If you would, please open your Bibles to Romans chapter 1. Romans chapter 1, we began yesterday in verse 18, read through the end of the chapter, and talked about the fact that as humans, we have a tendency to want to change the standards, kind of change the rules, reassign values to things. And yet, in this passage, we see that while men may not consider things the way they should and may not agree with God's standard, God's standard doesn't change. And so we're going to begin again, this time in verse 21. and go forward from there. And I want you to again see, as we began yesterday, that God says, this is right, this is wrong, this is what you need to do, this is what you mustn't do. And people suppress the truth in unrighteousness. It's not ignorance. It's willful ignorance. It's deliberate ignorance. It's like somebody who closes their eyes and says, I don't see a thing. Well, it's not because it's not there, it's because you're deliberately closing your eyes. Sometimes preschoolers develop a nasty little habit of going, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, because they're trying to drown out what someone else is saying. I don't recall any of my children doing that, but I have seen children do that. I think children like that just aren't allowed to live around me. When you try to drown it out, it doesn't change what's there. When you try to ignore what God says, His Word does not change. Verse 21 and following. 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 worshipped 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've become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed, and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and malice. They are gossip, 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 Word. This says that if you live a materialistic lifestyle where you are focused on worshiping, devoted to, chasing after material things instead of seeking first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, you will find that not only does your behavior become worse, but your desires become more and more perverse. You start to want stuff that's just plain twisted. Think about some of the things that people crave that they know are bad for them. Now I'll pick on something that is not fashionable in our society. Smoking. Oh, please, Pastor Wood, you're not going to say that it's a sin to smoke. I just want you to think about the behavior of smoking. What happens the first time you inhale a cigarette? What happens? It's awful. Your body knows that's poison. And so it responds the way that you are engineered by God to respond to toxins that are taken in to your bronchial passages and lungs. It tries to throw it back out. It tries to get rid of it. The only way that you are able to get to where you can smoke and not cough like that is by destroying the defense mechanism in your body. That's the only way you, quote, learn to inhale. Now why would you want to do that? Well, because nicotine is so good. Well, it can be pleasurable. But so can sleep. There's a guy who's on trial right now. For having. Allegedly overdosed Michael Jackson. With a drug that's supposed to be used by an anesthesiologist in order to keep people asleep during surgery. Because allegedly Michael said it was the only way he could sleep. Now, you know, I've never met Michael Jackson and I don't expect to in the next life, but Michael apparently was addicted to the only stuff that at that stage in his addiction gave him relief and it killed him. Well, that guy hadn't given him so much. I, you know, I'm not running the trial, and I'm not on the jury, and I don't know. I just know this. If you're using toxins to try and get relief, you're not dealing with the pain in a healthy way. And yet people use alcohol, narcotics of all kinds, in order to try to escape for a little while from the painful existence that is theirs as they walk in rebellion against God. When you do not do what God says, things are out of joint. Things are messed up. And when the pain of that dislocated relationship is so intense that you feel like you've got to dull your senses with poisons, maybe what you need to do is get things straight with God. Just maybe. You think? But instead, people do one thing after another after another that's destructive to their health, it's destructive to their relationships, it's destructive to their soul. And this passage describes some horrible things, some perverse things. And the first thing on this list used as an example of just perversion in a culture is homosexual behavior. Homosexual behavior between men, homosexual behavior between women. That is used as an illustration under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to say, that's just a picture of how bad things can get. And people are supposed to read that and think, ooh, that's bad. Instead, in our culture, We are told that we have to accept it. And young people who've grown up in supposedly evangelical families and evangelical churches and evangelical parachurch ministries are responding to surveys saying that the problem they have with the church and with Christianity is that we're not accepting enough of homosexuals. Do you know what that says? That says that God is pouring out His wrath on our culture because our young people living in this materialistic culture, this mammon-worshiping church culture, are saying yes to evil desires and no to God. Refusing to recognize what God says. If I thought it'd be a great idea to put my fist inside my ear, it wouldn't make it smart. Fists are not designed to go in ears. You understand? Biologically, anatomically, homosexual behavior is a violation of the design principle. God designed our bodies as male and female not only for pleasure but for reproduction. It's a marvelous system. It's designed by God. It's a wonderful thing. And homosexual behavior is a violation of that. And if you look at what's happening in our culture, behaviors that are sick, twisted, perverted, gross, are being treated as normal now. That's a picture of how far we've fallen as a culture. But I want you to understand that when God describes the descent from materialism to sexual perversion. He then goes on to describe the further evidence of this domino effect. And some of the things on that list should make you shudder. Verse 28. Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, He gave them over to a depraved mind, that means just an insanely evil mind, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed, and depravity. Is greed really a problem? I mean, would you say that greed is as big a deal as homosexual behavior? Well, God does. And I would submit to you that one reason why young people are not impressed with our pronouncements against homosexual behavior is because those pronouncements all too often are coming from people who are consumed with greed. And if we're a bunch of greedy mammon worshipers pointing at sexual perverts and saying, ooh, that's nasty, unaware of the fact that we are, according to God's word, perverted in our own way, and that we are, as mammon worshipers, a bunch of idolaters, because that's what the Bible says greed is, then how in the world do we expect to have any sort of spiritual authority in this battle? How are we going to win the hearts of our children if we are, like the rest of the folks who are going to hell, pursuing the same stuff that they're pursuing, but trying to do it with a Jesus bumper sticker? If what we're after is what the world is after, then we have no credibility. We're supposed to have repented and be going against the flow. But if you do that, Well, my goodness, that would require radical change. Yeah, it would. Yeah, it would. I've told you before. I don't have a problem with same sex attraction, but I got a problem with greed. I do. Oh, pastor. I don't, I don't see you as a greedy person. Well, you don't know my heart. I don't aspire to be filthy rich financially, but I want the biggest piece of pie. When I'm going through the dessert line, I can tell when I'm four or five people back from the pie which piece I've already chosen. And it's never the small one. Even if it's not the biggest one, it'll be the one that has the nice section of crust or the nicest dollop of whipped cream. I mean, I pick it out. And if anybody between me and the pie chooses that piece before I get to it, I feel robbed. I feel robbed. That was my piece. Why didn't they realize that's the nicest piece? We ought to save that for Pastor Wood. I mean, what's wrong with these people? Are they just that inconsiderate? Why would they be so selfish as to deprive me of my opportunity for selfishness? That's greed. You understand? That is greed. It doesn't have to all be about money. It's about wanting the biggest, best, most for yourself. I have to fight it constantly. I go to set the table. I think that in and of itself ought to be a concession, but I go to set the table and one of the dishes doesn't look like it got completely clean in the dishwasher. Who am I going to give that to? Who hasn't been nice to me lately? And then I realize either wash it or use it yourself. Well, that stinks. I'm the one setting the table. Precisely. So what would Jesus do? He'd probably wash the dish. Well, then get over to the sink and wash it. OK. So now that I've washed it and I know it's really clean, I ought to give it to somebody else. Because otherwise I'm taking the one I know is really clean for me, giving them all the others that came out of the dishwasher with carefully washed and dried food on them. Right? I'm just telling you selfishness, greed are all around us all the time and I constantly find myself drawn in the wrong direction and I have to die to self. You understand? But given over to a depraved mind filled with wickedness, evil, greed and depravity and they're full of, listen, envy. They're full of envy. Now envy, is envy really that bad? I mean, I know we shouldn't be envious. All right. I mean, we shouldn't be envious. I mean, envy is not a good thing. I shouldn't be envious. But do you see what comes right after envy? Murder. And when I do evangelism explosion and I ask people, if you were to stand before God, and he said, why should I let you into my heaven? What would your answer be? You know what everybody wants to get in on? I've never killed anybody. That's their hope of eternal life. I've done this, this, this, and this. And I've never done this. And I've never killed anybody. I've told you before, I get nervous around the people who don't say it. You know, cause I'm thinking, uh, you know, I mean, if they don't cite that as, as their big Trump card, that's what people are counting on. They, you know, the old line about out West. Oh, it's true that I have robbed banks and I have, uh, I have shot people and, and I, and I do beat my wife, but I have never stolen a horse. You know, everybody has their standard. They have their one thing that they can count on. You know, I would never do that. I've shot a lot of men, but I've never backshot nobody. You know, there's some, you know, there's some thing that's just, that's where I draw the line. Well, you know what? Envy and murder are put right together by God. God treats them both as heinous, depraved evil. So if you have a problem with envy, like I have a problem with greed, it's repentance time. You understand? Because what we want to do is just kind of change the price tag. Say, well, that's not such a big deal. Murder. I agree. That's terrible. Murder is terrible. Sexual immorality as it's awful. I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't see how people could do that, but greed envy, you know, well, I'm only human. We'll get over it. Get saved. Ask Jesus to save you. Cause it's not okay. Envy, murder, strife, strife. You know, there are some people who just enjoy stirring things up. They are always just picking a fight. Excuse me, I think you have a speck in your eye. Can I get it, please? Oh, you have one, too. Did you notice the speck in his eye? Did you notice the speck in hers? I mean, they're just stirring stuff up all the time. Fault finders. Horrible. Deceit. I didn't lie. Did you deceive? Well, maybe. I grew up. Learning sophisticated. Deceit. We thought it was what we had to do in order to be good Christians. Cause we couldn't tell people the truth. Some person has just sung in church and has the bad manners to ask how you liked their song. You know, well, do you like my song? You can't just look at them and say, not really. At least I didn't think you could. I'm learning. Do you like my song? We learned what to say to people like that. You know, I've never heard that song sung that way before. Did you like my song? I've never heard that arrangement before. Or how about this? I will never forget it. You see, I thought that was being clever because I was telling the person something that was true, but totally misleading them. Aren't I smart? No, that's deceit. You're supposed to speak the truth in love. Well, if you say the truth, it's not going to seem very loving. Well, sometimes, The most loving thing you can do is to spare a whole bunch of people from ever having to hear that again. You understand? You understand? Just tell the truth. You could say to them, do you like my song? I really like you, but I wasn't crazy about your song. I'm not sure that's your ministry. In fact, I don't believe it is. I appreciate the sincerity with which you sang, but it didn't make me long for heaven in the right sense. Okay? Just tell the truth. Don't deceive people. I'm telling you, deceit is listed by God as one of the things right in there with murder and malice. What's malice? That's wanting bad things to happen to other people. Which, if you think about it, is pretty much the premise of America's Funniest Videos. We love it when people get hurt. We just love it, don't we? Pastor would you're not saying we can't watch that show. I'm not saying you can't watch that show I'm saying that the fact we find that show so appealing should tell us that we've got a heart problem because somehow Other people's pain is our pleasure Isn't that sad? Well, I've never thought of it like that. I don't even know those people Honestly, now, if you did know those people, wouldn't you think it was even funnier? Of course you would. Oh, wait, I've got to rewind this. Look at this. If my wife had videos of some of the stupid things I've done, we'd be rich. We would have been the hundred thousand dollar runners. I was running to get in the car and my feet got ahead of the rest of me. I went airborne. And I came down just like a, I don't know what, a canoe. I just went up in the air and then boom, right on the ground in the mud. We were having a romantic weekend, that was probably 18 years or so ago, over in North Carolina, staying in a little cabin in Highlands, belongs to some friends. It was raining cats and dogs, so I gave her the umbrella, we only had a little tiny one. I said, you go take the umbrella, you get in the car, and I'll run and get in the other side. Well, I ran. And I eventually got in the other side, but I had a stripe of mud from the top of my head to the soles of my feet, all the way down one side. She thought it was amazing how I could land in such perfect symmetry, but see, you're laughing at that. Well, I did too, but malice is when we want bad things to happen to other people. Just getting a little mud on you is not a real bad thing. You can laugh at those videos, but if I'd fallen into a wood chipper, it wouldn't be funny. Okay. I've never seen that on America's Funniest Videos. No, and you won't. That's on the Discovery Channel. Okay. Twisted minds. Listen, it gets worse. It gets worse. They are gossips. Did you hear that? Gossips. Horrible, depraved people are gossips. slanderers saying things about folks that aren't true. Well, as long as it's true it's okay, isn't it? No, that's gossip. If it's not true, it's slander. Both are evil, just like greed and murder. They are God haters. Paul will go on in Romans to show us that that's really our root problem. They are insolent. That means that they do not respect authority. They are arrogant. That means they think they're the greatest. They think of themselves more highly than they ought to think. See Romans 12. You know what? We've encouraged a culture of arrogance in the name of self-esteem. trying to make people feel better about themselves. And we think that when our team says, we're number one, we're number one, that that's somehow cool. That is monumentally stupid. You understand that? Number one in what? For how long? Do you realize they're going to play the Super Bowl again next year? Do you realize there'll be another World Series? Do you realize that the human achievements that we consider so significant are really just another form of worship so that we don't have to worship the only one who's really worthy? I'm telling you, we've got a problem. Insolent, arrogant, and boastful. They invent ways of doing evil. Not only that, listen to this one. This is how bad it can get. They disobey their parents. Did you hear that? It gets so bad, as a culture declines, the children become disobedient to their parents. As God gives people over to His wrath, as He pours out His wrath and lets people do what they want to do, some of them even grow up to produce children who are disobedient. I didn't think that was really all that serious. I didn't think it was all that serious. Do you know what God says about children obeying your parents in the Old Testament? God says, children, you're supposed to honor your father and your mother so that your days may be long. In other words, it's a capital offense. And in fact, if you're an adolescent in the old covenant, and you refuse consistently to submit to your parents, they can take you to the city gate, tell the elders, this young buck won't obey. And the penalty is death. Are you serious? Yes. I sure am glad I don't live in the old covenant. I'm glad you don't too, because you probably wouldn't live. in the old covenant. Alright, what if my parent tells me to do something that's sinful? Then you submit to God and say no to your parent. If your parents tell you to lie, steal, commit some kind of sexual immorality, you don't do that because you answer to God above all other authorities. But if your parents tell you you need to go to bed, you need to break up with that person, you need to reclean your room, you need to do your homework right now, you need to set the table, you need to obey. Is that clear? Do what you're told and stop complaining. A minute ago we were laughing. Yeah, but you see, all of a sudden we realize that this problem with God's wrath being manifested in the sinfulness of men describes all of us, not just Pastor Wood and his greed problem. They disobey their parents. They are senseless, faithless, heartless, and ruthless. Verse 32, listen. This is absolutely critical. Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death What kind of things? being greedy causing strife being gossips being deceitful being envious being arrogant being insolent disobeying your parents those who do such things deserve death The wages of sin is death. That's what we deserve. But 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. If you will, two stages here in terms of decline. Stage number one, I do things that I know I shouldn't. But I acknowledge that I shouldn't, and I'm sorry that I do. That's bad, that deserves death. But do you know what's even more perverse? When a culture starts saying, I think it's fine to do that. I think it's okay. Go right ahead. It's one thing to be insolent. It's another for people to say, wow, that guy's got spirit. It's one thing to be arrogant. It's another for folks to say, yeah, I'm going to have t-shirts printed up for my kid's team that say, we are the greatest. It's one thing to be envious. It's another thing to build your economy on it, like we have. It's one thing for people to have sexually perverse desires. It's another thing for our culture to insist that everybody has to honor that perversion as being okay. Folks, we are in the latter stages. We not only have rampant sin in our culture, but the official channels of authority in our culture are now elevating evil as good. And that is a sign of God's wrath.