The First Foundation Stone of Christian Worldview

To our Seminar On postmodernism and the emerging church, we have the great blessing to have Pastor Jay Wetker back with us. this morning, last week, he blessed us. during the, 10:15 service, and, this morning, he'll be blessing us during the Sunday school hour. if you haven't met Jay before, he is a graduate of the, Masters Seminary and is an adjunct professor of theology, Christian worldview, and grace-driven sanctification at the Master's College.

He's also the founder of Gospel for Life, an organization he founded in 2005 to help the church recover its New Testament mission. And he's also now on staff with Christian Witness to a pagan Planet. If any of you have heard of Peter Jones and his ministry of apologetics to a postmodern and pagan world, why don't we open in prayer and then we'll, we'll give it up to Jay Weter. Let's pray.

Lord, we thank you so much for this opportunity to be here in your presence and ask that You would fill our brother Jay with your Spirit, use him, Lord, to minister to us. And open up our minds, Lord, to this foundation of Christian worldview, Lord, and we ask that you would use us to continue to be a light. In a world that is without foundations, to help us continue to be a witness, Lord, in a world that is lost and dying. And we pray all of this in Christ's name.

Amen. Let's welcome Jay Wechter. Thank you, Pastor Mike. Very much.

It's good to be with you again. I'm so excited about this topic. I work for Dr. Peter Jones halftime and then at the college and also my other ministry, so I'm really quite busy getting the word out about how to train Christians in apologetics.

Doctor Peter Jones had been a missionary to France for the better part of 20 years, and when he returned to America, he was shocked by what he saw. He was amazed that a new form of Gnosticism or paganism was becoming mainstreamed in America. And he was amazed that this had changed so much in two decades since he'd been in France. And as a result of that, he began researching madly and he wrote the book.

The Gnostic Empire strikes back. Spirit wars. Pagan in the pew. The god of sex and a couple others.

And these books are really cutting edge. It's really a cutting edge analysis of our present culture. And our premise today is that Paul's analysis, the apostle Paul's analysis of first century pagan culture, is a perfect fit for analyzing our culture today. And so if you'd open your Bibles to Romans chapter one, We're going to read together the 1st 10 verses or so in Romans chapter 1.

Romans chapter 1. Verse 18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven. Against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth and unrighteousness. Because that which is known about God is evident within them, for God made it evident to them.

For since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes, his eternal power, and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks. But they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools and exchange the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man, and of birds, and a four-footed animals and crawling creatures.

Therefore, God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, that their bodies might be dishonored among them. For the exchange the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature, rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason, God gave them over to degrading passions, for their women exchange the natural function for that which is unnatural.

And in the same way, also, the men abandoned their natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts, and receiving in their own persons, the due penalty of their error. And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind to do those things, which are not proper. What an incisive analysis of our culture today. What a testament.

To divine inspiration. that the apostle Paul should target One of the main problems in our culture today, and that is homosexuality. That he should open that topic up. In the largest epistle on salvation in the New Testament, Why would he introduce that here?

To show us that this particular perversion has a theological error behind it that drives it. What a mark this is of divine inspiration, how relevant this is for today. Almost every day when I open the LA Times, there's something in that paper about sexual politics. Something about gay marriage, something about sexual orientation, something about protecting transsexuals in school.

Almost every day, there's an article about this in our paper. Well, I've titled The talk this morning, biblical cosmology, the Christian response. To neopaganism or the new paganism. And I'm absolutely convinced.

That the way Paul begins Romans chapter 1, at least this section in verse 18 about the creation, is a really powerful lever, a powerful fulcrum by which we can tip over these idols in our culture that are threatening to capture hearts and minds. That word cosmology, don't let that throw you, it's a branch of philosophy and theology which deals with creation, the universe, and origins. So when you see the word cosmology, it's a reference to creation. At the very heart of biblical cosmology.

Is the creator creature distinction, the fact that God is transcendent. Omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent, not a part of the creation. When he made the universe. He had nothing to work with.

God and matter are not coeternal. God called everything into existence out of nothing. We call this creation ex nihilo. He made all things out of nothing, which means he owns every molecule in the universe.

And he has complete rule, reign, and dominion over all he's made. And because of this doctrine of ex nihilo, We're convinced as Christians that God has the right to tell all people what to believe, and how to live. When I'm witnessing, I introduce the doctrine of creation first. Because I want that person to know.

That God owns every molecule in their body. He has the right to tell them how to live, and they are accountable to Him and responsible to Him, and they will give an account to him someday. So this doctrine of ex nihilo is very powerful in beginning our evangelistic witness. Next, I go into the doctrine of man and woman as the image of God.

Now that's under direct attack. In this new, in this new thrust of paganism, it's under direct attack. And so I have to set up a context to share the gospel with people today. We live in a biblically illiterate culture.

I was sharing the gospel with a man this week. who grew up in a church. And he said to me twice during the conversation, Jay, God is everything. I said, No, God is everywhere, but he is not everything.

Don't confuse those two. And he kept going back to that statement, God is everything. So we have to understand that the media is just hammering our young people with this idea of pantheism, that God and the creation are all bound up together. And we've lost the concept that God is separate, altogether other and transcendent.

And he's upholding everything he's made by his power, that's being lost today. So when I began witnessing, I always begin With creation. It's absolutely important that we understand that biblical cosmology is the foundation for the gospel. The word of grace, the word of Christ crucified and arisen for sinners, only makes sense in a world in which God is omnipotent.

Creator, who's lawmaker, ruler, judge, and praise God, redeemer. The gospel only makes sense in a world in which God is sovereign over everything. And so we look to the word of God, the scriptures, to understand that God is the definer of everything he has made. He gives the designations, he gives the categories, he gives the definitions.

We call these creation structures. God has built into the universe, creation structures. That means the Lord, God of Scripture is the only fixed point of reference. By which we can properly interpret reality.

Only by his infallible word. Do we know what is true? What is real, what is right and what is wrong? Now that's under attack in our universities today.

It's been a long time coming. Before postmodernism and paganism has begun to capture the minds. Of today's Americans. It's been a long time coming.

We know how it started. It started with almost 100 years of secular humanism. That's the idea that man is the measure of all things. That no God was needed to make the universe.

No creator was needed. Everything can be reduced to natural laws. Everything we see here today is just a result of chemical properties, matter and motion. No creator was needed.

Modern science explained it all away. You're nothing but a biological machine to determine meaning for yourself. We've had almost 100 years of that in the academy. It's left destruction in its wake.

Like a giant wrecking ball which is used to devastate buildings and demolish them like a giant wrecking ball, secular humanism has moved through our culture, breaking down the boundaries set by God, boundaries between Good and evil, light and darkness. Distinctions between man and woman, man and animal. Secular humanism has been moving through our culture, smashing these things. Through evolutionary theory and leaving devastation in its wake, it's now practically our national worldview.

Go to any museum, any natural interpretive center, go to the Grand Canyon rim. And what does it tell you? Evolution made this. Evolution made you, evolution is the source of the of the species.

Is it any wonder that 75% of college students today are looking for the meaning of life. They're not satisfied that their instructors are telling them you're just a biological machine. Good luck. It's up to you to establish your own worth, your own value, your own meaning.

So make your hair purple, pierce yourself, tattoo yourself, pick up an alternate lifestyle, do anything you want to carry your own value because you're not going to find your place in the universe, unless you establish it yourself. This is what secular humanism has done. It's just swept through our society with the doctrine of what is known as philosophic naturalism. And who was the great evangelist of philosophical naturalism?

Carl Sagan. The universe is all there is and all there ever will be. Well, he doesn't believe that now. He knows better because he's dead.

Well, our premise this morning is that this secular humanism, having swept away God's creation structures, stripped the universe of meaning. has left people hungry, craving. For a replacement. that unifies knowledge.

Unifies meaning. And paganism Offers itself as that unifying principle. That's our premise today. This is what Dr.

Peter Jones discovered. This is why he wrote his books. Paganism is proposing to put the world back together again after secular humanism and postmodernity has deconstructed the world and emptied it of meaning. Paganism is now offering itself as a new ordering principle.

In essence, paganism has sprouted up in the seed bed left by secular humanism. It's sprouted up like a weed in that seed bed. See, people cannot live without an ordering principle, without some universal. They cannot live with knowledge fragmented into millions of little atoms.

They have to have a point of reference. Conceptually, Darwinianism offers itself as that unifying principle. It's a false universal, a pseudo universal, by which people try to order. Facts and correlate facts and associate facts.

But that still doesn't answer the question of man's spiritual hunger. And this is where paganism is stepping into that void. Paganism is presenting itself as a totalizing cosmology. It's gone to war against the truth of God, biblical theism.

And it's especially attacking. The fact that male and female constitute the image of God, that is under attack. This worldview lens of paganism. proposes a sweeping Moistic vision, that's not the same word as monastic, which has to do with monks and monasteries.

Monistic has to do with oneism or sameness. See, monism wants to eliminate all distinctions. Modernism proposes global harmony by getting rid of things. That divide truth from error, male from female.

Man from woman, God from man. Mom shoves everything together. And says we will achieve oneness when we drop our doctrinal differences. We will achieve oneness when we get rid of these ridiculous ideas that there's objective truth, objective good, and objective evil.

I don't know if I mentioned last week, but I went on to several secular campuses and I began interviewing students. What do you think about those terrible shootings on the campus of Virginia Polytech? Wasn't that a wicked thing that was done? Not a single student would own that act as evil or wicked.

They all described it in a perspectival manner. Well, that student from his vantage point was just releasing his rage and so on. They would not condemn the act. And it's remarkable this relativism has just come in like a flood.

So we want you to understand this morning that The antithesis, opposites, the antithesis affirmed in scripture demonstrates that this paganism is not partly right. It's altogether wrong. It's altogether evil. And it's being taught on our university campuses.

And we're going to contrast that to what is known as biblical theism or biblical cosmology. Biblical cosmology, the doctrine that God is Creator, and he's named the things that He's created. He's given designations, definitions, differences, and distinctions. That particular Doctrine is, is a really beautiful doctrine.

It says that the distinctions which God has made in creation, constitute creation structures, which are abiding and immutable. This particular couple up here. I discipled that gentleman for about 5 years. And then he led this young woman to the Lord, and I'm doing their marriage in 15 days.

So I'm praising God. He lets me work with these college kids. I met him on a college campus. And he turned out to be an amazing evangelist.

He has led 9 people to Christ in the last 5 years, and they're solidly being discipled. It's just absolutely wonderful. But I put this slide up just to enforce the idea that God has made certain distinctions. In his creation.

Heaven and earth Dry land and sea, animal and plant, day and night, good and evil, man and woman. These are distinctions which are fixed. Look how the creation account begins in Genesis 1. God separates the dry land from the sea.

He brings light and darkness day and night. And then he takes a pile of dust, and makes a man and then he separates the woman from the man, pulling out a rib of the man while he's asleep. We could say that God makes things by separating things and then establishing those as distinct. Twoness or God separating into two, is the very essence of biblical cosmology.

These creation structures or binaries of Tunis constitute boundaries or divisions that our Creator has established. These principles should not be seen merely as primitive or the very beginning of creation week, but a very fixed principle. And a teaching point that the universe has a moral base. God has written Into your being, the very institution of relationships that it should be one man and one woman that is written into your very being.

So these creation structures are not merely physical and anatomical, they're also moral. In other words, there's a moral order built into the very creation. There are certain behaviors that are against nature because they violate the creation structures. that God has put into place.

This is so vital To be fully human is to be mission focused. That God has given us a particular mandate. We are to Raise up God-fearing communities. We're to devote ourselves to marriage and family, we're to exercise the dominion mandate over the earth, and the works of God's hands.

Our identity as the image of God, and our calling is inseparable. Your identity as the image of God contains your job description. You're put here to know your Creator, love him, obey Him, enjoy him, and find satisfaction in keeping his commandments. That's your job description.

Because you're made in his very image. Well, as I mentioned in my introduction, Paul begins the very largest epistle on salvation with an analysis, an analysis of pagan thinking in a world that has lost biblical cosmology. Those of you who are students of the New Testament, you realize that when God preached, I'm sorry, when Paul preached to the philosophers on Mars Hill in Athens, how did he begin his sermon? Did he begin his sermon with A gospel presentation of sin and salvation.

No, he began his presentation in Acts 17, with a description of God's relationship to his creation. That's ultimate reality. Reality is the relationship that God bears to what he has made. And so that's how Paul began preaching to the smartest men.

In that particular region, God does not dwell in temples made of human hands. He's not served by human hands. He doesn't need anything from you. You're utterly dependent upon him.

He's not a local deity. He's not part of the universe. Paul just slams pantheism in those first few verses of his sermon to the Athenian philosophers in Acts 17. Well, when Paul begins his analysis of paganism in Romans 1, he does so by explaining that man's rebellion.

is expressed In a threefold way. This is fascinating. Man's rebellion is expressed. Conceptually, That is, he takes the knowledge of God that he has, and he suppresses it and holds it down in unrighteousness.

He studiously suppresses the light that God has given about the knowledge of God. As a result of that, The instinct that God has put in each of us to worship, that instinct is turned away from God and toward the creation. So instead of worshiping God, his Creator, he worships and serves the creation. And as a result of that, In his behavior, he uses his body or her body in actions that dishonor God and bring shame to the individual.

Sexuality and the human response and corporeal behavior is the result of worshiping and serving in creation, which is the result of suppressing the knowledge of God. So there's a logical connection here. If you suppress the truth of God, you will, as a matter of default, worship and serve the creation. If you worship and serve the creation, you will, as a matter of default, sooner or later, misuse your body.

Some form of immorality. So Paul says there's a hard connection. Between There's a hard connection, a hardwired connection between these particular activities. So the first of these three expressions suppress the truth leads to the next.

form of rebellion which leads to the next form of rebellion. First one takes place in the mind. And follow this. The 1st 1 takes place in the mind, the 2nd 1 in the spirit, and the 3rd 1 in the body.

Mind, spirit, body. Now, the apostle tells us in Romans chapter one, that God's response to this threefold rebellion, Involves wrath revealed. God's wrath is expressed in very precise ways. If man is expressing his rebellion, In the form of 3 exchanges.

Then God is expressing his wrath in the form of 3. Giving's over So look at your text again, go back to Romans 1 and let's just find these for a moment. Look at the ways that man exchanges, and then we'll look at the ways that God gives over. It says in verse 23.

And they exchange the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man, birds, four-footed animals, crawling creatures. So what's exchanged glory. Right, the next exchange is in verse 25. For the exchange the truth of God for a lie and worship and serve the creature rather than the Creator, who's blessed forever.

Amen. What's exchanged? The truth is exchanged for a lie. Now the third exchange is in verse 26.

For this reason, God gave them over to degrading passions for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural. What is exchanged? The natural function that God has given to our bodies in healthy marital, Heterosexuality that is exchanged in this passage. Now let's trace and see where God gives over in response to these three exchanges, starting in verse 24.

Therefore, God gave them over to the lusts in their hearts. To impurity that their bodies might be dishonored among them. That's a judgment. When I'm teaching at the Master's College, I ask my students sometimes, what's the worst possible thing that can happen to you in the age of grace?

God giving you over. To the lust of your minds and to a reprobate depraved mind. That's the worst possible thing that can happen. When God stops convicting you, and your conscience begins to malfunction, and God gives you your own way, that's the worst possible thing that can happen to you.

Usually when I asked that question, I say, what's the worst possible thing that can happen to you in the age of grace? They'll go, a car wreck, being a paraplegic. They think of all these things, but they don't think of a spiritual answer. OK, so this is how God begins to give them over.

He gives them over to the lust of their mind. Now, verse 26, he gives them over in verse 26 to degrading passions to perversion. God gives them over to perversion. He lets them have their own way in the area of perversion.

This is shocking. And then verse 28. God gives them over to a depraved mind to do those things which are not proper. A mind which is no longer able to reason rationally about morals and ethics.

That's a judgment of God. So we have to understand there are 3 specific rebellions Paul is addressing here and 3 specific responses from God in giving over these rebels to their own way. Now, as we examine Romans one, and this is especially clear for those of you who read commentaries, or ever dabble in New Testament Greek, Paul uses the definite article. In places he uses that very intentionally.

He uses definiteness. He puts the article, synonymous with our article, the, he puts that article in front of Truth, creature, lie, and creator. The truth. The creature, the lie, the creator.

Now this is significant for this reason. When he talks about exchanging the truth for the lie, your Bible probably says a lie, but it might say in your margin, the lie. In the Greek it is the lie. It is articulate.

It is definite. And we draw from that the following conclusion. That this parallels what Jesus said in John 8:44 that when Satan speaks, he always speaks the lie. In other words, it's the original lie.

He whispered in Eden, that you shall be as God, and you can transcend your creaturehood by this particular act. And you will achieve divinity by this particular act, and you will throw off the restraints of accountability to God, and you'll be your own God. You'll be autonomous. Essentially what Paul is saying here is every Overture of Satan since then has been some form of the lie.

Some form of the lie. Satan takes that original lie in Eden, and he hasn't really improved on it. He just has different forms of it down through human history. And so this lie about paganism, this lie of pagan worldview, is just a modern form.

Of the original lie given in Eden. That's all we're saying here. So Paul's focused language. And it is very focused language.

Paul's focused language with definite articles narrows the religious options available to the world to only two real possibilities. Either one serves the truth, or one serves the lie. Some form of a lie that was whispered in Eden. Now, in order to believe the truth, that's biblical theism, that's biblical cosmology.

In order to believe the truth, this is what you must believe. So check yourself out today. This is what you must believe. You must believe that God has eternal power.

He is eternal. His divine nature, his absolute transcendence. You must believe in his immortality, the fact that he's invisible, he's altogether other, and he cannot be equated with anything in the created universe. Immortal, invisible, the only wise God.

1 Timothy 1:17. God is pre-existent to matter. He had absolutely nothing to work with when he created all things. He called everything into existence out of nothing.

Now it's vital that we know. This contrast between one truth and one lie because we live in a pluralistic society. Your college kids. are going to start their semester in January, and they're going to be told on the campus, there are hundreds of philosophies and spiritualities out there available, hundreds of options.

And Christianity is just one of them. So how can you be so narrow and bigoted to say that you have the truth exclusively to the elimination of all others? Will you condemn all these hundreds of other spiritualities? How arrogant.

How biased If we're going to give our voices, voices back to our college students, we must tell them, look, the apostle Paul already narrowed the religious options down to 2 in Romans chapter 1. You cannot hold a wrong concept of God and escape. To speculate and hold a wrong, wrong concept of God is not an innocent, benign activity. It brings the wrath of God down upon you because it says in verses 19 and 20, you are without excuse.

You have no apologetic. You have no defense. Why? Because the nature of God, the character of God, the attributes of God are clearly seen in creation.

God has made it evident to them and what they see around them, and he's made, he's made it evident within them. The knowledge of God is written in creation, and it's also written in the heart. And they are without excuse. So the wrath of God is revealed against all those who suppress the truth of God.

In unrighteousness. Now, this gets incredibly significant, because what our postmodern world celebrates, and I just want to applaud again, the decision of this church to open up this topic of the puzzle pieces of postmodernism. I'm just so happy that they're doing this because we preach the truth of God against the backdrop of a culture that is in a death spiral. We preach the truth of God against that backdrop of reflecting upon how our culture is killing itself with philosophical suicide.

And so I am, I'm just praising God for the decision this church made to conduct this particular series of seminars. But take a look at that PowerPoint. What our postmodern world celebrates, namely the rejection of all absolutes and its assumed right to define all reality privately, is actually a sign of what God's wrath. The threat that God deals with repressors and suppressors with his wrath is not only a threat of hell to come.

God is telling us that the outpouring of his wrath is taking place now. But it's not in the form of fire. It's not in the form of burning. It is in the form of a society that is unraveling.

We need to understand this, that the present revelation of God's wrath. is not primarily speaking of future wrath. The present revelation of God's wrath. is actually in this context of Romans 1.

A present reality. It's God giving sinners over to a depraved mind. It's God giving sinners over to their lusts. It's God's giving sinners over to perversion.

It's like a little house perched on the edge of a high cliff. And as the waves tear at that soil, gradually, the house crumbles and falls to the rocks below and is crushed. So what is the present revelation of God's wrath? It is God allowing the moral fabric of society to erode away.

and crumble. That means in our universities, as sense and meaning and law and rationality are gradually destroyed, that is a sign of God's wrath. The loss of rationality, God giving them over to absurdity and foolish thinking. is an expression of God's wrath.

We need to know this if we're going to witness. I wasn't feeling particularly bold the other day, but I decided to share my faith anyway, and I walked up to 3 students at Cal Arts University. And one of the gentlemen was obviously the ringleader of the 3. The other students were looking to him as I asked questions, and this fellow, they're all seniors, and this fellow said, Well, I've studied it, I've studied philosophy extensively.

And in this area, I'm Nietzsche, in this area I'm a solipsist in this area I'm Freudian, and he starts naming all these things and I'm thinking, oh boy, I, how can I keep up with this guy? And so I let him explain what he believed, and he told me it wasn't much different than Christianity. I said, no, it is, it is. And he says, Well, I don't think that much of Christianity.

He goes, I've dated evangelical college students. He says, they don't impress me at all. So the other day I dated an evangelical girl. And then she told me this.

She goes to the Old Testament, we almost never use that. All we use now is the New Testament. as far as I could tell, the first century world, the Old Testament was their Bible. And the New Testament wasn't fully inscripturated.

So I'm thinking, boy, this guy knows his stuff. But he's using that against the truth of Christianity. So I'm just not getting through it all. And the other students with him, they're applauding, as he makes his point.

Then I try just a little bit of antithesis, contrasting truth and error. And this was his response to me. Why are you short starting the conversation by making absolute statements? In other words, he's coming back at me with with a postmodern spin on the conversation.

So I began praying silently, Lord, how can I reach this guy? And then it came to me. I'm going to ask him the question. Has, has anybody ever told you what God says about your worldview?

And so I asked him that, he goes, no. I said let me show you. Turned to Romans one, and read our text. And I'm not kidding, his head began to cock slightly like the RCA dog, his master's voice, his head began to cock slightly like the RCA dog.

And he was in shock. Because it wasn't me speaking, it was his creator speaking through the Word. He was caught red-handed as a rebel. His real animosity and innate hostility to his creator was right there in red letters.

He was caught. Well, they finally had to go, but he still left. He said goodbye. He still left with his head like that.

As he left, he was amazed. He'd heard the voice of his Creator in the word. Well, let's just look again at what the contents of this lie. really consists of the lie, remember, articular, the lie, the lie is as follows.

First of all, eliminate the truth that God deserves to be worshiped in thankfulness. And that's what we see in verses 18 and 19. They stopped giving thanks, they began to speculate, they suppress the knowledge of God studiously. All the sermons that God has written into creation, the stars, the heavens, the, the cry of a baby, all the sermons God has written into creation, they short circuited those sermons, and they said, we will not listen.

OK, so the first part of the lie is eliminate the truth that God deserves to be worshiped with thanksgiving. Secondly, overturn God's order in the cosmos, attribute that order to evolution, Darwinianism, materialism, philosophic naturalism, when actually God's order and creation is the great revealer of God. According to Romans 1:19-20, God's attributes are clearly seen in the creation. The creation is preaching a sermon constantly, Psalm 19.

The heavens are telling the glory of God. Third, replace God with another divinity, worship and serve the creature and the creation. See, once you lose this, once the lie takes captivity of you, you have lost the main pillar that holds up Christian truth. And that main pillar is, there's an infinite distinction between the Creator and the creature.

See that distinction is being lost on our young people today. They don't believe that God is utterly powerful and transcendent, and they are a dependent creature that's lost today. We're dealing with a generation of pagans, as Paul did in Acts 17. I've got to go back and establish that first pillar, that there's a creation.

There's a distinction between the Creator and the creature that is infinite. He is self-existent. I'm utterly dependent. He's eternal.

I'm living in a little tiny envelope of time, space, and mass. And though my spirit will live forever, my body as well, I had a beginning. God had no beginning. Well, Paul goes on to say that if you do this, If you eliminate the truth, By default you will serve and worship the creation.

See, even an atheist, because God created him to be a worshiper, he is worshiping all day long. Atheism does not remove the God-given capacity and desire and craving to worship. We must worship something we're worshiping all day long. So the, the person who rejects the knowledge of God is still a worshiper.

He will by default worship and serve the creation and the creature. And Paul says, when we do so, we lose our glory. We exchange the glory, verse 23. We exchange away the glory, and we reduce ourselves to that of an animal.

We barter away our glory. We are debased. We become subjected to subjected to the creation. This was typified in Israel's own apostasy when they made the golden calf.

What does the apostle say about that? The act of making that golden calf was a switch. It was an exchange. They bartered away the glory that comes from knowing.

The one true God. And they debased themselves and became like an animal. Isn't that interesting that preceded their party, their banquet, their orgy. I sometimes ask my students at the college, why did they make a golden calf before they descended into partying and debauchery?

Why did they make a golden calf first? The answer is golden calves don't require holiness. Golden calves don't mind if you commit adultery and get drunk. Golden calves have no holy attributes.

Well, here's my point this morning. That our society is being captured by sexual immorality, and there is a philosophy, a theology, a cosmology that stands behind it, and we need to know what it is. If we're going to adequately defend the faith, we must know what cosmology is driving this madness for sexual immorality in our culture. Our culture is literally worshiping sex.

In a slightly different way, but with just as much vigor as the ancient fertility cults of Canaan. Our culture is very close to being right there. One of my favorite authors, John O. Anderson, brings out from the Book of Hosea, that the pagan cultures of Canaan had a fertility rite, where you worshiped by illicit sexuality, and then you slew, you slew infants.

And if millions of American babies are aborted every year, are we not also sacrificing our infants to a god of illicit sexuality? Though we don't have altars that look like Moloch, we're still doing the same thing. So paganism's stance on sexuality is a huge expose of its real operations. We believe that the lie, which we just looked at here from Romans one, will work itself out.

In the way sexual immorality takes place, and in particular, homosexuality. How have our presidential candidates been cornered? homosexual political agenda is what's cornering our political candidates. They don't even know how to respond.

Edwards was asked about his stance on gay marriage. All he could do was appeal to his Baptist upbringing. As the source of his sentiment. And at the end of the interview, he says, oh, I'm sorry I said all that.

He just apologized. He had nowhere to go. The lie, the lie, articular, the lie will work itself out and sexual immorality, in particular in homosexuality, because homosexuality is an overturning of God's created order, says Paul. It's absolutely true.

Deny God's created order, deny the creation structures he has put into the universe, deny that they preach who he is, and you will choose an unnatural way of living. These two particular systems, biblical cosmology and pagan cosmology, are absolutely enemies of one another. I'm having trouble advancing this. You can't help me with that, can you?

There we go, OK. So what we need to understand is that homosexuality follows paganism everywhere. Wherever paganism is taught, homosexuality will be. committed defended and advocated.

So who are the hugest, who are the largest purveyors of paganism today? university campuses, who are the largest defenders of paganism today? university campus who are the largest defenders of homosexuality today? Secular university campuses.

This is eye opening. That paganism paves the way for homosexuality because homosexuality is the preferred sexual expression in pagan culture. Neo pagans talk about their homosexuality as if it is spiritual. June Singer, who's a Jungian psychologist, says the following, androgyny is the sacrament of monism.

In Certain pagan forms of worship, the homosexual priest of paganism seeks to destroy creative distinctions and seeks to join opposites to form a particular pagan spirituality. In contrast to monastic pagan worldview, the Tunis of biblical theism explains so much of the Christian life. Is that one of the earlier slides? No, it isn't.

OK, I'm right on track here. So the Tunis of biblical theism upholds the immutability of the creation structures that God has set into place. So we could refer to this. As hetero, or distinct or differences in cosmology, the differences that God has established.

These particular distinctions being heterocosmology celebrates the creator creature distinction. Hetero spirituality celebrates the otherness and transcendence of God, which makes possible true worship and intimacy. See, in paganism, you never worship the God who's outside of you, you worship yourself. Paganism is a praise and celebration of self.

It's devilish. It's narcissistic. In biblical cosmology, nature and the creation give praise to God. They do not receive praise.

And then lastly, heterosexuality is union with a difference. It symbolizes the relation of God and the world in a love relationship with a person who is different from us in gender. This is God's plan. This is under attack.

In order to try to produce global spirituality, global oneness, androgyny, In the defense of homosexuality as a proof that the human race is still evolving. In Norway this week. In one of its top museums, an exhibit was just put up. It's 85 examples from the animal kingdom of homosexuality.

which are seeking to prove that homosexuality is a mark. Of evolution, progress, survival. See, when man does not look to God for creation structures, he puts on a lab coat and looks to the animal kingdom to justify violence, perversion, distortion. Excuse me.

I'm stuck again here. Oh, there we go. OK. We have to understand what the goal of paganism is.

It is to destroy these opposites and then form a conjunction between them. Those of you who are aware of this new bill, SB 777, which would defend transsexual behavior in elementary, junior highs, and high schools, in secular or junior highs, high schools, and junior highs, I'm shocked at what it says. Some of the wording says that you will not be able to make a distinction between gender. You can't even use the word mother and father without using homosexual parent as well.

And if a student feels like cross dressing that day and using the bathroom of the other gender, they may do so. They want to make our schools indoctrination centers for this pagan worldview. This is coming at us like crazy. Pagan spirituality seeks to erase distinctions between God and man.

You are divine. It seeks to erase distinctions between man and animal. You're just an animal. It seeks to erase distinctions between man and woman.

You may change your gender. New York Transit Authority. says that the gender on your birth certificate doesn't necessarily apply. You may use whichever restroom you please.

That just came out 2 months ago. Well, Paul tells us in Romans chapter one that overturning the created order with these creative distinctions will result in unnatural ways of living. The break and this is a painting of the Tower of Babel, the breaking down of the gender binary of male and female is central to the whole new vision of society, the pagan vision, which intends to usher in a new moral order with new laws and new ethics. If you take the God of Scripture out of the legislative process, you will legislate vices, and call them ethics.

And that's what's happening today. Take God out of the ethics. Take God out of morals and your legislative process. You will legislate vices and call them good.

See, the deconstruction of male and female lays the groundwork for a new morality. In which laws are made to prevent discrimination against alternative lifestyles. The pagan worldview rejects God's created order and substitute pagan cosmology in its place. This all brings me to my closing point this morning.

And that is my heart beats for college students today, Christian college students who need to get their voices back. How we need to train our Christian college students in this antithesis between these two cosmologies. I believe this will give them their voices back to a great degree. Because one of the big problems today is that these liberal leftist professors have framed the issues so completely that they intimidate our college kids.

And the college kids are told, you cannot think outside of this leftist box. You can't think outside of this box. Every, all the territory outside this box is bigotry. We will not allow you to think outside this box.

We've got to equip our college kids. To give an answer in the academy. And I believe biblical cosmology is one of the main ways of doing that, teaching these kids antithesis evangelism. Let's look at the two worldviews.

Let's look at what each worldview teaches. And let's look at the consequences of each. Paul has told us the consequences right here. Overturn God's created order, and it'll result in unnatural ways of living.

We can do this, people. We can Romans one is the key. So biblical cosmology. is what we really need.

These liberal educators have framed the issues. They've come up with the categories. We need to come back with biblical categories to answer them. And I believe that Romans 1 is really key in this.

It's one of the main ways we should equip our college kids to give an answer and give them their voices back. Excuse me. I want to leave time for questions. So I'm rushing through these last few slides here.

Our task as Christian leaders is to provide students with the cosmological and theological categories necessary to enable them to stand against the pagan worldview. If we don't do this, it's like sending lambs into a pack of wolves when we send them off to college. We must be more proactive about preparing and equipping and world-proofing our kids for college. This should be starting in junior high and high school.

To get our kids grounded in biblical worldview. Central to our strategy. is to set up a contrast between pagan and biblical cosmology. And then we show the consequences of each.

There are dire consequences of pagan worldview, and Paul catalogs them in Romans 1. By contrast, Christ the Lord is Lord of the cosmos, Lord of His church, Lord over all truth. He is sovereign over all knowledge. He alone reconciles to God.

He is at the very center of our worldview. And what's remarkable to me Is that the same Greek word that is used. God gave them over. Poidommy, that same Greek word is used by Paul in Romans 8, where he says that God did not withhold his own Son, but delivered him up and gave him over.

for us. The same God who puts people under his wrath, gives them over to a depraved mind to perversion and to their lust, gave over his Son, that the Lord Jesus Christ might absorb that wrath into his own being, and God might wrap around us his own righteousness as a robe and then adopt us as his children. We have a great gospel to preach. Against the backdrop of God's present wrath being revealed now, we have a powerful gospel to preach, but we should preach it against that black backdrop of society's present condition and what God says about it in Romans chapter one.

Pastor Mike said if I stopped at 10, that we would have time for a few questions. So, Let's take just a couple of questions. this morning. Well, I couldn't have answered all your questions.

So there must be a few, how this applies to your own witness to the campus ministries. To your educational goals for Cornerstone Church, yes. Last week, Absolutely. And thank you for bringing that up.

That reminds me that anybody who would like notes from last week, Pastor Mike Berry can get you a copy. In fact, those four questions are in that 6 pages that 6 page outline, but those four questions are, who made you? Where'd you come from? What is a human being?

What is the value of life? Why is your life sacred? What has gone wrong with the world? What can we do to fix it?

And we often use those four questions on a secular campus to open up this whole topic of worldview and pave the way for the gospel answer to those four questions, yes. I always do. Yeah, I always do because I start with Creator, sin answer, yes. You, You beginning, I, As well as Absolutely.

I have a bibliography of worldview books, so some of them are keyed to about 9th grade. But there's also a curriculum from Summit Ministries with David Noble that allows just an excellent class and worldview to be taught at the high school level. And many Christian homeschool groups and Christian schools are using the David Noble Summit Ministries curriculum as well. But there's also a great need for more writing to take place in the area of biblical worldview for homeschoolers, certainly a need, yes.

Yeah, and what age are you suggesting? Wow. I've got a pastor friend of mine that I'm in the ministry with, and he began a simple catechism with his 4 year old. And she loves it.

They're on a cross country trip and just boom, out of the blue, she'll she'll just start giving part of this catechism. God made all things, nothing made God, and she'll just start, why not? Yes. Yes, Del Tackett.

Who has joined forces with Focus on the Family has a particular series called The Truth Project. There's just some excellent articles in the magazine that James Dobson publishes. The Truth Project also is a, is a DVD series, which is just phenomenal. The only problem is you have to go to one of the conferences to buy the DVD, but that's the only drawback.

They're going to black market that one of these days. OK, one last question, and then we'll close. Yes, As far as parents that they're trying to Sending their kids I Oh, I sure do. In fact, I'm in the process of writing a worldview quiz.

And I don't think your child should go, your young person should go to a secular college, unless they can pass that test. If we haven't world-proofed our kids, they will, they will be assaulted, and they won't know how to defend themselves in a secular college. There are shocking statistics. The Southern Baptist Convention.

is now seeing an 88% apostasy rate among their young people who go to secular colleges. 88% of young people from the Southern Baptist Convention deny their faith by the time they graduate from a secular college, so it's bleak. We have to be really active. Yes, in public school Oh boy.

can I meet with you afterwards? OK, I'm gonna ask Mike Barry if he close in prayer for us. Let's first just thank Jay for coming out the past couple of weeks. It's been great.

Let's go ahead and pray. Lord, we thank you so much for your word and, for revealing Yourself in creation, and placing God knowledge in each man and woman. We pray, Father, that Lord, we would be equipped, more and more equipped here in this body to share the gospel. And also, Lord, we just, cry out to you with our brother Jay.

That you would help our young people to grow up and, and learn to embrace Christ for themselves and to know how to defend it and live for Christ, Lord, in an increasingly pagan culture. We pray that we would do the best job we can as parents and as a church to equip our young people as they're growing up here. And Lord, that we would by your grace, not see those statistics, Lord, that our young people would grow up to be mighty men and women for Christ. We pray this in the name of our Lord Jesus.

Amen.