I Am Not Confused

The following is an excerpt from a sermon Pastor Dan preached in our series in Romans from romans 1:18-32. You can listen to the full message on our app or by visiting the sermons page on our website.

Noah was not confused about the Ark God asked him to build. The world around him ridiculed him and was quite confused. The reason being is that they had rejected God as truth and sought their own truth. The Bible says that the hearts of humankind was only evil all of the time. So God told Noah to build an Ark so that a remnant of people would be saved from judgment. Noah trusted God’s objective truth.

Like Noah, I am not confused. I am not confused about what Laws God has given to us in His revealed Word. Jesus made it simple for us when he summed up God’s Law in Matthew 22 with two commands. Love God and Love others with everything that we have. His summary wasn’t meant to leave out details, it was to cover all of the details. The detail and the broad strokes of God’s Law leave no room for confusion but only clarity.

I am not confused about how we can have a relationship with God. I am not confused about my sin. I am not confused about my depravity. I am not confused about my words or thoughts or deeds and how they fall short of God’s standard. Romans 3 says I am not righteous on my own. God couldn’t be more clear.  I am not confused that God has provided a remedy for my sin and the sin of the world. Romans 8 says there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Faith in Christ is not confusing. It is hard at times because my gods die hard. But it is not confusing. My faith in Christ is a gift from God given by grace so that I can by grace be saved and united to the person and work in Jesus. Salvation is not confusing. The Father promised it. Jesus Christ accomplished it. The Holy Spirit applies it.

The objective truth of the Gospel is as clear to me as the ark and the safety it provided was to Noah. The Gospel’s objective truth makes things very clear for me.

I am not unclear, and I am not confused about how God’s Law and His Gospel apply to our world today. Just as Noah was not unclear about how the ark would function, the church, if honest with itself has perfect clarity on the issues we face in our world. The Gospel and the Law of God are an ark for us in the confusion Satan has set upon the world.

I am not confused that racism is evil in any form. I am not confused that black lives matter. I am a thinking adult who can differentiate between some unbiblical ideologies of an organization and the very biblical ideologies of ending racism.  I am not confused that there have been since the beginning of time and continue to be systems in place to crush one people while raising another up. I am not confused about statues. Statues are built by humans to revere and honor what value they find in another’s accomplishments. I am not confused that our hearts are factories for idols. I am not confused that we build things to honor our sins. Cain did it. Nebuchadnezzar did it. Ahab did it. Herod did it. We do it. I am not confused that in our present-day that the Confederacy was a system designed by and for the preservation of slavery, racism, bigotry, and hatred. The writings, speeches, and laws written by that abominable and traitorous effort speak for themselves and leave no room for argument.

I am not confused that if something as simple as a statue hurts the spirit of another brother or sister in Christ that the person’s grief and heartache take easy precedence over anything else. Why? Because I am not confused about what love my neighbor means. I am not confused about Paul’s words when he says, “Everything is permissible but not everything is beneficial.” I am not confused that my very testimony on more important matters might be sabotaged because of my relentless pursuit of inferior matters.

I am not confused about the rule of Law. Anarchy is sinful. It is not God’s way. Violence is wrong. Jesus tells us to turn the other cheek even if we don’t get our way. I am not confused about respecting authority and to help preserve the lives of those who want to protect us and enforce the law.  I find Romans 13 to be clear in matters of the Christian’s obedience to the law of the land. I am not confused about how God honors those rulers who respect those that they are protecting.

I am not confused that taking the life of a human baby whether born or unborn is wrong regardless of the circumstances of that baby’s conception. I realize we complicate things as we try to play God and pull His words apart in His revealed Word to try and coexist with our diluted sense of morality. To do so is murder. I can see with perfect clarity what the Bible teaches in Psalm 139  and what science backs up with facts. Life begins in the womb. God knits each one of us into the individuals that we are. The evil of abortion is plain and uncomplicated.

I am not confused that wickedness is wickedness. I am not confused that out of the mouth or twitter account pour the foolish words of foolish men because their hearts are foolish. Fools prove on a daily basis that they do not follow Jesus. I know this because Jesus says that out of the mouth flows the inclinations of our hearts. It’s a simple concept for me to understand. I am not confused about the difference between a mistake and a constant way of life and seeing the world. A fool can sit on a throne and a fool can sit in the pew and a fool can preach from a pulpit. I am not confused about the wickedness of any of them. I am not confused about my duty as a pastor and your duty as a Christian to not call what is evil good, but to reject evil regardless of how bad it hurts our ideological fights and causes.

I am not confused about gender and sexuality. Men are men. Women are women. There is a lot of confusion in between because we want to be god. There is confusion because we want to deal with hurt, abandonment, depression, and anxiety in ways that leave us in control. I am not confused that any time I want to break the Laws of God that he has given to govern our natural order, or our sexuality, that I want to break them for the same reason Adam and Eve wanted to break them. I don’t want to break them because God has been unclear. I want to break them because my affinity for Jesus is unclear.

I am not confused that a person’s deviance from a biblical sexual ethic doesn’t mean I can’t love and care for those who reject biblical teaching. I am not confused that I should fight for their civil rights and place in society. I am not confused because Jesus called all kinds of sinners into His inner circle. I am not confused because Paul tells the church that we shouldn’t expect anyone outside of the church to live according to God’s Laws. I am not confused that because I disagree with them that I can’t love them. I am not confused that to love someone doesn’t require me to accept some aspect of their life that they believe is central to their very being even if it isn’t. The Gospel and God’s law give me perfect clarity.

We are confused only when we leave the shores of the Gospel for some other foreign land. And we sink in an ocean of godlessness. The world is confused because it does not have, nor does it want the Gospel. The world is confused because it does not want nor does it obey the Laws of God. But this universe is still his universe. This world still works the way in which he designed it. We live in God’s world and His world functions according to his rules, his love, and his power. The world is acting the same way it acted when Noah built his ark. They didn’t understand it. They rejected it. They were happy with life without God. Their hearts were only evil all of the time.

Church we are not confused because, like Noah’s day, Judgment is coming and has come for the world and the church is building an Ark. The world continues to mock us as we build the ark. What rain? They say. What God? The laugh. We are a law unto ourselves. Everyone is truth. There is no truth. We’re all entitled to our opinion.

But what ark are you presenting? What is your lifeline you have offered the world? Nationalism? Nations die. Politics? Jesus said his kingdom wasn’t of this earth. Pleasure? It ends when you die. Money? It’s easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

Our ark is not built with cedarwood and tar but something much more precious. Our ark is built with the scarred wood from Jesus’ cross. Our ark is framed on his perfect obedience to the Laws of God. Our Ark was sealed not with tar but by the shed blood of Christ. The door of our ark remains open because the grave of Jesus Christ burst open with the power of God.

Anyone who wants to board this Ark of the Gospel is welcome to do so. But you must come through the door by faith in Christ. Faith in Christ is a rejection of the world for a new Kingdom that Jesus has promised.