YP Talk—Joe Countouris
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So the topic I'd like to talk to you guys about tonight and I'm just going to be 5-10 minutes.
Is relativism.
And relativism in regards to culture or morality. And so if you look up relativism and Google on your phones, this is one of the definitions that you'll read, the doctrine that knowledge, truth, and morality exists in relation to culture, society, or historical context and are not absolute.
The doctrine that knowledge, truth and morality exist in relation to culture.
Society for historical context and are not absolute.
So I'm talking tonight about.
An offshoot or a subsection of human wisdom which really is taken up in First Corinthians 1:00 and 4:00.
And it's just another Ave. that Satan is going to try to attack you. And if you were to go to a professor at a college who is an atheist, almost every single one of them would believe in relativity.
Everyone would believe that you would have to look at the society in which the moral dilemma that you're presenting.
Or the historical context in which the moral dilemma that you're presenting is found for him to be able to say whether that was right or whether that was wrong.
Does anybody know why man?
Who does not believe in God would believe in something like relativism.
To ease this conscience, that's true.
So I would just add to that. I think that is the answer if there is something that is absolute.
Who made it?
Who made it? Absolutely. There must have been someone who made it absolute, that this moral question is always absolute. And the only Ave. that that takes man is that there's a God and that they are responsible to that God. And so man comes up with terms like relativism and they tell you that there are no absolutes.
And that the society says it's OK.
And it's OK. And if you look back in history, you see some of the horrors of the flesh. If it happened in a society that said it was OK, then it was OK because there are no absolutes.
So just a couple of examples lying.
Is lying an absolute or if you feel that the lie only rises to such a level?
It's not that bad.
Then it's OK. Or if you live in a society that says a little white lie isn't that bad and as long as it's not going to change the course of the world, it's OK. Does that make it OK?
What about abortion?
If the society that you're living in says that abortion is OK, does that make it OK? If you look back in history at different cultures and you see a society in history that performed abortions and they thought it was OK, does that make it OK? What about murder? What about cannibalism?
Did you know that the heart of man in regards to.
This belief leads them down the path to allow for every.
Depraved thought and action imaginable because they don't want to be responsible to a God, a God that actually loves them. And you guys, if you guys go to school, if you go to college, if you interact with your coworkers.
The intellectuals of this world, this is where they're going to be coming from. This is their set of beliefs. They're going to be instructing you and trying to teach you from that standpoint, and you need to be on guard.
So where do we always come to in regards to man's wisdom versus what God says?
Come back to his work and what do we find in his work?
00:05:01
We find that there is a God in the beginning God.
Created the heavens in the earth.
We had Bob, Tony talk to us today about that God and and the incredibleness of his creation.
We find that that God spoke.
And not only did he speak, but He's given us His word. And you can read about that in Second Corinthians near the end, halfway down to the end. And also we can read about that in First Timothy chapter 3. I'll just read the verse. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for correction, for instruction and righteousness.
Not only is there a God, not only has He spoken, not only has he given us his word.
But that word teaches us how we learn the power to live what we're to do, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.
So let's look at God's Word in relation to just these few things that I've mentioned.
And see what God says about why, what God says about killing, about abortion. And these are just a few apples that they kicked off in your life. You're going to face tons of questions and.
Attacks in regards to it's OK, everybody's doing it, it's OK, society allows it, it's OK. You have to come back to the word of God and say what does God say about this and be satisfied to be on God's side.
At his word side OK, so in Proverbs chapter 16, it says these six, these six things the Lord hates A7 are an abomination for him. A proud look aligned. What does God say about lying? He said it's an abomination. Sam, do we want to take up with something that's an abomination? Tam, you're going to live in a culture that says it's OK.
We don't.
Hands that shed innocent what?
Taking all killing, is there anyone anyone more innocent than children in regards to abortion?
Or killing at all. These things are an abomination to the Lord, and I know, I trust, I know that all of you can easily see these things.
So there's going to be many more.
Moral questions that you're going to be faced with in your life, you have to come back to what God says.
And stand with God in relation to His Word, not with man's wisdom.
All right, that's all I have.