Now let's pray. Father, we ask, we beg of You that You will speak through Your Word. We know that Your Spirit is living and active and that You speak through Your Word. We need Your Word. We need Your Word to pierce into our soul and divide between soul and spirit or marrow, bone and marrow. We need You to go deep down in us that every part of our lives, our hearts, our minds, our strength will be affected by the power of Your Word and Your Gospel. So we ask that You will do that for us tonight. Help this, Your servant, as I speak Your Word, that I will be clear and I will be accurate and You will keep me from trying to exalt myself or that You will keep me from worrying about what people will think. Lord, may I stand upon Your truth and speak Your truth. Lord, I desire to love these people through the preaching of Your Word and so enable me to do that, that my words will be filled with grace and love and that they will Be a blessing and a benefit. God, help us to see the importance of doxology. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, my text, if you want to join me there, is in Romans 11. Romans 11, verse 32 is where we're going to begin. Romans 11, 32. For God has consigned all to disobedience, that He may have mercy on all. Oh, the depth of the riches and the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and how inscrutable His ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been His counselor, or who has given a gift to Him that He might be repaid. For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever. Amen. I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, To present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship or your rational service. Do not be conformed to this world. but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." My topic tonight is doxology. Isn't that exciting? Isn't that a big, funny word perhaps to the kids? Maybe a funny sounding word, doxology? The other thing about this word, doxology, is that, let's be honest, it sounds a little boring, doesn't it? Doesn't the word doxology sound a little stiff, intellectual, definitely doctrinal, definitely theological? Maybe it makes your eyes glaze over a little bit. I assure you, when I begin to explain what doxology is, you will wonder why something so exciting and wonderful has such a boring, serious name. Trust me. So what is doxology? The word doxology comes from a Greek word, and I am no Greek scholar, but that Greek word is, I believe you say it, doxa. If you prefer, we can say doxa, D-O-X-A. That's where the word doxology comes from. Doxa, doxa means glory. It means glory or praise. So the doctrine of doxology has to do with praising and glorifying God in the church, the body of believers, and also as individuals in our own lives. The Westminster Catechism, you ever heard of that? The Westminster Catechism asks the question, What is the chief end of man? The chief end of man. Kids, when we talk about the chief end, what he means is, what is their purpose? Chief end is another way of saying what is man's purpose? Why were they created? And the answer to that question is what? If you know it, Say it with me. The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. Good. This is really important. Did you hear that? Man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. So the boring word doxology is about enjoying and glorifying God. The definition I will use to better explain doxology is this. If you like to take notes, maybe you want to write this down. Doxology is our response to the glorious truth that God is merciful and He is mighty to save sinners through Jesus Christ. We know much more about doxology than we probably realize. You and I have much personal experience and practice with doxology or glorifying or praising something. Most likely, we respond with joy over something every day or perhaps, depending on that day, maybe many times every day. It's easier for us to understand doxology if maybe I give you an example of what doxology looks like than if I just give you a definition and try to define it. So let me see if this illustration helps us. This is just an illustration that will be imperfect, but it is to try to help us to understand what does doxology look like in our lives. Any Cardinals fans in the house tonight? So if I had a ticket to the Central Division Series, would you guys want to go with me? Any volunteers? I've got one ticket. Anybody want to go with me? Okay, so imagine with me that I have a ticket and I've invited you, all of you, but you're just individually going, not all of you. But in your mind you can pretend it's all of you going with me. We are at Bush Stadium watching the Cardinals play, get this, the Cups, in the last game of the Central Division Series of the National League. The series is 3-2 and the Cardinals are down. Excuse me. Actually, it would be 3-2. Excuse me, I messed this up. There's five games in the series, so the Cardinals are down by one. So however the math works, I'm no mathematician, as you just saw. So I guess it would be, I don't know. Help me out. Anyway, back to my illustration. So the Cardinals, get this, in the game that you and I are at, and we're sitting there and we're watching the game. You and I, okay, we're there. The Cardinals are down by one run in the bottom of the ninth inning with two outs, two strikes. And Matt Carpenter is at the plate. The next pitch is a fastball and it goes right at his chest, right down the middle of the plate and Matt Carpenter swings and He hits the ball so hard that when it leaves his bat, you can tell the ball is going out of the stadium. So he hits the ball, he hits a home run, he drives home Yaddi, who is on second base. We win the game by one run. The Cardinals have defeated the Cubs. to clinch their division, and now we're going to the National League Central Series. We're going to the NLCS. Are you excited about that? Well, you would be more if we were there and it actually happened, I'm hoping. After this just happened, what happens next? What do you and I do who are at the game? What do we do? We leap from our seats, don't we? We throw our hands in the air with thousands of other people surrounding us. Our hands are in the air. We are screaming at the top of our lungs. We are hugging each other. We are high-fiving perfect strangers around us who've now become our best friends. This celebration goes on for several minutes. The roar of the crowd is deafening as the fireworks are shot from the top of the stadium. We are excited and we're celebrating what in the world is going on. We are responding to the joy at what we just witnessed. We are exuberant in the triumph of our team, the Cardinals over the Cubs. No one has to tell us to get up and cheer. We can't help but do that because we are so excited. And we can't help but continue to talk about how great Matt Carpenter and the Cardinals on for the rest of the night. Because Matt Carpenter's ability to hit a home run has rescued our team from almost defeat. And now our World Series dreams for 2016 are still alive. That, in just a small way, is what doxology looks like. What's that called? Well, that's a celebration. You and I just shared, we were glorying in and enjoying the St. Louis Cardinals. That celebration we just had was at least in part, in a small way, similar to doxology. We just could not help We just could not help ourselves but burst forth with expressions of joy and excitement for the greatness of our team and Matt Carpenter. That is what happens when doxology occurs. Doxology is responding with joy to the truths of God. Let me give the definition again. Doxology is our response to the glorious truth that God is merciful and mighty to save sinners through Jesus Christ. Notice that I said doxology is a response. Doxology is our response of praise to God when we consider how great and awesome He is. We can't help but celebrate the things we love and enjoy. We rejoice in their worth and their value to us. We glory in those things that we find satisfying. Children, children, when you get a new toy for your birthday or for Christmas, that's coming up here in a few months. Remember how excited you get? What do you do after you rip open the wrapping paper? What do you want to do? You want to take it out and then you want to play with it because you've heard how great this is. You have anticipated and you have wanted this toy or this game for a long time and you can't wait to play with it and see if it's as good and as great as what you were hoping and what you had heard. And then after you've played with it for a while, what do you do? You can't help but just tell somebody. Tell mom and dad. Tell your brothers and sisters. You can't wait to go see your best friend and tell them how great this toy is. And maybe, maybe after the new wears off, even let them play with it too. That's a form of doxology. We are sharing the joy that we have in something. Okay? I'm not saying Doxology is the same as enjoying a toy, but I'm saying that's what we do when we enjoy something. And so that's a similar example to help us to understand what doxology is. I've given you some examples of how we experience something like doxology every day, but I want us to think about why we can't help but to praise the things we joy in. Where does that desire, to get excited and celebrate come from? Paul says in our text, in verse 36, for from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. So why must we admire something? Why must we worship something? Well, we desire to praise something because God has created us that way as people. This is a very important thing God created us to do. God put within all people a desire to look for something great to admire or to celebrate. God created all people everywhere to be worshipers. But God did not create us just to worship anything. He created us for Himself. He created us to glorify Him and see Him as the most glorious and the most satisfying one. He created us to see Him as the greatest one who has ever existed, past, present, and forever in the future, as far as you can imagine. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit is beyond compare to anything else we will ever see, feel, smell, or ever imagine. Remember the man named Saul of Tarsus? Do you remember him? That was who the Apostle Paul used to be. He hated Jesus Christ so much that his life was completely focused on hunting down those who believed in Jesus, who called themselves Christians, and putting them in prison, and finding them guilty of heresy, and then bringing them before the Sanhedrin Council for a trial so that they would be punished and maybe even put to death. Saul of Tarsus was a name that brought terror. We know that he was responsible, in part, for Stephen being put to death. He was probably, at that time, a very ruthless, maybe even callous, maybe even heartless person. But he was absolutely convinced that he knew God and that he was doing God's will. Not so different from the Islamic terrorist that we hear about in the news today, who is also absolutely convinced that they are doing Allah, who they think is God, doing His will, and they're absolutely committed to doing what? Killing Christians. Is there any hope for someone like that? Is there any hope that they can change at all? What can bring about the kind of heart change for someone like the terrorist, like Saul of Tarsus, to stop hating and killing? The one and the only answer for that person is the gospel of Jesus Christ. The gospel opens our eyes that have been scaled over by sin and causes us to see God as the most glorious, satisfying one. That is exactly what happened to Saul of Tarsus, who became the Apostle Paul. He came to see how merciful God was, and he was rescued. His response to God for the rest of his life for being rescued from sin is what we read in our text in Romans 11, 32 to 36. Do you know what that section in Romans is called? Maybe your Bible has that as a heading. It's called the doxology. And that is what it is. Because Paul is just overwhelmed with the mercy of God. For paragraph after paragraph as the Holy Spirit has used him to write about God's just wrath upon people who turn in rebellion away from the worship of the Creator and instead turn to worship created things. Paul lays out the depravity and the sinfulness of man in Romans, and he argues how God is just to show His wrath to sinners, Gentile and Jew. Paul says, as he's making this case in Romans 3, 10-12, as it is written, there is no one righteous, not even one. There is none who understands. There is none who seeks for God. All have turned aside. Together they have become useless. There is none who does good. There is not even one." Not even one. But then Paul reveals to us, as he continues writing, that the God who rescued him, a God of justice, but He's also a God of mercy as well, who saves rebellious sinners, like Paul, and like you, and like me. Paul says it like this in Romans 9, chapter 9, verse 22 to 26. Did you realize there's supposed to be a but here at the beginning of this sentence, which makes it sound a whole lot like something that Paul said in Ephesians chapter 2. Most translations probably start with, what if God? But it should be, but what if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction. And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy. which he prepared beforehand for glory. Even us, whom he also called not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles. As he says also in Hosea, and then he quotes from Hosea, I will call those who were not my people, my people. And her who was not beloved, beloved. And it shall be that in the place where it was said to them, you are not my people, there they shall be called sons of the living God." So Paul, as he continues to lay out his case, continues to write. I'm trying to walk us through this. So you may be, wait a minute, where's the point? Where are you going with this? Stick with me. If you're wondering what this all has to do with the idea of doxology that I was talking about earlier, stick with me. I'm getting to that. We're going to bring that together. Paul writes all these things. And he has been contemplating, now contemplating kids, that means that been thinking really deeply about something really important. So Paul has been contemplating God's justice and mercy and how God Himself provides a way and a plan to rescue sinners from His wrath. That's what Paul's been writing about throughout Romans. Then Paul continues to write several more pages. We know them as chapter 9 and 10. And he comes to a place where he is so overwhelmed by God's greatness, that he just begins to worship God, and he bursts forth with praise and joy for how glorious God is. I wonder, I just wonder, if tears of joy were streaming down his face, or if he had his hands up in the air as he spoke these words through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in our text. For God has consigned all to disobedience, that He may have mercy on all. Oh, the depths of the riches and the wisdom of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and how inscrutable His ways For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been His counselor? Who has given to Him a gift that He might be repaid? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things to Him be glory forever. Amen. What happened to Paul there? His soul was so fueled by the doctrine of Scripture that he had been thinking about and contemplating from chapter 1 all the way up to chapter 10 and 11. And he saw the glory of God revealed in the truth of Scripture. And he couldn't help but worship and glory in God. He doxologized, and that's not even a word. I just created it because there's not another one that seems appropriate. That's a word I created that means burst forth in praise to God for the greatness we see in him. I haven't trademarked it yet, but I'll do that. So point number one, if you think in points and take notes, Point number one, my first point I want you to see in this message is I want you to see that we must have doctrine because it is what fuels our worship of God. And when I say doctrine, children, what I mean by the word doctrine, that's another word of saying what does the Bible, what does all of Scripture say about a particular attribute or characteristic of God. We call it doctrine. That's what happened to Paul. And that's what happens to us when we come to know the God the doctrine is describing. Doctrine is very necessary and important because it shows us who God is. Doctrine is not to make us smarter. is to help us to see God more clearly. Let me give you an illustration. Doctrine is like a telescope. Have you ever looked through a telescope? A telescope does not make things bigger than they are. A telescope helps us to see something that is far off, like the moon. or a planet or a star. And it brings things closer to us or makes it appear closer to us so that we can see the detail and we can see, we can really see how it appears, what it actually looks like. Because we can't see with our naked eye what the moon looks like, but a telescope, that will help us to see all those craters and what the surface looks like. Doctrine, we could say, or Scripture, does the same thing for us. It gives us a clear view of who God is and what He is really like. When this happens and the Spirit of God gives us eyes to see God's glory and we respond in repentance and faith, resulting in salvation, we will not be able to keep from praising God and experiencing Doxology, similar to that Cardinal's victory that you and I enjoyed together earlier in the sermon that brought us joy and caused an epic celebration that we experienced. Let's look again at our text in Romans 11, 33 to 36, and let's spend some time here. Paul writes, of the riches and the wisdom and the knowledge of God. How unsearchable are His judgments and how inscrutable His ways. For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been His counselor? Or who has given a gift to Him that He might be repaid? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever. Amen. Good. Get some practice. Notice with me what Paul does in these verses. Notice this, this is very important. As these words are being put down on paper, as he is speaking them aloud and somebody is writing them down for him, notice what Paul does. He is reflecting upon specific truths about God in this doxology. the depth of the riches and the wisdom and the knowledge of God. Another one, how unsearchable are his judgments? He's thinking about that. And how inscrutable his ways. So as he's thinking about these truths about God, as he's thinking about these things about God, then Paul begins to remember passages of Scripture about these attributes of God And he quotes them. Did you realize that in this doxology? Let me show you. He says in verse 34, For who has known the mind of the Lord? That's from Isaiah chapter 40, verse 13. That's a quote. So as he is thinking about God and His attributes, these verses from Scripture begin to come to mind that remind him about who God is. For who has known the mind of the Lord? And the second part of that statement, or who has been his counselor, that is from Job chapter 36, verse 22 and 23. You can just imagine Paul thinking to himself, the mind of the Lord is so great and he is so wise. He has never needed anyone to be his counselor or advise him. He's never been stumped on what to do in any difficult situation. Who would even be qualified to counsel God? He knows all there is to know about something. I'm not adding to Scripture, but I'm saying, I wonder if he was having these thoughts. That's what it looks like when we begin to really think about Scripture. And we begin to say, what does this mean about God? And so we almost see Paul doing that as he's laying this out. And then he thinks about another passage of scripture in verse 34. Or who has given a gift to God that he might be repaid? That's from Job 35, verse 7, and also Job 41, verse 11. So as Paul is contemplating the truths of this scripture, Was he possibly thinking to himself? Maybe he was thinking even out loud, trying to get his mind around these truths about God. God is so great and powerful that he has no needs. He has no needs. He created everything out of nothing and he upholds everything with the word of his power. He has never, ever, needed anything anyone else could give him, because he is not lacking anything. He's the only all-sufficient one. And if Paul was anything like you and I, maybe he began to have a thought, but wait a minute, but doesn't God need our worship and our glory? Didn't He create us for His glory? And then he says, no, no, that's not right thinking. When I preached that sermon, he's talking to himself here. When I preached that sermon on Mars Hill in Athens, remember? And Luke recorded that for us in his journal called Acts. The Holy Spirit brought to mind to me to explain to those Athenians, the God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands, nor is He served by human hands. as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives life and breath and all things." That's Acts 17, 24-25. So remember, Paul, do you ever preach to yourself? So Paul, he's preaching to himself here. So remember, Paul, he's using doctrine to preach to himself. And that's what you and I need to do. God did not create us. because He did not already have glory from all eternity from the Trinity, but He created us so that we could enjoy the glory He already possessed, so that we could join the celebration. If God needed something that we had that He didn't already have, then that would make God a debtor to us, and He would owe us. No, that is not correct at all. And then it appears, the Holy Spirit brings to Paul's mind, verse 36, for from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever. Amen. Did you know that Scripture, verse 36, is not a quote from any previously recorded Scripture any place? So the Holy Spirit brought this one forth right in the middle of Paul's doxology, which is often what happens when we begin to worship. God shows us something about Himself that maybe we didn't see before, we didn't understand before, so that our joy will be fueled more and more, that our delight in Him will continue And I don't want us to take this at all. I'm going to clarify. We should not interpret this to mean that God will give us new truths about God that no one else has ever discovered. We believe that Scripture is completed. Amen? He is not still speaking new Scripture or giving revelation in that way. I say that just in case someone was thinking, that and misapplies it. That is not the point I am making. The point I am trying to illustrate and explain from Romans and Paul's experience of worship recorded there is doxology is what happens, remember, when we see the glory of God. And that's what happened to Paul. And so, doxology. How now does that apply? How does that apply? What's the application? And so bear with me a few more minutes as I try to make the application. I want to turn to some application and how does Paul make application with this doxology? Or to say it another way, what happens to our lives when we drink in doctrine and we see how glorious God is? And then it overflows with praise for God's mercy and salvation. Is that all? Is that the end of it? Read doctrine, respond in worship. Read doctrine, respond in worship. Is that it? Do we study doctrine and we respond in worship and that's it? That's all there is to being a believer? What about the part of our lives that we don't spend studying God's Word or worshiping with the saints? You know, the 40 hour work week that we call life? How does doctrine and doxology affect that? Or is it something that we compartmentalize? We have the spiritual life here, and then over here we have the secular life, the rest of the week. The Holy Spirit anticipated that we might have some questions about that, and we might be tempted to compartmentalize our lives that way, so He spoke these words from our text through Paul in Romans 12, 1-2. I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Please get this. I know it's into this message a little bit. The entire life of a believer is transformed by the power of the gospel. Amen? The entire life of a believer is to be transformed by the power of the gospel, and it is. And the truth of Scripture, doctrine, must permeate every corner of our hearts and our minds. In other words, Jesus does not become Savior only and you still remain in control of certain parts of your life and your own thinking to just get by the best way you can figure out. No, Jesus is Savior and He's Lord. He owns every part of you including your mind, which is what Paul zeroes in on for the application. Jesus commands His disciples in Luke 10, 27, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself. He is not satisfied with 50% ownership 60% of our love and 75% of our thinking. We are to love God with everything in us. Heart, soul, mind and strength, everything about us is to belong to Him and to be used for His glory. And that's the point that Paul is reminding us of in 1 Corinthians 10.31. So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. And so I want to close with an application and I want to give an example of how we can apply God's truth to our lives and what does it look like when we do that. So this is an example of that as I try to give kind of an application here. As we look around at the news, as we look around at our culture, what's going on in our society. We live in a very dark and deceptive time, don't we? Most of those who live around us are conformed to this world and its thinking. They live not transformed by the renewing of your minds. The unbelieving world, with a few exceptions, do not believe in absolute truth revealed by God in Scripture. They tell us everyone can live however they like. Truth is whatever you want to believe and however you want to define it. Because there is no standard that everyone can or should be held to, they say, because we have rights and those rights that are claimed no longer have their basis in an unchanging standard. of truth, either the Bible or a Constitution. It should not surprise us then that if the Bible is rejected as the only source of absolute truth, then our society will not tolerate an unchanging standard to be measured by and held accountable to in any area, including a standard such as the Constitution. Secularism must bring down all forms of absolute truth so even our founding documents cannot escape having their original meaning even redefined. Satan hates God's truth. That's why this happens in any place and every place that God's truth exists. And the depravity of the human heart corrupts everything. Believer, don't think that Satan is okay with you either. He is a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. He has corrupted many churches. He has corrupted many churches. And the gospel that they preach today is powerless. because it is no gospel at all. Praise God that the gates of hell shall not prevail against God's triumphant church. Amen? But it is clear that Satan has many imposters to try to corrupt God's truth. Satan and the world system will be coming for you and I in many different ways. They do not mind if we have our own private beliefs, and they do not mind as long as those beliefs have no effect at all on them. As long as we do not impose our beliefs on them in any way, then they're okay. But to say that they must repent or that they will be condemned by a holy God will not be tolerated. No, not even sharing the only hope and the cure for their sin problem, the gospel. That will not be allowed to be spoken at some point in the not-too-distant future. Satan wants to destroy the testimony of the believer by making them appear no different than anyone else. He does this by the temptation to just blend in and not stand out or speak, or to speak out. If ever our culture needed a prophet and the church to stand and to speak for God, it is now. But it is far too silent. And there are few having courage to speak out and say, thus saith the Lord. And so we must ask the question, who is conforming? who is conforming. The world is certainly conforming, and they are certainly uniting under one way of thinking. Are you? Are you, believer? Are you? I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." Be transformed by the renewal of your mind. That is what happens when we study and we know doctrine. It changes us. We do not think and reason like everyone else. We are to stay strong and not conform to the standards and the patterns of this world. And how do we do that? Paul says, by testing, you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. We must constantly be on guard that our thinking is not being corrupted by the world's thinking. That we are not subtly letting the world's philosophy creep into our thinking. And I fear that it is. I fear that it is much more than we realize. How do I test and discern God's will for what is good and acceptable and perfect? How do I do that? What does that look like? What does it look like if I say I want to obey this scripture and I want to test and discern God's word and I want to make sure that my heart is not becoming corrupt. I'm not beginning to think like the world. Let me give you a very, very practical example. How do I test and discern God's will for what is good and acceptable? What does that look like? In approximately 30 days, I've heard several rumors that Americans in this country will be voting to elect a new president. As a believer, how do I remain faithful to biblical standards when choosing the best candidate to vote for. How do we discern what is the will of God? What is good and acceptable and perfect? Paul's words there. Most people who desire to have moral leaders and a moral government will say, well, we must vote our conscience. And that does sound good, like good advice, right? Sounds very American, very rugged individualism. For believers, is that the question that we should be asking ourselves is, what does my conscience tell me? We're supposed to discern the will of God. What He says is good and acceptable and perfect, not what our conscience tells us. Has your sinful heart ever led you astray? The heart is deceitful and wicked, so it's not always a good thing to listen to. When deciding who to vote for or making any decision in life, for that matter, do we use the same standard that unbelievers do? Don't unbelievers follow their hearts and their conscience? Believers are to be guided by Scripture and God's commands. Our thinking, our conscience must be transformed by the renewal of the Holy Spirit through the Word of God. Well, another method that many will apply to voting is is the lesser of two evils standard. Now we know this one. I know this one very well. I've used this one my whole life. Up until a few months ago, I argued this and this is the way I voted all of my life. And I've probably even argued to you in the past that we must choose the lesser of evil because one of these two people is going to get elected. The lesser of two evils. Again, this could be applied to making any range of decisions from choosing whether I want a popsicle or an ice cream cone. The lesser of evils, right? It doesn't really matter though when I'm choosing an ice cream cone or a popsicle because neither of those are really going to change anything, are they? I just choose the one I prefer. I don't want us just to think of political terms. Realize that the lesser of evils argument, we can let this influence all areas of our lives. The lesser of evils argument states that if given two options that are not good options, or even maybe both are evil options, I should seek to choose the one that will be less evil. For many, that is exactly where you find yourself when you're trying to decide whom you should vote for in 2016. If the question believers are to ask is, what do I think is best? Then the lesser of evils reasoning might be a plausible option. But are we supposed to differentiate between more or less evil? Is that biblical? Truth and right and wrong are not relative, are they? They don't change, right? Aren't the commands of God in Scripture absolute? Thus saith the Lord, thou shalt not murder." Do we get to decide what truth we will accept in this situation and which truth is less important? Well, no. God sets the standard for truth and right and wrong in His Word. And that is based upon His character and His attributes of holiness. James 1.17 tells us regarding God's character and regarding His standards, the Father of lights, lights meaning purity, truth, the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shifting shadows. And Hebrews 13.8 says Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. If God does not have a changing standard, changing based upon certain situations, should we? You see, the problem with voting for the lesser of two evils is that it is not based upon a standard of absolute, unchanging truth, but it's based upon situational ethics. Let me explain. Situational ethics is a humanist Humanist meaning we rely upon what man thinks, not God. Situational ethics is a humanist rationale that in certain situations it is okay or even morally good to choose evil, depending on the outcome. Situational ethics and the lesser of two evils logic is not based upon scripture, but it comes from a philosopher named Maurice Duverger, that's fun to say, Duverger, a secular humanist. He's also a communist political philosopher. Duverger said that we should rationalize what evil is greater than another evil and then always choose what will bring us the less harm. Does that even sound like Scripture? At some point Situational ethics and the lesser of two evils standard fails to help us to determine right from wrong. The problem with the lesser of two evils is that it does not even ask what is right and what is wrong. The problem for Christians using this logic is that it is based upon distinguishing between which evil or which wrong we are willing to choose. Again, God's Word does not present truth or God's standards in these terms, ever. Our Lord commands us in Matthew 5.48, you therefore must be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. And in 1 Peter 1.14-17, as obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance. But as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct. Since it is written, you shall be holy, for I am holy. And if you call on Him as Father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile." And so applying God's standards to the area of voting or any decision we have to make, we need to seriously ask some serious questions of ourselves to determine where am I basing my thinking? Is my thinking based in scripture? Is that the foundation for what I think? Or is my thinking coming from other sources, even secular sources? Pastor Kay Gordon has said, well, when God has clearly stated that something is right or is morally wrong, we must stand on God's Word, even if the consequences may cause us or others pain. Aren't we called to do the right thing, to please God, even if the morally wrong thing promises to bring us pleasure? If we find ourselves giving in to fear and we're motivated by that fear, then perhaps we need to trust in God's sovereignty instead of trying to assure an outcome we desire. Jesus told those who ask Him, render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's. You see, Jesus established the standard that not all things belong to Caesar or government. Some things belong only to God. Believer, that would include you and I. We belong to God, not Caesar, not government. We don't belong. And our first obedience and our first allegiance is to him. We don't belong to other people. We don't belong to a political party. We don't belong to a candidate. We cannot give them our allegiance. It does not belong to them. Jesus is Lord. And let that shape our minds about how we're going to make a decision. We must not decide in our minds, what evil can I live with that will damage our testimony? And the world will look at us and say, you're a hypocrite. You really do not practice what you preach. You really do not believe that God's Word applies to everything else. Let me make clear that my desire in this example is not to politicize this sermon. My desire is not to politicize family camp or even to tell you who I think you should vote for. That is not my purpose. Let's apply Scripture to this very practical area of our lives because we are faced with a decision to make. And are we going to be transformed by Scripture? Are we going to follow Christ and Scripture? Or are we going to make a decision based upon something else? I want everything about our lives to glorify God, not just the part of worship. I want our thinking and our mind and our voting, I want all of that to to be shaped by Scripture, be transformed by the renewal of your mind that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Romans 12.2, God's word alone must be our final authority. We must seek to discern His will by His word, not my own will or ideas. We must do what is in keeping with God's standards of good and acceptable and perfect. God's standard will never fail us. Amen? God's standard will never fail us. The result may not be what we want, but God is sovereign and we must, we must trust in Him. Ultimately, we must trust in Him to rescue us, not a candidate and not a politician. God will always be glorified in our lives if we follow His standard. Well, in conclusion, all of life, all of life must be lived for the glory of God. All of life, all of my thinking, All of my work, my eating, every bit of my life should be intertwined with doxology. Those who have been called by God will feed their souls with doctrine and they will respond with great joy to the mercies of God in doxology. But it will not stop there. It will not stop there. It must transform every part of our lives as the Holy Spirit applies the Word to our lives in everything for the glory of God. Let's pray. Father, we thank You. We thank You for Your Word. We thank You for the power of the Gospel. We thank You that You have revealed Jesus Christ to us. We thank You that You have rescued us by Your great mercy. And seeing that will transform every part of our lives. Lord, we want to live every part of us for the glory of God. And so we pray that Your Word will so permeate us and so permeate our thinking that we can't get away from it, that we will constantly be thinking and applying your word to every decision in every area of our lives, even things that maybe we didn't even think it was important in. I pray that the message will be helpful. I pray that I haven't offended in any way with this example, but that it's been helpful, that it's caused us to look to scripture about our thinking and our voting. And we pray that you'll be glorified in this camp. Be exalted, O God, above the heavens. May your glory be over all the earth. Amen.