Latest / INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living / The Bad News about the Whole World │ Msg 4- 44
Transcript
- 0:01Speaker 1: If you have brought a Bible with you today, I
- 0:03Speaker 1: invite you to open it to the first chapter of
- 0:08Speaker 1: the Letter to the Romans. Begin our reading at verse eighteen.
- 0:17Speaker 1: The subject changes, as you who were here last time
- 0:20Speaker 1: will remember from the righteousness of God verse seventeen, where
- 0:25Speaker 1: we read it is revealed to the wrath of God
- 0:29Speaker 1: verse eighteen. Let me read through verse twenty five. That's
- 0:33Speaker 1: as far as we'll be able to get today, as
- 0:36Speaker 1: we hear the bad news about the whole world Romans
- 0:40Speaker 1: one eighteen. For the wrath of God is revealed from
- 0:43Speaker 1: Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress
- 0:48Speaker 1: the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about
- 0:53Speaker 1: God is evident within them. For God made it evident
- 0:57Speaker 1: to them. For since the creation of the world, his
- 1:01Speaker 1: invisible attributes, his eternal power and divine nature have been
- 1:08Speaker 1: clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so
- 1:13Speaker 1: that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God,
- 1:20Speaker 1: they did not honor Him as God or give thanks.
- 1:24Speaker 1: But they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish
- 1:29Speaker 1: heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools
- 1:36Speaker 1: and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an
- 1:40Speaker 1: image in the form of corruptible man, and of birds
- 1:45Speaker 1: and four footed animals and crawling creatures. Therefore God gave
- 1:54Speaker 1: them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity,
- 2:00Speaker 1: so that their bodies would be dishonored among them, for
- 2:05Speaker 1: they exchange the truth of God for a lie, and
- 2:09Speaker 1: worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who
- 2:16Speaker 1: is blessed forever. And everyone said, Amen, in a moment,
- 2:26Speaker 1: I'll pray, and then we will give our offerings to
- 2:30Speaker 1: our Lord, And in doing so we will listen and
- 2:38Speaker 1: let the wonder in. As we're reminded of the cross
- 2:44Speaker 1: on which the Prince of Glory died. I'll ask you,
- 2:48Speaker 1: at the conclusion of that great peace, that you not
- 2:52Speaker 1: applaud to sit in silence and let the under in.
- 3:02Speaker 1: My mother used to say, when our family would be
- 3:05Speaker 1: quiet for a rare moment, she would say, stay quiet, children,
- 3:09Speaker 1: an angel is passing through. Who knows as we are
- 3:15Speaker 1: being observed by the angelic world, there may be a
- 3:18Speaker 1: few who pass through our midst. We acknowledge you as
- 3:29Speaker 1: the only God, our Creator, our heavenly Father, the giver
- 3:35Speaker 1: of every good and perfect gift, with whom there is
- 3:40Speaker 1: no shadow caused by our turning. Forgive us our Father,
- 3:45Speaker 1: for being caught up in the gifts and overlooking the giver,
- 3:54Speaker 1: for being enamored of our plans and our significance, and
- 3:58Speaker 1: forgetting that it is not a us. Life is all
- 4:02Speaker 1: about you. Thank you for the good news, for the
- 4:09Speaker 1: hope there is in Christ, the reminder that he has
- 4:15Speaker 1: on that cross paid the complete payment for our sins,
- 4:20Speaker 1: and has been raised and lives forevermore. With that hope
- 4:28Speaker 1: that he will bring us unto himself, and we will
- 4:31Speaker 1: live with him forever. Holy is your name, And because
- 4:39Speaker 1: your name is holy, we also need the reminder of
- 4:42Speaker 1: the wrath of God. And as this hard news strikes
- 4:47Speaker 1: us directly today, may we acknowledge it and embrace it,
- 4:52Speaker 1: just as we will again the love of God. Thank
- 4:58Speaker 1: you for those who serve you all around this world,
- 5:03Speaker 1: those in hard places, those in remote places, those in
- 5:10Speaker 1: dangerous places, those in big places where all the world watches,
- 5:18Speaker 1: those who give counsel to those who lead a nation
- 5:25Speaker 1: like ours. Give great wisdom and grace and understanding, and
- 5:31Speaker 1: truthfulness and discernment to these who fill high places. Thank
- 5:40Speaker 1: You for those whom the world will never meet, who
- 5:43Speaker 1: do great work. These who have served faithfully in Mexico
- 5:49Speaker 1: and now return. May their work be blessed with your
- 5:54Speaker 1: marvelous grace in fruit that remains, and bring them back
- 5:59Speaker 1: safely today. Now, our Father, having abundantly and continuously given
- 6:07Speaker 1: to us, we are the recipients of these gifts, and
- 6:10Speaker 1: now it is only right that we return to you
- 6:13Speaker 1: what is yours. You own it all. Today we desire
- 6:20Speaker 1: to express as a part of our worship our gratitude
- 6:25Speaker 1: in our gifts. And may these moments of reflection take
- 6:31Speaker 1: us back to that place of the skull where our
- 6:36Speaker 1: savior breathe is last, as he paid that supreme payment
- 6:42Speaker 1: for our sins at the cross. We ask in his name,
- 6:49Speaker 1: and we give for his glory, and every one said amen.
- 6:58Speaker 1: The depravity of humanity is never a pretty sight. More
- 7:05Speaker 1: often than not, it is ugly, dark, marked by scandal,
- 7:13Speaker 1: and sometime it is even shocking. We've experienced all the
- 7:19Speaker 1: above and more in the last number of years, even
- 7:24Speaker 1: in the last number of weeks. Sit and listen to
- 7:30Speaker 1: depravity on parade. It is a litany of horror. Several
- 7:38Speaker 1: more shootings and deaths on one school campus after another,
- 7:43Speaker 1: children of all ages, shameful secret activities of a congressman
- 7:49Speaker 1: and his illicit sexual activities in writing and otherwise by
- 7:56Speaker 1: email and instant messages with boys serving as house pages
- 8:01Speaker 1: in Washington. He resigned in shame that brought to the
- 8:07Speaker 1: surface one story after another, down through history of scandals
- 8:12Speaker 1: that have marked our nation's capital, and even leaders who
- 8:16Speaker 1: occupied once noble positions, including a sitting president engaging in
- 8:23Speaker 1: an illicit relationship right in the oval office, later being
- 8:29Speaker 1: in preach impeached for lying under oath. And on the
- 8:36Speaker 1: very next page of the periodical, I was looking at
- 8:39Speaker 1: in bold print, tragedy in Amish Country, where I read
- 8:46Speaker 1: of a thirty two year old milk truck driver who
- 8:49Speaker 1: wrote earlier of his bitter anger toward God, and he
- 8:56Speaker 1: invaded a classroom of innocent children down the girls began
- 9:03Speaker 1: to sexually assault them, and thanks to the arrival of
- 9:08Speaker 1: the police and his own gunfire, after killing several of
- 9:14Speaker 1: the children, he shot himself. Several pages later, the horror
- 9:20Speaker 1: story of Iraq's sectarian butchers posting their execution lists on
- 9:28Speaker 1: the Internet for all to read, and then systematically hunting
- 9:33Speaker 1: them down and blowing them away in broad daylight if necessary.
- 9:40Speaker 1: Another chilling roadside slaughter tells the story of a family
- 9:46Speaker 1: of four children, ages only three and four, as the
- 9:51Speaker 1: mother hovers over them, all of them shot multiple times
- 9:55Speaker 1: by an assault weapon and left their dead side of
- 10:00Speaker 1: Florida Turnpike. A few pages later, a spreading global danger
- 10:09Speaker 1: as you read of a strange, half crazed dictator of
- 10:12Speaker 1: North Korea dangling a nuclear nightmare before the world. And
- 10:22Speaker 1: I've not taken your time, nor will I to listen
- 10:24Speaker 1: to one account after another of kidnappings, murders, fights among
- 10:32Speaker 1: athletes and with fans in the stands, domestic violence and abortions,
- 10:38Speaker 1: and raids and financial ripoffs by corporate and public and
- 10:44Speaker 1: private sector alike, all the way down to fistfights and
- 10:49Speaker 1: road rage. We're so used to it it no longer
- 10:53Speaker 1: even makes us blush. Depravity is alive and well on
- 11:00Speaker 1: planet Earth. Amazingly, there are some who really do believe
- 11:05Speaker 1: the world is getting better and better. I just don't
- 11:09Speaker 1: know what world they're living in. I think depravity is
- 11:15Speaker 1: best summed up in a single verse over in Genesis
- 11:18Speaker 1: chapter six. It's worth a turn. Verse five where as
- 11:25Speaker 1: early on in the history of mankind as Noah, God
- 11:31Speaker 1: includes this one verse analysis of his observation of depravity
- 11:38Speaker 1: Genesis six'. Five The lord saw that the wickedness of
- 11:43Speaker 1: man was great on the, earth and that every intent
- 11:48Speaker 1: of the thoughts of his heart was only evil. Continually Eugene,
- 11:59Speaker 1: peterson in his is work Entitled The message renders the,
- 12:04Speaker 1: Verse god saw that human evil was out of. Control
- 12:08Speaker 1: people thought, evil imagined, evil, evil, evil. Evil from morning, tonight,
- 12:16Speaker 1: that my, friends is. Depravity depravity doesn't mean that we
- 12:21Speaker 1: are as bad as we could, be because we can
- 12:23Speaker 1: always get. Worse it means we are as bad off
- 12:27Speaker 1: as we can be given our own. Way without the
- 12:31Speaker 1: aid of a savior and the presence Of god in one's,
- 12:36Speaker 1: life we become the predator and sometimes the. Victim not
- 12:47Speaker 1: until we fully acknowledge the bad news will we have
- 12:52Speaker 1: a sufficient appreciation for the good. News we've looked at
- 12:57Speaker 1: good news In romans chapter one versus one through. Seventeen
- 13:02Speaker 1: NOW i ask you to turn and listen closely to
- 13:06Speaker 1: the beginning of this. Account on the bad. NEWS i
- 13:11Speaker 1: will tell you without, hesitation there are some pulpits in
- 13:14Speaker 1: our land that would not allow sermons like this to be.
- 13:17Speaker 1: Preached this is one of those churches that wouldn't allow
- 13:22Speaker 1: this kind of sermon not to be. Preached this is.
- 13:26Speaker 1: Truth you will not hear this kind of information most other,
- 13:32Speaker 1: places certainly not in. Public but the same apostle who
- 13:38Speaker 1: writes of the Good news of The gospel verse, seventeen chapter,
- 13:43Speaker 1: one which contains the righteousness Of, god then turns the
- 13:49Speaker 1: page or turns the coin, over making it an authentic
- 13:53Speaker 1: coin by showing you the other side verse. Eighteen the
- 13:57Speaker 1: wrath Of god is now. Reveal now the fact of
- 14:03Speaker 1: the wrath Of god is set forth in that eighteenth,
- 14:06Speaker 1: verse the wrath is revealed From heaven against all ungodliness and.
- 14:15Speaker 1: Unrighteousness let's pause there and analyze the word, wrath because
- 14:22Speaker 1: flashing into the mind of the casual reader would be
- 14:25Speaker 1: the idea of a, capricious, uncontrolled volatile, deity sort of
- 14:32Speaker 1: Appeeved god who is out to get humanity and has
- 14:37Speaker 1: an outburst of impulsive and passionate rage that. Happens it's
- 14:44Speaker 1: not that at. All that's not the wrath set forth.
- 14:47Speaker 1: Here that would be The greek word, thumosus from which
- 14:52Speaker 1: we get our word thermos or, thermometer speaking of a
- 14:57Speaker 1: red hot flying off the handle re which characterizes many
- 15:02Speaker 1: who lose their. Temper this is not a losing Temper
- 15:04Speaker 1: god being set forth. Here this is orgay r ge
- 15:11Speaker 1: that represents listen now a, settled firm controlled just. Wrath
- 15:21Speaker 1: it's an appropriate it's IF i may use. It it
- 15:23Speaker 1: is a perfect wrath that completes the picture of our Heavenly, father,
- 15:32Speaker 1: who as well as goodness and love and grace and,
- 15:37Speaker 1: kindness also is marked by wrath and justice and. Righteousness,
- 15:49Speaker 1: wrath as used, here refers To god's holy aversion to
- 15:55Speaker 1: all that is. Evil let me read In isaiah six
- 15:59Speaker 1: That god is, holy holy. Holy it means infinitely. Holy
- 16:05Speaker 1: he has a constant aversion to all that is evil
- 16:11Speaker 1: that is continually being revealed present tense verse eighteen From.
- 16:17Speaker 1: Heaven So god reveals his wrath as it comes out
- 16:24Speaker 1: in the consequences that follow sinful. Acts and what does
- 16:29Speaker 1: mankind do well the result of this we read in
- 16:34Speaker 1: the end of verse eighteen and on into. Nineteen men
- 16:39Speaker 1: and women suppress the truth in, unrighteousness because that which
- 16:45Speaker 1: is known About god is evident within, them For god
- 16:49Speaker 1: made it evident to them. Again. PAUSE i told you
- 16:56Speaker 1: when we Began, romans you'll have to. Think it isn't
- 16:59Speaker 1: an entering. Subject it isn't bedside. Reading it will require
- 17:04Speaker 1: you to think outside the box and beyond your own
- 17:08Speaker 1: school of education that you have been. To it'll force
- 17:12Speaker 1: you to think From heaven's. Viewpoint here's an. Example god
- 17:18Speaker 1: reveals that humanity Without christ suppresses the, truth the truth
- 17:24Speaker 1: he has faithfully. Revealed the word suppress means to hold,
- 17:29Speaker 1: down to, stifle to restrain. Something so there is a
- 17:35Speaker 1: deliberate restraining of. Truth mankind holds down the evident knowledge
- 17:43Speaker 1: of the, majestic transcending power Of, god our, Creator, god our, Sustainer,
- 17:50Speaker 1: god all, knowing all. Powerful all of this has entered
- 17:56Speaker 1: into the minds and consciousness of, humanity and we have,
- 18:00Speaker 1: deliberately on our own suppressed. It we're taught, otherwise we're
- 18:06Speaker 1: convinced otherwise by other, theories so we deliberately work at
- 18:12Speaker 1: pushing away the. TRUTH i Love calvin's Comment here man
- 18:17Speaker 1: was created to be a spectator of this formed. World
- 18:23Speaker 1: eyes were given him that he, might by looking up
- 18:27Speaker 1: on so beautiful a, picture be led to the author.
- 18:31Speaker 1: HIMSELF i read somewhere That, napoleon the Great french military,
- 18:40Speaker 1: leader was aboard ship on The. Mediterranean walking on the
- 18:43Speaker 1: deck late one starry, night a small group of men
- 18:47Speaker 1: were mocking the idea of a supreme. Being napoleon stopped
- 18:53Speaker 1: and put his hand on the shoulder of one of the,
- 18:56Speaker 1: officers and he, said as he swell his hands toward the,
- 19:01Speaker 1: sky you must get rid of those. First there was
- 19:09Speaker 1: a vast presence of the starry spaces above us and about.
- 19:15Speaker 1: Us there is the perfect precision like movement of the planetary,
- 19:21Speaker 1: orbits the stars in their, places the multiple millions of
- 19:25Speaker 1: galaxies beyond, ours all of it in perfect. Order and
- 19:32Speaker 1: we're taught to. You it really didn't have a. Designer
- 19:35Speaker 1: it just. HAPPENED i thought of a simple illustration to
- 19:39Speaker 1: describe the absurdity of. That IF i took ten pennies
- 19:43Speaker 1: in my hand and marked each one of them in,
- 19:45Speaker 1: order number, one and then, two and then, three and then,
- 19:49Speaker 1: four all the way to, ten put those ten pennies
- 19:51Speaker 1: in my, pocket shook the, pocket took my hand, out
- 19:55Speaker 1: and reached in to pull out penny number, ONE i
- 19:58Speaker 1: would have a chance one in of doing. That IF
- 20:03Speaker 1: i put the first penny back and shook my pocket,
- 20:05Speaker 1: again and reached in and pulled out this next, time
- 20:08Speaker 1: penny number. TWO i would have one chance and one
- 20:12Speaker 1: hundred of getting that. Right stay with the. Math IF
- 20:17Speaker 1: i reach back in to get number three penny after
- 20:20Speaker 1: putting number two, back having shaken my, pocket my chances
- 20:25Speaker 1: of pulling out number three now jumps to one in a.
- 20:28Speaker 1: Thousand IF i do it all the way to, ten
- 20:32Speaker 1: my chance of doing that is one in ten, Billion
- 20:36Speaker 1: and that's just ten pennies in my. Pocket what do
- 20:41Speaker 1: you do with the ordered universe about? You what do
- 20:44Speaker 1: you do when you look, up when you ignore what
- 20:48Speaker 1: you had been told by those who disbelieve and have
- 20:52Speaker 1: already chosen to suppress the. Truth what do you do
- 20:55Speaker 1: when you see and hear the message of the stellar
- 20:58Speaker 1: spaces and the world of, us not only from the,
- 21:02Speaker 1: telescope but from the. Microscope you must suppress the. Truth
- 21:10Speaker 1: you must deliberately train yourself to say there is no
- 21:15Speaker 1: designer behind this. Design paul doesn't get there quite. Yet
- 21:21Speaker 1: he takes us through the process verse. Nineteen because that
- 21:26Speaker 1: which is, evident that which is known About god is
- 21:30Speaker 1: evident within. Them there's something within us as a, child
- 21:34Speaker 1: as we grow up knowing that there is a being
- 21:37Speaker 1: greater than, us a supreme. Being not bad. Words, really
- 21:41Speaker 1: the secular world uses those. WORDS i don't think they
- 21:43Speaker 1: realize what they're. Saying the Supreme, being the one, being
- 21:48Speaker 1: supreme above all. Others there is within us that conscious,
- 21:54Speaker 1: awareness and it has been made evident to, us for
- 21:58Speaker 1: since the creation of the, world his invisible, attributes his eternal,
- 22:02Speaker 1: power and divine nature have been clearly, seen being understood
- 22:08Speaker 1: through what has been, made so that they are without.
- 22:11Speaker 1: Excuse hold your place and look At psalm. Nineteen, david
- 22:20Speaker 1: who spent many of his younger years out under the.
- 22:23Speaker 1: Stars when he was finally made, king he began to
- 22:27Speaker 1: reflect back on what he had. Seen and he who
- 22:31Speaker 1: did not suppress the, truth wrote these words In psalm.
- 22:34Speaker 1: Nineteen and please notice the frequent reference to the message
- 22:38Speaker 1: of the, stars the spaces natural. Revelation the heavens are
- 22:44Speaker 1: telling of the glory Of, god telling their expanse is
- 22:49Speaker 1: declaring the works of his, hand declaring day to, day
- 22:54Speaker 1: pours forth, speech speech night to night revealed there knowledge.
- 23:01Speaker 1: Knowledge there is no, speech nor are their. Words their
- 23:06Speaker 1: voice is not, heard their line has gone out through
- 23:09Speaker 1: all The earth and their, utterances utterances to the end
- 23:15Speaker 1: of the. World in, them he has placed a tent
- 23:19Speaker 1: for the, sun beautiful poetic words describing the message of
- 23:24Speaker 1: the spaces about. Us As Kent hughes says in one
- 23:28Speaker 1: of his, works it takes a concerted act of the
- 23:30Speaker 1: will to deny that a vastly Powerful god made and
- 23:35Speaker 1: sustains the. Creation he or she is suppressing the truth
- 23:39Speaker 1: to do so came across an interesting account that helps
- 23:48Speaker 1: supply the illustrative example of. This if it were possible
- 23:54Speaker 1: to travel the speed of, light you could arrive at
- 23:57Speaker 1: The moon in one in a third. Seconds that is
- 24:00Speaker 1: a straight, shot not. Orbiting traveling one hundred and eighty
- 24:04Speaker 1: six thousand miles a, second you'd be on The moon
- 24:06Speaker 1: in one in one third. Second continuing at the same,
- 24:10Speaker 1: speed you know how long it would take you before,
- 24:12Speaker 1: again in a direct, shot you would reach the closest
- 24:15Speaker 1: star four. Years that's the closest. Star it doesn't end.
- 24:24Speaker 1: There New York City's Hayden planetarium has a miniature replica
- 24:29Speaker 1: of our solar, system showing the speeds and sizes of our.
- 24:33Speaker 1: Planets what is interesting is that the three outer planets
- 24:37Speaker 1: are not even. Included there wasn't room For, Uranus, neptune And.
- 24:42Speaker 1: Pluto uranus would be in the planetarium's outer. Corridor neptune
- 24:47Speaker 1: would be around Eighth, avenue And pluto a long ways
- 24:52Speaker 1: away at Fifth. Avenue and by the, way no stars
- 24:56Speaker 1: are included for obvious. Reason you imagine on the same
- 25:01Speaker 1: scale where the nearest star would be Located, Cleveland, ohio
- 25:07Speaker 1: four hundred sixty six miles From New York. City i'm not.
- 25:14Speaker 1: THROUGH a scientist once suggested another interesting analogy to grasp the.
- 25:21Speaker 1: Scene imagine a perfectly smooth glass pavement on which the
- 25:26Speaker 1: finest speck can be. Seen then shrink our sun from
- 25:31Speaker 1: eight hundred sixty five thousand miles diameter to only two,
- 25:35Speaker 1: feet and place the two football in the center of
- 25:40Speaker 1: the pavement to represent The. Sun let's pace off the.
- 25:46Speaker 1: Planets step off eighty two, paces about two feet per
- 25:52Speaker 1: pace to represent proportionally the first, Planet, mercury put down
- 25:57Speaker 1: a tiny mustard, seed take sixty more, steps and For
- 26:02Speaker 1: venus put down an ordinary bb mark off seventy eight more,
- 26:09Speaker 1: steps and put down a green pea Representing. Earth step
- 26:15Speaker 1: off one hundred eight. Pieces from, there and you come To.
- 26:19Speaker 1: Mars put a pin head At, mars sprinkle around some
- 26:24Speaker 1: fine dust for the. Asteroids then take seven hundred eighty
- 26:27Speaker 1: eight steps more and place an orange on the glass
- 26:32Speaker 1: to Represent. Jupiter after nine hundred and thirty four more,
- 26:38Speaker 1: steps put down a golf ball Representing. Saturn now it
- 26:44Speaker 1: really gets. Involved mark two eighty six steps more For
- 26:51Speaker 1: uranus a. Marble another two, thousand three hundred twenty two,
- 26:58Speaker 1: steps and you'll arrive At. Neptune let a cherry Represent.
- 27:02Speaker 1: Neptune this will take two and a half. Miles and
- 27:08Speaker 1: we haven't even Discussed. Pluto they stopped Discussing pluto, recently didn't,
- 27:14Speaker 1: they claiming it was no longer a. Planet, however let's
- 27:19Speaker 1: not Exclude. Pluto how far would we have to go
- 27:23Speaker 1: on the same scale before we could put down another
- 27:26Speaker 1: two football representing the nearest. Star we'll just Bypass pluto
- 27:31Speaker 1: and get to the star closest star six seven hundred
- 27:37Speaker 1: and twenty, miles not paces. Miles that's just the first
- 27:49Speaker 1: star among, millions that's just our galaxy among hundreds of.
- 27:56Speaker 1: Thousands who knows? Millions axes and MAY i add perfectly
- 28:01Speaker 1: synchronized the most accurate time piece known to. Mankind, phenomenal
- 28:07Speaker 1: isn't the word for? It? Now that is mind. Boggling
- 28:17Speaker 1: oh it just happened thanks To Big. Bang we have them,
- 28:24Speaker 1: there perfectly orbiting to where we can set our watches at.
- 28:31Speaker 1: Them no, wonder he says as he comes to the
- 28:37Speaker 1: end of verse. Twenty those who suppress that kind of
- 28:40Speaker 1: truth or without, excuse now it gets really, ugly really.
- 28:46Speaker 1: Dark track, it don't ignore. It don't cut this out
- 28:52Speaker 1: of Your. Bible stay with. This we now will read
- 28:56Speaker 1: of people who are without excuse for even though they Knew.
- 29:05Speaker 1: God by that it means, generally there was an awareness
- 29:09Speaker 1: there has to be some kind of. Designer there must
- 29:12Speaker 1: be some kind of someone with creative powers enough to
- 29:19Speaker 1: do this sort of. Thing even though there was that
- 29:22Speaker 1: conscious inner being that says there is a, creator they
- 29:29Speaker 1: did not honor him As god or give thanks to,
- 29:32Speaker 1: him but they became feutile in their. Speculations, my didn't
- 29:39Speaker 1: we ever think of the theories you have, learned which
- 29:44Speaker 1: you can probably defend better than you could. Creation, unfortunately
- 29:49Speaker 1: because you've been taught. THAT i have a medical friend
- 29:51Speaker 1: who told me all the way through medical school he
- 29:54Speaker 1: learned great, medicine and he also learned how important it
- 29:58Speaker 1: is to embrace. Evolution not one of his prophs believed
- 30:04Speaker 1: in a Creator. God brilliant, people but not. One what
- 30:13Speaker 1: did they? Do what happens, well feudal in speculations in
- 30:18Speaker 1: the foolish heart becomes darkened professing to be, wise they
- 30:27Speaker 1: became fools in our day of fool is a word
- 30:31Speaker 1: we use for the. Mischievous In bible, days a fool
- 30:34Speaker 1: is one who says there is No. God don't lighten the.
- 30:38Speaker 1: Word the meaning represents one who denies the existence Of.
- 30:43Speaker 1: God but there has to be someone we turned. To
- 30:50Speaker 1: the heart craves someone, something to turn to someone when
- 30:56Speaker 1: life bottom drops, Out so we become, very very, creative
- 31:04Speaker 1: and we begin a whole process of. Idolatry twenty one
- 31:09Speaker 1: through twenty five describes how idolatry, emerges twenty six through
- 31:17Speaker 1: twenty seven describes then the growing, immorality and finally twenty
- 31:24Speaker 1: eight to thirty two takes us into the region of gross.
- 31:30Speaker 1: Iniquity it's all, dark it's all. Ugly it becomes scandalous
- 31:36Speaker 1: and on occasion, shocking, unless of, course you've learned not to. Blush,
- 31:43Speaker 1: UNFORTUNATELY i can't remember the last TIME i saw anybody.
- 31:47Speaker 1: Blush paul writes this information that appears in the passage before,
- 31:57Speaker 1: us which we will see this time and, Next AND
- 32:00Speaker 1: i warn you before we get. There it is not politically.
- 32:04Speaker 1: Correct it will not be applauded and embraced by the general.
- 32:09Speaker 1: Public it would not be allowed to be said in
- 32:13Speaker 1: a public school or in most public. Places you, would
- 32:18Speaker 1: if not laughed, off you would be thrown off a.
- 32:22Speaker 1: Stage first of, all there is a willful ignoring Of,
- 32:31Speaker 1: god that's verse twenty. One though they Know, god they
- 32:35Speaker 1: didn't honor him As. God so this is a calculated
- 32:39Speaker 1: effort to ignore the truth of one's, conscience, awareness visual
- 32:47Speaker 1: stimuli as one looks about and, realizes at least as a,
- 32:52Speaker 1: child there's someone bigger THAN, i greater THAN, i who
- 32:54Speaker 1: did all of. This, second there's a clever imitation Of
- 33:00Speaker 1: god verses twenty one and twenty, two where the judgment
- 33:06Speaker 1: is darkened in the intellect and reasoning power are also.
- 33:09Speaker 1: Suffering so there is an imitation Of. God and then
- 33:13Speaker 1: there is a final replacing Of god twenty three to twenty,
- 33:17Speaker 1: five sort of a downward. Spiral darkened hearts become, fools
- 33:21Speaker 1: denial of The One True, god Removing god and replacing
- 33:25Speaker 1: him finally completely exchanging. Truth for halle. S Lewis johnson,
- 33:32Speaker 1: writes the fruit of depravity is, idolatry and that is
- 33:38Speaker 1: the dismal and miserable end to which the unbelief and
- 33:41Speaker 1: ungodliness of man. Comes the creature is worshiped instead of The,
- 33:45Speaker 1: creator the corruptible instead of the, incorruptible the temporal instead
- 33:50Speaker 1: of the, eternal the earthly fleshly animal instead of the
- 33:53Speaker 1: heavenly spiritual. Being the case against the ungodliness of man is.
- 33:58Speaker 1: Complete not, surprisingly we read they exchange the glory of
- 34:06Speaker 1: the Incorruptible god verse twenty three for an image in
- 34:11Speaker 1: the form of corruptible. Man and if you travel abroad
- 34:14Speaker 1: you will see it more then you will see it
- 34:16Speaker 1: here in these. States, here our idols are what we
- 34:19Speaker 1: drive and where we, live and the size of our
- 34:24Speaker 1: bank account and those in our family if we're not.
- 34:29Speaker 1: Careful but over there it's. Brash it's, dark and in
- 34:34Speaker 1: places you will see the, images and the, images once
- 34:38Speaker 1: white and, light are now dark from the sweat and
- 34:41Speaker 1: the kisses of those who worship. Them and it's. Hideous
- 34:49Speaker 1: it's heartbreaking to see. It they are in the form
- 34:54Speaker 1: of corruptible man and birds and beasts and, reptiles and
- 35:03Speaker 1: they are worshiped devotedly by those who can never find. Peace,
- 35:16Speaker 1: therefore verse twenty, Four god gave them over in the
- 35:24Speaker 1: loss of their hearts to. Impurity pause. THERE i told
- 35:28Speaker 1: you the message is. DARK i warned you that it
- 35:31Speaker 1: is an ugly. Scene so what does it mean That
- 35:35Speaker 1: god gave them? Over what does a Holy god do
- 35:40Speaker 1: with a conscious thinking individual who deliberately, Says i'm not going,
- 35:47Speaker 1: there but here we're told three times so we'll not miss.
- 35:52Speaker 2: It, parretto can? Parretto can? Parretto? Can god gave him?
- 35:58Speaker 2: Over god gave him? Over god gave him Over verses.
- 36:02Speaker 1: Twenty, four twenty, six twenty, Eight exactly the Same greek.
- 36:09Speaker 1: Term each. Time it's got to mean. Something what does
- 36:15Speaker 1: it Mean god gave them? Over, well there's a lighter
- 36:20Speaker 1: view that says he sort of folded his hands and
- 36:24Speaker 1: permitted wrong to sort of stack up in people to
- 36:28Speaker 1: suffer the. Consequences it's called a passive permission for them
- 36:35Speaker 1: to live with the, consequences sort of like he ceased
- 36:38Speaker 1: to hold the boat as it was dragged by the
- 36:40Speaker 1: current of the. River, oh it's much worse than. That
- 36:45Speaker 1: it's much more. Realistic this piretto can refers To god's judicial,
- 36:52Speaker 1: abandonment a divine judicial abandonment of. Humanity listen to the.
- 37:02Speaker 1: Description he actively and deliberately released humanity to the judgment
- 37:07Speaker 1: of more intensified and aggravated cultivation of the lusts of
- 37:12Speaker 1: their own, hearts with the result that they reap for
- 37:16Speaker 1: themselves a correspondingly greater tolld of just. Vengeance that is.
- 37:24Speaker 1: Parrettical he actively and deliberately released humanity to the judgment
- 37:30Speaker 1: of more intensified and aggravated cultivation of the lusts of
- 37:34Speaker 1: their own, hearts with the result that they reap for
- 37:37Speaker 1: themselves a correspondingly greater toll of just. Vengeance that's WHY
- 37:43Speaker 1: i say it only gets. Worse he gave them, over
- 37:52Speaker 1: he did To, pharaoh And pharaoh's heart was, hardened never
- 37:57Speaker 1: to be. Softened it is a perfect description of the
- 38:02Speaker 1: outworking Of god's perfect. Wrath god isn't some divine bellhop
- 38:10Speaker 1: waiting to meet our every, need to run our errands
- 38:14Speaker 1: and make us feel. Good church is not about. Entertainment
- 38:20Speaker 1: worship is not about. Us truth is not about, me
- 38:29Speaker 1: and that cuts cross grain against Our miism, society where
- 38:35Speaker 1: if it isn't about, me why WOULD i want to even?
- 38:38Speaker 1: Participate when we truly, worship we encounter A god who
- 38:44Speaker 1: is absolutely, just absolutely, holy absolutely, righteous who has every
- 38:49Speaker 1: right deliberately to turn such unbelief over to the just
- 38:56Speaker 1: consequences to take their. Toll but we have now worked,
- 39:01Speaker 1: out through, speculations a way to make the perverted, normal
- 39:09Speaker 1: and the wicked and unnatural. Acceptable lest we make anyone,
- 39:19Speaker 1: Uncomfortable god gave them over to the lusts of their,
- 39:26Speaker 1: hearts to what to, impurity so that their bodies would be.
- 39:32Speaker 1: Dishonored among them they exchange the truth Of god for a,
- 39:39Speaker 1: lie worshiped and served the creature rather than The, creator
- 39:45Speaker 1: who is blessed. FOREVER i believe it a main a.
- 39:51Speaker 1: Main it's, ugly it's, dark it's, scandalous it's, shocking but it's.
- 39:59Speaker 1: True it is the only way you'll be able with
- 40:03Speaker 1: a clear, mind not only to interpret your times in
- 40:07Speaker 1: which you live and explain how such awful things could,
- 40:11Speaker 1: happen as continue and will only get. Worse this will
- 40:15Speaker 1: be the secret of teaching your children teach. Them you teach,
- 40:24Speaker 1: them show them so that when they reach an age
- 40:30Speaker 1: that they're impressed with those who teach, them they'll remember your.
- 40:33Speaker 1: Teaching who can never forget the voice of his parents
- 40:39Speaker 1: are her? Parents humanity is left with one of two.
- 40:44Speaker 1: Responses let's cut to the. Chase we're left with one
- 40:49Speaker 1: of two responses to the Truth we've, heard and you
- 40:52Speaker 1: have listened so. Carefully i'm. Grateful the first response, IS
- 41:00Speaker 1: i dare not ignore the truth of. THIS i dare
- 41:04Speaker 1: not ignore the truth of What i've. Heard that's, me
- 41:09Speaker 1: that is me Without. Christ that is. Me you've described,
- 41:13Speaker 1: me mind, darkened, life full of. SPECULATIONS i prefer lies
- 41:19Speaker 1: to truth and professing to be, wise, educated well, traveled
- 41:25Speaker 1: and well, RESPECTED i, am in fact a. FOOL i
- 41:30Speaker 1: cannot ignore What i've. Heard this is, truth AND i
- 41:34Speaker 1: turned my life over to The Lord Jesus. CHRIST i
- 41:37Speaker 1: Believe god loved, me The god who made not only,
- 41:40Speaker 1: me but those around me and the things above and
- 41:42Speaker 1: below and beyond. ME i believe That god made me
- 41:45Speaker 1: for a, purpose and my purpose will never be fulfilled
- 41:49Speaker 1: UNTIL i place my trust in The Lord Jesus, christ
- 41:52Speaker 1: who at that great cross paid the complete penalty for
- 41:56Speaker 1: my sins and now has been raised and lived in
- 42:01Speaker 1: power and authority over my. LIFE i Trust Jesus. CHRIST
- 42:05Speaker 1: i cannot ignore the truth of. This god's justice calls
- 42:12Speaker 1: me into, account AND i will not suppress it any.
- 42:15Speaker 1: Longer that's one. Response here's a. SECOND i cannot bear hearing.
- 42:22Speaker 1: This IF i had my, way i'd walk out on.
- 42:25Speaker 1: IT i can't cope with such harsh. REALITY i can't
- 42:31Speaker 1: live with. IT i think the accounts of such things
- 42:34Speaker 1: as you named at the beginning of your message check
- 42:36Speaker 1: are just a few accounts when in reality people are basically.
- 42:40Speaker 1: Good they're basically good at, heart and so not being
- 42:48Speaker 1: able to live with, IT i began to churn with,
- 42:50Speaker 1: anxiety AND i search for speculations and. IDOLS i seek
- 42:55Speaker 1: out answers that will allow me to suppress the truth Regarding,
- 42:59Speaker 1: god AND i pressed those situations to the point of of,
- 43:08Speaker 1: brokenness ultimately. SUICIDE i don't know what you were doing
- 43:20Speaker 1: when twenty twenty was on the other, evening But cynthia
- 43:23Speaker 1: AND i watched a segment of. It the segment was
- 43:27Speaker 1: about bridge. JUMPERS a self appointed photographer had set up
- 43:35Speaker 1: his cameras across from The golden Gate bridge Spanning San
- 43:42Speaker 1: francisco To Marine, county and he put his zoom lens
- 43:45Speaker 1: on to capture the sites that were hard to. Watch
- 43:51Speaker 1: it wasn't a snuff. Film he didn't do it to
- 43:56Speaker 1: arouse some kind of base. Curiosity But i'm going to
- 44:02Speaker 1: tell you some of. IT i could not watch as
- 44:06Speaker 1: one person after another threw a leg over the four
- 44:10Speaker 1: foot high railing stood there and. Jumped, men, women teenagers.
- 44:21Speaker 1: Jumped some couldn't, look so they fell. Backwards bridge. Jumpers
- 44:32Speaker 1: how can that be in this world where there is
- 44:37Speaker 1: plenty to bring us a sense of? Hope or is?
- 44:44Speaker 1: There he made the comment in the middle of, it
- 44:48Speaker 1: AND i don't have no idea of the man's spiritual
- 44:50Speaker 1: interest or. Beliefs he just made the comment that just
- 44:55Speaker 1: about everyone they chase. Down and there are some clearly mentally,
- 44:58Speaker 1: ill but not, all not. All they're all anxiety. Ridden it's, searched,
- 45:06Speaker 1: searched it's search to find a reason to go, on
- 45:10Speaker 1: and the list left them with, nothing and so they.
- 45:15Speaker 1: JUMP i look back in some study notes of, yesteryear
- 45:22Speaker 1: and these are now. Obsolete they're greater. Now BUT i
- 45:28Speaker 1: was surprised to find back then that there's an attempt
- 45:33Speaker 1: at suicide every minute of every day twenty four to
- 45:36Speaker 1: seven seventy people succeed every twenty four hours seven. Zero
- 45:43Speaker 1: there was a three hundred percent rise of suicide rate
- 45:47Speaker 1: in those aged thirty and. Below obsolete. Statistics it's greater,
- 45:57Speaker 1: now why you've just read the. Answer it makes you,
- 46:10Speaker 1: quiet doesn't It it. Should let's bow our. Heads the
- 46:23Speaker 1: fruit of depravity is the dismal and miserable end to
- 46:30Speaker 1: a life of unbelief and. Ungodliness the fruit of DEPRAVITY
- 46:42Speaker 1: i returned to the good. News IF i had only bad,
- 46:45Speaker 1: NEWS i would have to stop. Preaching the bad news
- 46:51Speaker 1: sets us up for the wonderful. News god's love for
- 46:55Speaker 1: you is surpassing anything you might try to. Suppress his
- 47:01Speaker 1: plan for you is greater than anything you could. Imagine
- 47:06Speaker 1: when he sent his son to die on that, cross
- 47:08Speaker 1: he had you in, mind had you been the only
- 47:12Speaker 1: one he would have come to die for. You left to,
- 47:18Speaker 1: YOURSELF i warn, you it is only a downward spiral
- 47:21Speaker 1: to the point Where god gives you over to the.
- 47:24Speaker 1: Consequences and every once in a, while through the report
- 47:31Speaker 1: of a, gun or the blast of an, explosion or
- 47:37Speaker 1: the stabbing of a knife you read of or perhaps
- 47:43Speaker 1: tragically witness depravity. AGAIN i urge you to turn your
- 47:52Speaker 1: heart over To. CHRIST i urge you not to put that.
- 47:56Speaker 1: Off it'll be a long journey from many of you
- 48:00Speaker 1: because you've wandered a long. Ways but coming back To
- 48:04Speaker 1: christ is an instant, moment and the growth In christ
- 48:08Speaker 1: will take some. Time but it's never too late to
- 48:13Speaker 1: start doing what is. Right believe on The Lord, jesus
- 48:19Speaker 1: and you will be. Saved we're here to help you
- 48:24Speaker 1: know how to carry that. Out if you need help
- 48:27Speaker 1: in doing. That we have our soul care friends of
- 48:31Speaker 1: The church who meet at the prayer, room and they
- 48:35Speaker 1: will stay as long as you need to stay to
- 48:38Speaker 1: come to terms with your new. Birth when we survey
- 48:47Speaker 1: the wondrous cross on which The prince Of glory, died
- 48:54Speaker 1: our richest, gain we count but loss and poor contempt
- 49:00Speaker 1: on all our. PRIDE i, Acknowledge, father if it were
- 49:05Speaker 1: not for your Son, jesus there'd be no reason to go,
- 49:10Speaker 1: on absolutely no. Reason not only could we not face,
- 49:15Speaker 1: death we couldn't handle. Life AND i pray that this
- 49:21Speaker 1: raw and vivid account of depravity On prade will haunt
- 49:26Speaker 1: everyone who's not yet come To. Christ, lord keep them,
- 49:32Speaker 1: miserable awake through the, night full of, unrest unable to,
- 49:38Speaker 1: eat unable to do their, work till they have trusted your.
- 49:44Speaker 1: SON i asked This, father in the name Of, jesus
- 49:49Speaker 1: who is the Good, news Our savior And? Lord and
- 49:53Speaker 1: everyone said.
- 49:59Speaker 3: The preceding, Message The Bad news about the whole, world
- 50:03Speaker 3: was copyrighted in two thousand and, six twenty, ten and
- 50:06Speaker 3: twenty twenty, five and the sound recording was copyrighted in
- 50:09Speaker 3: twenty twenty five By CHARLES.
- 50:11Speaker 1: R Swindall.
- 50:12Speaker 3: Incorporated all rights are reserved. Worldwide duplication of copyrighted material
- 50:17Speaker 3: for commercial use is strictly.
- 50:18Speaker 1: Prohibited