We just might look at that, Isaiah
26, verse 3, in our return. All right, Romans, chapter 1. Turn
back to the book of Romans, chapter 1. It's very fitting for us to look at
this book, Romans, chapter 1. because I believe we live in
modern-day Rome. The Roman Empire was probably the
greatest empire ever on the face of the earth. the most wise, mighty, and noble. And at Fluence, the Roman Empire
was a very wealthy society, very, very wealthy, just lavishly. And the Roman Empire was what
you would call imperialistic. That is, they surrounded the
world. They covered the world, spread
itself all over at least the European world. It was the world's
number one power, superpower. Does all that sound familiar?
As I said, it's very fitting that we look at this, because
we live—the United States is modern Rome. It's not one bit
different. And ironically, there's a lot
that goes on in this country that literally patterns itself after
Rome of old. The Book of Romans, written to
believers dwelling in Rome—look at verse 7. That's the title
of this message, All That Be in Rome, Beloved of God. Rome was the seat of power, political
power, religious power. Rome was the greatest political
power on the earth. Every other nation felt the influence
of and It was under the influence of Rome and politics and religion. Does that sound familiar? Religion
went out from Rome all over the world. That's where it started
and where it went. And so it was in the seat of
sin. Rome was the seat of every type of sin. Whatever perversion could be thought of,
it came from Rome. and spread everywhere else. Well,
that's the United States. Is it not? Do you not agree with
me? Everyone in here? Chapter 1 now of Romans is a
brief declaration of the gospel. And what a declaration. My favorite. The first four verses And then
Paul gives a salutation to the believers at Rome, and then there's
a description, a rather lengthy description of the world in which
the believers lived then, and it's an apt or perfect description
of the world we live in. Now, the gospel is the same.
This very same gospel that Paul tells us or declares in the first
four verses is the gospel. And then I could, we're not going
to deal with his salutation, but I certainly feel as Paul
did for you, and so do you for me, and so forth. But then we're
going to look at this description of the world we live in, see
if it's not very fitting that we look at this Romans. All right? Now look at verse 1, Romans chapter
1, verse 1. of Jesus Christ called to be
an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God. Paul didn't take
titles, didn't like titles, neither does any man whom God truly calls. He disdains them, despises titles,
will not take a title, refuses a title, reverend, doctor, so-and-so. Forget it. I asked John one time,
Tell us your credentials." He wouldn't even say his name. How
different from the false preachers today, huh? Paul, a servant of
Jesus Christ, an apostle, called to be an apostle. He wasn't seeking
it, didn't go to school to become one. No man in Scripture did. called by God, equipped by God,
separated from all the rest, unto the gospel of God." Now,
Paul is going to tell us what the gospel is. And, Henry, we
might not get past verse 1 and 2 or 3. The gospel of God, the
gospel not a gospel, but the gospel of God. Now, the gospel,
gospel means good news, gospel, good news. The good news of salvation
is of God. He says it's the gospel, only
one, the good news of God, the gospel of who God is. that you play in that song made
me think of Isaiah 26.3, that I will keep them in perfect peace
whose mind is stayed on thee. The good news is who God is. To a believer, who God is. That's the good news. Who God
is. There's no gospel if God's not
God. Are you with me? There's no gospel
if God's not God. If he just wants to be God, what good news is there in that?
But if he's God, Lord over all, hidden in the hollow of his blessed
hand, that's what that song said. Never foe can follow, never traitor
stand. Stayed upon Jehovah. The good
news is the gospel is of God. God is God. And it's the gospel
that originated with God. It's his gospel. He's the one
that purposed it. He's the one that bought it. He's the one that bought it.
He's the one that bought it or that he's paid for. He's the
one that brought it. He's the one that purposed it. He's the
one that purchased it. He's the one that applied it. The gospel of God originated
with God in his mind. It's the gospel of God. It's up to God. The good news,
whether or not we're saved or not, it's all up to God. It's
of God. Salvation is of the Lord. It's in his power. It has nothing
to do with man. It's the gospel of God. Read
on. I remember Brother Walter Gruber
preaching from this years ago. just the first four verses. And
I remember him saying, and if man can't preach from this, he
doesn't have any business preaching. The gospel of God, concerning
God, originated with God. It's all up to God. The gospel
is of God. Verse 2, "...which God had promised
before by his prophets in the holy scriptures." In other words,
it's an old, old gospel. It didn't start 2,000 years ago. It didn't start 3,000 years ago.
It didn't start 7,000 years ago. It's as old as God is. Known
unto God are all his works from the beginning, Acts 15, 18 says.
When's the beginning? God has no beginning. It's an
old, old gospel, and it says, oh, he promised this gospel.
in his, by his prophets in the Holy Scripture. In other words,
it's the gospel of the Old Testament. Gospel of the Old Testament.
You know, God is the first one to ever preach the gospel. You
know when he did that? When God, the first time the
gospel was actually audibly proclaimed. You know when that was? Wouldn't
somebody like to say it? You're afraid. Genesis chapter
3, verse 15, when God talked about the woman's seed, He's
talking about Christ, the virgin-born Son of God, the seed, the incorruptible
seed, which is Christ, coming from a woman, not a man, but
a woman. The seed, the Word, coming from, and God preached
that to the first sinners. He showed it before He even preached
it. But all the way from Genesis through Malachi, the gospel concerning
God's Son is declared. That's the next verse. This gospel
is concerning His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. The good news,
the gospel, salvation, concerns who Jesus Christ is, why He came,
and what He did when He got here, and where He went when He left
here, and what He's doing right now. All of salvation depends
upon that. It's concerning God's Son. It's not concerning what we do
with Jesus. It's not concerning what we think
about him, or what we decide to do, or what we have been,
are now, or will be. It's concerning his Son. The gospel is concerning what
Jesus Christ did. Who he is? There is no gospel
if he's not a Savior. If he just made an attempt to
save, that's no good news. Huh? If he made a down payment,
just made salvation possible, that's not good news because
Scripture says with man it's impossible. We don't have a dime. Got a good illustration that
I'm not going to give. I want to get through these verses.
Tell you later, remind me to tell you later about how I was
short some money. I was short the price needed.
Remind me. Maybe you'll come back on Sunday. All right, it's the gospel concerning
Jesus Christ, who he is. Call his name Jesus, because
that's what it means, his Savior. Concerning him, what he did,
who he is, where he is now, seated, the work's finished. What he
did, he obtained redemption for his people. He purged their sins. He put them away. That's the
good news. There's no good news without
it. Concerning his son, look at verse 3, made of the seed
of David according to the flesh, God became a man. This confuses
people. It confused them then. It confuses
them now. They thought he was just Jesus
then. They think he's just Jesus now. But we see Jesus made a little
lower than the angels for the suffering of death, but now crowned
with glory and honor, and we call him Señor, Lord now, not
Jesus. And he's declared, look at verse
4, after he made a man and doing what he did as a man for some
men, went back to glory and sat down, now he's declared to be
the Son of God with power. How much power? He said, all
power is given unto me in heaven and earth. All power is given
unto me. I'm the Lord of the dead and
the living. He said, I've got the keys of hell and death at
my side. I raise up, I cast down. I kill, I make alive. I wound,
I heal. I give life, I take it away.
I promote, I demote. I bless, I curse. I save, I damn."
It's concerning God's Son, who is declared to be the Son of
God with all power in heaven and earth. And all is in his name. powerful
hand. That's the gospel. There is no
other gospel apart from declaring who he is and his power, with
all power. And isn't that good news, to
a powerless sinner? Well, read on. according to the
spirit of holiness. How do we know he's the Son of
God? How do we know this man named Jesus walked two thousand
years ago on this planet was God in the flesh? Because he
was a holy man. There's never been one before
and never been one since. I mean perfectly, perfect, holy. Why, he stood in front of his
enemies who wanted to find something wrong with him. They're not a politician alive
today that can stand on his own merits. They find something. Our Lord stood before all his
enemies and said, Somebody convince me of sin. Somebody prove something. Those that wanted to said, I
find no fault in it. Holy! This is not man. Man can't do this. And look at
verse 4, by the resurrection from the dead, he's declared
to be who he is by the resurrection from the dead. All time is measured by his resurrection
from the dead, you know that? And this whole gospel depends
upon it. Oh, there have been many claims of men and women,
people, different persons coming back from the dead, but ridiculous. But even infidels and unbelievers
measure time by A.D. B.C., before Christ, A.D., in
the year of our Lord. He's alive. He rose from the
dead. Now, he wasn't raised from the
dead, like Lazarus or Tabitha or some others. He wasn't raised
from the dead. He rose from the dead. He himself
is the only man that ever has or ever will. He rose from the
dead. He's a death. He can't kill man. And so that proves who he is
and his works and so forth. So he's declared to be the Son
of God with power. And this gospel is God's gospel. It's an old, old gospel. It's
concerning his Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. who he is, what he
did, where he is now, declared to be the Son of God by what
he did. Now look at verse 5. Verse 5. He said, By whom, by
Jesus Christ, we have received grace and apostleship, obedience
to the faith among all nations, for his name's sake. Paul said,
we, that is, James, John, Peter, and the other apostles and myself
received everything we've received from him. Grace. Everything. All that we know, all that we
are, is by the grace of God. All that we have, all that we
ever will have or ever will know, is by the grace of God. That's
how you know a true preacher, you know? Doesn't attribute anything
to himself. It's by the grace of God. And
he said, in order to preach this gospel, verse 6, and among whom
are ye also the called of Jesus Christ. You believers in here are called
through the preaching of men. Now, these apostles were called
personally by the Lord. The Lord audibly, personally,
in person, that is, called each one of these apostles. and equipped
them especially for the work that they were doing. And there's
no more apostles, no more apostles, because that's one of the requirements. But yet we've been called by
the gospel, by the same Lord, but yet we hear it through their
preaching. I'll never forget the first time I heard Romans
1, verses 1 through 4. I heard the gospel. I heard the
gospel. The call. We're called. Have you heard it? The call of
Jesus Christ. He said, My sheep hear my voice.
What is the gospel call? It's not some pitiful fellow standing
down front holding his hands out begging you to accept him.
That's not the gospel call. That's an altar call. And we
don't have an altar here. We have an altar there. Christ
is our altar. And He's the one that does the
calling. And it's through the gospel. And it's not a begging
and a pleading and a asking and a won't you, won't you, won't
you. It's he hath, he hath, he hath. It's a declaration of who
God is. what the gospel is, who Christ
is, what he's done, where he is now. It's just a declaration. And the gospel says, Hear ye,
hear ye, thus saith the Lord. This is what the Lord has done.
And we'll see in a minute, that's the power of God. And all the
sheep say, Hey, that's my Lord, my shepherd. And they come to
him, believing the record concerning the record concerning his son. All right, verse seven, so all
that be in Rome, here we are living in Rome, I've heard the
gospel of you, beloved of God. If you've heard the gospel, you're
beloved of God. For whom he did foreknow, he
did predestinate. Whom he predestinated, call.
If you heard the gospel, it means he loved you. He loved you with
an everlasting love. I can't say that to everybody.
I do not say that to everyone, that God loves you. He might
not. But now I can say this, if you've heard the call, the
gospel call, smile. God loves you. I know He does. Why? He heard
the gospel. He said, my sheep, hear my voice. He said, I know them, and I lay
down my life for them, and I give them eternal life, and they'll
never perish. Have you heard the gospel? Then
smile. God loves you. Well, he says,
Beloved of God, called to be saints. Called to be saints. Well, grace to you. Yeah, that's
what it is. It's grace, unspeakable grace,
marvelous grace of our loving Lord. Peace from God our Father. And
God that ought to be angry with us is not. Peace from God our
Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Now he says, and I'm not going
to go through these verses 8 through 13. We read them. But this is
a salutation by Paul to the church. He says, I thank God for you.
Oh, how I thank God for you. And he said, I pray for you and
you're known. Now, there's nobody, you're known
all over the world, he said. There's not, other than my wife,
I don't think there's anybody in here who's been to Mexico
with us. And even she hadn't been the
Dominican now. There's some people down there
that know you. And love you. The churches down
there have heard about you. And they've been recipients of
your, your bounty. They know you. Your faith is
heard out throughout the world. Yes, it is. I thank God for you. Ah, boy. And verses 14 and 15,
Paul says this. You may not understand what he
said here. He said, I'm a debtor both to the Greeks and the barbarians,
wise and unwise. So as much as in me, I'm ready
to preach the gospel to you at Rome also. What Paul is saying
there is he had a debt to preach the gospel to others, as well
as the Romans. And all that preach the gospel
are told to go into all the world and preach the gospel, right?
A pastor is called to a local assembly, and that's what he's
to do principally, chiefly, primarily, most of the time, ninety-nine
percent of the time. He's to be right there. That's
where he's supposed to be. But now, Paul told young Timothy,
who was pastor at Ephesus, he told young Timothy, do the work
of an evangelist. The door opens, you go. Come
back, but go. All right. People down there,
you know, they wanted Cody. They'd love to have Cody come
down there and stay and be their pastor. No, Cody's called to
Mexico. They asked me, are you interested?
Well, I love you and you're my family, but no, I belong in Guatemala. This is what Paul is saying,
I'm a debtor. Paul was an evangelist. Paul wasn't a pastor of a local
church. Paul was an evangelist, went out all over the world,
an apostle to the Gentiles, preaching everywhere. That's what he said,
I'm a debtor to all to preach the gospel. All right, verse
16. Now, he said, preach the gospel. I'm ready to preach the gospel
for verse 16. I'm not ashamed of the gospel.
It is the power of God unto salvation. The gospel is what God uses.
The gospel is the power of God. We're not called to civilize,
organize, Americanize, democratize. Let the Peace Corps do that. body politic or a social organization
or a humanitarian place. It's a gospel preaching place. That's what the church is all
about. Besides, that's the power of God. The gospel is a power
of God. If people are uncivilized, the gospel will flat make them
civil. make them citizens of a high
country. He'll make them more civil than
Americans. People in the pueblos or the
primitive villages in Mexico are more civil-tongued and more
decent and respectful and fearful than Americans. Why? The gospel, that's why. It takes an outer worshiping
native in the jungle and turns them in, sits them down, clothes
them in their right mind, talking about the glory of God. We got
more natives and heathen in this country than in Yucatan Peninsula
that need the gospel. Got democracy, got social this
and social that, and very little gospel. I'm telling you the truth. The gospel, Paul said, we've
come to preach the gospel. It is the power of God unto salvation.
The gospel's God's power. The gospel's the only thing that'll
save a man from sin and out of sin and change a heart and a
mind and a life. It's only the gospel. The gospel. What is the gospel? Let me go over it again. verses 1 through 4. The gospel. Ours is not a social gospel or
political gospel. It's a spiritual gospel. The
kingdom is not of this world either. We're not here to make
Americans out of anybody. The gospel is to make sons of
God out of sons of Adam. The gospel is the power of God.
And look at verse 17. Boy, here's a declaration of
the gospel. He says, For therein, or that
is, in the gospel is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to
faith. You know what that means, from
faith to faith? I mean, he just talked about Jew and Greek. Whether it's a Jew or a Greek,
they've got to believe the same thing, like precious faith, from
faith to faith. It's a Jew, he's got to believe
the gospel, got to hear the gospel. Doesn't matter how religious
he is, he's going to have to be saved by the gospel. Or if he's a Greek, if he's a
heathen in the jungle, it doesn't matter, he's going to have to
hear the gospel. From faith to faith. Same faith. One faith, one faith. Not many faiths, one faith. And it's the gospel of the righteousness
of God. The righteousness of God. Now
listen very carefully. The gospel of God, of His righteousness. Remember, it's the gospel of
God. Of His righteousness. The righteousness of God. What's
that mean? First, let me just ask you if
you ever remember a preacher using this word. You may have, but it's very rare,
isn't it? Righteousness, generally they're
talking about man and how he needs to live right. But this
gospel, now the gospel, in the gospel is the righteousness of
God revealed. More than 500 times in Scripture
the righteousness of God is mentioned. 500 times. It must be important. Yeah, and the gospel, the righteousness
of God is revealed. In other words, the holiness
of God. The perfection of God. Now, stay
with me, because this is vital. This is the difference between
the gospel and false gospel. We're talking about the righteousness
of God, his character, his mind, his heart, his deeds. No mortal
man has this. No one has the righteousness
of God. Man lost that in the garden. No mortal man has it nor can
produce it. We can't get, we can't be holy. We can't do it. In the gospel is the righteousness
of God revealed. In other words, how holy he is
and how we may be holy. How he will accept us. Now here's
the good news. In the gospel is revealed. And
we really have to preach the whole book of Romans. Because
over in chapter 3 it says it's not by the deeds of the law.
It's not by us turning over a new leaf. The other side of the leaf
is as bad as the other side. How many people have you known
to turn over leaves? And it turned out to be just
as bad. They get mean and cantankerous
and self-righteous and holier-than-thou and look down at you and try
to save everything that walks when they're not even saved. The other side of the leaf is
better than any of both. You can't—need to be a new creature,
not a leaf. A new creature needs life, not
a leaf. Need to be attached to the vine. Not a leaf? Well, how then, when
the gospel is the righteousness of God revealed? Look at it,
verse 17. From faith to faith, as it is
written, the just shall live, that is, have eternal life, by
faith. There's just not enough time,
people, to deal with this. But here it is, very simply,
OK? We're going to be justified. That is, declared holy, righteous,
accepted, well-pleasing to God. God's going to receive us into
heaven, not by anything we have ever done or not done or ever
will do or not do, but by what Jesus Christ has done for us. If by looking to Christ and Christ
alone, and even faith is not of yourself, that faith, just
look at saying, Lord, in my hands no price I bring, simply to the
Christ of the cross I claim. Him, Him, He's my hope of salvation. What He did, His life to justify
me, His death to pay for my sin, that's all my hope, Jesus Christ. Even that is not, you didn't
decide to do that. You didn't decide to believe that. That's
a gift of God. To everyone he foreknew and predestinated
and called by the gospel. He said, you believe this, don't
you? Yeah. Come, come to Christ. He didn't
even come of your own free will. No, sir. You were made willing
to come to Christ. And so we're declared righteous.
The whole record, every sin, see, we're going to be sinners
to the day we die. No matter how hard we try, we're going
to be sinners to the day we die. So what's our hope? We're going
to be righteous. God hates sin, and there's no little sin with
God. He hates it. He said every sin
is going to receive a penalty. But he said to believers, all saints got past, present,
future, gone, put away by Christ. And so we're going to be sinners
to the day we die, but we're declared holy, accepted by God
in Christ. Is that simple? I mean, is that
easy at least to understand? It's not simple to make a man
Believe it and trust Christ. Only God can do that. Well, now
look at this. Let's go on. Verse 18 says this,
The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness
and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness. The wrath of God? Oh, our generation
scoffs at this, don't they? Don't they, Dan? The wrath of
God? When have you ever heard anybody
talk about that? The wrath of God? God is holy. God is just. God is angry, the scripture says. God hates some people. Scripture says that. And yet men, now here's what
he's saying here, that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven
against all ungodliness or whatever is not like God and unrighteousness
of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness. What is truth? I'm holding it. This is truth, the whole truth,
and nothing but So help me. Isn't it ironic that men and
women put their hand on this and say that in a court of law
when very few believe it? And it's going to rise up in
the judgment of men. Literally, hold everybody in America has
one of these on their shelf or coffee table or somewhere in
a drawer. Hold it in unrighteousness. What
does that mean? Twist it. corrupt it, take away from it, add to it,
withhold, leave it out, add to it, change it. One real popular modern-day preacher
read Romans 8, 28 one time, and he said, no, that's just not
so. And men do that in more subtle
ways without saying it. They say things that are exactly
contrary to what this book says. Hold the truth in unrighteousness.
And wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness,
especially men that hold the truth in unrighteousness. Read
on, verse 19. It says, That which may be known
of God is manifest to them. You know, it's amazing to me, really. It
astounds me how people can read this book and not see what it's
saying. And the only way I can understand
that is that God hath blinded their mind. That's what the Scripture
says, how that men and women can read
this book. and yet attribute salvation to
man. Give man some of the credit and
some of the glory, or say that God is not God. Read this book
and say that God is not God. Read this book and say that Christ
didn't save a particular people. He just came down and wanted
to save everybody. Well, it says it's clearly seen
that which is may be known of God, verse 19, is manifest to
them. God has showed it unto them.
Let me ask you something. It says in verse, let me read
on, verse 20, invisible things of God from the creation of the
world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that
are made, even his eternal power in Godhead. They're without excuse,
only without excuse. from the native in the jungle
to the professor in the university. Everyone's without excuse to
believe and bow and worship God, true God, God of the Bible. Let me ask you, somebody may
argue this. What about someone who's never
heard the gospel? What about someone who's never
heard the name of Jesus? And this is what they asked that
fellow in North Carolina. and his buddy in California.
What about those who've never heard the name of Jesus, never
heard the God, never will hear it, don't have a Bible, some
native and some obscure pastor. Are they going to be saved? They
don't, they didn't get a chance to be saved. What about them?
And those idiots, those two fools said, well, yeah, we believe
God's going to save them. God's mercy. That's not what
Paul says here. That's not what Paul says here.
Look at it. Verse 20 says, "...invisible things from God from the creation
of the world are clearly seen. His eternal power in Godhead."
In other words, the fact that there's an absolute, sovereign,
supernatural, wondrous being that created all things. Everybody
sees that, from the native in the jungle to the professor in
the university. "...walks outside and stands
under a big ball of fire that the whole planet depends upon." The whole planet depends upon
that light, life-giving light. Even a native can look up and
say, huh? Help who? What? Bow, you know, teach me. Rain,
life-giving water, falls from the sky. Just water falls from the sky.
David said, You can look at yourself and say, I'm fearfully and wonderfully
made. And here's the fact of the matter.
Whatever light someone has, they're responsible for it. If you act upon that light, God
will give more light and more light until the gospel comes. Nobody is saved apart from hearing
the gospel. No one will ever be saved without hearing the
gospel. Jesus Christ said that. He said,
I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto
the Father but by me. Go in all the world and preach
the gospel. He that believeth the gospel
and is baptized shall be saved. He that believeth not, be damned. That's plain. Our Lord said that. Either he's true or he's not. No one is saved apart from hearing
the gospel. And this is what Paul goes on
to say throughout the whole book, that all men and women are born
sinners. You want to read it for yourself,
read the book of Romans for yourself. Over in chapters 3 and chapter
5, chapter 7, it talks about some, John, who have sinned,
not just like Adam did, but nevertheless, they've all sinned. Born sinners. Every human being on this earth
comes out of his mother's womb speaking lies, hating God. That's what this book says. So
let me ask you, did you love God when you were a ten-year-old
boy? Huh? Did you think about God? Did
you give thanks to God? Debra, when you were an eight-year-old
girl, were you thanking God all the time? Whatever came to you
that God gave you, did you thank God? Did you ever thank God? Look at verse 21. It says that
when they knew God, that is, the light they had of God, they
glorified him not as God, neither were, now here's a key word,
thankful. They weren't thankful. God needs no other
reason to condemn man. than that right there. More than
thanks. The people of this world, what
do you hear coming out of their mouths? Cursing God. God damn. Oh Jesus Christ. Not thanking
God. Thank you God. Thank you Jesus
Christ. but cursing his name. Right? God needs no other reason. We're
thankful. Everything we have and are, we
live and move and have our being because God is. And yet men don't. An old preacher said the worst thing
you can cause somebody is ungrateful. And everything we have comes
from God. And they weren't thankful. So,
and in verse 21, so they became vain in their imagination, thought
up all sorts of things about God. That's convenient. If you
don't like God the way He's written, make Him one up. Vain. Make Him up. God's like Coke. He's a real thing. God's like
Hallmark cars. God's this, God's that. Look at them, professing themselves
to be wise, verse 22, they became fools. Scientists. We live in Rome,
don't we? Science. Science means the study
of truth, getting to the bottom of truth. Ever learning, never
coming to a knowledge. You know that people actually
believe. The wisest, smartest people in
our society actually believe that all of this came from a
little worm. Our wise men, our scientists,
our wisest of the wise, mighty and noble people, actually believe,
they actually believe, that all of this, I mean this wondrous
creation called the human body and everything else down to the
most complex form of life just came from a soup years ago and
a bolt of lightning hit it. Professing themselves to be wise.
Utter fools. Utter fool. The fool hath said
there's no God. Even a native in a jungle can
say this thing's too great. Well, so it says, and here's
a key verse, and I'm going to quit, all right? Verse 23, change
the glory of the uncorruptible God, that is, unchangeable. Change
the glory, here's the key, of the unchangeable God into an
image, that is, made up an image, made like to, what's the first
thing? What's the first thing that's going to make God like?
We're going to turn God into it. We're going to liken God
to it. This is what our God is like.
Well, what's the first thing? Man. So, this is not talking
about the natives in the jungle who have made them a totem pole,
you know, and said, this is our God. It's talking about the natives
in the jungle of New York, or Roanoke, or Rocky Mount, for
that matter, who have made up a God-like man. You're like man. God's like you.
God can't do anything unless, you know, God's like a man. They've
lost their mind. Lost their mind. That's what
verse 21 says. Foolish heart was darkened. It
says in verse 25, change the truth of God into
a lie, worship and serve the creature, that is, man. Man gets
more glory than God. Now look at this, and I'll close. Why is everything like it is
in this world today? Why is everything an absolute
chaos and mess? You can't even put into words
the the wickedness, and it goes on
in these verses. Are you ready with me? These
verses, they describe homosexuality and prostitution and a society
full of murderers and malice and pride and all that. Why? Why is it like that? Because the gospel is gone. Because
the truth is gone. There ain't no preacher standing
in pulpits anymore saying, God is holy. Think God will by no means clear
the guilty. God doesn't love everybody. Very
few preachers anymore who declare the truth of who Christ is, sovereign,
reigning, ruling, Lord and coming judge, not a weak, silly, sentimental
Jesus who wants to. And it says here that men turned
that truth into a lie. Lie on God, lie on Jesus, lie
on the truth. Make up all sorts of things about
God. Pick one verse of Scripture out
and say, this is what we believe. Forget the rest. Worship man
more than God. Put salvation in man's hands,
in his decision. And so it says God gave them
up, Dan. God gave them up, turned them
loose. And all these things are a result
of that. All of these things follow. Listen
to this. If God is my creator first, owner. If you create something, you
own it, don't you? That means you can bash it to
pieces or you can keep it. Is that right? If God is a creator, an owner,
he owns everything and can do with it what he wants to, right?
The creature can't say to the creator, You can't do this. The
clay can't say to the potter, and this is what Romans says,
Romans 9, Shall the clay say to him that formed it, You can't
do that. Why are you doing this? You have
no right. I have right. No, no, no. He's the potter, we're the clay. But now, wait a minute, if you
turn it around, if you've got the potter in the hands of the
clay, then we can do what we want to. We've got nobody to
answer to. God's not judge. He's just some
silly, sentimental bystander, hoping everything turns out all
right. Now, you understand this, don't
you? You don't have a reprobate mind. You got good sense, Bible
sense. Why? Flesh and blood didn't reveal
it to you, but my Father which is in heaven.
And so I say to all that be in Rome, call me God, beloved of God. You've got your right man, not
a reprobate one. God's not angry with you. Boy,
He is this world. Those next verses say that no
matter how God, they receive the just recompense, all these
things that men and women do and reap what they've sown and
calamities and disasters that God has put on this world as
a result of saying they don't even see it. Don't even don't
even see it. Like the sodomites who were stuck
blind, yet they still wrote for the wall. Instead of calling
on their faces and repenting, they wrote for the wall. You thank God. You be thankful. Be thankful. For everything, but chiefly now, this, this is
the unspeakable gift. It all falls in right here. This
gospel. That's where it all starts. That's
where all good sense comes from. Let the gospel of God. All right. Joe, what do you have
a number picked out? 209. 209. you