Radical Corruption.

Steve Gentry

[0:00] welcome to Village Church. [0:01] If this is your first time here, my name’s Steve [0:04] and I’m one of the pastors here at Village Church [0:06] and I’m always glad to see people in the crowd [0:09] because that makes me not seem crazy when I’m talking. [0:12] If you have your Bibles, go ahead and open them to Romans

[0:15] chapter one by God’s grace. [0:17] We will finish Romans one this morning, move into shocker. [0:22] I’m going to give this away Romans two next week.

[0:27] People often ask, how do people know what you’re going to be [0:30] speaking on week by week? [0:32] And I just say, keep reading. [0:34] That’s what I’ll be speaking on next week in Romans one. [0:38] We’ve been taking a look since verse 18 forward [0:41] at the effects of sin on the lives of not just a few people

[0:47] on the earth, not just a couple of us, but the effects of sin [0:50] on absolutely everyone in the world. [0:52] And the fact that none of us are left untouched [0:56] by the sin of Adam and Eve. [0:59] And we see this that Paul tells us in the way in which we [1:03] misunderstand or misconstrue the reason why we exist in the first place

[1:08] that we were meant to live lives in glory of God. [1:12] And what that means is, is we were meant to realize [1:15] that this world is not the end, that nothing that we do here on the earth [1:19] terminates on itself. [1:20] Nothing is an ends in and of itself. [1:23] And he’s used these great examples of just looking at the earth

[1:26] and the fact that we can look past that and realize that these things [1:29] didn’t just happen, that these complex organisms that we see [1:33] that the beauty that we see in the landscape of the world, none of it just happened. [1:38] There was a creator, there was a designer, [1:40] and we were meant to see past that we were meant to see past [1:43] just how good food tastes.

[1:45] So that doesn’t terminate on itself. [1:47] Someone designed our taste buds, someone [1:50] taste buds, someone designed the way that food affects us. [1:54] And we’re to look past that in glory in the creator. [1:57] And then when we do that, we’re living full tilt. [2:00] We’re living the way that we were meant to exist.

[2:03] And that is in worship of the God who made everything. [2:08] And then when you look past this world to God, [2:12] you can truly find what joy actually is in every single moment of life. [2:20] And the last week, he went forward to see how does it affect our practical lives?

[2:27] When we don’t look to God in worship, [2:30] when we don’t see God in everything that we do [2:34] and everything that we see and everything that happens. [2:37] And that is that we turn the world upside down [2:40] when we actually begin to believe that things just exist for us. [2:45] That life is all about me.

[2:47] And this is when you do that, you lose everything [2:50] and you’ll begin to turn other things upside down. [2:53] And the specific example that Paul used last week was sexuality. [2:58] That we’ve gotten that so far upside down [3:01] of what God has created to be good. [3:04] What God has created to give us pleasure in its original intention.

[3:09] We have turned upside down through lust, promiscuity. [3:14] And specifically what he used last week was the example of homosexuality. [3:18] It’s a clear example of man’s ability [3:21] to take something that is good and turn it very, very bad. [3:26] Paul then writes that by undoing God’s good [3:28] and then putting it back together in an evil way,

[3:31] that we have received the due penalty for our error now, [3:36] as well as later in the next life. [3:40] And Paul has written twice. [3:43] He’s used the terminology that God has given us over into our sin as judgment. [3:48] That he has allowed us to live in almost an ignorant state [3:52] where God exists and nothing terminates on itself.

[3:56] He allows us to believe that we’re the center of everything [4:00] as a judgment on us. [4:02] Because it causes us to miss out on what real joy is all about. [4:09] He allows us to live in sin without the hope of salvation. [4:15] And today we’re going to see the third statement [4:17] of what God has given mankind toward.

[4:20] And he means to show us that sin has invaded every area of our lives [4:24] and that we are radically corrupted by sin [4:27] from our motivations all the way to our actions. [4:31] So look in Romans chapter one, starting in verse 28.

[4:36] And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, [4:40] God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. [4:45] They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, [4:49] covetousness, malice. [4:52] They’re full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. [4:58] They’re gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful,

[5:05] inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. [5:15] Though they know God’s decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, [5:19] they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them. [5:25] Pray with me for a moment. [5:26] Our Father, we come before you

[5:30] again grateful for what you’ve given us in your word.

[5:35] Lord, I pray that today that we would see a warning that’s gracious. [5:42] A warning in which you show us the life that we were not intended to live [5:45] so that we can live the life that we were intended to live.

[5:50] Holy Spirit, I pray that you would open our hearts and open our minds to receive your word today. [5:55] In the name of Jesus, I pray. [5:57] Amen. [5:59] Paul gives what really is an exhaustive list here. [6:04] It almost seems like he’s just throwing everything out there, seeing what will stick to you. [6:10] Because there’s this reality where we can set up life in such a way where sin is about them

[6:15] and we’re doing OK, and we pick the ones that we find, you know, somewhat troubling, [6:21] the ones that we find disturbing, the ones that we think are worse than the others. [6:26] And so long as we’re not guilty of those specific ones, [6:30] so long as we’re not doing anything, maybe that hurt someone outside of ourselves, [6:35] then we’re doing OK, because well, as bad as I might be, I’m not as bad as them. [6:41] As bad as I am in this area, at least I’m not a liar.

[6:44] As bad as I am in this area, at least I don’t beat this person or that person. [6:48] As bad as I may be in this area, at least I’ve never killed anyone. [6:52] At least I’ve never cheated on my wife. [6:54] At least I’ve never done this. [6:55] At least I’ve never done that. [6:57] At least I’ve never cheated on my income taxes.

[7:02] So we live this life in which we play this game where God’s word is more about them than it is about me.

[7:09] When in reality, God’s word and specifically what Paul is doing here, [7:13] when we look directly into what he’s saying in the text, [7:16] it is meant to be a mirror into my soul in which I see who I am before I ever see who anyone else is. [7:24] And he begins with the example of one specific phrase that really gets every one of us. [7:31] And that phrase is, they did not see fit to acknowledge God. [7:37] When we begin to think about that type of phrase, what he’s talking about is the reality

[7:42] that each of us start off life somewhat disconnected from God. [7:50] You know, Mark Twain has a famous saying in which he said, [7:53] the two most important days in your life are the day that you’re born and the day that you find out why.

[7:59] But a good question about that statement, though, is why don’t we just know why we’re alive?

[8:06] Why do we have to search?

[8:09] Why does so many people seem to never find their purpose for being alive? [8:16] What is so many people seem to search endlessly asking the question, who am I? [8:23] What do I really exist for? [8:26] Why don’t we just know? [8:29] Why aren’t we just born with an innate ability to understand very early on in life? [8:36] This is why I exist.

[8:38] This is what I was meant for. [8:39] This is my purpose. [8:41] This is my mission. [8:42] That’s what I’m going to live for. [8:44] And I don’t think that there’s anyone in this room, nor do I think there’s anyone in this world [8:50] who’s never asked the question, what am I meant to do with my life?

[8:57] When I was very young, I would see large garbage trucks going down the road [9:00] and those were just the most fascinating things in the world to me. [9:03] And I said, I want to try one of those someday. [9:06] I was very young. [9:07] Later in life, I would find out what’s in the back of those things [9:10] and I stay as far away from them as possible.

[9:12] I try not to be home when they pick up my trash [9:15] and I wash my hands as soon as I take my trash out to the curb for them to pick it up. [9:21] So very early on, I can remember playing that game. [9:24] What should I do with my life? [9:26] What am I meant to do? [9:27] And most of us reach this apex where we’re like between 18 and 22

[9:31] and we’re really trying to figure it out. [9:33] And it’s like we’ll almost be on the verge of tears [9:35] because it’s like I got to figure something out here pretty soon [9:37] because I’m getting old. [9:40] My parents are going to kick me out.

[9:45] But when we begin to play the game of, well, sin is about them more than it’s about me. [9:52] Paul leaves us kind of bankrupt from the very beginning [9:55] before he ever gets into a list because he says, [9:57] when you do not see fit to acknowledge God, [9:59] he gives you over to something called a debased mind.

[10:04] To do what ought not to be done. [10:08] And so we may begin to think of some of the seedier sins in that light. [10:12] But what Paul gives is not necessarily a list of really seedy sins. [10:17] He just gives an exhaustive general list of things [10:19] that each and every one of us find ourselves guilty of.

[10:25] And the very reason that you search in life for why you were ever born in the first place [10:33] is because God gave you over to a debased mind.

[10:37] And when we are honest enough to admit that,

[10:42] that is the only position that you will ever find yourself in [10:45] where you can actually find what is hope.

[10:49] Because God never meant for you to have the authority to answer that question in the first place.

[10:55] God alone has that type of authority.

[10:59] So I want to give us three areas in which this text [11:03] leaves us all begging to know why we exist. [11:07] And I want to give us three things that we exist for. [11:09] Number one, we were made to live for God. [11:15] We were made to live for God. [11:17] And with the track that we’ve been on the past few weeks,

[11:19] I don’t think that that one comes as any surprise. [11:22] What I think we’ve got to deal with though is what does that mean? [11:27] Well, here we’ve got to build a foundation for the rest of where we’re going [11:30] because if you miss that, you’re going to miss everything else. [11:34] And really at worst, you’re not going to care about anything else. [11:37] But then also, you may move on to the other things without ever building a foundation

[11:41] on top of which to build it on and you’re going to build a house of cards that will fall down. [11:46] Because you’ll move on to trying to be obedient to some moral law before you ever understand why. [11:51] If your morality is not pointed in the right direction, it’s immorality. [11:56] Morality must be pointed in the right direction or it will crumble upon itself. [12:01] You have to understand that when you understand you were made to live for God, [12:04] everything begins and ends with God.

[12:08] To understand why you are alive, you have to know, [12:12] acknowledge, obey, be responsible to and live for the one who gave you life. [12:21] Paul starts this thought with a loaded statement saying that they did not see fit to acknowledge God. [12:28] And this sums up what he’s already said. [12:30] God has shown himself through all of creation, [12:32] through the way that the world functions and is fascinating and wonderful ways from seasons to rain to food,

[12:39] the wonders of biology. [12:41] None of these things were meant to end in themselves, but how often do they in our lives? [12:45] Frequently, they serve to reveal a wonderful designer behind it all. [12:50] How do you know you’ve become a glutton? [12:52] Well, when you move past the joy of God in food to just the joy of food.

[12:58] When something that’s made good by God becomes God.

[13:04] When the thing that you’re putting all of your hopes and dreams in isn’t from God, it is God. [13:09] And when you miss out on something or you feel that you’ve failed at something [13:13] or feel that something’s not living up to the expectations it should have and you crumble,

[13:20] you’re not acknowledging God.

[13:23] You see fit to acknowledge creation, but you do not see fit to acknowledge the creator of creation. [13:28] If there’s a designer, creator, God, then he has made things to function a certain way. [13:34] And we’re to live under and live under obligation to follow that.

[13:40] It’s given us three verses so far, verses 21, 24 and 27. [13:46] In 21, he tells us that we didn’t honor God. [13:49] In 24, that people dishonored their bodies rather than follow God. [13:54] And then verse 27 says that people gave up natural relations. [14:00] You see, God wants things done in a way that he defines as natural. [14:06] Any other way is unnatural and doesn’t see fit to acknowledge God.

[14:13] And we begin to look at our lives piece by piece. [14:15] We will each probably find a hundred different ways in which we do things in an unnatural manner. [14:21] Ways that God never intended us to do. [14:25] And what it ultimately reveals is that we’ve gotten worship upside down [14:29] and that we’re worshiping created things rather than worshiping the creator. [14:32] And we’re excusing ourselves for getting this thing or that thing wrong

[14:36] because well, ultimately overall, I may be doing this wrong over here, [14:39] but it’s for a good reason, right?

[14:43] You see that falls under the line of reasoning of unnatural. [14:47] And therefore it is sinful and it doesn’t see fit to acknowledge God. [14:51] God is a very unreasonable being.

[14:55] When you’re perfect, it tends to make you not willing to reason with anyone else [15:00] because by nature, your reason is going to be higher than them. [15:03] But how often do we try to reason with God with our reason, not with his with ours? [15:09] God’s uncompromising. [15:11] If God were to compromise, he would cease to be perfect. [15:15] But everything that we would call progress is really what God would call compromise.

[15:21] So because from the very beginning, God has been perfect. [15:23] God has been righteous. [15:24] God has been whole. God has never needed anything. [15:27] And when we try to kind of cut away at his ways and say, well, have you thought about it this way? [15:34] Yes, he has. He’s God. [15:37] He thought about it a thousand ways that you’ve never thought about it.

[15:40] And he sees fit to still be uncompromising in his ways. [15:44] And when it says we do not see fit to acknowledge God, what it’s talking about is a deep reverence for God, [15:51] a deep worship for God, a deep humility in submission to his ways, [15:57] being higher than our ways and seeing fit to submit ourselves to him. [16:01] But every one of us have gone off the rails somewhere. [16:05] None of us are perfect.

[16:07] We may look at people in our culture and say, well, clearly they’re getting that really wrong. [16:11] And that’s very unnatural because even I don’t understand that.

[16:16] But under God’s reign, understand that all of us are living in some way [16:21] with some thought pattern or some action produced by that thought pattern. [16:25] That’s quite unnatural.

[16:30] Don’t follow your heart ever. [16:35] Working on a series with that very title. [16:39] That’ll be in like five years. [16:41] Look in Jeremiah 17. [16:45] Here’s what the prophet says. [16:47] He says the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick.

[16:51] Who can understand it? [16:53] I, the Lord, search the heart and test the mind to give every man according to his ways, [17:01] according to the fruit of his deeds. [17:03] You see, Paul isn’t blazing new trails here. [17:07] Paul is summing up with the prophets of the Old Testament revealed to us [17:11] long before the birth of Christ.

[17:14] And that is that all of us are bankrupt. [17:16] All of us are desperately sick. [17:19] Do you know what it is to be desperately sick? [17:22] It is to basically be on death’s door.

[17:27] You see, you cannot overstate the sickness that sin has caused in each and every one of our lives. [17:33] Jeremiah uses terminology that we wouldn’t use about ourselves. [17:37] He says your inner being, the core of who you are. [17:40] The heart is sick to the point of death.

[17:46] And you run around trying to convince everybody that you understand anything.

[17:53] Then he gives us the truth. [17:54] He says, do you want to understand the heart? [17:58] Do you want to understand the sickness of the heart?

[18:01] Only God. [18:03] Understands that. [18:04] So you ever want to even understand the sin that makes you sick? [18:09] You have to go to God for an explanation. [18:12] Because you’ll just reason your way out of it. [18:14] When people tell you to follow your heart and do whatever makes you happy,

[18:19] you have to realize that is foundationably terrible advice. [18:25] If what makes you happy takes you away from the one who made you, [18:30] then that will only lead you into the judgment of God. [18:32] And that is not a good place to be if you’re not following Jesus. [18:37] Follow what leads you to God. [18:40] Even in moments where you say, if I do that, it could make me unhappy.

[18:48] Because your happiness is not God. [18:52] And when you make it God, guess what you’re doing? [18:55] Living in an unnatural way. [18:58] Because your desperately sick heart will convince you that happiness [19:04] is something that it’s not. [19:06] You will never full tilt have joy until you have God.

[19:10] See, happiness can go away in a moment. [19:12] I’ve been so happy and then 15 seconds later, [19:14] been the most miserable I’ve ever been in my life on multiple occasions. [19:18] But you see, joy is different. [19:19] Joy is something that can never be taken away. [19:21] Happiness, I’ll lose that.

[19:23] I mean, I’ll lose that this afternoon. [19:24] I’ve lost it seven times already this morning. [19:27] And you probably have too. [19:29] Did you bring kids with you? [19:30] I know what the drive was like.

[19:34] And the further away you live, the worse it is. [19:37] That’s why I bought a house right down the road. [19:40] As I can’t deal with that kind of unhappiness, I got to be close.

[19:46] The reality is, is that when you begin to understand the joy of God, [19:50] no unhappy moment can take that away from you. [19:54] And you actually begin to see joy even in unhappy moments. [19:58] You know crazy that sounds to the world, [20:00] that joy is found in an unhappy moment. [20:02] Well, that’s the gospel of Jesus Christ.

[20:06] You see, only then can you realize what ought not to be done. [20:14] Because nothing in this world will ever satisfy the deepest longings of your heart. [20:21] Because the deepest longings of your heart never begin with an action. [20:25] They never begin with another human. [20:28] To understand why you exist is where joy finds its start. [20:34] You must first look to your purpose, because if you get that wrong,

[20:39] everything else will follow. [20:41] When you don’t acknowledge God, it ruins everything. [20:45] You show me anyone struggling with sin, [20:51] I will show you someone that’s struggling with their purpose.

[20:55] I will show you someone that’s struggling with why they exist in the first place. [21:00] When you begin to deal with the core of why you are the way that you are, [21:05] rather than just dealing with the things that you do, [21:08] you begin to deal with your affections, you begin to deal with your joys, [21:12] you begin to deal with your thought processes, you begin to deal with your identity, [21:16] and you ultimately will then begin to deal with why you think you exist in the first place.

[21:21] And you must deal with that if you have any hope of ever acknowledging God in your life, [21:27] for what it really was meant to be. [21:29] You were created to 100% live for God with everything. [21:35] Every thought and decision needs to be under that microscope. [21:38] When it isn’t, it leads to living for things that ought not to be lived for.

[21:46] You were made to live for God. [21:51] Not just here and then here and then here and then there. [21:56] Everywhere. [21:57] There’s no part of your life that God doesn’t want to find his purpose in. [22:02] There’s no part of your life that doesn’t exist for God. [22:05] There’s no decision inconsequential.

[22:09] There’s no thought process that God doesn’t want taken captive to worship of him. [22:14] There’s nothing insignificant between you and God because he’s God, [22:17] he’s the ruler of your life, he’s the maker of everything. [22:20] So even what you would call inconsequential, God may look at and say, [22:23] oh, that’s very consequential. [22:25] Because it deals with the root of why you think you exist.

[22:29] But secondly, we were made to obey God. [22:35] Do you know, we talked last week about false belief leading to false action. [22:41] To understand how you should live, you have to obey the one who made you alive. [22:48] When we aren’t living for God, we aren’t going to obey him. [22:53] Here’s the reality. [22:53] When you build a false basis for why you exist,

[22:58] when you have a bad thought process as to why you were born in the first place, [23:02] as to what your purpose is in this life, [23:05] there’s no amount of obeying any set of laws that’s ever going to fix that.

[23:11] There’s no amount of moral things, there’s no amount of generosity, [23:14] there’s no amount of charitable action that’s ever going to fix that. [23:17] Because ultimately you’re going to come back to one, [23:19] and that’s the reality of you don’t understand why you exist in the first place. [23:22] It’s like building a house on sand. [23:24] Jesus used that example one time, rather than building a true foundation.

[23:28] The foundation is found in your purpose. [23:31] The walls are found in your action. [23:34] I don’t know if many people like houses without walls. [23:37] So obedience is important. [23:40] You know, Paul gives us, it seems to be one of the random lists in all of the Bible, [23:46] but he uses all of these examples in other places of scripture as well to really find us all captive.

[23:52] Here’s how Pastor Tim Keller puts the list that he gives, [23:55] because really what he says is Paul boils life down to four different areas. [23:59] The first is economic disorders. [24:03] The second is social disorders. [24:05] The third is a family breakdown. [24:08] And the fourth is a relational breakdown.

[24:12] In every area of your life you’re dealing with all of these at some point. [24:17] I don’t know if anyone has ever not been greedy. [24:22] I don’t know if anyone has got a perfect family. [24:25] I mean, you’re just firing on all pistons all the time. [24:28] You never look at your baby and say, why do you keep crying?

[24:34] All of us deal with breakdowns and disorders in our lives at some level. [24:40] And Paul wants us to understand that all of us have gone astray. [24:45] So he gives us a shotgun of sins. [24:51] Where he’s not just pointing to one and one, he says, all of you. [24:56] I’m going to nail everyone. [24:59] Are any of you relationally perfect?

[25:03] Did any of you make it back from your honeymoon before your first squabble with your spouse? [25:08] Have any of your children made it to their second birthday [25:11] without you thinking you need to punish them in some way?

[25:17] Have any of you been 100 percent honest in all of your dealings financially with everyone in your life? [25:22] Or are all of you doing your taxes saying, is there one loophole?

[25:31] Any of you socially been perfect and never been unjustly angry at someone at some time? [25:43] You’ve ever been mad at someone and the next day you find out that you were the one at fault. [25:48] I’ve been there. [25:50] Well, malice, guilty. [25:52] He gets to the point in this list where he uses phrases like gossip.

[25:59] Yells are disobedient to parents. [26:03] Now, I’m 34.

[26:08] Never, never.

[26:11] But then he levels us and then Paul, he uses. [26:15] I mean, Paul is so smart. [26:18] I know it’s God, but Paul’s pretty smart, too, in the way that he writes this. [26:21] He then uses this phrase. [26:23] He says, inventors of evil. [26:26] I would what Paul says is I’m not letting any of you out.

[26:29] You guys are finding new ways to do this every day that I don’t even know about. [26:34] So I don’t even know you could be evil in that way. [26:36] And you did that. [26:37] Do you want to know ultimately, though, why Paul says things like inventors of evil? [26:40] Because he knows that in each and every heart of everybody that’s alive, we have an idol factory. [26:45] We’re building new idols every day.

[26:50] Idolatry is taking a good thing, making it an ultimate thing so that it becomes a false God. [26:57] You can do that with anything in your life.

[27:01] So even the simplest of things that God gave you for good, you can turn to a very evil thing very quickly. [27:07] If it takes you away from God, whether it be your job, whether it be an activity, [27:12] whether it be your spouse, whether it be your children, we take good things and we turn them away from God. [27:17] We can make them God things all the time, and then they become evil things because we did not see fit to acknowledge the one true God. [27:25] Paul says you guys are so bankrupt, you’re inventing evil because your hearts are desperately sick. [27:33] While not everything that we do is completely sinful, nothing we do is completely untouched by sin.

[27:41] That’s what theologians call total depravity. [27:46] On every level, we see how the debased mind that God has given us over to is behind every action and every reaction that we see in every area of our lives where sin and pain seem to rule.

[28:02] We must move from they to I. [28:08] We must, we must, we must. [28:11] Because when you read something like this, when you hear a sermon on something like this, I do this all the time where I’m like, man, I wish this guy was here, or I wish this lady was here to hear this because man, they need to get right.

[28:29] You know all that is, is you denying your own responsibility to God. [28:34] And that the only hope that that person actually has is for you exchanging the they in your thought process to I. [28:42] You have to be honest with yourself because that’s what Paul ultimately wants us to do. [28:48] It’s not just them, it’s also you. [28:53] You are not the solution to the problems of the world no matter how good you think you are because you are a sinner as well. [29:02] But it’s tempting to stay up at that level where you are pointing out everyone else’s evil and how the world has gone completely corrupt.

[29:12] And we need to get back to this point or go back to that point. We need to get things right. [29:17] But the reality is, is that you need to get things right. You need to deal with your sin. [29:23] You are radically corrupt at your very core. [29:28] And guess what, so am I. [29:31] And it’s only when you deal with that reality that you are ever going to get anywhere in your life. [29:40] We have all disobeyed God when we were meant to disobey God.

[29:45] And it is a big deal. [29:50] Do not minimize your sinfulness. [29:55] Our mind will be tempted to excuse ourselves, to minimize our sin. [30:01] That’s ultimately why we play the they game. [30:04] But this is about righteousness versus unrighteousness. [30:07] That’s why Paul begins with that statement, unrighteousness.

[30:11] Because he wants us to understand that there is only one who is righteous and that’s the one that can read the heart. [30:15] That’s the one that can tell you why you exist. That’s the one that you need to be serving and that is God. [30:20] He alone is righteous. The rest of us are unrighteous. [30:24] The rest of us simply need to submit to him. [30:29] But how often in striving for morality do you just submit to yourself? [30:35] And your version of morals are your excuses.

[30:41] We already saw in Romans 1, 20 that we are without excuse. [30:45] We were meant to live for God and we live for ourselves all the way down to disobedience to parents. [30:51] I mean he takes it down to like childhood level.

[30:55] Because that’s where it starts. [30:58] But how many excuses do we even use for that one?

[31:04] See because when Paul uses that phrase disobedient to parents, I don’t think that begins with children. [31:08] I think that begins with parents. [31:10] Because children have to have something to be disobedient to in the first place. [31:14] We don’t even acknowledge God to the point where we take away structure, we take away boundaries, [31:18] and we refuse to even discipline our own children so that they won’t have anything to be disobedient to. [31:22] Oh my child, he’s a picture of obedience.

[31:25] Well he has nothing to be obedient to because you don’t even have a standard for him. [31:28] Disobedient to parents can’t even apply to your child.

[31:33] And even in light of that I begin to see our failure in morality. [31:38] How many excuses do you come up with on a weekly basis? [31:42] Why you can’t do this or that even though you know it would further God’s mission in your life and the life of others? [31:49] If you did,

[31:51] don’t minimize it. [31:54] That is a debased mind.

[32:01] That is you living for you.

[32:06] Don’t minimize it. [32:08] It is a big deal when you don’t live for the Gospel. [32:14] When you don’t sacrifice for the Gospel. [32:18] You are being disobedient to God. [32:20] Allow it to sting.

[32:26] Well I’m busy. [32:28] Well I’ve got to do this thing or that thing. [32:30] Debased mind. [32:32] Debased mind.

[32:34] Your excuses reveal your debased mind.

[32:40] Thirdly this morning, [32:42] we were made to understand God. [32:47] You were made to live for Him. [32:49] You were made to obey Him. [32:52] And you were made to understand Him. [32:54] You say, well doesn’t understanding go before obedience?

[32:59] No.

[33:02] You know what you do when you put understanding before obedience?

[33:08] You say, well God, you need to explain this to me before I’ll submit to it.

[33:16] Imagine a six year old child doing that to a mom and dad. [33:21] Number one, son, you’re stupid. [33:23] There’s no way I’m going to be able to explain this to you. [33:25] You’re six.

[33:29] But number two, it gets the roles upside down. [33:33] I just offended some of you because you’re like, well my child’s six and he’s so smart. [33:36] Not really. [33:37] I mean, he can read so what?

[33:44] But you’re getting everything in the authority structure backwards.

[33:51] Everything. [33:52] Because God’s got to kneel to your standard before you’ll ever meet His standard. [33:58] Debased mind. [33:59] You think you’re God. [34:01] Well if I don’t understand, I guess I can never submit. [34:04] That’s not true.

[34:05] There’s so many things about God that I don’t understand. [34:08] I know some of you think that maybe I do and then you spend five minutes with me and you’re like, that guy doesn’t know much. [34:15] The reality is, is there’s so much you don’t understand about God and you’ll never understand about God before you get to eternity and that is no excuse. [34:23] What did Paul say in Romans 1.20? [34:24] He said, they’re without excuse.

[34:28] But the reality is, is that when you’re living for God, you understand why you exist. [34:35] When you’re obeying God, you’ve submitted to Him. [34:37] You’ll understand God. [34:40] You were made to understand Him. [34:43] You know, Paul’s goal in this section is not moral perfectionism. [34:50] His goal is us to understand reality and admit that we’re not OK.

[34:54] We’re sinners in need of salvation. [34:56] And every step through Romans, Paul wants us to be drawn back to Romans 1.16, [35:01] where he says that the gospel is the power of God for salvation to those who believe.

[35:08] But understand that God has cleared up everything that you ever need to understand and why God needs you to live in the way that He needs you to live through Jesus.

[35:18] You don’t not understand God because it wasn’t made clear.

[35:24] God’s been crystal clear. [35:27] Crystal clear.

[35:30] Through the personal work of Jesus Christ. [35:33] It’s because you don’t want to understand. [35:37] Because you think that if you understand fully, you’ll be held responsible for something. [35:41] Here’s the key. [35:42] You’re going to be held responsible for something, whether you understand it or not, because He’s God and you’re not.

[35:49] Do you really think you’re going to get to heaven and have a lawyer that’s going to get some legal loophole for you? [35:54] I think some of our minds have been so perverted by our justice system that we think we’re going to have representation.

[36:01] You don’t get representation with God. [36:03] You get you then God and He’s smarter than you. [36:06] And so you’re bankrupt. [36:08] That’s the reality of what’s going to happen when you stand before God. [36:13] You’re going to have someone else plead your case. [36:15] There’s not going to be any pleading.

[36:17] He sees you.

[36:20] You’re not going to be like, well, God, did you know about? [36:23] Yeah, I’m God still.

[36:28] The reality is that He has been so crystal clear in His word and then through the person and work of Jesus Christ that Jesus redeems us from our foolishness. [36:37] And He wants to take our debased mind and clear it all up so that we can understand the things of God.

[36:44] A lot of people’s biggest problem isn’t that they don’t understand being on the mission of God. [36:49] It’s that you don’t want to be on the mission of God.

[36:55] It’s not that you don’t understand sacrifice. [36:58] It’s that you don’t want to sacrifice.

[37:02] You can’t claim to be following Jesus and not be constantly changing. [37:07] At some point when the gospel isn’t changing you, you have to admit you don’t have the gospel.

[37:16] At some point that has to become clear or you’re just living in a debased mind and so you’re going to believe a lie forever. [37:23] You’ll believe that the gospel’s come in, done absolutely nothing, but I’ve still got it.

[37:27] If it’s not changing you, what good is it?

[37:34] You can’t follow the rules of the debased mind and have the mind of Jesus at the same time.

[37:46] Galatians chapter 5 shows us the hope of salvation in interesting ways. [37:53] Galatians 5 16 says, this is the apostle Paul writing again, he says, but I say walk by the Spirit and you’ll not gratify the desires of the flesh.

[38:04] Down in verse 25 of that same chapter, Paul writes, if we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. [38:16] See, it isn’t that we just need to think better. [38:20] That’ll clear everything up for us in our debased mind. [38:24] It’s that God desires to come into the gospel of Jesus and transform your mind. [38:30] Walk by the Spirit begins in your mind. [38:36] You know, everywhere where you see the word repentance in scripture, you see the concept of repentance in scripture, the base of that means change of mind.

[38:46] God never wanted thoughtless action. He wanted thoughtful action.

[38:53] God desires to come in to change you, to transform you. [38:58] And that’s how we begin to keep in step with the Spirit.

[39:02] Friends, this is to the believer and the unbeliever alike.

[39:09] Stop using a lack of understanding as an excuse for why you’re living the way that you’re living. [39:17] Everything about sin makes us not understand. [39:21] But everything about Jesus brings understanding.

[39:26] See, at some point when we’re using these excuses, when we’re saying, well, I just, I just don’t understand.

[39:35] At some point, that excuse itself becomes a denial of the gospel. [39:40] Look at what Jesus said himself in John 14, 26. [39:43] He looks to his disciples before this and he says, it’s to your advantage that I leave. [39:49] And then he says, the reason it is, is because the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, [39:55] he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. [40:06] He will remind us. He will help us understand.

[40:10] When we say we can’t understand the things of God and still claim to know Jesus, we’re calling God a liar.

[40:19] Point blank.

[40:21] Only a debased mind would do that.

[40:25] Jesus point blank said the Spirit would give us understanding. [40:29] And the Scripture tells us that the Spirit will help us walk in understanding and obedience. [40:34] God clears up what we have muddled.

[40:38] See, so often we come so close to this edge, and it’s this edge of almost blaming God for our sin. [40:46] And the Scripture makes it clear, God doesn’t do that.

[40:51] We come so close, well, I’d be better if I could just understand the Bible.

[40:59] I’d be better if it was just clearer. I’d be better if I could just understand. [41:02] I’d be better, I’d be better, I’d be better when the reality is, is God’s looking to you through the person of work of Jesus Christ is saying, [41:09] the reason you don’t understand is because you’ll never be better.

[41:16] Jesus says God wants to come in. [41:20] He wants to make his home inside of you. [41:22] He wants to live in your head. [41:25] I don’t know why he wants to be in there. I mean, it’s crazy in there.

[41:31] But God says, I want to be in there. I want to be with you. I want to rule your thoughts. [41:37] I want to put mine in your head.

[41:42] And our reaction should be, yes, I need that because the ones that are in there by my nature, wild stuff, man.

[41:50] Never got me any good. [41:52] And God says, yeah, I know, I read those. Bad, bad. [41:57] That’s why you can pray silently. God’s there whether you want to be or not. [42:01] He says, you can pray silently. Yes. [42:04] That just blew someone’s quiet time away right there. [42:07] They’re like, I don’t have to be loud. People can get sleep.

[42:11] The reality is, God wants to change you from the inside out. [42:19] He knows you.

[42:23] He says, it’s not about you understanding. It’s about me giving you understanding.

[42:32] You are meant to understand, but you won’t unless you walk. [42:40] You see, it requires faith that produces action, that causes change, that leads to obedience.

[42:51] You see, if you want to know the things of God, you have to change how you feed your mind.

[42:57] Paul wrote that following Jesus denies the flesh from gratifying its desires. [43:04] You know what that tells me? [43:06] As I’ve got a thing in me that’s got a different desire than what God has for me. [43:13] That is the debased mind. That’s what he’s talking about there. [43:16] You must enter into environments in your life which feed the power of the spirit to help you think properly. [43:25] If you eat 70 Twinkies a day, are you going to lose weight? No.

[43:30] No. No. I mean, no. [43:34] That should be obvious. I just helped someone’s diet, by the way. [43:38] They’re like, oh, that’s the problem. I hope not. Man, how are you alive? [43:42] That’s impressive. They should probably do a study on you. [43:44] But the reality is that what you are filling your life with, those are the desires you will gratify the most.

[43:57] And so when you excuse yourself from obedience to God here, when you excuse yourself from sacrifice over there, [44:03] when you excuse yourself from the Word here, when you excuse yourself from prayer there, [44:09] when you excuse after excuse after excuse after excuse, [44:12] and then you say, why can’t I get it right? Why can’t I obey God? That’s why.

[44:20] You have to walk by the spirit. You have to serve. You have to feed yourself the Word.

[44:30] You have to set apart time for prayer. And you say, I don’t have to do that. The Holy Spirit does. [44:35] The Holy Spirit does. Don’t worry about that. [44:40] You have to enter into community. You have to enter into discipleship relationships.

[44:47] You have to start sacrificing something in your life. Stop excusing yourself. [44:55] You see, Paul finishes chapter one by dealing with the excuses that deny the gospel. [45:02] And he says that, you know that those who practice such things deserve to die. [45:07] That’s what he says in Romans 1.32.

[45:11] And then he says, but you even get to the point where you approve of such actions.

[45:19] Do you know every excuse is backdoor approval of your actions?

[45:30] Do you know every excuse that you offer of why not today and why maybe six months from now? [45:36] That’s approval of the debased mind.

[45:42] And so pretty soon you approve this simple thing, and then you approve that thing, and then you’re not serving. [45:46] Then you’re not in the Word. Then your prayer life is muddled at best. [45:51] And then pretty soon you’re not in community with other believers. [45:54] You’re not seeing the purpose of discipleship. [45:56] And you’re convincing yourself a lot and a larson of all of the things that God says you need. [46:03] And then you say they are actually inconsequential to me because I’ve reached a level where maybe I just don’t need those things.

[46:12] According to who? Not God.

[46:17] You say, well I talked to God about it. Yeah, I’m sure you did.

[46:22] But you’ve been gratifying the flesh for so long that you’re approving of your own sinfulness. [46:29] And I know there’s a way of reading 1.32 where we think approving of other people. [46:33] But how do you think the approval of others starts? [46:36] It starts at home. With you.

[46:42] We are without excuse. [46:44] How can you be walking by the power of the Spirit if you aren’t doing anything for Jesus?

[46:54] You see Jesus died and rose so that we could be free from the power of the debased mind. [47:00] Are you giving in to sin though?

[47:03] Do you just point out how others are sinful in order to not deal with your own sin?

[47:09] Where are you sacrificing for the cause of the gospel? [47:13] Where are you walking with the Spirit?

[47:17] You know none of us are perfect but Jesus came to begin the process of healing and making us whole.

[47:24] But where is he working on you right now?

[47:29] In your own mind don’t excuse yourself. [47:31] Be specific. [47:34] What is the Spirit telling you needs to change in your life?

[47:41] As we look to the cross through communion.

[47:47] Confess to God and begin the process of changing your mind.

[47:56] As the band comes up and we move into this time of reflection on the cross of Jesus Christ. [48:02] I want you to understand that everything I have said today.

[48:07] The basis of why you exist. The purpose for which your life is.

[48:13] It begins with the cross of Jesus Christ.

[48:18] The cup represents his shed blood. [48:20] The bread represents his broken body. [48:24] Every one of us has had a debased mind. Every one of us struggle with that. [48:31] But Jesus came and took the penalty for our sins onto himself.

[48:36] So that we could have the life of the Holy Spirit in us. [48:39] Ministering to us. [48:41] Guiding us. [48:42] Leading us. [48:44] Teaching us.

[48:47] And if you are in here today and you are a follower of Jesus Christ. [48:50] When you go to one of these six stations around this room. [48:52] I want you to come with an attitude.

[48:56] That says Spirit lead me.

[49:00] Spirit reveal to me where I need to change my mind. [49:04] About any area of my life that I am not giving over to God. [49:09] He wants all of it. [49:12] He doesn’t just want some of it. [49:14] But that journey has got to begin somewhere.

[49:19] When you are ready. Come.