Latest / HBCWestminster / 10.30.22 Romans 1:18-23 Pastor Danny Gardner

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10.30.22 Romans 1:18-23 Pastor Danny Gardner · HBCWestminster

• 0:00
  Well, Romans 1 and verse 18, if you want to begin turning there, when you found it, if you would stand in honor of the reading of God's Word, Romans 1 and verse 18, I'll read our text going through verse 23. The Word of God says, For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.
• 0:30
  For His invisible attributes, namely His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world and the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
• 1:00
  Would you pray with me? The Lord God of heaven and earth, we are comforted in the promise that what you began in us, you will bring to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. We give thanks, Lord Jesus, that you are not only the author of our faiths, but also their finisher. We take comfort in the promise that you will not lose a single one of us, but will present us one day blameless before your presence with glory and great joy. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
• 1:35
  Amen. Thank you, church. Well, we asked last Sunday, what is the business of the church? And friends, we may do a lot of other things, but first and foremost, the church's business, our business, is to make disciples by baptizing and by teaching. We preach Christ and Him crucified. It's what we do. We preach the gospel.
• 1:59
  We do not exist primarily to clean up existing believers. Rather, we exist to get the word out. We said last Sunday, if you remember that analogy, that we are not in the train business. We are in the transportation business. We're not merely car maintainers. We are car manufacturers. We are not disciple polishers. We are disciple makers. And we must be unashamed of this calling.
• 2:27
  and mission. We said last week that verses 16 and 17 of Romans chapter 1 are like the Apostle Paul's thesis statement. The remainder of the letter, the next 15 chapters, is an explanation of those two verses of the gospel.
• 2:44
  For the remainder of the book, he will describe the gospel process. Now, I don't mean, by using that word process, I don't mean that the salvation that you and I enjoy in Christ is a process, as if we are becoming day by day more and more saved, or closer and closer to being saved. That is not what I mean by the gospel process, because I believe that that salvation, forgiveness, happens in a moment in time by faith. But rather, he begins to answer the question, how does the gospel work?
• 3:14
  From heaven's perspective, if one was able to kind of peek under the hood of the salvation engine, does that make sense? If you could pop the hood on the gospel and look under the hood at the engine of the gospel, what would it look like? How does salvation work? If you were able to pull all of the parts of the gospel motor apart, how would they all work together in order to redeem mankind?
• 3:45
  I always marvel at those who are mechanically inclined. Do you know what I mean by that word, right? Mechanically inclined. Those men and women whom God has just given kind of an innate knowledge of how things work. I am not one of those men. I'm really not.
• 4:01
  My dad was an engineer. He had an engineering degree. He was an aerospace engineer for decades. I mean, he could tell you how jet engines work, how their cooling systems work, how the electronics in those airplanes worked. I mean, he worked on all kinds of different planes, the F-22 and the B-2 bomber and all kinds of other planes. I mean, it was unbelievable the things that he knew, how all of these very complex machines work. He could take apart a motor and put it back together and it would actually still function.
• 4:31
  And I always marvel at men and women like that. Like they can take apart these complex machines without a manual and reassemble them and they will still work. Like mechanics with car engines or artists on sculptures or on paintings. Like their hands just know what to do. It's astounding to me. Musicians on instruments listening to Caitlin play the piano and how she has trained her fingers to work independently of one another.
• 5:00
  It's amazing to me that watching Julia up here play the drums, she's in the eighth grade, and she has trained her hands and her feet to work apart from each other. I can't do it. If I needed to hit all four at the same time, I think I could, and I'd stay on beat. But as soon as they start saying, okay, left hand do this and right foot do this, I'm lost. I mean, it would be a mess. It's astounding to me, men and women who know how to use their hands. We have
• 5:29
  A man here at our church who is gifted with his hands in that way, he understands and enjoys knowing how machines work. It was our very first Thanksgiving here in Colorado. We moved going on eight years ago, and so seven or so Thanksgivings ago, it was our first Thanksgiving here. The day before the afternoon before Thanksgiving, our oven broke. So we were having all these people over, right?
• 5:55
  for thanksgiving and it's kind of contingent upon that oven working in fact if there is one day which would be the least convenient day for your oven to break it's wednesday the day before thanksgiving at like 4 p.m right because not only now you're scrambling trying to figure out where to put everyone right go somewhere else go somewhere else go somewhere else and it's not like you can just call a repairman because at 4 p.m on a wednesday nobody's coming over to fix that thing
• 6:21
  Right? Everybody's off. Nobody is thinking I'm going out to some other person's house to fix their oven. And so I started calling around to people at the church and they're like, well, maybe call him. Maybe he'll know what to do. Maybe he's got a repairman. So I called him. Do you know anybody who can repair ovens? And he just said, I could probably do that. And I was like, are you an oven repairman? He said, nope. You ever taken apart an oven before? Never. Do you have any idea what's wrong with our oven? No idea. He said, but I could probably do it. So he comes over to our house with a socket wrench.
• 6:51
  and just starts taking stuff apart. And you guys, he jams his head in the oven, which I thought was a bad idea anyway. Like you're not supposed to do that, I think. But he jams his head in the oven. He starts handing me stuff out. His body is hanging out of our oven and he just starts handing stuff. Danny, hold this. Danny, what about that? Danny, here's another piece. Oh, here's another piece. Like, do you know what these things do? No clue. Are you paying attention to what order you're taking them out? Now it'll probably work out. He's just handing me these things. I've got on my oven, there's a guy hanging out of our oven.
• 7:19
  and I've got all of these parts on our kitchen floor. You guys, I don't know what any of them do. I don't know what any of them do. And it's a gas oven, and I thought, you know what? If we mess this up, our house explodes. Like, that's what's at stake, you know? We better be able to do this right. He pulls out this little part, figures out for 12 bucks, there's one appliance store still open, for 12 bucks, I'll bet it's this thing. Like, what is that thing? I don't know. I'll bet it's this. He goes and buys that thing, comes back, puts it all back together.
• 7:49
  And it worked. Thanksgiving was saved. It was like a Charlie Brown special happened in my living room. It was awesome. It was, and I just, you guys, I stood there like, that is incredible. How do you know how to do that? It's amazing to me. You can pull all the parts apart, put them all back together and still understand how they function as a whole. Now, listen, church, if you imagine for a moment that you were able to do that with the gospel itself. What if you could, with your socket wrench, just take the gospel apart?
• 8:19
  You can look at each of its parts individually, understand what each one does, and then assemble it back together to understand that machine as a whole. Would that not be beneficial to your faith? That's exactly what the Apostle Paul does in the book of Romans. For the next 18 months, however long we're in the book.
• 8:40
  We are going to study the gospel. We're going to take it apart like a mechanic would a motor. We're going to take it apart, understand each of its parts, and then put it back together so that we have a better understanding of the gospel as a whole. If you were to break it into its components, you'll notice in the letter that several sub-themes begin to develop in Romans. The first few chapters, he talks about the wrath of God, and that's what we're looking at this morning.
• 9:05
  The wrath of God, the condemnation of man because of our rebellion, because of our rejection of God, because of our shaking our fists at the Almighty. Humankind, mankind is condemned. We stand condemned already. That's chapters 1 to 3. Then in chapters 4 and 5, we look at justification. How are we saved? What is redemption? What is forgiveness? What is saved by faith? How does that work?
• 9:32
  He uses the example of Abraham in the Old Testament. He was declared righteous by his faith. But notice it doesn't end there. In chapters 6 and 7, we look at sanctification. You know, it's interesting, church. We sometimes, in our presentation of the gospel, we sometimes stop one step short. We will explain justification, how you are saved, and then we just assume that they will know what they're supposed to do with the rest of their lives.
• 10:02
  right now that you're saved however the bible says that we are actually saved for more than mere transference of eternal status we are actually saved to walk in newness of life we are saved to walk in holiness we are saved to become like who christ like jesus we are saved to become like jesus that is the process of sanctification how to become more holy over the course of our lives
• 10:31
  Romans chapter 8, we look at glorification. And I've told you before, Romans chapter 8 is the best chapter in the best book in the best book in the world, right? Romans is the best book in the Bible, and Romans chapter 8 is the best chapter in the book. It describes how to walk in a glorious new life.
• 10:53
  how to walk by the Spirit. I've told you before, if your Bible were to be dropped and would flop open, it should flop open to Romans chapter 8, right? That is where we should spend a whole lot of our lives. Chapters 9 to 11, restoration. And then finally, chapters 12 to 16, application. There are all of the parts of the motor of the gospel. And you begin in verse 18 this morning with what is a pretty stunning diagnosis of the fallen human condition.
• 11:22
  Notice, and we'll read verse 18 again in just a moment, but you're going to notice three words, right? Ungodly, unrighteous, and then in case we missed it, unrighteous again. Verse 18 takes a pretty dark turn. Verse 18 says, Interesting to note that
• 11:52
  Immediately following verse 17 where the Apostle Paul says the righteousness of God is revealed. One verse later, the next sentence it says, and the wrath of God is also revealed. Verse 18 becomes kind of the counterpart to verse 17 where the righteousness of God has been revealed. Now we see the wrath of God is also fully on display where the gospel was described as for everyone. Now verse 18 says the wrath of God.
• 12:22
  is also universal. From this verse, moving all the way through chapter 3, the Apostle Paul argues that the righteous judgment of God and the condemnation of sinful man is justified. And that's where we have our title this morning, Why the Wrath of God? Is it okay for our God to be a God who punishes sin? Is that okay? Can he be a just God and still punish sin? Can he be a righteous God and still
• 12:54
  And let me ask you this way, church, because this is what our society, what our culture really struggles with. Can he be a loving God and still punish sin? Can he be a God of wrath and a God of love? And I'm telling you, that is sticking in the throats of our culture right now. Can he be a God who offers hugs and also a God who offers spanks? Can he be both? Yes.
• 13:22
  The idea of a wrathful God, a God who has a righteous expectation on humanity, a God who will not just let sin go, has become an affront to fallen humanity. In our wishful thinking, we've created a God who just loves people so much, that's the wording that will be used, that he would never doom anyone to hell. In fact, the theology of hell has fallen on hard times. There are many in churches, even in Christian circles, who would deny hell's existence altogether.
• 13:53
  They've created a new idea called annihilationism. Rather than God punishing the wicked, punishing those who are outside of His grace by putting them in hell, He would just annihilate them altogether. He's a God who loves people too much to put them in hell. His love, according to the world, would forbid Him from doing so. According to the world, and even in some Christian circles, His love overpowers His justice.
• 14:23
  Let me speak to you for a moment who have toddlers in your home or maybe at some point in your lives you've raised toddlers. Remember those cute little two-year-olds, right? Just getting out of diapers, just discovering their knees. I always love how two-year-olds walk because they're like, they don't have knees yet. It's always kind of this like fumbling around, right? And they begin to discover their knees over the course of time. If you're in that stage of life, let me ask you for a moment, if you only hugged and never spanked,
• 14:52
  And spanking here is a euphemism for any punitive action, okay? Anything. What kind of person would you be raising? What if you only rewarded? What if you only praised? What if there was never any punitive action at all? What would that little toddler eventually become? A monster. A monster, right? Yes, a monster, right? That's probably a pretty good word for it.
• 15:21
  Completely self-seeking. Completely self-serving. You know what's funny about humans? If we are told that the universe revolves around us, guess what we are prone to believe? That the universe revolves around us. We are only too eager to receive that truth. Isn't that true?
• 15:42
  Like, man, we would love it if the universe absolutely revolved around us. If our children thought that no matter what, they would never be punished, only praised. Only praised. Those kinds of adults would be monsters. They'd be wildly out of control.
• 16:03
  they'd probably be shocked at some point when the consequences of their actions one day didn't align with their former experience. You mean, I can't have whatever I want whenever I want it? What are you talking about? They would become more and more worldly, more and more fleshly, the more and more godless, the more and more sinful. Isn't that true? If we were never checked, would we ever stop? No, why would we? And that's exactly what the Bible describes. That's exactly what Romans...
• 16:34
  describes the remainder of chapter one describes this ever descending cycle into human depravity right next sunday is a big sunday in romans all right it's the one we've been talking about for months it's the one we need prayer for it's the one because it begins to call out certain sins and it says these things are not okay they are not okay and yet it's the very sins that our culture left unchecked has begun chasing after isn't that true
• 17:04
  If you've not read Romans 1, you can skip ahead and you can read the remainder. We'll be looking at that next Sunday. It's a big one. Because of that sin, the wrath of God is being revealed. The author elaborates in detail about the wrath of God before offering a way of escape from it.
• 17:26
  Before we ever get to forgiveness in chapters 4 and 5, he talks about that we are condemned. He knows that a person cannot fully appreciate the salvation of God without understanding what it is they've been saved from. And let me say that again, church. Make sure you hear this. A person, we, cannot fully appreciate the salvation that we enjoy without knowing what it is we've been saved from. Isn't that true? One theologian has said it this way. He says, I wish that I could dangle every Christian over hell for 30 seconds.
• 17:58
  Can you imagine? Because we enjoy a beautiful truth, and that is that in Christ, through faith and by God's grace, we have been saved from wrath. We've been saved, which means that if you are in Christ, this right now is as close to hell as you will ever be. Hell for you in Christ will only ever be a theory. You'll never see it. You'll never go. And because of that, it's easy for us sometimes who are in Christ to forget
• 18:29
  How awful hell is. And so this guy, C.T. Studd, which is a great name anyway, but C.T. Studd said, I wish that I could just dangle every Christian over hell just for 30 seconds. The smell of it, the heat of it, the torment of it, the suffering of it, so that we will know what it is we've been saved from. How glorious that would be. Another pastor has said it this way, and I like this wording. He says, a person cannot appreciate the wonder of God's grace until he knows about the perfect demands of God's law.
• 18:57
  He cannot appreciate the fullness of God's love for him until he knows something about the fierceness of God's anger against his sinful failure to perfectly obey that law. You can't know God's love until you understand God's justice is what he's saying. He cannot appreciate God's forgiveness until he knows about the eternal consequences of the sins that require a penalty and need forgiving.
• 19:23
  You can't fully know, and listen, young people, this is again why the older folks in the room would say, follow the Lord from your youth, because I've run down many of those roads, and I'm telling you, the world, your flesh will tell you they are satisfactory, that they are good, that they are pleasing, but they are not. They're worthless. They are, like Solomon said, they are vanity. They are chasing after the wind. Until you know what you've been saved from, it's difficult to understand and appreciate what you've been saved from.
• 19:52
  And so the Holy Spirit, in verse 18, inspired this word. It's the word wrath. Wrath. In the Greek, it's the word orge. Orge. It's a settled, determined indignation. Orge is a severe but calculated anger invoking a proportionate and punitive response. Let me say that again. This wrath, orge, is a severe but calculated anger. Hear that word calculated.
• 20:21
  calculated anger invoking a proportionate and punitive response. It's not emotional, right? It's not just a blind fury. It is calculated and it is proportionate. Now that word orge is contrasted with that spontaneous visceral anger to which humans are often prone. There's a whole different Greek word for that. The word thumos. Thumos is explosive.
• 20:50
  It's volatile. It's emotional. It's like a volcanic eruption after storing up annoyance and anger, which eventually will blow all over the place all at once and with unpredictable force. Do you guys hear the difference? Thumos, that explosive volcanic anger, would be like a fuming dad cooped up in a car on a road trip.
• 21:19
  With kids in the back seat who are out of control. You guys all have an idea in your mind? Maybe some of you men are like, yeah, that's me. I've been there. Where you're like, man, you guys, please. We've got hours more of this. Can you just sit? Can you stop poking each other? Can you stop getting angry at each other? Can you stop yelling at each other? Just stop, right? And you begin to build that anger, just begins to build. And eventually...
• 21:48
  You just say, don't make me pull this car over, right? I'll do it. I can remember when I was young, my dad, who I love. I mean, he was one of my best friends, honestly. He was the best man at my wedding, my dad. When we were young, my sister and I, who do you know? And who was sitting right over here?
• 22:04
  We drove each other crazy when we were young. I mean, honestly, we were at each other's throats all the time, always messing with each other, always angry at each other. We just did not get along. And we had this relatively small sedan. And so the four of us would take these long road trips at times together, nine, 10, 12 hours in the car. I can remember my dad at points just getting so frustrated with my sister and I that he would keep his left hand on the wheel. His eyes would be pointed forward because he's still driving, but with his right hand.
• 22:31
  He just started swinging like this, right, just hoping he would hit something. Like, that's it, you know, and he's just swinging back here. You know, and my sister and I are both tucking up our knees. Like, he can't reach us, you know, if we stay small. He can't reach us, and we're tucked up like this, and we're kind of giggling and kind of laughing, but also kind of terrified. And, man, what if he hits us, you know? And one particular road trip, we packed this little mini ice chest, you know, the ones that you click the top and the thing slides down. We packed it up full of drinks, and that thing sat on the seat in between us.
• 23:01
  My dad had forgotten it was there. And so my sister and I are doing whatever and jabbing each other and all of that. And my dad, just same thing, just reaches around and just starts swinging. But he whacked that ice chest. I mean, he hit it hard. Bam! Right there. Which in my thinking was like, it's the Lord's justice. Maybe the Lord's teaching you a lesson, Dad. I didn't say that. A 13-year-old version of Danny would have gotten punished pretty severely for that. But I did. And my dad whacks that ice chest.
• 23:31
  his hand is hurting and you guys it did not improve things for us for us right that is that is thumos explosive volatile visceral uncontrolled anger unpredictable anger like that commuter who is already late to work and now is hitting every single red light like not another one
• 23:57
  Not another one, not another one, right? It's just building. What we see in verse 18, it's a really strategic word that he uses. Our God is not a road raging commuter. Our God is not a dad on a road trip. Our God's attributes are in perfect balance. They exist. Even his wrath and his love exist in perfect divine.
• 24:26
  perfection he is perfectly wrathful just as he is perfectly loving in the same way that if he had no grace and mercy he wouldn't be god so also if he had no wrath or justice he wouldn't be god and perhaps one of the greatest tragedies in the modern american pulpit is an under emphasis in preaching on the wrath of god you may say well why is that such a tragedy why is that
• 24:56
  under emphasis in preaching on the wrath of God, such a tragedy, and because his divine wrath is an appropriate response to mankind's sin. They are, listen to this, the wrath of God and the sin of mankind are directly proportional. You guys remember high school math, right? Like algebra one or whatever that was, where you got the equal sign, right? And you got two things on each side, the wrath of God.
• 25:26
  and the sin of mankind are directly proportional, which means if one goes up, guess what happens to the other one? It also goes up. If one goes down, guess what happens to the other one? The other one goes down. So let me ask you, what happens if we diminish preaching on the wrath of God? What happens if we begin to diminish the wrath of God? Guess what happens in the understanding of humans? The devastating effects of sin are also going down. You see that?
• 25:55
  If you say God is not a God of wrath, God is not a God of justice, God is not a God of punishment, right? If you erase all of that, the justice of God, the wrath of God, then what is also erased in the minds of mankind is the devastating effect of the fall. Well, sin isn't that big a deal then. Because if it was that big a deal, what would God do? He would punish it. But if God doesn't punish it, it must not be that big a deal. You can imagine going to the doctor.
• 26:25
  Having the doctor prescribe to you a whole host of procedures, surgeries, medicines, never having told you what was wrong with you. Like, am I sick? Why did you just prescribe to me an amputation? Right? Oh, we have no idea if you're sick. We never actually ran any tests. We just think it'd be a good idea. You're like, well, I'm not sure I trust that doctor. Imagine on the other side, you go to the doctor.
• 26:57
  They run all the tests. They find out that you've got some terminal illness, but they're afraid to tell you. They don't like awkward conversations. I just don't like it when people are mad at me and disappointed. And so I'm just going to tell them that everything's fine, right? And you go home thinking that everything is fine. Well, no, it turns out you've got a terminal illness. Neither of those doctors is any good. You say, I want a second opinion, right? Tell me the truth.
• 27:24
  And don't just start slinging medicine at me as if there's something wrong when there might not be anything wrong. How can you begin prescribing the cure when you don't know yet the disease? Do you see the problem? Scripture is very clear about the disease. What is the disease? Sin. What is the cure? Oh yes, Jesus is the cure, but that's not the cure yet. You guys skipped to chapter four. We're still in chapter one. Wrath. Wrath is the cure. So let me ask you, if there was no Jesus,
• 27:56
  If there was no salvation from sin, if there was only chapters 1 through 3, only condemnation, only wrath, only punishment for sin, and no redemption, would God be a just God? Yes. Yes, he would. If all he did was punish sin and never forgave it, he'd still be just. We're getting what we deserve. But praise God for chapters 4 and 5.
• 28:23
  amen that's a good place for a name praise god he did send jesus so that we could be redeemed the gospel begins with a right understanding of the disease it's sin it ends with a right understanding of the cure the wrath of god being revealed you pick up in verse 19 for what can be known about god is plain to them because god has shown it to them his invisible attributes namely his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly
• 28:48
  These truths, the sin of man and the wrath of God, are easily seen and they are understandable. They are understandable. God is not hiding these truths. In fact, in the very created order, through the creation, he says, you can see that these things are true. Verse 18 used that word revealed. Revealed, it's the Greek word apocalypse. That's interesting.
• 29:14
  Right? The apocalypse. The apocalypse does not mean the end of all things. It means the revealing of something. That's what the word actually means. It's an uncovering. It's a bringing to light, making something known. And verse 20 says, what things about this God are being revealed? You guys look in your own Bibles, figure it out. What are being revealed? Verse 20, invisible attributes. Do you see that? Eternal power and what?
• 29:44
  divine nature. Those things have been clearly perceived through the created order. Now I'm going to do something that I've never done before. I'm preaching verses 18 to 23 this Sunday, this morning. This coming Wednesday for Thrive, I'm going to preach these verses again. We're going to look at the created order and we're going to test these verses to see if that's actually true. Can you prove the existence of God apart from the revelation of God's word?
• 30:14
  If I didn't have this, what this is saying, isn't that what this is saying? Just using the created order, you can see that God exists. He is divine. He is powerful. He is intelligent. Can you look at just the creation? If that's all I had and I never owned a Bible, can I come to the conclusion that God must exist and that he expects something from me? The answer, in my opinion, is a resounding yes.
• 30:39
  And so I would encourage you to come back this coming Wednesday. We're going to look at that. Does the created order demand the existence of God? Can the existence of God be proven just by using the laws of physics? I believe the answer is yes. We see in the text as the sin of man worsens, the plight of the world decays. This process of God revealing his wrath begins to happen all around us before our very eyes and is easily...
• 31:08
  And so he ends verse 20 by saying, so you're without excuse. It's obvious. And so you're without excuse. If you wanted an easy way to remember it, it would be this. You knew it. You didn't do it. So you really blew it. You knew it and you didn't do it. So you really blew it. We ask that question for our title this morning, Why the Wrath of God? And in those last three verses, and we cover these quickly this morning, for those last three verses, he gives three reasons.
• 31:38
  That the wrath of God is being poured out. You notice first in verse 21, the wrath of God is being poured out because of mankind's willful rejection of him. Verse 21, for although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him. Mankind through his creation did not honor him as God. There was no worship. There was no devotion offered. There were no sacrifices given.
• 32:06
  which would have been his due. And at the very least, and in fact, that is the literal Greek wording there, at the very least, you should have just said thanks. I mean, even children offer thanks if they're given something. You're like, what do you say? Thank you. Even kids do that, but he said not mankind. Even that most elementary gift was not offered to God. He was willfully rejected. Second, why the wrath of God? And the answer is because of mankind's warped,
• 32:36
  Rationalization. His warped rationalization. You pick up in verse 21. Our foolish hearts became darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools. Claiming to be wise, our thinking actually changed. Those who reject God, we find, literally change the way that they think in order for their thoughts to match their worldview.
• 33:07
  They will literally change the truth in order to match their worldview. And let me ask you, church, are there people who will change the truth? Is that not happening all around us? Have you heard that phrase that has become coined? It's so frequently used now. I've got to speak my truth, speak your truth, not speak the truth. The truth matters not. Speak your truth.
• 33:39
  It was in 2018 in her acceptance speech at the Golden Globes where Oprah Winfrey, I believe, began, kind of sparked the usage of that term where she said in her acceptance speech 2018, we're talking four years ago, to tell your truth rather than to tell the truth. It kind of began a coined phrase, a frequently used phrase, and has even begun a my truth movement. There's a movement.
• 34:06
  Across the U.S. of my truth. Now that next year, three years ago, 2019, the Gospel Coalition published an article discussing the danger of that phrase. They talked about in their article, 2019, that words create worlds. I thought that was a good way to say it. Words create worlds. Their idea was that false statements used frequently enough create new perceived truths.
• 34:34
  If you say something that's false enough times, you will eventually begin to believe that it's true, even if it's not true. And this is exactly where we are today. Speaking my truth, your truth, our truth, rather than focusing on the truth. And that's exactly what verse 22 is talking about. Claiming to be wise, we became fools. Having neglected to set before God what was his due. Having refused to even recognize him as a supreme authority.
• 35:04
  Because they refused to see the light, mankind was doomed to work and to walk and to think in darkness. Notice finally why the wrath of God, verse 23. Why the wrath of God? Because of mankind's worthless religion. In that doomed, futile, vacuous, empty, void thinking, in that vacuous thinking, we create...
• 35:31
  a new religion and look what it says in verse 23 they exchanged the glory of the immortal god for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things all of this new religion was conjured in the minds of mortal men in order to satiate our desire for worship
• 35:53
  apart from our creator. And this is where you get new religions, pantheism and polytheism, agnosticism and atheism and all of the other isms which should have been isn'ts. It creates this kind of permanent collective hallucination, this collective delirium. Church, the diagnosis has been given. Humanity is desperately sick. There is a spiritual cancer that resides in the hearts of every one of us. That cancer is sin.
• 36:26
  The cure, according to verse 18, is the perfectly just and righteous wrath of God. If there were no salvation, forgiveness, or redemption, the justice of God would be perfectly satisfied with the eternal condemnation of sinners. But praise God. Glory be to God that he made a way for us not to receive his wrath, but for his wrath instead to go on to his perfect sacrifice, his own son, Jesus Christ. Amen? Amen. Lord, thank you.
• 36:55
  That because of that truth, we can walk in newness of life. We have hope of eternity. God, you really are glorious. And we thank you for the enlightened, enlightened truth of your existence. We look forward to studying it again on Wednesday. God, we pray that you would receive the honor and glory and praise for all in Jesus' name. Amen.