I want to talk with you this morning about changing standards. The economy right now is going through some interesting times. On the one hand, there's segments of the economy where prices are tumbling. Real estate Uh, prices are, are continuing in many areas to contract houses and land are being priced lower. And even at those prices, a lot of people are reluctant to buy. Prices are going down. On the other hand, when you go to the grocery store, prices in many cases are going up. In other situations, prices are remaining the same outwardly, but Under the surface, inside the wrapper, we find that the unit price has gone up because a carton of orange juice still costs the same, but it's no longer 64 ounces. A roll of paper towels still costs the same, and the outside of the roll is the same diameter as it was before. But that little tube that's supposed to fit over the stand that holds the toilet, that thing is now about this big. I mean, it's huge. They have dramatically reduced the number of paper towels on a roll of paper towels, not by shrinking the outer circumference, but by expanding the hole in the middle. Pretty soon, the hole in the doughnuts may be the size of the doughnut. You know, but what do we care? We're not eating donuts anymore, right? Standards change. Standards change. And sometimes it's amusing, and sometimes it's maddening, and sometimes it's confusing. Singapore discovered that a lot of Asian people have a larger percentage of body fat than their non-Asian counterparts and that therefore they needed back in 2005 to revise the BMI standards so that old Asian people would know they were fat even if they weren't heavy. Five years later, scientists in Australia discovered that older people who are overweight tended to live longer than older people who were normal weight. And so they suggested in 2010 that perhaps for older people, at least in Australia, the BMI standards should be changed to allow heavier older people to be considered normal. Confusing. Harvard. In 2003, published in their newsletter to their newsletter subscribers, think you have normal blood pressure? Maybe not anymore. Why, did my blood pressure just change? No, but they revised the standards in 2003 as to what constitutes high blood pressure. So that even if your blood pressure didn't go up before you got the report from Harvard, Now you have a reason to be stressed because your blood pressure, which has been constant and was considered healthy and okay, is now considered dangerous. What's the deal? I didn't change, they changed the standard. Imagine if somebody came along with a yardstick that was this tall. That'd be a little discouraging for some of us, wouldn't it? That revision of the blood pressure standards in 2003, that was the first time that they had revised the blood pressure standards since 1997. In other words, standards that men come up with are subject to revision. It'll always be that way. Just this week, headline in USA Today, Property crimes given a second look to cut costs states redefine felonies More than a half a dozen states are reclassifying a range of property crimes From felonies to misdemeanors a Change that could spare prison terms for minor offenses and save states jail and prosecution costs You committed the same crime, but hey, now we're not so concerned. Why? Well, our prisons are overflowing. We're gonna solve the overcrowding problem by just redefining what constitutes a felony. We're gonna change the rules. You committed this crime, you do the time. Well, we're kinda tight on space, so you committed this crime, we're not so concerned. Now, some of us look at that and it's maddening. I understand. Inflation, okay. Overcrowded prisons, okay. New scientific evidence. about blood pressure or obesity or whatever, okay. But the problem is when people try and apply that same flexibility and redefinition of standards to standards that were not set by men in the first place, standards that were set by God. I want you to open your Bibles to Romans chapter one. Romans 1. We're going to begin in verse 18. Romans 1, beginning in verse 18. This is God's Word. The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness. Since what may be known about God is plain to them because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world, God's invisible qualities, his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen being understood from what has been made. So that men are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him. But their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore, God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served created things rather than the creator who is forever praised. Amen. Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way, the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion. Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, He gave them over to a depraved mind to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed, and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant, and boastful. They invent ways of doing evil. They disobey their parents. They are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things, but also approve of those who practice them. May God add his blessing to this reading from his holy and inspired word. First thing I want you to see in this passage is that God's wrath is being poured out. That's what it says. The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men. God's wrath is being poured out. It's happening. It will happen to a degree that we have never seen in human history. God's wrath will one day be poured out in a way that it never has been before, and that will be the end of this world and make way for the new heavens and the new earth. But right now, God's wrath is already being poured out. And we need to understand that in order to make sense of what's going on around us. In order to understand what's going on, let me give you an example. I've said this many, many times for many, many years, but a lot of people still don't seem to get it. Abortion is not just something for which God will punish. Abortion is the wrath of God being poured out. If a third of our children suddenly developed a fever and died, we would feel that the wrath of God was heavy on us, would we not? A third of our children are dead. They've been killed by our own hands. That's the wrath of God. Because what it says in this passage is that the wrath of God is manifested as God gives people over to doing things that are evil. The rampant evil in our culture is not just something that will result in the wrath of God, it is the wrath of God. Because God has given people over to sin. He said, fine, have it your way. Have it your way. Do as you please. Not that there won't be a day of reckoning, but because it is absolutely horrifying when men do as they please. It is absolutely destructive when people follow their own perverse, sinful natures. Because apart from God, you and I are spiritually dead. We have no life apart from Him. Apart from Him, the impulses and desires of our hearts are at enmity against God. We're filled with wickedness from birth. Nobody has to teach little children to be selfish. Nobody has to teach little children to be dishonest. Nobody has to teach little children to be bad. I can do bad all by myself, right? And so when God allows people to go ahead and do what they want, that is the wrath of God being poured out. And the reason that's important for us to understand is because sometimes when we see all the wicked things happening, we say, God, why don't you do something about this? And God says, I am. What are you doing? I'm pouring out my wrath. What does that look like? It looks like this. It looks like all kinds of people doing all kinds of things that they ought not to be doing. And that's the wrath of God being poured out. Does that make sense? Do you understand? Very important. Otherwise, you're going to think that God is somehow not involved. God's very much involved. He is doing what He promised. He is pouring out His wrath. But secondly, I want you to see that He's pouring out His wrath on people who know better. He's pouring out His wrath on people who know better. It says, the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness. They suppress the truth by their wickedness. Now, that does not mean that everybody everywhere knows everything about God. I can assure you that nobody anywhere knows everything about God at this point. He is infinite. And so it's not that everybody everywhere knows everything about God. It is that everybody knows a whole lot more than what they let on. People are doing things that are contrary to what they know is right. I know I probably shouldn't say this, but, well, then why are you gonna say it? Well, I shouldn't do this, but just this once. Why? If you shouldn't do it, why are you going to do it? If you shouldn't say it, why are you going to say it? Why do we do that? I've done that. What a stupid thing. Well, I know I was always told as a child not to stick a screwdriver in my eye, but just this once. Would that be crazy? You're right, that would be crazy. But you see, here's why I use that illustration. We think certain sins don't really matter. We've changed the standard. The Bible tells us that the wages of sin is death. That's what sin produces. But we've decided that that doesn't really apply in this situation. That really doesn't describe me. I have found that I can do things I shouldn't, and there are no dire consequences. I've been having just a little bit of poison every day to see, okay? And so far, I'm here. I did notice my right foot has lost sensation, but I don't think that's related. Listen, folks, the fact that you have not yet seen what you consider serious consequences for the stuff you're doing that you know you shouldn't do does not mean there are no consequences. God is not mocked. Whatever a man sows, that shall he also reap. You plant that seed in the ground and nothing comes up the next day and you say, no consequences. You come back, you look the next day, still nothing there, you plant another seed in the ground. You come back the next day, I still don't see a thing. You plant another seed in the ground. You come back the next day and there's just this little tiny thing poking its head up out of the dirt. And you said, Oh, well, no big deal. Jack and the beanstalk. That was make-believe, but you keep sowing seeds out there in the dirt. You're going to have a garden. Things are going to sprout up and as they start coming up, all of a sudden you're going to find all those seeds you planted. My goodness, they bring forth a harvest and you're going to have to deal with what you planted. You know what? You can't disguise what you planted. Do you know that? It's not like that after the thing comes up out of the ground you can pretend it's something different That's not really corn Okay, I just want you to know I I'm sure I didn't plant corn. Oh I'd say you did How do you know well because that's what's growing in your garden Do you understand, folks, that when we suppress the truth in unrighteousness, it doesn't change the truth? When people deny the existence of God, it doesn't make God not God? It doesn't cause God not to exist? If people say, well, I don't believe in God, well, that's just the equivalent of saying, well, I'm a darn fool. I mean, it's not like, oh, you don't believe in God? Please don't say that. You need to believe. We want there to be a God. Want there to be a God? Don't want there to be a God. Believe in God? Don't believe in God. God remains unchangeable. He doesn't change. So what you choose to believe and your efforts to suppress the truth and unrighteousness doesn't change God at all. Doesn't change Him at all. All it does is reveal the extent of your wickedness. That's all. So God's wrath is being poured out and it's being poured out on people who know better. On people who are suppressing the truth by their wickedness. And then he says, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. Yeah. Well, how do we know it's plain to them? Because God has made it plain to them. Well, how do we know that? Because God says so. Well, I don't know that I believe that. Well, you're a darn fool. And I'm being kind when I use the word darn. C.S. Lewis, former atheist, said that the atheist is a damn fool. He said it on a radio program, I believe in the 1940s. He got a torrent of response. People saying, you know, how could you use such intemperate language? And he thought, well, perhaps I shouldn't have said that. And then he thought about it and he thought, no, the Bible says the fool has said in his heart, there is no God. And anybody who persists in refusing to acknowledge God is obviously going to hell. So I want to reiterate, he said on the next broadcast, after consideration, I am not going to retract or modify my remarks. The atheist is a damn fool. Now that's a biblical description. You understand? It's not the kind of language I would encourage you to use around campus. Pastor Wood says the atheist is a damn fool. Try to get the concept, children. Understand what we're doing here. It's not just our opportunity to use language that we normally can't. But I want you to understand what scripture says. And that is God has revealed the truth that men need to the extent that everybody everywhere on the planet is without excuse. God hasn't revealed through nature enough information for everybody everywhere to be saved. What God has revealed is enough so that nobody has an excuse. Nobody can say, well, I didn't, I didn't have any reason to believe that there was a God. Wrong. Wrong. You know better. You might not like God. You may not want to believe in God, but everybody everywhere has plenty of evidence to know that there is a God and that you're not it. Is that clear? So we're without excuse. Verse 21 and following. Two points, real quickly. Number one, people, knowing there was a God, refused to give God thanks. They refused to give God thanks. I would not have made that as high on the list of problems. You know, it's just me. There are a whole bunch of other things that would be much more upsetting to me about what people do than failing to give God thanks. But I must say, as I look at the scriptures, Old and New Testament, apparently one of the most outrageously offensive things that people do is the sin of ingratitude. Now here we're coming up soon on Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving, what a wonderful holiday. What is that holiday about? Turkey. And mashed potato and other things too, but turkey primarily. It's Turkey Day. I've heard it called that by a lot of people. Turkey Day. Well, we also have, you know, like we bring in stuff from outdoors and put it on the table and make it, you know, look kind of autumnish. And colors are like orange and brown and stuff like that. And, you know, kind of a harvest motif. And, of course, relatives, relatives come. Turkey and relatives. Some of my relatives are turkeys. But anyway, we get them all together, and we sit around and try not to get indigestion from eating too much food and being with the relatives. And, you know, that's pretty much what the thing is. Oh, oh, oh, oh. Football, of course. Football, football. Football, I mean, that's really, I mean, but that goes without saying. The reason I didn't say football is because, of course, that, you know, I mean, well, because, well, for one thing, football's all the time, but certainly, I mean, Thanksgiving wouldn't be Thanksgiving without football. So, I mean, it's the turkey and some other food and the decorations and the relatives and, of course, football. Have I left anything out? Yeah, Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving. The whole purpose of the holiday was to give thanks. Oh, yeah, right, right, right. Okay, well, you know, I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer. Okay, Thanksgiving, yes, it's a good time to be thankful, to, you know, to consider how good we've got it here as Americans. We've got it good. We really do. It's not as good as perhaps in some generations. My 401K is just, I mean. But nevertheless, I'm, you know, we ought to be thankful. To whom? Huh? To whom? Well, just thankful. To whom should you be thankful? What do you mean? You see, we have fallen so far that we don't even understand that the purpose of Thanksgiving was to give thanks to God. Well, I think we ought to thank everybody else. I'd like to thank all of you for being here and supporting me. Fine, say thank you to people who've been nice to you, but the purpose of the holiday was to give thanks to God. And it was a holiday tradition that goes all the way back to our forefathers, many of whom had lost their loved ones to sickness, to weather, to lack of food. What happened? They gave thanks for those who'd survived, for the food that they had, for new friends, the Indians, who'd helped them to make it through the horrible year before, who'd helped them to have hope going into the new winter. And so they gave thanks to God. Folks, you and I, sin against God grievously when we are not thankful for the blessings we enjoy. Are you grateful that you have food to eat? Are you grateful that you have a safe place to sleep? Are you grateful that you have clothes to wear? I don't like this outfit. This is the best thing I could find. I don't like it. I've got to get some new clothes. You've got to get a new attitude. Do you realize how blessed you are? Give thanks. These folks sinned against God. Our culture sins against God. We sin against God. when we fail to give God thanks for his tremendous blessings. You know what happened? They not only failed to give God thanks, but they became worshipers of created things. They became worshipers of created things rather than the creator. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore, God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served created things rather than the creator who is forever praised. Amen. Where does all this sexual immorality in our culture come from? It comes from a materialistic society. The more materialistic we become, the more sexually perverse we become. Look at it in history. Look at the decadence of cultures that were blessed and became prosperous and became decadent and in their materialism they became increasingly sexual perverts. Where does it come from? It's the wrath of God being poured out. When you worship and serve created things rather than the Creator, all your desires get perverted. And that's what's happening in our culture, and it's the wrath of God. What in the world is going on with America today? It's the wrath of God. It's the wrath of God. Well, where did it come from? Where these societal changes, these changes in attitude, I just, well, it's materialism. And that's why Jim Bob, who worships the almighty dollar, can't understand what happened to Jim Jr. Why does he want to wear a dress? Well, because he was raised in a culture that worships material things instead of the Creator. And when you grow up like that, you don't have a compass anymore. Everything becomes twisted and perverted. It's the wrath of God being poured out. God willing, next time we'll look at the rest of this chapter and some of the ways in which it affects all of us.