The End The. A. Oh. A. And we look forward with great
anticipation as to what the Lord is going to do through to the Word of God and seek God's
face in prayer for His blessing upon the ministry of His Word,
I do want to, first of all, respond to the gracious welcome of your
pastors and say that I never come into a situation like this,
where we have prayed for a church and for the servants of God who
labor in that church, but what If I'm privileged to come and
meet them face to face, I am struck afresh with the great
biblical truth of the Word of God concerning the existence
and the reality of the universal Church. Many of our people would
not be able to locate Vernonia, Oregon on a map, but they know
that every few weeks in the cycle of praying for our sister churches
of like faith and order that Pastor Dickey, And the work of
God here in Bernonia is prayed for publicly in our assembly.
When letters are sent, those letters are read, and the concerns
are spread before the people of God. And even as coming into
your midst has given me a fresh sense of that reality, that the
people of God are one in all parts of the world, so also as
we meet tonight, you are being prayed for in these meetings
literally around the world. There are some 250 or 300 individuals
who over the years have asked that I keep them informed concerning
outside ministries, and two weeks ago I sent out an annual itinerary
of where I would be, and there are people in Australia, Pakistan,
one brother in Cyprus, people in the United Kingdom, and many
parts of the states, some down in the Caribbean, Trinidad, the
Dominican Republic, they are praying for you and for me in
these days together. And that also gives me a wonderful
sense of the unity of the church universal throughout the world.
And so it is a great privilege for me to meet you, to see your
faces, and I look forward especially to that time on Saturday, God
willing, if the Lord gives us good weather, when at the picnic
we can get further acquainted in face-to-face conversation
and fellowship. Now the subject matter that I
agreed to address in discussing these meetings with your elders
has been announced in the brochure under this title, The Christian's
Role in a Wicked Generation. And if there were one text of
Scripture that would act as the overarching biblical statement
of the things we will be addressing, it is found in Philippians, the
second chapter. I will not be expounding this
passage tonight. I shall be expounding a portion
of it in a subsequent message. But if there were one passage
that I would desire you to remember, and forever to associate until
you go to glory with these days together, it would be this passage
in Philippians chapter 2, verses 12 through 16. So then, my beloved, even as
you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now
much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear
and trembling, For it is God who worketh in you both to will
and to work for his good pleasure. Do all things without murmurings
and questionings that ye may become blameless and harmless
children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and
perverse generation among whom you are seen as lights in the
world holding forth the word of life, that I may have whereof
to glory in the day of Christ, that I did not run in vain, neither
labor in vain." And you can see that the very subject of our
meditations together, the Christians' role in a wicked generation,
has overtones of Paul's words that you may, as children of
God, shine as lights in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. Now let us pray that God's blessing
will rest upon this, our opening message in this series, and then
throughout our entire time together, that we shall know his very special
presence. Let us pray. Our Father, we do thank you for
your goodness that has spared each one of us to this hour.
We thank you for the special joy of being able to look into
the faces of those for whom we have prayed in recent years. We do thank you that the work
of your grace is a work which, when effectually wrought in the
hearts of men and women, brings us into a oneness that transcends
even personal acquaintance. And we thank you for this great
reality and pray that as tonight we are here before one another
and before you, the living God, that you will come and minister
to our hearts with power, that many will look back upon these
days as a watershed of deep heart dealings with you. Speak to us,
then, by the power of your Spirit, through the Word, we ask in Jesus'
name. Amen. Now, in the light of the subject
of our series of messages, the Christians' role in a wicked
generation, it's crucial to our treatment of the subject that,
first of all, we be convinced from the Scriptures that ours
is indeed a wicked generation. Unless I can convince you from
the scriptures that the terms wicked generation rightly apply
to our generation, then our subject matter falls to the ground. And
secondly, not only must we be convinced that this generation
is a wicked generation, but we must also be convinced as to
what we mean by a Christian. and have in our minds a biblical
understanding of the description and identification of a true
Christian. And so tonight we will focus
on the identification or description of this generation as a wicked
generation, God willing tomorrow night on the identity of a true
Christian, And then, God willing, on Saturday night, we'll look
at the precise description of the Christians' role in such
a generation, and then on the Lord's Day, in the three sessions,
we'll examine three crucial areas in which Christians must, by
the grace of God, fulfill their role in this wicked generation
if the Church is to earn the right to be heard in its witness
to the ungodly. Now then, tonight we're going
to concentrate on the identification of this generation as a wicked
generation. And as I attempt to open up the
scriptures on this subject, I shall do so by means of stating and
then proving from the Word of God three simple propositions
or assertions. Proposition number one, In a
general sense, each generation since the fall of man can be
described as a wicked generation. In a general sense, each generation
since the fall of man can be described as a wicked generation. Our Bibles begin, as almost all,
if not every one of you knows, with the doctrine of creation. And all that God desires us to
know about how this world began is condensed into two brief chapters,
Genesis chapters 1 and 2. And no sooner do we finish the
account of creation, but that we have a hundred different questions
that we wish God had addressed in Genesis 1 and 2. All kinds
of questions arise with respect to God's creative activity, but
it's as though God is saying to us, all you need to know about
how this world came into being, starting with Genesis 1-1, in
the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, And ending
with Genesis chapter 2, God performing the marriage ceremony of Adam
and Eve, and there we find them in total nakedness before God
and one another, without shame and marital bliss. God then moves
immediately into chapter 3 with these words, Now the serpent
was more suffering. from the glorious account of
that pristine creation in which the only perfect man who ever
lived, save our Lord Jesus, and the only perfect woman who ever
lived, are placed in a perfect environment, no indwelling sin,
no temptation to come to them from the world without, and no
sooner is that account completed but that God says, now the serpent
It's as though God is saying to us, once you have grasped
the fact that this world in which you find yourself is my world. It exists because I created it. You exist because I created you. God says, the second great lesson
I want you to learn is, that this is a sinful and a fallen
world. And I'm going to tell you how
sin entered into my perfect world. And then we have the account
in Genesis 3 of the horrible intrusion of sin upon the human
race. And the result is that we are
not even halfway through, or just about halfway through the
chapter, and we find the man and the woman made in the image
of God, made for fellowship with God, made to have open-faced,
unashamed communion with God. They have plunged into sin, and
they have actually aligned themselves in their heart allegiance with
the devil, the archenemy of God. But God does not leave man in
this alignment with the devil, but in chapter 3 and verse 15,
notice what God says. After God has spoken to the serpent,
and after God has told the serpent that he shall be cursed for his
activity, Then God says in verse 15, I will put enmity between
thee, that is the serpent and the woman, between thy seed and
her seed. You see, God is saying, my first
two creatures, Adam and Eve, have aligned themselves with
you, Satan. But I will not allow that alignment
to go on undisturbed. I will put enmity where now there
is amity and unity and friendship and loyalty. They had sold themselves
to the devil. But God in grace comes and says,
I will put enmity. I'm going to separate out from
this loyalty to you, Satan, Working through the serpent, I will separate
a people for myself and eventually your head will be bruised, though
in the process you will be able to bruise the heel of the seed
of the woman. As Satan desired to be God and
was cast out of heaven, hinted at very strongly in Isaiah 14
and perhaps in Ezekiel 28, So Adam and Eve desired to be as
God, and they were cut off from fellowship with God. And according
to Romans 5 and verse 12, you and I were there. For Romans
5 and verse 12 says, Wherefore, as through one man's sin entered
into the world, and death passed upon all, for that all sinned. When did all sin? All of us sinned
in our first father. You children know there are times
when you may take a ride on daddy's back, and you may have a piggyback
ride. Well, if daddy falls, you fall
with him. God piggybacked the whole human
race on Adam. And God said, Adam, if you stand,
the whole human race stands with you. If you fall, the whole human
race falls with you and in you. And so we, in Adam, sinned. We fell, and our alignment was
with the devil himself, so that by nature we are not the children
of God spiritually, though we are His creatures. We are the
sons and the daughters of the devil. so that the Apostle Paul,
in summarizing the condition of all men, in all places, in
all cultures, for all time, can describe that condition in the
language of Romans chapter 3, verses 10 and following, pulling
verses from various parts of the Old Testament. As it is written,
there is none righteous, no, not one. There is none that understandeth,
there is none that seeketh after God. They have all turned aside. They are together become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good,
no, not so much as one." Well, you see, if this description
is true, then my first proposition is valid. In a general sense,
each generation since the fall of man can be described as a
wicked generation. And this is why the Apostle Paul
has no problem whatsoever saying that in the time period from
the coming of Christ in the flesh to redeem his people until his
second coming, It will be marked by abounding wickedness among
men. 2 Timothy chapter 3. Know this,
that in the last days, in the days from the first until the
second coming of Christ, grievous times shall come. Men shall be
lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, haughty, railers, disobedient
to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, implacable,
slanderers, without self-control, fierce, no lovers of good, traitors,
headstrong, puffed up, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers
of God. Verse 13 of the same chapter,
evil men and imposters shall wax worse and worse, deceiving
and being deceived. Now this is God's unflattering
description of His expectation of human nature. And contrary
to the so-called evolutionary approach to human life and existence,
instead of man becoming better and better, God's Word says he
shall become increasingly degenerate. So there is no generation of
mankind that can collectively say with the Pharisee in Luke
18.11, I thank thee God I am not like other men. Any generation
of any people in any culture at any time and any place is
a wicked generation. Judged by the law of God, there
is none righteous, no, not one. And though in certain periods,
through the operation of saving grace and the operation of what
we call God's common grace, there may be more or less degrees of
wickedness But in a general sense, each generation since the fall
of man can be described as a wicked generation, and that will be
true until the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Responsible exposition of the
Word of God does not lead us to believe, with the liberals,
that man, by pulling himself up with his own bootstraps, will
get better and better. Or with the evolutionists, man,
by some inherent forces, who knows where they came from, will
get better and better. or even with gracious, God-fearing,
Bible-loving people who see some latter-day glory in which there
will be basically a converted world in which the world will
be filled with Christian nations, I say all such notions do not
stand up to this clear teaching of the Word of God. Every generation,
in a very real sense, can be designated as a wicked generation
And this will be true until the very coming of the Lord Jesus,
for he said, nevertheless, when the Son of Man cometh, shall
he find thee faith on the earth. But then I have a second proposition.
In seeking to demonstrate that this generation is a peculiarly
wicked generation, and it is this. Not only have we seen from
scripture that in a general sense, Each generation since the fall
can be described as a wicked generation. But proposition number
two, in an intensified sense, some generations are more wicked
than other generations. In an intensified sense, some
generations are more wicked than other generations. And I want
you to look with me at just three specimen generations that fit
this description. First of all, the generation
before the universal flood that came upon the earth, as described
in Genesis chapter 7 and following. And if you'll turn with me to
Genesis 6, notice the description of the generation of men immediately
preceding the flood. Genesis chapter 6 and verse 5. And the Lord saw that the wickedness
of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of
the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that
he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy
man whom I've created from the face of the ground, both man
and beast and creeping things and birds of the heavens. For
it repented me that I have made them. Then notice verses 8 and
following. But Noah found favor in the eyes
of the Lord. Here was one man, who found favor
in the eyes of the Lord. And yet his disposition toward
the rest of mankind is that he's going to utterly blot them out. And verse 21 of chapter 7 says
that's exactly what he did. And all flesh died that moved
upon the earth, both birds and cattle and beasts and creeping
thing that creeps upon the earth, and every man all in whose nostrils
was the breath of the Spirit of Light, of all that was on
the dry land died, and every living thing was destroyed that
was upon the face of the ground, both man and cattle and creeping
things and birds of the heaven, and they were destroyed from
the earth, and Noah only was left, and they that were with
him in the ark." You see, this was a uniquely wicked generation. So wicked that God said, I've
had enough. I will take no more. I'll blot
out this generation and I'll start all over again with Noah
and his family. And so while it is true, and
Scripture makes this abundantly clear, that any and every generation
since the fall of man is a wicked generation, there are some generations
that are uniquely wicked. Proof number one, the generation
at the time of the flood. Then when we move into the history
of the nation of Israel. We find the generation of Manasseh,
king of Judah, was a generation that was uniquely and horribly
wicked. 2 Kings chapter 21. 2 Kings chapter
21. We read of Manasseh in verse
2. He did that which was evil in
the sight of the Lord after the abominations of the nations whom
the Lord cast out before the children of Israel. And then
it specifies what he did in raising up altars to the false gods of
the heathen nations that God had driven out of the land of
Palestine. The reinstitution of consorting
with evil spirits. and with people who dealt in
familiar spirits. And we read at the end of verse
6, he wrought much evil in the sight of the Lord to provoke
him to anger. And then he set up the god of
sex and all of the horrible, or the goddess, the Asherah,
and all of the horrible immoralities that attended that heathen worship
until we read in verse 9, "...but they hearkened not, and Manasseh
seduced them to do that which is evil more than did the nations
whom the Lord destroyed before the children of Israel." Remember
it is said that God did not yet drive out those nations because
the iniquity of the Amorite was not yet full? God tolerated these
horrible abominations in these heathen nations until He says,
enough is enough. And then He brings in the invading
armies of Israel to drive them out as a judgment upon them. And yet of Manasseh it is said
that He seduced the nation. to sin in ways that exceeded
the sin of the heathen nations who God himself had driven out. And so we can say that the generation
of Manasseh was indeed a uniquely evil, wicked generation, until
God says in 2113, I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria
and the plummet of the house of Ahab, and I will wipe Jerusalem
as a man wipeth a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down. God says, I'm going to completely
destroy and judge that nation that has so grievously sinned
against me. And there is a third example
of a uniquely wicked generation, not only the generation at the
time of the flood, the generation of Manasseh, king of Judah, but
the generation which crucified the Lord of glory. In Matthew
chapter 12, Our Lord is responding to the demand of the religious
leaders that Jesus show them a sign. Now obviously they did
not mean just a miracle, for they had seen the Lord Jesus.
healing the sick, raising the dead, performing miracles of
every kind. But when they said, we want a
sign, they wanted some sign in the heavens. They wanted Jesus
to wave His hand and have the moon and the stars play leapfrog
with one another. Rearrange the constellations.
And Jesus said, look at verse 38, certain of the scribes and
Pharisees, Matthew 12, 38, saying, Teacher, we would see a sign
from thee. But he answered and said unto
them, An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign,
and there shall no sign be given to it but the sign of Jonah the
prophet. He says this is a uniquely evil
and adulterous generation. Likewise, when Peter addresses
that very nation on the day of Pentecost, we read in Acts chapter
2 and verse 40, a text we'll look at at the conclusion of
our message tonight. Peter is preaching on the day
of Pentecost. His sermon is interrupted when
people come under deep conviction of sin. He gives them a distillation
of a response that quiets them so he can complete his sermon.
And we read then in verse 40, "...and with many other words
he testified and exhorted them, saying, Save yourselves. A better rendering is, Be saved
from this crooked generation." One of my married daughters,
when she was about 14, 13, developed scoliosis. Some of you know what scoliosis
is. It's a curvature of the spine. It comes from the Greek word
scholios, which means crooked. That's the word Peter used. Save
yourself from this crooked, this bent, this unusually twisted
generation. This generation to whom he'd
spoken earlier in the sermon and says, you by wicked hands
took Jesus of Nazareth and crucified him, this one whom God has raised
up and made his Christ. This is why Paul, writing of
that same generation in 1 Thessalonians chapter 2, uses this very strong
language. 1 Thessalonians chapter 2 and
verse 14 For you, brethren, became imitators of the churches of
God which are in Christ Jesus, in Judea which are in Christ
Jesus. For you also suffered the same
things of your own countrymen, even as they did of the Jews,
who both killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove out
us, and please not God, and are contrary to all men, forbidding
us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved, to fill
up their sin always, but the wrath is come upon them to the
uttermost." He says, wrath has come upon them to the uttermost. Yes, every generation is a sinful
generation, but in a unique way, This was a peculiarly evil generation
that not only crucified the Lord of Glory, but continued to oppose
His apostles and His servants and the message of salvation
in His name. So I trust I've convinced your
judgment from these three samples, and that's all they are. that
while each generation is a wicked generation, it is equally accurate
to state that there is, and in an intensified sense, a doctrine
of generations that are peculiarly wicked generations. And that leads us then to proposition
number three. There is abundant warrant to
designate this present generation in our country as a peculiarly
wicked generation. There is abundant warrant to
designate this present generation in our beloved country as a peculiarly
wicked generation. And I want very briefly to give
you four indications as to why that designation, alas, is warranted
at this time. of our own nation, of this generation. Number one, this is a wicked
generation in its intellectual perversity. This is a wicked
generation in its intellectual perversity. Sin entered with
the temptation, you'll remember, you shall be as God knowing. Remember the words of the serpent?
You shall be as God, knowing. That's how sin entered. Do you
know the devil has advanced beyond that now? And what he has done
to this generation is said, you shall know without God. He said to Eve, You shall be
as God knowing. He says to this generation, you
can know without God. God is irrelevant to true knowledge. We can know all that we need
to know about ourselves, our behavior, our world, family life,
male and female roles, societal life. We can know all we need
to know about economics and politics and geophysics and international
relationships, and we don't need to factor in God at any point
whatsoever. And so on all the great issues
with which men wrestle in our own day, we've heard it till
it comes out our ears, discussions about the real root causes of
the disruptions in Los Angeles in recent weeks. We hear the
Great Ones discussing what really led to the breakup of the USSR. The huge, stalking red bear that
for decades, by subversion and militaristic aggression, gobbled
up nation after nation. And the bear has been decimated.
And people say, why? How? What lies behind it? But
in all of their discussion, men assume, we can know without factoring
in God. We can know what lies at the
root of the disruptions in L.A. God is not a factor in any of
those concerns. Well, I want you to turn to Romans
chapter 1 and see what God has to say when men seek to know
without God. when in all of their knowledge
they factor out God deliberately and willfully and resolutely. Romans chapter 1. As Paul is
demonstrating the universal need for the gospel, he sets the backdrop
of God's wrath hanging like a dark cloud over all men. Verse 18 of Romans 1. For the
wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness
and unrighteousness of men." Now notice the first description
of men, who hinder or literally hold down the truth in unrighteousness. The one thing ungodly men don't
want is the truth. The truth they don't want, for
the truth reveals them to be what they are, and it humbles
them. And then he goes on to say, particularly
what truth it is that all men know, verse 19, that which is
known of God is manifest in them, for God manifested it unto them.
For the invisible things of him since the creation of the world
are clearly seen. God has smothered his world with
his fingerprints. You cannot look at a leaf and
not see it smothered with the fingerprints of God. You can't
look within, you can't look without, at God's universe and not see
it smothered with his fingerprints. But men say, I'll see the leaf
and I'll ignore the fingerprints of God. I'll see myself and I'll
look within at this mysterious creature called man, but I will
not see the fingerprints of God all over him. Verse 28 summarizes
it. And even as they refused to have
God in their what? In their knowledge. They refused. They literally, they judged and
did not approve that it was worthy to have God factored into their
field of knowledge. That's why I said the devil's
temptation to this generation is you shall know. Not you shall
be as God knowing, but you shall know without God. And as they
refused to have God in their knowledge, God gave them up. But the important thing for this
particular heading is to see that a generation that by and
large has said, whatever we're going to know about any field
of knowledge, God is not a necessary or a viable factor in the field
of our knowledge. I say that is a peculiarly wicked
generation because Psalm 14.1 says, the fool hath said in his
heart, there is no God. So a man may have six earned
Ph.D. degrees, but if in all the endeavors
of his acquisition of knowledge he hath not factored in God,
he is nothing but an educated fool. God says, the fools have
said in his heart, no God. This is why in verse 22 of this
same chapter it says, professing themselves to be wise, they became
fools. You see, they pity us foolish
ones or who are so naive to believe that God is the essential factor
of every part of knowledge. That's naive, simplistic. You're
the fools. We are the true intellectuals.
We come with a neutral, unbiased approach. Oh no, God says you
don't. You come with a positive, wicked
bias that says, whatever I see, I won't see God's fingerprints.
Whatever I attempt to know, I don't factor in God. And they hold
down what they know. And God says, professing themselves
to be wise, they become fools. The four pillars upon which any
knowledge of any facet of God's world is to be acquired, those
four pillars are the biblical doctrine of creation, the biblical
doctrine of the fall, the biblical doctrine of redemption, and the
biblical doctrine of common grace, and they're all in the first
nine chapters of Genesis. Isn't it interesting that it's
those early chapters of Genesis that the so-called experts continually
fight? The anthropologists, geologists,
paleontologists, astronomers, oh how they hate the simple account
of creation. how they mock at the simple account
of the fall. Why? Because on those four pillars
are built and structured all through knowledge the doctrine
of creation, fall, redemption, and common grace. And I say this
is a uniquely, peculiarly wicked generation in its intellectual
perversity because this nation in its early founding long before
the war of independence was molded and shaped by a perspective that
predicated God into the equation of all reality. So much so that
the remnants are still found in our pledge to the flag, one
nation under God. One of the few remaining remnants,
but it's only a shadow of what once existed as a visceral conviction. that we could know nothing unless
we said to the psalmist, in thy light, we shall see light. There's a second indication that
our generation is a peculiarly wicked generation. Not only in
its intellectual perversity, but this is a wicked generation
in its moral degeneracy. In its moral degeneracy. The so-called sexual revolution
of the 60s has produced a generation in which adultery and fornication
are accepted lifestyles, celebrated with laughter in so-called innocent
family sitcom programs on television. Steaming illicit sex scenes,
the daily fare in the soaps, And who dares speak of what Hollywood
spews out and finds its way into the theaters of our cities and
of our towns? Homosexuality and lesbianism
no longer called perversion, abomination, just called alternate
sexual preference. Moral perversity. Woe unto those
that call evil good and good evil, God says. honesty and truth
have fallen in the streets before political expedience and personal
ambition until we have a nation of cynics who wonder if anyone
seeking any office at any level knows how to tell the truth. Am I making this up or are you
living in the same world I'm living in? This is the real world. It's a world in which We see
not only intellectual perversity, but moral degeneracy. And according to Romans 124,
those two things are handmaidens, and I want you to notice that.
We've seen the intellectual perversity that rules out God from the field
of knowledge, what always follows. Look what the scripture says.
It tells us in verse 24, when men rule out God in their intellectual
pursuits, wherefore God gave them up in the lust of their
hearts unto uncleanness, that their bodies should be dishonored
among themselves. Why? For they exchanged the truth
of God for a lie. They exchange truth for a lie,
worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, and
God is already manifesting His wrath in that He gives men up
to perversity. Verse 26, For this cause, this
cause, that they exchange truth for a lie, intellectual perversity. For this cause, God gave them
up to what? Moral degeneracy, vile passions. Their women changed the natural
use into that which is against nature. And likewise, men leaving
the natural use of the woman burned in their lust one toward
another. Men with men working on seemliness
and receiving in themselves. that recompense of their error
which was due, and as they refused to have God in their knowledge,
he says it again, God gave them up to a reprobate mind to do
the things that are not fitting This looks like a description
of 20th century America, filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness,
covetousness, maliciousness, envy, murder, strife, deceit,
malignity, that's malice, whisperers, back biters, hateful to God or
haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil things,
disobedient to parents, without understanding covenant breakers,
one out of every two marriages ending up in the divorce court.
Covenant breakers. Unmerciful? What's happened? Following upon the intellectual
perversity is moral degeneracy. Moral degeneracy, so that in
this kind of a situation we have to say with Paul, it is a shame
even to speak of the things that are done of them in secret. But then there is a third indication
that this generation is a peculiarly wicked generation. Not only the
intellectual perversity leading to moral degeneracy, but thirdly,
it is a wicked generation in its social anarchy. Social anarchy. When God created man, even before
sin entered, according to the comments we have in the New Testament,
in the very order of creation of the male and the female, God
was establishing a hierarchical structure. not demeaning the
woman, but assigning a glory to her in her place of subordination
to the man, 1 Corinthians chapter 11. And it's no more demeaning
for a woman to take that place than it was for Christ, the incarnate,
eternal Word, to be subordinate to His Father. It was His glory
to do the will of Him that sent Him. It was not His denigration
and His disgrace, it was His glory. And then after the fall,
God institutes human government with the power of corporal punishment,
even to restrain evil, Romans 13. Governments are instituted
of God to punish the evildoer and to reward the good, and God
has put the sword of vengeance into the hand of the civil governor. And whenever there are measures
of common grace and a great impact of the gospel in special saving
grace, in place of social anarchy, where men bucked against all
of the structures that are meant to hold them in. They love those
structures and feel comfortable within those structures. But
we live in a day in which we see social anarchy. In the home,
parents losing control over their children. In the schools where
I come from, they're like armed camps. millions of taxpayers'
dollars being paid out to have metal detectors through which
every student must pass on his way to the classroom. In society, disrespect, cynicism
toward those in authority, we've come to the days of Judges 21-25,
the last verse of the Judges It sounds this note, this doleful,
doleful note that is sounded several times throughout the
book, but in a sense it's a summary. In those days there was no king
in Israel and every man did that which was right in his own eyes. Social anarchy. The only judge
of right and wrong in human relationships was a man's own eyes. Every man
did that which was right in his own eyes. And according to Romans
129, passage we just read, social anarchy is the fruit of God giving
men up because of their intellectual perversity and their moral degeneracy. He further gives them over to
social anarchy, disobedient to parents, implacable. That's someone you can't make
peace with him no matter what you do. That's the inveterate
racist, white, black, Hispanic, Oriental. It makes no difference.
They're in the heart and they refuse to be placated. Social anarchy. Then I say there
is a fourth undeniable indication that this is a peculiarly wicked
generation. Add to its intellectual perversity,
moral degeneracy, social anarchy, perhaps the worst. It is a wicked
generation in its religious apostasy. in its religious apostasy, that
is, in turning away from the truth as revealed in the Scriptures,
and the power of that truth is applied by the Holy Spirit. And
yet man, being the religious creature he is, it's amazing,
the more he abounds in wickedness, often the more he abounds in
the forms of religion. Turn to 2 Timothy chapter 3 for
a clear indication of this, in the words of the Apostle Paul.
2 Timothy chapter 3. We've already looked at the earlier
verses. In the last days grievous times
shall come. Men shall be lovers of self,
lovers of money, boastful, haughty, railers, disobedient to parents,
unthankful, unholy, all of these indications of moral degeneracy,
and yet look at verse 5, holding a form of godliness, that is,
holding all of the external structures of godliness, holding on to religious
rituals and ceremonies and activities and places, holding the form
of godliness, but having denied the power thereof. Their religion
changes nothing. It's just an added extra. Somehow to sad man's insatiable
desire to worship something, somehow they hold to the forms
of godliness. But they deny its power. We find the same thing in chapter
4. After Paul is charged Timothy to preach the word, He says in
verse 3, the time will come when they will not endure the sound
or literally healthful teaching, but having itching ears, will
heap to themselves teachers after their own lust and will turn
away their ears from the truth and turn aside unto fables. You see, though they cannot endure
sound doctrine, they don't turn their back. on preaching and
church? No. They are experts at heaping
up teachers whose one great area of proficiency is they know how
to relieve the tickle in itching ears. That's what Paul says.
It's almost a form of biting sarcasm. Heed to themselves teachers
who cannot invade the conscience by means of the ear, who cannot
illuminate the mind in saving truth, who cannot warm the affections
and see wills transformed and redirected, oh no, they only
reach the outer vestibule and people's inveterate itch for
something religious, they know how to relieve it. You know,
kids, when you get an itchy place in the middle of your back and
you can't quite reach it, you say, oh mommy and daddy, I got
an itch, please scratch, oh no, no, a little bit over there,
up there, oh, you got it, good, good, feels so good. Well, that's
the picture here. These people have itching ears.
And they have teachers who know how to scratch them until they
sit there, oh, that feels so good. That's the picture. Doesn't make me better, it makes
me feel good. Doesn't make me deal with my
sins and make me right, just makes me feel good. Now Paul said this would be the
mark. In the midst of abounding wickedness is religious apostasy. And if ever we lived in a generation
that had a glut of religion that holds the form of godliness but
denies its power, it is this generation. And therefore there
are denominations that formally approve the ordination of women
to the office of elder, though God says by his inspired apostle,
I suffer not a woman to teach nor to usurp authority over the
man. And they have the nerve to say
that's Paul the prejudiced rabbi speaking, not Paul the inspired
apostle. And yet they still claim to be
evangelicals, many of them. And they think nothing of ordaining,
outspoken, self-confessed, practicing lesbians and homosexuals to the
office of the ministry and leadership in Christ Church, not to speak
about even retaining their membership. And then we have a sickening,
slick evangelicalism that knows how to get people decisioned
and respectable and in the church, and then gives them sort of a
watered-down, low-key, tonight's show with super personalities
who can make them laugh and feel good and have just enough smattering
of Jesus to salve their consciences. No serious worship, no earnest
prayer. A thousand people in the morning,
two hundred at night, and if they have a prayer meeting, twenty
or thirty. If anyone should suggest to the
thousand that maybe what they have is something less than real
and saving religion, he's called a legalist. People who fill themselves in
the damnable lie that they can have all the benefits of the
cross of Christ without ever coming to grips with the implications
of the crown of Christ, that they can snatch at the benefits
of Christ as Savior and not bow to the implications of Christ
as Lord, They can have heaven to come, but no heaven in their
heart now. They can be perfected in holiness
when they go to heaven, while they're not pursuing holiness
here on earth. This is holding a form of godliness,
but denying the power thereof. Now, dear people, this has been
a sad picture. I felt a little sick, even putting
it together at my desk today. This is not a worn-out series
I've even preached to my own people. tailor-made for this
conference. It's in the process of being
made. But I want to ask you, does it carry your conscience
that the picture's accurate? When I say that this is indeed,
according to the Scripture, a peculiarly wicked generation, I hope I've
carried your conscience. What then do we say in the light
of it as we bring the message to a practical conclusion and
application tonight? Well, I want to say to you who
may not be Christians, to you who are unconverted, if you're
a part of this generation, the fact that you're here under the
sound of the Word of God with a group of people serious about
the worship of God and the preaching of His Word, how thankful you
should be you're not sitting somewhere tonight with people
concerned to entertain you and make you feel good whether or
not you're right with God. If you go out of here miserable
as an unsaved person, we'll rejoice. Not because you're miserable,
but we'll rejoice that you've begun to come in touch with reality.
Because if you're unsaved, my friend, you ought to be miserable.
The wrath of God hangs over your head, and you're just a heartbeat
away from dropping into hell. And my message to you, as I indicated
earlier, is in that text in Acts 2 and verse 40. With many other
words, Peter testified and exhorted them, saying, Be saved from this
crooked generation. For you who know a little Greek,
it's an heiress passive imperative. It's not a middle, save yourself,
but be saved from this crooked generation. My friend, you can
be rescued from this crooked, this evil generation. You can
be delivered by the power of God and the salvation that is
in the Lord Jesus Christ. In the same way you see a man
in a torrential river And it's about to sweep him away and you
throw out to him a life preserver and say, man, lay hold of it. That's what Peter was saying
to this generation. Be saved from this crooked generation. Lay hold of Christ. Lay hold
of Him with a death grip. For that's what faith is. It's
the death grip of the soul upon Jesus Christ who died for sinners
and lives to break the power of sin and to make good all of
His promises of salvation to those who trust Him. Own the
fact that you are part of this generation, that your life, to
one degree or another, is a living monument. It is a wicked generation. And God says, be saved from this
crooked generation. Be saved the only way sinners
can be saved. by repenting of your sin and
believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. But then to you, the people of
God, I have two simple exhortations. In the light of seeking to establish
tonight that this is a wicked generation, I have two words
of exhortation. Number one, be aware of the peculiar
dangers of living in a wicked generation. There are peculiar
dangers of living in a wicked generation. One of those dangers
is the cooling of your own affections to Christ. Remember what Jesus
said? Whether he was speaking of the
generation just prior to the destruction of Jerusalem, or
the generation living just prior to his return. In Matthew 24,
12, he said this, And because iniquity shall abound, The love
of the many shall wax cold. Abounding iniquity acts like
a flood of water upon the embers of burning devotion to Christ.
Beware of the sin of cooling affections to the Lord Jesus. That church at Ephesus had more
of the input of the Apostle Paul than any other church. It had
him for three years. It got that marvelous epistle
that we call the Book of Ephesians, opening up the doctrines we love
so dearly, applying them so specifically and practically, and yet the
risen Christ had to say to that church in Revelation chapter
2, I have somewhat against thee. Why? Not that you've denied truth. He said, no, you have tried those
that say they are apostles, and you have found them liars. They
did not tolerate heresy. And they were evil men, practicing
things inconsistent with the name of Christ, and they exercised
discipline. But he says, I have this against
thee, thou hast left thy first love. They had allowed the pressures
of a godless society. The iniquity that abounded there
at Ephesus at that seat of the heathen worship of Diana, God
of the Ephesians, they had allowed it to dim the burning, shining
ardor of affection for Christ. And I plead with you, dear people
of God, be aware of the peculiar danger of living in this wicked
generation, the cooling of your affection to Christ. Secondly,
the pressure to be ashamed of Christ. Mark 8, 38, Jesus said,
Whosoever shall be ashamed of me in this wicked and adulterous
generation of him shall the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes
in his glory. You see, when at every point
there is this intensification of wickedness, in the schoolroom
you're mocked out if you dare to confess you believe this world
came into being by the spoken Word of Almighty God. This world
did not start with some uncaused spark or bang billions or millions
of years ago. This world came into being when
the Eternal God spoke. Galaxies sprang from His lips
in an instant. He spoke and it was so. You say
that in your science class. You say that to your prof in
college. And you'll bear the reproach
of Christ, but he said, whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of
my words, in this adulterous and sinful generation of him
shall the Son of Man be ashamed. Be ashamed of the one who by
his words says that virginity until marriage is noble and pleasing
to God. And dare to say, young woman,
to any man that tries to make a playground of your body, this
body belongs to Jesus Christ. And the sanctity of my sexuality
is being kept for the man that God has marked out for me. Keep your hands off, Bucko. And
you young men who don't set a double standard, and you say, as virginity
is God's standard for women, it's God's standard for men as
well. Anything else is fornication
or adultery. And in this wicked generation,
for you to dare to face men in their mid and early twenties,
and the question is asked, have you had a woman? And you say,
no, I'm a virgin, and to be mocked out. Are you queer? Look them
straight in the eye and say, no, I have all of my God-given
sexual drives and appetites, but I'm pleading for grace to
keep them walled in and chained until God gives me the legitimate
outlet in a godly life. Don't be ashamed of Christ and
of His Word! It's a peculiar temptation in
a wicked generation, the pressure to be ashamed of Christ. You
women, Someone says, oh, what's your job? Don't you ever say
in my presence, just a housewife. You'll get a little five-minute
sermon. It won't cost you a nickel. Just a housewife? Just a housewife? Just a molder of a life? just
the shaper of a destiny, just the preparer of someone to take
his or her station in life, a support to my husband, a crown of glory
to my husband, you'll get me on a soapbox. Whenever my wife
fills out forms and it says occupation, then it says down there housewife,
I say, now you fill out occupation. I work in my home. I work. People say, does your wife work?
I say, yes, she didn't, she wouldn't eat. The Bible says, if any will
not work, male or female, let him not eat. Oh, well, what I
mean is, does she work outside the home? I say, well then, fine.
Word your question precisely. My wife works in the home. And she does a good bit of work
outside the home, but it's works of mercy and compassion and giving
of herself to others and to her grandchildren, and to her daughter-in-law,
and to the others who need her! Are you ashamed of his words? Are
you being bullied at all, or do you, in a right sense, with
dignity say, I unashamedly take the place assigned by my God
for me? You young women, don't let anybody
bully you into holding your head down, ashamed that you're not
pursuing a career. My two daughters, the only girls
that ever got a full scholarship to a prestigious secretarial
school in our area. And both of them, when they went
in the first day in the class of some 300, 350 a year apart,
they went in and they asked the question, what are your future
goals? In both classes, my girls were the only one that raised
their hand and said, my goals are to be a wife and a mother.
They looked at them like they were, but then they looked at
their transcript And they saw they had the highest scholarship
available, and the only time in the 75-year history of that
school they ever gave it to members of the same family. And that honor me will I honor,
whosoever shall be ashamed of me. That's a peculiar danger
of an intensely wicked generation. The cooling of our affection,
the pressure to be ashamed of Christ, then the erosion of our
sensitivity. Remember Locke? We don't have
time to look at it in detail, but you meditate on 2 Peter chapter
2, and it says that his righteous soul vexed from day to day with
the filthy conversation of the wicked. And it's evident it took
the edge off his sensitivity, and the subsequent history of
Lot is a shameful one in many ways. And this can happen to
you, and it can happen to me. To you, dear people of God, be
aware of the peculiar dangers of living in a wicked generation,
but then I want to close on this positive note. Be alert to the
peculiar privileges of living in a wicked generation. You say
there are privileges? Yes! The privilege of demonstrating
the truth of Romans 520b, where sin abounds, grace does much
more abound. The darker the backdrop, the
more brilliant does the diamond of God's grace shine. And in
a wicked generation like ours, what a privilege to live and
to be a living monument in your life, in your home, in your place
of business, that where sin abounds, grace does much more abound. When I was going back over those
passages in Genesis, it struck me. If we read that the generation
before the flood was a relatively godly generation or a generation
that had much common grace, these words would not mean anywhere
near as much. Genesis 7 and verse 9. These are the generations of
Noah. What were the generations of
Noah? The wicked generations. So wicked that God says, I'm
sorry I ever made man. I'm going to blot them out. But
here against that dark backdrop, listen to what it says, Noah
was a righteous man and blameless, perfect, upright in his generations,
Noah walked with God. There isn't enough sin in the
universe to keep any man or woman from walking with God, who is
determined to walk with God at any cost. What a privilege to
live in a generation when God's grace can be magnified all the
more against the backdrop of abounding sin, the privilege
of demonstrating where sin abounds, grace does much more abound,
and the privilege of being salt and light when it's needed most. When Jesus said in Matthew 5.13,
you are the salt of the earth, the primary connotation of that
is you are the means of preserving the earth from putrefaction.
There in the eastern countries with no GE or Sears refrigerators,
salt was used as a preservative, and the salt is never more needed
than when the heat is most intense and would multiply the bacteria.
We live in a heated, moral, religious, ethical, intellectual climate.
Heated with the feverish brain of man's own departure from God. And God says, you're soft. You
are my means of checking the putrefaction of your neighborhood. You be the one family where there's
love and communication and godly order with loving leadership
in the husband. with noble, trustful submission
in the wife, where children are ordered and structured and disciplined
and trained and loved, you be sought in the midst of that putrefaction. What a privilege to be sought
where and when it's most needed. And then he said in verse 14,
ye are the light of the world. Your headlights don't shine very
brightly at dusk. that you get a dark night in
which the moon is not shining and the stars are covered with
clouds. And I tell you, those headlights
are brilliant lights. And so the darker the moral and
religious night in which we live, the brighter does the light of
the individual Christian shine. What a privilege to be light
in such a dark world. I counted a privilege when, in
a day when common grace is so eroded that just Ordinary courtesy
is looked upon now as almost something freakish. I love to
watch the look on someone's face when, just yesterday flying in,
you do a little act of kindness for someone. When the bin is
open and the guy can't reach his baggage, you take it out
with a smile and hand it to him. And you don't have your hand
out for a tip. When you see a woman that has
a wedding band on and she looks to be in her early seventies
and she's flying alone and you say, Lord, I imagine that's a
widow. She's going to visit her children. Maybe she's going to
visit some relatives. And sure enough, as I drew her
out and she got over the initial fear of a man talking to her,
she was a widow, lost her husband just a year ago. And before long,
she was opening up her heart, telling me how hard it is to
live with your lifetime companion gone. in the day when people
are out to exploit. What a privilege to be light,
to show interest in the needs and the concerns of others. Dear
people, we shouldn't go around moaning and groaning about how
bad it is. We should thank God that he's
brought us to the kingdom for such a time as this. Yes, we
will watch and pray in the light of the peculiar dangers of living
in a wicked age. But then we will also with joy
thank God for the privilege of being the backdrop in which God
will magnify his grace and to be light and salt when and where
it's most needed. Well, I hope I've convinced you
from the scriptures this is a wicked generation. And God's brought
us to it. Now the question is, what is
the Christian's role in a wicked generation? And God willing,
tomorrow night we'll look at the question. First of all, what
is a real Christian? We're talking about the Christian's
role. Not a mere nominal, professing Christian, but a real Christian.
What is his role? And I trust you will come expecting
and praying, and that God will meet our waiting hearts. Let
us pray together. Our Father, we thank you for
your holy word. We thank you for your people
in this place and for their serious attention to that word tonight.
We pray that the Holy Spirit will take his own word and write
it upon all of our hearts. We pray for those among us who
are part of this wicked generation, who have not been delivered from
it by the power of the gospel, Even though some may have heard
the gospel times without number, in mercy, O Lord, deal with them
even this night. And for your dear people, we
pray that you would grant us renewed watchfulness, lest we
be carried away by the pressure of wickedness. And then give
us a renewed sense of privilege that we may, by your grace, rise
to the occasion of our privileges in Christ. And as never before,
be the instruments of your grace to demonstrate to a needy world
that there is indeed a true and full and real salvation in our
Lord Jesus Christ. Seal your word to our hearts.
Take each one safely to his home. Grant us all a good night of
rest and your blessing upon us in the day to come. We ask in
Jesus' name. Hey. so so It's a You.