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The Promise Still Stands · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

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Speaker 1: If you brought a Bible with you, I'd invite you
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Speaker 1: to turn to two places. In one place, I'd like
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Speaker 1: you to place the outline for the morning message. You'll
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Speaker 1: find it tucked away in the worship folder. Just put
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Speaker 1: it at 1 Corinthians chapter 6. We'll start there in
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Speaker 1: a few minutes, but for now, let's look at Romans
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Speaker 1: chapter 1. This is clearly the last half of Romans 1.
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Speaker 1: The most vivid portrayal of depravity, certainly in all the Bible,
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Speaker 1: perhaps in all literature. It is not a pleasant picture,
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Speaker 1: but it is real. Romans 1, beginning at verse 24,
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Speaker 1: down through verse 32. Therefore God gave them over in
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Speaker 1: the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their
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Speaker 1: bodies would be dishonored among them. For they exchanged the
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Speaker 1: truth of God for a lie and worshipped and served
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Speaker 1: the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever. Amen.
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Speaker 1: For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions.
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Speaker 1: For their women exchanged the natural function for that which
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Speaker 1: is unnatural. And in the same way also the men
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Speaker 1: abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in
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Speaker 1: their desire toward one another, men with men, committing indecent acts,
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Speaker 1: and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of
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Speaker 1: their error. And just as they did not see fit
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Speaker 1: to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to
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Speaker 1: a depraved mind to do those things which are not proper,
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Speaker 1: being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice.
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Speaker 1: They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful,
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Speaker 1: inventors of evil, disobedient to parents. without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful.
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Speaker 1: And although they know the ordinance of God, that those
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Speaker 1: who practice such things are worthy of death, they not
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Speaker 1: only do the same, but also give hearty approval to
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Speaker 1: those who practice them. Today's message is not an easy
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Speaker 1: one and it certainly is not one that is free
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Speaker 1: of possible offense. But today we will do our best
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Speaker 1: to declare the truth as we understand it. If you
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Speaker 1: will pray. We will be in this together in a
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Speaker 1: few moments after this time of prayer and offering. Please
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Speaker 1: join me. We praise you, our Father, from whom all
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Speaker 1: blessings flow. They come in such abundance there are days
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Speaker 1: that we don't think we can take them all in.
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Speaker 1: And we join our voices with all these creatures here below.
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Speaker 1: to express our praise for your goodness and your grace.
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Speaker 1: Thank you, Father, for your grace. And there are heavenly
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Speaker 1: hosts who give you their praise, whom we have never seen,
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Speaker 1: never heard. But with them, we echo our hallelujah. We
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Speaker 1: give you our thanks today. And from good health and
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Speaker 1: good jobs and the ability to make a living, we
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Speaker 1: find ourselves at this moment passionate in our worship of giving.
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Speaker 1: Worship is a human response to a divine revelation. And
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Speaker 1: as we find truth revealed, this is one way we
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Speaker 1: can express our gratitude tangibly. And so we do that.
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Speaker 1: Thank you for this church. Thank you for our past.
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Speaker 1: We're grateful as we anticipate our future. It's all from
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Speaker 1: your hand. Now quiet us, we pray, as we pause
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Speaker 1: to let the wonder in. And as we give you
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Speaker 1: our gifts, in the name of Jesus, everyone said, amen.
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Speaker 1: As most of you know, during my years of preparation
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Speaker 1: for ministry, there was a segment of time in which
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Speaker 1: I spent, oh, let's see, several months with a man
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Speaker 1: who marked me for my life. His name was Ray Steadman.
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Speaker 1: I was among his very first interns, and there were
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Speaker 1: two other men who served that summer with me, and
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Speaker 1: I with them. One, a man named Gib Martin, who
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Speaker 1: is still ministering in Seattle. And the other young man
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Speaker 1: just recently had come from Buenos Aires with a set
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Speaker 1: of twins and his lovely wife named Luis Palau. Luis
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Speaker 1: and Gibb and I were there for months of observation.
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Speaker 1: The three of us knew that we learned when we
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Speaker 1: didn't talk. You learn when you watch. You learn when
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Speaker 1: you listen. And I watched virtually every move Ray Stedman
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Speaker 1: made there at his church at Palo Alto Peninsula Bible Church.
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Speaker 1: I was just like a bug on the wall around him, listening, watching,
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Speaker 1: and learning. During that summer, he was taking us through
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Speaker 1: the letter of 1 Corinthians. And it was his habit
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Speaker 1: to say each Sunday, now I want you to read
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Speaker 1: ahead because this is where I will be next Sunday.
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Speaker 1: And he told all of us that particular Sunday, I'll
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Speaker 1: never forget the day he preached on it. He said,
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Speaker 1: I want you to read verses 9, 10, and 11
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Speaker 1: of 1 Corinthians chapter 6. Let me read the verses
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Speaker 1: for you. Do you not know that the unrighteous will
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Speaker 1: not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived,
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Speaker 1: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate. The word
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Speaker 1: implies the idea of male prostitutes. Nor homosexuals, nor thieves,
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Speaker 1: nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, careful
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Speaker 1: how you pronounce that, will inherit the kingdom of God.
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Speaker 1: Such were some of you, but you were washed, but
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Speaker 1: you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name
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Speaker 1: of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the spirit of
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Speaker 1: our God. Well, When I read that, I sat alone
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Speaker 1: that following Monday or Tuesday wondering, what in the world
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Speaker 1: is Ray going to do with a passage like this?
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Speaker 1: And if you know Stedman, he's gone now, but if
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Speaker 1: you knew him, you remember he had a touch. He
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Speaker 1: had a way with the scriptures. And the following Sunday morning,
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Speaker 1: he stood to preach, and he said, I would like
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Speaker 1: to have all of you turn to First Californians, chapter 6,
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Speaker 1: verses 9 through 11. And all of us did just
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Speaker 1: what you're doing. And he said, we will read very
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Speaker 1: relevant words here, and he read them. Suddenly there was
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Speaker 1: a silence that swept over the congregation, and then he said,
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Speaker 1: All of you understand what Paul has written, but you
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Speaker 1: may have missed how personal he made it. As he,
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Speaker 1: beginning at verse 11, writes, such were some of you,
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Speaker 1: but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified.
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Speaker 1: And he paused and said, and such were some of you,
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Speaker 1: If the things I had just read characterized your life
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Speaker 1: in days past, would you simply stand to your feet?
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Speaker 1: I thought, he didn't just say that. One man stood.
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Speaker 1: Two ladies in front of me stood. Without hesitation, half
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Speaker 1: a row stood. Two or three high schoolers stood. An
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Speaker 1: older gentleman by himself stood, and before I knew it,
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Speaker 1: over half the church was standing. he said then thank
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Speaker 1: you you may be seated two things occurred as a
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Speaker 1: result of that epical moment first of all the Bible
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Speaker 1: was suddenly and instantly relevant There wasn't a soul sitting
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Speaker 1: in the meeting who did not realize this is speaking
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Speaker 1: to people like us. This is speaking to me. Second,
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Speaker 1: every thought of throwing stones, feeling proud, left everyone's mind.
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Speaker 1: These were no longer the sins of Corinth. These were
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Speaker 1: now the sins.
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Speaker 2: Of us.
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Speaker 1: It is easy when we come to a passage like
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Speaker 1: Romans chapter 1 to feel smug. Don't you dare do that. C.S.
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Speaker 1: Lewis often puts his finger on the real issue in
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Speaker 1: a way that you don't expect. Listen to his words
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Speaker 1: from mere Christianity. If anyone thinks that Christians regard unchastity
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Speaker 1: as the supreme vice, he is quite wrong. The sins
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Speaker 1: of the flesh are bad, but they are the least
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Speaker 1: bad of all sins. All the worst pleasures are purely spiritual.
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Speaker 1: The pleasure of putting other people in the wrong, of
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Speaker 1: bossing and patronizing and spoiling sport and backbiting. The pleasure
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Speaker 1: of power, of hatred. For there are two things inside
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Speaker 1: me competing with the human self. They are the animal
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Speaker 1: self and the diabolical self. And the diabolical self is
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Speaker 1: the worst of the two. That is why a cold,
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Speaker 1: self-righteous prig who goes regularly to church may be far
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Speaker 1: nearer to hell than a prostitute. But of course, it's
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Speaker 1: better to be neither. Just in case there happens to
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Speaker 1: be one or two self-righteous souls sitting in this place today,
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Speaker 1: I urge you to get rid of it. What we
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Speaker 1: will read today is not about someone else. What we
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Speaker 1: will read today is not about people we hate. What
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Speaker 1: we will read today is our biography. Ugly and dark
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Speaker 1: as it may be, it's us. And if not mentioned
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Speaker 1: were I to find a list where all the sins
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Speaker 1: are mentioned, we would all be on our feet because
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Speaker 1: we are all mutually guilty, all equally in need of
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Speaker 1: God's matchless grace. and the blood of Jesus to forgive
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Speaker 1: our sins. In light of that, it is no wonder
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Speaker 1: to us that we come to the place in Romans
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Speaker 1: 1 verse 18 where we read of the wrath of God.
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Speaker 1: It means what it says, but it may not mean
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Speaker 1: what you think it means. Wrath to us is a
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Speaker 1: temper tantrum. It's road rage. It's an explosion of anger.
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Speaker 1: None of that is in the word rendered wrath. God
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Speaker 1: doesn't throw temper tantrums. It is God's holy aversion to
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Speaker 1: all that is evil. As we learned last time, it
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Speaker 1: is a settled, just wrath. It is a supernatural response
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Speaker 1: to our natural ways. And it is revealed against all.
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Speaker 1: Don't miss the word. Not a few, not certain categories, A-L-L.
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Speaker 1: All unrighteousness, all ungodliness among those who have suppressed the truth.
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Speaker 1: Allow me a brief review. We suppress things when we
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Speaker 1: sit on them, when we push them aside, when we
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Speaker 1: restrain them. Think of a box with a lid that
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Speaker 1: keeps popping up. You sit on the box, you suppress
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Speaker 1: the box. You suppress the contents. Truth is within the
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Speaker 1: box of God's realm, and as the truth is revealed,
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Speaker 1: we can embrace it or we can sit on it.
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Speaker 1: When we continue to sit on it, We deny Christ,
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Speaker 1: we deny the cross, we deny even the existence of God,
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Speaker 1: and our lives begin to run their natural course, and
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Speaker 1: humanity in its wrong goes on display. It's called, by theologians,
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Speaker 1: the depravity of humanity. The word appears in our text,
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Speaker 1: in depraved mind. It doesn't mean that mankind is as
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Speaker 1: bad as it can be. We can always get worse.
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Speaker 1: We're watching it happen. It means we are as bad
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Speaker 1: off as we can be without Christ in the eyes
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Speaker 1: of God. No one closer than another, whoever is without Christ,
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Speaker 1: is as far removed as those who have heard of
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Speaker 1: Christ and rejected him for 20 years. You either are
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Speaker 1: in Christ or you are out. If you are outside
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Speaker 1: of Christ, your depravity has a way of controlling you.
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Speaker 1: And in the control of the depravity, as you suppress
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Speaker 1: the truth, God gives you over to it. as he
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Speaker 1: says on three separate occasions. God gave them over, verse 24.
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Speaker 1: God gave them over, verse 26. God gave them over,
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Speaker 1: middle of verse 28. All the same Greek term rendered,
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Speaker 1: gave them over. Don't think of a passive God with
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Speaker 1: arms folded looking at us over his glasses saying, you
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Speaker 1: made your bed, now lie in it. It's up to
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Speaker 1: you from here on. It's not that. No. No, this
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Speaker 1: is a judicial abandonment. This is a divine, active giving over,
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Speaker 1: a deliberate release of humanity to the judgment and the
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Speaker 1: intensification of the aggravation and cultivation of lusts so that
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Speaker 1: our hearts build in our lust with the result that
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Speaker 1: we reap for ourselves the consequences, and a greater toll
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Speaker 1: of just vengeance. That's being given over. When he gives
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Speaker 1: us over, we turn to idolatry. That's mentioned in verses
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Speaker 1: 24 and 25. See in the verse 25, they exchange
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Speaker 1: the truth for a lie. Idolaters worship the creature rather
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Speaker 1: than the creator. We worship things rather than our God
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Speaker 1: because we suppress the truth of God. It's easy to
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Speaker 1: think in terms of the third world kind of idolatry,
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Speaker 1: but there is idolatry all around us. There's an idolatry
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Speaker 1: connected with possessions. A car you drive, a home you build,
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Speaker 1: a child you have, furniture you own. A position or
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Speaker 1: status you're proud of. A role you fill. All these
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Speaker 1: can be idols and we see them on display regularly.
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Speaker 1: They represent an exchange. We exchange truth from God for lies.
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Speaker 1: Worshipping then the things God has given us rather than himself,
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Speaker 1: the giver. So much for idolatry. I don't want you
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Speaker 1: to miss, however, that in the process, hearts become impure
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Speaker 1: and bodies become dishonored. Verse 24 tells us. Idolatry and
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Speaker 1: impurity are joined at the hip. Where you have one,
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Speaker 1: you have the other. And where you have impurity, you
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Speaker 1: will find the dishonoring of the body. We looked at
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Speaker 1: that last time, no need to go back over it. Second,
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Speaker 1: God gives us over to immorality. Verses 26 and 27.
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Speaker 1: See how it reads? 26, for this reason God gave
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Speaker 1: them over to degrading passions. The word literally means to
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Speaker 1: passions of dishonor. And then he goes on to describe
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Speaker 1: lesbianism in verse 26 and then male homosexuality in verse
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Speaker 1: 27 under the category of passions of dishonor. Before I
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Speaker 1: go into each, why would Paul single the attention of
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Speaker 1: his reader onto that subject where the natural is exchanged
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Speaker 1: for the unnatural? By the way, that's another exchange. In idolatry,
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Speaker 1: there is the exchanging of truth for a lie. Here,
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Speaker 1: there is the exchanging of the natural sexual drive for
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Speaker 1: the unnatural. We'll get to that in a moment. Why
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Speaker 1: would Paul focus on that? Several reasons. Number one, he's
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Speaker 1: writing from Corinth. Corinth, the sin capital of ancient Greece. Paul,
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Speaker 1: I am sure, witnessed it and was around it all
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Speaker 1: of his ministry and saw it certainly in and around
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Speaker 1: the streets and back alleys of Corinth. Second, in Greek
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Speaker 1: culture of the first century, It was taught that homosexuality
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Speaker 1: was the highest form of love. Children were taught this
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Speaker 1: as they grew up. Adults believed this as they reached adulthood.
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Speaker 1: Many highborn Greeks maintained male lovers along with marital partners
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Speaker 1: in life. 14 of the first 15 Roman emperors were
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Speaker 1: practicing homosexuals. philosophers such as Socrates and others, practicing homosexuals.
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Speaker 1: So Paul mentioning the sin or these sins merely is
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Speaker 1: addressing the relevant subject surely many in Rome wondered about. Specifically,
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Speaker 1: verse 26 addresses the female, and the reason I use
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Speaker 1: that word is because that's the Greek term Paul uses,
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Speaker 1: and in the 27th verse he refers to the males.
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Speaker 1: Female with female, male with male. Please observe in verse 26,
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Speaker 1: as the subject of lesbianism is addressed, that it is
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Speaker 1: a change from the natural function to that which is unnatural.
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Speaker 1: What does that mean? Let me help. When you think
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Speaker 1: of natural, think of God's created order. Think of God's
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Speaker 1: original intentions. In God's created order and in God's original intention,
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Speaker 1: there was the creation of the male and the creation
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Speaker 1: of the female to be brought together in a bond
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Speaker 1: where there would be the reproduction of life. Impossible male
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Speaker 1: with male, impossible female with female. Let me show you.
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Speaker 1: Genesis chapter 1, verse 26. Hold your place in Romans
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Speaker 1: 1 and go to the first book of the Bible.
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Speaker 1: And look at verse 26. After God had made all
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Speaker 1: other things, he comes to the making of humanity. Verse 26,
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Speaker 1: chapter 1. Then God said, let us make man in
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Speaker 1: our image according to our likeness. And let them rule
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Speaker 1: over the fish of the sea and over the birds
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Speaker 1: of the sky and over the cattle, over all the earth,
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Speaker 1: over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. Now
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Speaker 1: watch the natural order. God created man in his own image.
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Speaker 1: In the image of God, he created him male. And female,
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Speaker 1: he created them. God blessed them and God said to them,
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Speaker 1: be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. That is
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Speaker 1: the natural intention of God's creative plan. That is what
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Speaker 1: Paul means when he says they exchanged the natural intention
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Speaker 1: for the unnatural. I appreciated the writings here of John R. W. Stott,
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Speaker 1: as I often do in my study. His work on
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Speaker 1: Romans is a masterpiece. And in this particular section, he writes,
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Speaker 1: at the beginning, the Creator made them male and female
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Speaker 1: and said, for this reason, a man will leave his
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Speaker 1: father and mother and be united to his wife, and
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Speaker 1: the two will become one flesh. So they are no
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Speaker 1: longer two, but one. Then Jesus added his personal endorsement
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Speaker 1: and deduction. Therefore, what God has joined together, let man
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Speaker 1: not separate. In other words, God created humankind, male and female.
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Speaker 1: God instituted marriage as a heterosexual union. And what God
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Speaker 1: has thus united, we have no liberty to separate. This
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Speaker 1: threefold action of God established that the only context which
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Speaker 1: he intends for the one flesh experience is heterosexual monogamy.
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Speaker 1: And that a homosexual partnership, however loving and committed it
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Speaker 1: may claim to be, is against nature. And can never
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Speaker 1: be regarded as a legitimate alternative to marriage. Let me
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Speaker 1: make two closing comments before we go on to another subject.
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Speaker 1: And these comments will take a little bit of time.
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Speaker 1: Bear with me. First, to view lesbianism and homosexuality as
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Speaker 1: anything but sinful is to remove any hope from the
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Speaker 1: ability to recover. Repeat. To view lesbianism and homosexuality as
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Speaker 1: anything but sinful is to remove any hope of being
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Speaker 1: able to recover from it. If it is a sickness,
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Speaker 1: as we're told in many corners of this world today,
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Speaker 1: it is the only sickness mentioned in the Bible that
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Speaker 1: is deserving of death. It doesn't fit a sickness. Furthermore,
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Speaker 1: you are left to explain what Paul meant when he said,
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Speaker 1: and such were some of you, Adulterers, male prostitutes, homosexuals,
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Speaker 1: such were some of you, but you were washed. You're
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Speaker 1: not washed from a sickness. What can wash away my sin?
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Speaker 1: Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me
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Speaker 1: whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. I realize
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Speaker 1: that some of you have opportunity, as I do, to
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Speaker 1: give counsel to those who are in the midst of
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Speaker 1: this lifestyle. I'm grateful for the words of one particular
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Speaker 1: man who writes, to inform a Christian client in an
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Speaker 1: early interview, your problem seems basically to be the result
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Speaker 1: of sin, does not discourage him, but rather gives him hope.
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Speaker 1: Christians know that sin and its effect can be dealt
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Speaker 1: with because God has said so in the scriptures. And
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Speaker 1: Christ died to overcome sin. So when sin is mentioned,
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Speaker 1: there is real hope. One is not a homosexual constitutionally
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Speaker 1: any more than one is an adulterer constitutionally. Homosexuality is
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Speaker 1: not considered to be a condition, but an act. It
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Speaker 1: is viewed as a sinful practice which can become a
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Speaker 1: way of life. He adds a little later in another work,
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Speaker 1: the newest escape among Christians is that has come to
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Speaker 1: attention is the propagation of the idea that Satan is
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Speaker 1: in a special way directly responsible for homosexuality. While Satan
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Speaker 1: surely rejoices in its prevalence and encourages its spread by
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Speaker 1: holding the temptation before men, he cannot be blamed for
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Speaker 1: homosexual sin in such a way as to remove the
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Speaker 1: responsibility from the one who commits it. Homosexual behavior is sin.
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Speaker 1: not the product of irresistible satanic influence or demon possession
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Speaker 1: or control. Such an idea involves an attempt to moderate
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Speaker 1: the plain biblical position regarding homosexuality, and as a result, again,
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Speaker 1: removes hope from those who accept this faulty explanation. In
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Speaker 1: no passage scripture in which homosexuality is condemned is it
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Speaker 1: ever specially linked to satanic or demonic influence. Second comment
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Speaker 1: I want to make. It is unbiblical, inaccurate, and grossly
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Speaker 1: unkind to say God hates lesbians and homosexuals. Don't do that.
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Speaker 1: It's terribly unchristian. No more than he hates the thief.
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Speaker 1: Or he hates the murderer. or he hates the gossip.
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Speaker 1: We do the hating, and thereby block many an opportunity
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Speaker 1: to win the hearts and minds of those trapped in
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Speaker 1: the sin. May I return to my friend Ray? I
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Speaker 1: wasn't there at the time, but a fellow intern some
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Speaker 1: years later said that He was with Ray when Ray
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Speaker 1: Steadman read a newspaper advertisement where a group of homosexuals
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Speaker 1: were meeting, not far from where Ray lived. Ray said
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Speaker 1: to the intern, why don't you come with me tonight?
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Speaker 1: Let's go to the meeting. The intern said, me? There
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Speaker 1: are several others that are interns. He says, you. So
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Speaker 1: he said they got in the car, they drove there,
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Speaker 1: and they went. They sat in the group, and they
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Speaker 1: were meeting, he said, as I recall, the second floor
29:44
Speaker 1: of a home. And he said, we were surrounded by
29:48
Speaker 1: homosexuals and lesbians. And he said, the man up front
29:53
Speaker 1: spoke of the hatred that many of the people had
29:55
Speaker 1: encountered from one person or another. And he said, if
29:59
Speaker 1: any of you have something you would like to share,
30:00
Speaker 1: I'd like you to stand. And the intern said to me,
30:02
Speaker 1: I could not believe it, but Ray stood up. And
30:06
Speaker 1: he said, hi, I'm Ray. I'm here to say I'm sorry.
30:16
Speaker 1: You see, I'm a Christian, and I'm sorry for the
30:18
Speaker 1: way other fellow Christians have treated you. He said... And
30:27
Speaker 1: he said, you talk about silence. It was like, they
30:32
Speaker 1: did not know what they were going to hear. And Ray,
30:34
Speaker 1: without one word that was ugly or misplaced, he spontaneously
30:42
Speaker 1: and just from his heart said, I want all of
30:45
Speaker 1: you to know I'm a pastor of a church. And
30:49
Speaker 1: you're welcome to come. We're right down here at Middlefield Road.
30:57
Speaker 1: And you're welcome. And he said, by the way, I'll
31:01
Speaker 1: stay if you want to talk. I just want you
31:04
Speaker 1: to know I regret that you've ever experienced hatred because
31:09
Speaker 1: you were not hated. Our God absolutely loves every one
31:15
Speaker 1: of you. And there's hope for you. The following Sunday,
31:21
Speaker 1: there were a number of them there. I wonder how
31:26
Speaker 1: we would feel With a number of them here. I
31:34
Speaker 1: love it. Where else are they going to hear. Words
31:40
Speaker 1: of hope. Where else. Is there a community. That knows Jesus.
31:51
Speaker 1: Is willing to say to them. Hey. That's your sin.
31:57
Speaker 1: I tell you. I got my own. But together, you
32:01
Speaker 1: know what? We can know a God who forgives. Please.
32:09
Speaker 1: Be very careful how you express your hatred for the sin. Please.
32:17
Speaker 1: Already this day, I've had three individuals come to me
32:21
Speaker 1: who talked openly about their struggles. And they said, It's
32:28
Speaker 1: hard to find a place as we try to figure
32:32
Speaker 1: out what life is like and about. I mean, where
32:36
Speaker 1: they don't throw you out. And our part of the
32:42
Speaker 1: country is bad about that. Okay. Let's forget geography. Let's
32:52
Speaker 1: forget roots. Let's remember Christ. who was criticized not for
32:58
Speaker 1: spending time with the religious. He was criticized for spending
33:03
Speaker 1: time with the sinners. Admittedly, verse 27 concludes with serious words.
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Speaker 1: Men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their
33:21
Speaker 1: own persons the due penalty of their error. It happens
33:25
Speaker 1: with lesbians also. It happens with homosexuals. There are unique
33:32
Speaker 1: penalties connected with it. Confusion of self-worth, self-identity. There are
33:40
Speaker 1: sexually transmitted sins that come only in that manner. There
33:44
Speaker 1: are a number of things. Paul doesn't spell them out,
33:46
Speaker 1: nor should I. But the sad fact is that only
33:51
Speaker 1: adds to the horror Of all that goes with that lifestyle.
34:02
Speaker 1: God gave them over. To idolatry. Which led to. Bodies
34:08
Speaker 1: that are dishonored. God gave them over. To passions that
34:13
Speaker 1: are degrading. God now verse 28. Gave them over. To
34:20
Speaker 1: a depraved mind. Look at that. Look at the words
34:25
Speaker 1: depraved mind. Adokimos, A-D-I, A-D-O-K-I-M-O-S. Adokimos means tested and found worthless.
34:39
Speaker 1: Tested and found to be of no use. When I
34:43
Speaker 1: worked in a machine shop going through school, there were
34:45
Speaker 1: times that we would run off pieces of the product
34:48
Speaker 1: we were making and they would be out of dimension.
34:51
Speaker 1: They would not be useful products. They were known simply
34:55
Speaker 1: in one word as scrap. You would take the product
34:58
Speaker 1: and you would toss it in a pile of scrap metal.
35:02
Speaker 1: That's what this is about. Here is a mind that
35:05
Speaker 1: becomes like scrap. Full of that which is worthless and useless.
35:11
Speaker 1: Now to the hedonist who hears this, Paul writes as
35:15
Speaker 1: an exaggerated, narrow-minded Jewish Pharisee. And his narrowness comes out.
35:22
Speaker 1: in these words like a hysterical moralist. No, no, Paul
35:27
Speaker 1: is a realist. Paul has spent his life of ministry
35:31
Speaker 1: with just such individuals as this. It's a portrayal of
35:37
Speaker 1: life that leaves God out. It's depravity on parade. Interestingly,
35:43
Speaker 1: when James Montgomery Boyce begins to write on verses 28
35:47
Speaker 1: to 32 in his fine work on Romans, He entitles
35:51
Speaker 1: the chapter, Lifting the Lid on Hell. There was a
35:58
Speaker 1: litany of 21 vices between verse 29 and verse 31.
36:07
Speaker 1: And it's like the lid of hell is lifted. That
36:10
Speaker 1: isn't original with Boyce, by the way. He got it
36:13
Speaker 1: from John Gerstner, who wrote The Atonement and the Purpose
36:16
Speaker 1: of God. in which Gershner writes, man as sinner hates God,
36:21
Speaker 1: hates man, and hates himself. He would kill God if
36:25
Speaker 1: he could. He does kill his fellow man when he can.
36:31
Speaker 1: And he commits spiritual suicide every day of his life.
36:34
Speaker 1: Penetrate beneath the thin veneer of human culture and respectability,
36:39
Speaker 1: and you lift the lid of hell. Here the lid
36:42
Speaker 1: is lifted. And you can read in these few verses
36:48
Speaker 1: life as it is when God and the truth of
36:51
Speaker 1: God are suppressed. I confess to you that it is
36:56
Speaker 1: almost impossible to categorize these 21 vices. There's no neat
37:03
Speaker 1: classification for them, so we will sort of work our
37:06
Speaker 1: way through them since you know the meaning of most
37:08
Speaker 1: of them and don't need that explained. Allow me. The
37:11
Speaker 1: first four sins are general types of sins with which
37:16
Speaker 1: human depravity is filled. See how it reads, verse 29,
37:22
Speaker 1: being filled with, here are the four, all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil.
37:35
Speaker 1: General categories of sin, and you could take any one
37:39
Speaker 1: of them and develop a whole series of statements to
37:43
Speaker 1: be made about them. In the next group, we find
37:47
Speaker 1: five more sins that the depraved are full of. You
37:51
Speaker 1: know how we'll sometimes say rather sarcastically, oh, he's full
37:54
Speaker 1: of it. Well, this is what the depraved are full of.
37:58
Speaker 1: Verse 29 concludes, full of envy, full of murder, full
38:05
Speaker 1: of strife, full of deceit, full of malice. Imagine living
38:13
Speaker 1: in a society like that. My friends, we do. We do.
38:21
Speaker 1: We have come to the place where we not only
38:23
Speaker 1: acknowledge that it goes on, we no longer blush. We
38:28
Speaker 1: no longer get a chill up the back of our
38:30
Speaker 1: neck when we read of a mother drowning a family
38:33
Speaker 1: of children. Shocked a little, but we read another of
38:40
Speaker 1: a couple of boys that walk into a high school
38:43
Speaker 1: and indiscriminately fire away these assault weapons, killing one another, another,
38:49
Speaker 1: and another, along with principal, teacher alike. We'll read of
38:55
Speaker 1: men invading little innocent children at school and binding them
38:59
Speaker 1: and killing them after assaulting them. They're full of it.
39:08
Speaker 1: And so are you. And so am I without Christ.
39:14
Speaker 1: Take away the cross. I'm running for my life from
39:18
Speaker 1: the law. And so are you. This isn't about them. It's,
39:25
Speaker 1: but for the grace of God, it's about us. Don't
39:29
Speaker 1: ever forget. that. And then he turns to two of
39:37
Speaker 1: the more acceptable sins, especially for Christians. Gossips and slanderers.
39:46
Speaker 1: Chances are good in the last two weeks you've done both.
39:53
Speaker 1: One is behind closed doors. It's done in secret or
39:56
Speaker 1: with your family. Where you say things that are hurtful
40:00
Speaker 1: and malicious. And the listening ears are then impacted by
40:07
Speaker 1: what is said in the gossip. And it tends to
40:09
Speaker 1: smear the reputation of one who isn't there to defend
40:13
Speaker 1: herself or himself. Putting a wrong twist on an innocent act.
40:20
Speaker 1: The other is out in the open. It's slander. It's
40:23
Speaker 1: trumpeting words that are hurtful and marked by accusation and
40:28
Speaker 1: deliberate attempt to smear reputations. Both have no place in
40:33
Speaker 1: the Christian family. Both have no place in the believer's life.
40:39
Speaker 1: Stop it. If that is your habit, conquer it. You
40:45
Speaker 1: have the Spirit of God within you who is grieved
40:49
Speaker 1: every time you do either The four sins that follow
40:55
Speaker 1: seem to be related to different forms of extreme pride.
41:00
Speaker 1: Look closely. Verse 30. Haters of God. Insolent, arrogant, boastful.
41:13
Speaker 1: Haters of God. There's pride there. Insolent, arrogant, boastful. These
41:20
Speaker 1: would be those puffed up. with elevated opinions of themselves,
41:26
Speaker 1: wanting to control, wanting to take charge, wanting to be known,
41:33
Speaker 1: wanting to be seen. We do it in a dozen
41:37
Speaker 1: different ways. The next two are a couple of independent
41:40
Speaker 1: types of sins that I find shocking. Look closely. One
41:47
Speaker 1: is inventors of evil. and the other is disobedient to parents.
41:53
Speaker 1: Taking the last one first, this has reference to disrespecting
41:59
Speaker 1: those who have reared us, given us birth, trained us
42:04
Speaker 1: as children, helped us through our adolescence, and now may
42:09
Speaker 1: not be quite as effective as they once were. Our
42:13
Speaker 1: tendency and pride is to race on beyond them. How
42:16
Speaker 1: wonderful it is to see adults respecting their parents. Cynthia
42:24
Speaker 1: and I have an attorney friend who recently lost his father,
42:28
Speaker 1: and our email has been somewhat full of reports of
42:33
Speaker 1: the man's adoration for his dad, who never got beyond
42:36
Speaker 1: the eighth grade in his education. My attorney friend, of course,
42:40
Speaker 1: has his law degree, but he said, what I learned
42:43
Speaker 1: from my father cannot even be put into words. And
42:47
Speaker 1: the memorial service was just an honor to the man.
42:50
Speaker 1: Cynthia and I talked about how great it is to
42:53
Speaker 1: see that and how unusual. Please observe, not satisfied with
43:03
Speaker 1: the expected, there are those who invent new forms of evil.
43:10
Speaker 1: You really have to let your mind tumble to go there.
43:13
Speaker 1: An illustration will help. We are friends with a woman
43:18
Speaker 1: who had colon surgery They found cancer. They cut into
43:23
Speaker 1: her abdomen, a large scar, painful surgery, very painful recovery.
43:29
Speaker 1: And while recovering, she was finally able to get to
43:32
Speaker 1: her feet, carrying this large scar and really walking gingerly
43:39
Speaker 1: to get about. She decided one day to have lunch
43:42
Speaker 1: with her friend, and this lady was available. And they
43:45
Speaker 1: drove to a place that was, this is out of
43:47
Speaker 1: the open, broad daylight lunch. She gets out one side.
43:50
Speaker 1: The friend gets out the other side who had been driving.
43:53
Speaker 1: Both of them are assaulted by thugs. One of them
43:56
Speaker 1: kicks her in the belly time after time after time
44:00
Speaker 1: after time. She bleeds, of course. Her friend is being
44:04
Speaker 1: kicked in the face and in the back. Thugs. A
44:09
Speaker 1: friend from another country is visiting there, a person from Canada,
44:14
Speaker 1: who walks up to help and gets teeth knocked out
44:17
Speaker 1: of his head. in the process, but he does succeed
44:21
Speaker 1: in getting rid of the thugs. As the police came
44:24
Speaker 1: and the charges were filed, the police said with a sigh,
44:29
Speaker 1: in our part of the country, this is now the
44:31
Speaker 1: new thrill. By the way, they never took their purses,
44:35
Speaker 1: their money, their keys, or their car. They wanted nothing
44:39
Speaker 1: but to see them bleed. That's depraved. That's today's world.
44:52
Speaker 1: Just the thrill of watching them groan and pass out.
45:04
Speaker 1: You reach the bottom of the rung when you come
45:06
Speaker 1: to senseless, faithless, heartless, and ruthless. Senseless. They don't learn
45:14
Speaker 1: lessons in life. They keep doing the same thing again
45:16
Speaker 1: and again, which is a form of lunacy. Faithless, they're
45:21
Speaker 1: not willing to honor agreements and contracts. We see it
45:25
Speaker 1: every week. They're faithless, heartless. Bonds of human affection are destroyed,
45:34
Speaker 1: sometimes deliberately, to get one's own way and carelessly. And ruthless,
45:42
Speaker 1: totally without pity and without mercy. Final blow, as if
45:48
Speaker 1: it could be worse, verse 32. Although they know the
45:52
Speaker 1: ordinance of God that those who practice such things are
45:56
Speaker 1: worthy of death, they not only do the same, they
46:01
Speaker 1: give hearty approval to those who practice them. Not only
46:10
Speaker 1: are they done, they are watched and applauded by fellow
46:17
Speaker 1: depraved humanity. Personal friend and fellow pastor and author, Dr.
46:23
Speaker 1: Kent Hughes of the College Church at Wheaton, writes this
46:28
Speaker 1: in his fine work on Romans. This was one of
46:31
Speaker 1: the supreme horrors of the Roman Colosseum. Those committing the
46:36
Speaker 1: mayhem were supremely guilty, but those watching and applauding were
46:41
Speaker 1: perhaps even more wretched. What a telling application this has
46:46
Speaker 1: on our media-captivated society. Millions sit in their living rooms
46:51
Speaker 1: watching debauchery, violence, deceit, and many other vices and applaud
46:56
Speaker 1: what they see. It makes little difference whether the vices
47:00
Speaker 1: are real or portrayed. The effect is much the same.
47:04
Speaker 1: An increasingly depraved mind on the part of the viewer
47:08
Speaker 1: approving another sin or encouraging another sin is a sign
47:14
Speaker 1: that life has reached its lowest dimensions. The Christians are
47:19
Speaker 1: not exempt from this. Satan knows that if he can
47:21
Speaker 1: get us to laugh at things we believe we would
47:24
Speaker 1: never do, our defenses will fall. Maybe someday our unwitting
47:30
Speaker 1: approval will give way to action. We need to be
47:33
Speaker 1: careful what we watch and applaud. You need to be
47:40
Speaker 1: careful what your children watch and applaud. You need to
47:48
Speaker 1: screen the video games. You need to stop excusing it
47:53
Speaker 1: because it is all fantasy. Where do these boys learn
47:59
Speaker 1: to carry assault weapons to schools? The media helps them
48:07
Speaker 1: invent the evil. On this despairing note, the most vivid
48:15
Speaker 1: portrayal of humanity Depraved humanity ends. It is ugly, dark, scandalous, shocking.
48:28
Speaker 1: Listen to a review. So God said, in effect, that's
48:35
Speaker 1: what you want. That's what you get. It wasn't long
48:39
Speaker 1: before they were living in a pig pen smeared with filth,
48:42
Speaker 1: filthy inside and out. All this because they traded the
48:46
Speaker 1: true God for a fake God and worship the God
48:48
Speaker 1: they made instead of the God who made them. The
48:52
Speaker 1: God we bless, the God who blesses us. Oh, yes.
48:56
Speaker 1: Worse followed. Refusing to know God, they soon didn't know
49:01
Speaker 1: how to be human either. Women didn't know how to
49:05
Speaker 1: be women. Men didn't know how to be men. Sexually confused,
49:09
Speaker 1: they abused and defiled one another. with women, men with men,
49:14
Speaker 1: all lust, no love. Then they paid for it. Oh,
49:18
Speaker 1: how they paid for it. emptied of God and love,
49:22
Speaker 1: godless and loveless wretches. Since they didn't bother to acknowledge God,
49:29
Speaker 1: God quit bothering them and let them run loose. Then
49:35
Speaker 1: all hell broke loose, rampant evil, grabbing and grasping, vicious backstabbing.
49:40
Speaker 1: They made life hell on earth with their envy, wanton killing,
49:44
Speaker 1: bickering and cheating. Look at them, mean-spirited, venomous, forked tongue,
49:50
Speaker 1: god bashers, bullies, swaggerers, insufferable windbags. They keep inventing new
49:59
Speaker 1: ways of wrecking lives. They ditch their parents when they
50:02
Speaker 1: get in the way, stupid slimy, cruel, cold-blooded. And it's
50:10
Speaker 1: not as if they don't know better. They know perfectly well.
50:13
Speaker 1: They're spitting in God's face. They don't care. Worse, they
50:18
Speaker 1: hand out prizes to those who do the worst things. Best.
50:28
Speaker 1: How do you close a message like this? Honestly. I
50:39
Speaker 1: think two contrasting statements do it best. Number one, suppressing
50:43
Speaker 1: the truth incites the wrath of God. We've seen that.
50:49
Speaker 1: Suppressing the truth incites the wrath of God. You are
50:52
Speaker 1: responsible for the truth you hear. You even carry with
50:56
Speaker 1: you a book of the truth and claim you believe it.
51:01
Speaker 1: Practice it. That's our goal. Suppressing the truth incites the
51:09
Speaker 1: wrath of God. Embracing the truth invites the righteousness of God.
51:16
Speaker 1: Put the cross back in the picture and it is
51:18
Speaker 1: amazing what it does. What can wash away these sins?
51:26
Speaker 1: Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What do I have
51:29
Speaker 1: to do to be lost? Nothing. What do I have
51:32
Speaker 1: to do to be saved?
51:35
Speaker 2: Christ.
51:38
Speaker 1: And then I have his blood to wash away, to
51:41
Speaker 1: clean me up, to put me on my feet for
51:45
Speaker 1: the first time. John Bradford, one of the saintliest of
51:50
Speaker 1: the English reformers, stood in the shadows as he watched
51:53
Speaker 1: a poor soul being dragged through the streets in shackles,
51:58
Speaker 1: a murderer. On his way to the gallows to be hanged,
52:03
Speaker 1: it was Bradford who first said it there himself. But
52:09
Speaker 1: for the grace of God, go I. And when I
52:15
Speaker 1: look at this in Romans 1 there, but for the
52:18
Speaker 1: grace of God, am I. I'm right there. But for
52:25
Speaker 1: the grace of God, so are you. Let's bow together.
52:40
Speaker 1: You've been very gracious to sit and listen. I know
52:44
Speaker 1: you've had questions. I know you've wondered, but what about?
52:49
Speaker 1: Or you have an example you'd like to know about.
52:55
Speaker 1: Just pause long enough to let the truth in. Set
53:00
Speaker 1: aside the questions. As you look back over your past,
53:06
Speaker 1: can you see the cross of Christ? Do you find
53:12
Speaker 1: a time when you surrendered your life to Jesus? When
53:19
Speaker 1: you took up his way of life and released to
53:23
Speaker 1: him yours? When you believed that Christ died and had
53:30
Speaker 1: been raised for you? If not, you're lost. And your
53:39
Speaker 1: future is frighteningly grim May God use these words to
53:48
Speaker 1: bring you to Christ is my prayer. If we can
53:54
Speaker 1: help you, we will meet in the prayer room. If
53:55
Speaker 1: we can help you, our soul care ministry is available.
53:58
Speaker 1: You'll find them all over the church. I'll be down front. Father,
54:06
Speaker 1: thank you for bringing us to our knees before you.
54:10
Speaker 1: Thank you for the healthy journey where we realize that
54:14
Speaker 1: we are no better than any other soul. Thank you
54:19
Speaker 1: for the reminder that hate never works and it is
54:22
Speaker 1: totally un-Christ-like. Thank you for the wrath that opens the
54:30
Speaker 1: lid of hell and allows us to see it at
54:34
Speaker 1: its worst. Thank you for deliverance from depravity. Thank you
54:40
Speaker 1: for a reason to go on. Thank you for hope
54:44
Speaker 1: beyond sin. I pray that we will all grasp it
54:49
Speaker 1: and avail ourselves of it before it's too late. In
54:54
Speaker 1: the name of Jesus, everybody said, Amen.
55:01
Speaker 2: The preceding message, Cinerama in Panorama, was copyrighted in 2006, 2010,
55:06
Speaker 2: and 2025, and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2025
55:09
Speaker 2: by Charles R. Swindoll, Incorporated. All rights are reserved worldwide.
55:17
Speaker 2: Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.