Category Archive

Romans 1:18-32

When we understand that there are two kingdoms at work in this world, the kingdom of light, the kingdom of darkness, we understand that this is not a battle wherein the kingdom of Satan can win in the least. He and his kingdom have already been defeated. They were defeated from before the beginning of the world because Christ was crucified from before the beginning of the world in the redemptive purposes of God.

On the cross, He accomplished the crushing of Satan’s head, the Seed of woman, and the victory cry from the cross – not a cry of death, not a cry of defeat, not a cry of suffering – a cry of victory from the cross, “It is finished.” The work that Christ had come to do was secure. The promises made between Him and His Father were sealed with His blood.

As we look at Romans 1, it becomes obvious to us the mindset of the culture of death. And understand, this is not a political distinction between the right and the left, between conservatives and liberalism. This is between the saved and the lost. And you understand that there are saved and lost on both sides. This isn’t about politics. It’s about truth. The sad thing is for many people, their politics has become their religion and is a matter of their faith.

What I appreciated in Charlie Kirk’s ministry was that he said what he did politically because of what he believed from a biblical worldview. It wasn’t just about politics or a political solution. It was about witnessing, giving the gospel. You can look up an interview that he did at one point where he actually was interviewing John MacArthur and asked John MacArthur to share the gospel.

Here in Romans 1, we’re going to deal with the fallen mind, the mind of the lost man. And there can be no doubt when I use this term, the culture of death, that there is part of our society, probably much smaller than what they sound like, but part of our society and our culture that are all about death and destruction and denial of God’s word and God’s purposes in creation, denying that we were created in God’s image, male and female, that marriage is between a man and a woman, and that every life begins at conception and is sacred in the womb created from the very start in the image of God.  

And we need to be preaching and proclaiming these things without apology because it’s true. But we also have to understand in looking at the mind of the lost man, 1 Corinthians 2:14 tells us, “But a natural man does not accept the depths of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them because they are spiritually examined [discerned].”

Now, yes, we preach the truth. We work in ministry of apologetics and evangelism. We engage with the lost. We confront them lovingly, pleadingly with the truth of the gospel, the truth claims of scripture. We take the truth and put it to bear against the darkness in which they are entrapped, where they are dead in their sin and their trespasses. And we understand that the whole time we are preaching and discussing and proclaiming this truth that they can’t get it.

We say, well, why would we preach to them? Because “the gospel is the power of God to salvation.” It’s the gospel proclaimed and explained and preached that the Spirit uses to bring people to life from the dead. To come to life, feeling that freedom from sin, from hate, from bitterness, from evil, from all that’s there naturally residing in the hearts of fallen men. So while the Bible tells us these things about the mind of the lost, this cannot be a deterrent to us for engaging them with the truth.

As we look at Romans chapter 1, we start verses 18 through 23, and we understand that the mind of the lost man is actively suppressing the truth in unrighteousness. We read there:

18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, 19 because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. 20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, both His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. 21 For even though they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish heart was darkened. 22 Professing to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the likeness of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.

The scripture tells us, all of us that we are without excuse, whether it is the general revelation of creation, “the heavens declare the glory of God,” or whether it is the special revelation of the word of God that reveals Him to us through the pages of scripture. It is not that God has not made Himself known. He has trumpeted from the creation who He is and what He’s done. And we know this is true because if God didn’t exist, as the atheists would claim, and even they don’t really believe that, if He didn’t exist like they claim, they would not be nearly as angry with Him as they are.  You see, the question is not, “Does God exist?” The question is, “Do atheists exist?” They don’t. They know there’s a God, and that’s what drives them in their delusions, in their deception, in the darkness, in their sin.

They fight against the truth. They work to suppress it. Suppressing something is hard work to hold it down, to press it down, to deny it. And the natural effect of this is that it scars the conscience. As the conscience is scarred, we’re going to see from the text this morning two things that God gives them over to if they persist in this suppression.

They’re without excuse. And it’s significant here because it says, as they became “futile in their thoughts and their foolish heart was darkened, professing to be wise, they became fools.” The real issue here is that they refuse to glorify God. “Since the creation of the world, His indivisible attributes, both His eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they were without excuse. For though they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God.”

This is a mind that despises God, that hates Him. Again, RC Sproul’s famous definition of the atheist is someone who will tell you that God does not exist and who hates Him with all their guts. You cannot be this irrational and this emotional about something that doesn’t exist. Their very actions and attitude, their very hatred, the venom that they spew, the murderous words and actions that their heart produces are proof that they know God is. And they’re going to have to give an account to him.

Because they do not glorify God, we’re told that their thoughts become futile. This is Solomon at the beginning of Ecclesiastes. Vanity of vanities.  Everything’s vanity. Everything’s meaningless. Trying to do it on his own, trying to find his own way, trying to find it in pleasure and riches and wisdom and all of these things. He couldn’t find any of it because that was all vain. It was vanity. It was useless.

It’s not that there can’t be brilliant people who are lost, but when it comes to spiritual things, their thinking is futile. Why? Because most of those people who are lost are believing that they, if they do stand before God, will have enough good to outweigh the bad. That’s a futile thought. There’s no way you could have any good to put on the scale to outweigh the bad. We’ve all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. There is no such scale in heaven. Because when we stand there, we can only stand in the righteousness of Christ and of Christ alone.

Their foolish hearts, we’re told, are darkened. The things that Jesus says the heart of fallen man produces – envy, jealousy, murders, rage, wrath –  these things all start in the heart and they work their way out in the speech and then they work their way out ultimately in the actions of those whose conscience has been seared.

When we refer to them as being “futile in their thoughts and having their foolish hearts darkened, professing to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image and the likeness of corruptible man, of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.” You see, not only do they not glorify God, they blaspheme God by giving His attributes to other things, created things, whether it’s people or making idols or worshiping animals or the stars.

They’ve exchanged the truth for a lie. They’ve exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the likeness of corruptible things. They are fools and idolaters. This is the heart of the fallen mind.

We read in 1 Timothy 4:1-2, “But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, 2 by the hypocrisy of liars, who have been seared in their own conscience.”

Do you understand what is behind this wickedness? What is behind this culture of death and destruction and denial? It is demonic deception. It’s a delusion. We are dealing with irrationality. God calls to us and He says, “Come, let us reason together.” Here’s the problem. We are unreasonable people until He gives us a new heart and a new mind. We can’t reason. We can’t be rational.

This is true as you listen to so much that’s being argued in our country today that those who are behind this culture of death can’t tell you anything that’s true. They can just tell you how they feel and how they want you to feel. And the reality is they feel that way because they’re “beyond feeling” because their minds and their consciences have been seared.

Psalm 14 tells us, “The wicked fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’ They act corruptly, they commit abominable deeds; there is no one who does good. 2 Yahweh looks down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if there is anyone who has insight, anyone who seeks after God. 3 They have all turned aside, altogether they have become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.”

Fools and idolaters. The result of this thinking and of this mindset, then, we read in verses 24 through 27, they’ve been given over to impurity and dishonorable passions.

24 Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. 25 For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. 26 For this reason God gave them over to dishonorable passions; for their females exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, 27 and in the same way also the males abandoned the natural function of the female and burned in their desire toward one another, males with males committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.

They’ve been given over to impurity and dishonorable passions. Paul explains it in Ephesians 5:

3 But sexual immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints; 4 nor filthiness and foolish talk, or coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks. 5 For this you know with certainty, that no one sexually immoral or impure or greedy, who is an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. 6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. 7 Therefore do not be partakers with them, 8 for you were formerly darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light 9 (for the fruit of that light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth), 10 trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. 11 And do not participate in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead even expose them. 12 For it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret. 13 But all things become visible when they are exposed by the light, for everything that becomes visible is light. 14 For this reason it says, “Awake, sleeper, And  arise from the dead, And Christ will shine on you.” 15 Therefore look carefully how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, 16 redeeming the time, because the days are evil.

Out of all of that, the phrase I want to focus on is that verse 16 of Ephesians 5, “redeeming the time because the days are evil.” This literally is speaking, the way it’s phrased, time is your lifetime. That’s the way the word is used. To redeem your lifetime means to be buying up every moment of that time to surrender it in use to Christ. If you want to redeem the time, that’s not being thrifty. That’s not saving time. No, that is I am going to actively work to buy up all of this that God has given me and use it for him for as long as he gives me life. Till my last breath, to do all that I do for him, because the days are evil.

When we see here that the truth has been exchanged for lies, James chapter 3 tells us, “If you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be so arrogant and so lie against the truth. This wisdom is not coming down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exists, there is disorder and every evil practice.” That evil and hatred in the heart that comes out in the words and in the actions, it is demonically driven.

This is not right against left. This is not even good against evil. This is spiritual war. We are at war against the darkness, against the lies. Now, we’ll see by the time we get to the end that does not mean that we are at war with people. We don’t wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers. It is a spiritual war. And how is it that we are to pull down strongholds? By putting on the armor and using the word of God. In that armor, we really see that armor in Ephesians 6, but that armor is just putting on Jesus to put Him on and to take His word and to stand and to pray.

When they exchange this truth for a lie, we also see that there’s a reference here to dishonorable passions. And this is part of the argument that’s going on in the culture of death. And this is where it’s infiltrating the church. There are those bound over in this lifestyle. I don’t even like calling it that because the homosexual and the transgender, it’s not a lifestyle. It’s iniquity. It’s sin. It’s a lie. It’s not according to the truth of God’s created order. And there are those who will tell you that it’s okay to be a Christian and live in one of those lifestyles. And there are even some who recently in church circles have said that you may struggle with same-sex attraction, but as long as you don’t act on it, you’re okay.

The Bible here says that those very feelings are dishonorable. You see, what we’ve been told is that we’re supposed to listen to what we feel and then decide whether or not we want to live out that feeling. Listen, the feeling itself is a rebellion against God and is therefore sinful.

And we all have evil desires. We do. It’s not just categories of sinners that have these evil desires. All sin is born in our fallenness, in those desires that drive us. Back in James 1, “Let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted by evil, and he himself does not tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust is conceived, it gives birth to sin. And when sin is fully matured, it brings forth death.”

Death is the end result of these evil passions, of the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life. We all have to fight and mortify the desires and deeds of the flesh. We cannot say that you can have these feelings and it’d be okay as long as you don’t act on them. Because here is the truth. Eventually, if you are listening to your emotions, eventually you will give in to and be ruled by your emotions. And there’s part of the struggle today that people are not rational and logical. They don’t think anymore. They emote.

Now, we’ve talked about the lost mind, being unable to understand the things of God. We understand we’re fighting against lust and against these passions, these things that are in our hearts. We have to understand that if our feelings aren’t right, we need to change them. We need to repent.

Here’s the reality. Your emotions shouldn’t rule you. You, with the Holy Spirit and the power of your mind sanctified and renewed, are to rule your emotions. That means you may be feeling a certain way and think that that interprets your reality and the reality of your circumstance and your relationship to God.

And you all know our emotions can lie to us. Our bodies deceive us all the time. That’s the fight against the lust of the flesh because the body wants what it wants and we have to deny it. We have to repent of those things. We need to seek to be cleansed of those things.

And here is the reality. It’s pictured. You’ve probably seen the illustration. I’ve used it before in counseling. Picture of a train. You’ve got the engine. If the engine of that train is “feelings” and you’re putting your faith, the next car behind it, in your feelings, then what’s going to follow? Chaos and a denial of the facts, a perversion of the truth.

You see, what we have to do is we have to put facts, the truth of God’s word, in the engine that drives our thinking and have faith in God’s word. And when we do, our feelings will follow. This is real. I promise you, you can try this. I have couples in premarital counseling do this all the time. If there is a point where you don’t feel like you love your spouse, anybody been there? If you’ve been married more than a couple of months, you’ve been there. I’ve heard it. “I love you, but I don’t like you very much right now.”

As we live being sanctified together, we have to look at the feelings and we have to act on the facts. Meaning if what I feel denies the truth of God’s word, then I need to believe God’s word and act according to it. And this is what I’ll tell couples, when you feel like you don’t love your spouse, act like you love your spouse. Do loving things. Act like you love them. “Well, I don’t feel it.” Fantastic. Jesus has a solution. “Deny yourself.”

It’s not hypocrisy to act like you’re supposed to act, even though you don’t feel like it. In fact, if you refuse to act like you’re supposed to act because of the way you feel, you have made an idol out of your emotions.

Serve Christ. Do what you’re supposed to do. And here, I’ve had testimony after testimony from people who have said, “I went and I did what you said. And it wasn’t but a few days that feeling of love came back”, because they denied the error of their emotions as they were leading them astray.

Act like you’re supposed to act based on faith in the word of God, and your feelings are going to follow in that truth. This is the fruit of the Spirit of self-control. And it’s not you controlling yourself. It is the Spirit in control of you as you surrender to Him to do what He has told us to do instead of being ruled by our desires.

Next, verses 28 through 32 then tell us that those who have been given over to impurity and dishonorable passions have also been given over to an unfit mind.

28 And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them over to an unfit mind, to do those things which are not proper, 29 having been filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, violent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; 32 and although they know the righteous requirement 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.

 In this list of the sins that will flow from this person given over to an unfit mind, an irrational mind, they do those things which are not proper. They’re filled with all unrighteousness. And to read that list, wickedness, greed, evil, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice, gossip, slanderers, haters of God, violent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding (literally undiscerning), untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful. We have seen a flood of irrational and unmerciful people this week who cheered that a man was murdered in front of his wife and children.

When we call this the culture of death, we just heard it explained. “Although they know the righteous requirement 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.” They know that their sin demands their death. And in some delusion, in some deception, they think that they can take themselves out and thus escape the penalty of their sin.

When we see this culture of death, those who love death, look at movies, look at video games, and people say, “Oh, it’s not been proven that affects anything.” There is no way you can constantly be filling your mind and your heart with all of that death and grotesque sin and it not affect you. Yes, it affects you. It reroutes paths in your head. It changes your desires. It becomes an adrenaline addiction, a dopamine addiction. And here’s the proof, the truth about all addiction.

The addiction is never satisfied. You always need a little bit more to get the same reaction and a little bit more and a little bit more and a little bit more until these people find themselves in a corner so certain of the reality of the need for their own death that they do it themselves and kill themselves, thinking this is going to bring some kind of a relief. Can you imagine the horrors of seeking relief in death and waking up in hell?

Unfit minds. They’re set on death. Paul writes in Ephesians 4:

17 Therefore this I say, and testify in the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, 18 being darkened in their mind, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart. 19 And they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.

Romans 8:5-8 says:

5 For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. 6 For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, 7 because the mind set on the flesh is at enmity toward God, for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, 8 and those who are in the flesh are not able to please God.

To be set on death, to be ruled by our desires, Paul wrote about it in Ephesians 2:

1 And you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience, 3 among whom we all also formerly conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.

As we understand then, this twisted mind that meditates on death, that seeks sin, inspired by evil passions, by darkness. How do we deal with it? How do we confront it? Studying and reviewing these passages led me to ask a question. If we’re going to engage people like this, and we’re commanded to, this is our mission, then the question is not how do we reach them? We know how to reach them. We don’t. The Spirit does through the seed sown, through the word preached, proclaimed, lived, exemplified. So here’s the question we need to be asking. Church, are we prepared for persecution?

Now, what we saw this week was persecution. Someone killed for their firm and bold stance preaching Christ. That was not just a shooting. It was not just a murder. It was not just an assassination. It was persecution. It was the thought that the only way I can make you be quiet is to take your life away from you.

And the reason that we are so shocked by that, now we should just be shocked just because of the horror of it. But the real truth behind why we are so shocked is because we haven’t seen very much persecution in the United States. We haven’t, yet. We are living in the age of the Laodicean church. We are comfortable. We are apathetic. We think we have everything we need. And it doesn’t cost us anything to follow Jesus.

In 2 Timothy, starting in chapter 3, verse 12 and going all the way through chapter 4, verse 5 we read:

3:12 Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. 13 But evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. 14 But you, continue in the things you learned and became convinced of, knowing from whom you learned them, 15 and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to make you wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be equipped, having been thoroughly equipped for every good work.. Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.

4:1 I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: 2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and teaching. 3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, 4 and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. 5 But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

All of God’s word is inspired and profitable. It’s useful.

First, for teaching, that is, what should we believe? 1 Timothy 4:16, Paul writes to Timothy, “Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching. Persevere in these things, for as you do this, you will save both yourself and those who hear you.” In chapter 5, verse 17, “The elders who lead well are to be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor at preaching the word and teaching.”

We need to know what we need to believe. Why? Because belief affects behavior.

Secondly, for reproof. This is the confrontation of sin in our life and in one another’s lives. This is rebuking. This is what not to do. The word reproof, interestingly, appears 16 times in the book of Proverbs. Go look it up. Read all of the verses in Proverbs that tell us about reproof. The one I appreciate the most in the scripture, though, is where reproof is used in Revelation 3:19, “Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline. Therefore, be zealous and repent.”

Reproof for sin is proof of love. To say, I’m not going to allow you to continue to be bound in that sin. Now, to do that, we have to check with ourselves first, don’t we? We need to get the beam out of our eye before we go after the speck in someone else’s eye. But this needs to be a mutual step in our discipleship with one another to be reproving sin.

Third, the scripture is useful for correction. This literally is restoration. It’s like setting a broken bone so that it might be healed. We can talk about this spiritually as renewing your mind. Our minds need to be renewed by the Spirit, by the Word of God, daily.

In Ephesians 4, Paul writes:

20 But you did not learn Christ in this way— 21 if indeed you heard Him and were taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus, 22 to lay aside, in reference to your former conduct, the old man, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and to put on the new man, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.

Fourth, we also preach the word then for instruction in righteousness. This is the opposite of reproof. Reproof is what not to do. The instruction in righteousness is what to do. Romans 15:4, “For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through the perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.”

See, the word of God is what’s been given to us to prepare ourselves for persecution. How not to live, how to live, correcting what needs to be corrected and instructing us in walking as we ought to walk. This God-breathed scripture that is profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, and for training in righteousness, “so that the man of God may be equipped, having been thoroughly equipped for every good work. I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing in his kingdom, preach the word. Be ready in season and out.”

That be ready is not a reference to preaching. There are those who say to be ready means to preach at any given time. No, it means be ready! For what? For whatever’s coming. Be ready. Be on guard. Be aware. When you do self-defense training, they teach you situational awareness. How much more should we be spiritually aware of the tricks and the tips of the devil and what he’s trying to do to confuse us and to accuse us? We need to be ready when it’s convenient and ready when it’s not, in season and out of season.

With that word, we need to reprove, rebuke, exhort with great patience and teaching, “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. But you be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.” I love it that Paul telling Timothy, who at this point in time, more than likely is actually pastoring the church at Ephesus, he tells him that in preaching and teaching the word of God, you do the work of an evangelist. Fulfill your ministry. You preach them into the kingdom, and then you preach them on to maturity. You use the word like it was meant to be used to reveal Christ.

This is the man of God that we’re told is to be fully equipped. Now, what does that look like? It looks like a man who’s an example. Be an example. Paul told Timothy in 1 Timothy 4:12 “Command and teach these things. Let no one look down on your youthfulness, but show yourself a model to those who believe in word, conduct, love, faith, and purity. Until I come, give attention to the public reading of scripture, to exhortation, and to teaching.” You don’t just preach the word. You don’t just teach the word. You model the word.

And understand, this is not just written for preachers. When we see the qualifications for pastor teachers, for elders, and for deacons in the church, you understand those standards are for all believers. We’re all to be striving for that, to be mature in the faith.

So you find men who are rightly working and preaching hard at preaching the word like it’s supposed to be preached and follow their example. And if they don’t practice what they preach, don’t listen to what they preach. Because there are men who can preach the truth and not do it. And while you may benefit hearing the truth, if there’s not an example to back it up, eventually the hypocrisy is going to lead to a downfall.

So be an example. This is focused at men, the man of God being fully equipped, but understand this is for both men and women. But men, we’re commanded in Ephesians 5, not only to be an example in our own home and in the church and in the world, but to love our wives. This was an amazing part of what Charlie Kirk said. “Young people, get saved, get married, have children, raise them in the fear and admonition of the Lord.”

You understand you’re filling your quiver with arrows to fire at the kingdom of darkness by getting married and having children.  And if you can’t have physical children, adopt a few. If you can’t do that, foster a few. If you can’t do that, then understand there are people who need parenting. There are people who need to be loved. Maybe even people who are older than you, who you can mentor and disciple.

When we see Titus chapter 2, it’s the older men teaching the younger men and the older women teaching the younger women. To understand, that’s never a one-way thing. When you teach, you are taught. That’s discipleship. Why? Because the older have the experience and the knowledge, the younger have the zeal and the ability. And so we teach one another and help balance one another in our daily walks.

The way we do that, Ephesians 5, three times, husbands, you’re told to love your wives. Wives, you’re told to submit to, honor, and respect your husbands. And then in Titus 2, the older women are to teach the younger women how to love their husbands.

And love is action, not emotion. Love is how I’m going to relate to you, not how I feel about you. Now, if you relate to them correctly, you will feel about them correctly. And if you start to not feel, do not believe the lie that you have fallen out of love. You don’t fall into and out of love. The church at Ephesus was told not that they lost their love, but that they left it. So if you leave it, repent and love like you’re supposed to love.

Third, within the Christian home, we’re to be training our children. And I want you to understand something. If your children, your grandchildren, are in a school with teachers that rejoiced that a man was murdered, get them out of there. You understand? People say, well, my children are missionaries. Your children are children. And it’s your job as parents to protect them from the kingdom of darkness, from this delusion.

They say these shooters went and they got radicalized. No, they didn’t. Somebody just fed their flesh what they wanted to hear. And because they’re young, they can’t even control their emotions, much less their hormones, they’re out of control. They’re unfit in their minds. They’re depraved.

And we have to be careful too. I’ve heard several people on the right say that the people who do these kinds of shootings, and the word I heard from one who I thought was a Christian commentator, said these people have to be understood to be subhuman. No. No. How dare you say that, accuse somebody else of being subhuman. We’re all human beings created in the image of God. All. As soon as you label somebody subhuman, you’ve blasphemed God’s created order and you’ve opened the door for an excuse to do harm to them.

This week, do we want justice? Yes. Are we righteously angry? Yes. We need to understand. We need to understand the gospel and believe it.

Ephesians 6:4, Paul says, “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.” How do you do this? How do you train your children?

First, and this is specifically to fathers, you need to pastor your family. Pastor, shepherd, feed your family. Lead them in the word of God. Titus 2:2, 6-8, “Older men are to be temperate, dignified, sensible, sound in faith and love and perseverance. Likewise, urge the younger men to be sensible in all things. Show yourself to be a model of good works with purity and doctrine, dignified, sound in word, which is irreproachable, so that the opponent will be put to shame, having nothing bad to say about us.”

Secondly, fathers and parents, provide for your family. Provide for them security. Provide for them financially. Provide for their spiritual care. Shepherd them into the truth. 1 Timothy 5.8, “If anyone does not provide for his own and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.”

Part of this provision, by the way, I think we have to say that means parents, don’t entrust the state with the indoctrination of your children. Don’t do it. We’re beyond defending what’s being taught and what’s being done. And we’ve seen it happen with several schools just this last week, several Christian universities and several secular universities that had in the syllabus things they were teaching, but what the professor was actually teaching the class was not what the syllabus said.

It was all this woke nonsense, all this DEI, all of this just vile Marxism and racism, all of this acceptance of all sorts of evil. They’re lying to you. Be aware of what your children are being exposed to, what they’re being taught.

Really, really the counsel for the church is, if we want to be prepared to be persecuted and to suffer, we have to be preparing our children to be persecuted and to suffer. This is 1 and 2 Peter. We have to be prepared to endure persecution and to know that when that time comes, we pray, we bless, we preach, we give them the gospel.

Third, we need to be protecting our families. Part of that protection is calling out those who are leading in the destructive charge of the culture of death. Paul in 2 Timothy, winding it down almost to the end of his last letter to Timothy, his last letter in the scriptures. He names names. He says:

9 Be diligent to come to me soon, 10 for Demas, having loved this present age, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica; Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia. 11 Only Luke is with me. Pick up Mark and bring him with you, for he is useful to me for service. 12 But Tychicus I sent to Ephesus. 13 When you come bring the cloak which I left at Troas with Carpus, and the scrolls, especially the parchments. 14 Alexander the coppersmith showed me much harm; the Lord will award him according to his deeds. 15 Be on guard against him yourself, for he vigorously opposed our words. 16 At my first defense no one supported me, but all deserted me. May it not be counted against them. 17 But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me, so that through me the preaching might be fulfilled, and that all the Gentiles might hear. And I was rescued out of the lion’s mouth. 18 The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed, and will save me unto His heavenly kingdom; to Him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

As we prepare for persecution, as we look at the mind of the lost, as we look at the senselessness, the irrationality, this is not a reason for us to lose hope. In fact, I believe that somebody just pushed a button for revival. This is how God works. We see some horrendous evil and God says, “You meant it for evil, but I meant it for good.”

Ephesians 6:10-12 reminds us:

Finally be strong in the Lord and in the might of his strength. Put on the full armor of God so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.

This is spiritual war. We have to know how to fight. We have to be ready to fight. And not just ready, we need to be fighting. You understand? You’re in a war. You are. How’s it going? Are you experiencing victory? Are you delivering those around you, snatching them from the flames?

This is Spurgeon’s description of evangelism. If the lost have to go to hell, may they have to leap over us to get to the flames as we plead with them and preach to them the truth of the gospel.

Again, this is our only refuge. Our only refuge is to know that Jesus has come to seek and to save that which is lost. And if we are saved, our mission is to continue to preach that to those who need to hear it.

Those who are walking in wickedness with an unfit mind, with a seared conscience, we preach the truth of the word of God to them and we do it with boldness. My prayer is that what happens as a result of the events, and again, not just Charlie, but of others, the poor girl on the train, to see the inability of our justice system reminds us that we’re not dependent upon the government. We can’t be. We’re dependent upon God and his spirit, armed with his word.

And we confront this evil by exposing it for what it is. Don’t be ashamed to tell the truth, but know this. If you do, be prepared to be persecuted. When you look like Jesus, the world hates Him, they will hate you. That’s a good thing. The world hates you, it’s because you look like Jesus. Praise the Lord for conforming you to His image. If it takes laying down our life, our life is His anyway. Isn’t it?

He is sovereign. And you understand? Spurgeon has said it, several other people repeated it. Until that second that God has appointed for you to step into eternity, you are indestructible. Why? Because Jesus saved you. He sealed you. He’s got you. He’s not going to drop you. He’s not going to leave you. He’s not going to lose you. You’re His. So you’re safe until that moment you see Him face to face.