Why One Way, Session 3

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So am I to understand that you call Harold Carl? I remain absolutely convinced of the identity of Harold Camping in your midst, but you call him
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Carl. It is good to be with you.
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I do want to point out that we do have amongst us today absolute direct evidence of resurrection of the dead.
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Ryan's here. I'm pretty sure
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I attended his funeral yesterday, so it's a wonderful day to have absolute evidence of the resurrection of the dead.
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Some of you are going, what are you talking about? Well, if you had seen
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Doug and Brian and I somewhere along, what's the bicycle path called there? Bethpage.
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Bethpage Bicycle Path. Sometime yesterday afternoon you fully understand what I mean about resurrection of the dead.
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So it's a good thing to see. Turn with me please to your Bibles to Romans chapter 1.
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Last evening we had the opportunity together to consider at least some thoughts on this subject.
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To be honest with you, there is so much more that can and needs to be said on this subject.
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I really believe that fundamentally understanding the exclusive nature of the
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Christian gospel is something that each generation must think through because of the fact that there is an offensiveness to any exclusive message.
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There has always been an offensiveness. When you think back historically, when you consider the people of God, the
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Jewish people in the Old Testament, they were very offensive to the nations around them.
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Because the idea then was, well, you know, you had Dagon, you had
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Baal, you had the Ashtaroth, you had all of these gods that were gods of a particular area.
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And so you had gods of fertility and crops and war and so on and so forth.
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And each people had their own set of gods. And you were considered enlightened if you would allow for all of those gods to be true all pretty much at the same time.
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And if you dared to say something like the Jews said, that there is one
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God and he is our God and he is not limited by the borders of our land and he is just as much your
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God as our God, that is, you are responsible before him. And if you worship anyone other but him, you are engaging in idolatry.
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That was considered incredibly offensive and incredibly backwards. Even in the days of the
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Roman Empire, when the Jews were given a protected status, they were still looked at as being, well, cultural freaks.
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Because what Rome asked you to do was to at least acknowledge the validity of the
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Roman gods, even if you didn't worship them. You could continue to worship your gods once Rome conquered you, but you really ran afoul of the society when you dared to worship but one god and refused to acknowledge at least the validity of other people's worship of their gods.
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It should sound somewhat familiar because we find ourselves in the exact same situation today in our society.
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Really what we are seeing is a repaganization of Western society.
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We had gotten past this in the past, but now the enlightenment perspective is to take a new path, a new direction and to recognize that there really isn't anything that can be known when it comes to religious claims.
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We looked at some of that last evening. We looked at some in Sunday school this morning as to the authority of who
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Jesus is to address these issues. But now I wish to consider the universal need of man is what demonstrates that there needs to be a universal solution from God.
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The idea that all roads lead to heaven, that all religions are acceptable in God's sight, is based upon a number of false assumptions.
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We looked at some of them last evening. But one of the most obvious false assumptions it's based upon is the idea that given all of the needs of man, that all religious systems can meet those needs.
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Now today, of course, we live in a day where even defining the needs of man is difficult to do.
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The majority of our fellow citizens, and I would say that many of us sitting in this room this morning, despite the fact that we are sitting in a church, despite the fact that we have sung beautiful hymns, that we have acknowledged
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God as our creator, the fact is that numerous times during the past week, in ways that you may have noticed or in many ways you did not, the society has sought to chip away at your meaningful understanding that there is a creator
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God. For a large majority of people today, even who acknowledge the existence of God, He has been put at a distance from us.
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The idea that He is the creator directly, that He has a purpose for the creation, that He is working out a purpose in this world, that is just too big for the
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God of secularism, if He is even allowed to exist at all.
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And each one of us have been impacted in the way that we think and the way that we act by that constant pressure upon us.
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And so to even define what man's needs are, we have to ask ourselves the question, well what is man?
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And the answer of our society today is primarily man is a highly evolved mammal.
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We can't even really use the term highly, he is complex, but if you really understand evolutionary theory, at least neo -Darwinian micro -mutational evolutionary theory, there is no direction.
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Evolution is directionless, there is no purpose in it, there is no direction that it goes.
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And so to say highly isn't even accurate. And so when you say what is man's need, well
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I suppose from an evolutionary perspective, my biggest need is to pass my genotype on to the next generation.
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Well I already did that, so I really don't have much purpose left. I mean,
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I'm sort of taking up the world's resources. Didn't they make a movie, what was it called, Ryan's Run or Logan's Run or something like that back in the 70s?
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Sort of followed this through, you know, pretty much after you get the next generation going, you don't have much use after that, and it's a little bit frightening when you think about it.
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But what is man's need? Well I guess most people would say, well we want to have the pursuit of happiness, and maybe health, and a long life.
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You could argue all of those points from an evolutionary perspective, but I guess self -fulfillment, it's all about me.
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It's whether I have my iPod in my car at my house, and three weeks vacation, and a few things like that.
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But as long as everything else is working, I guess that's what man's need is.
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We look around the world and we realize that that kind of an answer really doesn't address what's happening in our world today.
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We think of genocide taking place in Africa, we think of the fact that we live in a dangerous world.
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Not only do we have terrorism, but we have wars, we have threats of wars, we may have a war erupting in a land that I just visited.
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I'm very, very concerned about what's taking place in Ukraine, and having gotten to know some of the
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Christian people there. I was there during the revolution in Maidan Square. It was quite an experience, and now
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I'm very concerned about my Christian brothers and sisters, because it really seems that there are people with armies that want to expand.
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We thought that was all done with, didn't we? Well, we live in this world, we look around, we ask ourselves a simple question.
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What is man's need? The Bible has a clear answer. I would suggest to you that when we look at Romans chapter 1 and Romans chapter 3, we have such an amazing insight into the true nature of human beings, and how we act, and how we treat one another, and the sin that we experience.
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This is one of the greatest evidences of the inspiration of the Scriptures. Because for all of the volumes, and volumes, and volumes, and volumes of psychiatry and psychology that you can read, you will never find greater insight into man and his behavior than you'll find in these small number of originally
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Greek words. Let's look at what is said in Romans chapter 1, beginning at verse 18.
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Before Paul can get into the good news, he's mentioned it, he's mentioned the gospel, he's mentioned the good news.
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Before he can really address it, he has to address the bad news. And that's one of the reasons the
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Church very rarely really takes the secular view of man on directly. Because we keep skipping the
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Biblical order. The Biblical order is the bad news first, then the good news. Jesus' first words were not,
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I've come to give you life. They were repent and believe. We try to turn that around.
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Notice what is found in the inspired Scriptures. The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.
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And then when it describes men, it says, who are suppressing, holding down the truth in unrighteousness.
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Because that which is known about God is evident within them. For God made it evident to them.
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For 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 an apologetic.
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They are without an excuse. They're without a reasonable defense for their rebellion against God.
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For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks.
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But they became futile in their speculations and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible
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God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four -footed animals and crawling creatures.
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Therefore God gave them over the lust of their hearts to impurities that their bodies would be dishonored among them. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator.
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He is blessed forever. Amen. Now, let's stop at that point and consider what the
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Apostle has told us. If Christianity is true, given the nature of the claims, remember last evening
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Jesus said this message, forgiveness of sins in the name of Jesus is to be proclaimed in all nations.
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That means it has to be a message that cannot be marked by a colloquialism, by a localism.
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It cannot be marked by something that would limit it to one society, one language.
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Remember there was a time in the history of the church when there was a danger that might happen.
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Remember Acts chapter 15? There were people saying you can't become a Christian unless you become a
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Jew first. In Acts chapter 15 a council met and they said no. This message is for all people and because of Acts chapter 15 a
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Christian can go into any language, can go into any place in the world and proclaim the lordship of Jesus Christ and the need of each and every person to embrace
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Christ as Savior because our message is true no matter what your language, no matter what your culture, no matter what your background, your education, it doesn't matter.
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All men, all women, boys and girls, aged women and aged men are made in the image of God and they all have the same problem.
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Now, it doesn't mean we all have the same problems. I guess the big term these days is first world problems versus third world problems and I understand that.
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I had quite the culture shock when I went down to South Africa last year and you would have a neighborhood of really nice homes and then you could drive just a matter of a mile and I even spoke in a church in Tambizi.
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If any of you have ever seen Tambizi or Soweto you know that these, I didn't know if the term slum can describe.
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Buildings, small little huts made of corrugated metal, the roofs are held on by car tires, there's no running water.
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It's just the amazing contrast that you would see in a very short period of time and you might say well how can one message be valid in one place or another but what
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I certainly saw was the difference between first world problems. First world problem is when your iPad will not turn on.
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Third world problem is when you can't get enough water to drink. Okay there's a difference between the two.
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How can you have a message that's valid in all of those different places? Well that's what you have here because you see the message of scripture here refers to man as the creature of God and it refers to how that creature relates to his creator and it doesn't matter how many physical possessions you have.
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It doesn't matter how big or how small your house is or how many clothes you have or the level of technology.
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What is said in these words remains true no matter what man's situation is. That's what's so amazing to me about this section of scripture.
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I have used the terminology in the past of when you read Calvin's Institutes I've said in many sections the ink still smudges because you see it's still relevant.
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That's the difference between great writing and not so great writing. I don't think the ink is going to smudge on most of my books after I'm dead.
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But someone who really has an insight into things the ink still smudges because it remains relevant long after they're gone.
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Well the ink will never dry on Romans chapter 1 because it's always true what it says about man.
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And no matter how much man advances in his technology it's amazing how these words remain absolutely true.
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You either recognize your creator or you will be changed by your rebellion against him.
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You might say I don't understand. He's talking here about idolatry. He's talking here about people who refuse to acknowledge
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God. And notice what he says. He says for example beginning of verse 18 that the wrath of God is being revealed.
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It's not will someday be revealed. This isn't the wrath of the end day. This is wrath right now.
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The wrath of God is being revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who are suppressing.
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It's a present tense participle. It's a continuing action. Men suppress the truth and unrighteousness.
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And they do it in so many different ways. It doesn't matter whether you go to an ancient stone temple and you bow down before some hideous statue of some coiled snake or whether you stand in Harvard or Princeton and Yale with numerous letters after your name and look at a snake and say it's not designed.
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It's just a random result of micro -mutational evolutionary theory over time.
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It doesn't matter. They're both idolatry. They're both idolatry.
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You can have all the intelligence in the world but if you do not submit that intelligence to the very source of all knowledge to the one who made you and formed you and gave you even the ability to think and to act, it is idolatry and it will change you.
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It will impact you. You cannot escape the fact that you were created to be a worshipping being and you will worship.
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You will worship. Everyone in this society worships. You say, don't think so.
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Right now there's a bunch of folks and they're out on the local lakes and they're sailing around in sailboats and they're paddling around in paddle boats and they're playing golf.
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I mean I saw a golf army. Was that yesterday morning? Yeah, I saw a golf army.
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I've never seen so many golf carts in one place since driving through Sun City, Arizona. I mean it was amazing and they're all out there and they're out there again today and they're swinging the clubs and you say, see they're not worshipping.
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Oh yes they are. Oh yes they are. We all worship.
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We worship our bodies, we worship our homes, we worship our money, we worship our minds and we give ourselves in worship.
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It's not really happening right now but you know come the fall there's going to be many thousands of your fellow citizens that will spend hundreds of dollars to get into massive temples of worship and for a number of hours they will scream themselves hoarse worshipping big, huge, 320 pound behemoth men in pads who are smashing their bodies into other behemoth 320 pound men also in pads that are getting paid millions of dollars to absolutely abuse themselves and all to try to land very squarely on top of a really oblong thing made out of pigskin and some of those people they live for that.
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I mean it is absolutely their life. You better believe we're worshipping creatures.
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We may worship our wives, our husbands. Some people worship their children but that's a really strange situation you see that.
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Some people try to relive their lives through their children, poor kids. But we are worshipping creatures and the more intelligent of us might refine our idolatry so that it's very hidden.
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Others are very religious in their idolatry because when you engage in religious worship that is not sanctioned by God that's a tremendously effective way to suppress the truth about God by creating another
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God. A God that doesn't have the same demands upon you that the real
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God does. A God that will allow you to fulfill your lusts and desires in a particular way.
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Or maybe a God that will allow you to exercise religious authority over other individuals. Don't underestimate how much people will give up to be able to control someone else.
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There are a tremendous number of ways in which idolatry takes place and my friends, our land is soaked in idolatry today.
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It can be secular idolatry, it can be religious idolatry, it does not matter. The fact of the matter is that men suppress the truth and righteousness because that which is known about God is evident within them and for God made it evident to them.
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God has revealed both inwardly in the creation of the conscience and outwardly in the general revelation around us that He exists.
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And according to this text, this is so clear that men are without an apologetic, they are without a defense, they are without an excuse because even though they knew
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God they did not do the very things that that knowledge of God was sufficient to impress upon them and that was that they are to honor
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Him as God and give thanks. They are to honor Him as God and give thanks. They refuse to do that and when you refuse to honor your creator and give thanks to Him for all that you possess, you will be changed.
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You cannot avoid it. You're cutting yourself off from the very source of life, you're putting yourself in the position of being a rebel, you will be changed.
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So what does it say? Since they would not honor Him as God and give thanks, they became futile in their speculations and their foolish heart was darkened.
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Sin impacts the mind of man and this is true in every generation, in every culture.
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Oh, it's easy to point to some kind of tribe buried in the
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Amazon jungle someplace and they eat human brains and engage in just the most gross forms of idolatry.
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We wonderfully enlightened westerners can look at that and go, oh, this is very clear, here's a great example.
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Very easy for us to do that. It's not so easy for us to look at ourselves and to recognize the level of idolatry that we have become accustomed to in our own society.
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That kind of gross idolatry, easy to identify. But we have our own priest class now in our society.
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What's my point? My point is it doesn't matter if you're in Africa, South America, if you're in the
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Himalayas, if you're in the enlightenment of Oxford and England or Paris or Germany, it doesn't matter where you are, these words are fulfilled in every single human being you'll ever find.
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Their speculations become futile, their foolish heart is darkened. Professing to be wise, they become fools and you end up with the great exchange where we exchange the glory of the incorruptible
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God for an image in the form of corruptible man of birds and forfeited animals and crawling creatures.
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Now is that just the horrific idolatry in the jungle and the hideous statues?
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No. Because when we worship ourselves, when we put ourselves in the place of God, we're engaging in just as much of a horrific act of idolatry as that person in the
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Amazon jungle. Now what's the result? Therefore God gave them over, that's the very same term that is used when
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Jesus is betrayed into the hands of men, God gave them over in the lust of their hearts to impurity so that their bodies would be dishonored among them.
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For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever.
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Every single society. Is there murder? Is there sexual sin?
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Is there fornication? Adultery? Incest?
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Yes. There is. Why? If it's all just a matter of evolutionary biology, why is this universally the case?
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Well it is universally the case because this text identifies us as the image bearers of God and when the image bearers of God try to wipe out the image in which they're created they will be damaged in the process.
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And we are all damaged image bearers. And there is going to be a consistency in what that looks like.
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Now is it going to have slightly different ramifications in one place than another? Yes. But the words remain true no matter what.
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Now he goes on and he says, For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions.
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For the women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural. We already live in the
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West in times where even having this text scroll across a screen in a restaurant has caused people to be charged with crime.
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And in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another.
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Men with men committing indecent acts and receiving their own persons a due penalty of their error. There really isn't any question about what
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Paul is addressing. It's amazing the number of books being produced today to try to find a way around this.
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There really isn't any question. Just they did not see fit to acknowledge
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God any longer. You might just say, let me just mention something impassive. Verse 28 is not the start of some new section.
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You need to understand there's a direct connection between what was just said in verses 26 and 27 and what verse 28 said.
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Because what Paul is saying is God made us in a certain way.
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And we rebelled so deeply and so personally against our creator that we refused to allow his creative decree to be true even in what defines us as men and women.
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That is why you have all of this attack upon gender in our society.
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Can there be any more direct rebellion against the creator than to say you don't even get to determine whether we're male or female.
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We have the right even to change that which is the most basic element of our creative person.
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We can even change that. We will not listen to God even there. That's why verse 28 is not some new section.
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And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer. If you can actually say to God I will not even be obedient to the most basic foundational elements of the creative order itself.
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I will reject your authority to even be who you made me to be.
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That is the ultimate rejection of God. The ultimate no longer seeing fit to acknowledge
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God any longer. The result is God gave them over to a depraved mind. To do those things which are not proper.
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Then you have the description. And again these words. These words apply in every society around this world.
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We may use different words to describe them. There may be more of a propensity in one society for one kind of sin than another kind of sin.
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But it doesn't matter where you go. This description will remain true.
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What things are not proper in God's sight? Being filled with all unrighteousness. Wickedness, greed, evil.
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Full of envy. It's not just amongst western societies where you have envy.
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In the poorest places in the world those who live there will tell you they struggle with envy.
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Not just for the rich people, but for the person next door. Full of envy.
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Murder. Any place in the world where that doesn't happen. Oh yes, as long as they take away weapons.
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Really? I don't think so. Murder. Strife. Deceit.
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Malice. Nah, there's only gossip in the west, right? They are gossips.
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Slanderers. This next term, theostogeis, is normally translated as haters of God, but there's a really good argument to be made that it's hated by God.
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There really is a good argument from the original language on that. Insolence.
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Arrogance. Boastful. If you want to try to avoid that one, may
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I suggest not watching the post -game show after any NFL program at all. Ever noticed that?
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I'm shocked when I get to see professional basketball players or football players or baseball players or anything that actually are humble.
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It's neat. It's sort of like, well that's cool, unfortunately he'll play for a different team next year, but anyway, how can you root for a team anymore?
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Anyway, I was reminded, I think the first time I came here was 2002, for a men's breakfast.
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And that was right after Arizona Diamondbacks beat the New York Yankees in the World Series. Which was the last time that the
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Diamondbacks won the World Series. And within two years, or three years, most of our players were playing for you, which
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I really don't think is fair. I'm not really sure how you do that. So you really can't do that.
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I like to find a particular individual who seems to have his head on his shoulder that, boy, boastful?
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It's right here in the same section with malice and murder, but yeah, boastful.
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Inventors of evil. Disobedient to parents? Really?
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Yeah, that really does impact the very social order, doesn't it? Yeah, it does. Without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful, and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.
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You haven't seen this recently. You haven't been watching television news. Sin loves company.
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Sin loves company. And it's all around us. And what's my point?
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The point is, this is a snapshot of mankind as he is everywhere. Everywhere.
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And so if there is a universal need, if there is a universal condition, and if there is a
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God, then he knows what the need is. And the answer to that need is going to have to be something that can apply across not only the geographical and language boundaries that exist today, but it's going to have to apply and be meaningful over time too.
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So it's got to be a message that works in the first century and now works in the 21st century.
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I know a lot about the religions of men. There are some that I don't know as well as others. But I can guarantee you one thing.
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If you're talking about the gospel of Jesus Christ in comparison to what the world's religions have to offer, the world's religions don't even begin to touch upon the deepest need of man's heart.
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Instead what they do is they offer a band -aid. If you would just meditate more, if you would get rid of desire, hell, that's better.
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If you would get rid of desire, then you wouldn't be experiencing all of these things.
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I'm not saying, by the way, that everything that every world religion says is wrong.
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We need to get that idea out of our minds. If we're all created in the image of God, and if you're trying to create at least a somewhat believable method of controlling other people,
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Ann Landers once in a while gets something right. It's not like it's either all right or all wrong.
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Because we're made in the image of God, we know the sky is blue. We know the sun is going to come up. We know that there's something true about the golden rule.
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We recognize these things. And so you can find that the image -bearers of God will express wisdom at times, but what they'll never do, what they'll never do, is express that wisdom as a function of submitting to the one true holy
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God that they're hiding from. They'll give you false gods, they'll give you partial gods, but they'll always give you a way out of having to deal with the
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God that you know is there. The God about whom you're suppressing the truth and holding it down.
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And so, what does this mean to the idea of Jesus as the only way?
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Well, we said last evening, this message is to be proclaimed through all the earth.
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Why? Because Jesus recognizes and he instructs his apostles that what he has done in his death, burial, and resurrection is the one means whereby those who are experiencing these things, those who are rebelling against God, as that message is preached, the
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Spirit of God makes that message come alive in the hearts and minds of men and women, boys and girls.
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He takes out that heart of stone that loves all of this and gives a heart of flesh that wants to acknowledge
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God. It no longer suppresses the knowledge of God but rejoices in the knowledge of God.
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There is one message and one means that God has given to deal with this universal problem.
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Now, after Paul gives this list, you probably know in the next chapter he turns his attention to the
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Jews. And the Jews thought that they were pretty much all set up as far as this was concerned.
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They weren't really concerned. You go out and Paul, you preach against those pagans and chapter 2 basically says this, well actually
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I was talking about everybody. Because even though you know that all these things are wrong, if you practice them in your hearts, you're just as guilty as all the
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Gentiles. And so, he then has a discussion well if that's the case, then what advantage is there to the
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Jews, so on and so forth. And then chapter 3, verse 9 we read this.
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Romans chapter 3, verse 9. What then? Are we better than they? Not at all, for we have already charged that both
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Jews and Greeks are all under sin. As it is written, there is none righteous, not even one. There is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God.
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To literally translate that, there is no God seeker. All have turned aside, together they have become useless.
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There is none who does good, there is not even one. Their throat is an open grave, with their tongues they keep deceiving.
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The poison of asps is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood.
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Destruction and misery are their paths, and the path of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes.
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A catena of passages, strung together from the Old Testament, all to witness to the universal simpleness of man.
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Concluding with the statement, there is no fear of God before their eyes.
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And Paul says, now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God.
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There is the end of the bad news. The end of the bad news is that when we know man as he is, and we know what
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God's purpose in creating man was, all the world stands before God accountable.
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All the world. Every language, every ethnic group, every race, this is a universal condemnation of every single man and woman can stand before God and they will be held accountable.
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And notice what it says, so that every mouth may be closed. Why is
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Jesus the only way? Because the gospel says that all have sinned.
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And the gospel says that when we really understand ourselves, when we really understand our own hearts, there's no way that we can make an excuse before God.
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The picture that is given here is of that person that stands before the judge. Now we all have, we all have seen these reality shows, these court
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TV shows, you know, Judge, I've lost track of him. I remember Judge Judy. Is she still around? I think
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Judge Judy is still around. But then there's some other guy judge now and then they sort of they're taking over.
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Anyway, and you see the people, I mean you love it when the judge really gets mad at somebody.
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And it's normally somebody who's not taking responsibility for their actions or something like that. And you just love when like Judge Judy starts getting snarky with somebody and just slaps them down and, you know, brings the gavel down and you're guilty.
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That's not this person. So that every mouth may be closed.
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That's the person you see standing before the judge. And they're not sitting there arguing that they're as good as anybody else.
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They're not sitting there arguing they didn't do anything wrong. The mouth is closed. The head is down. There's an acknowledgement of the power of the judge and the court and the rightness of the condemnation and sentence and judgment.
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And there's no more complaint. There's no more excuses. The mouth is closed.
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No claims of self -righteousness anymore. So that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God.
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Why is Jesus the only way? Because the gospel says it's for every man, woman, child.
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All the world. It doesn't matter where I go. It's such an liberating, freeing thing.
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And we mentioned the mosque in Erasmus. I had never done a debate in stocking feet before.
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You can't wear shoes in a mosque. And so since I was standing right in front of the
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Qibla, I was standing right where the imam had just led the prayers.
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We debated sin and salvation. It never crossed my mind.
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I'm in a different place now. I'm in a different land. I'm on the other side of the world. And so I'm going to have to change my message.
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Because these people are different. It never crossed my mind. The wonderful thing to recognize in that situation is wherever I am, it doesn't matter who
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I'm talking to, they have the exact same need. And no matter what their religion is,
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I could look at those Muslims, faithful Muslims, doing their prayers. And I could look at them and I knew that when
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I gave my testimony, that when I spoke to them of the evil in my heart and my need and how often
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I fall short and the fact that if it was up to me, I could never bring myself into God's presence. I couldn't do enough prayers.
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I couldn't do enough good deeds. The reason that I do the things I do is out of love for Christ, who's provided this perfect salvation for me.
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I knew those were words that the Spirit of God could make to come alive in the hearts of any one of those people seated on the carpet in front of me for those many hours of that debate.
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It never crossed my mind that I had to edit things, change things. Because you see, the real evidence that there's only one way is that there is only one need.
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Since there's one need, God has provided the perfect answer to that need and if there was some other way he had provided, that would mean that the first way he provided wasn't perfect.
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But it is. And because we are commanded to proclaim it to all men, all women, wherever they are, does that mean that I spoke to them in the exact same way
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I would speak to an American audience? No. I didn't use sports illustrations. I didn't talk about NBA players.
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So obviously, I had to think through the clarity of the words that I would use to communicate to them in a different culture but the message remained absolutely the same.
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Because the need is the same wherever we are. To say that there are many ways to God is fundamentally to say that there are many different needs of man and that you get to pick and choose.
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Reality is, when you think about that, that's so foolish. When I go to the doctor, if there's something wrong with me,
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I need to know what's really wrong with me. If I go to a doctor and he says, well, what would you like to have wrong with you?
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Well, I like my left leg to be just a little bit shorter than my right leg so that we can fix that real easy.
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You don't want the heart problem issue? No, we don't want to worry about it. It's easier to fix.
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I don't want to go to a doctor like that and yet that's what people want in religion. The idea that we can just pick and choose our religions as we see fit means that somehow we get to be our own doctors and get to make our own prognosis.
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Reality is, I want a doctor who really is going to know what's wrong with me and what I need to do.
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He's going to provide a meaningful solution. If that's how we view doctors, why don't we view
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God? That's the question we ask. Once again, as I mentioned last evening, this message is not meant to exclude in the sense that our society uses that as a negative word.
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May I suggest to you the term exclusion is a good thing? Our society says it is.
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We all have to be so inclusive. Except the people who are inclusive but don't want to include us. But anyway, that's another issue.
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May I suggest to you the term exclusion is really good? When I go to the doctor and there's something that's really wrong,
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I want him to be able to properly exclude all sorts of things that aren't really wrong with me.
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So that I can know what really is and we can really treat it. What we're saying when we say
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Christianity is exclusive, is that God has already excluded all of the false paths that will never get you back to His presence.
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And He has made plain and clear the one path and the one message that will.
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And so when the world looks at you and says oh, hater, you're being exclusive! Look at them and say, excuse me, is that a
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GPS in your car? It is? Hater. What do you mean, hater?
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What does that GPS do? Think of all the things the GPS does. It excludes all the routes that ain't going to get you where you're going.
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And it discriminates between the right way and the wrong way.
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I mean, if you want to get to Boston, there's probably a couple different ways you can do it.
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But there are some ways that are going to take you a really long time. You want to discriminate, don't you? Two terms our society says, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad.
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But we all do them every day and we like it. People just don't think.
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We need to think. We need to be clear in the way that we present the gospel to folks because what
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God has done is He's excluded false ways. He's discriminated against ways that will lead us into darkness and destruction and He's provided us a perfect way in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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Let's pray. Our gracious Heavenly Father, we are thankful that you have indeed with clarity provided for us a clear message as to what we are to do and what our need is.
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Lord, we would pray that even this morning there would be any in this place that have been walking along a path that leads to nowhere, leads in circles, leads to death.
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They would have heard, they would understand that Jesus truly is the only one.
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Lord, we thank you for the gospel. We thank you that we do not have to, by our own power, make people come to understand it, but that it's your spirit that does that.
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So we pray that even now, your spirit would work in the hearts and minds of believers and unbelievers alike.
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Amongst believers, to help them to understand and be better servants of yours in this coming week. Amongst unbelievers, to reveal to them the glory of our