Carty’s Contemporary Classics – God’s Forgiveness and Consequences for Sin

Christian Podcast Central Classic Podcast

Two things in life that’ll take master over you like few things will: first one is food. It’s ugly, isn’t it? Broke my leg a few years ago, gained 14 pounds, took 12 of them off, took three months to do it, and the fourth month, I put 14 of them back on. Half of them are on that side, other half over there. Now, it’s not quite sin yet. Is food tough for you? Bible spends a verse and a half on it, spends six and a half verses on sex. In other words, you think, “Food stuff, compared to sex, piece of cake.”

All right, now, verse 18, right after flee immorality, every other sin that a man or a woman commits is outside the body, but the immoral person sins against their own body. It’s the dwelling place of the holy spirit you’ve been bought with the life of Christ, you’ve got to glorify your body. Every other sin is external, sexual sin is different. You said, “Hold it, Jay. On Sunday, you told us all sin is the same, saying no to God, consequence is heaven or hell long term.” That’s true, but there are short term consequences, and Christian, you need to know you will never be punished by God, but you will be disciplined according to the depth of your calling, how long you’ve known the lord, and the kind of sin you commit.

The biggie is sexual sin, why? I don’t know for sure. We’re made in his image, that’s not a shape, he makes choices, we make choices in his image. He has personality, we have personality in his image. I know he has a sense of humor, look at the person on your right and try not to laugh. Can’t do it, it’s funny, isn’t it? Better laugh is on your left. Funniest one of all, just look right behind you, that’s really a panicked … Yeah, all right. God has a sense of humor. Here’s one, did God create? I have two, my wife and I, we made two kids, you know how long they’re going to last?

How long will their souls last? Not even the angels get to do that, just us, and there’s something about the sanctity to that place where you’ll make an eternal soul that’s really a big deal to God, really a big deal to God. See, those of you who are still virgins, do not save yourself for your mate, not a good reason. Your wedding night will probably be a disaster, it just will be, all the hype on that whole thing and the whole deal, and you need a little practice, and it’s really fun to practice, but you’ll need a little practice. What you do is you save yourself for God, because it’s God who wants to bless you. There’s some very good reasons too, one, see, you’ll always take comparisons into your marriage, and there’ll be mind scars, and you’ll have memories, flashbacks at the most inopportune time.

If you couldn’t be trusted before marriage, how can you be expected to be trusted after marriage? You take mistrust into the relationship. You need to understand, the reason God gave us sex in the first place, it was to so bond us with our mate in such a deep and powerful way that we would have the mechanism in place to get us through those difficult times that life has to offer. If you’ve been real promiscuous along the way, you lost the meaning of it, you lost the meaning of the bonding. It just became a physical act of pleasure, a sedative to help put you to sleep at night, it lost the reason.

If you got raped back when, if you’re a product of sexual abuse, one of two things might have happened. You might have lost its meaning and thought love was always demonstrated through sexual intercourse, physical pleasure, and so you lost its meaning, or you’re afraid to participate in it the way God intended, you’ve been scarred some and you need to work that through. There are a lot of real good reasons besides just God wanting to keep you from getting hit by a car, because folks, when you go play in the traffic, you will get hit by a car, and that always leaves a scar. Some people say, “Well, I’ve been hit by a car once, I might as well go get hit again,” and they do not realize God’s forgiveness is bottomless.

There are always consequences to sin. You’re forgiven for your sin, you endure the consequence, and that’s the way it is. Something about the importance of the virgin birth here: Jesus had to be born of a virgin, if he’s not, he ends up an onion. See, if he has a physical father, the sins of the father visit upon the children, the Puritan says, “Oh, that’s the act of intercourse, we’ve got to make that ugly and awful.” They missed out on a lot of fun, because God did not intend that. What he said was, “The sin nature gets transmitted through the male, sins that the father visit upon the children, Adam’s sin has ultimately been visited upon you.” If Jesus wasn’t born of a virgin, he wouldn’t have qualified to die for his own sin, let alone ours.

With the holy spirit as his father, he qualifies as a sinless lamb. See, it’s a real important act, and virginity is a real big deal, it’s a real statement to God. Let me prove to you he hates it, turn to Luke 17. Luke 17, “That’s the day of the great to do.” You know what to do is? Ever been in your bathroom, no tissue, all you have is a little cardboard cylinder? How many of you ever got one and gone, “Doo-doo”? How many have used it for a spyglass, “Sailing, sailing, sailing”? Just before the lord returns, there’s going to be a shout in the heavens, “Ah!” There’ll be a great trumpet blast, “Doo-doo!” Just before that happens, verse 26, Luke 17, it’ll be the way it was in the days of Noah.

How was it? Verse 27, eating, drinking, buying, selling, planning, building, carrying on business as usual, except that Jude tells us they were only carrying on evil continually. I’m sorry, Genesis tells us that. In verse 28, the same has happened in the days of Lot. Where’d he live? Sodom and Gomorrah, what was going on there? Eating, drinking, buying, selling, planning, building, carrying on business as usual, except Jude tells us chasing after strange flesh involved in gross immorality. How was it there? Remember when the angels came to rescue Lot, and there was so much homosexuality that the men wanted to rape the angels, you’ll recall?

God destroyed the place by fire, except for one family, Lot’s family. What was the final straw before he did that? Gross immorality typified by rampant homosexuality, and then he destroyed the whole place by water in the days of Noah except for one family, Noah’s family. What were the keys then before he did that? Gross immorality typified by rampant homosexuality, and he is going to do the same thing in these last days, except for one family, his church, and what’s going to be the key? Gross immorality typified by rampant homosexuality, and I think we’re all set. Here we’ve got our Sodom in Vegas, our Gomorrah in San Francisco, and we’re all set.

There’s only one place where God destroyed so utterly and completely in the Old Testament, it was for idol worship. You know what he called it? Spiritual adultery. Sexual sin is the standard by which the disciplines of God are meted out for all the rest of sin, it is a big deal to God. Your sexuality is a lot like a locomotive, not a diesel, that’s got multiple driving wheels, this is a steam engine, one wheel turns. Engineers used to have a lot of fun, they’d tuck a penny under the wheel so that when the wheel turned, couldn’t get a bite, it’d just sit there and spin against the penny ’til it eroded it, and they’d laugh. It’s like a little block of wood under a wheel of a 747, can’t get rolling, but you move the penny two inches, what happens to the penny?

It goes flat. Put a car on the road, a mile down the track, what happens to the car? Goes flat. Put a house in the road three miles down, what happens to the house? Gets a hole in it. All right, so you understand that your sexuality is a lot like a locomotive, because once you’ve moved the penny, if you’re a young person dating, there are only two things that will stop the runaway locomotive of your sexuality, only two things: policeman’s flashlight, your parents coming home, that’s it, nothing else. It’s important, see, nothing makes any sense in the backseat of a car, nothing makes any sense once you’ve moved the penny.

You’ll risk your relationship with your wife, you’ll destroy your ministry, you’ll give your kids a reason to go do what you’ve just done, because nothing makes any sense once you’ve pulled the penny. You’ve got to keep the penny tucked under the wheel, you’ve got to. Let’s do the seduction, go to second Samuel 13, you know how to get there? I was thinking of a generator, an exit sign, or Levi’s numbers coming through the cuff, going through the word dot, D-O-T. Two faces joshing each other in the backside in a judge’s ear, he’s talking to a lady, you know her name, Baby Ruth candy bars coming out of her mouth.

She’s sitting in a chair, and the first two legs are two Uncle Sams pointing, “I want you,” and you want the second Uncle Sam. Just to finish, two kings crowned, back of the legs, two guys with chronic coughs, coughing Es and Zs over the Ester eggs that are doing the job, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Now, the big egg at the end is wearing a football helmet, he’s the proverb, and he’s got a strip of elastic coming out of his mouth, musical note on it, the cold blue shivering, hook you in the back of anybody’s pants named Jerry wearing a miner’s hat, Jerry Miner.

He’s got a lamb under this arm, and a sickle in this hand, a sickle, Ezekiel. In the lion’s den and the hose coming out the back, pouring black letter Js, not oil, making a mess under a round bed with eyeballs all over it, and Obadiah, with a whale talking into a microphone, shaved like a horse’s head, neigh hymns. You’ll have to go see that, wearing a nun’s habit with Ks all over it, held up by a Zeppelin with eyeballs, some old hags inside, and they’re trying to sock each other’s eye, you know, sock it right out with malice right in the eye. That’s the way I do it, you don’t have to do it that way, but we’re at second Samuel 13, you’ve had plenty of time. Tamara is David’s daughter, and Amnon was her half brother, and he wanted her. She was a virgin, she was gorgeous, she was stunning, and Amnon had sexual fantasy for Tamara every day, to the point he made himself ill, verse two.

Can we get a current? Ask your boyfriend over, folks are gone, watch a little TV, little kissy face, little huggy bug, no big deal, until the guy says, standard line for a guy, blow on your cover, guys, “Don’t stop me now, don’t stop me now, you can’t stop me now, we’ve gone too far, because if you stop me now, it’s going to hurt me. We have to go all the way.” Now, while she’s thinking about that, the headlights flash through the living room window as they turn in the driveway, home unexpectedly early. Here’s my question: could the guy stop or not?

It’s one of the things that will get the thing to stop. All right, and I want the girl to know, it won’t hurt him. Little twinge here maybe, that’s it, nothing worse than that. Tell him, “Go home, take a shower, might have an ooh right there, but there’s no big deal, you get out of here.” If you’ve got a friend named Jonadeb, look out, because he says, “Pretend to be sick, have David send Tamara over to make some hot cakes for you.” Now David’s really an out to lunch dad, you don’t smell a rat in that deal, you’re not very close to your kids.

I’m not kidding about the hot cakes, look at verse eight, “She took the dough and kneaded the dough, and baked the cakes in a sight, hot cakes,” verse nine. “Oh, the banging and clanging of the servants, such a headache, dismiss them, Tamara. Yes, tell them to go. No, you stay, okay?” Why’d she stay? I submit to you, in junior high, your self-image got beat up, and now when somebody makes you feel desirable, nobody wants to leave that too soon. You get a little goosebump that goes up and down, a little, and nobody wants to … She does not intend to go to bed with him, but it feels good to feel desirable. Besides, he’s got a great view of the city and a few CDs she hadn’t heard.

Verse 10, “It’s the Hong Kong flu, so sick I don’t even have the strength to bring my hand to my mouth. Tamara, bring the hot cakes into the bedroom and feed me ’til my strength is restored.” Now, why’d she do it? Listen, if he called her up and said, “Tamara, come on over here and go to go to bed with me,” she would say, “What are you talking about? Get out of town.” After two compromises in the bedroom, he’s in bed, they’re alone. See, it’s compromise that’s the killer, and you don’t want to ever take the first $5. See, the first $5 is the first time you cheated on a test in school, it’s the first time you lifted a pack of gum from 7-11, it’s the first time you cheat on your income tax, it’s the first time you crossed the line of propriety, it’s the first $5.

You usually give that back without a consequence, but zeros are nothing. You understand, zeros are nothing? But they sure make something out of a five, and then it gets real tough to give it back. The second zero is just so easy to do, and then you can string six of them and go to jail real easy, like some folks have. Don’t take the first five, like Scott. Scott was a starting quarterback for his high school football team, and three upperclassmen linemen invited him out, and what an honor. He’s in the car, and the guy pulls out a six pack of beer and passed around the beer, and Scott hadn’t had a beer yet.

If they called him and said, “Hey, Scott, let’s go drink some beer,” he said, “Sorry, guys, got to study, see you tomorrow at practice,” but he’s in the car, he doesn’t want to be a wimp with his lineman, these are the guys that keep him from getting killed. “My folks don’t know, I’ll just do it once,” then he went, “Okay, I’ll do it,” and he takes five bucks. Guy pulls out a little bottle of red pills, he’d never had uppers, reds aren’t anything he’d never done. If they called him up and said, “Hey, Scott, let’s drink some beer, take some drugs, what do you say?” “Sorry, guys, got to study, see you tomorrow at practice, no thanks.” But he’s in the car, he’s already taken five, zeroes are nothing, didn’t have to think about it much.

Guy next to him pulls out a joint, tokes up. God never smoked weed before, but they called him up and say, “Scott, let’s go drink some beer, take some drugs, smoke some weed,” and what’d he say? “Sorry guys, I don’t do that, I’ll see you tomorrow at practice,” but the second zero, didn’t even have to think about it, didn’t even have to think about it. They’re cruising along the Lover’s Lane area, one lone car, guy shuts off the lights, turns off the engine, coasts up behind the car and says, “This’ll be fun.” Everybody jumps out of the car, I mean things are moving for Scott, the three football players go over and bounce the car.

Wow, wow, wow, that’s pretty funny. The guy jumps out and runs back, and the first football player hit him, held him up for the second football player, both of them held the unconscious man up and put out one of his eyes, dropped him to the ground. Girl was frightened, kind of a turn on for them because they were kind of high, they put a paper bag over her head, sure, why not? And they raped her, and they said, “Hey, Scott, it’s your turn.” If you called Scott and said, “Hey, Scott, let’s go drink some beer, take some drugs, smoke some weed, rape a girl,” what do you say? “It’s absurd,” except we’re capable of such atrocity.

She was passive and she was whimpering, and all of the sudden she became violent. It’s a true story, Midwestern newspaper. Their eyes met, and Scott had just raped his sister. I want you think about that for a second. This is tragic, it’s violent, it’s true. Scott went before his heavenly father with repentant heart, truly repentant heart, begged forgiveness, would he be forgiven? Yes or no?

Yes.

That’s wild, take David’s sin, put it in contemporary terms, add murder to it, that’s wild. Let me ask you this question. What do you think breakfast was like in that household? Folks, don’t you understand? God’s forgiveness is bottomless, it doesn’t fix the consequences. Read on, verse 11, “Come lie with me, my sister,” he says. He’s not messing around, he grabs her by the wrist, she says, “No, don’t do this terrible thing.” That’s where our story begins, verse 15, “Then Amnon hated her with very great hatred, and it was greater than the lust with which he had lusted after.” He said, “Get up, go away, get out of my sight, I hate your guts.” What had happened?

High school girl puts out for the guy, can’t be the other way around, proverbs talks about the seductress, because she thinks she loves him. High school people, I’m not being naughty now, you just don’t have a clue, you do not know the difference between lust and love. It takes a little while to learn that. She puts out to seal the relationship, and then something happens, and for some reason, after a few times, he dumps her. “Why would he do that? I thought he loved me,” and now she’s got to face him and his buddies, who all know her intimate secrets, and a lot of them don’t. 40% of teenage suicide in females is sexually related.

But if you’re here and you had premarital sex, and you got married, and divorce isn’t a part of your vocabulary, but you noticed last night when I asked you, “Does your husband speak to you in harsh, embittered tones?” if you had premarital sex, you probably don’t have to look any further for the source of the bitterness that’s there. I had an associate pastor of a church come up to me after this session, he said, “Jay, I was in seminary, engaged, we’re going to be married, and we just decided under God’s eyes, we are anyhow, and we had sex. I went home last night and I did what you told me to do.”

What I’m going to tell you to do tonight, if that’s you, and I am unashamedly trying to sell red books, I want to go home with you. Because in the back of that book, in the glossary is a prayer, a warfare prayer, it’s for couples who coupled too soon. You’re going to go home, and if during prayer tonight you both squeeze each other, that means you’re going to go home and you’re going to look into each other’s eyes, and you’re going to say, “I am so sorry I led you into sin.” The other one is going to say, “I am so sorry I went in to sin with you. Will you forgive me?” “Yes, will you forgive me?” “Yes.”

Confess that before God, each other, work through the warfare prayer and scrape off the leech, and watch the bitterness disappear from your relationship. This associate pastor did that, and went home, he said, “I confessed to my wife, and she looked at me and she said, ‘I have been angry with you for 15 years, representing God, having done that to me. I’ve been angry with you for 15 years,'” and they got it right. You need to get it right, because in this day and age, virgins when they get married are like unicorns, mermaids, and other mythical creatures, there aren’t many of them. I have the permission of my daughter to say that both her and her husband were 27 years old, they were both virgins, and they don’t know another one like them. They’re scared.