I’m going to do a tale of two cities. This is not necessarily based in any immediate cultural
happening that just happened in the last couple of days, this is just something I want to say and it
fits in so much with the mission and the purpose of what we're doing - take me about seven minutes.
Saint Augustine wrote a book in 426 AD, actually, it's 22 volumes, called “City of God” and the day
I read that book was the day that I was cured of what C.S Lewis would have called chronological
snobbery. That is the notion that we're very smart today and they were very dumb back then.
I actually felt like a blithering idiot after reading something that was written in the fifth
century - incredibly wise. But I raised the book because Augustine speaks of two cities,
the city of God and the city of man and he points out that the Christian whilst existing in the
city of man and the systems and structures and society of this world they are in fact citizens
of a greater city, the city of God and that changes everything. To use New Testament language,
yes we've got a king called Caesar or whomever it is at the moment, a Prime Minister, we've got
a system, a structure, a world that we live in but we don't truly belong here.
We, in fact, belong to the kingdom of God and we have a king called Jesus. And I thought of
this recently when I read the story of Babel in Genesis 11 - I’m working on a curriculum,
a worldview curriculum for young people from Genesis and I got to Babel and I thought, well,
what does this stand for? You know we've really got to think it through and one of the things
that I found out in my studies was something I feel like I should have known long before
which is that Babel is actually an ancient version or perhaps an alternative way of saying Babylon.
And then it hit me, the city of man in Scripture is often described in terms of
Babylon - that's the word that is used, that's the demonstration, the metaphor if you like,
or indeed in some cases, the reality like in the Jewish exile. You see it in Genesis 11,
you see it in Revelation 18 - beginning and end. You see men in their enterprise and their systems
and their efforts without God, in Babel, and then you see the fall of that in Revelation 18. And
it's interesting that in the middle you see the story of the exile which is a story of citizens
of God's kingdom, living in a very pagan and non-Christian world and how they ought to do that.
Do you know, the features of the city of man are described in Genesis 10 and there's two of them.
The first one is, 'to make a name for ourselves', that was their purpose. Babel is a city,
not a tower - go and read it - it's a city, it's a city of Babel. And they say they want to build
this tower and they want to build this city to make a name for themselves. In other words,
they want to find significance in the systems of this world and second, they say, you know, we must
do this 'lest we be scattered on the face of the earth' and so secondly they want to find security
on this earth. Build for themselves security and significance. Now I fear that the temptation for
us all as Christians living today in a society that looks more and more like Babylon of Scripture
is that we live to get ahead, to climb ladders, to be liked, to be accepted, to belong,
to secure our situation, our reputation. To what end? Too often Babylonian ends, earthly ends. Do
you know, I really do like Gen Z. I’ve been having a lot more to do with them through our GPS program
which is about to be rebranded to be called The Download. I think we're gonna have 150 people come
along in July. And I like them because they've changed in their thinking on one important issue.
It's that they know that if they are serious about their faith, they are not silly enough to imagine
that significance and security are likely to fall their way, in this world, in the future.
They know it's going to cost them something. They know that that is the nature of the change that
is upon them. And it was once true that maybe you could do the right thing and have it all
but do you know, I think that this is changing. I get the sense that actually, one by one,
we're facing tough choices. I go around and speak, I was just in a church in Canberra the other week
and people come up to me all the time and say you know I’m in this particular line of work or this
particular profession and people who think what I think don't belong. I’m worried I’m going to lose
my job. Or people come up and say this thing just happened in the workplace or this thing
just happened at university and I’m too scared to speak out because if I speak out something
is going to happen to me. And all of a sudden, they're facing hard choices. What do I do? Do I
speak? Do I do what's right? Do I take a stand? Do I suffer? Or not? And here's the thing,
you can build in Babylon, you can build in the city of man, you can do the right
thing by the systems of this world and you'll probably take your future into your own hands.
You'll probably map out your own success, you'll probably plan your way and you'll make your
own goals and you'll probably keep your mouth shut to get there and you'll probably be less
convictional, more pragmatic about your life and you'll probably make excuses as to why you're not
doing the right thing now because you'll do the right thing once you get where you're going. It's
common in politics, I guess, but when I get to a certain level, that's what I’ll have influence,
that's when I’ll have power, for now, I better compromise. And we think that we're in control but
so often we're not. Jesus warns us in Matthew 6, He says, you know, you build up treasure on earth,
moth and rust corrupts and destroys, thieves break in and steal. You're not in control
in the way you think you are and you cannot, you cannot stop things from going wrong. And in Babel,
they didn't factor in the ultimate thing from going wrong which is God.
Because God intervened and He struck it all down and they were left with nothing. And do you know,
God is going to strike down Babylon again? That's the story in Revelation 18, 'Fallen, fallen is
Babylon the great', and He says, 'Come out of her my people lest you take part in her sins. Her sins
are heaped high as Heaven and God has remembered her iniquities and she has glorified herself and
lived in luxury so give her a like measure of torment and mourning the fruit for which your
soul longed has gone from you, your delicacies and your splendours are lost to you, never to be found
again. Alas! You great city, you mighty city of Babylon, for in a single hour your judgment has
come'. It's pretty sobering but this is why I read it because I trust that as Christians
we are not building in Babylon because in a single hour it will be laid waste and the only treasure
that you and I have left will be the treasure that we have laid up in Heaven or lack thereof.
Daniel and Esther lived in a pagan time,
in Babylon, incidentally, and they're such great examples. Do you know with Esther,
when she walked into the throne room of the King, she was committing suicide. She should have died.
Women weren't thought that much of. She was out of her place. Kings were crazy. And she went in there
and it's like the hand of God Himself extended that sceptre,
so she was safe. Or you think of Daniel when he heard that the King had signed the edict.
What did he do? do you know there was a sense in which he just about committed suicide?
He went and did as he had done previously. He prayed in the window, even though the edict
had said, you know what? Don't pray to any king but Darius. Don't pray to anyone else
and what's the punishment? Thrown to the lions. And he'd read the document and he did it anyway.
And what did he do, you know, he was one of the lucky ones, he was in a good university, he'd
survived the pillaging of his home city and he'd gone into this accelerated program in the King's
household and he was going to come out the other side as some kind of politician or something.
And you just think, oh Daniel, keep your head down. Oh Daniel, don't do the wrong
thing. Oh Daniel, play your cards right. Don't be stupid. Oh no, I’m not going to eat that, oh...
Nonetheless, that was the first day of the rest of his life. God saw it
and do you know what? He learned something - we learned something from these stories.
We cannot plan our future, we cannot build here on this earth, we cannot provide better for tomorrow
than God can. And we can try and take that job into our own hands or we can do the right thing
and trust God to sort out tomorrow. And do you know, with Daniel, he didn't blow it? He went
on to serve no less than five kings anyway. I’m not advocating for recklessness or lack of wisdom
but I am saying we know when the opportunity comes when we've got a choice to make, to bow
to the city of man - this world and its systems - or to live as citizens of the city of God and
serve the King. Esther knew this. People say to me all the time, for such a time as this, for such a
time as this. What is it that was said to Esther? For who knows, but you've come to your position
for such a time as this. She knew what she had to do and she did it and she did the right thing.
And God sees those who serve Him and He honours it. And in honouring God first we don't lay up our
treasure on earth but we lay up our treasure in Heaven. And what a Heavenly treasure Esther had,
what a heavenly treasure Daniel had. And do you know, this earth will pass away
and there will be a time when it's only our heavenly treasure that stands
and the question will be, what is it that we have laid up in Heaven?
That was Abraham’s call, wasn't it? He was one who saw a city
that had foundations, whose builder and maker was God - Hebrews 11. And he left Ur of the Chaldees,
which was in Southern Babylonia, incidentally, and he walked out not knowing where he was going,
why? Because he served a greater King and he laid up his treasures in another place and there
he is in the hall of fame in Hebrews Chapter 11. And it is only with the life of faith,
it is only with that faith that looks always to God in every circumstance
and says what shall I do, that we will have the courage and we will have the conviction
and we will be given the strength to do what we have to do when that day comes where we have to
make a hard decision to serve God or man. And it begins, really, with Christ as King
of our lives. It follows with His holiness, His Holy Spirit making us holy like Him
and then it concludes with us doing the good works that He would have us to do
in service to Him in this world and in this life. And you say, yes, but it's difficult. I know.
But do you know what? The amazing thing is, it's actually this simple. You do the right thing in
every situation and God actually looks after the rest. That is why I count it such a privilege
to have gotten to know and defend Israel Folau. Because really, at the end of the day, he was a
guy who sat down and said what is the right thing to do? And he did it and he bore the cost and yet
I think ultimately he will say it was no cost at all. In fact, he said that at our national
conference. And surely that is the calling that we wish to have on all of our lives, individually.
And it is my prayer that the Church of Jesus Christ in Australia will live that way. To do
the right thing, to honour God, to live truly as citizens of another kingdom. Because when
we do that, we won't have our treasures on earth destroyed and taken away and amount to nothing.
But we will meet the Saviour and He will say, 'Well done, good and faithful servants'.
Well, ladies and gentlemen,
I'm Martyn Iles - Wendy's on the stairwell - so that was ‘The Truth of It’. Thank you.