Pas Ralph Douglas West - A Brief For The Toughest Case - Romans 1:2-9

0:01 While you're standing, take God's word, open it to the letter to the church at Rome, Romans, chapter 12. And there's a line that falls at verse 9 that sounds like a brief. attorneys write up these briefs to help them in these court cases to reach some conclusion at a legal issue. They are able to take volumes of material, distill it down to what is needed to present to the courts to make a decision. It becomes an assistance, particularly in appellate courts when there's not a on stand witness this becomes evidence. Well Paul's not in court but he certainly have a brief. Listen to how he takes all of this material from the most weighted letter that he writes to the church and to you and to me and he says to us, here is a mandate.

1:22 Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil. cling to what is good. This is the word of God. You may be seated. A brief for the toughest case. Life neatly divides itself in polarities. We don't have to stretch our imagination to draw our own parallels, north and south, directionally, or musically, major key, minor key. Dietarily, we think of bitter and sweet. We think of up and down. life falls in these polarities in neat orders but not just in the natural order of life in a larger in a very real sense the reality of life these polarities work the same way God and Satan righteousness and unrighteousness light and darkness good and evil can you imagine this morning a more difficult case to write a brief to make the right ethical conclusion.

2:48 When Paul is writing this, again, he's not in court, but he's drawing a conclusion. He's saying that there is a way. It's not up for grabs. It's not questionable. There is a mandate that has been given to us on how we are to live. Christian ethics, our ethical behavior, what are the morals that we use to make certain decisions. We can claim these statements by saying the Bible says, but that doesn't mean very much if you don't apply the meaning of what the Bible says.

3:25 And so Paul here writing to the church and now writing to you and I, when we come to this portion. He says, Ralph West, he says to the people of the church with our walls, he says to those that are listening, that I have laid out how you are to live, how you are to act, how you are to behave, how you are to treat humanity. Hate what is evil. Cling to what is good. Let me dispel right off the bat that I'm not here to debate with the experts. We've heard over the last several days from the criminologists, sociologists, psychologists, the politicians, and for some of them I respect what they have said.

4:16 I'm not here to debate on any human level. I want to do what I try to do for the past 34 years. is not to give my human insight but to provide divine revelation. What does God have to say about it all? The second thing that I want to dispel is that I'm not here to answer the question of why did it happen. We know why, we don't know why. That's the answer. There are multiple reasons. but that's not my purpose that is the technical term of theodicy why is there human suffering in the world and we don't know but there are multiple causes that we can attach to why there is human suffering I've heard as you have heard how blame has been displaced in just one quarter for instance everything is a result of mental illness and everything is a result of post-pandemic trauma and so we don't have to get into that debate or discussion or dialogue because we know that that's certainly not the whole truth and so what does God say to us as a community of people who believe in Jesus Christ and who ultimately say that we put our confidence and trust in him. This is the Christian's finest hour. This is the church's pivotal point. This is a moment where the church can really be heard, where people are asking questions that only ultimate reality can give adequate answers and so in these polarities they fall neatly in this way hate what is evil I want to begin at that point to make an acknowledgement about evil that evil is

6:25 real. Evil is a reality. And though that seems simple, I could use as a thesis that, you know, you don't have to be complex to be profound. They'll just simply say evil in the world exists. You see, the only way you can address evil is first you have to acknowledge that there is evil. If you call evil anything other than evil, then you'll try to address it in some other way. And so evil exists. I thought that the seriousness and the gravity of this, I didn't want to rely on my years only of studying through the scriptures. So I called my assistant, Marcus Jerkins, MJ, you know him as that. and I said MJ pull out your New Testament Greek with me and make sure that I'm reading along with this and he chuckled and we read through it in his kind of loving way he says pastor as he would say pastor you know what this is saying hate what is evil I said well where where how do you as a New testament scholar how do you put a face to evil he said great question he said well the best way that I do it is just to say this evil finds its source in Satan I said thank you MJ because if that is the origin of evil then anything that is outside of the will of God is evil and if it's outside the will of God is outside the goodness of God and because it is outside the will and the goodness of God it is that we are to hate evil and the problem is is that we use this wonderful language from the scripture hate evil but we become tolerant evil this is reminding us not only to hate evil but deny evil derogate evil shun evil don't tolerate evil and many of us

8:36 we have become tolerable of evil. We say that is evil, but we have become tolerant of evil. I'm not coming through, I know. Evil is real. And you have to recognize that. But I understand why this doesn't shock you much. It's because we have been desensitized and anesthetized to the problem of evil. Walter Lumpkin taught me Greek and he's a blessed memory, someone who was far too young to fall up his tent and move upstairs.

9:20 And I'll never forget when Walter, I couldn't believe it, this New Testament and Greek scholar handed me a book. He said, Wes, he said, you know what's happening in the world? This is my professor who I look up to. I'm waiting on some profound truth and he says as you look at what is being shown in the media of all of the shootings and the killings this is back in the 80s now he says we become desensitized it's taking all that time for me to really understand what he means we become anesthetized. It doesn't shock us like it used to.

10:04 Avalanche victims when they are buried in the snow and rescuers locate their whereabouts and they begin to dig in that cold snow. They only have one word for the victim. Don't go to sleep. Stay awake. Don't go to sleep because they know the moment that that victim drifts away into sleep coma, there's no coming back. There's an opposite side of that. Some of you remember the story of Father Damien who worked on the Molai Island in Hawaii and where he worked in the leopards colony. And one day he was boiling water and upset the pot and it spilled on his foot and that boiling hot water did nothing. he discovered working with leprosy he himself had contracted leprosy. Both stories point to the position or the illustration of insensitivity. On one hand we've grown so cold that we have drifted away or we've become so involved that even the hottest issues don't shock us anymore. I saw this last week. I watched as many news outlets as I could to keep me from my few minutes this morning from being angry and disgusted and not to think out well. I said somebody would tune in who says I trust what you say, speak to me. And so I listened. And I was listening to one of my favorite programs and for 15 minutes they showed scenes of weeping parents and frightened children running for their lives and confused law enforcements not knowing what to do and even medical doctors weeping when they were trying to give that report. And I sat there glued to the

12:14 and they cut away to a commercial when they came back, they had Johnny Depp and Camille. And they were discussing this multi, multi-million dollar lawsuit by celebrities. And I said, what in the world is wrong with an America that can look at 15 minutes of a travesty a travesty and come back to tell us about a celebrity divorce. You know why we do it? And you know why even people this morning who are Christians and who love God, who say, I didn't come to church to hear about this, it's because we become desensitized. April 20th, 1999 was the day that two boys, I know that name, dressed in almost matrix wear, walked into the Columbine High School and gunned down 14 children, 12 children, and a teacher.

13:34 and I can tell you how you felt. You were shocked. You couldn't believe this. You said because the last place that we have to fear is at a high school with our children and we were concerned and we began to ask questions. What in the world has happened? More than 25 massacres in schools later, over 169 children dead. Nobody cares. Well, we're talking now.

14:10 I remember the sermon I preached following Sandy Hook. I knew that would be the turning point. nothing had been done now there are some humorous takeaways that you can find all of this murder and mayhem and death and devastation and at the same time in the same state this morning the National Rifle Association is meeting Oh, they're protecting their Second Amendment rights. Time did not permit me to talk about the discrepancy of the Second Amendment rights. But we'll protect and fight for Second Amendment rights, but won't fight and protect our second graders in our elementary schools. You see, most of you have a firearm in your house to protect your property.

15:20 There's something to be a gun owner and be pro-gun. They're not the same. Law enforcement is reminding us who in the world, like those boys in Cullenbein who had a Tech-9 shotgun, who needs AR7s, assault weapons that you use in the military to protect what? We do have a mental issue, but it ain't with those who have been shooting.

15:57 It's on Capitol Hill and the State House. We do have a mental issue. and God has called us to hate what is evil hate it derogate it deny it dismiss it don't tolerate it don't go to sleep in the cold of the discussions or in the heat of embattlement stay awake feel the pressure because we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers and they are in high and in wicked places. Hate it.

16:40 Hate what is evil. Cling Paul says in this brief brief Cling To what is good when paul says cling to what is good you read at verse nine and then you say what is he getting to and you go back and say well in order for me to fully appreciate verse nine that opens the segment on christian ethics what are the moral principles that i am to engage to assist me in making right decisions.

17:25 Then I have to go back to the opening of the chapter that reminds us what God is calling us to do. And he says that we are to present our body a living sacrifice. That is put all of your human faculty that beautiful mind that God has given to you to reason with put it on altar put that heart that God has not just pumped life into you but also to teach you how to love in a particular way put it on altar put your hands and feet that God will use to do his work in the world and don't be waiting on God. He's already done it. He says, I've left it in your hands to go do it now.

18:20 He says now you do it Put all of you on the altar And that is the way that you worship me Is that you put yourself on the altar Inconvenience yourself Sacrifice your life Put it all on the altar In the polarities there's light and darkness This is a hard case to serve up this brief to try to reach a theological conclusion. And in doing so, we say, I hate what is evil, but I'm clinging to what is good. I'm grabbing a hold to that which is right and righteous and good.

19:09 I was talking to one of our men just the other day and he was telling me he was making a run for one of his clients and we were talking. His name is Kevin Allen and we know him as California, a.k.a. the Diamond Man and all of that. And Callie said to me, he said, I'm taking this delivery to do this and this. He said, you know, Pastor, when he talks to me, he always say, that's the gospel. I say, I like that. He said, that's the gospel. this is the good news here that as tragic and as travesty as it is God will in some kind of way and I don't know how he will bring good out of a evil place beauty out of earthlessness light out of darkness we've already seen some of these stories come to fruition A teacher sacrifices her life, her family, to save the life of her student.

20:19 Good will come out of it how many times does God have to see us and say one day you'll get it cling to what is good hold on to it to what is good do what is good to do good is to do God to cling to good is really to cling to God. That's what Paul is getting to. You want to cling to God? Do what is good. And when we cling to God, that's how good comes into the world. And God has called us to do that. We've seen good come out of ugly places and spaces where we've seen gardenias grow out of garbage, flowers out of ugly places.

21:18 the high school students are finishing up and they'll be going back to school in the fall and they'll have a reading list and one of the books on that reading list has been read by hundreds of millions of students it's an ugly scene out of the second world war it is the diary of Anne Frank how her family used their home in Denmark to be a hovel a place of refuge for people that were running for their lives. As a result, she and her family, she would lose her life. And yet we read the diary of Anne Frank to remind us that good can come out of evil places.

22:05 Another book that our children will have to read is Victor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning. and Franco records as a psychoanalyst his own living in those concentration camps under those dire straits and he came to one conclusion those that lived they believed that they had something to live for those that succumb to the death of anxiety and the death of hatred beyond just the physical were those who had nothing to live for cling to what is good I do my work as an interpreter of the scripture.

22:59 And I pay close attention whenever words like Bible and God comes up. I thought our governor is a practicing Catholic. And according to the Catholic corpus of doctrine They are to protect life from As they teach From conception to natural death now they denied one person the communion because of her position on roe v raid but here is a person too who will advocate an antithesis himself i'm only picking it out on him i'm not picking on him i'm picking it out on him because this group keeps on throwing God and church and the Bible in our face. And so he's pro-life in the womb, but anti-life outside of the womb. That's the point that I'm making. I heard Dan Patrick.

24:11 Dan Patrick responded to Beto O'Rourke's disruption. but I guess if you're sitting around listening to the man that passed just a year early in his own words and I quote the most progressive second amended bill that has ever been signed into law dismiss all of his moral and political responsibility attached to what has happened is enough to make you jump out of your seat like a prophet. I thought about the prophet Amos. That's how Amos must have looked going down to Bethel at Amaziah. Listen to Amaziah talk about everything other than what we ought to be talking about and say, man, shut up! And talk about what the real issue is Now for those of you who are so politically sensitive, you need to know I don't care what you vote, or how you vote, or who you like.

25:23 I'm hating what is evil, and I'm clinging to what is good. So I don't have no dog in the fight on no political side. None of that. It is what was said from them. And as I already said, as an interpreter of the scriptures, my responsibility is to interpret what I hear and present it properly to the people of our congregation. You can do and make the decision on your own, But I don't change on what Paul said He said hate what is evil Love what is good in some way God will bring good out of evil. I'm done now, but I know what some of you are saying. I know you.

26:19 I've been doing this now all my life. You nudging. That ain't what that said. because he didn't say the first line let love be sincere and without hypocrisy i want to back up into that now I want to back up into that text right there because the only way that you can hate evil hold the good is that your love must be sincere when paul wrote this imagine that people who come here for the first time they can't pick up all of my verbal nuances but you've been there so long until you pick them up you you know what i'm saying to say well what do you mean said just stay there stay there you because you know the nuances. You pick them up, you say, and you have a corpus of material that you can read on and you say, well, I know what he's talking about because he's taught this over the last 20, 30 years.

27:39 So when Paul writes this, imagine he's using language that is not out of bounds to the people that are reading it. And so he says, now this is what I want you to do. I want you to let your love be sincere some of your translations read and without hypocrisy so when he says let your love be sincere because this is the foundation in hating evil and loving good it all rests in let your love be sincere and so our love to God in understanding God's will and understanding God's will in our life and acting on that will we love God and he says love it sincerely when the people read this we need help in interpreting what Paul meant but they didn't it says let your love be sincere their minds immediately went to going to the market to purchase a piece of pottery that had been well shaped by some potter but the way that you test the material is that you hold a pottery up against the light to see if there are any cracks in it and if there are no cracks you can say this is sincere but if it's a cracked pot you say insincere and so you set that aside and said I'm looking for a sincere pot one that is whole not one with cracks in it he said your love has to be that same way you have to love in private the way you love in public you got the love in the church the way you love in the capital you got the love yeah you get the idea let your love be sincere and then he said and let it be for some of your translation without hypocrisy. There too they would understand what Paul meant. Some of these people had gone to the theaters and in those days men took the stage but they played the parts

29:45 of children and women and men and the way that they did that they would exchange masks and so they would put a mask on to play one part maybe of the role of the father and then on this side they would put a mask on to play the role of the mother and then and that's what we call two-faced it because they were playing roles Paul is saying don't be two-faced in your love Be sincere, don't be a crackpot And when you let your love abide that way Then you can hate what is evil You can love what is good Cling to it and hold to it Souls in danger Look above Jesus completely saves He will by his love save I'm done this is Romans and Romans is this big book for the church it's our brief it's a brief when we stand up and have to make certain decisions it's a good book to read from it's not a proof text where you just say what the Bible says you have to look at the whole of it and see does this measure up from Genesis to Revelation with how God works is he sent sin his word is he consistent that's how you study the scripture if God hates evil in Romans does he hate it in Genesis if God says cling to love in Romans does he cling to it in first Corinthians and so he says love and let it be sincere. First Corinthians 13 that long list of love and love and love and what does it say and love believes all and love endures all. You know what that really means? It doesn't mean that love looks at the tragedies of life and just watersheds over it. No it means the

31:56 endurance of love is that love is always hoping for the best. Our love is always looking for the good in love is always saying it got to be a better way This book is so important to us. it was important to augustine in africa it was important to luther in germany wesley in london england bart in switzerland this book is so important that augustine the the black bishop of hippo of hippo he said he heard children just singing pick up and read and he read it and it changed his life and the reason why we do church the way we do it the way you hear preaching the way you hear it is because one man picked up that book and read it. We read it in the different dialects and translations because in a castle of Germany, Luther writes down with all of his hiccups in life, he provides us translations to remind us that the just shall live by faith.

33:05 Wesley, the founder of Methodism, in a little church dimly lighted, a chapel in Aldersgate, in London, he heard the preface of Rome and he said, my heart is strangely warm. Kurt Bart at the time was the most prodigious, influential theologian on the planet. And when he read Romans, it turned him away from a humanistic approach to understanding God to a more Christocentric approach. If it was good enough for Augustine, if it was good enough for Bart and Wesley and Luther, this word is good enough for us. It is a word that will change our life and cause us to hate evil and to hold on to that which is good. When you go to India, they have the Mataj Mahal. For years, people thought that was a temple. It's a cemetery.

33:59 It's a tomb. It's a crypt. Dedicated to the aristocracy's beloved. On one occasion, while they were decorated, and when you go in there, you'll see a room full of glass. broken and shattered.

34:23 And you say, it's beautiful the way that they worked that glass, but that's not the way it really happened. It was supposed to be mirrors hanging on the wall so that when you walk in, you see all these dimensions. But in the transport, the mirrors, the glass got broke. And they were going to dismiss it and the architect, the designer of it said, no, let's see what we can do with it. And so what he decided to do was facet the glass together and all of that brokenness. And then the very light that breaks through on those broken pieces, you can see the prisms of color shooting out. People thought it was designed that way. And that's what God does for us. on a hill called Calvary.

35:19 Things have been so broken and shattered and so ugly and yet by God's design, he took the ugliest thing on the planet and turned it into the most beautiful thing. And you know what you find in your vow? You know what you find in Buffalo, New York? When you go there, you see crosses. I saw people kneeling down at the cross. I saw people weeping and crying and lamenting some at the cross. They were not kneeling at 22 swastikas. They were not kneeling at 22 confederate flags. They were not kneeling at the flag of the NRA. They were not kneeling at some bumper sticker, some smiley face. They were kneeling at the cross because somewhere deep down in their life, they know that God can take the worst thing. And the worst thing doesn't have to be the last thing.

36:14 God can take the worst and turn it into the best. And that's our word this morning. That we say to people who are listening to us, don't try to answer everything. You just tell them as a Christian our ethic reminds us that our love must be sincere. And it has to be holistic. It has to love that way in the good times and in the bad times. Let love be sincere without hypocrisy. Hate what is evil. Cling to what is good. And let God take that and mix it up. And bring the best thing out of the worst thing. Amen. Amen. Amen. He can do that.

37:07 shall we pray our father You've left us here for some reason You saved us through a pandemic. and we are here to bear witness to our brothers and sisters in California, in Buffalo, New York, in Uvalde, but not just in the mass school shootings, but in a culture that has become so violent. that we cling to the good thing. so help us as a church as we think through ministry and think through worship and how we go forward help us now to say in this reformation of church teach us how now to focus our attention that I love be sincere show us the places where we have to help people hate evil hate evil and cling to what is good and there are people who heard this message today and they're making decisions to say you know I heard the word today and for years I've always thought that Church and preaching was irrelevant Today I'm reminded that God speaks to me through his word For those people Lord Touch their hearts Move in them Bring them forward

39:12 Others who've been on the periphery of life Who said I was reared the right way I just strayed myself But that message today was for me to say, let my love be sincere. And let me hate evil and cling to what is good. Bring them forward today.

39:33 And then there are others, Lord, who are just new in our city. Need a church home. Need a place where love is sincere. Hating what is evil. Clinging to what is good. it is in your name Lord we pray and we ask it all and all God's people say together amen give God praise the door to church is open and I want to encourage you who are in this room today that you would get up and come forward and not grieve or quench the Holy Spirit that as the Holy Spirit speaks to you do what is good do what is good cling to it and remember what Paul is saying put your whole body your whole faculty on the altar that's your reasonable service the door of the church is open we're waiting on you and those of you that are logging in we'll respond to you all today come on we're waiting on you