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[0:00] Well, I certainly want to thank you all for being here this morning. We're going to go ahead and get underway, but I do have a few commercials. And the first one is Erwin Lutzer's book, We Will Not Be Silenced.

[0:16] You really, really, really need to read this book. And it is available at half the price you would pay for it any place else.

[0:27] And it is excellent. Dr. David Jeremiah says, if I could, I would put this book into the hands of every Christian in America. If you want a real understanding of what's happening in our country and why, this will help you.

[0:44] Erwin Lutzer is really plugged into this. Excellent, excellent material. And by the way, we've got a whole new spate of books and Bibles over there. And some of them are really relatively new, relatively recent.

[0:58] But they're all good or they wouldn't be on the table. And if your birthday is in July, you don't have much time left if you want a freebie for a birthday gift.

[1:10] And if you've been looking them over and your birthday is in August, I can understand you waiting. So, a couple of other things I want to mention. This is a book by Robert Peterson.

[1:22] I have no idea who he is, other than the fact he's got a Ph.D. from Drew University. And he's served for 35 years as professor of systematic theology at two evangelical seminaries.

[1:33] He's written 30 books. This is called The Assurance of Salvation. And I thought, well, I don't think people at Grace need that. But reading this book can give you tremendous insight and understanding to people who are not, what shall I say, sufficiently mature in their Christian faith.

[1:57] They can really be struggling with issues of security. And this book can help you to help them. So, it's excellent from that standpoint.

[2:08] And I would really recommend that you get into it and get it into you. Several weeks ago, I distributed a copy of Dr. Henry Morris' book, or not book, but CD on Science and Supernatural Miracles.

[2:25] And I provided for the men at the Tuesday Men's Bible Study because we have just launched a new series on the subject of miracles.

[2:36] And I thought, I remember getting this years ago, and I had a copy of it, and I made copies of it. But Science and the Supernatural and the Miraculous by Dr. Henry Morris.

[2:48] Excellent material. Henry Morris is with the Lord now. He passed away a few years ago. But over 50 years ago, he and Dr. John Whitcomb co-authored the book, The Genesis Flood.

[3:05] And it was a monumental book that really, in a lot of ways, put the issue of creationism back on the front burner for a lot of people to consider and arguments that they'd never heard before because the evolutionary hypothesis had virtually taken over.

[3:26] And it still has. And it still dominates the educational cycles all the way from kindergarten through graduate school. And it is the primary model that is used in medical research with the assumption that all humanity came from a common biological life form.

[3:46] That's what evolution says. And, of course, the scriptures give the lie to that because of the special creation that is provided. Anyway, in this CD, you will really appreciate it.

[4:00] And I just, the men, the Thursday morning men already got it. But a lot of you aren't there for the Thursday morning men. So if anybody wants this, we've got five copies left and I can make more.

[4:11] So I'll put them here. And if you want one, make sure you get it before you leave. You will appreciate it. Another announcement that really probably should be made on Sunday morning, and it will be, and that is we are going to resurrect the widow and widowers that were meeting on a monthly basis and having a grand time together.

[4:36] And the COVID thing just put everything out of whack and we didn't meet for a long time. So Marie and I were talking about it the other day, and we are going to reinstate that. And I don't have a date for you yet, but it will be August, and it will likely be before the middle of August, although, like I said, we don't know for sure.

[4:54] But we did think that we would go to T-Berry's out on Leffels Lane and enjoy a lunch there. All I can tell you is that it will be on a weekday and it will be a luncheon probably, so you might want to think of that.

[5:08] And these are excellent times that we enjoy get-together for widows and widowers. And what else have I? Oh, yes.

[5:21] Here they are. I know many of you are familiar with June Hunt, and some of you are not. But she has written a whole bevy of books that's just outstanding material.

[5:37] And this lady is a biblical counselor whose award-winning radio program, Hope for the Heart, is heard on more than 900 radio outlets throughout the country.

[5:51] And for more than 25 years, she has been offering counseling and hope for today's problems. And these are just two.

[6:01] She's probably authored 20 or 30 different books. But these two are especially helpful, I think, for those. This is called Grief, Living at Peace with Loss.

[6:15] It's excellent, excellent. And this is called Forgiveness, the Freedom to Let Go. And it, too, is a very, very powerful book. You will appreciate that.

[6:27] How to Read the Bible for All It's Worth is a book that was written by Gordon Fee and Douglas Stewart, a practical approach to Bible study in an easy-to-understand style.

[6:40] And it is extraordinary, extraordinary. In fact, I don't recall exactly how many copies of this have been sold, but it is a bunch.

[6:53] Yeah, almost a million copies of this have been purchased, How to Read the Bible for All It's Worth. And you get all of that for five bucks.

[7:06] Such a deal. Such a deal, such a deal. Okay. And if it happens to be a birthday book that you picked, then it's a freebie. So, and as I mentioned earlier, this session is going to be different from any you have ever heard or any that you have ever heard me bring because I'm only going to bring a little bit of it.

[7:29] And R.C. Sproul will be leading this off. Dr. Sproul is with the Lord now, but he served as the president of Ligonier Ministries for many years and one of the more capable Bible teachers in the country.

[7:48] I don't know that I've ever listened to anybody that had such a grasp of philosophy and able to speak to a lot of the philosophical issues like Dr. Sproul.

[8:01] And I was always one of his chief admirers and I've got most of his books. He wrote a book on the holiness of God that's outstanding. But like all of us, we are flawed.

[8:15] And Dr. Sproul was like all of us. He was flawed. Brilliant as the man is, he was a Presbyterian. And not all Presbyterians are in the dark.

[8:30] Some are called Bible Presbyterians, like Donald Gray Barnhouse was. He was a Bible Presbyterian. And he was not into replacement theology.

[8:41] Dr. Sproul was. And I shudder to think, I could only imagine how much more effective and beneficial his ministry would have been had he gotten clued in to rightly dividing the word of truth.

[8:54] It could have made a lot of difference. But anyway, he knows better now. And we all will. As you've heard me say, and I'm not being facetious about this, I'm being painfully and honestly accurate.

[9:08] And that is, every one of us has wrinkles in our theology. Nobody has this thing called biblical knowledge and understanding altogether.

[9:19] We are all flawed. We all reach what I call, based on faulty assumptions, we arrive at wrong conclusions about a number of things.

[9:30] It's part of the human condition. But the Bible is provided, at least in part, to enable us to offset our faulty assumptions with truth.

[9:43] And the Bible is designed to counteract the fallen logic that we all use as fallen creatures to reach the conclusions we do.

[9:54] And I'm telling you what, I have never seen such dramatic, rapid, faulty assumptions made from skewed logic and faulty reasoning, as has been evidenced over the last 18 months.

[10:19] And I'm talking about absolutely weird, inane, nonsensical, utterly stupid ideas that people have come up with, like gender dysphoria.

[10:35] if you don't like being a man, well, be a woman. And men can have a menstrual cycle?

[10:50] What? Where is this coming from? It's coming from the adversary. That's where it's coming from. And if someone says, well, now that's really deep, and I agree it is deep, the question is, deep what?

[11:04] This is just, listen, the adversary, the adversary is working overtime, and he is having a heyday.

[11:17] Nothing is more important than information that people have to process so that they can reach conclusions, so that they can act on the conclusions they reach.

[11:29] And if you have faulty thinking and faulty conclusions, guess what your actions are going to be? We are dealing today with a world that is steeped in humanism, secularism, and all that goes with it, and the Bible is our only effective counteract to that.

[11:52] So it becomes even more important to know more and more about the scriptures and the truth that God has set forth, because there is so much error out there, and it's just absolutely taking over. I mean, it's crazy.

[12:03] It's just crazy what's going on. And I'm getting to the place now where I'm almost thinking of some of these oddities as the new abnormality of the month.

[12:15] And it just seems like every month that goes by, I think, and it's, why is it it's always from the left? Why is it it's always from the left? I'll tell you why.

[12:25] Because the left, the left is part and parcel into this book. It's just an old relic.

[12:38] You can't put any confidence in it. It's written by a bunch of old men with long beards and robes years ago, and they just gave you their opinion about things, and it's got a lot of contradictions in it, and it's not out, it's not up to date and all the rest of it.

[12:53] And they are coming from a position of humanism that is very close to atheism. And once, once you reject creationism, and once you dismiss the idea of there being an overarching authority, that inevitable line from Dostoevsky comes to the surface again, if there is no God, all things are permitted.

[13:18] If there is no God, why not homosexuality? Why not same-sex marriage? Why not changing your sex? Why not? You're at a loss for answers.

[13:30] You don't have an answer. If there is no God, everything is permissible. And that's where we are. That's exactly where we are. And the United States has been trafficking in this for about the last 60 or 70 years, and we'll be talking more about that Sunday morning.

[13:46] So, would you open your Bibles, please, to Genesis chapter 3. Genesis chapter 3. I want to read some scripture, and then I'm going to turn R.C. Sproul loose on you.

[13:58] The serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, Indeed, has God said you shall not eat from any tree of the garden?

[14:12] And the woman said to the serpent, From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat, but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, You shall not eat from it or touch it, lest you die.

[14:28] And the serpent said to the woman, You surely shall not die, for God knows that in the day you eat from it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.

[14:45] And when the woman saw, there's the eye gate, that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate, and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.

[15:10] Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves loin coverings, and they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

[15:31] And then the Lord God called to the man and said to him, Where are you? And he said, I heard the sound of thee in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked.

[15:48] So I hid myself. And he said, Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?

[16:03] And the woman said, the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate. And the Lord God said to the woman, What is this you have done?

[16:17] And the woman said, A serpent deceived me, and I ate. All right, now if you'll come over, still in Genesis, to chapter 9.

[16:29] Genesis chapter 9, and verse 18. Now the sons of Noah, who came out of the ark, were Shem and Ham and Japheth, and Ham was the father of Canaan.

[16:44] These three were the sons of Noah, and from these, the whole earth was populated. Then Noah began farming, and planted a vineyard, and he drank of the wine, and became drunk, and uncovered himself inside his tent.

[17:05] And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside. But Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and walked backward, and covered the nakedness of their father, and their faces were turned away, so that they did not see their father's nakedness.

[17:32] And when Noah awoke from his wine, he knew what his youngest son had done to him. So he said, Cursed be Canaan, and this is one of the more difficult passages of scripture, and one of the easiest to misunderstand.

[17:50] Cursed be Canaan, a servant of servants, he shall be to his brothers. He also said, Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem, and let Canaan be his servant. May God enlarge Japheth, and let him dwell in the tents of Shem, and let Canaan be his servant.

[18:06] And then it goes on, and concludes the death of Noah. Many years ago, let's see now, she would be, she would be about 55 or 56.

[18:20] Our little huggy bear, Dawn Elizabeth, had she lived. She was taken quite unexpectedly at the age of 30.

[18:33] But I would go back about 27 years prior to that when she was no more than maybe a three-year-old toddler. And we lived out in Southgate on Damascus Avenue.

[18:45] And Tim, her older brother, was six years older than her. And he had a couple of playmates, boys that they would chum around with and ride their bikes together there in Southgate and just have a big time.

[19:04] And Barb was on the telephone talking to somebody, and she hung up the phone, and she heard all of this laughter going on out on the front lawn. And she looked out the window, and our oldest son, Tim, who at the time, like I said, was about, probably about nine years old.

[19:24] He was about six years older than Dawn. He was about eight or nine years old. And so were two or three of his buddies, playmates, and they were rolling on the grass and just laughing and having a grand time.

[19:36] And she wondered, what in the world's going on? And she went to the door and looked out, and I says, oh, good grief. And Dawn Elizabeth was out there parading around in the front yard, naked as a jaybird.

[19:49] Three years of age. And of course, these boys thought that was just about the most hilarious thing that had ever happened to the human race. And they were just yucking it up, and it was funny.

[20:01] And Dawn was completely oblivious to it all because in addition to her, in addition to her mental retardation, which, by the way, didn't actually set in until later, but in addition to that, she had a typical child's naivete and innocence about her.

[20:21] And she didn't, she didn't have any sense of shame at all. Children don't. Young children don't. But the time comes with the maturing process that the capacity for shame and the demand for privacy sets in.

[20:48] And I can well remember, I can well remember Barbara saying something to the effect, well, I guess our little boy isn't so little anymore. And I said, what do you mean?

[20:59] And she said, well, I was giving him his bath, because this was, he really needed it, giving him his bath, and he said, Mom, if it's okay with you, I can, I can do this myself.

[21:17] I can give myself a bath. You don't have to do this. And she said, she sensed it and picked up on it. That, and he, I don't know how old he was. He was about five or six years old.

[21:28] But he was coming into a place where the male privacy, just like the female privacy, kind of kicks in. And there is some special kind of an awareness, and it all has to do with our nakedness.

[21:49] And have you ever asked yourself, why do human beings wear clothes? You realize how completely contrary that is to the evolutionary hypothesis?

[22:08] We ought to be as free and as unhindered to be butt naked as the ape or the dog or the cat or the horse.

[22:19] None of these wear clothes. We wear clothes. What's that all about? Well, that's what this session is all about. The theology of nakedness. And I'm going to turn on several minutes of R.C. Sproul and then we'll open it for discussion and we'll have some more thoughts to share with you.

[22:41] And I think this is fascinating material. And if Christians understood this, and we ought to understand, you know, the Bible speaks in a very straightforward way, unashamed way, about human sexuality.

[22:55] It's we humans who go to great lengths to avoid the issue. And yet, this generation is more sexually active and sexually messed up than any generation has ever been in the history of humanity, I think.

[23:19] What's going on there? All of this is connected. Everything is tied together. So bear with me and I'll see if I can dial this in and maybe our speaker will pick it up okay and then we'll close with some other comments and we'll have an opportunity for discussion on your part and questions.

[23:37] See what we can do. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. The message is a presentation of Ligonier Ministries, home of the radio program Renewing Your Mind with R.C. Sproul.

[23:56] In our last session in our study of the psychology of atheism, we took some time to look at some fascinating insights of the French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre.

[24:08] Loud enough? Where he talked about his being uncomfortable with the idea of an omniscient God who keeps us always beneath his gaze and by gazing at us from heaven reduces us to objects of his scrutiny.

[24:28] And also, we recall, that Sartre linked that to what he called shame consciousness. That one of the reasons why we become uncomfortable when people stare at us or the thought of God's staring at us is because we are ashamed of something about ourselves.

[24:51] And I mentioned in passing that there was a tremendous similarity here with some ideas that we find in the scriptures, particularly in the Old Testament.

[25:01] and there's a story in the book of Genesis that I find fascinating and a little bit bizarre as we read it at least at first glance.

[25:13] It's found in the ninth chapter of the book of Genesis and it concerns an incident that involves Noah and his sons.

[25:24] We read the story in Genesis chapter 9 beginning at verse 18. Now the sons of Noah who went out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

[25:38] And Ham was the father of Cain. These three were the sons of Noah and from these the whole earth was populated. And Noah began to be a farmer and he planted a vineyard.

[25:53] Then he drank of the wine and was drunk and became uncovered in his tent. And Ham the father of Canaan saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside.

[26:08] But Shem and Japheth took a garment laid it on both their shoulders and went backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned away and they did not see their father's nakedness.

[26:22] And so Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his younger son had done to him. And so he said cursed be Canaan a servant of servants he shall be to his brother.

[26:36] And he said blessed be the Lord the God of Shem and may Canaan be his servant may God enlarge Japheth and may he dwell in the tents of Shem and may Canaan be his servant.

[26:48] Now what's going on here in this story and we might even ask the question what's the big deal? The story of the incident in the tent is a preamble to the record of the patriarchal blessing that Noah divides among his three sons.

[27:10] Shem is given the supreme blessing Japheth is given an enlarged portion of the blessing but the descendants of Han are cursed because of the sin of their father against the father of Han.

[27:30] Now the first question is what was his sin? Well the story is told very briefly that Noah planted a vineyard he harvested the grapes he produced wine he overindulged in the fruit of the vine and became drunk.

[27:51] I mean he is very drunk. He's so drunk that he's virtually incoherent sprawled out in a mess in his tent and the occasion is that his son Han walks into the tent and looks upon his father's nakedness then goes out and tells his other brothers Shem and Japheth about the state of their father.

[28:24] Then we are told that Shem and Japheth get a covering and they drape it between themselves holding it up to their shoulders and they walk backwards into the tent not looking at their father but as they are moving backwards holding this covering between them they drape it across the exposed body of Noah.

[28:51] And then after this we are told that these two sons receive a positive measure of blessing from the father while the son who went in and looked at their father's nakedness was cursed.

[29:06] Now there have been all kinds of attempts to unravel this story for people in our culture who don't quite get what is going on here and we know for example that in the Old Testament the phrase to look upon a person's nakedness can be used as a euphemism for a sexual involvement.

[29:32] There are prohibitions against looking upon one's sister's nakedness and so on that are in the context of prohibiting incestuous relationships.

[29:44] And so some commentators have looked at this text and say that the sin of Ham was that he went in and committed a homosexual act with his father and for that reason he was condemned.

[30:02] But I think that's reading something into the text that's not there. We don't have to conjecture about all these sexual extracurricular activities to get the force of what's going on.

[30:16] The story is simple. The father is in a state of drunken stupor and he is found in an embarrassing situation and the one son exploits his father's shame.

[30:34] He looks at his father and makes fun of his father. He comes out and he can't wait to tell his brothers. It's like he would come out and say you have to see the old man this afternoon.

[30:45] This one that God spared from the flood old righteous Noah is in there drunk as a skunk and he's rolling around naked on the floor of the tent. But the other sons have respect for the vulnerability of their father.

[31:05] They're not trying to excuse the drunkenness of Noah but they are trying to cover his shame. And so when Noah wakes up from this stupor and realizes that two of his sons had compassion on him and guarded his dignity and respected him in spite of his shameful condition they were blessed while the other son who exploited it and ridiculed the father lost the benefit of the blessing.

[31:48] I've mentioned along this course of a book I wrote several years ago called The Psychology of Atheism and we've recently reprinted in limited numbers. I have a whole chapter in that book on the subject of God and nakedness.

[32:03] And I remember years ago when I wrote this book doing a word study on the Greek word gunmas which is the word for naked and looked up every reference in the Old Testament and in the New Testament to this concept of nakedness and was not only surprised but profoundly moved by the way this idea functions as a metaphor in biblical history.

[32:35] And I thought about the bizarre response that we as human beings have to this whole concept of nudity and of nakedness.

[32:46] Remember Desmond Morris published a book several years ago entitled The Naked Ape. And he came at a study of mankind from an anthropological perspective saying that man is just one of 80 some different species of apes.

[33:05] But the thing that makes us different from all the other simians in this world is that our bodies are not covered with this heavy coat of fur like orangutans and gorillas and other kinds of apes and monkeys may be.

[33:24] And also we are the only species of apes that characteristically goes around wearing artificial garments.

[33:35] humans. You don't see apes having an Easter parade and judgings as to who has the most beautiful bonnet in the Easter parade.

[33:47] Nor is there a swimsuit contest for Miss Ape of the Year. In general the animal kingdom is clothed by nature.

[33:59] Now I've seen mules and horses at Jackson Square and New Orleans with fancy hats plucked through their ears for decoration.

[34:11] I've seen household pets poodles and dogs wearing scarves or sweaters that were uniquely designed for their adornment.

[34:21] But anytime you find artificial clothing on animals you can rest assured that that clothing was produced by human beings. Nature does not clothe the animals.

[34:36] We alone in all of nature have this strange habit of wearing clothes. Why are we wearing clothes at all?

[34:49] I'd say to keep ourselves warm or to protect ourselves from the elements. That may be true in frigid climate. But it's certainly not true in tropical clothes.

[34:59] And even there when people are not fully clad they usually have some kind of covering of at least portions of their body. Think of the money that we spend in America on clothes every year.

[35:13] You women thought it was all about fashion. For cosmetic reasons and for adornment. But the other dimension that the scriptures are interested in is that we wear clothes to cover our nakedness.

[35:33] Because of all of the creatures on this planet we alone are ashamed of nakedness. Again we go back to the original story of the fall where when we read the narrative account in Genesis of the creation of Adam and Eve.

[35:53] We read at the end of chapter two what seems like a concluding unscientific postscript. A kind of dangling statement that is added to the narrative of creation.

[36:04] It doesn't have any immediate significance when it says, and the man and the woman were both naked and they were unashamed.

[36:17] Then, as I said in our last session, immediately after the first transgression of the law of God, the first visceral response of mankind to evil, to sin, the first existential awareness of guilt was a sense of nakedness and shame.

[36:40] And we remember that they ran and they hid themselves and then when God came in the cool of the garden, instead of the creatures rushing to be in his presence, they stayed concealed.

[36:51] And God said, where are you? And what was the response? We're hiding. Why are you hiding? Because we are naked.

[37:03] God said, how do you know that you're naked? Did you eat of the tree of the garden? Now, there are several things that take place in that episode, not the least of which is the tender mercy of God that is displayed.

[37:22] God could have dragged his guilty creatures out of hiding, like the Pharisees dragged the woman caught in adultery to bring her to the feet of Jesus for judgment.

[37:32] God could have dragged Adam and Eve out of hiding and say, what do you mean you're naked? You're embarrassed, you're ashamed, too bad. You can spend the rest of your days walking around terrified by your nakedness.

[37:45] That's not what he did. He certainly rebuked them, and he certainly judged them, but he tempered that judgment by the very first act of redemption, which was what?

[37:57] He made clothes for them, and he covered them. he condescended to cover their shame.

[38:10] Now that metaphor runs like a strand all the way through the texts of the Old Testament and the New Testament. The whole drama of redemption, the whole work of Christ in the Atonement is figured for us in Scripture in terms of God's providing a covering for us.

[38:32] And here we are, in the 20th century, few of us being members of nudist colonies. And even then, those who are members of nudist colonies parade their nudity selectively.

[38:48] There are only certain occasions in certain places and with a certain company of others of like mind that people can be comfortable being without clothes. Most of us would be horrified if we were forced to walk down the street of a busy city stark naked.

[39:08] Now, we have had the phenomenon in the last few years called streaking, where you go to a football game or something and somebody runs across the field, national television, stark naked. But I find it fascinating that that fad is called streaking and not strolling.

[39:26] Because even when people dare to take off their clothes and run across the street, they still are not comfortable enough to take a slow deliberate walk.

[39:38] Shower curtains and blinds are still good investments. They're stable products in an environment of people who don't want to be caught naked.

[39:51] And yet, there is something deeply rooted in the human psyche in which we crave a place where we can be naked and unashamed.

[40:08] And where is that? Where are you naked without shame? Not in church on Sunday morning. Not at the football game.

[40:20] But in the privacy of your home. relationship and most significantly in the personal intimacy of your relationship with your spouse.

[40:34] I mean, we still desperately want to have someone who will know us in our nakedness and not reject us.

[40:45] but for the rest of the world, we stay covered because that's the way we think it's safe.

[40:56] Again, several years ago, a new kind of psychotherapy was introduced where people came together in groups and they were told to shed all of their clothes and they would have group therapy in nakedness so that they could get rid of their inhibitions, let it all hang out, and be open and free.

[41:13] the basic result of those experiments was a result of unparalleled disaster. People learn they have to be careful where and how they can be naked and still be safe.

[41:34] Kierkegaard said that all of us wear masks and we wear masks out of necessity. Reminds me of the story of the three ministers who came together at the golf course after a round of golf and they began a time of mutual confession of sins and the one minister said I am just so heavy laden with guilt.

[41:53] He said I am a closet drinker and if my congregation finds out it will be the end of my ministry but I have got to talk to somebody and since you men are men of the cloth I feel that I can tell you my problems.

[42:05] So he got it off his chest and that prompted the second minister to say you know I struggle with lusts. I'm a human being. I know I shouldn't have some of the thoughts that I have running through my mind but they happen and I feel so guilty and I just wish I could go to a confessional and get it off my chest and I want to at least tell somebody about it and so I'm telling you.

[42:25] And the third man didn't say anything and finally the first two looked at him and said don't you have any hidden sins that you're afraid to have anybody known? He said well yes. He said my besetting sin is gossip.

[42:37] He said I can't wait to get out of here. He said but see we laugh at that but it's a painful kind of laughter because we know it's not safe to tell everybody our weaknesses or our struggles.

[42:53] There are very few places where we can truly be naked and yet whether we like it or not we are always naked before God.

[43:04] and the very point of the Christian faith is it's a safe place to be. This is what I think was missed by Jean-Paul Sartre in his dread and fear of being known of God.

[43:23] In the Old Testament the psalmist says where can I flee from my spirit? If I ascend into heaven you're there. If I make my bed in hell you're there. there's nowhere we can go.

[43:35] There's nowhere we can hide. And that's frightening. And yet the same psalmist on another occasion in his prayer said this Oh God search me and know me and see if there be any wicked way in me.

[43:55] The last thing Jean-Paul Sartre ever wanted to say to God was search me and know me. He didn't want God to look at him.

[44:07] He wanted God to overlook him. And in that regard Sartre is not alone. That's the basic natural desire of guilty human beings.

[44:18] We don't want God to be gazing at us. So why would David then invite God to search him? not because he was convinced that God in that search would never find any defects in David.

[44:35] No, no. But David had known the benevolent gaze of God. David understood what it meant to be covered by the grace of God.

[44:49] David knew what so few of us really grasp that the safest place for the repentance sinner in all of reality is beneath the gaze of God.

[45:05] For more information about Ligonier Ministries call 1-800-435-4343 or contact us on the web at Ligonier.org that's L-I-G-O-N-I-E-R dot O-R-G or write DO Box 54 7500 Orlando, Florida.

[45:42] Okay, well we don't have much time left but we've got enough for comments or questions that you may have. I thought it was quite insightful in a lot of respects and you know it's a beautiful thing when you talked about where can you be comfortable when you are completely exposed that's with your mate and the reason is because with that other person you have become one and you are as comfortable naked in their presence as you are alone in your own personal presence where you feel no sense of shame when you're in the shower because it's private and it's just you and when you enter into that union that marriage union scriptures make it very clear and it's a very powerful concept and the two become one so it is just you are to be just as comfortable with your nakedness with your mate as you are by yourself because that's what the oneness implies and provides so it's a it's an amazing thing and when you stop and think about what is it what is it that

[47:13] Adam and Eve were covering and I've made a point before it wasn't their elbows was it or their knees they were covering their private parts well what's the big deal about them because private parts and by the way don't anybody get the idea that sex is somehow dirty that's nonsense God is all in favor of sex he thought it up he provided it and he blessed it in the context that it was intended so there's nothing wrong or dirty or whatever about sex it's a beautiful thing and it is the ultimate expression of tenderness and love between two people male and female who are committed to each other makes it a beautiful thing outside of that it's an ugly thing despite the fact that some try to enhance it and make it less than that it isn't and it's it's an amazing thing to contemplate that these things that we cover these private and they're called the private parts you know it's because that is where on the negative side the sin concept is propagated and through that nobody has ever figured out how to have babies apart from sexual relations and that's because that's just part of the process and it's that way for all biological life and God has made it that way for us as well so and yet at the same time there is something that is tainted about it and what it is of course is that same old bugaboo it's sin it's that which corrupts the whole of humanity is that sin factor and despite that the beauty of it is

[49:34] God has already graciously taken steps to counteract that through the provision of redemption that he has made and that's a beautiful thing and you know evolutionists don't know anything about this nor can they because it's not in their purview they can't have this and it makes it's a complete turnaround for them so I'd like to for a few minutes we've got left any comments or questions Scott I'm just thinking guys are obviously a little different than the girls especially if you've been in the army you've been in the locker room you know down to the old YMCA it's not a bashful thing now women suspecting is different you know but guys didn't seem to have a problem with it as far as you know I can yeah well you're right I well remember the old army days too and

[50:35] I remember Daniel Petalos Daniel Petalos I don't remember where he was from but Fort Knox Kentucky in basic training this had been 1954 and we would be out in the field all day and basic and marching and just perspiring up a storm and got to the place of where you not only couldn't stand the smell of the guy next to you you couldn't stand your own smell you know and all you wanted to do was hit the barracks and get in that shower and oh man it was just wonderful well we had one guy and he had a thing about nakedness he could not bring himself to undress before other men and we didn't notice it until maybe second day and he was really reeking and you know in a barracks like this the bunks are just a few feet apart and you got a lower bunk and an upper bunk and boy it wasn't long until the guys in my barracks were going this is supposedly after everybody had their showers and eventually all the focus was on

[51:51] Dan and somebody worked up the nerve to ask him Dan I don't remember seeing you in your shower didn't you shower well well he him all around you know and the poor guy and of course here we are all of us probably 18 19 years of age none of us were what you would call reeking with mercy and understanding so we told him we laid down the law and he says Dan for our survival you gotta take a shower you gotta take a shower tonight okay okay he says I will so we thought well maybe maybe after lights out and everybody's in the sack maybe he'll and he didn't and the next morning it was still kind of obvious so some of the guys got together and decided

[52:53] Dan needs help so there were about three or four of us I wasn't in on it frankly not that I wouldn't have but I just wasn't needed that's all the guys that were closest to him grabbed him took him into the shower and you ladies can't identify with this but if any of you guys have been in the military you know what a GI brush is it's a scrub brush and the bristles on that sucker is tough and you use it to scrub down whatever and GI soap you put on that and Danny Petaloos was scrubbed till he was pink by two of his eyes and you know what never had a problem after that you take a shower every night like the rest of us so he had a problem and I looking back on it I had absolutely zero sympathy for him at the time but now with a little bit of maturity

[53:53] I can sympathize with him and the problem that he had you know not a whole lot but more so and yet there's that sense of shame that goes with it so other thoughts or comments anybody so how do you think God looks upon that pardon me how do you think God looks upon that since he made such a distinction in Noah's story and with the nakedness of Adam and Eve and nakedness in general how do you think he equates that to our society and the way that you're talking about men being in gang showers and that sort of thing how do you balance that out with God's holiness and our comfortable feeling of being naked in certain situations outside of the context of marriage which is purest yeah well all I can say is that sex sex conducted as God intended is not only a good thing it's a wonderful thing it's a blessed thing it's a gracious gift of

[55:05] God not only for the perpetuation of the race which is probably the bottom line but for the mutual enjoyment and appreciation of the couple of the husband and the wife that's that's part of God's provision and the problem is and I don't know what else to call it other than a problem there is no good gift that God has given humanity that we are not capable of corrupting that's sad that's sad and why do we do that because of that fallenness again there is a proclivity to live out of bounds there is an attraction for it it began with the garden began with that tree so far as Adam and Eve were concerned and so far as God was concerned that tree was out of bounds but they crossed over that's what sin is it's always operating out of bounds so along with the blessedness and the provision and the grace that God has given there is that inevitable possibility and temptation to corrupt it and that's exactly what we have done with sex

[56:32] I saw some statistics a couple of years it was probably even worse now maybe you ladies don't have such a feel for this as the guys do but do you have any idea of the gross receipts and income realized from all of the teams combined together with all of the TV rights and all of the salaries and all of the ticket admissions at all the ball games or the thousands and thousands of people go of the National Football League we're talking some major bucks I mean billions and what about the NBA the National Basketball Association and what about Major League Baseball these are all multi billion dollar enterprises and you could throw in a couple of more that also are in the billions and you take all of those billions and put them together and it does not equal the amount of money that is realized in pornographic trafficking on an annual basis someone has said that pornography hijacks the male brain think about that that's what it does it hijacks the male brain and males are far more susceptible to this

[58:05] I guess in their striving to be equal in every way there are probably some women who are into pornographic stuff too who like to look at naked men I can't imagine anything could possibly be less appealing than that but with the equal rights demand it's crazy it's crazy and you've heard me talk about voyeurism and peeping toms you probably don't know any peeping james I'm not saying it can't happen but if it does it's very very rare but there is something about the eye gate that is an avenue for males that doesn't exist or at least certainly not to the same extent that it does for females and it is devastating in what it does to marriage relationships how wives are so deeply hurt and offended and confused by their husband's interest in this stuff and some of them bring it right into the home and the magazines and it's online and all this kind of stuff it's crazy and it is destructive and it's prolific all throughout the world and we

[59:28] I'll tell you what none of us here including myself have any idea how big this thing is and how much human sexuality has been taken advantage of and capitalized on all for money you know that's the thing that drives it but it's okay Scott what what you're talking about the men being more visual it just dawned on me in Genesis 3 6 and when the woman saw that the tree was good for food she's the one that was visually attracted to that she looked on it she saw that it was good she was tempted by it and but her visual contact seemed to be a key in there yeah yeah it does well it's primarily primarily through the eyes that what shall

[60:30] I say that that desire often arises and is stimulated and the best example of this that I've shared with you in the past and it's just it's axiomatic it's across the world and it's throughout all history it is through the eye gate boy meets girl and he sees her on the other side of the room and he looks past six other females to focus on her because she is the one that caught his what his eye yeah and he looks over there and he says hmm I wonder who that is I wonder if she's seeing someone I wonder if she's available and he wants to find some way to find out and the coward's way of course is you ask your best friend to go find out for but anyway there is the interest is stimulated and that's the way it works and I'm not suggesting that it doesn't work that way for women also because they see a man whom they consider to be attractive and nice looking etc.

[61:42] as opposed to someone that would be a turn off to them it works both ways but for the male it's stronger and it's more dominant and I think that in part goes back to the concept of primogenitor where God in his having created Adam first he makes man he makes the male to be the initiator in the relationship and the female to be the responder there are exceptions to that especially in this day and age where we live and where we are now there are things that go on where women make overtures to men that they're interested in that a generation ago a woman would have died before she'd do that she'd consider that beneath her but today it's changed and you know what this is part and parcel of it's the women's lib thing it's the women's lib for which guess who is responsible men men you've heard me say before and I believe it's every fiber of my being that men are to blame for the women's lib movement even arising and the reason it came into force is because of the shabby unacceptable treatment that so many males were foisting upon females simply because they could for years and years and years and I'm talking about places of employment and you name it and you ladies recall you couldn't even vote until 1918 you knew that didn't you so we men have no one but ourselves to thank for the women's lib movement because it would have never been necessary if men had been treating women the way they should have all along there would have never been a need for the women's movement but what like what happens with the women's movement is the same kind of thing that happens with every corrective movement is that they are never satisfied with equalizing they shoot three miles past the moon and it gets crazy and what we've got today is women's lib to the extreme and it's damaging to everybody and no one has been more injured by it than the family and the family has paid a tremendous price the whole culture of the country has paid a tremendous price and it all stems from the way people treat one another and began with male treatment of females so I say that to the shame of us males but that's the truth and it can't be altered other comments or thoughts anybody yes

[64:38] I was just going to say this is maybe a precursor for God provided a covering for Adam and Eve and he provides the covering for our sin later on but how did he get that covering for Adam and Eve it was through pain and suffering of an animal and so there was pain and suffering involved in that exactly way back there way back there in Genesis 3 God instituted the principle of substitution and it was the innocent we don't know what kind of an animal it was but some animal whatever it was had to forfeit its life to give up its covering and that was designed to establish in the psyche in the national psyche of Israel the principle of sacrifice substitution substitution and you know as well as I do that the whole essence of the gospel is Christ died for our sins substitution sacrifice the innocent laying down their life for the guilty and why in the world you know the innocent animal

[65:58] I'm sure that innocent animal whatever it was didn't willingly or wantingly to give up its life it was taken from it but the amazing thing about the sacrifice of Jesus Christ was he laid down his life for us he did it willingly the father sent the son to be the savior of the world and the son was willing to be given no man takes my life from me I lay it down of myself I have power to lay it down I have power to take it up again amazing this gives us the gospel to preach and this is the information that has been around for 2,000 years and is still very little known and very little appreciated isn't that amazing and do you know why that is in large part it's because of our reticence and reluctance to communicate it and it is also because the God of this age has blinded the minds of those who believe not lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ which is the image of God should shine unto them so wow well

[67:03]  I'm already passed on my time so what else is new but thank you for being here this morning and remember the books that I mentioned and if you're interested in Henry Morris CD they're right here on the table help yourself have a wonderful rest of the day looks like it's clearing off and the rain has stopped so enjoy yourself good andèces okay please thank you mommy for believing that you have a me in the room and you having it and I want to you know I will again okay I and you know I and muốn