WEBVTT 00:00:01.360 --> 00:00:03.919 The last couple of weeks we've been talking about 00:00:03.919 --> 00:00:07.879 humanism. I'm wondering if this last few days 00:00:07.879 --> 00:00:10.259 you've been listening to the television and the 00:00:10.259 --> 00:00:15.060 radio to see if you can catch the lie. Have you 00:00:15.060 --> 00:00:22.640 been doing that? I have heard a couple of interesting 00:00:22.640 --> 00:00:25.280 news reports in the last 24 hours as a matter 00:00:25.280 --> 00:00:28.390 of fact. One of them stated that the students 00:00:28.390 --> 00:00:30.510 in a certain high school in Houston, Texas can 00:00:30.510 --> 00:00:33.829 no longer sing the school song, because in the 00:00:33.829 --> 00:00:37.350 school song it says, God bless our school. And 00:00:37.350 --> 00:00:39.409 a court judge in Houston has ruled that that's 00:00:39.409 --> 00:00:42.149 an unconstitutional song, and therefore though 00:00:42.149 --> 00:00:44.369 it can be played by the band, the students are 00:00:44.369 --> 00:00:47.289 not allowed any longer to sing their school song. 00:00:48.729 --> 00:00:51.189 It violates the separation of church and state. 00:00:56.020 --> 00:00:58.619 Graduates from a certain college in the East, 00:00:58.740 --> 00:01:04.819 a Christian college, which prepares young men 00:01:04.819 --> 00:01:07.959 and women to teach at a secondary educational 00:01:07.959 --> 00:01:13.099 level, have been instructed how to teach biology 00:01:13.099 --> 00:01:16.879 from a creationist viewpoint. They've also been 00:01:16.879 --> 00:01:20.180 taught how to teach evolution, but of course 00:01:20.180 --> 00:01:23.780 they will teach that evolution is fallacious. 00:01:24.399 --> 00:01:29.719 It's not a truth theory. Therefore, a panel from 00:01:29.719 --> 00:01:31.840 the State Department of Education that was reviewing 00:01:31.840 --> 00:01:34.680 that college has stated that they will not recommend 00:01:34.680 --> 00:01:36.900 that those teachers be certified to teach biology 00:01:36.900 --> 00:01:39.579 because they will not teach that evolution is 00:01:39.579 --> 00:01:44.319 true. Keep your ears open this week and you will 00:01:44.319 --> 00:01:47.620 pick up the lie of humanism as is being spread 00:01:47.620 --> 00:01:52.680 through the media in so many subtle ways. We 00:01:52.680 --> 00:01:55.000 are looking at Romans chapter 1 as we have talked 00:01:55.000 --> 00:01:58.379 about humanism and the lie Today we're going 00:01:58.379 --> 00:02:01.879 to go back to the text. We took a couple of weeks 00:02:01.879 --> 00:02:05.700 out to study the theme of humanism But today 00:02:05.700 --> 00:02:21.550 we're going to look at verses 24 through 32 Therefore, 00:02:21.650 --> 00:02:24.849 God gave them over in the sinful desires of their 00:02:24.849 --> 00:02:29.969 hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of 00:02:29.969 --> 00:02:33.889 their bodies with one another. They exchanged 00:02:33.889 --> 00:02:38.430 the truth of God for the lie." And that is the 00:02:38.430 --> 00:02:41.909 phrase there that started our thematic study 00:02:41.909 --> 00:02:46.110 of what the lie is in the Bible. It is that man 00:02:46.110 --> 00:02:49.789 can live independently of God. He is self -sufficient 00:02:49.789 --> 00:02:51.669 and able to choose for himself what right and 00:02:51.669 --> 00:02:55.969 wrong are. He exchanged the truth of God for 00:02:55.969 --> 00:02:59.389 the lie and worshiped and served the created 00:02:59.389 --> 00:03:02.789 things rather than the Creator, who is forever 00:03:02.789 --> 00:03:07.770 praised. Amen. Because of this, God gave them 00:03:07.770 --> 00:03:12.810 over to shameful lusts, even though women exchanged 00:03:12.810 --> 00:03:17.949 natural relations for unnatural ones. In the 00:03:17.949 --> 00:03:21.569 same way, the men also abandoned natural relations 00:03:21.569 --> 00:03:27.030 with women and were inflamed with lust, or literally 00:03:27.030 --> 00:03:33.169 they burned themselves out with lust for one 00:03:33.169 --> 00:03:38.729 another. Men committed indecent acts with other 00:03:38.729 --> 00:03:43.210 men and received in themselves the due penalty 00:03:43.210 --> 00:03:48.659 for their perversion. Furthermore, since they 00:03:48.659 --> 00:03:51.240 did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge 00:03:51.240 --> 00:03:55.500 of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind 00:03:55.500 --> 00:04:00.000 to do what ought not to be done. They have become 00:04:00.000 --> 00:04:03.919 filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed, 00:04:04.259 --> 00:04:09.699 and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, 00:04:10.599 --> 00:04:17.089 strife, deceit, and malice. They are gossips, 00:04:17.410 --> 00:04:23.889 slanderers, God -haters, insolent, arrogant, 00:04:24.230 --> 00:04:29.209 and boastful. They invent ways of doing evil. 00:04:30.569 --> 00:04:34.589 They disobey their parents. They are senseless, 00:04:35.209 --> 00:04:40.110 faithless, heartless, and ruthless. Although 00:04:40.110 --> 00:04:44.019 they know God's righteous decree that those who 00:04:44.019 --> 00:04:48.220 do such things deserve death, they not only continue 00:04:48.220 --> 00:04:52.839 to do these very things, but also approve of 00:04:52.839 --> 00:04:58.560 those who practice them. What an amazing paragraph 00:04:58.560 --> 00:05:01.120 in light of our society today, wouldn't you agree? 00:05:04.040 --> 00:05:09.180 Our subject today is when God gives up. Now God 00:05:09.180 --> 00:05:12.800 does not give up in the human sense of that thought. 00:05:13.420 --> 00:05:19.139 out of weariness or frustration or fear. But 00:05:19.139 --> 00:05:25.100 he gives up or he gives over in a judicial sense. 00:05:26.519 --> 00:05:29.199 Three times you'll notice in our text it says 00:05:29.199 --> 00:05:35.120 God gave them over. It is an act of God this 00:05:35.120 --> 00:05:40.420 giving up or giving over a society. Now we see 00:05:40.420 --> 00:05:42.920 it used a couple of other times in the Bible. 00:05:44.319 --> 00:05:51.579 Back in Psalm 81, it is used of Israel. And there 00:05:51.579 --> 00:05:55.620 in the Psalm, verses 11 and 12 state, But my 00:05:55.620 --> 00:05:59.300 people would not listen to me. Israel would not 00:05:59.300 --> 00:06:04.300 submit to me. So I gave them over to their stubborn 00:06:04.300 --> 00:06:10.300 hearts to follow their own devices. What a judgment 00:06:10.300 --> 00:06:12.180 from God that He would allow any of us to do 00:06:12.180 --> 00:06:16.110 that. But you'll notice that again Israel sinned 00:06:16.110 --> 00:06:20.550 against the light that she had. Deliberate rebellion. 00:06:21.329 --> 00:06:25.730 Refusal to obey led God to give them over to 00:06:25.730 --> 00:06:28.410 their own stubborn hearts to follow their own 00:06:28.410 --> 00:06:33.930 devices. That's judgment. It is used again in 00:06:33.930 --> 00:06:37.069 the book of Acts regarding God's Old Testament 00:06:37.069 --> 00:06:41.990 people. In Acts chapter 7, the magnificent sermon 00:06:41.990 --> 00:06:46.860 by Stephen. before he was executed. And in this 00:06:46.860 --> 00:06:50.759 chapter he outlines for us the history of the 00:06:50.759 --> 00:06:53.660 nation of Israel. We're going to break into the 00:06:53.660 --> 00:07:13.569 middle of that in verse 41, which says, To what? 00:07:14.350 --> 00:07:18.110 To idols. The very same process as we see in 00:07:18.110 --> 00:07:20.430 Romans 1 when it refers to primarily, they are 00:07:20.430 --> 00:07:26.129 the pagan gentiles. It goes on to say, but God 00:07:26.129 --> 00:07:30.189 turned away and gave them over to the worship 00:07:30.189 --> 00:07:33.230 of the heavenly bodies. And this agrees with 00:07:33.230 --> 00:07:34.790 what is written in the book of the prophets and 00:07:34.790 --> 00:07:37.529 he quotes from the Old Testament. And so again 00:07:37.529 --> 00:07:42.959 we see God judging a nation because of its refusal 00:07:42.959 --> 00:07:47.540 to obey the light that it had. He gave them over 00:07:47.540 --> 00:07:50.139 to idolatry. In this case, it was the worship 00:07:50.139 --> 00:07:54.939 of the heavenly bodies or astrology. When men 00:07:54.939 --> 00:07:57.899 reject the light that God gives to them, his 00:07:57.899 --> 00:08:02.160 judgment is absolutely certain. He will give 00:08:02.160 --> 00:08:05.660 them over. The idea in that means that he gives 00:08:05.660 --> 00:08:10.889 them over to another's power. or use. It means 00:08:10.889 --> 00:08:14.769 that he takes his hands off and allows the willful 00:08:14.769 --> 00:08:19.410 rejection of himself to produce its own natural 00:08:19.410 --> 00:08:25.529 results. The divine restraint of God upon mankind's 00:08:25.529 --> 00:08:31.050 sin is lifted. That is God's judgment. And therefore 00:08:31.050 --> 00:08:35.350 that sin begins to produce its own wickedness 00:08:35.350 --> 00:08:41.679 and its own judgment. William Newell and his 00:08:41.679 --> 00:08:43.580 commentary on Romans, which is one of those, 00:08:43.580 --> 00:08:46.799 by the way, that we offer to you in the bookstore. 00:08:46.899 --> 00:08:51.840 It's a very fine commentary written about 50 00:08:51.840 --> 00:08:54.019 years ago, and you can see that in some of the 00:08:54.019 --> 00:08:56.580 comments that he makes. He was concerned about 00:08:56.580 --> 00:08:59.860 the wickedness back in the 30s. If he were alive 00:08:59.860 --> 00:09:02.039 today, he'd have to rewrite his commentary in 00:09:02.039 --> 00:09:06.019 some spots because of the degeneration in our 00:09:06.019 --> 00:09:09.750 society in the last 50 years. But Newell says 00:09:09.750 --> 00:09:12.370 this, Notice that when man is delivered from 00:09:12.370 --> 00:09:17.350 divine restraint, the lusts of his heart plunge 00:09:17.350 --> 00:09:22.309 him into ever deeper bodily uncleanness and bodily 00:09:22.309 --> 00:09:26.730 vileness. History backs up this fact with terrible 00:09:26.730 --> 00:09:29.990 relentlessness. I believe that this is the wrath 00:09:29.990 --> 00:09:33.190 of God spoken of in verse 18 when it says, The 00:09:33.190 --> 00:09:37.940 wrath of God is being revealed from heaven. against 00:09:37.940 --> 00:09:42.000 all the godlessness and wickedness of men. It 00:09:42.000 --> 00:09:45.539 does not say God's wrath will be revealed, though 00:09:45.539 --> 00:09:48.840 it will be in its consummating sense in hell, 00:09:49.519 --> 00:09:52.200 in the eternal lake of fire, but it says that 00:09:52.200 --> 00:09:55.399 God's wrath is right now being revealed, in the 00:09:55.399 --> 00:09:59.019 process of time, in history, in the outflow of 00:09:59.019 --> 00:10:01.759 human events. God's wrath is now being revealed 00:10:01.759 --> 00:10:04.039 is a thought, and I believe that what he says 00:10:04.039 --> 00:10:07.009 later in the chapter defines that. It is God 00:10:07.009 --> 00:10:09.950 lifting His divine restraint over man's sin, 00:10:10.090 --> 00:10:12.870 and then the results that take place serve as 00:10:12.870 --> 00:10:19.269 God's judgment upon man. As we review the degenerate 00:10:19.269 --> 00:10:22.529 and wicked condition of man separated from God, 00:10:23.070 --> 00:10:26.909 let none of us think of himself self -righteously. 00:10:27.590 --> 00:10:31.190 Because, folks, this is the same family, the 00:10:31.190 --> 00:10:36.210 same race that we're all born into. These verses 00:10:36.210 --> 00:10:39.429 are perhaps some of the most terrible in all 00:10:39.429 --> 00:10:45.950 the Bible. They describe mankind abandoned by 00:10:45.950 --> 00:10:53.830 God. I believe that these verses refer to that 00:10:53.830 --> 00:10:57.049 civilization before the Flood, as I've said before, 00:10:57.149 --> 00:11:01.629 but these verses can well apply to any civilization 00:11:01.629 --> 00:11:06.370 since then. For every civilization goes the same 00:11:06.370 --> 00:11:10.029 way when it turns against God. There is no mistaking 00:11:10.029 --> 00:11:13.309 it that you see our civilization, the Western 00:11:13.309 --> 00:11:18.330 civilization, in these verses today. Our text 00:11:18.330 --> 00:11:20.950 gives us insight to help us understand the righteous 00:11:20.950 --> 00:11:25.669 judgment of God upon such as these. Notice first 00:11:25.669 --> 00:11:30.090 of all why God gives up, verses 24 through 27. 00:11:31.309 --> 00:11:36.750 It is because men knew God, but as he says in 00:11:36.750 --> 00:11:42.750 earlier verses, they suppressed the truth and 00:11:42.750 --> 00:11:49.149 they rejected the knowledge of God. So in verse 00:11:49.149 --> 00:11:53.149 21 we see, although they knew God, they glorified 00:11:53.149 --> 00:11:58.970 him not as God, nor gave thanks to him. Those 00:11:58.970 --> 00:12:03.370 are the first two steps away from God. Step three, 00:12:04.549 --> 00:12:08.570 their thinking became futile and their foolish 00:12:08.570 --> 00:12:12.470 hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to 00:12:12.470 --> 00:12:16.830 be wise, they became fools and exchanged the 00:12:16.830 --> 00:12:19.409 glory of the immortal God for images made to 00:12:19.409 --> 00:12:22.029 look like mortal man, birds, animals, reptiles. 00:12:22.570 --> 00:12:25.169 And so we see there are six steps away from God. 00:12:25.610 --> 00:12:29.750 Why does God give up on a society, on a civilization? 00:12:30.570 --> 00:12:33.529 Because it transgresses against him and takes 00:12:33.529 --> 00:12:38.009 these six steps. We today are a nation of idolaters. 00:12:39.289 --> 00:12:42.309 We are worshipping the most wicked idol of all, 00:12:42.350 --> 00:12:45.090 and that is ourselves, and the name of the religion 00:12:45.090 --> 00:12:50.509 is humanism. Man who turns from God always is 00:12:50.509 --> 00:12:54.909 an idolater, whether that idol be the state, 00:12:56.299 --> 00:13:02.080 or whether it be a philosophy or an idol of wood 00:13:02.080 --> 00:13:09.320 or stone or money or material possessions or 00:13:09.320 --> 00:13:14.559 oneself. A man who turns from God always becomes 00:13:14.559 --> 00:13:19.120 an idolater. Man is a religious creature. And 00:13:19.120 --> 00:13:21.740 when God is removed from his rightful place, 00:13:21.759 --> 00:13:26.399 something must fill it. Regarding idolatry, There 00:13:26.399 --> 00:13:28.220 are a couple of important statements. First, 00:13:28.379 --> 00:13:31.860 a man will always become like what he worships. 00:13:32.179 --> 00:13:34.559 So if a man worships money, he will become greedy. 00:13:36.279 --> 00:13:38.960 If a man worships himself, he will become arrogant, 00:13:39.759 --> 00:13:43.120 and so on. Of course, that's true of the Christian, 00:13:43.299 --> 00:13:47.059 too. What we worship, we become like. If we worship 00:13:47.059 --> 00:13:50.919 to God, then we become like the Lord Jesus Christ. 00:13:52.169 --> 00:13:55.309 The second thing that I would note about idolatry 00:13:55.309 --> 00:14:01.350 is that it inevitably leads to immorality. Now 00:14:01.350 --> 00:14:05.669 we see that in our text. You perhaps have noticed 00:14:05.669 --> 00:14:08.830 that there were three times that the idea of 00:14:08.830 --> 00:14:14.529 exchanging something was mentioned here. It's 00:14:14.529 --> 00:14:17.490 mentioned in verse 23 where it says, they exchanged 00:14:17.490 --> 00:14:20.389 the glory of the immortal God for images. That's 00:14:20.389 --> 00:14:24.000 the first exchange. The second one is in verse 00:14:24.000 --> 00:14:28.639 25, and this is a step down. It says they exchanged 00:14:28.639 --> 00:14:33.840 the truth of God for the lie. And then in verse 00:14:33.840 --> 00:14:38.639 26, we see the final one. Even the women exchanged 00:14:38.639 --> 00:14:42.299 natural relations for unnatural ones. And then 00:14:42.299 --> 00:14:46.659 it says in the same way, the men also. And so 00:14:46.659 --> 00:14:50.700 natural sexual desires are exchanged for unnatural. 00:14:50.970 --> 00:14:55.730 sexual desires. Those steps are inevitably found 00:14:55.730 --> 00:14:59.029 in idolatry. And you'll notice it says, because 00:14:59.029 --> 00:15:05.070 of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. 00:15:05.649 --> 00:15:07.950 Something that is honorable is something that 00:15:07.950 --> 00:15:10.889 gets its proper respect. Shameful is just the 00:15:10.889 --> 00:15:14.210 opposite of honorable. What it means is that 00:15:14.210 --> 00:15:17.700 the lusts controlling these here caused them 00:15:17.700 --> 00:15:21.019 to improperly value the sacredness of the body, 00:15:21.440 --> 00:15:25.120 and thus to use it in an inappropriate manner, 00:15:25.600 --> 00:15:29.799 in a way that God does not intend. And so there 00:15:29.799 --> 00:15:33.679 is this perversion, this twisting, the exchange 00:15:33.679 --> 00:15:39.019 of God for idols, the truth for the live, for 00:15:39.019 --> 00:15:41.740 what God has created to be beautiful, and an 00:15:41.740 --> 00:15:45.179 expression of love, and a consummating sense. 00:15:46.050 --> 00:15:48.590 mankind exchanges for that which is unnatural 00:15:48.590 --> 00:15:53.269 and shameful. That's why God gives up. As I've 00:15:53.269 --> 00:15:55.950 said three times, it says, God gave them over. 00:15:56.730 --> 00:16:00.870 In verse 24, it seems to mean that God gave them 00:16:00.870 --> 00:16:05.090 over to cultic immorality. In other words, to 00:16:05.090 --> 00:16:07.730 immorality mingled together with their religion. 00:16:08.470 --> 00:16:11.929 You'll notice it's in the same context with idolatry 00:16:11.929 --> 00:16:15.460 that he says, therefore, God gave them over in 00:16:15.460 --> 00:16:18.039 the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual 00:16:18.039 --> 00:16:24.659 impurity. Particularly in that day, there was 00:16:24.659 --> 00:16:28.960 immorality in connection with the cult, the cultic 00:16:28.960 --> 00:16:34.259 pagan worship. There were fertility cults, for 00:16:34.259 --> 00:16:40.940 example, in which sexual relations with temple 00:16:40.940 --> 00:16:46.210 prostitutes without to encourage the gods to 00:16:46.210 --> 00:16:50.330 do the same, and therefore to cause an increase 00:16:50.330 --> 00:16:55.389 in the families and crops and herds of the mortals. 00:16:56.250 --> 00:16:58.690 Paul wrote this book of Romans from the city 00:16:58.690 --> 00:17:01.409 of Corinth, and there they worshipped Aphrodite 00:17:01.409 --> 00:17:06.150 or Venus, the false goddess, and part of the 00:17:06.150 --> 00:17:09.569 worship of her were these temple prostitutes. 00:17:11.079 --> 00:17:13.460 And that's the reason that it was a part of it. 00:17:13.480 --> 00:17:16.599 It was a fertility cult, and they felt that in 00:17:16.599 --> 00:17:19.140 this way they would encourage the gods to give 00:17:19.140 --> 00:17:22.200 them increase. No wonder it says that their foolish 00:17:22.200 --> 00:17:26.480 hearts were darkened. God gave them over to that 00:17:26.480 --> 00:17:29.599 kind of immorality. And then in verse 26, another 00:17:29.599 --> 00:17:34.220 step, God gives them over to perversion and general 00:17:34.220 --> 00:17:38.960 immorality. D .H. Gifford has said, the sin against 00:17:38.960 --> 00:17:43.240 God's nature entails as its penalty sin against 00:17:43.240 --> 00:17:46.619 one's own nature. In other words, they turned 00:17:46.619 --> 00:17:49.579 away from the true God and here they turn away 00:17:49.579 --> 00:17:53.319 from the true use of the creative ability that 00:17:53.319 --> 00:17:56.880 God has given us sexually to that which is false 00:17:56.880 --> 00:18:01.099 and unnatural and perverted. It goes on to state 00:18:01.099 --> 00:18:05.700 here in verse 27 that they received in themselves 00:18:05.700 --> 00:18:11.519 the due penalty for their perversion. That suggests 00:18:11.519 --> 00:18:16.599 that the punishment is in keeping with the offense. 00:18:18.619 --> 00:18:20.940 E. F. Harrison states in his commentary, sexual 00:18:20.940 --> 00:18:26.079 deviation contains in itself a recompense, a 00:18:26.079 --> 00:18:29.180 punishment for the abandonment of God and his 00:18:29.180 --> 00:18:32.720 ways. And I believe that can be illustrated well. 00:18:33.579 --> 00:18:36.099 For example, there are some unique diseases and 00:18:36.099 --> 00:18:41.039 viruses associated primarily with immorality 00:18:41.039 --> 00:18:48.740 and particularly with sodomy. VD, in its most 00:18:48.740 --> 00:18:52.119 recent form, is almost uncontrollable, except 00:18:52.119 --> 00:18:54.980 by the new penicillin that man has put out to 00:18:54.980 --> 00:18:58.799 try to control it. In recent days, there's been 00:18:58.799 --> 00:19:03.160 a lot of talk about the new herpes virus, which 00:19:03.160 --> 00:19:06.039 is associated primarily with immorality, but 00:19:06.039 --> 00:19:10.890 not entirely. You see, God has built into these 00:19:10.890 --> 00:19:15.289 very sins their own judgment. And though man 00:19:15.289 --> 00:19:18.670 may attempt to control them, that is these diseases, 00:19:20.190 --> 00:19:22.529 he only controls them for a while until a new 00:19:22.529 --> 00:19:24.890 strain that's more powerful appears and man's 00:19:24.890 --> 00:19:27.730 medicine no longer controls. And that will keep 00:19:27.730 --> 00:19:29.890 happening. Man will never be able to control 00:19:29.890 --> 00:19:34.730 these judgments from God. Of course, in addition, 00:19:35.619 --> 00:19:40.940 There are certain kinds of cancers that appear 00:19:40.940 --> 00:19:44.519 predominantly with those who practice this kind 00:19:44.519 --> 00:19:47.880 of immorality. So God has built right into the 00:19:47.880 --> 00:19:51.920 very physical makeup of things judgment when 00:19:51.920 --> 00:19:55.019 man becomes perverse and immoral in the sense 00:19:55.019 --> 00:19:58.720 that these verses are talking about. And then 00:19:58.720 --> 00:20:02.880 this does not even speak of the emotional and 00:20:02.880 --> 00:20:06.740 mental problems that come because of these sins. 00:20:07.579 --> 00:20:09.859 And again I repeat, let no one tell you that 00:20:09.859 --> 00:20:15.960 these sins are committed because people have 00:20:15.960 --> 00:20:18.039 no control over themselves. They're just born 00:20:18.039 --> 00:20:21.680 that way. That's an attempt for people to escape 00:20:21.680 --> 00:20:25.579 responsibility. But this kind of perversion is 00:20:25.579 --> 00:20:29.940 a choice. It is a choice that's made more natural 00:20:29.940 --> 00:20:32.990 because men turn away from God. but it nonetheless 00:20:32.990 --> 00:20:37.369 is a choice, and connected with it is its own 00:20:37.369 --> 00:20:40.369 judgment. And then finally in verse 28 it says, 00:20:40.650 --> 00:20:45.029 God gave them over to a depraved mind. The idea 00:20:45.029 --> 00:20:48.029 is that eventually men are unable to distinguish 00:20:48.029 --> 00:20:52.789 between right and wrong. They lose that sense 00:20:52.789 --> 00:20:57.430 of conscience, that ability to discern what is 00:20:57.430 --> 00:21:01.380 correct and what is perverse. and so that after 00:21:01.380 --> 00:21:07.660 a while everything becomes the same. Wiest in 00:21:07.660 --> 00:21:11.500 his commentary on Romans says, the human race 00:21:11.500 --> 00:21:14.960 put God to the test for the purpose of approving 00:21:14.960 --> 00:21:17.240 him should he meet the specifications which he 00:21:17.240 --> 00:21:21.559 laid down for a God who would be to his liking. 00:21:22.759 --> 00:21:25.359 In finding that he did not meet those specifications, 00:21:25.619 --> 00:21:29.200 the human race refused to approve him as God. 00:21:29.339 --> 00:21:32.740 to be worshipped, or to have Him in its knowledge. 00:21:34.180 --> 00:21:38.079 The human race put God on trial, and because 00:21:38.079 --> 00:21:41.400 it rejected Him after trial, God gave it a trial 00:21:41.400 --> 00:21:45.920 -less mind, a depraved mind in other words, one 00:21:45.920 --> 00:21:48.599 incapable of discharging the functions of the 00:21:48.599 --> 00:21:52.079 mind with respect to the things of salvation. 00:21:53.980 --> 00:21:57.380 Virtually they pronounced the true God disapproved. 00:21:57.529 --> 00:22:00.569 and would have none of him, and he gave them 00:22:00.569 --> 00:22:05.250 up to a disapproved mind, a mind which has no 00:22:05.250 --> 00:22:10.829 mind and cannot discharge the functions of one, 00:22:11.369 --> 00:22:14.450 a mind in which the divine distinctions of right 00:22:14.450 --> 00:22:17.990 and wrong are confused and lost, so that God's 00:22:17.990 --> 00:22:25.619 condemnation cannot but fall on it at last. into 00:22:25.619 --> 00:22:30.160 his commentary by Dr. Alfred. Because they reprobated 00:22:30.160 --> 00:22:32.599 the knowledge of God, God gave them over to a 00:22:32.599 --> 00:22:40.880 reprobate mind. That's why God gives up. That's 00:22:40.880 --> 00:22:44.359 why God gives over. Because men turn away from 00:22:44.359 --> 00:22:51.000 him. Let us think in verses 28 through 32 about 00:22:51.000 --> 00:22:55.980 this idea of when God gives up. I think it's 00:22:55.980 --> 00:22:58.559 important to understand that not until a certain 00:22:58.559 --> 00:23:01.700 point of reprobation is reached does God give 00:23:01.700 --> 00:23:10.380 up. God is a patient and merciful God. He is 00:23:10.380 --> 00:23:15.339 long -suffering towards sinners. It is not until 00:23:15.339 --> 00:23:18.039 a certain point is reached, I suppose, which 00:23:18.039 --> 00:23:21.839 only He knows, that it then becomes too late. 00:23:23.740 --> 00:23:26.660 I speak here in the sense of a society, not of 00:23:26.660 --> 00:23:29.460 the individual. I do think there's a point at 00:23:29.460 --> 00:23:34.460 which the individual's salvation is impossible 00:23:34.460 --> 00:23:37.440 because he hardens his heart and hardens his 00:23:37.440 --> 00:23:40.660 heart against God until it's too late. But here 00:23:40.660 --> 00:23:43.740 we're thinking of God's turning over of a civilization, 00:23:44.299 --> 00:23:49.099 of a society to judgment. When that certain point 00:23:49.099 --> 00:23:52.460 comes, God is finished with it. I think we can 00:23:52.460 --> 00:23:55.140 illustrate the fact that God is patient. If you'll 00:23:55.140 --> 00:23:57.640 turn back to Genesis with me, to chapter 15. 00:23:59.299 --> 00:24:01.460 As you're turning there, I would remind you that 00:24:01.460 --> 00:24:04.279 in those days before the flood, God was patient. 00:24:06.000 --> 00:24:11.819 He sent Enoch among them to preach. God was patient 00:24:11.819 --> 00:24:16.680 for them an extra 120 years. Long suffering with 00:24:16.680 --> 00:24:19.160 them, and then finally judgment came. They went 00:24:19.160 --> 00:24:22.650 beyond the point of no return. But in Genesis 00:24:22.650 --> 00:24:27.630 chapter 15, God is speaking to Abraham. He talks 00:24:27.630 --> 00:24:30.589 to him about the land that he's going to give 00:24:30.589 --> 00:24:36.950 to his descendants. It says in verse 13 of Genesis 00:24:36.950 --> 00:24:40.710 15, then the Lord said to him, know for certain 00:24:40.710 --> 00:24:44.089 that your descendants will be strangers in a 00:24:44.089 --> 00:24:47.849 country not their own, and they will be enslaved 00:24:47.849 --> 00:24:50.269 and mistreated for a hundred years. What was 00:24:50.269 --> 00:24:56.079 that? But I will punish the nation they serve 00:24:56.079 --> 00:24:59.880 as slaves, and afterward they will come out with 00:24:59.880 --> 00:25:03.680 great possessions." Read the early chapters of 00:25:03.680 --> 00:25:21.039 Exodus to see this fulfilled. And notice why 00:25:21.039 --> 00:25:23.220 God does not give it to Abraham now, at least 00:25:23.220 --> 00:25:28.460 in part. For the sin of the Amorites has not 00:25:28.460 --> 00:25:34.180 yet reached its full measure. God was patient 00:25:34.180 --> 00:25:40.099 with that pagan group, the Amorites. He was long 00:25:40.099 --> 00:25:43.539 suffering toward them. At this point that he 00:25:43.539 --> 00:25:46.059 speaks to Abraham, the point of no return had 00:25:46.059 --> 00:25:50.329 not been reached. And so God says, in four generations 00:25:50.329 --> 00:25:53.950 the time will be up and I will allow you to come 00:25:53.950 --> 00:25:57.410 in and massacre them, which they did when they 00:25:57.410 --> 00:26:00.150 conquered the land. And they did that by the 00:26:00.150 --> 00:26:07.609 command of God. We might think that the Amorites 00:26:07.609 --> 00:26:10.849 deserved judgment at that time, and in a sense 00:26:10.849 --> 00:26:15.509 they did. The pagan religions of the Amorites 00:26:15.509 --> 00:26:19.349 were disgraceful and shameful. Not only was their 00:26:19.349 --> 00:26:22.710 immorality involved, but they actually had human 00:26:22.710 --> 00:26:27.130 sacrifices. You can go to Israel today and they 00:26:27.130 --> 00:26:29.329 will point out at least one altar on which humans 00:26:29.329 --> 00:26:32.789 were sacrificed thousands of years ago by these 00:26:32.789 --> 00:26:37.950 people that were there in Abraham's day. Not 00:26:37.950 --> 00:26:40.410 only did they offer human sacrifices, but they 00:26:40.410 --> 00:26:44.710 offered their babies up in worship to their gods. 00:26:47.559 --> 00:26:50.119 And we wonder why God's patience waited, but 00:26:50.119 --> 00:26:53.200 I tell you something, before we judged the Amorites 00:26:53.200 --> 00:26:55.500 too strongly, we had better look upon the pagan 00:26:55.500 --> 00:26:58.839 altars of our own society and see the millions 00:26:58.839 --> 00:27:00.880 of babies that have been offered up in the altar 00:27:00.880 --> 00:27:03.440 of humanism since the Supreme Court decision 00:27:03.440 --> 00:27:10.660 of 1973. We have human sacrifice in our society, 00:27:11.200 --> 00:27:15.779 too. The bodies are not found on altars. They're 00:27:15.779 --> 00:27:19.039 found in garbage bags, be thrown in trash heaps, 00:27:19.880 --> 00:27:26.460 and burned. We are as guilty as the Amorites 00:27:26.460 --> 00:27:30.680 ever were of false religion and human sacrifice 00:27:30.680 --> 00:27:34.819 as a part of that. And just as surely as God's 00:27:34.819 --> 00:27:37.900 judgment ultimately came upon the Amorites, so 00:27:37.900 --> 00:27:41.380 God's judgment will come upon our society. And 00:27:41.380 --> 00:27:43.700 I believe that we are seeing the beginning of 00:27:43.700 --> 00:27:48.559 that today in the increase of immorality and 00:27:48.559 --> 00:27:53.039 in such practical things as our economic distress. 00:27:55.500 --> 00:27:58.519 God does ultimately give up on a civilization. 00:28:00.440 --> 00:28:02.319 What we have pictured here in Romans chapter 00:28:02.319 --> 00:28:09.210 1 is the chaos in a society due to man's rejection 00:28:09.210 --> 00:28:14.549 of God and God's rejection of man. It begins 00:28:14.549 --> 00:28:17.690 with a condition of the mind. Notice in verse 00:28:17.690 --> 00:28:21.650 28, they did not think it worthwhile to retain 00:28:21.650 --> 00:28:24.089 the knowledge of God. He gave them over to a 00:28:24.089 --> 00:28:28.930 depraved mind to do what ought not to be done. 00:28:29.829 --> 00:28:33.609 So it begins with a mindset that cancels out 00:28:33.609 --> 00:28:37.839 God. This verse, as well as some others in the 00:28:37.839 --> 00:28:40.279 Bible, prove to us that sins are not the result 00:28:40.279 --> 00:28:44.759 of environmental conditions or poverty, but sins 00:28:44.759 --> 00:28:47.559 result because of the darkness of the inner man. 00:28:48.920 --> 00:28:51.279 It's out of that inner darkness that all the 00:28:51.279 --> 00:28:56.940 vile things in our society comes from. It begins 00:28:56.940 --> 00:29:00.079 with a mindset, with the inner person, and then 00:29:00.079 --> 00:29:02.480 it proceeds to actions which are not fitting 00:29:02.480 --> 00:29:05.859 in God's universe. especially not fitted to man 00:29:05.859 --> 00:29:08.619 who's created in the image of God. And notice 00:29:08.619 --> 00:29:10.859 that he says that this kind of a society that 00:29:10.859 --> 00:29:13.279 God gives up on is filled with these things. 00:29:13.319 --> 00:29:17.660 There's no limit to it. Now what he says does 00:29:17.660 --> 00:29:21.140 not mean that everybody does all of these things, 00:29:21.339 --> 00:29:23.799 but that all do some of them and that all are 00:29:23.799 --> 00:29:29.380 capable of all. He begins to list in verse 29, 00:29:32.500 --> 00:29:36.140 specific sins that are found in a society that 00:29:36.140 --> 00:29:39.900 rejects God and which God rejects. The first 00:29:39.900 --> 00:29:44.000 word is wickedness. That refers to injustice. 00:29:45.180 --> 00:29:48.240 It's like the unjust decisions that a trial judge 00:29:48.240 --> 00:29:52.380 would make, for example. It means self -centeredness. 00:29:53.680 --> 00:29:56.839 It is the claiming of one's own rights and refusal 00:29:56.839 --> 00:30:00.180 to allow the rights of others. It is absence 00:30:00.180 --> 00:30:06.970 of justice. Because man is wicked, laws in society 00:30:06.970 --> 00:30:11.170 are essential to counteract and to contain the 00:30:11.170 --> 00:30:15.170 wickedness so that disruption in society is minimized. 00:30:16.049 --> 00:30:20.430 But when the laws begin to be diminished, and 00:30:20.430 --> 00:30:23.450 the effect of them, the penalty of them, begins 00:30:23.450 --> 00:30:26.490 to be diminished, then man's wickedness begins 00:30:26.490 --> 00:30:28.349 to be expressed more, and that's what we're seeing 00:30:28.349 --> 00:30:34.509 these days. The second word is evil. They've 00:30:34.509 --> 00:30:36.910 become filled with every kind of wickedness and 00:30:36.910 --> 00:30:40.450 evil. The word here is that which is vile and 00:30:40.450 --> 00:30:43.569 sinister. It's the word that describes Satan 00:30:43.569 --> 00:30:46.410 in Ephesians chapter 6 when it calls him the 00:30:46.410 --> 00:30:52.369 evil one. Sinister. And then the word greed. 00:30:53.910 --> 00:30:59.210 That is the urge for acquiring more. The claiming 00:30:59.500 --> 00:31:04.579 of more than is one's due. Gaining from another's 00:31:04.579 --> 00:31:07.460 loss means to defraud and to take advantage of 00:31:07.460 --> 00:31:13.420 other people. And then the word depravity. Dr. 00:31:13.700 --> 00:31:18.039 Trench says that it is the evil habit of mind. 00:31:18.680 --> 00:31:22.240 In other words, it is a mindset that is evil 00:31:22.240 --> 00:31:25.980 and it attributes evil motives to others without 00:31:25.980 --> 00:31:30.319 a cause. It simply leads into others' actions, 00:31:30.440 --> 00:31:34.039 that which is evil. Jefferson wrote to Madison 00:31:34.039 --> 00:31:38.339 this interesting statement. Maris will always 00:31:38.339 --> 00:31:43.579 find bad motives for good actions. That's what 00:31:43.579 --> 00:31:47.140 he's talking about here. Seeing evil everywhere. 00:31:48.039 --> 00:31:50.740 Reading into even good actions, bad motives. 00:31:51.579 --> 00:31:53.839 We had a phone call yesterday from someone who 00:31:53.839 --> 00:31:56.859 was quite upset about a person from this church 00:31:56.859 --> 00:31:59.119 coming to her door to deliver any literature 00:31:59.119 --> 00:32:02.559 about our church and accused us of all kinds 00:32:02.559 --> 00:32:05.839 of evil motives in that. Well, that's the kind 00:32:05.839 --> 00:32:08.539 of thing he's talking about here, depravity. 00:32:09.559 --> 00:32:15.420 And then he says they're full of envy. Envy is 00:32:15.420 --> 00:32:19.319 hate that is aimed at those who possess what 00:32:19.319 --> 00:32:24.769 we do not have. It was out of envy that the Lord 00:32:24.769 --> 00:32:27.549 Jesus Christ was turned over to Pilate for a 00:32:27.549 --> 00:32:32.650 crucifixion. Pilate knew that. The Jews hated 00:32:32.650 --> 00:32:37.869 him. They were envious of his power, of his position 00:32:37.869 --> 00:32:41.569 with the people. The Oxford dictionary says it 00:32:41.569 --> 00:32:46.210 is to feel displeasure and ill will at the superiority 00:32:46.210 --> 00:32:50.339 of another. in happiness, success, reputation, 00:32:50.579 --> 00:32:54.059 or the possession of anything desirable. That's 00:32:54.059 --> 00:32:58.859 envy. And then, full of murder. A society that 00:32:58.859 --> 00:33:01.680 turns from God is one that is full of murder. 00:33:01.980 --> 00:33:03.680 That means to take the life of another, and that 00:33:03.680 --> 00:33:05.940 often goes with envy, doesn't it? You remember 00:33:05.940 --> 00:33:08.799 the first murder that took place? Envy was a 00:33:08.799 --> 00:33:13.680 part of that, wasn't it? And then, full of strife, 00:33:14.079 --> 00:33:17.849 that is wrangling or contention. No peace. People 00:33:17.849 --> 00:33:24.130 just constantly at one another. Deceit is the 00:33:24.130 --> 00:33:28.569 next word. Learn what it means to bait a fish. 00:33:32.470 --> 00:33:36.150 So much of our commerce in our advertising these 00:33:36.150 --> 00:33:42.089 days is based upon this concept of baiting. The 00:33:42.089 --> 00:33:46.589 old bait and switch plan used by some people. 00:33:49.190 --> 00:33:51.869 Advertising is very sophisticated in our day 00:33:51.869 --> 00:33:55.029 so that our subliminal thoughts are affected 00:33:55.029 --> 00:33:58.569 by it. In very subtle ways advertisers get their 00:33:58.569 --> 00:34:04.109 message through. I noticed this last week in 00:34:04.109 --> 00:34:06.750 one advertisement for independent insurance agents 00:34:06.750 --> 00:34:11.650 and the gentleman who does the commercial while 00:34:11.650 --> 00:34:16.150 he is talking has a pair of handcuffs and by 00:34:16.150 --> 00:34:19.539 what he does with the handcuffs suggests to you 00:34:19.539 --> 00:34:22.679 subconsciously that one who is not an independent 00:34:22.679 --> 00:34:27.059 insurance agent is locked in to his company and 00:34:27.059 --> 00:34:29.820 can't give you the best deal from another company. 00:34:31.400 --> 00:34:34.800 That happens all the time in advertising. The 00:34:34.800 --> 00:34:38.179 idea of deceit here is more than just trickery, 00:34:38.320 --> 00:34:41.039 it's the idea that we just talked about. And 00:34:41.039 --> 00:34:44.820 then malice is the next word. Full of malice. 00:34:44.880 --> 00:34:48.760 The idea is bad character. Depravity of heart 00:34:48.760 --> 00:34:53.199 and life. Then in the last part of verse 29, 00:34:53.239 --> 00:34:58.639 he says, there are gossips. To gossip means to 00:34:58.639 --> 00:35:02.280 speak in one's ear, literally. The idea here 00:35:02.280 --> 00:35:07.179 is secret slander, the peddling of evil reports. 00:35:08.340 --> 00:35:12.539 Christendom said, slander is worse than cannibalism. 00:35:13.659 --> 00:35:18.570 It's very similar to cannibalism. Jeremy Taylor, 00:35:18.809 --> 00:35:21.710 great preacher, one of the sermon said, slander 00:35:21.710 --> 00:35:25.449 renders in pieces the very heart and vital parts 00:35:25.449 --> 00:35:29.349 of charity. It makes an evil man party and witness 00:35:29.349 --> 00:35:34.630 and judge and executioner of the innocent. If 00:35:34.630 --> 00:35:37.449 there's anything that we ought to flee from is 00:35:37.449 --> 00:35:41.190 these kinds of sins. He goes on to talk about 00:35:41.190 --> 00:35:44.070 slanderers, and here the idea is not secret slander, 00:35:44.110 --> 00:35:48.300 but open slander. those who speak out blatantly 00:35:48.300 --> 00:35:51.500 against others. It is the public flaunting of 00:35:51.500 --> 00:35:55.460 false charges. So often I fear that the media 00:35:55.460 --> 00:36:00.159 gets caught up in this, in accusing, convicting, 00:36:01.599 --> 00:36:03.579 and sometimes even executing a person before 00:36:03.579 --> 00:36:08.619 he's found guilty by the courts. And then the 00:36:08.619 --> 00:36:11.019 word God -haters, a word that is used only here 00:36:11.019 --> 00:36:14.099 in the New Testament. Barnhouse says it means 00:36:14.099 --> 00:36:18.000 to be hateful to God, but you get the idea. Instead 00:36:18.000 --> 00:36:25.119 of loving God, it's hating God. Insult means 00:36:25.119 --> 00:36:30.679 to take pleasure in insulting. It's to shamefully 00:36:30.679 --> 00:36:36.039 do another person wrong. This is the real Don 00:36:36.039 --> 00:36:40.260 Rickles, this kind of a person. They say he's 00:36:40.260 --> 00:36:44.909 a nice guy. But you've heard him. And there are 00:36:44.909 --> 00:36:47.550 people, you know, around where you work that 00:36:47.550 --> 00:36:50.150 are just like him in real life, aren't they? 00:36:51.429 --> 00:36:56.190 Constantly insulting others. And then the word 00:36:56.190 --> 00:37:01.070 arrogant, haughty in attitude, despising others, 00:37:01.969 --> 00:37:05.150 treating them with contempt, and then boastful 00:37:05.150 --> 00:37:10.030 or braggarts. The idea here is like a wagon that 00:37:10.030 --> 00:37:15.280 rattles along because it's empty. Our society 00:37:15.280 --> 00:37:17.340 is so filled with this kind of thing, people 00:37:17.340 --> 00:37:21.440 who brag and boast about what they can do. He 00:37:21.440 --> 00:37:26.360 says they invent ways of doing evil. Again, Barnhouse 00:37:26.360 --> 00:37:30.920 says, man turns to evil even the inventions that 00:37:30.920 --> 00:37:33.639 are full of potential good. And that's true. 00:37:33.739 --> 00:37:36.000 When man is finished with one toy, he invents 00:37:36.000 --> 00:37:41.579 another by which to fulfill his evil. And then 00:37:41.579 --> 00:37:46.639 he says they disobey their parents. The idea 00:37:46.639 --> 00:37:49.280 here means that they are unable to be persuaded 00:37:49.280 --> 00:37:53.539 by them. They reject parental authority. It is 00:37:53.539 --> 00:37:57.800 rebellion against any kind of control. The same 00:37:57.800 --> 00:38:00.579 thought is used in 2 Timothy chapter 3 in describing 00:38:00.579 --> 00:38:04.320 the last days, the attitude toward parents. I 00:38:04.320 --> 00:38:07.300 tell you humanism encourages and promotes this 00:38:07.300 --> 00:38:12.539 idea. It says they are senseless. The word means 00:38:12.539 --> 00:38:18.019 that they are undiscerning morally. They have 00:38:18.019 --> 00:38:22.519 no spiritual insight or appreciation. Then it 00:38:22.519 --> 00:38:27.039 says they are faithless, number 19. They are 00:38:27.039 --> 00:38:33.059 bound by no promise. The wickedness that does 00:38:33.059 --> 00:38:36.360 not intend to carry out its pledged words is 00:38:36.360 --> 00:38:39.380 in view here. It is the breaking of promises. 00:38:39.800 --> 00:38:43.579 and of confidences. There are people who will 00:38:43.579 --> 00:38:46.619 use a credit card to pay for something and yet 00:38:46.619 --> 00:38:50.579 never intend to pay for it with cash, to pay 00:38:50.579 --> 00:38:52.960 the credit card company back or to pay that store. 00:38:54.280 --> 00:38:57.260 It is the breaking of commitments that are made, 00:38:58.139 --> 00:39:02.019 faithless. Then he says they're heartless. And 00:39:02.019 --> 00:39:05.019 the idea is they're without a natural affection, 00:39:05.940 --> 00:39:09.289 particularly for the family in that sense. A 00:39:09.289 --> 00:39:15.670 desertion of love and care and concern. And finally, 00:39:15.769 --> 00:39:18.869 he says, they are ruthless. It means without 00:39:18.869 --> 00:39:21.610 mercy. There is no tenderness, no compassion, 00:39:22.289 --> 00:39:25.769 hard -heartedness, cruelty, abuse. All of these 00:39:25.769 --> 00:39:29.429 things are in view here. Harrison says, instead 00:39:29.429 --> 00:39:33.130 of repenting of their own misdeeds and seeking 00:39:33.130 --> 00:39:36.829 to deter others, They promoted wrongdoing by 00:39:36.829 --> 00:39:41.349 encouraging it in their fellows, allowing themselves 00:39:41.349 --> 00:39:44.670 with rotten sinners in defiant revolt against 00:39:44.670 --> 00:39:49.510 a righteous God. You'll notice in verse 32, it 00:39:49.510 --> 00:39:52.710 says, that although they know God's righteous 00:39:52.710 --> 00:39:55.309 decree that those who do things like this deserve 00:39:55.309 --> 00:39:58.849 death, they continue to do them and they approve 00:39:58.849 --> 00:40:00.909 those who practice them. And so you see three 00:40:00.909 --> 00:40:03.550 things there. First, they know what they're doing 00:40:03.550 --> 00:40:08.050 is wrong. Secondly, nonetheless they continue 00:40:08.050 --> 00:40:12.429 to do them. And finally, they also approve those 00:40:12.429 --> 00:40:20.710 who do the same things. Warren Horsby, in his 00:40:20.710 --> 00:40:22.570 little book on Romans, another one of those that 00:40:22.570 --> 00:40:25.889 we have available called Be Right, says, How 00:40:25.889 --> 00:40:30.969 far man fell. He began glorifying God but ended 00:40:30.969 --> 00:40:34.389 exchanging that glory for idols. He began knowing 00:40:34.389 --> 00:40:38.059 God. but ended refusing to keep the knowledge 00:40:38.059 --> 00:40:41.260 of God in his mind and heart. He began as the 00:40:41.260 --> 00:40:44.619 highest of God's creatures, made in the image 00:40:44.619 --> 00:40:48.260 of God, but he ended lower than the beasts and 00:40:48.260 --> 00:40:51.380 insects because he worshipped them as his gods. 00:40:51.880 --> 00:40:57.079 The verdict? They are without excuse. And that 00:40:57.079 --> 00:41:03.860 is God's verdict of man. No excuse. When does 00:41:03.860 --> 00:41:08.210 God give up? When that point is reached, which 00:41:08.210 --> 00:41:12.849 only he knows, that a society has gone too far. 00:41:13.610 --> 00:41:17.349 Has our society reached that point yet? I can't 00:41:17.349 --> 00:41:21.889 say. I don't know. But this I do know, that the 00:41:21.889 --> 00:41:28.010 whole process is seen in our society, as it is 00:41:28.010 --> 00:41:32.070 revealed in this chapter. Everything is here. 00:41:32.679 --> 00:41:35.679 that God says was in that other generation, he 00:41:35.679 --> 00:41:40.219 refers to, when judgment came. And he says, they 00:41:40.219 --> 00:41:43.719 are without excuse, they are worthy of judgment. 00:41:44.480 --> 00:41:47.119 He says, therefore, the wrath of God is being 00:41:47.119 --> 00:41:52.760 revealed from heaven against them. My friend, 00:41:52.780 --> 00:41:57.260 if you're here today in Jesus Christ, let me 00:41:57.260 --> 00:41:59.599 tell you that we have no reason for thinking 00:41:59.599 --> 00:42:04.119 ourselves to be so far above these others. because 00:42:04.119 --> 00:42:07.300 of the sin that lives in us, we are capable of 00:42:07.300 --> 00:42:12.340 any of these things. But by the grace of God, 00:42:13.019 --> 00:42:17.300 we are saved from that. And instead of now being 00:42:17.300 --> 00:42:21.340 under God's condemnation, we are under God's 00:42:21.340 --> 00:42:26.340 blessing. Instead of being harassed and darkened 00:42:26.340 --> 00:42:30.440 in sin, we have the light of Jesus Christ and 00:42:30.440 --> 00:42:34.530 his eternal life. we have so very much for which 00:42:34.530 --> 00:42:38.909 to be grateful. We have so very much for which 00:42:38.909 --> 00:42:41.489 we can rejoice and thank God, and we should. 00:42:43.969 --> 00:42:48.130 But since we live in a society like this, we 00:42:48.130 --> 00:42:51.889 have all the more responsibility for being faithful 00:42:51.889 --> 00:42:55.510 to Christ. And as Paul said there in verse 16, 00:42:55.570 --> 00:42:59.369 not being ashamed of the gospel of Christ, because 00:42:59.369 --> 00:43:04.389 it is God's power. Let us this week be faithful 00:43:04.389 --> 00:43:08.769 declares of that message and to be burdened for 00:43:08.769 --> 00:43:12.090 those who are lost in the darkness and the degeneration 00:43:12.090 --> 00:43:17.469 that we see in these verses. Let's not be conceited 00:43:17.469 --> 00:43:21.769 and pompous and wash our hands of these people, 00:43:23.090 --> 00:43:26.969 but let us with burdened hearts out of love as 00:43:26.969 --> 00:43:30.050 extensions of God's long suffering and his mercy. 00:43:30.320 --> 00:43:33.260 reach out to people we work with and we live 00:43:33.260 --> 00:43:36.059 with in our neighborhoods, and let us share with 00:43:36.059 --> 00:43:38.360 them the message by which they can be saved from 00:43:38.360 --> 00:43:41.860 this idolatry that will lead to God's condemnation. 00:43:43.260 --> 00:43:46.579 If you're here today without Jesus Christ, then 00:43:46.579 --> 00:43:51.639 my word to you is to flee from God's wrath. God's 00:43:51.639 --> 00:43:54.199 wrath that is coming upon you right now in this 00:43:54.199 --> 00:43:59.159 life, and God's wrath that is to come. Be saved 00:43:59.159 --> 00:44:02.579 from it. Be rescued from it by placing your faith 00:44:02.579 --> 00:44:09.579 in Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Lord, as we look 00:44:09.579 --> 00:44:16.539 at these verses, they are terrible in their impact. 00:44:20.179 --> 00:44:24.230 They leave us burdened and heavy. Not only because 00:44:24.230 --> 00:44:26.329 of the content of the verses, but because as 00:44:26.329 --> 00:44:28.530 we compare what is said in your revelation to 00:44:28.530 --> 00:44:31.989 the world we live in, we see our world described 00:44:31.989 --> 00:44:37.650 here. We're concerned because judgment is deserved. 00:44:40.650 --> 00:44:43.269 We're concerned because your wrath is now being 00:44:43.269 --> 00:44:48.389 poured out upon our civilization. God, we would 00:44:48.389 --> 00:44:50.769 dare pray that there may be a spiritual awakening. 00:44:53.469 --> 00:44:56.489 a genuine and deep moving of the Spirit of God 00:44:56.489 --> 00:45:00.710 in our age, which will see us spared from the 00:45:00.710 --> 00:45:05.389 judgment which our civilization deserves. Lord, 00:45:05.409 --> 00:45:09.070 it has been over a hundred years since we've 00:45:09.070 --> 00:45:13.230 had this kind of a moving in our nation. Oh, 00:45:13.230 --> 00:45:16.130 how we plead with you that we may see it again. 00:45:17.949 --> 00:45:20.349 Lord, out of your long suffering and your mercy, 00:45:20.429 --> 00:45:25.980 deal with us. and bring us to repentance. I pray 00:45:25.980 --> 00:45:28.699 that you will do work in us here in Grace Church 00:45:28.699 --> 00:45:31.699 in the lives of each of us that will make us 00:45:31.699 --> 00:45:33.940 on the cutting edge of this spiritual movement. 00:45:35.760 --> 00:45:39.659 Give us the courage and compassion to speak out 00:45:39.659 --> 00:45:50.019 for the truth and to seek to win the lost. God, 00:45:50.239 --> 00:45:54.099 accept you do this work. our nation will fall, 00:45:55.039 --> 00:45:59.940 and the freedom we now enjoy will be lost. There 00:45:59.940 --> 00:46:02.179 will be no excuse if you choose to do that. It 00:46:02.179 --> 00:46:05.760 will be a righteous judgment. We plead with you 00:46:05.760 --> 00:46:12.260 today for your mercy. In Jesus' name, amen.