And I see some of you again, some faces I know and some faces maybe I don't know. And so in some cases I need to be kindly, be kind to me and remind me who you are. So I'm grateful for this opportunity. And I'm also grateful for the opportunity because every one of us needs renewal. And so speakers as well as hearers need renewal. and to be able to step back and to hear, to be able to think about the gospel and think about the implications of the gospel is a great opportunity. And so I'm gonna invite us both to be on a joint endeavor this weekend. And so if you have your Bible with you or your phone, Romans chapter one, we'll be basically doing, Romans is in five parts. We're gonna be doing part one, two, three, four, and five each session. And it's gonna be the wrath of God, the righteousness of God, the glory of God, the people of God, and then the church of God. And so it kind of walks through the various chapters until the end. So this afternoon, we start with the wrath of God, and in an odd way, it highlights the glory of God. And unless we understand the wrath of God, we won't even understand the righteousness of God, and we will not appreciate the glory of God. And so the challenge of taking a whole book is what do you do with the scripture reading? And so, So I'm gonna actually read the opening through probably verse 18, where it launches into the large section on the wrath of God. And so I'll be reading in the New American Standard. And I was told that I could pick my version. And so this is my old friend. And so it's got tape. And it's where you know where everything's at on a page. So Paul. a bondservant of Christ Jesus, or we could even say a slave of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures concerning his son, who is born of a descendant of David, according to the flesh, who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for his namesake, among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ. To all who are beloved of God in Rome, called as saints, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, because your faith is being proclaimed throughout the whole world. For God, whom I serve in my spirit in the preaching of the gospel of his son, is my witness as to how unceasingly I make mention of you, always in my prayers making requests, if perhaps now at last, by the will of God, I may succeed in coming to you, for I long to see you, so that I may impart some spiritual gift to you, that you may be established, that is, that I may be encouraged together with you while among you, each of us by the other's faith, both yours and mine. I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that often I have planned to come to you and have been prevented so far so that I may obtain some fruit among you also, even as among the rest of the Gentiles. I am under obligation, both to Greeks and to barbarians. both to the wise and to the foolish. So for my part, I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome. For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, but the righteous shall live by faith. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness." And then Paul begins to describe that they have the truth and they are suppressing it and the consequences that come about from that. When I was younger, I used to think that the Book of Romans was this giant piece of paper that God just handed Paul and said, you know, this church really doesn't have much problems. And I've prevented you from getting there. And so therefore, I'm going to let you write them the gospel. You're not going to be able to preach to them. And so here, describe it to them. Write it down. And there's a huge sermon that can be preached right on that whole thing about delay. You can see from this part that Paul wanted to come to them often and was prevented. And we don't know how. If Satan had a hand in it, just God's providence. Obviously Satan can't do anything without God's authority. But somehow he was prevented from actually getting there. And so for our lives, if we take it just a cue from the Bible across the spectrum, you know from the Old Testament with Joseph, and how he was sent ahead into Egypt, and how the family ended up in Egypt, and out of the promised land, and it wasn't very linear. You know from David that he was anointed national hero, but then kicked out of the land, and then had to come back in the land, and it was not very linear. Even this apostle Paul determined in his heart to go to Rome when he was in Greece, and yet ended up not going west, but east. and spending two years in Caesarea in a prison. And so God has his purposes for delays. Even this afternoon, we were talking with friends who were kept from the mission field, hearts desire, heartbroken, desired to go, not God's will. But now it seems like maybe in the future, God may open up doors for them again. God has his timing in his way. Paul was so eager to bear fruit among the Romans and couldn't do it. And so he wrote a letter. And in this way, the apostle to the Gentiles has been bearing fruit with this letter for 20 centuries, where if he had just been there in person and just spoken, it would have been given and then done. And so now, I mean, so who knows why you're delayed in even the God-given dreams and plans that God gives you. You have to trust him, we have to trust him. So there's a whole lesson there. We could just camp on that one and do it. But the point being is that I thought the purpose of it originally was just merely to give the gospel. Out of all Paul's churches, this one seemed to be doing pretty well. There wasn't like that impatience in Galatia, I can't even give thanks to God for you, it seems like you're in a real problem. Or 2 Corinthians that rejected him. Okay, they're doing well. And here we get the longest letter Paul ever wrote. Because they're actually, they're in canonical order, they just go from the biggest to the smallest. So this is his biggest letter. So that's one theory, the big piece of paper, okay? The other theory was, after a while I realized, you know what, this is kind of the gospel in logical form. There's objections, Paul answers them. There's a lot of God forbids in the King James, may it never be, can't be that way, stops and turns. And so he's laying out an argument from the very beginning to the end. And so it's like a compliment to our narrative gospels, where you get in the narrative gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, the description of Jesus' actions, now you get an explanation of what it means. It's like, that's really helpful. So now we got on the big piece of paper, a gospel in logical form. But that still doesn't, it still doesn't answer two other questions. So when I did reading in a commentary on this recently, the author said there's actually three potential purposes the Book of Romans. One is to give the gospel. A second potential reason is there's disunity in the church in Rome. There's a Gentile majority, it appears, and a Jewish minority, and they're not getting along, perhaps, or they're struggling, or they could get along better. And if you walk through this book, you will see again and again and again, Paul touching on the place of the law, the place, you know, you say you call yourself a Jew, food laws, day keeping, chapter 14, Jewish stuff shows up. And so having a Gentile majority, maybe due to Claudius kicking the Jews out in the early AD 40s, and then some have come back in. There's a Jewish minority, the Gentile majority, and so how are these going to get along? Hopefully tomorrow when we look at chapter 9, 10, and 11, we're gonna take a good look at ourselves and say how arrogant we might be actually. And cause three times Paul tells the Gentiles in the church of Rome not to be arrogant. And so it does seem like there is some aspect of that truth. And if that is so, then okay, the church of Rome is just like any other church. Even when doing well, you can always improve. So overall, he commends them at the end of the book in chapter 14, that you guys are full of knowledge, you're able to counsel, you have no need for anybody to instruct you. But, you know, there's still, as the apostle, I speak to you as apostle to the Gentiles, I'm authorized to bear fruit among the Gentiles. So even among you, I'm gonna bear fruit. And here's the way that you could be strengthened. And as he says here, established, made even more stable and strong. So that's the second reason. There is actually, they call this in studies, they call this the occasion for the letter. In other words, what prompted it. It's kind of like having chocolate around your three-year-old. It ends up occasioning an interesting parent-child conversation. So it's like, that's the occasion, it wasn't the cause. The cause is then deeper in the heart. Third, is Paul is actually eager to use Rome as a launch pad to go farther west. So if you know your Mediterranean Sea, you know that kind of looks like a big submarine, and on one side is Israel. Kind of that's the eastern shore. On the far western side is that little narrow strait of Gibraltar where the Iberian Peninsula and current Spain is. And so Paul wanted to get there. Chapter 15 tells us that. Italy, Greece are in the middle, so you got Israel, Greece, Italy, Spain. He writes this from Greece, hoping to have gotten to Italy, Rome, didn't get there, writes the letter instead, ends up going east, imprisoned for two years, then getting here by shipwreck to Rome. And there's where the book of Acts actually stops. So beyond that is more piecing things together. And we don't need to bother ourselves with that. At this point, Paul's desire is to go to Spain. So he's like a missionary that wants support. He even says it in chapter 15, it's like, hoping to be furthered along by material gains. And if you have gained spiritually and if you give materially, that's fitting. And so this is like a missionary support letter. Now, when I considered that one, I was like, hmm, it's interesting. It's like, well, is he using these people? They're just a means to an end. I don't like being used. That doesn't feel good to me. So it's like, is that the whole thing? So if you isolate just that purpose, this is just a missionary support letter and say, well, why is the gospel there? Well, he's got to show them he's worthy of support. You got to show them that he knows his stuff. This is what I preach in all the world. This is my gospel. Would you support me? It's like, well, that's better. I guess I can see how they go together. It's like, you want to get to Spain and preach the gospel, but then it's like, but he's also addressing the unity. Well, maybe if they're not united, they'll be distracted by all their factions and then they won't give freely. It's like somehow you got to put all these pieces together. Okay. Now now if you have a different solution I'm gonna propose a solution if you have a different you won't come and talk to me about your solution Okay, there's because it seems like all three are present. He wants to go to Spain missionary letter They have a Jew Gentile issue of sorts, even if it's just needing a little tune-up improvement, and he preaches the gospel. That's plain. Like, the whole letter is the gospel, and it's logically laid out, wrath of God, righteousness of God, glory of God, people of God, church of God. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Okay. Well, here's my proposal. I'm going to give you a proposal on how these fit together. Look with me at verse 14. Often in Paul's letters, he transitions from his introductory thanksgiving, which is very brief in verse eight, and his introductory prayer, which he described more his prayer life here than actually giving prayer. When he transitions from thanksgiving to prayer, he often will say, brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant of this. I do not want you to be unaware of this. It's kind of like his way of transitioning. And so that's in verse 13, which means verse 13 may launch the body of the letter. But most of us perhaps have seen verse 16 at least be in the kind of the launch of the body of the letter where it's like the content of the gospel is given. But if verse 13 launches the gospel, actually the content, the body of the letter, then verse 14 gives a strong declarative statement. I am under obligation, apostle to the Gentiles, I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish, I am under obligation Verse 15, to preach the gospel. And so I'm eager to preach the gospel to you also. It's not my choice. I must. I've been commissioned. I am a slave of Jesus set apart for the gospel. Masters get to pick what their slaves do. Paul, you're my slave. You're gonna preach the gospel everywhere, which is really interesting for a formerly bigoted Jew. who used to persecute followers of the way. It's like, wow, this is a really interesting assignment for such a Jew. And so he's launched into the world, and he tells us right up front, everybody is my target. Almost like John Wesley saying, the whole world is my parish. It's like, everybody's my target. I don't care if you are civilized, Greek, or uncivilized, barbar, a barbarian. I don't care if you're wise and you've been educated. I don't care if you're a fool, just stepped, as it were, just stepped into life and started getting serious and thinking about things. I don't care. I'm going to preach the gospel to you because that's my calling. Everybody's gonna hear it. And that includes the capital city, Rome. Okay, that seems to be, if that's so, then wow, we got a big declarative statement. And then he goes, four, verse 16. Four, verse 16. Four, verse 16. Four, verse 17. Four, verse 18. All of a sudden it drops in chain, chain, chain, chain, chain. Like for is a Greek way of saying for this reason or it gives an explanation. I am eager to preach the gospel to you also in Rome for this reason. I'm not ashamed. Why are you not ashamed of the gospel? For this reason, it's the power of God for everyone who believes. Why is it the power of God for everyone who believes, Paul? For in it, the righteousness of God is revealed. Why is that so significant? For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven. Boom, boom, boom, boom, and then launches two and a half chapters of dense argument. So it appears like the desire to preach the gospel in Spain fits within the body of the letter and isn't outside of the body of the letter. In other words, it's part of the argument. And that was eye-opening, because if the mission to Spain is part of the argument of the letter, And when we go to chapter 15, it receives a lot of press, quite a bit of material, most of chapter 15. Where I've treated that in the past, like he's done with describing the gospel, he's done now with the body of the letter, back to personal stuff, back to say hello to Julius and all the greetings in chapter 16, back to the personal stuff. What if, What if then the mission to Spain at the end of the letter actually caps off the letter introduced in verse then 14 and 15, like I am under obligation to preach the gospel to everyone, including you and including Spain. And I'm gonna give you an argument. why this is good, why this is necessary, why I should do it, and why you should be involved. In fact, your believing in the gospel and your support of the gospel go together. That you cannot say you believe the gospel if you're not living the gospel or living for the gospel. Another way of putting this might be that it would be hypocritical of us to say, I love the gospel as a noun, but I don't love the gospel as a verb. And so if my heart isn't excited about missions and missionaries, if my heart isn't excited about telling my neighbors, my co-workers, others about Jesus, if my heart isn't excited about other cultures and peoples and places hearing about Jesus, It could be vertically in my society, in the various levels, or horizontally out. If I'm not excited about these things, then I have to question whether I've really taken into account the Gospel message itself. Because this letter's organization suggests these things go inseparably together. If you're just kind of looking at this, you know, kind of like, and you should, you should just kind of like, okay, I'll just step back a little bit. I just wanna add as collateral evidence from 1 Corinthians 9, just really brief, a statement that will help you to see Paul's mindset, which encourages me, I believe I'm on the right track here, but 1 Corinthians 9, has Paul talking similarly about all men. Verse 19, I mean actually he says that he is under obligation to preach the gospel. Verse 16, if I preach the gospel I have nothing to boast of for I am under obligation. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel. So there we get a similar statement about, I am under obligation, I have to preach the gospel, woe if I don't. And now we hear his emphasis on all men, verse 19, for though I am free from all men, I have made myself a slave to all men, so that I might win more. Martin Luther, in his great book, Freedom of the Christian, lays this out as part of his opening paradox, that a Christian is perfect Lord of all, slave to none. In the area of faith, our conscience belongs to Jesus, and he alone can determine truth. Free from all, slave of none. But, with regard to my neighbor, a Christian is a dutiful servant, slave of all. That's the area of love. Having been freed by the gospel of Jesus, our life is now freed up to give away. Our future is secured so we can give it away. And we make ourselves, voluntarily make ourselves a slave to our neighbor, or as Luther says, to be a little Christ to our neighbor. And so Paul describes making himself a slave. This is voluntary in order to win the more. And then he says in verse 20, to the Jew, I became a Jew. And then verse 21, regarding the Gentiles to those without law, I was as without law, but now without the law of God, I was under the law of Christ to win those. And then to the weak within the church, Weak in faith, I became weak that I might win the weak. I become all things to all men so that by all means I might save some. You see the attitude of Paul. It's like, it doesn't matter whether it's Jew or Greek or weak Christian, even though I'm a strong Christian, I'm second and they're first. They're more important than me. And then comes this very interesting phrase, verse 23, I do all things for the sake of the gospel so that I may become a fellow partaker of it. If I don't live, it seems like Paul is saying, if I don't live how I just described, I myself will not partake of it. And you go, Paul, what are you saying? You're saying like, now this is the mystery of perseverance, and all those in Christ do persevere. I believe that wholeheartedly. So I'm not talking about some Wesleyan lose your salvation thing. But I am saying, if the gospel really is believed, it will manifest itself in this kind of attitude. And Paul does describe the hypothetical and the what ifs at the end of the chapter that if I don't live this way, I will be disqualified. I will not finish my race. So I'm going back to this again. I really think this is so, and I want us to catch it in Romans. If we don't live for the gospel, we need to question whether we really believe the gospel. If missions doesn't excite us, and evangelism doesn't interest us, then we need to really question how deep the gospel has really penetrated us. Because they go hand in hand. This is what I was saying at the beginning. I want to be renewed. Bob Snyder's level of love for the gospel, excitement over evangelism and missions is not where it should be. I'm not saying this coming in like I got something against you all. I'm saying this, I want myself to be lifted and refreshed and revitalized in this because I see this to be true. If I don't lay out myself in all directions for any person, whatever background, identity, seeking their salvation. I need to question how much this gospel's really penetrated my heart. And so I'm gonna invite us, I'm gonna invite us to explore together a re-look at Romans in this way and a practical way. We, I would dare say several of you in the room could be up here and teach the book of Romans. You know, God be praised, you know, you know this book, but I want to look at it in light of bringing the bookends of it and kind of keeping them outside of the body of material and actually now bringing them into the thing and going, what if now with this fresh light, we look at the book again, because is it not true that I can take the same color and put it up against a different background and all of a sudden different things show up? A background gives a different feel and look to something, doesn't it? So it's like, let's look again at the content of Romans in light of the background, this backdrop of identity. Or not identity, this backdrop of missions. OK. So with that in mind, the reason why I brought up identity, my mind just triggered it, is that I am intrigued by how often the idea, now think of it as a concept, the concept of identity shows up in this book. How often in this book do you hear the word called? Which is kalel in Greek, it just means named. You know, it's not like you are named, you are called sons of God. Okay, what's the significance of being called and having that identity? Called as saints, chapter one says, right? We just read that. Called as saints, meaning called as holy ones. You're set apart for God. Every one of you, if you are in Christ, you are just as set apart for God as Paul. doesn't matter the specific mission that the Lord Jesus your master has you on, you're just as much wholly his property as Paul was, and your specific assignment is just as important to Jesus as any other in that light of that obedience and worship and how precious you individually are as a believer. Maybe it doesn't play the same role, but it plays importance because he died for you and reclaimed your life. He wants you to be fruitful. So, called. How about this as an identity word? Glory. Having status. Having fame. The word name shows up, even in chapter one, for his namesake. How about See, the other one I was thinking of, boasting, shows up a lot in this book. How often identity comes with something I can boast in that sets me apart, that makes me different than my brother, my neighbor, my sister. Boasting. having a glory, having a name, being called, all these kind of things, identity issues show up in this book. And so I want to actually kind of use that as a doorway to explore. And I do mean the word explore. This is not to the point where I can maybe be called after this conference to write down what I said at the conference, like I did five years ago or something. This is more exploration, but I wanna explore it section by section. So when we do wrath of God, where is their identity? If we do righteousness of God, where is their identity? If we do the glory of God, where is their identity? People of God, church of God, identity, identity, where is it? So let's do this together. Let's do then section one. Now please keep in mind, when we look at section one, and we look at its two parts, Paul is speaking to a church. He's speaking to believers. In fact, he's speaking to mature believers. So it sounds like at times, and it could be, it's a rhetorical device, you know, say, you old man, like chapter two, verse three, do you suppose this old man, when you pass judgment on those rhetorically, He's enacting, he's acting out, it appears, what he would have in a typical conversation with somebody who feels pretty good about their performance and is looking down on others, he's calling them to account. But please keep in mind, as he addresses these two groups, he's actually speaking to Christians and not doing evangelism on Mars Hill. So I would like us to think in terms of backgrounds. When this is read, the people who receive this letter will identify with one or the other of these backgrounds. They will identify with either having a Gentile background, that's chapter one, or a Jewish background, which is chapter two, and into chapter three. Those two backgrounds probably have analogies that have stretched across the centuries. Because what defines the two backgrounds, according to chapter two, verse 12, is those who have the law and those who do not have the law. Verse 13 and 12 and 13. Not that the Gentiles are without a work of the law, they have conscience, they make laws, they make rules, but they don't have a written copy of God's word. They were left in their ignorance according to Acts 17. And so they were left on their own in their ignorance. Prophets every once in a while would speak to them and write to them and call out to them and such. But Israel, ah, Israel received God's written word. And Psalm 147 says, no other nation was that privileged. And Paul also says in chapter three, what advantage is it then to be a Jew, to be circumcised? You have the oracles of God, which means you have not just the written word of God, you have the promises of God. So they had a lot of advantages being in covenant with God, having written scriptures that recorded the promises God gave them and bore witness so that when they're rebellious, God could point it out. All that was in their background. The Gentiles left on their own. So by analogy, I bet you could come up with, what does that mean in our culture, right? Those who grew up with the Bible, those who don't. Those who live in the lands with scripture, those who don't. I remember reading an op-ed piece. It was in the New York Times or something or other out there. I forget which one it was. But, I have raised my children without the word sin. That was the title. Obviously very proud of this fact. Well, You know, when my wife and I were watching a Charlie Chapman movie from a silent film era, and he's waddling around with his feet stretched out this way, all of a sudden, boop, the word sin appeared for the word spoken in the movie. How many times does the word sin appear in any movie you've seen recently, you know? It's like, Our culture has changed. You used to, you know, 100 years ago, very, you know, 200 years ago, America was very Christianized, would have quite a bit of knowledge of the Ten Commandments and various sins and different things. Right now, we live among many people who grow up without the knowledge of such things. Even though it's available, they don't know. And so maybe some of them are from that background are here tonight. That was me. I grew up not knowing the Tango. I didn't even know there was a Moses. I didn't know anything about Jesus. And here I am. And yeah, I'm from America. And yet some of you are like, oh, I remember. I mean, I was going to church nine months before I was born. I mean, I've been going to church longer than I've been alive. So some of you, it's like, you know the word of God. You know these things. So I think you can identify with one of these backgrounds tonight. You have a background in the word of God, written word of God, or you don't. I imagine that's going to be. true for each of us tonight. So what we're gonna do is we're gonna take the first one. Second, in each of these messages, I hope to like whip through, look through carefully, but quickly, what Paul is saying to the Romans and then draw conclusions or draw some potential lessons for us today. That's what I'm hoping to do. So let's do first of all, we're gonna do the Gentile part. And let me just walk through the text without reading every word. Verse 18. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress, I believe it's hold back, the truth in unrighteousness. That implies two things. Number one, they have the truth. Number two, They hold it back. Verse 19 and 20 is Paul's proof that they have the truth. Verse 19 begins with because. Verse 21 begins with the same word, because, and is the proof that they have then held back or suppressed it. So in verses 19 and 20, they have the truth of creation, clearly seen, being evidenced through what has been made, God made it obvious. He exists, His eternal power, His divine nature. But verse 21 then says, even though they knew God, now these are the Gentiles, these are everybody who got the stars, they got the planet, they got They got some pretty cool clouds that I saw going across Cincinnati today. They're like waves. It was really weird looking. They were like silk kind of drapery over this clouds. It's like God just does amazing things with all sorts of things, right? And so they have this, they have that. But in verse 21, it says that even though they know God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks. This is really interesting to me. There's not a list of rules here. Of course, they don't have the rules in the sense that they don't have a rule book. This is relational talk. Even though they knew God, they did not honor him as glorify and they did not give thanks. They didn't do that. Sin at its root is relational. What is the greatest commandment? And the second? And how much of the Old Testament hangs on those two? So everything can be summarized relationally with love. Like, wow. What a different religion. No, it's not a religion. What a truth. It's the reality. That's the way God is. God is love and he set the world up on the standard of love. Love me. Love your neighbor. Now, thankfully, we have the word of God to show us what is genuinely loving because our wicked hearts deceive us into thinking, I could never do that. I love my kid too much. Maybe love is actually tough love, we say sometimes. Love may look different, you gotta be discerning, but still, it's all summarized under love. Therefore, as Luther pointed out once, if loving God is the greatest commandment, not loving God must be the greatest sin. And so, wow, they didn't love God. They didn't thank him. They didn't honor him. It's like, I don't know, maybe you got this, you know, maybe you were, you got a good friend and, you know, it's like, hey, let's get together for lunch, you know, on Friday. We haven't seen each other for a while. Can we do, can we do this Friday coming up? And it's like, yeah, let's do this Friday. And you get busy in a project or you get distracted and the day, you know, the morning goes on and you're like, oh man, this is so, I'm late. Oh, if I get there now, we won't, Oh, they'll understand. I just got to keep going. And the next day, Sunday, friend comes near. Hey, where were you on Friday? I mean, I went, you know, to, I don't know, this restaurant, you know, and we were there. I was there. You weren't there. Where were you? You know, it's like, well, I mean, I just, things came up. Things got really busy. And you're hoping a real friend would understand. And the friend goes, well, I was really looking forward to getting together with you. There's some really big developments in my life that's happened recently. And I was really interested in how your son's been doing. And I just mean, OK, but I can't help it. I was disappointed. And all of a sudden, our action appears different. It's like what looked small. Now it seems big because the person raised an importance in our lives. Like, oh, I belittled you, didn't I? I made you just a task, an item, and then even then put it underneath other tasks. And like, I cheapened you. Will you forgive me? Honor is a big deal. It's not small. How about Thanksgiving? I picture this Christmas day. I'm from the north, and so there's got to be snow outside. Everybody's coming in from the cold and getting their boots off. And then aunt and uncle or little kids are coming in. They're helping with the little kids, getting their coats off, putting them up. Everybody's having a good time. And hey, would you like some hot cocoa? And we're going to open presents a little later. And everybody's just a whir of activity, just keeping track of everybody, making sure everybody's happy. And yet Grandpa sits in his chair. Nobody's taking time to talk to Grandpa, come over and sit with him and talk with him. But it's his house. They wouldn't be here without him. There'd be no moms and dads around, no grandkids around, and yet nobody's giving grandpa the time, and they all leave. No thanks, no time. If we as people feel like something's, this is offensive, like this is wrong, our conscience is right. If we feel this way about people, what do you think about God? who every day causes the sun to rise and the rain to fall, and whose hands are life and breath and all things, apart from whom we can do nothing? What do you think about God, who Jesus says is kind to ungrateful and evil men? What do you think about God? and the neglect. Oh, but we're humanitarian. Oh, the philanthropy, meaning love for man. Oh, the philanthropy, the big heartedness, the care for the poor. But when one woman, a Bethany, breaks a vial over Jesus, oh, we scold her. Oh, way too much. That's too, oh, $30,000 worth of perfume all at once. Can you believe this? What is this woman doing? And we scold her, and yet Jesus defends her. She did a beautiful deed. She did what she could. Honor, to whom honor is due, is a big deal. And how much do we miss the mark? So at the core of sin is a broken relationship in which God has given us existence and everything with it, and we haven't acknowledged him, at least to the level he's worthy of, or given thanks. And how much we're like the nine rather than the one, even as Christians. not returning our thanks. So, all that to just say, do you see what the heart of the Gentile sin is? The heart of the Gentile sin was not that, you know, breaking the rule, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. It's relational. God has manifested himself and they've turned. They've turned and they've devised, then verse 21 says, philosophies that explain him away. Just one of the reasons why I think the Chinese man that came to me in Bible study last year and says, I don't believe what you just said. I mean, I don't see God. Our culture doesn't see God in the stars and the heavens. Well, if you're in a Gentile culture that's enamored and been just shoved in with all sorts of this philosophy of verse 21b, that their heart became empty and their foolish heart was darkened. Would you be looking for these things? Would you even be aware? Is your instrument even tuned to that frequency? And so it's obvious, but it's suppressed, not just by individuals, but by cultures. It's always there. May God open eyes and God, you'll hear stories from how God does that. All of a sudden it just dawns on somebody, this can't be by accident. Like, whoa, it's beautiful. It's complex. It's whatever. Okay. First Corinthians chapter 1 verse 21 says, for in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom did not come to know God. So the philosophies of the world prohibited people from coming to know God. What happens then as a result of breaking that relationship, God, well first of all, they devise philosophies and then they move into idolatry. In verse 23, they exchanged his glory for an image and they moved into idolatry. Verse 24 says, therefore, he gave them over. Verse 26, for this reason, he gave them over. Verse 28, and just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over. Three times, therefore, God gave them over. For this reason, God gave them over. God gave them over. The punishment fits the crime and the punishment is the dishonoring of their body, verse 24, in impurity. And I see bodies dishonored often. The exchange of the right use of the opposite sex for same sex relationships, verse 26. If they exchange the glory of God for an image, if they exchange the truth of God for a lie, God hands them over to a power Culturally, and I have to be careful about this because I don't want to like target individuals, especially those who were abused as a child, and put the whole albatross around their neck, not dismissing it as sin, but calling them to a better life and yet not laying the whole weight on them because culturally, I think this is a statement, He hands them over to the exchange of heterosexual relationships to homosexual relationships. And then their mind also is torqued. He gives them over to a depraved mind. And you see the rest of the chapter, societal strife and their societies unravel in fighting. Francis Schaeffer was pretty famous once in saying that the churches dismissed the knowledge of God in the 1920s, the leading churches of America. And one generation later, our government dismissed the knowledge of God in the raising of children, in prayer, in scripture, in schools, even in oath-taking in government. And since that time, we've seen the sexual revolution, 65 million abortions that have followed. The breakdown of our society in different layer after layer after layer. Obergefell in just nine years ago, I mean, just such a radical shift. And if this, it seems to follow the pattern so well of a culture, rejecting the knowledge of God, not giving thanks, not honoring, and then God hands them over. And if that is so, then as Christians we need to recognize this culture is not just going to be judged, it is already under judgment. And no amount of politics is gonna fix it. It's gonna have to be on the religious level because it's gonna have to be a people acknowledging God again and getting right with him in order to have the judgment lifted. Because it is not a political thing that is settled upon America culturally. I think it's judicial, meaning from God. That's heavy. Now I'm gonna set that over there and then turn to the other side. Chapter two. You can almost see the Jew off on the side in the gallery looking down. And he's kind of looking at the crowd at this whole discussion and going, yeah, yeah, that's the way they are. You know, they deserve it. And so God, you know, then all of a sudden Paul turns to them and say, therefore, you have no excuse. Now he just got done saying in verse 20, they're without excuse. The Gentiles are without excuse. No, no, no. O Jew, he'll name them in verse 17, you are without excuse. What do you mean? In that everyone who passes judgment for that in the thing in which you judge another, you condemn yourself. For you who judge practice the very same things. And we know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. Or do you suppose, O man, when you pass judgment on those who practice such things, and do the same things yourselves, that you will escape the judgment of God? If the first group represents those who depart from the faith or depart from a knowledge of God and in some sense are apostate and end up being godless, the second group are hypocrites. Casting judgment on others, they have a log in their eye and they don't see their own problems. And as Jesus said, do not judge lest you be judged for the same measure you use against others will be used against yourself. I remember when I was a young minister in the Ohio River Valley, I used to minister that way in Indiana, in Switzerland County. I met an older man, and he was dying, and he told me, I have never failed anyone in life. And I said, Woodrow, weren't you baptized at age 19? And you haven't been in church since. Okay, you get the point. It's like, it was in those days that I learned to do, I was learning to do evangelism by take what you're given. It's like, cause this one, he handed me a softball that way. It was like, it was just, and he still wouldn't admit it. And I won't go into the rest of the story, it was a while, but my point is, is that if we are a hypocrite, we are saying such things and don't even know it. It's glaringly obvious to others that we fail miserably in the very same ways that we hold others accountable. And so can you imagine the judgment where God says, okay, tell you what, we won't go by my playbook, can you give me your rule book? I'd like to take a look at that one. And then turn over to page chapter three and like, how about this one? You were really critical on Aunt Sally for this, but how did you raise your kids? And what about this, this, this? I mean, the same yardstick I use against others will be used against me if that's my attitude of being critical. Notice these individuals have a superiority mindset where the other individuals often come into the church as failures. We see the two groups in the Gospels between the sinners that accumulate around Jesus and the scribes and the Pharisees and the hypocrites. Jesus treats them very differently. I remember one time I was speaking to a man back in the 1990s. And he was going on and on and on about President Clinton's affairs in the White House and how immoral he is. And then I pointed out something within his own family that was a breach, it appeared, of marriage. And immediately he started defending President Clinton. It was one of the most amazing turnarounds. But I wonder, how many of us? Because is it not true? If we find such things humorous, do we not do such things? And this is the danger of being church people. The danger of being church people is, you know, we're not holding up to our own standards. Yesterday I wore a shirt from Williamsburg. My parents went there and they brought it back. Road to independence. You know how hypocritical it was in the 1800s for those who complained about the tyranny of Great Britain to then turn around and hold slaves? That was the last act of Ben Franklin. Overture to the House of Representatives, 1790. Make this right. This is a glaring inconsistency. Preachers pointed it out, but others defended it. Our nation has done such. One of the books I read on American history that I used in teaching at Hillsdale College was a book by Andrew Delbanco. And he pointed out that in the 1960s, the left and the right, in a sense, both absconded from personal responsibility of caring for needy people. Because the left said, let the government do it. And the right got upset over it and basically was like largely saying, well, they should have done something differently. That's a generalization, professors like to do that. But I found it to resonate true with experiences that I've had with working with God's people over the years. Many, many of God's people are much more interested listening to the news that talks about the bad things the liberals are doing when that time could be reclaimed to care for our neighbors. We can easily shut that off and reclaim a ton of time in our lives to do something active and relational and helpful. But rather, it's a lot easier to blame them and then sit back and do little. But according to Ezekiel, and it's really challenging, Ezekiel chapter 16 verses 49 and 50 says, what was the sin of Sodom? And it does not list homosexuality. It lists they had their food, they had ease, they had leisure, and they didn't care for the poor and needy. And don't read into this, I'm some gospel, social justice preacher. I'm not talking anything like that. I'm just talking, setting aside my projects and taking care of people. Okay, that's all I'm saying. But therefore, Ezekiel says, they did abominations, and thus they did abominations. In the book of Genesis, you see the same thing. Abraham is hospitable. Lot is hospitable. Sodom is violent. And so, the outcry that goes to heaven is both the inhospitality done to guests and the abomination that Leviticus says the Canaanites were doing. The conclusion was, I've urged and tried to urge our people at Countryside, if you are upset about Obergefell, the cause of Obergefell is a prosperous 20th century culture that looked after their own interests rather than the interests of others and became consumed with themselves. And if we don't think we're consumed with ourselves, check with how many sporting events our grandchildren are going to. We're overloaded with activities. So I'm just gonna say, again, it's much easier as church people to like wonder about the foibles and this and that and chapter one and go, whoa, whoa, look at all this immorality, impurity, you know, and it's true. It's like, it's a ugly story and yet to not recognize that if my heart and my home are not open to other people, I'm contributing to my societal decay. and I'm part of the initial cause that led to it, a prosperous society that didn't use its extra to care for people who had less, but rather used the extra to indulge oneself, and an indulgent society never knows when to quit and eventually gets perverted, it seems. So, here's what we have. This is when we try to wrap it up, okay? Now, I know it's like, whoa, okay, you didn't get through all of chapter two. I can't get through everything. Chapter two ends in chapter three. If you want to go through where Paul treats the Jews, Paul treats the Jews in verse 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 23, 24, where he says, you know, you who teach others, do you not teach yourself? You who preach, you shouldn't steal, do you not steal? Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. I tried to do that in just a brief way with us as American evangelicals and just kind of go briefly with us. We need to be careful lest God take the stick out of our hand and go, well, how have you done? And what have you contributed to the good of your culture? So I just tried to do a little bit like that and go, what would that look like? And again, I'm exploring. There's other ways. There's probably ways that'll show up next week when God takes the stick out of my hand and puts it up against Bob Snyder. And then it'll be my turn. It's like, I don't know. But look at chapter three, verse nine concludes. What then? Are we better than they? And this is where we need to camp. I'm gonna land the plane with this. Are we better? Are we better? Aren't we tempted to say yes? Aren't we tempted to say, oh, we're all sinners, but at least we're better, right? Are we better? Are we not all under sin, meaning slaves of sin? Every one of us, this is total depravity brought home. There's none righteous, no, not one. There's none who seeks after God, none who understands, none who does good, not even one. Our mouth is an open grave. We speak lies. We don't know the way of peace. Fear of God is not before our eyes. We think we're wise in our own eyes. Think we know what we're doing. We think we know. Is there none? So this is gonna be necessary for missions and evangelism. This is Paul's first, it's almost a blow because he kind of knocks pride in the first one. But it's really true. He does the same thing in Titus. He says, honor all men. He talks about submitting to the government, speaking evil of no one, give consideration to everyone, and then he says why. For we ourselves once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our lives in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. Why should I be considered to my government? Why should I be considered to my neighbor who doesn't know Jesus? Because we ourselves once were foolish, enslaved to sin, hateful, hating others, envious. We ourselves. And the only reason we're not is due to when the love of God appeared, he saved us. Not by our own works of righteousness, but according to his mercy. The only reason that makes me different than you, than my neighbor, than my culture, is God's mercy. I am no different. I'm cut of the same cloth. So that helps me then to approach any sinner and go, I'm a failure like you. I haven't just failed, I'm a failure. I flunked out like you. I need a whole nother solution. To convince somebody from the culture who doesn't grow up with the Bible, you have to show them the foolishness of their ways. Paul shows what it leads to. Professing to be wise, they became fools. It's like, well, did the sexual revolution bring you freedom? Did the addictions to all those things, drugs, sex, everything, bring you freedom? Maybe you should reconsider that there's a different and a better way. That was foolish. But to the hypocrite, you take the rule book out of their hands and you turn it. Say, can I measure you? Because I've been hearing a lot of things coming out of your mouth. Those are the two ways we evangelize, it appears like, to Romans. For those that aren't convinced, now the brokenhearted, scoop them up like Jesus did sinners. Bring them in. That's, they've already gotten to the point. I admit, I'm a failure. and I need Jesus. We'll talk about what God does in Christ for all of us in the next section. But I hope this tonight is a good way to bring us to remembrance. There are two kinds of sinners. As Paul says in 1 Timothy 5, some sins go ahead of people, some sin comes behind him. Those that go ahead, boy, is the wrath of God revealed on them. But those that come behind are storing up the wrath of God and it is yet to be revealed. and it will not be pretty in the day of judgment and the revelation of the wrath of God. So may the Lord save both kinds of sinners and may the Lord grant recognition to all of us. We are that kind of sinner. We're not better. And if we can own that as an identity, then we can be ready for missions. That's my prayer. So let me pray. Father in heaven, Lord, we thank you for this opportunity to explore together a book from a different perspective, a book that we often cherish and know well. And so continue, Lord, I pray, to lead us. This is an ongoing conversation. And so may you bless us even as we interact in conversation, in lunch, and tomorrow. Lord, we pray that you would be with us. We need to hear from you. In Jesus' name, amen.