, for thousands and thousands of years, in all cultures, even some of the most pagan cultures, You were either a man or a woman.

But now in 21st century America, parts of Europe, Canada, it's now a matter of debate. You know, are you actually a man? And this idea, it's incomprehensible, the idea of a homosexual family, a sodomite family, or a man seriously claiming to be a woman. I mean, that just simply is beyond the pale. If some of us, even grandparents, would look at this and not be able to compute what's actually normal for us today in this culture.

And it's the idea that things that were previously unthinkable are now unassailable. Well, how could you even say that a man can't determine he's a woman? Now you're the one being put on the defensive in this modern day that we're living in. So what ought to be the greatest shame is now a great boast. People applaud and clap when people finally come to terms with who they are.

It's a very, it's a crying shame and it requires the truth and light of the gospel to go forth. And this is us this war is being raged against the human soul that the toll that it's taking in our society it's unfathomable We probably can't even understand all of it because we're so used to it. But how is it that the large majority, right, if you look even at the last 10 years, some people like to blame the last presidential, the last president that we had and his group of people that he had with him and all the other politicians, and all these other people like to blame certain individuals for this. But really and truly a lot of them were simply the beneficiaries of what has happened before, that all the whittling down of any foundation that might have been. And so what was the greatest problem?

I think when you look at it, it's probably been, and it could be summed up with two words, cultural Christianity. And this is the idea of conservatism, the idea that esteems the values as useful, but doesn't have the faith behind it. And so when the values are no longer useful you can jettison them for new values because there was no underlying undergirding faith. And so the greatest enemy to the truth of the Word of God. Guess what it is?

It's not the sodomite necessarily, or even all this new morality, but a lot of the times it's moralism. It's this idea that puts false hope of salvation in proper behavior and in making the culture nice and everyone polite and so on and people can embrace those things but not actually embrace the truth and light of the gospel and what's happening now as the waters are receding in our modern-day culture Christianity will be seen to be more and more of what it is, really a remnant. For years and years Christianity could kind of hide underneath this cultural veneer. Well, I'm a Christian, you're a Christian, it doesn't really matter what you do, how you live, what you wear, where you go, what you watch. We're all just Christians.

But as things become more and more forced, and as the war becomes more and more pronounced, what you're gonna find is true Christianity will be seen for what it is. And this is the greatest opportunity for the church. This is not an opportunity to cow down and say, oh I didn't expect this, but it's the time now to live as though Christ is who he is, the King of kings and the Lord of lords. And so where cultural Christianity and moralism says, yeah, sure, marriage is good because it works. The Christian says marriage is good not only because it works, but because God has said.

You see the difference? It's a world of difference. Abortion isn't wrong because, you know, it takes a toll on the mother emotionally. But abortion is wrong because God has said, thou shall not murder. Do you see the difference?

It's diametrically opposed. They can almost meet together and look like everything's okay, but they're as far away from one another as the East is from the West. And so we shouldn't just be happy living in a Christian moralistic society, which by the way is receding, as I said, as far as fast as you can imagine. It's only a full-orbed Christian view based on God's unchanging world and his word that can actually do any damage to the kingdom of darkness. Conservatism, moralism, it's about as effective against the onslaught of the devil as a pop gun is against a tank.

Doesn't make any inroads whatsoever, but the truth of the word of God. That's another thing altogether. And so these last 50 years, there's there's been, I would like to categorize them as four kind of axe blows, if you will, that have really come against the door and brought us to the point now where, Well, you could be a man, but you could also be a woman, you know, depending on how you decide. How did we get here? It didn't just come out of the last 10 years or the last presidential administration, but it's come over the last 50, maybe 60 years.

And the first axe blow, kind of against the door, I think is evolution, which has led to this increasing secularization where God's image you don't actually bear God's image we talked about that today you're not fearfully and wonderfully made at all right you're the result of random processes, just chance accidents coming from nothing, going nowhere. And so morality, this is the argument that secularism makes based on evolution, that morality is nothing more than a social construct that's been put in place to preserve power. Morality can shift, it can evolve just like humanity has evolved, it can grow and right now we need to grow, we need to evolve. People will make the argument the Constitution needs to evolve. People make all these types of arguments because everything is morally relative in the day that we're living in and all of that comes back to this view of evolution, that we're in process and everything is in process including truth.

Your truth is your truth, My truth is my truth. It's this complete fallacy. But that is one of the major ax blows that have come against the door. The other one is the idea of birth control and contraception going as far as abortion or the unleashing of the pill. And this is really fighting against, I said first of all evolution fights against Genesis in the sense of you've been made in God's image.

This second one fights against what God has said, the first commandment, be fruitful and multiply. And what's happened is that contraceptives have severed procreation from the context of marriage, where that was what it was like for thousands of years in all cultures. Now in the last 60 years that's no longer necessary. And so what happens is as you separate sex and procreation, you also separate sex and marriage. And lest there be the threat quote-unquote of pregnancy, They came up with this idea of the pill that you can enjoy all the things without actually having any of the ramifications or threats or responsibilities that God had originally intended.

And so we see ourselves in this situation where today four out of ten pregnancies here in America, four out of ten result in abortion. It's staggering to think of things like that. And corporations today, what are they saying to women? Freeze your eggs. Freeze your eggs, enjoy a career, and then when you're 40, then you can have a family, maybe.

But we'll take care of that middle portion and we'll pay for it. It's this total distortion of what God has originally intended. And so we see that as the second axe blow against the door. Evolution, this idea of birth control, and then divorce. What does God say in Genesis?

He talks about marriage right at the very beginning, Genesis 1 and 2, and what God has joined together, let no man put asunder. Well, up until the 60s, it required a very, very intense, complex legal process to get divorced. And the whole intent of that was to show that every divorce is a death of a small civilization. It wasn't just easy, you couldn't just go and get a divorce. It was a long drawn-out process because marriage is really the most central institution of all human flourishing.

But notice what happened come 1969. There was a governor in California by the name of Ronald Reagan, who introduced something called, quote-unquote, no fault divorce, where for the first time, you didn't need to show any wrongdoing at all. You could just get divorced. There was no wrongdoing necessary on either side of either party. The wife could just say, you know what, things just, I'm not being personally fulfilled anymore, right?

And not only did you have a personal responsibility or opportunity, you had a responsibility if you were no longer being fulfilled to go and file for divorce. And so what has happened as a result of that from the 1960s to where we are today, it's a myth by the way that 50% of marriages and divorce, that's not quite true. That's a myth. But before the 60s, before 1969 and today, it's staggering the number of divorces that have occurred and are occurring as a result of this idea of no fault divorce. And by the way, you can't blame homosexuals for that, can you?

Because there is no concept. This was heterosexuals, men and women, saying, you know what? We don't need to be married anymore. You go your way, I go my way. Split everything down the middle.

Destroy the family as we know it. Now we even have things like prenuptials where you basically embed within your marriage a virus that if things don't work out you can just push the button, boom, everything explodes and you already had agreed ahead of time what you were gonna get and what she was gonna get and you go on your merry ways you're embedding that's how far man has fallen away from God's initial design and so things have moved from a covenant to a contract And then kind of the offshoot of that is cohabitation, this idea of kind of covenant free living. You get the benefits of living together without any of the commitment. To the carnal unregenerate man, this is a perfect match for him. And now what do you see when you go around in America today?

For women under 30, think about this, for women under 30, most births occur outside of wedlock. That's unbelievable to think about that for a moment. And they say, hey, how can you get married? Marriage, this idea of living together, it's almost like a rite of passage before you get married, because you've got to try things out first. How do you know if she's tidy?

How do you know if she can cook or you know is he really what he said he was during the initial stages? So let's live together for a year and then maybe or maybe five and maybe we'll get married at some point. Totally in the face of what God has originally intended for men and for women. This beautiful bond of marriage and commitment for better or for worse. No such thing in our modern day.

And so these are the four major ax blows that we see. Evolution, contraception, including abortion in the pill. You see this idea of divorce and then this idea of cohabitation. And so I think what we wanted to do today is just primarily lay out the foundation, how we got here. It didn't just all of a sudden come in the last 10 years.

It didn't just start with the arrival of same-sex marriage coming on the scene. That just happens to be the time that most Christians began to wake up. Now that the building is literally tottering and swaying under the weight of sin, It's only now that most Christians are beginning to say, hold on a second, things aren't, how did we get here? People are becoming more frantic. Evolution?

Well, and generally speaking, not this church, but generally speaking, in Christianity, maybe God used evolution, theistic evolution, then becomes a doctrine. Totally false, compromise. When it came to things like divorce, well, you know, that's just part of the way things are. We can't really take a hard line on any of these things. Not only was there a shrug, but in many ways there was also participation by the church, where the church has been very guilty of permitting that as well.

The pill, a shrug, many many people use that for means of preventing birth and of course abortion, that's a touchy subject, Let's not get involved and say too much about that. And so all of this points to one thing, that there's a significant lesson for us today as we look forward. Because the reason that how we got here today is because of the compromises that have been made over a long period of time to bring us to today. And if we continue to compromise, there'll be totally unforeseeable consequences. When we've been awakened, Our job is to stay awakened and to live before God and before our fellow man.

And the idea is we want to live holy lives before him. Don't be surprised if you pitch your tent towards Sodom. You end up in Sodom. We shouldn't be surprised about that. And so by way of application, I think there's a few things that we just want to look at here.

Really the first one is see God's Word as the authority in all matters of life, your life included, right? This is the idea that you want to awaken yourself to purity and to walk in the light, to be light, to be salt in the world that we're living in. That's number one, taking care of your own walk with the Lord. So important because God speaks to all of these matters of identity. He speaks to all of these matters of moral purity.

The other one, as I mentioned earlier, to me when I look at this I see this is a great time of opportunity. Why is that? Well, because the grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever. See, God's word cannot be assailed simply because men have decided to go a certain course. The Word of God will stand forever, and that's by the way the foundation on which the church is built.

And so we've been called to be light, we've been called to be salt in the midst of this generation, and as cultural Christianity fades faster and faster, what you're gonna find is that the remnant is gonna become more and more targeted and more and more easily identifiable when you don't bow the knee to the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar has set up. And so we must never be ashamed of the gospel. Think of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Think of Daniel, these men, and think of a whole history of the church where men and women have stood for the truth. It's the very need of the hour to stand on the Word of God.

And here's something to think about historically. Historically, the church has often been most faithful during times of exile, cultural exile. And so to me when I look at this I don't say maybe we should just turtle and go inside our shell and wait for the war to be over, but this is the time to preach the gospel to dying men, to dying women all around us with hearts because we're always going to be as the true church a moral minority. That's fine, but we have the salt and light, the true Word of God. And so those are two things.

The other thing I want to just point out is we need to see everything in the context of a spiritual warfare because until we see things in the context of a spiritual warfare we will not pray and we will not evangelize as we ought to. If we just see things as a moral slide in the culture somehow detached from the spiritual onslaught And the one that is mainly being opposed is not us, but it's the living God. Then we won't pray as we ought to. We won't evangelize and preach the gospel as we ought to. And so we go with compassion, but we go with truth and bring the truth to bear in a wicked world.

There's always intimidation. Every time you go out and preach the gospel, there's always intimidation. Yesterday when we were at the abortion mill, there's a group of folks there, the ACLU, and then you've got another group, there's some security guards, people with phones, and all these types of things. There's intimidation. But then you remember something.

I'm not promoting myself. I'm preaching the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the foundation. And so what happens? Fear evaporates because you realize God is true.

God is the one that will uphold me and carry me through all of this. And so what you are as part of the church, you are the pillar and ground of the truth. And you can imagine sinful man, he goes there with a wedge trying his best to uproot this pillar and ground of truth, but it's rooted in God. How is man gonna uproot what is rooted in the living God? He has never been successful in the history of the age and that's because Jesus said, I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.

So I want to emphasize as bad as things are and as bad as they're likely to go and be that that's not a time for us to be dejected and this is what Charles Spurgeon says he says let us not fear or be dismayed for the Lord of hosts will go down to battle with us will bear the brunt of the fight and give us the victory. This is the God that we serve. And so as we begin this series, we want to just next week we're going to be dealing with, as I said, homosexuality and diving more deeply into that, looking at Genesis 18 and 19, and go down the line. But we really want to encourage, even in homes, at the level that's appropriate for you as parents, your judgment, to have these conversations, and even amongst young people, to have proper, mature conversations. How can we confront this world that we're living in?

Living holy lives, honoring God, preaching the truth, loving our neighbor. It's really those kinds of things. Going out and witnessing and evangelizing the lost world around us. May God give us strength as we go through this series to really be awakened and be challenged and encouraged to live before God. So before I do any questions let's pray.

Just ask the Lord to continue to help us. Father, we do come before you now and thank you so much for what you've done, Lord. The promises that you've made. If it were left to us to hold the fort, oh Lord, it would have been lost long ago. But the very fact that you are the one who sustains your church.

You are the very God of truth. Lord, it's you that we look to even in these perilous times where north is now being called south and east is being called west, where truth is called error and error truth, just like in the days of Isaiah. Woe to them! But, O Lord, may you please have mercy upon us. Help us to be that salt and light, to live Pure and holy lives in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation among whom we shine as lights in the world, Lord.

May you be with us and help us. In Christ's name, amen.