Does morality evolve with Culture

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Hi, everyone. Thank you for joining us. And I am Stacy with throughout all ages ministry and 1530 apologetics.

And what we do is we go into the public high schools to build up the students character to intellectually think about their worldview and weigh it with truth.

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And today I am excited about our speaker. He is my son,

Joe Gaona Jr. And I am thrilled one of my favorite speakers.

And so anyways, Joe Gaona Jr. has has been in ministry since 2001.

As a pastor, missionary, and worship leader, God has opened doors for him to teach the

Word of God in churches, conferences, camps and high schools within the United States, as well as internationally.

His preaching style is expositional, with a focus on finding

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Tonight's title is does morality evolve with culture?

All right, Joe, I'm excited and go ahead and take it over. All right, sounds great.

Thank you, mom. Appreciate the the introduction. And I just want to say guys,

I'm very thankful for this opportunity. And, and so I hope

I'm gonna, I'm gonna multitask here, but I'm gonna try to share my screen, but then also talk. I was watching some of these videos, and I kind of noticed like when it was only on the screen sharing, it just kind of was like, it kind of got slow paced.

And so I don't know, it's just a way to connect with everybody. But anyway, yeah, thank you for having me here, guys.

And I think this is a big question. You know, let me see if I can start it now.

In fact, I think it's a big question.

Can you guys see the screen here? Are you guys able to see this? Yes, yes, we can show.

Okay, perfect. From here on out, just let me know if you can't see it. But I'm going to go back and forth between the screen and and also just me talking.

But yeah, this is an important question. Does morality evolve with culture? I mean, we're living right now, everything going on amongst us right now, you know, really just the, the subtitle kind of explains it well, which is that in an ever changing world, how can we trust that moral truth does not evolve with culture?

And how can we determine when to stand firm? And when to allow freedom regarding the teachings and precepts of God's Word?

So that's what I want to dive in today, I'm hoping to kind of methodically work our way through it. Because it's an interesting question, you know, so many people right now are, are working through that.

And I think our society as a whole, pretty much believes that morality does evolve with culture.

So let's, let's work our way through this, you know, does morality evolve with culture? And let's start with, let's start by talking about the origin of morality.

So the origin of morality, so, so get into the definition of the word morality, because I think that might kind of help us get to, you know, what we're what we're trying to get to.

So I looked up the definition of morality, and it says that it's conformity to the rules of right conduct, moral or virtuous conduct.

And so then I looked up the word moral, and the word moral is defined as of relating to or concerned with the principles or rules of right conduct, or the distinction between right and wrong.

And so what we're diving into today, guys, is what we define as moral philosophy.

It's the branch of philosophy that contemplates and explores the nature of morality.

And, and so that's what we're doing right now, we're kind of contemplating this, and, you know, just like a good superhero movie, we have a lot of superhero movies out these days, right.

And, and every time you watch a superhero movie, there's always they always have an origin story.

And that's what makes it so meaningful. And so, you know, same thing, one of the key factors to contemplate, when it comes to any type of idea that's out there that strongly affects the way we live, is to figure out its origination.

You know, how did morality? What I mean by that is, is morality a social construct that we created to protect human civility, as we're being told that's what it is right now?

Or is it a universal principle that exists whether we believe in it or not?

I want to say that again, because there's a lot of verbiage there, right? Two choices, really what it comes down to is it, is it just a social construct that we created, just so that we can have just civility, you know, with, with our society?

Or is it a universal principle that exists, whether we believe in it or not?

And what I mean by that, guys, is that, is it a real law that exists beyond our imagination, like gravity, or heat or energy, right?

These are things that exist, even if we believe in them or not, right? Like, we cannot believe in gravity.

But obviously, if you jump off a building, you know what's going to happen. And so it doesn't matter, because gravity exists.

It's real, it's a real thing. Or is it a man, is morality a man -made idea accepted by people in society?

A man -made idea is something like, you know, the 40 -hour workweek schedule, right? I don't think we're always working 40 hours a week.

In fact, when you read the Bible, it says that a man is supposed to work six days a week and then rest on the seventh, right?

So we created this, this kind of social construct, this idea, which is the 40 -hour workweek.

It's not really a, it's not a real thing in itself. It doesn't exist, except for the fact that we, that we created it, and then we accept it as a society, right?

Does that make sense so far? So if it's a social construct, if morality is a social construct, then in essence, it's kind of like the 40 -hour workweek, morality only exists, because we say it exists.

And if that is the case, then morality can only be defined as subjective, right?

So the main factor in determining whether something is subjective rather than objective, is if the idea can be redefined and changed based on the opinions of the individual or society as a whole.

If they can be redefined by the individual, if they can be changed based on the society, right, then this thing is really not objective, it's subjective.

For instance, you know, a good, something that's subjective is happiness, right?

The term happiness. Some people, they are happy going out to a fancy restaurant, hanging out with friends, they're extroverted, right?

And so they like going out, they like hanging out with friends. They like the social scene, while others would find that exhausting, right?

And so instead, they find happiness by staying at home, reading a book, you know, kind of being by themselves, right?

And so we find happiness based on our within ourselves, it's subjective, to how we feel how we think.

Now, the pitfalls of treating morality as a subjective idea is,

I actually believe is extremely dangerous when you begin to think about it. Okay, so if morality is subjective, if it can just be redefined here and there and over there, this individual in this, or even the society, right?

If it can be redefined, then honestly, good and evil can be redefined.

That's kind of interesting to think that good and evil can be redefined. If good and evil can be redefined, let's think about this, then what we did good prior could actually be evil.

Right? And so now we're in this kind of like circle of going, well, wait a minute, is is what we think is good.

And this is what's kind of happening with society right now. What happens when if good and evil can be redefined over and over and over again, then really, if it's subjective, if everyone can kind of redefine it as they will, then really, there's no validity for judgment.

There's no validity for offense, right? Have you noticed that no matter what you are, if someone commits an atrocity against you, if someone commits a sin, right?

What we call a sin or will commit an evil deed, right? No matter who you are, no matter how you think about morality, you will cry out against it.

For instance, if you're walking with your bike, and someone comes runs up, pushes you grabs your bike and takes off.

I can't see anybody who would just sit there and say, Oh, well, you know, that's, that's just what it is, right?

I mean, that person thinks it's good to take what they need. So you know, it is what it is. No, they cry out, hey, hey, stop, stop.

That's mine, you know. And so they're to say, that's mine to cry out, stop, you know, anytime you say a comment like that, you're believing your worldview or your presupposition is that there is validity to judgment, there's validity to offense, which, which is actually implying that there is a standard of good and evil that is outside of yourself, right?

Or an outside of everyone. So I'm getting ahead of myself, though, let's stick to this.

If, if morality is subjective, there is no validity for judgment, there is no validity for offense, right?

So now no one can judge anybody, no one can cry out against any atrocity, because really, it doesn't matter.

And then if that's true, then it also the second extremely dangerous thing about treating morality subjectively, is that it leads to chaos.

I mean, it's the path of chaos, everything is constantly being redefined. You can never know, when you're doing something good, you can never know when you're doing something evil.

Everything is being redefined. And then even our even our communication begins to change.

Because I can, you know, how can I tell you, hey, don't do this? Or how can I, you know, right, like, everything starts starts to become chaotic, because it can be redefined.

And then lastly, the reason why it becomes extremely dangerous is, and again, this is presupposing that human life and civility is a moral thing is a good thing, because you would have to presuppose this moral subjectiveness, it actually gives an open door for a society to come in at any time and create dogma that brings forth death and destruction a lot like Nazi Germany, right?

Where they come in, they bring this dogma that everyone begins to buy into, you know, that we have to create this, you know, this perfect race, right?

And every other race, you know, it doesn't matter what happens to them, in order for us to have this higher goal.

Well, you buy into this dogma and it brings forth death and destruction. So it's really scary.

It's a really scary thing if you treat morality as subjective. Now, here's the other thing, though, if morality is a universal principle, like it's real, it exists, okay, it's not, we didn't, it's not a social construct.

It's not an idea. It's a universal principle, just like gravity, just like energy or heat, then that means that there is an objective moral code that's out there in the world today.

There's actually a moral code that's out there, outside of you, outside of me, outside of our society, outside of culture that exists, right?

Because gravity doesn't change based on culture, right? Heat, energy, the way energy works, it doesn't change based on culture.

It is what it is, and it does what it does, because it's a thing and exists on its own. And if morality is a universal principle, that means that it does the very same thing.

It is what it is, it does what it does, it exists on its own. And if this is true, let's keep going down this rabbit hole, then morality or good and evil are just as real and absolute as every other principle that we have.

Meaning, we don't get this, we don't get a say into what is good, and what is evil.

The only thing that we can do at this point, then, just like we do with gravity is to experiment, to look into it, to discover what is already there.

To discover what is already good, and discover what is already evil. That's all we have, right?

Just like we do for every other principle in this world. But let's keep going down this rabbit hole.

If there is an absolute code of morality that transcends the individual, transcends society, then it must come from a being who transcends humanity and creation.

It has to because where else does this intellect come from, right? It has to come from a being that transcends humanity and even creation.

Even further down the rabbit hole, you can figure out characteristics of this being.

This being must be all knowing. Right? Because if he's not all knowing, he doesn't know all things.

And how can he tell you what is good and what is evil? Right? If he doesn't know all things, he might one day learn, oh, wait a minute, that thing

I was calling good is now evil. So now I got to go change it all up. Okay, well, now it's all in chaos again.

Right? So he must be all knowing. The other thing is that he must be never changing. Because if he's changing, right, if he's changing, then also his moral code is going to change.

And that means good and evil will change. And that means that what you were doing as good is now evil. And also, when can you ever trust it?

Right? If good is going to be changing all the time, you never know when it's going to change, then how can you say it's good?

You can't, right? So this being must be all knowing, must be never changing.

The other thing, though, is that this being must be altogether good. Altogether good.

Even if this being has one ounce of evil, well, he could be doing a prank, right?

He could tell you that it's good, but he may not even know because he's evil. Right? I hope

I'm not losing too many people with this. I know we're going down this rabbit hole. But this is what happens when you begin to think through logically what's going on here.

You're like, oh, wait a minute. Like, this being, he must be all knowing, he must be never changing. He must be altogether good, or else good and evil, objectively, just can exist.

So he must be altogether good. And he also must have because he is altogether good, he must have the same moral code, the same moral compass, as the moral code that exists, that that is out there in this world.

So whatever is already good, whatever is, you know, already evil, he also sees good as good and evil as evil.

Make sense so far? Goes even a little bit further.

If that's the case, then the being must also be not only our creator, but our judge.

Because why else is there a moral code out there? Why else is there good and evil out there in this world?

This person must also be our judge. Now what's interesting is I finished all that right about this being is there's this verse, it's a it's a beautiful verse in Hebrews 11, verse six, and it says this, it says,

But without faith, it is impossible to please him. For he who comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him.

Okay, so in that verse, guys, what it's saying is, is without faith, it's impossible to please God. For he who comes to God must believe three things.

All right. He must believe that God exists, believe that God is a rewarder, which means a judge.

And he also must believe that it comes from diligently seeking the

Lord. That's the moral code. The moral code is founded upon this one principle, seeking

God diligently. We see those three things in that verse. And it explains everything that we would come to logically just thinking about morality.

It's kind of interesting. I love how the Bible does that. Logically, we come to these conclusions. And then we look at the

Bible and we're like, Oh, there it is everything that we were kind of thinking was already written down for us to see.

By the way, one of my favorite things to say to scientists, because for some reason, I'm not saying all scientists, but you know, the the science field, right?

They have a bit of not everyone, okay, so don't get me wrong, but they have a bit of arrogance, right?

As if they almost treat like when they be when they come to a new principle, or a new, you know, thing or whatever.

They almost treat it as if they and they created it almost as if they invented it themselves.

And really, though, if you think about it, all that science is, is us discovering for the first time, ancient truths that have already been around forever.

Basically, it's like when a two year old realizes, oh, snow's coming down from the sky, like, oh, wow, you know, and yeah, that two year old might feel intelligent and might think, wow, this is so profound.

Yet it's like, okay, yeah, yeah, snow. Okay, come on, let's, let's move on, you know, and so really, we shouldn't be arrogant as we begin to discover these truths, it should humble us, we should go, wow, it took us this long to figure out that the universe is a sphere, or sorry, that the earth is a sphere.

Wow, it took us this long to barely figure out atoms. We just discovered it, you know, it should it should really humble us when we begin to do that.

And so, yeah, I mean, because these are ancient truths. So anyways, let's continue. What does the

Bible say about the morality? Because that's important, right?

My presupposition is that, that God's, you know, that God exists, and his word is given to us to reveal these ancient truths to us.

So what does the Bible say about the origination of morality? Well, the first thing I want to point out is that God is the source of all things good.

Okay, so this is found in James chapter one, verse 17. James chapter one, verse 17.

It says, every good and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the

Father of life, with whom there is no variation, or shadow due to change.

Right? So this passage is stating that the essence of goodness and everything that is good in this world, it comes from God, which means that it belongs to God.

Like God is, is allowing us to partake. But it's his, it belongs to him.

And he's letting us partake of it right now. So everything good in this world, that we are experiencing, guys, we have to realize is a gift.

And we are to be thankful for every single good and perfect gift, because it really belongs to God.

And he's only allowing us to taste it. And if you think about it, when it comes to the end, right?

When people desire to reject God and be separated from God, a lot of people don't realize that what they're really saying is that, you know,

God, I want to be, I want to be separated from you. But what they don't realize is that they're also going to be separated from every good thing that exists in this world, which is what we call hell, right?

Which is to be eternally separated from God. In hell, there is nothing good, because all good things belong to the

Lord. In hell, there is only things that are evil, like fear, doubt, frustration, anger, bitterness, right?

Hatred, right? All these things exist there, because those are outside of God.

In God is everything good. The other thing that this scripture tells us is that God does not change, right?

There is no variation or shadow due to change. That is an amazing truth to come to realize.

Wow, God does not change. A lot of people look at God as this ancient being who is telling us relics from days past.

That is not how I see the Lord. Okay, God is actually, if you think about it, he's this, he knows the future, he has gone into the future, he knows all things, sees all things, you know, all things consist because of him.

He knows the future. And he's basically, if you kind of think about it, it's almost better to kind of see it as this.

He's coming back in time to tell us what the future is and say,

Hey, I'm telling you right now, this is the truth. This is, you know, this is what the future is going to look like.

So live in these values that I've written in my word, because this surpasses the culture that you live in today.

He knows what the future is. He surpasses all culture. He's not an ancient God that speaks old relics that make no sense to us.

He is so beyond our culture. He is so beyond what we could, you know, ever imagine or think or, or come to realize, right.

And he's just he's laying it out for us and say, Hey, look, I know the truth. This is the truth. God does not change.

Thus, what's cool about that is that morality really did not have an origination.

If you think about it, morality did not have an origination because morality is everlasting.

Why? Because God is everlasting. Morality is in God. And if God is everlasting, that means that good always existed.

Hey, sorry to interrupt Joe, but we do not see your PowerPoint. Just so you know, we have not seen it.

But yeah, yeah, it was it was like, I was like, you know, it's going to be too difficult to jump back and forth.

So just double checking. Yeah. So I just left that to the dust.

Sorry, guys. Um, let's see, where was I at?

So we were talking about morality, not having truly an origination, because it's everlasting with God.

Scripture, we see that as God created all things. There is a phrase, as God created all things, there was a phrase that was repeated over and over.

Do you guys remember what that what that was? I'm so used to like, connecting with the crowd.

So I forgot, you know, I forget everyone's muted right now. So maybe mom, you can unmute if you want to answer something.

Exactly. God saw that it was good, right? That phrase was was repeated over and over and over.

It's kind of funny, a lot of times we read, you know, the Bible, people will read the Bible and not really even think about the principle that's being set in place.

But God was telling us that creation was created. Good. Right?

It was good. All things were good when it when God first created, when everything came into existence through him.

But creation was created in God's goodness, and all things were good. And then we get, you know, we kind of like, zoom into man, humanity, right?

In Genesis chapter one, verse 26, and 27. It says, Then God said,

Let us make a man in our image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the, over the birds of the heavens, and over the livestock, over all the earth, and over every creeping being that creeps on the earth.

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God, he created him, male and female, he created them.

So we see in this scripture, that mankind was unique from all other scriptures, in the fact that God made man in his image after his likeness, right?

So goodness exists before man is created. Man is created with the capacity to be moral beings.

And thus the origination of morality for mankind begins.

It's really not the origination, it's more like just it begins for us, right? Morality was already there.

But for us, morality begins when God breathes life into Adam.

But what of evil? We've been talking about good, but what of evil? Did God create evil?

We see that goodness has always existed. Evil though, check this out.

Evil is simply, it's simply agents with free will, choosing to respond outside of God's goodness.

I mean, that's really what it comes down to. Evil is free will agents choosing to respond outside of God's goodness, outside of what belongs to God.

I know it sounds kind of interesting, but if you think about it, that's what we're doing. Every time we commit sin, every time we commit evil, we are pooling from resources that are not from God.

If anything, you can actually say it's more like it's the absence of God, right? Evil is the absence of good.

When Adam ate the fruit, it wasn't the act of the fruit that was evil. If you think about it, if you really think about the practical, the pragmatic thing that Adam did, it was he ate a fruit.

Okay, well, what's wrong with eating a fruit? I mean, geez, it was just a fruit. But it wasn't the act of fruit that was evil.

It was that he was choosing to rebel against God. His response was,

I don't want to do this with you God. I want to do this outside of you. He was choosing to create his own moral code.

Romans chapter five, verse 12, it says, it says this, it says, Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and then death through sin, and so does death spread to all men, because all sin, right.

And, and that's where we see that, you know, you can say evil kind of originates, you know, evil is just the absence of goodness.

But what, you know, now it's here, we have this moral code where we can see, okay, that's good.

And that's evil. But what we're really saying is, that is of God.

And this is outside of God. That's what we're really saying. So anything evil is just outside of God.

The Bible declares that God's law was written in our hearts, but was also revealed to us through the written

Word of God. So, so we can see that through Scripture, it says that God has written the law in our hearts, like, you know, it's basically meaning that it's, it's an innate thing to have the law in us, we, we know, what is what is good and evil.

And we have the capacity to do what is good. Romans chapter two, verse 15, states this, that it's written in our hearts.

And then James chapter two, verse 10, it says, for whoever keeps the whole law, but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.

Right. And so that's, that's where the gospel comes into play. Because obviously, we have all broken

God's law. And we all have all become guilty of this law of God's holiness, really.

So. So now what I want to get into, that's, that's just the first point, guys, is the, you know, the origination of morality.

Now what I want to get into is the immutability of morality, I mean, we're kind of already touching it.

But I kind of want to restate my case as to why morality must be objective, immutable, never changing.

Okay, it's really important, because that's kind of the, that's the core of really understanding what morality is.

And to understand that, it's going to lead us to all the truth of the gospel, right, that that we are in need of a

Savior, that we are sinners, that we're in need of a Savior, that the only way to become righteous is, is by putting our faith and trust in Jesus Christ, it's to understand the immutability of morality.

And so there's three points that I want to, that I want to dive into on that.

Okay. If I can do this, I guess I'll try share my screen.

This is, I actually did practice this, but it's a little bit harder when you're, when you're right in the thick of it.

Let's see here. Alright, so the second point that we're going to get into is the immutability of morality.

And I want to, I want to look at three things that I believe validates this truth, which is, there's philosophical validity, there's philosophical pragmatical validity, and there's biblical validity.

And so I want to talk about these three points with you guys, right now. So, so the first thing, philosophically, philosophically, if morality is subjective, we already kind of went through this already, but I'll just restate it really quick.

If morality is subjective, then it only exists because we say it exists. There is no validity to judgment or offense, right?

And if no judgment or offense, and think about that, guys, let's go down that rabbit hole. That means then shame is not real.

Guilt is not real. Justice is not real. Virtue is not real.

Forgiveness is not real, and on and on and on. So many things that we, that we describe and that we actually feel within ourselves, right?

As we, as we do these things, they're not real. It's a figment of our imagination based on a social construct that we created and accepted.

That is, that's kind of humiliating, if you think about it, right? I mean, that's kind of humiliating.

If that's the truth, we all should be pretty humiliated that we're believing in a fairy tale, and it's creating all these strong emotions in us.

It's also sad, because if you think about it, anytime we cry out for justice, it's not real.

It's not true. It's a made up thing. It's a really sad point. Now, the second thing is that philosophically, if you begin to think about it, it leads to chaos, because it can change, it could be redefined, right?

And we're actually seeing this right now. For instance, the word justice, right now, we have so many different words for the word justice, because it's being redefined, right?

And they, people like that word justice, because it, you know, everyone loves justice, right? But now

I'm going to add a different word in front of it. And it's going to mean something entirely different.

Social justice, distributive justice, environmental justice, corrective justice.

You see, when you say, do you believe in justice? I will ask you, well, what do you mean by that? I have to know what you're actually talking about.

Because we've redefined this word in our society to try to change morality.

And so what happens is you say one thing, I say another, another, right? We redefine it, the next day it changes.

Now communication doesn't even matter. There's no value to communication anymore, because tomorrow

I can say, well, when I said that word, I meant this. And we're seeing this play out right now in society.

And it's actually really scary. I don't know if you guys saw, but you know, the protests that took place, wherever your political standings are,

I mean, just think about this. I mean, really, just think about this. Okay. So for a year, we saw people protest in the streets.

And they were burning buildings, locking police officers in their own precinct and setting it on fire.

They were throwing things through windows, right? I mean, just destroying cities. And then we see them get off on no cash bail, right?

They just get set free. They didn't have to put any money down, they'd get set free, they'd get off on bail, right?

And you begin to see that. And so then you begin to think, oh, well, okay, I guess that's what protesting means, right?

I guess if you protest, you know, then that's what it means. And you're not going to get in trouble. And then we saw, as you guys know, what happened

January 6. We see that the other side, if you will, I don't really know if it's the other side, but we see, you know, people come and they cause what is called the insurrection right now, right?

Which is these people come to the Capitol, and they march into the

Capitol. And what do they do? Well, windows get broken, and things get, electrons get taken, right?

And really, guys, we all know, no matter where you stand, we all know that those things are wrong, right?

Those things are wrong to do. But the injustice is, is that these people got treated completely different than the other people that did pretty much the same thing, if not worse, right?

These, the people on January 6, they got put in jail for months and months and months, they got, you know, their bank accounts frozen, they got,

I mean, there's so many things that happened to them. And they, and see, we used to be in the

United States of America, we used to be what you would call a land of the law, we weren't a land of the people, we're a land of the law, which is actually good.

It means, hey, if the law states this, it doesn't matter who you are, or who you know, if the law states this, then that's what it is, become a land of the people where we're kind of just like, you know, because morality is becoming subjective.

It's like, well, hey, you know, if you protest for this, it's good. But if you protest for that, then it's bad.

If you bash, if you break buildings and, you know, smash windows and all this for this cause, well, it's not so bad.

But if you do it for this cause, then okay, then that's really bad. Right. And so we're seeing this happen in our society today.

And it's really scary, because it's, it's really injustice. It's like, wait a minute, shouldn't they both be wrong?

Shouldn't they both get the same penalty for what they've done, you know, and that's what it should come down to.

Now. So we see the trouble philosophically, also pragmatically, okay, pragmatically.

What I mean by this is that like, you know, on a practical level, like in real life, right?

If, if morality was subjective, how could there be like, if we just kind of like, if it's a social construct, and we were just kind of making it up, it's kind of interesting to think, first of all, of the major unanimous approval with what is good.

And with what is evil, you do you understand what I'm saying? Like anywhere you go, right? You, if morality was subjective, you would not see massive unity in the acceptance of major principles of what is good and what is evil, as you do see in the history of mankind, like no matter where you go, okay, if you try to forcibly take a belonging of someone, not only will they cry out against you, but they're going to feel justified in doing so, right?

And it's that emotion of feeling justified. It's the emotion. And it's also the, the, the unifying feeling that every like, everyone feels that same feeling.

Well, that's kind of interesting. If this is something that's only in me, remember, when I talked about happiness,

I said, you know, we all define happiness in different ways. We all like, the taste of food, we all taste food differently, right?

So we all have our own likings of food. But when it comes to morality, like we all know, taking someone's belonging that is wrong, and we feel justified when we cry out against it.

And so with the massive majority of your peers, and that is kind of interesting, that itself is proof.

In fact, the anomaly is that there must be something unwritten that we abide by.

The anomaly, what I mean by that is we would think that that person is strange, right?

When we find out that someone, you know, doesn't care when someone's murdered, that's, you know, what do we call that?

Psychopath or sociopath, right? We give these terms because we say, you know, that's not normal. That's not, that's not what the rest of society usually thinks about when this thing occurs, right?

So the anomaly even is proof that there's this massive unity that, that validates that there must be some unwritten list of moral principles that are innately prescribed in each one of us.

But even more than that, guys, I think this is a huge pragmatical validity that good and evil exist outside of us.

The emotional pain of witnessing evil. Think about that the emotional pain of witnessing evil.

You see, I have a lot of people like, especially a lot of college age people come to me, and they're, you know, they'll say,

Hey, Joe, you know, the things that you've, you taught before, like, I believe, but then I talked to these professors, and now

I don't really believe that good and evil exist. And so I say, Okay, well, think about what you're saying.

I mean, you're telling me that if good and evil don't exist, I mean, are you telling me that if someone walked in, right, and it's, you know, well, because here's the thing, if we witnessed brutality, okay, such as a man gunning down, like innocent children, we all know that we all would feel deeply disturbed to feel that way.

You know, we don't have to be, you know, well, hey, this is how society thinks. So we need to accept that, right? Like the 40 hour work week, we have to like, come to to accept that.

Okay, but, but if we can get out of it, it's fine. And it doesn't bother us one day. But what's interesting is that we don't have to be taught to feel these deep pains against evil.

When evil takes place in front of us, we are all deeply disturbed by it.

No matter who you are, you know, you go to I mean, again, the anomaly is psychopaths and sociopaths.

But that's the anomaly, which actually validates what I'm talking about. So our emotions,

I always tell them this, I say, hey, so if you watch someone come in, and just in your innocent sister sitting there, and they just gun her down right in front of you laugh at you spit on your face and walk out, you're telling me you're not going to feel anything, you're not going to sense any type of emotional rage or desire for justice.

You see, what's, what's interesting, guys, is that we can, you know, our emotions, they betray our intellectual dishonesty.

That's what I call it. By the way, I call it intellectual dishonesty. When I'm talking with people, I always ask them,

I say, okay, I'll have this conversation with you. But you have to promise me that you're going to be intellectually honest.

What does that mean, Joe? Well, it means that when we come to a logical conclusion, you're not just going to lie, so that you can actually be, you know, so you can be right.

Because that's what usually people do, right? You get to a logical conclusion, and they're like, Oh, no, I don't agree with that.

And it's like, how do you say that we were logically coming to this conclusion together, and yet you're being dishonest, you know, it's true, you feel it's true.

And yet you're being dishonest with your with your own intellect, your own intellect is telling you this is true, and you're but you're being dishonest, right?

So our own emotions betray our intellectual dishonesty, exposing us as hypocrites.

There must be some objective moral code out there in the universe, that we are all being judged by.

There must be or else why would we feel the things that we feel no one has to teach a two year old or a three year old to feel these things when they when they see evil happen before them, they know it.

It's innate. It's inside them, when they're born. And then lastly, guys, the validity in the

Bible, three state God's character, God is altogether good. And God does not change.

So morality does not change. I mean, that's just what it comes down to, right? God does not change.

So morality does not change. Matthew chapter five, verse 18 and 19. It says for truly,

I say to you until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot will pass from the law until all is accomplished.

Therefore, whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven.

But whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

I mean, that's scary stuff. When we read that passage, I don't know about you, but that scares me. Wow, not one iota, not one dot, you know, will pass from the law until all is accomplished.

So what does this mean for us, though, who are under the new covenant? Well, Matthew chapter five, verse 20, the next verse, it says, for I tell you, this is his point.

This is Jesus's point with everything he said. He says, for I tell you, unless unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

Now think about what he's saying, guys, the Pharisees dedicated their entire lives to trying to follow

God's law perfectly. I mean, they actually like it was their it was their that it was their job.

Live righteous. They actually thought they actually thought that they could live righteous.

But Jesus, he blows that notion out of the water by saying, hey, unless your righteousness exceeds these people who dedicated their entire lives to trying to live righteous, you will never enter the kingdom.

But see, that's why Jesus came, right? Jesus came to fulfill the law on our on our behalf.

He knew that we could not do it. So he lived the righteous life that we could not live.

And then he died the sinner's death, that we could not die. Right. And that's the that's the whole principle of substitution, where we talk about how he took our sin, paid for it on the cross, substituted his righteousness, he, he, he let us partake of his righteousness.

It says in second Corinthians chapter five, verse 21, says for our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin, that in him, we might become the righteousness of God.

We are now able to exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees through Jesus Christ who fulfilled the entire law.

Morality guys is so real to God. I mean, this is what's so insane to me. Morality is so real to God that he couldn't just wave a magic wand and say, all right,

I'm going to forgive you because I want to. I'm God. I can do anything I want. No. Morality is so real to God.

That that sin has a penalty and it has to be paid.

The penalty has to be paid. So biblically, scripture tells us that morality is never changing.

Before Christ, you know, we thought we could earn our way to heaven, but fulfilling the law on our own, not really, not realizing how bad off every one of us were because we were born sinners and we, and we commit sin.

And then when you, if you commit one sin, you've broken the entire law, right? Now in Christ though, we are made righteous.

We don't have to earn heaven. Uh, we already have heaven through Christ or faith in what he's done.

And, and right now presently we are being sanctified by the

Holy Spirit and then, and being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ.

Such an awesome thing that me and you are going to be, our destiny is already predetermined that we're going to be conformed into the image of Christ.

Meaning that, you know, that we're going to have his heart. We're going to have his, his mindset about how things are right.

And we're going to, we're going to, we're going to respond as Christ responds. I remember I told you, you know, that a sin is to respond outside of God.

Well, this is God is creating in a, a beautiful and really perfect heart and mind so that one day, and really when we're glorified, we'll be able to respond as Christ responds.

But morality is still morality. Good is still good. Evil is still evil.

It always will be that way. It will never change. And that's what the Bible tells us. How am

I doing on time? You have about 10 more minutes.

10 more minutes. Okay, so I'm going to break into this. Because this is what

I don't want us to do. Okay. In the Bible, even though morality is immutable, we need to understand as Christians, the distinction between principles and customs, there's a difference guys.

All right, principles and customs. So first, let's define the difference between a principle and a custom.

Okay. So firstly, a principle is a teaching or precept that applies to all people at all places in all ages.

It's what we call transcultural. It, it defies culture, because it is a principle.

It's basically what I was talking about morality, right? It's, it's a universal principle that exists, no matter who you are, where you are, when you are, it exists.

A custom is different. A custom is a certain rule or ordinance that applies to a certain people in local areas or specific times.

Okay, so being bombarded by the moral relativism of our culture, we have to be wary of the pitfall of mixing these up in the

Word of God. Because of this, to treat a principle of God as a custom, it'd be a horrendous trespass against the

Holy God. It would be sin to treat a principle as a custom and say, Oh, yeah, no, you can pick and choose on that thing.

No, no, no. A principle, if you defy a principle, it's sin, you are trespassing against the

Holy God. And yet, on the other side, to impose a custom on the people of God, that wasn't meant to be a principle, that would be to commit violence against the people of God.

You know, it would violate the freedoms that they have in the Lord. So the question is, if we believe there is a distinction between principle and custom, then how do we know?

As we read Scripture, are there any guidelines that we can follow as we read Scripture that would reveal to us the distinction between what is a principle and what is a custom?

And, you know, it's difficult, but I believe there are a few things that we can at least hold on to.

And that's my next point I want to talk about is how to determine what is principle versus custom in biblical text.

So the first thing is to examine the Bible itself to see if there are key areas that are apparently open to custom.

What I mean by that is that you read Scripture, even in Scripture, do you see certain things that you may have thought were principle in the

Old Testament, that later on principle, you know, it wasn't the law, it was it was something else happening.

What I mean by that is language, right? That, for instance, language is something, the

Old Testament was written in Hebrew. But what do we see in the New Testament? We see that people are, they're using

Hebrew Scripture, but they're translating it in Greek. So even in the Bible, we can see that transposing and translating languages is fine.

To switch something from Hebrew to Greek is fine. You know, we hear that all the time. Oh, man, you know, we've probably lost truth because we've had to, you know, do all this translation and transposing of Scripture.

Well, no, we even see in Scripture, Scripture doing it. Also, style of dress from the times of Abraham to the times of Jesus.

As you read the stories, you can see that, that their style of dress, it changed, right? But there was always a principle that's in the

Bible, when it comes to dress, and that is modesty. That's a principle that exists throughout all cultures is transcultural.

Modesty is transcultural. The way you dress, the way you show that modesty changes.

Monetary systems, that's another thing that we see, right? Different money. It's not like when the Bible says, okay, you have to give a 10th denarii or whatever, you know, that that's what you have to give.

So now I have to grab my dollar bill and change it to the denarii and then give that. No, we understand that it allows these things to be changed.

Those were customs, right? So again, you know, just reading scripture alone, you can begin to see things even in scripture that are changing.

The second principle to determine between principle and custom is, is to understand and study cultural backgrounds of when the literature was written.

This is very important. Okay, let's look at this passage, Luke chapter 22, verse 35 and 36.

And Jesus said to them, when I sent you out with no money bag or knapsack or sandals, did you lack anything?

They said nothing. Jesus said to them, but now let the one who has a money bag take it and likewise a knapsack and let the one who has no sword sell his cloak and buy one.

Interesting. Check out that scripture. If we take that so literal and begin to say, okay, what's the principle and what's the custom, right?

Then, okay, well, if Jesus, what he's saying here, okay, then I need to go grab my cloak and I need to sell it and I need to buy a sword.

I need to have a sword. That's what he's telling me. I need to let the one who has no sword sell his cloak and buy one.

Okay, I need to go get a sword. Well, obviously, we know that he's not telling us that we need a sword.

It's not a principle. But the principle behind the matter of what's being taught here is that we can logically understand that Jesus is telling us just simply, hey, use common sense when you're out there in ministry.

All right. Use common sense to to create provision for yourself and to create protection for yourself.

And that's what he's saying. I've actually seen Christians who read. They read the passage of scripture where Jesus told them not to bring money bags or not bring a sword.

And they actually were using that in their in their life. Like today, they were saying, yeah, Jesus told us to not have a money bag and not have a sword just to kind of go and just see what happens.

I'm like, okay, well, did you know later on, he actually told them to bring a money bag and to bring a sword.

He's actually saying, yeah, go ahead. It's fine to protect yourself. It's fine to provide and make sure that you're having common sense when you're doing this.

A huge, a huge key when you're reading scripture, though, is what

I call the creation principle. Okay. So, be aware of creation principles.

What I mean by that is that if it refers to the beginning of time, we ought to know that this has historical roots that transcend cultures.

It's a principle. Okay. For instance, in Mark chapter two, verses six through nine.

All right. Jesus says, but from the beginning of the creation, God made them male and female.

For this reason, a man, father and mother, and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.

So then they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, let no man separate.

Wow. So from this scripture, we already know that Jesus tied it to the beginning of creation. And because of that, there's all these principles in this passage that we can pull.

For instance, we know that God purposely created only two genders, male and female.

Jesus literally went to the point of literally explaining that. God made them male and female.

If you go back to Genesis, what does it say? God made them male and female. Interesting that God would almost know that that was going to be something that was going to come up, right?

Yeah, I mean, he literally went out there and said, male and female, right? So we know that that's the principle that's in God's word that cannot be changed.

It has roots to the beginning of time. It's historical. It transcends cultures.

Also, we know from this scripture, we know that God created marriage to be between one male and one female.

God's intention with marriage, first of all, God created marriage, which is amazing, but also

God created marriage to be between one male and one female. And then lastly,

God intended for marriage to be inseparable. Yes, there is a scripture where he's giving permission.

It's permissible to divorce your partner if there's sexual adultery that's committed, but it's permissible.

It's not the intention. It's not the main point of what marriage was to be, right?

And so we get to understand those things from that passage of scripture. But lastly, when in doubt, guys,

I would say this, it's best to rest upon the precept that you're reading as a principle.

Why? Because if you're wrong about a custom, teach as a principle, right?

You grab a custom that's really a custom and you're teaching as a principle. Yeah, you're causing violence to the people of God, but really, you're just merely overly scrupulous.

That's what you are. If anything, in time, the Holy Spirit will mature you and give you liberty in that area, right?

Oh, yeah, I guess we don't need a sword. I took that too literal. Sorry. But if you're wrong about a principle, and you're teaching the principle merely as a custom, well, now you're in disobedience of God.

You're violating his holiness. And that is something that we cannot do. We should not do.

So the last thing, I know we're running out of time, but I do want to point this out to you guys. Now make it really quick.

Because what's the point of all this? Unless we're going to use it for the gospel, how to point people to Christ through morality is so important.

Guys, to desire to change a person's behavior or actions before they've even been born again, that's a failure on our part.

Like Jesus was never to make it wasn't his goal is not to just make bad people good, right?

It's not he's not going, okay, I gotta make bad people good. No, his goal is to make dead sinners alive.

His goal is to make sinners righteous to make dead people alive. The goal is to see someone place their faith and trust in Jesus as Lord and Savior and become born again.

All right, just because a homosexual person stops being homosexual, it doesn't mean that they're going to heaven now.

And that should tell us something that means that it's not just a mere, you know, hit that practice itself that's going to save or curse the person.

No, it's the fact that they need a Savior just like every one of us.

And so what I would say to you is it with morality, guys, focus on major themes and speaking with an unbeliever.

Things like the major theme is like, well, where did good and evil come from? Where do you think good and evil came from?

Right? And you can even tell them, hey, I believe it comes from God. Therefore, you know, God lays out what is good and what is evil.

And I may not understand it at times, but I accept it and I trust it. Another major theme is the goodness of God being holy and perfect.

The Bible says that we're all sinners. No one is good. Changing our behavior will not earn our way into heaven, but placing our faith in what

Christ did. That's what's going to save us, right? The love of God and his desire to save us by grace.

To let them understand, hey, the law was a tutor to point us to our need for a Savior. And guys, as I end, you know, remember this passage in Scripture, John chapter 4, verses 5 through 26.

It was amazing. I was hoping I had time to read it with you. But go ahead and read it on your own. You're going to see

Jesus. He is in a conversation with the woman at the well.

And you're going to see the woman at the well over and over and over trying to bring up cultural hot spots of the day, right?

Do you know I'm a Samaritan? Do you know I'm a woman? Oh, you guys tell us that we have to go to the temple, but we can worship here.

This well, you know, was made by our father Jacob, right? All these hot spots, these cultural hot spots.

And watch how Jesus, he could have sat there and been like, oh, you're wrong. And I can show you, you know, why you're wrong, right?

He could have done all these things. But instead, what he did was he sideswiped those cultural hot spots and got to the major point of everything.

I'm the Messiah. If you come to me, I will give you water and you will never thirst again, right?

He got to the point, which is to give the gospel to this woman. And she gave her life to Jesus.

And you know what? He didn't back down from morality. He called her out on it, right? Hey, husband.

Oh, I don't have a husband. That's right. You know, you've had five husbands and the man you're with right now is not your husband, right?

And he called her out. But he brought her to the gospel. And that's what we ought to do.

It's good to understand morality. It's good to understand that morality doesn't change and to understand that, but use it to bring people to Jesus.

So that's what I have for you guys tonight. I hope you guys got something from that. Thank you very much.

That was very good. I'm sorry, keep going. I interrupted you. No, that's it.

Yeah, thank you. I don't know what to do. I don't know what you guys normally do at this point. But yeah, I mean, that's what I wanted to share with you guys tonight.

No, normally we would field questions right now. But I think everybody's been listening fairly intently.

And this is kind of a, you know, a hot topic, so to say. So I'm thinking that we're just going to have you pray to close us and we'll shut off the recording and the live stream.

And then we can feel more free to ask questions. Does that work for you? That sounds good.

You'd like for me to pray or one of you want to pray? We'd like for you to pray. Okay. Please bow your heads with me.

Father, we come before you, Lord God, and we thank you that you give us, you know, as your word says, light in the darkness, that we don't have to walk around blindly in this life, but that we can read your word and know what truth is, read your word and know, you know, what good is and what evil is and that, you know, we don't have to be second guessing what we do.

But we can know your heart, we can know your will by reading scripture, and we can follow it.

And thank you, Lord God, that you don't hold us, you know, to the law, but that you've given us a way out through Jesus Christ, where now, your

Holy Spirit will do the work in us and conform us into the image of your son.

Thank you that, you know, that no longer do we have to do it in our own strength, but through your

Holy Spirit, through your power, Lord, you are teaching us to live in the righteousness that you've already given to us,

Lord. Thank you that we don't have to earn our way to heaven, but that through our faith in your grace,

Lord, we've been given such a great gift. May we hold that gift with reverence, with a godly fear,

Lord, knowing that you, God, are consuming fire, and you desire, Lord God, you desire for us to diligently seek after you.

Father, may we use our words as, you know, as salt, Lord, and grace and light when we talk to unbelievers,

Lord. May we not expect them, Lord, to, you know, to like, to start to stop their sins,

Lord, but instead, may we just bring them to you, just as we were brought to you, and then watch your

Holy Spirit do a mighty transformation in their lives, Lord God. We thank you, and we pray for all these things.

We pray for our country, Lord, that we would just come to an awakening, our eyes would be open to understand that we can't keep going down this path of chaos.

It's chaotic, and it's causing so much pain and suffering for everyone, even those who think they're doing the right thing.

And Lord, may there be a revival. May we be awakened, Lord. May we understand that we need a

Savior, and that Savior is you. We thank you, and we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.

Before we do end the recording and the live stream, Joe, do you have a website or anything that people can, an email address or a website people can go to contact you, donate?

Have you written any book? Actually, no. Nope, I'm just, just a trooper in a small church that just, you know, just does whatever the

Lord asked me to do. So I don't really have anything. You can reach out to throughout all ages, and I'll contact you.

That was going to be my next comment. So I'm gonna, Stacey, we're going to stop the live stream and the recording, and then you can handle it.