I want you to turn back in your
Bibles to Romans chapter 1. Romans chapter 1. And you can
also follow me in your pastor's commentary. Romans chapter 1. As we take our third consideration
of this magnificent book that I trust will be a blessing to
your soul over the next year and a half. If we can stay on
point, stay on schedule in any event. God will have His way,
won't He? He will have His way. But this
book of Romans is an anthem of reality and truth that every
believer needs to know in order for them to be able to negotiate
this world successfully. You will not become a mature
Christian, an informed Christian, an insightful Christian without
paying close attention to the words of the Spirit of God in
the book of Romans. Now Romans 1 explains for us
in very stark and painful but vividly clear terms the root
causes and processes by which the world of humanity has spiraled
out of control, has lost its place, Plunged itself into darkness
This is Romans 1 Romans 1 explains for us how we got into the mess
that we're in and in Romans 1 explains to us the psychological and spiritual
and social dysfunction and the disorder that Drapes our world
right now the chaos that you and I are in the psychological
and spiritual and social dysfunction leading to the disorder, the
degradation, the disease, and the death that has trapped all
the sons of Adam, including you and me. Romans 1 explains to
us why we are right here. And if we listen carefully to
Romans 1, let it unpack itself in our hearing We will understand
what's taking place. We see in Romans 1 a horrible
depiction of humanity, don't we? From the minor undetectable
flaws of our human makeup to the extreme grotesque and shameful
abominations that are both immoral and criminal. This is how Romans
opens up. It speaks to us about a fallen
world that is immoral and criminal. That's what we have in Romans
1. We have the blackness of a reprobating
culture. What I want you to do with me
as we work through Romans 1 is to see a pattern of activity.
This is going to help you. Remember I said we were on the
summit and we looked at the righteous revelation of God? in terms of
five aspects of how God reveals himself to us. He reveals himself
in his glory. He reveals himself in his righteousness. He reveals himself in his mercy.
He reveals himself in his grace. He reveals himself in the mediatorial
work of Jesus Christ. By the time we get to Romans
5, we have a full panoply of God's revelation and redemption
in Christ. Remember I told you that? And
as we go through the book of Romans, we will reach heights
where we can stand on the mountaintop and breathe a little bit. and
see over to the next horizon. But we have to sometimes make
our way down into the cavernous depths, in the dark areas, in
the dark terrain, in the places, the dark regions of the jungles
of human depravity. That's what Romans 1 is causing
us to do now. We're descending off the mountaintop,
even now, are we not? And what I want you to do as
we make our way down into the pit, is I want you to hold on
to God. I want you to hold on to God. There's something that you'll
see in the text here in a moment whereby God gives you, He gives
you an anchor. He gives you a rope to hold on
to as you descend down into this pit. I was talking to one of
my brothers earlier about how we used to clean windows and
we had to rise to 10, 12, 15, 20 stories high and you had to
be anchored. You had to have a safety rope
on to keep you not from falling, but from dying when you fall.
Okay, and so as we descend into Romans chapter 1 I want you to
hold on to this rope because if you don't you might lose your
place Because some of us are so fickle that we get wrapped
up in the morbid details of sins grotesqueness but what I want
you to do is hold on to God as we descend into the pit and understand
that God is doing something in the midst of this dark world
that the believer needs to know and Because all the other stuff
we all know. The blackness and darkness, we
all know that. But we're going to know it better. And it's going
to get uncomfortable. But if you have a safety rope
on, it's going to be all right if you slip because you paid
too much attention to something you shouldn't have. And that
safety rope is the fact that all throughout human history,
God has been making himself manifest to us. God's been making himself
manifest to us. God is light and In him is no
darkness at all. And because that is in an attribute
of God God will be known But but there's a battle going on
there's attention going on in the book of Romans that I want
to Explain to you call to your attention as a context in a framework
so that as we go through these difficult passages You'll understand
what's going on first in the book of Romans. There's a pattern
of action that I want you to see in order to capture the most
important things here. Here's the first thing you'll
see. God is revealing himself. That's the first thing I want
you to see. I want you to see that God is the one acting according
to Paul's message. God is revealing himself and
he's revealing himself saints in his kindness to us. If God
hides his faith, we are under his wrath. If he reveals himself
to us, he's being kind to us. So in Romans 1, we'll see God
revealing himself, but we're also going to see man's reaction
to God's action. We're going to see man's reaction
to God's action, and then we got to see God's response to
man's reaction. So here's how this is going to
go. If you pay attention to the major mover in Romans 1, it's
God. He is acting, as it were, in
revelation to us. And then man is reacting to that
revelation. And because man reacts the way
he does to that revelation, God must respond to man's reaction. You guys got that framework?
That's how the book is gonna open up to us in a way in which
we can appreciate even the difficult stuff here. So, there are a couple
of tenses that dominate Romans 1. One of them is a present tense,
and I actually alluded to that here. God is, present tense,
right? Revealing in kindness himself
to mankind. He's revealing to mankind what
mankind needs to know, present tense. But man is, in the present
tense, resisting that revelation. present tense and therefore God
is Releasing man to what man wants because he's resisting
that revelation present tense got that God reveals men resist
God releases God reveals men resist God releases That's the
present tense. And then what Paul is going to
teach us is in the process of this struggle of God revealing,
man resisting, God releasing, there is a sufficient witness
given to man so that God can draw some conclusions. Here's
the conclusion that God is drawing, and we'll see this early on.
God has shown, man has known, and the judgment is on. God has shown very clearly Man
has known thoroughly enough to be guilty and the judgment is
on. Past tense. We call it an Aries
aspect, that means it's done. Done deal. So God is doing something,
man is doing something in reaction to what God is doing and then
God is responding, not reacting. God knows what man is doing and
God is now going to punish man for his rebellion against his
maker. But all this is in the context of man already being
guilty for the sufficiency of the revelation that's given to
him. So we are back at our first point
in our PowerPoint that we started off last week. And here is the
question. What is it that necessitates
the preaching of the gospel? What is it that compels us to
preach the gospel. It's three things. We started
with it last week and I want to make sure we deal with this
now as we move into our consideration of these verses before us. Why
do we preach the gospel? Because God has revealed his
wrath against man to us. Verse 18, are you there? For
the wrath of God is revealed. See it? Why do we preach the
gospel? Because man is under the wrath
of God. We preach the gospel because the revelation of God
at present, it's an ongoing revelation, is that we are under the wrath
of God. Let me work that through with you now. If you're a Christian,
you're convinced of that. The only way you got saved is
when you discovered you were under the wrath of God. The only
way you got saved is when you discovered you were under the
wrath of God. God revealed to you a way out. And when He revealed
to you that way out, you cried, save me, God saved you. That's
the only reason you are not presently under the wrath of God. But as
a whole, humanity is under the wrath of God and that's why we
preach. You are not to preach the gospel if you do not believe
that men presently are under the wrath of God. John chapter
3 verse 19. Remember what our Master said
when he preached the gospel to his own generation? In John chapter
3 verse 19. Listen to it again. And this
is the condemnation of the world. that light is coming to the world,
and men what? Love darkness rather than light
because their deeds are evil. That's the condemnation. Condemnation.
Look over at verse 36. He that believeth on the Son
hath everlasting life, right? And he that believes not the
Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God is presently abiding
on him. The reason why we preach the
gospel saints is because the wrath of God is presently abiding
upon everyone that does not believe. Do you believe that? Now what
Paul also says is not only do we know it by way of men's unbelief
against God that they're under the wrath of God, but God has
given us a history and legacy of his judgment. A history and
legacy of his judgment. God has shown from the beginning
of time that he punishes sin. Is that right? He showed that
in the flood of Noah's day, destroyed the whole world, only saved eight
souls. That was a revelation of his wrath. Guess what? Everybody
says it's not going to happen. God doesn't do that. God did
hit him. Is that true? He did it. Israel, his presumptuous covenant
people said, now God is good. This is the problem people get
into with the goodness of God. God's too good to punish me for
my sin. He told Ezekiel, Ezekiel, let
me show you a grave. A grave full of dry bones. they've
been dry for a long time no moisture in it in other words God says
my people are under my wrath also and they are so much under
my wrath they are nothing but a grave of dead men's bones Ezekiel
37 verses 1 through 10 guess who that was the covenant people
of God Saints stay with me for a moment the covenant people
of God were so blinded by the effects of Romans chapter 1 they
didn't even realize that God had poured his wrath out on them
They were under the judgment of God just like the heathen.
Does God pour out his wrath upon people? Yes, he does. And history
has proven that over and over again that God pours out his
wrath upon the unbelieving world. Our master here is speaking about
the revelation of God's wrath upon the unbeliever. The second
point that we developed as well is that The rebellious response
of all men to God's revelation is the grounds upon which God
brings his judgment. I share with you verse 28, part
B of Romans chapter 1, where it says in verse 28, and even
as they, the human race, did not like to retain God in their
knowledge. Do you see that? God gave them
over to a reprobate mind. to do those things that are not
appropriate. We'll get into that both this week and next week.
The rebellious response of all men brings them into a situation
where they are under the wrath of God because what God has revealed
to them and because of what God has revealed in them, God is
going to execute judgment on them. The rebellious response
of all men leads to the judgment of God because of their ungodliness
and their unrighteousness. Men are ungodly. You know what
that means? They don't think God's thoughts
after them. How do I know I'm ungodly? Because you don't think
what God says is important in your life. You don't have room
in your mind for the theology of God to frame your thinking
and inform your decisions. That's what it means to be ungodly.
To be unrighteous is to act contrary to God's law. Righteousness always
amounts to conformity to the law of God. And wherein we don't
conform to the law of God, we are called unrighteous. So unrighteous
people are unrighteous because they're ungodly, right? Ungodliness
is the fact that you and I will not retain the knowledge of God
in our mind as the superior knowledge by which our life is governed.
Now when you remove God's knowledge from your mind, you are walking
in darkness. And that darkness leads to dark
deeds, which we call unrighteousness. And that is a judgment of God.
We will fuller, more fully explicate that in a moment. But in terms
of this wrestling match that all of humanity engages in against
God, it's under our second point as to why we preach the gospel.
Because man is constantly attempting to suppress the truth in unrighteousness. Look at verse 18, the latter
part. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against
all ungodliness, wrong thinking and unrighteousness, wrongdoing
of all mankind who hold the truth. Do you see that? Watch this.
Every human being has enough of the truth to send them to
hell. Every human being has enough
of God's truth to send them to hell. They hold that truth. I'm
getting ready to work that with you here for a moment. God has
shown it to them, God has revealed it in them, and they react to
that revelation outwardly and inwardly by trying to suppress
that truth. Our word is katecho. It's a verb
that means to press it down, press it down so that it doesn't
show up. Actually, it's used in a tense that means that they
are trying to press it down, but they keep failing to achieve
the goal. Go with me in your bibles to
romans chapter 6 or romans 7. Let me show you how this is used
in verse 6 same verb I just want you to understand there is an
attempt on mankind to suppress the truth But in his attempt
he fails consistently well because he's dealing with omnipotence
And omnipotence is going to always win so the life of mankind in
his pursuit to suppress the truth is Unavoidable failure because
God will win every time it's not like God is struggling with
you You do understand he's not struggling with you Romans chapter
7 verse 6 says this as it uses the analogy of what we were before
we were married to Christ We were married to the law And it
says in verse five, when we were in the flesh that is dominated
by our fallen nature, the motions of sin, the powers of sin, the
lust of sin, which were ignited by the law did work in our members
to bring forth fruit unto what? But now, but now, but now we
are delivered. I'm gonna show you how that word
works next week when we deal with being given over to. We
are delivered from the law, watch this, that being dead. that being
dead, wherein we were held. See it? You and I used to be
held down by the law under its curse and judgment and wrath,
and its objective was to send us to hell, rightly so. But the
law, very much like sinful man, failed to achieve its ultimate
objective with us because we were chosen in Christ to have
a greater power come along and release us from its bondage and
deliver us out of its captivity called deliverance called deliverance
God delivered us from the power of hell and the law that held
us down we can say the law in that sense was unsuccessful with
me So mankind is, like that law, suppressing God's truth everywhere
it shows up, but it's unsuccessful. The word is used in the Gospel
of Luke, as well. Luke chapter 4, verse 42, where
the Lord Jesus Christ is presently experiencing the benefits of
people admiring and loving His ministry. That doesn't last long. But in Luke chapter 4 verse 42
As our master was doing ministry we are told in verse 42 and when
it was day he departed and went to a desert place and Having
departed the people wanted him so bad. They sought him all that
people would see Christ today even to go out to the desert
to find him and they came unto him and Here's the King James
were stayed In other translations, you know what the word is translated?
Constrained him. Constrained him that he should
not what? Depart. But he still left anyway. Here's what I am saying going
back to our text. What the ungodly tries to do with the truth is
constrain it so that it doesn't get out. But it gets out anyway. Because that's the nature of
God. He does not mind this wrestling match with humanity. It shows
man's rebellion as the word of God has stated that man is a
rebel and it also shows God's righteous judgment against his
attempt to suppress and hold down the truth. I'm going to
show you one verse that will actually sum up my argument that
truth is trying to be constrained but it never can. John chapter
1 verse 5. John 1 verse 5. Again here we
have a metaphor of the character of God as being light, right?
And here's what John's gospel plainly says in verse 5, and
the light shining in darkness. And the darkness did not overcome
it. Do you see that? King James used
the word comprehend, shouldn't have been comprehend, should
have been overcame. And the darkness did not overcome it. In fact,
the word comprehend is an intelligible term that has to be anthropomorphical
in nature. Darkness is an inanimate object. Its goal is to suppress the truth,
but the light still shines through it. Now, as we go through Romans
chapter 1, here's what I'm going to show you. You're going to
see some ugly, dark stuff. Ugly, dark stuff about you and
me. but piercing up through that
are going to be beams of light and revelation where God's going
to manifest His glory, okay? You need to see that. You need
to know that. Going back to our text, let's
go to work a little bit now. This is important for us. What
is it that necessitates the preaching of the gospel? Because God, by
the gospel, calls us the light to shine out of darkness, shines
into our dark hearts and gives us a revelation of the knowledge
of the glory of God, does it not? brings us to a place where
we can call on God. The final point under point number
one is when God reveals as he's doing his wrath against man by
the things that he does, man rebels against it unsuccessfully,
but God now has a right to execute a decree upon man for it. So
my third point is the righteous revelation of God that renders
man inexcusable. See, part of the wrestling match
that God engages man is in, is in order to prove to man that
he's guilty of knowing enough truth to bow to God. So you're
gonna meet people all your life, and particularly in our generation,
where our culture is, it depends upon intellectualism. But their
intellectualism amounts to this. I don't know. Now, how intellectual
is that? I don't know, right? No, in other
words, when you reach the echelons of collegiate experiences and
talk with the scholars and those who have become wise in their
own understanding, here's what they call intelligent, not being
able to be sure about anything. I don't call that intelligent
at all. I would get my money back if I went to college and
by the time I got out, I didn't even know who I was. let alone
if there's a God or not. Agnosticism is not a virtue. But see, what mankind is going
to tell you is, we can help you arm yourself against the knowledge
of God to the degree that you can go around and say, you know,
I'm so intelligent, I don't even know if there's a God. I'm so
intelligent, I don't even know who I am. I'm so intelligent,
I don't know who you are. I'm so intelligent, I don't know
where we came from. I'm so intelligent, and we would
say, that's not intelligent, ma'am. Sir, that's far from intelligent. Here's what God would say. You're
lying. You're a liar. So let me see
if I can tighten that up. That's why at the end of point
C I say they knew. They knew. And that's what God's
going to say. You knew. Look at verse 20. See if I can make
this work. For the invisible things of Him,
that is God, from the creation of the world are clearly seen. This is a paradox Paul uses intentionally. Things that are invisible are
clearly seen. That's a paradox. He says, now
the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are
clearly seen, watch this, and understood by the things that
are made. And this is what I mean, says
the apostle. When you are done paying attention
to creation, here's what you must conclude. That God is eternal,
that God is omnipotent, that God is all-powerful, and that
there had to be a God that created all this. So that they are without
argument. Says the Apostle Paul. So that's
my second point that I want to deal with now. So critical are
my final point under that rubric of the righteous revelation of
God that renders man inexcusable. The word is unapologetic. That's
a art. What God is saying is you have
no intellectual defense against my revelation. This is powerful.
This is powerful. Here, Paul says in verse 20 for
the invisible things of God from the creation. He uses the word
invisible. That means things that cannot
be seen. It doesn't mean things that are not there. Ahoretio
is a Greek verb, a Greek noun that means they are there, but
you can't see them with the naked eye. I love what Paul is doing. He's speaking to the scientists.
The individual that loves to peer into the laws behind the
things that are made. So he's speaking to the physicist.
And he's speaking to the scientists. And he's speaking to those persons
who understand that the things that are made, the way they operate,
they have to have some kind of law behind them. So he's speaking
to, watch this now, in terms of the invisible things of God,
he's talking about subatomic and microscopic elements of the
creature. Subatomic and microscopic, what
do you mean? The only way you can see them is through a microscope
and understand them is subatomically. Like mathematicians understand
things that are not seen by virtue of numbers. The physicist understands
that there are laws that lead to certain conclusions that are
inescapable as the basis of things that exist. For instance, the
law of gravity, the law of inertia, the laws that uphold our universe
presently, those things that cause our world to go, the laws
of motion. You and I know we operate out
of a whole system of magnetic fields, do we not? These are
all unseen things that we take for granted because they have
to be there. Logic says those things have
to be there. You and I believe in electricity,
don't we? Don't ever see it, but we believe
in it. So when folks say, you know, I can't believe what I
don't see, say, you dummy, you dummy. If it wasn't for the things
you don't see, you wouldn't see nothing. So what Paul is saying is when
man sits long enough and pays attention to the creature, I
love the way he does this. He gives us three critical Greek
terms, I won't bore you with them, but he says the invisible
things of him that have to do with the creation. That word
creation is used again in Romans 8 around verse 19 when he speaks
to the creature. I don't know why the King James
flips these terms, creature creation, but he's talking about our world
in terms of its essence. The creation. All of the material
that goes into how our world is materially. He says the creature
here, when carefully looked at, points us to microscopic and
subatomic realities behind them by which they consist. Things
cannot hold together in this universe without things that
are unseen so that the creature says, hey, you better get past
me if you want the answer. to why I am holding up. So the
apostle says, for the invisible things of him from the creation
of the world, and here's what he does. He says they are clearly
seen. Clearly seen. It's a term that means the evidence
is overwhelming. The evidence of the fact that
creation is governed by so minute a system of particles that are
intelligently put together. that it's impossible for us to
conclude that the only thing here is what we literally see.
Then he goes on to say this, for the invisible things of him
from the creation of the world, the world there is cosmos, that
means the whole package. When he uses creation, this is
one term, and then he uses the term cosmos, he's saying, look
at the creation in terms of its material essence, and then think
about this universe as far and as wide as you can go in its
full enormity. The enormity of the universe
tells us that there had to be some thought involved. But he
doesn't conclude with merely the enormity of the universe.
Because you know, you and I don't have to be that intelligent to
make a big old mess. It can be like a big mess. So
largeness does not necessarily mean intelligent. But largeness
does get your attention. When you look through one of
those telescopes out into the galaxies, you go, man, there's
a lot going on. And what he says is, the invisible
things of him, that is God, from the creation, the raw material
are of the world, that is the cosmos, are clearly seen, watch
this, being understood. Now he says, not only are they
clearly seen so that they don't let you down, The evidence is
clear. They say, hey, come over here.
I'll show you something. If you want to know it, come on. I'll
show you something. And if you sit here long enough
and submit yourself to what you see, you will understand. If
you submit yourself to what you see, you will understand. Watch
this. Not only clearly seen, you will understand. Guess what
he will say? You will understand. You will understand by the things
that are made. It's another term that he uses.
Poema. It's a powerful, constant verb
used throughout the New Testament. And really what he's talking
about, Saints, here is his handiwork. So let me give you these three
words again. Creation in its raw form, the cosmos and its
enormity. And then the handiwork of God
in the meticulous details with which he puts this universe together.
He says, if you follow me, I will show you that it was wisdom and
infinite power that put this thing together. By the way, when
you are done reading my handiwork, you will praise God. Because
when you read my handiwork, you will see not only infinitude,
You will see order. You will see structure. You will
see functionality. You will see an exquisitely,
efficient, sufficient, meticulous, profoundly, rudimentally complex. And then for your agnostics and
your atheists, irreducible complexity. For Darwin and the nuts that
talked about it all started from a simple matter and then became
complex. It was always complex. Down to
your subatomic particle every particle is so complex that it's
infinitely complex That means when God started he started with
complexity and went from complexity to super complexity So that you can't take anything
that God made and call it so simple that you can say God didn't
make it Because what God made was made as a witness of his
wisdom power and eternal Godhead Everything how far you want to
go scientists? I will take you down to the smallest
particle and show you that the smallest particle will keep you
Studying scratching your head until you are bald for light
years That's how infinite that's how infinite and intricate and
sophisticated Creation is as it testifies to God. What's my
argument? Psalms chapter 19 verses 1 through
3. You've heard it before. Listen
to the psalmist. Listen to how the Psalms argues
for the creation, screaming that there's a God. We believe this,
don't we? The heavens declare the glory
of God. That's a sermon right there.
The heavens declare the glory of God. They preach the glory
of God. They proclaim the glory of God.
They witness the glory of God. They testify. They affirm the
glory of God. When you look into the heavens,
they cry, glory to God. Glory to God. That's what they
do. Glory to God. And the firmament showeth, here's
a word, His handiwork. The firmament shows His handiwork.
Watch this. Day unto day uttereth speech. Night unto night, showeth
knowledge. Verse three, there is no speech
nor language where their voice is not heard. Their line is going
out through all the earth, even to the end of the world. And in them he has set a tabernacle
for the sun. What he does is he brings us
back in and he stops us in our solar system and he tells us
to pay attention to the sun because the sun is the center of our
solar system by which we will learn the gospel. If you get
outside of our solar system, you're going to get lost. So
he rains you back and say, stop now before you go way out there
and just start with the sun because the sun is going to get you saved.
That's a double entendre. Get back to the sun because the
sun will keep you go too far out there. You're going to be
in darkness and blackness and you will never get back. But
come on, come on back in. The sun will settle you down
and help you understand how this thing works. the whole processes
of our solar system in the manner in which it operates to sustain
life in this world. See, this is God revealing himself.
You see what I'm saying? Awesome, magnificent. Let's go
to our second point. This is why we preach the gospel
to let men know that he knows even though he's rebelling against
what he knows. The second reason for which we preach the gospel
is because of the impact of this rebellion Against the revelation
now we can really come closer to home the impact of this rebellion. What is it? It's a threefold
impact What happens when a man or a woman or a people group
a church a denomination a nation? Intentionally suppresses the
truth that's revealed to them in their suppression of the truth
There's an anger created on their part because God is going to
always be God You'll learn that See, a lot of times people will
come to God in order to get God to be a slave of their agenda.
And a lot of times they'll come to God to get God to sign off
on their worldviews. They'll come to God because they're
sure that their intellect will cause God to say, you're so smart
that I'll actually join you in your agenda. And when they finally
come to meet the true and the living God, he continues to thwart
their agenda, smash all of their arguments, oppose all of their
presuppositions, and tell them they still have not found the
truth. So they get mad. And then you know what they want
to do with God? Exchange God for something else. So I want
to show you what goes on. This is the pathology of humanity,
according to Romans 1. And you and I have done it too. So when God shows up as God,
we change His glory. Look at verse 23, verse 8, point
8, verse 23. Because they are professing themselves
to be wise, these are wise folks, they become fools. I'll talk
about that in a little bit. Now here's the evidence of their
foolishness. Are you ready? They changed the glory of the
incorruptible God into an image made like unto corruptible man,
to birds, to four-footed beasts, and creeping things. I call this
the great exchange, a threefold exchange. First, it's a change
of God's glory. Secondly, it's a change of God's
truth. Look at verse 25a, are you there?
They also changed the truth of God into a what? So they changed
the glory of God to carnal images which depict the creature then
they change the truth of God into a lie and then here's the
final one verse 28 part a I'm sorry um we are dealing with
verse 26 part b here it is for this cause God gave them up unto
vile affections, for even their women did," here's the word,
"...change the natural use into that which is against nature."
Watch this, verse 27, "...and likewise also the men, leaving
the natural use of the woman burned in their lusts." This
is crazy. So let me deal with these as a triplet. Because of
the revelation and their hostility towards it, they change God's
glory, they change His truth, and then they change their conduct
in relationship to his truth and in relationship to his glory.
Can you see how this works? Now I want you to see this now.
The glory of God reveals the truth of God. The truth of God
tells us who we are and how we are to act. How we are to act. The glory of God reveals the
truth of God. The truth of God reveals to you and I, it tells
you and I, how we are to act. When we get rid of the truth
and get rid of the glory, we don't know how to act. We lose now our orbit in the
orderly, harmonious, succinct universe that has its place and
its purpose, and now you and I are confused. Confused! We're supposed to be getting
smarter, and we're more confused. And you know what I'm told? These
folks who changed the natural order are wiser than us. I'm
told they're a gift to us. That's the continual suppression
of the truth. Because really the argument is against truth
and the glory of God. Can we work this through for
a moment? Let me help convince you. They change the glory of
God. They change the glory of God.
What do you mean, preacher? They change His true nature.
Mankind cannot tolerate a God of glory, who in His glory is
infinite, holy, righteous, It's immutable, unchangeable, powerful. And are you ready? Invisible. Stay there. What they don't like
about God is in His ontological essence. He cannot be seen unless
He reveals Himself to you. He is the invisible God. But just like the invisible things
that uphold the visible things, our invisible God upholds even
the invisible things that uphold the visible things. And because
the invisible God has chosen not to reveal himself to you
and me until we humble ourselves, you and I want to exchange the
glory of the invisible God for idols. Let me help you understand
this. He says they changed the glory
of God, verse 23, the glory of the incorruptible God. Saints,
you know what that means? That means in the beginning mankind
understood the nature and character of God. That when God had fellowship
with Adam and his sons, they all knew God in the truth. Even
Cain knew God in the truth. But over time, they could not
tolerate this enormous presence whose holiness and righteousness
always called them to account for everything they were doing.
They couldn't handle it. And so you know what they did?
They said, I'm going to turn you in for something I can handle. Dr. Piper said, it's mankind
hawking God in the pawn shop of sin. Hawking God in the pawn
shop of sin selling the glory of God for a little pittance
of an idol made out of marble shiny marble And you know you're
a fool You go into the pawn shop with the infinite inexhaustible
riches of God's glory and you come out with a little dumb idol
Polished as it may be Talking about you you you actually have
done better now watch this and this dumb idol is Polished as
it may be, looks just like you. A naked woman and a naked man. I'm going somewhere. I'm going
somewhere. I'm going somewhere. Because
men bow down to this idol that I'm talking about now 24-7. Even
some of the saints do. You venerate and worship the
body. You venerate and worship the
flesh. You venerate and worship the image of man in his stark
nakedness as if somehow there's glory in it. Am I telling the
truth? You bow down to it. You sacrifice
to it. You worship to it. You give your
life to it. You worship. You're ready to
sign covenants of death because of the power of that empty image
that controls your minds and hearts and leads you into devastation. Devastation. I'm describing,
yes, the dark, dark jungles of our pagan brothers who run around
butt naked with paint and spears and darts and big old rings out
of their noses and ears. But I'm also describing the 21st
century American European culture who bows down to the same thing. See, Romans 1 is taking us there.
That's the deep crevice that we're going into. That's the
dark place. Am I making some sense? That's
the dark place. And they changed the glory of God, for the hot
God came out of the pawn shop with an image and an idol. How
else can you explain Adam and Eve and the infinitude of God's
presence, unabated, without mediation, presently with them? How else
do you explain Adam and Eve having the presence of the glory of
the invisible God with them in unmediated fashion? How do you
explain that other than they hawked God at the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil? Sold him out at the proposition
of the devil and walked away with human knowledge. Human knowledge
is what they sold God for. The devil crawled up. We'll deal
with that in a moment and say hey I got a better deal for you
than this invisible god who is glorious infinite powerful. Holy
Just in kind. I got a better deal for you.
See this tree here. This tree will make you better than god
That's what man did when he exchanged the glory of god for human knowledge
This is what we do when we go to college to get saved Just
in case he's not coming home because sometimes my people slow
on sunday You fast on Monday through Saturday, but come to
church, you get slow on me. I don't know what you're talking
about. You go to college to get saved rather than to go to college
with the true and the living God to test the inferior knowledge
of human thinking over against the superior knowledge of God's
thinking and say, I'll take the paper. I need to get paid. But
God is the one I know. God is the one I serve. God is
the one I love. God is the one who upholds me.
Am I making some sense? They go to college and seal God
for a piece of paper, promising them life. That's exactly what
they do. Exactly what they do. This is
a horrible, horrible exchange. They change the true nature of
God. They did it in Genesis chapter
3. They did it in Exodus chapter 33, the children of Israel. Remember? The true and the living God in
His holiness, in His infinitude, in His power, went into Egypt,
destroyed their enemies, brought them out. They were held captive,
remember? Brought them out through the Red Sea, destroyed all their
gods, brought them into a wilderness. They hung out 40 days. Not only
had the invisible God disappeared, but their servant disappeared
for 40 days. See, we have problems with things that disappear on
us. So 40 days Moses is in the mountain. You know what those
clowns did? Chapter 33. We don't even know where this
dude is. Let us do that. See, people are okay as long
as they can see something. Moses had disappeared for 40
days. And you know what they started saying? This is how jacked
up our minds were. Where is that dude who brought
us out of Egypt? Did he just get us out here and
leave? 40 days into the trip, he figured
us out. He didn't want to marry us. He
waited till night and slipped out the door. Now we got to try
to make our way back to Egypt by going to the promised land.
He's stuck. And you know what they did? They
said, Aaron, that's your brother, dude. So since we can't get him,
we're going to get you. You better make us a God and
get us back to Egypt. And he says, OK, now what I need
y'all to do is work with me now. I need you to work with me now.
Are you with me? I need you to work with me now.
I need you to work with me. I mean, if we're going to do this, we've
got to work. Now, if we're going to get back, we've got to work
now. The operative word is what? Work now. Because see, we didn't
work to get out. All we did was walk out. We walked
out. When God came, we walked out.
We didn't work out, we walked out. Because God came in power,
we walked out. But now we're getting ready to
work our way back in. And so Aaron says, work with
me now, work with me. I need your gold, I need your
silver, I need all the trinkets you got. Bring it now, we got
to work now. So go get some wood, go get some
stones, let's get to working. And so what did they do? They
built a golden calf. It was the works of their hands.
You know what Aaron said? These are the gods that brought
you out of Egypt. Exodus 33 verses one through
six. And then when God said, hey Moses,
I'm gonna kill a bunch of people. Get on down. I'm getting ready
to kill a bunch of people. Get on down. Stay with me. going
down, I want you, I want you to, I want, you better go holler
at your brother now because I'll clean him out too. So he goes
down to Aaron and Moses says, Aaron, the heck is going on here? Clean this, I can do it on Sunday.
What the heck is going on here? Watch this now, watch this now.
Aaron said, now, now, now, bro, big bro, now you know these people,
they crazy, man. They crazy. They were gonna have
a turn into a high treason and they wanted to go back So they
said make us a God and I told him you'll give me to go and
we threw the goal in the water And out came a golden calf I'm not lying verse 23 through
26 out came a golden clap What do you mean out came a golden
clap you worked to build that God? On that day you exchanged
the glory of the Shekinah who was present with you in the fire
by night, and in the cloud by day, and in the provisions that
kept you all the way, and in the promises that he would get
you there for a golden calf. Are you hearing me? And we have
changed the truth. Look at what it says, and they
changed the truth for a lie, didn't they? Now, these are corresponding
terms because whenever you misrepresent God, you have misrepresent the
truth. Jesus said I am the way the truth
and the life no one comes unto the Father but by me now when
you alter that proposition you alter all truth as Soon as you
say salvation is accomplished any other way than by the person
and work of Jesus Christ You have now exchanged the truth
of the glory of God contained in the person of Christ who is
the truth for a lie? Am I making some sense? Let me
show you how this is done these same crazy people who made the
golden calf are confronted by the truth embodied in the person
of Jesus. He came unto his own and his
own received him not. The world was made by him and
the world knew him not. And there was a day when they
decided to exchange that truth for a lie. Are you with me? They
exchanged that truth for a lie. John chapter 18. Listen to what
it says in John. It's very clear that they changed
the truth. In John chapter 18, verse 40,
I want you to see what you and I do when we're not persuaded
of the truth. Jesus has been rejected by the
people and the rulers and crucified because they are rejecting the
truth. And they had a choice. Remember, on that day they had
to let one go. And there was this murderer,
an insurrector called Barabbas. Now watch this. They cried when
the leader said, who do you want us to release, Jesus or Barabbas? And they cried, all of them saying,
not this man. Exchange. The truth was exchanged
right there. Do you see it? Do you guys see
it? Not this man. Not this truth. Not this God. Now watch the language. But Barabbas. Now Barabbas was a devil. You got it? The thief comes but
to steal, kill, and destroy. Barabbas is a robber. And the
robber started in the garden, and the robber ends up at Calvary,
and we are still trading in God. Do you see it? Now this is why
we at Grace preach sovereign grace. So I'm going to lay it
down one more time before we go to our next point. Can I do
that? See, we don't tell you to choose between God and something
else. That's why we don't get into
decisions for Jesus. I'm sorry for you folks who want
a decision. But if we give you a decision, you can always choose
the wrong thing. Are you hearing me? You will
never choose God. You will never choose the true
and the living God. You will always choose a lie.
The record is already in. We will lie on God. So you know
what we tell you? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and you'll be saved. If you don't, you're going to
hell. You're on your way there now. Are you hearing me? The reason we preach the gospel
is because God has revealed his wrath. The reason we preach the
gospel is because the impact of the rebellion is a threefold
exchange. They exchange the glory of God.
They exchange the truth of God. And they change the complementarian
purpose. Let me touch on that before I
move to my last two points. Going back to our PowerPoint,
I want you guys to see this. Especially you young people who
don't think today's message is relevant. It's relevant for you.
Because you are a budding, you are a budding, blossoming, about
to mature, hell-bound sinner. That's what you are. You young
people are a budding, blossoming, about to mature, hell-bound sinner.
Most of you young people will grow up to choose hell. You won't
choose God. Even though you hear Him talk
very plainly and very clearly, you're going to grow up and rebel
against God. And the very transactions that
I am sharing with you today about laughing at His glory, rejecting
the Bible, and then engaging yourself in the self-imposed
idolatry of sexual perversion, that's your next stage. That's
what you guys are getting ready to do. Are you hearing me? That's what our children are
about to do. They're about to say, I'm God. And they're going
to jump into the dark, nasty, filthy cesspool of evil and sin. rebellion against God over against
the truth they have heard today. How do I know? Because we all
did it. If God doesn't rescue you, you
are already making your lunge into the abyss and you're laughing
at the truth even as I speak. That man doesn't know what he's
talking about. So now we move on to our third point. I'll develop
a this change of complementarian purpose down the line. You guys
know what complementarian purpose means, right? If y'all smart
enough, you know. A man and a woman are made in
the image of God for a covenant purpose by which the world is
blessed through the proliferation of children because they believe
God and they fear God. Are you guys hearing me? When
you step outside of those boundaries, it's evident that not only have
you heard the truth, it's evident that not only is the truth in
you, but the judgment of God is on you. I just want you to
hear it. It's on you. When we rebel like
that, it's on us. And it's on all of us. The whole
spectrum is there. Read it for yourself. Read the
whole of Romans 1. It's all there. All there. from
these perverse, grotesque practices all the way down to the secret
lies that we tell not about a God. The secret lies, the secret stuff. Are you guys hearing me? Now,
let me go on to my next point. The judgment of God in them. Why do we preach the gospel?
Because of the judgment of God in them. What Paul said in Romans
chapter 1 is that man became foolish in his thinking. Let me start at verse 21. Because
that when they knew God, they glorified him not as God. Do
you see that? Neither were they thankful, but they became vain in their thinking. That's what
the word imagination is. and their foolish heart was darkened. Because they would not glorify
God, they became something. Powerful verb. They changed on
the inside. They changed on the inside. So
we call this reprobation. We call this the noetic effect
of sin. Here's what we say. We say that when you're confronted
with biblical truth that corresponds with your conscience and you
fight against that truth, you actually alter your intellectual
DNA. You alter your intellectual DNA.
You actually change out the biblical data, put in unbiblical data.
Now you start building a whole catalog of wrong thinking. Follow
me now. When once you reject biblical
truth, the only thing you can do is lie to yourself and everyone
else. Stay with me now. What he says
is they became vain or empty or futile, the word futile. The
word means to miss the point. It means to never actually land
on the truth. They became vain in the way they
think. Their thinking processes now became corrupt. Their file
was corrupted, computer terms. And so everything that they try
to do is dysfunctional and never concludes appropriately or rightly. They think wrong. Am I making
some sense? So the Bible says in Jeremiah
chapter 17 verse 9, the heart is deceitful above everything
and desperately wicked so that the mind is constantly firing
off arguments against God, constantly firing off judgments against
God, constantly trying to find ways to prop up a notion of how
things exist. Watch this now. And they get
it wrong every time. They get it wrong every time.
They get it wrong every time. Have you noticed how the scientists
will laud conclusions that they've drawn? they will tell the whole
world we found life on Saturn and there's a know what we were
we were hasty in our judgments and after back because see they
really want to prove God wrong they want to prove God wrong
and you know what God does he keeps allowing the shafts of
life to pierce through pierce through say no you're wrong again
You're wrong again. You're wrong again. And we have
built a whole body of lies concerning our sociological makeup, our
physiological makeup. And the notion that we should
conclude that there is an invisible God today is something that is
so archaic. It's even shameful in some circles
to talk about believing in a God you don't see. and certainly
don't believe in the Bible. So what it says is they became
vain in their thinking, their file was corrupted. What it says
literally is they became unreasonable, insensible, and unable to put
together the facts. So their speculations are faulty. Now watch this, saints. When
your head is not right with God, your passions then become uncontrollable. Watch this, I'm talking about
your thinking now affecting your feelings. See, you and I are
driven by our feelings. We're learning this in marriage
class. We're driven by our feelings. And when your feelings are not
governed by truth, They pour out, they break out of the boundaries
of moral and ethical limitations and pour over into, hear me now,
the dark murky waters of sin and perversion. Your emotions
now become a god. and they drive you out of the
boundaries of moral, ethical truth, and now you explore with
everything that's shameful and abominable and wicked and ungodly,
because you're governed by your emotions, not by a mind that's
framed by the Word of God. Are you guys hearing me? That's
exactly right. That's why I say, you young people,
you're on your way. How do you take a young Christian
girl who grew up in the church swearing she loved Jesus to now
stripping down and selling her buttocks for millions of dollars
on the screen in order for her to become wealthy and prominent.
How do you go from that to that? You go from that to that by a
demonic influence as a consequence of a great exchange of the glory
of God to the glory of self. And you know that demonically
you have powers that have been given to you in the flesh in
order to cause the masses of the world to be trapped. Because
all they're driven by, are you ready? Is what they see. By what they see. All they're
driven by is what they see. So listen to it. They became
vain in their imagination. Their foolish hearts were darkened.
And professing themselves to be wise, they became what? Morons! That's the Greek term. You can
buy it. You can own it now. So when your
kids act up, say, you moron. You knew the truth. And you crossed
the line. And you said you were going to
do what you wanted to do. And now you're headed to hell for
it. Am I making some sense? Let's go to our last couple of
points. Why do we preach the gospel? Because of this revelation,
this resistance, and this release. We are in the release mode. I
need to finish up here. Now this is amazing. I'm done
here. I want you to think about God. Think about God. Think about
God. Think about God. My last point is what? Tell the
truth about God. Is that my last point? Is that
what's up there? I'm not looking. I'm just thinking. Here's how Gracious God is and
all of the stuff that I've been talking to you about. Here's
how gracious he is. Are you ready? God created you
and me to simply tell the truth about God Just tell the truth
about God All he wants you to do is tell the truth Now you
got to be brave to do it in this world But this is how good God
is see he keeps he keeps blasting through the darkness. I so that
men can tell the truth. In all of the fields of expertise
they're in, whatever field you're in, when God shows up, all He
wants you to do is tell the truth. Tell the truth. All of these
blessings and resources and material blessings and technological blessings,
you and I live in a very, very, very blessed world right now.
I want you to know that. But it's not because of man,
it's because of God. Now watch this. And all God wants
you to do is give Him glory. That's all he wants you to do.
He wants you to give him glory for what he has made. He doesn't
want you to steal his glory. Just simply say, you know what?
God's awesome, isn't he? God's awesome. So my last point
is we preach the gospel in order that men might tell the truth
about God and give him glory. Enjoy the benefits of all that
God has given you, child of God. Enjoy the benefits of good health,
good life, a wonderful opportunity of income, the resources and
blessings of a 21st century lifestyle. Enjoy the blessings, but give
Him glory for it. Are you ready? By being thankful. This is all God says. He says,
listen, He says, when they knew God, they glorified Him not as
God, neither Were they thankful? I'm going to show you people
who get it. Are you ready? The people who get it in the
world quickly tell you it was God, not me. And I'm so thankful
for it. That's how they talk. I thank
God for everything I have. I thank Him for absolutely everything
I have. I don't care what you're going
to give me, teacher, professor. By way of knowledge, you can't
give me what God has already given me. And I'm thankful for
God. Now watch this. I'm actually
thankful to God for you, teacher. But see, you're not going to
take my thankfulness away from God to give me a piece of paper
to rise up in war against God. God's too good. He's too glorious. He's overwhelmingly present in
my life. I'm compelled by who he is to
give him glory. And I'm going to thank him everywhere
I go. When you ask me how I'm doing today, I'm thankful. I'm
thankful. I'm thankful because God hasn't
caused me to lose my mind. Watch this now. I'm thankful.
Watch this. I'm thankful. Here it is. I'm
thankful because I used to be in that cesspool, swimming in
the dark, dark, deep, deep, deep, dark, dark, dark pit. And God told me out. He told
me out. He brought me to the light. He
showed me His glory. He revealed His Son in me. He
opened my eyes. He changed my heart. He filled
me with His truth. He set me down, cleaned me up,
gave me a right mind, and said, just give Him glory. Thank God. That's what you do. You thank
God. Watch this now. You give Him
glory in His nature. You give Him glory because He's
good to all His creatures. That's what the Lord said. The
Son of God who knew God, being God himself, tells us God reigns
on the just and the unjust. That's Matthew 5.45. Now you're
gonna pay for it, but he's still good to you. Are you hearing? You're gonna pay for it, but
he's still good to you. So we who are believers say this, God's
blessing you, that's right, for a minute. But until you experience
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places, those temporary blessings
will be your curse if you don't say to the world, there is a
God and he's blessed me with everything I have. There is a
God and he's blessed me with everything I have. Now watch
this. And God has revealed his glory.
He's been good to me in order to accomplish his saving purposes. See, God's saving sinners. And
he's saving sinners through this very process that I'm talking
about. He's saving sinners both while being good and while executing
his good judgment upon humanity. You know what happens when men
and women hear gospel like I'm preaching? Most rebel. But in God's good purpose, you
know what he's doing? He's saving some right now. He's
keeping some of our young people. He just showed up in some of
their lives. See, because they didn't know that God was all
in their business. They thought when they separated
from mom and daddy and got on their computer, it was just them
and them. But see, God's there too. And
God's talking to them now, saying, you know what, sweetheart, young
man, the next time you jump on that computer, I'm going to be
with you. And guess what? My voice is going to sound just
like Pastor Jesse. That's right. Pastor Jesse gonna
speak into your heart. Pastor Jesse gonna speak into
your mind. He gonna get down in your soul and he gonna tell
you stop in the name of the Lord. Stop by the grace of God. Turn from that evil way. Look
to Christ. Look to Christ to deliver you
from that trap that you are falling into. You are ready to exchange
the glory of God for a dumb idol. that can't speak, can't see,
can't hear, can't do good or evil, and certainly can't save
you. Certainly can't save you. Certainly can't save you. I'm done.