I'm bringing to you this morning
a very solemn, very serious, very sobering message from the
Word of God, a message that is vital, a message of life or death. I hope you will hear it. In Romans chapter 1, the book
of Romans chapter 1. This is written to the church
that is located in the midst of Rome 2,000 years ago. Rome was a wicked, decadent city,
much like major cities or the USA today. Paul, the apostle,
a preacher of the gospel, a preacher and a teacher, mentions here
in this first chapter seven things of God that we must know. seven things of salvation or
damnation. He mentions the gospel of God.
He mentions the wrath of God. He mentions, he preaches the
creation of God, the glory of God, the truth of God, the reprobation
of God, and the judgment God. In verse 1 he begins saying that
I'm a servant of Jesus Christ called to be an apostle separated
unto the gospel of God. Gospel means good news, glad
tidings. I begin this message with good
news, glad tidings to a dead, dying, and doomed world that
there is salvation. There is a gospel that saves. In verse 16, Paul says, I'm not
ashamed of the gospel of Christ. He called it the gospel of God,
and it's the gospel of Christ, for He is God. The gospel of
Christ and Him crucified, of a substitute for sinner, of a
Savior for sinner, of a righteousness for sinner. He says in verse
16, this gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone
that believes it. It's the power of God. The gospel
or salvation is completely in the power of God. It's up to
God. It's His power, His will, His
Word that saves, His Son that saves, the blood of His Son that
saves, the Spirit of God that must save. He is able to save. The power is only of God. But God is willing to save. In verse 16 it says, it is the
power of God And verse 17, the righteousness of God is revealed
in the gospel. The holiness, the righteousness,
the justice, the judgment of God is revealed in the gospel. The righteous Lord loveth righteousness,
Scripture says. He demands it, and yet there's
none righteous, no, not one, but God, rich in mercy and great
in His love toward some, yea, many. has made Christ to be the
righteousness of His people. The end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believes. That God imputes or charges the
righteousness of Jesus Christ to sinners. What good news the
gospel is. The gospel is the power of God
and the righteousness of God revealed. The next thing he mentions
is the wrath of God. The wrath of God in verse 18,
he says, is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness
of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness, who suppress
the truth, hold it down, keep it back, or twist it or pervert
it. The wrath of God is revealed
from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness. Natural
disasters, pestilence, famine, floods, hurricanes, earthquakes,
tornadoes. Death is the wrath of God, and
yet men and women do not see it. The wrath of God is clearly
revealed from heaven, the scripture says. Psalm 5 verse 5 says, God
hates all workers of iniquity. Psalm 7 verse 11 says, He is
angry with the wicked every day. And that means not only the open
immorality or wickedness of man, but it means religion, whom Christ
said, they are workers of iniquity. False religion. Let me read to
you from Psalm 11. In verse 4, the Lord is in his
holy temple, the Lord's throne is in heaven, his eyes behold,
his eyelids try the children of men. The Lord trieth the righteous,
but the wicked, and him that loveth violence, his soul hateth. Upon the wicked he shall reign
snares, fire and brimstone, as an horrible tempest. This shall
be the portion of their cup, for the righteous Lord loveth
righteousness. John, in the Gospel of John,
says that the wrath of God abides upon the ungodly. God does not
love every single person, but the wrath of God abides upon
some. John the Baptist said in Luke
chapter 3, Who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? The wrath of God. Why is God
angry? Why is the wrath of God upon
some? Because of man's sin, because
of man's rebellion, because of man's unbelief, because of his
rejection of God, his unthankfulness, his unwillingness to bow. The
next thing is the creation of God. In verses 18 through 20
of Romans 1, It says, The wrath of God is revealed from heaven
against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth or
suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which may be known
of God is manifest or revealed to them. God hath showed it unto
them. The invisible things of Him from
the creation of the world are clearly seen. being understood
by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead,
so that they are without excuse. God is the Creator. There is
a universal conspiracy to disprove God, that there is no Creator. The Scripture says, The fool
hath said, No God. Men do not believe that there
is a Creator, that God is the Creator. That they don't believe
there's a sovereign Lord and Ruler who reigns over all. If God is our Creator, that means
He is sovereign. He does as He will with whom
He will. That means He's our Owner, and
He can do with us as He will. That means He's our Judge. If
there is no Creator, that means there's no right, there's no
wrong. no one to answer to, no law, and therefore no fear. Does that not describe our generation? There's no fear of God before
their eyes. Evolution is accepted as fact,
and a creator is rejected. God is angry every day. And the
next is mentioned of God is the glory of God. In verse 21 it
says, that when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God. Neither were thankful, but became
vain in their imagination. Their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise,
they became fooled, and changed the glory of God The glory of
the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible
man or birds or four-footed beasts and creeping things. The glory
of God. First is His creative glory of
which I mentioned. Psalm 19 says the heavens declare
the glory of God. The firmament showeth His handiwork. He made everything with His hand,
and it declares His glory as of the Creator. Day unto day
others speak, night unto night showeth knowledge. There's no
language where that voice is not heard, no speech where God's
creation is not clearly heard in the things that are made.
His creative glory. And then there's His redemptive
glory, His saving glory, which is the glory of God. Moses one
time asked God, show me your glory. And God said, I will be
gracious to whom I will be gracious. And I will show mercy upon whom
I will show mercy. God's glory is His redemptive
glory, His saving glory that He saves by His mercy and grace
that's in Christ. He saves whom He will. Man doesn't
deserve to be saved. He's a rebel against God. He's
a sinner against God. But God, in great love and mercy
and grace, chose to save some, yea, many. It's His prerogative,
and it's His power, and it's His glory. But no, man doesn't
think there is a God. Man doesn't think God is holy,
that God is sovereign. Man doesn't think that man is
that bad, that man needs saving. Man doesn't think man needs saving,
or else he makes up a religion that saves himself. Vain works,
vain tradition, vain forms of religion. When salvation is completely
of the Lord, it's His will, His choice, His work, His blood,
His righteousness, His Spirit. And man has changed the glory
of God into the glory of man, and worships and serves the creature
more than the Creator. That's what he says next. He
says in verse 25, the truth of God has been changed. The truth
of God is that God is God, sovereign, reigning, ruling over all, doing
as He will, with whom He will, because He will, that He worketh
all things after the counsel of His will, that God alone is
God, not man. The truth of God is the truth
about man, dead, corrupt, vile, helpless, hopeless, in the hands
of God to do with as He pleases. The truth of God is that Jesus
Christ is the only way to God, the only truth of God, the only
life of God, that salvation is completely in and of and by and
through and to and for the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's
His work. It's His blood, His righteousness.
The truth of God is that the Spirit of God must apply this,
must give life, must regenerate the salvations of the Lord. But
no, man has changed that into a lie, telling all men that they
have free will, that God loves them, that God wants this, wants
that, and God can't save them unless He lets them. That's a
lie. Truth of God has been changed
into a lie. And He worships and serves the
creature more than the Creator who is blessed forever. Amen. The truth of God is His Gospel,
is His Word. And man corrupts it and perverts
it. The next thing is the reprobation
of God. In verse 26 it says, So for this
cause God gave them up unto vile affections. Men leaving the natural
use of the woman burned in their lust one toward another. Speaking
of homosexuality, how that God turns over a society to a reprobate
mind. Verse 28 says that God gave them
over to a reprobate mind. Even animals don't do the things
to their body that men and women do today. This is the reprobation
of God. God turning over a society to
their wicked ways. Verse 29 says they're filled
with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness,
full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity, whisper, backbiters,
haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things,
disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant breaker,
without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful, and the last thing
is, They know the judgment of God, the wrath of God, and the
judgment of God against these things. But they not only commit
these things, they're worthy of death, but do the same and
have pleasure in them that do them. What must we do? What can
we do, people? Our society is sick. Our society
is perverted. What should we do? Scripture
says, repent. This is what the Lord came preaching.
Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. This is what John
the Baptist preached. Repent. Repent. Ask for salvation. Call upon the Lord, for whosoever
shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Seek him
while he may be found. Verse 7 of Isaiah 55 says, Let
the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts,
and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him.
To our God he will abundantly pardon, through the Lord Jesus
Christ. Oh, may the Lord have mercy upon
us all. Amen.