Ethical Humanity Week 3
Notes
Transcript
Intro
Intro
Over the past few weeks, we have been discussing what it means to be “Ethical.”
This is defined as “relating to moral principles or the branch of knowledge dealing with these.”
So, one’s ethics=moral principles
In case you haven’t been watching the video lessons, which I highly encourage you to do, I want to take a moment to recap our main arguments.
We have been looking at “Social Justice.”
And what I mean is not simply justice in society, because I am all for that, as should you. But rather, we are talking about this broad an encompassing “social justice movement” that is polarizing our country right now. I’m talking about:
-Black Lives Matter (organization)
-Sexual Identity Issues
-Sexual Abuse
-Racism
-Cancel Culture
All these things and more belong to a broad generalization of what we now call “Social Justice.”
Recap
Recap
The first week, we made the point that true social justice can’t merely be a social construct. It has to be grounded in something objective.
Objective means “true.” An objective statement would be something like, “That floor is made of concrete.” Its true. If you disagree, then your wrong.
So, true social justice must have an objective starting point.
And the problem with mainstream social justice movements is that they don’t have one. And that is because our current social justice movements are nothing more than current, socially constructed rules that change as time goes on. And thats because they are built upon a Darwinian framework that says this, “We are nothing more than higher evolved animals.” Which means there is not purpose, which means we make up rules as it is the most beneficial.
And we made the argument that “origin determines purpose.” So we went back to the Garden of Eden and read this,
27 So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
Being made in the image of God gives purpose. It gives an objective standard for which all of mankind are to treat one another.
You see, Social justice tells you who to love and who to hate.
God’s justice tells us this:
37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
You see, God’s standard for justice tells us to love you neighbor regardless of who they are. There is no differentiation. We love our neighbor because he is made in the Image of God. Its as simple as that.
The past two weeks left us with 2 conclusions:
We must know our origin to understand our purpose
Where the image of God is absent, so is the value of life.
Today
Today
We are going to look at “how” we begin to address those issues. We’ve said that if you don’t go back to the beginning, then you don’t understand purpose. We’ve looked at the beginning. Now, what is man’s purpose?
Q. What is the chief end of man?
A: Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.
Great. What would you do if I sent you home now and said, “Boom. Go glorify God forever.”
Because we say that a lot, but I don’t know if we actually spend much time explaining how we glorify God. So, today we are going to talk about HOW we glorify God, and HOW that should actually replace our culture’s social justice movements.
Pray
Pray
Illustration
Illustration
What is the point of art?
Ultimately, its to bring glory to the artist. Right? Why do people want a Monet? Or a Van Goh? Because the art they create points back and gives glory to the artist. In this same manner, we have a Creator, the Great Artist, who has made everything in this world. It is so wonderful that it can’t help but to give glory to its creator:
1 The heavens declare the glory of God,
and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
6 The heavens declare his righteousness,
for God himself is judge! Selah
But, the real glory-bearers: the real creation that points to the greatness and glory of God is man. WE are the ones made in his image, and as such give him glory. This is why the Westminster Shorter Catechism says, “Man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.”
Transition
Transition
Dane Ortlund says it best when he wrote:
“When we live to glorify God, we step into the only truly humanizing way of living.”
You see, the problems we have been discussing over the past few weeks are only solvable in light of glorifying God. Let me say it another way: This world only functions correctly when man is living to glorify God. Anything else ends in crime, hatred, abuse, violence, slander, deceit, anger, vengeance, pain, hopelessness, death.
Now, you might tell me that you agree. Man should indeed be living to glorify God. But, the disconnect happens when we try to define HOW one lives for the glory of God.
I’m going to suggest that there are three main ways that we bring glory to God:
By obedience to him
By refusing to believe that we know best
By trusting that his way is the way to life
We are going to look at each of these points through the lens of the Bible over the next few minutes.
By Obedience to Him
By Obedience to Him
One of my favorite stories in the Bible is that of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. If you remember, King Nebuchadnezzar ordered a giant golden image to be made and worshipped by the people. We read:
4 And the herald proclaimed aloud, “You are commanded, O peoples, nations, and languages, 5 that when you hear the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music, you are to fall down and worship the golden image that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up. 6 And whoever does not fall down and worship shall immediately be cast into a burning fiery furnace.” 7 Therefore, as soon as all the peoples heard the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music, all the peoples, nations, and languages fell down and worshiped the golden image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up.
The story then focuses on Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who were turned in for refusing to worship the idol. The King orders the furnace to be heated to seven times hotter than normal. When the King gave them one last chance to worship his idol, they answered,
16 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. 17 If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. 18 But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.”
Do you see what they said? “We will obey our God, because he will save us. And if he doesn’t, we will still serve him.”
They said God WILL save us, but if he doesn’t, that won’t affect our obedience.
And you know the rest of the story: The men are saved. They are untouched by the flames.
The first way we glorify God is through our obedience to him. Even when we are staring down into the fires of this world.
Refusing to Believe we Know Best
Refusing to Believe we Know Best
One of the recurring themes in the Old Testament is this phrase, “They did what was right in their own eyes.” This phrase is almost always followed by God’s judgment for Israel’s sin.
6 In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
In this time we see a rebellious and Godless nation of Israel. The Judges are in the land, delivering Israel from the hands of the Philistines, Hittites, Cannaites, and more, because Israel falls into this almost comical pattern of thinking that they know best, and God does not. The good new for Israel, and us, is that even though we do this constantly, God still loves us. If you read the book of Judges, you will see how God always remembers his people. He is always drawing them back to see what is right in HIS eyes, and teaching them to flee from what is right in theirs.
This is the problem with our current social justice movements: They ultimately seek justice based on what is right in their eyes, not necessarily what is right in God’s.
And sometimes those seem to line up: but it always for the wrong reasons.
If the reasons are man-glorifying, and not God-glorifying, then we have failed to understand the purpose behind the Image of God. We glorify God by trusting His word to be right, and ours to be wrong.
By trusting that his way is the way to life
By trusting that his way is the way to life
The third way we glorify God is by trusting that his way is the way to life.
7 The law of the Lord is perfect,
reviving the soul;
the testimony of the Lord is sure,
making wise the simple;
8 the precepts of the Lord are right,
rejoicing the heart;
the commandment of the Lord is pure,
enlightening the eyes;
9 the fear of the Lord is clean,
enduring forever;
the rules of the Lord are true,
and righteous altogether.
10 More to be desired are they than gold,
even much fine gold;
sweeter also than honey
and drippings of the honeycomb.
11 Moreover, by them is your servant warned;
in keeping them there is great reward.
You see, we can do what social justice is trying to do: pursue man-made rules, laws, and decrees in the hope of attaining life. That’s ultimately what social justice is striving to achieve. But, the author of the Psalms, King David, is making the point: Only the law of the LORD is perfect. Anything else falls short.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Over the past few talks we have learned that:
Origin determines purpose.
Where the image of God is absent, so is the value of human life
When we live to glorify God, we step into the only truly humanizing way of living
I want to close this series with a couple questions:
What movements are you supporting that refuse to abide by the three ways we bring glory to God? Why do you keep supporting them?
How would our society look if we fought for a culture that brings glory to God? What pains and injustices would fade away?