1980 Perspectives on the 70's

Driving home: But there are times in the history of men and of nations when because of the limited measure of special grace and the withdrawal of common grace, certain sins... become the very sins which characterize that society.

The example of violence filling the earth in Genesis 6 illustrates how a specific sin can become the defining characteristic of a society, leading to God's judgment (the flood).

But there are times in the history of men and of nations when because of the limited measure of special grace and the withdrawal of common grace, certain sins that are not only latent or may have found an expression here and there in the world of man and woman, in a given society, not only continue to express themselves as a latent possibility and as an occasional outburst, but they become the very sins which characterize that society. And you cannot think of that society without thinking of those sins. This is illustrated in such portions as Genesis 6, where we read, We read in verse 5 that G...

9:39 - 11:03 Read in full sermon

Driving home: But there are times in the history of men and of nations when because of the limited measure of special grace and the withdrawal of common grace, certain sins... become the very sins which characterize that society.

The example of Sodom and Gomorrah's sexual impurity and perversion demonstrates how particular sins can become paramount, even if other sins are also present, leading to divine judgment.

and it was that sin which characterized the cities of the plains, even as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities about them, having in like manner with these given themselves over to fornication and gone after strange flesh. Now that does not mean that you found no murder, no dishonesty, no blasphemy, no gossip or any other form of sin in Sodom and Gomorrah prior to the judgment of God. What it does mean is that sexual impurity and in particular sexual perversion became the dominant or the paramount sins of that society. This was true likewise in New Testament days. The Apostle Paul, writing to Tit...

11:03 - 12:12 Read in full sermon

Driving home: But there are times in the history of men and of nations when because of the limited measure of special grace and the withdrawal of common grace, certain sins... become the very sins which characterize that society.

The Apostle Paul's description of the Cretans as 'always liars, evil beasts, idle gluttons' (Titus 1:12) serves as an example of national or paramount sins that predominated in a society.

One of themselves, a prophet of their own, said, Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, idle gluttons. This testimony is true. There were these three sins that predominated in the national life of the people of Israel. All those sins, their Half of that race wereんだ theMbreak of the Cretans. Now that does not mean, again, that other sins were not manifested or that the tendency was not latent. What is press me is that these sins became the paramount expressions of the condition of the human heart. Now it is that within that biblical framework, that I address nonprofit to that memory. And you Ja...

12:13 - 13:00 Read in full sermon

Driving home: But there are times in the history of men and of nations when because of the limited measure of special grace and the withdrawal of common grace, certain sins... become the very sins which characterize that society.

The metaphor 'as much a part of American national life as baseball, hot dogs, apple pie, and Chevrolet' vividly conveys how deeply ingrained and normalized the paramount sins of the 70s have become in American culture.

You see then the precise thing to which we are addressing ourselves this morning. What then are those paramount sins of the seventies that have become as much a part of American national life as baseball, hot dogs, apple pie, and Chevrolet?

13:33 - 13:53 Read in full sermon

The point: Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them, maintaining a prophetic edge to our life and testimony.

The metaphor of 'the moral face of my own beloved country, to look at the open sores and the putrefying wounds of the moral state of our nation' illustrates the pastor's painful assessment of America's moral condition.

Well, I confess that it has been no pleasant thing for me to sit hour after hour in past days and to think upon that which constitutes the moral face of my own beloved country, to look at the open sores and the putrefying wounds of the moral state of our nation. And yet as the people of God, we are called upon to have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of God, but rather to reprove them, to have this prophetic edge to our life and testimony, a duty which we cannot fulfill unless we have some clear consciousness of what constitutes those paramount sins of the seventies. There is no particu...

13:56 - 15:11 Read in full sermon

The point: Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them, maintaining a prophetic edge to our life and testimony.

Martin draws an analogy between God's response to Cain's murder ('Thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the earth') and the 'din' of murdered babies from hospital trash bins, emphasizing the enormity of the sin of abortion.

a decision which has literally turned those theaters of mercy and compassion and the hospital operating rooms and clinics, has literally turned those theaters of compassion and mercy into mass murder houses. And it has been done with the sanction and the encouragement of the highest court of our land, and it could never have been done at the highest court of the land if it had not been a reflection of the base, the foundation, the foundation, the foundation of our nation. of the base, the foundation, the foundation of our nation. moral fiber of the nation itself. The hands of physicians that h...

15:22 - 16:46 Read in full sermon

The point: Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them, maintaining a prophetic edge to our life and testimony.

The mention of Playboy and other magazines, once 'under the counter' but now 'open and blatant,' illustrates the widespread and normalized nature of pornography in the 1970s.

And under the counter for years one has been able to purchase any amount of pornographic filth that his own depraved heart would desire. Mail order houses have existed where the foulest kinds of movies and pictures could be obtained in order to answer to the foul base bestial lusts of men's hearts. But it awaited the seventies to have the glossy covers of Playboy and a dozen other magazines spawned out of the so-called sexual revolution staring at us over the counter-revolutionary, counter-revolutionary, counter-revolutionary world. To compare, the length of this country's history with the wor...

17:22 - 18:36 Read in full sermon

The point: Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them, maintaining a prophetic edge to our life and testimony.

The metaphor of a college student regarding virginity as 'a historical anachronism sort of looked upon like something out of the ice age' illustrates the radical shift in societal views on premarital sex and purity.

A respectable, middle-class businessman to turn aside in his lunch hour to plunk down his few dollars in a respectable place like Willowbrook and there feed his mind upon the very thing that just a few years ago had to be sought out but is now open and blatant. A running sore in our society that not only is it confined to the magazines and to the movies but the TV, t-shirts, bumper stickers. We have nothing less than a pornographic grunt as the mark of the sins of the seventies. Thirdly, it will be known as the decade of total sexual abandonment. Oh yes, there has always been premarital sex. T...

18:36 - 20:02 Read in full sermon

Driving home: The hands of physicians that have been trained in skill to administer mercy now throw murdered babies into sterile trash bins to be carried off with the other garbage in the hospital.

The example of sociologists and columnists like Ann Landers suggesting that extramarital affairs 'provide spice and new life to the marriage relationship' illustrates the societal abandonment of traditional moral standards regarding marriage.

A historical anachronism sort of looked upon like something out of the ice age. Yes, there have always been extramarital affairs. The Bible records them and the tragic fruits of them. But it awaited the seventies to have sociologists and the Doctor brothers and the Ann Landers and their ilk to tell us that extramarital affairs are not only tolerable but often provides spice and new life to the marriage relationship.

20:02 - 20:28 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin lists and describes specific sins that characterized the 1970s in America: abortion on demand, pornographic glut, total sexual abandonment, homosexual militancy, drug and…

These four examples (housewife on uppers/downers, wino on skid row, respectable businessman addicted to Scotch, pothead, weekend user) illustrate the pervasive and cross-societal nature of drug and alcohol obsession in the 70s.

So that you have the housewife who getting her prescriptions from her own doctor can only function as she's driven to her tasks as she pops her uppers in the morning and can only get off to sleep as she swallows down her candy. Drugs and alcohol have become an obsession and a way of life right across the board in our nation. downers at night. And you have the wino who staggers on the skid rows of our cities. And you have the respectable Scotch and water businessman who sits next to me on the airplanes and belts down three or four before he takes his lunch, belts down another three or four befo...

23:02 - 23:52 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin lists and describes specific sins that characterized the 1970s in America: abortion on demand, pornographic glut, total sexual abandonment, homosexual militancy, drug and…

The unnamed rock group (likely Led Zeppelin, given the Time magazine reference and context) is used as an example of the inherent self-destructiveness and drug-saturated mentality of the 70s rock culture.

mentality that is saturated in chemicals. And it's significant, isn't it, that the 70s close with a bitter memory of that rock group that is the symbol of everything that rock epitomizes. Read the article in Time magazine about who? The rock group who? Not written by Christians and saying that they are the symbol of the inherent self-destructiveness of the rock music and the rock culture. And they have been actively a part of it. Just over thought, this special album Well, we're going to Ultra rumored—we don't find them out at all because era over era has confirmed the image of those. History ...

24:52 - 25:48 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin lists and describes specific sins that characterized the 1970s in America: abortion on demand, pornographic glut, total sexual abandonment, homosexual militancy, drug and…

Martin recounts a personal memory of a time when a man's word, even for groceries at a corner store, was his bond, illustrating the decline of honesty and trust in society.

Christian or non-Christian. Whether it was the man down at the corner store and you happened to have no money with you and you took home your groceries and said you'd be by the next day to pay it. I've lived long enough to remember when there was such a day. And your word was your bond.

26:14 - 26:29 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin lists and describes specific sins that characterized the 1970s in America: abortion on demand, pornographic glut, total sexual abandonment, homosexual militancy, drug and…

The Watergate scandal, with the highest elected official 'spinning out a web of lies,' is presented as the clearest epitome of dishonesty and double talk in the 1970s.

The double talk and the dishonesty perhaps was most clearly epitomized in that whole tragic affair that goes under the title of Watergate. When the highest elected official would look straight into the eyes of millions of his American, fellow Americans and say I'm telling you all I know when he was spinning out a web of lies. And the double talk and the dishonesty is only exemplified by the fact that the very ones who are most blatant in condemning him are guilty of the same double talk and the same lies in their political and personal dealings.

26:33 - 27:11 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin lists and describes specific sins that characterized the 1970s in America: abortion on demand, pornographic glut, total sexual abandonment, homosexual militancy, drug and…

The example of newspaper ads for attorneys offering quick divorces for $200 illustrates the casual and widespread acceptance of divorce as a 'way of life' in the 70s.

It does not encourage or smile, but recognizes that sin being what it is, there will be circumstances where divorce is the only honorable and righteous course to take in a given set of circumstances. But it never envisions it as a way of life. One just picks up an ordinary newspaper now and there are the ads of the attorneys who, for $200, will help you to dissolve your marriage. Just that simple.

29:09 - 29:36 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin lists and describes specific sins that characterized the 1970s in America: abortion on demand, pornographic glut, total sexual abandonment, homosexual militancy, drug and…

The availability of books on 'how to get your own divorce at a minimum expense' in popular bookstores further illustrates the societal dissolving of the marriage bond's sacredness.

One cannot stop at a popular bookstore that carries good literature. I'm not talking about a cheap paperback shelf. And there will be books how to get your own divorce at a minimum expense to yourself. The absolute dissolving of the sense of the marriage bond and its sacredness.

29:36 - 30:03 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin lists and describes specific sins that characterized the 1970s in America: abortion on demand, pornographic glut, total sexual abandonment, homosexual militancy, drug and…

The rise of daycare centers and the idea that 'experts' are more competent to rear children than parents illustrates the rejection of the nuclear family concept.

This will be recognized as the decade that perhaps utterly destroyed the concept of the nuclear family in our national life. Daycare centers are far more confident to rear children because they've got the experts whose only job is to manipulate three to five year olds or seven to nine year olds. And so the terrible, terrible propaganda goes on. And this will be known as the decade finally of decadent religious obsession.

30:35 - 31:13 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin lists and describes specific sins that characterized the 1970s in America: abortion on demand, pornographic glut, total sexual abandonment, homosexual militancy, drug and…

The sudden prominence of the 'Moonies' and other cults in the 70s illustrates the 'tremendous mushrooming' of decadent religious obsession.

And here I wish I could pause to speak longer but time will not permit it. But we must face the fact that the 70s were marked by a tremendous mushrooming of the cults. Whoever heard of the Moonies before the 70s? They were around but we didn't hear of them.

31:13 - 31:29 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin lists and describes specific sins that characterized the 1970s in America: abortion on demand, pornographic glut, total sexual abandonment, homosexual militancy, drug and…

The tragedy of Jim Jones and the Guyanese cult, where 900 people committed suicide at his command, serves as a stark example of fanatical, decadent religious obsession.

They weren't accosting us every time we stopped at a red light, walked through an airport. But in the 70s there was this tremendous advance of the Moonies. And again the 70s are the decade of Jim Jones and the Guyanese tragedy. 900 people so fanatically obsessed with a human leader that they will send themselves to hell at his command.

31:29 - 31:56 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin lists and describes specific sins that characterized the 1970s in America: abortion on demand, pornographic glut, total sexual abandonment, homosexual militancy, drug and…

The mushrooming of mind cults and oriental religions like yoga and TM illustrates the decadent religious obsession of the 70s.

The decade of yoga. The decade of TM. The decade in which there has been that mushrooming of the mind cults and the oriental religions. The decade of pop religion with no doctrinal substance or moral fiber.

31:56 - 32:13 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin lists and describes specific sins that characterized the 1970s in America: abortion on demand, pornographic glut, total sexual abandonment, homosexual militancy, drug and…

The examples of country singers singing 'Amazing Grace' while drunk and locker room chaplains salving consciences illustrate the rise of 'pop religion' lacking doctrinal substance or moral fiber.

Country singers drunk on Friday nights singing Amazing Grace on Saturday night while 6,000 people stomp their feet and clap their hands and have no sense of shame. Pop religion with no doctrinal substance or moral fiber. We now have locker room chaplains who go in and read a few verses to 35 men on a Sunday and pray with them to salve their conscience while they go out and for three hours profane the Sabbath before 60 or 70,000 and who knows how many million on the TV. Pop religion with no moral fiber, no doctrinal substance.

32:13 - 32:52 Read in full sermon

Driving home: We must hold our hands over our mouths and blush and weep.

Phrases like 'Smile. God loves you.' and 'Honk if you love Jesus.' on bumper stickers illustrate the superficiality and lack of substance in 'pop religion' or 'born-againism'.

Bumper sticker Christianity. Smile. God loves you. Honk if you love Jesus.

32:52 - 32:58 Read in full sermon

Driving home: We must hold our hands over our mouths and blush and weep.

The mention of the 700 Club and the PTL movement illustrates the rise of 'born-againism' and mystical experience as forms of decadent religious obsession.

Mystical experience. This is the decade of the 700 Club and the PTL movement. Oh, dear people, it is no pleasant thing for me to speak of these things, but these, I suggest, are the paramount sins of the 70s. Some of you perhaps feel other things should be added.

33:34 - 33:54 Read in full sermon

Driving home: We must hold our hands over our mouths and blush and weep.

The anecdote of Ayatollah Khomeini condemning 'morally decadent Western Christianity' illustrates that America's moral decline is so evident that even external critics recognize it, leaving no room for denial.

But it has been in the 70s that they have risen to the prominent features and the very characteristics of our life so that when a fanatical Muslim by the name of Ayatollah Khomeini says that we Muslims must rise up and put down your morally decadent Western Christianity, we have no answer. Now, he's wrong in identifying American culture with Christianity. In his Muslim mind, he cannot separate religion from total national life. And we understand that.

34:12 - 34:52 Read in full sermon