Music
Singing out real loud nice on the first
song number 23 there is
power in the blood
Would you
be free from your
burden of sin
there's power in the blood
power in the blood
would your
evil of victory
win there's wonderful
power in the blood
there's power
power
wonder working power
in the blood
of the lamb
there is power
power wonder
working power in the
precious blood of the
lamb
would you be free
from your passion and
pride there's power in the
blood power in
the blood come
for a cleansing to
Calvary side there's
wonderful power
in the blood
there is power
power wonder working
power in the blood
of the lamb
there is power
power
wonder working power
in the precious blood
of the lamb
would you be
wider much wider
than snow there's power
in the blood
power in the blood
sin stains are lost in
its life giving flow
there's wonderful power
in the blood
there is power
power wonder
working power in the
blood of the
lamb there
is power power
wonder working power
in the precious
blood of the lamb
would
you do service for
Jesus your king
there's power in the blood
power in the blood
would you live
daily his praise is to
sing there's wonderful
power in the blood
there is power
power
wonder working power
in the blood
of the lamb
there is power
power wonder working
power in the precious
blood of the lamb
alright great singing
everybody let's all pray together
thank you so much for steadfast Baptist Church
we love you and we just thank you so much
for allowing us to
have a great bible a great church
a great preacher lord we just ask you to
bless this service and fill it with your spirit
we love you and we just ask all these things in Jesus
name amen
alright for our next song let's go to song number 64
song number 64
shall we gather at the river
where bright angel feet have trod
with its
crystal tide forever
floating by the
throne of
Jesus
shall we gather
at the river
where
bright angel feet have trod
with its
crystal tide forever
floating by the
throne of
God
yes we'll gather
at the river
the beautiful
the beautiful river
gather with
the saints at the river
that flows
by the throne
of God
on the bosom
of the river
where the
savior king we
own
we shall meet in sorrow
never
need the glory
of the throne
yes we'll
gather at the river
the beautiful
river
gather with the saints
at the river
that flows by the
throne of God
ere we reach the
shining river
lay we
every burden down
grace our
spirits will deliver
and provide
a robe
and crown
yes we'll gather
at the river
the beautiful
the beautiful river
yes we'll gather
at the river
the beautiful river
gather with the saints
at the river
that flows by the
throne of God
soon we'll
reach the shining
river
soon our pilgrimage
will cease
soon our happy hearts
will quiver
with the melody
of peace
yes we'll gather
at the river
the beautiful
the beautiful river
gather
with the saints
at the river
that flows by the throne
of God
good job
thank you so much for
coming to said vast baptist church if you don't already have
a bulletin and you would like one
of us just can come by
they're coming on their way just keep your hand up
and we'll get you bullets out on the front
bible memory passage psalm fifty
eight verse number
three if you're able to
quote the verse of the week
you can get an ice cream treat immediately following
in the service our service times and so many times
are listed there on the left hand our
church stats please continue to report
your church
salvations to your
captain's also on the right we
have a list of expecting ladies
there's several there to be in prayer
for as well as also we have
a prayer list that we've been going through
and we typically update everybody
and the midweek service so we'll
go ahead and just
talk about that we have the nigueras we've been
praying for their health we've been praying for
miss lucy her mother we've been
praying for brother cameron's leg we've been
continuing to pray for brother
wallach's daughter who's also pregnant
and then we've been praying for miss
cooley stepdad
her his cancer treatment
brother goodwin for
work also for
the radari family at verde baptist church
whose infant
is very ill
also we've been praying for the holding family
we've been praying for
brother conley's mother earline
heart surgery is that already happened
it went well
okay great so we've been praying we're praying
for her recovery now also
we pray for miss scott
for operation
and then we're praying for brother
stewart's friend michael
son
his son charles who
is back in the hospital is he still
in the hospital okay
so we'll continue to pray for
charles also
been praying for brother rich for jobs so
i think that's all i have as far as in the
in the bulletin
we'll go ahead and say a quick word of prayer
as a church family thank you heavenly father
for all of our expecting
ladies i pray that you would please be with them
during their pregnancies please help
their children's development and give
them a timely birth i pray that you would also
please just help our church family
with all their various health and issues
that some of them have been lingering
for a long time i pray that you would please
just give them comfort
if possible just give them a quick
and speedy recovery i pray that you
would also just help some of our church family
and friends that need favor
with their jobs and with travel
and with work and i pray that you would also
help us to continue to reach out to our family
and friends with the gospel
and to give them opportunities
to be saved and we just thank you for all you give us
in jesus name we pray amen
on the back church reminders
down below upcoming events
men's conference there's a sign up sheet
again please make sure you sign
up for that just so we can anticipate
how many spots that we need to
pay for also
the fbbf
is going to be in october
it's the 12th through the 15th
um by the end of the
month we're also going to be releasing a new
film called the lgbt
terrace and
the title does not disappoint
it is exactly what it's about so
um if you liked our film the sodomite
deception uh you'll definitely
uh like this film
as well it's not a repeat
it's definitely a completely different
film and uh we've been
kind of just putting it together
um on a really quick basis
so it's not necessarily as big a production
as some of our other
projects that we've worked on however
i feel like it actually still came out very
professional um it looks
really good and uh we're gonna
be airing it at red hot it's just a private
event but then afterwards we'll be
um releasing it to the public
and everything like that so i'm really excited
about um that project
and uh hopefully soon
we'll have more announcements about
that that's pretty much all i have
as far as announcements are concerned
if you would go to your
special handouts we have a psalm of the week
that we'll be doing it's a new psalm
psalm 119
and uh
hopefully even if you haven't
uh heard it before after
you know hearing maybe the first verse or so you can kind
of tune in it's got a lot of repeating
the first verse is and if you already kind of know it
sing it out nice and loud
alright that was psalm
chapter 119
in your handout or in your
king james bible
psalm 119
everybody sing it out on the first
my word
is a lamp unto
my feet and
a light
unto my
path
i have sworn
and
i will
preform it
that i will
keep
righteous judgments
i
am
afflicted
very much
quick in me
oh lord
according
unto thy
word
the wicked have laid
a snare for me
yet i air not from
thy precepts
thy testimonies
have i taken as
an heritage for
ever
thy word is a lamp
unto my feet
and a light
unto my
path
except i beseech
be the
freewill
of my
mouth oh lord
and teach me
thy judgment
my
soul is
continually
in mine
and yet
do i not
the wicked
have laid a snare for
me yet i air
not from thy precepts
thy testimonies
have i taken
as an heritage
for ever
thy word is a
lamp unto my
feet and a light
unto my
path
for they
are
the rejoicing
of my
heart i have
inclined my
heart to
preform
thy statutes
with me
even unto
the end
i hate vain thoughts
but
i do
though i love
the wicked have laid
a snare for me
yet i air not from
thy precepts
thy testimonies
have i taken as
an heritage for
ever
thy word is a lamp unto
my feet and a light
unto my
path
alright, great singing everybody
now as the offering plates are being passed around
go ahead and turn in your Bibles to Romans chapter 7
that's Romans chapter number 7
Romans chapter 7
Romans chapter 7 the Bible reads
know ye not
brethren for i speak to them that know
the law how that the law
hath dominion over a man as long
as he liveth for the woman
which hath an husband is bound by the
law to her husband so long as he
liveth but if the husband be
dead she is loosed from the law
of her husband so then if
while her husband liveth she be married to another
man she shall be called an
adulteress but if her husband
be dead she is free from that law
so that she is no adulteress
though she be married to another man
wherefore my brethren
ye also are become dead to the law
by the body of Christ that ye
should be married to another
even to him who is raised from the dead
that we should bring forth fruit unto
God for when we were
in the flesh the motions of sins which
were by the law did work in our members
to bring forth fruit unto death
but now we are delivered from
the law that being dead wherein we
were held that we should serve
in newness of spirit and
not in the oldness of the letter
what shall we say then is the law
sin God forbid
nay I had not known sin but by the law
for I had not known lust except
the law had said thou shalt not
covet but sin taking
occasion against the commandment rod in
me all manner of concupiscence
for without the law sin
was dead for I was
alive without the law once but
when the commandment came sin
revived and I died
and the commandment which was ordained
to life I found to be unto
death for sin taking occasion
by the commandment deceived me
and by it slew me
wherefore the law is holy and
the commandment holy and just
and good was then that
which is good made death unto me
God forbid but sin
that it might appear sin working
death in me by that which is good
that sin by the commandment might become
exceeding sinful
for we know that the law is spiritual
but I am carnal
sold under sin
for that which I do I allow not
for what I would that do I not
but what I hate that do I
if then I do that which I would not
I consent unto the law that it is
good now then it is no more
I that do it but sin that dwelleth
in me for I know that
in me that is in my flesh
dwelleth no good thing
for to will is present with me
but how to perform that which is good
I find not
the good that I would I do not
but the evil which I would not that
I do now if I do that
I would not it is no more I that do
it but sin that dwelleth
in me I find
then a law that when I would do
good evil is present with me
for I delight in the
law of God after the inward man
but I see another law in my members
warring against the law of my
mind and bringing me into
captivity to the law of sin
which is in my members
O wretched man that I am
who shall deliver me from the body of
this death I thank God through
Jesus Christ our Lord so then
with the mind I myself serve the law of
God but with the flesh the
law of sin let's have a word of prayer Lord thank you
for this evening thank you for the opportunity
to be gathered together here as a church tonight
I pray for all of our church members
that are sick and
they would just feel better and all those that are traveling
pray that you'd get them to their destination
safely and please fill our pastor
with the Holy Spirit now we love you and in Jesus
name we pray Amen
Amen
We're here in Romans 7 and I think it's great to
remind ourselves of just kind of the context
of leading up to this chapter
if you think about the first
chapter of the book of Romans it makes
it clear that salvation has been revealed
and that salvation was by
faith the Bible then
goes on in chapter 2 to explain to us
how every single person will be judged
and that it's not a competition of who's
a worse sinner or not but rather
every single person is going to be judged
and we're all guilty we're all
sinners that's what kind of rolls into
chapter 3 it makes it abundantly clear
whether you're Jew or Gentile
we've all sinned chapter 4
then explains because salvation
has been revealed because we're all going to be judged
and because we're all sinners we need
salvation and that salvation can
only be by faith and that salvation
is faith alone apart from any
kind of works chapter 5
then elaborates on the fact that once
you've been saved you're always
saved so we're kind of building this really
clear narrative and in chapter
6 where we kind of left off
the Bible was making it clear that
even though you've been saved
by faith even though you
can't lose your salvation you should
still decide and choose
to follow God's commandments you shouldn't
just continue in sin and disregard
the law of God and just
live however you want no you should
still decide to yield yourselves
as instruments under
righteousness and as a servant
of God and a servant of righteousness
and to do that which is right
and as we roll into chapter number
7 it kind of
then helps us understand though
the fact that
serving God is not just
super easy it's not just
this automatic decision
it's not just this
where you get this special
moment you came down an
aisle and then all of a sudden you never wanted
to sin again or you're just this
completely different person and sin
is no longer attractive to you but
rather chapter 7 kind of
helps illustrate the fact
that those who are saved are
still going to struggle with sin that it's a
constant temptation
it's a constant struggle it's
something that no one is going to ever
fully be able to get rid of
until we have our new body
someone that says that they're not a sinner
anymore is just a liar
and of course they've deceived themselves
1 John elaborates on this point
if someone tries to make up
a lie and says they have no sin
they deceive themselves because no one
else will ever be deceived by the fact that
you have quit sinning
if you say you've quit sinning the only person
that could possibly believe that is you
and you're deceived on that particular point
because no one else in this planet
would ever believe that another grown adult
or grown human has stopped sinning
it's impossible
and of course this chapter is
highlighting someone that's arguably one of the
greatest Christians to ever live
the Apostle Paul and we
see that his confrontation with sin
is one where he openly
admits that he struggles greatly
and that he has a lot of problems when it
comes to sin in his own
life which I think is an important
chapter because it would be easy to just
read the highlights of the New Testament
and all the great works
that the men of God did
and think of them as being
higher than they truly are
thinking of them almost as being like these supermen
or super heroes
where they're incapable of sinning
and it could cause us to possibly
get so discouraged with our own
sinfulness or our own
issues to choose not to serve God
thinking like I'm not good enough
or I have too many issues
or I struggle too much
so I can't serve God
I'm not the Apostle Paul
well you may not be the Apostle Paul
but I think we see the humanity of the Apostle Paul
really being brought out in this chapter
and it helps us understand
the kind of the internal
nature and grind
now in the first few verses he's
using a parable
or some kind of a metaphor
to help us understand these
greater points and I'm gonna
dive into that subject a little bit
but I want us to at least have this context
on mine when we get to the latter portions of this
particular chapter
now verse 1 says this
but if her husband be dead
she is free from that law
so that she is no adulteress
though she be married to another man
so the Bible uses a metaphor
or a carnal example
to illustrate a spiritual truth
that when someone gets married
and especially when we're looking at this
the lens of the wife
the wife is supposed to obey
her husband until he's dead
that's basically the parameters
of her relationship
and she's not allowed
to be another man's wife
or to be with another man
because that would be a form of adultery
and the Bible is making it abundantly clear
the only way for her to be loosed from
the instructions of her husband
would be for her husband to die
now this makes perfect sense
that if a woman gets married to her husband
and let's say
they live in Texas
and for some reason
her husband says every time you make chili
you got to put beans in it
that would be a law
that would be a commandment
she would have to put that in there
and she would have to make this bean filled chili
and it wouldn't make a lot of sense
so God would probably be angry with him
and slow him
I'm sorry, slew, I can't say it right
probably slay him
kind of like he did air in Onan
for being wicked
that's why he was probably killed
I'm being facetious folks
but you get the point
her husband dies
now all of a sudden she can make chili without putting beans in it
if she wants to
so that was really only a law
while that husband lived
let's say she gets married to a godly righteous guy
from Texas and he's like no no no
don't put beans in the chili
now she no longer
has to ever make chili with beans in it
because she now has a new husband
but do you think
from one husband to the other
that there isn't going to be some overlap
don't you think it's still going to be important
for her to clean the house
and call her husband
and be nice to him
and make him other food
I guarantee that the overlap
of her duties is going to be almost
the same
there was a little bit of change
there was a little bit of an evolution
of the relationship based on their personal preferences
and just the dynamics of their relationship
the same is what the Bible is illustrating for us
when it comes to the Old Testament and the New Testament
and getting saved even
hey when you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ
and you get saved
you know we're no longer under the law
we're no longer under that particular system
and we're not under the curse
of the law either
meaning if I
if we talk about this woman
if this woman makes chili with beans in it
well there's going to be potentially repercussions
there could be
something negative that happens as a result of that
her husband could throw it on the ground
be mad, be upset with her
for doing that
whereas the new husband
he has a more righteous doctrine
he doesn't like the beans in there
and so when she doesn't put beans in there
there's no consequence
there's no issue there
when we talk about heaven and hell
if I sin
I don't have to go to hell for that sin
because Jesus Christ has already paid for it
he's already taken care of it
and I don't have that particular issue
so in that context I'm not under the law
but does that mean that I should still just sin
and just live however I want
you know hey my first husband
he didn't want me to cheat
and lay around and be lazy
and you know flip him off
and stuff like that
yeah it makes sense that in the new relationship
she's still going to be sweet and kind
and doing wifely duties
with that new husband
and the same is with us in the context that Christ
after getting saved
still wants us to what?
follow the commandments, not lie
not steal, go to church
I mean there's still rules and instructions that God has for us
also you kind of see the parallel between the Old and the New Testament
of yes the old husband
in a sense was a little bit more restrictive
he didn't want bacon
he had this weird kosher diet
and in the New Testament we have a better diet
so as illustrated
we're not putting beans in the chili
so we get this better diet
it's called the better testament
it's the better husband
but at the same time
there's a lot of overlap
between these two areas
and a lot of liberal Christianity
they almost just want to throw out all rules
associated with being a wife
the same as us throwing out all the rules of being a Christian
or being a servant of God
and we're saying no no no
we're hanging on to all the good laws and good rules
that carried over
and all the things that he said
you don't have to do that anymore
we said ok good
I don't have to do all the Jewish feasts
I don't have to do all the Jewish cardinal ordinances
ok great
I don't have to do the Jewish circumcision
ok great
so we don't have to do those things
in that context obviously people will be like
Jesus was a Jew
ethnically but he was not of the religion of Judaism
alright
and in the New Testament he gave us
a better testament, a better covenant
and better rules so we have that kind of
understanding
also we can learn though
from this that notice what the Bible really says
very clearly on this
it says in verse number 2
so long as he liveth
talking about her husband
if he liveth she's bound by him
right? and it says
but if the husband be dead she's loosed
so the only way for a wife to be loosed
according to Romans chapter number 7
is for the husband to be dead
now if he's alive
what does it say in verse 3
so then if while her husband liveth
notice this is the only requirement
or the only attribute that's being described
is him being alive physically
so then if while her husband
liveth she be married to another man
she should be called an adulteress
I really like this point
because he's not even saying like if you are with
another man, it's saying being married
now what is
this kind of illustrating
it's illustrating how God looks at
marriage itself that is a
life long commitment
that man cannot
disannul
so what God joined together
let not man put asunder
let's read this in the New Testament a few other places
I'm going to go to Matthew for a second
go to the book of
Matthew
and I want to look at a couple verses here
but the Bible is making it abundantly
clear that
if someone's married
and then they end up
getting married to someone else
while that spouse is alive
it is a form of adultery
now not every
form of adultery is equivalent
and some people get really
weird about all this
obviously looking upon someone that's not your
spouse and having a lustful thought
according to the Bible is a form of adultery
but that's not the same form of adultery
that's punished with a death penalty
in the Old Testament
so there's forms of adultery
there's forms of even murder in the Bible
not all killing
is considered worthy
of the death penalty
some killing is completely justified
some killing is kind of like
but it's not necessarily worthy of the death penalty
and then there's a lot of killing that's just
capital punishment for
so the same is with adultery in the sense that there's a lot of
forms of adultery that have
varying degrees of punishment
and varying degrees of evil
or sinfulness associated with
them and when it
the Bible talks about divorce and remarriage
it makes it abundantly clear that
divorce and remarriage is a form of
adultery now what does it say in
Matthew chapter 19 verse 9
and I say unto you whosoever shall put away his wife
except it be for fornication
and shall marry another
comitteth adultery
and whoso marrieth her
which is put away doth commit adultery
so the Bible is telling us
that those who get divorced
and remarried
the Bible says it's a form of adultery
I didn't say that
Jesus said that
and Jesus is making it abundantly clear
that there's only one exception
and that one exception is fornication
now good fornication in the Bible
is clearly laid out as
being with someone before marriage
so this when you look back
up in the Old Testament
it was talking about kind of a situation
that's similar to an annulment in our modern
society
where a particular person lies
about the fact that they're a virgin
lies about their previous relationships
and someone gets married to them
and it's kind of a fraud marriage
because it was based on certain pretexts
that are not true
and when they're initially discovered
right there on the spot
that ends up voiding the contract potentially
only if that particular spouse
deems that
they don't want to continue with the relationship
they don't have to
they could theoretically just continue to stay married to that individual
it was for the hardness of their hearts
is what the Bible says
meaning that they're still just really upset about it
and they don't like how it went down
they don't like being deceived or lied to
and so they end up deciding to just put that spouse away
in that one very specific moment of time
but
the Bible also made it clear
if that person thought that's what happened
or said that's what happened
and it wasn't true
that they would be forced
they'd be punished and they'd be forced to be
married to that person for the
remainder of their life
because marriage is a lifelong contract
yeah, in the Old Testament there was a specific
provision that's similar to an initial
annulment
but it's not like ten years later we've grown apart
and now I just
we don't want to be married to each other anymore
that's not what the Bible brings up
the Bible also does not bring up
marital unfaithfulness
as a means for divorce
now
I understand that it's a grievous situation
but the Bible system
is designed
to all work together
so the Bible already
thought of every scenario
and what happens is American society
or other modern day societies
they have all these broken
chinks in God's system
so then it starts getting in these weird scenarios
but they would say like, oh, so you're telling me
I have to stay married to my spouse even though
they committed adultery on me
well, according to the Bible that person would just be
put to death and then you wouldn't have to be married to them anymore
so it fixed that problem
but in today's society
we don't have that
so then you have a lot of people in these weird scenarios
where their spouse has done things
that it's very difficult to figure out
how to deal with it
and what to do
but you know, there was people in the Bible that had this scenario
Hosea is literally instructed by God to marry a whore
and that woman committed
repeated adultery against him
and God even wanted him to pay his wife
to literally just stay with him
for a short period of time
I mean, he's literally, it's like
a slaughter bride almost
I mean, if you think about it
kind of in a situation
and it's to kind of illustrate
that you can still love someone
even when they've committed really big sins
even when they're not as faithful as they should be
even when they have severe problems
and Hosea loved his wife
even though she didn't deserve it
and there's a picture about God loves us
and God loves Israel at times
even when they don't deserve it whatsoever
and marriage is supposed to be a picture of
I'm dedicating my life
to loving you regardless of your actions
and isn't that a beautiful picture of the gospel?
how Jesus Christ
accepts us as a
saved, newborn
creation, we become children of God
we become brethren with him
and in a context as a whole
we become the bride of Christ
even though he knows
for a fact, we'll do things against him in the future
and he doesn't say, well, if you do
he doesn't get a prenup agreement
he doesn't have some kind of a contract
that says, well, if you do this big thing
then I'm going to renege
and you're not going to be saved anymore
you're going to lose yourself
no, he just goes all in and says, hey, you're saved forever
just like marriage is supposed to be like
hey, I'm marrying you forever
and I'm going to love you forever, period
and if you decide later in life
well, you know what?
I'm going to get divorced
and you get a little piece of paper
and you go pay a bunch of money to lawyers
and you get a judge's sign
and they say you're no longer married
you know what? God doesn't care
God didn't care what you sign on a piece of paper
just like when you go to a doctor's office
and you chop off your privy member
God didn't think, oh, you turned into a woman now
you can do all kinds of things that you want
but that doesn't mean
that God respects that
you can go and buy a building that's really fancy
and you can put it on the front
church, you can have a big sign that says church
but then you show up
and God doesn't even think it's a church
because you're not actually doing anything according to the Bible
it's not because there's a building and a sign
it's not because you have a piece of paper
it's because you're doing things according to the scripture
and you know
you can go out there and get two guys
and they can make vows to each other
and say they're going to love each other forever
but they didn't get married in the eyes of God
and God didn't join that together
just like you can't put those two Legos together
those two Lego pieces don't fit
so you can sit there and cram them
and cram them and chop them up
and try to glue them together
but you know what, it just didn't fit
it doesn't work and God just says
I don't respect that
Abel offered an offering by faith
and it was accepted and Cain offered an offering
and it was not respected
it's not accepted of God
and you know what, there's plenty of things out there
that God doesn't accept
and God doesn't accept your
irreconcilable differences
divorce
in his eyes you're still married
in his eyes you're still
under contract with that individual
you're still their spouse
and so if you decide to then get married
after the fact
you are committing a form of adultery to God
now
once you've gone through that full transaction
though
and I want to make this clear
let's say you do disregard everything I'm saying
you don't care what Jesus said
you just sin anyways, you just get remarried anyways
well
even though God didn't necessarily
accept your divorce
he does apparently accept your
neck marriage in the sense that
now you're no longer
supposed to ever go back to that previous spouse
so
it is a new permanent
situation where now
well, you shouldn't have done that
you screwed up, bad decision
but now you're locked into the new relationship
you know, you're locked into a bad
new car loan
and you know what, but you're stuck
with that car loan
should you have got it? No
but you know, you bought this used car
you should have kept the new one
that you had originally
but you traded in your new one
for some stupid reason and got a used
beater
but you're stuck with it, you got the title
so you might as well just stay faithful
to that spouse
I traded that one in again too
okay, well just stay
with the one you have
you know, obviously
obviously
God is not going to just
destroy you physically for every bad
decision that you make, but let me tell you something
people that disregard what we're saying right now
and disregard what the Bible says, they will suffer
great consequences
and I mean, I don't know a person
I'm not saying that it doesn't exist
I don't know a person that's been divorced and remarried
and they come up to me and they're just like
you know it was the best thing that ever happened to me in my entire life
Pastor Shelley, I don't know what you're talking about
almost every single person will just openly
admit, yeah it was terrible, it was horrible
I wish I'd never done it, one of the worst things
that's ever happened to me, because it's
grievous
it's not like, oh man I'm so glad
I got divorced and remarried
no, the people that do that end up getting divorced
even more likely in the future
it's a higher rate of divorce
once you've already done it, it's not lower
it's not like, well I kind of figured it out now
I was bad at marriage before
but now I'm really good at it
now it's going to really work out
no, usually it's a sign of someone that's bad
at marriage
and they're going to take that problem with them
into the next relationship
plus, the person that was willing to marry you
who's divorced, also probably has serious issues
character, flaws
and a lot of problems, so you're putting like two people
with a lot of serious character flaws together
it's just exponential
when it comes to the chances
of just failure and problems
and issues, and I'm not trying to spell
doom for you, if you're divorced
and remarried, you can stay faithful
that person, I think that God can still
bless that relationship in ways
but I'm not going to minimize
it and try to pretend like
hey, what you did wasn't sin
or it's not adultery now magically
or you're justified in leaving
him, no
I will never justify
any divorce
I can understand in an
extreme situation where someone's married to a
literal reprobate
you know, if they divorced, I probably wouldn't
condemn them, but I also still wouldn't
justify it
and at the end of the day, 99%
of the time, they're not married to a reprobate
so, you know, they'd
come and tell you that
just try to justify it
you don't understand, I was married to a reprobate
and it's like, what happened?
you know, one time
we went to the Catholic church, so
he's probably a reprobate
it's like, come on, really?
well, one time he used the Lord's name in vain
obviously that was bad, but really
does it just make him a reprobate?
I mean, they come up with these crazy stories
well, I showed him something in the Bible one time
and he didn't immediately agree with me
he's probably a reprobate
you know, yeah
I showed him the earth was flat, he didn't get it
so, no, you're the problem
go to Mark chapter 10
I want to show this to you in another place
but, God looks at marriage
as being permanent, why don't we look at it as permanent?
I mean, that's the value you make
that's what God wants you to do
and, of course, God
doesn't like
how you just drop your spouse
like a bad habit
when he is constantly faithful
to you with all your bad habits
and think about it this way
if your spouse is saved
especially if this doesn't make sense
because Jesus Christ will never leave them
nor forsake them, why would you?
I mean, if Christ
isn't going to leave them, what excuse
do you have? That doesn't really
make any sense, it's not really logical
that's why it's also really important, hey, when you're deciding
to get married, marry someone that's saved
you know, and at least
if they're saved, there's always hope for reconciliation
and I've known people
that have gone through really rough patches in their marriage
where they've been physically separated
like they're not living together anymore
they're very
the relationship is very toxic
and they both
can only selectively remember the negative
things about their spouse for a while
but then eventually they snap
out of it, they wake up
they stop being selfish, they stop being hormonal
they stop having their issues or whatever
and then stop going through midlife crisis
and they wake up, smell the roses
and realize, you know what?
I'm kind of just being a jerk here
and they end up getting back
together and now they're happy again
and now they're, you know, they've had
maybe they, in some cases they may have
had more children or whatever
and so don't think like
well, my marriage is in a bad spot
and it's going to be like this forever
that's not necessarily true
there's plenty of people I have known
where they've had really low spots and
they haven't had that low of a spot
again in a long time and they probably won't ever
have that low spot again
so don't be so discouraged and think
divorce is the option, no divorce
is way worse
it'd be like if you were sick and then just
taking a suicide pill, it's like that's not going to fix
anything, you know, sometimes when you're
sick you feel like you wish you would just
die, you're like I have no reason to live
I remember, you know, you get that
COVID or whatever they gave us all
a few years ago and man
my whole back hurt, my lower back
hurt, I couldn't get comfortable
and church was a little stressful
and I was just thinking I don't have many reasons
to live right now
but then you start feeling better
and you're like well that was silly
it would have been silly to just end it all
just because I felt bad that day
or I was at a low point physically
and marriage can be like that, sometimes your marriage
is going through a COVID spell
maybe it's got
some kind of a disease or some kind of an issue
and you're kind of having
a bad problem
but you know what, it can be fixed
don't go down the divorce road
now look at Mark chapter 10 verse 2
the Bible says in the Pharisees came to him
and asked him is it lawful for a man to put away his wife
tempting him, so they're just asking
is it lawful for me to divorce
my spouse
and if you'd paid attention in Matthew
you know when the Bible is talking about someone
putting away, it's talking about a man
putting away his wife
and that if a man put away
his wife and if the man
married another woman
he was committing adultery
so some people come up to me and say
Pastor Silly, I kind of think that
polygamy is actually not a sin
and I'm thinking where did you come up with that doctrine
you know that's weird
that's weird, that's coming from
Muslims
Mormons
I mean that's coming from your God
Moloch, okay
that's not coming from the Bible
now obviously a lot of Christian men did this
Old Testament saints made that mistake
but guess what
according to the Bible
if you marry another woman
it's adultery
now it's not like magically adultery because you divorced her
it's just because you married another woman
the reason why someone marries another woman
is because they got divorced
that was the excuse to get married again
but if you marry another woman
the Bible is saying you're committing adultery against her
now it gets even more explicit
in this particular chapter
look at verse 11
and he saith unto them
Whosoever shall put away his wife and marry another
committeth adultery against her
so notice
if you marry another woman
you're committing adultery against her
and if a woman shall put away her husband
and be married to another
she committeth adultery
notice it's giving you both sides of the coin
showing it's equivalent
don't get this weird idea
that it's okay for men to have multiple wives
but women can't have
multiple husbands
it's just wrong, period
now you say well why is there
hypocrisy in the Old Testament
well you want to know why
you don't see women
with multiple husbands at the same time
in the Old Testament
it's because if there was another dude
that my wife wanted to be with
I would kill him or die
it wouldn't be an option
it's not like
it's not like well
you know it's okay
a guy that's okay with this
is like a reprobate or something
no normal dude
could be fine with sharing his wife
with another man
it is a life or death situation
so that's the reason why you're not reading
a lot about it
because it just never could happen
it's just too impossible of a scenario
now I'm not saying that women
wouldn't get so vicious or mad
but for whatever reason
they're just not as likely
to kill each other over this particular issue
or the husband
is able to keep them away from each other
because he's just physically stronger
and more dominant or whatever
so that it just doesn't end up happening
it doesn't mean that
it wasn't the same level of sin
it doesn't mean that it's not as wrong
it's just the
reality of how God
made us
women are strong and fierce and violent
way more than women are
and men just can't handle it
you know women are still just mean
about it
they're just mean and vicious with their words
they'll try to get the woman to hate herself
and be depressed
you can see like this in the book of 1 Samuel
where Hannah and Penaena
they're just really getting at each other
Leah and Rachel are naming
their children in spite of each other
with their children
their names are in spite of one another
so it's not like the animosity isn't the same
it's just they're not necessarily
always as capable of just killing
the other woman or slaying her
but even Sarah
Sarah is like just get this woman
out of here
she can't stand the idea of that woman
and that her son even be anywhere near them
and she's just like y'all just go out in the wilderness to die
I mean she wants them
to die basically
and it's by miracles of God
that Agar and Ishmael even survive
out in the middle of the wilderness
I mean they didn't have some child support
or some government daddy to come
and rescue them when they're out there
I mean we're talking about a teenage boy
and her mom out in the wilderness
this was a very difficult situation
that they were put into
why? Because Sarah doesn't care if she died
Sarah's just maybe not capable
of you know doing the job herself
but in a man's
situation he would
don't really see the opposite
so much in the Old Testament
the practicality of it
don't get this weird idea like
God thinks it's great let's
all get 20 wives
the Mormon compound is in Utah
you can go there
and you can have your wicked false doctrine there
but you know what? Not
in a Baptist church
not in America praise God
that bigamy is not legal in this
country and that's a satanic
practice of the Muslims
that's a satanic practice of the Mormons
why would I want to adopt
satanic practices from the Muslims
and the Mormons? I don't
they're wrong on that issue and if you
decide to even get divorced and remarried
that's still adultery
it's still wrong
and you know you have I mean
if you've ever been married one's enough
guys like you
don't need another one okay
I mean how many credit
card bills do you want?
go back to
Matthew I want to go back to a verse I skipped over
I mean
that's insane you know
having multiple wives is
one of those ideas that you didn't think through
like it sounds good
at first for some reason and then
it's just like wow that was a bad decision
okay wow
I mean all the anniversaries and all the
bitterness and all the envy and all
the stress and all the emotions I mean
think about all the hormones that are going on I mean this is just
this is just crazy
I mean and it drove the men
of God insane it caused them to do
insane crazy things
I mean Solomon is literally to the point
where it's just like you want to
murder our babies in a field go for it
I mean think about that
this is a man of God
that is
super righteous super intelligent
and he just gets so
complicit he's willing to allow
his own wives to take his
children and murder them
unto a false god
that's insane
but if you have a thousand wives
it makes sense okay
why the guy is nuts why the guy
is just like do whatever you want
I mean I wouldn't want to have to
answer that many phone calls and text
messages and emails and requests
and just like
you would just be like just do it
you know just have you ever there's this
last movie it's called like Bruce Almighty
I don't know anybody seen this
movie okay there's other sinners
out here all right it's Roman 7 okay
well this is this last movie Jim
Carey is God I'm shocked
the Satanist wants to be God right
he but like in this in the movie
he gives them only a limited
capacity of God so he only
allows him to just do like some of his tasks
and he's like at one point in the movie
he's getting all of the prayer requests from everybody
in the entire world at least
what he thinks and it's like getting to
a point where he can't even answer all of them because they're
just coming in at such a rapid rate he
doesn't have time to even do anything so he
ends up just like deciding to just
say yes to every single prayer request
but in the movie
it ends up showing it was only one town
so he ends up just saying yes
to every prayer request by every single person
and so like
a thousand people win the lottery or something
like that like everybody wins the lottery
and it was like they all got like $17
or something like that but
it's just kind of funny how
it's just showing in that particular
scene how there's just like all
these different prayer requests coming in to where it's
overwhelming and only
God is capable of handling
such multitasking
and think about a one man
trying to answer the request of a
thousand women I mean this is
you have just be like just whatever
just do whatever I mean there's it's not
possible so therefore he wasn't even
making a lot of the decisions it was
either just a carte blanche or they're just making
decisions without him or whatever I mean
you can't manage that it's
unrealistic
and of course that's where it leads to
also if
you allowed multiple marriage
how would that even work
think about this
the Bible says in the Old Testament
that only the kings were not supposed to multiply
wives and I'll hear people be like
oh well that you know that's kings
you know or whatever but you know why it's
only kings because every single
person can't do that it's 50
50 when it comes to men and women on this
planet right so if you
just let every guy have as many
wives as he wanted you would run out of wives
fast and that's why in these Mormon
compounds and these Muslim
communities they start going younger and younger
and younger until they run out of all the like
kids
and who's getting all of them just the leader
only the top guy so that's
why it's kind of a commandment aimed at the king because
only really the kings and the top
leaders that were ever getting the
opportunity to really have tons and tons of wives
and think about it the women that
want to share a man at that kind of rate
she's a gold digger
and who does the gold digger want
the king because he has the gold
he has the money she doesn't care
I mean nobody cares you can't get like
25 women to want to be married to
Joe Plummer and
split his $1000 a week paycheck
you know that's like in the
movie where everybody won the lottery and they all got
$17 and it was just like
who cares right
whereas if it's like Elon Musk
the guy's got $100 billion
well sharing that
10-15 times isn't as big a deal
that's why Elon Musk has all kinds
of different women he had
he was married to all kinds of
freaks and he was dating that
Amber Heard chick who's
like a psychopath he was like
with some artist called Grimes
and this chick
is super satanic
I mean this chick is her like main video
one of her main videos on YouTube is called
Genesis and it's her just like dancing
with a snake and I'm just like
I wonder where you came up with that idea
you know
and then they named their kid like
XAE12
or something like that
I saw someone say on there he's the antichrist
and I was thinking like you might be right
but I don't know
I mean the guy that's inventing the Neuralink
you know with this satanic chick
or whatever I was like I don't know
but you know this is the modern day form
of the multiple wives is the rich men
like Elon Musk
like the Hugh Hefners
like the really rich celebrities
and athletes today
who have all their girlfriends and
mistresses and they divorce and marry
5, 6, 7 times or whatever
that is
what the Bible is really condemning here
and it's the same kind of practice that we were
seeing in the Old Testament
no one enjoys it
no one's really like it
there's no satisfaction
you know what you need to just stick with one woman
for the rest of your life
just find one woman to love
and just be with her
and look it's wonderful
but what's the attitude that a lot of people are coming to
these days look at verse number 10
his disciples say to him if the case of the man
is to be so with his wife it is not good to marry
and I think that
is the attitude of this MGTOW
thing that is pervasive
in America and really
a lot of parts of the world today
where they essentially just say I'm never getting married
because she may
divorce me or she may not be a good wife
or I may want to be with another woman
or whatever lame excuse they have
they think they've outsmarted
God, they've outsmarted the
institutions of marriage
and oh I don't want to get married young
and get tied down to one woman
no no that's exactly what you should do
that's the best road
that's the best option
find that young woman that you're going to love
and marry and cherish no matter what she does
and it's a beautiful picture
and the people and the men that are the
most satisfied I guarantee
are the ones that married young
you might have ups and downs in that relationship
you're going to have some difficulties
but I guarantee overall life satisfaction
is going to be exponentially higher
and I could
pull for you and find for you all kinds of men
that got divorced
that their lives are miserable
their lives are a train wreck
you definitely don't want to go down this road
you want to stay committed to one woman
the guys who are not married
lives are often
very miserable, they're lonely
and a lot of times they just don't know what they're missing
but at the same time
you know marriage
marriage is a beautiful thing
it's a wonderful institution
we don't want to get this stupid attitude
and say oh man I have to commit to this woman forever
yes
and you know it's honorable
to take a woman and to love her
and to try to keep her chased
and to try and encourage her
and develop her and help her to become
a great woman of God
this is an admirable task
that men need to actually take on
go back to Romans chapter 7
how are we going to continue
how are you going to have great children
if we don't have men deciding to marry women
and be faithful to them and to love them
and to do good unto them
and no matter what they do
or you do
being committed to the same person
is the best option for you
even if they make mistakes
even if they have problems
even if they do grievous things
you can still love someone
and it just gives you an opportunity
without that scenario
the more pain, damage
or evil you have to overcome
shows that you have a greater capacity for love
someone like Hosea
who is able to be committed and faithful
to a woman who would commit adultery against him
shows that he has a greater capacity
of love than a lot of people
because a lot of people couldn't do that
a lot of people would not be capable
or willing to overlook something like that
or be willing to still be faithful and love that person
and it really just goes to show
that this person has a greater capacity for love
than a lot of other individuals
because a lot of people can't necessarily
get past it
and I'm not saying just be a doormat
and just whatever
I'm saying choosing to actually love someone
despite really bad problems
really bad and grievous issues
and I bring this up just because
it's more common than I would like to know
you know
I think it's just because our society
has gotten so wicked now
that the adultery
and the affair rates
in our country are just
astronomical
I mean I think if you listen
you could fact check me on this but I think even just statistics
they'll admit it's like 25-30%
is what people admit to
and of course
on something like this
people are very unlikely to be honest
so it's probably a lot higher
and
just from my own personal experience
probably unfortunately higher
than that so if you think about it
you know like thousands of people
I mean a large percentage of those have to deal
with that particular issue
but you know what instead of just
recycling spouses
and going down
that road you know what just
choosing to love that person anyways
and stay with them it's always the best
approach and then you're not
guilty of committing fornication or adultery
by then divorcing them and marrying another
person because there's not like
this well they committed adultery
first so I'm off the hook no no
no you're still bound
to the law of your husband you're still bound
to the law of your wife you're still
together until death
do you part and you know what I said better
for worse obviously that's worse
but you know what stay committed
to them love them you know if they become a
reprobate just be like
Abigail and pray for their death
okay that's my recommendation
so you don't want to get why give all
your money to lawyers you know
they could die tomorrow and then you didn't have to waste any
money giving to lawyers or going down that road
or anything like that so you know that's
my personal recommendation I'll help pray
with you okay
let's let's try to get through the rest of this
this chapter verse five
the bible says for when we were in the flesh
the motions of sins which
were by the law did work on our members to bring
forth fruit unto death but now
we are delivered from the law that being
dead wherein we were held that we should serve
a newness of spirit and not in the oldness
of the letter so he's just basically saying
even though you've been delivered from the law
hey
don't don't use that as an occasion for sin
but rather serve with a newness of spirit
you know newness hey I want to
serve God now not out of obligation
but out of love
you know and maybe you could look at
it this way like maybe you're in a marriage that was kind of like
you just were forced into it
or you know you were stuck in it and now
you're married to someone you actually like and you're
excited and you have like that you want
to serve Jesus Christ with that newness of
spirit and out of appreciation
and out of love
and of course not following
the commandments just because you have to
because you want to you want to be pleasing unto
Christ and that's what the
picture of baptism was that you had that desire
to serve Christ not just like
rules or just like
I have to do this but rather you want to
serve the Lord Jesus Christ verse
number six of the bible or so verse seven
what shall we say then
is the law sin
God forbid
nay I had not known sin
but by the law for I had not known lust
except the law it said thou
shall not covet you know the only way to understand
what a sin is is for there to be a law
the only thing that makes something
a sin is a law exists
a law creates sin in essence
and sin is not necessarily
visible or understandable
without the law so of course God
gave the law to help the children of Israel
understand some of their sinful
attributes and the things that they were doing
to make it more clear
because when the bible says love God
okay
but not everybody understands what that means
so then there's more elaborate commandments
more specific commandments
that are under the guideline of
loving God so that you understand
when you're performing this action you're actually in
violation of loving God
because Jesus Christ made it clear that every single
law every single commandment is hung
upon loving God and loving
your neighbor as yourself which is still just
loving God so it's just like loving God
is the only real commandment there is
it's just everything else
underneath that umbrella is
just helping you further understand what it just means
to love God and to love your
neighbor and to do that which is right
and he's saying I just I didn't even know
that lust was like an
issue until I heard about
thou should not covet and this just happens
for a lot of us where sometimes we don't really understand
maybe everything
that's wrong until we read it first
in our bible or we studied it
and we're hoping that the bible constantly pricked our hearts
to continually
do the right thing and to want to serve God
correctly it
says also in verse 8 but sin taking occasion
by the commandment brought to me all manner
of concupiscence for without the law
sin was dead notice without any
kind of law sin doesn't
really have any effect
so it's not necessarily that it's not sinning
it's just that it doesn't really have a
consequence associated with it
so let's just say there wasn't any
rules in the church and you
come and just like pour paint on the carpet
you know it's not like that was good
that was still wrong but there's not really
I can't really give anything to you because there wasn't really
any rules about that necessarily
you know but if I just said like if you spill
you know paint on the carpet
you're paying me 50 bucks you know
then all of a sudden now that sin
is kind of alive it has
like some kind of attached
punishment with that
and that's kind of where he's coming
from verse 9 for I was alive without the law
once but when the commandment
came sin revived and I died
some people
I would say most people probably interpret
this verse as the idea of
maybe when you're born you're kind
of in this stage of innocence
and until you get to the point where you can kind of
understand sin God's not necessarily holding
you accountable but notice it's saying
when the commandment came so it's kind of like
once you understand that commandment
once you kind of have that parameter
and then you disobey
it's like okay
that's when sin is
alive and that's when you have that
consequence of that spiritual death
and so you then have to what be born again
you have to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ
to be saved therefore
the logic would be
that if a baby dies
it goes to heaven. Why? Because it didn't
necessarily have an opportunity
to even sin yet
and therefore since it hasn't sinned yet
it doesn't even have the opportunity to necessarily
get saved yet and so
some people ask this question
what's the age? I have no idea
the doctrine is kind of called the age
of accountability and
the Bible doesn't really spell these things
out so I don't really talk
about it that much or bring it up because I don't know
I don't know the answer. To me
as long as your kids know what sin is
and they can understand the gospel they need to get saved
and I think that
I don't even think my personal opinion
you can interpret the Bible however you want
my personal opinion is that God doesn't put an age on it
because it's more of a mental
understanding that it is a particular age
some kids understand things
at four. Some kids don't
understand anything until they're 15
and some people that are technically
even mentally handicapped
may never understand things
so I don't think it's necessarily
like five, you know, 13
that the Jews want you to believe
but it's rather
more of just a personal
understanding situation
kind of like Eve. Eve sinned in the garden
I don't think that she was five
I don't think she was 13. She was probably a grown
woman 30 but notice who sin
was imputed unto was Adam
because he understood, knew what he was doing
it was wrong and therefore he died in the garden
okay
also
the Bible is making it very clearly
that sin is kind of like
in states of death and alive
which is kind of interesting. Verse 10 it says
in the commandment which is ordained to life I found to be unto death
so even though the commandment
was giving you good instruction
it causes him to end up dying
verse 11 for sin
taking occasion by the commandment deceived me
and by it slew me
the law is holy and the commandment holy and just and good
was then that which is good made death
unto me? God forbid
but sin that it might appear sin
working death in me by that which is
good that sin by the commandment might become
exceeding sinful
so he's saying because we have
a sinful nature and because
we're weak because we have our
flesh the commandment
just kind of illustrates our weakness
it kind of just shows
our inability to be righteous
all the time so there's nothing wrong
with that law with that standard
it's just illustrating you
can't handle it so it's kind of like me
and plastic forks you know whenever
I am eating a meal and someone
gives me a plastic fork it's almost
like a 95% chance I will break it
and it's not
like there's
there's anything wrong with me like it's not like
I'm just this superhuman
just like amazing like
strong man or something like that it's that
that plastic fork is weak and should
not be used and it's just too
weak so under the pressure it just ends
up cracking and breaking
and it just can't handle it's like a
paper straw which
cannot even handle liquid it's like
it starts melting and you're like what is
why am I eating the straw I don't want to eat
the straw it's like paper straw
should never be invented now let me help
you with this just don't use straws and then you never
have this problem okay I'm
an anti-straw person so I
just don't even have to worry about this issue
but at the same time
it's kind of showing how you know God's
commandment was a good standard
it's great there's nothing wrong it's
just we're not capable of doing it we're just
we're just we're too weak we're
just too frail and so
we end up what the law does it just
shows how how inefficient we
really are it just shows how sinful
we are it would be
kind of like if someone
gave you the Olympic record
for a particular event maybe the fastest
one mile time
or something like that which I don't even know what it is
is it like three minutes
or something like three minutes and fifty seconds
or three minutes and thirty seconds somewhere in there
it's probably like three minutes and a half
something like that and they say alright
Pastor Shelley now you run a mile
and it'd be like seven or eight minutes
later and it would just show like
how I there's nothing wrong
with that standard that was a great
standard that someone had set it's just I
wasn't capable of meeting
that particular standard because I'm not
as fast a runner I'm not as well
trained or even just maybe even genetically
capable of doing
such a feat and so it's the same
with God showing hey
here's God's records oh yeah
God never lies God never steals
God never has a lustful
thought God never does any of these things wrong
and this is what you should do and then you're
like I can't though
right we can't measure up
well why can we not measure up verse 14
for we know the law is spiritual but I'm carnal
so again we're carnal
our bodies aren't capable
of being sinless
we don't have that particular capacity
and the law is great
verse 15 for that which I do
I allow not for what I would that
do I not but what I hate
that do I know this is kind of a tongue twister
but what he's basically saying is like
all the things that I tell other people not to do
all the behaviors
I would never allow someone to do
I end up doing them
things that I hate
I end up doing
so he's just recognizing the fact that hey I struggle
with this and I love the fact
that he says the law is spiritual and he's carnal
meaning that
hey Leviticus 2013 is more
spiritual than you are buddy
okay don't get mad at
the Bible and start saying like
oh the Bible is carnal or something
like that no you're carnal
we're carnal the Bible is perfect
and when we look at all the commandments
in the Bible we realize none of us measures up
none of us is perfect
and in fact many cases we do
things that we hate
that's a good attitude
if you're sinning and you're like
I like this this feels good
this is wonderful you know that's kind of wrong
you should actually
kind of hate it
and sometimes people use this as a test
for being saved and I'm not saying
it's the best test but to some degree
they're right you know and I
hear a lot of times you hear this from Calvinists and stuff
like oh you're just going to really hate your sin
or whatever you're not going to continue sinning
but wait a minute
Paul hated his sin and then kept doing it
look is it right
that you should hate sin? Yes
but does that mean that you're just going to automatically
quit or give up? No
he's saying I still do this
I still I keep doing this verse 16
if then I do that which
I would not I can sin under the law that it is good
he's saying the reason why
I hate this
is because the law is always right
meaning that Paul is never sinning
and then thinking in hindsight
you know what I think that what I did
was right and the law is wrong
no he's saying the law was right and I
was wrong the law was good
and what I did was bad
what God told me to do is righteous
and what I'm doing is wicked
he's recognizing that every single time
the law wins and he's wrong
so when people say hey I know the punishment
for homosexuality nothing
no no you're wrong God's right
no your way
and your method of doing things was wrong
and God was right oh I think divorce
and remarriage should be whenever you want
no no that was wrong and God was right
every single scenario
every single situation
the law is good we're the ones
that are wrong verse 17
for the will is present with me
but how to perform that which is good I find not
so he's saying it's not even technically
the new man inside of him
it's the fact that there's still
sin in his flesh his flesh is still weak
and he's just not capable
of just always denying the flesh
always crucifying the flesh
and inside internally
he wants to
he just doesn't know how to do it
and I think that's another really important point
sometimes there's just even sin
or there's issues that you have
and you're like I want to stop this
I just don't even know how to stop this
like I just don't even
like I want to stop
you know and it could be anything
you know and I'm not
signaling anybody out or anything
but you know it could be
just pride envy
lust lying
stealing you know whatever it is
obviously we're probably going to all
have this for bad thoughts for foolish
thoughts okay and there could be
just an area in your life that you're struggling in
and you're just thinking like
I want to give this up I know
it's wrong I just don't
I just don't even know how to do it
if I knew how to do it I would just do it
okay this is the
this is the mentality of the apostle
Paul and I think that it's not
an excuse folks
it's just showing us the difficulty
that there is going to be times
where even you want
to you're willing
you're just not really
figuring out how to do it
verse 19
for the good that I would I do
not but the evil which I would not
that I do
now if I do that I would not it is no more I that do it
but sin that dwells in me I find that a law
that when I would do good evil is
present with me for I delight in the law of
God after the inward man but I see
another law in my members
warring against the law of my mind
and bringing me into captivity
to the law of sin which is in my members
oh wretched man that I am
who shall deliver me from the body
of this death I thank God
through Jesus Christ our Lord
so then with the mind I myself serve
the law of God but with the flesh
the law of sin
now what's interesting about
this and I don't
I'm not going to show every verse
I'm pretty much ending but
I want to show you a few different verses
on this subject because what's interesting about
this is when he talks about the new man
and the old man
he kind of ties your old
man to your body and your flesh
and the physical actions that you take
and he ties the new man to
your mind to
what you're thinking and
that's kind of an interesting parallel go if you want to
a few different places let's go to Ephesians chapter number
three for a moment
and he even says that explicitly
in the end of this chapter that with the mind he
wants to serve God he's a servant of God
but with the flesh he's like
subject to the law of sin
he's not able to necessarily
do what he's thinking
or what he wants to do
internally Ephesians chapter 3
look at verse 16 the Bible says
that he would grant you
according to the
riches of his glory to be strengthened
with might by his
spirit in the inner man
notice another thing
obviously your inner man
is sinless
but what does it say here
to be strengthened with
might by his spirit in the inner man
your inner man though
can get stronger
that tells me
that your inward man is not necessarily
always at
full capacity if it can
be strengthened that seems like that's
something you might have to work on
so just because you can
think of the right thing to do
doesn't necessarily mean
that you're at full capacity
of the thoughts
or your strength
this kind of relates to the idea of
bringing into captivity
wicked imaginations
or evil imaginations
or thoughts against Christ
well how do you bring something
into captivity you have to overcome it
you have to muscle it
talking about strength
so it's kind of talking about the strength
to put to bed bad thoughts
taking control of the mind
taking control of your
thought life is what he's kind of bringing up
look at chapter 4 verse 22
chapter 4 verse 22
that you put off concerning the former
conversation of the old man which is corrupt
according to deceitful lust and be renewed in the
spirit of your
mind
and that you put on the new man which after
God is created in righteousness and true holiness
notice again the tie to what?
to the mind
now when we go to another place
go to
Romans chapter 12 let's go back to Romans for a moment
go back to
Romans chapter number 12
but the Bible
is kind of painting this picture and it's making
abundantly clear that your inward man
and your spirit man is kind of like
a mental thing it's like a mind
thing and again
your flesh is kind of that
that desire
now this makes sense
because what is it that wants to sin
is it really just
is it really your mind
or is it the body
and let's pick an example
and I'm going to use a couple okay
how about gluttony
is it really your mind that's just saying
like man I just really
want to eat a bunch of trash food
or is it your body
craving it it's that like
feeling that it's getting and when you
eat the food what's really
enjoying it man the taste buds
and the flesh
experience or whatever
and of course overeating
why do people overeat? because food is
wonderful because it's
just amazing I love
and you live in Texas you know that food
is good okay see
this is why everybody in Asian culture is skinny
is because their food sucks
they're like
I don't want any more fish and rice
I'm good you know
there's only so much that you can eat
but you live in America it's like apple pie
and ice cream and chocolate
and brisket and
every kind of bread you can imagine
I mean you go to Texas Roadhouse
that bread and butter is amazing
most people eat so much
they're like I don't even want a meal now
and then you're like might as well
still eat the steak and then you want dessert
and you're like just bring me more of those
rolls and butter right
and it's not like mentally
you're just like you know what I think I need 15
rolls
no no no you're in the restaurant
and you're smelling it and then
you dip it in the butter and you're like
wow that was good some people are getting hungry
alright
but you know what I'm talking about right
and it's like nobody in their mind is thinking
like you know what I need some more STDs
and I need to pay a bunch of hookers
and whatever like they're not thinking
that what their body
likes that physical experience
that they're going to get in exchange for it
and so they're actually just warring
against their carnal
physical desires and nature
this is why the Bible talks
about fasting and it talks about
different self-temperance
exercises because really
being spiritual often is just
controlling your body telling
your body no saying
don't do this or exercising
forcing your body to do things it
doesn't like and you know
I'm not getting on anybody's case
I'm not mad at anybody but
you can see some people in the Bible
that are very sinful or even
very overweight you have King Eglon
and you have other examples of this
Samuel and his sons were
very overweight and it's not
that being overweight
just makes you this wicked person
it's just that it's very closely tied to
someone that doesn't have very much self-control
and when someone doesn't have very much self-control
they're more likely to sin
it's just a common thing
why is it important that the
pastor is not given to wine
why is it important that he has
some level of self-control and temperance
because that's just one area
that helps you recognize
like this is a whole
person issue
when you just don't have much self-control
you can't say no to things
often it's not just one
it's usually kind of in general
that's why it's important to
learn self-control
that's why it's important to exercise yourself
in matters of godliness and righteousness
that's why it's important to force yourself
hey you're here on Wednesday night
you're exercising and forcing your body to do things
it doesn't want to do and I guarantee
you're strengthening in your mind
that spiritual new man
so that you can continue to make good decisions
reading the Bible is like exercise
and praying is like exercise
and going to church and going soul winning
you're constantly exercising those muscles
and you're getting stronger and stronger
and the guy that said yes to soul winning
and yes to soul winning
it's so much easier when they don't want to go
to just go soul winning
where as the person that's just constantly saying yes to the flesh
and yes to their physical desires
they become very weak
and their inward man
is just this puny man
and he's just like I want to serve god
and it's just like
the flesh is like shut up
I'm hungry, feed me
and it's like we need to get the opposite
we need to get the new man
to pump him up
and he's just like
no, get to the chopper
get to the church
read the Bible
and he needs to wrestle
that fleshly man down to the ground
and say no, we're going to serve god today
you know, this is
what the Bible is trying to tell you
and again, it's this mind
mind over matter
mind issues
what does the Bible say in Romans chapter 12
verse 2
and be not conformed to this world
but be transformed by the renewing of your
mind
that you may prove what is
that good and acceptable
and perfect will of god
now there's a lot of other places I could take you to
just to kind of illustrate this point
but I think these verses were clear
on the point that we're trying to make here
and it's that
you need to work on
your mental strength
because you're going to struggle with sin, period
no one's arrived
the apostle Paul didn't arrive
and he's helping you try to
understand the mechanics
of what's happening here
and when we get in chapter 8
he's going to really hammer this point
of walking in the spirit
and trying to be filled with the spirit
and trying to strengthen that new man
and making the right decisions
but realize this is a lifelong battle
this is a lifelong struggle
you can't just
automatically serve god
and people that serve god
are not doing it on accident
it's not easy for anyone
no one is serving god for a long period of time
and it was just easy
if you think it's easy to serve god
you're not doing it right
just like someone that gets really strong
I didn't even have to work out, liar
they were taking steroids or something
because in order
to get big and buff and strong
it takes hours of dedication
and work and you've got to put in all this effort
people that stay fit
and stay trim, usually they're putting
a lot of effort, a lot of energy
to be healthy
it's easy to just eat and do nothing
it's easy to just
lay back and relax
and just allow the world to just
consume the world
because there's just too much pleasure
and too much fun to be had
what's hard is to dedicate yourself to serving god
and strengthening your mind
and your affection
so don't take Wednesday night church lightly, folks
what we're doing is not just
we're not just showing up just
because
we're doing this because we need
these workout routines
to constantly work on our mental attitude
work on strengthening
that new man
so that we can say no
and we can do the best job possible
we can sin the least amount
and we can be vessels used for god's honor
god wants us to be mentally strong
in our new man
and saying yes to him spiritually
so that he can use us greatly
and I hope that this
chapter will help you realize
look, if you've been struggling with sin
okay, start working out
say how it'll work out
read your bible a little bit more, force yourself to read your bible a little more
force yourself to start praying a little bit more
force yourself to memorize Psalm 58
memorize
memorize some scriptures that
deal with a sin that you in particular
have an issue with
start going to church more
you know, go soul wanting a little bit more
you know, do something
but don't just sit here and think that
you know, well, I'll just
get over it, no, it's not going to happen
you won't just get over sin
and look, if someone was overweight
I'm not mad at them
because often people that are overweight
it's not like they sinned recently
it could have been five years ago
it's really hard to lose weight
I know, it's just a fact
you may just be suffering from
really previous bad decisions
right?
but it's just more outwardly obvious
but if you have a sin that's not like that
and related, you know
sometimes you need to put a lot of effort and energy
to clean that up
from past decisions, past mistakes
and you need to put the effort
and energy into it because it's worth it
and the more healthy you are physically and
spiritually, the more God is going to be able
to use you in the game
you know, when we play
you know, athletics
the people that are in the best shape
and put a lot of effort and energy in
are better teammates
be on the spiritual team
you've been signed up, you've been drafted
take this serious
our life is not a joke here
we're not just playing church
and the way the world's headed
I think that we're getting into some serious ball games ahead of our future
so we better get as mentally strong
as we can
so that we can be steadfast in the future
thank Heavenly Father for
all that you've given us
thank you so much for the word of God
thank you for giving us grace
and we struggle and we have issues
that you're still willing to use us
that you're able to
bless us despite our weaknesses and failures
and I pray that you would help every single
one of us to continue to strengthen ourselves
and our minds so that we could
overcome the flesh so that we could
yield ourselves as instruments of
righteousness so that we could follow your
commandments with zeal and love and
appreciation and a newness of spirit
not just in the oldest of the letter, in Jesus' name we pray
Amen
alright
in closing
we'll go to song number
44
song number 44
we'll work till Jesus comes
song number 44
everybody sing it out on the first
O land of rest
for the
I sigh when
will the moment
come
and I shall
lay my armor
by and well
and peace at
home
we'll work
till Jesus
comes we'll work
till Jesus
comes we'll
work till
Jesus comes
and we'll be
gathered home
to Jesus
Christ I fled
for rest he
bade me cease to
roam
and lean for
succor on
his breast till he
conduct me
home
we'll work
till Jesus
comes we'll work
till Jesus
comes we'll work
till
Jesus comes
and we'll be
gathered home
I saw
that once my
savior's side no
more my steps
shall roam
with him I'll
brave death's chilling
tide and reach
my heavenly
home
we'll work
till Jesus
comes we'll work
till Jesus
comes we'll work
till
Jesus comes
and we'll be
gathered home
alright great singing everybody we're all
dismissed