Good evening. Let's all stand
together. We'll sing hymn number 226. I am not skilled to understand
what God hath willed, what God hath planned. I only know that
His right hand is one who is my Savior. I take Him at His word indeed. Christ died for sinners, this
I read. Love Him to be my Savior That
He should leave His place on high And come for sin, O man,
to die Count it strange, so what's did I before I knew my Savior? And though that He fulfilled
may see the travel of His soul in me, And with His Word contented
me, ? As I with my dear Savior ? ? Gave living, dying, let me
bring my strength ? ? My soulless from this spring ? ? Let he who
lives to be my king ? ? Once died to be my Savior ? Be seated,
we'll sing hymn number 296. All the way my Savior leads me,
what have I to ask beside? Can I doubt His tender mercy,
who through life has been my guide? Heavenly peace, divine
discomfort, here by faith in Him to dwell. For I know on e'er
before me Jesus doeth all things well. For I know on e'er before
me Jesus doeth all things well. All the way my Savior leads. cheers each winding path I tread,
gives me grace for every trial, feeds me with the living bread. Though my weary steps may falter,
and my soul a thirst may be, Crashing from the rock before
me, O what spring of joy I see! All the way When my spirit floated o'er him
Wings his flight through realms of day This my song through endless
ages Jesus led me all the way This my song through endless
ages Jesus led me all the way Romans chapter 1. I'm going to start again at verse
16 and go down to verse 25. For I am not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to every
one that believeth, to the Greek, to the Jew first, and also to
the Greek, For therein, in the gospels, why is not ashamed of
it? There's a lot of folks ashamed of the gospel. I've met folks
who claim to believe in the five points of Calvinism, believe
in election, believe in God's sovereignty, and believe that
the work's all of the Lord, but they don't preach it, and they
don't attend where it's preached. So they must be ashamed of it.
Paul said, I'm not ashamed of it. I am not ashamed of the cross. I'm not ashamed of somebody else
bearing my sin. I'm not ashamed that God put
His Son on a cross to put my sin away. I'm not ashamed of
the good news that God provided me a Savior, provided me a Redeemer,
provided me a Mediator. And that's what He's talking
about here. And then He said, For therein in the gospel is
revealed, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to
faith, as it is written, the just shall live by faith. That's
mentioned four times in the scriptures, that one phrase, the just shall
live by faith. 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 done
of God is manifest in them, for God has showed it unto them.
for the invisible things of him from the creation of the world
are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made,
is even his eternal power in Godhead, so that they are without
excuse. Because that when they knew God,
they glorified him not as God, Neither were thankful, but became
vain in their imagination, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise,
they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible
God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds,
four-footed beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore, God also gave
them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts
to dishonor their own bodies between themselves, who changed
the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the
creature more than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. Our Father, O our Father, our
great, blessed God in heaven, Lord, there is no one like you.
a God of revelation, a God that if we know Him, He has to make
Himself known. If we worship Him, you've got
to make ourselves known, to make yourself known to us. If we bow
to you and submit to you and understand we have to have a
righteousness, you had to reveal it to us. You made us to understand,
Lord, that we're impotent, no power, no ability, no righteousness
of our own, But oh, bless your holy name. You gave us a righteousness,
even the very righteousness of God yourself. And Lord, you gave
us the blessed obedience and righteousness of your son, the
Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be your holy name. Father,
we've gathered out here this evening to worship, study your
word, see what has to say to us where we're at today. And
Lord, where we're living today, may you speak to our hearts and
our minds and our understanding. And Father, we pray, oh Lord,
how we pray for our brothers and sisters who, if they were
able, would be with us tonight, but they're not able. They're
not able. And Lord, continue to bless,
continue to strengthen, continue to encourage. We thank you for
the grace that's so abundant, and you give it. We pray again
for the Murrells and the Terrells, Lord, that you'd please be merciful
and gracious to them. Be pitiful towards them. Give
them encouragement. Give them comfort. Give them
some assurance. Give them, you be their comfort, Lord. God bless
them. Lord, strengthen them. Lord,
meet the needs. Forgive us of everything that's
so unlike you. Have mercy, oh God, have mercy
on our families, our friends, our brothers and sisters, our
sons and daughters and grandchildren. Oh Lord, you're the only one
that can do anything for them. And that's why we cry, oh God,
be merciful to them. For Christ's sake, amen. Number two in our course books. Number two in the course books. All for me Christ did surrender,
All for me He freely gave. Holy One, made sin for sinners,
By His death my soul was saved. All to Thee, my blessed Savior,
be surrendered all. Coming from His throne in heaven,
Jesus laid His glory by. Thus this sinner is forgiven,
and shall soon be glorified. He surrendered. All to Thee, my blessed Savior,
be surrendered all. Into death Christ did surrender
Even death upon a cross All to save the first offender I'm the
King, His Father ? Be surrendered, be strong, Lord
? ? Come to be my blessed Savior ? ? Be surrendered, Lord ? At the cross the Father's pleasure
prospered well in Jesus' hands. Now He's honored with a measure,
so the Father's will demand. All to Thee, my blessed Savior,
be surrendered. All right, just look at this,
what we're dealing with tonight. I'm going to try to deal with
verses 18 through 23, and there's a revelation received and a revelation
rejected. Those who believe have become
believers by the grace of God, they're converted. And when God
saves you, you understand just how awful sin is and how the
human race is RUINED by sin, RUINED by sin. You can t turn
your hand for the difference in men in this world. And the
Apostle, he now comes to terms with this awful, awful problem
of man s sin. He set forth the theme that we
dealt with last week, the GOSPEL. being the power of God unto salvation.
And what makes the power of God, the gospel, the power of God
unto salvation? Because God reveals His righteousness
in that gospel. And that God, that faith, that
righteousness received by faith and has to be a revelation. And
why is righteousness necessary? Why is righteousness necessary? Why does man have to have, because
we don't have one of our own. The only way we ll know anything
ABOUT having a righteousness is for God to reveal it to us.
Now, a lot of people go about to establish their own righteousness
and think it ll be all right, but the only righteousness that
God will accept is the one He Himself has provided. And I tell
you, I know this much about human nature. I know it about myself
before God had mercy on me and saved me by His grace. I do know
this, that the Gospel is ALWAYS, ALWAYS rejected, ALWAYS unwelcome
by human nature, and the reason being because of man's attitude
towards sin. You know, the thing is, you know,
that God dealt with sin. You know, people make heaven
and hell, heaven and hell to be the issue. God makes Christ
and sin to be the issue. That's the thing about, the thing
is, sin has to be dealt with. and it has to be dealt with God
s way or your way, and that s why he s talking about here. Human
nature does not love the Gospel, don t want the Gospel because
they ve got a wrong attitude of sin. They won t let their
sin go. And Paul takes up the first unrighteousness
here when he deals in Romans chapter 1 with what he calls
the Gentile world, people like us before we knew God, when we
were without God, without Christ, and without in this world, and
then he deals with the Jews in chapter 2 all the way through
chapter 3 and verse 8, and the reason being that there s a universal
unrighteousness of the whole human race. Man, you know, he
s born unrighteous, he lives unrighteous until God saves him
and makes him And you know the Jew and Gentile, and he confirms
it with the Old Testament, and I want you to look with the Old
Testament Scriptures. I told you when I started, the
Old Testament is mentioned 62 times in the book of Romans,
the Old Testament. Now, he s dealing with the Jews
and the Gentiles, and he shows us something, shows that the
whole human race is without righteousness. The whole human race is under
sin. The whole human race without
God has no hope. But look what he said here in
Romans 3 and verse 9, this is what we re going to deal with
tonight. What then? Are we better than they? And
this is the Jews talking, No, in no way, no wise, no way, no
how, for we have proved before, we ve proved it, both Jews and
Gentiles, that they re ALL under sin, as it is written, and these
are all Old Testament scriptures, As it is written, there's none
righteous, no not one. There's none that understands.
There's none that seeks God. Every one of them's going out
of the way. They all together become unprofitable. There's
none that doeth good, no not one. And this next verse comes
out of Psalm 5.5. The throat's like an open graveyard. Everything that's rotten and
corrupt and stinking comes out of a man's mouth. They even use
the Lord s name in vain, and he goes on to say, With their
tongues they have used deceit. They lie with their tongues.
I ve said this several times, If their tongue s moving, they
re lying. I m telling you, most politicians,
if their tongue s moving, they re lying. I ve got people in my family, if
their lips are moving, they re lying. When somebody lies to
you time and time again, you can t trust them, and that s
what he said, their tongue is full of deceit, and oh, they
got poison in their lips, poison, and I tell you what, they ll
poison you, poison your character, poison your reputation, and those
mouth is full of cursing and bitterness, their feet are swift
to shed blood, misery, misery, In the way of peace is not known.
There's no fear of God before their eyes Now that's what God
says about the human race. That's pretty bad, ain't it?
That's the way God describes them and I tell you that's what
we're going to deal with tonight But he cuts he goes on and says
and I won't look at it right now But he goes on to say after
painting this awful awful picture of man in all the state he's
in he says but now There's a righteousness revealed Now there is, in Romans
3, 21, he says that, and now there's a righteousness revealed.
And I tell you, he says, not only that, but this righteousness
was witnessed by the law itself, and that was witnessed by the
prophets. So I'll tell you what, it's not something that's happened
just out of the blue. So let's look at here in verse
18. We start at verse 18 here, Romans
1, 18. Now watch what he says here, For the wrath of God is
revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness
of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness. And look what
he says, from heaven! His wrath is revealed from heaven! God s wrath is revealed against
who? All! All! There are two revelations
here from heaven. There s two revelations here.
There s the revelation of the righteousness of God, and the
gospel is revealed the righteousness of God. And also there s another
revelation, and that s the wrath of God. Here s the righteousness
of God salvation, here s the wrath of God. Oh, my! And so here s two revelations
here, the righteousness of God in the gospel, the wrath of God
against unbelievers, and the wrath of God against men and
women who despise God and despise His gospel. And I tell you, God
s wrath revealed just like it is, and it s revealed by faith
as His righteousness is. And you know where His wrath
is revealed? To conscience. You know where He said His righteousness
is revealed? It s revealed to conscience.
It s revealed all the way through history. You know, let me show
you, you keep this, and look over in Matthew 14, excuse me,
Matthew 15. You know, God has revealed Hisself,
and He's revealed His wrath. He reveals His wrath over and
over and over again. But look what He said here in
Matthew 15, 13. And look what he says in verse
13, you know, Peter says, They were offended when they heard
this saying, but he answered and said, Every plant which my
heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up. I m mad at
them, I m angry at them, I m going to root them up! And watch this,
then look what he says, Let them alone! Let them alone! DON'T BOTHER THEM! DON'T PREACH
TO THEM! DON'T DO ANYTHING FOR THEM! Look
what he says, They are blind leaders of the blind, and if
the blind lead the blind, you know where they're going to end
up? Both going to end up in a ditch. Huh? Oh my! And you know God's
wrath has been revealed by faith as is His righteousness to conscience
and in history. You know the first place that
God showed His wrath? The first place in the Bible
that God showed His wrath. is when Adam sinned against him. And God said, get out, get out
of here, get out of this garden. Can't have fellowship with you,
can't have communion with you, get out of here. You sinned against
me, you disobeyed me, and now you're ruined. You're a sinner
and you're gonna pass your sin onto every one of your descendants
until the end of time. Get out of here. God said, get
out. And you know, he said, to keep you from going back and
to show people just how his wrath was, he set a sword. He set a
sword there, you know, set a sword, you know, to show folks that
you can't go this way. God will, that sword will get
you. And oh my. And then what about
the flood? God looked down. I mean, you
know, the world hadn't existed very long. And God looked down,
he saw man's heart was only evil imagination continually. He said, I can't live, I'm not
gonna let these folks get by like this. I'm not gonna let
them live like this. I'm not gonna have people on
my earth doing this. And it started raining. And he
preached for God's long-suffering way to 120 years. But boy, when
his wrath came down, when his judgment came down, when his
wrath was revealed, there was only eight people saved out of
that whole human race at that time. God's angry with the wicked
every day. People say, well, God loves the
sinner, don't love his sin. You can't separate the sinner
and his sin. And oh my, and then what about Sodom? Sodom. And I tell you, especially, especially
where God's wrath is revealed, at the cross. Oh, at the cross. God. God was so gracious and
so wise and so wonderfully merciful to us that He provided His own
Son, and His wrath came down on His Son. He gave Him a cup
to drink, and oh my, when God was so upset, and I shouldn't
say it that way, but God was so angry God's wrath fell down
on his own son and he refused to hear him. I won't listen to
your cries. I won't listen to your groans. I won't listen to you when you're
groaning up on that tree. I won't hear you. Oh, I'm gonna
forsake you. I can't save you. Because if I'd save you, I can't
save nobody else. Oh, God's wrath revealed. Oh
my, and I tell you what, and it just reveals so many ways.
You know, this wrath is revealed against, look what it says there
in verse 18 again. This wrath is revealed from heaven
against all ungodly and unrighteousness of men. It s not just, you know, all
ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. You know what? Man's action and man's attitude
towards God and towards his fellow man, that's what goes to all
ungodliness and unrighteousness. Oh my! God just don't just say,
Well, I'm going to hate this one, hate that one, hate another.
No, no, that's not, you know, He's talking about people who
deliberately, deliberately refuse the gospel. These ungodly and
unrighteous men, and that's what they're called, ungodly, ungodliness,
Oh my, there's ungodliness everywhere
we look. You can't, you can't, and I don't
mean, I'm not going to preach on anything like this, but I
mean, you cannot see anything on television anymore that ain't
got women with women or men with men. They just got to put it
in your face. And all ungodliness and unrighteousness. You know, when a man don t want
the righteousness of God, what he s saying was, I got my own! I don t need God s righteousness!
And oh, my! And then look what he says, And
they hold all ungodliness and righteousness of men, who hold
the truth in unrighteousness. Now wait a minute, what does
that mean? Hold the truth in unrighteousness. That means that
they know the truth and they've been confronted with truth in
their conscience or in history, and as they watch God's work
in His own creation, they hold this truth in unrighteousness.
They hold it down, they suppress it, they grasp it, but they don't
want it to come manifest. They don't want to see it, they
don't want to have to deal with it. Oh my, and yet they hold
it down, they suppress it, they grasp it, and yet they continue
to live in unrighteousness. You know how many people in this
world live in unrighteousness? You know how many people in Baptist
churches live in unrighteousness? You know how many people in Presbyterian
churches live in unrighteousness? Everybody thinks about out in
the world, but when you preach a righteousness other than Jesus
Christ, you're holding down the truth. When you preach works
for salvation, you're suppressing the truth. When you preach Christ
in part of him and part of you, you're holding the truth in unrighteousness.
And there's a multitude of people do that, multitudes of them. Oh my, men DELIBERATELY, WILLFULLY
oppose the truth, and how do you know? Because it s shown
in their sinful lives, and they JUSTLY, JUSTLY face the righteous
wrath of God. Oh, listen, As far as I know, there's not
anybody in my family ever been saved. My mama's gone, my daddy's
gone, I've got a brother gone, got uncles gone, grandpas and
grandmas gone. And I tell you what, as far as
I know, I've witnessed to them, I've witnessed to them. And they
said, no, I don't want it, I don't need it, I've got it all figured
out. and they leave this world, and
that's the wrath of God against them, and I can't say anything
about it. God's just to do that. God's
righteous to deal with people like that. If a man wants to
live an ungodly and unrighteous life, and he wants the truth,
and he wants to hold it down, because he don't want to face
his sin and face the righteousness of God, it's God's righteous
to pour His wrath out on him. and oh, they justly face the
righteous wrath of God. I heard old Barnard preach one
time, maybe you can find it on Sermon Audio, but he preached
one time, he said, the saints shout hallelujah when God sends
men to hell. And he got that out of Revelation.
Hallelujah, the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. And boy, he's sending
people down to the dead. And oh, look what happens now,
look in verse 19, now listen to this, Because that which may
be known of God is manifest in them, for God hath shewed it
unto them. For the invisible things of him
from the creation of the world, now listen to this, are clearly
seen. being understood by the things
that are made, His eternal power and Godhead, so that they were
without excuse." Oh, what in the world is he talking about
here? "...that which may be known of God is manifest in them."
What does it mean, God manifested to them? How did He do it? Well,
there is no valid reason for ignorance of God. God is manifested,
made known, concerned Himself in men's conscience. and in creation. Now let me show you, go back
to Acts chapter 27, I mean 17, Acts 17, I m sorry, Acts 17. Go back over here and look at
this, see what s said over here. Acts 17, look down verse 24.
Verse 23 says, You know, Paul said, You all are too superstitious,
you re too religious. You got an altar even to an unknown
God in case you missed one. And He said, Whom therefore you
ignorantly worship, Him I declare unto you. Now here s how He started
out. God that made the world, that
s the first thing. Everybody that lives in this
world can look up and see the stars, they can look up and see
the moon, they can look up and see the sun, They can see a morning
and a sunset and see beautiful, beautiful evenings when they
get so purple and reddish looking. Well, that ought to tell somebody
that there s a God, and it does. That s what He says here, God
that made the world and everything in this world. seeing that He's
Lord of heaven and earth, and He don't dwell in temples made
by hands, and neither is worshiped with men's hands, as though He
needed anything. Here's the thing, He gives us
life, He gives us life, and He gives us breath, and He gives
all things, And oh my, and hath made of one blood, everybody
come from the same person, all nations of men to dwell on the
face of the earth. And he hath determined the times
before appointed and the bounds of where they're gonna live and
how long they're gonna live. And he done it this way, he done
it this way, that men that they should seek the Lord, if happily
they might fill after him and find him, though he be not very
far from it. Because we live by him and move
by him. So God's manifested Hisself to
people. We're at in the conscience. You
know, man says that he's ignorant of God. There's no excuse for
him. There's no reason for him not
to be that way. Let me show you another in Acts
14. Look in Acts 14. Another thing that the apostle
says over here to show folks about God. In Acts 14. Look down in verse 17, And nevertheless he left not himself
without witness, in that he did good, I'll be nobody that'll
face God, said he wasn't good, and gave us rain from heaven,
and he gave us fruitful seasons, Our gardens was real prosperous. Our corn crop was great. Oh, that's what he said. And
listen to this, and filling our hearts with food, filling us with gladness too.
Oh my, and Paul's talking about that. He said, when you see it
rain, God, that's a witness of God. That's a witness of God. When you see a fruitful season
and you got plenty to eat, and your garden comes in, your crop
comes in good, and your tater patch is good, when everything's
good, God did that! God did that. I remember Ethel
years ago, whenever time she'd plant a seed. She'd go out in
her garden and she'd plant a seed, and you know what she'd say,
Lord, I can put it in the ground, but I can't cause it to grow.
Lord, please cause it to grow. Every time she'd put a seed in
the ground, she'd say to us, Lord, you bless it. You bless it. Oh, my. And oh, I tell you, the
heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament shows His
handiwork. Oh my, look what He said over here in Romans chapter
2 and verse 14. I hope I'm not taking too long. But look what He said here talking
about the conscience and how God makes Himself known. For
when the Gentiles, which have not the law, they don't have
it, never did have it. due by nature the things contained
in the law. I mean they know not to lie,
they know not to steal, they know not to commit adultery,
they know not to mistreat their parents, but these having not
the law are a law unto themselves. Well, how do you know? Which
show the work of the law, everything about love your neighbor, don't
lie, don't steal, don't cheat, Don t mistreat your parents.
We show the work of the law written in their hearts, and watch what
happens. Now, their conscience either
bears witness that what they believe in is right or true,
and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing or excusing one another.
Now, when a man s conscience that s why you don t ever trust
your conscience. A man s conscience, you know, when it pierces a man
s heart and makes him understand something, it will accuse him
that what you done was wrong, And what you'll do is you'll
turn around and excuse it and justify yourself in doing it.
And that's what he says. It'll accuse you or it'll excuse
you. And nine out of 10 times, it'll
excuse you, let you get by with it. That's why you can't trust
your conscience. That's why we got the word. All
right, let's go back over here in chapter one. Oh, look what
it says now. because that which we made of
God is in them, for God hath showed it unto them." Showed
it in His creation, showed it in providence. Look what He says,
For 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.
The invisible things of Him from the creation, look what it says
here, are clearly seen, Now God's invisible. God is pure Spirit. He don't have arms, hands, or
nothing. He's pure Spirit. God is invisible, but He's given
men eyes. Give us eyes, eyes to see His
providence, everything that comes past in this world. And oh my,
give us eyes to see His creation. It's clearly seen. Clearly seen. Oh my, you look at the sunsets
and the storms. Oh, how many times sunsets and
storms have spoken to so many, so many. Oh, I want you to see. Now keep this, and look in Genesis
8. Let me show you what God has showed us. These people that,
well, People just, if it wasn't for the grace of God, we'd be
just ridding this mess right here ourselves. This would be
us. It WAS us at one time. Look what he said here in chapter
8 and verse 21. This is after Noah came out of
the ark. And it said, And the LORD smelled
a sweet savor, and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again
curse the ground any more for man's sake. for the imagination
of man's heart is evil from his youth. Neither again will I smite
any more everything living as I have done." And listen to what
He says, while the earth remains, there'll be a time to sow, seed
time, there'll be a time to harvest what you sow, and there'll be
cold in the winter, and there'll be heat, summer and winter, day
and night, shall not cease. Every time the sun goes up and
comes down, you say, God, there's somebody, the invisible God,
there's somebody that has to be the first cause of all this.
Somebody has to, this thing just didn't come from nothing, There was a fella, I was reading
about him the other day, a physicist who was incredibly, about as
smart as Einstein, I reckon, but what he started talking about
is that it would be impossible for the world to have begun from
a big bang. You know, a big explosion out
in outer space, and the world was created out of that. He said
it'd be impossible because you've got to have MATTER, and matter
can't create itself. And what he done by doing that,
he talked himself right in to there had to be a God that had
to do this to make matter out of NOTHING! And then you know what he did?
He quit teaching and stayed at the house. He talked himself
right in to God created this world. Trying to prove that it wasn't
from a big bang. Where'd all this matter come
from? Where'd the sun, the moon, the stars, and people, where'd
they come from? Where'd the earth come from?
And oh, he talked himself right into it. Oh my, a man can see God's creation
of him who is who is invisible, and I tell you what, there's
some beautiful creation here. Right here in East Tennessee
where we live, right here on, this is one of the prettiest
places on the planet. It is, it's almost like a Garden of
Eden place. And I tell you, you can go over
and see the Smoky Mountains, and you can go, and I mean, it's
so beautiful here, you can get on a mountain and look out and
see things. And then there's so many places you can go. It's
just beautiful everywhere you look. And oh my, and look what
He says, clearly seen. God give men eyes to see, give
men eyes to see. And then look what He says, goes
on to say there, being understood by the things that are made,
His eternal power and Godhead, so that they were without excuse.
In that word, being understood by the things that are made,
and I mean we are made, we are made. It's by God that we live,
move, and have our being, and being understood by the things
that are made, man understand that there has to be a first
cause. You know, you look at everything
that goes on in this world, the decrees of God are invisible
as far as we're concerned. God's providence, people don't
understand it. But still yet it goes on and
on and on. Creation, just like, you know,
God said every seed after its own kind. Every seed that you put in the
ground, that's the seed you're going to raise. And animals,
the seed from an animal produces exactly the same animal. Everything
you look at that's got a seed in it, it ALWAYS produces the
same thing. Oh, my! And that's why it says
He's the Eternal Power and Godhead. Oh, my! And you know when you
talk about God's providence, I mean, you know He has His way
in the whirlwind. You know, every time one of these
here destructive storms come through here, that's God! There's nothing else you can
say that is God! And I tell you what, if He comes
and takes my house, He's still God! But that s what I m telling
you, that they can clearly see and it s understood! How can
you not understand that there has to be SOME POWER, SOME ETERNAL
POWER, SOMEONE that s controlling this world and everything that
s in it? And oh, and then it says, So
that they are without excuse. So that they are without excuse
there in verse 20. Oh, a man is an intelligent And in recognizing the things
of God, when they recognize that God, and most folks say, Yeah,
surely God, you know, I believe in God, but believing in God
and TRUSTING God are two different things. But when they recognize
the things of God, they ought to SEEK Him, they ought to LOVE
Him, they ought to WORSHIP Him. But they don't. But they are
responsible to walk in the light that they've got. They'll be
responsible for that law. And what light that they have,
I tell you what, they'll be without excuse. Be without excuse. Man
is responsible, now listen to me, man is responsible to make
good use of what he's been made to know. If God's made you know
something in your conscience, then you're responsible to answer
that conscience. If He's made you understand that
there's laws in this world, that if you break them, you're going
to be consequences to them. And there's His government, everything
that happens in this world where somebody's got to be running
this thing, and then He's crazy. If He doesn't recognize God and
bow to God and seek God and worship God, do you feel sorry for Him or
is He to be blamed? They're without excuse, without
excuse. And I tell you what, where revelation
is refused, the revelation of the righteousness of God is refused,
and men know something about God, and then they won't manifest
it, they hold it down. Now look what else he says down
here in verse 21 now. When revelation is refused, you
know where you're gonna go? You're gonna go down, down, down,
down, down. Look what he says here now. Because
when they knew God, Neither because that when they knew God, they
glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain
in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. I
want to talk about knowing God, knowing God, because that when
they knew God, they were indifferent toward Him, they were indifferent
towards Him, absolutely indifferent toward Him. How many people are
just indifferent toward Him? Knowing that there's a God. Claiming
that there's a God. Believing that there's a, knowing
that there's a God. But they're indifferent toward Him. And look
what it says here. They're indifferent toward Him,
they glorified Him not as God. Huh? Glorified Him, you know,
men will glorify everything under the sun but God. Glorify Him
not as God. He s God, let s glorify Him!
No, no, no, no, I ain t going to do that, I ain t going to
do that. They didn t honor Him, they didn
t attribute to Him His due, His glory, His weight, His significance,
His power, and how significant God is in His own world. And
look what it says, what else? They glorified Him not as God.
They didn t do it. And this is, oh, when you do
that, look what happens. You don't even become thankful.
Not even thankful. Why should I attribute what I've
got to God? I got this by my own power, by
my own works, by my own abilities. And neither were thankful. Not
thankful. Not thankful for what knowledge
they had. No, not thankful for what knowledge
had. And they wasn't thankful for their daily mercies. How
many mercies does God, how many time is God good to somebody
that actually hate him? God's good to them. God's good
to them. Oh, you're talking about a hard,
deceitful, despicable heart that won't give thanks to God. Won't
give thanks to God. And when men reject the truth,
look what happens to the imagination. Their imaginations became vain.
You know what that word vain means? Useless, nothing, empty. They became empty in their imaginations,
vain in their imaginations, vanity in their imaginations. They didn't
have anything worth thinking about. And oh my, look what God
taught us. When they reject the truth, their
imagination becomes vain, they become darkened, darkened, look
what he says, he calls them foolish, their foolish heart, foolish
heart is darkened, darkened. I know of a whole family, a whole
family of eight boys and a mother, and every time you mention God,
mention Christ, mention truth to them, mention prayer to them,
and stomp their foot and grit their teeth. Eighty-five year old woman, God
ain't never done nothing for me. Eighty-five years old, God
ain't never done nothing for me. Kill my boys! God ain't done nothing for me.
past and at one time fixed to die. You want me to have prayer
with you, prayer for you, or pray for you? No, I don't! I've lived without God this long
and I'll live without Him now. And that's what happens. You're talking about a dark heart
that just absolutely refuses. And I tell you this thing, I
tell you their heart will take you in errors and delusions. Men who refuse God as their master
will have darkness and death as their master. One is going
to reign, one or the other. And then look what it says in
verse 22, look what it said in verse 22, professing themselves
to be wise became fools. You know, how many people profess to be
wise? They are wise. They are wiser
than God. They are wiser than God. I have got to show you that.
I hope I am not taking too long. Look over here in 1 Corinthians
1. Let me show you something over
here. When men have this attitude toward
God, they're proud of what wisdom they have, and they're always
the result of it. They're proud of their wisdom,
proud of how smart they are, and proud of how wise they are. And man is wise in his own eyes,
the Scripture says. Look what it says here, verse
19, For it is written, God, this is Old Testament Scripture, I
will destroy the wisdom of the wise. I m going to take the wise
man and destroy it, and I m going to bring to absolutely zero the
understanding of the prudent, those folks that got it all figured
out, got it all figured out. And then he asked this question
here, Where is that? Where is the wise? Where is the
scribe? Where is the disputer of this
world? I'll tell you where it's at. God made foolishness the
wisdom of everything in this world. God said, all the wisdom
in this world is foolish to me. Now ain't nobody can stand up
wise enough to deal with God, wise enough. Where's the scribe
that can describe God? Where's the disputer? Oh my,
look what he said in verse 21. For after that in God's wisdom
itself, The world, by wisdom, knew not God. You know what it
says? You know how a person gets to
know God and how God gets to you? It pleased God by the foolishest
preaching to save them that believe. All right, let me go down here
to verse 23, and I think this will be the last thing I'll deal
with. And all professed them to be wise, they became fools. When God calls you a fool, you're
a real fool. And changed the glory of the
uncorruptible God. God is holy, God is righteous,
He can't be corrupted, He can't lie, He can't change His nature. God's an uncorruptible God into
an image. What did they make Him like to
a corruptible man? First thing they've done, made
a statue of man. Buddha, Confucius, Jesus. You go out there in that graveyard,
they got that great big statue of Jesus out there. I know singers and stuff go out
there to make a record. They go out there and get in
front of that big statue of Jesus and get their picture taken,
put it on their album covers. You go into Rio de Janeiro and
there's this great big Jesus at the top of the mountain. Oh, my, they take God in His
glory and change it to a corruptible man! God's not like us! And oh, my, it goes on to say,
And then they made him like a bird, made him like a bird, a big,
beautiful bird, and four-footed beasts, you know, Aaron. They
come out of Egypt, and they hadn?t been out of Egypt very long,
and Moses up on the mountain, and them folks said, ?Oh, listen,
Moses, we don?t know where he?s at. Make us a god! Make us a
god! We?ve got to have something to
worship.? You know what he made? A golden calf, four-footed beast,
And in India, they worship cows. If you kill a cow over there,
they'll put you in jail. You're going to jail? People
worship monkeys, chickens, I mean ANYTHING they can think of to
put in the place of God. Oh, man's got to worship SOMETHING!
Oh, my! And when he rejects the true
God, he changes God into the likeness of a corruptible, corruptible
man. creeping things, snakes and creeping
things, and humanism. Oh, my! Made man to be God Himself. God said, Don t make no craving
images. Now, let me close with this. Four lessons we ve learned from
this right here. God s revelation is sufficient.
God s revelation in creation, providence, conscience, history,
GOD'S REVELATION IS SUFFICIENT. THERE'S NO EXCUSE FOR MAN BEING
A FOOL AND BEING WITHOUT EXCUSE. AND I'LL TELL YOU SOMETHING ELSE.
HERE'S THE SECOND THING WE LEARNED. HUMAN SIN IS DELIBERATE. MAN
SINS DELIBERATELY. SIN IS A MATTER OF WILL AND THEREFORE
WILLFULNESS. WHO CAN SAY I JUST COULDN'T HELP
IT? THEY USED TO SAY ALL THE TIME,
THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT. OH NO, WHO CAN SAY I COULDN'T
HELP IT? Light brings responsibility, and responsibility is in proportion
to the light that you have. What do I have to do to be lost?
Nothing, just continue like you always have. And here's the third
thing we learned from what we've dealt with tonight. The human
race is going down, down, down, down, down, going down, down,
down. Men knew God first, they started
out knowing God. And idolatry came after refusing
him. Men didn't start out in idolatry,
but he's going progressively, progressively, progressively.
And man started up here at the top, and he's going down, down,
down, down, down. And I'll tell you, men, most
of us can't think, I don't know how in the world it could get
any worse. Oh, it can. It can get a lot worse. It can
get a lot worse. Let me just give you something
to think about. You know, we've been talking about this. Joe
Terrell's church is without a pastor. Danville up there where Don Fortner
was is without a pastor. And sheep's got to have a pastor.
Somebody's got to feed them. Somebody's got to take care.
But where is the people, this man that's going to come up and
start saying, I'll be a pastor. I'll go preach for them folks.
I'll stand in for them. There ain't none of them around.
And there ain't nobody to take my place. I'm 74 years old. If I can get four or five more
years out of this, I'd be very, very thankful. Either I'll be
gone or you'll be gone. Most of us will. And what's going
to happen when this is over? That's what I'm telling you.
You think we're going down, down, down. Men would rather believe
a lie. The lie will get up and go around
the block before the truth can get off the first step. That's
about how bad it is. He's still going down, and here's
the thing, God help us, God help us to keep close to God in Christ
and see ourselves in light of all the revelation that He let
us see and know, and let's don't become fools, let's don't become
fools. And the fourth thing is evil,
sin is progressive. It just gets worse and worse
and worse. Men knowing God didn't acknowledge Him, didn't thank
Him. And oh my, he progressed in evil. You know what he did?
Man went after man, woman went after woman. God gave him up. God gave him up. And I tell you,
when the head goes round, the whole body follows. Huh? That's kind of depressing, ain't
it? But it's the truth. I mean, it's
just, we know that. Do you know why we know why the
human race is like it is? Because God revealed Himself
to us, and we know what we are. And without Him revealing Himself
to us in the revelation of His righteousness, there'd be no
hope for us, none, none. Oh, our Father, our blessed,
blessed God in heaven, how holy, how righteous, how blessed is
your name. Oh, Lord, thank you. Oh, blessed
be your name. We are thankful. I don't want
to be unthankful. Oh, your mercies are new every
morning, and your compassions never fail. And Lord, we see
the world in us in darkness. The whole world lies in darkness.
But oh Lord, you call us out of darkness into the marvelous
light and marvelous kingdom of your dear Son. Lord, don't let
us live in darkness, don't let us become fools, don't let us
ignore you, don't let us think ourselves to be wiser than we
are. And oh Lord, I'm afraid of my own heart, I'm afraid of
my of what I'm capable of apart
from your grace and your persevering power for preserving me and keeping
me. Lord, bless these dear saints.
God bless them, encourage them, strengthen them, meet their needs.
Bless my dear brothers and sisters that are watching and listening.
And Lord, again, for the Morales and the Terrels as they deal
with the loss of their dear, dear loved one. Forgive us, oh
God, forgive us for everything is so unlike you, for Christ's
sake, amen, amen. Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look
full in His wonderful face. OF EARTH WILL GROW STRANGELY
DIM IN THE LIGHT OF HIS GLORY AND GRACE. Now, I forgot to tell
you, now they're going to have, Shirley and I are going to be
going, we're going up to Rock Valley, where Joe was, and going
to go up there for the service up there, and they're going to
have lunch here. They're going to have pizza and
salad, and there'll be one service. Cody will be preaching Sunday
morning, no Sunday night service, and Lord willing, then I'll see
you next Sunday. Good night and God bless you.