Escape the World’s Infatuation with Sex
00:00:00.000 | (music)
00:00:04.000 | Well, today's APJ episode deals with mature themes.
00:00:08.000 | So just a heads up. Particularly, Pastor John deals here
00:00:12.000 | with the world's infatuation with lust and
00:00:16.000 | how to escape it. The clip is from a 2004 sermon
00:00:20.000 | Pastor John had been preaching on Romans 11, verses 32
00:00:24.000 | and 33. A text that tells us, quote, "God has
00:00:28.000 | consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy
00:00:32.000 | on all." End quote. Verse 32 is
00:00:36.000 | an astonishing claim. So astonishing that Paul moves
00:00:40.000 | directly into worship when he next says, "Oh,
00:00:44.000 | the depth of the riches and the wisdom and the knowledge of God, how
00:00:48.000 | unsearchable are his judgments, and how inscrutable his ways."
00:00:52.000 | Late in his 2004 sermon, as
00:00:56.000 | he turned to celebrate the majesty of our sovereign God so clearly on
00:01:00.000 | display in this text, Pastor John looked at some troubling social trends
00:01:04.000 | that he noticed. Here he is.
00:01:08.000 | So if you come to the end of this message, hearing me open verses 30
00:01:12.000 | and 31 and 32, and you're scratching your head
00:01:16.000 | and you're saying, "I don't get it. How can this be?
00:01:20.000 | How can God be sovereign over and plan periods of disobedience?"
00:01:24.000 | Then know that you're in good company, because
00:01:28.000 | the Apostle Paul himself responded to his own teaching
00:01:32.000 | unsearchable, inscrutable.
00:01:36.000 | So his words, not mine. I use the words, "Astonishing, shocking," which is
00:01:40.000 | why I prayed for you at the beginning, "Go down to the deeps of our heart,
00:01:44.000 | Lord, and cut away the calluses on the capacities to be
00:01:48.000 | shocked." It's very intentional that Paul
00:01:52.000 | is doing this. Verse 33 proves it.
00:01:56.000 | He means to shock us. He means to astonish
00:02:00.000 | us. He means to put our hands over our mouths and say, "I don't get it!
00:02:04.000 | I can't explain it! It's inscrutable!
00:02:08.000 | It's unsearchable!" He means to leave us there.
00:02:12.000 | And so if you feel that way, don't
00:02:16.000 | resent it. Learn as much as you can
00:02:20.000 | from as much as he gives. These high things
00:02:24.000 | about God that we're about to look at, God's governing
00:02:28.000 | history from beginning to end, disobedience
00:02:32.000 | and obedience, all leading to the magnification
00:02:36.000 | of His mercy, these high things are really relevant for your
00:02:40.000 | daily life. Take sex, for
00:02:44.000 | example. One of the main reasons that we are
00:02:48.000 | drowning
00:02:52.000 | today in America and in the church in an ocean of
00:02:56.000 | lust and pornography, men and women,
00:03:00.000 | fornication, adultery, masturbation,
00:03:04.000 | exhibitionism, homosexuality, bestiality,
00:03:08.000 | rape, sexual innuendo on every screen
00:03:12.000 | virtually, one of the reasons that the
00:03:16.000 | church included is awash and drowning
00:03:20.000 | in the sea is because we are
00:03:24.000 | intellectually and emotionally
00:03:28.000 | disconnected from
00:03:32.000 | infinite soul-staggering divine
00:03:36.000 | grandeur.
00:03:40.000 | And instead, drowning in a sea of triviality,
00:03:44.000 | pettiness, banality, and silliness.
00:03:48.000 | We have lost
00:03:52.000 | by and large our capacity for
00:03:56.000 | being staggered by divine grandeur
00:04:00.000 | and we live at a low dog-in-heat
00:04:04.000 | level. TV is trivial.
00:04:08.000 | Radio is trivial. Conversation
00:04:12.000 | is trivial. Education is trivial.
00:04:16.000 | Christian books are pressed by publishers to be trivial.
00:04:20.000 | Worship styles become increasingly trivial.
00:04:24.000 | We trifle with our little jokey ways so that
00:04:28.000 | everybody will feel kind of comfortable because that's what they feel when they
00:04:32.000 | watch TV and if they can feel comfortable at home in our jokey churches
00:04:36.000 | they might come back. We have lost
00:04:40.000 | our capacity to be staggered by the terrifyingly
00:04:44.000 | joyous dread and peace of
00:04:48.000 | an infinitely untouchable embracing God.
00:04:52.000 | Life is just boring,
00:04:56.000 | humdrum, and when a creature
00:05:00.000 | created by God to live in the
00:05:04.000 | presence of God and to be staggered by the glory
00:05:08.000 | of his infinite power and justice and wisdom
00:05:12.000 | and truth and grace,
00:05:16.000 | when that creature swims in an
00:05:20.000 | ocean of triviality, it must be
00:05:24.000 | that he will embrace the best buzz available
00:05:28.000 | and it is sex.
00:05:32.000 | So many of you
00:05:36.000 | have become fish and therefore
00:05:40.000 | do not even miss air anymore.
00:05:44.000 | You just can't imagine what I'm talking about.
00:05:48.000 | There's another air to breathe.
00:05:52.000 | There's another level of joy. There's another experience
00:05:56.000 | of magnificent and grander and staggering, mouth-shutting,
00:06:00.000 | unsearchable, unspeakable divine truth
00:06:04.000 | that if you lived there, you wouldn't want to be a dog in heat
00:06:08.000 | in front of your monitor anymore.
00:06:12.000 | You get victory over your life
00:06:16.000 | of lowness, but you've become a fish.
00:06:20.000 | It's all you drink is triviality.
00:06:24.000 | The best buzz you can imagine is a low buzz.
00:06:28.000 | Which is why I prayed at the beginning
00:06:32.000 | of this service that God would do what I can't do.
00:06:36.000 | I can't awaken the taste buds for the divine.
00:06:40.000 | God can.
00:06:44.000 | The deepest cure for our pitiful addictions
00:06:48.000 | is not any mental strategies. I have them.
00:06:52.000 | I use them. I teach them. I've got my own lust strategies.
00:06:56.000 | That's not the deepest cure. The deepest cure
00:07:00.000 | is to be intellectually, and I underline that word.
00:07:04.000 | I'm not going to apologize for theology and doctrine and head,
00:07:08.000 | but I'm going to now say the second one. The deepest cure
00:07:12.000 | is to be intellectually and emotionally
00:07:16.000 | staggered by God.
00:07:20.000 | And there's this tremendous American
00:07:24.000 | pragmatic pressure not to form churches
00:07:28.000 | like that. Not to write books
00:07:32.000 | like that. Not to have music like that. But to keep everything
00:07:36.000 | low and chatty and comfortable and silly and trivial and
00:07:40.000 | small.
00:07:44.000 | This is so sad. Sex is
00:07:48.000 | one of the hundred issues that will overwhelm you and
00:07:52.000 | debase you if your life is
00:07:56.000 | out of touch with the magnificence of God.
00:08:00.000 | Well, I will do my best
00:08:04.000 | to stagger you because I feel
00:08:08.000 | bound by Scripture to help you get to verse 33
00:08:12.000 | emotionally. Oh, the depth
00:08:16.000 | of the riches and the wisdom and the knowledge of God. I don't get it.
00:08:20.000 | It is unscrutable. His ways are unsearchable. His thoughts
00:08:24.000 | are beyond me. I bow. I put my hand over my mouth. I humble myself.
00:08:28.000 | I love this God. I will not just
00:08:32.000 | sit in front of my monitor and look.
00:08:36.000 | I will stand up. I will walk outside in the cold
00:08:40.000 | and look up and say, "The heavens are declaring the glory of God.
00:08:44.000 | Make me pure."
00:08:48.000 | Come on. Come on, America.
00:08:52.000 | Wake up to reality.
00:08:56.000 | Don't live in the ocean of triviality, swimming
00:09:00.000 | around fearing air.
00:09:04.000 | Be a man. Be a woman.
00:09:08.000 | Not a dog in hate.
00:09:12.000 | 2004 sermon titled, "God's Design for History, the Glory of His Mercy."
00:09:16.000 | The clip was sent to us by a long-time listener to the podcast
00:09:20.000 | named Andy, who calls it, "One of my all-time favorite clips of Pastor John."
00:09:24.000 | I can see why. As always, you can find
00:09:28.000 | that full sermon at DesiringGod.org. Again, it's titled,
00:09:32.000 | "God's Design for History, the Glory of His Mercy."
00:09:36.000 | Thank you, Andy, for today's sermon clip. All of our clips are now crowdsourced. You tell us
00:09:40.000 | what bits of Piper's sermons changed your life. We share that clip with the APJ audience.
00:09:44.000 | If you have one, email me. Give me your name, hometown, the sermon title, and the timestamp
00:09:48.000 | of when the clip happens in the audio and how it impacted you.
00:09:52.000 | Put the word "clip" in the subject line of an email and send it to me at
00:09:56.000 | AskPastorJohn@DesiringGod.org. That's an email address.
00:10:00.000 | AskPastorJohn@DesiringGod.org. I'm your host, Tony Ranke.
00:10:04.000 | We'll see you back here on Friday. We're going to talk about how
00:10:08.000 | does chronic pain glorify God?
00:10:12.000 | It's a heavy email. Next up on Friday. We'll see you then.
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00:10:24.000 | (SILENCE)