Jesus The Judge, The Gospel And The Beloved Son - [Luke 3:15-22]

Paul writes to the Romans, I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God,

to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your

spiritual worship.

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.

And by testing, you may discern what the will of God is, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Paul basically says, in light of what I've done for you and giving you the Lord Jesus and His righteousness,

granted you redemption, forgiveness of sins, proven that by the resurrection of Jesus,.

Your whole lives should be,.

My whole life should be a sacrifice to the Lord.

And he gives the warning as well.

He says, don't be conformed to this world.

Don't think after the world's thoughts.

Don't buy into the world's system as they try to pummel you with advertising and media.

Sadly, for us, we are a persuadable people.

Advertising works, commercials work, and the world has a constant bombardment,

not of godly things, not of Bible verses, not of Christ -centered theology, but of things that are

anti -God, anti -Christ.

And so, dear Christian, from social media, to television, to everything else,.

We have to guard ourselves.

We have to guard ourselves.

Paul wrote to the Corinthians, be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be

strong, let all that you do be done in love.

One of the things we have to watch out for is our minds being conformed to this

world.

And I want you, dear Christian, to think through things in a biblical way.

Paul writes, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but have divine power to

destroy strongholds.

We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought

captive to obey Christ.

And our society today has bombarded us with all kinds of issues swirling

around sexual immorality, from adultery to fornication, that's true, but these days, from

homosexuality to transgender, and LGBTQ and every other part of the

immoral alphabet soup.

There are activist teachers trying to jam this down the throats of children.

There are activist doctors who are doing the same in hospitals, putting it under the banner of

gender -affirming care.

Make no doubt about it, even in Rosalie's book called Transgender Marxism, they are

trying to destroy and to tear down and to abolish what they call

heteronormal activity.

Men, women, no difference.

God, nature, no difference.

In some ways, it reminds me of Mary Shelley's book, Frankenstein, and one of the premises of

Frankenstein, the book is, if you have science and data and empiricism

at such a high level, but you divorce it from ethics and God and morality,

you get something called Frankenstein.

I looked at this week about the intentional bombardment of this sexual immorality.

These are different days or weeks or months where certain immoral activity is

promoted, a gender pride day, a romantic spectrum awareness week,

a romantic visibility day, international asexuality day, ace

weeks, bisexual awareness week, celebrate bisexuality day,

gender fluidity visibility week, drag day, intentional day against

homophobia, transphobia and biphobia, international day of pink,

intersex awareness day, intersex day of remembrance, lesbian day, lesbian

visibility day, national coming out day, non -binary awareness week, non

-binary people's day, pansexual day, pronouns day, trans

awareness month, trans awareness week, transgender day of remembrance, trans

day of visibility, trans parent day, zero discrimination day.

What goes through your mind when I read that?

What do you think of biblically when I say those things?

Do you say, well, I just should probably go along to get along?

You say, well, this isn't really a big deal.

Society is getting better.

Are you afraid?

Are you mad?

Are you sad?

Politics aside, persecution aside, I would like you, dear congregation, to think

rightly about these issues.

And so normally we're in the gospel of Jesus, according to Luke, marching through, but once in a while we'll deviate from

Luke.

I think we've been in Luke maybe for about 20 messages.

We're in chapter three.

Certain things will come up that I want to address in today's one of those days.

So today we're gonna look at this issue because I want you to think biblically because it's good to make sure we have our minds not

conformed to this world, but renewed by the scripture.

So the outline today is very simple, but let me give you my purpose first.

My purpose is I want you to think rightly about these things as a Christian would think about these things through the

lens of the Bible.

That's my main goal because that's how God is honored.

That's the response to God's salvation that he's given to you freely and fully in Christ, that you then think the right

way, that you have thoughts that are commensurate to your Savior.

The outline is simple.

I'm going to give you many lies that you might be tempted to believe if it wasn't for Jesus and the scripture.

Lies that you might be tempted to believe and each lie has an implication.

The main implication is don't believe it, but lies that you're tempted to believe when it comes to

sexual immorality, specifically transgenderism, homosexuality, et al.

Lie number one, that individual transgender people and individual

homosexuals are our enemies.

That's lie number one, that they're your enemies.

I'd like you to take your Bible and turn to Matthew chapter nine.

People are not our enemies.

We are to love sinners like Jesus loved us.

They are image bearers.

They have souls.

They have spirits.

And I want you to love other people.

I want you to be considerate, thoughtful, kind.

I did not say you celebrate sin.

I did not say you applaud sin and put it on center stage.

I did not say that at all.

I said that you should love them and care for them.

Part of love is not celebrating sin.

Part of love we'll see today is telling people the truth.

But we're discussing this today because many people are demanding acceptance and endorsement

and this lies at the epicenter of the cultural upheaval we have in America today.

And I would argue, of course, that it is hate speech to not talk about this, to not tell people about sin.

John the Baptist, although we saw last week, he preached repentance, it cost him his head when he talked

about sexual sin.

Matthew chapter nine, of course, this book about Jesus the King, everything about it shows us that Jesus is the King of

kings and Lord of lords.

How does Jesus deal with sinners?

Arms length, stiff arm, Matthew 9, 10.

And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and

sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples.

Matthew, the tax collector, is told by Jesus to follow him and all of a sudden that means

no more tax collecting, no more skimming off the top.

And so Matthew is going to hold a big feast, a big party to say, I have to go,

this is my farewell party, and also I want to introduce you to Jesus.

And lots of tax collectors and sinners were reclining.

Even that word there behold in the ESV is making you try to picture it in your mind's eye.

Here's Jesus with all these really low lives and degenerates and people that are on the lowest.

Of the list.

Tax collectors and sinners were considered people that were like prostitutes, awful folks.

You can think that they're like terrorists.

They're people that whoever you think is the lowest on the totem pole socially, they're the outcasts, they're

the riffraff, they're the low lives.

This reminds me of the parable of the prodigal son.

Tax collectors and sinners were coming near Jesus to listen to him.

This man receives sinners and eats with them.

And so Matthew has this great feast.

And the text says they're reclining.

Like what are they doing?

They kind of sleep at the table.

If you normally ate, you would just sit like we would sit.

But if it's a big feast, if it's Thanksgiving kind of feast, you kind of lay down and you have your

left elbow down and you eat with your right hand.

It's just a way of closeness and familiarity and love.

And Matthew has this big reception in his house, Luke 5 says.

I've been forgiven.

I know who the Messiah is.

I want you to know too.

It's like this evangelism party.

I think sometimes in Christian circles, we have pampered chef parties and Tupperware parties, but those may be for different reasons.

I can't wait for my old business associates to meet this Jesus.

And so I'm going to open up my house.

Mark says there were many tax collectors and many sinners.

Tax collectors were Jewish people hired by Rome to exact taxes from the Jews to give back to

Rome.

So they were despised.

And sinners, I mean, we're all sinners, yes.

But here in the gospels, sinner means people that are Gentiles.

They don't care about the law.

Jews that say, I don't care what the Bible says.

I don't even care what the Pharisees say.

We're not going to obey any of these things.

And these people, these degenerates, these lowlifes are eating with Jesus.

He's reclining with them in the most intimate way over dinner.

I mean, the Pharisees are freaking out.

I mean, he's eating with tax collectors and sinners?

Verse 11, and when the Pharisees saw this, they're not getting too close because you'd hate to get

ceremonially defiled, right?

They said to his disciples, they didn't even ask Jesus, why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?

It's not a real question.

And then, birds of a feather flock together.

He's just like them.

The only way you eat with people like this is if you're like them.

You don't run around eating with tax collectors and sinners unless you are one.

Luke 5 adds, they began grumbling at his disciples.

I mean, this is enough.

Jesus is going around doing things, but this is, enough is enough.

I'm offended.

Pharisees, of course, they were the exact, being fastidious,

mustard seed, tithing, cumin, offering.

Let's get everything separated down the best we can.

And you know what?

They could care less if anybody became forgiven.

They didn't care that the scribes and the, excuse me, that the tax collectors

and the sinners needed forgiveness.

They cared about being ceremonially unclean.

Why is he eating and drinking with tax collectors and sinners?

Verse 12, but when he heard it, the question wasn't to Jesus, but he heard it.

And he said, those who are well have no need of a physician,.

But those who are sick.

Go and learn what this means.

I desire mercy and not sacrifice, for I came not to call the righteous, but

sinners.

When Jesus is around people who know they need righteousness, who know they need forgiveness, who know they're

ungodly, he's kind and compassionate and what we might call nice.

And when he's around people like the Pharisees and the scribes who think they're righteous on their own self -righteous, he

blisters them.

I can still think of my mom, if I'm about ready to disobey when I'm about 10 years old, and she'd say, son, you're

gonna get a blistering.

Except Jesus does it with his words.

And you can think of Matthew 23 later, woe to you scribes and Pharisees, woe to you blind fools and

you serpents and brood of vipers.

Pharisees, we're well.

Tax collectors, they're sick.

Of course, the mission statement of all mission statements, it's a trustworthy saying, deserving of full acceptance, that

Christ Jesus came into the world to what?

Save sinners.

Paul said, among whom I'm foremost.

Why does he say this?

Simple analogy, go back to the text again.

Those who are well have no need of physician, but those who are sick.

I mean, the Pharisees are sick too, but they think they're righteous, so they don't need to go to a doctor.

And what would you think of a doctor who never wanted to be around sick people?

This particular doctor doesn't wait for the sick people to come to him.

He goes to the sick people, sovereign grace.

Of course, the Pharisees need righteousness.

Of course, they are ungodly, but they just didn't acknowledge their need.

But the sinners and the tax collectors did.

Matthew did.

Doctors go to physically sick, and spiritual doctors go to those who are spiritually sick.

The great physician of the soul, the Lord Jesus.

A doctor doesn't say, I can't go to you and help you because I might risk contamination.

Although that's not always true when I was in the hospital with COVID for those 16 days, I'd get a phone call, and I thought it was

the cafeteria because they would also call, and it would be the doctor, and the doctor said, before I come in and talk to you,

I don't wanna be in there very long, and so I'm gonna ask you all these questions now on the phone.

I'll quick gown up and then come in and just talk to you for a few seconds.

Jesus goes to the sick people.

I love that song by Philip Bliss.

Man of sorrows, what a name for the Son of God who came.

Ruin sinners to reclaim, hallelujah, what a savior.

How can you condemn a doctor for going to sick people?

One writer said, the new thing in Christianity is not the doctrine that God saves sinners.

No Jew would have denied that.

It's the assertion that God loves and saves them as sinners.

This is the authentic and glorious doctrine of true Christianity.

It's a simple analogy.

Doctors go to sick people.

But he says something else here too.

Verse 13, but go and learn what this means.

What's that trying to convey to the Pharisees?

You teachers of the Bible should know this.

He's not saying go off on a journey and learn it.

It's a blast.

It's sarcastic.

Go learn this.

You should know this.

You're the teachers of the Bible.

It's right there in Hosea chapter six, and you don't know anything about it.

It's a rebuke.

It's a slap in the face.

Why don't you go learn what Hosea 6 .6 means?

I delight in loyalty rather than sacrifice, and in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

You should be concerned about the souls of these people.

And you could care less.

They're image bearers.

That's very interesting.

Luke adds something, because sometimes people will say, Jesus associates with sinners, tax collectors,

sinners.

Ungodly people.

And it's just for fellowship, and He just accepts them as they are in that sense, and never calls them to repentance

or faith in Him.

Listen to Luke 5, a parallel account.

And Jesus answered and said to them, it is not those who are well that need a physician, but those who are sick.

I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

See how much Jesus loves them?

Of course He associates with sinners.

He came down to do that very thing.

Of course He eats with sinners and tax collectors.

Yes, that's true.

But what does He do when He's eating with them?

He calls them to repentance, because He loves them.

Unlike the Pharisees, unlike the scribes, unlike the religious leaders, who just avoid, He,

Jesus, has fellowship, table fellowship, intimate fellowship, but calls them to repentance.

For while we were still helpless, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly.

Makes me think of my own salvation.

Does it not?

You think of yours?

God demonstrates His own love toward us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Spurgeon said, there's nothing in you to make Him love you, but He left Heaven's throne for you.

Don't you want that for other people too?

Jesus deliberately associating with the ungodly.

I think that's, by the way, a good charge for Bethlehem Bible Church.

We have Bible studies and home groups and prayer meetings and Awana and all kinds

of things.

Fine, good, I like that.

One of the reasons why I go to the gym is just so I can be around other people who aren't you people, church people.

I can evangelize and talk and bite my tongue when they swear at me or whatever they do.

C .T. Sud said, some want to live within the sound of a church or a chapel bell.

I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of hell.

To love them, to be kind to them.

We have a neighbor who's a lesbian.

Our best neighbors.

For 15 years before they moved, we were the lesbian neighbors.

And one time I remember, Kathy said to me, I'd like you to come to the hospital.

I have knee surgery and would you come and visit me?

I said, not as a neighbor, but as a pastor.

And that means I'm going to read the Bible and pray for you.

She said, okay.

And so I go there and I read the Bible and I pray.

And I preach Psalm 22, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

It was kind, it was wonderful.

I prayed, Kim was with me.

But it's not just friendship, it's telling people the truth in a kind way, speaking the truth in love.

Jesus did this often.

He goes to Zacchaeus' house and they grumbled, he's gone in to be the guest of a man who's a sinner.

I just want you to know, God saved you as a sinner.

God saves other people as sinners and people aren't our enemies.

Number two, the second lie you might be tempted to believe, that if you disagree with

mainstream media, that you're a bigot, intolerant,

and trans -o -phobic or homophobic person.

Disagreement does not mean you're trans -phobic.

Even yesterday I read Jamie Lee Curtis said, it's the religious people that are the ones who are so trans

-phobic.

It's an ad hominem attack.

Homophobia is defined by the Kinsey Institute of New Report on Sex as fear,

dislike or hatred of homosexuals.

Dear Christian, I hope you're not afraid of homosexuals.

I hope you're not hating homosexuals and I hope you don't dislike them.

But phobia means irrational fear.

There's no irrational fear.

There's no fear at all.

The only thing we do is we call sin, sin, in ourself and in others.

Psalm 33, the Lord loves righteousness and justice.

Psalm 99, the King in his might loves justice.

Proverbs 15, the way of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, but he loves him who pursues righteousness.

And so don't back down from loving people and telling people the truth just because they call you names.

Lie number three, since homosexuals and transgender people are

supposedly born that way, they're not responsible for their behavior.

And of course, by the way, this goes for any sexual sin, not just in this category, but any sexual sin.

I'm just born that way.

I'd like you to take your Bibles and turn to Romans chapter one.

Are people really not responsible for their behavior because they're born that way?

After all, to err is human.

In 1991, Simon LeVey at the Salk Institute.

In 1992, University of California.

In 1991, Northwestern University.

And in 1993, the National Cancer Institute of Maryland all came up with different studies trying to say

people are born with certain propensities.

Therefore, they're not guilty of any kind of shame or sin or guilt.

We know the Bible teaches each person is tempted when he's lured and enticed by his own desire.

And whether you're born with a propensity to idolatry, born with a propensity toward covetousness, born with

a propensity toward fornication, born with a propensity toward adultery or homosexuality or anything else,

it's from Adam's sin and it's our own nature.

And that doesn't mean we're not guilty just because this is how we're born.

We're born torqued and tainted.

Romans chapter one.

Of course, we understand this passage that it teaches everybody's responsible to God and no one has an excuse.

And of course, it's the love of God.

It's the kindness of God, the goodness of God to show us that so we know we have to have a Savior.

If you don't know you're sick, you don't know you have a Savior.

And if you think, well, I'm without excuse.

I need help, but I've heard God's merciful.

Romans 118, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and

unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

God's indignation and holy displeasure against sin, and his wrath is revealed because

people are trying to hinder who God is and suppress who God is and restrain

and hold back.

What truth do they suppress?

Verse 19, for what can be known about God is plain to them because God has

shown it to them.

What's the substantiation?

What do you mean?

For his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly perceived

ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made.

So they are without excuse.

This is for every single person.

Not just sexual sinners, but every single person.

You go outside and you take a look and you think, you know what?

I don't know everything about God by looking, but I know many things.

And God says, with natural revelation, you are without excuse, no apology.

You can't get to judgment day and say, God, I didn't know that you existed.

Verse 21, for although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking

and their foolish hearts were darkened.

And what God does is if you're not responding to revelation and acknowledging that there is a God, then there are consequences

and it's like the dimmer switch on your light bulb just keeps getting darker and darker and darker and darker.

Claiming to be wise, they became fools.

Kind of makes you just not be able to think properly.

So much so, verse 23, exchange the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal

man and birds and animals and creeping things.

You don't want to acknowledge God as God.

Well, we're born worshipers.

If we can't worship God, we're going to worship a person.

We're going to worship a beetle.

We're going to worship something else.

Dear Christian, everybody's responsible for their own sins.

And so just to say I'm born a certain way, that doesn't mean it's true.

So, line number four, tolerance of sexual sin, including

homosexuality and transgenderism and everything else, shows that a society is evolving for the better.

We're more open, we're more free, we're more tolerant, we're more educated.

When sexual sin runs rampant in a culture, it shows the consequences of their sin, not that

it's getting better.

It's getting worse and worse and worse.

Let's continue to move on in Romans chapter one.

That's why I think we're living in the last days, both literally and of course in time.

It's getting worse and worse and worse.

And what are the consequences of sinful rebellion?

Probably the worst thing that could ever, ever happen is God judging by divine

abandonment, hardening men's hearts.

God judges men's hearts.

Three times you'll see God gave them up in this section.

Verse 24, therefore God gave them up in the lust of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among

themselves.

You can see the order, can't you?

If you're not going to acknowledge God as God, and you're going to worship an idol, then you're going to end up worshiping yourself

and sex.

Psalm 115 says, those who make idols will become like them.

And this is not just God letting people go, this is God positively intensifying what

they want.

If that's what you want, that's what you want.

Uncleanness, impurity, verse 24.

This is everything from spouse swapping to pornography, from heterosexual to homosexual,

it's all there.

Abandoning people to more sin because they exchange, verse 25, the truth of God for a lie and worship and serve

the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever.

For this reason, here's the second giving them up.

God gave them up to dishonorable passions.

And now he's choosing to tell us how far things have spiraled down

when even the women exchange natural relations for those that are contrary to nature.

And men likewise gave up their natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another.

And now they're men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty of their

error.

Paul is basically saying, I don't care that in the Greek culture, homosexual love is at the pinnacle, it's the peak, it's the best kind of love.

I don't care if it's in the Roman culture, 13 out of 14 Caesars are homosexual, it doesn't matter.

There's another one in verse 28, God gave them up again.

And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.

When sexual sin is rampant in a society, it is not a sign of flourishing.

It is not a sign of society getting better.

Maybe this is the one I really wanted to talk about, lie number five.

A lie that says we're better than those sexual sinners like transgender,

homosexual, et cetera, we're better.

We would never fall to such grave sin.

Take a look at Romans 1 .29.

You see all these they there.

It's gonna be they and Romans chapter two, us.

Romans chapter two, you.

They, I mean, not us.

They're filled with all manner of unrighteousness.

They're full of envy, murder, strife, et cetera.

They are gossips.

I mean, that's them, that's not us.

They're slanders, they're haters of God, they're insolent, they're haughty, they're boastful, they're foolish, they're

faithless, they're heartless, they're ruthless.

Verse 32, though they know God's righteous decree, that those who practice such

things as I've, they not only do them, but they give hearty approval to them who practice them.

I mean, they're celebrating, they're applauding, they're saying what is evil is good and what is good is evil.

And by the way, all the stuff that he's talking about in chapter one, it's temporal judgments.

It's not even eternal judgment.

That's coming in chapter two.

I mean, I'm not like that.

I haven't fallen to those sins.

That's not me.

I mean, I have a Midwest work ethic and I work hard and I pay my bills and I'm nice to people and I'm not like

them.

Chapter two, verse one.

Please never read Romans one without reading chapter two.

Therefore, you, we've gone from they to you.

Therefore, you have no excuse, oh man,.

Every one of you who judges.

For in passing judgment on another, you condemn yourself because you, the judge, practice the

very same things.

I'm not transgender.

I'm not like these people.

Well, you might as well say to yourself,.

Basically, am.

Might as well be.

Because when you're saying them, them, them, them, they, they, they, they, they, you go, what they do is wrong.

What they do is wrong.

It's not righteous.

It's not just.

That means what Paul says in Romans two, one, you know what righteousness is.

You know what justice is.

You know what's right and you know what's wrong.

And do you keep the law?

Do you stand before the law as blameless?

If you know right and wrong, take a look at your own life.

Say, well, I would never stoop to those things, but every sin's against a thrice holy God.

And if you commit adultery, even in your heart, it is a sin against God.

I was riding my bike.

I know this was several years ago and I was riding past Kimball's Dairy where people are getting these huge, you know, ice

creams and stuff.

And it did flash through my mind for a second.

I'm burning 1000 calories while you're eating 5000.

And a wasp then flew into my mouth and stung me three times.

I could not believe that I didn't have the wherewithal to not bite it and crush it just to kill it.

And so I have to stop.

I'm taking Benadryl.

Do I have to get my EpiPen and everything else?

I'm like, man, the wasp sting in the mouth story.

The wasp sting in our spiritual mouth is Romans chapter two, verse one.

They, they, they, they, they.

If you know they are sinful, what about you?

Does anybody here really think we're somehow better than other persons who are sinning?

And the answer is, we do.

I do.

I know it's wrong.

You know it's wrong, but we do.

We know we're not supposed to.

They need a savior.

I mean, we're okay.

I mean, it's the sexual sinners from homosexual to transsexual to everything else.

They're rejecting natural revelation.

That's bad.

I don't wanna be rejecting special revelation, the Bible.

Go down to chapter two, verse 13.

And of course, Paul is trying to show all unbelievers that they all need, they all need righteousness, whether you're a

moralist or whether you're a pagan.

It's not the hearers of the law, Romans 2 .13, who are justified before God, but the doers of the law will

be justified.

If you can perfectly obey God, why would he judge you for anything?

But since you can't perfectly obey God, you need a savior.

You need Jesus's righteousness.

The fact that we can judge what a sin is in other people shows that we know what's right and

wrong, and we need to take a look at ourselves.

Spurgeon wrote, another man's sin cannot excuse you.

You must stand upon your own feet.

At the day of judgment, you must yourself make a personal appearance.

Do you not see that the only righteousness you claim is a partial righteousness?

Do you not see that you are not perfect in your righteousness?

And the fact you claim it is an admission that you are not perfect, that you have committed some sins by saying

I'm better than another person.

Everyone needs Christ's righteousness.

It's kind of like the hypocrisy of someone saying, this whole LGBTQ thing

is so wrong and vile and wicked, and then at night they go to their computer and watch pornography.

Paul knows we're self -righteous, and that's why he gives the wasp beasting in the mouth, chapter two,

verse one.

Martin Luther said, I find that I cannot preach self -righteousness down.

Men will boast in what they can do and mistake the path to heaven to be a road paved by their own merits, not

besprinkled by the blood of the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ.

It's very difficult to be deceived when it comes to homosexuality, transgender, and other

sexual sins.

It's difficult to be deceived.

That's a lie, because it's easy to be deceived.

Turn your Bibles to 1 Corinthians, chapter six.

I know you know the passage.

And one of the reasons I'm preaching this message is because it's easy for us to buy in.

It's easy for us to buy in when we have relationships, children, parents, friends, associates, fellow

students.

It's easy for us to buy in when people in our life who are Christians are judgmental,

fundamentalistic, hard to be around, and are lesbian and other friends, are kind, compassionate, have a

community and are welcoming.

It's easy to be deceived.

Matter of fact, what does Jeremiah 17, nine say?

The heart is desperately wicked, deceitful, above what?

If I were to give you an assignment, go around the world, here's a million dollars, find me the 10 most deceitful people in

all the world, the most deceitful things.

You should come back at the number one list, my own heart.

That's why we need to have our minds renewed by the word, not conformed by the world.

Bombarding, bombarding, bombarding, bombarding.

Dallas Brown, she was at our house for about a week and a half, a few weeks ago.

And once in a while, I wanted to watch a football game.

And she said, I have not seen a commercial for like 15 years.

I said, I'm sorry to taint you, but I just kind of want to watch this football game.

And just what they're saying and just the information.

And of course, you know, from Instagram to TikTok, to Twitter, to Facebook, to all these things,

it just is coming through movies, through sports, through, I mean, it's just a nonstop flood.

And by the way, you are influenced.

Right, if I say something about homosexuality, then I have to couch it and say

all these things and how I'm not homophobic and I'm not this and I'm not that, just to make sure people don't get the wrong idea.

It's easy to be deceived.

And what does Paul do with the Corinthians?

He says in chapter six, verse nine, do you not know the unrighteous will not inherit the King of God?

Do not be deceived.

If it wasn't easy to be deceived, why write that?

Neither the sexually immoral, nor the idolaters, nor the adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality,

literally two words there in the Greek, the active and the passive, nor thieves, nor greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers

will inherit the kingdom of heaven.

The church of Corinth thought they knew everything, but what they didn't know that Paul had to remind them, it's easy to be deceived.

And there's no need to be deceived when we have scripture.

It's easy to be deceived.

I'll say it to you, it's easy for you to be deceived because it's easy for me to be deceived.

We're creatures, we're influenced.

Maybe the last lie, lie number seven, sexual sinners can never change.

Homosexuals can never change.

Transgender can never change.

Put in whatever LGBTQ thing you want in there.

Hetero, homo, doesn't matter to me.

There's a big thing going around the world and it's condemnation of conversion therapy

where someone says, I struggle with homosexuality, I don't want to do that anymore.

What kind of program can I be in?

Some type of conversion therapy.

I'm not here to argue any kind of conversion therapy, except the one conversion therapy I do know about.

And that is God can convert people by sovereign grace and completely change them.

I don't know what they teach in other conversion therapy, but I do know that if a

person who's enveloped with sexual sin thinks to themselves,

I can never be helped, it's a tragedy.

Look at chapter six, verse 11 in first Corinthians.

Jesus turns water into wine and sinners into saints.

And if there weren't more gross sinners in Corinth, I don't know where they would be.

And he says, and such were some of you.

You used to be homosexuals, you used to be fornicators, you used to be everything else, sexually immoral, but you

were washed, sanctified, and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of

our God.

One of the greatest things we have with Christianity,.

There is hope.

There's hope for change, there's hope for forgiveness.

Such were some of you.

And you feel dirty and you feel awful and you feel unclean when you sin, let alone sexually

sin.

And Paul used that great word, to be washed.

How'd you like to be washed?

Forgiven, cleansed, no guilt, erased all the sin, gone.

And instead of use for something that's dirty and awful and nighttime hiding, bad

conscience afterwards, why don't you say to yourself, only God can take me who used to do

that and make me set apart for things used by the master, sanctified.

He can use me now as a vessel and clean and I can be used by the thrice holy God.

God in three persons, blessed Trinity, as we heard today, holy, holy, holy.

I don't know about conversion therapies and psychologies and all these other things.

I do know that sinners can be converted by the grace of God through the heralding of

free grace.

And by the way, if you're here today and you're not a Christian and you're enslaved to some kind of sin, including sexual sin,.

You're not a Christian.

The Bible says we're to offer sinners water without price.

Just think if you're in the desert and you think, I'd pay anything for that water.

I'd pay anything to have my sins forgiven so I'm guaranteed reconciliation with God and the hope of heaven.

I'd give anything.

Well, you know what?

There's nothing you can give.

You could give everything and still not receive Christ because he is a free gift.

And so I offer to you him freely, the Lord Jesus, and you simply take him at his word and believe.

Fornicators, homosexuals, and everything in between can be justified.

Why?

Justification is a courtroom language that says, Jesus lived a perfect life without ever

sexually sinning, without ever sinning in any way, shape, or form.

And he lives that life that Adam was supposed to live, that Israel was supposed to live, that you're supposed to live, that I'm supposed to live,

and Jesus lived it.

And then all those sins we've ever committed, think about how many times we've sinned sexually, even as

heterosexuals, and Jesus pays for all those, and he's raised for our justification.

And we respond with humility and gratitude and thankfulness, sovereign mercy found me

out.

And unlike the Pharisees,.

Our desire should be for people to get saved.

My gut reaction when Jamie Lee Curtis says something is, what in the world is she doing?

And my gut reaction should be, Lord, would you open her eyes?

You open my eyes.

You love to open sinners' eyes.

And so when you see people, the recoil is, I can't stand it, I hate that, and by the way, we're to hate sin, I'm not saying we're not

supposed to hate sin, but we ought to be kind and compassionate.

And as God changed us, such were some of you, such were some of them.

How many people keep getting saved?

I think it's a true conversion, I don't know, the tattoo artist lady who used to be a Wiccan, she was in the paper this week,

interview because she was baptized in a small little church, I think in Indiana.

What's her name, Kat Von D, does anybody know her?

I can't believe you know her.

You ought not know her, just kidding, I'm just kidding.

And people are freaking out, because if you say, yes, Jesus is right, you're saying to them,

you're sinful, you're sinful, because all have fallen short of the glory of God, everyone is sin, so you stand up for

truth, here they come, one after another, after another, after another,

and they're going to try to cancel you,.

And they're going to try to restrict you.

But we have good news, we have good news for sinners, that Jesus Christ loves sinners.

So dear Christian, you are getting bombarded with anti -God thoughts.

Be careful, you have to be careful.

You have to be people who read the Bible to make sure you're counteracting this world's

flow, so you're not put in the mold of the world.

Dear Christian, you have to be thankful.

You have to be thankful that you're rescued by God from his wrath.

You have to be evangelistic, and be kind to people who aren't Christians, and to love them,

and to have them over, and to reach out to them, and to be kind to them.

Dear Christian, you ought to walk by faith in these very, very difficult times, because Jesus is

coming back, and you can trust him.

So be careful, and be thankful.

Let's pray.

Father, thank you for your word.

I pray that today, in light of your scriptures, you would help us to be humble people.

You'd help us to be thankful.

And you would help us not to be self -righteous.

It's a trustworthy saying, deserving of full acceptance, that your son came into the world to save

sinners.

And we are like Paul, the foremost.

I don't know anyone who sins as much as I do, Father.

And I think that's true for every person here, who really examines their own heart.

How much we know, and how little we do.

So therefore, we're really, really thankful for the work of our Savior, Jesus.

May you give us boldness in these days, as persecution increases, for his sake.