Romans chapter 1. We're going to finish up Romans
1 tonight. So how many weeks has this been? Mr. Vulcanar, this is number 10. It's been 10 weeks. We are in verse 24, and we're
going to finish down through the end of chapter 2, which is
verse 32. You might say, well, that's a lot. Yes, there is much
more that we could talk about here. There is much more that
we could look at. There are months and months and
months of exposition, but for the purpose of us reading through
Romans and getting the overall gist of what Paul is teaching,
we will finish out Romans chapter 1 this evening. In verse 24,
we see the word therefore. Remember what we've been learning
over the last few weeks or the last few months is when we see
the word therefore, we need to ask the question, what is that
therefore? Because it's showing a causation. If we see the word
therefore and we back up just a little ways, we see that what
we're about to hear after the therefore is the result of what's
before the therefore. Therefore, let's look at the
word, therefore. Therefore, God gave them up in
the lust of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies
among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God
for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the
creator who was blessed forever. Amen. For this reason, God gave
them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural
relations for those that are contrary to nature. And the men
likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed
with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts
with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.
And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave
them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.
They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness,
malice. They were full of envy, murder,
strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers,
haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil,
disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God's decree
that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not
only do them, but give approval to those who practice them. So
let's stop. Now, the therefore puts us into
last week and the week before. What is happening here as Paul
is closing out his prologue, as he's closing out the outline
of the entirety of this letter, he is helping us to see that
what's at stake here is his wrath is coming upon all the unrighteousness
of men who by their unrighteousness do what? Suppress the truth.
Because what is known and what can be known about God is clear
to them, for God has made Himself known, namely His divine power,
through the things that were made, so that they are now without
excuse. And in chapter two, Paul comes
down to the believer. So therefore you have no excuse,
O man, every one of you who judges. For you also are guilty, is what
Paul's going to say. In chapter two, Paul is going
to establish the reality that every human being that ever lived
except the Christ is guilty, is guilty of rebellion against
God, is guilty of sin, and is worthy of his good wrath, his
righteous wrath, his just wrath. And so they've exchanged the
image of the immortal God and the glory of the immortal God,
rather, for images of mortal man, for creepy things, for crawly
things, for birds, etc. Now let me set this up for us
so that we'll understand it a little bit deeper. What's happened in
this era, in this time where Paul is writing, is that the
Romans themselves worshipped all sorts of gods. The Romans
had a god for the sun, and a god for the moon, and a god for the
earth, and a god for the dirt, and a god for hell, and a god
for life, and a god for all sorts of things. The god of the sea.
And then every culture around them would worship some semblance
of some type of false god, some idol. Some of them would worship
images, sort of like bell worship or other types of things that
we see in the Old Testament, where they would worship images
of cows, or they would worship serpents, or they would worship
birds, like the Egyptians. They would worship emblems or
images that look like creatures. But the most damning worship
that takes place in the heart of man is self-worship, self-reliance,
self-righteousness, self-glory. And in the end, what happens
and what Paul is alluding to is the fact that all people who
live in a state of unbelief do so because they love themselves
and their desires and their passions and their worship of whatever
it is they like, whether it be money or life or sin in general,
more than they love Him and the glory of His majesty and the
perfection of His righteousness. Now see, a lot of people have
taken this text and they've made it a proof text to change people's
morality. They've taken this text and they've
gotten in front of the church of Jesus Christ and they've said,
here, beloved, is where we need to pay close attention because
if you do any of these things, you are condemned. That's not
what Paul's teaching tonight. Paul is teaching the action of
God here, the action of God that we might not like, that the world
does not like. The Bible has said that every
human being is guilty of rejecting the truth that God is. So no
one can ever stand, ever, ever stand or sit before us and say,
I just do not believe that there is a God that is alive from their
own mouth, out of their own consciousness. They know that there is a God
for God has made it clear that he exists. However, even the
knowledge of Him in existence is not salvific. It's not enough.
One must be born again. One must believe the gospel of
Christ. One must trust alone by faith in Jesus Christ. And
we know that that is a work of God through the hearing of the
words of Christ, as Paul will argue so eloquently and perfectly
in Romans chapter 10, after he shows the sovereignty of God
in election for his people in Romans chapter 9. And so here,
as we begin to look at this text, let's put it in its proper place. Let us understand that though
when we see sin in our lives, as me and Brother Mike were talking
earlier, that even Paul would say to Timothy that Christ came
into the world to what? Save sinners. This is worthy
of hearing. This is worthy of saying. This
is worthy of embracing. To save sinners, of which I am
the foremost. Paul would say. So beloved, as
we approach this text tonight, we recognize that everyone here
is guilty. And we're going to end our night
knowing that everyone here is guilty. So then where does our
hope lie? Where is the power of God, verse
16, unto salvation? It rests squarely in the sovereignty
of God. It rests squarely in the power
of God. It rests perfectly in the efficacy of His eternal decrees
and the power through which He saves that is manifested and
perfected in the work, the life, the ministry of Jesus Christ,
His obedience as a human being, His death on the cross to satisfy
wrath and His resurrection proving His divine nature, proving His
vindication so that we can have eternal life in Christ. This
is where our hope lies. not in the manipulation of our
lives, not in the morality of our living, not in the so-called
righteousness of our obedience to the Bible or anything therein. Our righteousness is the Christ
alone. Our hope is in Him. The gospel
of Jesus is the power of God unto salvation and nothing can
stop it. So you might say, well, where
does that leave me? Well, beloved, I pray that all of us, this very
day, this very second, this very moment, in every fiber of our
thought and every fiber of our soul, trust completely in the
work of God through Jesus Christ and not of ourselves. So that
when we hear these lists, we know, wow, I'm a liar. I'm a
murderer. I'm an adulterer. but it is not
being a liar and not being a murderer and not being an adulterer that
puts me right with God. It is Christ who puts me right
with God. It is Christ who brings me to the Father. It is the gospel
that takes me all the way home. So let's look at it. Because
man hates God, because they suppress the truth of God through their
works of unrighteousness and ungodliness, same thing, it's
not two different works, it's the same thing, two adjectives,
God gives them up. They became worthless in their
thinking, futile. They became darkened in their
hearts that were foolish. And because they refused to worship
God and to give thanks to Him, God does something. Now see,
this is where sometimes theology, this is what it's called, the
study of God, we have to pull out of here, this particular
thing, a theological teaching so that we could say a theological
doctrine. And this teaching about God is that God demands worship. And those who don't worship Him
are condemned for not worshiping God. Those who do not honor Him
are condemned for not honoring Him. Those who do not love Him
are condemned for not loving Him. To which the world, in their
unbelief, as they suppress the truth of God, say, that's not
fair. God is a maniacal monster who's
demanding worship. How dare He? I find it very pleasing
to my soul Then in verse 25, at the end of that, as we'll
see in a moment, he actually says, who is blessed forever. Amen. It really doesn't fit there
at all, but it's a parenthetical that Paul just shoves in there
to give the text feet. Let's look at it. Because they
exchanged the glory of the immortal God with the image resembling
mortality and mortal man and birds and creation, just group
it all together, created things. Because they've exchanged the
glory of the Creator with images of created things, Therefore,
God gave them up. Now, this is in the text three
times tonight. In verse 24, it says, Therefore,
God gave them up. And in verse 26, it says, For
this reason, God gave them up. And in verse 29, And since they
did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up. And so
what we need to see here, the theology that we're seeing, is
that God demands worship and because He does not receive it,
He then rightly brings wrath. And He does something even more
actively. He turns people over and gives them up. I want you to hear this, beloved.
God's wrath, God's justice is not, and I've said this last
week, It's not just this big bowl of vengeance. He just pours
and drowns whoever happens to be underneath it. God's wrath
and God's vengeance is particular just like His redemption. Did
you hear me? God's vengeance is particular.
That means He pours it out on every individual person who sins
against Him. Particularly. Purposefully. And personally. There's a three-point
sermon. Personally. God, in judgment,
pours His justice out on every individual, personally. And He
is right in doing so. This is not... God does not then
come when people stay in unbelief and stay in rebellion and resist
the truth through unrighteousness. God does not just say, oh well,
we'll get them in the end. God then is actively involved
in what we call reprobation. Reprobation. That means that
God, as He has elected some for salvation, then also actively
influences the election, I don't even want to use the word, the
reprobation of the non-elect. that God then pours out wrath
on those who will not believe and cannot believe and in doing
so even turns them over and gives them up so that they would do
more things to bring more wrath upon themselves. And the question
again, who is He? He is God. He owns all things. I teach this to grade school
kids when I do chapels in school. And I teach this by taking a
piece of paper and a box of crayons. And I say, I bought this paper
and I bought this crayon. Who owns these things? You do. And I say, I own the crayon. Can
the crayon tell me what to draw? Nah. And the teachers are going,
what's he getting at? And I say, well, I want to draw
a cat. And I take that piece of paper
and I put it on a stand, 300 children are watching, and I
draw a cat, but it looks like a kite. You know why it's a kite?
Because it's the only thing I can draw. And it's very close, cat,
kite. It's just a vowel sound. And I go, well, that didn't work.
I ball it up and say, I'm going to draw a cat, but the crayon
draws a kite. I said, what are we going to
do with that crayon? And they go, break it. And I break it. And I throw
another one. And I pick up another one. I
say, I'm going to draw a cat. And he draws a kite. And I say,
wait a minute, break that. And by the third one, the kids
are like, yeah, break them all. I mean, you know, it's a horrible
pack of crayons. It tells you what to draw. You
see how easy it is to teach that. But yet we want to put God on
the fairness. We want to put God on trial when He owns every
one of us, not just because He's purchased us, but because He's
created us for His purpose. And all of His purposes are true
and right. And how dare we do what God has
said that we cannot do. How dare we do things and call
it natural and normal when God says that it is not natural and
it is not the way He created it to be. And it's not the order
in which He established the reflection of His majesty, you see. The
scripture says that all creation, what displays the glory of God.
But when we sin against God, we do not display the glory of
God. So the glory of God in our existence is in our justice and
the judgment that's held against us because of our rebellion.
But the glory of God is also seen in his patience and most
importantly, in his mercy. As he saves his people, who he
calls his children. and snatches them out of the
darkness and brings them into the light of the kingdom of his
son. And Paul is helping these Romans who have never lived any
type of godly life at all, who look at their newfound faith
as something of a little bit of a redheaded stepchild type
mentality. And they say, how can we be a
people like the Jews? Paul says all people are either
God's children who are adopted, who believe by faith, or all
people are guilty before God and their judgment shall come
upon them because they are reprobate. So let's look at it. God gave
them up. Because they didn't worship Him,
God gave them up. The crayon told God what He would
do. The clay told God what He would become. So God gave them
up. What did He give them up to?
Look at that, verse 24. In the lusts of their hearts to impurity.
That's terrible. What does that even mean? That
means that everything they really wanted, all the wickedness of
the desires of their heart, God just said, fine, take it. Go. But more importantly, He took
away any restraint. He took away any light. He takes
away any possibility of change. And it looks like this to the
dishonoring of their bodies among themselves. Why did he do that? Because they exchanged the truth
about God for a lie. And they worshiped and served
the creature rather than the Creator. They love the creature
so much. They love their flesh so much.
They love the world so much that God says you can have it. James
the Apostle writes something very similar to this in the fourth
chapter of his epistle. He says, the reason you have
not is because you what? Ask not. And the reason that
you do not have even when you ask is because you do what? You
pray that you may receive it to spend it on your flesh, on
your lusts, on your passions. But you know, before he gets
there, James asks a rhetorical question that he actually answers. He said, what causes factions?
What causes fights among you? It's because you have, you want,
you desire, you lust. And so you kill and you fight
and you maim. Is that not the... Is that not
the story of the world? In chapter one, it talks about
the temptation that comes. And I've often taught this in
this way, is that we are only tempted by that which we desire.
If someone walks in with a KFC bucket, some of us will go, KFC? And
they open that KFC and there's a cow plop in there. None of us, though we might have
liked, man, I like that chicken. And when we see that, we don't
want what's in it anymore. Who would? But friends, there's some animals
that would love that cow plow. And they would run right after
it. If there was chicken in that bucket, there was some of us
would be like, man, I really want that chicken, especially if we could smell it. Well, I'd
really got to have that chicken. Give me that chicken. We might leave
here and go buy some chicken. I'm not saying that's a lust,
it's just a desire. We enjoy it. If somebody walked up and
had a 400-year-old theological book that had never been seen,
and some of us would go, whoa, I really gotta see that, I wanna
see that, I wanna read that. Give it to the kids, they take
those disobedient crayons and they draw a cat. They don't care about
the value of that book. You give a baby a diamond worth
a million dollars and they suck on it for a while and they throw
it away and they play with the box. If you take that same stone and
you give it to a homeless man who's lost everything he has, he knows
what it is. And it tempts him because he desires wealth. You
see, we're only tempted by that which we desire in our flesh. And the Bible says that God,
when those who reject him and refuse him because of their unrighteousness,
he gives them up to do that which they desire most, which is to
dishonor their bodies and to dishonor his glory and to dishonor
his rule and to dishonor the natural way of things by giving
into the lusts and worshiping the creature rather than the
creator. And here in verse 25 when He
says, "...who is blessed forever." See, He was reminding His readers
that God is not one that is forcing His hand to say, you better worship
me or else. God is not one that is saying,
hey, I'm going to get the worship I want. God is deservative of
all things, you see. God is deserving of all worship.
He's deserving of all honor. He's deserving of all glory.
He's deserving of all praise. If I told you to worship me,
I would be an idiot. And you would be the fool to
follow it. Because I'm not worthy of worship. I'm not worthy of
a pat on the back and a thumbs up. Not even a Facebook like. That's not the point. God is
worthy of all praise. God is worthy of all worship,
of all honor and all glory. And only God receives that type
of thing. It is not God asking for that
which does not belong to Him. It is God demanding that which
is His already. It might be hard for us, but
let's continue. Because they serve the creature,
they worship the creature. For this reason, God gave them
up to dishonorable passions. See, not all passions are dishonorable.
We can have a passion for the gospel. We can have a passion
for intimacy as a people. We can have a passion for our
wives and our husbands. We can have a passion for our
children. We can have a passion to reach the lost. We can have
passion. But it's dishonorable passions. And the explanation
that Paul gives is one that is extremely controversial in our
culture today. Because Paul goes straight first
to the fact that sexual sin is one of the greatest signs of
reprobation in a culture. And that one of the premier points
of a people being given up by God to the lust of their rebellion
is homosexuality. Homosexuality. Why? Man, some
people say, don't we live in a bigger age than that? No, homosexuality
was more rampant in the time of Rome during the writing of
this letter than it ever has been in the United States of
the world today. Homosexuality is a small, minute, microscopic
nothing on the face of the earth right now compared to what it
was in this day. And we think, wow man, it's just so normative. It's not normative. It's not
normative. The culture as a whole is not
embracing it. It's very divided faction in
our world, especially our nation. In this day, everybody embraced
it. And Paul's saying that this is
a sign because this is what God does. He turns them over to dishonorable
passions for their women exchange natural relations in the order
of their created purpose. For those that are contrary to
nature. That means those that don't go
with what the Scripture teaches in Genesis 1 and 2. You might
say, well, what is that business of God? He created man and wife. God created sexuality. God created
the marriage intimacy to be a small shadow of the intimacy of Jesus
Christ. And the marriage is a temporary
picture of the eternal cosmic reality of Jesus Christ in the
church. And if you don't believe me,
then read Ephesians 5 and read Colossians 3, where God Himself,
through the mouth of Paul, said, I say to you, this is what it
means. And so the sign of this being
given up, this dishonorable passions is men with, I mean, women with
women, and they were consumed with passion. This is sexual
passion for each other. Men committing shameless acts
with men and receiving in themselves. Look at this. What's the result
of sin? For the wages of sin is death,
Paul will argue in just a few chapters. And the wages of this
sin is death. Why does Paul go here? Because
this is what the Spirit of God has written down. This is what
the Spirit of God and God who is immutable and God who is holy
and God who is righteous is teaching the church of Jesus Christ this
day in 2017, today. Those who create this unnatural action, who participate
rather, receive the due penalty for their error. What is it?
Death. Eternal death. Eternal death. Verse 28, And since they did
not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased
mind, to do what ought not to be done, And let's stop there
for a second. Look, see, there's a problem
in our culture too when it comes to the sin of sexuality and the
sin of homosexuality. People like to try to make a
mutually exclusive argument to say, well, this is no worse than
this. Well, it's not in the economy
of righteousness, but it is in the economy of culture. It is
in the economy of the picture of what God has established for
His people to walk in. It is, in accordance to what
the scripture teaches, an abomination to the picture of the cross of
Jesus Christ. And it turns the gospel on its
head, and it spits upon it, and it mocks it. But something that's
exceedingly also wicked is when the church, or people who profess
Christ, begin to hate those who are turned over to a debased
mind. Just like when people say to
me, well, I wish God would destroy all the Muslims. Or I wish God
would destroy all terrorists. Or I wish God would just destroy
this or destroy these people. Listen, why do we want God to
destroy people who live the very same way we would live if He
had not saved us by His grace? And if we were to measure the
way we live now in grace, we would still be just as guilty
as these debased people right here and worthy of judgment.
You see, there's the kicker. What do you mean, I'm just as
bad as somebody who does this? Worse! But God has saved us. God has
brought us out. See, this is not a guilt trip. This is a glory ride right here.
This is a time for us to see, wow, look what God has done.
Look what God has done. Look what could have been my
path. And no one can brag. No one can
boast. No one can stand before God and
say, man, I read them. I made the right decision. I'm glad
I got in church. I'm glad I stopped doing this
and stopped doing that and stopped doing that. That's not the gospel.
That's the gospel of Satan that says, I surely will not die. Man, that's a harsh thing to
say. No, that's what Jesus said to the Pharisees. It's never
wrong to repeat the words of Christ. It's never wrong to quote
Paul and John. Just do it with gentleness. Do
it with trembling. And do it knowing that the only
way someone is going to stand right before God is not that
they stop being homosexual, or stop living in a debased life,
but that they trust in Jesus Christ who never did. Who fulfilled
all the holiness, holy requirements of God. And by the work of the
Spirit, God will free them from the clutches of their sin. Until
they mess up. and then he's already forgiven
them again. Verse 28, excuse me, verse 29. They, who are these? Those who
do not believe. They were filled with all manner
of unrighteousness. So though Paul puts a great emphasis
on sexual sin and specifically homosexuality, he says, but,
but, but, but I don't want to make this the mountain of debauchery,
though this is a clear sign. So were these. They did not see
fit to acknowledge God, so they were filled with all manner of
unrighteousness, all manner of evil, all manner of covetousness,
all manner of malice. See, we could, as Jesse and I
talked earlier today, we could come in and preach a sermon on
each one of these. What is this sin? I don't think the church
needs to know every detail about what these sins are. Why? Because
then we'll spend the rest of our day trying to not be like
that. We might as well just trust in the gospel and let the Lord
do the work. But we know that meanness and
covetousness and all these things, because of this, the wrath of
God is coming. They are full of envy. That's jealousy. Murder, we know what that is.
That's gossip and taking someone's life. That's what the New Testament
teaches is the heart, the spirit of murder. We hate somebody,
we talk about them, we're a murderer before God. So we hate them. When we stab a knife in them,
it's the same sin. Because it starts where? In the
heart. Just because I don't stab somebody doesn't mean I don't
want to. Deceit, strife, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers,
haters of God, insolent, haughty. Listen, children, listen to this.
Boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents. I find
that very strange. Murderer, covetousness, liars,
blasphemers, Satan worshipers, disobedient children. I mean,
you know, it's like, really? Paul's just gonna throw that
in there because it's the same problem. It's rebellion. Foolish, faithless, heartless,
ruthless. Though they know God's decree.
Here's the real issue now that Paul's getting to. All these
people that live in this way, doing these things, they suppress
the truth of God. And God in turn then gives them
over to continue to do these things. And He reminds us here
then in verse 32, though they know God's decree, they know,
listen, brothers and sisters, we knew before we were born again
that sin led to death. We knew that it was wrong. We
knew that it was evil. The world knows that sin is wrong. And they know that it brings
consequence. That's why when the sun goes down, crime goes
up. So that people can do in darkness
what can't be seen. They know God's decree that those
who practice such things deserve to die. See, here's a theological puzzle. Most of us would say, well, if
I knew something was gonna kill me, I wouldn't do it anymore.
Really. Evidence in my life doesn't tell
me that I really, even though I might say, I believe that's
gonna kill me one day, I still do it. Some of us men, and we
get on motorcycles, we do stupid stuff, we jump off of houses,
we climb trees without nets, we eat six bratwursts at a time. What else can we do? We know
it'll kill us, but we don't care. We don't believe that what we're
experiencing is gonna kill us right now. It's the lie. You
surely will not die. Though we know we will, in some
sense, we try to continue to suppress it. Friends, that's
what unbelievers are known for. So God then says that those who
practice those things, they know that God has decreed that they
deny. They not only do them anyway, but get this, but give approval
to those who practice them. What's that look like in closing?
What's it look like? It looks like that it's okay.
Let's just, let's just not say anything. Well, where does the
gospel start anyway? Do you go to the desert with
your lifeguard suit on and a whistle and say, stay away from the water? And they're going, what water?
Well, just in case you ever escape the desert and go to the ocean,
be careful. I wanna save you before you ever
get there from drowning. Stay away, here's a life jacket.
Oh, great, glad. Now, what am I trying to show
you? Friends, if we do not tell people
of the righteousness of God and the wrath of God, then where
is the good news of God? These things bring death. But God in His mercy, Ephesians
2, because of the great love with which He loved us, though
we were dead in our trespasses and sins against us, because
of the great love with which God loved us, we have been made
alive in Jesus Christ. You see that? So even when the
scriptures talk about the gospel, it talks about it in the sense
that we were dead in sin, now alive in Christ. You can't have
the gospel without judgment against sin. I mean, if somebody walked
up to you on the street and tried to give you an inoculation, hey
man, you really need this. What are you doing? Get away
from me. There's a serial injector going on around here. No, you're
like, why do I need this? Who are you and what authority
do you have to give it to me? Show me the evidence. Well, we
don't have to show people the evidence of their sin. The Holy
Spirit of God does that. We don't have to show people
the evidence of God's existence or Christ as truth because the
Holy Spirit does that. And it happens through the word
of God. And beloved, you and I have been saved because the
word of God came to us and we were convicted of sin and we
believed on Jesus Christ because the Holy Spirit made us alive.
The Holy Spirit made us alive. And we're all guilty, but yet
we're all innocent because our guilt was put on Christ. So when
I say we're innocent, it doesn't mean that James is righteous.
It doesn't mean that you're righteous. It's just that the debt has been
paid because Christ has taken the judgment. Have you ever thought
about what that looks like? And for time's sake, I'm not
going to go into a big treatise of what it looks like, but just
put it in the context of what we've learned tonight. men exchanging
passions with other men, dishonorable ways, and women, and women, and
lying, and murder, and covetousness, slanders, haters of God, foolish,
faithless, heartless, ruthless, of which we all once were before
God found us, right? Christ never did any of these
things, yet Christ took the punishment as though He had done them all. What a glorious God we have.
What a gracious father he is. What a wonderful savior Christ
is. So let us rejoice. Let us be
glad. Let us know that nothing, nothing
can separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus.
And that is coming very soon, months down the road. So I need
to remind us of it today so that we don't leave here and try to
affect our morality so that we're right before God. When the only
thing that makes us right before God is that Jesus obeyed. Yes,
we can please him. Yes, we can dishonor him. Yes,
when we get into a fight at home and we fuss at our children or
we yell at our spouse, it's dishonoring, but it's not condemning. Is it? No, because in Romans 8, 1, it
says, therefore now there's no condemnation for those in Christ
Jesus. We will not pay the penalty of our sin and death, for we
have eternal life that comes through Jesus Christ. So we rejoice
in the slightest accusation that comes from the devil that puts
us in bondage and puts us in a place of self-righteousness
and pity. We just stand up and say, Christ
paid it all. Jesus paid it all. And that's
all we need. Nothing more. Let's pray. Father,
we're glad. We're glad to be together tonight.
We're glad to be able to hear your word and to sing. Father,
we're glad that we don't have to come before you in a formal
way with robes and candles and certain types of liturgy. We
don't have to dress a certain manner and put on hats and anything
else that all these other fates require. And Lord, not only is
the sin that's obvious and the rebellion that's obvious the
reason that you turn people over to reprobation, but Father, when
we worship a false God, when we come up with a false gospel,
when we paint a picture of you that's not biblical, Lord, and
we purvey it and promote it and bring others into it, that's
man-centered, Father, I believe. that this is part of what you're
talking about in this teaching. So, Father, in all of that, give
us an overwhelming peace, an overwhelming sense of confidence,
not in our flesh, but in Jesus Christ. For it is in His name that we
come to you today, and it is by His life and death and blood
and resurrection that we stand justified before you today. And
one day, Father, you have promised to take away these bodies and
give us new ones that are not corrupted by the sin of rebellion. And we praise you for this in
Jesus name.