This evening, we continue our study on the series 20th Century Idols. After an introductory sermon, we began last Sabbath evening by looking at the idol of materialism. And the second of these idols that we want to study is the idol or the false god of rationalism. And that will be our subject this evening. For our first reading, let us turn to the book of Genesis, the third chapter, at the first verse. Genesis chapter three, beginning to read at verse one. Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, Did God really say, you must not eat from any tree in the garden? The woman said to the serpent, we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, you must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden and you must not touch it or you will die. You will not surely die. The serpent said to the woman, For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband who was with her and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized that they were naked, so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. We end our reading at the close of this seventh verse. Testament to Paul's first letter to the Corinthians, and we read two short passages from the beginning of that letter. First, Corinthians. chapter 1 and verse 18. For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, the intelligence of the intelligent, I will frustrate. Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God The world, through its wisdom, did not know him. God was pleased, through the foolishness of what was preached, to save those who believe. Jews demand miraculous signs, and Greeks look for wisdom. But we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength. And then going on to chapter two, to the middle of verse 10. The spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man's spirit within him? In the same way, no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. We have not received the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words, taught us by human wisdom, but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man's judgment. For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ. May God bless this reading of his holy word to us all. We look this evening at the 20th century idol called Rationalism. Rationalism. This idol has a very calm, pleasant appearance. He looks like a scholar. He is fond of reading and discussion. He speaks in a quiet, cultured voice. But behind this impressive appearance, he is arrogant, intolerant, and unbelievably stupid. He is a liar and a destroyer. He is the God of Reason. Reason is the ability to think. The dictionary says it is an intellectual faculty, characteristic of human beings. Reason is one of the highest, most glorious powers which God has placed in human beings. Reason, the power to think, is one of God's very greatest natural gifts. In Shakespeare's play Hamlet, one of the characters is commenting on the greatness of man. And he says, what a piece of work is man. How noble in reason! How infinite in faculty! The power to reason raises us above the animal creation. The power to reason links us with God the Creator. Our ability to reason has done more to change human life on Earth than any other part of us. All man's culture and civilization, his science and technology, his discoveries and inventions, all that makes life rich, pleasant and enjoyable comes from man's brain, man's mind. his ability to think and to reason. Now, rationalism, this idol, is the taking of that gift and misusing it so that it becomes ugly and destructive. The dictionary defines rationalism, and you could remember this simple definition. Rationalism is the practice of treating reason as the ultimate authority. Treating reason, human reason, the human mind, as the ultimate authority. Instead of reason being treated as a gift, it is treated as a god. And this is one of the idols of our century, treating reason as the ultimate authority. And I want to look at it this evening under three simple headings, reason idolized, reason incompetent, and reason redeemed. First of all then, reason idolized, reason turned into an idol or a false god. to understand that we have to go back to the very beginning, to the third chapter of the book of Genesis, where we read of the interview between the devil and Eve. And they're arguing about what God has said. And Eve tells the devil, God did say, you must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, or you will die. And the serpent in reply says, you will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. And the offer is made here to our first parents. And the offer is this, you decide for yourself what is right and what is wrong. You be your own authority. You make up your own mind. You don't need to depend any longer on God and what he tells you. You can decide for yourself. You can solve life's problems by your own reasoning powers. And Adam and Eve were the first rationalists. The Bible says, when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and pleasant to the eyes, and to be desired to make one wise. These were her reasons. These were her reasons. She followed her own reasons rather than God's revelation. Treating reason as the ultimate authority. Listening not to God, but listening to yourself, and they turned their backs on the true God, and they bowed down before their thought processes and desires, and this is what people have been doing ever since. It has been summarized by a Greek philosopher in the 5th century BC, a man called Protagoras, who expressed it this way, man is the measure of all things. Man's mind is the ultimate authority. Now modern rationalism began as a philosophy in Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries. It was a time of great scientific discovery and advance. Science was going forward in many fields and people were excited by the powers of the human mind. and by the thrill of uncovering the secrets of nature by the power of reason. And the father of modern rationalism was a French philosopher called René Descartes, who lived from 1596 to 1650. And Descartes taught that by the use of the mind alone, human beings could discover everything in the universe. By the use of the mind, human beings could discover everything in the universe. This is what Descartes wrote, and I quote, there is nothing so far removed from us as to be beyond our reach or so hidden that we cannot discover. There is nothing we cannot reach. There is nothing we cannot discover. Man was a thinker and his reason was his ruler and his savior and his guide. And Descartes went on to teach what has been called the principle of doubt. Nothing should be accepted as true unless we can prove it by our reason. Nothing, nothing is to be accepted as true unless I can understand it and explain it and prove it by my reason. Reason is the God. Reason is the judge. My reason is the ultimate authority. And although that philosophy is now discredited as a philosophy, it is still powerful in the popular mind among millions of people who have never even heard of the word rationalism. It's the religion of many of the men on the street. We can't accept anything that we can't understand or that we can't explain. It's not reasonable. And although Descartes himself, I believe, believed in God, his philosophy has been turned against Christianity. Because as you will know, the Bible takes us at once into a world of mysteries and wonders an invisible spiritual God who is present everywhere, who has always existed, a God who is one God in three persons, a God who has made everything out of nothing, a God whose son was born of a virgin A God who raised his son from the dead and took him up into heaven. A spiritual universe where there is heaven and hell. We cannot explain these things. We cannot prove these things. We cannot understand these things fully. We cannot measure them with our minds. And so according to Descartes, according to the principles of rationalism, these things are to be rejected. They're to be rejected because our minds cannot prove them. And our mind is the ultimate authority. And that, of course, is precisely what has happened. Ordinary people have been conditioned today to believe that Christian doctrines are superstitious and primitive, that they are a hangover from a pre-scientific age, like the fairy stories and legends that simple people once believed long ago. These are the doctrines of Christianity. People are conditioned to believe that they are incredible to modern man. How can we believe in such fantastic things? Surely science has disproved the Bible. We feel sorry for people who believe in these old myths and stories and fantastic legends, how unreasonable they are. Rationalism is the god of many, and rationalism has condemned and discarded historic Christianity. And rationalism has set itself up as a guide for humanity. Modern man says, many of them, our own brains will lead us. Our own brains will provide for us. Our own brains will save us. Millions listen and follow. reason idolized. And then secondly let us look at reason incompetent. This God has feet of clay. He has two glaring weaknesses which disqualify him from being a God. And they are these. Reason is fallen and reason is finite. Let me deal with each of these in turn. First of all, human reason is fallen. Every part of man has been damaged by sin. Our bodies have been damaged by sin, we become sick. Our emotions have been damaged by sin, we lose our tempers. Our wills have been damaged by sin, We break our New Year resolutions and our minds have been damaged by sin. They have been blinded. They have been distorted. Our minds continue to function powerfully, often clearly, but there is something fundamentally wrong with them. There's something, there's a flaw, there's a weakness. There's something wrong. The human mind has been disordered and damaged, even the most brilliant, by our sinfulness. Think of a judge in a court of law. He's intelligent, he's learned, he's experienced, You might think he is well qualified to judge a case, but as you sit and listen to him, you suddenly realize that he's drunk. Something has happened to him which disorders his faculties, which confuses his mind, which sets all his gifts out of focus. He's not able to function as he should. He's not normal. Something has happened to him in spite of all his genius and his learning. Would you have confidence in his verdict? No, you wouldn't because you would say there's something wrong with him. So it is with the human mind. There is something wrong with our minds. And at the center of that is an in-built prejudice against God and against God's truth. And that is true of every mind, every brain on this earth. Because of sin, our minds are prejudiced against God. You remember what Paul says in 1 Corinthians. The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God for they are foolishness to him and he cannot understand them. He cannot understand them. Reason is fallen. And if you're going to make reason your God, it's like getting into a car with a drunk driver. The driver is no longer capable of driving safely or correctly. And sin has drugged the human brain. It is not capable, it is not capable of driving a safe or straight course. But reason is not only fallen, human reason is finite or limited. Even if man had never sinned, Even if man's reason were as perfect now as on the day when he was made, it still could not serve as his guide or his God or his ultimate authority. Why? It's too small. It's too limited. It's not up to the job. Let me illustrate. Think of a small child. Someone comes to you and says, I love children. I think the world of children. I appreciate them. I value them highly. And this little girl of mine, who's four years of age, I'm going to ask her tomorrow to do the household washing. And then she's going to make all the meals. And in the evening she's going to fill in my income tax return and then the next day she's going to service the car. Five year old. Now what would you say? Is that love for the child? Is that appreciation for the child? Is that trusting the child? Surely not. That's foolishness. That's cruelty. That's abuse of the child. That is giving the child responsibilities. which it isn't able to carry out. That's giving the child duties which it is incompetent to fulfil and was never meant to fulfil. A child was never meant to do that. And you appreciate children, you love children by recognising them for what they are and treating them on that basis for what they were meant to be. Now human reason is like that little child. There are things which are simply too hard for human reason. There are responsibilities which human reason was never made to carry out and never meant to carry out. There are burdens which our minds cannot bear. Man's mind is puny and small and limited? My friends, how can we hope to grasp the ultimate mysteries of this universe? How can we dare to think that we are capable in our little brains of understanding all truth? What arrogance it is What tremendous arrogance to suggest that all reality is going to be judged by a tiny human brain. In the late 19th century, there was a master of an Oxford college, Balliol, a man called Benjamin Jowett, and he was a rather arrogant man. Some of his students composed a poem making fun of him. And the first verse of the poem went, first come I. My name is Joad. Whatever knowledge is, I know it. I am the master of this college. What I don't know isn't knowledge. That's the slogan of the rationalist today. What I don't know isn't knowledge. If I don't know it, If I can't understand it, forget it. It doesn't exist. What a pathetic figure the rationalist really is. He thinks so highly of himself, of his mind. He makes his mind his God. He follows the human brain slavishly. But that God is fallen, and that God is finite. That God is biased and incompetent, and that God will lead him to ruin. There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end leads to death. Reason idolized, reason incompetent, and lastly, let us come to reason redeemed. Reason redeemed because you see it would be wrong completely wrong to so react against this false God as to go to the other extreme as many have Not only outside the church, but sadly inside the church to the extreme of becoming empty reason If that's the trouble that people get into through reason, then we want nothing to do with reason. We just want emotion. That would be an even more serious error because reason, as I've said, is a great gift from God. And although we're not meant to be rationalists, we're meant to be rational. We're meant to be rational. We're meant to be reasonable. It's of supreme importance in the Christian life. The good news is that just as all of man has been damaged by sin, so all of man is redeemed in Christ, including his reason. Christianity is not irrational. It's not anti-intellectual. It's the very reverse. Think, for example, of the evidence of Scripture. Luke 27, the great commandment, love the Lord your God with all your mind. With all your mind. That's rational. And they wrote to Emmaus in Luke 24, 25, Christ opened their mind. so they could understand the scriptures. One of the great words constantly used of Paul's preaching, he reasoned with them. Sabbath by Sabbath, he reasoned with them. Romans 12-2, be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Ephesians 4-23, you were taught to be made new in the attitude of your minds. 1 Peter 1.13, prepare your minds for action. 1 Peter 3.15, always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. Reason, reason, reason. Your mind Think, reflect, consider, prepare your minds for action. Think of the practice of the church. Think of what you are doing at this very moment, which is a totally remarkable and amazing thing. Have you ever realized that? What are you doing? You're sitting, listening, to a man talking for over half an hour. You're sitting listening to a connected, I hope, discourse and for most of the time you're trying to follow it and to evaluate it and to understand it and you're using your reason. Now how many of your fellow citizens ever, ever sit and listen to anybody talking for 30 minutes about anything. This is the era of the sound bite and the comic and the cartoon and the picture and the quick flash on the television screen. Yet in the church we come in and the pulpit's central. Central to our worship is the explanation of the Word of God that we receive with our minds and our reasons, and we sit our children down and we teach them. We teach them abstract, complex truths. We train them to think and to reason. Some churches may be lost in a bath of emotion or a maze of ritual, but the Church at her best has always encouraged people to think. So let's be quite clear in our minds, we want people to think more, not to think less. We want people to be more devoted to reason, not less. All truth is God's truth and no truth will ever contradict another truth. We do not fear thought. We do not fear questions or inquiry. As Christians, we don't need to be defensive or frightened. We're simply saying that reason should be used. It shouldn't be abused. It should be employed for the purpose for which it was given to us. And what is the first act of true reason? What is the most rational thought which you can possibly have? It is surely this. There are many things I don't understand. That's the most rational thought you can have. That's the most reasonable thing You can ever say about yourself, there are many things I don't understand, and many things I will never, ever be able to explain. The rationalist says, in principle, there is nothing I don't understand. That is unreasonable. That is irrational. So man must repent, and that means he must change his mind. And he must repent of intellectual pride and self-sufficiency. And we must come to God as little children. And we must say, my mind is not perfect. And my mind is not limited. It is fallen and finite. And we must ask our Father to teach us, to open our eyes, show us the things we need to learn. You see, friends, we're to use our reason, but we're to use our reason in its proper place to understand God's Word and to apply God's Word to our own lives and circumstances and communicate God's Word to other people. That's a task for the greatest minds for all eternity. Here then is the choice. Do we follow the drunken, stumbling God of human reason, who is leading his worshippers to ruin? And he will lead you to ruin if you follow him. or do we yield our minds to our wise and loving Father so that He may redeem them and set them free and teach us to think? And when we come to something difficult, and we will, in God's Word, we are to accept it without question or hesitation. I may not understand it. I may not be able to reconcile it with other truths. I may not have any explanation, but listen, God knows more than I do. And if he has taught it, it must be true. That's a simple, childlike faith. supremely rational. If God has taught it, I believe it. And perhaps one day he will help us to understand. And in the meantime, we trust him and we take him at his word. Remember Paul's statement, now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror. then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part, then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. Let us pray. O God, our Father, how we thank you for the mystery and wonder of the human mind, for the abilities which you have implanted within us. And Lord, within its bounds and proper place, what a glorious and blessed gift. But Lord, we can see how destructive that mind is when cut loose from you and your word. in its drunken, arrogant, stumbling pretensions to knowing all things. And Father, as we look around at the chaos and mess of this world, the result of the thoughts of clever men bring us back to the great truths. the simplicities and the profundities of your word. Help us, we pray, to bow our proud intellects in submission to your truth, that we may be taught like little children. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen.