WEBVTT 00:00:00.240 --> 00:00:01.040 I'm gonna invite you to Romans. 00:00:01.300 --> 00:00:02.770 Chapter one is where we are today. 00:00:03.080 --> 00:00:04.059 Romans Chapter one. 00:00:04.059 --> 00:00:10.220 This is going to be a doozy of a Sunday, because this Sunday is probably one of the more difficult passages in scripture. 00:00:10.240 --> 00:00:13.140 Some say it's the most despised passage in Scripture. 00:00:13.140 --> 00:00:15.180 So if you're new to ABC, welcome. 00:00:15.600 --> 00:00:16.540 We are glad you're here. 00:00:16.540 --> 00:00:18.640 You picked a great Sunday to be a part. 00:00:18.640 --> 00:00:23.860 And if you get through today and you're like, Hey, that's not bad, then okay, come back next week, All right? 00:00:23.860 --> 00:00:29.540 Because this is an a very interesting, challenging passage that we're going to go through together. 00:00:29.720 --> 00:00:36.940 And part of the reason this passage presents itself this way is because it's this is trying to bring a stark contrast to us between Romans 00:00:36.940 --> 00:00:42.500 chapter one versus 1 to 17, which we saw last week, and Romans chapter one versus 18 to 32. 00:00:42.620 --> 00:00:49.700 If you remember, the verse 16 and 17 is really the thesis of what Romans is about, that we are not ashamed of the gospel for 00:00:49.700 --> 00:00:54.860 it's the power of God to salvation to everyone that believes for the righteousness of God is revealed through it. 00:00:54.920 --> 00:00:55.020 Right. 00:00:55.420 --> 00:01:02.530 So that we see the power of God, the Didymus, the dynamite of God in this gospel message thus proclaim that brings us salvation. 00:01:03.120 --> 00:01:09.860 And now, Paul, in making that statement, wants to give us the understanding of the significance of this salvation that we receive in the Lord. 00:01:10.200 --> 00:01:11.880 This is not just a good idea. 00:01:11.960 --> 00:01:18.400 This is a desperation for our soul to wanting to cling to this and seeing hope and God and the grace of God being delivered to us. 00:01:18.420 --> 00:01:24.730 And the best way to do that is now to magnify it, to juxtapose it against what God is saving us from, which is sin. 00:01:24.820 --> 00:01:31.880 And so there is a stark contrast between what he says to us about the gospel last week and what he says to us in light of 00:01:31.880 --> 00:01:33.460 sin this week. 00:01:33.540 --> 00:01:40.620 And as we go further into Romans, he's going to start with seeing our need for salvation, but he's going to continue on and what your 00:01:40.620 --> 00:01:44.230 relationship looks like in light of Christ, what you receive in Jesus. 00:01:44.300 --> 00:01:51.450 And as we get through the first eight chapters of Romans, he's dealing with the depth of what God brings you in the deliverance of salvation. 00:01:51.580 --> 00:01:53.570 It's an incredible book of the Bible. 00:01:53.720 --> 00:02:00.780 In fact, we said last week that some say if you lose all other books of the Bible, but you have Romans as a follower of Christ, you're going to be okay because 00:02:00.780 --> 00:02:05.300 you have the basis of faith explained to us in the book of Romans. 00:02:05.440 --> 00:02:07.480 This is this is Paul's masterpiece. 00:02:07.500 --> 00:02:10.229 In his letters, he did ministry for over 20 years. 00:02:10.520 --> 00:02:12.320 He had never been to the Church of Rome. 00:02:12.580 --> 00:02:15.340 He writes this book to them, this letter to them. 00:02:15.400 --> 00:02:21.610 And in order to give them a basis for their Christian faith, it is an incredible work to know and to experience. 00:02:22.760 --> 00:02:25.400 We're going to read this passage of scripture. 00:02:25.400 --> 00:02:32.520 And I want us to know, when we talk about sin, the tendency is in our religious nature to then start to force morality upon 00:02:32.520 --> 00:02:32.980 people. 00:02:32.980 --> 00:02:37.020 We see things, we're wrong in life, and we think that morality is the solution. 00:02:37.720 --> 00:02:41.520 And I want to be clear in recognizing that what we offer today, it's not morality. 00:02:42.380 --> 00:02:44.080 It's not a better you. 00:02:44.080 --> 00:02:46.920 It's not a self-help guide to become a better version of yourself. 00:02:47.240 --> 00:02:49.060 That's not what we're about as a church. 00:02:49.260 --> 00:02:50.560 That's religion. 00:02:50.560 --> 00:02:51.490 That's something different. 00:02:51.500 --> 00:02:58.760 What we're here to offer you is an opportunity to die, to self, to live to Christ, which is something completely different than than just simply 00:02:58.760 --> 00:03:00.700 a self-help guide. 00:03:00.860 --> 00:03:08.160 And we recognize that brokenness and the bankruptcy of humanity apart from God, than our 00:03:08.160 --> 00:03:15.400 desire, when we see a God by grace still pursuing us in our brokenness and giving his life for us, our desire should be to want to respond 00:03:15.400 --> 00:03:18.490 to that and give our lives back to him and return. 00:03:18.540 --> 00:03:24.340 And in that we find life in Christ as Jesus has given His life for us. 00:03:24.560 --> 00:03:24.640 So. 00:03:24.760 --> 00:03:31.140 So when we come to a passage like this today, I recognize that we're not reading this to guilt people. 00:03:31.980 --> 00:03:34.530 We're not reading this to simply offer morality. 00:03:35.240 --> 00:03:40.920 We're reading this as a mirror, to examine our own life and asking ourselves the question, Where are we in the Lord? 00:03:41.640 --> 00:03:47.200 We're not here to throw stones and to just play shame on people. 00:03:49.000 --> 00:03:56.420 Our hope is that we find hope in Christ and new life and liberation and freedom in him and the freedom to enjoy 00:03:56.420 --> 00:03:57.620 life with him. 00:03:59.400 --> 00:04:00.740 And so we dive into this passage. 00:04:01.060 --> 00:04:04.200 What we're going to look at is the idea of living life without God. 00:04:05.280 --> 00:04:10.630 What does Paul describe here in this passage and recognizing the need for our salvation? 00:04:10.880 --> 00:04:16.620 And we don't point to this in order to cast stones, but to recognize all of us come to Jesus in our sin. 00:04:18.660 --> 00:04:20.470 That the ground is level at the foot of the cross. 00:04:22.019 --> 00:04:25.540 But in Jesus, there is forgiveness and freedom from guilt and shame. 00:04:26.940 --> 00:04:31.440 And we have the beautiful privilege of enjoying a relationship with God, both now and for all of eternity. 00:04:33.340 --> 00:04:40.340 But Paul now is going to juxtapose Romans one versus 1 to 17 to Romans one versus 18 to 32 to talk about what a 00:04:40.340 --> 00:04:41.600 life looks like without God. 00:04:41.660 --> 00:04:46.840 And he starts off this way and this is the first blink in your notes, God's wrath is revealed. 00:04:47.480 --> 00:04:51.930 Any anytime you start a sermon off with that as your first point, you don't need a cup of coffee to wake you up in the morning. 00:04:52.000 --> 00:04:52.220 Right? 00:04:52.220 --> 00:05:00.140 This is God's wrath is revealed in Romans one, verse 18 for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all in godliness and unrighteousness 00:05:00.140 --> 00:05:01.200 of men. 00:05:01.220 --> 00:05:05.460 And remember, in 117, we saw the righteousness of God revealed. 00:05:05.460 --> 00:05:08.860 And now in 118, he's talking about the wrath of God revealed. 00:05:09.740 --> 00:05:13.450 And when we talk about God's wrath, oftentimes people will find themselves appalled. 00:05:13.700 --> 00:05:16.560 I can't believe that Grandpa loving God would talk about wrath. 00:05:16.580 --> 00:05:16.980 Right. 00:05:17.040 --> 00:05:18.260 But it's interesting. 00:05:18.260 --> 00:05:21.380 When God talks about wrath, sometimes we just we want to kick against that. 00:05:21.620 --> 00:05:24.160 But if someone does something wrong against you, right. 00:05:24.680 --> 00:05:27.320 You completely feel justified in your wrath. 00:05:27.420 --> 00:05:27.780 Oh, God. 00:05:27.800 --> 00:05:28.800 Talking about his wrath. 00:05:28.820 --> 00:05:29.020 But. 00:05:29.120 --> 00:05:31.660 But when someone does something wrong as me, you better look out. 00:05:31.780 --> 00:05:33.680 You better check yourself before you wreck yourself. 00:05:33.680 --> 00:05:33.860 Right. 00:05:33.920 --> 00:05:34.500 That's. 00:05:34.520 --> 00:05:36.340 I want to show you what I'm made of. 00:05:36.340 --> 00:05:38.120 We kind of come with that with wrath. 00:05:38.120 --> 00:05:42.420 And so the question the question is, what makes your wrath better than God's wrath? 00:05:43.920 --> 00:05:45.920 What makes you think that you're better than the guy? 00:05:45.920 --> 00:05:48.100 Because when we often think about our own wrath, it's. 00:05:48.360 --> 00:05:51.320 It's a vindictive, self righteous wrath, right? 00:05:51.320 --> 00:05:52.660 Where we bring our fury. 00:05:52.660 --> 00:05:54.840 And it's very emotionally charged in a lot of ways. 00:05:56.600 --> 00:05:58.640 God's wrath is not that way. 00:06:00.540 --> 00:06:06.480 In fact, God warns us over and over and is very patient with us in our brokenness and sin. 00:06:07.960 --> 00:06:11.180 And if God didn't respond to wickedness. 00:06:12.420 --> 00:06:15.160 Ultimately we would question his goodness and justice. 00:06:16.640 --> 00:06:23.880 God can't be good less He deliver his righteousness against sin and often give us the example. 00:06:23.980 --> 00:06:31.100 If you're in a courtroom and someone's done something to violate it against you and the judge finds the person guilty, but yet chooses not to execute any judgment against 00:06:31.100 --> 00:06:35.470 the individual, you would look at that judge and say you were not just and therefore you are not good. 00:06:37.080 --> 00:06:38.060 The same thing's true with God. 00:06:38.080 --> 00:06:39.600 If I gave us the example like this. 00:06:39.700 --> 00:06:39.880 Suppose. 00:06:40.380 --> 00:06:47.760 Suppose in your home an intruder comes in and they say to you, ignore 00:06:47.760 --> 00:06:48.280 you. 00:06:48.280 --> 00:06:49.040 I don't like you. 00:06:49.080 --> 00:06:50.300 In fact, you get out of my way. 00:06:50.300 --> 00:06:56.160 This is my home now, and I'm going to do what I want with anything inside and anyone inside, because now this belongs to me. 00:06:57.340 --> 00:07:00.240 You would look at that individual and say, we're about to have a problem, right? 00:07:00.720 --> 00:07:00.960 Hell, no. 00:07:01.040 --> 00:07:03.010 Hath no fury like a mother protecting her children. 00:07:03.600 --> 00:07:10.680 And you think you think about when you think about that idea of here you are in your domain and this is what you have cared for, 00:07:10.700 --> 00:07:11.700 this is what you have established. 00:07:12.180 --> 00:07:13.700 This is what you want to nurture. 00:07:13.700 --> 00:07:19.040 And this is a place that you provide safety and shelter for the people that belong under that roof in which you want to care for. 00:07:19.500 --> 00:07:22.480 If you didn't respond to that moment, can you possibly be good? 00:07:26.310 --> 00:07:28.200 You protect the things that you love. 00:07:29.520 --> 00:07:31.660 And the thing that same thing is true with God in this world. 00:07:31.700 --> 00:07:32.460 This is his home. 00:07:33.660 --> 00:07:40.380 All things created belong to him, and he created it for his intentions, his purpose, and God cares for it better than anyone. 00:07:40.380 --> 00:07:47.720 If God didn't respond to that and protection, when people come along and say, You know what, God, even though you've designed all this for your purposes, I'm coming into your place, 00:07:47.860 --> 00:07:51.960 thumbing my nose at you, saying, This belongs to me, You get out of my way. 00:07:52.060 --> 00:07:53.140 I will use it for my glory. 00:07:53.200 --> 00:07:58.060 My purpose is and what I want and to do what I want with the things that are here in the people that are here. 00:07:58.100 --> 00:07:59.120 Because they belong to me. 00:08:02.500 --> 00:08:03.540 How do you think I should respond? 00:08:06.660 --> 00:08:09.260 And Paul opens up in Romans chapter one. 00:08:10.280 --> 00:08:11.460 And it reminds us of this. 00:08:11.460 --> 00:08:18.880 And the truth is, sometimes we don't like wrath because what we want is all the good things that God has to offer sometimes without God. 00:08:20.880 --> 00:08:23.540 But the truth is the only thing God owes us as people. 00:08:25.160 --> 00:08:25.600 His judgment. 00:08:27.480 --> 00:08:30.200 And the reason we'll learn in Romans is because we've all sinned. 00:08:31.580 --> 00:08:33.419 And before a wholly perfect God. 00:08:34.340 --> 00:08:36.900 He needed not offers anything but his justice. 00:08:37.880 --> 00:08:44.120 Now, when you juxtapose this against Romans chapter one verses 16 and 17, what you find is and yet gods, he didn't. 00:08:45.960 --> 00:08:51.960 He offers a way of escape to be reconciled to him, to find his grace and enjoy his presence forever. 00:08:54.060 --> 00:08:58.660 But as it stands in our sin, what we what we should find ourselves in is God's wrath. 00:08:58.660 --> 00:09:05.680 Now, before we jump to conclusions about what God's wrath might be, because I know sometimes we like to emulate on to God the things that we've experienced 00:09:05.680 --> 00:09:07.050 in human wrath. 00:09:07.260 --> 00:09:08.700 I want to just punt this for a minute. 00:09:08.720 --> 00:09:10.980 We're going to come back to God's wrath in just a moment. 00:09:11.000 --> 00:09:14.260 But let's ask the question then why is God's wrath revealed? 00:09:14.320 --> 00:09:21.580 And he goes on in the rest of this verse and in the next verse, and he explains us why he says it like this, who by their unrighteousness, 00:09:21.840 --> 00:09:23.000 suppress the truth. 00:09:24.260 --> 00:09:25.460 So why is God's wrath revealed? 00:09:25.760 --> 00:09:27.820 We suppress the truth in unrighteousness. 00:09:27.920 --> 00:09:28.520 That's what he's saying. 00:09:28.800 --> 00:09:33.020 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 00:09:33.600 --> 00:09:34.500 So here's what he's saying. 00:09:34.580 --> 00:09:35.550 This idea of suppression. 00:09:35.740 --> 00:09:42.780 If you've ever been swimming with the beach ball, most likely at some point in your life, one of those inflatable ones, you've decided what will be really cool is if 00:09:42.780 --> 00:09:45.560 I push this under the water and see how long I can balance on it. 00:09:45.880 --> 00:09:52.940 And you start to do that and it's all fun and games until all of a sudden the beach ball wants to come to the surface and next thing you know pops you in the nose and it's not fun 00:09:52.940 --> 00:09:53.290 anymore. 00:09:53.540 --> 00:09:55.440 It just shoots up and hits you in the face. 00:09:55.540 --> 00:09:57.340 And it's like, that's the idea of the suppression. 00:09:58.280 --> 00:10:05.740 What he's saying is the evidence of God is apparent to us, but we actively and if we want to deny God, what we actually actually have to do is we have to suppress 00:10:05.740 --> 00:10:08.940 him, to stifle him, to push him down, to push him away from our life. 00:10:09.220 --> 00:10:12.800 Because the reality of God is should be so apparent to us. 00:10:13.160 --> 00:10:15.240 He gives us some reason why in just a moment. 00:10:15.400 --> 00:10:22.080 But as human beings, in order to not give God his rightful place, we actively have to suppress the truth of who God is. 00:10:22.700 --> 00:10:23.440 In unrighteousness. 00:10:23.440 --> 00:10:29.060 We push that down and he goes on in verse 19, and what he's saying to us is, look, and no one's without excuse. 00:10:31.240 --> 00:10:33.460 There is no one on planet Earth without excuse. 00:10:35.180 --> 00:10:39.460 Because the evidence of God is apparent to all of us. 00:10:40.740 --> 00:10:47.560 And so when we think about the purpose of God's wrath, it's to it's reminding us that God will deliver his wrath. 00:10:47.640 --> 00:10:52.620 This is not this is not an idea of just trying to come down with this guilt towards you. 00:10:52.620 --> 00:10:55.120 But in reality, it's a warning for us. 00:10:56.520 --> 00:10:56.970 Out of love. 00:10:58.980 --> 00:11:02.200 To see that in order for this God to be good, he must deliver this. 00:11:02.940 --> 00:11:07.440 But he cares enough to us to remind us of the of the path this leads us on. 00:11:07.880 --> 00:11:09.280 And we weren't made for that. 00:11:10.560 --> 00:11:13.580 Be at our heart, and rebellion against him will suppress that. 00:11:13.720 --> 00:11:20.020 And to recognize there is no one that has a justifiable excuse before before the Lord. 00:11:22.020 --> 00:11:24.080 So how then do we suppress the truth? 00:11:25.340 --> 00:11:27.920 And it goes on a little further and he begins to explain this. 00:11:28.000 --> 00:11:33.780 The answer is actually in verse 23, but I'm going to read this verse 21. 00:11:33.780 --> 00:11:40.840 He goes for his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of 00:11:40.840 --> 00:11:43.170 the world and the things that have been made. 00:11:43.500 --> 00:11:45.080 So they are without excuse. 00:11:47.060 --> 00:11:48.020 What he's saying in this past. 00:11:48.120 --> 00:11:55.240 As we go back to this first, before I explain the next part, what he's saying in this passage is that God, he has revealed himself just simply by 00:11:55.240 --> 00:11:55.840 creation. 00:11:57.120 --> 00:12:04.300 And some of you know, when you just go outside, you just say Psalm eight and Psalm 19 and the heavens declare the glory of God, 00:12:04.400 --> 00:12:04.740 right? 00:12:04.820 --> 00:12:10.330 I mean, you can just look at this and logically conclude that in order to have this creative design, there must be a creator. 00:12:12.420 --> 00:12:15.840 And theologians refer to this as general revelation. 00:12:16.880 --> 00:12:22.200 And I think this is this is an important passage for us to consider in general revelation, because it's general revelation. 00:12:22.200 --> 00:12:23.010 I don't know how I got so far. 00:12:23.060 --> 00:12:29.260 Their general revelation for us is it's this way of revealing God's handiwork in this world. 00:12:29.320 --> 00:12:31.590 There's a there's what theologians refer to as special revelation. 00:12:31.800 --> 00:12:36.830 General revelation, Special revelation would be God's word, Jesus And the flesh. 00:12:37.020 --> 00:12:41.260 General revelation is just it's the evidence of God himself, His handiwork. 00:12:41.300 --> 00:12:47.700 We can just see the apparent nature of God being revealed through His invisible, visible attributes in all of creation. 00:12:49.000 --> 00:12:56.460 And truth be told, this idea that Paul talks about in Romans chapter one, this is where I 00:12:56.460 --> 00:13:02.740 enjoy talking about with my atheistic agnostic friends when I encounter them. 00:13:03.180 --> 00:13:07.300 And they tell me their position in this world and this atheistic agnostic way. 00:13:07.300 --> 00:13:10.610 And sometimes we hear that and we're like, oh, we went back as Christians. 00:13:10.660 --> 00:13:11.340 Like, worries us. 00:13:11.620 --> 00:13:12.560 I know why they're like that. 00:13:12.560 --> 00:13:14.380 It's because of science, their intelligence. 00:13:14.620 --> 00:13:14.900 Right. 00:13:14.980 --> 00:13:16.030 And I don't want to argue with intelligence. 00:13:16.400 --> 00:13:17.620 And we sort of back away with that. 00:13:17.660 --> 00:13:24.800 But I want you to know, because a lot of times when you engage people that don't believe in God or aren't sure about God, what you really find 00:13:24.800 --> 00:13:31.840 out is at some point in their life, they got burned, most likely from a religious experience, and they're just worn out by 00:13:31.840 --> 00:13:31.960 it. 00:13:33.420 --> 00:13:41.280 And as you begin to talk about them, you talk to them, you start to realize it's not so much of an intellectual disagreement as it is more of an emotional 00:13:41.280 --> 00:13:42.540 experience that they've had. 00:13:44.360 --> 00:13:51.640 And in Romans chapter one, Paul comes this place and he says, I'm going to put my finger on this and I want you to think through this because we're suppressing God's truth and 00:13:51.640 --> 00:13:54.540 God is a God as a parent in this world. 00:13:54.600 --> 00:13:55.870 And that's why we're not without excuse. 00:13:56.100 --> 00:14:03.360 And so you get the opportunity as a Christian to come along and kind of put your finger on that and say, look, no, you're you actually acknowledge the existence of 00:14:03.360 --> 00:14:03.780 God. 00:14:04.480 --> 00:14:05.360 You're just denying it. 00:14:07.000 --> 00:14:10.190 And you help them begin to see where they're where they're borrowing. 00:14:10.360 --> 00:14:13.500 From a Christian worldview, though, they claim that God doesn't exist. 00:14:13.720 --> 00:14:20.080 And theologians have used some some thoughts throughout the throughout history to explain what those are. 00:14:20.080 --> 00:14:26.690 And the three most popular are just put on the screen here, the cosmological argument, the teleological argument, and the axial logical argument. 00:14:27.000 --> 00:14:30.220 Now, when we leave just now, there's not going to be a quiz on this, right? 00:14:30.220 --> 00:14:37.480 I don't really expect you to memorize these, but I do want you to know what they are because they become an important basis for being 00:14:37.480 --> 00:14:38.320 able to dialogue. 00:14:38.360 --> 00:14:42.000 You don't have to remember these words to dialogue over the topic. 00:14:43.440 --> 00:14:50.520 But when you're talking to someone that's been worn out by a religious experience, just taking time with them is so 00:14:50.520 --> 00:14:51.060 important. 00:14:51.060 --> 00:14:58.160 I find the probably the leading growing belief system in Utah is either agnosticism 00:14:58.160 --> 00:14:59.400 or atheism. 00:15:00.760 --> 00:15:07.460 And there is an important place for God's people to be able to speak in that, because in a lot of ways, if they're worn out, they've had some bad experiences. 00:15:08.300 --> 00:15:09.820 You don't have to throw the baby out with the bathwater. 00:15:11.320 --> 00:15:13.020 God wants to be known in the lives of people. 00:15:14.600 --> 00:15:16.790 And so how do you share that with the cosmological argument? 00:15:17.600 --> 00:15:18.420 Answers the question. 00:15:19.140 --> 00:15:22.080 At least dialogs over the question Where did everything come from? 00:15:23.020 --> 00:15:23.180 Right. 00:15:23.220 --> 00:15:24.540 You can't have an unknown cause. 00:15:24.540 --> 00:15:26.860 Cause there has to be something that started everything. 00:15:27.880 --> 00:15:30.900 And I know how the dialogue goes in the science world. 00:15:31.300 --> 00:15:35.920 If people that are atheistic or agnostic want to go that trail, they'll start with. 00:15:35.960 --> 00:15:43.460 It all began with matter, which you've already got a difficult place to be to explain how anything could come from absolutely nothing. 00:15:43.460 --> 00:15:44.940 Right to all of a sudden just matter exists. 00:15:45.480 --> 00:15:48.470 There's a little bit of a challenge there and not just matter. 00:15:48.840 --> 00:15:49.200 Right? 00:15:49.560 --> 00:15:52.200 You also have to have a space in time. 00:15:52.980 --> 00:15:56.660 It's one thing just to have substance, but you also have to have space and time. 00:15:56.700 --> 00:16:01.700 You have to have a space for that substance to come into existence and a time, a point in time for that for which to exist. 00:16:02.760 --> 00:16:04.280 You can't just have simply matter. 00:16:04.280 --> 00:16:08.120 You have to have you have to have space and time with that. 00:16:08.800 --> 00:16:16.160 And you have to have an unclosed cause from outside of that can bring all of that into existence at one time. 00:16:16.280 --> 00:16:20.120 And the UN calls, calls that transcends all of those things he's got himself. 00:16:20.620 --> 00:16:25.380 It's why you can't explain the question or answer the question Where does God come from? 00:16:25.380 --> 00:16:29.430 Because in order to come from anywhere, you have to have a space from which to exist. 00:16:29.780 --> 00:16:33.020 You have to have matter from which makes you up and a time from which to exist in. 00:16:33.140 --> 00:16:37.720 It's why you have a birthday and God doesn't because God transcends time, space and matter. 00:16:38.000 --> 00:16:39.280 He is beyond all of it. 00:16:39.320 --> 00:16:41.420 He is the unclosed cause that brings it into existence. 00:16:41.640 --> 00:16:47.940 Now, I would tell you, I don't spend a whole lot of time with people in dialoguing over that particular subject to cosmological argument. 00:16:48.240 --> 00:16:52.780 But rather, when I talk to people, I get more into the teleological and theological argument. 00:16:53.880 --> 00:17:01.740 The teleological argument deals with the idea of logic, not just where 00:17:01.740 --> 00:17:06.740 did everything come from, but how in the world does chaos create order? 00:17:07.500 --> 00:17:07.660 Right. 00:17:07.660 --> 00:17:14.980 If you if you can explain how something came from nothing, you then have to explain how all of that nothing made sense. 00:17:16.180 --> 00:17:17.420 How does it become logical? 00:17:18.800 --> 00:17:23.300 How does one plus one always equal two and forever equal two? 00:17:23.339 --> 00:17:29.900 Because if this world just randomly came into existence, you would expect that it's just randomly moving into chaos. 00:17:30.780 --> 00:17:38.120 But yet science math depends on the fact that yesterday will be like today, which will be like tomorrow. 00:17:38.180 --> 00:17:44.080 It's built on the basis of logic and the teleological argument reasons. 00:17:44.180 --> 00:17:47.640 Through that we didn't just randomly all come into existence. 00:17:47.760 --> 00:17:48.880 It's the basis of this. 00:17:48.880 --> 00:17:53.040 It's like it's like suggesting you take all of the junk in every closet you own. 00:17:53.040 --> 00:18:00.400 You throw it into your garage and you walk away for 1000 years and come back and all of a sudden you've got a Lamborghini parked there, right? 00:18:00.400 --> 00:18:06.520 For things just to illogically come together to create something logical makes no sense. 00:18:08.260 --> 00:18:15.540 And then when you get to the archaeological argument, this deals with what I call the MVP and the morals, value 00:18:15.540 --> 00:18:17.280 and purpose. 00:18:18.520 --> 00:18:25.800 So I often find in this world is when people deny God, they really borrow from a worldview that of a Christian worldview 00:18:25.800 --> 00:18:28.160 and explaining things even though they might deny God. 00:18:28.180 --> 00:18:30.520 And one of the ways that we do that is morality. 00:18:32.100 --> 00:18:34.600 Universal thoughts that people should obey. 00:18:35.840 --> 00:18:38.460 Look, if all of us just randomly came into existence. 00:18:39.560 --> 00:18:42.500 There's not a moral aught that people there's not a moral lawgiver. 00:18:43.660 --> 00:18:48.480 There's no logical reason to explain why someone should obey your moral laws all across the world. 00:18:49.260 --> 00:18:55.280 The fact that you hold anything that should be good for everyone suggests that there is a moral law giver or a good giver. 00:18:55.760 --> 00:18:57.600 In fact, that was one of the basis for which C.S. 00:18:57.600 --> 00:18:59.060 Lewis came to the Lord. 00:18:59.920 --> 00:19:00.540 He said, How? 00:19:00.820 --> 00:19:05.060 How could I cry out for things to be good unless there be God? 00:19:05.060 --> 00:19:11.120 That was his basis for argument, because there had to be someone that gave me the idea that good needed to win over evil. 00:19:11.940 --> 00:19:14.140 I mean, I left to an atheistic worldview. 00:19:15.160 --> 00:19:18.120 All we are as human beings are just stardust bumping into stardust. 00:19:19.820 --> 00:19:23.140 Who cares what you think about a moral that someone should hold to? 00:19:24.380 --> 00:19:31.640 In fact, when you think about the idea of value as a as a human being, there's nothing more important about you than a rock or, 00:19:31.720 --> 00:19:32.320 say, an animal. 00:19:33.300 --> 00:19:40.480 All that really happened with your existence versus anything else in this world is that you just fizzed a different way and you sort of just became 00:19:40.480 --> 00:19:41.240 what you are. 00:19:42.120 --> 00:19:44.700 But there's no intrinsic value in you because you're random. 00:19:44.800 --> 00:19:45.920 Just as any rock outside. 00:19:46.260 --> 00:19:48.420 When you leave today, pick it up and you're equal to that. 00:19:49.040 --> 00:19:51.000 It just so happens that that's how they evolved. 00:19:51.620 --> 00:19:53.140 But yet we don't live that way. 00:19:54.040 --> 00:19:56.800 We live recognizing the value of human life. 00:19:56.820 --> 00:19:58.060 It's like the age old. 00:19:58.260 --> 00:20:02.320 The question you're on a you're in a raft and you have a baby and a dog. 00:20:02.400 --> 00:20:07.100 I don't know why you would be on a raft with a baby and a dog, but both go over right and you can only save one of them. 00:20:07.100 --> 00:20:07.990 Which do you save? 00:20:09.020 --> 00:20:12.020 The answer is the baby because you didn't know. 00:20:12.820 --> 00:20:16.820 But the reason is because you recognize there are some intrinsic value. 00:20:17.360 --> 00:20:18.520 And where does that come from? 00:20:19.400 --> 00:20:22.600 Because without God, it makes no sense to place that kind of. 00:20:22.660 --> 00:20:28.340 But with God you see that we're created in the image of God and even your soul cries out. 00:20:28.680 --> 00:20:29.440 You can't deny it. 00:20:29.440 --> 00:20:35.440 It's why, even in death, you don't have to tell people who are atheistic that your soul is grieving and death. 00:20:35.440 --> 00:20:42.560 I mean, we in death when we when we lose loved ones, our souls grieve at a level that nothing else in life relates 00:20:42.560 --> 00:20:42.780 to. 00:20:45.760 --> 00:20:46.640 And purpose. 00:20:48.400 --> 00:20:50.520 We want to live for what matters. 00:20:51.620 --> 00:20:53.030 We long for our life to matter. 00:20:54.600 --> 00:20:59.620 And these arguments just they walk through that and you don't have to call them arguments if you're adverse to the word argument. 00:20:59.800 --> 00:21:01.240 We don't like to argue with people. 00:21:01.380 --> 00:21:05.140 But you see the basis for this and this is what Paul's saying, is we suppress it. 00:21:07.040 --> 00:21:11.800 We suppress the truth and no one was without excuse because the evidence of God, it's there. 00:21:11.800 --> 00:21:16.360 And he goes on further for although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give things to him. 00:21:16.460 --> 00:21:19.270 But they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened. 00:21:21.680 --> 00:21:24.120 And what Paul is saying is, look, it's not an intellectual problem. 00:21:25.480 --> 00:21:26.780 It's actually a moral problem. 00:21:28.100 --> 00:21:30.860 There are people that are educated beyond their wisdom, right? 00:21:30.880 --> 00:21:33.940 Like just walk on a college campus and talk to professors. 00:21:34.140 --> 00:21:37.280 There's a lot of smart people doing a lot of dumb things in this world. 00:21:38.800 --> 00:21:40.200 It's not an intellectual problem. 00:21:41.500 --> 00:21:43.500 When we come against God, it's a moral problem. 00:21:44.180 --> 00:21:45.170 And he goes on to explain more. 00:21:45.380 --> 00:21:52.420 Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immoral God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals 00:21:52.420 --> 00:21:53.480 and creeping things. 00:21:54.740 --> 00:21:57.070 So here's what he's saying to us. 00:21:58.140 --> 00:22:00.760 He's acknowledging for us what the problem is. 00:22:00.760 --> 00:22:05.470 We're exchanging the glory of God, because what we would rather worship is ourselves. 00:22:07.100 --> 00:22:08.900 Well, we want to make life for is us. 00:22:08.940 --> 00:22:13.410 That's why we come into God's house, thumb our nose at God and saying we're using it for our purposes. 00:22:14.460 --> 00:22:15.320 It's not an intellectual problem. 00:22:15.680 --> 00:22:16.580 It's a moral problem. 00:22:16.580 --> 00:22:23.580 We're overstepping his authority by declaring ours beyond him. 00:22:24.280 --> 00:22:25.160 Claiming to be wise. 00:22:27.020 --> 00:22:30.020 I mean, that's what Adam and Eve did, right? 00:22:30.140 --> 00:22:31.660 This is as old as humanity. 00:22:33.040 --> 00:22:34.660 Genesis chapter three, verse five. 00:22:35.640 --> 00:22:38.720 The statement was, and you will be like, God. 00:22:41.720 --> 00:22:46.660 Overstepping him and declaring what was right and wrong, exchanging the glory of God for their own. 00:22:48.900 --> 00:22:50.420 It's self worship. 00:22:51.580 --> 00:22:52.340 And we all do this. 00:22:54.200 --> 00:22:54.640 We all do this. 00:22:55.940 --> 00:22:56.260 But we. 00:22:57.540 --> 00:23:02.960 We look at God and we say, But God, I know what you say, but that's for them. 00:23:03.420 --> 00:23:04.120 That's for them. 00:23:04.120 --> 00:23:07.420 That's a general idea for most people most of the time. 00:23:07.540 --> 00:23:10.960 But you know me, I'm the exception to this. 00:23:11.720 --> 00:23:14.820 That's what we generally say to God, God, that's good for everybody. 00:23:14.820 --> 00:23:17.740 But for me, in this moment, I become the exception to this. 00:23:17.800 --> 00:23:19.350 And this is I get I get a pass. 00:23:19.700 --> 00:23:24.400 And so we believe the self-deception and elevate ourselves. 00:23:24.620 --> 00:23:26.780 But what is the result in of suppressing the truth? 00:23:26.800 --> 00:23:30.600 That's what we start to see in verse 24, the result of suppressing the truth. 00:23:30.640 --> 00:23:32.940 And this is talking again about God's wrath. 00:23:33.740 --> 00:23:36.480 There is a natural consequence to God's wrath. 00:23:37.340 --> 00:23:43.580 When God brings His wrath, we often think about immediate judgment and punishment, right? 00:23:44.040 --> 00:23:51.240 There's a story I remember about a farmer who hated God, and his farm was right next to a church, and so he decided he 00:23:51.240 --> 00:23:53.350 was going to bail his hay on Sunday. 00:23:53.860 --> 00:23:57.560 And the people in church, they couldn't hear what the service that day. 00:23:58.080 --> 00:24:03.070 And the farmer even wrote into the newspaper bragging about I had better crop yield than anyone. 00:24:03.160 --> 00:24:05.460 So what do you say about that to your God? 00:24:05.460 --> 00:24:08.040 You know, just publicly, just trying to shame them. 00:24:08.660 --> 00:24:13.040 And they just said, well, God doesn't take into account what you're doing in October, right? 00:24:13.080 --> 00:24:20.140 He's like he's like they're saying God will God will bring that judgment one day, but he's just giving you grace in the month 00:24:20.140 --> 00:24:20.520 of October. 00:24:20.520 --> 00:24:21.540 For now. 00:24:21.560 --> 00:24:23.850 That's that was their response to the moment. 00:24:24.000 --> 00:24:25.720 And in verse 24 years, you see this. 00:24:25.740 --> 00:24:28.910 He says, therefore, God gave them up in the loss of their hearts to impurity. 00:24:30.560 --> 00:24:32.720 What it's saying is you want to know what God's wrath is in this moment. 00:24:33.100 --> 00:24:34.280 God says, that's the way you want it. 00:24:35.260 --> 00:24:35.580 Fine. 00:24:35.580 --> 00:24:36.920 Reap the results of that. 00:24:37.740 --> 00:24:38.820 See how that works out for you. 00:24:40.220 --> 00:24:42.160 A God will ultimately bring judgment. 00:24:42.720 --> 00:24:46.160 But these moments, he's letting them go through the natural consequences of sin. 00:24:47.320 --> 00:24:54.440 Therefore God gave them up in the loss of their hearts to impurity, to dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchange the truth 00:24:54.440 --> 00:25:00.420 about God for a lie and worshiped and serve the creature rather than the Creator who was blessed forever. 00:25:01.800 --> 00:25:01.960 Amen. 00:25:04.160 --> 00:25:09.040 God gives them up when oftentimes think in terms of God's wrath working this way. 00:25:09.700 --> 00:25:15.220 We usually read Wrath and we think very active presence and bringing judgment right in that moment. 00:25:15.260 --> 00:25:20.520 But there's another way in which Scripture talks about his wrath, and you're saying natural consequences of sin reap that. 00:25:21.420 --> 00:25:26.390 In fact, in Psalms 80, 81, it says this verse 11, but my people did not listen to my voice. 00:25:26.640 --> 00:25:28.260 Israel would not submit to me. 00:25:28.520 --> 00:25:32.320 So I gave them over to their stubbornness of heart to follow their own counsels. 00:25:35.520 --> 00:25:36.260 God's allowing. 00:25:37.880 --> 00:25:40.980 Them to follow the path of their lie. 00:25:42.280 --> 00:25:43.690 Which we know leads to destruction. 00:25:43.920 --> 00:25:44.120 As you follow. 00:25:44.560 --> 00:25:45.720 Follow the father of lies. 00:25:45.720 --> 00:25:46.540 Who is Satan? 00:25:48.280 --> 00:25:54.230 Now, before I read this next little verse 26 and 27, let me just let me give you a hypothetical or maybe a scenario. 00:25:54.760 --> 00:25:56.120 Let me call it a scenario because I don't like hypotheticals. 00:25:56.800 --> 00:25:57.470 Let me give you a scenario. 00:25:59.240 --> 00:26:06.320 Suppose for a moment your tasks, you're leading this church and you get a phone call and someone wants to 00:26:06.320 --> 00:26:08.740 you to perform their wedding. 00:26:10.380 --> 00:26:12.480 And you say, okay, well, you can come talk to me. 00:26:12.500 --> 00:26:19.640 And they come in and they meet with you and they say to you find out that it's a 50 year old man and an 11 year 00:26:19.640 --> 00:26:22.460 old girl, and they love each other and they want to get married. 00:26:24.480 --> 00:26:24.640 Now. 00:26:24.720 --> 00:26:25.400 What do you say to that? 00:26:27.620 --> 00:26:28.060 Correct answers. 00:26:28.400 --> 00:26:28.660 No. 00:26:28.760 --> 00:26:29.580 Okay, but. 00:26:29.820 --> 00:26:30.530 But what do you say? 00:26:30.580 --> 00:26:32.400 I think I heard one person say it. 00:26:32.420 --> 00:26:32.600 All right. 00:26:32.640 --> 00:26:33.330 So good for you. 00:26:33.480 --> 00:26:34.240 But. 00:26:34.420 --> 00:26:35.800 But no. 00:26:35.800 --> 00:26:36.560 Right, but. 00:26:36.620 --> 00:26:36.640 But. 00:26:36.640 --> 00:26:37.180 But what if. 00:26:37.180 --> 00:26:37.920 What do they say to you? 00:26:37.920 --> 00:26:39.420 Well, we believe it's right. 00:26:39.420 --> 00:26:43.710 I love I love her and she loves me and we believe it's okay. 00:26:44.140 --> 00:26:44.360 Right? 00:26:44.360 --> 00:26:44.540 So. 00:26:44.780 --> 00:26:45.680 So what's the harm in that? 00:26:45.700 --> 00:26:46.640 It's just love. 00:26:47.040 --> 00:26:48.440 It's just love, right? 00:26:48.760 --> 00:26:54.480 Who are you to rain on their parade to tell them no when they both agreed that they love each other and this is what they want to do? 00:26:57.180 --> 00:26:58.820 Let me add another level to this. 00:26:58.860 --> 00:27:00.460 What if what if their culture. 00:27:01.660 --> 00:27:02.120 Says it's okay. 00:27:04.120 --> 00:27:06.440 What if their country says it's legal? 00:27:08.840 --> 00:27:14.080 What if you don't agree to do it and their country says it's legal and you'll face punishment for it? 00:27:16.240 --> 00:27:16.800 What do you do? 00:27:20.660 --> 00:27:21.600 Sometimes in life. 00:27:22.960 --> 00:27:26.080 Culture asks us to do things and agree with things that God doesn't. 00:27:27.860 --> 00:27:28.860 And you have a decision to make. 00:27:28.940 --> 00:27:32.320 You can obey the world or you can obey his word. 00:27:35.420 --> 00:27:42.600 When you have a person like that says we think it's okay and you think it's not okay, what do you appeal 00:27:42.600 --> 00:27:43.540 to come to an agreement? 00:27:45.780 --> 00:27:49.280 The only thing that you can do when two people disagree is to appeal to an authority outside of yourself. 00:27:50.820 --> 00:27:56.580 And when that authority might be the country and the country agrees with the individuals that you disagree with, what do you do? 00:27:58.440 --> 00:28:02.080 Because we understand as Christians, the greatest authority that we should appeal to is God. 00:28:03.680 --> 00:28:05.360 But what if these people don't agree with God? 00:28:07.260 --> 00:28:08.780 For God's people. 00:28:08.780 --> 00:28:12.670 The best thing that we can do in a culture that might disagree with us and whatever capacity. 00:28:14.140 --> 00:28:18.060 Is to love the Lord with all her heart, love them as best we can and share truth. 00:28:21.640 --> 00:28:28.140 When we talk about sharing truth, the only way that a heart will align with something like that is not preaching morality to them. 00:28:29.620 --> 00:28:30.360 It's Jesus. 00:28:32.000 --> 00:28:35.880 It's to understand that Jesus calls us to live for something completely different. 00:28:37.380 --> 00:28:40.540 There is the world's kingdom and there is God's kingdom. 00:28:41.880 --> 00:28:46.160 In my heart, no matter the consequence, should be inclined to follow what God's kingdom says. 00:28:47.240 --> 00:28:49.180 And in doing that, it doesn't mean I hate people. 00:28:50.800 --> 00:28:53.120 It doesn't mean I need to be unloving to people. 00:28:54.300 --> 00:28:58.840 It just means I'm following Jesus and I need to meet people where they are and help them understand Jesus. 00:29:00.000 --> 00:29:00.800 And that's all that means. 00:29:01.940 --> 00:29:08.940 And in this world, when you when you walk through this world, you're going to encounter people that live according to the system of this world and maybe sometimes obey 00:29:08.940 --> 00:29:11.660 those laws and sometimes obey their own personal laws. 00:29:11.720 --> 00:29:14.080 And you're going to meet those people throughout all of your life. 00:29:14.360 --> 00:29:16.040 And your decision as a believer should be. 00:29:16.740 --> 00:29:17.620 But I want to follow Jesus. 00:29:19.040 --> 00:29:23.580 And I'm going to love Jesus and I'm going to love people where they're at and help them come to know Jesus. 00:29:24.680 --> 00:29:28.820 We should not expect people that don't know Jesus to live like they know Jesus. 00:29:31.380 --> 00:29:34.780 But we should understand in our own life, had God's grace not entered in our world. 00:29:36.160 --> 00:29:37.310 We're just like them. 00:29:38.680 --> 00:29:40.720 Apart from the grace of God, that's all of us. 00:29:42.240 --> 00:29:44.460 So we don't say things to throw stones at people. 00:29:44.460 --> 00:29:47.140 I'm reminded of when Jesus went to the woman at the well. 00:29:48.480 --> 00:29:52.740 The only person, the first person in John's gospel, he tells I'm the Messiah, too, is the one with the well. 00:29:52.800 --> 00:29:54.920 And he tells us in that passage also her son. 00:29:54.920 --> 00:29:57.780 She's been married five times and she's living with someone that's not her husband. 00:29:59.500 --> 00:30:00.600 And Jesus loves her. 00:30:02.140 --> 00:30:02.640 And Jesus. 00:30:02.640 --> 00:30:04.040 Here is truth with her. 00:30:05.300 --> 00:30:10.440 Verse 26 and verse 27 What is the result of suppressing the truth? 00:30:10.860 --> 00:30:12.600 Well, I can read this for you, too. 00:30:13.360 --> 00:30:20.980 There's this article that came out that talked about sexual liberation, the way it's filled our culture and specifically felled 00:30:20.980 --> 00:30:21.340 women. 00:30:21.820 --> 00:30:25.870 And there was even written by a book written by a lady who was a secular author. 00:30:25.940 --> 00:30:29.100 So let me just tell you, I'm not promoting this book to tell you to read this book. 00:30:29.100 --> 00:30:30.680 This book, they tell you, is very abrasive book. 00:30:30.980 --> 00:30:31.800 It's not even a Christian book. 00:30:31.900 --> 00:30:33.540 It's got some values of Christianity in it. 00:30:33.880 --> 00:30:36.280 But the title of the book is The Case Against the Sexual Revolution. 00:30:37.000 --> 00:30:44.580 And the latest conclusion into the book is this We would need a technology that discourages short termism in male sexual behavior, 00:30:44.880 --> 00:30:49.740 protects the economic interests of mothers, and creates a stable environment for raising children. 00:30:49.740 --> 00:30:52.820 So they recognize all of this that we've been telling everybody about their sexuality. 00:30:52.880 --> 00:30:54.100 It's actually bankrupting us. 00:30:54.160 --> 00:30:56.340 And she's like, we need we need all of these things. 00:30:56.340 --> 00:31:02.100 And she says, and we do already have such a technology, even if it's old and clunky and prone to periodic failure. 00:31:02.360 --> 00:31:04.020 It's called monogamous marriage. 00:31:04.220 --> 00:31:04.640 That's what she says. 00:31:05.000 --> 00:31:11.920 And of all the things that we can pursue, this is this is what's important for the Lord's people and then some or for people in general. 00:31:11.920 --> 00:31:15.880 And in Romans chapter one, verse 26, for this reason, God gave them up. 00:31:17.300 --> 00:31:23.040 To this honourable passions for the women exchange natural relations for those that are contrary to nature. 00:31:23.400 --> 00:31:30.560 And the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving themselves 00:31:30.560 --> 00:31:32.480 due penalty for their error. 00:31:37.700 --> 00:31:38.460 God made your body. 00:31:41.080 --> 00:31:42.300 What you do with it matters. 00:31:44.560 --> 00:31:49.960 The physical is not disconnected from the spiritual. 00:31:52.860 --> 00:31:56.900 What you do with your body is an act of worship. 00:31:58.280 --> 00:32:00.380 It's just a matter of what you worship. 00:32:02.500 --> 00:32:05.540 Do you see your body as belonging to you? 00:32:05.560 --> 00:32:07.480 Because you're Lord of this world. 00:32:08.780 --> 00:32:09.480 And you use it. 00:32:10.840 --> 00:32:11.880 For your pleasure and your glory. 00:32:14.420 --> 00:32:16.000 Or do you see it belonging to God? 00:32:18.240 --> 00:32:19.780 There's not a person in this room. 00:32:21.060 --> 00:32:26.020 That does not have to yield some capacity of their sexuality to the Lord. 00:32:26.200 --> 00:32:31.900 Every one of us has something to die to self in that in order to honor God through it. 00:32:33.420 --> 00:32:38.700 And when the Bible talks about sexuality, it follows the scope of anything from pornography to rape. 00:32:40.080 --> 00:32:41.160 And anything in between. 00:32:43.540 --> 00:32:46.020 God created sexuality for a purpose. 00:32:47.340 --> 00:32:51.540 And when we live for an altogether different purposes, not about personal gratification. 00:32:51.540 --> 00:32:53.300 That leads the end of the day, though. 00:32:53.360 --> 00:32:55.860 God does make our sexuality have delight in that. 00:32:56.780 --> 00:33:01.440 But it's in the surrendering of his purposes to the to the to the benefit of human flourishing. 00:33:04.180 --> 00:33:07.980 All of us have something to yield in the Lord in that. 00:33:09.260 --> 00:33:15.970 Which is why we can look at a passage like this today and say, look, it's not about throwing stones at one person, but about everybody. 00:33:16.180 --> 00:33:17.700 If you look at porn and stop. 00:33:19.640 --> 00:33:20.860 If you fornicate, quit. 00:33:22.700 --> 00:33:25.900 You're taking what belongs to the God and using it for your glory. 00:33:27.060 --> 00:33:34.400 When you make when you make your sexuality all driven about your pleasure, what you do is you start using people as tools 00:33:34.400 --> 00:33:36.040 for your own gratification. 00:33:36.160 --> 00:33:39.200 You treat them like you would use a hammer out of a toolbox. 00:33:40.060 --> 00:33:44.420 They're intended for your gain, your pleasure, your wants, and when you're done, you can discard them. 00:33:46.460 --> 00:33:47.880 That is not God's picture of people. 00:33:49.820 --> 00:33:51.500 People are made in his image. 00:33:52.620 --> 00:33:56.710 And God calls us to glorify him and bless others in the way that we live in this world. 00:33:56.720 --> 00:34:03.200 And the way that we do that as people is completely surrendering our lives to his desires above our. 00:34:05.670 --> 00:34:07.040 God, What is it that you want? 00:34:10.100 --> 00:34:11.860 Verse 2026 and 27. 00:34:11.900 --> 00:34:14.739 Then if you if you got this, what is the result of suppressing the truth? 00:34:14.739 --> 00:34:16.010 Let me let me give you one, two and three. 00:34:16.179 --> 00:34:21.120 One is God gives them up to his receive the due penalty for their error. 00:34:21.840 --> 00:34:24.000 And number three is destruction. 00:34:25.699 --> 00:34:26.120 It's destruction. 00:34:27.460 --> 00:34:28.199 Yeah, I know. 00:34:28.199 --> 00:34:30.800 We can we look about the purpose of sexuality. 00:34:30.920 --> 00:34:38.380 I can get very simplistic in this and say, like, young ladies, when you marry or when you're dating a young man, I know sometimes we have conversations and 00:34:38.380 --> 00:34:41.800 we'll say like, well, my intentions are to marry them, so it's okay. 00:34:41.880 --> 00:34:45.139 And what we do, because God knows the motive of our heart is intended to be married to them. 00:34:46.040 --> 00:34:51.080 And let me just say, if he really loves you, then he would push you closer to Jesus, not further from him. 00:34:54.900 --> 00:34:55.440 On her God. 00:34:58.140 --> 00:35:00.870 Honor the Lord in the only way that happens is surrender. 00:35:02.200 --> 00:35:08.620 And the reason we surrender is to see the goodness of who he is and his grace as he gave his life for us. 00:35:08.700 --> 00:35:09.180 The Gospel. 00:35:11.620 --> 00:35:16.280 Verse, verse 28 to 32, then talks about that destruction as he continues to see his God hand. 00:35:16.720 --> 00:35:22.100 God takes his hand off when we live for our glory, rather than surrender ourselves to his. 00:35:22.120 --> 00:35:27.560 And these verses, what you see is a life about self, a life about self, and this is what it builds. 00:35:27.560 --> 00:35:33.640 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 00:35:34.020 --> 00:35:40.820 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness and evil and covetousness and malice, and they were full of envy and murder and strife and deceit and maliciousness. 00:35:40.880 --> 00:35:48.160 And they are gossips, slanders, haters of God, insolent Heidi, boastful inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, 00:35:48.220 --> 00:35:50.440 faithless, heartless, ruthless. 00:35:50.440 --> 00:35:55.020 Though they know God's righteous decrees that those who practice such things deserve to die. 00:35:55.220 --> 00:35:59.080 They not only do them, but give approval to those who practice them. 00:36:02.060 --> 00:36:03.130 We might say tolerance. 00:36:05.760 --> 00:36:13.120 It's interesting when you look up the word tolerance in the Bible, it's usually used with negative connotations, like in Revelation chapter 00:36:13.120 --> 00:36:14.840 two, verse 20, the Church of the Tira. 00:36:15.960 --> 00:36:20.280 It says You tolerate Jezebel in your presence. 00:36:22.560 --> 00:36:23.980 Tolerance and love are not. 00:36:25.340 --> 00:36:26.240 Equated with one another. 00:36:27.960 --> 00:36:29.020 Truth and love is. 00:36:31.400 --> 00:36:32.620 But not tolerance of love. 00:36:32.680 --> 00:36:34.780 In fact, you can tolerate someone straight to perdition. 00:36:38.080 --> 00:36:40.680 If you love someone, you'll stand with them and for them. 00:36:42.320 --> 00:36:45.300 I mean, that's what Jesus did for us as we fought against him. 00:36:45.820 --> 00:36:47.020 And that's what Romans one is. 00:36:47.020 --> 00:36:51.140 We fight against him, and yet he gave his life for us. 00:36:53.400 --> 00:36:55.840 So have you passage today, right? 00:36:55.900 --> 00:36:56.620 Every passage. 00:36:56.620 --> 00:37:03.680 But when you come from a passage like this, let me just remind you guys of the importance of looking at both 00:37:03.680 --> 00:37:10.760 positions and Romans Chapter one from the first 17 verses in verse 18 to 32, I think Here's Paul's intention 00:37:10.760 --> 00:37:16.340 is to awaken the church, to realize the significance of what you mean to this world. 00:37:18.180 --> 00:37:18.900 The truth that you have. 00:37:18.900 --> 00:37:25.660 I mean, I think it's incredible that you have a secular author writing a book, realizing the sexuality that our culture is promoting is leading our culture to a place that's bankrupt. 00:37:27.120 --> 00:37:27.850 And what can I answer? 00:37:27.880 --> 00:37:28.920 Do they have to put in its place? 00:37:30.540 --> 00:37:31.500 That's where you fit in. 00:37:34.100 --> 00:37:40.780 Knowing Jesus and seeing what Jesus has done for us and realize He calls us to something altogether different and being able to live for that. 00:37:41.520 --> 00:37:47.680 There was a Christian in Russia who was exiled from Russia in 1987, and he said something interesting about the American church. 00:37:47.740 --> 00:37:49.980 And I think the times are starting to change today. 00:37:50.080 --> 00:37:52.660 But this is what he said about American Christianity as he compared it to Russia. 00:37:52.680 --> 00:37:56.500 He said, in Russia, Christians are tested by hardship. 00:37:57.680 --> 00:38:00.760 But in America, Christians are tested by freedom. 00:38:02.360 --> 00:38:04.920 And testing by freedom, he said, is much harder. 00:38:06.260 --> 00:38:08.940 Nobody pressures you about your belief. 00:38:09.780 --> 00:38:17.100 So you relax and are not concentrated on Christ, on his teaching and how he wants you to 00:38:17.100 --> 00:38:17.360 live. 00:38:19.380 --> 00:38:20.040 Church. 00:38:20.100 --> 00:38:21.340 My hope and prayer for us this morning. 00:38:23.060 --> 00:38:30.400 And so we can we compare just the two positions of what Paul has shared for us and Romans is that our hearts rests 00:38:30.400 --> 00:38:34.500 in the significance of what we received in Jesus by His grace, not by our works. 00:38:35.120 --> 00:38:42.300 But not only that, the blessing that we carry as we go forth today to be able to share this with the people, to know the goodness of Christ and to live for 00:38:42.300 --> 00:38:44.740 something altogether different because the things of this world. 00:38:45.920 --> 00:38:47.070 And they'll bring you temporal pleasure. 00:38:49.000 --> 00:38:50.840 But at the end of the day, you begin to recognize. 00:38:52.360 --> 00:38:53.800 But really, apart from God, you have nothing. 00:38:55.540 --> 00:38:57.770 But thanks to God, He gives us his grace. 00:38:59.280 --> 00:39:01.960 It's not about throwing stones, but finding freedom. 00:39:03.200 --> 00:39:07.000 Recognizing all of us at some point have a place where we are broken, like the woman at the well. 00:39:07.940 --> 00:39:08.820 But what does Jesus do? 00:39:10.020 --> 00:39:11.240 He meets us as his need. 00:39:12.760 --> 00:39:14.040 He loves us where we are. 00:39:15.120 --> 00:39:17.250 And he points us to the hope that we can have in him.