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Good evening. Welcome to our services tonight here at Faith Forward Baptist Church. It's good to see you all here on this Sunday evening. Let's all take our song books, please, at this time. We'll start with our congregational singing this evening. Let's turn to hymn number 150. Hymn number 150, My Faith Has Found a Resting Place. Hymn number 150. We'll start on that first verse. My faith has found a resting place not in the vice nor creed. Hymn number 150 on this first verse all together now. My faith has found a resting place not in the vice nor creed. I trust the ever living one. His moonstorm he shall plead. I need no other argument. I need no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died and that he died for me. Enough for me that Jesus saves. This ends my fear and doubt. A sinful soul I come to him. He'll never pass me out. I need no other argument. I need no other plea. It is enough that Jesus saved and that he died for me. My heart is leaning on the Word, the written Word of God. Salvation by my Savior's name. Salvation through his blood. I need no other argument. I need no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died and that he died for me. My great position heals the sin. The loss he came to save. For me his precious blood he shed. For me his life he gave. I need no other argument. I need no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died and that he died for me. I need no other plea. I need no other plea. I need no other plea. Jesus saved me from all wrong. I'll be satisfied as long as I walk. Let me walk close to thee. Just a closer walk with thee. Granted, Jesus saves my plea. Daily walking close to thee. Let it be, dear Lord, let it be. Through this world of toil and snares. If I falter, Lord, who cares? Move with me my burden shares. None but thee, dear Lord, none but thee. Just a closer walk with me. Granted, Jesus is my plea. Daily walking close to thee. Let it be, dear Lord, let it be. When my feeble life is more. I'm where it will be no more. Guide me gently, safely o'er. To thy kingdom's shore, to thy shore. Just a closer walk with me. Granted, Jesus is my plea. Daily walking close to thee. Let it be, dear Lord, let it be. We're in Ezekiel chapter number four. We've got the soul winning times listed there below as well as salvation's and baptisms. Couple quick notes about that. On Thursday, there's not going to be a five o'clock soul winning here. So five o'clock p.m. soul winning this Thursday is canceled. And instead, there's going to be a van ride. If you want to go down to the church service down in Tucson on Thursday night, there's going to be a van leaving here at three thirty to go down there to Tucson and do soul winning in church down there. But there's not going to be a five o'clock soul winning on Thursday. But there is a van heading to Tucson for church three thirty this Thursday. So that's a change for the week. And then across the page, congratulations to the Pendleton's on baby Hannah. Be sure to congratulate them. We've got the monthly music emphasis night coming up on Thursday, September seventh. Sorry, second at seven p.m. And then on the back, the ladies retreat in Oracle is this week, Wednesday through Saturday. So hopefully you're all signed up. You've got your informational packet and all that. If you need anything else or if anything is not making sense to you, then be sure to speak to my wife after the service or even you get up and talk to her right now and just get that resolved. And then below that list of other upcoming events. That's about it for announcements. So let's go ahead and count up the soul winning from the past few days. Going back to Thursday. Anything from Thursday? Okay. Anything else from Thursday? How about Friday? And what about Saturday? Okay. Okay. And then what about today? Okay. Got it. Okay. Any other soul winning from today? All right. Very good. Keep up the great work on soul winning. And with that, let's sing our next song. In your hymnals, you should find the insert of how great thou art. If you don't have one, please raise your hand and we'll sing it on that first verse. The Lord, my God, when I in awesome wonder. How great thou art. Let's sing these words thoughtfully and purposefully on this first verse together. How great thou art. How great thou art. My soul. How great thou art. My soul. How great thou art. How great thou art. When through the woods and warmest plains I wander. And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees. When I look down from off the mountain grandeur. And see the brook and feel the gentle breeze. Then sings my soul, my Savior, God, to thee. How great thou art. How great thou art. When sings my soul, my Savior, God, to thee. How great thou art. How great thou art. And when I think that God is not sparing. Sent him to die, I swear to take it in. That on the cross my burning, gladly bearing. He bled and died to take away my sin. Then sings my soul, my Savior, God, to thee. How great thou art. How great thou art. Then sings my soul, my Savior, God, to thee. How great thou art. How great thou art. When Christ shall come, wish out of acclamation. And take me home, but Christ shall build my heart. When Christ shall bow, bring on full adoration. And then proclaim, my God, how great thou art. Then sings my soul, my Savior, God, to thee. How great thou art. How great thou art. Then sings my soul, my Savior, God, to thee. How great thou art. How great thou art. Amen. Great singing and your hymnals now. Please turn to hymn number 108. Son of my soul, hymn number 108. Number 108. Son of my soul, how Savior, hear. It is not thine in thou be near. O, may no word or cloud arise. To hide me from thy servant's eyes. When the soft news of God we speak. By weary islands gently speak. Be thy last thought, how sweet to rest. Forever on thy Savior's breast. Abide with me from morn to lean. For without thee I cannot live. Abide with me when night is nigh. For without thee I dare not die. Be near to bless us when we breathe. And through the world our way we take. Till in the ocean of thy love. We lose ourselves in heaven above. We'll pass off with plates around. As the plates go around, let's turn our Bibles to Galatians chapter number 3. Galatians chapter number 3, as we always do, we'll read the entire chapter, beginning verse number 1. Follow along silently with brother Dan as he reads Galatians 3, starting verse number 1. In Galatians chapter 3, the Bible reads, O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you that ye should not obey the truth? Before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? This only would I learn of you. Receive ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are ye so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? Have ye suffered so many things in vain, if it be yet in vain? He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed. So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse, for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident. For the just shall live by faith. And the law is not of faith, but the man that doeth them shall live in them. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. For it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree. That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. Brethren, I speak after the manner of men. Though it be but a man's covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man disannuleth, disannuleth, or addeth thereto. Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not into seeds as of many, but as of one, and to thy seed which is Christ. And this I say, that the covenant that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect. For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise. But God gave it to Abraham by promise. Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made, and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator. Now a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one. Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid, for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law. But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up under the faith which should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female, for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise. Father in heaven, thank you for this church. I pray that you please bless Pastor Anderson with the fullness and the power of the Holy Ghost as he preaches your word and help us, your children, grow in the faith and in your word, Lord. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Amen. The title of my sermon this evening is The Lord is Our Lawgiver. The Lord is our lawgiver. I'm taking the title from Isaiah chapter 33 verse 22. For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king, he will save us. There's also a scripture in the New Testament that says in James chapter 4, there is one lawgiver who is able to save and to destroy. Who art thou that judgest another? And so this is a term that's used several times throughout scripture to refer to the Lord. He is our lawgiver. Now, what is our relationship to the law as New Testament Christians in 2021? Does the law matter? Is the law something that we need to pay attention to? Are we under the law? What is our relationship to the law? Well, the law serves three purposes for us in 2021. Now, the first one that I want to focus on is in Galatians chapter 3, where the Bible teaches that the law is our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ. Okay, that's the first thing I want to show you because this is important to us in the New Testament. And look at Galatians chapter 3 verse 21, it says, Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid. For if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law. But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. Let me just start out first of all by pointing out that the law has never been able to save anyone. It didn't save people in the Old Testament and it doesn't save people now. A lot of people have this wrong belief that says, Well, we're saved by faith now, but back in the Old Testament they're saved by keeping the law. That's ridiculous because if you could be saved by doing good things back then, why wouldn't that work now? It never worked because all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. So if a filthy rag can't save me now, why would a filthy rag be able to save the Old Testament saints? It can't. The law never has saved. The Bible says it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. It doesn't work. It can't happen. Never did the Old Testament sacrifices get anyone to heaven or take away anyone's sins and never did adherence to God's Old Testament law save anyone. Because the Bible says right here in verse 21, If there had been a law which could have given life, what's that telling you? The law could not give life. The law could not save. Okay? If there had been a law that could have given life, then righteousness should have been by the law. But the Scripture has concluded all under sin. See, the Scripture teaches us that everyone violated the law. I violated the law. You violated the law. We're all sinners and so we can't be saved by keeping the law because no one has kept the law perfectly. And so the law can't save only the grace of God can save. We're saved by faith. And so what purpose does the law have then in regard to salvation? Well, when it comes to salvation, the purpose of the law is to show us that we're a sinner. And when I refer to the law, what am I talking about? I'm talking about the Old Testament, Mosaic law. I'm talking about books like Exodus and Leviticus and Numbers and Deuteronomy and all those rules that are listed. Right? You've got a lot of rules in those books. And that's what I mean by the law. The rules that are listed over and over again in the Old Testament. Okay? What do those, what role does the law play in salvation? Well, the Bible tells us here, verse 24, the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ that we might be justified by faith. So the law can't justify anyone. But what the law does is it actually brings us to Christ who then justifies us. And the way that the law does that is it shows us our guilt. Because when we look at God's perfection in the law, we realize our own shortcoming. And we realize that we are unrighteous and that we need a savior. And so that brings us to Christ. How can you come to Christ for salvation if you don't even know that you need to be saved? This is why when we go out and preach the Gospel, the first thing that we establish with someone is that we're all sinners. And if we can get someone to see that they're a sinner and that they deserve death, then at that point, now they're ready for the solution because they understand the problem. When they understand, okay, we're sinners. We deserve to go to hell. Now, okay, here's where Jesus Christ comes in with the solution, with salvation. And so it says the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith has come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. So this is why the Bible tells us over and over again we are not under the law. That exact phrase is going to come up in another scripture that we're going to turn to in a moment. We're not under the law. We're not under the schoolmaster. Okay, now before we're saved, we're under the law. We're under the schoolmaster and we're under the curse of the law. The curse of the law is cursed is everyone who doesn't continue and do all the things that are written in this book. And so the curse of the law is that if you don't obey God, you die. You're condemned. You're damned if you don't obey. That's the curse of the law. Well, before we're saved, we're subject to that. We're judged by that. We're judged by God's laws. We're judged according to our sins. And we're under that curse. We're under that condemnation. And then Christ frees us from that curse of the law being made a curse for us. He died on the cross and paid for our sins so that we're no longer under the curse. We're no longer under the law. And we're not under that schoolmaster. After we've already come to Christ, we've basically gotten to a higher level. Okay, you know, we were under the law. Now we're under grace. We're with Christ. We're saved. And so now we're on a higher level. So the Bible says in verse 25, But after that faith has come, we're no longer under a schoolmaster, for you are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. What is that higher level? The higher level is that now we are a son of God. What the Bible explains in Galatians is that even a physical biological son, when he's under the schoolmaster, is no different than a servant, though he be Lord of all. So basically, let's say you've got a king of a country and he's got his son who is the heir to the throne. He's going to inherit everything. He's going to rule over the whole kingdom someday. But while he's a kid, he's still going to get spanking. He's still going to get punished. He still has to follow rules. And here's the thing, the schoolmaster will talk down to him. Even though he's the prince, the schoolmaster is going to tell him what to do. The schoolmaster is going to discipline him. The schoolmaster is the boss. And he really doesn't get treated any differently than if he were a servant, though he be Lord of all. Think about this. What if you have the king dies and the prince who's in line to be king, if he's too young to become king, guess what? He's still under the schoolmaster and someone else will rule for him because he's not old enough to take that responsibility and he still has to kind of shut up and do what he's told and do his schoolwork and whatever. He's under the schoolmaster. So that's the illustration and that's what this is. It's just an illustration. It's just a parable. It's just saying, look, it's sort of like before we were saved, we're under the schoolmaster, okay, and then when we get saved, now we get all the rights and privileges of being assigned. Okay. Look at verse 1. This isn't in my notes, but this is what I was just paraphrasing to you. Let's just actually look at it. Galatians chapter 4 verse 1. Now I say that the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all. Just so you can see that I'm not just making this up. There it is. But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father. Even so, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world, but when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his son, made of woman, made into law. In that sense, he's looking at it corporately like, you know, the nation of Israel is basically under the schoolmaster and so forth and then Christ comes and on and on. But this could also be looked at in our own personal lives. You know, before we're saved, the law shows us our guilt. We're under the law. Once we believe in Christ, now we're saved. We're no longer under the schoolmaster. So look at verse 25 of chapter 3. It says, But after that faith is come, we're no longer under a schoolmaster, for you're all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you has been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ, there's neither Jew nor Greek, there's neither bond nor free, there's neither male nor female, for you're all one in Christ Jesus. And if you be Christ, then are you Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. Now here's the mistake that most people make. Because, you know, a lot of people would look at that and say, yeah, great, I understand, makes perfect sense. The law can't save us, but it shows us our sins. But then once we're saved, we're, we're, we're a son of God now. We're not subject to that curse. He'll never leave us or forsake us. We shall inherit all things. We're a child of God. Nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. But here's the mistake that a lot of people make, is they take this overly simplistic view because we're living in a day where the Bible is not really necessarily being taught in depth in churches, and things are just casually brushed over, so people walk away sometimes just thinking, oh, well, that's all that the law is for in 2021. That's it. I mean, the law is our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, and once it gets us to Christ, we don't need it anymore, right? We're done with it. No more law of God. But is that really correct? No, it isn't. Because the law of God still plays a role in our lives in two other areas. Okay? So the schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, that's the role that it plays in salvation. But guess what? The law of God is still relevant in my life today, even though I have been saved already for 34 years, the law of God still matters to me. Now, I don't need the law as a schoolmaster. I don't need the law as a tutor or a governor to bring me to Christ, but I still need the law in my life for a couple reasons. Now, here's the second reason. So the first purpose of the law that we saw is that it's the schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. It shows us our guilt to where we see, I need a savior. I am not good enough, okay, when I look at the law. Well, the second role that it fulfills is that the law guides our Christian life because it teaches us right and wrong. How do we know right from wrong? Reading the law of God gives us an idea of what is right and what is wrong. It teaches us about morality, okay? As I read the laws of God and God talks about things that are not right and things that are right, things that people should be doing, things that they should not be doing, this should advise my Christian life. You know, when I'm making decisions in my Christian life, I should look to the law of God as a guideline for how to live my life. Now, this is not to say that I'm going to be following rituals or ceremonies or things from the old covenant that are done away in Christ. But rather, I'm going to look to the law for guidance in situations about what is right or wrong. You know, for example, I was just reading my Bible yesterday. This just popped into my head. I was just reading my Bible yesterday in Deuteronomy, or maybe I was reading somewhere else because I read a few different books yesterday. I want to say it was Deuteronomy. I read something along the lines of, hey, if somebody borrows something from you and, you know, and you need to get it back, don't go into their house. You can't go into their house. You know, O.J. Simpson should have read this. You can't go into their house and take back what they borrowed from you. You have to wait outside while they go in their house and get it out and bring it to you. Now, here's the thing. We're not living in the Old Testament. We're not in the nation of Israel. Who here thinks that God still probably thinks that that's the right way for me to live my life in 2021 when it comes to somebody who borrowed stuff from me? I mean, isn't that just kind of common sense? If God lays out this principle, not like, well, I'm free in Christ, so I'm coming in. We're in the New Testament, buddy. Bam, you know, kick in the door. It's crazy, isn't it? Wouldn't that be just a ridiculous view to say, well, why are you trying to bring me under the Old Testament law? That's just a general principle and there are hundreds of things like that in the Bible just telling you how to live your life, right? The smartest way to live your life, what's right, what's wrong, what we should do, what we shouldn't do. I mean, it's pretty, you know, if the Bible says, you know, don't curse the deaf. Don't put a stumbling block in front of blind people. Well, why are you trying to bring me under the law? I'm free in Christ, you blankety blank deafy. That's stupid. It makes no sense. Obviously, God still doesn't want us to curse the deaf. Obviously, he doesn't want us to put a stumbling block before the blind. Obviously, he doesn't want us, you know, breaking into someone's house because they borrowed something from us and we're going to go take it back by force. I mean, we could go on and on and on and just, it really should be common sense, but today we're living in a crazy world where things are so backwards that people get these crazy ideas about the word of God and they want to just throw out the law of God like it doesn't have any relevance in our lives. Well, now that I'm with Christ, I don't need it anymore. Well, guess what? I don't need it in regard to my salvation, but there are a lot of times if I'm trying to figure out what's right and wrong where I would go to the law of God just to figure out how to live my life. You know, if the Bible tells you that when you build a building and you should put a battlement around the roof so that somebody doesn't fall off the roof. Now, if I'm building a building, shouldn't I look at that and say, hey, I should build this building safely. I should put a battlement around the roof for safety purposes. I mean, isn't that just obvious that we would use the Bible to direct us? If the Bible talks about something, we should listen and say, okay, yeah, that makes sense. Well, you're trying to bring us under the law. No, we're looking to the law as a guideline for how to live a righteous moral Christian life. You know, we're constantly faced with decisions. Now, some of it's obvious. Don't steal, don't kill, don't commit adultery, but the law tells us those things too. But it also tells a lot of things that are less obvious about how to live our lives and I just gave you a few examples. I could give you a lot more. And those type of things direct our Christian life and show us God's mind. How does God think about this? How does God look at these things? Well, we can look into the mind of God here by seeing what he commanded in the law of God. This is an important usage of the law. So let's turn our Bibles to Romans chapter 6. Romans chapter 6. So we said, number 1, the law is our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. It shows us our guilt. And to a lot of fundamental Baptists today who are just overly simplistic in their thinking and just dumbed down in their theology, they pretty much just think sometimes they just stop there. That's it. Done. And then you try to bring up stuff from the Old Testament and they want to just reject it out of hand. Now, there are two ways, by the way, to look at the Old Testament teachings of right and wrong or really just the Old Testament teachings in general. There are two ways to look at it. Okay, one way to look at it would be I'm just going to completely throw out the entire Old Testament teaching and unless the New Testament tells me to do something, I'm just not going to do it. I'm only going to follow the New Testament, whatever's commanded in the New Testament I'm going to do, and I'm going to ignore everything in the Old Testament. Okay, that would be one possible way of looking at things, just saying New Testament only. If it's not repeated in the New Testament, nuts to it. Okay? And, you know, that might sound radical, but that's where a lot of evangelical Christianity is at right now, unfortunately. Another way of looking at it would be to say, you know what, if God said something in the Old Testament and it hasn't been specifically changed in the New Testament or repealed or done away or altered, we should just assume that it's the same. Because the Bible does tell us in the New Testament that the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law. So there are some things that have changed. We don't have the Levitical priesthood, we don't have the ceremonies, the rituals, the meats, the drinks, the divers' washings, the carnal ordinances, but we should assume that anything that hasn't been altered, we should stay with it. I mean, and that's what I believe, and I think that that should be obvious to anyone, that if God said things in the Old Testament about what's right and wrong, if he said that a woman shall not wear that which pertains unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment for all that do so or an abomination of the Lord thy God, why would we assume that that had changed? Why would we just think now that God wants us all dressing in gender neutral clothing? He wants us all in like a space suit, like a jumpsuit, all gender neutral, all the same clothing. No, God wants us to look different. He wants men and women to have different appearances, okay? Obviously that principle still stands. If it hasn't been specifically changed in the New Testament, then we should assume that obviously what God said in the Old Testament is how he feels about that, and if he had something else to say about it, he would have told us in the New Testament, if he had something different to add or something that needed to be changed. And notice it says the priesthood being changed, there's made of necessity a change also in the law. It's not like God is just willy-nilly changing things. He changed the things that needed to change. Certain things are fulfilled in Christ, certain things are specifically for the nation of Israel, and those things are done away in Christ, and that is necessary. Now look at Romans chapter 6 and verse 14. It says, for sin shall not have dominion over you, for you're not under the law but under grace. What then? Shall we sin because we're not under the law but under grace? God forbid. Now what is the definition of sin according to the Bible? Sin is the transgression of the law, and that's a New Testament definition. The Bible says in the New Testament, sin is the transgression of the law. And the Bible says here, should we sin because we're not under the law? God forbid. Another way of saying that would be, so because we're not under the law, does that mean we should just transgress the law? Should we just sin? Should we just break God's law? And you say, no, no, no, the law is totally done away. That's not what the Bible says. Jesus said, think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets. I came not to destroy but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. But whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. So hey, it's possible to break God's commandments and even teach people to break God's commandments and still go to heaven, but you're going to be the least in the kingdom of heaven. If you do and teach them, you'll be called great in the kingdom of heaven. So it's not adherence to the law that saves us, but it is adherence to the law that could determine our level of rewards. You know, if we're going to just go around being disobedient to God's commands and the principles laid down in the Bible, then obviously that's not going to earn us any points with God in heaven. Jesus said, if you love me, keep my commandments. And Jesus also said that he didn't come to destroy the law of the prophets. Now certain things are fulfilled in Christ, the ceremonial, the ritual, the meats, the drinks, those things are fulfilled in Christ, but as far as the moral law, the rights, the wrongs, obviously those things are how God feels about morality, right? So it's obvious that that should guide our Christian life. It also says in Romans chapter 3 verse 31, do we then make void the law through faith? Do we make void the law through faith? God forbid, yea, we establish the law. So you got Jesus saying it, you got the apostle Paul saying it for the hyperdispies, even Paul saying it, we establish the law. So the law of God matters to us because it guides our Christian life because anybody should be able to realize that when we're reading in Exodus and we're reading laws about animals and buildings and our relationships and things like that, that obviously this is showing us right from wrong and we can apply those things to modern life. You know, the Bible talks about, you know, your ox goring somebody and he's pushing with his horn and hurting people. Now you might say, well, that has no relevance to me. But you know what? You could take those same principles and those same laws and apply them to a vicious dog or something. You know, you've got some vicious dog and you're letting it off the leash and it's hurting people. Obviously, you're falling under that statute there and you'd be smart to read that, understand that, use that in your life. So he says, you know, what then, verse 15 there in chapter 6, what then shall we sin because we're not under law but under grace? God forbid, know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey his servants, ye are to whom ye obey, whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness. But God be thanked that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you, being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness. So what the Bible's teaching us here is that if we indulge in sin, let's say we were to take this attitude that says, I'm free in Christ, I'm not under the law, but I'm under grace, so therefore I'm just going to go out and sin because I'm not under the law, so, you know, what then shall we sin because we're not under the law? Or earlier in the chapter, verse 1, it says, you know, should we sin? Should we continue in sin that grace may abound? Here's the problem with that is that if you commit sin, you end up becoming the servant of sin. So sin has a way of destroying your life and so in order to experience all the benefits of Christianity and the freedom in Christ, you've got to obey the rules. Now, being saved is just simply believing on Jesus. It's not by works. But if you really want to live the victorious Christian life, if you really want to have all the joy and the blessings and the peace that God wants for you, you've got to follow the rules to get that part of the package because of the fact that if we, you know, just say, well, I'm saved by grace so I'm just going to keep sinning, we're going to destroy our lives. First of all, God's going to chastise that. But second of all, sin punishes you all by itself. You know, a lot of times we don't even necessarily need God to punish us as Christians or chastise us because sin has a way of just punishing us itself. You know, for example, you know, if I go out and, you know, indulge in, say, drinking, do you think that that's going to have some harmful effects on my life? Oh, you know, I'm not going to, you know, I'm under grace. I'm saved. I'm going to do what I want. It's okay for me. And let's say I went out and drink. What am I doing? If I'm drinking alcohol, I'm harming my liver. I'm harming my brain. I could get a DUI. I'm going to say something stupid, do something stupid. I mean, there's just a lot of ways where it would just be like a built-in self-punishment where God's like about to punish you and he's just like, I don't even have to. This idiot's doing it to himself. Okay? And you know what? Let's say, for example, taking drugs recreationally. Folks, taking drugs recreationally has got to be one of the stupidest things that you could ever do in your life. You're an idiot. I mean, people that, a lot of people, and here's the thing, a lot of good people accidentally get hooked on drugs because they're just prescription drugs. They're not street drugs. Okay, because prescription drugs can be very addictive and people can be prescribed these things and doctors keep prescribing it and maybe they don't even warn them that, hey, this is only for short term. They'll just kind of keep them on it for months and they can develop addictions to drugs. And let me tell you something, those addictions are not fun. You know, but somebody, they might get hurt really bad and they need a painkiller and then they get addicted and it's horrible. I mean, there's all kinds of bad side effects. Now, I don't have a lot of experience with this, but I had a single experience with this because I had my wisdom teeth pulled and I developed what's called a dry socket, also known as the worst pain imaginable. So I had this dry socket in my mouth that was so excruciatingly painful that I was taking a maximum dose of oxycodone and ibuprofen and acetaminophen. Those three, I was cycling those. So each one lasted for six hours. So every two hours I'd take another one. So it's like I'd take ibuprofen, two hours later take acetaminophen, two hours later take oxycodone and just repeat. And I slept about three hours a night because I was in so much pain I couldn't fall asleep. Even on all three of those drugs I was writhing in pain. And I'm not, it's not that I'm just some guy who just has no tolerance for pain. Before that I had literally not taken a Tylenol for ten years. I'd taken no painkiller for the last ten years up to that point. And then here I am just cycling max doses of those three, still writhing in pain, okay. I was on that stupid oxycodone for six days total. And let me tell you something, that stuff is garbage. That stuff is horrible. Now, I mean, if somebody needs it, you know, to survive or whatever and not go insane, I get it. But let me tell you something, just being on it for six days, that stuff did a number on my gastrointestinal tract, number one. And number, I'm not going to go into detail. But number two, number two, when I quit taking it after only six days I had extremely painful withdrawals after only taking it for six days. And the stuff was so nasty that I remember saying to people at the time, I said, man, how could anyone take this recreational? Are they insane? Why would anyone do this to themselves? This is horrible. But then you got people that just think it's fine to just take narcotics for no reason. Like they're literally just, hey, take a cup of Vicodin. Hey, take some codeine. Wash it down with a beer. Hey, take a little bit of oxycodone, oxycontin or whatever. Folks, let me tell you something. You better stay away from that stuff, okay. Avoid it at all costs. Now if you need it and you have to use some kind of a painkiller because you had surgery or you've been cut open or something, then yeah, use what you've got to use. But man, use it sparingly and get off it as fast as you can. And by the way, out of those three drugs that I was taking, ibuprofen was the most effective. That was the best two hours was the ibuprofen when I had that stuff fresh in my system. So ironically, the ibuprofen was much better at fixing that than the narcotic that they gave me. Looking back, I wouldn't have even taken it if I would have known how damaging it was going to be to my body even in the course of just six days. There are people that are on it for months or even years. And it's so damaging. And look, I'm not condemning people who got prescribed something, but obviously I do think that if you've been on that stuff long term, you should really try to find a doctor to get you off that stuff if your doctor just keeps giving it to you because it's so damaging. But I will say this. If you're just going to go out and just start taking that stuff recreationally, you're an idiot, okay? There's no other way to put it. You know, you're at the bar. Somebody slides a couple pills over to you. You're an idiot. Do not do it. Do not do it. Do not take drugs. It's so dumb. It's so damaging. It's so harmful. Don't go down that road. And you, I mean, look. Well, I'm free in Christ, though. Folks, it's going to punish you. The punishment's built in. God won't even have to punish you when you start taking that stuff. The drugs themselves will punish you. But God might even just add a little punishment on top too, a little cherry on top as well. So I wouldn't mess with it. Lots of sins will just destroy you. Whosoever commits sins, the servant of sin. So if you're smart, you'll learn from the law of God how to avoid sin so that you can live a life of freedom in Christ. Not necessarily just slavishly following ritual or rigmarole or this. But no, no, no. But rather looking at what God is saying, this is right, this is wrong, and saying, I want to do right. And then reaping the benefits of a life of doing right. Because sin enslaves you. If you commit sin, you're the servant of sin. And let me bring up another sin that is going to enslave you. Pornography. And this is a major addiction right now. Because first of all, people are often addicted just to entertainment and just screens and games and things in general. But then the worst of all is pornography. And let me tell you something. Pornography is going to destroy your brain. Okay? It's going to destroy your brain. You say, well, that's a big deal. You know, I'm free in Christ. Let me tell you something. First of all, God says, Jesus Christ says in the New Testament, that if you look on a woman to lust after her, you've committed adultery with her already in your heart. And obviously when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin. Sin when it is finished, bringeth forth death. Okay, but let's just talk about for a moment just the built-in punishment. Forget what God is going to think about it. How about just the built-in punishment? Let me tell you something. Pornography destroys your brain. Okay, and let me explain to you how. Because there are a lot of other things that can destroy your brain this way too, but pornography is like the big one. Okay? There's this thing in your brain called the reward center. Okay? There's this thing in your brain called the reward center and it releases these little feel-good hormones to reward you for things. Okay? Now a lot of times this can be good. If you do this the right way, naturally, normally, this can be good for you because obviously feeling good helps us all have a good attitude. Right? I mean it helps us be happy and have a good attitude and get through life by feeling good, being in a good mood rather than being in a bad mood. So, you know, our brains are built to have this little thing called the reward center to make us feel good, put us in a good mood, help us be able to function happily and joyfully and go through life. And I'm just speaking from a scientific perspective. I'm not even talking about the spirit right now. I'm just talking about how your physical body works. Because, yes, there's the spirit, yes, there's the soul, but there's also the body. Let's talk a little bit about the physical body, how it works. Okay? So here's the thing. If I take a bite of really good food, boing, get a little reward in my brain. My brain tells me, ding, ding, ding, this is good. You did good. Good job eating that. So my brain's like rewarding me for good things. So it's making me feel good. So I bite into good food, feel good. Right? Now, let's say I go out and let's say I do some strenuous exercise. Afterward, I feel good. Now, why do I feel good? Because of the fact that I'm putting my body through pain and my body's like, you know what? You're going through a lot of pain right now. Let's give you a little dopamine, you know, make you feel better. All right? Because what happens is your body wants to have equilibrium. Right? Homeostasis. And so if I'm out there feeling bad, my body wants to make me feel better. So I can go out and work really hard out in the sun. I'm shoveling. I'm digging ditches. And you might think to yourself, man, that's miserable. Man, that hurts. But isn't it interesting how it kind of feels good, though? And you don't really understand why. And then maybe afterward, you're just kind of in a good mood. Oh, man, I worked so hard today. But why am I in such a good mood, though? You're in a good mood because you worked hard, because your body is trying to restore that equilibrium of, hey, you're going through pain. You're struggling. Here, we don't want you to go all the way off the cliff. So here's a little dopamine to make you feel better. Right? So there are different ways. Now, here's the thing. If I'm playing a video game and I win, dopamine, reward, feels good. Okay? So there are different ways to release these chemicals in your brain, different things. If I look at something pleasant, I feel good. I eat something pleasant, I feel good. I'm playing a video game, having fun, I feel good. Somebody gives me a hug, makes me feel good. Right? Whatever. Playing with my children, feel good. Right? Just happiness, joy, whatever. And I'm just breaking this down on a chemical level. All right? Work hard and my body's like compensating by making me feel good. Okay? But what we have today are basically people who are just overdoing this. Because of greed and excess, they're basically just walking up to like a button. Like, here's the dopamine dispenser. And they're basically just like pushing that button. So instead of just like living their life and just moderately living their life, and you know, hey, they go out and work hard and they earn a little legitimate dopamine and basically they eat a good meal and it's like, okay, that feels good. Feeding my body. Right? They're intimate with their wife. Hey, that felt good. That was great. Get a little reward there. Instead of going through life and just having the normal feel good of working and eating and, you know, being with friends and talking and having a good time and these things being released in moderation, people are basically just going up to a machine that's just designed to just give you dopamine release and they're just overdoing and they just keep pushing that button, pushing that button, pushing that button and then you know what happens? Then your body's going to do the exact opposite because your body wants equilibrium. So your body's like, you're feeling too good. You are ODing, buddy. You're doing too much dopamine. I'm going to make you feel bad to balance it out. And look, I hope that you understand what I'm saying. I don't know how good I am at explaining this kind of stuff. But basically, you know, if I go out and I experience pain, you know, my body wants to make me feel better because it's trying to keep me at an even keel. But if I'm just feeling good, good, good, good, good, good, just overdoing the good sensation, my body's going to be like, whoa, buddy, and it's going to make me feel bad. And this is why people are so depressed nowadays. And this is why, isn't it interesting how the richest people who have everything handed to them are so depressed? I wonder why it is that they're so depressed. It's because of the fact that the chemicals in their body are literally just reacting to the fact that they are going way overboard on pleasure. Does everybody understand what I'm saying? They're doing too much pleasure, too much pleasure, and their body doesn't know what to do. It's freaking out and basically saying, you need to settle down, buddy, and basically releasing hormones to bring them down. So then you've got all these hormones bringing you down. So basically, I go out and work hard and my body gives me a shot of hormones to make me feel good. Well, I go out and just enjoy hedonism, hedonism, hedonism, then my body's going to be like, whoa, buddy, and give me the bad feeling, feel bad afterward, bring me down. That's why people who get high on drugs, what is the high followed by? The low, the crap. I mean, and look, like I said, I don't have experience doing recreational drugs and I don't want to ask for a raise of hands, but I mean, somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't it true that people, they take drugs and then they get high, but then they feel really bad afterward? It's because it's like their body is trying to find equilibrium, okay? And I'm sure I'm oversimplifying, but this in general is the way things work. Now, here's the thing about pornography, okay? Pornography is just basically just going to just release a flood of these feel-good hormones, tons of dopamine, the reward center is just going to be going nuts when you're just indulging in all this stuff and then what's going to happen is a couple things. Number one, you're going to get depressed, you're going to feel bad because you're overdoing the dopamine, you're having too much fun there, okay? But not only that, but here's the thing, people who do that, people who look at porno, they can't even, and I want to be delicate about the way that I say this, but they get to the point where they can't even have a normal relationship with their spouse because of the fact that they basically, it's sort of like this, it'd be like if I just ate just sweets and candy all day and then it's like nothing tastes sweet to me anymore because I'm just so dulled to it or numb to it or desensitized. Or how about this, what if I ate really spicy food all the time and I just ate really spicy, then I would eat something that's just a little bit spicy and I'm like, I can't taste any spice. You know what I mean? Like these people who go to Chanpan and they're ordering a five. Six exists? Man, I'm going in and asking for a seven, buddy. No, I'm just kidding. But here's the thing, you're going down there and getting a five or a six, right? Other people are getting a one or a two or a three and they're like, oh man, can I get a glass of water? My mouth's burning. What's the difference? What's the difference between the guy who's burning his mouth on a two and the guy who's eating a five and he still can't taste the spice? It's called being desensitized, right? So guess what that porno is doing, it's desensitizing you to those things and that's why people keep seeking more and more radical things to look at because they're getting desensitized. So just like you might go from a spice level of three to a four to a five at the Thai food restaurant, they're going to go from porno level one to two to three to four, right? Basically, as they get desensitized and then they're going to get to the point where they've basically just worn out that part of their brain so much. They've just numbed it and dulled it and worn it out so much that they can't even have a normal relationship with their spouse anymore because their spouse just isn't providing the level six spice level that they're looking for. Look, I'm trying to explain this the best I can and perhaps I'm not doing the best job of explaining this, but what I'm explaining to you is really important and I hope that you get what I'm saying because of the fact that indulging in excess of anything will mess up your brain even if it's just playing video games for 12 hours. You play video games for 12 hours and you're like, Pastor, I'm depressed. I don't know why I'm depressed. Let me tell you why you're depressed because you don't do any physical work. You don't get any exercise. You never go in the sun. And let me tell you why you're depressed. Video games, movies, pornography, you know what these things are doing? They're just like exciting and lighting up the reward center in your brain too much. You know, I mean, think about it. When you're watching all this entertainment all the time, just so much entertainment, even if it's wholesome entertainment, if it's just so much entertainment, it's like it's too much entertainment and you're messing up that part of your brain. And then pornography is just like taking a hammer to that part of your brain and just like bashing it into pieces. It's like the most extreme just abuse of that part of your brain, indulging in that. Okay. And so, you know, you young people that you might just think, hey, I'm just, I'm curious or I want to, let me give you some, and I didn't really mean for this to become a sermon about porno, but I got to just, you know, I'm, I'm just, I'm up here preaching, you know, and, and this is something that needs to be covered. Okay. And, and so, you know, let me just, let me just, while I'm on the subject so I don't have to bring it up again, right? While I'm on the subject, let me just kind of unload the whole truck. Okay. Alright. When I was a kid, I used to think that I could learn how to do martial arts from watching karate movies. I thought I could learn how to box from watching Rocky, Balboa, but then, you know what, one time, as a teenager, then I actually watched a real boxing match and you know what I realized? It was absolutely nothing like the Rocky movies at all. I was like, wait, this is boxing? This isn't how it was with Rocky. Who knows what I'm talking about? Okay. And if you ever watch a real fight in real life, it's nothing like martial arts movies, you know, and you think about me growing up in the 80s, you know, here I am, you know, I'm watching The Karate Kid or something, you know, it's like, doo doo doo, you know, it's like, you really think that's going to work in a real fight? You're going to go into a real fight, you're like, wah! The crane. And here's the thing, that's just one example, but all of the, I don't care what, you say, well, that wasn't realistic, but none of them were realistic, none of them, zero. Okay, Hollywood fight scenes aren't the way fights really go down, they're fake, they're made to look cool on screen, not to be accurate or realistic. You watch a real fight and it's boring. Compared to Hollywood, Hollywood's got all the high flying kicks and spinning back fists and people, I mean, literally, in these fight scenes, they're like literally doing gymnastics in the middle of a fight scene. Say, here, let me stop the fight and just do a few back handsprings, apropos of nothing. Just for no reason, let me just do a flip. Anybody who knows anything about fighting knows that 99% of fight scenes in movies are stupid and ridiculous and have no bearing on reality. Does everybody understand what I'm saying? So, you know, looking at these fight scenes and saying, this is going to teach me something about fighting, it's ridiculous, it's going to teach you nothing, literally nothing about fighting. And see, here's the thing, young people, they might be, because let me tell you something, everything on TV is fake, everything in movies is fake, it's all fake, none of it's real. So you might be tempted to think to yourself, oh, I'm curious and I want to learn about what goes on in the bedroom, so I'm going to watch, it's like you're just as foolish as somebody who thinks that they're going to learn about martial arts from watching a martial arts movie, you're watching Jackie Chan and you think that that's how the fight's going to go down. And so you've got, you know, young people, they want to watch all these illicit movies and watch pornography or something because they think, oh, it's for educational purposes, you're not learning anything, my friend, except you're frying your brain, you're sinning, you're perverting your mind and giving yourself permanent brain damage. That's what you're doing. Well, I'm just curious. Well, you know, so was Eve when she ate the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. She was curious, too. And curiosity killed the cat. And so young people listen to me, trust me, I'm telling you, you don't let curiosity get you to look at that stuff because you're, well, I'm just curious, I just want to know, I just want to understand. Just, you'll figure it out, my friend, it isn't that complicated. Okay? And you got your whole marriage to figure it out. Okay? Figure it out as you go along, you'll be just fine, I promise you'll figure it out. But it's like, no, no, no, I got to look at this stuff. You know what? It's stupid because you're opening a door to something that's so dangerous. And here's the thing about it, too, it's so damaging, it's so dangerous, it's so harmful. And think about this, what about like handing a loaded gun to a teenager? Would you just hand a loaded gun to a teenager and be like, here, play with this. Come back and see me in two hours. Folks, you know, when children are being exposed to this stuff and teenagers are being exposed to this stuff, it's like handing them a loaded gun. Now, who here thinks that guns are just inherently evil? Guns are just evil. I don't. I own guns. Who here owns guns? Every single person. So guns aren't bad, are they? Guns are fine. Guns aren't bad. Are you going to hand a gun to a child and let them play with it as a toy? Are you going to let your 8-year-old open carry or conceal carry? Well, if you're pro-gun, give it to your 12-year-old. Let's have our 13-year-olds all conceal carry, right? You packing tonight, Miriam, right? 14 years old? Yeah, you know. Hey, but here's the thing about that. Guess what? You know, the relationship between a man and a woman in the bedroom, you know, within marriage, within marriage, it's something good. It's not bad. It's good. But here's the thing. And you know, that knowledge that you have when you're an adult and you're married and it's within, you know, that's good. There's nothing wrong with it. The problem is handing that information to a child is like handing them a loaded gun. And giving them a smartphone with unfettered access to the internet, no parental controls, no guidelines, you know, in many ways it's like handing them a loaded gun because of the damage that they can do. Because, you know, all they have to do is even if they're just looking for something good, you know, you could type in the wrong thing and all of a sudden, you know, you accidentally go to the wrong website or something bad comes up, right? I'm not going to ask for a raise of hands who that's happened to before where, you know, you accidentally clicked on something, you know. I mean, look, the internet has all these traps and pitfalls. Now, if you're an adult, you know, you're navigating the internet and you're watching out for these things, you're probably a little bit smarter about what not to click on. And if you do click on something, you're just like, oh, close out, X out, control, alt, delete, whatever. Because you're an adult and it's like, ugh, you know, I got to stay away from this stuff, this is junk, don't look at this. But to a kid or a teenager, they could be curious, they don't know what they're looking at, they fall down that rabbit hole. It's dangerous, my friend. And it can damage them. Look, as a pastor, people come to me and they ask me for advice or they talk to me about things, and not just people from our church. I mean, but, you know, a lot of people reach out to me from all over the place. I know a lot of people just from having preached all over the place and just, you know, I've made a lot of friends all over. And, you know, it's like I've had people come to me and just tell me some of the damage that this has done in their life. And I'm telling you, if you're smart, you just stay away from it because it's so damaging. And so the way I got off on that, just to remind you how in the world I got off on that, is because we're in Romans chapter 6. And in Romans chapter 6, he said, well, if you yield yourself servant to obey sin, you know, or if you commit sin, you're basically giving up freedom. You're giving up liberty and you become the servant of sin. And so that's the tradeoff. If you're going to look at porno, basically what you're doing, you're giving up some freedom because it's going to enslave you. It's going to become an addiction. It's going to harm you. And I'm not just up here using hyperbole when I say that it's going to give you brain damage. It's literally damaging your brain. It's damaging your brain. You know, and here's the thing. I'm sure that all you young people, you want to be married someday and you want to have a good relationship with your spouse, including that aspect of your relationship, you want that to be a good relationship, right? Okay. Do you want to just go into marriage already having that part of your brain kind of fried and having to try to like rehabilitate that part of your brain and fix that part of your brain so you can have a normal relationship with your wife? Or wouldn't it be smarter to just go into it, you know, with a healthy functioning, uh, uh, reward center of your brain. Amen. And so, you know, I'm, I'm up here preaching about this cause I'm warning you like I talked about this morning, you know, I want to get up here and tell you flee fornication. Okay. Because someday when you're married, you're going to wish that you'd never fornicated. If you do that, you're going to be, and you're going to be glad if you waited until you got married. Okay. So flee fornication and avoid pornography like the plague. Run screaming in the other direction because of the fact that this is you just on a chemical level going up to the reward center in your brain and just, just pushing that button, push that button, overload, overload, overload. And your body's going to be like, all right, dump in the depression hormones cause this guy's having way too much fun in order to reach equilibrium. Okay. This is an overly simplistic view, but that is how your brain works. That's how life works, my friend. Okay. You want to feel good. And you know what, people, when, when people are, when people come to me and they're depressed, obviously I have spiritual advice for them about, you know, praying and singing hymns and reading the Bible, going to church, winning souls, putting other people first. But you know what, and I don't care whether people don't like this or not or people disagree with me on this or not. You know what, a lot of times people are doing the right things spiritually and they're still depressed even though they're doing all the right things spiritually because of the damage that they're doing to their body. Okay. So yeah, a lot of people are depressed because of a spiritual issue. And so yeah, that's the first place I would look is, hey, you know, are you reading your Bible? Are you going to church? Are you praying? Or, you know, yeah, I would check all those boxes first, but I'm telling you, it is possible to check all those boxes and still be depressed if you are screwing up your brain with your messed up lifestyle. If you're eating a bunch of junk food and you're never doing anything physical, you're never going out in the sunshine, you're never getting any exercise, you're never doing any physical work, and you don't have any human relationships with anyone. If all your relationships are online, that's why you're depressed. And no amount of Bible reading and prayer is going to fix it if you're poisoning your body with junk and not moving your body because it's a chemical imbalance. Okay. So you know what? Look, I'm all for spiritual things. Hey, that's what we talk about around here 90 some percent of the time is spiritual things. But you know what? It's not just the spirit. There's also the soul and there's also the body. And you better take care of all three. And let me say this, okay, if you are over, and obviously porno is the extreme example, but video games, movies, and even just any overindulgence in pleasure, any overindulgence in pleasure is going to do some damage to your brain and do some damage to you physically because our bodies are not designed to just have that much fun all the time. And so you need to get out of this mentality that says I got to be having fun every single day. I got to be just partying every single day. I got to just be eating ice cream after every meal. And I just need to feel good all the time. Hey, you know what? You need to go through some pain and you need to do some work and you need to do some things that are not fun in order to maintain balance and equilibrium in your life, even from a chemical perspective. You've got to maintain balance. And look, why is it that our generation is so depressed? It's everywhere. Depression is everywhere. Is it not? I think this is probably one of the most depressed generations that has ever existed. And then you look at the countries, by the way, that are the highest on the OECD's happiness index and they also, and what's the happiness index based on? It's not based on how people feel. The happiness index is based on how much money they have, how much food they have, what benefits they have, what comfort they have. And those countries also lead the world in depression. Even though this metric from the OECD is supposed to be saying you're the, be happy. You're the happiest people. They turn out to be the saddest people. I mean, you'd assume everybody who is well fed and relaxed and working a short work week and getting all the benefits is going to be the happiest. Nope. Because they're overindulging. Do not overindulge in anything or it will lead to sadness and depression. You can't overdo the fun. You've got to go through some pain and suffering and work in your life in order to have real happiness. You can't just have only hedonism. Hedonism is the best way to get depressed. And if you commit sin, you're the servant of sin. And obviously there's a moral issue that I already covered about looking at porno, but even on top of that is the physical damage that you're doing to your body. Just a built-in punishment right there for doing that. Now I'm totally out of time, but I want to just touch on one other thing just to kind of finish the sermon. Go to Romans chapter 2. Romans chapter 2 because I got to give you the third use of the law. So what are the uses of the law? Number one, it's our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. But don't just stop there and then throw out the law. Get the second use of the law. The second use of the law is that it guides us in our Christian life, shows us what's right and wrong. Why? So that we can please God with our lives by living our life according to the way he wants us to live our life, according to what he said in his word in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. You know, we, we learned what he believes is right and wrong. And, and that's the standard. That's, he's the creator of the universe. So what he says goes. And for our own benefit, you know, the Bible says that, that our, our parents chastened us after their own pleasure, but it says God chastens us for our own profit that we might be partakers of his holiness. Because remember, following God's law is also going to help us live a happier life because if we disregard God's laws, is booze going to bring us happiness? Is fornication going to make us happy? Is adultery going to make us happy? Are drugs going to make us happy? Drugs make you feel good until they don't, until they make you feel bad, until they ruin your life and make your life a living hell. Yeah, they're great until then. They're great for the first few months until they destroy your life. Oh yeah, looking at this pornography. It's so interesting. It's so fun, so entertaining. This feels great until it doesn't, until you permanently damage your brain. But the third point of where the law fits in, in 2021, besides being the school master to lead us to Christ, besides telling us how to live our Christian life, it gives guidance and I gave those examples. The third reason is that God's law also prevents society from breaking down. God's law exists in our world to keep the order and to keep the peace so that society does not break down. If we did not have God's law, society would break down. There would be anarchy. Now, did I have you turn to Romans 2? I don't really have time to do this justice because I'm just kind of blowing by it at the end of the sermon. But in Romans chapter 2, I want to point out just a few key verses to leave you on. Look at verse 4. Actually, I'm sorry, it says in my notes verse 4, but I think it's 14. Romans 2 verse 14, For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these having not the law are a law unto themselves which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another. Okay, jump down to verse 26. Therefore, if the uncircumcision keep the righteousness of the law, shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision? And should not uncircumcision, which is by nature, if it fulfill the law, judge thee who by the letter and circumcision dost transgress the law. And again, I'm out of time, but just to quickly condense this idea, the idea is that even heathens out there that don't read the Bible, that do not believe that the Old Testament should have anything to do with how they live their lives or that the New Testament should have anything to do with it, they end up by nature doing some of the things contained in the law because they have the law of God written in their hearts. So, God's law is perfect and heathen governments, they actually do some of the things from God's law without even knowing that they're doing it from God's law. Now, if we were to look at all the governments of this world and what their laws are, what the punishments are, how their government is run, we could put them on a continuum or a spectrum of the ones who look the most like God's laws and the ones who are like really far from God's laws, right? Now, wouldn't it be logical to say that the governments whose laws most closely resembled the laws found in the Bible are the best governments and the ones that are the furthest away from what God is saying in his word are the worst governments because God's word is perfect, you know, and God's law is perfect. Now, what I just said to you should be common sense, but today, if you say that, if you get up and say, well, God's word is the standard, if we want to know how to run a government, I mean, you know, we could learn from Exodus and see, you know, see what God says about what the law should be. Then they try to say like, oh, it's theocracy, theonomy, dominion, theology, you know, they throw all these labels at you saying that you're trying to have a theocracy or you think that America's Israel or whatever. No, I just, I just know that, you know, um, people commit first degree murder should get the death penalty. How do I know that? I wonder, I don't know how I know. I just kind of know that. I don't know where that thought came from, but it's just like something just tells me that if somebody commits first degree murder, they should be put to death. I mean, I don't have any basis for that, but I just kind of feel that. No, there is a basis for that, isn't there? You know what the basis is? The law of God. Now, are there all kinds of societies who've put murders to death without the Bible? Yeah, but here's, you know what they're doing? They're doing God's law. They just don't know that they're doing God's law. And the Bible says the uncircumcision, study Romans two, is fulfilling the righteousness of the law. They have the law written in their hearts. They're a law unto themselves. Even without the book, they know, hey, this is how it should be. But today we've got people that just make it up as they go along, don't they? And they just say, you know, if you steal stuff, go to jail for six months. Okay. How do we know if that's right? Why not three months? How about nine months? How about cut off their hand if they steal something? But let me tell you something. Cutting off their hand is the wrong punishment. Three months in jail is the wrong punishment. Nine months in jail is the wrong punishment. The Bible has the right punishment. The Bible talks about this, but it's like, oh no, you're trying to bring us under the law. We're free in Christ. We're free in Christ. It's nine months at federal institution. Says who? Like we're just supposed to just make it up as we go along. Okay. Well then, then you know what? Then there's no standard at that point. If you just make it up as you go along, if God's word isn't the standard, then there's no standard. So basically, how about this? You steal something and you're put to death. Does anybody think that's fair to just kill someone for stealing? Okay, but you know what? In England, 300 years ago, that was the punishment for stealing. You die. Write a bad check, you die. Does anybody think that's fair? I don't think that's fair, but how do I know that that's not fair? Well, I just know, okay? But you know, I would point to the word of God and say, hey, that's overkill. No pun intended. Okay. The Bible says that if you steal, you pay back double. You pay back four, you know, you don't die. You don't go to jail. That's not what the Bible says. But I have that opinion and all of a sudden I'm some kind of a, you know, insert the theological term here that someone wants to label me because I actually think that God's laws are the best at keeping society from breaking down. You know, in order to keep society rolling along, we need a criminal code. I don't believe in anarchy. We need human government and we need a criminal code. Amen? We need laws against stealing. We need laws against murder. We need laws against perjury. But you know what else we need? We need laws against adultery and laws against homosexuality. And by the way, did you know that in 1967, homosexuality was illegal even in England? Even in England, it was illegal until 1967. It was illegal everywhere in the United States in the 50s, 60s. Think about it, my friend. You know, when it became legal everywhere in the United States is 2003 and a lot of you young people are probably shocked by that to think that before 2003, this was still illegal in some places in America and back in the 50s, it was illegal everywhere. And you say, well, it's just a law that they kind of had on the books, but it wasn't really Wrong. Folks, in the 1950s and 60s and 70s, the cops would go out hunting for homos and arrest them. Read up on it. They would even go to parks and pose as homos and try to troll for other homos and then they would arrest them. They would invade bath houses and gay bars and saunas and these gay clubs and they would go in and raid the place. They'd go, SWAT team comes in, raiding the homos. Folks, this is like, some of you were alive when this was happening. It was just shortly before I was born, but many of you were alive when this was going on. It was very recent. But here's what's funny, and I'm just going to end the sermon with this last point about this use of the law of God. I'm going to end this. Here's a challenge to all the independent fundamental Baptist pastors who think I'm wrong on Leviticus 2013. Here's a challenge. I defy any of them to meet this challenge. Here's the challenge. It's very simple. It's very simple. Question number one, should homosexuality be illegal in the United States? That's question one. Should homosexuality be illegal in the United States? And question number two, if it should be illegal, what should be the punishment? But you know what? They don't want to answer those two questions. The Steven Anderson, can you believe what he said? It's making us all look bad. Why don't you answer my two questions then? Because here's why they're not going to be able to answer these two questions with a satisfactory answer is because if they say no, it should not be illegal, which is what most of them are saying now. Most of them are like, no, that's a moral issue. You can't legislate morality. You're trying to have a theocracy. You don't understand the difference between a church and Israel. But hold on a second. If they're going to say that being a homo should be legal, you know what they're saying? They're saying that our country was wrong for 400 years. Right? You know, when the settlers came over in the early 1600s and set up the Massachusetts Bay Colony and Jamestown and everybody was coming over in the early 1600s, all the way up until the end of the 20th century, almost 400 years, it was illegal. So you're telling me that America was wrong for like 400 years and then in 2003 we finally got it right by legalizing the homos in 2003. We finally got it right. Welcome to the New Testament. I mean, does anybody actually believe that? That's crazy. So everybody was wrong. Now we finally got it right by legalizing it. So you see how if they give the wrong answer to question number one, they've already got egg on their face, don't they? They've already shown what a progressive, liberal, moral relativist, you know, I mean they're starting to sound like an atheist telling you, we ought to legalize homos. It's God's will. It's God's will to legalize homosexuality after 400 years. What? Okay, so they've already failed on question one. But let's say they say, yes it should be illegal, then let's move on to question two. What should be the punishment? And if it's any answer other than what Leviticus 2013 says, then they made it up and they sucked it out of their thumb and it has no authority and I don't care what they think. Right? I'm not impressed. You say, well, in the 50s or 60s that wasn't the punishment. Then they were wrong in the 50s and 60s. I guess that's why we're at where we're at right now. Folks, it's just two simple questions. Should it be legal? If you say yes, then welcome to progressive libtardia because I'll give you a little sticker that says that you're a libtard because basically you want to basically flush 400 years of our country down the toilet and say, no, no, liberal commies that gave us this 2003 stuff, that's what's right. Modern, liberal, anti-Christian culture is what you want. You don't like what we had for 400 years. You like this new stuff, this post-2003 America. Okay. And question number two, that's question number one. Should it be legal? Question number two, what's the punishment? I mean, you know, it's like, how about what God said the punishment should be? Oh, how could you? 30-day ban. Delete your YouTube channel. How dare you bring up the word of God? So, yeah, the law is our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, but it's also our moral compass and it's also there to keep society from breaking down by giving just criminal codes and ideas. Not to say that we're going to follow the exact nation of Israel's guidelines because some of that's tailored to them, but when it comes to like, well, what do we do about stealing? What do we do about adultery? What do we do about murder? We look to this book is what we do. Amen. Spire us enough. Word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for the law. Oh, how love by thy law, it is my meditation night and day. Lord, help us all to sing that and pray that and mean that, Lord. And help this book of the law not to depart out of our mouth, but to meditate there in day and night. But Lord, more than I thank you for the law, I thank you for grace so that we can be saved. Thank you for saving us by grace through faith, not by the law. And Lord, thank you for giving us a moral compass so that we don't rot our brains on porno and eat too much ice cream and just become a glutton and a wine bibber and a drug addict and a video game addict and just become an idiot, Lord. Thank you for giving us your word as a guide to help us live our lives in a way that's wise and righteous and that would be pleasing to you, Lord. And thank you also for providing guidelines on society, Lord, so that we could live in peace and prosperity. And Lord, may our leaders please hearken unto your word. And Lord, I pray that they would bring our government just an inch closer to your law, Lord, and more if possible. But Lord, help us have peace and prosperity through your law. And in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen. Let's take our hymnals, please. And turn to hymn number 294. 294, Stepping in the Light, hymn number 294. It begins trying to walk in the steps of the Savior, hymn number 294 on this first verse all together now. Trying to walk in the steps of the Savior, trying to follow our Savior and King, shaping our lives by his blessed example, happy how happy the songs that we bring. How beautiful to walk in the steps of the Savior, stepping in the light, stepping in the light. How beautiful to walk in the steps of the Savior, letting paths of light, pressing more closely to him who is leading when we are tempted to turn from the way. Trusting the arm that is drawn to defend us, happy how happy our praise is each day. How beautiful to walk in the steps of the Savior, stepping in the light, stepping in the light. How beautiful to walk in the steps of the Savior, letting paths of light. Walking in footsteps of gentle forbearance, footsteps of faithfulness, mercy, and love. Looking to him for the grace greatly promised, happy how happy our journey of love. How beautiful to walk in the steps of the Savior, stepping in the light, stepping in the light. How beautiful to walk in the steps of the Savior, letting paths of light. Trying to walk in the steps of the Savior, upwards the love's work will follow our guide. When we shall see the King in his beauty, happy how happy our place at his side. How beautiful to walk in the steps of the Savior, stepping in the light, stepping in the light. How beautiful to walk in the steps of the Savior, letting paths of light. Amen.