Five Modern Ideas, One Ancient Lie | Intent to Deceive and Divide

Well, happy Sabbath, brethren. I hope everybody's having a great Sabbath. It was a beautiful drive down. The trees are starting to change a little bit, a little bit more up further north than where you are. They're changing just a little bit more up there, but it'll catch up down here and it'll be just as beautiful. So we'll go ahead and get started with this, and I don't have my watch with me or my timer, so hopefully we don't go too much over time.

So by way of introduction, throughout my life, I've seen many monumental changes in society. I'm sure some of you have seen more than I have, but it seems within the last 10 years or so, maybe even 20, and especially the last five, there have been so many changes, and they're just happening at breakneck speed. It's incredibly, I mean, if you weren't watching it, if you were watching a movie or something like that, you would think, wow, that's really going by fast.

Some of the societal changes that I've observed is we've gone from a five-by-eight week, in other words, working five days a week, eight hours a day, to a seven-by-24 week. Everything's open all the time. If you're still in the workforce, haven't retired yet, you have this little leash on you called a smartphone, and it's constantly, you're getting emails, people are contacting you about, and we're in a worldwide society, so to speak, and people overseas, it's daytime for them, nighttime for you, no one cares. It's always going.

We have instant communication. 10, 15 years ago, let's say, let's back up more, like 25 years ago, 30 years ago, something happened overseas, you would hear about it within a couple hours. Nowadays, you hear about it almost as it happens from many different sources.

Social interaction has shifted from being with each other to everybody's on a computer or smartphone, and they may be talking. My wife and I joke with each other, "Text me that," and she's sitting right there. I mean, that's the way that this society has gone.

Secularism. We see that God has been taken out of our society, or there is a mechanism that's taking God out of our society. I think in the Midwest here, we do see it, but not like you do on the West or the East Coast or other places.

There is a general acceptance of lawlessness, and an encouragement of lawlessness. Don't have to go far, just turn on the TV and listen to the news. What is illegal is actually being thought of as being good, and obeying the law is thought of as being bad.

We see our American or US society embracing socialism. 25 years ago, 10 years ago, that was unheard of. However, people are embracing it. People are moving away from representative public rule into socialism or communism. Basically, that's what socialism is.

People are more divided on issues which were not big issues a few years ago, but I think through media, news, with a bias, they've made gender into a big thing. You know, we can't even define what a man and woman is in our society anymore. We can't define, you know, there's just a lot going on that changes our perception, and we see this stuff happening over and over.

So in this message, we are going to briefly explore a few of the drivers behind these social shifts and discuss the underlying intent. The title of this sermonette is "Intent to Deceive and Divide." I was going to use my laptop. I've got it running behind.

So some of the drivers of our changing society: one is multiculturalism, another driver is moral relativism, wokeness or DEI, critical race theory, or modern humanism. A lot of these drivers, when you listen to it and what they propose to do, they don't sound too bad. But when you get deeply into it, and you get into the core of what these theories are doing to our society and what the intent is behind what they do, is they're trying to remove God from our lives and our society and replace Him with something else.

So we'll briefly overview these. This is not an in-depth message to define what these are. I would encourage you to do your own homework and look into them. Don't trust; prove it for yourself. So we'll briefly highlight how they intend to remove God from our society and individually.

So basically, a very basic definition of multiculturalism, and you can research all this yourself. However, the language, I warn you, that they use is academic. It's made, in my opinion, to mask what it really says. It's academic, made for academics. So multiculturalism is the coexistence of diverse cultures, where culture includes racial, religious, and cultural groups, is manifested in customary behaviors, cultural assumptions, and values and patterns of thinking and communicative styles.

Doesn't sound too bad, but when you dig into the weeds, boiled down to actually what the goal of this, obviously, is to change society, but a primary goal, when it's all boiled down to a reduction, is to silence or eliminate Judeo-Christian beliefs for tolerance and implied acceptance of other beliefs. So basically, the belief in God is, you don't need to believe in that. Believe in what society tells you. Believe in what the group tells you. But who's telling the group? Great question.

It replaces individual rights with group rights. So they're taking what God has inspired in the Bible about individual rights and replacing it with group rights. What's good for the group is better. If it's not good for the individual, well, that's too bad. We have to focus on the group. The promoted goal is you no longer have a choice as an individual. Rather, you must conform to the choices of this group.

The next area that we're going to just briefly touch on is, make sure I'm on the right page, yep, moral relativism. What moral relativism is, is the view that moral judgments are true or false only relative to the person's or societal viewpoints. In other words, it's what I think is right is right, not what, nobody can tell me what's right or wrong. I make that decision for myself.

The problem with moral relativism is a problem called moral progress, which seems right to a person regardless of laws, man's or God's, and societal norms. There is no right or wrong. It's what you think is right or wrong. And another problem with it, there's the tolerance paradox, which simply means that there is no objective for right and wrong. We know there is an objective for right and wrong. It's outlined in the Word of God, which we read and follow.

The next item is, or indicator, is woke. Woke is the realization all minority groups, primarily the people of color, are inherently treated substandard compared to the majority groups. So to correct this wrong, history is revised to reflect accomplishments of minorities, and what may have really occurred is removed to promote minorities. So it's a revision of history. And what happens if you don't know your history accurately? You repeat it.

The Bible is often viewed not as an inerrant or supernatural revelation, but rather as an ancient text based on patriarchal, imperial, and pre-modern social structures that promotes the values of the majority groups. So basically, what they're saying is, oh, the Bible was written by the majority. It was a patriarchal system, which we know is wrong, their view, not ours, so we need to dismiss it. So what do you do when you dismiss the Bible? You take God out of your life and society.

The next area is critical race theory. Basically, what critical race theory is, is all people, specifically white people, are inherently racist. I think that's just totally wrong, but that's the belief. So what it does, it classifies all peoples into groups rather than being made in the image of God. So you have a group of white, group black, and green, purple, whatever it is, and they're all their individual groups, and the group that's white is oppressing all these other groups, which we know that's not true. And we know that, well, in some cases, probably there have been mistakes made in the past, and there's people out there that probably do that, but we have people, of God's people, we don't do that. When it says to not be unequally yoked, it's talking about being unequally yoked with unbelievers. We are one body before God, and God doesn't look at color. He calls all men. It doesn't say white men, black men, green men, purple men, or whatever.

So the other part of that, a component of critical race theory that tries to get God out of the picture, is this. It says the systemic problem is oppression and power imbalances and group conflict. But what does the Bible say? What's the systemic cause of problems? The core problem is individual sin against God. And these theories try to remove sin and say it's society.

The last, and I'll just briefly touch on this one also, modern humanism. Modern humanism basically says there is no God; all reasoning, advancements, philosophy, laws, et cetera, is through science and human thought. So you take God out of the picture, and we'll do it for ourselves. We don't need God.

So where did all of these theories start? Big revelation, very big secret. We all know the answer, or we will know the answer. If you turn with me to Genesis 3, and I'll turn there and just make sure. I didn't get a chance to check my notes, my scriptural notes, but I just want to make sure I'm correct. So Genesis 3, and we'll read verses 1 through 5. I have my notes. I just want to confirm it's correct. I believe it is, but yep.

So starting in verse 1 in Genesis 3. The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the Lord had made. One day he asked the woman, Did God really say

and God taught both Adam and Eve His ways,

Did God really say you must not eat of the fruit from the tree in the garden? Of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, the woman replied. It is only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God said you must not eat or even touch it, for you will die.

The first lie, in the beginning of all these lies that lead into these theories that is intended to remove us from God and society from God, is:

You won't die! the serpent replied to the woman. God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing good from evil.

You remove God, and you make the decisions for yourself. All these theories that we just briefly discussed removes God, and we make our own decisions, or somebody makes a decision for you. None of these drivers that we briefly talked about are new. They've been around since the first deception. It all started in the Garden of Eden with the deception of Eve. Satan was telling Eve, you don't need God. You can decide for yourself what is right and what is wrong.

What does God say? What does God think of these philosophies? Well, He hasn't written anything in a while. Well, nothing's new under the sun. It's in the book. Paul addressed these, and they're addressed throughout the entire Old Testament and New Testament. So in Romans, we'll read Romans 1, verses 21 through 22, then skip down to 25.

Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn't worship Him. Society rejects God as God or even give Him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was, what God is like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools.

Verse 25. They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator Himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen.

People have rejected God and have started worshiping themselves and the creation instead of the Creator. And as part of that, when you put God out of the picture, mankind was created to worship something. So what do they worship? They worship things. We see that in the idols. They start worshiping science. They start worshiping themselves. They start worshiping ideas and philosophies.

So what is the purpose of these philosophies? We've touched on it already, but the purpose of these philosophies are: remove God, divide peoples, deceive people into thinking they know more than God and can be better at directing their own lives, deceive people from knowing their ultimate destiny. Satan is at war with God. He knows his time is short, and he knows that man is destined to become part of God's family, and he will do anything to disqualify us from that purpose.

So how can we avoid this trap? Number one, trust God, knowing we cannot fully decide what is wrong and right for ourselves. We can have an idea, but we need to trust God to guide us. I refer to Jeremiah 10:23-24, where it basically says our lives are not our own, and we're not able to fully plan our own course. So seek God to help you find the right way. And I like the very last part of it. Please be gentle. Correct me, but be gentle. (laughs)

Point number two, don't fall for false philosophies. Use the Word of God as the standard. No matter how good a philosophy may sound, how enticing it, if there's one part of it that's false, it doesn't reflect what God says, there's likely other parts of it that's false. So test everything by God's standard, by His Word. Colossians 2:8. Don't let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ.

So rely on God, rely on Christ for the revelation, and test all things.

So in conclusion, many of these philosophies and doctrines may sound good and may stand up to human reasoning, but does it stand under critical examination, God's reasoning? Does it stand up to the standards that God has outlined in His Bible? Does it have the fruits of the Holy Spirit? If it doesn't, the intent behind it is to deceive and divide people, including the very people sitting here, the people of God. We need to be careful and not fall for the trap. If they do not adhere to God's Word, they will divide and deceive us. It may not be right away, but if that seed's planted, if it's not smushed, it will grow into something that it shouldn't. However, we take God's Word, and that seed is planted, and we water it and nourish it through prayer, fasting, and study, that will help guard against these deceptions.

Final thoughts and a couple questions. What's more important to you, us, me? Is it the cares of this world, or is it the coming Kingdom of God? Our focus should be on the Kingdom of God. Is it? We are using the Word of God and His Spirit as a defense from being deceived by ungodly humanistic doctrines. Are we?