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The Bad News about the Whole World │ Msg 4-44 2 · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

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