We are living in a very exciting time where many things seem to excite us. It appears that we are also like this person surfing the waves as shown in the picture flashed on the screen. We are living in the 21st century, in the development of a society where it has already reached the stage of the fourth industrial revolution. In this 4th industrial revolution, what is the technology we’re facing? The older folks may not be familiar with the terms used in this sermon, but the younger ones would probably encounter this daily.

Today we have the Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI). People may find machines more dependable than human beings. However, the growth in the AI industry may affect the lives of men because the jobs available now may be replaced by robots in the future. Furthermore, what computers can do may be faster and more accurate than what you can do. These advancements may not just affect the nature of our lives but also impact our faith.

Two weeks ago the speaker talked about how phones can affect even our physical Bible and with excessive usage may cause other kinds of problems. Recently the speaker heard of something interesting - in Kyoto, Japan, today, they have a 400-year-old temple which uses a robot to preach to the believers in the temple. The people describe it as the Japanese Kannon and this becomes a new dimension to their religion. This is the Kodaiji temple in Kyoto. The person felt that with AI, young people may be interested to go to the temple, or at least stir their interest.

In the future, will we have a robot standing at the pulpit preaching to the believers? If the robots can accumulate all the knowledge, it’s very easy to deploy the robots to do anything.

However, we must understand that machines have no souls; will you listen to a sermon preached by machines? This is the impact science will bring about in modern times and will influence our Christian faith. The speaker would like to talk about some new trends in religions in the world today. Although they may not have a direct relationship with our church, they indirectly do.

Today in Europe, the percentage of Christians has been decreasing. Europe was originally the center of Christianity (especially in Italy and Germany) but have been gradually replaced by Atheism. There’s also a rise in Agnosticism and Islamism. The common feature is the rise in countries becoming more affluent. In poorer countries like Africa, the people believing in God are increasing but the 3 faiths talked about are growing in the more affluent countries, especially China.

Agnosticism is the belief that there’s no way for us to know about God. No matter how religions try to exist, they admit that they are unable to understand the spirit world. Hence, they neither deny nor affirm the existence of God. There is a separation of the physical and spiritual world - this is the belief of the Agnostics.

Singapore is a modern society and hopes to be at the forefront of modern thinking. Among the young people in Singapore, there is a growing trend and this includes the mindsets of many Christians. They also describe themselves as believers of Agnosticism. This group is very permissive in their values and towards what is immoral, they don’t pass any judgment. For example, pre-marital sex, casual sex, divorce, abortion, and homosexuality. These are sinful in the Bible but people who are very permissive in thinking will find these things acceptable. They view these as mere trends of the world. We’ll encounter more and more people with such thinking whether through social media, friends or colleagues. People don’t wish to rebuke others.

On the contrary, people who esteem values will be mocked by others or rebuked as being ‘old fashioned’ or ‘narrow-minded’. Since now that society has such influence, in our families we can have such topics for discussion. Not talking about such topics are not protecting our children, because they’ll pick these up to form social media or friends. It’s a fact that morality will decrease. We turn to Ephesians 5:3-6;

3 ‘But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints;
4 neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks.
5 For this you know, that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.
6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. ‘

Paul reminds the believers of non-Christians behaviours they should avoid. No immoral man should have the inheritance of God. What we face in society today are many in-filthiness because they are separated and oppose the kingdom of God. What then should we do? Let’s read v7-12;

7 ‘Therefore do not be partakers with them.
8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light
9 (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth),
10 finding out what is acceptable to the Lord.
11 And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them.
12 For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. ‘

These verses encourage us not to be partakers with them. In secret, they’ll do these dark things, but we’re in the light and should walk in the path of light. We must do what is pleasing and wholesome to God. Don’t participate in the works of darkness but instead oppose them. This is a reminder and warning from Paul to not participate in the things of darkness. These are the things we should be careful because we can find many of these things on social media. If we’re not careful, the next generation of the church will be lost because it’s impossible to stop the growth of knowledge. With the increase of knowledge, people will think they know everything and don’t want to depend on God they can’t see but on things they can see. We must be diligent in examining ourselves and look at our standard of morality (is our morality the same as in the past?). We may deem things we deem very wrong in the past as okay now. We must consider and examine our lives based on the standards and teachings of the Bible. This influence occurs to believers of every age.

Now we’ll talk about another trend - the ‘Nones on the Rise’. What does it mean by ‘nones’? In the year 2012, there’s a survey done in the U. S. The survey concerns the lives of Americans in their faith and society. The found an increase in the number of Americans who don’t embrace any religion. It’s not that they don’t have faith, but among the adults, 20% describe themselves as non-religious. These adults call themselves ‘none’, meaning that in a survey they’ll tick ‘none’ under the religion category. This is just a generalisation. When they break the figures further, 37% of the adults described themselves as SBNR, ‘Spiritual but Not Religious’. They have faith, but not religious.

Who started SBNR? In 2000 a man by the name of Sven Erlandson wrote this book ‘SBNR’. The writer himself is a pastor and a wrestler. He wrote this book to tell people that more and more people like the concept of SBNR. When we talk about SBNR, it’s, “Yes I believe in God because I have faith but I don’t belong to any religion. If a person’s faith is embraced to any religion, he’ll be a constraint to traditional beliefs”. They believe that they can feel the presence of God. The book says, “All religions have certain forms of wisdom, but no single religion can have all wisdom”. They feel that each person can define what their religion is and can set their religious standards.

However, if you were to set your standard, are your standards good enough? To put it simply, you believe in yourself. Defining your faith is something very strange.

A well-known Comedian in the US says, “If you want to believe every word in the Bible, you can. Or, you can be like me to treat the Bible as a book of myth.” He likes the stories in the Bible. He wishes for everyone to have true freedom, “When you are moved, you don’t need a pastor to tell you that you’ve been moved”. These are some thinking of modern people and there are Christians attracted to such modern thinking and gradually relieve the institution of the church.

These things started in the US and are developing very fast and we know that the world as a whole influence each other and thinking can spread very quickly. These trends are growing faster and faster in the younger people into adopting the thinking that everything is acceptable. If you talk about getting to know God, they may be lazy and don’t want to put in too much effort to know God and to be diligent in searching the Bible. If we conduct a Bible Seminar in church, how many will participate and be truly interested to know the Bible in-depth? The SBNRs have a very loose attitude towards the Bible. This is a trend of modern people and is against the institution. They prefer to free themselves from this reality.

We turn to 2 Timothy 3:1;

‘But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: ‘

And v5;

‘having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away! ‘

Paul talks about how in the last days many difficult things will happen. V5 talks about one of these dangers where people … denied the power. At that time, Jesus seems to be describing the Pharisees (those who know the message of the scriptures but don’t establish a relationship with God) but it seems to be true when applied to the modern context, “I believe in God, am godly and spiritual.” They think that religion constrains their freedom, and this problem creates difficulties for evangelism. When we evangelise, we have to talk about what is the truth and what is not. To them, they feel that “What I feel is correct is the truth.” To them, it’s a choice and they don’t wish to be constraint by standard teachings. We need to know that these things are coming.

A few years ago we had a preacher and in our church, he created problems and stirred the emotions of several believers to oppose the church. He wanted people to believe in theology he came up with and wanted to push aside the salvation that our church traditionally preached. Regrettably, many believers were influenced by him and were deceived. Perhaps, this is also linked to the trends used today. We can say that he’s very diligent but he has gone to the stage where he deceived himself and others. He even proposed that spiritual nurture is more important than truth.

However, the teaching is the truth - if you don’t have the door open to you, how can you find the faith?

There are people misled and had their faith destroyed. In Romans 1:19-20 Paul says that through our conscience we’ll know the existence of God; when Paul wrote this to the Romans he was trying to say that as long as we live in this world, we’ll know that there is a Creator. There are so many beautiful things through which we will know the power and eternity of God in this creation. Although we cannot see God, we can see the things created by God and through this, we know that there is a God. There’s nothing that can deny God. However, some use these verses to say that our conscience can prove God because, “If I can see things to know that there is a God, then I can feel God too.” It’s dangerous if you do this.

Let’s see what Paul says in Titus 1:15-16;

15 ‘To the pure all things are pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure; but even their mind and conscience are defiled.
16 They profess to know God, but in works they deny Him, being abominable, disobedient, and disqualified for every good work.’

When Paul says these, it seems to be talking about the conscience. The conscience can be defiled and becomes a spirit that deceives us and you’ll deceive yourselves. V16 - We believe in God and have faith but don’t want to do the things God tells us to do because of the teachings in the Bible that are too constraint. God says that these are detestable to him and no matter what good things you do are worthless in His eyes. We should not enter into this stage. Every one of us is exposed to the dangers of this world, so don’t think we can stand firm to this faith because our standards ultimately have to return to God. The Bible tells us that we need the church as a pillar and support to the truth. We can never say, “I have faith but don’t need a religion.” Only the word of God will remain to tell us our sins. To solve this problem, we need to understand the salvation of God.

How can men free themselves from sin? God didn’t plan for men to come to him directly and be dependent on his faith. He has a plan for the church to be a pillar and support of the truth. Without this foundation, what can your faith be found upon? Can you rely on your judgement, or will you decide yourselves? We have to remind ourselves that we need to fear God. We need to be diligent to find out the truth. We need to put in the effort to pray and read the Bible to draw closer to God. When we have faith in God and the church, you’ll have this experience with God. Have you experienced God in your life? If you’ve received the Holy Spirit, you would have.

Otherwise, you’d have fallen into another kind of crisis like the words spoken to the church of Laodicea in Revelation 3:14-17;

14 ‘“And to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, ‘These things says the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God:
15 “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot.
16 So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.
17 Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked— ‘

The angel rebuked the church in Laodicea, “I know your deeds - neither cold nor hot”. It’s similar to what we describe as a person who doesn’t mind anything. In other words, if we are moveless and don’t feel anything when people do anything to our faith (for example, people malign our church and we just let it be because God will punish him anyway), that’s what it is. If we see something unrighteous or unlawful, we have to try to correct the person. There’ll be times we need to rebuke to restore the person (this is gaining the pleasure of God). When we look at the church of Laodicea, this can be a warning to us. We must strive for improvement and don’t spend your time on things that are not useful to you. If we want to open the door to salvation, we must put in the effort. We know it’s a narrow gate.

Romans 12:11 Paul tells us to be diligent and not idle;

‘not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; ‘

In the Book of Matthew, we know of the parable of the three servants. One of the servants had one talent and buried it. It can be said that God has given him many talents but he didn’t work on them. He has no spiritual nurture and didn’t serve others, and was cast outside at the end. He’s always at the receiving end, “When I come to church I want to receive His blessings. If I receive some form of encouragement, then I’ll come. If I come and don’t hear any encouragement, then I don’t want to come. I need not be diligent in my faith and just need others to encourage me.” We should not enter this stage of being neither hot nor cold.

How are we going to speak to people who say that, “All religions hold certain hold some wisdom but no religion holds all wisdom”? When a person makes such a saying, it’s not that he has the wisdom or knowledge, but it is out of his ignorance. Who can be wiser than God? Behind this religion, is the true God Himself. When they make such a saying, it shows that they don’t know the Bible. Faith has a foundation in God. The Bible is the word of God. If we believe in the Bible, then we should believe that Jesus is the only way of salvation. We read Colossians 2:2-3;

2 ‘that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, and attaining to all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the knowledge of the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ,
3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.’

These verses tell us that in Him are hidden all the treasures and knowledge of wisdom. The Lord Jesus is the treasure chest of all wisdom. If we seek wisdom, then we must know how to seek Christ. When you seek wisdom in other wisdom, then it’s not perfect wisdom. Though we may be in the fourth industrial revolution with AI, without the wisdom of God all things are in vain. We can only obtain true wisdom when we come to God and every one of us has to be diligent to read the word of God. In the last days where we are facing the trends of the world, we pray that we know how to surf the waves and be on top of the situation.