you All right, we have one more song for you all. Sorry to interrupt your intense fellowship today. You all are happy to see each other. But we do have one more song for you all. It's a great song. It's called, I Want to Know You. And again, I hope that's the desire of each and every one of our hearts, is that we want to know our Savior. But you all can follow along and sing along with the song. ♪ I've tried in vain, I've left no trace ♪ But what I need your word has said is ever only Jesus. You died, you lived, you rang, you plead There's love in all your words and deeds This weary heart finds all it needs In ever only Jesus I want to know you Jesus my Lord King of the heavens King of my soul I trade my treasures And all my rewards Jesus to know Though some should curse me for your name, I have no fear, I have no shame. You stand with me for all my days. I want to love you, Jesus my Lord. King of the heavens, King of my soul. I trade my treasures and all my Jesus to know you, then know you more. Like wave after wave on the ocean, like all of the sand on the shore. Jesus. I trade my treasures and all my rewards, Jesus, to know you, and know you more. King of the heavens King of my soul I trade my treasures In all my rewards Jesus to know Miss, I want to know you Romans chapter 10 verse 14 says, How can they call on Him who they have not believed? And how can they believe on Him who they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? So with that, with our desire to know Him and the way in which we know Him is through the preaching of the word, preacher bring the bullet. It's a good way to start preaching today. It's a good song and a good call for Brandon to look at me and say, bring the book. And here we go. We'll open the book. We'll read the book. We'll explain the book. And I pray that you guys would give attention to the book. As we come to Romans chapter 1, we come to the end of chapter 1. It only took me about 10 sermons to get through chapter 1. At that pace, it'll be 160 sermons to get through Romans, maybe more. But we come to the passage today that has made me nervous since I began this. I know it's not a popular passage. It's not something that you want to hear, I guess, but it's something that we need to hear. I don't think there's anything more relevant or needed in our day-to-day than these verses we're going to look at. These verses describe to us and explain to us a world that hates God. And as we read these verses, I think it explains exactly what's going on in the world that we live in. You look around our world and you see the chaos that's erupting. the sin that is bowling over, and you have to ask, what's going on? And the answer is found in these verses. We are living in a world that has turned its back on God, that hates God. So the title of the sermon today is A World That Hates God. Let's stand together and I want to show that to you. And I think this will be, you'll see it, you've seen it, you'll see it every day as you go through your life. You'll see this is the world we're living in. And we need to be not a world that hates God. We need to be as a church, a church that loves God. So we need to be the exact opposite of the world. Let's look at this. I want to start in verse 24 and kind of give you the idea of the whole section that we've been studying. So Romans 1, verse 24, it says, Wherefore, God also gave them up to uncleanness, to the lust of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves, who change the truth of God into a lie, and worship and serve the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. So for this cause, number two, God gave them up into vile affections for even their women to change the natural use into that which is against nature. And likewise, also the men leaving the natural use of the woman burned in their lust toward one another. Men with men working that which is unseemly and receiving to themselves that recompense of their error which was meat. Here's our verses for today. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind. To do those things which are not convenient, Being filled with, and you'll hear this, and this is what the world is filled with today. It's like Paul's reading the newspaper. Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy and murder and debate and deceit, malignity, whispers, backbiters, here's our title of the sermon, right in the middle, haters of God. Despiteful, proud boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful. Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death. Not only do they do the same, but they celebrate those that do them. They give hearty approval to people who sin. It's the world we're living in. It's a world that hates God. Let's pray together, and we'll study these sobering verses. Father, I know this is a hard passage. I've had a hard time studying it, and I know it'll be hard to preach it. But this is Your Word. I do not apologize for it at all. This is what Your Word says. This is the truth, and I will preach it as boldly as I can, as clearly as I can. And I pray, God, today, that as I preach it, my goal is understanding. I want to be able to explain this in a way that every person in this room can understand the world we're living in. That they'd walk away knowing these verses better than when they came in. They'd walk away knowing you better than when they came in. They would know Christ better because of studying these verses. So God help me, I pray that the people would be attentive, that they'd have their ears tuned in to the Word today. Help me as I bring the book today. And we ask and pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. You guys can be seated. Over the last two weeks, obviously I didn't preach last week, so I've had two weeks to prepare this sermon. And over the last two weeks, I have kept a notebook of news articles that I've read. I just wanted to see what was going on in our world, and I would find them. I'd read a newspaper at a hotel room last week in Richmond. I would follow Fox News on my phone, just keeping an eye on all the the headline stories that maybe you guys haven't seen, but I'm just keeping an eye out for. And I think I wrote down, I had many, but I only want to give you about six of them. And here they are. This is just in the news. It's in your newspapers as well as is mine. So here it is, just a few stories. Number one, the governor of Illinois had an abortion provider appreciation day, where they brought abortion providers into the government House and they thank them for the critical work that they do There's a college coach in Texas. I think it's Texas Tech. He was suspended for quoting just quoting a Bible verse President Biden said this week that it's cruel and sinful to ban sex change surgeries for children The governor of Minnesota said this when our children tell us who they are It is our job as grown-ups to listen and to believe them That's what it means to be a good parent I don't think she has any idea what it means to be a good parent. Hallie told me this week that she wanted to be known as Queen Elizabeth. If you ask her her name, she'll say Queen Elizabeth Tompkins. If what she says is true, then we should all be sending her to England and they should put a crown on her head as the Queen of England. It's our job to let the children tell us what they want to be. This lady has no clue what she's talking about. President Biden last week gave a man a Woman of Courage Award. And then just yesterday, I added this one yesterday, there is now a publisher that created a Queen James Bible where they've taken out all homosexual references as sin. This is the world we're living in. We hear this more and more and more. And unfortunately for most to hear this, it's not even a shock. It's almost normal. There's no surprise to it. We're used to it. And we have to ask this question. If this is the world we're living in, then what in the world is going on? What has got us to this point? And the answer, I think, is very clear. We're living in a post-Christian nation, and we've gone from being a post-Christian nation, and we're no longer that anymore. We are a God-hating nation. That's what we are now. And it's not just that that's my opinion. This is what Paul's saying here. That when you get to this point, you are a God-hater. He showed us in Romans 1 as we've looked our way through this passage, this is what happens when men reject God. This is what happens when man turns from God. And that's what he's showing us. A society who's turned its back on God. And as we turn our back on God, it's not just that we turn on God, it's that we will grow further and further and further away from God as we turn. We're running from God. We're rejecting God. We're rebelling against God. And the further we get away from God, the more sinful we will become. When you turn from the light, the automatic way that you go is further into the darkness. So our nation has turned from the light in that we've had truth for so many years. Probably no other nation in the history of the world has had more light than the United States of America. And over the last few years, we have turned from that light and we are now walking. faster and faster into the darkness of sin and evil and wickedness. That's the direction that we are going and we are now to the point where we are living in a nation that hates God. We went the first direction where we fell in verse 24 into a sexual revolution where sexual sin just exploded in our nation and that was really the 60's and the 70's. And then the next level would be a homosexual revolution. 80s, 90s, 2000s. And now we've reached the last level where we are exactly here in verses 28 to 32. This is the lowest. It's rock bottom. We now live in a nation that's all out sin. It's as dark as it can get. We live in a world, and I'm going to keep saying that. You may not agree, but the evidence is as clear as it can be to anybody who can read that we live in a world that hates God. It explains the world Paul was living in in Rome. It explains the world we're living in today. So let's look at a world that hates God. I'll give you three points today. I'm going to show you number one. And these are three things about a world that hates God. Number one, I want to show you the rejection of a world that hates God. It begins here in verse 28 where man rejects God. God is punishing us, not because He's just arbitrarily doing it. He's doing it because of something we've done. The punishment always fits the crime with God. And here's what man has done. Verse 28. And even as they didn't like to retain God in their knowledge. Or you could say, they didn't see fit to acknowledge God. They, being the society as a whole, decided, for the most part, they didn't want to have anything to do with God anymore. That's what it's saying here. They didn't want to retain God in their knowledge. They didn't want to think about God. They didn't want God in their homes. They want God in their schools. I can tell you the year, what grade I was in, when the nation decided we could no longer have prayer in school. And it wasn't just years, it just happened fast, where our schools just started deteriorating. Where violence erupted in our schools. You don't want God there? You don't want the light there? Then darkness is on its way. They don't want God in their homes. They don't want God telling them what their families should be. They don't want God in their schools. They don't want God in the government. They don't want God in the justice system. They don't want God in their minds. They don't want God in their lives. They don't want God's law. They don't want God telling them what to do. They don't want God's truth. They want their own version of the truth. So they've rejected God. They don't want order in the homes. God doesn't fit into their lives. This is openly defiant, willful rejection of God. And this is the basic problem of any society. This is the core of the problems in America today. that America has rejected God. That America has said we don't want to have anything to do with God. They may act religious and we still may have all these, in God we trust on our money, but in reality, we don't want to have anything to do with God at all. There was a senator in the Senate just a few months ago that said God doesn't belong here. They don't want God anywhere. There's churches today in America that doesn't want the truth in the church house. We've rejected God as a whole in this nation. That's what it was in Job. 2114 says, they say to God, depart from us. We do not even desire the knowledge of Your ways. It was the same in Jeremiah. For my people are foolish. They have not known me. They are sordid. Or the word sordid would be, they are stupid children. They have no understanding. They are wise to do evil, but to do good, they are clueless. That's our nation. Proverbs 129, they hated knowledge and did not choose in the fear of the Lord. They would not accept my counsel. They spurned all my reproof, so they shall eat of the fruit of their own ways. They have rejected God first, and now God turns around and rejects them. You see that here? Look what it says. And even as they, that's society as a whole, did not like to retain God in their knowledge, so God does this. He gives them over. The word there would be he abandons them. He lets them go. This is chilling, haunting. And it's said it three times here that God gave them over. Every time you read that, it should scare you to death. That God has said you want what you want, let it go. That God just says, ok, have your own way. Just do what you want to do. And the worst thing God can let a nation do is do whatever it wants to do. That all restraints are off and you can just go your own way. And we're living in a nation where God just took the restraints away and said, do what you want to do. Anything you want, go ahead. Want to be foolish? Be foolish! And this time God gives them over. Abandons them too. Look what He gives them. To a reprobate mind. You say, what does it mean to have a reprobate mind? It means a worthless mind. A mind that would be tossed into the trash. that they were meant to make money in those days. And they wanted them all to be gold and silver and to look the same. And as they would take them down and be making the money, if there was one that was deformed, one that was worthless, one that wasn't like all the rest, they would take it and they'd throw it in the trash. It was worthless. It was reprobate. It was not to be used. It was not to be put into circulation. And that's what it's describing here. That our minds become reprobate. that our minds become worthless. Our minds become unable to think. We're no longer rational. Think about this. This is where we are. We're no longer reasonable. We no longer have common sense. That God gives you over to this point where you can't even think right. Can't make moral judgments. In my interpretation of this, God gives them over to absolute insanity. That what makes sense It no longer makes sense. And what doesn't make sense, now makes sense to them. That their minds no longer work. That they're living in an upside down world. I call it a clown world. Or a mad, mad, mad, mad world. That's what we're living in. Where the minds are absolutely insane. A society that rejects God, that hates God, that tries to eliminate God, will not become more enlightened. They will become more dark. This is where we are. Our minds in America today are so dark, we don't know right from wrong. We don't know good from bad. We don't even know male from female anymore. Why? Because God has given our nation over to a reprobate, worthless mind where our nation is now absolutely insane. We're living in a mad world. Madness has overcome us. If our mind is depraved, and this is point number one, if our mind is darkened, if our mind is worthless, and that's what it is. You guys see this in the news all the time. You say, that doesn't make sense. What are they doing? Why is that? God's given us over. We've rejected God, so God has rejected us. We must have minds that are clear and biblical. In a world that's gone mad, we must be clear thinking. We must have renewed minds. Romans 12 verse 1. We must have biblical minds. We must be taught the truth. We must not go along with the world in their madness. Because when our minds go mad, and you need to understand this, when our minds go mad, when our mind is depraved, when our mind is worthless, we become capable of doing just about anything. Understand that. When you start thinking madness and insanity, then the floodgates open to your actions and all kinds of filth comes out. You're seeing it in our nation. Our minds are morally insane. I don't care if you're the smartest man at the smartest college in all of the land. You're absolutely insane today. Professors are insane. Doctors are insane. They don't have a clue what they're talking about because God's given us over to a depraved mind. And now watch what happens next. I call the first one the rejection. And it wasn't the rejection, it's that they rejected God and now God rejects them. And then second, when you have a depraved mind, it becomes rottenness. The rottenness of the world that hates God. This is what it becomes. Just read along with me. It says, even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, they didn't want God. And I want to keep repeating this. They didn't want to even think about God. They didn't want God anywhere. I've said it. Not in your homes. Not in your government. Not in your churches. Not anywhere. Not in your businesses. If you're standing for God in your business, they don't want to do business with you. They don't want God anywhere. Cast God out. And when God is gone, anything goes. Their minds become depraved and look what they do next. To do. You see that? That's the action. Give it over to a reprobate mind to do. They start doing rotten things. The mind is worthless and their ways become wicked. And we're seeing this. And what are their ways to do those things? What things? Things which aren't convenient. The King James makes it sound so much better than it is. These are things that you shouldn't even mention in public. These are things that's being taught in public schools that our kids don't even need to hear. These are things that are on Netflix cartoons that our kids shouldn't be hearing. And they are doing things that you shouldn't even speak of. Things that embarrassing, shameful, Is this not? I mean, I hope you guys are getting this. This is the world we're living in. Things that men shouldn't be doing. This word would actually be not convenient. Things that men were not made or created to do. What kind of things? He gives us a list here. The longest sin list in the entire New Testament. Evan asked me earlier, how many points you got today? I said, I only got three points, but I have 22 sub points. because it covers here these kind of things. He gives us a long list of when the floodgates open. I said that. Think about it this way. It's not the floodgates. It's the sewer gates. Because it is as rotten and nasty and stinky as bad as it can be. That's what he's saying. When your mind is depraved, your actions can be anything that your mind can think up. It's just all kinds of evil is going to flood our nation where you will be standing in the midst of filth and rottenness and wickedness. That's the world we're living in. And we see these things. And it doesn't cover everything, but I think it covers every category. If you read this list of 22 vices, it's sexual. It's financial. It's social. It's family. It's spiritual. Every area of our life becomes consumed by wickedness and evil. This is a list of just what comes out when your mind is like this. It's meant to overwhelm us. That when you hear one after the other after the other, you're going to say, yes, I see that. Yes, I see that. Yes, that's everywhere. I see it. It's bad. Oh, that's terrible. And you need to feel that. You read this and say, oh, well, yeah, I see that. It ain't that bad. I do it too. This is meant to make you feel like you're drowning. And not in a pool, but in filth. Just a list. And every one of these 22 of them, one after the other, after the other, is like a wave of filth hitting you in the face. And you know this. We see this in every movie we watch. Every song we hear. Every aisle in the grocery store. Every magazine that we read. Everywhere we go, we are hit with this filth. Because our minds are depraved, our actions become evil. Watch what it says. being filled with, and I'm going to stop there before I get into the 22 sub points. Full, being filled, overflowing, and it says it twice, being filled with, and then you go down and it says full of envy. This is not half-hearted. This is not, and maybe our nation at some point, it was just filling up. Everybody says today, boy, it ain't like the day I was raised in. I was raised in the 90s. I'm still young. Took you a second to laugh at that. But I say I grew up in a time when it wasn't that bad. It wasn't that deep. And then as I get older, it just seems like it's getting worse and worse and worse. It's like our nation is just filling up with depravity. And my poor kids We're born and raised and living in a society of filth. Filled with, dominated by, under the grip of, swimming in this stuff, up to, we are now drowning in it. If it was up to my knees in the 90s, then it's up to our chin now. It may be up to our foreheads where we're just trying to keep our head above water. We are drowning in filth. What kind of filth? Let me just go through the list. And these are all not actions that they do. This is the character of who they are. These things describe their lifestyle. And I'm just going to go down the list. I don't think you're supposed to give a word study to every single one of them, so I'm just going to read them. Can you imagine if I gave two minutes to 22? It'd be a long sermon. Bring the book, right? Let's just go down the list. Being filled with. Which means they are, the people in this nation, are unrighteous. The word there, that covers the whole list. That's kind of the summary statement of the entire list. This would be they are not right. Unrighteous would be not right. They are evil to the core. And what kind of evil acts do they do? First one on the list, they are fornicators. That's sexual sin. I think it covers most, if not all, sexual sin. I think it covers the sexual sin of the first letting go and the homosexual sin of the second. I think it covers a broad array of all sexual sin that you could think of. And we're living in a nation that is absolutely filled with sexual sin. Everywhere we look, from adultery to fornication to homosexuality, we're even on the on the verge of pedophilia. Yeah. And what they're showing our kids now and what they're trying to do to our kids where joe biden will say it's sinful to not give kids Children. He said sex changes. Our nation is full of fornicators. Keep going down the list. They're fornicators. They're wicked. You see that word? You know what that word means? They absolutely love doing evil. The worst thing that could ever be said about somebody is they love their sin. Next, they're greedy. Have you seen the banks shutting down lately? You know why the banks are shutting down? Because the executives in the banks are full of greed. It's more, more, more, and they'll step on and they'll step over whoever they have to step on and step over to get more, more, more, more, more. We are in the middle of the greediest nation in the history of the world. Let's keep going. They are malicious. That's just a word that means vicious or mean. All you have to do is scroll Facebook. And see how mean people can be. How vicious they are. It used to be that you could walk through a town and you could talk to people and you'd say, oh, man, people are so good and so nice and so kind. Even if they're not saved, they were still nice people. And now we live in the midst of as mean a people as you could ever find anywhere in the world. It's a vicious nation. And I want to stop here and say this. These things should not be found in a church. They're envious. This word here is they get angry when somebody has something. And it's not that they want to have it. This is how bad this is. They're angry when somebody else has something just because they have it. That they hate somebody so much that I don't even want it, but I don't want you to have it. That's the world we live in. Let's keep going. They're murderers. We have the highest murder rate in the entire world in America right now. And it's not a gun problem. It's a hating God problem. If you hate God, you turn from God, which loves life, into the darkness that loves death, and it don't matter if you take their guns away, they're still going to find ways to murder people. It's a heart problem. I thought I'd get more amens on that one. That's not a political statement. Murderers will murder. That's just what they do. There have been murders since Cain killed Abel in chapter 3 or chapter 4 of Genesis. He found a way. He was jealous of what his brother gave or the attention he got. And he said, I want to kill him! They're arguers. Let's just keep going. Wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, full of murder, full of debate. They're arguers. They quarrel and debate and argue. This is a simple way of saying they can't get along. I mean, I know that there's always been Republicans versus Democrats. But when I was growing up, they could still get along. I'll leave that at that. I told you this sermon could get you in trouble. It's here. Debate, deceit. You know what this is? Trickery. The word actually means to bait a hook. To be underhanded. That you feed somebody something with the intention of pulling it and hurting them. You know how deceitful politicians are? You know how politicians line. And they open their mouth to talk. And we just let you know, it's no big deal. They lie with those issues what they do. We laugh at it. malignant, full of hatred. That's what the word means. Full of hate, just eating up on the inside. I'm just bitterness. And so so much hatred in our world. And you see the rights that we find that there's now and I don't want to get into this. We're at the point of a race war in America. Hatred is boiling up. Why is that? Because God's given us over to a depraved mind. And we're now we're capable of just about anything. Race relations or ethnicity. I'm not calling it race. We are one race. Ethnicities. You got along better in the 90s than they do today. Why is that? We've been given over to a depraved mind. Whisperers, you'll love this one, gossip, spread rumors. Shh, let me tell you what I've heard. And I'm not talking about in church. That should not even be talked about in church. I told you it goes to how we speak. They're not only whispers. Let's keep going. Whispers and backbiters. This whispering would be spreading rumors. And this backbiting would be behind the back, slandering people. That you're trying to stick the knife into the back of somebody behind their back. And you're talking to somebody else and telling somebody else all kinds of wickedness and evil and lies about them trying to bring them down. That you hate somebody so bad that you would tell lies about them behind their back. And then there's that I circled it because it's right smack dab in the middle of this list. Hate God. What's the problem to hate God? Haters of God act like this. Keep going. Despiteful. They treat people as beneath them. They think they're better than everybody else and they look down on anybody who anybody and everybody. And you said that should not be. Nobody should see themselves as higher than anybody else. We live in a world of people who stick their noses in the air and think they're better than everybody else. Let's keep going. Proud. Walking into a room. These type of people walk into a room and automatically think they're smarter than everybody else in there. Kind of looking around. Yeah, I'm smarter than everybody here. Not even smarter, they look around and say, oh yeah, I'm better looking than everybody in here. and walk into a gym, oh yeah, I can bench press everybody in here. They just think they're so great, man. They're the best thing in the world. Not only are they proud, that's on the inside. They're boasters. That's on the outside. They like to walk into the gym and say, not only am I the strongest in here, but let me tell everybody how strong I am. And this boasters is not only even that they can do these things, it's that they embellish and exaggerate. They walk into a gym and say, yeah, I can bench press 450 pounds with three spotters maybe. boasting themselves up. You know what this is when they're proud and they're boasters? Self-centered. It's a me world. Next, they invent evil things. They discover new ways to sin. I never would have thought of that. How many times have you said that in the last few years? That's a new one on me. I never saw that one. How in the world is that? Where did that come from? I'm constantly saying that. That wasn't even a thing years ago. That there's multiple, multiple, multiple genders now? What? I mean, that's what they say now. It's not just male and female. I mean, you can have thousands of genders. It's whatever you want to feel like. It's whatever. Where did that come from? They invented something new. They're inventing new genders. They're inventing new ways to be evil and to be wicked. They're sitting around thinking, what can we come up with today? How about this one? Every one of these, it just keeps going. They invent evil things. They're disobedient to parents. You say, what does that mean? You know where lawlessness begins? You know where anarchy begins? This is a good one for the kids to pay attention to. Especially my kids. If they won't obey the mother and father in the home, then when they turn 18 and they get out of the home, they won't obey their bosses, they won't obey their teachers, they won't obey police officers, they won't obey the government, and before you know it, anarchy begins. It starts in the home. In the Old Testament, get this, and it is, you can go read Leviticus. If kids didn't obey their parents, the punishment for their crime was the death penalty. Oh, you guys think whipping them with a paddle's rough. Taking their phones away. Oh, it's the worst thing ever. Take your controller. My boys think it's the end of the world. I can't live. They knew in the Old Testament that if we don't nip it Barney Fife in the bud right now, that before you know it, the whole nation will be ruined because they won't listen to nobody. We have a society where kids don't listen to their parents. And because of that, there's chaos in the nation today. When 10-year-olds won't listen to their parents, 20-year-olds are riding in the streets and defunding the police. Now, this ain't politically correct, but this is biblically correct. Next, and there's God-given authority that we've got to teach our kids bottom line. And I tell my kids this all the time, bottom line, your job in the home, that's the only responsibility you have. Honor your mother and father. And Gracie and Isaiah will tell you, I'm constantly looking at them saying, the Bible says honor your mother and father. So honor me, honor your mom. Starts there. And then it goes to your teachers, and it goes to your coaches. And do you know that God has given pastors authority? That you should submit yourself, that we should honor our pastors. So we listen to our preachers. They don't do that anymore. And then you've got your police officers and your government and all these things just goes down the list. But the bottom line, the base level is honor your mother and father. And we must teach our kids to do that. And when they honor their mother and father, everything else falls in line. But if they don't do this, they'll end up in chaos in our nation where we are right now. Parents that let their kids do whatever they want to do. Sometimes it may look like I let my kids do whatever they wanna do, but you don't see what happens at home. When we get home. And they know it, they know the look. Next, and I've only got a few more left. You guys didn't think I'd get through 22 sub points. Next. Where am I, where am I? I'm a disobedient to parents, verse 30. Without understanding. You say, what does that mean? They don't have a clue, they're clueless. To them, Right is wrong and wrong is right. Are we not living in that world? Covenant breakers, you know, can't trust them. That's what that means. There's absolutely zero people that you can trust is what this is saying. You're living in a society where used to you could have a handshake deal. And now people won't keep any deal. Their word is no longer their bond. The handshake doesn't work. A signature doesn't work. Nobody's keeping their word. How about this next one? Without natural affection. That means they don't love who they should love. Natural. That's what that is. Natural. It's hard to love your enemies. It's hard to love those you don't agree with. It's hard to love those images. There's all kinds of people that's hard to love. Sometimes it's hard to love me, but you have to. But you know what natural love means? Natural love is I should naturally love my children. It's a natural thing that's within me, within my wife, that as soon as we have the baby, you look down at it and there's a natural, I love this baby! How in the world do I even know you but I love you, you know? That's natural! And it stays there. I don't care what your kids do. You'll always love them. It's just natural within you. You love your family naturally. And we live in a nation today where that little baby they should naturally love. They murder that baby. That's just unreal. In Rome, they would take babies that was deformed or weak and they'd drown them. You'd say, oh, we abort them. and a governor in America is giving an abortion provider Appreciation Day. How about this one? Murdering babies Appreciation Day. We appreciate the work that you do. I just saw yesterday at an abortion meal. I say meal. that there was Christians on the outside begging this young mother, please don't do this. She's walking in. Please don't do this. Please don't do this. The mother was panicking and shaking and the mother goes in and the mother comes out and had had the abortion and the providers behind them was cheering in the background. We've been given over to depraved mind. They are implacable, which means that you can't please them. That's what the word means. They're never satisfied, never happy. I've never seen, I'm probably spending too much time on these things. I've never seen a more depressed society. For everybody saying that we are progressing and getting better and better and better, we are getting more miserable and miserable and miserable. And lastly, they're unmerciful. They don't care. They lack any pity, they lack any compassion. We're seeing it every single day. If you ever watch anything on social media, I was watching a video the other day of a homeless man on the streets of New York City getting absolutely beaten to death. And there was kids surrounding this man getting beat up. And instead of helping that man, you know what they were doing? They were recording it so I could see it. Just sitting there with their phones. You know what that is? Without any pity at all. Without any compassion. Without any love. They are without mercy. They see things like that and they do this. That's what unmerciful is. They eat at us. This is everywhere we look. This is in the movies we watch and love. This is in our TV shows that we binge watch. This is in our schools where we send our kids. This is in our churches. If you compare this list with Paul's in 2 Timothy 3 that we just studied two weeks ago, the lists are eerily similar in that Paul says in the last day, the things that are in the world will find their way into the church. If this characterizes your life, I'm going to go ahead and say it, you're not saved. 1 Corinthians 6 says, Of such were some of you. We don't do these things. This shows a total collapse of a society. Genesis 6 says this, And God saw that the wickedness of man was greater than the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And he repented the Lord that he made man on the earth, and it grieved him in his heart. God looks down on a nation like ours and it grieves Him in His heart. Here we are. It's the rottenness of our society. It's the rottenness of a world that hates God. We've seen the rejection. We've seen the rottenness. Let me give you one more point and I'll close. The ruin. Because it gets slower. If you can imagine. We are now in a... I've taken you to the list and we are drowning in this stuff. You guys are having such a good time with this sermon. I get it. Anybody on Facebook has already checked out about 20 minutes ago. But you're drowning in this. You're up to your nose in this stuff. And then you get to verse 32. And it takes you where your head is completely underwater. And it's not water. It's nasty sewer. Rottenness. You say, how could it get worse? Watch this. Watch how bad it is. And this is our world. Watch this. Them who know the judgment of God. You see that? They know. What do they know? They know the judgment of God. That word judgment there would be the ordinances of God, or it could be the rules of God. They know what they're doing is wrong. It's not like they're ignorant to it. They know. You say, how do they know? Because it says they know. I think you could say that they know because there's certain things in creation that's obvious and we know it's wrong. Murder is wrong. Everybody knows that. You could have people in the jungles and they have penalties for people who kill. And they don't have a Bible anywhere. They know it's wrong. Creation says it's wrong to take a life. There's a conscience within us that God has given us that tells us when something's wrong. It's like the check engine light on a car. that you're driving down the street, the check engine light comes on. And if you're like me, I'm like, ah, they don't really mean that. And before you know it, you're finding a picture of your family to put over the check engine light, just so you can't see it. If I can't see it, it's not real. Before you know it, your car doesn't work anymore. Get this. Our nation has had its conscience where it's constantly telling us, this is wrong, this is wrong, this is wrong. And they've suppressed it and they've covered it up so we don't have to hear about it anymore. But they know it's wrong. They may not tell you they know, but deep down inside, they know their sin is wrong. They know they're killing babies. They know homosexuality is wrong. They know it. They know the rules of God. They don't need a Bible to tell them. Creation and a conscience tells them. And then preachers like me get up and I tell. And they try their best to shut me up. And what else do they know? They know they're wrong. Look, they know the judgment of God. They know the ordinances of God. The rules of God. That they which commit such things. That they who do those things. And we're back to that list. They know it's wrong. They know it. And they know that if they do it, they deserve to be punished for it. Like Eve. She knew it was wrong. And she knew she'd be punished for it. She knew. They won't admit it, but they know it. They know what they're doing is sin. And preachers like me are the check engine light that not only flashes, but gets really loud. Check your engine! Check your engine! You're in sin. You're in sin. They know what they're doing is wrong. And watch what they do. They know the judgment of God. They know that those who commit such things are worthy of death. But they still do it anyway. They keep right on. They commit spiritual suicide. It's unbelievable. They just keep on doing it. They keep on walking into darkness. It's like they know they're going to hell and they just keep on walking that direction. You with me? They know it. They may suppress it. They may not talk about it. They may not want to think about it. They may cover their ears when they hear about it, but they know they're going to hell and they just keep on doing what they're doing. They know. And you know there's people in church every single Sunday that's told what they're doing is wrong, and they know it's wrong, and they walk out these doors and they just keep on doing that wrong? That's the definition of moral insanity. You're committing spiritual suicide. It doesn't make sense. Why do they do that? You know why they do that? How much lower can it get? They know it's wrong. They do it anyway. They know it's wrong. I shouldn't do this. I'm going to get punished for it. But I'm going to do it anyway. That's our society. And then it takes it to the last level, which is the worst level. They celebrate it. Not only do they do it, it says in verse 32. But they have pleasure in them that do them. They give hearty approval to people who sin. They see people sin and they give them a hearty hip hip hooray, hip hip hooray. They encourage others to do it. They teach it in school to kids. There's more than two genders. There's only two sexes, male and female. They celebrate it. Their heroes become sinners. Their heroes become ESPN's Courage Award goes to Bruce Caitlyn Jenner. And everybody applauds. They condone sin. They cherish sin. They celebrate sin. They laugh at sin. They pay to see sin. They call sin brave. It's not brave. We have pride month. You know what pride month is? A whole month out of the year where our nation stops and celebrates sin. We have pride flags that are sitting in the front yard of a church in Big Stone Gap. Celebrating sin, that's no church. I'll preach on that tonight. That's a church that will send you to hell, not to heaven. Celebrating sin. Waving a flag, saying it's OK. It was a year ago this week that me and my kids, for Christmas, I said, I'm going to take them to a Charlotte Hornets basketball game. First NBA game for them. We walk into that place, and it is Charlotte Hornets pride night. I had a buddy say, what's God trying to tell you? I said, first, God has a sense of humor. I said, second, God wanted me to have a hard conversation with my kids on the way home. And I did. Because they'll teach my kids and they'll tell them it's fine. But if we don't tell them it's wrong, our kids will listen to them instead of listening to us. Some people look at me and say, Josh, you shouldn't do this in a mixed crowd. Preach stuff like this. You shouldn't do this. There's kids sitting in here. We let our kids hear it out there. We might as well let them hear it in here. They'll hear lies out there. They need to hear the truth in here. They hear a whole lot worse on Netflix and even on Disney. Buzz Lightyear movie. on Disney, one of the most beloved characters of my childhood, now nothing but a homosexual movie. All trying to celebrate it so that our kids, the celebrated character now is condoning homosexuality. Our basketball players at that NBA game wearing pride shirts. My kids look up to those guys and now they're walking out there saying it's okay. Not only is it okay, it's brave and it should be celebrated. This is where we are now. Our teams are celebrating it. Let me tell you what happened in San Jose to the Sharks of NHL last night. They had a pride night. And they have a goalie who put out a statement that said, I'm a Christian. I'm a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ and I will not play tonight because I refuse to wear the jersey. I said, I'll buy his jersey. I don't know San Jose Sharks. I don't know the goalie. I don't know nothing about hockey, but I like that guy. He's my favorite goalie. And you know how he got attacked last night on ESPN? Intolerant, hateful, mean. Who does he think he is? Celebrating sin and telling those who tell the truth to shut up. This is where our nation is. Our role models. Our heroes. And you know what? We just keep on buying their stuff and we keep on laughing at their movies and we keep on buying their, we don't buy their CDs. I guess we buy their songs somewhere. We just keep right on. We're living in a modern day Sodom and Gomorrah. And they're treating evil as something to be applauded, not something to be saved from. And they will shout down anybody who says different. This is as low as it gets. This is the lowest point of any society. There's nothing worse than a society that delights in doing evil and rejoices in perversity, where everything is turned upside down. This is the end of verse 32. And it puts a society, at the end of verse 32, exactly where God wants it to be, sinking deep in sin, far from the peaceful shore, very deeply staying within and sinking to rise no more. That's exactly where we are at the end of Romans 1. But you know what? You say, that's bad news, Josh. This is terrible. You better believe it is. But Paul puts this here so he can highlight and embolden verse 16. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. For it is the power of God and the salvation to every one of these people who sin just like this. Do you understand that? This is not hopeless. This is not desperate. Paul wants to put us here so we can go right back to v. 16 and say that in the Gospel, there is power to save anyone who believes. Not to save society. That's not our goal. I'm not out to save the nation. I'm not out to save America. That's not up to me. But what I want to do is preach the Gospel to people who are drowning in this sin. These sins are out here. And we go out and we preach the Gospel to them. And we're not saving society. But God, by the power of His Gospel, will reach into the depths of their sin and He will save sinners out of that. And you know how I know? Because that was me once. Every one of us, we can sit and talk about everybody out there, but you know what? I was drowning deep in sin. I was far from the peaceful shore. I was very deeply staying within, seeking to rise no more. But, the Master of the Sea heard my despairing cry, and by the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, He reached down and He pulled me out and saved me, changed me, and set me not on the path of darkness, but on the path of light. And if you're here today and you're saved, He did the same thing to you. And you know what else? He can do it to anybody out there. There's a whole world sinking deep in sin. Far from the peaceful shore. Very deeply stained within. Seeking to rise no more. But there's a Savior. And we have a Gospel. And He's got a strong arm. And He can reach way down and pull you up and save you from your sin. Get this. Jesus didn't commit one of these sins. Not one. but He died for every single one. What a Savior! What a Gospel! That's why we preach the way we preach. Not to depress anybody. Not to hurt anybody's feelings. That's not what we do. We do it to tell them there's hope in Jesus Christ. He's the only hope of society. I'm not going to Washington D.C. to protest anything. That doesn't fix anything. Go do it if you want to do it. Go vote. Try to get new laws and new politicians. Trump will save us. No Biden will save us. No somebody else will save us. Only Jesus can save us. That's why we preach the Gospel. We don't preach any political opinions or political figures. We preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ because in the Gospel, there is forgiveness for every single one of these sins. The sexual sins, the homosexual sins, and the all out filthy, evil, wicked sins of the world, there is hope in Jesus. If you're sitting here today and you're beat down by this sermon, praise God. Because it's in the darkness that we see how glorious the light is. And you can come to Jesus today, and I'll say it one more time, the Master of the sea will hear your despairing cry. You say, what's the cry? Faith! I believe! Save me! Forgive me! I'm a sinner! I've done those things! I'm doing these things! And He'll hear your despairing cry. No one who comes to Him by faith has He ever turned away. Isn't that you? It's me. Save me. I'm up to here in it. I'm up to here in sin. There's no way out. I'm doing those things and I can't stop. He'll hear your despairing cry. He heard my despairing cry. Aren't you glad? There's nobody else to save you. But on February 15, 2004, there was a strong arm reached down and heard my cry. And He lifted me up and saved me, and now saved him. Saved him. I ask you today, are you saved? Are you still swimming in this? Please, turn to Christ. That song says, love lifted me. Love lifted me. I think that's phenomenal. A world that hates God. And God sent his only begotten son. Why? Because he so loved the world that hated him. The world that hates him, he loves him. And he's got an outstretched arm for him. For any sinner who believes, he'll save. It's a simple gospel. If you're here today and that's you, cry out to Christ and he'll save you. love will lift you when nothing else could help. Let's pray. Father, I thank You for... I know it took me a long time to get there, but there's good news here. There's great news here. There's hope here. And I thank You for it. And I ask God today that if there's somebody who realizes the depth of their sin, that they're sinking in it, that their head is deep, and they're drowning in it, and they're going towards the darkness, they're on their way to hell, and they know it, that the day would be the day that they cry out, call out to the Lord Jesus Christ and are saved. Please, working hearts here today, I pray that your spirit would move through the preaching of your word and that the miracles would take place in the heart of people in the pews. And I pray for the believers here today, God, and I know there's the majority here, we're all believers, that we wouldn't look at a world like this and hate them. They're not our enemies, they're the mission field. And that we would take this gospel that is powerful, like dynamite, that we would preach it from this pulpit, and that we'd take it to our families and our friends and our loved ones. We'd share it on Facebook. We'd do everything we could to get the Gospel as far and wide as it can, because people are drowning in their sin. Please, God, please save. Please. And we ask and pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's stand together. We're going to sing.