Romans #3 - Set Free: Escaping Rebellion

[Music] [Music] we're in romans chapter one we're going right through one of the greatest books in the history of the world and i have the great honor now of preaching on what is the most despised hated opposed and attacked text of the entire bible and i'll just prophesy in advance this is either going to go really good or really bad that's the future that's where we're going and what happens is every time an issue blows up politically morally socially that ultimately you and i have one of two options number one we can just emotionally react and just jump on social media grab the latest hashtag and follow the conga line to hell the other option is we can rather than emotionally reacting we can be mentally reflecting we can give a little time for us to look at the evidence to consider the issues the cause the effect the problem the solution and as christians ultimately to bring it to the word of god and there is very little reflective thinking in our day and there is very little deep teaching in our day and as a result things are not going well in our day a little later in romans chapter 12 paul is going to give us a principle that i want us to exercise together today he says do not be conformed to this world what he's talking about there is literally a mold you go into school and there is an educational system that tries to mold you into a certain political sexual orientation ideology and behavior just like when you're making a popsicle or you're making uh something out of jell-o ultimately it's to get everything to come out looking exactly the same i'm telling you the christianity is the last great rebellion i'm telling you that for those of us who will stand up against the cultural tide there will be great price to pay and the price of following jesus is getting increasingly more expensive but it's going to take a lot of work for you and i not to be conformed to the pattern of this world not to think what everyone else thinks not to do what everyone else does not to post what everyone else posts instead he goes on to say but be transformed by the renewal of your mind that ultimately worship starts with thinking god's thoughts after him and that by testing so not just assuming that everyone or everything is true or right you may discern what the will of god is what is good acceptable and perfect what paul is saying is that some things are bad some things are unacceptable and some things are imperfect so as we get into it today my text is on sex gender and sexuality the three things you didn't want to talk about and if your friend brought you to church for the first time you're probably going to be former friends in about an hour nonetheless as we jump into it let me set a little bit of context for where we find ourselves because for those of you who are younger than me and i'm going to be 50 here in a few weeks for those of you who are younger you assume that the world that you were born into is normative it's the only world you've ever known but you need to know that there was a masked uh social experiment sociological experiment that has been underway and it's cataclysmic and it's only a short period of time in history that this test has been underway and that test is during my lifetime i was born in 1970 right at the tail end of the sexual revolution the false trinity of sex drugs and rock and roll all of the experimental hippie counter culture that has now become mainstream culture that ideology led its way into culture and also the classroom those of you who were born later that's the only world you've ever known that's the only culture you've ever seen that's the only class you've ever attended in 1973 when i was a three-year-old boy roe v wade was legalized and it legalized abortion roe v wade was cataclysmic in how we view gender marriage and sexuality ultimately what is interesting historically is that the anonymous uh jane roe for whom the legislation was written she ultimately became a christian came to know and loved jesus she died in 2017 she spent the last half of her life arguing against exactly what she had argued for and she opposed abortion rights and ultimately she is today with the lord jesus in heaven forgiven of her sins and i believe that there is a great amazing family reunion with the child that she aborted because that's the kind of thing that our god does all that to say i was born before abortion was legalized in addition up until 1974 there was the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders that was published by the american psychiatric association it was considered the bible of mental health disorders up until 1974 homosexuality was considered and listed clinically as a mental disorder so think of this i was born before abortion was legal and before homosexuality was considered a mental disorder just look at the great speed of change within our culture in 1989 i became a christian god saved me at that time i was not a virgin and i was sleeping with my girlfriend who's my now wife i didn't agree with what the bible said about sex marriage or gender or sexuality i didn't agree with any of it i felt that it was an old book and i had some good new ideas most of which involved my belt that being said i came to the conclusion that i had a very significant decision to make that would affect the rest of my life and legacy and it's the decision that you all will make tonight and that is does god have a right to tell me what to do with my sexuality is there any authority that is external of me does anyone have the right to tell me no and that was the issue that i had to wrestle with and ultimately that is the lordship of jesus christ that he doesn't just rule over my heart he also rules over my pants but if he is lord overall that means that all that i have and all that i am ultimately needs to be lived in obedience to him i then became a pastor and in the mid 1990s in another city we had our first issue with transgenderism 25 years ago i've been dealing with this issue in major urban centers for most of my adult life for years i did a lot of media interviews on gender marriage sex family most of it was hostile it was mother jones and npr and lots of liberal outlets that oppose bible teaching i had a canned answer that i gave and that was that the bible negates any sexuality out of outside of marriage that was my canned answer and it worked until 2012 at that time the state that i was living in legalized same-sex marriage at that same time my wife grace and i released a book on marriage called real marriage and we did a media tour i'm on fox and friends i did an interview with the ugly on cnn i sat down and went head-to-head for half an hour with piers morgan we also went and did the view with a joy bahar um whoopi goldberg and barbara walters so yeah i got up one morning and us four girls got our makeup done together for tv it was awesome ultimately what happened then is in 2015 and we had a lot of arguments over gender marriage sexuality and marriage and ultimately then in 2015 the u.s supreme court made same-sex marriage uh the law of the land for all 50 states since that time some of the pastors that i've raised up have become pro-gay pro-transgender some of the churches that i helped plant and or buildings that i helped fundraise for they are now officiating same-sex marriages i've seen a cataclysmic shift in my lifetime and recently there was a gallup poll done in america asking americans what percentage of the population do you believe is gay uh or bisexual americans thought that that constituted 23 percent of the population the truth is it's five percent it's five percent but there's so much volume in the culture regarding these issues that you would think it was a bigger issue the number is on the uptick which is not shocking with the push in media social media school curriculum and also the prevalence of pornography that being said we're going to talk about sex we're going to talk about marriage we're going to talk about gender and ultimately i want to start by putting us all on the same team and that is that we're all sinners who need a savior what i don't want to do is have this sermon be the good people versus the bad people because human history is the bad people versus god there's only one person on the other side of that line and his name is jesus christ he's on the savior's side we're on the center side so what i don't want to do is hammer one group of people i want to hammer all people because i believe in equality and they're all naughty so here's uh these this will be in the notes so the notes are at real faith.com and there's comprehensive notes but these are acts that are forbidden in the bible when it comes to matters of sexuality i'll work through them quickly fornication this is sex before marriage for all of you who are single this is you this is dating relating and fornicating this is called old town uh old town is the greek word for fornication it's it's it's it's the world that we live in hey don't you you you knew this was gonna happen don't get so sour so quick we've only got we've only got a few hours together and make the most of it now fornication is what i was doing with grace when we started dating i was fornicating i was sleeping with someone i was not married to okay it's a sin and if and if you're here and you're dating and you're sleeping together and or you're living together you're fornicating so what we're going to do we're just giving you a minute to break up and then i'll look at the next one oh seriously you've got a minute this doesn't take long all right now that we got that cleaned up number two is adultery adultery is where you're married but you're sleeping with someone else true or false that's a problem it's a problem okay god forbids it well what if we have an open marriage and what if we agree and what if we're swingers you're still adulterers you're just adulterers that are co-conspirators number three polygamy this is where you're you're with more than one person okay and this is where the trend is going regarding bisexuality well if i love a man and i love a woman why can't we be polygamous this would also include polyandry which is one woman with multiple men historically there's no civilization that demonstrates that because men would kill each other that's just how it works everything i say is offensive and true um number four rape okay and rape is forcibly imposing yourself upon another human being it's an act of aggression it's an act of oppression right incest this is with a close family member this is with a close family member this is growing in prevalence even whole genres of pornography are now promoting this homosexuality which we will deal with in detail in just a moment that's two people who are of the same sex and should be of the same gender this includes bestiality human being and an animal life having some sort of sexual connection or contact is forbidden according to the bible this would include prostitution where you are paying someone for sexual services this would include sexual immorality a greek word in the new testament used repeatedly called porneia does that sound familiar we get our word porn pornography or pornographic from it it's an open category of sexual sin that can include a number of other sexual sins so this would include pornography and also your thought life jesus said that we don't just commit adultery with our hands we also commit adultery with our heart okay and if you if you're reading the list up until this point you're like i haven't done that haven't done that haven't done that haven't done that let's just say we've all done nine can we just be honest this is where job 31 he says i made a covenant with my eyes not to look upon people lustfully looking with your eyes lustfully that constitutes porneia it may not be necessarily even what you do with your hands it's what you do with your eyes and what you do with your heart and this also includes pagan sexual activity oftentimes when there is pagan religion and spirituality there is also pagan sexual activity so in exodus 32 they worship the golden calf and they have lots of sexual relations together it talks about uh in the new testament there are temples where people go and part of the worship act is sex so any sex that is done in conjunction with another spirit being or god is ultimately forbidden by the god who made us and wants us to be filled with his spirit my simple point in sharing this list before we get into the specifics of romans chapter 1 we're all guilty just in different ways we're all guilty just in different ways and what i want us to say is that we all need a savior and that we all are a sinner and as we look at particular sexual acts and misconduct and disobedience and rebellion i want us not to use the bible first and foremost as binoculars to see what all the other people have done wrong but first is amir to consider what we have done wrong before we judge others we should judge ourselves before we examine others we should examine ourselves and so within this i would tell you that based upon this list just like the rest of you i'm guilty i mean i was i was sexually active as a brand new christian and then stopped once i understood what the bible said and accepted god's authority over all of my life and let's just say we've all been guilty of number nine and some of you have more than one or two some of you this list is fairly convicting i love you i'm your pastor my whole prayer goal today is not to beat you up but to build you up i hope pray that my tone would be pastoral and that it would be more professorial that you would know that i love you and i'm trying to teach if you're new i usually am funny so come back next week will be great and sometimes i loud and i get loud and really excited this week is going to be more like a dad talk my whole prayer goal is that the father's heart would come through me and that i would talk to you in the same way that i would speak to one of our five kids we have kids that are high school college post college they're in that continuum dealing with these issues continually that being said uh let's just jump into romans chapter 1 verse 18 and he starts very calmly easily smoothly with the wrath of god for the i didn't make it up for the the wrath of god now let me say this some of you will get very angry you'll say i can't believe that god has wrath you do why not god democrats and republicans have wrath right now right now our world is filled with wrath wrath is what happens when people feel something is wrong and if we do not allow god to have wrath what right do we believe that we have the right to have wrath the wrath of god is revealed from heaven so it's a perfect wrath it's a just wrath against all ungodliness that means that certain beliefs and behaviors are contrary to god and unrighteousness that means that they're behaving in a way that is unacceptable to god of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth we'll talk about that for what can be known about god is plain to them because god has shown it to them for his invisible attributes god is a spirit being with invisible attributes that are revealed in the visible world that he has made just like a painting reveals something of the painter or a building reveal something of the architect so the world reflects something of the lord have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world and the things that have been made so they are without excuse so let me just say this there's no excuse we live in a world of victims where everybody has an excuse and we just assume that if we have an excuse then we're not morally responsible we're all morally responsible and none of us has truly an excuse for rebellious unrighteous ungodly conduct first he tells us about something that's called general revelation revelation exists in two forms the difference between um revelation and speculation is this speculation is us guessing who god is or what god is like revelation is god revealing to us who he is and what he's like what we don't need is more speculation about god we need more revelation from god and revelation from god exists in two categories there is general revelation meaning that it is common available to all people and then there is special revelation that is available to some people special revelation would include things like the bible and jesus christ general revelation exists in two forms internally you have a conscience externally god made creation this is romans 1 and romans 2. here he speaks of general revelation in romans chapter 1 and he talks about the creation and he says if you look at the world that god made it tells you some things about the character of god just simply by way of beginning god is powerful god is orderly god is beautiful god is meticulously in the details god cares a lot about life and flourishing you learn a lot about god from the world that he made this is why some people who don't know god they still enjoy creation they will tell you when they go out into the world that god made they feel closer to god it's because it's as close as they get to god in addition romans 2 tells us about an internal witness of general revelation called the conscience we'll get to this in a few weeks but he says that god has placed a conscience within us to where we are moral beings and we know that certain things are right and certain things are wrong one of the great hypocrisies in our day are people who deny god and get upset that's hypocrisy because if there is no such thing as a lawgiver and there is no such thing as universal laws then when you feel hurt frustrated offended or that an injustice had occurred who or what are you appealing to if you deny that there are laws in a law giver like i'm very upset this is wrong now wait wait wait wait wait you said there was no god and there was no right and wrong so why are you upset hypocrite the christian who gets upset at least is consistent with their worldview because the conscience in us it connects to the creator over us and when we get upset and we cry out for justice we're appealing to the creator from the conscience that he gave us in addition here he is going to talk about truth and what we have been told a whole generation is the truth is subjective not objective that it does not extend beyond us and the truth is the bible says that god is truth and god reveals truth and here what it says is our problem is that we suppress the truth the problem that we tend to have is not mental but it is moral it is not that we do not know right and wrong it is that we do not like right and wrong and this is where we are hypocrites we will appeal to the truth when it benefits us we will deny the truth when it benefits us if i feel you are wrong i will call you to a moral standard but if i have done something i appeal to no moral standard because that's what criminals do and this is the world in which we live when he's talking here about suppressing the truth um there is uh it was originally written in the greek text and there's a there's a greek english lexicon that says that this word suppress means to prevent someone from exercising power i'll get into a little bit next week with something called critical theory critical theory has taken over all the academic disciplines in academia in the west and it basically says that privileged groups have created institutions to oppress less privileged groups justice is to rob them of power to dismantle those institutions and to redistribute the wealth and the power to those who were oppressed it first was practiced in nazi germany and they decided that the jews were the oppressors critical theory does not lead to human life and flourishing but what it does it suppresses the truth it wants to take money power from those who have it and it wants to redistribute it to others so that they can suppress the truth think of it in this way we're not just victims we're villains suppressing the truth is like seeing two people who are fighting let's say on the shore of a beach and one is named truth and the other is name lie and you decide that you don't like the truth and you do like the lie so you walk up you align yourself with the lie you grab the truth by the throat and together the two of you drag it out into the water and suppress it under the water until it drowns and dies that's what human beings do with the truth we grab it by the throat and we drown it that's suppression it's robbing it of its power and seeking to destroy it so that you can rule over it that's exactly what paul is talking about it's not that god is not spoken it's that we're not obeying and and truth is this and some of you will struggle with this truth ultimately is that which corresponds to reality philosophically there's something called the correspondence theory of truth and truth is that which corresponds with reality those who deny truth they don't deal with reality so even today things like well we don't need police officers you're denying the truth and you're not dealing with reality you're not dealing with reality if i told you i am a young asian woman okay what would you say no you're not but if i tell you i'm a woman you would say okay well we're okay with that what if i'm a woman in my heart what if i'm an asian in my heart see now i got see this wasn't funny but this was i'm young in my heart okay see that's really funny okay if i told you i'm a young asian woman you would say that's not true because it doesn't correspond with reality and if i say but i'm a woman in my heart you'd say well that's your reality we accept your reality that's the suppression of the truth just so you know i'm not young asian or woman if so pray for that gal she's had a rough life right [Laughter] and so what we do we exchange the truth for the lie and we don't deal with reality we now call this america and the way this suppression happens hashtags movements protests candidates social media throttling media bias and exchanging the truth for the lie is ultimately demonic because jesus says in john 8 that the lie is birthed by a man who is the father of all lies what's his name satan but satan is the father of lies when we exchange the truth of god for the lie we are welcoming satan to be the father of our destiny and then we wonder why it feels like hell on earth that's where we live and so ultimately the suppression of the truth is i acknowledge no authority beyond me i acknowledge no authority over me i will not allow a god who made me to judge me i will make my own god to judge me now that being said what paul is talking about is the human condition that culminates with the response of god in wrath now many times we don't talk about the wrath of god people say no no god is not wrath god is love the bible speaks of god with a constellation of images he does speak of god's love the bible says that god is love but the the number one attribute of god that is mentioned more than any other is the holiness of god 600 times in the bible the bible uses a constellation of words to speak of the wrath of god on more than 200 occasions it's a mega not a minor theme and love and wrath go together because wrath and love are correlated if you love someone then you need to pour out wrath to protect them from that which is going to destroy them so i love my children and if a pedophile showed up in their life they would experience wrath from me because if i'm going to love them i need to protect them and wrath is protecting whom i love from that which seeks to destroy them and so all it is love and wrath are flip sides of the same coin i love you so i hate this if you're going to be for something you need to be against something else you need to be against that which is going to destroy who or what you love we see this at the cross of jesus christ at the cross of jesus christ we see the love of god and the wrath of god that the love of god is jesus christ dying in our place for our sins and we see the wrath of god poured out on the son of god in our place for our sins god hates sin because it wrecks and ruins his beloved and because he loves us he pours out his wrath we see this at the cross of jesus there can be no love without wrath and when there is wrath it is to protect that which is beloved when he says that god has poured out his wrath what he is talking about is wrath in two forms there is passive wrath there is active wrath romans chapter 1 talks about passive wrath romans chapter 2 talks about active wrath passive wrath is what occurs until active wrath passive wrath is this and he describes it this way god's wrath is revealed and he says three times in this section of romans 1 18 through 32 god handed them over god handed them over god handed them over part of god's wrath is letting you do whatever you want some people think god must not exist or he must not have a problem with my behavior because he hasn't involved himself and he hasn't stopped me i haven't experienced any wrath if he has not gotten in the way of you self-destructing you are experiencing the passive wrath of god he's taken a passive position in your life he did the same thing with judas iscariot the lord jesus did when he looked at jesus he said i know what you want to do so i'm going to let you go do it that's passive wrath and what does judas do he self-destructs god's path see god not only saves from satan's sin death hell the wrath of god god saves you from you and god's passive wrath is where he says i'm not going to get in your way you do what you want and that's self-destruction that leads to active wrath that he speaks of in romans chapter 2 verse 5. we'll come to this next week but i'll read it to you briefly he says you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when god's righteous judgment will be revealed passive wrath leads to active wrath romans 1 romans 2 passive wrath is storing up wrath for the day of judgment what i'm telling you is this if you have any sin particularly sexual sin and you've not given it to the lord jesus christ and had him die on the cross in your place for your sins experiencing the wrath of god so you could receive the love of god if that is not you you are getting away with nothing but you're storing up everything for the day of wrath for the day of wrath think of it like a dam that is holding back a mighty river and then one day the dam comes down and the flood ensues that's passive wrath holding it back until active wrath it is released now some of you will struggle with this because you've been told that god is a sky fairy the god is just a very kind passive being who lives on a cloud and just has no ill will toward anyone or anything god is not a sky fairy he is a ruling and reigning god it is a dreadful and fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living god you're not just saved from satan's sin death hell and yourself you're saved from the wrath of god you are saved by god you are saved for god you are saved from god okay and ultimately those who don't understand the full power weightiness and holiness of god don't have a full appreciation of their own salvation furthermore they take themselves very seriously and they take god very lightly this is the problem people get very upset when they've experienced injustice and they don't concern themselves with the injustices they have committed toward god they feel free to pour out their wrath on others but then they have this belief that god has no right to pour out wrath on them it's total and utter hypocrisy and it's now an epidemic so the way this works is either jesus gets your wrath on the cross or you get his wrath in hell that's how it works and some of you would say the lord jesus he's nice he's loving he would never do that revelation 14 10. he also will drink the wine of god's wrath poured full strength into the cup of his anger and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and the presence of the lamb jesus not only rules over heaven jesus also rules over hell satan and demons rule nothing they rule nowhere they rule over no one ultimately and eternally the only lord is jesus and if he's lord overall that would include the wrath of god in hell the torment in hell will be equivalent to the deeds committed while on this life on the earth that god's justice his wrath his punishment is perfect ultimately you need to know this this language of the cup of god's wrath being poured out full strength this is what the bible was speaking of when the lord jesus was headed to the cross he had his evening in gethsemane this garden of anguish and he was up all night sweating like drops of blood and jesus is kneeling in gethsemane and he is praying father if it be your will take this cup from me that's the cup of god's wrath now think of it in this way think of every single human being who has ever existed has a cup in the presence of god and your name is on one of those cups and every time you see an and thought word deed or motive every sin of commission or omission more wrath is poured into that cup one of two things will happen either you will receive the lord jesus christ as your god and savior and when he went to the cross he drank full strength the cup of your wrath that's what jesus was praying father if it be your will take this cup from me that was your cup with your name on it if it be your will take this cup from me but not my will your will be done either jesus drank the cup of wrath for you on the cross or you will drink that cup for yourself in hell and you will see jesus as the triumphant lamb of god full of mercy love and compassion tormenting you forever because you rejected him during this life you are not a victim you are a villain it is not that you accidentally end up in hell it's that you suppress the truth my job is to tell the truth your job is to make the most important decision you will ever make and that is who you think the lord jesus christ is and whether you will receive forgiveness of sin or you will receive punishment for sin then he moves forward to talking about how for most of us this real test of lordship in our life is in matters of sexuality and that what happens is when the wrath of god is poured out and the truth of god is suppressed that ultimately sex replaces god as the new religion romans 1 21-25 for although they knew god you know something about god looking at the world that he made they did not honor him as god or give thanks to him no appreciation but they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were dark and now they don't think so because they went to college and they had futile thinkers called professors with foolish darkened hearts who told him that they were wise we have entire departments devoted to deception education is filled with intellect but not wisdom claiming to be wise very smart very insightful lots of degrees they became fools they were very offended by that word and they exchanged the glory of the immortal god for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping against the start of worshiping created beings now some of you say that's really weird really what happens every sunday is we worship the cardinals and the seahawks and the lions and the bears the bears it's interesting that even our sports teams that we have with religious devotion and we build stadiums to they have as their mascot beasts of the field and birds of the air next line therefore god gave them up in the lust of their hearts to impurity to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves because they exchanged the truth about god for a lie and they worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator who is forever praised or forever blessed amen what he's talking about here is this the two most important questions that you will ever need to answer in your life is who is god and who am i who is god who am i and what he says here is this is a whole group of people they're now the majority you need to know that the world in its wisdom doesn't know god that most of the people have been conformed to the image of this world they've come to the conclusion that god is not worth honoring that god is not worth thanking the god is not worth obeying the god is wrong and that god is repressive and that god is restricting us from evolving into the next level of our greatness the only thing holding us back is religion and guilt sin shame tradition and if we could simply unburden ourselves of those things related to god then we would grow into the fullness of our full potential this is the entire human potential movement this is the entire self-help movement this is the entire self-esteem movement we don't need self-help we need god help we don't need self-esteem we need god esteem our problem is not that we're not achieving our goodness the problem is that we're achieving our badness and we need someone to save us from ourselves his name is jesus the second question is who am i and they this is the decision he is articulating i'm smart i'm very wise i i i read this and i disagree with it that just shows how wrong it must be as a result i'm a highly evolved animal and as a highly evolved animal i should be free to do what i want to do because i know what's best for me let me say this god's plan for your life is better than your plan for your life okay so where he goes with this he goes to the issue of worship we tend to think of worship as song sung in church it's not it's lives lived on the earth worship is inclusive of singing but it's much bigger than that worship is who or what is the center of your life who or what is prominent or prominent who or what do you devote yourself to and make sacrifices for some people worship their pets some people worship their spouse some people worship their kids some people worship their beauty some people worship their spouse's beauty some people worship their zip codes some people worship their grade point average some people worship their lifestyle some people worship themselves we are all created the image likeness of god we were created to worship we can't help it so we're all worshipers the only difference is who or what do we worship how do we worship the alcoholic worships the bottle the drug addict worships the needle the sex addict worships the experience that they enjoy the person who worships themselves and is constantly filled with rage whenever they are criticized or opposed they worship they worship their own reputation we all live for someone or something and the point is this he divides here all of humanity into two categories we tend to think of things in terms of a spectrum god thinks very binary like male female good evil heaven hell holy spirit demonic spirits god's very binary in his thinking and what he's saying here is this there really only is two categories those who worship the creator and they enjoy in steward creation or those who worship the created in place of the creator that's it this explains all religions this explains all spiritualities and all ideologies sometimes we create a philosophical or moral or spiritual system or even a political system that's a created thing but the thing that we tend to worship the most is sex because of everything god made he said it was good but when god made the human body he said it was very good the apex of god's creation was the human body the result is we tend to worship created things rather than the creator let me say this this is the bible's language of idolatry idolatry is where we worship someone or something instead of god and you need to know that usually who or what we worship is not a bad thing it's a good thing in god's place sex is good but a bad god sex is good it's a good gift from god but it's a bad god we tend to take a gift that god has given or a thing that god has made and we tend to replace it with god and as a result we take something that was good and we make it bad this is what happens with sex all the time so the number one thing that we are most likely according to what paul is saying when we reject suppress the truth when we exchange the truth of god for a lie when we live according to the disobedience that leads to the wrath of god that ultimately what happens is this we worship sex we worship sex now you tend not to see it as a spiritual issue but the god of the bible does he's going to say this later in romans 12. give you a thought that comes to mind for many years i've had the honor of pastoring largely younger people my primary audience online is younger i've had this conversation with many women but one woman in particular came up one day after a service many years ago she said pastor mark i don't know what the big deal is i'm dating my boyfriend we moved in together we sleep together she said i don't know what the big deal is you know we're just two consenting adults nobody's getting hurt we're having fun i said what do you think about jesus she said jesus is my god i said no he's not i said because jesus said something and the boy said something you decided to obey the boy instead of jesus so all of a sudden your most important allegiance became to the boy not to jesus that means the boy is lord of your life jesus is no longer lord over your life i said so the bible talks about idolatry in terms of adultery she said well it's my body i said actually it's not he's the creator he made your body and i said what you don't understand is that the bed is an altar that the boy is a priest and that sex is the sacrament of pagan religion i said that's why it says in romans 12 to offer your bodies as living sacrifices for this is your spiritual act of worship what you do with your body is your act of worship i said when you lay on that bed he's a pagan priest that's an altar and your sex act is to a demon god and that breaks the heart of jesus because you've replaced your relationship with a creator and you've traded it for a relationship with a boy that he created everything is spiritual nothing is just physical ultimately everything is under the lordship of jesus now let me say this this will be very controversial because i haven't seen anything controversial yet so let me just say something controversial god made us it says in genesis male and female if we worship created rather than creator we could come to the conclusion that god made a mistake with the way that he made me therefore i will remake myself and recreate my gender my gender identity my sex and my sexuality and that's idolatry it's saying god made me the wrong way therefore i'm going to remake myself the right way it's another way of saying i'm helping god repent of his sin against me is the reverse of the gospel the gospel is we need to repent of what we have done wrong no god needs to repent of what he has done wrong see we tend not to see it this way because we're the villains not the victims let me continue romans 1 the argument continues for this reason god gave them up he handed them over he let them do what they want hashtags parades even steal his symbol of the rainbow everything god creates satan counterfeits god gave them up to dishonorable passions some of you say well we love each other we feel very passionate is it dishonorable for their women this is the only express forbidding of lesbianism in the bible the point is you know it's gotten really bad when the women are crossing the line now some of you say this is very offensive just consider this fact that you're wrong and god is very offended for their women exchange natural we'll talk about that relations for those that are contrary to what nature and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion we love each other we're very passionate this feels right to us for one another men committing shameless that doesn't mean pride acts with men and receiving themselves in themselves the due analytic a penalty for their some of your translations will say perversion um in this little word nature and natural let me just tangentially share something with you that's very timely i was planning on teaching this book months ago and then you know things kind of shut down on the earth and now we're kind of getting back to work but this language of nature and natural what it means is not the way we are but the way that we were before sin entered the world all the way back i was in college in late 80s early 90s some of the first studies started coming out on biology and gender and sexual identity i think if memory serves me correct one of the early researchers was a man named levay out of ucla and he said well we see these genetic indicators and it's like yeah but this is our fallen genetic nature nature is not how i am nature is how we were before sin entered the world we recently had a presidential candidate mayor pede who was gay and married and said he was a christian and said god made me this way well the way we are today is not the way we were before sin under the world so natural law is not the way that we are it's the way that we were before sin entered the world now taking this language of nature and natural law uh there was a philosopher and a theologian named thomas aquinas he created something called natural law and the whole auspices of natural law is that god is the law giver and that we have romans one and two external witness of creation internal witness of conscience and that certain laws that are created by god are for human life and flourishing as a result goddess god made us male and female so that we could procreate fill the earth and subdue it it's human life and flourishing out of that comes a whole legal theory called natural law and now it's the contentious debate point for the supreme court because just hours ago there was a new nominee for the supreme court and the debate will be seen in the upcoming week or weeks it will be over the issue of natural law romans 1 and 2 is taken by thomas aquinas it builds a legal infrastructure and philosophical system called natural law that then becomes the undergirding of catholic education in the catholic church and if appointed though only 20 percent of the population the supreme court will have six of nine members being catholic trained in catholic schools trained in the teaching of natural law through thomas aquinas based on romans 1 and 2. the battle that is brewing politically started 2000 years ago with natural law in romans 1 and 2. the point i'm telling you is this this is not an old book it's an eternal book and because it's eternal it's not old it's timeless and as a result it's always timely now what he's talking about here he's talking about sex gender and sexuality so throw up the next slide let me explain this sex until the recent era was biological biological it was the way you were created male and female this would include your sex chromosomes this would include your gonads your internal reproductive organs and your external genitalia point one to point two percent of children born have ambiguous genitalia in addition one to two percent have less ambiguous genitalia but as a general rule your sex was previously determined by your birth right you come out is it a boy or a girl is it a boy or a girl you could look at them and if you've had a kid you know the difference you could look at them say that's a boy that's a girl the result of your biological sex was then your gender flowed from your sex so guys are to be masculine and gals are to be feminine this started in the hospital a boy would be put in what color blue the girl would put in hank and then they'd be taken home they'd be dressed in a way that was gender appropriate and today it is no longer how you were made it's how you feel it's how you feel and this is where people will say things like i'm a man trapped in a woman's body that's how i feel that's how i feel god made me this way but he made me wrong now this contradicts the basic teaching of the bible because the bible true or false those of you who know anything about the bible does it say things to men and women it assumes there are men and women does it say things to husbands and wives it assumes that there are husbands and wives it says very offensive first corinthians 16 act like men that's what it says that's some of the guys like i disagree you need to read it again the point is the bible assumes that there are men and they should act like it says that's very offensive not to god see the point is this either i will offend you or i will offend him the question is never will someone be offended the question is who will be offended and then as a result from that flowed your sexuality you're born male your gender is masculine you would be sexually attracted to female i know i'm talking crazy okay let's since we're just doing crazy okay you're born female your gender is feminine and you're attracted to males i'm talking crazy i'm i'm talking crazy i know today so there's a difference between the word and the world here's what i'm telling you this is the only thing only thing opposing complete gender sexual marital revolution that is self-destruction this is the only thing that says no in the word sex is binary male female and it's fixed it doesn't change in the world it's sex is fluid on a spectrum an intersex spectrum and you could slide on that spectrum there's no fixed you're not male or female your your sex can change gender according to the word is fixed binary masculine feminine gender in the world it's fluid on an unfixed spectrum you may be like this today that tomorrow that the next day is constantly shifting for you in the word sexuality is fixed between one man and one woman in marriage sexuality in the world it's fluid on on an unfixed spectrum has nothing to do with marriage has nothing to do with your sex has nothing to do with your gender okay here's what i'm telling you you can't believe the word and the world what does light have to do with darkness what do those who call good evil and evil good that ultimately this is a battle between the world and the word and you and i will need to decide if we will side with the word or we will side with the world then he continues let me just say this too just just to give you a maybe just a practical what happens is people will feel like god made me the wrong sex therefore i cannot act out my true gender or experience my full sexuality i have been closeted therefore i will come out and the coming out is the religion of sex and they're counterfeit to baptism baptism is where what you believe in here gets proclaimed out there you go public you come out of the closet within the religion of sex this is closeted until you have your coming out and that is your version of baptism it's declaring to the world who you really are okay then he continues um seven steps to rebellion riots and other hellish hobbies romans 1 28-32 how many of you are glad you don't have my job today some of you are like i really wish i was a preacher next week and since they did not see fit to acknowledge god how many people don't even acknowledge god god gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done they were filled not with the spirit but with all manner of unrighteousness evil covetousness malice they're full of envy murder strife to cede maliciousness they are gossips slanderers haters of god insolent haughty boastful inventors of evil does the bible seem a bit judgy to you it's a bit judgy disobedient to parents foolish faithless heartless ruthless next slide please though they know god's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die they not only do them but they have hashtags and parades they give approval to those who practice them step one reject god there's no external authority over me god is a repressive concept holds us back very primitive it's people in power suppressing and abusing those who are under power we need to get rid of any sense of god's authority step two i reject my parents and older generations and any previous traditions because in addition to rejecting god's authority i reject god's delegated authority but it includes parental authority step three my mind is debased but i'm going to feed it with a lot of things that cause it to think that it is wise and liberated i will find my youtube channel i will find my social media hashtags i will find my university professors i will find the people who tell me that i am right that everyone is wrong that i am good that everyone else is evil that i am a victim and that everyone else is my villain step four i will rebel by dismantling all external authority i'm going to fight and war picket protest root and loot and riot against everyone and everything that disagrees with me because i refuse to acknowledge any external authority number five knowing that i do not have the power to cause the change that i would like i align myself with other people who are militantly in agreement that together as a mob we could create total chaos and dismantle everything that we believe is wrong number six we will tear down all the institutions that carry forth the values that we disagree with in the name of justice and number seven we will pressure everyone to approve of support and endorse what we believe what we demand and if not there will be wrath poured out on them and hell to pay this is a prophetic text that tells us not just what happened in the roman empire but what happens in every empire this is not just telling us what used to happen it tells us what always happens this is a prophetic text that tells us exactly what is happening today and it gives us categories to interpret what is happening in our own day now saying this i'm halfway through my notes um so let me do this quickly now as i teach you this many of you will immediately try to have an objection oh but pastor mark i disagree for this reason let me run through the objections perhaps briefly perhaps briefly number one some of you will say times have changed and we have evolved my question would be have times truly changed when the old testament forbids sexual sin in the new testament forbid sexual sin it forbids it because they were doing the same things we are times really haven't changed under ancient roman empire the roman the book of romans was written to the great city of rome one of the one of the most dominant cultural contributors to the roman empire was greek culture greek culture was very very pro-gay and in fact it was believed that men were better than women so the highest sex was between men therefore most young boys were encouraged to lose their virginity to a man who was older times haven't changed number two has god changed i don't think god god's the same yesterday today and forever when god made the world he made it right and number three are times better they may be different but they're not better highest rates of domestic violence and abuse is in cohabitation cohabitation is not practiced for marriage it's practice for divorce of those who are sexually active 50 will have an std by age 25. 110 million americans have a sexually transmitted disease we abort one out of four of our children the majority of children born to women under age 30 are born out of wedlock without a father which is the number one demarcation of who will have a good and a painful future amen sexual assault is the most underreported crime one in four women reports it one in six men reports it and now we have massive sex trafficking we have an increase in pedophilia with kids online for distance learning in school predators are absolutely eviscerating children you know when my kids were little they would watch the little house on the prairie there was ma and there was paw and they would go to church on sunday and then the church was open during the week to educate the kids and today your kids are watching cuties on netflix and i'm not sure things are better we've got little girls twerking in the name of entertainment times have changed i don't believe in evolution i believe in devolution i believe that god made everything perfect and we've been going down ever since i don't think that god made everything bad and we're fixing his problems number two because god is loving he must be tolerant what an increasingly young generation has done they've taken love and tolerance and they've made them synonyms in fact they're antonyms the bible rarely refers to tolerance on the few occasions that it does it's god rebuking his people for tolerating sexual sin i don't write the male i just deliver it romans 2 20 i have this against you god says you tolerate jezebel who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality today she's a bishop in some denominations she's a professor at some seminaries everyone agrees let me say this as well the counterfeit of repentance is tolerance the bible says you're wrong and you need to change tolerance says you're not you're fine you can't be a christian without repentance tolerance is the neutralizer of repentance the truth is this god loves you so much he'll take you as you are but he loves you too much to leave you as you are the beloved is jesus christ and he loves you so much he wants you to be like his son that god loves you enough to take you as you are but he loves you too much to keep you as you are here's the point love does something for someone that tolerance cannot and it changes them so that the best version of them emerges ultimately this issue of tolerance it's it's something that we all do agree is good now let me say this we all agree that some intolerance is good is it okay to smoke in a hospital smokers find that very intolerant is it okay for convicted sex offenders to be kindergarten teachers no we don't tolerate that okay so you do believe in intolerance you just don't like when it applies to you see we all agree that some intolerance is necessary and good and what has happened is that the dictionary definition of intolerance and tolerance has changed tolerance used to be i think you're wrong but i'm going to let you think what you think and now tolerance is you're not right or wrong i'm not right or wrong i celebrate you you celebrate me that's why there's so much pressure today unless i celebrate and support you i'm intolerant unless i use your hashtag in march in your parade i'm intolerant and my point would simply be if you're so insecure in your beliefs that you need my approval you should reconsider your convictions you can google me i'm not very well liked in certain circles and i don't care because ultimately all i care about is what god says at the end not what anyone says along the way all right let's keep going jesus was silent on homosexuality jesus didn't how smart jesus didn't say anything he didn't say anything about rape pedophilia an argument from silence is by definition a fallacy proves nothing jesus said nothing about nuclear warheads doesn't mean he's for them here's what jesus does say from the beginning he goes back to what before sin under the world and everything went wrong god made them what male and female oh he's back to genesis 1. he's real literal kind of binary and judgy therefore what what where's the spectrum jesus a man seems very narrow is it a person who feels like a man in their heart no a man shall leave his father and mother oh that's that's male and female too but i mean this is just this guy's got a real hang up with this male female thing hold fast to his wife the two shall become one flesh jesus said we're male female in marriage is for one man one woman and he did talk about in luke 17 the town of sodom and gomorrah i won't get into all of this it would be fun but it's already been an hour sodom was a city where god sent angels and the men all came out young and old and wanted to sexually assault these angels that they thought were visiting men since that time sodomy has been in reference to the events that they were seeking to have transpire in sodom and then some commentators come along they say no no it was in hospitality that was the sin well that might have been one of the sins but that wasn't the big one there's a guy named robert gagnon he teaches at the seminary in pittsburgh it's a very liberal school he went through all of the biblical texts almost 500 pages as an academic scholar in a liberal liberal school and he came to this conclusion no two men is impossible to arrive at a conclusion from the bible that is acceptable in the sight of god that's just let me say this you can have the world or you can have the world but you can't have both it talks about sodom and gomorrah and he says that jesus jesus tells us that he will judge similarly at the end of time jesus was an old testament rabbi jesus accepted the teachings of the rabbis jesus didn't make any correction because it wasn't in debate robert gagnon says that in the hundreds of years leading up to and after jesus there was no debate among the scholars in judaism about these matters it was not even debated number four some of you say but uh sex and gender are civil rights issues and these are the civil rights issues of our generation well the problem for the christian is this that what the social justice warriors will do they'll put things together that god does not the bible does not support homosexuality or racism and the problem is when the social justice warriors put them together they're like yes or no and the christians say yes and no first timothy 1 9-10 talks about the ungodly the sinners the unholy the profane those who strike their fathers and mothers murderers the sexually immoral men who practice homosexuality and enslavers are slave traders the two are together and what's happening now for example with black lives matter as a social justice movement it's brought these two issues together i hit this when i read from their website their mission statement that they've since rewritten taken down and google has complicitly worked with them to make it a 404 classification meaning it's disappeared and been erased from the internet but i took a screenshot you're welcome so let me just share a few things with you [Applause] they said and i quote we do the work to dismantle cisgender male female god given we disrupt the western prescribed nuclear family structure mom dad kids which is the only way you get kids by the way they go on to say that they are we are quote freeing ourselves from the tight grip of heteronormative thinking male female male female these issues coming together create a very difficult position especially for black pastors who love jesus and believe the bible this was the man who first employed me as a pastor was a black pastor first pastor i worked for was a black pastor he since gone home to be with the lord and i miss him and he grew up in alabama during the south in the 50s and 60s during jim crow and segregation he knew racism and he knew the implications of systemic racism generationally firsthand and he would testify that he hated white people and then he met jesus and god changed his heart and i remember when he first hired me he would give me the honor sometimes of going to meetings with black pastors i'd be the one young white guy in the room just there to learn he's like you got to come and learn some things yes i do so i'm not going to say anything i'm in my 20s and i'm white i have nothing to say and the pastors would get together and they would talk about how frustrating it was that the race issue and the gender and sexuality issue had morphed into one issue and how frustrated they were by that and he uh he particularly knew this very very well because he was black and he was raised in the south and he married a white woman she was german he was black because joke was always we have german chocolate kids that was always his joke i love him with all my heart i miss him but for those of you who are younger these issues come together but they're separate for god and they should be separate for god's people okay uh sex is inevitable i'll just hit this you don't have to have sex i know there's a crazy idea he talks about eunuchs this can be castration impotence or celibacy here's what i'm telling you you don't have to have sex you're not having it right now you can you can do this okay you're like i can't stop myself you do at the grocery store just keep doing that okay most perfect life to ever live jesus christ true or false he was a virgin perfect life virgin the guy who writes romans celibate probably was married previously they won't get into all of it but at that point paul is single and he's celibate you can worship god or sex but if you worship sex you're going to deny god so that you can just pursue your real god i hit the god made me this way let me just uh hit number seven sex gender and sexuality should be open-handed not closed-handed we're talking about genesis 1 and 2. god creation gender male female marriage satan demonic deception that's genesis 1 2 and 3. genesis 1 2 and 3 shows us how it was supposed to be if we get rid of that we have no idea how we should be we have no baseline for normal i disagree with where the bible draws moral lines a lot of people say this well the truth is we don't live on an island if your son feels like they're a girl in their heart and they want to go take a shower in the locker room with my daughter their worlds intersect if you feel like the educational curriculum in the k-12 school should advance your lifestyle and i feel like it should advance mine and we both have kids in the school our ideologies conflict we're not islands unto ourselves if i feel like i'm a woman and i compete in athletics against other women let's say it's mma these things are happening you don't live on an island we have to live together and the point is this um we don't we don't disagree that lines need to be drawn we just disagree where the lines are drawn so you're like well marriage should be a man and a woman or a man a man or a woman a woman here's what i'm telling you polygamy is next it's coming in our lifetime it's inevitable we don't have any norms or mores and now there's this whole movement to change the line for the age-appropriateness for those that would qualify as adults 18 why not 16 16 why not 14 14 why not 12 12 why not seven it's all arbitrary there is no universal law giver or universal laws let me close with this maybe sex is a physical issue it's not a spiritual issue see this is the great lie that you're a highly evolved animal your maiden image likes of god you're one person two parts a body and a soul and sex is not just physical it's also spiritual i'll give you a revelation that god gave me the other morning when i woke up and i was praying for you um in first peter 5 13 peter writes to those who are in babylon and the holy spirit brought it to mind he was writing to those who were in the roman empire the early christians referred to the nation of rome as babylon it was code word babylon was an ancient nation in the old testament of the days of daniel babylon took over god's people enslaved them the first thing they did they took daniel and they castrated him they gave him a gender reassignment surgery they wanted to make him from a male to a non-male the spirit of babylon lives on babylon was an ancient nation that sought to change daniel's sex gender and sexuality behind babylon is a demonic spirit that is at work in every nation and every age this is why long after the babylonian empire which is mentioned 227 times in the bible revelation 14 8 says at the end of history fallen fallen as babylon the great she who made all nations drink the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality there's a powerful demonic spirit at work in the world the name of that spirit is babylon and that spirit is trying to get everyone to be sexually confused and addicted and self-destructing and it wants to establish sex as a religion that overtakes god it says this same thing in revelation 17 3-5 in the spirit i saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast full of blasphemous names the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet that indicates power and wealth an adorned with gold jewels and pearls holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and impurities of her sexual immorality babylon the great the mother of prostitutes and of the earth's abominations sex is a religion that is seeking to take over the earth and it is ruled by a spirit in the same way that god is a king with a kingdom ruled by the spirit that is supposed to overtake the earth everything god creates satan counterfeits revelation 18 tells us that the war at the end will be between god and the religion of sex fallen fallen is babylon the great she has become a dwelling place for demons a haunt for every unclean spirit all nations have drunk the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality and the kings of the earth have committed immorality with her and the merchants of the earth have grown rich from the power of her luxurious living very rich and powerful this religion is amazon web services accounts for forty percent of all internet traffic seventy percent of their profits come from their server farms the reason that they are able to undercut so much of business is because they host most of the porn industry babylon the great has found her way online babylon the great has found her way global babylon the great has seduced and enticed everyone to join the religion of sex by sacrificing your sex your gender and your sexuality on the altar of pleasure i love you i got a lot more i'm going to give a lecture on wednesday night for the men i've got the rest of the sermon i'll finish it then i'm going to pray for you now because here's what i'm telling you the spirit of babylon has in some way affected and infected all of us the spirit of babylon has confused and recruited to varying degrees all of us the spirit of babylon has sought to convert in varying ways every single one of us true or false father god we thank you that you are a god who loves we thank you that you are a god who creates we thank you that you are a god who forgives we thank you that you are a god who heals and uh holy spirit i declare this a sacred moment it's a long sermon but god these are such important things so many people are just confused so many people are addicted so many people are abused so many people are self-destructing and so many people are so proud of things that are harming them and lord god i'm a pastor i love people i believe that your way is the best way i believe that your word is the true truth i believe that your son is the real savior i believe that your kingdom is the only hope lord god i pray against the enemy as servants their works and the facts i pray that we would see that our war is not against flesh and blood people but powers principalities and spirits that there's a war behind the war the lord god there's a powerful religion called sex that is risen up in this world it's found a way to go global it's found a way to be profitable it's found a way to recruit and to entice and to confuse and so we say in the strong name of jesus the lord rebuke you spirit of babylon the lord rebuke you spirit of babylon bringing confusion bringing addiction bringing division bringing destruction lord god we have plenty of sex we have plenty of porn we have plenty of parades we have plenty of hashtags we have plenty of curriculum we have plenty of sex we have plenty of strip clubs we have plenty of seedy massage parlors we have plenty of fornication we have plenty of cohabitation we have plenty of adultery we need more of the spirit and lord jesus thank you that we worship a god who died a virgin and we ask for that same power of the holy spirit to live in fidelity and to live in holiness and to live in purity and to not worship the created but to worship our creator and lord god i repent of my sexual sin before knowing you we all have it lord god it's not it's good people versus bad people it's bad people who all need jesus and lord i thank you for 28 years of faithful marriage to my best friend grace and i thank you that lord god you can heal you can forgive you can deliver you can transform you can change lives and legacies and so holy spirit i ask that you would do that for the people in the room the people here online please replace the spirit of babylon with the spirit of god please give us clarity where we are confused please give us freedom where we are enslaved and please give us jesus where we have sex in his good name amen you

Channel: Real Faith by Mark Driscoll

Views: 12,019

Rating: 4.90625 out of 5

Keywords: Mark, Driscoll, ministry, thetrinitychurch, scottsdale, arizona, bible, teaching, gospel, theology, jesus, biblestudy, faith, bibleverse

Id: TwLOLVJb88c

Length: 78min 27sec (4707 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 28 2020