Shame
RO81-01

Arrogance

In John 8:31, we read, "Then said Jesus to those Jews who believed Him, 'If you continue in My Word, then you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.' They answered Him, 'We are Abraham's seed, and were never in bondage to any man. How can you say, 'You shall be made free?'' Jesus answered them, 'Verily, verily I say unto you: whosoever commits sin is the slave of sin.'" And that, of course, is exactly what we've been learning – the slavery to the sin nature. And the one who lives in sin, as a lifestyle, is indeed a slave of sin.

Then notice verse 36: Jesus said, "If the Son, therefore, shall make you free, you shall be free indeed."

So, people, by their natural arrogance, make a very serious mistake in thinking that they are moving as free creatures in this world. That is not true. And the apostle Paul has been trying to make it clear to us that you are either a slave of the sin nature, or you are a slave of God and of His absolute righteousness. It is arrogance that causes people to reject what the Bible teaches, and to substitute their human viewpoint reasoning, so that they are separated from reality. It is arrogance that leads people to think that they can live a good life, and thereby deserve eternal life in heaven. They are ignorant of the nature of their slavery to the sin nature.

This arrogance is the result of Satan blinding people to the realities of their condition. In 2 Corinthians 4:4, Paul writes, "In whom the God of this age (that is, Satan) has blinded the minds of them who believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them." These people do not think they are spiritually blinded. Satan wants them to think they are not spiritually blinded. Satan tells them that they are not spiritually blinded.

The Moslems today are carrying on in the world because they believe that they are the voice of God, when indeed they are, of all people, the most spiritually blinded and benighted of any. And yet they think that they are speaking for God. It is an arrogance that comes as the result of Satan's blindness upon them.

Ignorant Intellectuals

So, here the apostle Paul speaks about people who are unbelievers, who walk in the proud arrogance – the vanity of their intellect, and that that is an intellect which God describes as being ignorant – ignorant intellectuals because of their arrogance.

Unsaved people are not free people. They are, in fact, slaves of Satan their father. In John 8, the Lord Jesus made this very clear again when talking to this group of Jews who were resisting His teachings. In John 8:8, Jesus said, "I speak that which I have seen with My Father, and you do that which you have seen with your father. They answered and said to Him, 'Abraham is our father.' Jesus said unto them, 'If you were Abraham's children, you would do the works of Abraham. But now you seek to kill Me – a man that has told you the truth, which I have heard of. Abraham did not do this. You do the deeds of your father.' Then they said to Him, 'We are not born of fornication. We have one father, even God.' Jesus said unto them, 'If God were your Father, you would love Me. For I proceeded from and came from God. Neither came I of Myself, but He sent Me. Why do you not understand My speech? Even because you cannot hear My Word. You are of your father, the devil, and the lusts of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own, for he is a liar and the father of it. And because I tell you the truth, you believe me not.'"

So here we have again, very clearly declared by the Lord, that people are slaves of Satan by their natural birth. They are controlled by the devil through the sin nature. And the slaves of Satan have no choice but to be subject to the will of their master, their father, the devil.

In Ephesians 2:2, we have this pointed out to us: "In which, in times past, you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the sons of disobedience." It is the devil who is the controlling element upon the wills of these unbelievers.

Filthiness and Lawlessness

In Romans 6:20, the apostle Paul has made that clear: "For when you were the slaves of sin, you were free (totally separated) from absolute righteousness."

So, you have a group of people who form the majority of the world's population who are slaves of Satan, who are pursuing the human good and the sins of their master and their father. People, because of their arrogance, have made a very serious mistake in thinking that they are free. They are not. You are a slave of Satan if you are not a slave of God and His righteousness. And if you are a slave of Satan, and you are his servant (you are his subject), and he is your father, then you will reflect your relationship to him.

Birds of a Feather Flock Together

Going back to John 8:43 once more: "Why do you not understand My speech? Because you cannot hear My Word;" that is, because Satan has blinded you. It's true of all of them. They have this in common.

Then verse 44 describes them: "Your father, the devil; you have the lusts of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning. He did not abide in the truth. You don't abide in a truth. You are a murderer. There is no truth in him. There is no truth in you. He speaks a lie; you speak a lie," and so on. Birds of a feather flock together.

This is a very vital clue (you want to remember this) to a person's attitudes; his character; and, his value – his close friends. Who are the birds that he relates himself to? Birds of a feather do flock together. If I see somebody that is flocking with somebody in spiritual degeneracy and reversionism, then I am a fool to assume that there is something about that person which is better. It is not. That person shares this reversionist's attitude. He shares the reversionist's in the sense of values. He shares the reversionist's rebellion. He shares the reversionist's point of view. He is in total sympathy with the reversionist because he's the same kind. The only difference is that the reversionist hasn't done a very good job of keeping the veneer, whereas the person that's fooling you has done a good job of keeping the veneer.

So, if you are of your father, the devil; you're of his feather; you're of his ilk; and, you're of his stamp, you're going to reflect it. And the people you associate with are going to be those who reflect what you really are. The people that you are close to are the people that reflect what you see in yourself.

I guarantee you that if you don't like obscenities, you are not going to be the close comrade of somebody who has a foul mouth constantly in his speech. You just won't be. But if I see you as being the close bosom buddy of somebody who has a foulmouth obscenity type of language, then I know that you don't use that language where I can hear it. But I know that you are sympathetic with it, and don't mind using it, because you wouldn't associate with this person if that revolted you, and if that was not acceptable to you.

So, you find out a great deal about people indirectly if you watch who their bosom buddies and friends are – whom they can walk in step with, and whom they can find a natural stride with. That is the bird of the same feather.

The unbelievers share Satan's viewpoints; his attitudes; his desires; and, his character traits, because they're of the same feather. Never credit the unbeliever, nor the carnal Christian, with being what he seems in terms of godliness. Don't trust him. Never credit the unbeliever for what he seems to be. Never credit the carnal Christian for what he seems to be. You don't trust a Christian unless you know he is a really sharp, godly, spiritual-maturity-structure, super-grace believer. Then you can maybe trust him a little bit, that there is stability, and that he will not double-cross you, and that he will prove to be what you think he is. Never credit the unbeliever or the carnal Christian with being what he seems. That is a front. Know him for what he is. If he is an unbeliever, he's a slave of the devil, and he holds the devil's viewpoint, and he will act like the devil. Don't you be fooled by his good pretenses.

If he's a carnal Christian, he's prostituting his heritage, and he's reverted back to playing the old form. In that case, you want to steer clear because you know that you're going to hear the crack of God's whip on the back of that believer. And if you happen to be playing camaraderie, you're going to feel the slash of that whip across your own back as well, if you do not pull off, and if you do not separate. So, be smart. You can't look through people, but you can look and see what they associate with, and that will tell you worlds.

Now, once a person is born again, he is in a totally different status. He's free from slavery to Satan. He becomes a slave of God now. The whole new lifestyle of righteousness is followed, resulting in experiential sanctification, day-by-day, setting a path to godliness. A Christian cannot again become the slave of the sin nature. He cannot again return to where Satan is his lord and master. The grace method of salvation, thus, does not mean that a Christian has no slave master whom he must obey. A Christian has a slave master. And when the attack was made upon Paul teachings of grace, which he expressed in verse Romans 6:15, that being under grace means that you can sin because you have no master over you anymore – that's false. Paul says, "You have a new slave master, which is God." God is the believer's Lord and master, and a Christian can be carnal, but he cannot change his slave master back to Satan.

Paul uses this illustration. A slave is not free. His will is not free to abandon his master. The unbeliever is not even free to abandon Satan. It's because God comes in and overrules the will of Satan that you ever were saved in the first place. You never were able to leave Satan. You were his slave. His will was your will. You have no will. God comes in in grace. He overrides, by His providential choice of you (His sovereign grace choice of you), and says "I'm overriding your will, Satan, and I'm opening the will of this believer to receive Me." And then you said, "I want to change masters." And you changed. Now you have a new master, and His will is your will. Your will is still not free. Your will is under the sovereign authority of God.

This is the principle which we learned earlier in Romans 6:16: "Don't you know that to whom you yield yourselves as slaves to obey, his slaves you are whom you obey?" Do you know what it means to obey? It means that you have no will. It means that somebody else controls your will. When does somebody else control your will? When they are in authority over you. When they are in authority over you, you have no will. When you have no will, you are a slave.

When you drive down the street, the speed limit says 30 miles an hour, you have freedom of will to drive up to 30 miles an hour. Beyond 30 miles an hour, you do not have freedom of will, because now there is authority of the law above you. And if you drive faster than 30 miles an hour, you are breaking the law, and the authority above you comes and imposes its will upon you, and you get arrested.

Authority means that your will is not free. Once authority is placed over you, you are a slave. You are a slave to 30 miles an hour on that street, and that's all you can do. You are a slave because there is an authority that overrides your will beyond that point.

Marriage

That would be a hellish existence were it not for the factor of love. It is the factor of love that comes into the picture without any problems in its original Edenic scene that made that position of subjection to the husbands will perfectly natural, and perfectly delightful, and perfectly right, and meant nothing but happiness. Slavery, however, is at the heart of marriage, because part of that overriding of will is punishment. This is what you have to teach your daughter – that the female segment of the human race bears a certain punishment. You may not like it any more than a man who takes somebody's life. He's a murderer, and they declare that he's to be executed for that murder, or he's free to be imprisoned. He says, "I don't like that punishment." And what does he do? He tries to break out of prison? He tries to escape from the execution. What's he doing? He rejects the punishment.

Well, God says, "One of the punishments for Eve's part in the fall was pain in child-bearing, and that her will is now to be overridden (governed) by her husband. She is to have authority, and to be in subjection to his final directions. And that is punishment.

Feminism

Work

Lifestyles

Fruit

The apostle Paul uses the word "karpos" in Romans 1:13, for example in this way, in the sense of profit or benefit in terms of souls saved, and thus rewards earned for him in eternity. In Romans 1:13, he says, "Now I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that often times I purpose to come unto you, but was prevented thus far, that I might have some fruit (some benefit) among you also, even among other gentiles." Souls saved, and reward stored in heaven. Paul, when he uses this word "karpos" in his writings, generally uses it to mean good fruit: something that is a benefit; something that is desirable; or, something that is a profit. We have this not only as we've seen here in Romans 1:13, but also Galatians 5:22, Ephesians 5:9, Philippians 1:11, Philippians 1:22, and Philippians 4:17. All these verses use this same Greek word in the sense of benefit or profit.

Then the Greek has a word that isn't exactly translated. It's a conjunction "oun," which means "accordingly therefore," and it's used here to express a consequence: "What benefit, consequently, had you?" The word "had" looks like this: "echo." "Echo" means "to possess." It's imperfect. Imperfect in the Greek talks about something in the past that happened again and again. Paul says, "In the past" (your pre-salvation days). Here you stand now in the point of salvation – your pre-salvation days: "What profit (what benefit) did you have repeatedly there in the past? It's active voice – that you actually personally possess. It is indicative – a statement of fact.

Then he uses the word "then" to describe here. The Greek looks like this: "tote." It points to a time before salvation. It indicates events under the status of enslavement to the sin nature. "Then" refers to old-sin-nature-domination time. "Those things" is referring to the unsaved lifestyle: "Those things which now." And then he comes over to this side with the word "now," and that's the Greek word "nun." This word indicates time right now, as opposed to the time before – the time as a slave of God, as before, when you were a slave of Satan through the sin nature.

Shame

Well, human beings don't have to think very far to see what Paul is talking about. You think back on these days before your salvation, at the "tote" area (the "then"). You think about all the times you were guilty of adultery. You don't want to talk about that too much. You think of all the times that you fell into the fornicating lifestyle of our society – living together without marriage. Now you're married; you have children; and you're on the other side of the cross. Boy, you don't want to talk about that. You don't even want to think about that. You hope nobody finds out about that. It's a thing of shame. The perverted sex you engaged in – years go by, and it's a humiliating experience, isn't it, to meet somebody that you were engaged in with perverted sex? You think about the times that you were stealing from people. It's shameful enough for you to know it; even more so when other people know that you were engaged in doing it. The cheating on your income tax – that's humiliating when you think back on those days. The deceit and the business deals that you were involved in – all the wheeling dealing that you thought you were so clever in, sometimes in the finest tradition of the Pharisees, where it meant hitting the helpless in the process of your getting on top of somebody – the widows, and the orphans, and the guy who was a down-and-outer for the moment. You're really proud of that, aren't you, when you look back on it? Taking advantage of the helpless, and rejecting their appeals to you. The foul language that you used. You look back upon the old days.

I remember a man one time that took me to a baseball game when I was a kid, and he had some contacts with the team, so that I got to sit in the dugout. And he sat there talking with the players, and it was one foul stream of obscenities after another, until one of the players turned him, and said, "Do you think you ought to be talking like that in front of your little friend here?" When I meet that man now, I wonder whether he remembers when he took me to the ballgame, and his mouth flowed with the violent kind of obscenities imaginable.

The hypocrisies of the old days before the cross. The feminist philosophy that you thought was so wonderful until you became oriented to the Word of God and the Scripture. That's very humiliating. The welfare leech – all the times that you violated the scriptural principle that if you did not work, you should not eat, but you found a way to eat even without working. The times you assassinated the character of other people. The time you were a gossip monger. Think of all those wonderful, juicy gossip times you had. You're very proud of those now, aren't you? Abuse of godliness – the time you are striking out at people who were godly, and who didn't want to do certain things. They didn't feel free to do it, and you made fun of them. The times of your lust for power and for position, and of your determination to have your rights. You look back at all those times on the other side of the cross, and you're not very proud of them.

The times of obsession for money and the time you would do anything to get some money, and to make it big. The neglect of your family, while you pursued other ambitions. The drunkenness, and the times of your drunken orgies and debaucheries. You had a wonderful time. Those Christmas parties – you remember those wonderful Christmas parties at the office. The physical violence – the times when you solved your problems with monumental physical violence, and you admired people who could do that. The time when you were trusted, and people discovered you were disloyal fink. The jealousies of which you were characterized. The abortions you had of the children that are awaiting you in heaven someday that you killed.

The time you were a conscientious objector, when your nation's life was on the line nationally. And you walked around as a pompous fool, mouthing words about the Bible forbidding killing because of your ignorance of the difference between killing and murder. You look back now and cringe about the days that you were a conscientious objector, instead of a man of responsibility in national defense terms.

The times that you were a pornography devotee. I remember a man one time that we had here in this congregation who explained to me that he subscribed to Playboy magazine because he liked the articles. I suppose it was the printed matter that he meant. That is stupid. The degrading entertainment – all the things you used to attend and say, "Oh, this is real fun. This is real entertainment.

The covetousness that characterized you in the days when the sin nature dominated you. All the things that other people had that you were obsessed to have. The times you got into the drug act on the other side of the cross, when you didn't have the manliness, and you didn't have the womanliness to look upon our society and say, "You people are a bunch of slobs in your drug pursuit. You're really pathetic. You're looking for fulfillment. You're looking for expanding your senses, and all you're doing is restricting yourself." You look back and say, "Boy, was I a fool?" And you don't want to talk, and tell us very much about your wonderful trips under drugs.

The times when you hated races – people who were of different races that you looked down upon with a vengeance. You despised them. The times when you killed people. Oh, yeah, you may have done that. Don't think for one moment that you're not brushing shoulders, as you move in the circle of your life, with people who have been guilty of murder.

The time when you were an ignorant intellectual. And you look back now upon your sophisticated mouthing of the things that you presume were true – the opinions you held. The time when you beat your wife in the mouth when she wouldn't behave. The time of your arrogance – arrogance toward people in lesser positions of life. The time when you were a downright ingrate, which is about the lowest bellied thing you can be.

The time when you rejected your parents, and their wisdom, and their guidance, because of your snottiness and superiority, because your parents weren't as educated, or as experienced, or were perhaps not as cultured and as smooth and refined as you are, because they had slaves to give you the advantages to be able to do better than they had been able to be in life.

The time when you were a devotee and a promoter of socialism and communism, and a violator of the divine institution of government.

We could go on and on. The list can get horrid, and it gets very dark and dingy and black and dirty. That's what "tote" means: "then." And "nun" – now I remember, and I look back to the other side when I was a slave of the sin nature, and it is humiliating. I am ashamed.

Now the question Paul has asked is: what was the benefit when you were engaged in all these things that you even blush now to think of? And, of course, the implied answer is "none." There was no benefit. While a slave sin nature, you were excluded from divine righteousness. There was absolutely no real benefit from being a slave to the sin nature.

One of the great writers of Scripture, King Solomon, who wrote Ecclesiastes, is a man who learned this, and learned it well indeed. This man spent his life trying different things. In Ecclesiastes 1:3: "What profit has a man of all his labor which he takes under the sun?"

Ecclesiastes 2:11: "Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labor that I had labored to do. And behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun." Here is a man who was a believer, but in a status of carnality, which puts him in the same status as an unbeliever speaking.

Ecclesiastes 3:9: "What profit has he that works in that wherein he labors." And the implication is none.

Ecclesiastes 5:16: And this also is a great evil: that in all points as he came, so shall he go. And what profit has he that has labored for the wind?"

Now, the thing that Solomon did was try different things while out of fellowship to find satisfaction. He tried education. He tried 700 wives. He tried sex with 300 concubines. He tried fame. He tried vast building projects. He tried pleasures of every imaginable kind. He tried having a family, and reared a son who was a jerk that promptly divided his kingdom after his death, and it never was brought together again. He absolutely found everything worthless because he was functioning on the productivity of the sin nature.

So, Ecclesiastes 1:2 sums it all up for him: "'Vanity of vanities,' said the preacher. Vanity of vanities. All is vanity – nothingness and emptiness.

So, Paul says, "What profit did you have on that side?" The answer is: "Indeed, none."

This is not to say that there are not certain pleasures and certain happiness is provided by the old sin nature. There are such pleasures, but Hebrews 11:25 tells us that those are very temporal, and points out to us that Moses faced this fact, and he recognized it. Hebrews 11:25: "Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season." Hebrews 11:25: pleasures of sin for a season. The good times that you have under the sin nature bear bitter fruit.

Augustine

So, the slaves of the sin nature are restless creatures, flitting from one craze to another, and then back to the same craze again. They find kicks in doing something, but the reaction in time is awful. There is no long-term satisfaction and long-term pleasures in sin. The sin nature provides little personal development of character. Look at the public figures that we're being astounded with constantly who are being brought under indictments for cheating school systems in which they have abused the authority which has been entrusted to them.

The old sin nature doesn't develop your character. It only emphasizes your weaknesses. It results in dehumanizing you as a person. It results in corrupting your values. It provides no stability for future crises. What's going to happen when you lose your health; when financial reverses come into your life; when you find yourself without a job; and, when death hits your circle of family or faces you? The result then is sheer panic. There is no stability in being a slave of the sin nature.

As Paul says: "What benefit did you have?" None. What pleasures you have are temporary. They're passing. And when you look back upon them, you have nothing but shame. And it is one thing to be healthy, and to be going on, and to be meeting the problems of life. But this is what shocks people when they get laid down, and they can't do anything – when health evades them. Ah, suddenly everything comes in a new perspective. And if you don't have a stability in God then, you're going to come all apart – the panic at discovering that you're going to die. If you haven't developed the grace of God within your soul so that you have dying grace capacities, it's going to be all panic. But the people who are slaves of God, and who are functioning on His provisions come to death and say, "It's time for me to make the trip. It's time for me to make the big getaway." And that's what it is. And there's no panic, and there's no coming apart at the seams, and there's no desperation that something horrible is about ready to happen to you, because it isn't.

What happens if the things that make you happy are suddenly denied you? You go to depression, overwhelmed with a sense of meaninglessness, and then you decide it's time for suicide. This is why Christmas is such a bad time of the year. Christmas is a family oriented event, and more people commit suicide at Christmas than any other time of the year, because that is the time when they become overwhelmed with the fact that their lives are nothing – that everybody else around them has something. Everybody else is going, and it's wonderful, and they're happy, and the joy bells are clanking, and with them it's nothing. And that's when they find that being a slave of the sin nature has no profit whatever. The lifestyle of the sin nature is one of shame.

That's why the things that the sin nature characterized by night activity, and by hiding yourself, because you're doing evil. You reduce yourself to an animal instead of a creature who is in the image of God. It is finding humor in dirty stories about sacred objects. The morning-after indulgence of evil is humiliating to recall. You're treated as trash often by others because of the conduct of which you've been guilty.

The Lowest Form of Shame

Death

Spiritual Death, Physical Death, and Eternal Death

2 Thessalonians 1:9: "Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power." Eternal death is going to be in the lake of fire, where you will find yourself alone, separated forever from God. You will have no contact with God at all.

So, when he says, "Death" here, "death" means spiritual; death means physical; and, death means eternal. All that is the consequence of being a slave to the sin nature. What profit? None whatsoever. That's why we had to have Christmas. And that's why we are the Lord's witnesses, because without the information that we have, people are always going to be in the life of shame. People are always going to be in the life that leads to death. You and I have the solution for the way out.

Dr. John E. Danish, 1977

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