I ask you to forgive my humanity. As I begin the sermon this morning, as I bid my only son a happy 37th birthday. I know Danelle doesn't look like she could have a 37-year-old son, and I look like I could have a 37-year-old grandson. But nonetheless, we have an only son, and his name is Kalen. So happy birthday. Thank you. All right. Now, Romans 13. Open up your Bibles, please. Last week we began the final stages of our study on what is essentially an extended exegesis of Romans chapter 13, verse 14. I just want to read those few verses of our base text in its context. And so please follow along. Verses 11 through 14 in Romans 13. Besides this, you know the time that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep, For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night's far gone, the day's at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. Here's the verse, extended exegesis now for weeks and more weeks to come. In verse 14, "...but put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires." This whole discussion of what the righteous person looks like began back in chapter 12, verse 1 of Romans, and it will proceed through the end of the book. Our base text is considered to be one of the eight vice lists and let's just say one of the eight main vice lists because we know that even though the chart that I've provided for you that collates the main vice list, those eight, there's more than eight. Let's get that right out there and I'll say it again later. We cannot be mistaken in this chart that I've given to you that there are only eight viceless in the New Testament. There's more than that, which means that there are many more than just 48 sins that Christians are warned against in the Word of God. As far as this being the tip of the iceberg, we are currently studying the fourth category of Those eight vice lists on that chart, I have read through there. I have four sublists. There's four to six sins in each. There's 22 in total, and there was one left over as a standalone. These are sins in relationship to one another. They're specific towards that. Last week I used the vice or sin obscene talk as the starting point to preach an entire sermon on the tongue as the nexus, if you will, for looking at these sins in relationship to one another. Now, why? Why start with an entire sermon just on the tongue? Well, to quote myself from last week, in my mind and in my personal experience in giving and receiving, it's the tongue that is used most often that comes When it comes to our sinning against each other, we perpetrate sin after sin against those created in the image of God with this world of unrighteousness that cannot be tamed but must be kept on a short leash. I believe that to be an honest evaluation for all people who have the capacity to speak." End quote. The tongue. as described by James, is at least, and these are the five points from last week, treacherous, offensive, nefarious, grandiose, and enigmatic. As far as nefarious goes, the characteristic of the tongue that is most responsible for the innumerable ways that we sin against each other I want to conclude this little bit of review and what we did last week where we are in the study on sins with relationship to one another. I want to conclude my review of that and I want to conclude this introduction that is now leading us into the rest of those sins that we perpetrate against one another that we shouldn't do by saying this. It is inevitable that we will hurt one another with our tongues, as they are untamable, set on fire by hell itself, a world of unrighteousness, and used to curse and not bless, as they are used in ways that they shouldn't be. Every one of us has been on the giving and receiving ends of this unfortunate reality and all the other sins that we perpetrate against one another. Explanations, though, not being excuses, point us to a text like this one earlier in the Book of Romans. And I'm not going to chapter 7 with you this time. like you might be thinking. I'm going to chapter 6. Look at verses 12 through 14. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies. Now, as I finish reading this, I'm actually going to paraphrase it, based upon the studies we did upon it, Well, now, back in the day. So let not sin, therefore reign in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions. Stop presenting your members to sin as weapons for unrighteousness, but start presenting yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as weapons for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under the law, but under grace." We must make up our minds to stop talking like the tongue has dominion over us. How many times have you said, before saying something, or heard someone else say, before saying something, I can't help myself. How many times have you said that? How many times have you heard that? Oh, I just can't help myself! And then, blast! That's lame! That's caving in, not seeing the fact that we're going to struggle with this and inevitably sin with our tongues. You're caving into that instead of fighting that. Instead of saying, I can't help myself, you should say or write, text it. I texted this to somebody yesterday in a conversation about something that I don't need to get into the details about, something that both of us disliked, and it wasn't even a real spiritual thing. Okay, I'll be honest with you. This is about hunting. Okay, fine. I texted back to this individual, there's a lot of things that I could say right now that I'm not going to say. Say that instead of, I can't help myself. Here it goes. And that goes for all the ways that we sin against one another. Because the tongue isn't our only problem. Our actions and our attitudes and our general selfish behavior will hurt others more than we want. It is up to us to do it less often than we do. And I think even more important than that Even more important than not sinning against one another is how we respond to being sinned against. Because that's where it really gets dicey. That's where knee-jerk reactions and hurt feelings and everything else comes into play, if we're not careful, if we're not patient, if we're not prepared, if we're not beating ourselves down properly every day, that's where things get really bad. Somebody sins against you, and that's wrong, 100%. We should not be like that. But I think how we respond to that is where the devastation really comes. Because our love is not covering a multitude of sins, and we are just adding fuel to the fire. Because we can't control ourselves at that time. Oh, if this was an easy task. It is not. It is a battle that we will face for the rest of our lives in these unredeemed bodies of flesh. But for the glory and honor of Christ, we must take on this battle head on and take it seriously. Father, help us towards that end, I pray. I ask that you would give us clarity and wisdom, insights as we go through these vices that we are warned against as believers, certainly within the body of Christ, that we would prevent as best as we can ourselves from committing these atrocities against one another, but certainly just even in our families, our workplace, with unsafe people in the community. Because in all of our relationships, We are to keep the glory and honor of Christ at the forefront of our minds. So help us. We are weak and we are fallible and we will sin in these areas and so help us to be forgiving when sinned against and help us to Ask for forgiveness when we sin against. And all that stuff that you might do in our minds and hearts to make things right, I pray for. So, help us. In Jesus' name, Amen. So in this category, this last category, 22 sins on the vice list, sins in relationship to one another, and how we sin against one another, when I collated them all, I found that one that we dealt with last week when we talked about the tongue. Now I have four more sub-lists in this list, and they all have four to six sins in each one. And the first one I want to deal with today with you has four sins in it. And I'm doing this one first because I'm considering them to be the least likely. The least likely ones that we will likely commit to against one another. At least they are least likely at face value. Because as we look at them and see the different nuances, there are applications for each one of these things that I'm going to tell you now to us right now in our lives. And so even though I think they're least likely, we can't skip them. They're in the list. We have to deal with them. We'll see them as they are. still applicable to us to keep ourselves from. And they are, in order of their appearance in this sermon, murder, striking our parents, enslaving others, and being thieves. Now, I don't see any of us being any of these things on a regular basis. Okay? Let's get that out front. However, when we go down through each one of these, we are going to see ways that they're still applicable to us now. Don't do that. Turn to Exodus. Don't check out. Don't check out because I'm saying these are least likely. Turn to Exodus 21, because I want you to see a text of Scripture. We know that in Exodus, what was it, Exodus 20, we have the giving of the Ten Commandments. And then right after that, we have all these other laws that are being enacted and are being inaugurated because Israel is now a nation. It wasn't until this time, this treaty, if you will, in the form of the Ten Commandments that God made with these people that he brought out to make them his own. He's now making them his own. And he's telling them tons and tons and tons of things that they should and shouldn't do. And so I want you to see, even in the list that I just read to you, that these kinds of sins have been around a long time and God's people have been told not to do them. Verse 12 of chapter 21, Whoever strikes a man so that he dies shall be put to death. But if he did not lie in wait for him, but God let him fall into his hand, then I will appoint for you a place to which he may flee. But if a man willfully attacks another to kill him by cunning, you shall take him away from the altar that he may die. Whoever strikes his father, his mother shall be put to death. Whoever steals a man and sells him, and anyone found in possession of him shall be put to death. And whoever curses his father or his mother shall be put to death." And so we see these kinds of things, these sins, these vices, have been around for a long time, and we are not to participate in them. Obviously, right? Obviously. You see a list like murder, striking parents, enslaving others, and theft, it's obvious that there is no place for these kinds of activities in the Christian life. Do we agree on that? Yes. But having said that, all the more reason to look at them and how we are being warned against them so that they're not part of our lives, because the vigor, power, and comfort of our spiritual lives depends largely upon their mortification. So, we're going to work through these things one at a time, and we're going to make application as we go. Now, again, as we proceed, it's good to remember that even though two of these that we're going to look at are in one of those vice lists that specifically describe the reprobate or the unsaved person, it's still a warning for us because none of us, even though we're saved, None of us are immune to the pull of our unredeemed flesh in times of spiritual weakness. Right? None of us are immune to the pull of our unredeemed flesh in times of spiritual weakness. Hence, the reminder for us that we already studied in this series within a series, if you want to call it that, the necessity of being armored up. Remember, we went through the Armor of God, and someone even bought the book I referenced. Hopefully all of you have a copy of that book on the Armor of God, and you're reading it, and you're meditating upon it, and you are at least... There is a way in which you can look at the Armor of God. Some of them are very specific, like the Belt of Truth, or the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. All of them derived their existence from the Word of God. So at least do that. Can we at least do that? Can we at least read our Bible and pray? Asking God to give us wisdom and grace to apply the truths that we read. And to read our Bibles. Okay, got that out of the way. Can't do it enough. I'm reading, and I started Esther again this morning. Flabbergasted by Esther. And the absolute sovereign hand of God at work. And he's never mentioned in the book by name. But he's always working. Always working. See, now I want to preach on Esther next. Whatever. So for murder, I'm calling it intentional murder. I have to alliterate. So I have intentional murder, intense disrespect, illicit debauchery, and improper behavior for our four points on these four vices. We begin with intentional murder. I want you to see something in Genesis 9 that is an application to it. And so go back to Genesis 9. It is no surprise to us that murder means exactly what we think it means. It means to deprive a person of life by illegal, intentional killing. It is mortal hatred. It has been wrong since just about the beginning, when Cain was punished for doing what to Abel? Murdering him. He killed his own brother. Now, what happened to Cain? I just read to you from Exodus, which comes much later than Cain killing Abel. What was the punishment for murder in Exodus? You murder, what happens to you? You get killed. Capital punishment. Why wasn't Cain capitally punished? Well, capital punishment hadn't been instituted yet. Capital punishment came right after the flood, and that's why you'll see it in Genesis 9, 5 and 6. And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning. From every beast I will require it, and from man. From his fellow man, I will require a reckoning for the life of man. Whoever sheds the blood of man by man, his blood be shed. For God made man in his own image." And so the first application for murder, as we see it for the Christian, is knowing that capital punishment is biblical. Okay? There's a lot of superficial Christianity that would disagree with that statement. I don't see how you can disagree with that statement. It's stated clearly right here before the repopulation of the earth. There's how many people right now when this is said? How many you got? Eight. That's it. So before the repopulation of the earth, the command is given by God, if you murder someone, then your life must be forfeited because you have killed someone that has been made in the image of God. So capital punishment is biblical. When it is enacted justly and fairly and lawfully, correctly, right? Cain was banished. But not anymore for murder. Now, I don't see any of us killing anybody anytime soon. So, that would be the end of discussion on murder. Until we consider what Jesus said about it. Because I know you know what Jesus said in Matthew 5. You've got to love all of these, but I say unto you's, that Jesus uttered in Matthew 5. In verses 21 to 26, no wait, 21 to, yeah, 21 to 26, if, okay, so you've heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not murder, and whoever murders will be liable to judgment. But I say to you, that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment. Whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council. Whoever says you fool will be liable to the hell of fire. So if you are offering your gift on the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, then come and offer your gift. Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you're going with them to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison." So what is the equivalent in Jesus' own words of murder? Hatred. You're guilty of murder if you hate someone in your heart. John adds to that in 1 John 3. And this stems right from the Genesis account of Cain and Abel. 1 John 3.11. For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? because his own deeds were evil and his brother's righteous. Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. We know that we passed out of death into life because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer. You know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him." It's pretty bad. to hate people in your heart. And if you hate people, you are guilty of murder. I can't speak for everyone. I can't hardly speak for myself. But who hasn't had moments of hatred for others in their heart, or even muttered under their breath, I wish he or she were dead. It's much more common than actual killing someone, taking of a life, but in Jesus' eyes, it's just as bad. What are we supposed to do with our enemies? Love them. Are we into hunting things today? When are we not into hunting things? I was asked not to hunt on someone's property recently because of my beliefs." That's what Danelle said. She's like, it's just persecution. Mild form. Don't get me wrong. They didn't beat me. But there were some conversation concerning transgender things and deviance of that nature. And anyway, I was asked not to invade their safe space anymore with my particular views. And it's hard not to take those kinds of things personally. It's hard not to. I think I'm a pretty nice guy. You know, I never shot a deer on their property, but I still gave them some meat just as a thank you. Don't invade our space. I need to love them. And the conversation ended, the short conversation ended with, and this was just a phone conversation, the person saying to me, if you want to talk about it again or whatever, we can, I want them to know that I don't have vitriol in my heart for these people, but I have a deep compassion for these people. Because of their souls. And I have deep compassion for these people that I'm talking about for their soul's sake too. Even though they don't fall into the LGBTQ territory, right? And so instead of me reacting by saying, fine, I'll find someplace else to hunt. I have to be willing, and I want to be willing, and I am willing to have a conversation with them that will be gospel-centered, but nonetheless, love your enemies in whatever way they are showing their hatred towards you. Intense disrespect is striking of parents. So in 1 Timothy 1.9, you find the phrase, you're going to turn to Matthew 15, First Timothy 1.9 uses the phrase, those who strike their fathers and mothers. In studying that out, I found that in 98% of cases, commentators that know a lot more about original languages and how it was used will say, essentially, this is just a specialty form of murder. Because what it means is to those who strike their father, one word in the Greek, and mothers added, it literally means to kill someone, not just to beat them. But I did find some commentators that referred to beating, which is also biblically accurate from what I read to you from Exodus 21. Murdering your parents and beating your parents are both wrong. Right? How about a sovereign shout-out? I'm talking with Dave Bulich this morning in the study and he tells me a story about a son who had his father on the floor of their garage beating his face in with people watching and says to him, you get up and I'm gonna kill you. This kind of stuff happens. Crazy! Crazy! You've got violation here of at least two commandments, right? Because what greater disrespect is there than to kill your parent? You're supposed to honor them, right? And, obviously, killing them. Do not murder. So, if I want to argue this, and I do, from the greater truth to the lesser truth, then this murdering or striking of parents, whether it refers to actual murder or beating them, knowing that those are wrong and we are warned against them, that's the greatest disrespect, the greatest form of dishonor you can show your parents. Then the lesser forms of dishonor are also to be steered away from. That's greater argument to lesser argument. And so when you have a child who has hatred in their heart for their parent, we just talked about that, that's the equivalent of murdering them, striking them, beating them. What kid, what 13, 14-year-old hasn't muttered under their breath, I hate you? And at that moment, out of the mouth, the heart speaks. Now, if this is, and this is where the true evaluation comes, if that is characteristic of your life, and not just a momentary lapse of sin, if it's characteristic of your life, then you're not saved. But just because we sin in gross ways doesn't mean we're not saved, as long as we are taking care of that sin. confessing it to God and making amends with those that we talk to like that. There are many, many, many ways that children disrespect parents. That should not be. Why so many that call their parents by their first names? That bugs me. That bugs me. Why so many holding grudges from their youth on how they were raised? That's a big one, too. I'm not saying these things are easy to deal with and to live with. But if we're supposed to honor and respect our parents, I don't see in any of those cases, especially the origination of it, right, in Exodus 20, in the Ten Commandments, where it gives all these reasons when you don't have to. I don't see it. I understand not being best friends with them, sometimes with the way you've been treated as a child or even as an adult, but you still honor and respect them. You still call them mom and dad. There's a, it's just like with the office of president. You might disagree 5,000% with whoever's president at any given time, but it's still Mr. President, right? It's not, and we talked about this when we went through Romans, early parts of Romans 13. It's not so-and-so jerk. There's honor to the office, there's honor to the position that should be given. And there's times when there's disrespect given because parents' honor is replaced by even things that we think are good, like here in Matthew 15. Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they don't wash their hands when they eat. He answered them, And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? For God commanded, honor your father and mother, and whoever reviles father or mother must surely die. But you say, if anyone tells his father or his mother, what you would have gained for me is given to God, he need not honor his father. So, for the sake of your tradition, you have made void the word of God, you hypocrites. Well, did Isaiah prophesy of you when he said, This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. If you ever find yourself making excuses for what you're doing in direct violation of the Scriptures, trying to rationalize what you're doing to keep it in line with the Word of God, then I don't know. Stop. Just don't do it. Don't do it. Now, you're probably wondering why I'm using illicit debauchery to describe enslavers. I'm doing it because I spent more time on this word and tried to figure out what it meant than all of the other ones combined this week. Before I look at that though with you, I want to remind you of one thing. You don't need to turn to the text to see it. But it's a scriptural support for what I said earlier in the sermon. I told you that the vice lists are not exhaustive. There's not only 48 sins that we steer ourselves away from. The very last phrase in 1 Timothy 1, verse 10, after listing a bunch of things that are bad, is, Whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine. Whatever else. There's no exhausting this so-called list of sins that Christians must stay clear of. If what you are doing, or thinking about doing, violates scripture in any way... Thank you. Don't do it. Now, what does that imply? That which I already said earlier. You've got to know the scriptures. You've got to know what they say, so that you can evaluate yourself. I'm not talking about other people here. I'm talking about ourselves. Okay, so this word, enslavers, the very basic classical Greek meaning is to catch a man by the foot. So it came to mean kidnapper or slave dealer. So we're talking about kidnapping or slavery, which slave dealer is the same essentially as kidnapping, right? Because you are kidnapping someone to then be your slave. This is bad enough. And again, we wouldn't think it's very applicable to us right now in our culture because slavery is over. We don't have slave trade anymore and all of that stuff that we shouldn't have. However, there is this secondary meaning because of the cultural context of this word that talks about taking young slave boys and girls and turning them into objects for your sexual pleasure. Like we hear on the news all the time is happening across our southern border. So this is very applicable. I don't know if any of you remember this or not, But this debauchery! Worst kind! Talk about those deserving of the death penalty. I don't know if you remember this or not, but Nero took a young boy as his, well, married him, a young boy named Sporos. hundreds and hundreds of years ago. As long as there has been human depravity, there has been grotesque sins. This is illicit debauchery. It is deviancy. And obviously, it needs to be It needs to be shunned. It needs to be hated. And again, I'm just preaching this because it's in the text that we're studying. I don't think any of us, any time soon, are going to be guilty of this. But having said that, I read articles about all these pastors for 30 years, or these youth pastors going to jail because they're filming girls' bathrooms. These are warnings for us because none of us are immune to the pull of unredeemed flesh in our times of spiritual weakness. So armor up. I'm going to end with improper behavior. I'm not going to take you to one of our vice lists, but to another text to look at it. It is theft, Ephesians chapter 4. One verse here, Ephesians 4. As far as our vice lists go, however, We are told not to be thieves in 2 of the 8. Verse 28, let the thief no longer steal, chapter 4 of Ephesians, but rather let him labor. doing honest work with his own hands so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. So when you see thief, you see thievery, you see stealing, in the New Testament comes from the Greek word klepto. What's that sound like? Kleptomaniac. Okay? Now, here's the context for this. The context for this is the pagan culture of the day, when all of these things were written, said it was okay to steal, as long as you gave some of it away to those people who needed things. It was just like an old-time Robin Hood, right? Is Robin Hood correct in what he's doing? However romanticized it is in all the different Robin Hood movies, is he doing the right thing? No, he's not. What should he have done? Get a job? work hard, make a lot of extra money, and then give that away. Ooh, but that hurts too much. I don't want to give my hard-earned money away. I want to steal from you and give it away. That's part of the pagan culture. So obviously, in the church in Ephesus, there were Christians who hadn't abandoned that practice. Because this command literally goes For the one stealing, stop stealing. It's never right to steal. Certainly not from one another in the body of Christ. Certainly not at work with your time. Steal your time? Oh, I don't have my phone with me. Probably a good thing. You doing this at work a lot? Scourge on the workplace or phones. Absolute scourge. On society as well, but... Gotta use our technology for the glory of God. Well, it was just a box of paperclips. Thievery! Oh, don't make such a big deal about it. It's still stealing. That's why when you find a candy bar in your kid's pocket when you get home that you didn't buy for him or her, what do you do? You lovingly grab them by the scruff of the neck and you take them back to the store to have their sins confessed to the owner and to pay for or return item stolen. You don't steal from others. These are, in my opinion anyway, in the category of least likely when it comes to ways that we're going to sin against each other. Now, there's nuances to all of these that we need to be careful with. whether it's anger or disrespect or a truly biblical hatred and righteous indignation for debaucheries that exist and something even like stealing. Now, we likely have Three more sermons left, and then we'll be done with his vice lists. We'll be done in Romans 13, 14, and we'll proceed on from there in the Book of Romans. When it does come to the myriad of ways that we will sin against one another, I again want to acknowledge, and I'm going to flesh this out more in the weeks ahead, One of the quotes in your bulletin today is relative to this as well. Because I said earlier in the sermon, and the more I look at these vices, and the more I see the ways in which we commit sin against one another in the body of Christ, I am more convinced that absolutely, 100%, we are not supposed to be like that. But I am convinced even more that it is the reaction of those that have been sinned against that is even more important to get a grip on. Because if we can nip something in the bud with our biblical, God-honoring, Christ-exalting reaction, then it doesn't blossom into a fury and split churches even. Over wallpaper. Somebody personally offended because they weren't consulted on choosing a wallpaper border, or a color for a wall, or a carpet, or a chair. Seriously? But guess what? That's where we are. In this world. In the church, even. I don't know, it's not in the... I don't find anywhere in the Bible where it's written this way, but we just need to suck it up. You don't have those exact words in the Bible, but that's what they mean. And so I want to develop further in the future. It might even be a whole sermon somewhere in the midst of all of this, because it's so expansive. Two things. The inevitability of us sinning against one another. and are trying to keep ourselves from doing it. And then secondly, and again, I think more importantly, our reactions when people sit against us. Because we can prevent a whole host of bad things happening to us in our relationships, to us in our church relationships, and all of our relationships, if we actually do live by Love covering a multitude of sins. Now, that doesn't mean that you just sweep it under the rug. Because I will say this. It's happened in every church, it's happened here. There will be feathers that get ruffled, and then nobody wants to talk about it. Nobody that's offended wants to go to those that offended them. Why not? Fearful? I don't know. But I've begged people over the years. What? Just tell me. Just have an honest conversation. Can we do that? It doesn't happen. Very rarely. And that's wrong. And that's sinful. And that hurts churches. It doesn't build up the body of Christ. No reason why we can't have honest conversations with one another. As we should. as we have been united as one in Christ. And so we pray for God to protect us as individuals, to protect the body as a whole. So Father, thank you again for the opportunity to be smacked around by the Word, I pray that it would do its, well I know it's going to, it's not going to return void. I pray that in this process that you work in us, as your word will not return void to yourself, that we would be softened and shaped and molded into the image of Christ as you are making sure it does not return to you void. That's what I want to pray for us today, please. In Jesus' name, amen.