There are two books God will go by,
the book of Conscience,
and the book of Scripture:
the one shall be the witness,
and the other the judge.
—Thomas Watson, Heaven Taken by Storm
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 The University community unceasingly promotes plurality, diversity, and tolerance.
Central to the Christian faith is proclaiming that "all the gods of the peoples are idols, but the LORD made the heavens" (Psalm 96:5). One such idol of the peoples is the god of Islam. And yet, in response to the Islamic State's recent reign of terror, we find Muslims, Atheists, and even Christians falling all over themselves to defend Islam from denigration, proclaiming that the Islamic State is not really Islam…  This blog post over on Desiring God does a good job diagnosing and rebuking the worship of the idol of our own hearts.
If you're between the ages of 4 and 28, you probably grew up with a healthy dose of Disney propaganda. Our beloved princes and princesses, brave heroes and cuddly animal friends, steadfastly preach one of our dearest false gospels: "Follow your heart; believe in yourself." Even my high school guidance counselor, when I was trying to figure out where to go to college and what to do with my life, told me in all sincerity, "Just follow your heart." She had faith that if I had faith in me that all my hopes and dreams would come true. And who knows, maybe they would have. But "what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul?" (Mark 8:36) Serve the LORD your God and seek the help of the Holy Spirit in aligning your heart's desires with His perfect will. And yes, that means your desires will have to change. But God can change them. Isn't that wonderful? There's a difference between being simple and being simplistic. The Gospel is simple, but we must be careful not to make it simplistic. Here's A. W. Tozer: The average Christian is like a kitten that has found a ball of yarn and has played with the yarn and romped until it is wrapped in a cocoon. The kitten cannot get itself out. It just lies there and whimpers. Somebody has to come unwind it. We have tried to be simple, but instead of being simple we have simplified—we have not become simple. We are sophisticated and overly complex.  NOTE: This sermon manuscript (edited and polished) is part 4 in this semester's Killing Sin preaching series. Listen to the sermon here. Check out part 1 [read|listen], part 2 [read|listen], part 3 [read|listen], part 5 [read|listen], part 6 [read|listen], part 7 [read|listen], part 8 [read|listen], and part 9 [read|listen]. The Holy Spirit never stops making distinctions. It's been that way from the Creation of the world, right down through history: Light and dark. Male and female. Life and death. Wisdom and foolishness. Righteousness and wickedness. When we come to a Bible passage where God again makes a distinction, drawing a stark line between two opposing sides, we're forced to examine ourselves and judge which side of the line we're on. Romans 8:13 is one of those passages:
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