So listen, I'm not going to ask for a show of hands, but if you have not been going through the book of Romans with us, you are at a great disadvantage this morning because for three weeks I've been laying the foundation, going through Romans chapter 1 to get to the verses we are today. And we will just begin to scratch those verses, though we'll read them in their entirety. And we are going to cover them probably over the course of the next three Sundays. I say the next three Sundays in the Book of Romans. Next Sunday is the 4th of July. We're gonna pause for a special message. But for the next three Sundays in the Book of Romans, Many of you are gonna find it very difficult to go through these next three weeks, starting with today. Some of you will not be able to handle it, and I'm not saying that to be funny. I wanna remind you, though, before you think anything else, this book, this book has already anticipated the day that you and I are living in right now, and you will be convinced of that. You'll be convinced of it starting today. Will you accept what it says? That's your decision. But this is serious stuff. So serious that I have asked people that I know across this country to please be lifting up these services today in prayer. It's not, listen, I'm not worried about failing. I know what to say. I'm actually very, very concerned about someone's rejection of what God is saying because of what it's gonna mean to them. Can I say it this way? I know that I belong to Jesus. I know that when I die, I'm gonna see him, and I know that my sins have been forgiven, and I know what he's called me to do. I'm not struggling with any of that. But it has been intensified upon my heart to struggle over the fact that that someone may be listening or watching right now or here right now and just will refuse because you will not allow him to be the God of your life. And even though I'm going to heaven and maybe most in this room or all or 99.9% are, I have been struggling all this week with the realization, apparently I'll be satisfied when I get to heaven. because the thought of you not going there concerns me. All because you may side with the demonic end time sway that is working in this world. And if you doubt that, I think you'll be convinced of it in a matter of moments here and now. Romans chapter one. I'm gonna begin reading in the even-numbered verses, if you'll pick it up, and the odd-numbered verses in our responsive reading, New King James Version. Please, if you would, and if you don't have that, it'll be on the screens. Romans one, verse 24. Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness and the lust of their hearts to dishonor their bodies among themselves. For this reason, here's the because. For this reason, God gave them up to vile passions. For even the women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind to do those things which are not fitting. Backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same, but also approve of those who practice them. Father, we pray that you would be our teacher this morning. In Jesus' name, and all God's people said, amen. You can be seated. As you prepare your Bibles this morning, as we look to this portion of Scripture, I want to remind you, first of all, that Paul the Apostle is writing to the believers in Rome. The believers in Rome, listen, the old saying, when in Rome, do as the Romans. Why is that a universal statement? Because when in Rome, it's synonymous, by the way, doing what Romans do. It's not like, when in Rome, eat pizza, because that's what Romans do. It's a statement that means, when in Rome, do like the Romans. It's like, you know, when in Vegas, do as the Vegans. It's an invitation to whatever you want to do, do it. Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die. And it's this statement, and Paul is writing to a church that had come out of that world. They knew exactly what he meant. Everything, listen, remember now, listen, think. He's writing to the Romans. He's writing to them. He's writing from Corinth. This is a whole nother story. Paul is writing from Corinth to the Romans in Italy, but where Paul is writing from was the epicenter of sexual worship of the pagan gods, Corinth. I was there not too long ago. Lisa and I were on a vacation, I don't know, before COVID. And We're in that part of the world, and the emanating influence of that type of worship system is so filthy and so degrading that when we stopped in Pompeii, they had all of these iconic gods that the Italians in Pompeii were worshiping, and their origins came out of Corinth, Greece. And unbelievable, Truly, pornea is the word. Graphic illustrations, carved images of pornographic deities. And now there's a church in Rome, and they've been delivered from all of this. They've been saved, they've been washed, they've been made new. So when he gives this list that you and I are appalled and shook to see the honesty of the Bible, who would mention these things? The Romans went, thank God, thank God, yes, oh, I, hey, those three things, that used to be me. And then somebody else would have said, oh, that one, that's, I live for that one. And you know what I'm saying, everybody? They could relate. And you know, you and I can relate also, if we're honest. This is the challenge today. As we begin to look at these things, and as we just begin to scratch the surface of this study, that we are calling behind the mask. Behind the mask in our humanity, there's a mask that people put up. And I want, listen, I'm gonna admit this for all of us, all of us wear a mask to some degree. You say, how dare you say that about me? Listen, get over it. You and I, it's the same thing. Look, it could be benign, It could be a little bit mischievous, and it could be full-blown dangerous. For example, I'm putting on a mask right now. I'm wearing a mask right now, and here it is. Ministry here, and I'm happy, I'm not complaining, has been grueling nonstop. Amazing. The bummer is I've not been sleeping. I got two and a half hours in yesterday or last night. I am physically beside myself. I'm not even quite sure if my body's responding to my commands right now. Just tired. But listen, on the inside, I'm rejoicing, okay? This is great. My spirit is rejoicing. My body is feeling its age and more. But here's the deal. I'm putting on a mask right now. I don't want to be a distraction to you. For example, it's already happened. First service pastor, are you okay? I'm fine. My eyes look the way they do because they want to be closed. Okay, so are you hearing me though? That's a mask. Some people want to wear a mask and they project that there's something, that they're wealthy. And they'll go to the point of buying knockoffs to project being something. They have fake Gucci or fake this or that to try to get people to think that they're doing better than what they really are. It's a mask. And people hide behind a mask. And we ought not to do that. But why do we do that? It's because there's a sense within our fallen nature to have identity. that we know maybe enough about ourselves that that is somewhat unacceptable. So we try to project an image that is more lofty than who we really are. And the world lives like that. The great thing about being a Christian, the joy about growing older with Jesus is that you get to just watch that stuff get peeled away. And the great thing, listen, hey, if you're old today and you're not a Christian, listen up. Become a Christian because as you grow older as a Christian, heaven gets really thrilling. Because you know what? This body starts to smell. It ain't working so good. I can't even mimic the motion of baptism after yesterday. I need Advil. Why? Because the outward man's perishing, but the inward man's being renewed day by day. And it's great to grow older with Christ, because heaven, again, gets all the sweeter. But we're gonna be looking at this mask, and in the next few weeks, you're gonna see, even at the end of this message, you're gonna see a very, very dark, sinister side of what we would normally say is a masked or veiled agenda. The problem is, right now, it's not so veiled in the world in which we live in. And so I wanna give you this verse to get you ready before we go into the first Consideration of this, and that is a warning that's given to us in the Bible that is applicable right now, and it's 2 Timothy 3, verse one. There the Bible says, but know this, that in the last days, perilous times will come. Perilous, grueling, grinding, wearing out you. These times will come, for men will be lovers of themselves. Translation, the times are going to get grueling for the believer because men who are unredeemed will exalt themselves and all that they want, while at the same time, necessarily so, dethroning God from His rightful place. So you read it a moment ago, let's dive into it now. behind the mask we first see in verses 24 to 25 is the abuse. Can you write that down? Is the abuse. I'm gonna ask you to take notes and have notes ready all these next few Sundays in this. Regarding the abuse, first point is this. Behind the mask, I'm gonna submit to you today from the Bible that there's an abuse. And the first thing that we see is that there's an abuse of the soul. And for those of you who take notes, when we talk about the soul, the word soul comes, in fact, the word psychology comes from soulology. Or in the Greek, it's psuche. Psuche is the psyche. Psyche is the soul. The soul is your thinking. Listen, the soul is not your spirit. That's different. In First Thessalonians 5.23, God says, I made you body, soul, and spirit. We are a mini, miniature trinity. We have a mind, we have a spirit that needs to be born again, and we have a body. And when we talk about the soul, we're talking about the mind, the realm of the mind, and the thinking. What do we think? What do we think as a culture? What do we think as a society? What do we think as a church? What do we think as a culture of people? As a nation, who are we? It can often be argued that as the nation thinks, so goes the nation. And what is the nation's preoccupation? What does the nation think about and ponder about? Well, they tell us all you have to do is look at commercials. If you look at commercials, you can get the vibe of what the nation is thinking about. They tell us to look at sports. You can get the idea of what the nation is thinking about. What are we wearing? What we wear and what we choose to wear, what's trending, it's a description of what the soul of the nation is. And that is certainly true about your family or about yourself or your marriage. But Paul is gonna argue to us that it's an abusive situation that the world is descending down into, and it begins with the mind. Socialism knows this, communism knows this, Satan knows this, God knows this, and the church knows this. The mind is the battleground. Everybody's vying for control of your mind. They want control of your mind. And listen, you are going to yield control of your mind, though you'll never make control. We will say, I'm in control. We're not in control. We yield to those things that control us. Putting it bluntly, it's your worldview. How do you see things? How do you view the politics around you? How do you view the world around you? How do you view, how do you value? That's your worldview. And so verse 24 says, therefore God also gave them up. Immediately, church, it goes into a very, very firm declaration. Circle the word therefore in your notes. And it means this, therefore, meaning everything that has been previously declared regarding the topic. Are you listening? Everybody listening? Regarding this topic, how do we know what he's talking about? When he says therefore, He's saying, go back to verse 18. If you're taking a course in seminary on Bible and Bible interpretation, every freshman student is going to get this one right by the time they go into their next year of schooling. And that is, therefore, demands that you go back and you connect the therefore to the argument that is being made. So look at your Bible, verse 24. It says, therefore, God also gave them up. We would ask the question, gave them up to what? Go back to verse 18, way back to verse 18. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth and unrighteousness. Remember what this means last week? Let's hold down the truth. Let's mock the truth. Let's destroy the truth. Let's cover it up. Let's control the narrative. The truth can never get out. Let's suppress it. Let's have fake news. Let's have fake websites. Let's make sure that we have these trolls or these entities, which is tragic. This week, a lot of stuff's coming out. I guess this is good. People that are being criticized in many areas, now we find out that there are companies, they're like shadow companies in the shadows. There are companies who, if you oppose something and you have the resources, you can hire this company that will go online and what they do, they don't care what you believe or don't believe, they don't care. What they do is they bash you because the company who hired them wants. you to be discredited. So this company is like, you know, it's like Guido, you know, I'm going to have to bump you off. You know, it's nothing personal. It's nothing personal. I just got to bump you off. It's like a contract. There are companies who are now paid by internet giants to destroy your reputation, to go after your company, to go after your worldview, to go after your faith. And they are fake. They make things up. They make false stories and false people, and they spin it, and it's got the power of big tech behind it, and it looks real. And people believe it. What is that? Suppressing the truth. So listen, if you're a skeptic today, I want to submit to you, will you please consider the fact that you're living in the age right now that Paul told Timothy about, that these are the days that are perilous. You, without the Holy Spirit, will never know what's true anymore. because of what's going on, and why? Because it is, listen, it is going after the soul. We gotta control the mind. We gotta get the mind, and Satan knows this, and our flesh knows this, by the way. God says, I've given them up. What happens? How does someone come to the point where God says, I'm done? In fact, the word, listen to this, the word implies this, that when God gives you up, It's not that God says, you know what? I don't like you. I don't like the way you look. I don't like the way you sound. I'm done with you. It's not that. The word implies this. Think of going down a stairway. Down. You're going down. The word implies that God is with you. You, whoever you may be. All humans. God's with you. Listen carefully. He's with you saying, don't take another step downward. This is not good. Don't go. Don't take another step. What do people do? Take a step. And God says, don't take another step. And what do people do? They take a step. And they keep going down. He says to them internally, don't go there. And I'm speaking right now on behalf of every human being. What's my authority? Jesus said the Holy Spirit will convict the world of sin. So when somebody thinks, I shouldn't do this, but I'm gonna do it. God, the Holy Spirit says, don't do it. But you take the step. And then you take it again. And then you take it again. Guess what? According to the Bible, God's with you. He's with you with every step along the way, pleading with you, don't do it. Are you married, but she's cute at the drinking fountain or? whatever that you, I don't know, from those of you who were at the office in the 50s, I don't know what it is today. Are you married, but she's a cutie? Are you married, but he is, whatever the term is? And the thought is, that's, whoop, turn your eyes away, turn your eyes away. But if you say, well, I'm not touching, What's wrong with a little look? Guess what you just took? You took two steps down. Is it not true? You descend down and God is with you all along the way saying, don't do it. Don't do it. Until guess what happens? He gives you up. Therefore God gave them up. He comes to a step and he says, I can't go any further. As far down as I'm going, listen, Did not God put up with so much at Sodom and Gomorrah? Didn't God put up with so much in Judah or Israel when they sinned against Him? Did He not put up with so much? And then He says, I can't go any further. Did He not put up with so much when Noah was building the ark, as we mentioned last week? And then God says to a generation, I can't put up with this anymore. All along the way, he's gone down pleading, but then he says, I can't go any further. And at that moment, humanity without Christ and the 21st century that you and I live in, says this to him. I haven't cared a thing about what you've said thus far. I'm still gonna go down, see ya. And that next step, you'll never hear his voice again. And you keep going down. And he's not going. I gave them up. God, the God of all patience, the God of all mercy, the God of all grace and forgiveness says, I can't go that far. And I'm done. It's a tragic thing. This is that Romans 118 fulfillment where the wrath of God is revealed from heaven. The wrath of God. You can't find fault with God. He's pure and holy. God's wrath is pure. right doing, pure justice. I wanna give you five things that I have not given you previously regarding the wrath of God, and I want you to write them down because you and I will experience these in some way, shape, or form, either by experiencing them in our lives, or we experiencing them by watching someone else that you and I know. From Genesis to Revelation, the wrath of God is revealed in five different categories, and one would be cataclysmic wrath. Can you write that down? When we talk about God's wrath being poured out, what does that mean? And when he says, I've given you up, given you up to what? Number one, he will give you up to cataclysmic wrath. These are judgments or judgment events of either nature or man, which causes suffering. In other words, and this is hard for us to imagine, but I pray that we'll get a glimpse of this. According to the Bible, God keeps you and I right now out of circumstantial wrath by his sheer pleasure and his mercy right now. Because Romans 118 says the wrath of God is revealed, you guys remember in our previous study, it's the atmosphere is charged with things invisible to destroy us. The reason why we're not destroyed is because God is shielding us from being destroyed. It doesn't matter if you're the sweetest person on the planet or you're the meanest person on the planet. If you are not suffering right now by either nature or man, you're comforted right now by the sheer goodness of God. You say, I don't believe in God. You are being comforted by the sheer goodness of God. And a cataclysmic wrath is this, when God moves his hand away. So imagine an umbrella being moved away, and the rain, the hail, or the heat hits you. God moves the protection. It was a miracle it was there in the first place. But he moves it. And that might come upon you by Assault, it could be by violence, it could be by murder, however, or it could be by natural disaster of some sorts. The next one, the next one is eschatological wrath. This church knows the meaning of this word. Eschatological is prophetic, Bible prophecy wrath. These are the judgment events of either nature or man directly relating to end of days or last days prophecies that are revealed in the Bible. Natural end time events where, for example, the Bible says that in the last days The sun will not shine and the moon will look as though it's blood before the great and awesome day of the Lord's return. That is God in His wrath displaying that in eschatological terms through nature. But through man, it would be, for example, the advent of the Antichrist or evildoers, are you with me? Are you guys okay? I know this is heavy stuff, and you're probably wondering why in the world did I come to church today? I'm asking you the same thing. I warned you for three weeks not to come today. The other thing would be where false prophets and false teachers would be a form of God's eschatological wrath, where somebody says, I don't want to hear the truth. I want some preacher to lie to me. Well, that's certainly available. God will not go down that step any further. and you're free to do it. The next one is this. Circumstantial wrath. These are judgment events that come about due to disobedience to God or the rejection of his lordship. I will not obey God. I'm not gonna follow God. This could relate to a non-Christian and it could relate to a Christian who's backslidden and they wind up getting in trouble. I've been in ministry long enough to watch a Christian backslide leave his wife, or she leaves her husband, he, they go out and they're sleeping around, and they won't turn. Watch, they're going down the steps, going down the steps, going down the steps, and at some point, thank God, thank God, at some point, God is speaking, he's speaking, he's speaking, and then they'll listen, but here's what happens. Circumstantial wrath is this. they come back to Jesus and they get back home, if the home is still there, but they're now dying of AIDS. Or they're riddled with syphilis. Or some sexually transmitted disease. And they're going to heaven, they backslid away, and they experience the circumstantial wrath. Are you with me? This is very common, but nobody wants to talk about it. I guarantee you, this sermon today in this church, there's no other sermon like this today across America in any church. Why? Because what kind of a pastor would talk about this stuff today? Nobody wants to hear this stuff, but we've got to hear this. It's Bible. Cataclysmic, eschatological, circumstantial, ethnological, ethnos, ethnological, ethnos, nations, nation, national wrath. This is throughout the Bible. There are judgment events that come upon a nation or nations who forget God or neglect God or refuse God. Because America has been the most predominant Christian nation in all of human history, I believe that the condition America is in right now is ethnological judgment of God. This is the wrath of God coming upon America. It has started some time ago. Who am I? I have no authority to say that it started when, but I would think, I think it's been going on for decades, and it's intensifying. As a nation, we treat God horrible. As a nation, we are rude to Him. We attack Him. We evict Him. We mock Him. And I think this nation at this moment, and I think now we're starting to see what you and I feel and see, is now the visible manifestation of ethnological wrath, where our nation is going down horrific paths. And see, what does that mean? What does that mean? Well, according to the Bible, it means that a nation or nations will attack us. It means also, we know from history in the Bible, economies will fail. There'll be things where God moves his hand of protection. Deuteronomy chapter 28, God says, if a nation seeks after me, I will protect them from enemies. I will cause their crops to flourish and their women will give birth. But if a nation rejects me, he says, they will be captured by enemy forces, their economy, their crops will fail and their women will wholesale, he said, wholesale, be unable to bear a child, they will miscarry. The word in English is miscarry. The Hebrew word is, when my hand leaves a nation, women will miscarry their young. Deuteronomy chapter 28, read it later. Nationally. And then finally there's individual wrath, individual, where you do something dumb and God's hand of protection is off. This is silly, but it'd be similar to me if I were to say, There's a lot of electricity right here. And if I were to take the cord, and I say, here, suck on this cord for a little bit. Just take the cord and just... We wouldn't want you to do that until we all got our cameras out. So we could watch your hair go straight out, and a little cloud over your head, and your ears would be black. Of course I'm talking about being shocked. You say, I wouldn't do that. Of course not. Of course you wouldn't do that. Why? Because you probably saw someone get shocked before or you yourself got shocked. So you've learned not to touch that. God will use individual wrath to accomplish the same. The amazing thing is why would you put the electrical cord in your mouth in the first place? Because we tend to do that as a people, as a human. It's within us, and we need to be very careful about that. But what he's talking to us about here in this verse is that God says, I give them up, and it happens in the mind. That's where it all starts. He gives them up. Listen to this quote by Jonathan Edwards, and I'm gonna follow it up with some scriptures. It may not make sense until I give you the Bible verses. Jonathan Edwards. I don't know if you know this or not, the greatest intellect, considered to be the greatest intellectual America has ever produced. No one's ever, no one's, this guy's it. And on July 8th, 1741, in the village of Enfield, Connecticut, Jonathan Edwards preached a sermon. Normal Sunday. He went to his pulpit. He preached the sermon. It became the most famous sermon in American history. To this day. Why? It's not only by what he said, and you can look it up, it's everywhere. If you Googled it or YouTubed it, it would come up and there's been voice actors redo it. It's not long. But you know, when he gave it, by the way, eyewitnesses tell us that he just read it. It was not even inflection in his voice, he just read it. And they said he hung onto the pulpit. and he read it, and people began to weep and fall on their face in the aisles and cry, asking God for mercy. During his sermon, something supernatural happened and people were a quarter mile away, couldn't hear it, on horse and buggy, began to get off of horse and out of buggy and kneel in the streets and began to weep because they were instantaneously convicted of their sins and they didn't know why. American history and our revolution is dated back to that Sunday sermon. That's when it started, when you look at the pathology of what happened after this sermon. And I'll read you a little bit of an excerpt because it's all important to verse 24. Jonathan Edwards said, quote, the one who is walking in slippery places is always prone to falling at any moment. Is that true? All they need to fall into eternity is their own weight upon their feet. There is no need for any external person or pressure that is needed for them to slip. They are their own weight. Why did he say that? Because he quoted these Next verses, in Deuteronomy 32, 35, their foot shall slip in due time. Why? God gives them up, God's done. Their foot will slip in due time for the day of their calamity is at hand and the things to come hasten upon them. This goes to the person who is rejecting God, refusing God. They know that they're sinning against God, and they keep going down the staircase, and God says, I can't go any further. And in that, you're on your own. And your own weight of your person will cause you to slip eventually. You will slip, God is saying, and no one will push you. No one's gonna grease the steps. Your own life, your own choosing, your own living, Without God, that weight alone will cause you to slip. Psalm 73, 18. Surely you set them in slippery places. You cast them down to destruction. Oh, how they are brought to desolation as in a moment. These are serious truths of the Bible that people don't want to talk about, but I believe because of the decadence and the darkness of our day, we need to hear this now. We all agree, I would hope, that the answer for America is not coming from politics. It never was. It's never going to. It doesn't mean we abandon politics. It means we shine the light of truth into it. But understand this. Without a revival in America, America's over. It's done. There is no recovery. She, well, that's pessimistic. No, it's not, it's extremely accurate. Because listen, in the next few weeks, I'm gonna be showing you data of what substantiates the death of a culture. And that data is thousands and thousands of years old. And if you're smart, you take history and you apply it to the day you live in, and then you can figure out what's coming next. No nation has ever recovered from the condition America is in right now. And that is a historical fact. Does it bring me pleasure to say it? It grieves me to say it. Breaks my heart to say it. But I do revel in the truth of the Bible. And the truth of the Bible also says, God will wash away all your sin. He will forgive you and give you life because Jesus went to the cross, died on that cross for our sins and he rose again from the dead to empower that forgiveness and to take you to heaven and to wash your sins away and give you a brand new life. Thank God he's provided a rescue out of this world. But we are presently living in this world and it breaks our hearts. The next thing is this, it's the natural progression, you know this. There's the abuse of the mind, the soul. And I wanna ask you before we press into the number two, is, are our minds, under siege as our souls are souls being attacked. As I've mentioned, commercials, amusement, entertainment, are not all these things vying for your mind? So much to the point, we are designed like this, but what you wear matters so much to you. It matters to us. Isn't that interesting? Isn't it funny that a handful of people somewhere determined we're gonna make this cool next year? You do know how that happens, yeah? Somebody has an idea in Madison Avenue, and they determine, hey, you know what? It's about time. You know, that's Solomon. He had it right. There's nothing new under the sun, which according to our sundial tells us that it's time for us to bring back bell bottoms. Isn't it a funny trick? Or this kind of shirt? Or this kind of cologne or perfume? Or this kind of hair? You know, somebody determines it. You know where the power is? The power is in marketing the idea. You get it out there enough, people will want it. That's why you see people wanting ridiculously strange things. Did you see this? Tom Cruise just bought one of these. Oh, Beyonce's got five of them. and you never even cared about them. And all of a sudden, well, where do I get one? Oh, you can get a knockoff over here for $1.50. Theirs cost a million. You can get yours for $1.50. And people will entertain it. Why? Because our minds are the battlefield. The next step is the body. Look at this. It says in verse 24 and 25 regarding the body, the abuse of the body, that God gives them up to uncleanness. The word is specifically geared regarding sexual innuendo, sexual context. Uncleanness. What is that? In the lust of their hearts, the burning, the burning. The word is to burn passionately. It is hot. It is gripping in the heart's lust. To dishonor. Notice the act. To dishonor their bodies. It starts in the mind. It manifests in the body. I stop and ask you, is this not true in our culture? Is it true in our world? Why are you so quiet? You know it's true. It starts in the mind, and if we feed upon it, it comes out in the body. Pornography. Pornography. Remarkable. Doctors now are prescribing more, more prescriptions for young men who are dysfunctional now in that area. Why? 100% correlation. Young men cannot be aroused with their brand new beautiful spouse because they have viewed pornography for years. There is not a woman in the world that can live up to the pornographic idol. And it's destructive. Starts in the mind, lives out in the body. Ask yourself if we're living in that age. We're reading a 2,000-year-old document, and here we are. It goes from the mind, begins to live itself out in the body. Why? It says in verse 25, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie. We probably won't get a chance to answer what the lie is, that's in the next verse or so. There's a lie out there, there's a lie out there that goes up against the truth of God. It's what it's all boiled down to. There's a lie out there, and there's the truth of God. And it goes after the body. I want to show you something soon. I want to give it to you soon, though, because I don't want to give it to you at the end, because it's a horrible way to end our day together. And I mean horrible. So, let me show you the horrible stuff right now, which is nothing compared to where we're going in the next few weeks. It's to illustrate to you what starts in the mind, goes to the body. Before I show you this, There's been deviant characters since the fall of man, but why are there so many now? There's always been rape in the world, but why is it up in percentage now so much? There's always been abuse and torture and aberrant sexual activity and mutilation. But why now in the multitude now? And listen, if that's you, and you say things like, hey, my personal preferences, they're mine. Hey, you know what? It's a free country. Then why don't you leave them to yourself and stop propagating them upon everybody else? If you want to drive your car off the cliff with you in it, it's a free country. I mean, of course, we have to pick up your crashed car at the bottom of the cliff, so that's on us. But if you want to drive a school bus off a cliff driving it, who do you think you are? Do we not live in an age where people are not content to be deviant on their own? The Bible says in the last days, men will be lovers of themselves. And they will prostitute, pimp, and destroy all other humanity for their own appetite. And we're living it now. The sex industry, pornography, human trafficking. Let me ask you, were we talking about human trafficking 20 years ago? No, now it is every day. And now we find out people that are involved are global names. What's going on? These are the last days. Paul's not writing to the Romans for crying out loud. It's the Holy Spirit writing to America. That's what's happening right now. And we, as a culture, we say, I don't wanna hear this stuff. Man, I just wanna go to church. I wanna feel good about myself. Later, after three weeks, you can feel good about yourself later. We gotta go through the whole counsel of God, and God is warning us about these last days. Nobody likes this. in the uncleanness of themselves, of their soul and mind. It manifests in its body, they lust in their hearts, and it says that they dishonor their bodies. The word dishonor is to actually dethrone or to take from its lofty place. According to God, he sees your body as something that he designed and it's his. I don't know if you know that or not, it's his. Maybe you're brand new, you just stumbled into this. building today. You need to know something. Your body doesn't belong to you. The Bible says God owns your body, and you're supposed to manage it for him. You're supposed to give your body over to things that glorify him. You say, what are you telling me? Are you telling me to be sexless all my life? Be celibate? I didn't say that. In fact, listen, let's read the fine print of the Bible. The book of Hebrews says the marriage bed is undefiled. Peter tells us that a husband and wife should not stop having sex unless they both agree to stop for fasting and prayer, and then once they're done fasting and praying, they should come back together again immediately, lest Satan tempt them. And all the men said? Amen. That was your chance. Guys, I just... You go, amen. You should have said, amen, woo! Yeah! Listen, our God made sex. He designed it. The world steals it and messes it up. The Christian couple, their sex life should be the most fantastic of anybody in the world, and the world should be saying, what's going on with you guys? Our God built it. But we're to do it according to his design. Listen, you don't buy a brand new Mercedes and drive it into the ocean. It's designed for something. You want to go in the water, get a boat. God has designed you a certain way. And there's joy, and there's happiness, and there's health, and there's beauty. But the mind is under attack. You just don't go up and abuse a body. You gotta start with the mind. So here it is. We should have like a fire hose to wash us off this. We're celebrating pride month. Tap to color in the pride flag. Okay. Number one. How many of your Christians raise your hands? Okay. Put your Kids have colored since Eden, I'm sure of it. There had to be a coloring book in Eden. And the rainbow, where does the rainbow come from? God, God made it, and God said, oh, hey, Noah, I'm gonna give you the rainbow in the sky, just to remind you, I'm never gonna flood the world again. So when a child goes to Sunday school and finds out that God made a promise, I will never judge the world through water again. By the way, read the fine print. He said, I won't judge it through water again. I'm gonna burn it next time. No, that's what he said. I won't flood it again. I'm just gonna burn it. So when your kid is coloring this, and they're learning about God, and then they go to Target, and they see this. Is your kid confused? Absolutely. Why? Because you've got to start with the mind first before you get to the body. Right? You've got to convince them that something's wrong with them or something's questionable about them. Did we not read a moment ago to exchange what God has created into something else? Next time together, we're going to look and unpack what that word means. You won't believe it. You will think that the world got their argument right out of the Bible. How do they know that? It's like they studied Romans. No, God knew this was coming. See, be careful if you don't get caught up into politically correct theology. There's no such animal. This is truth, and you're living in the last days. And that's proof of it. Next slide. Happy Pride Month. Notice the cartooning. This is for children. Next one. This is for kids. Part one. What is sex? Babies, kids, teens, grown-ups. Sex and gender. Really? Look at the bottom left-hand corner where the page number is. What's it titled? it's perfectly normal. When you begin to read what's perfectly normal, it's abnormal. Abnormal is being called perfectly normal. So do you believe in science? I do. Go to the notes on my website and look at this. And then what we'll do is we'll have the links to all of these when we go through this But what I fail to tell you about is some of the stuff we're gonna be showing you is public school books that are used in California today. And don't think, well, that's one more reason why I'm leaving. It's in all the states now. Okay? So your kids, probably unbeknownst to you, your kids are being exposed to this stuff. if they're in the public school system, or if they go to places like Sesame Street, where now there are two dads and no mom in a family. Or what about Nickelodeon, where transvestites are introducing themselves to your children on Nickelodeon, and you thought the YouTube kids channel is safe. You better go see it again. You need to see it again. Next slide. Yeah, this is fantastic. Team talk. Gender identity. By the way, again, science. You see the word that's highlighted there, anatomy? That's a scientific term, did you know that? You all know that, right? Did you take anatomy? That's a scientific term. Gender identity is how a person feels. and who they know themselves to be when it comes to their gender. Gender is not how you feel. Let me repeat that. Gender is not how you feel. In fact, let's just talk about science. If a baby or a young person or an elderly person is in a medical emergency state of crisis, and first responders from paramedics to brain surgeons are called upon to help this person live. Listen, did you know that part of the treatment, part of the approach to saving that person's life, hematologically, chemically, biologically, You know that health physician expert has to make a determination on what kind of medications to give and put into your body. And it determines the treatment is defined by, are you a male or a female? Because if we do, if we mess with your hemoglobin as a female, it's different for male and vice versa. Did you know that? Nobody knows that anymore. And so governments are being sued because the guy was passed out. The medics came, they administered to him based upon his gender. They figured out, they looked under the hood. This is a guy. I'm serious. This is a guy. We need to save his life. Then his life is saved. The guy finds out about it because he was attempting suicide, it turns out. And he sues because he identified as a female. In other words, you should have treated me as a female. But the doctor says, I went to the science. Oh, science. Forget about science. It's how you feel. You listen, you may not choose to come back in our next studies, but you need to, because one's gonna build upon another, because guess what? God speaks crystal clear about gender and gender identity, and he tells you what to do about it. It's very clear, and it's life-saving. It's life-saving. It's liberty, it's freedom, it's life-saving. But here is the mind attack to go get the body attack. The mind attack is You can pick whatever you want to be. Insert the word anatomy and send total confusion into that kid's mind. When you have a teen who is struggling with feelings, emotions, hormones, and all the stuff that's going on, bombardment of temptation, because we believe as Christians what the Bible teaches, a spiritual realm attacks them, Satan hates them. When they read something called gender identity, just the statement, church, family, listen, and then we gotta end. See, I told you it was a horrible place to end. Watch this. Just the words gender identity, what does that mean? Gender identity, when someone reads it, gender identity, if they listen to the narrative that's out there on radio, TV, and rap songs, they have to conclude that that's a very open-ended statement. That's a very open-ended declaration of gender identity. I guess it's whatever I feel. Is that not what people are being told? But you can't graduate out of third grade science believing in that. What's wrong? What's happened? We're in the last days. In the last days, Women will pursue women, men will pursue men. It's not just with the throwing of a switch. It's decades of pornography. It's decades. From pornography comes, so often, sexual abuse. Somebody, by themselves, looking, feeds their mind, they begin to burn inside the mind. They're just by themselves. and the result is them tampering with other people. One final, I think we have one more slide, just to make you totally sick to your stomach. Sexuality is a broad spectrum. Notice the cartooning. Ladies and gentlemen, I wanna remind you your Bible already knows about tomorrow. your Bible is ahead of what's coming. And it's God's desire that you receive his truth. Notice, I'm not beating you up and I'm not beating anybody up. I'm pointing out what the word of God says. It's in black and white in your Bible. And isn't it amazing that God would say, please don't take one more step. Please don't take another step. Please don't take another step. Because he made you, he's God. And to live a life that he gave us against him is certain death and destruction. And if you don't like what I'm saying, find fault with it. Honestly. So how can you say that? That's so arrogant. Not at all. You don't have any idea. I find my strength, I'm hiding behind. I'm tucked inside of the Bible. Listen, it's the Bible that will answer you. The Bible will be that mode that will cause you to have to think and begin to determine and conclude. And I find it interesting that Abnormal always has to borrow from normal to try to make a new normal. And they just don't see the logic. Why? Because God has given them up. I pray that it's not you. I pray that it's not our children or our grandchildren. But God loves us enough to tell us the truth. Well, hey, thanks for listening and we appreciate you. And of course we do in this time and in this age, us being together and linking up together to get the word of God out is actually ministry being fulfilled. And in fact, if you would like to subscribe, please do so. Hit the subscribe button, tell your friends about us. And listen, if you'd like to help us get this out on a broader scale, you can support us by hitting on the Give Now button. And look, we're gonna continue on with or without you. We're inviting you to join us, no pressure. But if you'd like to link arms in this venture, you'd be greatly appreciated. So listen, keep praying for us. We're praying for you. God bless you. And we'll see you back here real soon.