The NXR Podcast - SUNDAY SERMON - “The Grace Of Shame” ｜ How America Became Super Gay

00:00:00.060 Amen. This morning we're going to put our series through the book of Joshua on pause.

00:00:04.720 If you're joining us for the first time, a typical steady weekend and week-out diet of Covenant Bible Church

00:00:11.900 when it comes to the preaching is expository preaching, going through whole books of the Bible,

00:00:15.880 starting at the beginning and working our way towards the end, taking a few verses or perhaps an entire chapter at a time.

00:00:23.340 And so right now we are preaching through the book of Joshua.

00:00:26.260 After that, Lord willing, we're going to preach through the book of Ezra.

00:00:31.060 And so Joshua is taking the land.

00:00:32.960 It's kind of the theme, taking the land.

00:00:35.120 And then Ezra is a book that comes on the heels of Israel,

00:00:40.180 the people of God having been conquered by their enemies 0.58

00:00:43.740 because of their unfaithfulness to the Lord,

00:00:46.400 that they had taken the land by God's grace,

00:00:49.060 but they proved to be faithless in the land.

00:00:51.620 And so they were under God's judgment and became captives.

00:00:55.680 they were exiles taken captive by enemy nations but eventually in God's mercy once again they were

00:01:03.260 freed and allowed to go and re-establish rebuild the land so this year that's our goal is to look

00:01:09.640 at Joshua taking the land but then also look at what it is to rebuild after having been conquered

00:01:16.300 because of compromise because of sin and I believe that there are a lot of correlations from

00:01:22.460 the book of Joshua, but even more so for our time and our place, our context today,

00:01:27.860 with the book of Ezra. What it looks like to be in a nation that was founded on Christian principles,

00:01:34.220 but because of apathy, because of compromise, because of unfaithfulness, there's been a

00:01:40.840 regression. And by God's grace, we're seeking to rebuild. You might say that we're seeking

00:01:47.540 maca it's not so much make america christian but maca make america christian again by god's grace

00:01:56.000 that is our founding and by god's grace it could be a reality again but it would be something that

00:02:03.440 we're achieving by god's grace for a second time it's something that we had but it's something that

00:02:09.060 due to faithlessness has been lost so the book of joshua and the book of ezra that's going to take

00:02:15.140 up the entirety of this year, 2023. But for today, you guys know that I'm a sucker for

00:02:21.180 seeker sensitive sermons. And so in light of it being the month of June, you know, I

00:02:26.880 just felt like we got to give the people what they want. So we got a Romans one sermon for

00:02:32.140 today. I always want to be, you know, relevant at the, you know, just the cusp of, of what

00:02:37.180 society is asking for, what they're needing, what they're wanting. And so in light of it

00:02:41.660 being Pride Month, we're going to look at Romans chapter 1 verses 24 through 32. What God's Word

00:02:49.500 says about pride and its decimating and destructive effects. So our text again is Romans chapter 1

00:02:57.100 verses 24 through 32. Would you join me now in standing for the reading of God's Word? I'll read

00:03:02.560 our text in its entirety. When I finish reading the text, I'm going to say this is the Word of

00:03:06.680 the Lord, at which point I would appreciate very much if you would respond by saying thanks be to

00:03:11.880 God. One final time, our text for today is Romans chapter 1 verses 24 through 32. The Bible says

00:03:19.480 this, therefore God gave them up in the lust of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of

00:03:26.740 their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and

00:03:32.860 worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever. Amen. For this

00:03:39.200 reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for 1.00

00:03:44.780 those that are contrary to nature. And the men likewise gave up natural relations with women 0.96

00:03:50.440 and were consumed with passion for one another. Men committing shameless acts with men and

00:03:57.480 receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. And since they did not see fit to acknowledge

00:04:03.720 God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all

00:04:11.440 manner of evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness.

00:04:19.260 They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, 1.00

00:04:26.980 disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God's 1.00

00:04:34.120 righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them,

00:04:40.360 but give approval to those who practice them. This is the word of the Lord. 0.95

00:04:45.540 all right go ahead and be seated by way of introduction i'm going to read a couple paragraphs

00:04:52.700 that i've written down in your notes and then i'll give us an overview four different steps

00:04:57.420 that i want us to take note of today but first let's begin with an introduction i've written

00:05:02.040 the following romans chapter 1 verses 24 through 32 is clear when a society willfully chooses to

00:05:09.000 reject god's truth in exchange for the lie as well as reject god's glory in exchange for the

00:05:15.440 glory of the creature, God promises to hand them over to their sins and the horrible consequences

00:05:22.400 which will inevitably follow. Romans chapter 1 verse 18 assures us that God has clearly revealed

00:05:29.940 himself to all people, not just Christian people, but to all people, both by his creation and

00:05:37.740 according to Romans 1 18, by what he has made, this reveals his nature, but also the pouring out

00:05:45.240 of his just wrath towards sinners is also likewise a revelation of God's nature. So in Romans chapter

00:05:54.400 1 verses 24 through 32, our text for today, the apostle Paul is merely demonstrating precisely

00:06:00.940 how the wrath of God is revealed. One clear demonstration of the wrath of God is God's

00:06:07.880 choice to hand sinners over to their own lust so that they might receive the due penalty for their

00:06:15.720 sin. That is the natural consequences of sin. In other words, sin is its own punishment. It is not

00:06:24.400 the only or ultimate punishment, but sin is a punishment for sin. Sin itself is a punishment

00:06:34.280 for sin. It's not the exclusive punishment. It's not the ultimate punishment, but it is a punishment.

00:06:40.980 So the ultimate punishment for unrepentant sin, apart from salvation by grace alone,

00:06:47.600 through faith alone and Christ alone, the ultimate punishment for sin is hell. Eternity underneath

00:06:54.260 the just wrath of God. Hell is not hell because it's a place where there's an absence of the

00:07:01.660 presence of God. This is important for us to understand, to have a biblical theology of hell.

00:07:06.060 Hell is not hell because God's not there. Hell is hell because God is there, but he is there

00:07:12.720 in his wrath in his justice in his judgment of the sinner david even says in the psalms where can i go

00:07:21.660 from your presence that if i'm cast into the depths of the sea you are there which jonah lived

00:07:28.240 out jonah cries out from the belly of the whale the fish the great fish and god hears his cry so

00:07:35.520 whether you're in the belly of the sea or whether you're on the top of a mountain or whether you're

00:07:39.060 in the depths of Sheol, David says. There's no place that you can go where God's presence is

00:07:45.160 not. Now, even from just a logical standpoint, we know that this is true because God is infinite.

00:07:50.540 God is God. He is the creator who is blessed forever. Amen. That is, he is not a finite

00:07:56.700 creature, but rather the infinite creator. And one of the aspects, the characteristics of being

00:08:02.020 infinite is not just omniscience, that he has infinite knowledge, knows all things, not just

00:08:08.300 omnipotence, that he has infinite strength and ability, but also omnipresence. Omnipresence.

00:08:16.100 There is no place where God is not. So what makes hell hell is not that God is in heaven,

00:08:22.160 and so it's good, and God is not in hell, and so it's bad. No, what makes hell hell is that God

00:08:27.900 is present, but he is present in his just judgment for sinners eternally. So the ultimate

00:08:35.820 and final consequence of sin is hell,

00:08:40.240 eternal hell underneath the just wrath of God.

00:08:43.220 That said, that's the ultimate punishment,

00:08:46.220 the ultimate consequence of sin,

00:08:48.100 but there are earthly consequences for sin as well.

00:08:50.800 And one of the earthly consequences for sin is sin.

00:08:55.940 There's a sin in which sin is its own punishment,

00:09:00.180 that sin is by nature destructive.

00:09:04.100 God's laws, to state that in the positive sense now,

00:09:07.940 God's laws are not capricious.

00:09:10.800 They are not arbitrary.

00:09:13.040 The thing that God deems as being lawful,

00:09:16.340 that is morally right,

00:09:18.700 is also the thing that is beneficial,

00:09:22.100 prosperous, good.

00:09:24.040 What God says is right,

00:09:26.720 we must trust that that thing which is morally right

00:09:30.440 is also good.

00:09:32.400 The thing that is morally right for mankind is also the thing that brings life for mankind.

00:09:39.540 The thing that is good for mankind.

00:09:41.820 Just like a godly parent.

00:09:43.640 Now we're not God, so we sin, we're fallen, and so even our parenting is fallen and sinful.

00:09:50.660 But you and I, seeking to be good parents, seeking to exemplify the nature and character of God as our Heavenly Father,

00:09:59.400 the true and perfect parent we in our parenting seek to have laws and rules for our children

00:10:06.220 that are for their good so we're saying you can't do this and it's not because we're trying to steal

00:10:13.880 the child's fun right we're not we're not saying now i know that if you did this it would be a

00:10:20.500 blast and i just there's something about when my child giggles and smiles that i just can't stand

00:10:28.400 And so I want to take that away.

00:10:29.500 No, right?

00:10:30.480 It's not, you can't play in the street

00:10:31.840 because we all know the street

00:10:33.260 is the most fun place for a child to be.

00:10:37.200 And we just don't want to see our children happy.

00:10:39.860 No, you can't play in the street

00:10:42.060 because it's dangerous, because it's dangerous.

00:10:44.820 And so it is with God, our heavenly father.

00:10:47.480 What he deems is morally right.

00:10:49.680 We can trust that that's merely one side of the coin.

00:10:52.840 The other side is that that is also good.

00:10:56.520 Therefore, on the flip side,

00:10:57.920 Now, going back to sin, that which is lawless, outside of God's standard of morality, of rightness,

00:11:05.600 we can say that sin is not only wrong, but also harmful.

00:11:11.540 So God's law is right and good.

00:11:15.420 Sin is wrong and bad.

00:11:18.400 Not just wrong, but destructive, harmful, hurtful.

00:11:23.620 And in that sense, we can say that sin is its own consequence.

00:11:29.780 Sin is its own punishment.

00:11:32.300 And that's part of what we're seeing in our text today.

00:11:35.300 Romans chapter 1 verses 24 through 32 is Paul is now giving us the description of the principle

00:11:42.800 that he's already previously stated in Romans chapter 1 verse 18.

00:11:47.220 In Romans chapter 1, verse 18, what Paul says is that God has revealed himself not just to some people, not just to his people, not just to church people or Christian people, but to all people.

00:12:00.020 God has revealed himself to all people so that you, O man, are without an excuse, without a defense, without an apologia, an argument.

00:12:12.320 You have no excuse, oh man.

00:12:14.140 You cannot claim that your rebellion 1.00

00:12:16.620 merely stems from your intellectual ignorance. 0.98

00:12:21.420 See, that's a bad anthropology. 0.98

00:12:23.220 Anthropology just means the study of man.

00:12:26.500 When it comes to our view of mankind,

00:12:29.680 we want to have good theology,

00:12:31.440 a good knowledge of God,

00:12:33.100 but we also, stemming from good theology,

00:12:35.520 we want to seek to read the Bible rightly

00:12:37.740 so that we have good anthropology.

00:12:39.300 we have a right accurate view not just of God theology but also human beings anthropology and

00:12:47.760 bad anthropology a wrong anthropology but it's common with people today and common even in

00:12:53.780 evangelical churches today a wrong anthropology says this it says that people are intellectually

00:13:00.500 ignorant of the truths of God and because they're ignorant they therefore in their ignorance choose 0.96

00:13:08.020 to rebel. But that's not what the Bible says. The Bible doesn't say that the intellectual problem 0.99

00:13:14.500 is fundamental, and then the corresponding problem, right, that the root problem is intellectual

00:13:20.920 ignorance, and then the fruit problem is moral rebellion. No, the Bible says precisely the

00:13:27.280 opposite. The Bible says that the root problem is not intellectual ignorance, but moral rebellion.

00:13:33.940 It is that man is rebellious towards God, and so because he's rebellious towards God, he gives way

00:13:42.060 to progressive degrees of ignorance, right? What Romans says is this, that what man does is that

00:13:48.720 he knows there's a God because God has revealed himself to all people, not just Christian people,

00:13:53.900 but all people, but what those who are not Christians, and that includes you and me before

00:13:58.560 jesus saved us by the way we were no different we were once enemies of god but what non-christian

00:14:05.240 people do is they take this revelation of god's existence god's nature right his his divine power

00:14:12.500 his eternal nature is what romans 1 says we take this reality of god the knowledge of god and and

00:14:19.660 what we do is we suppress it in deeds of unrighteousness so it's not that we don't know

00:14:25.520 that there even is a God or that he even exists.

00:14:28.460 And because we don't know, we can't help but rebel

00:14:30.640 because we're simply acting out of ignorance, right?

00:14:33.720 We're doing things that, yeah, God considers to be rebellious,

00:14:37.280 but we didn't know he considered those things to be lawless

00:14:39.660 because we didn't even know he had a law.

00:14:41.520 We didn't even know he existed.

00:14:43.520 No, that's not what the Bible teaches.

00:14:44.940 The Bible says, you know, there's a God,

00:14:47.380 you know, at least some degree,

00:14:49.880 some aspect of his character, his nature, 1.00

00:14:52.180 but what the non-Christian does, the unbeliever, 0.81

00:14:55.300 what they do with that knowledge is that they suppress it. Doug Wilson has used the illustration

00:15:00.480 of the non-Christian. It's the equivalent of being in the swimming pool and having a beach ball

00:15:06.460 and trying to hold it underneath the surface of the water. And what we do as Christians,

00:15:11.920 and we do this in a loving way, but what we do is we just kind of poke their arms a little bit

00:15:17.280 and say, what you got there? What you got there? What you got? And make that ball just pop up to

00:15:21.420 the surface, right? You know, there's a beach ball. There is no beach ball. It's like really

00:15:26.800 because the vein in your forehead is popping out right now. Your face is red. Like it seems like

00:15:31.860 you're giving it everything you got to hold that beach ball underneath the water. Are you sure

00:15:35.960 there's not one? Well, let's see if it's right there or right there, right? Boom. And it pops

00:15:40.620 up and they get angry or they get saved. Sometimes they get saved by God's grace. And so we want to

00:15:47.120 do that in our apologetic, in our evangelism, is we want to force, lovingly force, not a physical

00:15:54.520 force, but through argumentation, taking lofty ideology that sets itself up and against the

00:16:02.060 knowledge of Christ. We want to take that captive. Every thought captive. Taking thoughts captive.

00:16:07.240 Let me talk about that for a second. Taking thoughts captive are not just your private

00:16:10.620 individual thoughts. I had a lustful thought, and so I'm going to take control over that and

00:16:15.180 submit it to the lordship of jesus christ that's part of it that's good we should be doing that

00:16:20.880 but taking thoughts captive is not just what you do in your personal life with your thoughts

00:16:25.600 there's also a sense in which that text is talking about taking any thought society's thoughts

00:16:33.360 ideologies worldviews that are antithetical to the truth of god taking them captive taking ideas

00:16:41.440 which have consequence dangerous poisonous ideas captive and exposing their folly exposing their

00:16:49.120 foolishness in love to protect people and by god's grace that in doing so it might provide an

00:16:56.140 opportunity to preach the gospel that god might save people so all this being said romans 1 18

00:17:03.300 god god reveals that's what paul says god has revealed himself not just to some people but

00:17:09.240 all people and he does it two ways now now many of us are aware of of the idea of natural revelation

00:17:16.060 maybe not all of you that's okay natural revelation simply means that there is a degree of

00:17:22.240 God revealing his truth his person his character his nature his essence that God has revealed

00:17:28.560 something about himself simply in creation the physical cosmos by what he has made and and so

00:17:36.420 any person, therefore, whether they're Christian or not, whether they have a regenerate heart or

00:17:41.400 not, any person living in God's world has no excuse because by the mere reality of living

00:17:49.260 in the world which God has made, there is a basic minimum threshold of knowledge about God and his

00:17:57.540 existence. God has revealed, natural revelation, God has revealed himself in what he has naturally

00:18:04.000 made. So many of us are aware of that. But Romans 1 actually says that God has revealed himself to

00:18:11.480 all people, even unbelievers, not just in one way, natural revelation, what he's made, but actually

00:18:18.000 two ways. He reveals himself to all people through creation, but also through judgment.

00:18:24.880 I'll say that again. God has revealed himself, not just to Christian people, but to all people

00:18:30.780 in not just one, but actually two ways.

00:18:34.600 He has revealed Himself to all people

00:18:36.460 by what He has made in creation,

00:18:39.700 natural revelation,

00:18:40.940 but also by the pouring out of His wrath

00:18:44.540 in this life.

00:18:46.020 Not the ultimate sense of hell,

00:18:48.160 but in this life,

00:18:49.460 God pouring out His wrath on individuals

00:18:52.200 and also on societies.

00:18:55.800 God's pouring out of His judgment,

00:18:57.760 of His wrath towards sin

00:18:59.220 in this life on an individual or society is another way in which God reveals himself to

00:19:06.480 mankind in a universal sense to all people. And that's what the apostle Paul is getting at

00:19:12.160 in our text today, verses 24 through 32. He's simply taking the principle now that he wrote out

00:19:20.060 in verse 18, and now he's giving the description of what it looks like. How does God pour out his

00:19:27.060 wrath on an individual and or a society? And the answer is that he does it progressively. He does

00:19:35.500 it in steps. And so I want us to look at four particular steps. And I want us to think about

00:19:41.580 this in individual terms, but I especially want us to think about this in terms of society as a

00:19:49.760 whole. How a whole society can be placed underneath God's judgment. And if they do not

00:19:58.040 repent of their sin, how that society is progressively handed over further and further

00:20:05.600 to their sin. And remember, sin is its own consequence. Sin is its own judgment. It's not

00:20:14.820 the end all be all the exclusive and final judgment there is an eternal judgment for sin

00:20:20.520 but sin it carries with it natural consequences that are destructive and harmful and in that sense

00:20:28.640 sin is its own reward it is its own punishment let me read a little bit further now apart from

00:20:35.140 God's saving grace which is found only in Christ Jesus all people have embraced their own rebellion

00:20:43.300 by casting off the righteous rule of God and his law.

00:20:47.520 Therefore, on one level, Romans chapter 1, verse 24 through 32

00:20:52.540 applies to each and every individual who has ever been born.

00:20:57.100 However, on another level, Romans chapter 1, 24 through 32

00:21:01.480 also applies to collective societies and cultures down through human history.

00:21:07.720 At the Tower of Babel, for instance, arrogant sinners defied God

00:21:12.540 and incurred his just judgment. 0.93

00:21:15.280 At Sodom and Gomorrah, the people were so corrupt

00:21:18.760 that God rained down fire and consumed their cities. 0.61

00:21:23.120 Furthermore, when God told Moses and Joshua 0.78

00:21:25.960 to utterly destroy the Canaanites, 1.00

00:21:28.720 it was because these wicked and godless people 1.00

00:21:31.800 had filled up the full measure of God's wrath

00:21:35.840 by committing heinous acts of rebellion

00:21:38.520 for over 400 years.

00:21:40.860 We see that in Genesis chapter 15, verses 13 through 16.

00:21:45.420 God says this to Abraham.

00:21:47.260 He says, you're going to live out your years here on earth, live a long life. 1.00

00:21:51.180 But eventually, I'm going to bring your descendants back here to take over the land.

00:21:56.340 Because right now, the wicked inhabitants who live in this place,

00:22:00.760 they are not yet ready for my judgment.

00:22:03.980 But 400 years from now, under namely Joshua, 400 years from Abraham, 0.97

00:22:09.140 it'll be time to expel the wicked inhabitants of this land for the fullness of their iniquity 0.99

00:22:15.720 will be complete, right? Because God is slow to anger. God is long-suffering. God is not a God

00:22:23.720 who is indefinitely tolerant. God is not eternally tolerant. God is patient. There's a difference

00:22:32.000 between indefinite tolerance

00:22:35.160 versus momentary patience.

00:22:38.840 So God is patient.

00:22:40.360 God is kind.

00:22:41.560 But God is also just.

00:22:43.480 And so whether it be Sodom and Gomorrah

00:22:45.260 or whether it be the Tower of Babel 0.82

00:22:46.740 or whether it be the seven Canaanite tribes

00:22:49.580 in the land of promise

00:22:51.140 that the Israelites eventually 0.99

00:22:53.240 drove out of the land

00:22:56.100 because they were under God's judgment

00:22:58.140 400 years later from the promise

00:23:00.700 that God spoke to Abraham

00:23:01.920 in all these instances, what we see is not just eternal consequences for sin, namely hell,

00:23:08.240 but earthly, temporal consequences for sin, and not just for an individual person who is in sin,

00:23:15.280 but for societies. That's my point. So there is a principle of sin being its own judgment,

00:23:22.760 its own consequence in this life, not just at an individual level, but also at a societal level.

00:23:29.780 Okay, now that being said, there are four different steps in this progression of God

00:23:36.800 handing people over to their sin, handing societies even over to their sin. The Apostle Paul provides

00:23:45.420 a clear description of the progression of sin in Romans 1, 24 through 32. Step one, the root sin,

00:23:52.740 which is unbelief. The root sin, which is unbelief. We see that in verse 25. It says,

00:24:00.460 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather

00:24:06.380 than the creator who is blessed forever. Amen. They exchanged the truth. So don't look at the

00:24:12.720 second half of verse 25 yet. Let's focus on the first half. So before the idolatry of worshiping

00:24:19.340 the creature rather than the creator. That's the second half of verse 25. But the first half of

00:24:24.460 verse 25, what we see is that they exchanged the truth about God for a lie. They chose to disbelieve,

00:24:32.860 to disbelieve God, to disbelieve God's word, to disbelieve the truth, and rather to choose to

00:24:40.080 place their trust, their belief, their hope, their security in a lie. That which is against God,

00:24:47.320 against his truth. That which is antithetical to what God's word actually says. So the first sin,

00:24:55.020 the root sin that we see in the first half of verse 25 of our text today is unbelief. Exchanging

00:25:02.340 truth to believe instead in a lie. The second step is what we might call the fruit sin. So the root

00:25:11.040 sin exchanging truth for a lie unbelief the second step is fruit sin which is idolatry that's the

00:25:21.020 second half of verse 25 that and and don't miss this this is a universal principle this is not

00:25:27.500 just a random verse this is not coincidental but Paul is laying out for us a system of the way that

00:25:34.440 sin works and the way that God hands people over to their sin as a judgment in this life.

00:25:42.060 And what we notice in verse 25 is this, that the root sin of unbelief is always going to be

00:25:49.060 followed apart from repentance by the fruit sin of idolatry. Let me say that again. The root of

00:25:55.160 unbelief will always go hand in hand with the fruit of idolatry. That when a person or a people

00:26:03.120 exchange truth for a lie,

00:26:06.200 they will also in their worship

00:26:08.180 exchange the creator for the creature.

00:26:12.300 When a person or a people

00:26:15.060 exchange the truth for a lie

00:26:18.200 in terms of what they commit to in belief,

00:26:21.180 they will likewise exchange

00:26:23.300 the creator for the creature

00:26:25.620 when it comes to their worship.

00:26:28.080 When it comes to their worship.

00:26:30.180 What you believe influences,

00:26:32.180 influences, it doesn't just influence, let me take that back, what you believe absolutely

00:26:37.940 meticulously dictates what you worship. What you believe, your beliefs, dictate your worship.

00:26:47.620 And that's all, for the record, that's all culture is. Culture, it comes from the Latin word

00:26:53.080 cultus, which is worship. That's all it is. When we say, man, the culture's bad,

00:27:00.120 what you should think that's true but what you should think when we say that the culture's bad 1.00

00:27:06.620 is we should say this is idolatrous pagan worship this people this nation this this society

00:27:18.720 they have pagan worship the culture's bad that means the worship is bad and the worship is bad

00:27:26.680 because the belief system is bad they believe a lie instead of the truth and they exchanged it 0.87

00:27:34.440 notice that's willful it's not just we were born ignorant we can't help ourselves it's not our

00:27:39.400 fault no it's it is a willful knowledgeable exchanging the culture says we know the truth

00:27:46.940 because god has revealed it by what he has made and by the pouring out of his wrath in those two

00:27:52.540 ways, natural revelation and earthly temporal judgments, God has revealed something about

00:27:58.740 himself, his truth, to all people so that all people are without an excuse. So with our eyes

00:28:04.100 wide open, knowingly, willfully, we chose to exchange the truth for a lie. And so we have

00:28:11.820 wrong belief. Our belief is in a lie rather than the truth. And now that has directly influenced,

00:28:19.560 affected dictated our worship because we believe a lie rather than the truth we worship false gods

00:28:26.420 now rather than Yahweh that's what happens and all culture is is just an expression of worship

00:28:33.820 that's all it is you can see what God a society has their belief in by looking at the culture

00:28:42.180 that is their worship. Do they worship the triune God or do they worship another God,

00:28:49.480 a false God? So step one, root sin, unbelief, exchanging the truth for a lie. Step two is the

00:28:57.180 fruit sin of idolatry, exchanging worship of the creator for worship of the creature. The third

00:29:03.920 is a further consequence. Remember, it's a progression of God handing a society over to

00:29:10.260 their own sin, which is its own consequence. The further consequence is perversion. Idolatry

00:29:16.940 always follows unbelief and perversion in some shape or form will always eventually, given enough

00:29:25.080 time, perversion will always follow idolatry. If there is unbelief in the triune God, disbelief in

00:29:33.540 God there will be idolatry in worship in culture and that idolatry in culture it will not be

00:29:41.480 I don't know exactly how to say this and I want to be careful

00:29:47.880 but it'll always have it'll always have a sexual element and I'm going to be careful with our text

00:29:55.920 today because I know that there are kids in the room and we believe that kids should be in the

00:29:58.940 room but I also want to try to hold the tension between we want our kids to be knowledgeable but

00:30:04.180 I also want my five-year-old primarily to be thinking about catching butterflies because

00:30:08.640 she's five you know I mean so it's we want our kids to be wise as serpents eventually as they're

00:30:15.220 being trained and growing but we also want to protect that sense of innocence but my point is

00:30:21.340 this the idolatry there's unbelief exchanging truth for a lie that immediately lends towards

00:30:27.200 idolatry in worship exchanging worship of the creator for worship of the creature but that

00:30:33.100 idolatry is not some squeaky clean idolatry it's not it's not just oh we're going to go to

00:30:40.780 the pagan temple with a bowl of incense and worship this false god no there will also be 0.91

00:30:46.640 in the pagan temple naked statues there will also be temple prostitutes there will also it's always 0.92

00:30:56.140 sexualized you can just you can just a cursory glance of just human history looking into pagan 0.92

00:31:04.420 religions and pagan forms of worship they're always sexual it's not it's never just idolatry 0.61

00:31:11.420 idolatry always takes on the shape of perversion always so that's the third so roots in unbelief 0.99

00:31:19.340 fruit sin, idolatry. The further consequence that we see in verse 26 and 27 is that coupled with

00:31:26.520 that idolatry comes shapes and forms of perversion. And then lastly, the final result.

00:31:34.300 And this is what we miss sometimes. But the final result is approval. Now you might think the final

00:31:41.160 result of a society that's in rebellion, corporate rebellion against God, that the final result would

00:31:47.860 just be like a high degree of perversion and we see some of that but but can i submit to you

00:31:57.040 brothers and sisters for your prayerful consideration that the worst thing going on

00:32:01.540 right now in our nation is not just that something like drag queen story hour is taking place

00:32:08.660 but that there is a large swath of society that thinks it's okay

00:32:14.140 the the final result the the the pinnacle of this progression of being handed over by god further

00:32:22.520 and further to to deeper and deeper degrees of our own sin which is its own punishment

00:32:27.300 the final degree is not just some really warped terrible form of perversion no the final degree

00:32:36.540 is the general societal approval that's the problem and that gets to the title that i've

00:32:46.180 selected for this sermon now i didn't come up with this this is actually the title of a book

00:32:50.420 it's a great book by tim bailey the grace of shame dealing with the issue of homosexuality

00:32:56.140 and uh and i wanted to use the title for the sermon because it's great and the concept is

00:33:01.820 is basically this. Shame is a grace, so long as it's the right amount of shame at the right time

00:33:10.580 for the right things. The right amount of shame, shame in the right degree, at the right time

00:33:18.020 for the right things, shame in that instance is good. It's good. But in the name of a misguided

00:33:27.500 empathy in the name of of a twisting of compassion christians especially not not just

00:33:37.480 this includes christians but i would say even more so in some sense christians that they fell

00:33:44.000 hook line and sinker for for the lie of not wanting to shame people well we have the gospel

00:33:54.400 of grace. We don't want to shame people.

00:34:00.160 That's not what God does.

00:34:02.880 No, that is exactly what God does.

00:34:06.440 When Adam and Eve ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,

00:34:11.620 they knew. Their eyes in that moment were opened

00:34:14.380 up. They knew that they had sinned. But if you look at the text, what happens?

00:34:19.520 All of a sudden, they hear the footsteps of God.

00:34:22.840 And that's when they hide.

00:34:25.600 And after God calling out for the man as the head of his wife,

00:34:30.900 the one who sinned with his eyes wide open,

00:34:32.940 the one who should have known better,

00:34:34.400 the one ultimately responsible,

00:34:35.960 when God called out, Adam, where are you?

00:34:38.540 To the man.

00:34:39.360 And he answered, here I am.

00:34:41.560 And God says, why did you hide?

00:34:43.760 Because we were naked and ashamed.

00:34:47.720 And God doesn't correct him.

00:34:49.280 god doesn't say oh sweetheart you shouldn't have any shame this is the garden of eden

00:34:55.740 the shame-free zone this is a safe space there's no shame here no they look what i'm saying is this

00:35:06.360 the presence of god brought an increase in shame they ate the fruit they disobeyed they rebelled

00:35:14.480 They sinned.

00:35:15.740 And they knew that they had messed up.

00:35:17.900 But then a second thing happened.

00:35:19.880 It's not just they ate the fruit

00:35:21.220 and immediately were fully ashamed.

00:35:23.440 They ate the fruit and then they heard God coming.

00:35:27.700 And as they heard the presence of God coming,

00:35:31.200 there was a horrid sense of shame.

00:35:35.880 To where they could do no other but run and hide.

00:35:39.900 And what God does, notice, this is the gospel.

00:35:43.000 What God does for sinners who are ashamed

00:35:47.300 is He does not falsely assure them in their sin

00:35:51.020 and say that they have nothing to be ashamed about.

00:35:54.020 No, what God does is He doesn't say that shame shouldn't exist.

00:35:57.840 He says, this shame is good and right.

00:36:00.880 But then He deals with it.

00:36:03.120 And He covers shame.

00:36:05.160 He doesn't insist that shame should be non-existent.

00:36:09.140 What the gospel does is it doesn't create a shame-free zone.

00:36:12.340 What the gospel does is it provides a place where shame is covered.

00:36:17.020 And it's covered just like it was in the garden by blood.

00:36:21.860 That's the only way that shame can be dealt with.

00:36:26.340 Because shame is real.

00:36:29.740 And we should quit pretending like it's not.

00:36:33.740 But especially those who profess the name of Jesus,

00:36:37.520 especially those who claim to believe in this Bible, this book,

00:36:41.120 of course shame is real and it's not a matter of whether but which for an individual person

00:36:49.440 or society as a whole there will be shame the question is not will there be shame at all

00:36:57.760 the question is what will this society be ashamed about and right now the shift that we're

00:37:04.580 experiencing is that we're beginning to feel a sense of shame for the truth. Shame for being a

00:37:11.860 Christian. Shame for being a man. Shame for being white. Shame for this. Shame for that. 1.00

00:37:20.980 No, we want to make shame great again. We do. But we want shame to be at the right degree,

00:37:29.460 at the right time for the right things so the expression for instance you know the closet

00:37:38.560 that's actually a good thing that's a good thing i believe that doesn't mean that everyone

00:37:46.260 in that society right so when when the closet was great in america which i'd like to see it

00:37:52.760 be great again when the closet was great in america not that long ago that didn't mean

00:37:57.400 everyone in America was a regenerate, born-again Christian. But that meant that in general,

00:38:03.080 that America in its culture, its general culture, that is culture, cultist worship,

00:38:08.100 in its general worship, because America had the right God, there were bugs, but there were features

00:38:14.600 as well. And the features were that we had the right God, the triune God, and so we had a right

00:38:20.120 worship, right? Right beliefs, not exchanging the truth for a lie, therefore right worship,

00:38:25.620 not exchanging the creator for the creature and because we have the right beliefs and the right

00:38:30.600 worship in general in a general sense the right culture then then those who were against god

00:38:36.360 were the ones who felt ashamed and those who were with god they could have been hypocrites many of

00:38:42.840 them were again i'm not saying everybody was a christian but there was a time not that long ago

00:38:47.660 where even if you weren't a christian you you better be on the roster at some first baptist

00:38:54.040 church downtown in your city, or your business is going to hurt. Right? I mean, there are tangible,

00:39:00.980 even economic benefits for at least wearing the label of Christ follower and being in good standing

00:39:09.600 in a local Christ preaching church, because that was the general sentiment, the general belief,

00:39:15.720 and therefore general worship of America. And what I'm arguing is that that is a net positive.

00:39:22.760 that's a good thing and for anybody who would say that's a bad thing that what that does is

00:39:30.440 it becomes a factory that ultimately generates nominal christianity nominal preaching nominal

00:39:38.000 doctrine a nominal gospel that ultimately lends towards less people being regenerate less people

00:39:44.060 coming to christ a bunch of professing christians that that profess christ but don't actually

00:39:49.420 possess Christ false assurance well I just I disagree with the basic premise

00:39:56.540 nominal Christian culture is not the result of a faithful civil magistrate with right laws

00:40:07.260 and right legislation nominal Christian culture is not the fruit of a faithful state

00:40:15.220 Nominal Christian culture is the fruit of a faithless church.

00:40:21.180 The civil magistrate in our nation having certain laws on the books 1.00

00:40:26.460 that were in line with God's law, in line with God's word, God's truth,

00:40:32.340 that is not what produced nominal Christian culture.

00:40:37.360 It's not the success of the civil magistrate that produces nominal Christian culture. 0.72

00:40:44.380 It is the apathy, the forfeiture, 0.94

00:40:48.220 the abdication of all moral responsibility

00:40:52.780 on the part of the church. 0.99

00:40:54.720 The reason we had nominal Christian culture

00:40:56.960 isn't because we had certain Christian laws on the books

00:40:59.780 as it pertains to the government.

00:41:01.680 It's because in our churches,

00:41:03.620 pastors stopped caring about doctrine.

00:41:07.300 Pastors started preaching 20-minute sermons

00:41:09.420 instead of 60-minute sermons.

00:41:12.420 Instead of going to the commentary,

00:41:14.380 instead of going to the reformers the puritans and augustine and athanasius instead of looking at

00:41:22.300 at these and as an example for preaching they looked at 18 minute ted talks thought they're

00:41:28.160 onto something that seems right and as we embrace this seeker sensitive watered down nominal gospel

00:41:38.680 nominal preaching nominal church membership nominal standards for elders in christ church

00:41:45.180 nominal everything in the church not the state in the church that's where you got nominal christian

00:41:51.400 culture so for anyone who would say hey if the state acted like a christian we'd be in trouble

00:41:59.000 i would just beg you to see reason be reasonable the state obeying jesus is not our enemy

00:42:09.140 pastors disobeying jesus is our enemy that's our problem

00:42:17.800 and when things are right again this is not universalism which is a heresy i'm not saying

00:42:28.020 that each and every individual person

00:42:30.740 in an entire republic like ours

00:42:33.200 would be born again, truly regenerate,

00:42:35.540 followers of Jesus Christ.

00:42:37.400 But I am saying that there is such a thing

00:42:39.700 as a Christian nation.

00:42:41.500 Just like there's such a thing as a Christian school.

00:42:44.320 Just like there's such a thing as a Christian business.

00:42:47.140 Just like there's such a thing as a Christian family.

00:42:50.240 Even when there's infants in the family. 0.93

00:42:53.100 And yes, you can believe that as a Credo Baptist. 1.00

00:42:56.620 And so I'd like to see 0.99

00:42:57.820 america be christian again knowing that many will be christian in word only in name only

00:43:05.220 just like there are republicans in name only there will be christians in name only

00:43:11.420 but that still says something that is there are negative effects but it is a net positive

00:43:17.260 and one of the net positives that comes from a general christian culture in a society at large

00:43:25.500 As a whole, one of the positives is this.

00:43:28.680 Shame, which is powerful, is directed rightly.

00:43:33.940 That's one of the positives.

00:43:35.300 One of the positives, when a nation embraces Christ,

00:43:39.080 even if only in name, only in word,

00:43:41.920 one of the net positives is that shame, the gun, the weapon of shame,

00:43:47.140 it is powerful, potent, it is a weapon.

00:43:49.340 but the positive is that that that shame machine gun is is targeting the right group

00:43:59.680 it's pointed in the right direction it's not whether but which every society has a reigning

00:44:08.900 orthodoxy. What they deem as right thinking, right speech, right worship. Every society has

00:44:20.040 orthodoxy. Anything outside of that orthodoxy is heresy. Any speech that's outside of that

00:44:27.080 orthodoxy is blasphemy. The signs and seals and sacraments within that orthodoxy, whether it be

00:44:35.720 abortion whether it be pride month it's all worship it's not whether we will worship it's

00:44:45.920 which god will we worship it's not whether we'll have sacraments it's will it be bread and wine

00:44:52.460 and water or will it be drag queen story hour in the blood of babies it's not whether we have

00:44:59.660 sacraments which ones will we have not whether there is an orthodoxy which one will we have

00:45:04.500 It's not whether we have blasphemy laws, but which blasphemy laws will we have? 0.93

00:45:14.260 You'll always be punished for burning a flag. 0.81

00:45:18.360 Right now, you can burn the American flag and you'll be okay.

00:45:23.380 But there's another one that if you burn and you take video of it and you post it on social media,

00:45:30.600 you might be charged with a hate crime.

00:45:34.500 There is always such a thing as blasphemy.

00:45:38.200 There are always going to be certain actions,

00:45:42.600 certain behaviors, certain speech even,

00:45:45.980 that is deemed as unacceptable.

00:45:50.640 So we want to make shame great

00:45:53.620 by saying shame is inevitable

00:45:56.800 and shame is actually a gift

00:45:59.880 when it's pointed in the right direction.

00:46:03.360 when a society determines certain things as being shameful

00:46:09.180 by God's standard and not man's constantly fluctuating and evolving standard.

00:46:16.640 By what standard will we be ashamed?

00:46:20.720 It should be by God's standard.

00:46:25.120 And in the name of compassion, in the name of empathy,

00:46:28.820 in a twisted sense nominal christians not because of a faithful state but faithless pastors

00:46:38.160 faithless preaching nominal christians we went hook line and sinker say well yeah

00:46:46.600 the gospel is supposed to be a shame-free zone shame is inherently bad we shouldn't have shame

00:46:55.080 it's not right that certain individuals in our society would feel ashamed

00:47:01.280 and so we we let the l the g and the b come out of the closet not recognizing that tethered to them

00:47:11.760 was the t and then you can hear as my friend chock knock said after the t comes out the faint

00:47:21.940 grunt, grumbling, growl of that plus saying, I'm coming out next.

00:47:35.080 It's not whether but which. You can't draw a line in the sand and say, we'll have a little sin,

00:47:43.040 God, just a little. That's what Romans 1 is all about. Romans 1 is saying this, then that.

00:47:51.240 That, then this.

00:47:53.340 This, then that.

00:47:55.880 Wrong belief?

00:47:57.660 Wrong worship.

00:47:59.580 Idolatry?

00:48:00.800 Perversion. 0.50

00:48:02.260 Perversion, if it continues long enough,

00:48:07.320 will lend towards society's overall general approval.

00:48:12.320 And that's when you know.

00:48:14.200 That's when you know, brothers and sisters,

00:48:16.260 that a nation is truly underneath the white-hot wrath of God.

00:48:21.240 When we're fully pivoted and placed underneath his judgment.

00:48:26.760 It's not just when some individuals or even a lot of individuals are doing something heinous.

00:48:32.200 It's when the individuals are doing something heinous and everybody else who isn't doing it says,

00:48:37.100 this is good.

00:48:39.160 That's okay.

00:48:41.920 Nothing to see here.

00:48:45.120 Yeah, this is normal.

00:48:46.860 This is fine.

00:48:49.160 Right?

00:48:49.760 Like a news reporter.

00:48:51.240 Mostly peaceful riots.

00:48:54.020 You know, peaceful protesting.

00:48:55.280 And you see buildings on fire behind him.

00:48:58.620 Everything's okay here.

00:49:02.240 At a public library, or the White House,

00:49:06.960 at the same level with the American flag,

00:49:12.380 but central, dwarfing the American flag,

00:49:17.100 has to say, this is the true emblem of America.

00:49:21.240 this is the empire and what we stand for the galactic empire exporting freedom no not anymore

00:49:30.180 exporting perversion from sea to shining sea

00:49:37.360 what a shame that's shame that's shameful notice back to the text i'm going to wrap it up i'm

00:49:48.240 going to skip forward here because I'm covering it. I don't always read my notes. Sometimes I just

00:49:51.860 I say it. And if you go back and you read it, you'll say, yeah, he basically said that. All

00:49:56.140 right. So I promise I'm covering what I've got in here. But look at verse 27. And the men likewise

00:50:01.720 gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men

00:50:06.100 committing shameless acts with men. Now, notice what Paul's saying there. He's saying what's so

00:50:13.840 bad about it is not just the sinful action itself that's being committed by these men but he's saying

00:50:21.120 it's even worse than that because it's shameless and what paul is saying underneath the inspiration

00:50:27.220 of the holy spirit i might add what god is saying what god is saying is not only are they doing

00:50:32.400 something sinful but they're doing something sinful that should also be shameful but they don't feel

00:50:39.240 shame. Have you ever heard the expression, you know, sometimes you'll hear a parent say it,

00:50:44.160 you know, and usually halfway joking, but maybe they've got a young boy and he's just doing

00:50:50.720 something inappropriate in public that he's not supposed to be doing, right? You've taught him,

00:50:54.420 hey, don't do that, right? Don't like, don't take off your pants in public, right? And I'm talking

00:51:00.420 about, you know, like a four-year-old boy or something. And sometimes, you know, I've seen

00:51:04.880 where a couple, the dad will lean over to the wife

00:51:08.060 and say, did we not teach the boys shame? 0.93

00:51:12.100 And that's a good thing, right?

00:51:15.180 Shame is something that has to be taught.

00:51:18.080 And it should be taught.

00:51:20.420 Shame is a grace when it's shame at the right time

00:51:24.280 for the right thing and the right measure.

00:51:27.080 Shame is a grace.

00:51:28.180 There should be a general sense in society

00:51:30.720 that certain sin is not acceptable.

00:51:34.880 and that people have, they're deterred, right?

00:51:38.180 So even people who love the sin at an individual level

00:51:41.500 will not act it out publicly

00:51:44.140 because there is a shame consequence attached to it.

00:51:50.240 And that's why, just for the record,

00:51:52.860 that's why June has been labeled Pride Month.

00:51:57.760 That's not a coincidence.

00:51:59.200 Brothers and sisters, don't miss it.

00:52:01.180 The reason why the word pride was selected

00:52:03.780 is because people know innately

00:52:06.840 in their heart of hearts

00:52:07.920 because we're created in the image of God.

00:52:10.120 Because God has revealed Himself

00:52:11.600 by the outpoint of His wrath

00:52:13.120 and by natural revelation what He has made.

00:52:15.900 God has revealed to us

00:52:17.460 in our conscience

00:52:19.240 that certain things are wrong.

00:52:22.360 Certain things are unnatural.

00:52:24.400 Certain things are sinful.

00:52:25.860 And those things which are sinful

00:52:27.420 are also innately shameful.

00:52:30.580 So what do you do if you're trying to

00:52:32.540 to override that sense of shame.

00:52:36.080 Will you call it pride?

00:52:38.240 They're not just saying,

00:52:39.560 it's not just a morally acceptable parade.

00:52:44.620 That's not the way they label it.

00:52:46.300 No, it's pride parade.

00:52:48.240 Why? Because they know that

00:52:49.540 this isn't just something deemed as sinful,

00:52:52.160 but this is something that has been shameful.

00:52:55.300 And they're trying to push back.

00:52:58.020 They're trying to shift the Overton window,

00:53:00.380 push back against the general societal sense of shame

00:53:05.780 and say, not only is it not something we should be ashamed of,

00:53:08.380 it's something we should be proud of.

00:53:10.340 You know that something's shameful

00:53:11.960 when there's such an intentional plot and strategy over years

00:53:17.920 to say, you should be proud of this.

00:53:21.000 If you've got everyone in your life,

00:53:23.040 everyone in the world saying, you should be proud,

00:53:24.860 you should be proud, whatever the thing is

00:53:26.620 that they're talking about that you should be proud about,

00:53:28.360 it's probably something that you should be ashamed of.

00:53:31.860 Like you can just tell when you're trying too hard.

00:53:36.240 You can just tell that something is naturally shameful

00:53:39.400 when there's such a concerted effort

00:53:42.420 to make it something that we're proud of.

00:53:46.100 And that is the final stage of God handing a society over

00:53:51.840 to their sin is not just high degrees of perversion,

00:53:56.300 but the general approval from society of that perversion.

00:54:02.180 That is the final stage.

00:54:03.980 Now, the last thing that I want us to see is this.

00:54:07.560 We find a similar expression handing over in Psalm 81, verse 12,

00:54:13.960 where God responds to Israel's disobedience by saying, 0.86

00:54:17.380 so I gave them over to the stubbornness of their heart to walk in their own devices.

00:54:22.740 once again, when a nation abandons God, God eventually abandons them. However, this handing

00:54:28.680 over of a society to sin can actually represent both God's righteous judgment on the wicked,

00:54:35.300 but don't miss this. It can also represent his fatherly discipline towards his covenant children

00:54:41.480 and those who he has ordained to save. Remember the father of the prodigal son. He did something

00:54:49.020 similar when his son, his beloved son wickedly demanded to receive his share of the inheritance

00:54:55.360 before the proper time. Instead of chastising his son, the father chose to give him exactly what he

00:55:02.840 wanted and allowed him to squander it all on loose living. That's Luke chapter 15. Another example

00:55:10.220 also in Psalm chapter 106 verse 15 in response to Israel's demand for meat in the wilderness

00:55:17.200 When they were saying that they were sick of the manna, the scripture expressly says,

00:55:22.660 so God gave them their request, but sent leanness into their soul. Meat in their bellies, but

00:55:29.800 leanness of soul. Truly, sin is its own punishment. So the question is this, so does the current

00:55:38.360 rebellion in our nation, in America, represent the righteous judgment of God towards the wicked

00:55:44.700 or the loving discipline of the heavenly father towards the church? And I believe that the answer

00:55:51.980 is both. The two things can be simultaneously true. That's the beauty of the manifold wisdom

00:55:59.260 of God. His sovereignty in the ends that he brings about, but also the means by which he brings those

00:56:06.100 ends about. That God is meticulously sovereign over all things and he is infinitely powerful

00:56:11.600 and infinitely wise and as such God can be doing two things at once with one rod with one act as

00:56:21.280 it were God can be judging the wicked and disciplining the righteous I believe that right

00:56:29.440 now God is judging the wicked in our nation by handing us over further and further to higher

00:56:37.680 degrees of a further progression of sin from wrong belief to wrong worship that is idolatry

00:56:44.700 to perversion attached to that idolatry and to the societal approval of that perversion and to the

00:56:51.460 wicked that is those who are not in Christ to the unbeliever that is a sign of God's judgment

00:56:57.560 on the wicked but for the church it's a sign of his discipline well why would we need to be

00:57:04.680 disciplined because it happened on our watch. We're not being eternally judged. We're not going

00:57:12.200 to hell, but we are being disciplined. We now have to live in such a society.

00:57:19.480 We have to experience the harmful effects. We now have to be more careful and more guarded with our

00:57:27.900 children, more vigilant, more determined. We now have the scope of shame directed in targeting us

00:57:36.960 for being Christians and being followers of Christ. We're enduring negative penalties for

00:57:44.540 society being handed over to their sin. And that is God's judgment for the wicked, but it's God's

00:57:52.740 discipline for the righteous. And what we should do by God's grace as his children adopted by grace

00:58:01.020 through faith in Christ alone is that we should respond rightly to that discipline. Receive the

00:58:07.640 rod of correction and say, hey, we need to correct this. We need to stand for righteousness. We need

00:58:16.740 to stand for the truth. We need to repent. God has called us out in our sin. Perversion to the

00:58:26.060 unbeliever, but apathy, a sinful tolerance, misguided compassion, warped empathy, 0.99

00:58:35.980 abdication of our role, our responsibility for the Christian. That's our sin. That's our failure.

00:58:42.660 And the Lord has drawn this out by handing us over further and further to what we want.

00:58:52.780 The question is, will we respond rightly to the rod of the Lord,

00:58:58.400 to the discipline of a heavenly father who loves his church?

00:59:01.940 Will we say, Father, you're right.

00:59:04.440 We failed.

00:59:06.520 Will we repent?

00:59:08.260 Will repentance begin with the house of God?

00:59:12.660 Will we work by grace, not knowing if we'll be successful in this generation, in our lifetime,

00:59:18.000 but consistently and faithfully and diligently, nonetheless, will we work to set the ship right?

00:59:25.160 To repent of the church's failure first, and then also address the failure in society.

00:59:31.720 Will we say that God's law is good, and that every society has laws,

00:59:36.360 and that laws are always inherently moral?

00:59:38.980 the question is not whether but which by what standard or will we be apathetic will we be

00:59:46.740 pietistic not piety love for god and spiritual practices and worship but pietistic meaning will

00:59:55.260 we be uninvolved will we inwardly retreat will we just look at the writing on the wall and say

01:00:02.980 this is the way it's got to be? Or when we look and say, hey, you know what? Assyria, they were

01:00:09.860 destroyed. The Canaanite tribes, they were destroyed. But you know what? There's another

01:00:14.880 little story in the Bible. What about Nineveh? Sometimes a society is wicked, but God raises up

01:00:23.940 prophets, even reluctant prophets that disobeyed for a while. They were pietists for a while. 0.97

01:00:29.740 they ran and hid for a while but eventually by god's grace respond they go and preach the 0.80

01:00:35.640 message that they were called to and sometimes the wicked nation listens that's my whole thing

01:00:43.180 with you've seen me probably in the social media world you know arguing for christian nationalism

01:00:49.120 and part of the reason i'm doing that is because what i'm trying to insist is this

01:00:54.580 because i would agree with my brothers in so many regards we both say yeah preach preach to the to

01:01:01.960 the king preach to parliament preach to congress preach to the civil magistrate tell him it is not

01:01:08.660 lawful for you to have your brother's wife as john the baptist said to her it preached to him

01:01:14.120 preach the law of god but but the only real difference that i can discern is that within

01:01:20.300 the Christian nationalist banner,

01:01:23.280 I'm just going one step further

01:01:25.120 and I'm saying, yeah, let's preach.

01:01:27.880 But also, what if he listens?

01:01:31.960 What if it works?

01:01:34.720 And I realize that a lot of it

01:01:36.200 does hinge on eschatology.

01:01:38.140 For a lot of people,

01:01:39.000 the potential of the civil magistrate

01:01:42.420 listening, it's just an anomaly.

01:01:47.500 They're like, that doesn't happen.

01:01:49.280 It won't happen.

01:01:50.300 God has ordained that it won't happen.

01:01:53.040 And I'm like, man, but really,

01:01:55.000 regardless of your eschatology, it has happened.

01:01:57.580 Like, it's irrefutable.

01:01:59.040 We have historic examples of prophets

01:02:04.700 calling out to kings,

01:02:06.940 and some kings harden their hearts,

01:02:09.020 and some kings listen.

01:02:11.800 And so what I'm trying to do,

01:02:13.280 and going one step further,

01:02:14.440 is I'm saying, yeah, let's preach.

01:02:16.220 Yeah, let's train up our kids.

01:02:18.480 and in the paideia of the lord let's plant churches let's start businesses but let's also

01:02:25.600 get involved in culture and in politics and let's cry out to those in positions of civil

01:02:31.900 leadership and let's expect that god is so merciful that maybe just maybe in the mercy of god

01:02:42.920 they might listen and that the civil magistrate after hearing the preaching of the church might

01:02:49.740 turn to us one day and say i believe how then should we live and at that point i want to have

01:02:58.720 an answer i want to be able to say i'm glad you asked praise god i know how you should live i know

01:03:07.220 how you should govern i know how you should legislate because the good news is that god wrote

01:03:11.300 a book and the book is not just for his people it's for all people and it wasn't just for israel

01:03:18.660 and it's not just for an old testament time the book is for all people in all places at all times

01:03:24.740 the book is good behold i am the lord i changes not he is the same yesterday today and forever

01:03:31.900 his law word is good the grass will fade or the flower fades the grass withers but the word of

01:03:40.380 the Lord endures forever. God is not a man that he should change his mind. And I'm not going to

01:03:47.120 apologize. I'm not going to be ashamed. All comes back to shame. I'm not going to be ashamed for

01:03:54.040 what God says is good. Right? That's how they always try all the gotcha techniques. Oh, you're

01:04:01.880 a Bible believing conservative Christian. So I guess you think that, you know, if you think

01:04:06.500 homosexuality is wrong. I guess you think adultery is wrong too. Uh-huh. Yeah. 0.97

01:04:12.600 You think that an adulterer should be punished under laws in nations? Uh-huh. Yeah. That'd be

01:04:18.560 great. Well, I guess, well, God's Word says this in the Old Testament. And so you're advocating

01:04:29.440 for that too? Uh-huh. Yeah. That one too. Well, the Ten Commandments is not just how you treat

01:04:35.460 your neighbor. The Ten Commandments talk about a relationship to the Lord. So you're saying there

01:04:40.440 shouldn't be idolatry? That's the first commandment. Have no other gods before me. That there shouldn't

01:04:44.480 be public expressions of idolatry in the nation? That it should not be legal to erect a mosque? 1.00

01:04:50.080 Yep, that one. Yeah, that's right. A civil magistrate cannot dictate private worship, 1.00

01:05:00.580 but he can dictate public expressions so you're saying there should be sabbath laws

01:05:07.320 uh-huh chick-fil-a is doing they're doing fine now i'm a little bit disappointed with some of

01:05:12.520 the recent news that's come out about chick-fil-a but in six days a week chick-fil-a has four times

01:05:18.340 the profit margin than the average fast food chain restaurant the civil magistrate cannot dictate a

01:05:26.740 day of worship. He can dictate a day of rest. That's what the Puritan said. By having the

01:05:32.240 Christian Sabbath, the Lord's Day, the first day of the week, and businesses not being allowed to

01:05:36.320 operate, they knew that not every person was a born-again Christian. They weren't legislating

01:05:41.080 belief. Only God is Lord of the conscience. But the civil magistrate can look at the law word of

01:05:48.420 God and say it is a pattern that God has established even in the created order itself

01:05:53.320 that six days you shall work and one you shall rest and that even the unbeliever will fare well 0.85

01:06:00.960 he will do better he will be better off with a society that works for six days and rest for one 0.94

01:06:07.300 day blasphemy laws not whether but which sabbath laws you betcha right a day of rest why is that

01:06:17.660 even controversial feel like that's that's all pagans want to do anyways is you know travel the

01:06:23.080 Ozark Trail and go on this vacation and do this and do that. I'm just giving you a legislated day

01:06:28.300 off of work. I thought that was the whole gig. I thought that's literally what liberals existed

01:06:33.080 for, was calling more teachers unions and more vacation time. So yeah, Sabbath laws, blasphemy 0.73

01:06:39.340 laws. And yes, when it comes to idolatry, you're not talking about the thought police, worship

01:06:45.300 police going into private citizens' homes. But you are saying in society as a whole, there will not

01:06:51.200 be public demonstrations of idolatry. And I don't want to just pick on Islam. I gave the mosque

01:06:57.580 example. Pride parades. That is a public demonstration of worship. False worship.

01:07:06.100 And it is perfectly within the purview of the civil magistrate to say, this is not legal. It

01:07:12.280 is not allowed. There will be penalties and consequences if this occurs. And when anyone

01:07:18.260 asks, by what standard? You say, by the first of the Ten Commandments in Exodus chapter 20.

01:07:25.360 And that's good. That's good. Make America Christian again. Make shame great again.

01:07:34.560 By God's grace, we're under judgment, and the church is under fatherly discipline.

01:07:40.640 Let's respond. The results are ultimately up to God. He's sovereign. He'll determine whether or

01:07:45.460 not, we have a success in this generation or not, but we want to respond in faithfulness.

01:07:50.780 The results are up to him, but we are required to respond well, to say, I hear you, Father.

01:07:57.920 I see your judgment of the wicked, but I recognize that your judgment of the wicked in this place

01:08:03.100 where I've been ordained to live in your providence, that it affects me, it affects my family,

01:08:08.000 and it's judgment to them, but it is fatherly, loving discipline to me. Because even as a

01:08:13.920 Christian. There are ways that I've failed, ways that I compromised, ways that I've been apathetic.

01:08:18.520 I repent. I repent. Jesus, help me. Help me to be courageous. Help me to be faithful. Help me

01:08:25.840 by your grace to make a change. Let's pray. Father, we repent as your people. We repent for

01:08:34.660 the ways that we've failed. We're not repenting for another generation. Each man repents for his

01:08:39.920 own sin. But even us, in our generation, we have sent. Each of us. None of us, not one person in

01:08:50.300 this room has been as diligent as we should be, as vigilant as we should be, as courageous as we

01:08:56.400 should be. There's always, for all of us, been moments where we've compromised, moments where

01:09:01.700 we've been cowardly, moments where we've been apathetic. We've all had wrong views. The theology

01:09:08.040 that I preach today,

01:09:09.120 I didn't come out of the womb with.

01:09:10.880 I had atrocious views in the past.

01:09:14.560 So Father, we're asking for your mercy.

01:09:17.260 We repent.

01:09:18.740 We repent of our apathy,

01:09:20.420 repent of our cowardice,

01:09:21.780 and we repent of our bad theology,

01:09:23.880 our bad anthropology,

01:09:26.020 our bad political theology.

01:09:29.420 Forgive us, Lord,

01:09:31.160 and use us, Lord. 0.98

01:09:32.620 Change us and use us

01:09:34.280 for your glory,

01:09:36.020 that righteousness would reign supreme.

01:09:41.100 Help us, God, for your glory and for the good of people.

01:09:46.180 Better to live in a Christian society,

01:09:48.240 not just for Christians, 0.96

01:09:49.260 but the atheist will do better in a Christian society

01:09:52.340 than he would under any other orthodoxy.

01:09:58.100 So out of love for you, first and foremost,

01:10:00.480 but also love for people, love for neighbor,

01:10:02.620 help us to love your law

01:10:04.680 and to work towards your law being the law of our land.

01:10:09.600 We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.

01:10:12.200 Can I be frank with you for just a second

01:10:14.040 right here at the end?

01:10:15.720 Look, some of you guys,

01:10:16.900 you're financially supporting this ministry

01:10:18.820 and from the bottom of my heart, I say, thank you.

01:10:22.180 I cannot thank you enough.

01:10:24.740 However, some of you, you just, you can't afford it.

01:10:28.480 In fact, some of you, you shouldn't afford it.

01:10:31.560 Let's be honest. 0.91

01:10:32.460 I mean, we're living in Joe Biden's ridiculous economy. 0.96

01:10:36.640 Our nation and our totalitarian political elites lost their minds over the last three 0.91

01:10:44.020 years due to COVID.

01:10:46.080 We have written checks that we simply cannot cash.

01:10:50.020 It doesn't matter if people change the definition of a recession.

01:10:53.880 We are living in a recession right now, regardless.

01:10:58.260 Some of you are struggling to afford a carton of eggs at the grocery store.

01:11:02.880 You cannot support financially this ministry at this time, nor should you, but you could

01:11:09.660 still help us tremendously.

01:11:11.960 I am asking you, please, if you're willing to do so, take one minute of your time.

01:11:17.880 Leave us a five-star review on your favorite podcast platform, iTunes, Spotify, whatever

01:11:24.020 that might be.

01:11:25.520 This is the way the system works.

01:11:27.000 We want to be innocent as doves, but shrewd as vipers.

01:11:31.560 We need to be strategic.

01:11:33.420 You leave us a five-star review, and our podcast shows up for more people.

01:11:38.400 And the Word of God and courageous theology applied in practical ways to every realm of

01:11:45.160 life gets out there.

01:11:47.240 Help us get it out there.

01:11:48.920 Thanks for tuning in.

The NXR Podcast - June 11, 2023

SUNDAY SERMON - “The Grace Of Shame” ｜ How America Became Super Gay

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