The Inadequacy of Moralism

Transcript

GRM 1102
11/04/2012
The Inadequacy of Moralism
Various Scriptures
Gil Rugh

Alright, well, these are interesting days for us, for our country. There’s a lot of discussion going on about voting, so I thought it would only be appropriate I tell you how to vote this week. (Ha Ha) You know there is a movement on, more and more churches are expressing themselves, and pastors are telling their people how to vote. I’ve been asked, what about the IRS? Since 2009, the IRS has not enforced it’s law that pastors not instruct their people how to vote. In fact they have a Sunday, an organization called Alliance Defending Freedom… the ADF sponsors a Pulpit Freedom Sunday every year. This year 1500 pastors stood and told their congregations the people they should vote for. And then the ADF reported them to the IRS. Now the purpose in that is, they desire to spark a lawsuit that the IRS would come down on these pastors and then they could have a lawsuit, and they hope to have a law that’s still on the books, that pastors should not tell their people how to vote. I think it’s somewhat of a reflection of a lot of the thinking that’s going on. My concern is, what we call the evangelical world, the evangelical church. A term that is so broad today, it becomes almost meaningless. But when I use it, and I’m going to use it today for simplicity, I’m talking about churches and people that claim to believe the bible is the word of God. That Jesus Christ is the Son of God, who came to this earth and suffered and died on the cross to pay the penalty for sin. So that those who believe in Him could experience complete forgiveness and new life. I’ll use the word evangelical.

With that in mind, I downloaded an article this morning from the web, and it was entitled “The Year of the Personal Endorsement, Why Evangelical Leaders Who Have Been Coy in the Past, are Now Making Their Picks Explicit.” I’m talking about the move among evangelicals to step forward and tell people the proper person to vote for. One leader in a major evangelical denomination said that in the past, he has said it should not be done. But he said, this year’s election may be the most important since 1860, when in the providence of God, Abraham Lincoln was elected president, served the Union and expunged the evil of slavery from our land. Just an interesting side note, that religious leader has been a leader for many years in the Southern Baptist denomination. In 1860, the Southern Baptist opposed Abraham Lincoln and the abolition of slavery.

There are a number of evangelicals who have spoken out, some of you have read their comments. I am concerned that we have lost the distinction that is scriptural, and established another distinction that will only confuse the world and undermine the clarity of the gospel as it’s presented in the word of God. They’ve come to an emphasis that implies the division our country between those who are immoral and promote immorality and those who are for morality and will continue to promote it.

I want to take you back to Romans 1, we were here in our last study. And so, I want to review some of that and add to it, if you will. Much of the misunderstanding comes out of Romans 1, where we looked last week. And we get confused on what is being said in Romans 1, and it is crucial to understand Romans 1 correctly, because if you don’t, you won’t understand Romans 2 and 3 and what follows. We need to bring clarity to our own thinking first as bible-believing Christians. And then clarity to the message that we are presenting. Much of what is talked about today on the evangelical side, and those we would consider themselves on the moral side of the issue, has to do as we talked about, with what is said about immorality in Romans 1. How people have abandoned the clear plan of God, what is natural according to nature, His creating plan, and creating man as male and female. We studied this in our recent studies. And so, they are involved in homosexuality. And now we’re promoting homosexual marriages as normal. There are other sinful activities that are being promoted as normal. And evangelicals have come to the fore, and we have to stand for the biblical positions on these things.

And we fail to understand what Romans 1 is saying. You note in Romans 1, we start out with verse 18, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness.” “All ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.” So, all people everywhere have been exposed to the truth of God. But the response of humanity has been to suppress that truth in unrighteousness. How does this revelation come? Verse 19, “because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them.” There is no one in ignorance anywhere in the world, about the truth of the living God. They don’t know all the specifics about Him. But he goes on to say in verse 20, “since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.”

We noted these things. The end of verse 18, they “suppress the truth.” The end of verse 20, “they are without excuse.” The creations… the Old Testament says the heavens reveal the glory of God. And the firmament… the earth reveals His handiwork. You see something of the very nature of God in the creation He has made. Then you’re told in verse 21, “even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give Him thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.” As a result of their refusal to acknowledge God as the true and living God and bow before Him. “They became futile in their speculations,” literally empty in their reasoning, their ability to think clearly on these matters is now blurred. “Their foolish heart was darkened.” I sometimes tell you, sin makes you stupid, that sounds maybe not a nice way to say it. Stupid is not a nice word. You understand, we get the English word “moron” from the word “foolish.” Here, we just carry it over into English, a form of that word “moron,” just a Greek word carried over into English.

Stupid, unable to think, “their foolish heart was darkened.” Why? What’s foundational to this? They refuse to “honor Him as God,” verse 21, “or give (Him) thanks.” In fact, verse 23, they “exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man.” They worship the creation rather than the Creator. So, verse 24, “Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity.” You note the order here. God has revealed himself in His creation. Man has rejected the clarity of that revelation, refused to bow before the true and living God. So, in judgement, God has withdrawn some of His, what we would call common grace, the grace that had been bestowed on humanity. And allowed man to pursue his own selfish desires, his own sinful lusts. “God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity.” Why? “For they exchanged,” verse 25, “the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator who is blessed forever. Amen.” It goes beyond just, oh, like we would say pagans, or uncivilized people in parts of the world worship literal idols. No. Anyone we worship, our own intellectual concepts of God. Man becomes the determinator. How often do people say, my God wouldn’t do that, my God is a God of love, my God would never send people to hell, my God… Well, wait a minute, are we worshiping ourselves, that God is just a projection of what we think in our minds? That’s worshiping and serving the creature rather than the creator.

“For this reason,” note verse 26. You note the order here, important to follow, God revealed Himself, man rejected God, they know God because you can’t get away from Him. But they refuse to honor Him as God or give thanks to Him, recognizing their dependence on Him. “God gave them over,” in verse 24, “in the lusts of their hearts.” He doesn’t cause them to be sinful, but this is their relentless desire. And so part of His judgement on them is to let them go their way. Then in verse 25, “they exchange the truth of God for a lie.” Verse 26,”For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions.” And there you have the women burned in lust toward other women, the men burned in lust to other men. We talked about this in our previous study. You come down to verse 28, “they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer. God gave them over to a depraved mind.”

It is absolutely essential we see this in its proper context. I hear many evangelical pastors talking about the fact, well, what is happening to our country is they are promoting immorality and homosexual marriage. And this is just going to lead our country down a road… you understand that’s not the basic problem. It’s not the real problem, it’s not the root problem. The root problem is not that our country is promoting homosexual marriages, the problem is not that our country is now redefining marriage from being between a man and a woman to being between two women or two men, that’s not the problem. As though if we stop that we will have corrected the problem, or at least held back the decline of our country.

You understand, we haven’t dealt with the problem. The problem is men have rejected God, they suppress the truth concerning Him, they refuse to honor Him. The open display of their sinful behavior is a manifestation of their rejection of God. It is a result of God’s judgement in turning them over. We’re acting like if we would put a stop to their declaring homosexual marriage valid, to denying the reality of a biblical definition of marriage, that will help a lot. You understand that’s not the problem. The open display is a manifestation of God’s judgement. He’s turned them over to their sinful desires. The problem is their heart. We’re in danger of becoming moralists, of implying if we correct certain behavior, now our country will be more acceptable to God. Now, we’ll be back on the track, now God will be pleased with us. That is a denial of the gospel.

Be careful, Paul wrote to the Galatians, have I become you enemy by telling you the truth. So, I don’t want to become your enemy by telling you the truth. But look at chapter 2 of Romans, “Therefore,” verse 1, “you have no excuse, everyone of you who passes judgement, for in that you judge another you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things.” The apostle Paul was building a case here, and it’s going to be directed to those who are of moral conviction and standing. And that’s why he says, if you judge another, you convict yourself. Because there are some here that would say, we agree, it is vile that they are doing these things. We talked about homosexuality was practiced quite commonly in Rome at this time. Roman emperors, their vileness and depravity and conduct, things we wouldn’t even talk about in a public meeting, but it was well known, and it was a vile time. But here, people are going to say, we agree, yes, those who would burn in lust toward the same sex, and same sex activity. But then Paul warns, you are without excuse everyone of you who passes judgement, and there are all kinds of other sins. We’ve talked about that in our previous studies. You who judge another, condemn yourself.

Verse 3, “do you suppose this, O man, when you pass judgement on those who practice such things and do the same yourself, that you will escape the judgement of God? Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing the kindness of God leads you to repentance? But because of you stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.” We used this passage in our previous study and what? Talked about individuals, nations and the world itself ripened for judgement. We looked back in Genesis 15, where God said that Abraham’s descendants wouldn’t go into the land of Canaan for 400 years because the sin of the Amorites was not complete, they hadn’t ripened to the time of His judgement when He would send the Jews in to destroy every man, woman and child, with the instructions of God. There is a ripening for judgement, there’s a ripening of judgement for nations. We won’t get to that today, but we will in another study. There’s a ripening of judgement in the world. That’s what he’s talking about here. These individuals who are agreeing that is terrible, that is vile, we don’t want anything to do with that, themselves are just as guilty before God, and they are storing up wrath. You come down in the section, we’re reminded is verse 11 of chapter 2, “there is no partiality with God.” Sinners will be judged. The judgement will take place, verse 16, at a future time, “on the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus.”

The behavior is a manifestation of the condition of the heart. But the behavior is not the basic issue. He’s talking to Jews here, verse 17, “if you bear the name ‘Jew’ and rely upon the law and boast in God.” Because you think the Jews would have promoted homosexuality? No. Did they practice it? No. Did they think it was vile and sinful? Yes. Therefore, they are accepted by God, they please God, and the others are guilty. What Paul is writing, is the sin that so characterized the Gentile world, those verses we looked at in Romans 1, through the rest of Romans 1 down through the whole chapter, that open display of rebellion and rejection of God. But you understand the moralist who prides himself in not doing those things, is just as guilty before God, because the problem is the heart. So, in chapter 2 he’s showing that.

Then you come into chapter 3, what is the advantage of being a Jew? Paul says there is great advantage of being a Jew, you know why? God gave His written word to the Jews. We have general revelation that reveals something of the very character and nature of God. But it takes what we call special revelation, the written word of God, to enable us to understand God in a saving way. You can know something of the character of God through creation, but you can not understand the very sinfulness of man and the provision of a holy God in having His Son come to earth and suffer and die, being crucified on the cross to bear our sins in His body on the tree, so that we through faith in Him could die to sin and live to righteousness. You need special revelation, the written word of God. And the Jews were given the word of God, that’s a great blessing.

But you come down to verse 9, and note how Paul summarizes what he has said in chapter 1, 2 and 3. Verse 9, “What then? Are we better than they?” Are we? Paul is a Jew, are we Jews better than they, Gentiles? I mean, look at chapter 1, the Gentiles are pretty vile, but the Jews are no better. For we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin. Then he quotes from the Old Testament to establish it. For Jew and Gentile alike, “There is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God; all have turned aside, together they have become useless; there is none who does good, there is not even one.” At the end of verse 18, we’re back to where we started in Romans 1, “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” This is the root problem. By works of the law, no flesh will be justified in His sight. All the law could do was reveal sin.

The problem we have today, that is such a concern to me is, we’re dividing the world between the moral people and the immoral people. And what is wrong with our country is immoral people are getting into leadership. Immoral people are promoting immorality. We need to stand for morality. And I’m for morality. We talked about our nation ripening for judgement, the world ripening for judgement in a previous study. I’m not minimizing sin as sin, but you realize the real problem is not this specific act of sin or that. The problem is not that we have people promoting homosexual marriage, denying the reality of God’s plan for the man and the woman from creation. That is a manifestation of the problem. The problem is the heart that has rejected God and denied Him. In Paul’s day, the people most in agreement with him on moral issues, would not be the Greeks, would not be the Romans. You know who it would be? The Jews, exactly, they were the moral people. But Paul says, we have charged both Jews and Greeks are all under sin. Terribly concerned that we have gotten so taken up, as one professed evangelical leader said some time ago, the moral and cultural issues of our day are so important, we’ve got to pull together with those we may disagree on theology, but we stand to save our country.

What are we talking about? Paul wouldn’t join together with the Jews on moral issues. They could unite on the view of homosexuality. They could unite on the view of what constituted marriage and so on. But no… Turn over to Galatians 1, a group of people called Judaizers in the New Testament. The Judaizers were Jews who professed to have believed in Christ, but said you also have to keep the Mosaic Law to be saved. Paul would have a lot of agreement with them. They would say, yes, Jesus is the Messiah. What they said was faith in Him is not enough. Where many people are today, Yes, believe in Jesus, but I also think you have to take the sacraments, or you have to join a church, or you have to be baptized, or you have to… Soon as you add anything to faith in Jesus Christ and His finished work, you have corrupted the gospel.

Note what Paul says about this matter, verse 6, “I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel, which is really not another,” one of the same kind, “only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.” Note this, “if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed!” Anathema, cursed to hell. And if we didn’t get the point, verse 9, “As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you have received, he is to be accursed!” I’m not saying this to please men. So, those closest to Paul on the moral issues were the Judiazers, but he says we have nothing in common. Because the real problem, the real issue is not that people are practicing sinful behavior. The real problem is they don’t understand their own sinful condition and the provision that God has made in Jesus Christ and in Jesus Christ alone. I fear we are as evangelicals presenting to the world that here is the basic issue. And the world is divided between two kinds of people, immoral people and moral people. And we have to step forward and come out of this election and vote and get moral people into office. And that’s what will save our nation. And that will stem the judgement of God. It will not. That is a corruption of the gospel. Romans 1 condemns the Gentiles for their rejection of God. Romans 2 condemns the moral Jews for their rejection of God. So, we evangelicals become identified with “the religious right”. I mean, that can include Catholics, that could include Mormons, include Jehovah Witnesses, include anybody whom we agree with morally. But wait a minute, according to Galatians, some of those are cursed. According to Romans 2, they are just as much under sin as those indulging in the immoral passions he talked about in chapter 1.

Come back to Jeremiah 17, I quote this often, but we’re going to look at it. Jeremiah is right about in the middle of your Old Testament. So, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekial. You know, we always say Psalms is in the middle, Isaiah is in the middle, Ezekial is in the middle, so is Jeremiah. So, you just open it up and you’re about in the middle and you say, oops, I’m in Isaiah, close it up and try again, soon you’ll hit Jeremiah.

Jeremiah 17, the prophet during the days of the Babylonian captivity. So, he’s speaking about Judah’s sin. But note what he says in verse 5, Jeremiah 17:5,”Thus says the Lord, ‘Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind and makes flesh his strength, and whose heart turns away from the Lord.’ ” Sounds like Romans 1 doesn’t it? They refuse to acknowledge God. They wouldn’t acknowledge Him. They worship and serve the creature rather than the Creator. This is a person who trusts in mankind. The contrast, verse 7, “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord whose trust is the Lord.” Come down to verse 9, “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it? I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give to each man according to his ways, according to the results of his deeds.” The real issue is a heart that is deceitful and desperately wicked above all things. That’s the issue. We try to correct behavior and say, well, really what’s wrong with our country, we’ve got to take a stand today. If we don’t take a stand what will happen to our country?

You understand, God is sovereign in this. We’ll talk about this in the next study. You don’t stem the tide, because the problem is not that they are practicing sin. That is a manifestation of the problem. The problem is, they have hearts that have not bowed before God, not placed their faith in the salvation that He has provided. I go to the doctor and I say, well, you know, I’ve got this problem here, it’s a sign and I want you to fix that. He says, that’s not your problem, you have a life-threatening disease within your body. I don’t want to deal with that, I don’t like the way that looks, just fix it. Well, if I fix that, it will be superficial, we haven’t dealt with the problem. We as Christians, are in danger of giving that view to the world. We’re denying the gospel we preach. Oh, it’s so important that we line up with this person on the moral issues.

Now, let me make a point. I understand… For example, this week we’re going to vote for a president, not a spiritual leader. We’re not voting for him on the basis of his spirituality. I think we’re free to vote, and if I haven’t offended you yet, let me tell you, I don’t think it’s a biblical requirement to vote. I think in our country the law doesn’t require us to vote. The scripture never says we have to vote. You have the freedom to do it. Some of you don’t know whether you’re going to vote or not. I’m not going to tell you, you should or shouldn’t. I’m not going to tell you whether I am or am not, it’s irrelevant. You should do what you believe the Lord would have you do.

I don’t believe the fate of our country hangs on who gets voted in. I think we need to be careful giving people the idea, that this is a decision, this is a defining election; as this evangelical leader said, perhaps the most important election since 1860. Why? Because morality is at stake. No, we’ve given the idea to the world, the world is divided between the immoral and the moral. That’s not the division of scripture. The division of scripture is between the believer and the unbeliever. In fact, the moralist is in a more dangerous position than the immoral person. I used to go to the rescue mission, the city mission in Philadelphia. It was much easier to talk to those drunks about their sinful condition and the Savior than it was to talk to the religious people I worked with because they were convinced they were alright. The drunk knew he had ruined his life, that sin had destroyed him. Didn’t always trust the Savior, but the religious person…

Come to Mark 7. If Christians get confused on the gospel, what are we going to be left with? Who’s going to bring the light of salvation to the world? We just join the moralists. Mark 7, Jesus made clear, it’s not what goes into a man that defiles the man, it’s what comes out of him. As an aside, when I was a teenager smoking was the big thing teenagers were doing. And I remember being told in our church, you don’t want to smoke because your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. You don’t want to take in that dirty smoke and defile your temple. Then I read Mark 7 and I realized that wasn’t a valid argument because whatever I put in my mouth didn’t defile me. It didn’t mean I had to eat everything I could put in my mouth. But that’s not the spiritual defiling thing. Well, just as an aside, I didn’t take up smoking on that basis.

We want to be careful that we are carefully handling scripture, verse 18 the end of the verse, Jesus said, “Do you not understand that whatever goes into the man from outside cannot defile him?” So, you know, eating certain foods doesn’t spiritually defile you. It may not be good for you, but it’s not a spiritually defiling issue. Verse 20, “That which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man. For from within, out of the heart,” got to have that marked, “out of the heart.” That heart that we just read in Jeremiah that is deceitful and desperately wicked above all things. No one but God knows the depths of depravity of a human heart. Jesus said, this is where sin comes from. All kinds of sin, evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adultery, all those things would be included and more, in the expanded list in Romans. “All these evil things,” verse 23, “proceed from within and defile the man.”

We’re giving the idea that it’s external behavior that is defiling. And if we could push back this tide of immorality, we will spare our nation. Turn over to Luke 5, you’re in Mark, just keep going to Luke. This was really the introduction to today’s sermon, but has become the sermon of the day, and we’ll do the rest of it next time. Luke 5, this is Jesus during His earthly ministry. Verse 27, “He went out and noticed a tax gatherer named Levi sitting in the tax booth, and He said to him, ‘Follow Me.’ ” Levi is the writer of the gospel of Matthew, his name is Matthew. Understand tax gatherers were a despised group. Tax gatherers were appointed by the Romans. So, you have a Jewish man who is appointed as the Roman representative to collect taxes for the Romans. Now, he had a certain amount he had to collect to give to the Romans. But he had his own discretion to set what the tax would be. So, you know what it led to. Well, the Romans want a hundred dollars, and I’ve got to get something out of this, so the tax is a hundred and fifty dollars for you. So, they were despised, they were thieves, they were deceivers, they were liars. So, Levi is called by Christ to follow Him. So, he left everything and began to follow.

Verse 29, he does “a big reception for Him (Christ) in his house.” And with his background he probably had a big house. He had lots of friends, you know what they would have been, from the wrong side of the tracts, so to speak. So, “there was a great crowd of tax collectors and other people.” Here they are, reclining at table. Those days, remember they lean down on the one arm at the table and ate. “The Pharisees and their scribes began grumbling at His disciples, saying, ‘Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?’ ” You shouldn’t be involved with these people, they’re sinners. Remember the view of the Jews to Gentiles and people indulged in this kind of sin, they’re defiling. Remember, Peter wouldn’t even eat with Gentiles, even after his conversion he was confused on that. Why? You get defiled spiritually by even rubbing shoulders with them. Now, the Pharisees and scribes can’t understand, if Jesus is a holy man, why would He be hanging out with tax gatherers and those who are friends with them.

“Jesus answered and said to them, ‘It is not those who are well who need a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.’ ” He’s not saying that there are some people who are so righteous they don’t need His salvation. But those who are self-righteous put themselves outside the bounds of experiencing God’s salvation, because the beginning point is what? Recognizing we’re not righteous. The truth of what God has said in the Old and New Testament alike, there is none righteous. We need His righteousness. I came to call sinners. You Pharisees, you’re the moralists, you’re glad you’re not sinners like other people.

Come over to Luke 18:9, “He also told this parable to some people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and viewed others with contempt.” Here you have the moral, upstanding people who would not think of running around fornicating, doing those kind of things, good family people, morally upstanding. They are appalled at the practices of the pagans around them. So, here you have two Jews going up to the temple, one is self-righteous. “Two men went up into the temple to pray, verse 10, one a Pharisee and the other a tax gatherer.” We use the term pharisee today for people who think of themselves as righteous. The Pharisees were a literal group of people who prided themselves in knowing the details of the Old Testament. They were the conservatives in Israel. (The Sadducees were the liberals.) Remember, denying the authority of most of the Old Testament except the five books of Moses. Did not believe in the supernatural. Deny bodily resurrection. We’re talking about the conservatives in Israel, the Pharisee. “The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself: “God, I thank You that I am not like other people.” What are the other people like? They are swindlers, unjust, adulterers, and here that tax collector over there. Wouldn’t want to be like him. Thank You Lord that I’m not like him. “I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all I get,” I’m a good man, I’m a moral man, maybe not perfect but I am a good man and better than those, you look around. He’s trusting, verse 9 says, in himself that he is righteous. He hasn’t accepted God’s evaluation of him. You note, his Old Testament tells him there is none righteous, no not one. That verse we read in Romans 3 was quoted from his Old Testament, passages like Psalm 14, but he trusted in himself.

“But the tax gatherer, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner.’ I tell you this man,” the tax gatherer, “went to his house justified.” Justified, the word means “to declare righteous.” The word for being righteous, to declare righteous, it’s a judicial action, declared righteous by God. “Rather than the other.” The man who trusted in himself that he was righteous, is not righteous before God. He does not receive the righteousness that God can give. But the sinner who humbles himself before God and acknowledges his wretched sinful condition, he is forgiven and justified. “Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.” You know, we are divided and evangelicals are jumping on the bandwagon, between those who are righteous and unrighteous. But we’re not doing it on the basis of what scripture says the division is. We basing it on external actions. Well, if we’re homosexual married, you’re unrighteous. But if you’re for marriage between a man and a woman, you’re on the righteous side. That’s not the division God makes. This is where we’re confusing and blurring the gospel. There is more foundational issues, that is: have you bowed before the living God, recognizing your sinful condition, your unrighteous condition? Recognizing that God intervened on your behalf by giving His Son to die on the cross, to be raised from the dead so that when you believe in Him, God can declare you forgiven. Well, you know the issues of our day are of such moments, such importance, we’ve moved on, become moralists.

Come back to Matthew 5, people like to quote the Sermon on the Mount. I like the Sermon on the Mount. The problem is they only like certain portions of the Sermon on the Mount. Note Matthew 5:20, “I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.” You’re lost, you’ll spend eternity in hell. You have to have a greater righteousness than the Pharisees. Remember Paul’s testimony? He says, before I was saved, I was a Pharisee of the Pharisees. I thought I had done everything you could do to live the best life you could live. What’s Jesus say? You have to have more righteousness than that. Why? Because God says in My sight, none righteous. Why? Because I’m looking through that external veneer you may have put on. True, you’re not sexually involved with someone other than your husband and wife. And you’re not stealing or going… But He’s looking into your heart, that’s deceitful and desperately wicked above all things. That has not bowed before Him, not given Him honor and glory. Not repented of the sin that He says is true of us. Not placed our faith in His Son. That makes us the enemy of God.

Come over to John’s gospel, chapter 8. You know, Christians have gotten so… if we could just get a little bit of the passion and emotion that we get worked up over the next election. How many people think our country, oh, boy, if the election goes this way, what’s the future of our country? I don’t know. How many people have you shared the gospel within the last year? Stop and add it up. I mean, isn’t that the real issue? We get all worked up and get the election out. And we’ve got to get out and vote. And if you don’t vote, you’ve given up your responsibility. All of a sudden, moralism has replaced the truth of the gospel. John 8, Jesus is dealing with the Jews again. Look at verse 31, “Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him,” the Jews that had said they were following Him, “ ‘If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.’ ” “The truth will make you free,” not stopping this particular sin activity. You cannot practice homosexuality and still go to hell. You can be faithful to your husband and wife for sixty-five years and die and go to hell. You can vote for the person who is against homosexual marriages and die and go to hell.

You need the truth of God to set you free from the slavery and bondage of sin. Verse 34, “Jesus answered them” and said, “ ‘Truly, truly I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.’ ” Bound to serve sin as your master. Verse 36, “if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.” Well, they are convinced of their own righteousness and so they disagree with Him. We don’t have time to read the whole account, you can mark it if you haven’t read it lately. Come down to verse 41, He says, “You are doing the deeds of your father.” Wait a minute, our father is Abraham. We’re not born of fornication. We don’t commit fornication, we’re not born of fornication, we’re pure Jews. Jesus said, (verse 42) “If God were your father, you would love Me.” Verse 44, “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father.” Verse 47, “He who is of God hears the words of God; for this reason, you do not hear them, because you are not of God.”

This is the bottom line issue. Is the Devil your father or is God your father? The only way to be freed and taken out of the Devil’s family, and the slavery of sin that that involves, is what? The truth. The truth concerning Jesus Christ. The truth concerning the salvation that is found in Him, the Son of God. Well, people don’t want to hear that. We’ve got an election, can’t we just agree on the things we agree on? Well, the basic foundational issues that divide the world and all the people in the world, what did Jesus say? You are either with Me or against Me. Evangelical world today has become guilty of saying you’re either for homosexuality or you’re against it. If you’re for it, you’re against God. And if you’re against it, you’re for God. Wait a minute, that’s not a biblical distinction. That washes out the distinction in the gospel. That makes you a moralist. We begin to undermine the very foundation of the gospel we claim to be preaching. We’ve turned Romans 1 around. It’s a real problem with our country, is the promotion of homosexual behavior and abortion and those things. God says that’s not the cause, that’s not the problem. That is a result of you’re rejection of Me and My turning you over to your lusts. God’s not causing them to sin, but He’s turning them loose to do what they so passionately want to do. Don’t you think it would be good to stop it? Quite frankly, I don’t think the man who is not practicing sexual immorality is any better off than the man who’s not. I mean, it may have some better ramifications in this life, but the fact is, he’s on his way to hell. Is that not the basic issue? What is the gospel for? I believe Christians ought to be moral. They are required to be moral. Paul says that’s why we judge Christians. 1 Corinthians 5, Paul says, what do I have to do with judging unbelievers? God will judge them. Note, the church has got involved in deciding whether this person, this person… Wait a minute, unbelievers, they need to hear the gospel, that’s the issue. So, John 8, who’s your father? You’re of your father the Devil. You manifest it in your behavior.

If we’re not clear on the gospel… Come over to 2 Corinthians. You know, another great opportunity of this election and talking about all the moral issues floating around, is for us to talk to people. You know, the bible does speak about morality. The bible speaks about sin. You know, the bible says the root problem is not that this person is practicing this kind of sin or this kind of sin. The bible says the real problem is and internal problem. The bible says that we are sinners by nature, we are living our lives in rebellion and rejection of the living God. That places us under His condemnation and judgement. Most important thing for us to understand is not, is this moral or is this immoral. The most important thing to understand is, we are all sinners, guilty before God. You know, I don’t practice immorality. I try to avoid other sins in my life. But that wouldn’t get me to heaven.

I remember sharing, a dear lady that attended here many many years ago. And her husband came sometimes. I sat down on different occasions and shared the gospel with him. You know what she said about him? One day she’s talking to me and she says you know the problem with, (she mentioned his name) her husband, she said, he’s just such a good man, he doesn’t see himself in need of a Savior. And she says, I could testify to you, he is the best man I have ever known. He’s a wonderful husband, he’s been a good father, he is just a wonderful man. He’s respected at work. He’s so good, he can’t see himself as God says he is a sinner. That’s difficult. I shared with a man, he’s a medical doctor, he attended our services some, so we went to lunch together. He had sat under several messages. And you know, the real problem here, is your heart. God says you are a sinner. You’re a good man for the world, I respect what you’ve done and how you treat people. But God says in His eyes, you are a sinner. And the refusal to accept God’s evaluation shows your rebellion against Him. You need to turn from your sin, acknowledge that sin to God and bow and trust Christ. He says, Gil, I understand that you believe that, but I just don’t think I need it.

What can you say? Now, here we are in the midst of thinking, if we could just make the world more moral, if we could just get the world to be more like Pharisees, who would agree that these behaviors are sinful. That homosexuality is sinful, that abortion is wrong, that this is sinful. Oh, we would have done so much to clean-up our society. And God is here saying, don’t they care what I say? We’re supposed to be representing Him, 2 Corinthians 4, did you get there? Did I tell you where we were going? 2 Corinthians 4, I’m there anyway, Paul talking about how we have a ministry of the gospel. You know, Paul… we have Roman emperors come and go during Paul’s ministry, during the time when Luke wrote Acts. As we’ve talked about it, you would never know it from the New Testament, it's a non-issue as far as these men are concerned. Why? Because what matters is, we’re going to present the gospel. Doesn’t matter who the emperor is. In the end of chapter 2, Paul made clear that the burden of his life was carrying the gospel to people. So, he makes Christ known in every place. Verse 14 of 2 Corinthians 2, “thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place.” Everywhere we go, we’re giving off the knowledge of Christ. And that’s just like a pleasing aroma that rises up before God. That’s what’s pleasing to Him. We say we want to please the Lord. Well, tell people about His Son, that’s pleasing to Him.

You come over to chapter 4 for time. The ministry he has, is the ministry of giving off the knowledge of Christ. He elaborates that, it’s called the new covenant in chapter 3. Then you come to chapter 4, “Therefore, since we have this ministry… we do not loose heart, but we have renounced the things hidden because of shame, not walking in craftiness or adulterating the word of God.” Paul’s thinking, do we handle the word of God accurately? Do we present the gospel clearly? “By the manifestation of truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.” Paul says, as a representative of Jesus Christ, I try to live the truth, so that they will see what I say is true. “Even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” Verse 7, “We have this treasure in earthen vessels,” the treasure of the gospel. Verse 6, For God, who said, ‘Light shall shine out of darkness,’ is the one who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.”

Men live in spiritual darkness. Remember Romans 1, they’ve rejected God, they’ve become futile, empty in their reasoning. And their foolish heart was darkened. We don’t remove the darkness by trying to get them to see: this would be moral, don’t do that, that’s immoral. It’s the gospel that is light. The Devil is happy to have us agree with his children, let’s be more moral here. Let’s join together on the moral issues, doesn’t matter whether you’re Catholic or Morman or Jehovah Witness or evangelical Christian, the moral and cultural issues of our day are so crucial that we blur the gospel. I’m not saying you shouldn’t vote. I’m not saying you should. I’m not going to tell you whether I do, because to me it’s not the issue. I don’t want to be identified, quite frankly as a Republican or a Democrat, because I want to present the gospel to the Democrats, I want to present it to the Republicans and the Independents. The Republicans are no more biblical than the Democrats when God looks at a heart, because we’re all sinners, right? The world is not divided in God’s sight and our nation between Republicans and Democrats, between the moral and the immoral. It’s divided between the believer and the unbeliever, between the children of God and the children of the Devil. God forbid that we should blur that distinction. But vote, that’s fine. The bible doesn’t say you have to. The laws of our country don’t say we have to. You are free to do it or not do it.

You do have a responsibility, come over to 1 Timothy. And we will talk some about this next week after certain decisions have been made. 1 Timothy 2:1, “First of all then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men.” Note, “for kings and all who are in authority,” petitions and thanksgivings. A man like Nero on the throne, who was going to bring about the death of men like Paul and Peter. Paul will write his second letter to Timothy, facing impending execution. But you pray for them and you offer thanks on them. We can be thankful we still live in a country where opportunities are. Oh, but we may loose that freedom with the gospel. What difference will it make to you? How many people have you told the gospel this past week? We’re not using the freedom that we keep telling God, oh, we need this freedom Lord. That’s what God’s concerned about, pray for the kind of environment where you can present the gospel. “For kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. This is good and acceptable in the sight of our God and Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all.”

I mean, this is what we’re about. Lord, I pray that whoever is the man that You appoint, we will have a continued opportunity to present the gospel. I remember when we were in China many years ago, visiting with a pastor. He had spent twenty-four years in prison under communist government. You know what he said? Best thing to happen to our country was when the communists took over, it brought great persecution. You know what it did? I cleaned out the churches. Because those who were just there observing and weren’t serious about it, they found another place to go. And those who really believed, now had a stand for their faith. And the result, he said, we have seen millions of people come to Christ. Well, is that what we’re praying for? Oh, Lord, You’ve got to do this. Maybe what we would see as the worst choice is the best choice for the impact of Christianity in these last days. I don’t know what God’s plan is. I don’t know which man is God’s man to lead this country in the coming days. I don’t know what the outcome of it will be. I don’t know that this is the most defining election in the last X-number of years. Anybody who says they do, doesn’t know what their talking about. I don’t know, God hasn’t revealed the future in that way. I do know the world is ripening for judgement. That’s where we’re going.

Come to Revelation 14, and we’ll stop here. Revelation 14, we talked about individuals, nations and the world ripening for judgement, in our previous study particularly. Revelation 14 tells you the time when the world will have ripened to the complete form that now is judgement time. The final, full judgement of the intervention of the Son of God, to bring destruction on a world that has rejected Him. Verse 14 of Revelation 14, “Then I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and sitting on the cloud was one like a son of man, having a golden crown on His head and a sharp sickle in His hand.” You see the sickle, it’s time to reap the earth, the harvest is ready. The end of verse 15, the angel cries out and says, “Put in your sickle and reap, for the hour to reap has come, because the harvest of the earth is ripe.” And then you have a follow-up in the beginning of verse 17. And the cry at the end of verse 18, “ ‘Put in your sharp sickle and gather the clusters from the vine of the earth, because her grapes are ripe.’ So the angel swung his sickle to the earth and gathered the clusters from the vine of the earth, and threw them into the great wine press of the wrath of God.” Picture drawn from Isaiah 63, the trampling of the grapes and the destruction and the blood. Picture, there will come a time when this earth will be reaped. When God will say, now it is ripe for judgement, now it’s time. I don’t know when that’s coming. The solution is not to try to do certain things to promote morality, that that would hold back the judgement of God. It will not. It is nothing. It is an offense to God to have people who have not bowed in their heart and mind before Him, acknowledging their sin and guilt and placed their faith in Christ, to have them parade their morality. We saw that in Jesus’s words. You have to have a greater righteousness than the Pharisees. The Pharisee that prayed, I thank You, Lord, I’m not like other men, went down to his house without righteousness.

These are great days. We have a season as believers to draw people’s attention to what really matters. People are all worked up on the election. We talk about our divided country, but we have a message that brings peace, that brings life, that brings forgiveness and transforms lives. Because the gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jews first, and also to the Greeks.

Let’s pray together. Thank You, Lord, for the power of the gospel. We gather before You as testimonies of Your grace, the power of the truth concerning Jesus Christ, to cleanse, forgive and make new. Lord, I pray in these days, where there is so much division, so much bitterness, so much open displays of sin, that we as believers will not become confused. That we will not present a clouded message, a confusing message, that you cannot have righteousness in any other way but in Jesus Christ. You cannot become more moral and be pleasing to God. Our nation cannot adjust its stance on moral issues to become acceptable to You. Thank You for a Savior that loved us and died for us. Thank You that You are a God who desires all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. Thank You for entrusting to us this life-changing gospel. We praise You. In Christ’s name. Amen.