In the Word

Pastor Mike Warren: We're in a time where God is disciplining his people for their disobedience. Their disobedience is not that they're struggling with sin, because all Christians struggle with sin. Their problem is they're changing gods. They're involved in idolatry, which to God is a form of spiritual adultery. He's going to talk in terms like that, that you're like a whorish wife, that you've been unfaithful to me. We as husbands—I better pray. I was going to pray, but I was just going to give you a little introduction before I pray. But we as husbands, we can deal with a lot of stuff as long as our wives are faithful, as long as the husband is faithful. We've all got our stuff. Can I get an Amen?

Let me pray. Father, we just ask that you would bless our time together in your word tonight, Lord, and teach us the lessons that you want us to learn. May you give permanency to those things we study tonight, and we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. Help me, Jesus. Anyway, it is that he has the trouble with. David sinned against the Lord, and yet God called him a man after his own heart because he never changed gods. He never fell into idolatry.

We have to understand from chapter 12 through chapter 24, as it were, God is giving to us reasons why he must, because of his nature and character, discipline his people. As we walk through the rest of chapter 20, we're only going to get through verse 44 because actually verse 45 in the Hebrew Bible starts chapter 21. I don't know why the English Bible tacked it on there, but they did. So, we're just going to get through those verses, but it's pretty severe what we're going to see. Then it gets even more severe when we get into chapter 21.

What I want to remind you of is we're under a different covenant. We're going to see things like God's fury, he's going to pour out his wrath, he's going to burn it to the ground. He's going to do these things because of his heart being broken and this jealousy and fervency over his people that have gone his people, the wife of God, have gone a-whoring off, as it were, to serve other gods. He's upset, but what we need to understand that all of the wrath—and I want you to get this tonight, because I've had some people make comments.

Is that how God views us? No, it is not. We're under a different covenant. We're under a covenant of grace. We're under a covenant that the wrath of God, listen carefully, because we're going to read about him pouring it out upon Israel, but the wrath of God concerning us has already been satisfied. Did you know that? The Bible says that when Jesus was hanging on the cross for the sins of the world, we believe doctrinally that Jesus died in a substitutionary way to atone for our sins.

What's that mean? It means that our sins, past, present, and future, and all the sins of the world without admixture were poured out, the punishment that was, were poured out upon Christ. He took the brunt of it. He who knew no sin became sin that we who were sinners might become the righteousness of God through faith. That's why in 1 John chapter 2, I just want to read this to you. I didn't give it to the people to put on the screen, but in 1 John chapter 2, and I've quoted this a lot, it's very interesting in verse 1.

He begins that section by saying, "My little children." The word for children there is teknion, and it means my little born-again ones. Are you born again tonight? Have you been reborn through the spirit? Did you come to the cross of Christ and confess your sins and say, "I'm a mess and I'm in need of a Savior," and did you open your heart and invite him in? Then you are a teknion. You are a little one, my little born-again ones. These things I write unto you, and the standard should always be for us, just because we're under grace.

Grace is not a license to sin. Paul deals with that pretty profusely when he writes to Titus in chapter 2, one of the young pastors that he was training. He said, listen, I write unto you that you sin not, but if any man sins, we have an advocate with the Father. We have a lawyer that's never lost a case. In fact, we have a lawyer that gets the guilty off every time. You have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

Listen to verse 2: "and he is who became the propitiation for our sins." Such a beautiful word, only used a few times in the New Testament. What I want you to get this tonight, it's not expiation. Expiation is when your debt is paid. You owed a debt and you paid it. But you could have done something to injure somebody and you owed them whatever the medical costs were, whatever property you damaged and destroyed.

You could pay the debt, and they could still be upset with you emotionally. Paying the debt is expiation. Propitiation means not only was the debt paid, but any emotion, any feeling, any anger, any wrath concerning that has also been satisfied. That's why he says in Psalm 51 that when he saw him hanging on the cross, he was satisfied. That's why Romans chapter 5 verse 1 says, "having been," past tense, "justified," made just as though you never sinned, by faith, faith in Christ Jesus, you now have peace with God.

Not the peace of God, that's separate. That's something else we get. But you have peace with God, and what he's saying is that he will never, listen carefully, he will never be angry with you again. Ever. He will discipline you, but he never disciplines in anger. Because we're under this covenant of grace, but in the Old Testament, they were under the covenant of the law. Different covenant. Israel has a different covenant than the church. Are you getting that?

So tonight as we go through this, understand the thing we take away is that when we do sin, it breaks the heart of our Father. It brings out emotions in him. Do you ever wonder why you have a hard time forgiving? Do you ever wonder why you get angry? Do you ever wonder why you have these emotions? Don't you wish sometimes you didn't have these emotions? It would probably keep you out of jail a lot. I see Nicole's posts and I know that if she didn't have emotions, it would keep her out of jail. But where do you think these things come from?

They come from our Maker. We're created in his image. Do you understand he has emotions? You can grieve the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. You can grieve him. You can quench him. That word for quench means you can so hurt him as he's trying to help you that it just causes him to shut down. Do you know you have the capacity, as we saw back in chapter 16, to break the heart of God? He is a jealous God, which is an emotion. He's jealous for our affections.

So as we go through this, that's the takeaway, but I do want you to understand in the New Testament, different covenant, and that God will never be angry with us again because he was angry and his wrath was poured out on Jesus, the lamb who takes away the sin of the world. And so when we come to verse 15, as we did last week, it says, and this is God saying, "yet also I lifted up my hand." This is an oath he's taking. This is he's swearing an oath unto them in the wilderness that I would not bring them into the land which I had given them that flowed with milk and honey.

At some point, God got so tedious with his people from Mount Sinai when they launched off from that journey to go to the promised land, which should have taken about three weeks, ends up being 40 years. Because all the way through they murmured and they complained. They were disobedient. They just got stupid all of the way on the journey. And so they kept having to lap around the mountain in the desert until they learned the lessons. Listen, if you don't like the desert, learn the lessons and then cross over Jordan and come into the promised land. Stop lapping the mountain, as it were.

But over and over they were disobedient. And so at one point God says he raised his hand and he swore, "I'm not giving them the land that flows with milk and honey." And by the way, milk means that there was pasture land for the cattle to graze on and produce milk. Honey means that it was fertile ground for crops because the bees that pollinate the crops were there. It was a land that had everything. It was a blessed land. And at one point he swears, he raises his hand at oath and says, "I'm just not going to give them the land that flows with milk and honey, which is a land that is glorious above all other lands."

"This land is so beautiful, it's better than any other place. I swore to their fathers. I'm not giving it to them." And he says this in verse 16: "because"—again, God is giving us reasons why he does what he does. Isn't that interesting that God of heaven, the creator of heaven and earth, for some reason, I've often wondered this when I read through these kinds of sections of the scripture, for some reason he explains himself to us. How many of your parents don't want to explain yourself to your kids? You say things like, "Do it because I said." "Do it or die." "I brought you in, I'll take you out."

Sometimes we get irritated with that, but God isn't that way. What we want to see tonight is he's patient. He's long-suffering. From chapter 12 to chapter 24, 12 chapters, he's going to tell the nation of Israel why he's having to discipline them. All the way through those chapters he's calling them, as it were, to repentance. When we study through Revelation not so long ago and we get to the end of it, there the Bible says that the angels will declare that when all of the judgments are over, Bema seat, great white throne, when all of the dust has settled and the smoke clears, all heaven and every creature in it will say, "Righteous and true altogether are thy judgments, O God. You were right and righteous in everything you have done."

But I want you to see the long-suffering of God. Because these people aren't just struggling with sin. They're not just broken and contrite. They're not just repentant. These people are leaving the true and living God to serve idols. And so he's telling them, "I swore at one point," but watch. And he tells us why: "because they despised my judgments and they walked not in my statutes, but they polluted my Sabbaths, for their heart"—and this is the reason why they did everything that they were doing. Whatever we do is a manifestation of the condition of the heart.

If you are struggling with some besetting sin, it's because part of your heart still desires that more than you desire a relationship with the true and living God. The issue is always the heart. That's why God says in the Old Testament, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart," because he knows out of the heart flows the issues of life. Jesus said the same thing in the New Testament when he was questioned, which is the greatest commandment? Love the Lord your God with all your heart, because if your heart is turned toward the Lord, it won't be turned other places.

Now watch what he says here: "You did all of these things. You sought idols. You polluted my name, and you did these things in my Sabbaths, for their heart went after their idols." And where's your heart tonight? It's not hard to serve the Lord if you keep your heart in the right place. When you keep your heart on the altar of God, circumcised constantly, when you're laying aside distractions and sins that so easily beset you and you're running the race set before you with endurance looking unto Jesus. Because listen, this flesh is difficult to discipline, but it's worth it.

Because when you put the flesh to death and make sure your heart is in the right place, you don't struggle with the things. There's peace and there's serenity, there's satisfaction. And so he's saying they went after these other things because their heart was after idols, it was after the things of the world and not after me. Now watch what he says in verse 17, this is where I left off last week, I find this extremely incredible. He said, "Nevertheless, mine eye spared them from destroying them." He raised his hand and said, "I'm going to wipe them out. They're not going into the promised land. They have broken my heart. They have broken my commandments. They have polluted my Sabbaths. They're stubborn, they're stiff-necked, they're hard of face, they don't listen. I'm raising my hand and I'm swearing by myself. You're not going into the promised land."

And then verse 17: "but nevertheless he spared them." When God revealed his name to Moses, remember on Mount Sinai God said, "Moses said to God, 'Hey, I'm up here getting the commandments, all 10 of them. I got them here. Hey, while I'm here, can I see you?'" He says, "Moses, you know the deal. No one can see me and live." But God showed him the hind parts means the afterglow, the Shekinah, the residue of his glory after he himself had passed by. And we know Moses was aglow for days after that. When he came down from the mountain, they had to put a veil over him because he was glowing. It freaked them out.

But as the Lord passed by, he declared his name. He said, "My name, Moses, is gracious and merciful. My name is long-suffering and kind. My name is love and grace to thousands of generations who fear me. That's who I am." And there are times when we break his heart like Israel did. He raises his hand, he swears, "That's it, I'm going to wipe you out." But then he said, "Nevertheless, mine eye spared them from destroying them, neither did I make an end of them in the wilderness. I could have wiped them out."

Now there's a few verses I want to share with you because they're so important to me. I love Psalm 78. Psalm 78 verse 36 through 39, very important verses to me. It says this: "Nevertheless, they did flatter him with their mouth." Jesus says in the New Testament, "Isaiah said well of you. You are they who worship me with your lips." I pray with the worship team before they come up here to worship and I remind them they are not musicians. They're not here for your entertainment. God help the church because it's fallen into this sense of entertainment.

We've got to have the right ambiance, the right lighting. We've got to make it look like a nightclub. And then all of the music is like you're in a concert and it's there to entertain a bunch of goats. We're the sheep of his pasture and worship is not for you. Get over yourself. These are not musicians; they are minstrels. And their job is the same job that God created them to do in the Old Testament. When a king needed to hear from the Lord because the job of the king in those days—government—was to reign in righteousness over the people. He would call for a prophet: "Have a man of God come and speak to the nation."

And before the man of God was speak to the nation, the Bible says he would call for minstrels. And when the minstrels would come and begin to worship with song and instrument, sometimes it said that the Shekinah glory of God—Shekinah means glory. I've had people ask me, "What's Shekinah? We can't find it in the Bible." Well, it's a Hebrew word for the glory of God. The glory of God would come down upon the people to such a degree that the prophet couldn't even prophesy.

And I've had people say to me, "Wasn't worship good?" How would you know? "Well, you know." No, I don't know. "Why do you say that?" Because it wasn't for you. It was for him. And he looks into the heart, and he's seeing if the heart is worshipping him and the expression of the heart comes through the lips, our lips to his ears, to his heart. It's not singing songs. You know, man, I have such respect for Matt Redman. Years ago, worship leader, big band, church in England. And the Holy Spirit showed him that the people were worshipping worship instead of worshipping the Lord.

So he fired the band and he came out with a stool and sat it down in a large church with an acoustic guitar and he said, "The band will not be back until you worship the Lord instead of worshipping worship." And he wrote a song: Heart of Worship. "I'm sorry for the things I made it, when it's all about you, it's all about you." When we come into this place, it's our heart to his heart, preparing our heart to hear his word that we might be the people of his pasture, those who hear his voice, who walk in his ways, who do his will.

And so here he's saying in Psalms, "Nevertheless, they did flatter me with their mouth, and they lied unto him with their tongues." Because what was coming out of the mouth wasn't what was in their heart. Sometimes you can come in here and you can sing the songs but you're thinking about other things. Or you may have been doing other things and your heart may be far from him that you shouldn't have been doing, but your lips are lying because you're saying, "Lord, I love you, it's your presence I desire," when it really isn't true in your heart.

Be careful that your lips don't express something that's not in your heart. And so he says, "but they're lying to me with their tongues, for their heart was not right with him, neither were they steadfast in his covenant," in this relationship. "But he, being full of compassion," even though they were messed up. Listen, this is our God. He, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquities and destroyed them not. Yea, many a time turned he his anger away.

I wonder how many times God's had to turn away his anger from me when my words do not line up with my life. I thank God that he's gracious and merciful just like this. He turned away his anger many times and did not stir up all of his wrath, for he remembered—I like this—he remembered that they were but flesh. This is one of the verses I say to the Lord when I'm repenting because I just faced plant, I did something stupid, got in traffic. Thank God lately I haven't even been doing that. But when I did, I would just say, "Lord, just remember, I'm just flesh. I'm broken for this, and I'm not going to lie to you about it."

Lamentations, and again, this is Jeremiah writing. And Jeremiah's one of the prophets at this time speaking in Jerusalem while Ezekiel is down with the main people in Babylon. Daniel's up in the palace in Babylon. He says this in chapter 3 verses 22 through 23, he says this: "It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed." If God wasn't merciful, guess what? You and I would be burnt offerings tonight. It's because of his mercies we're not consumed, because of his compassion toward our plight, it fails not.

They are new every morning, great is thy faithfulness. In fact, 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse 13 says, "if we are unfaithful, if we are unbelieving, if we are disobedient"—it all means the same thing—"yet he abideth faithful, he cannot deny himself." God's entered into a covenant relationship with us that he cannot deny. He entered into a covenant relation with Israel and they're breaking it. So, listen to what he says here: "Nevertheless, my eye, it spared from destroying them, neither did I make an end of them in the wilderness."

"But I did say unto the children in the wilderness, 'Walk ye not after the statutes of your fathers, neither observe their judgment, nor defile yourselves with their idols.' Be different than your parents. Learn the lesson. It could have been an easy trek from Mount Sinai where you got the law to the promised land. It should have taken you three weeks, but because of your parents' disobedience, you've been wandering around in this desert for 40 years. Learn the lesson from somebody else. Don't repeat it. Don't repeat it."

And then he says in verse 19, "For I am the Lord your God. I'm your God." It's relational. "I'm your God. Walk in my statutes, keep my judgments and do them." Remember back in Deuteronomy when the law was regiven by Moses before they entered into the promised land? He said, "Listen, God has promised, chapter 28, if you keep his commandments, walk in his ways, keep his statutes and precepts, he will bless you." And when you read through that section, every aspect of your life—your marriage, your finances, your health, your children, your business—everything God says, "I will bless it."

But if you forget my ways and don't walk in my statutes and stray from me and go off to the idols, he said, then everything you touch will be cursed. And so here he is saying, listen, he's telling the next generation, verse 20: "and hallow my Sabbaths." I like the Sabbaths of the Lord. They're not what the Seventh-Day Adventists think they are. God says six days are yours to work, labor, focus on making a living. You can have me on your heart and mind while you're doing that, but the seventh day is mine only. It is to be totally given to me. It's your rest. It's the place where you seek my presence. There's no other distraction. It's the pursuit of me all the way.

And then he says, every seven years, the sixth year, I'm going to make your crops produce twice as much so the how would you like to work six years and get a whole year off on the seventh year? I like them. I would like to work seven years and take a year off. A whole year. You talk about vacation. God said, "I'll bless you so much that on the seventh year, you can just take it off." Oh, and the one I really like is the year of Jubilee. He said after seven sevens, 49 years, whatever debt you owe or whatever debt's owed to you, it's all wiped out. Everything's forgiven. It resets the economy.

How many like right now if you were how would you like to be living in the 48th year and know next year all your debts are going to be wiped out? Your house paid for, your car. A bunch of you would run out and buy a new house, buy a new car, buy a bunch of stuff because you knew. He said you did not hallow my Sabbaths, and they were to be a sign, a sign of my blessing between me and you, that you may know that I am the Lord your God, that I would provide for you. Seven days you work, six days you work, the seventh you rest. Six years you work, the seventh year you take it off. Seven sevens, every 49 years, all your debts wiped out. I'm going to tell you, I wish we had that covenant back.

We got a different one. Jesus is our Sabbath, he is our rest, but that's a pretty good deal he offered them, but they neglected it because of greed. Because of greed, they wanted to work seven days a week instead of six. Because of greed, they wanted to plant their crops for seven years and they ruined the soil and didn't take and then they never wanted to—because of greed, they didn't want to forgive each other's debts. Notwithstanding the children rebelled against me. They walked not in my statutes, neither kept they my judgments to do them, which if a man do, he shall even live in them.

Now it's not talking about salvation here. It means you will have a blessed life. If you were just to keep my statutes and my laws, your life would be blessed. I set those things up to bless you. You would have had the abundant life. I said I would pour out my fury upon them to accomplish my anger against them in the wilderness. God said, "I put my hand up and I was going to do that." Nevertheless, here again he reminds us of his graciousness and of his long-suffering. Verse 22: "Nevertheless, I withdrew my hand."

I put down my hand and say, "No, I'm not going to wipe you out. And I wrought for my name's sake that it should not be polluted in the sight of the heathen in whose sight I brought them forth." God was concerned that if he destroyed his people, the reputation would get around that you can't trust God amongst the heathen. So he said, "I put my hand down and I spared you." Listen to verse 23: "but I did lift up my hand." Here's the promise: because you were disobedient, there's going to be a consequence. We get this in the New Testament when in Galatians Paul says, listen, God's not mocked.

I want you to know that tonight, even under grace, God's not mocked. Whatsoever a man or a woman sows, that they're going to reap. It's the principle of sow and reap. It can be a blessing or it can be a curse because he says if you sow to the spirit, you reap a blessing. You reap eternal life. You reap a lot of cool and awesome things. But if you sow to the flesh, you're going to reap of the flesh: destruction, death, misery. And so the idea is choose where you're going to plant and what kind of crop you're going to plant because there is that principle of sow and reap.

And the principle of sow and reap, how many know the principle of sow and reap? You always reap after you have sown. You see, just because if you're sowing things today of the flesh, just because you don't immediately reap those things doesn't mean a harvest is not coming. Aren't you glad that repentance cuts down that crop? But you reap after you have sown. Secondly, you reap exactly what you have sown. You don't put wheat in the ground and get corn. You reap exactly what you've sown.

And here's the hard part of reaping and sowing: you reap more. You can plant a kernel of corn and you'll get a stalk with ears with hundreds of kernels. You reap more. But the principle works spiritually. If you spend time with the Lord in prayer, in his word, broken and contrite, trembling at his words and a desire to be obedient. If you draw near to him, James says he will draw near to you. If you sow to the spirit, you will reap of the spirit in spades.

And here he says to them, "You know, you're going to sow and you're going to reap. Now I'm not going to wipe you out, but I'm going to lift my hand," verse 23, "unto them also in the wilderness that I would scatter them among the heathen and disperse them among the countries." And that's what he did. He said, "If you don't when I give you the land that flows with milk and honey, if you don't stay there where you're supposed to be, then I'm going to scatter you." In fact, he warned them in Deuteronomy chapter 4—they'll put this upon the screen—in verse 25, they were pre-warned.

We are pre-warned, are we not? Listen, we're men and women of the word. We come and study God's word so we don't just pay as much attention to the blessings. I think it was D.L. Moody that said that we should pay as much attention to the warnings as to the blessings. There are 3,000 blessings or promises in the scripture, they're all good toward us. I've never counted up the warnings, but there are a lot of warnings. And so listen, God always warns his people. And in Deuteronomy, the regiving of the law before they went into the promised land, they were warned.

And this is what God said through Moses: "When thou shalt beget children"—now he's talking about when they're in the promised land—"when you beget children and children's children and you shall have remained long in the land." You see, the danger always is is becoming complacent and apathetic. The danger is falling into murmuring and complaining and not being thankful. The danger is allowing your heart to grow hard. And those dangers come, listen to me, in a time of blessing.

I am far more concerned about my own walk and your walk when things are good, when you're being blessed. Because it's in those times you become apathetic. You compromise. You become complacent. Your heart becomes hard. Your prayers become cold. And relationship dies. Oh, you still attend church. You still go through the motions long after the emotion is gone. And again, God's after the heart. And so Moses warns them: when you've been in the land long, you've had children, you've had grandchildren, you shall have remained in the land long and shall corrupt yourselves and make graven images or the likeness of anything, and you shall do evil in the sight of the Lord your God to provoke him to anger.

Again, he gave another warning. He said when you get in the land and you live in houses you didn't build and you drink from wells you didn't dig and you eat from vineyards you didn't plant, you need to beware when you are full and have been filled lest you forget the Lord your God who gave you the land. And if you track of Israel, it's interesting because from one generation to the next, they never seem to be able to stay to follow the Lord. Because they would leave the Lord, God would discipline them, he would remove the rain, he'd remove the blessing. They would go through a very difficult time, they would repent, God would bless. And then they would forget the Lord in their blessing, and then in the next generation he has to do the same thing over again.

In our Christian walk sometimes can be that kind of a roller coaster ride. Can I get an Amen? Stop it, man. You ought to be yelling whoo the whole roller coaster ride, in the valleys as well as on the top. Because our God is the same. He never leaves us. And so verse 26 says, "I call heaven and earth as a witness against you this day that you shall soon utterly perish from off the land whereunto you go over the Jordan to possess it. You shall not prolong your days upon it, but you shall utterly be destroyed. And the Lord shall scatter you among the nations, and you shall be left few in number among the heathen whether I shall lead you."

I'll scatter you to the nations. And we know that they were scattered at this time. God broke them of idolatry. When he's done with Ezekiel and this time in Babylon, they never fall into idolatry again. But they were scattered another time. They've just come back from that scattering, the diaspora, in 1948. They just regained control of Jerusalem, the city of God, in 1967. And Jesus said the Gentile generation that sees that will not pass away till Christ comes and returns and sets up his throne.

So we're living in the last days, very exciting. Verse 25 says, "Wherefore I gave them also statutes"—listen carefully to this—"I gave them also statutes that were not good because they rebelled." This amazes me because I have met people that have left their walk with the Lord to go back out into the world. And when you talk to them, it's like they're under some influence that is just like what are you saying and what are you thinking? Because you think what you're doing is good when it's evil.

Listen to what God will do, and we're going to look at a passage in the New Testament. This is the thing that scares me more than anything: that God would ever turn me over to my own devices. When I'm being disciplined, I thank the Lord because I know that he loves me and I know that I'm his because the Bible says he only disciplines those he loves and he only disciplines those who are his. But if he ever just lets me go and there's no conviction, I would be afraid.

If you're sitting here tonight and you're convicted because there's something in your life that should not be going on, that means you're his. And he's listen to the discipline and turn quickly. But if you can sit here tonight and go to church and listen to messages like this and go right out of here unconvicted, unconcerned, right back like a pig to the mire or a dog to the vomit, then you had better be afraid. Because maybe God has just given you over.

This is what he said to this nation because of their rebellion, because, listen, "because they had not," verse 24, "had not executed my judgments, but they despised my statutes, because they had polluted my Sabbaths and their eyes were after their fathers' idols, wherefore I gave them also statutes that were not good and judgments whereby they should not live. And I polluted them in their own gifts in they that they caused to pass through the fire, the open of the womb," in other words they burned their kids to the sacrifice of and what do you think's going on in this nation today? The Moloch.

Because they would not turn, I gave them over, as it were, to a seducing spirit. I'm going to tell you what's going on in Washington DC is a seducing spirit, because it makes no sense. God is giving this nation over to their idols, and he's about to judge them. Like the Bible says, in the last days that which is wrong will be called right, and right will be called wrong. And they do it as though they think that they're right. God is judging this nation, guys. I know that many of you are patriots and you want to pray for this Trump to come back into office in the economy.

Listen, if even if he does, this nation has gone to the point where God has to judge it. Not us. We've already been judged in Jesus. We're going home. But he's judging this nation. One of the ways I know that someone asked me, "Well, how come you keep saying that, Pastor?" Well, I'm going to tell you why I say that: because the Bible says when God seeks to judge a nation, he puts the baser of sorts of leaders in position. He puts the wicked in those places. Really? Have you seen who's in office? You can't get any baser than that, man, or they just wouldn't show up. Well, I don't think he shows up anyway.

Well, anyway, I digress. "Wherefore I gave them statutes and and they weren't good." And so listen to what it says in Romans. Romans chapter 1 verses 18, I know you guys are familiar with this passage, but I want you to see two times God says he gave them up. He gave he gave them up, and then one time he'll say that he gave them over. Listen how this starts in verse 18: "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness." They know the truth, and yet they corrupt it. They twist it, they pervert it, they change it.

Because that which may be known of God—and that word for known means to know every aspect of him because in every one of us the God has put a measure of faith. You can go to the darkest tribe in Papua New Guinea and there's a moral code there. They're seeking to worship something because God has put in everybody's heart to seek him. Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them. God put it in them. For God has shown it unto them, even the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead so that they are without excuse.

I remember even sitting out there sometimes stone on Capers or something looking at the stars and realized this could not have just happened. I was smart enough to know there's no way. I would look at my hand sometimes paced out like a space cadet and I'd go, there's no way that this just happened. I knew that. And I knew if there was a design, because I'd taken engineering courses and architecture and mechanical drawing, I know if there was a design that there was a designer. Even in world history with Mr. Ostroski, I could never buy into the bink bink little things in this pond scum turning into living things and crawling out on the I just couldn't buy that.

We had this little movie and it went bink bink. It showed this primordial ooze and then bink this little spot and bink bink bink bink and a whole bunch of them and they start binking into each other and then they start forming into these things and they crawl. Really? I after the film, I said, "Mr. Ostroski, you don't believe that for sure. You don't believe that." Guess who my college professor was because he wrote the he wrote the textbook for world history for the high schools of California. Him and Mr. Kemper were both at our high school. I had top-rate, for whatever reason, I had top-rate world history teachers, history teachers in our school.

And he got a professorship at Chico State. And so I show up to his class, world history. And he's reading the roll. And he looks up, "Mr. Warren." "Here I am, Mr. Ostroski." But now I'm saved. Now there's a difference. And not only am I not buying it, I'm going to tell you why I don't buy it. Listen, men will make excuses because they hold the truth. Listen carefully: "because when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were they thankful." Listen, be careful. The first step to a downhill spiral of carnality is an unthankful heart.

I deserve nothing but the wrath of God. But my Father has given me every blessing. Even the difficulty in my life is a blessing from my Father to teach me, to break me, to remove my gorn from me that he might empty me and put more of himself in me. I don't learn real quick, but I'm 65 years old, almost closer to 66. I know some of you think that's young, Max, but it ain't. What are you laughing, Carl? Would you elbow Gary because he's laughing too? It ain't funny getting old. But I am old enough that I have hindsight to realize that all things, all things, all things have worked together for good because I'm called of God and he loves me. The mountains and the valleys, every bit of it.

But because their hearts were unthankful, they became vain in their imaginations and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. The fool has said in his heart there is no God. And they changed the glory of an incorruptible God and made it unto corruptible things like men, birds, four-footed things, creeping things. They worshipped everything they worshipped the creation instead of worshiping the Creator. Watch the first one of these: "wherefore," because they did that, because they fell into idolatry, "wherefore God also gave them up."

And that's a dangerous place to be. God gave them up to uncleanness through the lust of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves who changed the truth of God into—it's in the definite article in the Greek—the lie. Well, what's the lie? It's the original lie that Satan the father of lies brought into the world, brought into God's creation, that "I will ascend my throne above the throne of the most high God, I will sit as the captain of my own ship." That's the lie. And they changed the truth for the lie and they worshipped and served the creature more than the creator, who's blessed forever and ever. Amen.

"Wherefore," it says, "for this cause God gave them up unto vile affections, for even their women did change the natural use." People say homosexuality's not condemned in the Bible. You have it right here. "For even their women changed the natural use, that is against nature, and likewise the men, leaving the natural use of the woman burned in their lust one toward another, man with man, woman with woman." Well, it says that there: men with men working that which is unseemly. That's not right.

Man, you look at that, that's not right. You see two men holding hands and kissing—we saw some of that when we had to go to San Francisco to get our passports. You think, "That's not natural, that's not right. It's not right. It's not right." You know, years ago when Calvary Chapel first got started, there was only like 50 Calvary Chapels and we were at a conference and Chuck was speaking. And this is when the people just started first coming out of the closet and Chuck said, "You know, that's just queer."

And one of the pastors—there was a small group—interrupted and said, "Chuck, you can't say that." He said, "Well, it is. It's just queer. It's just odd. A man with a man? That's just not right." It isn't. The Bible says it isn't. Something happened in those people's lives where they knew the truth and they rejected it. And they rejected it to the degree where God gave them over, gave them up to these things. To vile affection, it says. And then we come no, let me finish reading. I got to do all of it.

"For this cause God gave them up to vile affections, for even their women did change the natural use against nature, likewise the men leaving the natural use of the woman burn one toward another, men with men working that which is unseemly and receiving in themselves a recompense of their error." There are diseases and things that happen because of that. And then it says in the next verse, and this will probably this will get thrown off of YouTube for sure. We'll be in YouTube prison for a while.

"And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge," therein is the problem, "God gave them over to reprobate minds, minds and conscience that are seared, to do those things which are not fitting." Here God is saying to this nation, "Listen, I'm going to scatter you, as it were, because you polluted my name and you didn't keep my commandments. I'm going to scatter you and I'm going to give to you statutes and I'm going to let you do things that aren't good. They're just going to come into your mind."

Verse 27 says, "Therefore, son of man, speak unto the house of Israel and say unto them, 'Thus saith the Lord God: yet in this your fathers have blasphemed me, and in that they have committed a trespass against me. For I had brought them into this land for which I had lifted up my hand, I swore to give to them. Then they saw every high hill and every thick tree and they offered their sacrifices there. And there they presented their provocations, their prayers as it were, of their offerings. There also they made their sweet savor and poured out their drink offerings.'"

"Then I said unto them, 'What is these high places whereunto you go?'" And the name of them is called this day and this is what it means in the in the language for high place is Bamah unto this day. "Wherefore house of Israel, thus saith the Lord, you are polluted as the manner of your fathers and you've committed whoredom after their abominations." The high places are where they set up their idols. We got to visit when we were in Israel. We went up to the northern part where they set up the pedestal still there for the calf they set up in Dan.

And so we walk through, you guys was there, some of you. We walk through this area and then you know they bring us up the tour guide does and and you know and there's this kind of a structure there, so we're all just sitting on it, you know, we're just waiting for the for the study that goes with the place where at. We know we're in the area of Dan, but we didn't realize and he said, "You know what you're sitting on? It's the pedestal where the calf was on." Well, man, we want to get off that altar in a hurry.

But you did those things and you worshipped, he's saying. "Listen, for when you offer your gifts, when you make your sons to pass through the fire, you abort them. You pollute yourselves with all of your idols." We'll end with this verse. You pollute yourselves with all of your idols even unto this day. When you go a-whoring after other gods, when you set up idols in your life. When you're so sexually perverted because in those days they offered to Moloch their children that were illegitimate that came through their mistresses or through their fornication or through their adultery, they were unwanted God's offspring.

Even to this day you haven't repented. I have called my prophets to warn you. Isaiah has been at it for a hundred years. Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Amos, Hosea, many of the minor prophets. And then he says this: "And shall I be inquired of by you?" Remember this chapter starts with the elders of Israel coming to Ezekiel and inquiring of Ezekiel to hear a word from the Lord. And God says, "You lay it on them, Ezekiel. You tell them why I will not be inquired of them." And this is the lesson all the way through to verse 31 as to why he's not going to do that.

And then he says this, "As I live," that's a solemn oath. God says, "As I live, saith the Lord God, I will not be inquired by you. You will not come with that sin in your life, those abominations going on in your heart and in your life and inquire of me." In fact, we didn't get a chance to read this, but he says, "I'm going to break you of that and there's a day coming when you're going to mourn for this and you're going to be restored to me." I wish we had gotten to that part. We'll get that next week.

But put a put your finger there, put a period there. Listen, God's not done. Because he says there's a day where you're going to inquire of me, but it'll be a time when you are broken and contrite, trembling at my words. It'll be a time of repentance. It'll be a time of crying out in shame for what you've allowed to go on in your life. How many have ever cried out to the Lord and you say, "I'm just ashamed, Lord. I'm broken. I can't believe I did that." God says when you do that, then it will be a sweet aroma to me and I will receive it. But if you come holding onto those things as an idolater, as one who has given themselves over to the no.

The Lord says, "I can be found." Aren't you glad that he says that? Aren't you glad that the God of heaven says he can be found? Say Amen. How many are glad that he says he can be found, he can be known? You can experience him. James says it, that if you will if you will draw close to me, God says—this is a promise. It's written in an in an emphatic way. I will. It's a promise: I will draw close to you. We're going to leave off with this thought. God says—how many want how many want more of God's presence in your life?

How many want to hear his voice, feel and sense his presence, want his strength and his power? How many want to turn a deaf ear to the world and be tuned in spiritually? How many want to walk in purity and holiness? Well, listen, God says I can be found. But he says this is what is required to find me. He says, "I will be found when you seek me with your whole heart. No no rival throne, no other ambition, no other desire." God says if you will seek me with all of your heart, I will make myself known to you.

We just read that on Sunday morning where Paul said, "All that I once counted in my religiosity as in the gain column of my accounting, I now have moved it over to the loss, to the deficit column." And the reason I've done that because none of that brought me closer to him. And then the cry of Paul's heart is that I might know him. Amen. He can be found, but he's not going to be found when you approach him not willing to let go of everything and seek him with your whole heart. Unfortunately so much of the church today wants to come before the true and living God with all of their idols, all of their corruption, all of their sin.

And they have this view of God that because of grace he has to entertain them no matter how they live. No, no, no, no. Grace is there to help you to change. Saving grace is changing grace. But don't think you're going to ever approach a true and living God unless you're willing to do it with your whole heart. He will not be found. What you'll find is religion, maybe even an appeasing of your conscience because of your religious actions, but you won't find him. He is only to be found when you come broken and contrite before him, trembling at his words and say to him, "I'm seeking you with my whole heart. I hold nothing in reserve. Nothing in reserve, no rival throne, no rival throne."

"I may struggle the spirit against the flesh, but God, you need to know I want to know you, the source of all strength. Amen?" Well, read ahead. We will definitely finish chapter 20 next week for sure and move into chapter 21. So let's stand. I've already used up the worship lead the team's time, and so I'll close you in a prayer and I'll close you in a little song. But listen, how many of you love the Lord with your whole heart? Then you're going to find him.

How many have asked for the for his presence? How many need for him to touch your heart in a way that nothing else can? How many need to hear from him? You have some things going on in your life, you need to hear from him. Well, he will be found. He promises if you draw close to him, he will draw close to you. But listen, to draw close to him, that means you have to take up your cross, deny yourself, follow him. Amen. And if you're willing to do that, he will be found.

Father, we thank you so much for your word tonight. We thank you that you can be found if we seek you with our whole heart. And so Father, put that in us. You know, we're here at Country Calvary Chapel, we're not religious. I don't have any desire to be religious. We just want to know you. We want to experience your presence. We want to we want to have your Holy Spirit illuminate your word to not only our minds but to our hearts that we might walk in your statutes and keep your precepts, follow your ways.

Because Lord, if we do that, it is the blessed life. It is the blessed life. So contrary to this culture and to this world, but it's the blessed life because this world is not this culture is not being blessed. We want to be blessed. And so Father help us. Help us we pray in the mighty name of Jesus to live for you. Amen.