All right, take your Bibles and
turn back with me to Romans, Romans chapter one. Text will be found in verse 18,
and we're gonna go on from there. I don't know how far or how much
we'll get in, but we'll, by the grace of God, we'll get where
we get. Scripture says, For the wrath
of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness
of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness, because that
which may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has
showed it to them. For the invisible things of him
from the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood
by the things which are made, even his eternal power and Godhead,
so that they are without excuse. Now, the apostle has already
stated his heart concerning this message. He is a slave of Jesus
Christ, as all preachers are. He says, I'm an apostle, which
means his authority, by which he writes this book. He tells
us the message of this book is what? The Son of God. What is
the message of the whole book? It is the Son of God. It is of
his humanity and his deity, of his righteousness and his offering,
of his resurrection from the dead. And Paul in verse 7 down
through verse 13 describes his love for these brethren. And
this is the love of every preacher for those he preaches to. We
desire to be with you. We desire you to hear and to
be fed the word of God, and that was Paul's desire for them, that
they may be comforted. I'm going to tell you some troubling
things today, but I'm not going to leave you there. My desire
is that you be comforted, that you exalt Christ. Now, in verses
14 through 17, he describes his indebtedness, the necessity he
has Preaching the gospel is not an option, it is a necessity. For those that are called to
it, we are debtors to preach it to everyone. To everyone. To the educated and uneducated,
to men, women, children, whoever God gives it to us to preach,
that's what we do. And what we are is we're not
ashamed of this gospel. We're not ashamed of it. Why? We know this is the power of
God unto salvation to everyone that believes. We know that this
is the means, this is the means by which the power of God conveys
the spirit and life. We know that it's not by the
world's means, by the world's wisdom, but by preaching the
gospel. What he says in 1 Corinthians
the world calls foolishness. Isn't that what you found when
you ask people to come and hear the gospel? Why won't they come? It's not necessary. They don't
need it. It's foolishness to them. He
says it's foolishness to them that perish. But we know this
is not foolishness. We know this is the means. This
is what God has chosen. Preaching Jesus Christ, Him crucified,
is the means by which God saves And in verse 17, he declares
what's in the Gospel. He says, For therein is the righteousness
of God revealed. And this is what we went over
last time, that the righteousness of God is revealed. And when
he says this, he's saying this is the fulfillment of the work
of Jesus Christ. All the Scripture speaks of Christ,
but now in that Scripture, It testifies of what Jesus would
accomplish in his work. And that is simply this word,
righteousness. Righteousness. And we went over
five things last time that righteousness reveals. Every time you preach
this gospel, there are five things revealed. First of all, ruin. Righteousness, ruin. By Adam's
sin, righteousness, none of us are righteous. Righteousness
required. The gospel reveals God requires
righteousness of you and me. It reveals that Christ restored
that righteousness. It reveals how that righteousness
is received by the gift of the Holy Spirit through faith. And
then it tells us that righteousness is going to be rewarded. Everyone
who has the righteousness of Christ shall have eternal life. Eternal life. That's the reward
of righteousness. But now Paul starts to delve
in to another. This first part,
in other words, that first point that I made about righteousness,
ruined. Now you take those five things
and you can trace them throughout the book of Romans. In these
first two chapters he's going to deal with what? Ruined. And
requirement. He's going to deal with both
of these things. And then in chapter 3 and on he's going to
deal with righteousness recovered, righteousness restored. He'll
deal with how righteousness received in chapter 4, faith. He'll deal with righteousness
rewarded in Romans 8, right? There's therefore now no condemnation.
We are heirs and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. He's going
to reveal these things. That's what the gospel reveals.
So every time that's preached, that's what is revealed. But now Paul is going from verse
18. From verse 18 to chapter 3 and
verse 20, he has this idea of righteousness ruined. Now, get
the picture. In the Church of Rome, there
were two groups of people. There were Jews and Gentiles.
There were Jews and Gentiles. And Jews were having a very difficult
time figuring out where they fit into this. And so were the
Gentiles, because they'd never been together. And yet, this
matter of Christ has brought them together, where Paul said,
there's neither Jew nor Greek. Well, that was something strange.
And what Paul is going to reveal is this. We all have this in
common, whether you're Jew or you're Greek. This is it. We
all fell in Adam. We all died. We're all sinners. That's what he's going to reveal.
He's going to set forth the depravity of man. Now first, he's going
to deal with the Gentiles, the Greeks. He's going to remind
the Greeks of the total, absolute, depravity of their nature. Paul reveals that though they
were without the law of God, though the Greeks were without
God speaking to them as the Jews had, yet God did speak to them
in creation and conscience. These two are very important,
creation and conscience. Look at this in verse 18. For
the wrath of God is revealed. What does the gospel reveal?
Righteousness. What this is going to reveal,
and he's going to talk about from heaven, he's talking about
creation, conscience, nature. What does the word of nature
reveal? It reveals one thing. The wrath
of God. That's all it reveals. The wrath
of God. Revealed from heaven against
all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in
unrighteousness. Listen, though they had never
heard of the true and living God or his prophets. You've got to consider this. There was a time when all the
Gentile nations knew little to nothing about Jehovah. Nothing. They had no prophets. They had no teachers. They were
totally in darkness. Yet the apostle here said, yet
they still had some light. They had some light given to
them. Two things, the light of creation
and conscience. Look at verse 19. Because that
which may be known of God, manifest where in them that which may
be known of God is manifest in them in their heart and they
know it is to be true why because God has showed it to them and
how do you show it look at verse 20 this is the this is the manifestation
of how God showed it to them in their hearts he not only put
it in their hearts that he is but he also gave evidence that
He is. Look at that in verse 20. For
the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are
clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made even,
two things, His eternal power and Godhead. And what's the result of this
light? They're without excuse. Though they've never heard of
Moses, though they never heard of Isaiah or Jeremiah or any
of the prophets, listen, they're without excuse because they had
known God. They had known there is a God.
And behold, this light and knowledge of God are concerning not His
grace, but His wrath. The wrath of God is revealed
by these things. And it's known by creation. Go
to Psalm 19. The heavens declare the glory
of God. The firmament showeth his handiwork.
Day unto day uttereth speech, night unto night showeth knowledge. There's no speech nor language
where this voice is not heard. You see, God is speaking. Every
time the sun come up, God was speaking. Every time the sun
ran its course all the way to the end and the moon came up,
God was speaking. When the seasons changed, when
the seed was planted and the fruit came up, what was God doing?
He was speaking. He was speaking. And so look at the wonder of
creation. Creation, we're in a cursed world. Now we know that.
But I'll tell you what, at times it is quite beautiful. Isn't
it? The beauty, the majestic mountains,
the glory of the valleys, the moon and the stars and the sun
and the planets. Man, we don't know the half of
the things that go on outside of our own planet, it's astounding. How each planet moves in its
orbit and Earth, Earth being a precious jewel in the center
of it. You wonder how precious this
planet is? Look at the other ones. If you have any understanding
about the other planets, there's no life at all. There's no way
that you can live there without suits and oxygen being brought
from here. You've got to bring the oxygen
from here. You've got to carry it out there, because there ain't
none out there. And it's amazing. The precision of the placement
of this planet. You realize that they had this
thing called the privileged planet. It was really wonderful. They
said, if we were a few degrees either way, we'd either burn
up or freeze to death. If the earth was moved just a
slight bit off of its axis, we couldn't see into the heavens.
The cosmic dust would cloud the sky, we wouldn't be able to see
the stars or anything else. You see how beautiful this speaks?
It speaks of what? Well, it speaks of power, doesn't
it? It speaks of power. This knowledge of God being clearly
seen and understood in the heart of every man. They know God's power and creation
and they know that if He is, if God is, if there is a God
who created this, then He of necessity rules. Now listen, this is knowledge
that every man has. This knowledge is possessed by
every man. What's the result of such knowledge? God says, so then, they're without
excuse. I've heard that foolish argument. What about those people never
heard? Oh, they heard something. But you know what? God says,
what they heard concerning creation and their own conscience, they're
without excuse. They're without excuse. Why? Because they knew God was just.
They knew he had wrath. They knew he was going to judge
them. And I don't care what civilization
you find, you're going to find judgments. Later on he's going
to tell you, have you ever judged anybody? Why is it that you,
how is it, why would you judge somebody because you know in
yourself that God must judge. So then they're without excuse.
They have such knowledge of God's wrath against sin. They know
God demands that God will condemn all who do not measure to that
righteous standard. But what do men do with such
knowledge? Paul said, hey, you Gentiles,
seeing that your ancestors and all of you had this knowledge,
what did you do with it? What'd you do with it? You rejected it. Though all men have this knowledge,
all men will reject it. They reject what they know. Verse 21, because, because that,
when they knew God, how'd they know Him? They knew Him by conscience,
they knew there was a God. They saw it by creation. And
what did they do with that? They glorified Him not, listen,
as God. Neither were thankful, but became
vain in their imagination. You see, When they looked at
the moon and the stars, they didn't glorify God who made it.
They made the moon and stars God. How'd they do that? Imagination.
I took a class many, many years ago on religions of the world. The imagination of these people
is astounding. It's just imagining these. One culture had had the universe
on the back of a turtle. I'm not kidding. They believe that our solar system,
our universe, is flying right now on the back of a turtle.
This is imagination, isn't it? But this is what they do when
they know there's a God, but what do they do instead of glorifying
God as God? They used their own imagination
to make a god. And what happened as a result
of that? Their foolish heart was darkened. And professing themselves to
be wise, they became fools. This is always the result of
natural light. Men talk about logic and reason
and But you have to understand the
nature of man when it comes to God will go against every ounce
of his own logic and reason. His conscience. A man has a conscience. And he'll defile and cut and
mar his own conscience. I mean, look at it. Creation
is screaming, there is a God. conscience screams, there is
a God and He will judge. Man is so depraved in his heart
he absolutely refuses and rejects it. Instead, the heart of man
being filled with darkness, blind, Instead of thinking himself to
be foolish to do things, I mean, it would be foolish. A God that
created all these things, a God who has such power, and you would
refuse to worship Him? To me, that sounds foolish. But
to the world, it is liberating. It's wise. It's wise. Men seek to give glory and honor
to their own wisdom. and to the God of their own imagination
rather than the God of heaven. The evidence is verse 23. This
is what happens when you reject what they know about God. Listen,
they change the glory of the uncorruptible God into the image
made like unto corruptible man. To birds four-footed beasts,
turtles, cats, dogs, and creeping things. Look at the gods of the past
civilizations and tell me that that is not just utter foolishness. They have, I mean, monuments
to these, man-like figures, Egyptian, were dogs with man's bodies. Greeks had men in horses' bodies. You know, weird imaginations
of creatures that they would bow down to, they would change
the glory of the incorruptible God, the invisible God, and make
him visible by things they saw. But even those, this is true
of even those in our day who denounce the gospel of Jesus
Christ as foolish. Aren't they doing the same thing?
Isn't this still the same? Don't they profess themselves
to be wise and youthful? You that believe on Christ, you're
the fool to them. And there was. There was. I remember there was
some kind of debate about evolution. I don't debate evolution. I'm
going to tell you why in just a minute. It's foolish. But there was one
doing that. And some guy said, well, we all
know something come from nothing. You can't have something come
from nothing. By the time he said, okay, well, who made that?
You know, and he said, well, that matter came together and
this happened and that happened and boom. Okay, well, where'd
that come from, matter? Where'd it come from? And he
said, well, it came from these atoms. He said, okay, where'd
that come from? And he went all the way back to the, and he said,
well, it must have come from aliens. And I'm telling you,
this was one of the most intelligent, supposedly intelligent professors.
It must have come from somewhere else. And you know what the other
guy said? Where'd they come from? So you see the foolishness of
this, but they think themselves to be wise. They think themselves
to be educated. Sophisticated, intelligent men
boast against the light of creation in their own conscience, saying
this, there's no God. How many proudly today boast
of no God? Such men are the greatest of
fools, aren't they? This account came to my mind
as I was preparing this. Sir Isaac Newton, one of the
most prominent scientists, had a friend who created this model
of our solar system. Created a model. and he made
it in the size and scale of the planets in our system as he knew
it. And he put these gears and wires
and belts together and you could turn it. You had a crank on it.
And they would revolve around the sun in their orbit and time. It was an astounding, beautiful
model. Considering his time that he
lived in, it was a scale like none other. And his evolutionary
friend came in, a guy who didn't believe in God at all, creation,
he believed in evolution, he came into Newton's workshop and
he saw the thing on the table and he goes, this is astounding. He looked at it, marveled at
it, turned the crank, watched the planets move around, and
he said, oh wow, I've got to know who made this. And Newton,
without looking up, said, nobody. And his friend thought, well,
he must have misunderstood me. I asked, who made it? And Newton
turned around and says, well, nobody. There was some matter
on the table, and it was agitated, and there it was. And his friend got really angry.
And Newton said, how in the world could you possibly think that
this came, this must have been created by somebody when the
thing it represents in a larger scale you confess that nobody
made it. How foolish is that? Is that
not the most foolish thing you have ever heard? It goes against
conscience and reason and logic and yet this is what men do by
nature. Well then you got another group
of people who who believe that, okay, they acknowledge it, there
is a God. They're a group of people who
acknowledge there is a deity. They don't deny that he's against
sin and that he's going to judge. But seeing that his heart is
full of darkness and sin, what does that man do? Well, that
man begins to imagine God. He knows there is a God. What
does he do with that knowledge? Well, instead of worshipping
him as deity, he begins to imagine what he's like. He begins to
think and reason within himself what God is and what God wants. And then he takes that imagination
and what does he do? He gets a piece of wood and he
carves it out. He gets a piece of gold and he
melts it down and he forms it. He starts writing in some books
some doctrine concerning his God, orders of how to worship
his God. So that man, he imagines a God
and then he makes a God. Now listen, this is not just
ancient times I'm talking about, this is right now. I saw a man,
dressed in priestly robes, and he was crying. His face was,
you could tell, just weeping. And he's asked why he was weeping,
and it's because he was holding this statue of something, I don't
know what it was, it looked like a big beam of light of some sort,
made out of gold. And he was holding this statue!
And they asked him why he was weeping and he said, because
I was carrying God. I was carrying God. See what
he did? He took the incorruptible God
and made him like a statue of light. I always make calls to mind that
cross maker in Rome In the 1500s, I believe it was, and he was
renowned for his cross-making ability, and he came to die. He was on his deathbed. A priest
came in and was about to read him his last rites, and he had
a cross in his hand, and he said, Behold thy God! And the man looked
up in terror, and he said, I made that. This is the natural heart of
man, to make a God of his own imagination. This is what men
do. You know what the root word of
heresy is? Opinion. Well, I think God's like this.
Well, you know, I feel God's like this. You know, I had a
dream and my dream told me that God was like this. Isn't this how modern religion
does it? They'll get a group of people together and they'll
sit around and talk about how they feel about God. I don't care how you feel about
God. Your opinion of God does not matter. And listen to this,
neither does my opinion of God matter. It only matters what
God says about himself that matters. That's all that matters. And so what does a natural man
do naturally? We're God factories, friends.
An archaeologist once said this, you would sooner find a civilization
without an alphabet than you would find them without a temple. You dig up all the old ancient
ruins you want to and you're going to find a temple. You're
going to find some kind of God that they worshipped. Why? Because
this is what we are naturally. We are God factories. And so
if we say anything at all about God, we better be sure it's what
God said about himself. Such men are blind and foolish. They change the glory of God
into something like themselves. Men always desire to worship
a God much like themselves. Now what God said, God said thou
thoughtest that I was altogether such in one as yourself. That's
what we think. We think God's like ourself. Now why is this? Why would we
want to change the glory of God into a corruptible thing, into
a thing that, because we have the innate desire to control
God. We want to rule. If you make
a God, You fashion him. Look, you can put him wherever
you want to. You can move him. You can change
his position. You can put a sheet over him.
You can do anything you want with him. Why? Because, listen,
you're God. That's what you want. You want
to be God. Why is it that when we hear things
that God reveals about himself, why is it that our flesh doesn't
like it? You ever wonder that? I don't
like that. Some people think God is cruel.
Some people think God is too harsh. You know what you're saying? You're saying this, you're more
compassionate than God. That's what you're saying. If
I'd have had it done in my way, I would have been more compassionate
than that. What you've done is you had an imagination about
God and you made your own. Don't do that. Listen, friends, if you need
to carry your God, your God is not God. You understand that, right? If
God needs your help, he's not God. You've changed his glory
into a corruptible thing. This is the modern God of this
generation, a God that must be carried, a God that must be pitied. Isn't this the Jesus of modern
days? Pleading with you, he's trying
to save you, he's done all he can, he's died on a cross for
you, and now he sits pleading with you that you would exercise
your will and make his cross valid. That is not the Christ of this
book. He's not the God of heaven. The
God of this age is much like an idol. He's made up of man's
opinions. He's a God that changes from
age to age with the culture. You notice that? It seems like the God of modern
religion changes with the culture. But what does our God say? Behold,
I change not. I change not. Therefore, you
sons of Jacob are not consumed. All you that have bowed to the
gods that cannot save, you should come now and bow to God. Listen
to what God says about himself. Now, in Isaiah, there are many
texts in which God declares himself to be God. Look at this in Isaiah
45. Look at Isaiah 45, and God here is talking about what
he's going to do with this man Cyrus many, many, many years
before he's even born. God's telling him what he's going
to do. He said, I'm going to put this guy Cyrus, and he's going
to deliver my people. And why is he going to do this?
He's going to do it because I want you to know this. I'm God, and
there is no other God. That's his whole point of this.
I'm God, and there is no other God. Look at verse 20. Now he
says to everyone who worships any god of their own imagination,
he said, come assemble yourselves. Come, draw near together, you
that have escaped the nations. Now listen to what he says of
all other gods. He says, they have no knowledge
that set up wood of graven image and pray to a god that cannot
save. He said, Tell you and bring them
near. Yes, let them take counsel together. Who hath declared this from ancient
time, who hath told it from that time, hath not I Jehovah? And there is no God beside me,
a just God and a Savior. There is none beside me. And
look what he says to everyone who worships the God that cannot
save. Everybody that worships a God
who wants to save but can't. He's calling you to this. Turn
away from that God. That God is not God. Listen,
if your Jesus wants to save you but can't, that's not God. Turn
away from it. You got a false view of who He
is. Look what He says. He says this, look unto Me. Look unto Me and be ye saved,
all the ends of the earth. Why? I am God and there is none
else. I have sworn by Myself the Word
has gone out of My mouth in righteousness and shall not return to Me. That
unto Me every knee shall bow and every tongue shall swear.
And this is what they're going to confess. This is what they're
going to swear. The Gospel, verse 24. Surely
shall one say in the Lord, I have I righteousness and strength.
Who alone has righteousness and strength? Who alone is righteous
and strong? It is the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's who. He is the righteousness of God. He is the strength of God. Even to Him shall men come. And
all that are incensed against him shall be ashamed. In the
Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified and shall glory. Friend, there's only one God
who has righteousness, only one who has strength. And the promise
of God is this, to everyone who looks to him, everyone who looks
to him will be saved. Everyone. Everyone who looks
to him will be saved. Everyone who trusts in him shall
be saved. And the promise of God is this,
that in him Israel shall be justified and show glory. We are justified. How are we justified? Heaven
reveals what? The wrath of God. It only reveals
the wrath of God. It cannot reveal how wrath is
satisfied. Socrates said this, he confessed
this. He said, it may be that deity
can forgive sins, but I cannot see how. That's their wise man. That's the one. That's the one
everybody says, oh, do you hear what Socrates said, or Aristotle,
blah, blah, blah. You know what they couldn't figure
out? Wrath was revealed from heaven.
They understood that. But how God could forgive sin,
they couldn't understand it. And yet, every one of you who
believe in Christ, you know how. You know how. How can God be
just and justify the ungodly? Is that revealed in nature? Is
that revealed within man? Can man come to that conclusion? Is it possible for man to be
enlightened by the worldly things of the world? No. It is only
by the power of the Spirit, through the preaching of the gospel,
that Jesus Christ is seen as the only wisdom of God, as to
how God can be just and justify the ungodly. He is the only way. And it is through faith in Him,
faith being both a grace and an operation of God himself in
us. You believe? Do you believe?
Did you come up with that yourself? No, that faith was given to you
by grace of God and now by grace you see how it is that God can
be just and justify the ungodly. Now conscience and nature testify
to me this, I'm the ungodly. That does testify. The law that
is written in my heart testifies of that. But how he can save a sinner
is only testified by the gospel of Jesus Christ. What about all those who would
not retain God in their knowledge? Go back to your text. Verse 25 through verse 28. What does God do with such a
people who have changed the glory of God into the corruptible man
to be likened to themselves. What does God do? Verse 24, wherefore
God also gave them up to uncleanness. In verse 28 he says he gave them
over to a reprobate mind. And notice the evidence of one
who has been given over. He gave them over to uncleanness
through the lust of their own heart to dishonor their bodies
between themselves, which changed the truth of God into a lie and
worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is
God blessed forever. For this cause, God gave them
over to vile affections. For even their women did change
the natural use of that which is against nature." Lesbians. And likewise also the men leaving
the natural use of the woman burned in their lust one to another. Men with men working that which
is unseemly and receiving in themselves the recompense of
their error which is meat. It's just right for them to receive
what? You put two men together, do
you get life? What do you get? There's no life,
is it? That's only a testimony of what
they're going to receive, death. It only works death. Now friends, is this not seen
very clearly in our nation? Can you not see this? What has
the false gospel of free will works religion brought to this
nation? It has brought homosexuality.
That's all it's brought. Why? Because when men worship
themselves more than the Creator, it's always going this way. It's
always going to be this way. Why? Because that which is in
them is in all of us. I mean, we've got grown men running
naked in our streets in front of children. And yet, that's
just OK, even among churches, so-called churches. You have
homosexual pastors, lesbian pastors of churches now, Methodist church. The Methodist
Church, you listen to me to this, the strictest people in the world
when their founders were so strict. Now, their work's religion. That's
all they are. Their work's religion. Salvation
was a combination of what Christ did and what you do after. And
if you wanted to keep your salvation, you had to do this. They didn't
believe in one saved, always saved. They believed that you
were going to be lost if you didn't keep this up. What does
that kind of religion produce? Eventually, everybody just gives
up. You can't keep up. And pretty soon, it just degrades
down into what it is today. All worse religion does that. You have pedophiles, and they
try to change the name, minor attractors. This is sick, friends. This is what God calls vile affections,
and don't you dare say any other thing. It's a vile affection.
It's a vile affection. They transform sodomites into
gays. You take the word. They try to
take that which is good and apply it to themselves, and it ain't
good. It's evil. What about the rest of the people?
Look at verse 28. even as they did not like to
retain God in their knowledge, gave them over to a reprobate
mind to do those things which are not convenient, being filled
with all unrighteousness, fornication. Is that not rampant? Tell me. Is it? Is that socially acceptable
now? It's not even considered a sin
most of the time. No, not considered a sin at all.
Well, you just can't help it. You know, you've got to have
it. It's OK. No, it's not. Wickedness, uncovet, covetousness. Oh my goodness, is that not Amazon
Prime? Did anybody have any covetousness
thoughts? It's rampant. Maliciousness, envy, murder,
debate. deceit, malignity, whispers,
backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of
evil things. There ain't enough evil out there.
They've got to go and try to find something new to do. This is this one. Tell me if
this is not, in this generation, disobedient to parents. Just rampant. Without understanding, covenant
breakers, liars, that's all it is, liars. Without natural affection. How many grandparents are raising
children? How many grandparents are raising
children in our generation? Why? Because their parents are without
natural affection. It is a natural affection for
a mother to love her child. And in our day, they're killing
them. What is this but a God turning
this nation over to a reprobate mind? He is. He is. That's the manifestation of it. Yeah, this happens all the time
in every generation. In generations past, all this
thing that's happening now has already happened. I'm not saying
it didn't. It happened, but most of the time it happened undercover.
People were not outwardly... You see, God had at least put
restraints, but when God turns people over to a reprobate mind,
the restraints are let go. In other words, He gives them
exactly what their heart wants. This, my friend, is the nature
of the depraved man. Now then, every one of us in
this building said Amen. Those people are vile. They're wicked. They're evil. Now get this, in the Roman Church,
the Jews were saying the same thing. That's right, Paul. You
tell them. You tell those Gentiles what
kind of wicked and evil people they were. All right? Look at
verse 32. Knowing the judgment of God that
they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only
do the same, but have pleasure therein. Therefore thou art inexcusable,
O man, whosoever thou art that judges." Anybody judging? Anybody in this room condemn
those people that I just said? You know what you did? You condemned
yourself. For wherein thou judgest another,
thou condemnest thyself. For thou that judgest doeth the
same thing." Now then, from this point, he's
going to start telling the Jews, those religious people, that you are no different. Is that not astounding? If you pay attention to this,
if God took his hand off of any one of us at any given time,
all of those vile things that I mentioned we are capable of
doing. As believers, say this within
yourself, have you ever envied those who are not? Look, you got a Facebook account
you have. I know you have. You flip through and look how
happy they are. Boy, you're fighting sin, you're struggling within
yourself, and you see them, boy, whoo, it's so much fun. I'm being pursued to death, and
they're all having the time of their life. You see what happens? I envy. I have the same thing
as they are. I may not do what they do, God
may have put his restraint on me, but it's not that I don't
want to. Do you see that we're all condemned
by nature? That by nature there's no hope
for us? By nature there's no difference in us? What then is the remedy for this?
You know it. It is only Jesus Christ and Him
crucified. The only hope for me is that
His righteousness, God, it was sufficient. That's it. My whole
trust is that His righteousness was sufficient for me. It's sufficient
for God to accept me. I'm not there going to take one
thing I've ever done and try to put it to His righteousness.
I'm not going to do it. I would just contaminate it. Friends, everything we touch
is sin. Everything we touch, we contaminate.
But this is one thing you can't touch. It is the righteousness
of God by Jesus Christ, both imputed to you and imparted to
you by the Spirit of the living God. Whosoever is born of God
sinneth not, and the wicked one toucheth him not." My hope is
the righteousness of Christ. What's your hope? My hope is in the blood of Christ
to cleanse me from my sins. That's my hope, that God's going
to accept me, is that His blood did away with all the vileness
of my nature. And that wrath of God that's
shown by creation, I know that wrath is satisfied. How? By the gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that wrath is satisfied. And so then I ask anyone who
is a sinner, why will you die? Why would you refuse to abandon your God of your own
imagination and bow to the God of Holy Scripture who swears he will save you? Isn't that the most amazing thing?
The greatest proof of depravity is that men won't come to Christ.
It's the greatest proof of brevity. You won't come to Christ. That's
just proof that you are out there depraved. Because in Christ, there's everything
that you need. Everything God requires, he gives. Do you find this to be true,
believer, that in sin there's nothing but sorrow? All that sin promised us, it
never delivered, did it? It only made us want more, never
satisfied. I'll tell you this, Jesus Christ
satisfies the soul, fills the whole void. I pray God will instruct us in
these things. We'll look at it again next time,
Lord willing. Let's stand and be dismissed in prayer. Father, dismiss us with your
mercies and pour out on us your grace. I can't convince anyone of anything. But I know your Spirit is capable
of raising the dead and giving them life. The light of creation
only exposes more of our sin and our rejection of thy glory,
but I know the gospel of Jesus Christ reveals the righteousness
of God. Help us and give us grace to
look to Him, to believe on Him. I beg you for grace this coming
week as Father, as we prepare for the conference, I beg you
to be merciful to let us have that conference and to be a time
of rejoicing fellowship among the saints. In a dark time, Father,
give us a time and season of peace. And I ask this in Jesus'
name.