back to index2015-09-20 God's Ultimate Judgment
00:00:00.000 |
Romans chapter 1 I'll be reading from verse 24 all the way down to verse 32 00:00:18.200 |
yes I'm reading out of the ESV therefore God gave them up in the loss of their 00:00:26.600 |
hearts to impurity to the dishonoring of the bodies among themselves because they 00:00:30.760 |
exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worship and serve the creature 00:00:34.760 |
rather than the Creator who is blessed forever amen for this reason God gave 00:00:39.320 |
them up to dishonorable passions for the woman exchanged natural relations for 00:00:43.000 |
those that are contrary to nature and the men likewise gave up natural 00:00:46.960 |
relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another men 00:00:50.620 |
committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty 00:00:54.480 |
for the error and since they did not see fit to acknowledge God God gave them up 00:00:58.880 |
to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done they were filled with all 00:01:03.360 |
manner of unrighteousness evil covetousness malice they are full of 00:01:07.240 |
envy murder strife deceit maliciousness they are gossip slanderers haters of God 00:01:11.520 |
insolent haughty boastful inventors of evil disobedient to parents foolish 00:01:16.080 |
faithless heartless ruthless though they know God's decree that those who 00:01:20.440 |
practice such things deserve to die they not only do them but give approval to 00:01:28.760 |
Heavenly Father we thank you so much for this morning we ask Lord God that what 00:01:34.480 |
you have ordained in your word would reveal in our hearts Lord God where we 00:01:39.960 |
are we pray that we would understand your grace and what it is that we 00:01:44.440 |
already have in Christ in a deeper way that our life for you may not simply be 00:01:49.160 |
going through the motion and just a checkoff list but to really honor and 00:01:54.120 |
love you that our confession of and worship and adoration may be an overflow 00:01:59.240 |
Lord God of an understanding of what you've given us so we pray for your 00:02:03.280 |
blessing and your power of your Holy Spirit to lead and guide us in Jesus 00:02:06.040 |
name we pray amen let me ask you this morning what do you 00:02:10.760 |
think your life would look like if you had absolutely no accountability meaning 00:02:16.360 |
that if you die that there is no heaven there is no hell there is no God and 00:02:21.840 |
there is no consequence you can pretty much do whatever you want how do you 00:02:26.960 |
think your life would be different you know possible he doesn't answer this 00:02:31.600 |
question directly but indirectly he addresses this issue in first Corinthians 00:02:35.680 |
15 when people were saying you know there's no resurrection from the dead 00:02:39.280 |
meaning that Jesus Christ really wasn't who he said he was and so Paul responds 00:02:44.480 |
that he said if the dead are not raised let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die 00:02:50.200 |
meaning if there is no consequence Jesus what he said wasn't true and all this is 00:02:55.040 |
a lie then just live whatever pleases you you know live out your passions and 00:03:01.400 |
I think if that was true and with Paul saying is if there's no consequence and 00:03:06.440 |
this is it right there's no judgment waiting there's no consequences there's 00:03:11.080 |
no such thing as sin that's just something that we've made up or society 00:03:15.400 |
has made up how would that affect our lives you know the church sometimes gets 00:03:22.160 |
a bad rap and you probably talk to many people where it's out on a church as 00:03:27.280 |
churches full of hypocrites and first and foremost whenever I hear that or if 00:03:32.160 |
I'm on the street sharing the gospel somebody and somebody says I church a 00:03:35.400 |
full hypocrites my first response is I agree with them we are hypocrites I'm 00:03:39.400 |
the biggest hypocrite because I I'm here proclaiming the the excellencies of 00:03:44.320 |
Christ every single Sunday and there's no way that I live up to this this you 00:03:49.360 |
know I I talk a lot more than I'm able to practice and this is true of every 00:03:54.640 |
Christian so in some ways we every single one of us to different degrees we 00:03:58.920 |
are hypocrites but at the same time the kind of things that we experience in 00:04:06.720 |
church is restraint if you've ever been in a situation where there is no 00:04:11.880 |
restraint when somebody got angry and they wanted to take vengeance out on you 00:04:15.320 |
and there was no restraint it's ugly you know if you've ever been in a work 00:04:20.200 |
environment where where somebody thought that you did something wrong and they're 00:04:24.800 |
angry with you and you don't even know why but they're taking vengeance out on 00:04:27.960 |
you I mean it gets ugly you talk about filthy talk and language you go to the 00:04:33.560 |
gym some of you guys may know what I'm talking about you go to the gym where 00:04:36.840 |
there is no restraint there's no other ladies you know bunch of guys hanging 00:04:40.680 |
around and they have no filter and they just say whatever I mean it gets dirty 00:04:46.600 |
right church to certain degree even though we wrestle with slander we 00:04:52.240 |
wrestle with hypocrisy there's a certain amount of restraint that there's a the 00:04:57.520 |
Holy Spirit in this is always convicting us saying and that's not right you 00:05:00.800 |
shouldn't be saying this there's accountability in the context of the 00:05:03.800 |
community so even though we experience sin even in the church it is always to a 00:05:08.720 |
certain degree restraint but what would what would the church look like what 00:05:14.600 |
would the world look like without any restraint well the passage that we're 00:05:20.280 |
looking at this morning in verse 24 to 32 we've been talking about God's 00:05:24.320 |
judgment upon mankind and the reason why he's talking about that is because he 00:05:28.240 |
wants to introduce Jesus Christ as the answer to humanity that he came to die 00:05:34.000 |
for our sins and why this justification of our sins can only be by faith and not 00:05:39.560 |
by our works so he's been establishing starting from chapter 1 but in 00:05:44.280 |
particular in verse 18 all the way to chapter 3 3 full chapters to convince 00:05:49.120 |
the readers that you are absolutely in need of Christ so he we talked about 00:05:55.920 |
that last week on how how mankind chose chooses to worship the creation rather 00:06:01.560 |
than the Creator how we talked about how we can celebrate the Great Wall and 00:06:05.640 |
completely neglect the Creator of the mountain that this little wall sitting 00:06:10.040 |
on but the ultimate judgment of God is explained in verse 24 to 32 and the way 00:06:18.560 |
he describes it is is that God would leave them God would basically hand them 00:06:23.240 |
over right it's kind of like if you're struggling with somebody and you try to 00:06:27.560 |
correct them and you try to train them and they refuse and refuse and refuse 00:06:31.560 |
and you kind of put your hands up and say okay if that's what you want go to 00:06:35.480 |
it so three separate times in verse 24 26 and 28 God describes this judgment 00:06:42.280 |
upon mankind why the wrath of God is being revealed he says verse 24 God gave 00:06:48.000 |
them up in their lust of their hearts to impurity verse 26 God gave them up to 00:06:53.560 |
dishonorable passion first 28 God gave them up to a debased mind to do what 00:06:58.920 |
ought not to be done so the final judgment of God is is that he says I'm 00:07:06.040 |
no longer I'm gonna wrestle with you I'm no longer gonna convict you I'm no longer 00:07:10.200 |
gonna restrain you I'm gonna just let you be John MacArthur describes this 00:07:16.960 |
judgment and this is what he said when a person lives guided by the mind and the 00:07:21.640 |
lust and desires they are literally working out the wrath of God when you 00:07:27.480 |
have an individual or a society that has no restraint and just whatever they 00:07:32.520 |
please well you know I want to do this I want to go here and I want to watch this 00:07:36.760 |
and I want to spend my money this way and there is no restraint whatsoever 00:07:40.080 |
that they don't realize that is a wrath of God being displayed in fact in Psalm 00:07:46.120 |
81 11 through 12 God describes a judgment to Israel while he was 00:07:50.600 |
wrestling with them bringing judgment and yet they kept on refusing and this 00:07:55.640 |
is how judgment against Israel described but my people did not listen to my voice 00:08:00.680 |
Israel would not submit to me so I gave them over to their stubborn hearts to 00:08:05.640 |
follow their own counsels he says his final judgment was when he was 00:08:10.680 |
disciplined when judgment was coming upon Israel he said it was God 00:08:13.920 |
disciplining them just like a father disciplining their children but the 00:08:18.240 |
final judgment of God is to release them let them be 00:08:22.680 |
Hosea chapter 4 verse 17 it describes a judgment against Ephraim because they 00:08:28.680 |
kept on turning to idols and simple statement but this is what he says 00:08:32.880 |
Ephraim is joined to idols and here's the judgment leave him alone it's a 00:08:40.800 |
simple three words leave him alone they refused resisted rebelled and they would 00:08:48.560 |
not turn from their sin repeatedly over and over again and he simply says just 00:08:52.760 |
let them be in fact at the end times Paul describes the second Thessalonians 00:08:58.960 |
2 9 through 10 before the coming of Christ that there's going to be a period 00:09:04.520 |
of intense tribulation and he says the way you're going to know that the 00:09:09.200 |
judgment of God is coming is that the restrainer who restrains the lawless one 00:09:15.120 |
is going to take his hand off and God is going to no longer restrain the lawless 00:09:20.480 |
one and let him be and it's described the name of the Antichrist is described 00:09:27.440 |
as a one without law there's no restraint so the only thing that's 00:09:32.200 |
restraining this lawless one is God and at the end he says he's gonna he's gonna 00:09:37.680 |
release the lawless one to make disciples so a disciple of a lawless one 00:09:42.000 |
is gonna be lawless and that's how the judgment is described how many guys know 00:09:50.040 |
who Anton Lave is anybody born before 1980 probably you heard this name before 00:09:54.240 |
which is some of you right Anton Lave was the founder of the first satanic 00:10:00.080 |
church in the United States and he wrote a doctrinal statement yes they have a 00:10:05.960 |
doctrinal statement creedal statement of the satanic church and there's nine 00:10:10.360 |
creedal statements that if you were to be a Satanist you have to follow these 00:10:14.560 |
things now out of the nine I'm gonna I'm gonna read six of them and see if any of 00:10:19.720 |
these things sound familiar okay number one Satan represents indulgence instead 00:10:26.920 |
of abstinence number two Satan represents kindness to those who deserve 00:10:33.040 |
it instead of love wasted on ingrates Satan number three Satan represents 00:10:39.880 |
vengeance instead of turning the other cheek number five Satan number four 00:10:47.680 |
Satan represents responsibility to the responsible instead of concern for those 00:10:52.640 |
who are irresponsible number five Satan represents man as just another animal 00:10:58.040 |
sometimes better more often worse than those that walk on all fours who because 00:11:02.960 |
of his divine spiritual intellectual development has become the most vicious 00:11:06.600 |
animal of all and then number six Satan represents all the so-called sins as 00:11:13.120 |
they all lead to physical mental or emotional gratification now that's the 00:11:18.680 |
six out of the nine creedal statements of the satanic church and basically 00:11:22.760 |
every single one of them can be represented by simply saying live 00:11:27.480 |
whatever your passion is whatever it is don't let anybody restrict you every sin 00:11:33.840 |
is embraced because ultimately all it needs is to gratification so it doesn't 00:11:38.400 |
it doesn't go out and say kill people it doesn't say go start war it doesn't go 00:11:42.760 |
say go molest children doesn't say any of that all it says is to gratify 00:11:48.320 |
yourself gratify your anger gratify your passion gratify your sins because in the 00:11:53.440 |
end it's just for you it doesn't say to come and burn incest to Satan it doesn't 00:11:58.480 |
say you have to you know go to a satanic church all it says was don't let anybody 00:12:03.760 |
restrict you live out your passion without any restriction isn't that 00:12:09.000 |
interesting that in the scripture where scripture says God's ultimate judgment 00:12:13.520 |
is to let you go to live out your passion your anger your bitterness 00:12:18.560 |
whatever it may be without restraint see the text that we're going to be looking 00:12:24.880 |
at this morning the three statements where he says he hands them over we want 00:12:28.320 |
to look at it examine it carefully you're gonna see that in these three 00:12:32.040 |
statements there is a progression and degree of debauchery that God says he's 00:12:36.920 |
going to let them give them over to let's look at the first one verse 24 and 00:12:40.040 |
25 God said God gave them up in the lust of their hearts to impurity to the 00:12:46.680 |
dishonoring of their bodies among themselves because they exchanged the 00:12:50.920 |
truth of God about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather 00:12:54.920 |
than the Creator who is blessed forever amen so first of all he says God hands 00:12:59.760 |
him over and again this connects us to the previous passage where God says it's 00:13:03.640 |
because you refuse to acknowledge God as the Creator and you rather worship the 00:13:08.560 |
creation and the language he uses here is that he exchanged the truth of God 00:13:13.400 |
the glory of God for a lie and worship the creation instead there was an 00:13:17.920 |
exchange there was a deliberate exchange so I don't want to worship God I want to 00:13:22.440 |
follow the world you know as I was reading this text I remember a specific 00:13:27.280 |
incident you know when we used to go out to Santa Ana every Tuesday to feed the 00:13:32.360 |
homeless and I remember this one particular girl and she must have been 00:13:35.040 |
no more than 17 18 years looked like a high school student or maybe right out 00:13:38.480 |
of high school blonde hair blue eye five feet seven looked like a cheerleader and 00:13:43.000 |
so obviously she was way out of place this is seven eight o'clock at night 00:13:46.760 |
Tuesday and typically the only people out there are people who are getting 00:13:50.960 |
food or churches were out there feeding because it's not a safe place to be 00:13:54.880 |
because there's a lot of drug activity at least it was at that time so with us 00:13:59.120 |
she's she's kind of out of place just walking around and I remember every 00:14:02.280 |
Tuesday night we would come we would see her there and then eventually we figured 00:14:05.120 |
out what was happening she was selling her body to get drugs and so she wasn't 00:14:10.360 |
near where we were we were watching her from a distance maybe about half a block 00:14:13.360 |
away but every time we come we would see her and we never got to talk to her she 00:14:18.480 |
never came our way but we're watching this and I saw this unravel probably in 00:14:23.240 |
the span of maybe about four or five six months and I didn't see her every 00:14:27.600 |
Tuesday but I saw her in that span enough where I could see the digression 00:14:32.760 |
you know where she was being hooked on drugs and people were telling me the 00:14:36.800 |
guys who were in that area would come back and say what's going on with that 00:14:39.200 |
girl and then found out she's selling her body and then she eventually got so 00:14:43.960 |
hooked on drugs she ended up coming out in the streets and then if you're out in 00:14:47.400 |
the streets it's dangerous so you kind of have to be connected with some of the 00:14:51.000 |
guys out in the streets for protection and I remember watching that whole 00:14:55.560 |
digression looking at that thinking wow at least on the surface I don't know 00:15:00.120 |
what was going on at home for her but at least on the surface I mean she looked 00:15:04.400 |
like a cheerleader she looked like you know one of the girls who would be popular 00:15:07.720 |
in high school when she was out there exchanging her body and doing drugs and 00:15:11.240 |
again after about six months I stopped seeing her again reason why I had this 00:15:15.840 |
picture in my head is because when the scripture talks about the judgment of 00:15:20.040 |
God God describes this as a deliberate exchange exchange from worshipping and 00:15:27.800 |
honoring and following the truth of God his glory and then and then and it 00:15:33.040 |
abandoned all of that and chase after foolish things so he says therefore God 00:15:39.160 |
gave them over to the lust of the impurity dishonoring of their bodies 00:15:44.080 |
talking about sexual impurity sexual immorality if you read the New Testament 00:15:51.000 |
and the Old Testament but in particular New Testament whenever Paul or the 00:15:55.240 |
Apostles describes a list of debauchery list of sins almost always sexual 00:16:01.320 |
immorality is at the top of the list now I've mentioned this before whenever you 00:16:06.200 |
see a list in the Bible it is not done randomly if you look at the list of the 00:16:10.920 |
twelve disciples Peter's name is always on the top the three in the inner 00:16:15.200 |
circle is always on the top and there's a reason for that because at that time 00:16:18.960 |
when they wrote things the people who are the most prominent were usually on 00:16:22.680 |
the top of the list so whenever they made a list of something whatever is on 00:16:25.840 |
the top of the list is there for on purpose that it is meant to be 00:16:29.680 |
highlighted that this is something that you ought to pay attention to so every 00:16:33.520 |
time there's a list of sins sexual immorality is on the top of that list it 00:16:38.960 |
is highlighted in fact Paul says it and he distinguishes this particular sin in 00:16:45.280 |
first Corinthians 618 he says flee sexual immorality he didn't say sit and 00:16:50.000 |
fight he doesn't say combat it he doesn't he said first and foremost flee 00:16:55.240 |
sexual immorality every other sin a person commits outside the body but the 00:16:59.760 |
sexual immoral person sins against his own body so yes there are other sins 00:17:05.840 |
there's other things that that corrode our society corrode us but he highlights 00:17:11.600 |
this sexual sin as being devastating first Corinthians 7 - Paul says but 00:17:18.320 |
because of this temptation to sexual morality each man should have his own 00:17:21.880 |
wife and each woman her own husband it was so prominent at that time and I 00:17:29.120 |
believe today he says it's better to be married it's better and don't deny 00:17:34.120 |
yourself for that purpose first Thessalonians 4 3 & 5 know how many of 00:17:40.040 |
you okay don't raise your hands a rhetorical question how many of you 00:17:42.560 |
sitting here thinking about what is the will of God maybe some of you freshmen 00:17:46.680 |
came into college thinking what's God's will for me should I be you know I 00:17:50.240 |
should I be a doctor should I be you know a you know go into business and you 00:17:54.320 |
have all these so what is the will of God some of you are on the verge of 00:17:58.200 |
dating somebody is this the will of God should I marry this person not marry 00:18:01.440 |
this person should I have another child should I move my job that's probably one 00:18:06.240 |
of the number one things that people ask for counsel like I want to know the will 00:18:10.160 |
of God the Bible doesn't describe the will of God specifically that way and 00:18:14.800 |
said God's will for you is to marry this person I mean you could search through 00:18:18.080 |
scripture but it's not there right there is no halo on that person that 00:18:23.040 |
you're supposed to marry you walk around oh there she is you know God said that's 00:18:25.840 |
the will of God for the most part you have to use sound judgment seek counsel 00:18:30.920 |
right ask older brothers just be wise about how you choose but there are 00:18:36.000 |
specific things that God has said this is the will of God and he uses that 00:18:41.880 |
language and first that's known as 4 3 it says this for this is the will of God 00:18:46.040 |
your sanctification your holiness that this is the will of God so before we 00:18:53.920 |
come to God and say God do you want me to have this job or that job or this 00:18:57.200 |
major or that major or marry this person or that person before we can ask that 00:19:01.160 |
question we have to understand that God's primary desire primary will is our 00:19:07.480 |
sanctification our holiness so if we're ignoring that and then we're coming to 00:19:12.480 |
God saying I want to know all of this other stuff you know we have this thing 00:19:17.520 |
backward but here's I'm going to continue so for this is the will of God 00:19:20.280 |
your sanctification that you abstain from sexual immorality specifically the 00:19:29.560 |
first and foremost before we wrestle with what does God want for me in my 00:19:33.200 |
life that we need to know absolutely crystal clear that what God wants is 00:19:37.400 |
sexual purity and this thing is again highlighted above other sins in fact in 00:19:44.960 |
Peter first Peter 2 11 he says beloved I urge you as sojourners and exiles to 00:19:49.760 |
abstain from passions of the flesh referring to sexual immorality which 00:19:54.520 |
wage war against your soul it wages war against our soul that's why again the 00:20:01.580 |
reason why Paul highlights this is because if we compromise if we make 00:20:06.740 |
excuses if we allow that say yeah you know it's no big deal in fact I run into 00:20:11.800 |
people all the time we say it doesn't bother me right I bothers MP what doesn't 00:20:16.640 |
bother me the fact that it doesn't bother us is actually a bigger problem 00:20:21.800 |
that our conscience have become so seared that we are shocked by less and 00:20:26.240 |
less things that is not because you're mature because our conscience has become 00:20:30.520 |
seared he says is waging war against your soul an individual whose whose 00:20:34.220 |
conscience has been seared because we've compromised to the point where our soul 00:20:39.560 |
is at war and you don't even recognize it it is a condition the scripture says 00:20:46.400 |
that will happen when we sin against God again and again God says okay I hand you 00:20:52.800 |
over to this in fact this this sin is so prevalent in our culture and I'm not 00:20:59.420 |
just talking about our society and morality I'm talking about even finance 00:21:03.860 |
even our economy is influenced by pornography again those of you who are 00:21:10.120 |
around in the 80s you know there was a big debate at that time again I know 00:21:14.200 |
this is outdated and Esther will make fun of me later at home you know and 00:21:18.960 |
back in the 80s there was a discussion between is the VHS or the beta going to 00:21:24.800 |
be you know going to to take off okay some guy's looking at me what the what 00:21:29.120 |
is beta right okay so you guys know what I'm talking about basically you know 00:21:33.160 |
what a VHS is right I should have brought one to show you okay now 00:21:36.640 |
everything's DVD okay so VHS is about this size in which we still have right 00:21:42.640 |
back in the 80s the VHS and beta came out at the same time and I think beta 00:21:47.400 |
was from Sony I forget but there was this big debate like I said because 00:21:51.960 |
they're they did the same thing and the quality was just the same but the beta 00:21:56.400 |
was just smaller and the machine was small so beta video machines were about 00:22:00.920 |
this big and the VHS was that that big and so when I heard that they were 00:22:04.600 |
debating which way to go saying why would that even be a question you go 00:22:08.160 |
beta because it's smaller same price does the same thing why would you not go 00:22:11.760 |
this way and then I heard and I read on the news that it's actually going 00:22:16.320 |
toward VHS and eventually beta is gonna disappear and the reasoning behind this 00:22:21.320 |
was that the porn industry made a made a deal with the people who are making VHS 00:22:27.880 |
that they're gonna use VHS as their primary way of recording pornography and 00:22:32.920 |
that's when I found out the reason why they made such a big deal is because so 00:22:37.680 |
much of the money that was being spent for these VHS was coming from the porn 00:22:42.320 |
industry whatever they decided to go by was what was going to win and that's why 00:22:48.520 |
we have VHS today at least in my closet by your closet okay now now even VHS is 00:22:55.120 |
dead right that's how much impact that the porn industry in our culture has 00:23:00.960 |
again nobody more now on television you know the in sitcoms they're very open 00:23:06.280 |
about watching porn but in larger society it's something hidden in behind 00:23:12.120 |
the scene today let me give you some statistics about online pornography 35% 00:23:20.040 |
of all internet downloads are related to pornography are you surprised by that 00:23:25.440 |
35% it's not Netflix it's not movies not YouTube is it it's pornography 25% of 00:23:32.520 |
all search engine queries are related to pornography or about 68 million search 00:23:37.320 |
queries a day so one in four times somebody puts something in the search 00:23:42.520 |
engine is related to pornography search engines get hundred and sixteen thousand 00:23:47.640 |
queries every day related to child pornography okay 34% of internet users 00:23:54.880 |
have experienced unwanted exposure to pornographic content through ads pop-up 00:23:58.960 |
ads misdirected links or emails in other words you don't even have to go look for 00:24:02.800 |
they're gonna come look for you 2.5 billion emails sent or received every 00:24:07.760 |
day contain porn 2.5 billion this is daily every 39 minutes a new pornography 00:24:15.480 |
video is being created in the United States every 39 minutes no wonder it 00:24:23.040 |
affects the economy on the underlying currency which is kind of dictating the 00:24:31.760 |
internet is pornography what content is chosen to be on what website is dictated 00:24:38.480 |
by pornography you think the advertisers don't know this they know it they know 00:24:42.800 |
that 25% of the time when people are online they're looking for porn so do 00:24:47.200 |
you think that affects what kind of advertisement comes on websites and how 00:24:51.360 |
it directs you what's on YouTube what's on Facebook right it is we are bombarded 00:24:57.080 |
by this and I know I know that a lot of us you know let's be honest that that is 00:25:03.480 |
a struggle that is behind the scenes let me go further and how this erodes not 00:25:08.800 |
only individually but families he said 47% of families in the United States 00:25:13.400 |
reported that pornography is a problem in their homes 47 that's almost 50% one 00:25:20.040 |
out of two families it's a problem pornography use increases the material 00:25:24.200 |
marital infidelity rate by more than 300% so 50% on 47% of households where 00:25:33.600 |
this is a problem that doesn't mean the other you know 53% is not an issue he 00:25:37.840 |
says it's it's gone to a point where it's a problem this is not a survey of a 00:25:42.000 |
particular church or an area this is broad that means 300% more likely that 00:25:48.000 |
there's going to be infidelity 40% of sex addicts lose their spouses 58% 00:25:54.600 |
suffer considerable financial loss and about third lose their jobs scripture 00:26:01.800 |
says that because we exchange the glory of God for things made by men God hands 00:26:08.880 |
over when God's hands over the one of the first things that happen is sexual 00:26:12.720 |
immorality I mean I don't think I need to convince you that you and I see it 00:26:18.080 |
all around us and how rapidly it's growing because of the internet you know 00:26:22.600 |
they're struggling with pornography at one point used to be having enough 00:26:26.440 |
courage and going to a video store and being embarrassed now it's on your 00:26:29.840 |
phones in every Christian every young man every young woman has it on their 00:26:34.440 |
phone private no one else watches it but you so the temptation is greater than 00:26:38.840 |
ever but here's I don't want to keep going on this because the second part of 00:26:44.360 |
this he goes from sexual morality and he goes he dies even a little bit deeper on 00:26:48.120 |
this and he says for this reason verse 26 to 27 the second handing over says 00:26:53.120 |
for this reason God gave him up to dishonorable passions for their for their 00:26:57.600 |
woman exchange natural relations for those that are contrary to nature and 00:27:02.320 |
the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed 00:27:06.440 |
with passion for one another men committing shameless acts with men and 00:27:10.080 |
receiving in themselves a due penalty for their error now one of these days 00:27:14.840 |
we're gonna have a whole day dedicated in exploring what the scripture says 00:27:20.120 |
what the arguments are and how we're going to deal with this and and I don't 00:27:25.040 |
have time today to go too deep into this but I want to make this absolutely 00:27:28.160 |
crystal clear because we're in this text I've been hearing more and more in the 00:27:33.260 |
Christian community sometimes even in Bible teaching churches that the Bible 00:27:37.480 |
does not teach this because of the pressure because of the propaganda in 00:27:42.240 |
our generation that this is not true that that the church has has basically 00:27:49.040 |
dissected it and and added and basically perverted what the scripture says and 00:27:52.840 |
that is not what the scriptures and I want to make this absolutely crystal 00:27:55.320 |
clear that what you just read is what it says in the Greek there's nothing hidden 00:28:01.160 |
here he says when sexual morality that is taken to its effect and just kind of 00:28:09.120 |
run free there's no boundaries is that one of the things that happens is that 00:28:13.360 |
dishonorable passions lead to women exchanging natural relations with women 00:28:18.500 |
men exchanging natural relations with with women and practice homosexuality 00:28:26.040 |
now I know in this room especially some of you who are new to this church may 00:28:30.320 |
have may never have been confronted with this issue maybe maybe you've been 00:28:34.320 |
having discussions and arguments with your friends sometimes even Christian 00:28:38.000 |
friends saying that this is not what the scripture says one of the arguments 00:28:42.080 |
against this this particular passage is that when he says natural he's not 00:28:47.000 |
talking about God's creation that again this is one of the arguments that they 00:28:51.800 |
make against this to nullify this text is that what God meant natural is 00:28:55.560 |
somebody was naturally heterosexual to practice heterosexuality and somebody 00:29:00.800 |
was naturally homosexual to practice homosexuality so what he's what he's 00:29:05.080 |
going against is a natural homosexual practicing heterosexuality and natural 00:29:10.520 |
heterosexual practicing homosexuality and the reason why they say that is 00:29:16.560 |
because well they were born that way so therefore that they're practicing what 00:29:21.920 |
is natural to them so what he's saying is what is unnatural so one the only 00:29:26.720 |
reason why you get that is because you're you're changing the meaning of 00:29:31.440 |
what he says here so you read it for yourself is he talking about a natural 00:29:36.240 |
homosexual practice heterosexuality or is he talking about God's intended 00:29:40.240 |
purpose and creation and let me make this absolutely crystal clear he's 00:29:44.480 |
talking about what God intended how God created male and female and how he 00:29:50.960 |
created Eve for the purpose of what for procreation it wasn't good for man to be 00:29:56.560 |
alone so he created Eve's so that they would have what sex that they would have 00:30:01.480 |
relations and through that process that they will be fruitful and multiply and 00:30:06.880 |
so to have a relationship between man and a man and woman and woman is 00:30:10.480 |
unnatural that's what this text is saying now the argument that we have as 00:30:15.720 |
well it's unnatural well what if they were born that way that's natural so 00:30:19.160 |
they practice practice homosexuality okay let me try to argue it this way you 00:30:25.760 |
know Esther every once in a while will say Peter you've been born with extra 00:30:28.720 |
amount of testosterone right and I know why she says it you know she said if you 00:30:34.640 |
have extra you're kind of like a Neanderthal you know and you're thinking 00:30:38.200 |
so that's why it's a joke in our house right let me let me ask you is monogamy 00:30:44.880 |
natural in fact after the Supreme Court decision that discussion has opened up 00:30:54.000 |
and more and more people saying that monogamy is not natural because 00:30:57.680 |
naturally you are filled with lust naturally you don't want to be you with 00:31:03.120 |
just one person so even if you are married even if you're in a monogamous 00:31:06.920 |
relationship your natural desire is to have physical relations with the 00:31:11.760 |
opposite sex whether you're married or not so if you have this impulse did you 00:31:17.160 |
put that in there did you choose that no you were born with that impulse so to 00:31:22.680 |
use the argument that you are born with this particular impulse so therefore it's 00:31:26.440 |
natural so therefore it is not sin you have to argue that our natural impulse 00:31:33.160 |
to have sex with as many people as possible should not be called sin 00:31:37.480 |
because we naturally have that instinct now we will argue that a very few people 00:31:43.600 |
who argue for homosexuality will argue vehemently against polygamy and 00:31:50.280 |
against adultery here's the problem what the scripture says that all have sinned 00:31:57.120 |
and fall short of the glory of God meaning not only homosexual tendencies 00:32:01.800 |
but even heterosexual tendencies have been perverted so even our desire to 00:32:08.160 |
have sexual relations with everybody we've been born with this sinful nature 00:32:13.400 |
so simply to disqualify because somebody was born and they didn't choose to be 00:32:17.960 |
that way so therefore it can't be sin that means nothing we naturally desire 00:32:21.880 |
is sin we naturally want to be better than somebody else so if we naturally 00:32:26.240 |
lie you know and we latch naturally cheat right we have extras extra level 00:32:32.880 |
testosterone and you happen to be more aggressive and angry than an average 00:32:36.600 |
person then that's not your fault because you were born that way we would 00:32:40.200 |
never argue that if somebody who is more aggressive take out their aggression 00:32:44.960 |
against somebody else we would say no you got to stop that that's wrong you 00:32:48.160 |
can't behave that way well we imagine if that person but I was born with extra 00:32:53.200 |
testosterone right no one ever would ever excuse that because that behavior 00:32:57.840 |
we say is wrong see the scripture tells us that every single one of us whether 00:33:03.080 |
you are a heterosexual or homosexual all of our sexual tendencies have been 00:33:07.640 |
perverted in the fall and so the way that Paul describes it is that when he 00:33:12.600 |
hands us over sexually there is perversion and then this leads to 00:33:16.480 |
specifically not in every case but in some cases homosexuality if there was 00:33:23.240 |
any question whether the scripture taught this or not Leviticus 18 22 it 00:33:27.220 |
says you shall not lie with a male or as with a woman it is an abomination in 00:33:33.680 |
Leviticus 20 13 if a man lies with a male as with the woman both of them have 00:33:37.600 |
committed an abomination they shall surely be put to death their blood is 00:33:41.000 |
upon them some people have argued that the word homosexual is not in the New 00:33:46.800 |
Testament and they are absolutely correct the word homosexual that 00:33:50.920 |
literally that word is not in the New Testament but I'll tell you what the what 00:33:55.440 |
the word is that has been translated homosexual in the New Testament the 00:33:59.680 |
Greek word that has been translated homosexual is arsenic coitus arsenic 00:34:05.280 |
coitus now you don't need to remember that word but basically that word 00:34:08.600 |
literally means male lying with male that's what that word means is two words 00:34:15.360 |
put together male lying with male and so in first Corinthians 6 9 and first 00:34:21.320 |
Timothy 1 9 that word arsenic coitus instead of saying male lying with male 00:34:26.840 |
they just said homosexuality so if anybody comes up to you and tells you 00:34:31.480 |
that that is not what the scripture says I hope you took notes right that you are 00:34:36.480 |
able to defend this but the Bible clearly does teach this now I want you 00:34:40.680 |
to see the propaganda and and I'll bet from my experience that some of you 00:34:45.280 |
have already been affected by this propaganda what percentage do you think 00:34:50.920 |
of people in the world would claim to be homosexuals don't say it okay because 00:34:57.880 |
I'm gonna end up correcting you right I think the number how many of you heard 00:35:01.760 |
whether you agree how many of you heard the percentage about 10% oh really and 00:35:09.520 |
nobody wants to admit it all right 10% 10% is the term that's been hanging 00:35:14.400 |
around probably since the 70s and 80s that I remember and and the term 10% 00:35:20.400 |
that's been floating around and it may be different now but it comes from a man 00:35:25.160 |
named Alfred Kinsey somebody guys may have heard his name he was a guy who 00:35:29.640 |
supposedly began a sexual revolution and he tested sexual morality to its limits 00:35:35.680 |
and then he was known to be a homosexual himself and he said from his study he 00:35:39.960 |
says that he encountered about 10% of the population being gay so since then 00:35:45.640 |
that term 10% has been thrown around 10% is gay 10% is gay well in 2000 US census 00:35:52.600 |
and this is us and this is not a Christian study a US census says that 00:35:56.960 |
less than 1% of Americans identified that they came from homosexual families 00:36:01.720 |
now that is not an accurate number because they're talking about households 00:36:04.920 |
and there's a lot of people who may be gay in closet and they're not coming out 00:36:09.400 |
and saying it so that may not be an accurate number but the more accurate 00:36:12.880 |
number comes from family research report and they found that two to three percent 00:36:17.440 |
of men have declared that they have homosexual tendencies and about 2% of 00:36:23.920 |
females identified as homosexual tendencies and that's a big drop in 00:36:27.640 |
number from 10 that more to 2 to 2 to 3 percent in fact I found other surveys 00:36:32.880 |
where it was actually one or less than 1% now we don't know for sure what 00:36:36.840 |
percent is accurate but what's interesting is they the Gallup poll 00:36:41.840 |
again this has nothing to do with Christian Christian agenda it wasn't 00:36:45.200 |
done by a Christian group a Gallup poll who takes surveys of politicians and and 00:36:50.560 |
it's their whole business is just take surveys they went out and surveyed 00:36:54.960 |
Americans of what they thought today number of people who claim to be gay 00:37:01.720 |
average estimate was 21% to 22% average estimate okay a fourth of the people who 00:37:11.280 |
are interviewed surveyed that they believe 20 that 25% or more of the 00:37:16.320 |
population is gay so the actual number and the number that people generally 00:37:22.160 |
think are gay in society is off by 20 some percent that's a huge margin now 00:37:29.840 |
why is that because of propaganda because the media and the politicians 00:37:37.640 |
and the sitcoms and the entertainers have deliberately pushed this agenda to 00:37:43.640 |
normalize homosexuality in our culture and so you have a generation who thinks 00:37:49.360 |
that we're surrounded everybody is this way but in reality we're not even close 00:37:54.520 |
in fact I actually saw a survey of an interviewer going out on the streets and 00:37:58.920 |
they went and interviewed a bunch of people who attended a gay pride parade 00:38:02.600 |
and they asked them and if you ask them some of them went as high as 40 50 60 00:38:07.800 |
percent and they weren't joking I mean to them maybe that's their reality 00:38:12.760 |
because that's their culture the reason why I bring this up is because you and 00:38:18.000 |
I have been bombarded with billions of dollars with entertainment and songs and 00:38:22.760 |
politicians to bash anybody who says that this is wrong and some of you have 00:38:29.640 |
been affected by it and so whenever you hear any argument about this there's a 00:38:34.680 |
knee-jerk reaction that this is ancient this is what the Nazis did to the Jews 00:38:40.280 |
this is what the slave owners did to slavery slaves long time ago and so we 00:38:44.840 |
need to liberate when the scripture makes it absolutely crystal clear that 00:38:51.680 |
this was a result of God letting go God letting go if this if you want to keep 00:38:58.240 |
running this way I'm gonna let you go in Romans chapter 1 28 through 32 it 00:39:05.600 |
describes a third letting go and he bombards us with all of these things and 00:39:10.320 |
and again I want to conclude with this since they did not see fit to 00:39:15.200 |
acknowledge God God gave him up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be 00:39:20.960 |
done so once that floodgates been open right once that's been challenged and 00:39:27.480 |
there's no boundaries and just kind of do whatever you think is right he said 00:39:30.560 |
once the mind has been debased he said they are filled with the manner of all 00:39:34.400 |
manners of unrighteousness evil covetousness malice they are full of 00:39:39.040 |
envy murder strife deceit maliciousness there are gossips slanderers haters of 00:39:44.200 |
God insolent haughty boastful inventors of evil disobedient to parents foolish 00:39:49.000 |
faithless heartless ruthless of all the list of sins in the New Testament this 00:39:54.520 |
is the longest and the reason why Paul goes to this length to almost 00:40:00.800 |
redundantly talk about these issues he's trying to make a point that when God 00:40:06.040 |
releases his restraining power that this is what it leads to now here's the 00:40:14.080 |
conclusion here's a point that I want to get at if you hear all of this at the 00:40:19.840 |
end of the sermon all that happened to you was sitting there thinking yeah 00:40:25.440 |
those people those people I knew it you know I've been discussing with my 00:40:31.360 |
friends and yeah that's that's that's perversion that is not right thank God 00:40:35.880 |
I'm not like them this passage was written to the church he's reminding the 00:40:44.040 |
church that this is who we were this is what he saved us from so here's the 00:40:49.960 |
mistake that we make whenever we read passes like especially in this context 00:40:53.880 |
of homosexuality because it is so prevalent in our culture that we can 00:40:57.640 |
make the mistake on this end we say you know what because you can no longer be 00:41:03.040 |
in between anymore if if you've been trying to be a cool Christian where 00:41:07.080 |
you're cool in the world and and godly in that church you can no longer do that 00:41:11.640 |
because they drew the line in fact God drew the line long time ago but you can 00:41:17.680 |
no longer be too because you can't say that this is what you believe you 00:41:21.020 |
believe in the Bible and you believe that homosexuality is wrong immediately 00:41:24.800 |
you can be the nicest person in the world but they will cut you off for that 00:41:29.640 |
purpose alone so the mistake that we can make is to become timid or maybe just 00:41:36.360 |
kind of buy into it because he's easier because there's definitely more pressure 00:41:41.080 |
in the world than you might feel pressure in the church for holding this 00:41:45.920 |
view in the church is kind of let's be gracious and you may hold on to this 00:41:48.920 |
view but definitely you'll be bombarded in the world so the mistake that we can 00:41:52.800 |
make is to kind of like you haven't really made a decision but you kind of 00:41:56.040 |
you know fall on this I don't want to be judgmental who am I to judge and that's 00:41:59.960 |
the mistake that we make and our witness doesn't be isn't clear and we're 00:42:03.680 |
compromising the standard of God but here's the other mistake that we make 00:42:07.880 |
that's that in the other mistake that we make is that we hear this and we say 00:42:13.240 |
yeah that's that's disgusting you know those sinners thank God I'm not like 00:42:18.280 |
them and the problem that you and I need to confess the mistake that you and I 00:42:25.360 |
again including us is that the sinners the homosexual the prostitute whoever 00:42:33.560 |
they may be all they heard from us was how disgusted we are with their sin and 00:42:39.880 |
I'm not saying you did it I'm not saying I did it but as a community and it is a 00:42:45.720 |
mistake for us to read this and say thank God I'm not like them because he's 00:42:50.920 |
writing this to us that this description that he gives about slanderers gossiper 00:42:56.840 |
haters of God haughty boastful inventors of evil disobedient to parents foolish 00:43:00.680 |
faithless heartless ruthless our mind becoming debased that all of this is 00:43:06.160 |
what God had mercy on us he saved us from this this is who we would have been 00:43:12.400 |
and so when we look at the world when we look at homosexuality and the 00:43:17.200 |
homosexuals that our responses and disgust but compassion is when we point 00:43:26.680 |
out sins of others and and not even a little bit broken for our own sins where 00:43:33.720 |
you're gonna get a reaction from the world see body odor always we can always 00:43:41.240 |
tolerate our body odor more than someone else's true how many of you is like I'm 00:43:49.240 |
okay with other people I just can't stand my body odor my body odor is it is 00:43:53.160 |
particularly pungent you know you know most people will even though they may 00:44:01.160 |
stink they may well and play basketball all day and you stink but you live with 00:44:06.080 |
this you get in the car and your friend play basketball too and then he gets 00:44:10.240 |
into the car oh my gosh you stink yeah get out right but then you were fine 00:44:20.280 |
when you smelled your stink see that's us that's a sinner you know we're 00:44:27.920 |
disgusted with the sins of the world and we don't recognize a sin that is so 00:44:32.120 |
close to us all have sin and fall short of the glory of God instead of phone 00:44:37.800 |
pointing fingers and fighting the world and being disgusted that we would have 00:44:41.080 |
compassion for them because we were saved from our sins from our sexual 00:44:48.440 |
impurity from our greed from our maliciousness from our hatred from our 00:44:54.880 |
debased mind God saved us from that so when we see them that we don't get in 00:44:59.760 |
this gear to fight up with them but to have compassion and mercy I don't know 00:45:05.880 |
about you but the few homosexuals that I've come into count to contact with are 00:45:12.680 |
broken and lonely people but they're broken and lonely because they're 00:45:16.560 |
isolated from God you know I had a friend that I really respected about two 00:45:22.800 |
months ago shared with me that his son came out to him confessed him that he 00:45:27.840 |
had gay attraction that he'd been struggling with it and since junior high 00:45:30.840 |
school and they asked him it's like so what happened he said he was going over 00:45:36.160 |
to his friend's house and he got over at his friend's house and this is a pastor 00:45:39.360 |
friend and it was his friend's house and and his friend started to watch 00:45:44.060 |
pornography and so every time he go to his friend's house because he couldn't 00:45:47.560 |
watch it at his home he would be exposed to pornography and then this exposure to 00:45:51.000 |
pornography eventually got more heavy stuff and eventually when it got to more 00:45:54.640 |
heavy stuff the the homosexual you know the pornography started opening up and 00:45:59.680 |
eventually he got desensitized and that's how he described it and then that 00:46:04.560 |
kind of stuck in and then he'd been wrestling with it inside and he wasn't 00:46:07.920 |
saying he wasn't fighting with his dad saying like you know I want you to 00:46:10.280 |
accept me he was just confessing how lonely he was and he asked me what 00:46:16.520 |
should I do it's like I don't have a lot of experience in this but the few 00:46:19.920 |
experiences that I did have is that the danger is there are plenty of wolves out 00:46:25.160 |
there who are going to meet your son and they're gonna tell him it's okay that it 00:46:30.720 |
is not God that's angry with them it's it's these fundamental Christians and 00:46:34.600 |
they're gonna embrace them into their liberal church and he's gonna find love 00:46:39.720 |
and acceptance in there and then once you get there it's hard to get him out 00:46:42.640 |
so I instructed him make sure that he doesn't meet these people but the church 00:46:47.720 |
that he's in that they make a strong stance that they don't compromise the 00:46:52.880 |
Word of God and yet don't make him feel like that he's a freak because that sin 00:47:00.160 |
is in all of us not maybe not the homosexual sin but the sexual perversion 00:47:04.920 |
every single one of us was born with that that his struggle is the struggle 00:47:10.800 |
that you and I have it just that it's expressed in that way and that he 00:47:14.040 |
recognizes he's in a community of people who are struggling with different sexual 00:47:18.320 |
perversions and that the grace of God will forgive him and just like it 00:47:22.440 |
changed me it can change him and can change you so my encouragement to you I 00:47:26.800 |
know we don't we didn't have time to go in through to this extensively but 00:47:31.320 |
because it is a prevalent issue and it is an issue that I'm pretty sure that 00:47:34.980 |
most of you if you're going to work or on campus that you've been faced with 00:47:38.560 |
already that we don't err in compromise and we don't err in being insensitive 00:47:45.720 |
that we take on the love of Christ the whole world is in need of grace the 00:47:53.240 |
whole world and that you and I would take up that cross and go to people that 00:47:58.280 |
are that we are uncomfortable with and tell them that we are not ashamed the 00:48:02.640 |
gospel for it is a power of God unto salvation amen let's take a few minutes 00:48:08.080 |
to pray and ask God if any of you here are struggling with this whether it's 00:48:15.520 |
pornography or maybe even same-sex attraction you you know certain things 00:48:21.640 |
have been embedded into your heart and your psyche and you've been struggling 00:48:24.640 |
and wrestling with that I want to encourage you you have there is freedom 00:48:29.000 |
in Christ there is freedom in Christ that if the gospel is just words and 00:48:36.080 |
there really isn't any power we wouldn't be here the only reason why the church 00:48:41.000 |
lasted as long as it is because he said my church I will build and the gates of 00:48:45.960 |
Hades will not prevail against it and so I encourage you to come to the Lord come 00:48:50.640 |
to us come to somebody a more mature Christian and confess that you may find 00:48:56.200 |
this freedom that Christ delivers to that you may finally find this rest 00:49:00.840 |
those of you who are wrestling and struggling again with pornography God 00:49:05.920 |
forgives you think God is looking at you and saying oh you know what I'm so 00:49:11.720 |
shocked by what this guy is doing or what she's doing you know our God is a 00:49:16.680 |
sovereign God he came and died for us on the cross because he knew how weak we 00:49:22.200 |
are without him you can't conquer this by yourself come to the throne of grace 00:49:27.920 |
with confidence he is not shocked by your sins ask for forgiveness and 00:49:34.160 |
receive forgiveness says if you confess your sins he is faithful and just to 00:49:37.960 |
forgive you of all your unrighteousness so maybe you've been you've kind of 00:49:42.240 |
justified and it's not it you know that maybe it's not okay maybe that's how 00:49:45.760 |
you've been adjusting but in the deep part of your heart you know that that's 00:49:48.280 |
not true I want to invite you to come and receive forgiveness and receive 00:49:52.880 |
deliverance get together with other brothers and sisters pray be honest 00:49:58.000 |
confess your sins with one another that as a community that we would become a 00:50:01.720 |
community that we're not faking our righteousness that we're honestly openly 00:50:06.240 |
humbly pursuing Christ together so let's take this time to come before the 00:50:10.240 |
Lord in prayer either you or you know somebody was wrestling with with with 00:50:14.720 |
these things that you would come before the Lord and ask for the Holy Spirit to 00:50:17.960 |
do what only the Holy Spirit is able to do so let's take some time to pray