First chapter of his epistle
to the Romans, Paul makes this wondrous statement about his
confidence in the gospel from verse 16 and saying, for I am
not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of
God unto salvation, to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first
and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the
just shall live by faith. From this point on, he goes on
to expand what that gospel is. Firstly, from verse 18 of this
chapter, by demonstrating and proving that all men by nature
are under sin, and under the condemnation and wrath of God
as a consequence of their sin, and in need of salvation, in
need of having their sins taken away, in need of having them
blocked out, in need of having righteousness to stand before
a holy God. He shows how man has gone astray
from God. and needs to be reconciled to
God. He shows how man, a rebel, has
shaken his fist at God and tried to remove God from his knowledge. But how God, in mercy, in spite
of the hatred and wickedness of man, how God, in mercy, has
chosen a people in Christ. and has sent his son as a saviour,
has sent his son as a sacrifice for sinners, has sent his son
to reconcile those who would not have God in their knowledge,
to reconcile those who had gone astray, to bring them back to
God, to justify them, to redeem them, to ransom them from the
grave. to propitiate the wrath of God
which rained down against their sins. He shows forth the gospel
not only in man's need of it, being a sinner, but also in God's
free granting of it. In God's love for his people
in Christ that he was willing to give his own son as a ransom
as a price to be paid, that that people should be redeemed, that
that people should be spared the wrath of God and to be brought
back to Him whom they have offended. Now that people includes you
and I. that people, as we've considered
recently, encompasses all men and women that live in this world,
for all have gone astray, all have sinned, Jews and Greeks
religious and irreligious, black, white, eastern, western, whoever
you are, wherever you are, we have all sinned, you have sinned,
I have sinned. And we're all under the wrath
and the judgment of God, religious or irreligious. However right
you think you live, however upright or noble you think you may be,
Paul proves us all to be under sin from chapters one through
to chapter three. where he then shows the great
but now of the gospel. that God in mercy has sent his
son. But now the righteousness of
God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and
the prophets. Even the righteousness of God,
which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that
believe, for there is no difference. For all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. being justified freely by his
grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom
God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to
declare his righteousness for the remission of sins of our
past through the forbearance of God. That's his answer to
the state of man by nature. But in chapter one from verse
18, he sets forth this picture of where you and I are by nature
and the wrath of God that burns from heaven against the sins
of mankind. It says in verse 18, for the
wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness
and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness
or who resist it hold it back in their unrighteousness. Because
that which may be known of God is manifest in them for God have
showed it unto them. The wrath of God is revealed
from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. Men
like you and I who resist the truth in our unrighteousness.
We will not listen. We will not accept it. We will
not hear. We will not receive it as truth. We argue against it, we contend
against it, we find fault in it, we reject it. We dismiss
it, we shut our ears to it. In spite of the fact that God
has made known this truth to us in so many ways. You may despise
the Gospel, you may despise Christ, you may despise God, you may
reject the knowledge of the truth as found in the Bible. But God
makes known that you know this truth in other ways. Because that which may be known
of God is manifest in them, in you, in I. We have an understanding
and a knowledge of God and His truth by nature. So if you shut
your ears to it, you shut your minds to it, you shut your understanding
to it, you are resisting that which is within you. That light
and understanding that God has revealed unto you, even in your
natural state, even in your own conscience, even in your own
being. Mankind having been created in
the image of God, even though he's fallen, still has some understanding. He's still by nature, when born
and grows up as a child, knows that he's made, knows he's created,
and knows ultimately that there is a Creator who has made everything. There's a reason you and I are
here. It's not chance. It's not some
random result of science, falsely so-called. It's because God made
the world. It's because God made you and
it's before him that you and I stand. Because that which may
be known of God is manifest in them and you and I for God have
showed it unto them and you and I. But 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. so that you are
without excuse. The invisible things of God from
the creation of the world are clearly seen because his creation
is there, the evidence of his handiwork. How do you know there's
a God? Because there's a world around
you to show that there's a God. The only planet in the solar
system, as man has discovered, where there could be life. perfectly
placed in distance towards the sun so it's not too cold and
not too hot. A planet where everything perfectly
brings forth living things, the right sunlight, the right rain,
that crops may grow, that food may be there, that people may
live. A creation, ordered, designed, in intelligence by a creative
God upon which he has put man to walk before him and with him
and yet upon which man turned his back upon his creator and
went his own way and ever since has tried to shut God out of
his thoughts, out of his intentions, out of his affections. Mankind
loves his own way, his own sinful way, his own wicked way, and
shuts the knowledge of God out from his mind. And yet, the invisible
things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen,
being understood by the things that are made, even God's eternal
power and Godhead, so that they and you and I are without excuse. Because that when they knew God,
they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful. Do you
glorify God as God? Are you thankful for what God
has done for you and given to you? They weren't. You aren't. But became vain in
their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened. professing
themselves to be wise, they became fools. The wiser men thought
they were, the more foolish they became. The more they explored,
the more knowledge they gained, the more they looked around at
the creation around them, at the stars and the universe, the
further away they went from God. They could explain what they
saw and how it worked, but they never came to an answer of why.
They could say these things are here by this means and that means,
and they could find out all the different scientific principles
upon which the world exists, but they can't explain why. And
hence today we've seen these scientists, these Hawkins and
Dawkins and their like, who come up and say, oh, the world is
like this and the universe is like this and it operates like
this. And they have no understanding
of God in their imaginations. They reject God. They were made
by that God. By nature, they have a conscience
that demands that they confess that that God exists, but becoming
wise in their own understanding, they've become fools. They gain
so much knowledge of science and so little knowledge of God
who made that science to be. The principles of physics, the
principles of thermodynamics, all the principles that they
explore were created by God and they explore and increase in
their knowledge and understanding and they become further away
from God. So they profess themselves to
be wise and became fools. They suppressed the knowledge
in their conscience and in the creation around them that pointed
to God to the point that they rejected Him. That's been the
case throughout history, it's the case in our day and age,
and it's the case with these such men. And as we've seen this
past week, one of them, Stephen Hawking's adulated by modern
man, because he gave them an answer that explains away God,
and they want an answer that explains away God, adulated by
modern man, has gone from this world, experiencing that which
is common to all men because of their sin, death, to stand
before the God that He had cast out from His own understanding.
He stands in a place that you and I will stand in. For will
you stand before that God, confessing that He is true, confessing that
He is right, and confessing your sin before Him? Or will you stand
before him shaking your fist? Don't play the fool. Professing
themselves to be wise, they became fools. Have you become a fool? The more you learn, the further
away from God you go. And change the glory of the uncorruptible
God into an image made like to corruptible man. And to birds
and four-footed beasts and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave
them up to uncleanness through the lust of their own hearts,
to dishonour 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. This is where the wisdom of man
gets it. In many societies and ages it
has got him into creating idols. changing the glory of the uncorruptible
God into an image made like the corruptible man and the birds
and four-footed beasts and creeping things. They made idols that
they worshipped. Now you might say today, well,
we're not so foolish, we wouldn't do that. But people continue
to do that in every way and in every realm. They worship people. They worship these scientists
and the understanding they've got. They follow them. They follow
their idols in the media. They follow this pop star or
this celebrity or this intelligent person or this speaker or that
speaker. There's always those that men
follow. They worship the creature more
than the creator. You may laugh and scoff at the
idea of bowing down between an idol and saying that's a god,
but you do it every day. Every day you follow this sports
star, this rock star. This scientist, this philosopher,
this author, this great man, this great woman, these people,
and you adulate them and their knowledge and their skills and
their talent more than you adulate the Creator who made them, made
you, and gave them everything that they are and do. Every day
that you do that, you are bowing down before an idol and worshipping
it. You are no wiser than those tribes
of old who did the same with wooden idols overlaid in gold,
who you despise and ridicule as primitive man. You're no wiser,
you're just the same. They changed the truth of God
into a lie, they took the gospel and rejected it. and worshipped
and served the creature more than the creator who is blessed
forever. Now that is a picture of our world today. Not only
did they do that in the past, not only did they do that at
the time of which Paul wrote this letter to the Romans, not
only were the Romans doing it, not only were the Greeks doing
it, but this society today is doing it and you're doing it,
you're part of it. You serve the creature. You serve
yourself and you worship the understanding, the ideas, the
lead of other people, far more than you've ever thought of God. How often do you worship the
Creator and acknowledge His truth? Well there was a consequence
to this, a consequence to the foolishness of man and his rejection
of God. The consequence being that God
gave them up unto vile affections. For this cause God gave them
up unto vile affections. For even their women did change
the natural use into that which is against nature. And likewise
also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their
lust one toward another. Men with men working that which
is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of
their error which was meat. And even as they did not like
to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate
mind to do those things which are not convenient. God gave
them over to vile affections. And he singles out this aspect
of women turning from men. and mixing with women, and men
turning from the natural use of the woman and mixing with
men. And we see this today. Rather
than men marrying women and women marrying men, we have this great
move in society towards men marrying men and women marrying women
against nature, against the natural order of things, against the
creation, against that which is blindingly obvious from Biology
and creation in itself. Men marry women and bring forth
children and families and go on like that. That's how God's
made us. That's how we are. Yet when man turns from God,
when he goes as far away as he can from God, he burns in his
lust for the same sex. So men end up being fools and
marrying men, women end up being fools and marrying women, and
they turn from God in their own understanding. And this is because
in their rejection of God, God has given them up unto vile affections. It's a huge judgment upon them
that they are allowed to do this, that God has given them up to
doing this. He's turned from them who have
turned from him and given them over to a reprobate mind. You
want to live like this? You want to turn from me? Then
go on then. Go and do whatever you want.
and suffer the consequences in society, in your own lives, that
these things bring. For there are consequences. He
goes on to further explain and provide a list of all the manner
of wickedness that such things lead on to. being filled with
all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness,
full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity, whisperers,
backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of
evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant
breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful. Who know in the judgment of God
that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only
do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. Now this
is a terrible list. of the consequences of sin, and
it finds us all out. We are all guilty under this
description. We're all unrighteous. We're
all backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters,
inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding. Covenant breakers, we break our
promises without natural affection. We don't love like we should
love. We hate. Implacable, unmerciful. And we know that the fruit of
such behavior will be the judgment of God. We know that if we reject
God and live like this, that we're worthy of death, but we
don't care. We not only do the same things,
but we have pleasure in them, others that do the same. We join
together with others in our wicked behavior and our mutual rejection
of God and his ways. And the wrath of God is revealed
from heaven above against all of us. Against all of this, all
ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold and resist and
hold back the truth and unrighteousness, his wrath is revealed. He makes
it known unto this world that you live like this, and you're
worthy of death. And not only are you worthy of
death, but the judgment of death is passed, the sentence is due,
you are dying, the illnesses, The afflictions you suffer on
a daily basis are a consequence of your sin, you're dying and
soon you will be gone. And people endure these afflictions,
they endure the suffering and still resist, and still shake
their fist at God, and still walk backwards to the grave,
not bowing the knee unto the creator. while the wrath of God
is revealed against this. And go this way and end your
days in such a state and you'll stand before this God. And you'll
have no answer because you're without excuse. Because the invisible
things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen.
You've clearly seen them. They're understood. You're made,
you're created by him, you know, you're without excuse. In your
wisdom, you've become a fool. You've chosen this path, you've
chosen this behavior, you've chosen to go astray, you've chosen
to go as far away from God as you can, and you knew all the
time. Then when you stand before him
and his sentence of death is pronounced, and you're cast out
from his presence for eternity, you've no excuse. or offer God
is revealed. Paul shows and proves us in this
chapter and chapter 2 and 3 how we're all guilty of these things.
All of us. And how our understanding, our
knowledge, our wisdom in this world brings us nowhere but to
this foolish state. As a consequence, as we've read,
God has given them up, given you up unto vile affections. Vile affections and a reprobate
mind that lead unto the list of sins that you read. But why
does Paul, in this chapter, which cuts across modern society and
the movement in our age towards doing and accepting the things
that it demands. This society that demands inclusion
and acceptance of every sin and deceitful way that they can devise. Accept us whilst we reject God. This inclusive society, this
tolerant society that wants men and women to accept and tolerate
all that it does, all the evil it does, whilst at the same time
it rejects and despises all the righteousness and truth of God,
which is set against the evil. and is not tolerant of that righteousness,
not tolerant of that truth, not tolerant of that God, not tolerant
of his gospel, not tolerant of those who believe it and profess
it, not tolerant of those who stand for it, not tolerant of
the truth but rejects it utterly, this inclusive satiety, which
excludes the truth, excludes God and his gospel, and excludes
those who believe it, this society has gone headlong into pushing
for those things which Paul singles out at the beginning of his discourse
regarding sin. then why does Paul single out
this aspect? Why does he speak of these vile
affections? Of women mixing with women and
men with men, of women marrying women and men marrying men and
rejecting the natural order. Why is this the first thing he
speaks of before moving on to this list of unrighteousness,
fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness? Envy, murder,
debate, deceit and so on. Why are these things singled
out first? Well they are sins as all the
others are sins. Murder is a great sin. Hating
God is a great sin. Boasting is a great sin. Disobedience
to your parents is a great sin. All of these things are sin.
Then why does he speak of these vile affections? to introduce
it. Because of what they symbolise
in terms of the separation of man from God. Man's fall into
sin, man's rebellion against God, man's going away from God,
takes him as far away from God, his righteousness, his ways and
his order as he can possibly get. So in going as far away
from the truth as man can get, man goes increasingly into sin. But what does this sin picture
regarding this separation? It pictures the separation of
man from God. So man communes with man. The creature serves and worships
the creature more than the creator. The great essence of man's sin,
man's depravity, his fall from God, is the fact that man is
separated from God. He's gone away from God entirely. And if man goes away from God,
then he goes away from all that God is, and all the example of
God's righteous order in creation. So it's no surprise that when
God created mankind upon this earth and made them male and
female and created a bride for Adam and said it's not right
that man should be alone. So he took out of Adam's side
Eve, out of the side of man and gave him woman and said this
is a help meat for the man. and set this picture of marriage,
of the union of men and women, as an example of how man should
live in this world, and as an example, as a picture of the
union between Christ, the second man, the last Adam, and His Bride,
the Church. As they go away from this order,
they go away from the union of Christ and his church. They go away from his order in
creation. So men no longer unite with women,
for that is an example of this separation. They go away from
the woman, they run away. And they unite with their own
kind. And the women run away from the husband. They won't
marry a man, they go and unite with their own kind. Because
this is a great picture of the separation of man from God. Just as the church is pictured
as Christ's bride, so the world, in turning from God and Christ,
is as a woman which turns away from a man to another woman,
or as a man which turns away from a woman to other men. It's
the ultimate example of separation from God and His ways. And this
is why Paul singles it out. It pictures man as far away from
God as he can get. It pictures the Bride of Christ,
the Church, having gone as far away from God as she can get.
So God's people fallen into sin, the church, the bride of Christ
here is described by Paul in her depravity. Collectively as
a woman, she's gone so far away from the last Adam Christ, so
far away from the man that she's nowhere near man. She's with
women. The woman is with women. Which
is why he introduces it, saying, for this cause God gave them
up unto vile affections, for even their women did change the
natural use into that which is against nature. He starts off
with the women. Then he speaks of the men doing
the same thing. But collectively, men and women,
as mankind as a whole, And as a picture of the bride
of Christ, fallen men, but chosen in Christ, those who've fallen
away, but ultimately would be saved by Christ, as the bride
of Christ, she's gone away from Adam. She's gone away from the
last Adam. She's gone away from Christ.
And she mixes with her own. She serves the creature more
than the creator. this example of sin, this sodomy,
is the greatest picture and example of the separation of mankind
from the Savior, from God. When it goes as far away from
God as possible, it communes with its own. It serves the creature
more than the creator. It mixes with its own kind. It
listens to its own kind. It dwells with its own kind,
but not with God. So the bride was separated from
the husband. And this is pictured in the depravity
of sin that we see in our age increasingly of women mixing
with women, marrying women, men marrying men. So there's a picture
of this depravity. This is why Paul singles it out.
It is also why when mankind in history in various places is
as far off from God as he can be with as little knowledge,
outward knowledge of the gospel. In those societies, at times
when the gospel hadn't entered in and brought an influence,
we see the societies in a certain state. So here Paul is writing
to the Romans. And in the Romans, this sort
of sin was tolerated, as it was amongst the Greeks and other
societies. When there's no knowledge of God and his gospel, this is
where man descends into. When the knowledge of God and
his gospel comes in, when God blesses a people, society turns
from various sins and orders itself according to God's righteous
order. So we've seen in the Western
world, in Britain and America, over hundreds of years, as the
gospel was blessed in these nations, as Christianity was upheld, that
the laws of the land took a certain line. And not very many years ago,
these sort of sins described here were illegal in this country,
and illegal in the United States, and illegal in most of the Western
world. And over the past few decades,
as this society has turned its back again increasingly on God,
as the influence of the gospel has turned away, as God has left
this people alone to its own reprobate mind. and given it
over to vile affections, so these things have risen to the fore
again. We see this in a society throughout
history. Sodom and Gomorrah exemplified
it. What a judgment came upon those
nations. And what a judgment there is
upon this nation today. that as these things are promoted,
not only accepted but promoted, and promoted to the point where
any who stand against, any who speak of Christ and His Gospel
are despised and rejected, and cast out as being so intolerant,
when the reality is that these people are intolerant of the
truth, and intolerant of God and His ways. As this society
turns from the gospel, it promotes these things. These things are
mentioned because they are an example of the furthest away
that mankind can get from God. As the bride of Christ was at
her furthest from God, she was not with her husband. She mixed with her own, which
is pictured by the women turning unto women, vile affections. There's no love when you're not
united to God. People speak of love. People
speak of being allowed to love whom they want to love. There's
no love where there's no understanding and knowledge of God. God is
love. The only love that man knows
is that which emanates from God and is related to God. When you
turn your back on God, you have got lust, you've got fleshly
carnal desire, but no love whatsoever. Which is why your heart is full
of hatred for the truth, hatred for God, and hatred for those
who love Him. They speak of love, but there's
no love when God is rejected in this way. Thinking themselves
to be wise, they've become fools. They unite with their own kind,
not with God. They commune with one another,
but not with God. They walk with one another, but
not with God, because they've gone astray. Now, where are you? Where are your thoughts? Where
are your affections? Do you love God and his ways? Or do you love yourself and your
own ways? Who do you worship? Do you worship
the creator or the creature? Do you worship the wisdom of
God or the wisdom of men? Where are you? There is a reason
that Paul speaks of these things. Are you afar off? Are you in
darkness? Knowing the judgment of God,
they which commit such things are worthy of death. But not
only do they do the same, they have the pleasure in them that
do them. Wherever you are, you're without
excuse. And the wrath of God is revealed
against you, against your unrighteousness, against your lack of understanding,
against your rejection, against your rebellion, against your
reprobate mind, against your vile affections. God's wrath
is kindled and burns and will come down upon you one day. You might not like that, you
might not like to hear that, but that's a fact. Your life
is brief. The life of those you revere
is brief. One moment they're in the limelight,
the next moment they're in the grave. One moment you're here
today, the next moment you're gone. And then you will stand
before this God and give an account for all that you have done, all
that you have fought, all that you have said, all that you have
promoted, all your rejection of God's people. Every time you
have said a hateful thing against God, his gospel, his son, and
his people, he notes it. And you will have to account
for it. Every time you have resisted the truth, he notes it, and you
will account for it. Every time you've shut your ears
to this message, he notes it, and you will give an account
for it. Every time you've buried your head in the sand, he notes
it, and you will give an account for it. There's no excuse. There's
no excuse for your indulgence in sin, no excuse for your promotion
of sin, no excuse for your running away from God, and no excuse
for your condemnation of those that love these things and promote
them. No excuse for resisting the truth. We're all guilty. All have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. All have. There is none that understandeth.
There is none righteous, no, not one. There is none that understandeth. There is none that seeketh after
God. They're all gone out of the way.
They are together become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good,
no, not one. Not you, not I. Our throats are
an open sepulcher. Our tongues are those that have
used deceit. The poison of asps is under our
lips. Our mouths are full of cursing
and bitterness. Our feet are swift to shed blood.
Destruction and misery are in our ways. And the way of peace
we've not known. There's no fear of God before
our eyes. And we know that what thinks
the way of the law, say if it's safe to them that are under the
law, that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may
become guilty before God. So where do you stand? Where do you stand? What if some did not believe? Shall their unbelief make the
faith of God without effect? God forbid! Yea, let God be true,
but every man a liar, as it is written, that thou mightest be
justified, and I say, and thou mightest overcome when thou art
judged. But if our unrighteousness commend
the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous,
who taketh vengeance? God forbid, for then how shall
God judge the world? For if the truth of God hath
more abounded through my lie unto his glory, why yet am I
also judged as a sinner? And not rather as we be slanderously
reported, and as some affirm that we say, let us do evil that
good may come, whose damnation is just. What then, are we better
than they? Knowing no wise, for we have
before proved both Jews and Gentiles. that they are all under sin. We are all under sin, we are
all guilty, you and I included. Then what can we do? What can
we do? If this is where we are, if this
is what we're like, if this description in chapter one is what natural
man is like, if this is how depraved you and I are and we can't help
ourselves, what can we do? What can we do before a holy
God? Where can we stand? How can we
escape His wrath? How can we change our ways? We
can't. We can't. We're guilty. We're
lost. We're falling. We're sinking. And nothing we strive or try
to do can help us. But what we can't do, God can. What we won't do, God did. what we aren't, God is. This God, this righteous God
whom we have offended, this righteous God from whom we have fled, this
God whom we hate, is a God who has come into this world in the
person of his Son, Jesus Christ, to reconcile those who had gone
afar off, to bring them back to God, to deliver them from
their sins. The early chapters of Romans
describe man's depravity and how far off he is from God. They show his fleeing from God. But the rest of Romans shows
how God has come to reconcile man unto himself, to bring him
back. The gospel is the answer. The gospel unites. The gospel unites fallen man
to God. It unites the bride of Christ
who turned from her husband, who turned from God, who turned
from all he is and all his ways and went off on her own, who
communed with her own. The gospel unites the bride of
Christ with God. It brings her back. Even though
she hated God, even though she was full of vile affections,
even though she'd been given up to a reprobate mind, even
though she had become a fool in her own wisdom, the gospel
brings her back. It brings her back. God sent
his son into this wicked, evil world where he was rejected by
these. Rejected by all of these. They
trod him underfoot. They trod his blood underfoot.
They rejected him. They despised him. They said,
away with this man. We will not have this man to
rule over us. You said that of him in your
heart. When you've heard of Christ,
you've spat upon him. You've cast him out. You said,
I don't want him. I don't want to worship him.
I don't want to worship that God. I don't want his righteousness. I don't want to follow him. I
love my sin. I love my own ways. I want to
go my own way. I don't want to bring glory under
him. I don't want him. And you took him with your own
heart, and you pierced him through, and you took him as it were,
and took him to that place of execution, and nailed him to
a tree with your own hatred. And you pierced him through with
your own rejection, and your own apathy, and your own love
of your sins. You pierced him through, and
you lifted him up and said, crucify him, crucify him, get him away
from me. You despised him. But your hatred,
your rejection, what you did to Christ, was in the providence of God.
For what man meant for evil, God meant for good. Just as in
the days of Joseph, when Joseph was rejected by his brothers
and they cast him into a pit as dead, and they meant it for
evil, But God took him from that pit and led him to Egypt and
raised him up to a great power and height in Egypt. And one
day brought famine upon his brothers that they had to come unto Joseph
and come unto him to survive, to live. And he had mercy upon
them who had rejected him. He loved them who had hated him.
And he saved them who tried to put him to death. So this Jesus
that you and I have thrown into a pit and cast out and rejected
and crucified with our own sins and our own love of our own ways
and our own hatred of his ways. So this same Jesus, this Joseph
has been lifted up above us, lifted up above the world, crucified
because of our own sins and our own hatred. And yet in so dying,
He's brought in the love of God for sinners. In so dying, he's
delivered his bride from condemnation. In so dying, he's brought in
the righteousness of God for sinners like you and I, for all
his people. What we meant for evil, God used
for good. God took the sins of His people
and laid them upon Christ. And instead of His wrath coming
down from heaven upon them, it came down upon His Son. And instead
of those sins that they committed, separating them from God, in
Christ, they were taken away. And in Christ, their ultimate
sin, their ultimate sin of crucifying Him, of slaying Him, brought
Him to them and brought them to Him. And they found themselves
wed under Him as He slept in death. The bride, Eve, was taken
out of his sight. And as he rose up from the grave,
she rose up with him and was presented unto him as his perfect
bride, just as Eve was presented to Adam as his wife. So the people
of God, for whom Christ suffered and died, having died, they were
presented unto him as a risen bride, fit for a king, without
blemish, without spot, perfect, for all of their sins had been
taken away by Christ. He came to take their sins away. Did he take your sins away? When
you pierced him through, was he paying the price for your
hatred? Was he paying the price for your
vile affections? Was he paying the price for your
murder and disobedience? Was he paying the price? Was
he washing you clean? Was he making you to be the righteousness
of God? When you hated him, was he looking
upon you in love? When you looked upon the Saviour
with hatred and cast Him out and said, crucify Him, was He
looking down upon you in love and saying, Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. Man's
sin separates. Your sin separated you from God,
but God's mercy in the gospel unites. As Christ died because
of the sins of man, he united his people unto him, never to
be separated. The bride was married, married
to the bridegroom, married to her husband, wed with him. The
gospel brings man unto God. The church is united to Christ,
the bride to the husband. This is what chapter 5 of Romans
is about, the reconciliation of God's people with Christ,
with God. The atonement, the at-one-ment
of God and man. those who had no union with God,
those who had no communion with God, in Christ as his bride are
brought to walk before him. Here they're married to Christ,
they're united with him, they commune with him, they love him
who first loved them. Hence Paul goes on in chapter
seven of Romans to speak of marriage, of being married to Christ. For
this is the theme. Man was separated from God. The bride was separated from
Christ. She was far off. Hence Paul starts
in Romans 1 speaking of men with women and women with men, because
they're not united, they're not married. Whatever men today might
call it, whatever they might call it, whatever they may call
a man with a man and a woman with woman and claim to talk
about marriage, it isn't marriage. It's vile affections that damns
them. Yet marriage is seen when Christ
is brought to his bride and she's married to him. The marriage
of a man and a woman is a pale reflection of this, but it's
a picture of this and the gospel. when it's brought with power
to the soul of a dead sinner, takes that sinner and lifts them
up and brings them unto Christ, the Saviour, and unites them. Unites them. They're married. Married. Wherefore, my brethren, ye also
are become dead to the law by the body of Christ, that ye should
be married to another. even to him who is raised from
the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. Your sin, my sin, has brought
us under the condemnation of God's law. We've gone astray. We've broken every commandment.
We've not worshipped God with all our heart. We've not loved
our neighbour as ourselves. We've had other things that we've
fallen down and worshipped. We've worshipped self. We've
worshipped this world. We've worshipped the wisdom of
men. We've worshipped our own ideals and goals. We've not worshipped
God. We've bowed down to idols. We've
not served God. We've committed adultery. We've
gone astray from God. We've gone astray from the one
whom we should love, loving others. We've been covetous. We've sought
after this thing and that thing. We've been deceitful. We've told
lies. We've gone from the womb telling
lies. We've not sought God and we've
broken his law and the condemnation of the law pronounced death unto
us. But if your Christ, if he set his love upon you when you
hated him, if he came into this world for you and your soul,
then in him ye are become dead to the law by the body of Christ
because he took the condemnation. He took the Lord's penalty against
your sins and he paid the price. He died the death that you should
die if you're his. He died the death that I should
die. He suffered the stripes. He suffered
the wrath. He suffered the fires of God's
judgment that we should suffer. we become dead to the law by
the body of Christ. That we should be married to
another, even to him. Even to him who is raised from
the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. What sort of fruit do you bring
forth? What sort of fruit do you bring
forth? Well, I'll tell you what fruit
sin brings forth. I'll tell you what fruit the
vile affections bring forth. I'll tell you what fruit the
wisdom of man that makes him a fool brings forth. I'll tell
you what fruit the knowledge and understanding of man in this
world and his rejection of the knowledge of God brings forth.
It brings forth death. That's the fruit, eternal death,
eternal darkness. The fires of God's wrath, that's
the fruit. You might not feel it now, but
you'll feel it every time that illness comes your way. You'll
feel it every time that poverty comes your way. And one day you'll
feel it in reality, physically. When your time on this globe
is brought to an end, it brings forth death, that's the fruit.
But if you know what it is to die with Christ, if you know
what it is to have the Lord pronounce His judgment upon Christ in your
place, If you know what it is to be married to Christ, then
you will bring forth fruit unto God. You'll love Him. You'll
walk before Him. You'll rejoice in His salvation. You'll rejoice in His forgiveness. You'll rejoice that your sins
are washed away. You'll rejoice that your vile
affections are washed out of sight. You'll rejoice that you're
now one with God. You'll rejoice that the wrath
of God is silenced, it's propitiated. You'll rejoice that you're justified
before God, that you stand before Him righteous. clothed and in
your right mind, you'll rejoice in the love of your bridegroom,
you'll rejoice in the love of Christ, you'll stand before him
perfect and you'll bring forth fruit. Do you know what it is
to be married unto Christ? Married. Do you know the love
of Christ? Do you know his salvation? Do you love him who first loved
you?