We are in the gospel in the book
of Romans and our series is called the gospel to the Romans Today's
message is entitled the honorable and dishonorable body the honorable
and dishonorable body because of the fall We all by nature
are given to extremes Because of our fallen nature you and
I operate out of one or the other of of extremes. Either we operate out of the
extreme of legalism and a form of self-righteousness, we call
it phony righteousness, which actually has no merit before
God. It's merely religious in nature
and it pretends to be, have or do something that appears to
be holy. We call it fig leaf religion. Now that's one extreme. The vast
majority of the world adopts this practice of appearing to
be holy when in fact they're not. They pursue a kind of piety
of life by which they cause others to think that they are something
that they really are not. And we call this mere religion.
And the vast majority of the world operate out of this extreme
This is why religion is so popular, because the vast majority of
the world does not know what to do with its dilemma, its problem,
as our elder had stated. But there is a group of people
who don't mind walking around butt naked, without fig leaves. And in that state, tell everybody
that it's all right, it's natural. is just fine. These are the two
extremes. One we would call a hyper or
legalistic approach, a man-made religious attempt to either get
right with God or merely hoodwink people into thinking that they're
already right with God. The other extreme is the open,
profligate, licentious, immorality, evil and corrupt practices that
you and I see every day of which the Word of God has taught us
long ago is shameful, shameful in his practice, and it's not
even to be named among the saints. But these two extremes are prevalent
in our world today. And the book of Romans addresses
both extremes, but he addresses the latter extreme first. Secondly, everything that you
and I do or don't do in this life, child of God, and this
is the important point as we develop this text, Everything
you do and everything I do we do in these physical bodies These
physical bodies are the instrument. They are the expression they
are the Manifestation of all that we ever do there is nothing
that you do Think our purpose that is not expressed through
the body. I It is therefore my objective
to call your attention to the exceeding importance of your
body, which is the only way you can express your reality, your
existence, your purpose, your desires, your identity, your
goals to anyone in the world, much less God. Our discussion
then in Romans 1 will compel us to and drive us to consider
how important these bodies are that we have. Even when it comes
to your mind, do you know your mind is cased in a cranium, a
bone, and a brain by which you communicate how you think and
act is still within your body? When it comes to your emotions,
expressing how you feel, which is a major commodity today, our
feelings, They actually act themselves out either in our expression
of verbal or audible acknowledgement that I feel good, I feel bad,
I feel happy, I feel sad, or we act out physically because
of our emotional impulses. You guys are watching right now
what's happening around our nation in terms of these outbreaks of
protests everywhere, such as in Ferguson and throughout our
state here in California. I do not want to digress, but
folks drive me crazy when a problem occurs 3,000 miles away and somehow
they think they can solve it here in California. But all these
are Opportunities to express through our physical body what
we think and what we feel are you guys hearing what I'm saying?
And what the Word of God would have you to know this it is your
body That is the instrument by which you either glorify God
or deny his glory altogether your body and so today I'm going
to apprehend you in your thoughts and help you understand how important
your actions are in your body and how important your actions
are when it comes to your physical body. Because I do believe that
we are in the same cultural mindset as the folks in the first century
Roman Empire. They were Epicureans, and Epicureans
were folks who said, hey, the body is just for mere pleasure.
Whatever the body wants to do by way of self-gratification,
let it be done. That's an Epicurean. Whether
it was gluttony and eating to the hilt and becoming just inebriated
through food, or whether it was the orgies that they engaged
in famously to the point of, Contracting massive diseases
of which we'll talk about in a moment in a moment Epicureans
were people who lived for pleasure pleasure We live in that same
culture today in Epicurean culture the early Roman culture also
had this kind of ascetic mindset that came from the Greeks and
that was basically a Gnostic idea of which I want to arrest
some of you Christians today with and here's the notion that
The Gnostic said the only thing that was pure and worthy of any
notice is the spirit. That the body really was of no
real factor. Meaning you could actually honor
God in your spirit, but in your body do whatever you want to
do. Now isn't that where we are today? Particularly in religion. So I would assert that the title
that would best describe most professing Christians is Gnostic.
because they do not regard their body as either serving the kingdom
of God or the kingdom of darkness. This is the kind of neo-gnosticism
dominating our culture. You see then how we try to find
a way to justify the passions of our flesh and make them acceptable
and all right over against even our conscience which tells us
otherwise. In a very fascinating way what
we are dealing with in our present text is a drive by the Spirit
of God Towards that lifestyle our behavior where in the whole
of the human body politics is given over given over by God
to a kind of manifestation that is revealed in our bodies where
in God says he gave us up and He gave humanity up. And here's
what we mean by giving humanity up. When humanity rejected the
revelation, remember what we learned last week? Three things
were going on. God is revealing himself. Man is reacting to that revelation
by resisting God. And then God is therefore releasing
mankind to his own way. God is revealing. Man is resisting
and God is releasing that was the title of our message was
it not God is revealing Overwhelmingly convincing all of us that we
know enough to know who God is but man is suppressing that revelation
and in his suppression God Responds by releasing man now when God
releases you the only thing you are left with is you The only
thing you're left with is you And that's why we are forced
to contemplate the narrow, narrow-nailed vortex into the consideration
of what happens when God gives them up. So my subject is the
improper and proper use of the body that God has given us because
the trend of our text will start with the improper use of the
body. And by the way, how important
is the body? Here's how important the body
is. Your physical body, which you may laugh at, mock, abuse,
neglect, otherwise adopt a doctrine that basically belittles this
glorious instrument called the body. And it's glorious. The body is magnificent. It's
a handiwork of God on the pinnacle of all of his work. The body
is magnificent. And here's how important the
body is. Your body is going to follow
you for all eternity in one direction or the other. Hell with your
body or heaven. Your body is going to follow
you because your body is going to be that basic mechanism by
which all that you do affirms the righteousness of God. Either
you will spend all eternity in hell in your body, Matthew 10,
28. Don't fear him that can kill
the body, but fear him which can kill both your body and your
soul in hell. You see then that your body is
gonna be with you in the burning flame for all eternity. Do you
see that? You see how important what you do is in your body?
And the promise of God's elect is In these bodies, we will glorify
God for all eternity in a state of bliss that we cannot even
describe. Then this interim place that
we call a place of grace is a place where we are called upon to do
the right thing with our bodies. Are you guys following what I'm
saying? And so now we want to work through our text very carefully.
Again, the title of the message, the honorable and dishonorable
body. Which team are you on? Which team are you on? And so
here's the proposition. God says in verse 23, look at
it again. And they changed the glory of
the incorruptible God into an image made like unto a corruptible
man, to birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things. Remember
what I taught you last week? Mankind in his insanity, having
lost his mind, hawked the glory of God. sold the glory of God,
pawned the glory of the invisible, infinite, impeccable, holy, righteous
God for an image made like unto man, four-footed beasts, creeping
things, birds of the air, and more particularly, made like
himself. He traded God for himself. And
that's why in our world, all you and I have as a basic substratum
of all that mankind does is what we call the doctrine of humanism. Humanism is the ultimate, ultimate
expression of mankind without God. All that we do, we do for
ourselves and we laud ourselves and we pump ourselves up and
we honor ourselves and we glorify ourselves and we corrupt ourselves
because that's what occurs when God leaves you to yourself. And that's the argument that
the apostle under inspiration of the Spirit is making in chapter
1 of Romans. When men abandoned God, then
God abandoned man. And you and I need to look at
the language very carefully. So then, what you and I are going
to be talking about is the paltry pittance of the temporal and
fleeting and vaporous pleasures that this world lauds, which
today, they say that you and I ought to pursue it to the highest
degree. Get your pleasure on. Seek your
highest self-gratification. And you and I have learned last
week that this is a powerful pull on the soul, is it not?
Powerful pull on the soul. All the labor of man is for his
belly. This is what the young people will discover in a minute.
11 year olds and 12 year olds you 13 year olds when that time
capsule in your DNA begins to metabolize and Begins to burst
out Call hormones and they start raging You're gonna discover
that you are a perverse person Perverse not funny perverse. That's what you're gonna discover
that your loss of drive you in a direction contrary to God.
And you're going to have to ask yourself the question. Are you
ready? Am I what I feel? Am I what I desire? Is there
some essence of how I feel who I am? We're going to talk about
that today, because that's the thing that's telling you you
are a sinner and you need God. That's the thing that's telling
you that. But if you own your lust as if it's God, you're going
to hell. You're going to hear ox to grown
folk. They know. They know. And so the word before us is
a very, very, very, very, very dark, very powerful, very profound
set of truths that we have to contemplate. Remember what I
told you last week? Put your safety harness on as you descend
into this pit. Make sure you keep your safety
harness on so that you don't stumble. as you have to look
at humanity and your own self and get sidetracked by certain
things in the text. There's a deceitfulness in our
heart that will allow us to be sidetracked even when we're hearing
the Word of God under the Spirit of God so that we won't hear
from God. It'll deceive you and it's sidetracking
you from the real issue. Keep your harness on, keep your
safety harness on. You got to go deep because you
got to face the truth if you're going to come out this thing
on the other side with God. You just got to go there. The
Spirit of God drives us there. So the gospel to the Romans,
the honorable and dishonorable body. The first point that I
want to call you to is the body of the heathen. For you young
people, the word heathen means the person who is lost, the body
of the lost sinner. That might be a better way to
put it. The body of the unregenerate
person, the body of the person who doesn't know God in a saving
way, in a way of redemption and regeneration. Romans 1 depicts
for us the life of the body of the unbeliever. In verse 24,
here's what God says. He says in verse 24, God also
gave them up. Do you guys see that? He gave
them up. Now in your own time, study that
clause because it's in one of the 10 terms in Romans 1. We
talked about it years ago. The idea of someone giving you
up means to deliver you over to another power. Let me see
if I can help make this clear. When you are disobedient to the
authority that's over you, that authority will take you and place
you under another authority to discipline you, to correct you,
or to punish you. Like sometimes when you and I
are out of line with our parents, parents may have to actually
put us in a form of discipline where the state or authorities
have to take us and deal with us. In the Word of God, paradidomi
is the root Greek verb here. The verb before us, paradoken,
means to take. the person who is offended and
bring them to another authority so that authority can have control
over them because of the rebellion and disobedience that they've
engaged in. Go with me in your Bible first and foremost to the
Gospel of Matthew. I want you to see how this works
in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 18 verse 34. Matthew 18 verse
34. This is what our master said
concerning this idea of being given over. Do you know the feeling
of neglecting or rejecting or abusing the authority that was
over you, the good authority, the gracious authority that was
over you? Do you know the idea of having a gracious authority
over you, but because you neglect that authority, you then are
handed over by that authority to another authority that's going
to discipline you? And so this is in Matthew's gospel,
chapter 18, verse 34. Listen to what our master said
concerning the person that did not pay what was owed him. Let
me start at verse 32. Then his Lord, after that he
had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave
you all the debt because you desired me to do that. Shouldest
not thou also have had compassion on your fellow servants, even
as I had pity on you? And his Lord was angry with him.
Now watch this. delivered him you see that phrase
delivered him that's our turn to the what tormentors until
he should pay all that was due unto him and I'm saying in like
fashion what Romans chapter 124 is saying is when the human race
rejected the revelation of the invisible God and when the human
race rejected the continual revelation of God in the conscience in Providence
and in the heart God gave humanity over He passed them over to another
authority. That's why John says in 1st John
chapter 5, the whole world lies in the lap of the wicked one.
The devil controls the minds and hearts of all human beings
who are not blood-bought and born again by the Spirit of God
and operating out of a union with Christ. All humanity is
under the authority of the wicked one right now. But there's an
ominous, ominous transaction that goes on on a practical level
that the apostle wants to drive home. When you and I come into
a saving knowledge of God, or come into a biblical knowledge
of God, and we say no to God, and fail to realize that God
has, in his grace and mercy, actually protected you from yourself
for a long period of time, until that witness is born in your
heart, When once, at a certain time, you continue to resist
obeying the gospel, He gives you over, just as this man does
in our text. Go with me to chapter 27, Matthew
chapter 27. How powerful is this truth that
I'm sharing with you? Well, my Lord Jesus Christ, as
my substitute, took my place as the sinner that I am by nature. And when God the Father had to
make that transaction, which was really due to me, he did
it to Christ. And what the text tells us is
that Christ was handed over at a specific time by the Father
to the dark powers of the world, and they destroyed him. They
killed him. Matthew chapter 27, verse 26. Are you there? And we talked about this last
week, didn't we? Let me start back at verse 24. When Pilate
saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather atonement was
made, he took water and washed his hands before the multitude,
saying, I am innocent of the blood of this man, this just
person. You see to this. Remember, Pilate
really wanted to let him go. Pilate could not legitimately
condemn him with anything worth capital punishment. He wanted
to let him go. But what Pilate did not know,
was that Jesus was guilty with my sin and the justice of God
had to come upon him. He couldn't understand why he
couldn't let him go. And the text tells us that those
ravenous, bloodthirsty, religious hypocrites of whom I talked about
earlier, tells him over in verse 25, then answered all the people
and said, his blood be on us and on our children. Then released
he Barabbas unto them. Didn't we learn this last week?
If God leaves you and me to choose, we will always choose the devil.
And when he had scourged Jesus, what did he do? He delivered
him to be crucified. That's our same word, ladies
and gentlemen. Jesus passively as a lamb was transferred by
the authority of God to the authority of the enemy in order to be killed. That's what it means to be given
up. When you look at the whole of
humanity, we were all right for a small period of time, long,
long ago, in Adam, our foreparents. But upon their rebellion and
disobedience to God, guess what God had to do? Give all of humanity
over. Go back to our PowerPoint. The
body of the heathen. Let me go on and work this through
now. And there are a couple of other passages that can really
underscore this too, but I leave those to just drive home the
point to you. What does it mean when the text
says that God gave them up? It means that you were transferred
by one authority, the former authority under which you were,
to another authority, now executing a far more severe and punishing,
punishing, Crucial punishment upon you because of your sin
and this is what Romans chapter 1 is talking about God gave them
up again verse 24 Wherefore God also gave them up. Do you see
it now? I want to call your attention
to that which God gave them up to He didn't give them up merely
to persons he gave them up to themselves and Here's what he
gave them up to Watch what it says. He gave them up to, watch
this now, uncleanness through the lust of their own hearts
to dishonor their own bodies between themselves. Amazing. So you have to stay there and
you got to pay attention to that. We have to work that through, don't
we? Now, if we believe in God giving people up, And he's done
that. We see that vividly with Christ.
And we believe that the Spirit of God is telling us that God
gives humanity up over a period of time after they reject the
revelation. God then gives them up to behaviors that are self-destructive
in nature. So under our first point, point
A, he gives them up to dishonorable, unnatural, and unclean practices. Do you see that in your outline?
He gave them up to dishonorable, unnatural, and unclean practices. Is this message uncomfortable
to you? It ought to be. It ought to be uncomfortable
to you. Because what the scriptures are saying here is this is a
judgment of God upon humanity. This is not natural. This is
not normal. This is not just fine. This is
not good. This is not the way it's supposed
to be. But it is the way that it is. God gives them up to dishonorable,
unnatural, and unclean behavior. Now in your 10 items, 10 terms
which I would have you to work through, you can look up every
one of those definitions on your own. Verse 24, part B, verse
26, part B, verse 27, part B. Verse 24, verse 26, for this
cause God gave them up unto vile affections, that's 26A, Verse
27, verse 27, yes. And likewise also the women leaving
the natural use of the, natural use of the women burned in their
lust one towards another, men with men working that which is
unseemly in their sight. God gave them up. He gave them
up to the uncleanness of the lust of their own hearts to dishonor
their own bodies between themselves. And then he gave them up in verse
26 to vile affections. And then he finally gave them
up in verse 28 to a reprobate mind. So on the point number
one again, he gave them up to dishonorable, unnatural, unclean
practices. What does that mean? The word
dishonorable there means shameful. That what we do now that God
has given us up is shameful things. Things that long ago people only
did in the dark. Shameful things. The word really
means to be disgraceful. Disgraceful that God gives mankind
up to the use of his body where it manifests itself in disgraceful
shameful Dishonorable behavior in other words behavior that
is not becoming the dignity of humanity. Are you guys following
what I'm saying? shameful stuff shameful now some of y'all scratching
our hair trying to figure out what that is because you and
I wallow in the cesspool of Shame and for some of us we are so
darkened in our mind. We don't even know that is shame.
I Shame! The stuff we do is shameful.
The places we go are shameful. The things we say are shameful.
They are pitifully shameful to God. The things you do with your
body are shameful to God. It's an Old Testament term that
means to be out of the will of God in a state of condemnation. It's one of the last words used
in the book of Revelation chapter, one of the warnings in the book
of Revelation chapter 16 verse 15 when Christ warns, be careful
that you don't find yourself walking naked and everyone sees
your shame. It's the idea of nakedness and
we've talked about that many times, have we not saints? Being
naked. So when he says he gave them
up, he gave them up to the dishonorable practices their bodies and then
he says unnatural unnatural now what he means by unnatural it
means that they are not using their bodies for the proper purposes
for which the body was made now now ladies and gentlemen again
that may evade us in our thinking but in fact a matter if you take
a body part and put it where it doesn't belong it's not funny It's unnatural. See, and so what that means is
we're debased. This is why I told you we're
reprobating our mind, because we don't even know how to put
A with B and B with C and C with D. You know what? That's called
chaos. The metaphor that Paul is using
concerning the whole body politic of humanity is as a solar system
that has lost its orbit. Everything is out of place now.
And it's just it's disintegrating into nothing but chaos and they
can't find their way back into the orderly structural Functional
purpose for which they were made Now again because your heart
and mind is so filled with sinful corruption. We don't even see
it as unnatural That's the battle. We're fighting and the other
word that really alarmed me is again back in verse 24 Of which
I want to spend just a moment before we move to our next Heathen
body practice under point number one and that's the word unclean
See verse 24 a wherefore God also gave them up to what uncleanness
Uncleanness now, that's a theological term That has a deep deep deep
spiritual and moral component to it. So let me help you in
short order either you are clean or You are unclean before God
Either you are clean or you are unclean before God. God views
the whole human race in one or two categories. Either you are
clean and therefore you are a part of the citizenry of the kingdom
of God. Because all that are in the kingdom
are washed in the blood. There is no one or no thing in
the kingdom that has not been washed into the kingdom That's
the way God set it up in the beginning. That's why water is
everywhere in the scriptural excursion even to the end of
time In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth and
the earth was without for Without form and void and darkness was
upon the face of the deep water right there See because in our
sinfulness we must be cleansed. It's a symbol of purification
of washing of Purging of the old defilements so that you and
I are brought into a new and right relationship with God Israel
had to be washed. That's why they had to go through
what the Red Sea Israel had to be sprinkled That's why before
they received the law Moses had to go through with all the priests
and sprinkle everybody with blood either you are clean or unclean
either you are washed in the blood of the lamb or and spiritually
purified by the work of grace and regeneration of the Spirit
of God in your heart, or you're still unclean. And uncleanness,
according to the Word of God, never has any part in the Kingdom
of God. Now, Pastor, how do I know that
I'm clean versus unclean? Well, you know by what you believe
and what you do. That's exactly how you know.
By what you believe and what you do. Because what you do is
always rooted in what you believe. And what God warns us about hearing
now hear me now if you let Romans 1 speak to you God is concerned
with how we act You cannot act one way and profess to be something
else I'm just gonna make that plane as we work through it because
the text is demanding that we see the darkness for what it
is and This is the culture that we're in today. Not only are
we dishonorable in our behavior with our bodies, our minds, our
lips, our words, our terms, our phrases, our actions, our intents,
our motives, our aspirations, our impulses, our drives, but
we are unclean in our practices there. Secondly, under the body
of the heathen, guess what you do? You wage war against God
with your body. Now, I'm hoping to drive this
analogy home. Romans chapter 6 verse 12 through
14. Let's go there for a moment.
Here's what I am asserting I'm asserting that you if you are
Operating in this present category as an unsaved person who is in
the kingdom of darkness and you are spiritually and covenantally
unclean, and therefore you practice dishonorable practices with your
body. Watch this. What you do with your body that's
dishonorable to God, that's shameful in its nature, and that's unclean
in its practice is really waging war against the glory of God.
What you do with your body, the unsaved, the unregenerate, the
man or the woman that is dominated by the flesh, you actually are
waging war with your body against God. Listen to the text. Romans chapter 6 verse 12. Are
you there? Let not sin, therefore what? See the word reign? That means
to have authority over you as a king. It's personifying sin. let not sin therefore reign in
your mortal what do you see the target or the goal of the reigning
power of sin it's where in your body that you should obey it
in its lust thereof ah verse 12 pinholes all of us and it
raises the question does sin reign as a king over your body
so that you are driven to obey its lust silence Silence. Look at the text. You don't have
to look at me. I've been looking at this text
for weeks and have to ask myself the question, does sin reign or does grace reign? There are
two kings here. One is called sin and the other
is called grace. How do I know sin reigns? Because
I obey him as a master. Isn't that what the text is?
I obey him as a master. When he tells me to think wickedly,
I think wickedly. When he tells me to act wickedly,
I act wickedly. When he tells me to behave immorally,
I behave immorally. You know why? Because sin's my
king. And what Paul is saying under inspiration of the Spirit
to every child of God, do not let sin reign in your life. Do not let him take your body
do whatever it wants with your body if in fact you're born of
God tough let's stay there let not sin reign in your mortal
bodies that you should obey its lust thereof look at the subsequent
verse verse 13 neither yield ye your what stop right there
what are we talking about we're talking about our mind yeah your
mind is your member We're talking about a heart. Yes, our heart
is a member. It's an internal member. It's
a hidden member. But it's the most prominent member.
You know, sometimes I see my brothers and sisters do this.
They'll call this the flesh. They'll say, this is the flesh.
This is the flesh. No, you have a superficial interpretation
of the flesh. You have a completely unbiblical
interpretation of the flesh. Your physical body is nothing
but an instrument. It can't do good or evil without
the heart and without the mind. So when the Bible talks about
the flesh, it's talking about the carnal mind, the fallen unregenerate
heart. between the mind and the heart,
sending signals between one another, feelings, thoughts, feelings,
thoughts, feelings, thoughts. They ultimately manifest themselves
through the body. Your body is dead without the
spirit. Stop blaming the flesh, as you
would call it. Because this same physical body
exalts God in the preaching of the gospel, as I'm doing right
now. Are you hearing me? This same
physical body gets up in the morning and prays to God, exalts
God in worship. Same physical body comes to church
and worships with the saints, goes out and witnesses with the
saints, does good. Same physical body. So don't
get gnostic on me. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
What we're talking about is the mind, the flesh, the carnal mind. The carnal mind. Now watch this.
Neither yield yourselves, members, the word instrument there is
our point that turn that's the word weapon in the Greek the
word weapon do not take your physical members and use them
as weapons of war against God now well I want you to get it
you people who are sincere today those of you who are not running
we're not hiding who are not already building up fortresses
against what I'm saying, which we're going to knock down here
in a moment when we go to our next text. But those of you who
are listening, watch this. Every day, you either wage war
against the glory of God by what you say and by what you do, or
you wage war against hell by what you say or what you do. Your body is used one way or
the other. Are you hearing me? Listen to
it. Neither yield you your members as weapons of war for unrighteousness
in devotion to sin, but yield yourselves unto God as those
that are what? Alive from the dead. Stop right
there. That's what it means to be a child of God. See that verse
is so explicitly clear watch this if you're born again You
have the spirit of christ in you and he's able to reign in
your carnal passions And he is able to allow you the capacity
to serve god with your bodies Because you're born again That's
the problem. I believe in this generation
that the vast majority of professing christians are still dead in
trespasses and sins That's a little secret. I'm sharing with you.
Most people are not born again Most people are not renewed in
the spirit. Most people don't have Christ in them, the hope
of glory working in their lives to will and to do of God's good
pleasure. They only know him in name. But when it comes to
their spirit, they're still dead in sins and slaves of hell. And so they yield their bodies
to their masters, even though they go to church. Still lost. Still very lost. And they're struggling inside,
some of them, with the reality that their master is sin and
their members are given daily in devotion to sinful things,
even though they've been taught some truth. Remember, all man
has enough light to go to hell. See, Paul really wants us to
get this. He really wants us to get this.
Neither you or your members as instruments of unrighteousness
unto sin, but yield yourselves unto God. Do you hear that third
clause, that second clause? But yield yourselves unto God
as those that are born again are alive from the dead, and
your members as instruments of what? Unto God. It doesn't get any clearer to
that, does it? But go with me in your Bible to 2 Corinthians
chapter 10, 4. In 2 Corinthians chapter 10, 4, Paul treats this
matter from the most devious place and the most intangible
and the most difficult place, but also the most prominent place
where this battle of truth is waged and it's in the mind. And he uses the same terminology
of weapons of war because children of God, we are in a battle whether
you like it or not. Whether you know it or not, you're
in a battle. And whether you know it or not, you've been enlisted
on somebody's team. Either you are serving King Jesus
or you are serving the adversary whose objective is, with the
whole body politic of humanity, to suppress the truth. And everything
you and I do either suppresses the truth or affirms the truth.
Everything. Everything. Watch this now. In
2 Corinthians chapter 10, Paul says in verse 1, Now I, Paul,
myself, beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ who
in presence and base among you but being absent and bold towards
you but I beseech you that you may not be bold that we may not
be bold when I am present with that confident wherein I think
to be bold against some which think of us as if we walked according
to the what Right, not again the physical body, but according
to the carnal mind of pride. Now, see, I don't want to digress
again, but Paul was constantly charged with him actually operating
out of his own agenda. That somehow he was a maverick
apostle that really wasn't sent by God. And so he would have
these persons, these enemies and adversaries that would discredit
his ministry. And what he said to them was
this, listen, you and I don't have to argue. We don't have
to argue at all. When I get there, we'll find
out who has the power and who doesn't. He said we don't have
to argue but but I want you to know this I'm not operating in
the flesh though you charge it that way in other words He was
not operating out of a carnal mind the Apostle Paul knew about
the power of the Spirit of God the power of the Word of God
and what it meant to walk in obedience to God and he knew
God would affirm his Apostolic ministry when he got there. Here's
what he says he says in our next verse verse 3 listen to it for
though we walk in the body and We do not war after the what? That's right. Listen, that's
why you're not going to see me out there with picket signs throwing
Molotov cocktails. Because none of that changes
the heart. None of that renews the mind.
None of that causes men and women to see the glory of God in Christ.
All that is is a battle on a horizontal level. You make no advancement
towards heaven by winning a city to a political righteousness.
The goal of preaching and the ministry of the church is to
go at the hearts of men and women and bring them to a saving knowledge
of Christ. I guarantee you, if the heart gets right, men will
behave themselves. I guarantee you that. Listen
to it. For the weapons, there's our
word, for the weapons of our what? Are not carnal, but mighty
through God to the pulling down of strongholds. You know what
the Apostle is saying here? All of the highfalutin notions
and doctrines and arguments, all of the worldviews that are
presently established and they're entrenched in their places by
which the whole world is following after them, those are all strongholds. Every doctrine you and I know
today that is popular and that is dominant in our culture are
strongholds and the only way they can be torn down is through
words and The only way they can really be torn down is by the
Word of God Like today there may be one One of you in here
who came in here with the strongholds of a secular carnal humanistic
world system And right now the Spirit of God is tearing it down.
Tearing it down. Tearing it down. Tearing it down.
This might be one. This might be one. And you will
go away now recognizing that all that you believed was a lie. And you might have hope for the
glory of God. That's what preaching and teaching is designed to do.
That's why the goal of the devil is to suppress preaching and
teaching which gets at the real issues. The weapons of our warfare
are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds,
verse five, casting down all speculations, all imaginations,
all doctrines, all teachings, all practices, and every high
thing that exalts itself against the what? Knowledge of God and
bringing into captivity. everything to the obedience of
Christ. In other words, if it doesn't
sound like Christ, if it doesn't look like Christ, if it doesn't
act like Christ, it's not right. Christ is God's icon. Christ
is God's model. Christ is God's revelation. Christ
is God's standard. Christ is God's plumb line. Christ
is God's testimony of what's right. And when it doesn't square
with Christ, it's wrong. Let's go back to our next point
then. The body of the heathen is manifested in being given
over to the dark powers of the world, practicing dishonorable,
unnatural, unclean practices, and wages war against the glory
of God. And so powerful is this war that's
being waged against the glory of God. I would submit to you
that it's waged both in our practice as human beings. I told you this
before as we go back to Romans 1. Here's what the enemy knows.
Are you ready? If we practice a thing long enough
before it stopped, guess what? It becomes law. If you practice
a thing long enough before it stopped, it becomes law. So there's a pattern here. Practicing
evil and then once we engage in the practice of it and it
becomes sort of a dominant thing, then we change the terminology.
We call it the nomenclature. The nomenclature. When we are
in our right mind and we see an evil deed, Like, we will call
an individual who engages in beating up people a hoodlum.
Y'all don't remember that word, the old folks do. We might call
them a ruffian, that's an English term. These are people who are
mean and vicious and they hurt people. Now, if that practice
were to prevail and become something that's prominent, we would actually
change the name from a derogatory term to something that's really
nice, or at least indifferent. Am I making some sense? Because
what we're getting ready to do is to take that practice and
affirm that practice as a legitimate part of our life. Today, the
practice of homosexuality, which the Bible speaks of as a gross
sin, is called being gay for men. See how the nomenclature
changes? And lesbian for women. Those
two terms do not conjure up any kind of repulsive reaction on
our part. Because the terminology now is
designed to wage war against what God really thinks about
the behavior. So once we practice a thing long
enough, what we do now is change the nomenclature. And once you
change the nomenclature where people are used to say, well,
he's gay. Um, you know, he's lesbian. It's like saying, well,
he's a sadomasochist. Oh, well, he just, you know,
he, he kills, you know, full 500 people every week. That's,
that's all he does. He's a pastor extreme. Follow
the text. This is my point, and this is
the strategy of the enemy. Stay with me. Not only does the
practice become a cultural law, and so we change the nomenclature
in order to take away the stigma, but the nomenclature becomes
the basis now, watch this now, it becomes the basis for which
we now start to identify people with their practice. And I've
said this before, you are not what you do. From God's standpoint, you are
much more than what you do. But you can deceive me in telling
me you are what you do when in fact you are what God actually
made you to be. So follow this now. When people
say I am a homosexual, when they say I am a lesbian, or when they
say I am this or that, what they are basically saying is disregard
every other attribute and characteristic of my personhood and only identify
me as that one thing. We will not do that. We will
not accept that you are the sum and substance of your sexual
predilection. Am I making some sense? We will
acknowledge that you are created in the image of God. Therefore,
you are a human being. We will acknowledge that you
have fallen in Adam. Therefore, you are a sinful human
being. We will acknowledge that the practice that you're engaging
in is contrary to God's Word. So you are a sinful human being
on your way to hell. That's what we will acknowledge.
Are you guys hearing what I'm saying? But you were trying to
tell us because we're getting a cultural trend that would affirm
the practice to accept your identity as being one with your conduct
and nothing is further from the truth. Now, having said that,
watch this for some of you who are sensitive. As an individual,
I love you as a person, but I despise your conduct. an individual I
love you as a person but your conduct I despise and if I were
doing the same thing or any other of the litany of evils in the
Word of God I don't expect you to love me but if you want to
you can and you can hate what I do are you hearing what I'm
saying so I'm not gonna let you force me to accept your practice
as being equal with your essence when I know better than that
So it's time for the people of God to learn how to wage war
with their words against the folks that want to assert that
you are hating on them simply because you're loving on God.
You love on God. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? See, you're not going to deliver your children out
of these miry pits that are a consequence of convoluted thinking if you
don't learn how to wage war like this. Baby, I love you. Sweetheart,
I love you. I'll die for you as a human being,
but I am not going to endorse your sin. Here's the other thing. Not only are they dishonorable,
unnatural, unclean acts that we engage in that amount to the
fundamentals that we are headed towards called homosexuality,
but they are weapons of war against God's glory. As I shared with
you last week, did I not say that the goal of the enemy was
to take human beings who are created in the image of God and
turn them into nothing but pornographic idols and that the power of pornography
is so prevalent in our culture that the enemy knows that nakedness
has the ability to descend whole cultures into the abyss of darkness. This is why we have a massive,
massive problem with pornography today. The power of nakedness
to take men and women who do not see the glory of God, the
splendor of God's glory. See, if you, listen, if you see
the glory of God, physical body has no power over you if you
see God's glory you will not get excited about the body and
especially when the body is saying I'm God when you see God's glory
and you see the body you don't laugh at the body you fool you
are the furthest thing from the glory of God which your naked
self I'll give you a few years and you will wax old and gravity
will start to take over and you will look bad anyway. But as
the preacher puts it, the whorish woman turns a man to a piece
of bread and she has sent many strong men to hell. See, the
enemy knows what he's doing. And that's why I'm asking you,
children of God, what are you doing with your bodies? Isn't
that a germane question? What are you doing with your
bodies? Are you yielding your bodies as servants of God, or
servants of the adversary? I hope I'm arming you with material
with which to wage this war. And let's go on then to our final
point under our heading, final two points. It's a blinding and
pitiful counterfeit. The body given over to a sort
of self-glorification and and turning in on itself so that
it's fulfilling the lust of its flesh. See, the body, the carnal
mind given over to parnaia, and that's the dominant occupation
with which we are talking now, given over to parnaia, is telling
you that it has the ultimate satisfaction. Is that true? Telling
you that you can't live without this. And that's nothing but
blind counterfeit deception The text that comes to mind that
affirms this for me is Genesis chapter 16 verse 9. You don't
have to go there. But Genesis, I'm sorry, Genesis chapter 19
around verse 6. You don't have to go there. But
in that text Lot is in Sodom and Gomorrah. You guys remember
that? And the men of that city, small and great, came to the
house because they wanted to know the angels. You guys remember
that? And they were so furious in their passion to get at those
men They started storming at the door, beating at the door. Do you guys remember that? And
there's a number of redemptive and theological truths to be
taken from that. But that text teaches you how
insane homosexuality can be. How insane, how much of a mob
mentality can take over nature when nature is unbridled, when
it's given up. But the text there is really
talking about a world who goes so contrary to God that if they
could get their hands on God, they would turn God into a homosexual. Now do you know what the text
said the angels did? He blinded them. He blinded the
whole group of them. Read it for yourself. He blinded
them so that they could not find the door. What a prophetic truth. So what are you saying pastor?
I'm saying our present culture is blind right now. It's blind
in its massive, massive, unbridled lust. And it cannot find the
door. And that door is Christ. That
door is Jesus Christ. That door is the door to the
Kingdom of God. It cannot find it because of its impenitency,
because of its hardness, because of its callousness. If they could
have gotten to those angels... You understand what I'm getting
at? That's what the text is teaching. So it's a counterfeit, it's a
blind counterfeit falsehood that you see touting itself as such
a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful, promising, promising lie. Like
all people want to do is get rich so they can get their sex
on. That's all you hear. Am I telling
the truth? How ridiculous is that notion? How deceptively ridiculous is
that notion? And yet the undertow, the current
of its proposition is constantly tugging people to enter into
the ranks of that military system. See, you don't necessarily, we're
going to see this next week, when my next message is, I do
not approve of this message. Gave you the title already. I
do not approve of this message. You're going to see this next
week. You don't actually have to engage in it. All you have
to do is be sympathetic to it. Last point under point number
one. Last point under point number one, the reward of bodily errors. Romans 1 is amazing to me because
it actually specifically details the consequences of unclean sex. And here's what it says. Are
you there? We're at verse 27. And likewise,
also the men leaving the natural use. Do you guys see that? Again,
I gave you 10 terms in Romans 1 worthy of your own development.
I'm not going to take the time to unpack it. But it seems logical
to me that there's a natural use and unnatural use. Figure
it out. And likewise, also the men leaving
the natural use of the woman, burned in their lusts one towards
another, men with Now see, if I was in theology
school or at one of the university campuses arguing for a biblical
worldview and a conservative method of biblical hermeneutics,
I would be arguing with them against their false interpretations
that these passages are not speaking to homosexuals as it would be. I would tell them it is speaking
to homosexuals because what it's speaking to is the practice I
don't care what you say your motive is, the net outcome is
a practice that God says is wrong. He calls it unnatural because
it doesn't correspond with original design. He calls it unnatural
because it does not correspond with original design. Are you
guys following me? God says that. He says that now
listen to it listen to it verse 27 and likewise also the men
leaving the natural use of the woman burned in their lust one
towards another men with men working that which is unseemly
The spirit of God is telling you understand now you are turning
yourself into a pretzel You are contorting yourself You are engaging
in insane physical practices that are not natural You are
doing things you should not and you are receiving as a consequence
of that unnatural, unseemly practice recompense. The word right there
means payment. It means payment. Follow this
now. There's a payment always for sinful behavior. Be very
sure of this. If you sow sin, you're going
to reap judgment. If you sow sin, you're going
to reap judgment. Be sure of it. You cannot practice
iniquity and it not have its consequences. And what's remarkable
here is that the apostle under inspiration of the spirit is
giving us the physical outcome of homosexual and illicit sexual
practice. I just put the word STD up there,
sexually transmitted diseases. Which in history has led to death
every time. Led to death every time. Are
you guys following me? You and I are sort of settling
down with AIDS right now. Because we have found another
way to suppress the immorality of the practice that leads to
it. You know what we call that? Drugs. So the whole system is
designed to work together to suppress the truth and sustain
the practice. Are you hearing me? We are rushing
to develop drugs to stop the consequences of sinful behavior
so you can keep doing it and think it's okay. The whole group
is suppressing truth. Your doctors are suppressing
truth. Your scientists are suppressing truth. Your physicists are suppressing
truth. Your psychologists are suppressing
truth. Your politicians are suppressing
truth. Your theologians are suppressing truth. They're all suppressing
truth. Are you hearing me? They're all
suppressing truth. They're all on the same team
working together collaboratively to suppress the truth. Ha, take
this drug, keep doing what you're doing. You're okay. Suppression
of the truth. Suppression of the truth. Our
next point. Let's move on. We've got to move
to our next point quickly. The body of the believer. I'm
going to run through these quickly because they are much more succinct
and easy to grasp. There is a radical difference
between the believer and the promises that he or she or they
have with their body than the non-believer. There is also therefore
a radical difference between the conduct of an informed, biblically
obedient Christian than is the rest of the whole world. Follow
this now. Remember what I said in the opening
of our message? All that we do, we do in our bodies, don't we?
Everything we do, we do in our body. And whatever we do in our
body is either waging war against God or glorifying God. For the
true believer, here's what she, he, they know. Are you ready?
When God saved me, he saved my body too. When God saved me,
he saved my body too. which means my body is a servant
of God. There's no way for me to serve
God apart from my body. I can't serve him without my
mind. I can't serve him without my passions. I can't serve him
without my words. I can't serve him without these
hands and these feet and this body. The only way I can serve
King Jesus is in my body, which is his. So there are three things
I want you to get. Every believer's body is sanctified. God has set me apart. The day
He called me by His grace, He set me apart. He began to get
a hold of my mind. And while I was really, really,
really rushing to hell, selling drugs and doing wrong to people,
the Spirit of God got a hold to my mind. It lasted a hold
to my mind and started piercing my mind with the light of God's
Word. and showing me His glory and
bringing me into crisis in my mind. So even though I'm in the
streets at 12 and 1 o'clock at night, you know what I'm doing?
I'm thinking about God. And you know what God is doing?
He's saying, I'm going to get you. I'm going to get you. I'm
going to get you. You can run, but you can't hide.
I'm going to get you. You need to drop to your knees
now because, boy, I'm going to get you. You can't run from the
power of biblical truth. when he sows that seed in you.
So every day I'm struggling between the knowledge of God and my passion
to become a millionaire. And guess who won? Guess who won? Guess who won? And you know how he won? He let
me go my way. And every step I took away from
the truth, I was going deeper and deeper into the pit. But
the lights were on at that time. And nothing is more miserable
for a sinner with whom grace has lost a hold to him like a
tow truck and is gradually towing him in. Nothing is more miserable
than to be going deeper against God with the lights on. Because
now I know what I'm doing is wrong. I know what I'm doing
is wrong. And I could hear the voices,
all you've got left, son, is disease and death. And it was
rushing up on me real quick, if it wasn't for the mercy of
God. See, when God saves you, He saves your whole being. Let's
deal with the first three points quickly. A sanctified body. 1
Thessalonians chapter 4, verses 4 through 8. You're in Bible
study today, so settle down. Besides, it's raining outside,
so you don't want to be rushing to go outside. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. Now,
some of you have never seen these verses before. You've been in
church all your life. You never saw these verses. In
other words, you conduct yourselves like you never heard this before. The church age that I live in
acts like it never heard If you are a fornicator or an adulterer,
you're going straight to hell. That's the generation I live
in. They act like they never heard that before. Like what? Fornication? Yeah, fornication. You're going straight to hell. Straight to hell. Watch this
now. In 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, the Apostle Paul is talking
to believers and here's what he says. Now watch this in verse
3. Are you there? For this is the will of God.
Are you ready? Even your what? Ah, there you
go. Lock it down. Highlight it with
yellow. Put stars all the way around
it. What does God want from me? Sanctification. He wants me to
be set apart to Him. Consecrated to God. set apart
to God, consecrated to God. Watch this. This is the will
of God, even your sanctification, that you should continue in fornication. Is that what it says? Do you
see it? So a whole bunch of you are guilty today of what you
do. And let me help you. If you're
practicing this, you're on your way to hell. You are not born
again. Get that? You're not headed to
heaven. I've got seven verses I can give
you right now that are exclusion verses that explicitly say if
you are practicing fornication, you right along with whoremongers
and liars and those who commit abominations have no part in
the kingdom of God. I got seven verses I can give
you explicitly so that you'll have one pastor in the 21st century
that will help you understand why you must go to hell. Seven
verses are you hearing me seven verses these seven verses stopped
me in my tracks when I was 18 years old Stop me in my tracks
see because when you're unsaved The last thing you think in this
fornication is wrong The first time I heard that it was a revolutionary
statement. I Mean like what? And then I'm
going to hell if I do it again God taught me why he saved me
Has he taught you why he saved you? See, so listen to the text
now. The apostle says, this is the
will of God, even our sanctification, that we should abstain from fornication,
that every one of you, believer, should know how to possess his
vessel, whether your vessel, your body. How? In sanctification
and what? Honor, not in the lust of your
flesh, even as the Gentiles, which know not God. There it is. See, in our churches,
we've turned this thing upside down. The text is explicit. If you're practicing things,
you don't know God. You do not know God. Pastor, I'm saved. No, you're
not. Pastor, I know Jesus. No, you don't. Pastor, I believe
I'm a believer. Your believing is in vain. Why? Because you are yielding your
members. weapons of war against the glory
of God and the only way you could do that is if God gives you up
to it the body of the believer sanctify
the body of the believer also is used for service 2nd Timothy
chapter 2 2nd Timothy chapter 2 verse 20 and 21 I want you to
see this 2nd Timothy chapter 2 verse 20 and 21 Here the Apostle
Paul is talking to Timothy about the privilege of being taken
out of the mire, out of the muck, out of the garbage, out of the
filth, cleaned up and used as a vessel of honor. Second Timothy
chapter 2 verse 20, are you there? But in a great house, we're talking
God's house, the kingdom, are there not only vessels of gold
and silver but also wood and earth and some to honor and some
to dishonor. Now see, on the last day, he's
gonna clean all that up. You do know that, right? Verse 21.
Now, if a man, therefore, purge himself of these. Purge himself
of what? Verse 22. Flee also youthful
lust. Follow after righteousness, faith,
charity, and peace. Watch this. With them that call
upon the name of the Lord out of a filthy heart. Good. Go back to verse 21. If a man
therefore purge himself of these, he shall be a vessel unto what?
That's what I asked God to do for me at 18 years old. Make
me a vessel of honor, sanctified and neat for the master's use,
and prepared to every good work. Do you see, child of God, then,
if you don't understand how holistic your calling is in terms of your
heart and your body, that God cannot use you, He will not use
you? He only uses the man or the woman that understands that
you have been saved, lock, stock, and barrel. Do you understand
that? You understand that? So it's
important. Go back to our PowerPoint. Let me rush through this quickly.
I'll pick this up next week. The body of the believer is a
sanctified body. The body of the believer is a serviceable
body. Serviceable body. Serviceable body. I guess this
is in the parentheses. Are you ready? Use me. Use me. That's what I want you to say
to God. Use me. Use me. If you say that, he'll
start cleaning you up. If you actually say, God, use
me, you know what he'll do? He'll start getting rid of your friends
that want to take you to hell with them. That's right. If you say, Lord, use me, he'll
start actually giving you a hunger and thirst for his word. and
putting this word in your heart so you can share it with people
if you say use me now the reason why a lot of you not being used
because you never asked you got that last point a celestial body
the body of the believer is a sanctified body a serviceable body and a
celestial body what do you mean pastor that's god's promise for
this body one day this body is going to be glorified and be
in the presence of the father son holy ghost all of the holy
angels, all of the saints from the beginning of time to the
end of time. This body. Are you hearing? This body. This
body. With the promise of glory encompassing
my body. Isn't it worth it that I would
serve him now? Isn't it worth it that I would be sanctified
right now so I can have that promise? Remember what I told
you earlier? I told you there's a promise for the wicked and
the righteous. For the ungodly in your body You're going to
hell in that very same body. For the believer, we're going
to be in glory in these bodies. Renewed, glorified, magnificently
made in the image of Christ. That ought to be enough impetus
to cause you to stop acting a fool right now, don't you think? That
ought to give you enough motivation to live right for God's glory
right now because one day this body is going to be supercharged.
Talking about being like Iron Man and Batman and Spider-Man
ten times over. flying and going through walls.
Are you hearing me? Just a Superman eating food and
never gaining an ounce of weight like Superman. One day, one day,
one day. Last point, the body of Christ. So what makes the promises of
the believer's body so precious is this one glorious truth, and
I'm done for today. What makes our argument for yielding
our lives to God, body and soul, so crucial is this one truth. That God in his infinite wisdom
and his infinite mercy and his infinite love towards his elect
took on a body. God in his infinite love took
on a body like mine. without sin. He took on a body
to show us how it is to be done. God did that. God did that because
he knew when we fail, we cut ourselves off from the invisible
God. We did not have a clear enough
witness, a clear enough testimony, a clear enough revelation of
God's glory for us to be redeemed. So what did he do? He sent his
son. And you know what his son did?
His son obtained a body. This is what he said to his father
in the book of Hebrews, a body you have given me. Hebrews 10
5. But point number one under this last thought, the body of
Christ. And I'm talking about his own body. And then I'm talking
by extension our body. But first, why did Christ assume
a human nature? In order to manifest God to us.
Did he do that? John chapter 1 verse 18, no man
has seen God at any time. Only he who is in the bosom of
the Father, he hath revealed it. Watch this. You and I can
never know God except in Christ. Watch this. You and I can never
know God in a saving way except through the incarnate Son of
God. Even Christ in his non-incarnate
state still needed to assume a human nature so you and I can
see what it's like to be a child of the living God. No man has
comprehended, no man has seen, no man has apprehended the glory
of God. But his son, Jesus Christ, who
was in the bosom of the Father, he hath fully exegeted him, fully
revealed him. The reason we talk so confidently
about God is because of Jesus. And we talk confidently about
God because Jesus assumed a body. And we talk confidently about
God because Jesus came down here in his body, saying, fellas,
this is how it's done. Are you ready? This is what he did. He
came down here to reveal his Father's glory and to model true
sonship. Is that what he did? Oh, did
Christ model true sonship? Did the son of God show us how
we ought to have done it? Did he show us how the purpose
for which we live is the will of the father? Did he live for
the father's glory? Did he serve his God in this
world? Did he let mankind know you were
created to glorify God? Yes, he did. Third point. I love
this point. He assumed a body to meet us
in the cesspool. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. This is magnificent. You and
I are in hell. And Christ came to hell to get
us. Do you remember the text? Luke
24. He's straddling between eternity
and eternity and wondering, is there another way? Another way. I have never been separated from
my father, he said. I've never known what it's like
for my father to turn his back on me and lead me to the torment
of eternal destruction. But because I love my father
and because I love my people, I am going to bear their sin
in my body. crazy, crazy, crazy. Let's see, if you understand
the doctrine of union, the doctrine of our oneness with Christ, when
he stood in that twixt between heaven and hell, I was with him. Yes, I was. He didn't do that
for himself. He did that for me. And if you're
his child, he did it for you. And my eternity hung in the balance
on that day in my mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ, who see once
he said yes to the father and took on a body, he was under
the test. There was no turning back. When
he entered into the womb of Mary, he was under the test. No turning
back. When he came out and Herod came
after him, there was no turning back. There was no turning back
when he started his ministry. There was no turning back when
the Pharisees, Sadducees, Herodians and all of the crooks came at
him. There was no turning back because he loved his people enough
to bear their sins in his body. That's the reason why some of
us are saved today. because he turned our direction from hell
to heaven by entering into our mess, our cesspool, our sin,
our evil, our wickedness. The vileness of Romans 1, Christ
sank deep into it. The vileness of Romans 1, Christ
sank deep into it. What wondrous love is this, O
my soul? What wondrous love is this, O
my soul? The Son of God, Went so deep,
read the Psalms, read the Psalms. It describes his own conscious
awareness of all the evil of all of God's people draped upon
him at one time. I've said it before, Christ has
gone where I have yet to go. That's how much he loved me so
that I might never ever have to go there. All of the sin,
all of the evil, all of the wickedness that poured out of my life, he
bore the wrath of it. in order that I might not. And
he stopped me sharp. He gave me his spirit, which
graces me to keep from jumping off into the precipice. And you
too, if you're a child of God. So from this day forward, you
will thank God for the body of Christ. You will thank Him for
the manifestation of the invisible God. You will thank Him for true
sonship. You will thank Him for meeting you in the cesspool of
sin. And you will finally thank Him for mediating the blessings
of the incarnation to us by grace. We have a great High Priest who
ever lives to make intercession for us. We have a magnificent
High Priest who endured everything that we did but our failures.
He rose from the dead, ascended on high, and is seated at the
right hand of God. Watch this now, prevailing with
God for his people. The reason why some of us are
kept right now in this second is because of our high priest,
Jesus Christ. Our high priest is keeping us,
keeping us, keeping us right now, right now, right now. Now some of you who are lost,
you are lost, you don't know God. And if you don't bow the knee
to Him, you're going to hell. So as we close, maybe the Spirit
of God is dealing with some of you today. Maybe the Spirit of
God is dealing with some of you. Maybe the Spirit of God has got
a hold of your heart right now. and you're embarrassed. You don't
know what to do. Just listen now. Just in your
soul, don't look at your neighbor, in your soul, just cry out to
God in your soul right now. Say, God have mercy on me. Have
mercy on me. I know what that man is saying
is right. And I'm lost without Christ.
And I know the passions of sin running through my members, inclining
me to want to live like hell. And I know it's wrong. God, I
need you. I need you right now. Whatever it means to be saved,
save me. Save me. Don't let me go to hell
through the doors of the church. Save me, oh God. Save me, oh
God. Save me, oh God. Save me. Amen.