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Village SDA Church

Ron Kelly

The Liar and the Lion: Tyranny and Postmodernism

Lord, where would we be if we didn't have the light of your presence to guide our way?

You came here to establish a relationship with humanity and a relationship with each human being.

I'm praying may none of us squander the privilege of knowing you.

And I'm asking now, Lord, that as we've gathered collectively for your presence here to be teacher, comforter, convictor, guide.

Thank you for the blessings of this service thus far.

And we ask now that what happens here would be indeed a true divine appointment in the Word.

I've entitled my message this morning, The Liar and the Lyre in Tyranny and Postmodernism.

And I'm going to work my way backwards in the title.

Several years ago, there was a film produced called Amazing Grace.

It was the story of 1 William Wilberforce.

He was the statesman born in England in the late 18th century, the late 1700s.

Along the way, he wrestled with whether or not he was called to the ministry.

Eventually, his friend William Pitt, who would become the youngest Prime Minister of Britain, convinced him that he could fulfill God's role operating inside the parliamentary procedure of Great Britain.

It was a war that in the beginning, if the videography, the rendition of history produced by the filmmakers is at all accurate, that upon the first vote in this House of Parliament for the extinguishing of slavery in all parts of the dominions, that there were almost 300 against and very few for.

It chronicles the story of a long-fought view inside the culture of Great Britain where many cities, being that it was an empire state, were based on trade, and that trade prospered on the backs of slaves in the West Indies.

At 1 point in the video, Pitt and Wilberforce's friendship is tested to the utmost.

Pitt comes to tell Wilberforce that he needs to give up on this idea and quit talking about it.

He tells him he's been hanging out with the wrong friends, and he's even seen a letter on his desk from Thomas Jefferson.

Of course, Wilberforce is incensed that someone, including his best friend, is virtually spying on him, and Pitt goes on to tell him that there's about to be a war.

And Pitt uses a negative and derogatory comment about the box of rocks in his head.

And he walks off and he tells Wilberforce that he's got to go do the dirty work while some people keep their conscience intact.

Later in that video there's a scene in which 1 of the preachers that has been a part of this journey, sitting in the upper mezzanine of the parliamentary rooms, and he stands up to preach.

It's during this same time that Pitt and Wilberforce have seen their relationship divided.

And as the preacher gets up to preach, he begins to announce his subject matter, and his subject matter relates to something that most Great Britoners have grown weary of, And that is the narrative of breaking the slave trade's hold on the economy of Great Britain.

And the story, as it's told, is 1 in which you watch the parishioners file out of the pews.

Later when Pitt is dying prematurely, Wilberforce comes to his bedside.

The victory over slavery is almost formalized.

As Pitt is laying there in his large bedstead.

Wilberforce comes in, he refers to him as Willie or Wilby, and he talks about being afraid And Wilberforce says, of what?

He said, I wish I had your faith at this moment.

History tells us you can go to Westminster Abbey and you can see that Wilberforce and Pitt are buried next to each other.

For decades, Wilberforce fought the fight for the abolition of the slave trade.

And finally, the minds of society and the laws of the land were changed.

There are moments in that journey when Wilberforce runs squarely into a resistance that appears to be more than he has emotional momentum to overcome.

But 1 man galvanizes the collective conscience of an entire nation, and fear over economic loss, and fear of all other things associated with doing right triumphs in the day.

The experience is somewhat replicated only at the rate of tearing a nation apart across the pond in America some 30 years later.

I start this morning with this illustration Because all Americans, all citizens of the globe, ought to know who Jesus is, and they ought to have that friend that drives away fear and opens the heart to a decision that changes the life for time and for eternity.

This great nation, the United States of America, has been the catalyst, it has been the structure, it has been the framework upon which other lands have determined that citizens could participate in governance, no, actually own the process of governance, and that those that serve actually serve the people instead of how it's been for most of the sixth millennia where the people serve those who govern.

What hangs in the balance in this moment in human history is that very element of a liberal democratic republic.

And the elements of culture are setting the stage for the destruction of societal governance as we've known it.

But the very element of cultural change unchecked and held unaccountable by moms and dads and preachers and teachers and other leaders of society finds itself in a most delicate and deleterious or detrimental position today because the very essence of postmodernism, which is a move beyond the modern, a move beyond that which says the world will get better.

There's absolute truth and we can trust in our own ability to deliver ourselves with good science.

That mindset largely has been evaporating for what we now call postmodernism.

1 definer says the fundamental difference between modernism and postmodernism is that modern thinking or modernist thinking was about the search for abstract truth as if it existed, my interjection.

Truth of life, while postmodernists believe there is no universal truth, abstract or otherwise.

And 1 other definer says postmodernism is post because it denies the existence of any ultimate principles.

It lacks the optimism of there being a scientific, philosophical, or religious truth which will explain everything to everybody.

Because once you abandon ultimate principles, once you abandon absolute truth, now honesty is no longer something that holds us accountable, but information and its management is a way to develop narratives that make people accountable to the masses.

We have a democratic republic, which protects the minority voice and experience.

And this morning I think you need to understand that when the ship of civility cuts ties with the anchor of absolute truth, it drifts out into the arena where the currents of culture can take it wherever it wants to go.

And the element of might making right creates a huge problem for those who have convictions that don't negatively affect the larger body populace, but actually shape the individual in a distinct way.

I'm holding in my hands a Pew Research poll.

It says most American thinks that social media sites censor political viewpoints.

Well just by the title you can know that most, which includes more than 50%, means that we had to cross the barrier of political divide.

In other words, whether you're a Democrat or Republican, now Republicans believe it more than Democrats do, but there's enough people on both sides of the political line divide that believes that social media is actually censoring information, labeling.

I didn't know until this week, I'm not on Facebook, but I didn't know you could get thrown in jail on Facebook or the variation thereof.

I mean I can understand, obviously you can't yell fire in a crowded theater, but beyond that… not beyond that, but in that ilk and of that genre of communication beyond that genre, Americans have believed through the years that a free-flowing discussion of facts, not narratives is what keeps us the land of the free and the brave.

I'd like for you to take your bulletin if you would, and I want to look at the quote in the bulletin this morning.

The Lord frequently places us in difficult positions to stimulate us to greater exertion.

In other words, we have a tendency to become kind of flabby spiritually.

In His providence, special annoyances sometimes occur to test our patience and faith.

He would teach us where to look for help and strength.

Thus, we obtain practical knowledge of His divine will.

In a discovering of divine will, God actually allows us to come into problem situations that are bigger than us.

The book of Isaiah says that we'll hear a voice behind us saying, this is the way, walk in it.

It will be impossible to hear that voice if we're not listening to that voice in a daily connection with God.

I had someone tell me just this week, actually yesterday, don't complain about being able to go and see your mother because of COVID laws if you don't bother to pick up the phone and call her once a day.

Are there no mothers in the congregation today?

It's 1 thing to define ourselves by party, it's another thing to be principled in all aspects of our lives.

Precept and principle guiding where we go.

Obtaining practical knowledge of His divine will comes from being in difficult positions.

She goes on, thus we obtain practical knowledge of His divine will which we so much need in our life experience.

And I'm going to say, friends, if ever we needed it before, we sure do need it now.

And 1 last sentence, faith grows strong in earnest conflict with What?

So we've got pretty good at removing doubt and fear in some respects from our living, but God Himself as the architect of our day isn't going to remove it all.

As a matter of fact, earnest conflict with doubt and fear is the journey forward.

Postmodernism has set us up to distrust media, and of course, some of it is very distrustworthy.

Of course, you say, pastor, that depends on which side of the spectrum you're on.

If there's 1 thing I want to do this morning, I want to challenge you to move out of the silo or the sound chamber of where you live.

The fact of the matter is, truth stands on its own and has its own defense.

But when we come to a place where we can no longer be challenged, we are not in a very truthful position.

Take your Bibles this morning and open them up to the book of Proverbs, right after the book of Psalms.

We'll begin today in Proverbs chapter 24.

Almost all of my Scripture will come from this book of wisdom today.

Proverbs chapter 24, beginning with verse 3, it says, by wisdom a house is built, and by understanding it is established, and by knowledge the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches.

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The Liar and the Lion: Tyranny and Postmodernism

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