What Does The Bible Say?
30 Minute Discussions Of Bible Subjects
What Does The Bible Say?
What Does the Bible Say About Morality?
Arnie and Fred begin a new episode by discussing what the Bible says about morality. We begin by looking at what Paul went through while he was in protective custody by a Roman garrison and his discussion with the Roman official in charge of the area where he was imprisoned. We find out that the Roman official was totally unprincipled and rather immoral. This was not unusual for Roman officials. We then note that in large measure, modern day America is not much different as is much of the world. We discuss the fact that morality is not of human origin. Observing human activity, one gets the idea that each individual has their own morality. We note that it is the Lord who provided the standard of morality to the Israelites. We note that this hasn't changed. We also talk about the fact that morality is not legislated by the majority, even though we see this done all the time. We continue by looking at what the Bible says about philosophies and the deep thinkers who produce these in every culture. Unfortunately, we ran out of time and will have to address this item in the next episode. Take about 30-minutes to listen to this episode. Have your Bible handy so you can verify what we are saying. There is a transcript provided for your convenience.
This is a presentation of the Woodland church of Christ meeting at 3370 Broad Street in Sumter, South Carolina. We meet for worship on Sunday at ten thirty am and five thirty pm. We meet for bible study at nine thirty am on Sunday and seven pm on Wednesday. If you have questions or comments on this lesson, you may email them to Fred Gosnell at fgosnell@ftc-i.net or to Arnie Granke at agranke440718@twc.com.
Arnie:Good afternoon. This is Arne Granke and Fred Gosnell. And this is what does the Bible say? Fred and I are members of the church of Christ at Woodland in Sumter, South Carolina, and and the the congregation sponsors this this study every Lord's Day afternoon at at two o'clock, we appreciate you tuning us in and and us talking about Bible subjects together. You know Fred, you see a lot of situations where you where you wonder about people's morality. You see it in the news. You see people that have are alleged to have done something the what was the fellow's name that was down in the the Caribbean, that that had been quite an immoral individual here that passed away after he was put in prison. I can't think of what his name was, Jeffrey, somebody.
Fred Gosnell:Epstein.
Arnie:What was it?
Fred Gosnell:Epstein,
Arnie:Yeah, and, and there are others as well, right, right now this, this fella D is alleged to have been something involved in something like that. And sometimes people think that, well, you know, you have your morality, and I have my morality. And let's talk about that. I'm not, I don't think that the Bible allows that.
Fred Gosnell:No, it does not. And let's, let's start. Let's, let's read what Paul said in in Acts 24 verses, 14 through 16. And he's, he's speaking to Felix, the governor of Judea, I believe. And Paul says, But this I confess unto thee in verse 14 of Acts 24, That after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets and have hope toward God, which they themselves also allow that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and the unjust. And herein do I exercise myself to have always a conscience void of offense toward God and toward men. So Paul talking about his, his the way he looks at things. He wants a clear conscience toward toward both God and men. So Claudius Lysias. He was the he was a tribune who commanded the Roman garrison there in Jerusalem, and he was holding Paul in protective custody. There was a there was a riot that had occurred in the temple. And after learning that the Apostle was a Roman citizen, he ordered Paul to be transferred to Caesarea on the Mediterranean coast for safety when he learned of an assassination plot by a gang of Jews who had sworn to kill Paul. There, the apostle spoke the words of our text there during a venue a hearing before Felix. Felix was the governor of Judea, so although Paul was a man of high moral principles, the governor was not total, was a totally unprincipled man,
Arnie:And that's a truth.
Fred Gosnell:And he he hoped to be offered a bribe. Saw Paul a number of times there, and wanted, wanted to get Paul to bribe him so that maybe he would, he would let him out. Of course, Paul was a principled individual, and he wasn't going to do that.
Arnie:That wasn't, that wasn't at all unusual. A lot of those, a lot of those Roman officials, were about as crooked as you could, as you could find. Not that we haven't had some crooked people here in the in our government as well in the United States. But mention is is made of of that in in Acts 24, you've read part of that passage there. Let's drop down to verse 23, And he commanded a Centurion to keep Paul and let him have liberty, and that he should forbid none of his acquaintance to minister or come unto Him. And certain after certain days when Felix came with his wife, wife, Drusilla, which was a Jewess, he sent for Paul and heard him concerning the faith in Christ. And as he reasoned, Paul, reasoned of righteousness, temperance and judgment to come, Felix trembled and answered, Go thy way for this time when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee. He also hoped that money should be given to him of Paul, that he might loose him. Wherefore, he sent for him the oftener and communed with him. So I'm beginning to think that our own government's not getting very different from from that in in some respects as well. But here's a man who has apparently no moral views at at all, willing to do just about anything and and you know, when we think of today's situation in the United States. It's interesting to note that President Adams had made a statement on October the 11th in 1798, and here's what he said. He said, Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of of any other. Well, of course, most of those officials that were that had actually developed the United States of America, had participated in the revolution and represented the the people of of their their state And and whatnot. They were generally very moral people. But those ideas don't seem to prevail in America today. And though they've always been immoral and corrupt people, our nation now seems to be seems to suffer from its most serious moral issues ever. So I think talking about morality, what is morality, and who determines morality, and and things of that sort are, those are some topics we can talk about if, if we don't finish it up this afternoon, we could finish it up maybe on other occasions.
Fred Gosnell:Yes, and of course, let's start by noting the fact that morality is of not human or is not of human origin. You know, sometimes you know somebody say, Well, I have my morality and you have yours. You hear him say, Well, I have my truth and you have your truth. That's basically saying the same thing.
Arnie:That's not a fact. It's an excuse.
Fred Gosnell:So, so notice Deuteronomy, chapter 12. Moses wrote there, beginning in verse one, we'll go verse one and verse eight. Moses writes, he said, or Moses writes. He says, These are the statutes and the judgments which you shall observe to do in the land which the Lord, God of thy fathers, giveth thee to possess it all the days that you live upon the earth. So So So Moses got these statutes and commandments and others from the Lord, and he said, This is what you're going to do. In verse eight, he says, You shall not do, after all, the things that ye do here this day, every man whatsoever is right in his own eyes. So so they had a problem there. Each individual has their own had their own morality. They Well, whatever one individual wanted to do whatever he thought was right. That's what he did, whatever another individual thought was right, that was he did. That's what he did. So there was no standard of morality. And Moses said, No, we're not going to do it that way, because the Lord is going to provide us with judgment, statutes and judgments, he says, which he shall observe to do in the land that they were going to going to get. So they didn't decide what morality was. Morality didn't come from, from, from, from those individuals. Moses said, No, this is going to come from the Lord. And so that that tells us that men have never really devised morality. Morality comes from God. It comes from another source, other than man.
Arnie:And and I'm sad to say that that the that the point that the, that I'm trying to think what his name was. President Adams made it's it's a shame that that doesn't seem to be in play anymore. Doesn't seem to be the code that that all of our officials follow when, when we have, when we have a high official that takes bribes from from 15, 20, different nations, when, when we have various individuals that that take accept money accept whatever they can get from from other citizens, and under the threat, possibly of being tried in court for some some situation, or have some other inconvenience, some people have literally been putting in put In prison here in the United States in last several years because they've refused to pay bribes. And that's that's just a horrible, horrible situation, something that's just unacceptable altogether. Other other people think in terms of of morality being only about sexual behavior? Well, that's not even true either. There are people that that you know are women chasers and men chasers and and whatever, whatever like that, and, and yet they claim to be be moral. And in fact, we therefore, several years we were, we were operating under some kind of principles that that we can't define what a man is, or what a woman is. Sometimes people are born male, but they become female, and sometimes people are born female and they become male. And I'm not sure that we don't have a bunch of idiots out there that are making statements of of that sort. But certainly morality involves more than more than just sexual behavior. There's a whole spectrum of what is right and what is wrong. It includes things like idolatry and irreverence and blasphemy, disrespect, murder, stealing, lying, covetousness. We could just go on and and on and you, you know, in Exodus, chapter 20, God gave, gave Moses, the 10 Commandments. And if I can just read that beginning in verse one, God spake all these words, saying, I am the Lord thy God which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image or any likeness of anything that is in the heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them nor serve them. For I the LORD thy God, am a jealous God visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me and showing mercy unto 1000s of them that love Me and keep My commandments. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh His name in vain. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six Days shalt thou labor and do all thy work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God. In it, Thou shalt not do any work, thou nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy maid servant, nor thy, I'm sorry, man servant, nor thy maid servant, nor thy cattle nor the stranger that is within thy gates. For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is and rested on the seventh day, Wherefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. Honor thy father and thy mother that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee. Thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house. Uh, Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his man servant, nor his maid servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbors. Yeah, I think that these 10, these 10 Commandments, really amount to one of the earliest, certainly the earliest written set of morals used as a that was that were held to be the law of the people of Israel back in ancient times.
Fred Gosnell:Yeah. And of course, that's a long list, and those, those, lot of those things are still are still true. Of course, Moses law is not, not in effect anymore, but many of the things that are in there are still illegal,
Arnie:Yeah.
Fred Gosnell:And And immoral, yeah. And of course, that one of the
Arnie:Immoral. things that we need to understand is that morality is not legislated by the majority. Just because most people decide to do something doesn't necessarily make it moral or right. And you know, Arnie, of course, we've just had an election here and and in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, there's been a big story that they were looking at. Of course, they were, they were counting votes. And in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, the election board there, the woman that was in, in charge of the board, she, she, she made a public statement, and she said that that they had, I think 40, 4500 ballots that they had to count and and a lot of them were technically illegal ballots, and they weren't signed and various things that that made them not countable. But this woman made a public statement and said, Well, you know, we're going to count those ballots. And she said, there's a lot of things that in the Constitution and various people that that people don't follow anyway, so we're going to count, so we're going to count those ballots. And she was, they were having a board meeting, a public meeting. So ultimately that what ended up, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court said, No, you're not going to count those ballots. They are illegal. And of course, they stopped it, but, but the point is that there were there was a majority. Two of the board members were of one party, and one of the board members was of another party, and the majority voted to count the illegal ballots. So, so they were going to attempt to violate the law based on the majority vote. But the majority, fortunately, the Supreme Court, Pennsylvania said, No, you cannot count those votes. They are illegal. So, so, so people are more than willing to violate the law today and do so even publicly make a statement about it. So that's so absolutely so, so, so morality is not decided by the majority. Well and, and it's, it's amazing that that people will be so outspoken about that, and, and expect that everybody's going to accept that. I certainly, certainly side with their court. I'm glad that the court made the decision that that it did. But, but people will do that with with everything, whatever the majority decides is okay, is is just fine, you know. so so well, You know, not everybody's faithful to their husband or wife, so it must be okay to commit adultery. Uh, not everybody has, you know, been totally honest, but they're the as a child, they might have picked up something and put it in their pocket and, and that was just a kid. Wait a minute. Where were his parents? Why didn't his parents tell him put that back and and slap his hand, or, you know, in some way, correct him from stealing property that that wasn't his. Morality just seems to be gone in the United States, in many cases. Don't get me wrong. This is not to say nobody has a sense of morality, because there are godly people out there that that do that, that do that. And and, of course, in in Exodus, chapter 23, and and verse verse two, Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil, neither shall thou speak in a cause to decline or, in other words, turn aside after many to wrest judgment. That wrest is with, with a w, it means twist, pervert, judgment and and sometimes I'm, I'm afraid that in our country, the majority does that.
Fred Gosnell:Yes. And of course, those people in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, they were going to do this publicly, admitted to the what they were going to do, and thought that that thought that that was going to work for them.
Arnie:No shame at all.
Fred Gosnell:None at all. Of course, fortunately, it was stopped by the courts. So most people see evil as kind of a self promoting option, and they tend to pursue it. You know, Jesus said in Matthew 7, 13, and 14, he said there, Enter ye in it at the straight gate. For wide is the gate, and broad is the way which leads to destruction. And many there be which go in there at because straight is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life. And few there be that find it. So, so the majority follow the broad way. They do what they want to do, and are not concerned about whether something's right or wrong. So so this this kind of evil, thus it becomes culturally acceptable, even preferred. So so people seem to be comfortable. They are comfortable when they are in a large crowd, where they're in when they're in the majority, and most people agree with me, so it must be okay with what I'm going to do. But of course, Jesus disagrees. He says, No, there's a there's a there's a narrow way to follow. And because if you follow the crowd, if you follow the majority, the broad way is going to lead to your destruction. You have to take a different look at this and note that morality is not legislated or is not decided by the majority of the people that are engaged in various things.
Arnie:Was that, Matthew seven that you were reading from Fred?
Fred Gosnell:Yes.
Arnie:Yeah, verses 13 and 14, I think, yeah. Okay, good, yeah. So very often evil becomes culturally acceptable, you know. And there was a time when public nudity wouldn't be acceptable and and now there seems to be quite a bit of of that, as as a matter of of fact. Lying is, there was a time when that wasn't acceptable. But not everybody tells the truth, any any more. And people, people decide this is something that I want, and I'm going to get it, and I'm just going to help myself and take it and and they're they're surprised if somebody doesn't think that that's acceptable to to do that. So so evil becomes really culturally acceptable, and maybe even the preferred method, it seems. We we can't legislate it, but we also can't philosophize it. You know, the Canaanite human sacrifice was something that that was thought to be okay among among the Canaanites back to our old testament times. And in in Deuteronomy, chapter chapter 12, and beginning, beginning in verse two, You shall utter, utterly, destroy all the places wherein the nations which you shall possess serve their gods, upon the high mountains, upon the hills, under every green tree, you shall overthrow their altars, break their pillars, burn their groves with fire, and you shall hew down the graven images of their gods. And destroy the names of them out of out of that place. And that was certainly to establish not only a a reverence toward the true and living God, but but also there was immorality involved in in their worship of things, of idols that really weren't Gods at all.
Fred Gosnell:Yes. And of course, of course, the problem was that God's people had had decided that they were going to do these things based on what their religious neighbors did. And the Leviticus 18 one through five in law, law of Moses, here, beginning in verse one, The Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel and say unto them, I am the Lord, your God, after the doings of the land of Egypt, wherein you dwelt, shall you not do so. They spent 400 years there in Egypt. And of course, they, while they were there, they learned a lot of bad things from from the Egyptians. He says, You shall not do after the doings of the land of Egypt where you dwelt shall you not do and after the doings of the land of Canaan, whither I bring you, shall you not do so there you, you have. Here's the children of Israel. They're amongst the Egyptians, and they're learning what they do that's evil, and they're doing it. So then when they get into the promised land, the land of Canaan, there's people there that are evil, not moral people. And the Lord says, Now you, you're not going to be not going to do after what they do, either. So then he says, whither I bring you. Shall you not do neither shall you walk in their ordinances, their laws. So you shall do my judgments and keep mine ordinances to walk therein. I am the Lord, your God. You shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments, which, if a man do he shall live in them. I am the Lord. So, so, so it's not, you know, it's not religiously decreed by others. The Lord's the one that is the is the author of morality. He's the one that tells us what's right and what's wrong, what's moral and what's not. And he specifically told his his people, the Israelites, you know, you're not going to follow their ordinances, their laws. You're going to follow what, what I give you. You're going to keep my ordinances and walk therein.
Arnie:Yeah. So, so it's, it's certainly not philosophized. People, people think that, that they can imagine what would work out well, what would be acceptable to everybody and and no one beat would be harmed in any way. And it fails to take into consideration the fact that that just doesn't, doesn't seem to to work that that way at at all. Deep thinkers in in every culture, possessing the same human desires, the same human emotions, as as other people tend to approve or condemn the moral principles, but according to their own interests, they they do what they want to do, and, and then bind that on everybody else. And, and that's supposed to be acceptable, and, and nothing in the Bible seems to work work that way at at all.
Fred Gosnell:Yes. And of course, Colossians, chapter two, verse eight, tells us about this, about this danger. Paul there, writing to the Colossians, says, Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men after the rudiments of the world and not after Christ. So so the world contains lots of philosophers, lots of very wise people that that that philosophize and tell people this is what's the best thing to do. And you know, you can buy books on that all day long. But these people are not the ones that legislate morality. Morality is what God legislates, and we need to follow what he says, and not what these philosophers and these so called wise men of the world say to us.
Arnie:Well, you know, Fred, it's usually you that calls my attention to the fact that we're running out of time. So I think I'll take that role today, and we hope that you'll be with us on the next Lord's Day. And let's pick up with with some more discussion about that. We hope that that'll be helpful to you and and maybe influence some of your thinking when you're when you're thinking about what, what is right and what is wrong, and we look forward to being with you again next Lord's Day. Have a good week.