TEXT: Topical/Textual, Prov.14:12, 1 Pet. 3:15, Rom. 12:2
INTRO: Prov. 14:12, “There is a way that seems right to a [person], but its end is the way of death.“ Without even knowing it, Christians can end up incorporating into their worldviews something absolutely opposite what they really believe. They must struggle carefully with the theories that clamor to be included in the way we interpret the world, or fall victim to wrong choices.
I. THE BATTLEFIELD: A FALLEN WORLD.
A. The world in which we live is the battlefield on which we must fight for our understanding of its strengths and weaknesses. It is the battlefield in which we must struggle for truth. What dangers can lie in the field that might prove to be as dangerous as the enemy beyond it?
Let me offer 5 things we must observe about the fallen world as we deal with it:
- The world, at its creation, was perfect. In Gen. 1:29-30, the Lord’s creation of the world is presented and then, in vs 31, the Scripture assures us, “God saw all that He had made, and it was very good.” It was perfect for the purposes of God and the success of humanity.
- Disobedience to the Creator brought the world under condemnation. After Adam and Eve fell into sin, hear what God says to them in Gen. 3:17, “The ground is cursed because of you. You will eat from it by means of painful labor all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you and you will eat the plants of the field. You will eat bread by the sweat of your brow until you return to the ground, since you were taken from it. For you are dust, and you will return to dust.” Mere survival is as difficult as fighting what one cannot control: the land, the wind, the water, the sun, the cold, the certain decay and decomposition of everything to which the people put their hands.
- Over the ages, God proven the fallenness of the world. is the curse set in stone?
Gen. 6:5-7, “When the Lord saw that man’s wickedness was widespread on the earth and that every scheme his mind thought of was nothing but evil all the time, the Lord regretted that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. Then the Lord said, ‘I will wipe off from the face of the earth mankind, whom I created.”
Gen 8:21b, “I will never again curse the earth because of man, even though man’s inclination is evil from his youth. I will never again strike down every living thing as I have done.”
- So the world remains cursed until the redemption comes.
Rom. 8:19, 21, “For the creation eagerly waits with anticipation for God’s children to be revealed . . . . that the creation itself will also be set free from the bondage of corruption into the glorious freedom of God’s children.”
Rev. 21 foretells of what is to be, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away.”
- Despite its brokenness, the creation still reveals the Creator.
Gen. 1:27, “For God created man in His own image, He created them in the image of God, He created them male and female.” Gen. 9:6, God tells Noah that, in the future, “Whoever sheds man’s blood, his blood will be shed by man, for God has made man in His image.”
Ps. 19:1, “The heavens declare the handiwork of God, and the sky proclaims the work of His hands.”
Rom. 1:19-21, “Since what can be known about gain I evident among the [ungodly]. For His invisible attributes, that is, His eternal powers and divine nature, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what He has made.”
B. How is that related to our personal worldview? It means we will, on this earth, always struggle with what is true and what is false. The beauty of the world can blind us to the dangers of it.
When you develop your worldview, remember, the theories around you cannot be true if they are based only on the claims of a fallen world.
CONCLUSION
The Yellow River of China: “cradle of Chinese civilization;” “Mother River;“ Source of world’s 2 worst natural disasters; weaponized to destroy people; 2 nicknames describing its reality:
Strangely enough the Yellow River has two more nicknames: “China’s Pride,” and “China’s Sorrow.”
Example of the Fallen World in which we live.