I'd like to advise you to take your Bibles with me now and turn to the first chapter of Romans, Romans chapter 1, and we'll pick up reading verse 18. And we'll read from there to the end of the chapter. So, fairly lengthy portion of God's Word, so follow with me as I read Romans 18, Romans chapter 1, verse 18, to the end of the chapter. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth and unrighteousness because what may be known of God is manifest in them for God has shown it to them for since the creation of the world his invisible attributes are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his eternal power and Godhead so that they are without excuse. Because, although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man, and birds, and four-footed animals, and creeping things. Therefore, God also gave them up to uncleanness in the loss of their hearts to dishonor their bodies among themselves. Who exchanged the truth of God for the lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason, God gave them up to vile passions for even their women exchange the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise, also the men leaving the natural use of the woman burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error, which was view. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind to do those things which are not fitting. Being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil mindedness. They are whisperers, back biters, haters of God, violent, proud. boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful, who knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same, but also approve of those who practice them. Let's pray together. Our Father, we look up to you this morning again and we ask that you would grant the help of the Holy Spirit as we seek to understand your word and as we seek to see its application to ourselves, our lives, and our world. We look up to you. We are dependent upon you. We trust in your mercy and your goodness to us and giving us your word as a light to shine in the darkness and a lamp to guide our feet. And it's in Christ's name we pray. Amen. As we all know, Friday before last, June 26th, the Supreme Court, United States Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision declared homosexual marriage to be a constitutional right, legalizing gay marriage in all 50 states. A decision that's left many Christians stunned, as well as grieved, confused, and even fearful about the future. Not because we hate homosexuals. We care about them. We pray for them. We pray for their salvation. We want to reach out to them with the gospel. But we're stunned and grieved and even outraged by the Supreme Court ruling because God's word teaches that homosexuality is a sin. It's not something to be celebrated as we see happening in our nation today. And because when it comes to marriage, God is the one who ordained marriage. God is the one who defines marriage and he defines marriage as a covenant commitment between one man and one woman. So in this ruling, the highest court in our land has basically acted in direct defiance of God, not to mention thousands of years of legal precedent. Many articles have been written by Christians, as you know, many blog posts, many comments on Facebook, many sermons, many discussions as Christians have grappled in the last couple of weeks with this event and how we ought to feel about it and how we ought to respond to it. A couple of Sundays ago, immediately following the ruling, I gave a few brief comments at the beginning of the service, but for the most part, I haven't said a lot publicly. I've just been pondering these things, listening to what people are saying, reading what people are saying, praying about this, praying about what, or if, or how much I ought to say. I've decided today to begin a brief series, it may be a series, I'm not sure if it's going to be a series, it may just be one sermon, we'll see, but I'm thinking a brief series of messages really inspired by these events. Lloyd-Jones once wrote, writing to preachers, though you may have planned the greatest series of sermons the world has ever known, break into it if there is an earthquake. If you can't be shaken out of a mechanical routine by an earthquake, you are beyond hope. Well, we've just experienced a cultural earthquake in recent days, and it's just one of a whole series of earthquakes that are shaking our society to the core. So I'm going to change the normal routine, at least today, probably for a few weeks, by moving the series on the life of David, if you were expecting that this morning, moving that to the evenings, taking a break from our usual study of the book of Romans, which we have been doing, we're in chapter seven, in the evenings. What I want to do is not focus on the issue of same-sex marriage so much, though I'm going to be commenting on it along the way, but more so on the whole issue of the progressive degeneration of American culture. of which this Supreme Court ruling is just the latest milestone. Granted, it's a huge milestone, it's a gigantic step in the downward spiral, but at the same time, it's only one part of a larger picture of what's happening in our society. And the theme of these messages I hope to bring is how we as Christians should respond to what we see happening in our society. Or a title, here's a title. Some biblical and practical counsels for perilous times. Some biblical and practical counsels for perilous times. I'm not going to pretend or even attempt to be exhaustive. We could probably spend months on this, but I don't think it would be profitable to do that. I don't want to do that. Just a few weeks, maybe just one week, but maybe two, three, maybe four weeks. We'll see. That's why I've entitled this, Some Biblical and Practical Councils for Perilous Times. There is something we need to understand, there are things we ought to feel, there are things we must do, and there is something we need to be prepared for. Now my main focus this morning is upon the first of these, there's something we need to understand. The first biblical and practical counsel I want to give is simply this. We need to understand the dynamics at work in the progressive, moral, and spiritual disintegration of our culture. As it's seen in this ruling concerning same-sex marriage, as well as in many other areas, we need to understand the dynamics at work in this, the spiritual dynamics at work in what we see happening in our culture. Every doctor knows that the key to being a success in treating disease is making the right diagnosis. Now some of you may have been the victim of a wrong diagnosis in the past. You went to the doctor, you had a problem, the doctor made a diagnosis, he recommended certain treatment to you, but that treatment was only something that masked the symptoms. It didn't really correct what was causing the symptoms. Or perhaps the treatment only made things worse. It didn't help at all. And later you go to another doctor. This isn't helping. Go to another doctor. He looks at your situation and it's discovered that the first doctor failed to make a proper diagnosis of what the real problem was. And so the treatment was changed and now you're better. your help because the proper treatment was applied, because the right diagnosis was made. Of course, now you have all of these doctor bills that you have to pay from going from one doctor to another, all these doctors that were giving you the wrong advice because their diagnosis was incorrect. Well, you get the point. Making a proper diagnosis is critically important. And that's not only true in the realm of medical science, it's true in the spiritual realm as well. And if the Christian church today, if we as Christians are to respond the right way and the best way to what we see happening in our culture, first we need to have a proper diagnosis. a proper and biblical diagnosis of what the real cause and source of the problems really is. Otherwise, we'll be barking up the wrong tree when it comes to the remedies that we seek to apply, when it comes to those things we pin our hopes on. Well, I've had us turn this morning to the second half of Romans 1. I don't want to go into all of it. I'm just going to bring one message from this passage. I don't intend to bring any other messages. If you want to listen to some detailed exposition of this passage I read to you, it's been a couple of years ago. I preached eight messages on Romans 1, 18 to the end of the chapter. Those are available. You can listen to them. But my purpose today is simply to give an overview because I want to highlight certain things in this passage that I believe will help us to properly diagnose and to properly understand what is happening in our culture. Now I have three major headings. First, we're going to look at the immediate context of the passage very briefly. Second, the central concern of our passage. And then most of our time will be focused on what we have here, what I'm calling a sad repetition of a four-fold sequence. that we're going to see in this passage. This passage is very searching. It's a very enlightening portion of God's Word. It provides us with a very profound psychological analysis of human nature, and it helps us to see why the world is in the mess it's in. So let's look, first of all, very briefly at the immediate context of this passage. Those of you who've been with us in our study of Romans, it's been going on now for quite some time. You will remember that Paul introduces this letter in verses 1 to 14. Then in verses 15 to 17, he sets forth the theme of his letter. And the theme is the gospel. Verse 15, so as much as is in me, I am ready to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome also. Verses 16 to 17, for I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God and the salvation for everyone who believes. for the Jew first, and also for the Greek. For in it the Gospel, the righteousness of God, is revealed from faith to faith. As it is written, the just shall live by faith. So this is the great theme of Paul's letter. His great theme is the Gospel, the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ. which he eventually comes back to and opens up in detail later in this epistle. But before he does that, here in our passage, Paul begins to explain what it is that makes the gospel necessary, why men need the gospel, and what makes the gospel good news. And what makes the gospel good news is the bad news about human sin and God's wrath. What makes the gospel good news is when we realize what the gospel saves us from. It saves us from the wrath of God, which is justly upon us because of our sins. In verse 18, we have reference to the reality and revelation of God's wrath against human sin. Paul writes, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth. and unrighteousness." Now this last statement, who suppressed the truth and unrighteousness, introduces us now secondly to the primary concern of this passage. Paul's primary concern in what follows is to give the reason for God's wrath and to defend the justice of it. To show us why God's wrath is upon men and why the wrath of God is justly deserved. Or as he says at the end of verse 20, he wants to show us that men are without excuse. Again, at the end of verse 18, he says that men, that is those who are lost and outside of Christ, suppress the truth and unrighteousness. They are suppressing, they are resisting the truth that God has revealed to them about Himself and what He requires of them as Paul goes on to demonstrate. So Paul is demonstrating that not only is the wrath of God revealed against all unrighteousness and ungodliness of men, but that the wrath of God upon us is justly deserved, that we are without excuse." We, my dear friends, are without excuse, and that's why we so desperately need the Gospel. That's the, that's the reason we so desperately need the way of salvation and deliverance that God Himself has provided in Jesus Christ. Now having given sort of this introduction to the passage, now let me draw our attention to the main thing I want to focus on in the time remaining. Notice thirdly in what follows, we have the repetition of a four-fold sequence or a four-fold process. Paul goes on now to show that this wrath of God is not merely something that meets sinners sometime out in the future, that it's even now being revealed against mankind and against human societies and cultures. The wrath of God is being revealed, he says. It's being revealed now and he's going to show us this by repeating at least three times in this passage a four-fold sequence of God's dealings with men and with societies of men. Now, I want us to see this because this is the key to properly understanding. what we see happening now in our own country. Now let me tell you what the fourfold sequence is first, and then I'll show it to you. I'll show you how Paul keeps repeating it. Step one, men suppress the truth in unrighteousness. They resist, they suppress, they rebel against the light that God has given them. Step two, having suppressed the truth in unrighteousness, they exchange the worship of God for the worship of what God has made, idolatry. Step three, God in His wrath removes His restraining grace and gives men over to their desires, divine abandonment. Step four, as a result, men and cultures become progressively vile, filthy, and perverted human degradation. Suppression leading to idolatry, leading to abandonment, leading to increasing degradation. Now I want us to see how this is repeated three times in this passage. First of all, we see it in verses 18 to 22. Paul speaks of the wrath of God being revealed against all unrighteousness and ungodliness of men who suppress the truth and unrighteousness, who suppress the truth and unrighteousness. Step one, suppression of the truth. Now this is a word sometimes used in a positive sense to hold fast to something, but it's also used as it is here in a negative sense to refer to holding down, suppressing, resisting something. It's the same word used, for example, in 2 Thessalonians 2, 6 and 7, where there we read, And now you know what is restraining or holding back, for the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains or holds back will do so until he is taken out of the way. So the same word. So Paul is telling us, hear that men cannot plead ignorance when it comes to this matter of ungodliness and unrighteousness, but that in their unrighteousness they are suppressing the truth. They are pushing it down. They're trying to put it out of their mind that that truth that God has revealed to them about himself. So that's where it begins. Again, verse 21, because although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were they thankful. And then he speaks of the futile ways of thinking and rationalizations by which men then try to justify themselves, and by which they deceive themselves that their evil is actually good. He says, they became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened, professing themselves to be wise, they become fools. So this is where it begins. suppressing the truth and unrighteousness, that's step one. Step two, having suppressed the truth and unrighteousness, men exchange the worship of God for the worship of what God has made, idolatry. Suppression leading to idolatry, or we can say it this way, suppression leading to substitution. Substituting other things for God that men worship or that men look to and put their hopes in for happiness, security, and well-being. Notice step two in verse 23. and change the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. This is idolatry. Now Paul mentions here some of the crassest forms of idolatry, worshiping birds and animals and insects and so on, but it's not always so primitive. There are more sophisticated forms as well. Idolatry at its essence is when we exchange the glory of God for something else. When we try to resist and to push out of our minds the true God and His claims upon us and put something else in His place in our lives. Something else we love and serve and are more devoted to and are looking to for happiness, well-being, and purpose, and security in life. That's idolatry. And that's the second step in the progression Paul describes here. Suppression of truth leading to idolatry. Step three. God removes his restraining grace and gives men over to their own desires, divine abandonment. Divine abandonment is the third step, verse 24a. Therefore also God gave them up, and this language keeps being repeated in the passage, God gave them up to uncleanness in the lusts of their hearts. Step one, suppression. Step two, idolatry. Step three, divine abandonment. And then we have step four. Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness and the lust of their hearts to dishonor their bodies among themselves. Step four is human degradation. Men and cultures become progressively unclean and filthy and vicious and perverted. Suppression, idolatry, divine abandonment, human degradation. All right, that's the first time he repeats this sequence. Now notice we see the same progression again now secondly in verses 25 to 27. Picking up with verse 25, step one, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie. Suppression, rejection of the truth. Step two, idolatry, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator. Step three, divine abandonment, verse 26. For this reason, God gave them up to vile passions. And then step four, human degradation. And now in these verses, we actually have a description of homosexuality. Here Paul highlights the sins of female lesbianism and male sodomy as examples of just how far this degradation can go in a culture. Verse 26b to 27, for even. He said, even it can go this far. He says, for even. Their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise, the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, committing what is shameful and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error, which was due." So again, fourfold sequence, beginning with men suppressing the light and the truth that God has given to them, leading to idolatry, leading to divine abandonment, leading to human degradation. And we see the sequence a third time. Now picking up with verse 28. Verse 28, step one. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge." Now notice that language. They did not like to retain God in their knowledge. And here Paul is telling us that men by nature don't like God. That's the issue. They don't like God as He is, and they don't want to have Him in their knowledge. They seek to forget about Him. And this reminds us, folks, that unbelief is not really an intellectual problem. It's a heart problem. R.C. Sproul, he's back in the 70s, he published a book that's later entitled, If There Is a God, Why Are There Atheists? And the thesis of his book is the very thing that Paul says here in our text. The thesis is that men and women reject God because they don't like him. He makes this comment. The New Testament maintains that unbelief is generated not so much by intellectual causes as by moral and psychological ones. The problem is not that there is insufficient evidence to convince rational beings that there is a God, but that rational beings have a natural antipathy to the being of God. In a word, the nature of God, that is the Christian God, is repugnant to man and is not the focus of desire or wish projection. Man's desire is not that Jehovah exists, but that he doesn't exist. They don't like God. They do not like to retain God in their knowledge. You see, this is true of man by nature. God's will stands in the way of man's self-will. His sovereignty stands in the way of their desire to be their own God and to be controlled by no one's desires but their own. They don't like God because they love their sins. That's what the text is telling us. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, this is true of all of us by nature. We come into the world with this kind of heart. We want to push God out of our minds. We try not to think about Him. That's the first step. in this progression, suppression of the truth. And this also corresponds to the second step mentioned in verses 23 and 25, they exchange the glory of God for a lie and they give their hearts and their worship to other things, idolatry, step two. But in step three, the middle of verse 28, In his wrath, he says, God gave them over to a debased mind. Divide abandonment. And then step four, to do those things which are not fitting. And then we have this long list of sins and wicked behavior in verses beginning with verse 29, being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of it. But notice where it begins. The end of verse 28, God gave them over to a debased mind to do the things which are not fitting. And then we have this long list. covetousness, maliciousness, envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness, backbiters, haters of God, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful. So this is the sequence. Paul mentions it three times in this chapter. This is the downward spiral that occurs in men and in societies of men and cultures and nations. in rebellion against God. And often the greater light they have and turn away from, the greater and the more dramatic the spiral. Men in unrighteousness suppress the truth about God. This leads to living for other things and worshiping other things and seeking their purpose and their happiness in the creature rather than the creator, idolatry. Then in judgment as an expression of his holy wrath, God gives men and cultures over to the corruption of their hearts, divine abandonment, and the punishment that is thus inflicted upon that culture and that is experienced and results from this is human degradation. You see, the wrath of God is not just something people will meet at the end. They will meet it at the end. There's a day of wrath coming. And all who stand before God on that day without Jesus Christ, the Bible tells us, will be cast into hell forever. But the wrath of God is also at work. It's also active in the world today. You see, my dear friends, America is already experiencing the revelation of God's wrath against us as a nation. You know, as we see this kind of evil and perversion that Paul describes here becoming the end thing, becoming rampant and accepted in a nation, people often say something like this, if these things continue, God's wrath is going to fall on this nation. But Paul says, no, actually, it's more accurate to say that when you see this kind of evil and degradation become prevalent in a nation, the wrath of God is already falling upon that nation. The degradation and perversion itself that men and cultures are given over to is already an evidence of the judgment of God. Now, I want us to see that this is not merely the teaching of the book of Romans. This judgment of divine abandonment leading to progressive degeneration in response to human rebellion and idolatry, this is found over and over throughout the Bible. This is what happens. Let me give some examples. Psalm 81, 11. But my people would not heed my voice. Listen. And Israel would have none of me. Verse 12. So I gave them over. Gave them over to what? I gave them over to their own stubborn heart to walk in their own counsels. That's Psalm 84, 11. Listen to Judges 10, 13. Yet you have forsaken me and served other gods. There it is, idolatry. Therefore, I will deliver you no more. God abandons them. Listen to Hosea 4, 17. God says to the prophet, Ephraim is joined to idols. And what follows? Ephraim is joined to idols. Let him alone. Let him alone. Let him have his own way. Divine abandonment. Jesus speaks of this in Matthew 15, 14. He's speaking there specifically of the Pharisees and the religious leaders of Israel. And he says, let them alone. Let them alone. They are blind leaders of the blind, and if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch. You see, this is part of God's punishment. He leaves men alone. The most terrible thing that could ever happen to a person is for God to leave you alone. The most awful thing that could ever happen to a church, or to a culture, or to a nation, is for God to withdraw from that people. To leave them alone. To give them over. And to leave them alone. The restraints are off. And when God, in his common grace, is no longer restraining men, they have no power to restrain themselves. They fall into a ditch. and become more and more disoriented and confused and degraded. You remember Stephen's sermon in Acts chapter 7? There's a part of it that illustrates this same point. Beginning in Acts 7, 37, Stephen says, this is that Moses who said to the children of Israel, the Lord God will raise up a prophet like me from your brethren. Him you shall hear. This is he who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to our fathers, the one who received the living oracles to give to us. Now listen, whom our fathers would not obey, but rejected. In other words, they rejected God's prophet Moses, and in doing so, they rejected God. And then he goes on, and they said to Aaron, make us gods to go before us. As for this Moses who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him. And they made a calf in those days, offered sacrifices to the idol, and rejoiced in the work of their own hands." In other words, in the language of Romans 1, they exchanged the glory of God, the glory of the incorruptible God for an image. They exchanged the truth of God for the lie and worshiped the creature rather than the Creator. And what happened? Stephen says, then God turned and gave them up or gave them over to worship the host of heaven and so on. God gave them up. He let them go. He gave them over to their folly and to the degradation that their own unrestrained desires inevitably led to. So I trust you see the principle. It's underscored in all of these verses. One of the ways that God punishes human rebellion and idolatry. One of the ways He punishes nations and societies who have turned away from the light that He has given to them. is by removing his restraining grace, giving them over to the corruption of their own heart, vile passions, and to the dishonor, degradation, perversion, and vicious behavior that those passions lead to as he has described them here in this chapter. Now, in the time remaining, what are some lessons applications from all of this for you and me. There are several I want to underscore. First of all, brothers and sisters, as I've already said, here we have an explanation for what we see happening in our culture. This is happening right before our eyes. The progressive degradation of our culture, which has been made so vivid to our minds of late, in this ruling of the Supreme Court. This spiraling downgrade of our culture, it's a revelation of the wrath of God. We are a nation that has received much light. A nation that's been blessed for many, many years with the gospel. Perhaps more gospel light, a whole lot more light than the cultures Paul immediately had in mind when writing Romans chapter 1. Perhaps more gospel light than any nation in the entire history of the world, perhaps with the exception of Great Britain. We've been blessed with all of this light. And the scripture says, to whom much is given, much will be required. The greater the light, the greater the fall when that light is rejected. And again, it's happening right now, right before our eyes in the United States of America. God's told us about it. He's revealed this is what He does. This is what happens. And it's happening right now. Secondly, This sequence and the downward spiral that we've considered also reminds us that this is important. Whatever sinful behavior may mark a person's life. or whatever corruption may mark and become the end thing or become rampant in any given society of people, whether it be homosexuality or any of the other of the long lists of sins that Paul gives in verses 29 to 21, we learn from our text that the ultimate root sin, the root problem is idolatry. This is the common denominator. This is the root of everything else. You see, it comes down to our relationship to the God who has made us. Not liking to retain this God in our knowledge. Exchanging the truth of God for a lie. And worshiping the creature rather than the creator. That's the root issue. That's the fundamental problem. As the prophet said long ago, all we like sheep have gone astray. We've turned everyone to his own way, exchanging the glory of God for something else. Worshipping the creature rather than the creator the creator Going our own way doing our own thing Suppressing the truth and unrighteousness and putting something else other things in the place of God in our lives something else we love and serve and are devoted to supremely and are looking to for happiness and well-being and security in the place of The one true and living God the only one who can actually give us those things in whom they are found That's the root sin that's underneath all of this. All the confusion, all the evils in America and in the world. I read something some time ago about a species of ant that lives in some parts of Africa. It's pretty interesting. These ants, they live in subterranean tunnels many feet down in the earth and the young are sheltered there and the queen is housed way down in this tunnel network. The workers will leave and they go on foraging trips to distant places and then they return to the nest with food for the rest of the colony. Now here's the interesting part. If while they're away, the queen is molested or something is happening bad to the queen, somehow these workers know about it, even though they're far, far away. And they become very nervous and uncoordinated. And then if the queen is killed, they become frantic. They begin to rush around aimlessly and they'll die without ever returning to the nest. Now apparently, no one knows for sure why this happens. Dan may know, he's a biology teacher, but no one really knows why this happens. It's thought that the workers are constantly oriented to the queen by some kind of radar-like device, and if she's killed, that throws all the orientation out, and they become frenzied, confusion results, and death follows. It's pretty fascinating. But what a powerful illustration that is of the very thing Paul is describing here in this chapter. Man is created by God and connected to God and he has this innate sense of God and God's law that God has put within him. He's made to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. But by suppressing the truth and unrighteousness, he cuts himself off from God. And the result is that men and cultures become more and more disoriented. and confused and distorted and degenerate and the end is degradation and destruction. So again the point is this, all the disorders in the world today need to be traced to their root. Rejecting and being separated from God and giving the supreme devotion of our hearts to other things. When men in societies do that and continue to do that God gives them over. And what follows is all of this foulness and perversity and hatefulness he goes on to describe in this chapter. You see, this is why men need the gospel, not psychotherapy. This is why men need the gospel, not mere moralism or do-goodism. Man's great need is to get right with God. That's the real issue. It's his relationship to God that's the fundamental problem. And that's why, listen, that's why the calling of the church in confronting the problems of our culture is not to preach politics, it's not to preach social reform, but it's to preach the gospel. to call men and women to renounce their idols in repentance and to come into a right relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ. It's only then that their disordered, confused, debased lives will begin to change. And it's only if large numbers of people are born again and brought to faith in Christ that our disordered society will ever begin to change. Only the gospel can change people. Only the power of Christ can make them new creations in Christ Jesus. And it's only when people are changed that society will change, and it doesn't matter who the president is. Doesn't matter who it is. Unless people are changed, society doesn't change. And that's why Paul was so eager to preach the gospel. And that's why we should be eager to preach the gospel. and to declare the gospel and to share the gospel and to make it known to people, to tell people about Christ. The situation is not hopeless yet. Paul didn't look at all of this mess that he describes in this chapter and say, there's no hope for this world. Roman culture is too corrupt and perverse. It's too far gone. No, he says at the beginning of this passage, verse 15, so as much as is in me, I am ready to preach the gospel to you who are Rome. He was ready to preach the gospel there. He wanted to go there. I am a debtor, he says, to preach the gospel, both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to wise and to unwise. Why? He says, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God for salvation, for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. It's through the preaching of the gospel, he says, that God's power works. to save people and to change people. The message of the good news, that's what the gospel is, the message of the good news that Jesus Christ has come into the world to save us from our sins. My lost friend here this morning, The same God whose wrath is upon you, the same God whose wrath is justly provoked by your sin, that same God loves you and He has acted in mercy to save people who are caught up in this fourfold vortex and sequence of sin that Paul describes here. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life. No matter what your sins may be, no matter how far you've gone, no matter how defiled and debased, no matter how degraded you've become, Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. He took the punishment that we deserve, the wrath that we deserve in the sinner's place on the cross. And because of what Christ has done, there is forgiveness, my friend. full and free forgiveness their salvation there's new life in Christ for all those who are willing to turn from their own way and to receive by faith this salvation in Jesus Christ as a free gift of God's grace that's the message Paul was eager to preach But remember, this fourfold sequence. You are outside of Christ, you're in it. You're caught in it. How long you gonna continue in that way, my friend? Rejecting the truth, rejecting God for a lie, serving the creature rather than the creator, hardening your heart, being given over to your lusts. that will eventually destroy you and degrade you and will eventually bring you to hell. Is there someone here today who says, I don't want God. I don't want Christ. I wanna have my own way. I wanna live my own life how I please. Listen, pastor, I just want God to leave me alone. My friend, don't you see there's nothing worse that could ever happen to you than for God to leave you alone? You keep on in this way you're going and God only knows how vile and filthy and perverted and hateful you will eventually become. You'll be in dark places you never thought you would ever be. You'll engage in behaviors you never thought you would ever be capable of. And the end of this path you're on is eternal hell. My friend, seek the Lord while he may be found. There's still hope, you're still alive. The gospel's still preached. It's preached today, and you're hearing, I'm just a feeble man, but when a feeble man preaches the gospel, it's Christ who's preaching to you. He's the one who's declaring to you through me the good news that there is salvation, there is deliverance in him, there is mercy, there is grace to be found in Jesus Christ, and that gospel's still preached to you this morning, and you're here today. And Christ is inviting you to come to Him for mercy. And He promises that none who come, none who come to Him will ever be turned away. Come to me, he says, and I will give you rest, even if you've been to the very brink of hell itself. Come to me, and I will have mercy upon you, though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow, and I will put my Spirit within you and make you new." There's still hope, even for those in the condition that Paul describes here in this chapter. There's hope, the hope of the gospel that Paul was so eager to preach. Then thirdly, what does this fourfold sequence say to those of us who are Christians? What does it say to us? Well, brothers and sisters, first of all, it ought to humble us. You know what it ought to do? It ought to cause us to reflect upon how we ourselves have contributed by our sins to the degradation of our culture. I just spend all of our time pointing our fingers out there, but pointing our fingers at ourselves. How have we contributed to it, even now as Christians? Are we all innocent in this, my dear friends? Have we not contributed to the downgrade of our culture? Have we not contributed by our prayerlessness? by our many compromises with the world? Have you been allowing yourself on those little sins that eat away at your spiritual strength, those little sins that damage your testimony before the world? What about the way you live before your family? What about the way you conduct yourself at work before your lost co-workers? What about your marriage? We can point our finger, and rightly so, at the evil of same-sex marriage and the degradation of marriage as God ordained it to be. But the degradation of marriage that we see in our culture is not only seen in same-sex marriage, it's seen in the nature and quality of many of the marriages of people who call themselves Christians. What about your relationship with your husband? Your relationship with your wife? Is it a model? Is it an example that people can look to? Even the homosexual community can look to and say, wow, this is what marriage really ought to be. Are you contributing? Are we contributing to the downgrade of our culture? What about the secret place? The prayer closet? Your Bible? What about your commitment to Christ's church? and his people. What about the church covenant that you agreed to uphold when you became a member? Are you doing that? What about those of you who profess to be Christians, but you still never publicly confessed Christ in the waters of baptism? My friend, these are not days for following Christ halfway. The lines are being drawn more clearly than ever in our country. Now's the time to declare whose side are you on? God or Baal, Christ or Satan? What about those of you who are Christians, but you still remain outside, kind of on the peripheral of the church? You're here, but you've never committed yourself to walk with God's people in the fellowship of church membership. Isn't it about time that you did that? Brothers and sisters, aren't these recent events, shouldn't they be a wake-up call? For all of us as Christians, a call to all of us to examine ourselves, to stir ourselves up to a closer walk with Christ. Have I been contributing, even as a Christian, to the downward spiral of our culture by my own spiritual slackness? And then, brothers and sisters, I was thinking about this when we think about our sins and the way we lived before our conversion. When you read these lists of sins that Paul gives here in this chapter all the way down through the end of the chapter, what we've considered this morning should cause us to tremble when we think about what God has saved us from. We were once caught in the vortex of this fourfold sequence. We were suppressing the truth and unrighteousness, serving and loving other things and not God. We were under God's wrath. We were given over to various lusts and sinful desires. And the only reason we never completely and finally destroyed ourselves and ended up in hell was God's mercy that held us back. Some of us, it held us back from doing things we actually would have wanted to do. Some of you can point back to things that happened in your life in God's providence, where you almost took a step that if you'd taken that step, who knows where you would have ended up and God somehow stopped you. Some of you, you have the restraint of a Christian home and Christian parents. God puts his restraints in our lives and it's not for his mercy. Where would we be? We were all caught in this same vortex of this four-fold sequence. The only reason we haven't destroyed ourselves is because of God's mercy. How thankful we should be for the long-suffering of God in our lives. And again, even now as Christians, if left to ourselves, there's no sin, no depth of depravity we're not capable of falling into. And this is why the Lord Jesus taught us to pray, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. As we look at the wickedness in the world, especially in our own nation, if God has kept you from that, or he saved you from that, or if God has saved you out of some of the very things that Paul describes here, if today you're being kept from those things, don't be proud. Christians, don't be arrogant. Don't be self-righteous. Instead, let us be humbled and always remember, except for the grace of God, there go I. Well, may God bless his word to our hearts this morning. Let's pray together. Our Father, we thank you for your word. For your word gives light in the darkness. It gives understanding. and we thank you for this portion of your word. Help us, Lord, to consider these things, to apply these things to ourselves, and to respond to your word with faith, humility, repentance, and obedience. We ask it in Christ's name, amen.