Grab your Bibles. Turn to Romans 1. I think we're used to saying the word Romans now. This is the 34th sermon in Romans 1. Stand with me please, if you can. When you find Romans chapter one or if you've already stood and you haven't found it yet. That's okay. You'll find it Romans chapter number one. We're gonna read that 32nd verse Can can I get a hallelujah? This is this is the last maybe the last sermon in Romans chapter 1 this may be the last Sunday morning servant sermon ever Are you all ready for Jesus to come? It may be today. Amen. Amen. I know there's a bunch of stuff on the internet about it might be Tuesday, but we don't need to wait for Tuesday. He can come right now. Alright. Amen. Verse number 32. Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. Let's pray. Father, we thank you, Lord, for your word. We thank you, Lord, for the opportunity to open it here in Romans 1. And Lord, we just pray that this would wrap things all together, Lord, that we'd be able to take what we hear today and use it for your glory. Lord, may it be a good warning for us, but Lord, may it be an encouragement to do what's right no matter what. And Lord, we just pray that you'd be glorified, be honored, and Lord, be pleased to be in our presence today, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. All right, I kinda tried to stick, I did, I did, nevermind, I didn't just try to, I did, I stuck with the alliteration. But I did not stick with the same points, so you guys are gonna have to get your new pens out and your new piece of paper, and if you're taking notes, it's new points, okay? But they all do still start with the letter D. Well, it's the and then the letter D. Okay. So the first point is I'll tell you in a minute. Okay, so To give you some background here. We're at the very end of Romans chapter number one Remember Romans chapter one doesn't start with all doom and gloom. It starts with excitement. It starts with praise. It starts with God Saying through brother Paul that the faith of the Romans have been has been heard. It's been known He's excited to come and preach the gospel to him. He reminds them. He's not ashamed of the gospel Tells them that it is the power of God, right? And then we start getting into what we've spent the last, oh, about 30 weeks or so talking about. And that's that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. Right? And it goes on to talk about all these things that they do, that men do, that humanity does, but then also individual people do. This isn't just an overview of humanity, it is also an individual, there's individual application for all of this. I don't want to preach the whole chapter again. So, when we get to this verse, we've gone through lists of things that happen when you're not thankful, when you don't glorify God as God, when you don't like to retain God in your knowledge, when you do those things which are inconvenient. And all of these lists of things that are happening here, the last verse says, the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them." This passage here, we're going to look at, I've got five points, but it's mainly a two-part deal here you've got. Well, maybe it's a three, I don't know, maybe it's a five-part. I haven't given you the first one yet. So, along with this, without going into, this is just introductory, ok? Along with this, without going into the points, you have a knowledge of sin, you have a, I'm not doing the points because I'm going to use the letter D there, you have a knowledge, not only, he says, who knowing the judgment of God, so you have a knowledge, a knowledge of the judgment of God, that God's judgment comes upon those who sin, right? We're going to find later in chapter 6, the wages of sin. Right? So, who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death. Romans 6.23, the wages of sin is death, right? But he's giving you a little hint toward it. Five chapters early. Not only do the same, so he's saying they're not only guilty themselves of doing these sins that were listed, but also they're guilty of having pleasure in them that do them. In other words, they have pleasure seeing other people commit these things as well. So as we get through here, number one is the discernment of God's judgment. the discernment of God's judgment. That's d-i-s-c-e-r-n-m-e-n-t, discernment of God's judgment. I just did that. I know discernment doesn't encapsulate completely the concept of knowledge, but it started with the letter D, so I threw it in there. But discernment of God's judgment. In other words, there is an understanding, there is a knowledge that God's judgment happens. So these are not, these folks who are listed here in Romans chapter number one, these are not ignorant sinners. Okay? Now they may do things that we might call ignorant, but the way that we use the term today isn't the proper way that it's used in the Bible. Ignorance isn't just about doing dumb things. Ignorance is about not having knowledge of something. Okay, so saying that these are not ignorant sinners, in other words, what we're saying is they are not without knowledge. In fact, in our text, before I get into the rest here, in our text, it says in verse number Oh, we'll just kind of jump around. Verse number 21, it says that they knew God. They knew God in verse number 21. And then it is assumed that they know Him all the way down through this. But not only did they know Him, but they did not like to retain Him in their knowledge." This is verse number 28. So, it isn't that these people are completely without a knowledge of God. They knew God and they know of the judgment of God. They know, at least at a very, very rudimentary level, they know the law and judgment of God. Y'all know what rudimentary is? It's like a foundational or basic level, right? Even at a very simplistic level, or even if at a very simplistic level, these people that he's speaking of here, and those people that are out here in the world, and you's people that are in here, and me's people right up here, we know the judgment of God. And we know that sin deserves death. As I mentioned before, I don't know why this water bottle is so loud. I drink my water and it's like, blub blub blub blub. I don't know. Y'all hearing it down there? Amen. Uh-huh. I'm just kidding. All right. In Romans 623, as I've already mentioned, the wages of sin is death. Ezekiel 18. We're not going to go there, but in verse 4, he says within this... Now, he gives kind of an illustration. He talks about the sins of the fathers and so on. But he clarifies and he makes sure that everybody understands that the soul that sinneth, it shall die. This is Ezekiel 18, verse 4. And again, you don't have to turn there, but you can write that down to look up later. But in the context here he's talking about, you know, you've heard it said something to the effect of, you know, the fathers, they ate sour grapes and the children's teeth are on edge, right? He says, I'm telling you that the soul that sinneth it shall die. It's not going to be necessary. Now, that's not to say that sin doesn't pass down or that there isn't generational stuff, but in direct judgment from God, souls that sin, people who sin, have direct consequence for that sin. So the soul that sinneth, it shall die. This reveals again in this verse, that this is a deliberate rebellion of man. This is not something that, oops, I accidentally did this. In fact, when you look at the list of sins in here, these are not accidental sins. In fact, they're not even incidental sins. These are on purpose, and these are vile sins. Now, unfortunately, we live in a society that some of these sins are looked at as normal. Sin is not normal. Sin is crime against a holy God. It doesn't matter what you want to call it, how you want to pretty it up or sugar coat it. Sin is crime against a holy and righteous God. And it deserves the judgment of God. That's an absolute, absolute fact. And even those who are sinning these sins, even those who are committing these sins, know the judgment of God. That they which commit such things are worthy of death. So number one was what? The discernment of God's judgment. Number two is the defiance of continuing in sin. The defiance, defiance of continuing in sin. Despite knowing, as the title is, knowing, yet doing. Despite knowing that they're going to receive God's judgment, they do the same. I wrote in here in parentheses an old wise saying that I heard from my kindergarten teacher. Monkey see, monkey do. What did you say? Monkey made a fool of you. Wow. There you go. So, people... Man I don't want to yet get into the have pleasure in them to do them but they know the judgment of God and they commit these things anyways it is defiance against God this is a This is a high-handed sin. This is sinning against conscience. This is sinning against revelation. This is sinning against warning. God specifically warns against sin. He tells man not to do it. He says His wrath is poured out from heaven. His judgment is known. The Spirit of God. The Spirit of God in this world, His ministry is to reprove the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. the work of the Holy Spirit. Every time a man sins, even if they're not saved, the Spirit of God still reproves them of sin. Now, they may not hear it like those who are born again hear it, those who have the Spirit of God in them, because they're hearing it from outside instead of from inside. But they still have the Spirit of God reproving the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. And even though the Spirit of God is reproving mankind, even though the Spirit of God is reproving individual sinners, they still choose in defiance against the revelation of God where He reveals in His written Word What sin is. They also defy the revelation of God which is revealed in His creation. When He made man, He made us with a conscience and with an understanding of right and wrong at least to a certain extent. And then there's the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that also enhance that or put that in place. We have that right and wrong concept. There's that conscience. And so man today operates. God's revelation in creation has revealed to us right and wrong. And then furthermore, He went through all of the work and labor to provide for us His written Revelation. And He's given us His Word where He says, Thou shalt not and thou shalt. And He's given us a direct revelation. And man chooses having general revelation, having special revelation, having preachers preach against sin, having warning after warning after warning, the Spirit of God crying out to forsake the sin, to get away from the sin, to stay far away. Yet, man defies God and says, I want to sin anyways. This is as David asked God to keep him from something. Go to Psalm 19. David here, a man after God's own heart. He asks God in verse 12 to cleanse him from secret faults. But then he says in verse number 13, keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins. Let them not have dominion over me, then shall I be upright and I shall be innocent from the great transgression. You all realize presumptuous sin is a big deal. It is a big deal. I'll explain what it is in a minute. But he says, he goes on to ask the Lord, let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer. Presumptuous sin is when God says no, you hear God say no, you see that God says no, and you say, eh, I'm going to do it anyways. That's presumptuous sin. It's kind of like when the children say, there when the parents say to the children don't do that right that's not them slapping the kid it's them getting the kids attention okay don't do that don't touch that say don't touch that door do not touch that door and what do they do uh-huh I'm telling you there's some defiant kids out there I was one this mom says don't touch that door I say yeah hey mom watch this what don't you do that what's that My mom's about to whoop me. She didn't. She didn't tell me, no. I was just giving the illustration, okay? There is an illustration, okay? Alright. But that defiance, that presumption, what presumptuous sin is, it is when you know God says not to do something. What you're presuming is that He will forgive you. The presumption is that you can get away with it and get God's forgiveness after the fact. That's wicked. Whether or not God is going to forgive you, you should never, ever go into sin in that way. If you know it's wrong, stay far away. Pray that God would keep you from presumptuous sin, so that the words of your mouth and the meditation of your heart can be acceptable in His sight. Flip over to Numbers. Y'all flip over to Numbers. I don't know if you can flip or not, but you can flip the pages. We'll go that way. Numbers chapter 15. Numbers chapter 15. Brother Wilhelm's going to do a couple backflips for us. Chapter 15, verse number 30. Let's look here in Numbers 15. Verse number 30, But the soul that doeth aught presumptuously, whether he be born in the land or a stranger, the same reproacheth the Lord, and that soul shall be cut off from among his people, because he hath despised the word of the Lord, and hath broken his commandment. That soul shall utterly be cut off. His iniquity shall be upon him." Now, some might interpret this cutting off as the death penalty, while others may interpret this cutting off as exile. Not the place in the grocery store where you get eggs. Not exile. But exile. Okay, that's when you're kicked out of the country. Deportation. Presumptuous sin. And we're not talking about America here, okay? We're talking about Israel. But he says that if they... temptation, y'all. Pray for me. I'm tempted to go into some political stuff here, but. In in numbers chapter number 15. Deportation here is prescribed. For any criminal. He's he says what? He describes. Who he says? whether he be born in the land or a stranger." Now listen, I'm not picking a political party here, okay? I'm just telling you. For Israel, He says here, that if you despise the Word of the Lord by sinning presumptuously, if you choose to break the law The answer is good-bye. Now, being deported out of the land of Israel in that day, or in today's time, is kind of like being deported out of the state of Indiana. As far as space, right? It's a little different if you live in Nebraska and you broke a law and they're like, well, guilty. You must leave the country. That's a long way away from home. But this this is and by the way, the the illustration is then performed in the next several verses. We're not going to get into that. But a guy was gathering sticks on the Sabbath day. And that particular situation, you say, why so severe with the punishment? Because yeah, he got the death penalty. But it wasn't because he broke the Sabbath. It's because he was just told not to break the Sabbath. It was direct defiance. It was the presumption. Because if you read in Hebrews 10, there is no sacrifice for willful sin in the law. Nowhere in the law. If you willfully sin, there's no sacrifice for that. There's no sin offering for willful sin. for presumptuous sin. The penalty for presumptuous sin is either death or deportation in the land of Israel under the law. Don't anybody take my sound bites here and go try to say that I'm for this kind of thing for America. When it comes to sin, there are two tables of the law. You have the first table which is between you and God. And then there's the second table of the law, which is between you and man. When you violate principles of the second table of the law, you are committing crimes. Typically, most of our crimes are based upon the second table of the law, having to do with personal property, personal safety, and personal liberties. And so those three things are protected under under our governmental system. And we also have within our governmental system particular prescribed penalties for breaking those types of laws. And it's graduated based upon severity. So, anyhow. Defiance is what we're dealing with here. It is the defiance of continuing in sin. In 2 Peter 2 verses 9 and 10 it says, "...the Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished." but chiefly, them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise government, presumptuous are they, self-willed, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities." He's telling us that God knows how to deliver the godly, but He also knows how to judge the unrighteous. He also knows how to judge those who have been unjust. Number three, the depth of sinful pleasure. The depth of sinful pleasure. D-E-P-T-H. Depth of sinful pleasure. Not only do they sin, but they take pleasure in others who do the same. They applaud and they approve sin in others. Remember we mentioned before in a previous message, Isaiah 5, verse number 20, where it talks about the people of Israel calling good evil and calling evil good, right? In Proverbs 2, let's go there. Proverbs 2. Jumped right over Proverbs. My Bible went Psalms, Isaiah. Come on. Ecclesiastes. What? Yes. Proverbs chapter 2. I kept big fingering it. Back and forth. Jumping dozens of pages. All right. Proverbs chapter 2. Genesis, Exodus, Proverbs. No. It's right after the book of Psalms. Verse number 14. Verse number 10. When wisdom entereth into thine heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul, discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee, to deliver thee from the way of the evil man, from the man that speaketh froward things, who leave the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness, who rejoice to do evil, and delight in the frowardness of the wicked. whose ways are crooked and they froward in their paths." And it goes on, but the depth here of their sin, they're not only, this evil man here mentioned, not only is he doing these things, but he's good with others that are doing these things. Rejoicing to do evil. Delighting in the frowardness of the wicked. Now, the direct illustration, I didn't write this down, but in Psalm 101, This right here is Personal Holiness 101. Psalm 101. I will sing of mercy and judgment. Unto thee, O Lord, will I sing. I will behave myself in a perfect way. O, when wilt thou come unto me? I will walk within my house with a perfect heart. I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes. I hate the work of them that turn aside. It shall not cleave unto me." We're going to leave the rest for you to read later. They not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. Now, I want teenage eyes and younger looking at me. And adult eyes looking at me. Does that count everybody in the room? Okay, everybody look at me. Alright. Having pleasure in them that do them. I'm going to name some things, some of y'all might get mad at me, okay? Alright. That's between you and the Lord. And if you need to talk to me about it later, we can talk about it later. But, having pleasure in them that do them. I went to Psalm 101 for a reason. In verse 2, what does he say about his walk in his house? How's he going to walk about his house? With a perfect heart. And then, verse 3, he says, I will what? Set no wicked thing before me or before my eyes? Before my eyes. What's that? That includes man. Here we are. in 2025. Man, used to, when you go to this passage, the first direct illustration is the television. Now it's television, computer screen, cell phone, I'm telling you what, it's the opportunity to set wicked things before your eyes is all over the place. Uh-huh. Watch out for those, too, once in a while. So, wicked things before your eyes. In our text, who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. When you sit And you feast your eyes upon the sin that's mentioned in Romans chapter 1 directly. And you have pleasure, you're entertained by it. You're taking part in their sin. You're setting a wicked thing before your eyes. This is why filters are necessary if you're going to watch anything it seems like. For social media, for cell phone usage, any of that stuff. You need filters, you need accountability, and you keep yourself pure. And you need to be productive, yeah. Who's got time for all that anyway? So hey that that means I mean, I don't care if you're play if you're if you're watching TV or you're playing a game Now I'm meddling some of y'all some of y'all are waiting for GTA 6 to come out for the last 23 years But or however long it's been GTA is a game that people play on the Xbox. Do you know what that game what those letters stand for? I Grand theft auto. Yeah That's a game it is I'm meddling. Okay, cuz some of y'all I mean, it's the thing I played it at her house 20 we played GTA 1 That was back in the 1900s, okay? Anyways, on the Nintendo. Or was it on the Nintendo or the Xbox? PlayStation. I don't know what we were doing. I just remember me and Nick, we'd get mad at the thing and we'd throw the remote at the TV and... Anyways, so... Now listen, but here's the thing. Hey, is it okay, is it okay, if you leave here, if you leave church today, and you drive down, let's say you're parked in the parking lot back here, you drive down the alley and you turn out on the road, and then somebody runs out in front of your car, and then you stop, because that's what you do when people run out in front of your car, you stop, And they come around to the side and they open the door and they start punching you and then throw you out and then they jump in your car and drive off. Is that okay? No, it's not okay. No, it's not okay. Most of you have no idea what I'm talking about. That's exactly what you do in GTA. Okay, I don't know why but GTA just had it came up in my heart just a minute ago. Okay, we had to deal with it That's exactly what you're doing in the game, but now it's gotten worse now that now they got like GTA V right there five and And they don't know no confessions right now, okay? Or telling on people but now now they not only do they steal cars But now you can get a job a drug lord or as a Gambler or as a own a casino or something or you can get a job as I mean, it's all illegal stuff Now be not there for partakers with them I Y'all I don't know why I'm jumping up and down off this thing. That's a step. It's up there Don't be a partaker with them. I'm just jumping. I'm just jumping up and down jumping up and down I'm not sitting down. I can't sit down Anyhow, that's the thing though but who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them." I don't know why I have the whole verse memorized. It just happens, okay? But, have pleasure in them that do them. I know, I know, it's hard. When you get addicted to things, it's hard to give them up. And then you get desensitized. We can meddle into Hollywood. We can meddle into the sitcom world. Let's just for a second go back to Romans 1. I'm just going to jump around on the lists of sins. Romans 1. Verse number 21, I'm just going to jump around, okay? So, glorifying Him not as God. They glorified Him not as God. Neither were thankful. Became vain in their imaginations. Their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they become fools. They change the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image. The creation, we'll just say that. Verse number 24. They dishonor their own bodies between themselves. Now, I'm not just talking about GTA here, I'm talking about the movies that are played and the television programs, all that stuff. The books you read, your social media feeds, your reels, your shorts, etc., your music, all of that stuff. Changing the truth of God into a lie. Worship and serving the creature more than the Creator. vile affections, the women changing the natural use into that which is against nature, and the men, likewise, leaving the natural use of the woman, burning their lust one toward another, men with men working that which is unseemly, Verse number 28, a reprobate mind doing things which are inconvenient. Verse number 29, being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, silenced phones. Now that's not a list of something that's bad. Oh yeah. Never mind. Forget that. That was a medical thing. OK. So but filled with all unrighteousness fornication wickedness covetousness maliciousness full of murder envy murder debate deceit malignity whispers back biters haters of God despiteful proud boasters inventors of evil things disobedient to parents without understanding covenant breaking or counterbreakers, without natural affection, implacable and unmerciful. All these things, who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them." How much pleasure are you having in them that do them? That is where the depth goes. It's not just your actions, even to kick back on the couch, And to, hold on, I've got a remote up here. We can make it look legit, okay? You kick back, this one will, I can turn the temperature up from here. All right, or down. Just kickin' back with your remote. And you just. You throw it now so the battery goes in. And you just, oh. You can sit right, right in your chair, right in your lazy boy, or your couch, or lay in your bed and watch. And watch. Envy. Murder. Debate. Deceit. You can sit right back. You can watch fornication. You can watch uncleanness. You can watch lasciviousness. You can watch disobedience to parents. You can watch unthankfulness. You can watch unholiness. You can watch implacable and unmerciful. You can watch all these things. You can watch haters of God. You can watch idolatry. Worshipping and serving the creature more than the Creator. I'm telling you, you can sit right there. Oh, wait a minute. Hold on. The cable's out. We're just going to do this now. And you can just, you can just get your, you can get your, your Instagram reel out here. Oh, there's a good picture though. That's Travis and his boys. But they're, they're at church. They're doing good here in this, but you could just, just keep on watching. Now, I know the algorithm gets smart if you don't, if you like, hide certain things and you like certain things, if you like things that are good and you report or hide things that are bad, then eventually you get, for the most part, stuff that's, you know, for me, it's like how to rebuild your house or whatever. You know, it's like how-to's or it's conspiracy theory stuff or it's, you know, something political or it's something, or it's somebody preaching or something like that. That's different. We're talking about when you're eating up the poorly dressed folks. Guys or gals. When you're consuming these things that are not convenient. Now, hold on. I'm going to take it another step further. All right. Man, we're only on .3. It's already almost tomorrow. I'll take another step further here. When the Bible condemns something, if you claim to be a Bible believer, a God-fearing person, a follower of Jesus, you should never celebrate what God condemns. Ever. You should never have pleasure in wicked, vile, sinful things. It doesn't matter what society thinks. God is God. Society is not. God decides what's right and wrong. Let me just get straight on down where the rubber meets the road. You should never ever celebrate perversion against God's designed use of human bodies. Reproductive perversion is what the Bible is talking about in verses 26 and 27. Reproductive perversion. Homosexuality. Perverse activities. Now it goes on to talk about fornication as well. All of these things are condemned under the Word of God. All of these things deserve the judgment of God. Who knowing the judgment of God that they which commit such things are worthy of death. That's God's Word. Now I'm not saying that we or society carries out the death penalty for these things. God will handle that. Not our job as Glory Baptist Church, okay? But sin always has wages. And payday is always death. And I don't care what your social media influencers say. I don't care what a particular political party tries to say. I don't care what a particular country or leadership of a country tries to say. I don't care what they say at your school. I don't care what they say at your library. I don't care what they say at your grocery store. If God condemns it, it's wrong. And you should not celebrate it. When someone comes out of the closet to tell everybody about their sin, it should not be celebrated. It should be condemned. It should be sorrowed. It should be mourned. When somebody says, oh, I just want to let everybody know that I like to sin. Now, I'm being a little bit kind about it. But I'm telling you, when somebody comes out about something that they've been hiding because it's shameful and it's sinful, I'm not trying to be hateful, okay? These people need Jesus just like I do, okay? And they can get saved just like I have. And they can walk with God and serve God and be used of God no less than me. But in order to do so, you've got to repent. You've got to recognize that what God says is right and what you think and what you feel is not. Feelings do not ever determine what the truth is. I don't care whether you think you love something or someone or whatever. It doesn't justify sinning against God. Ever. Ever! Now, listen, I'm not trying to jump on a hobby horse here. I'm just preaching Romans 1. Y'all know me. Most of you guys, you've been listening to me preach for over a decade. You know I don't jump on hobby horses and stuff. And you know I don't even like to grab today's current events and try to make them a sermon and stuff. I try to avoid that a lot. But the fact of the matter is, we're living in a society, we're living in a time that sin is celebrated. Not only do they sin, but they have pleasure in the sin that others are doing. And not only, when I say they, not only is it they, those out there in the world outside, outside of the walls of the church house, but also people inside the walls of the church house. People who name the name of Christ and refuse to depart from iniquity. People who name the name of Christ and a friend, a family member, or someone that they know comes out and tells them, oh, I've decided that I am a weirdo and I like to do things that God says are against nature. And you say, whoo! I'm so glad you're so... what's the word? Brave. Is it brave? Is that the word? No, no, no. The word no. When you congratulate somebody on their sin, and people say you're so brave to come out, or you're so courageous. No, you're not! No, you're not! You're so defiant against the Holy God, and you're going to stand before Him someday, and He's going to say, He's just going to look at you first. And then you're going to bow your knees. And you're going to say, Jesus is Lord. And then He's going to say, depart from Me, for I never knew you. and the angels are going to take you and cast you into the lake of fire. Not because you committed that sin, but because you refused to acknowledge Christ as the One who could cleanse you. But people do. People do. But we see in society today, we see in Christianity today, a celebration of wickedness. They want to celebrate good times. And what they think good times are is when they choose to go directly against what God has commanded that they not do. Or they choose to directly disobey God when He says, Thou shalt. And they choose to directly disobey God when He says, Thou shalt not. The fact is, payday's coming. The people of God should never applaud or approve the sin of others. You say, well, what do I do? I mean, everybody else in the world, it's like the peer pressure thing to do. Teenagers in the back row, I'm talking to you. I'm talking to everybody in here, okay? But I'm talking to you guys. It's hard sometimes when everybody around you is celebrating, and everybody around you, and they look at you funny and they call you weird names like sis or whatever. And they call you these names and say that you're intolerant and you're hateful because you won't accept my lifestyle. Your lifestyle is sin. The fact is, The people of God should never applaud or approve of sin, including in your own life. or in your own family. Now, listen, I'm not saying that you don't still try to reach those people with the gospel. I'm not saying that you shun them and you cut them off and you refuse to speak to them and all that. No, I'm saying that the relationship changes. When they choose to celebrate their sin, you choose to celebrate the Savior. And every time you have an opportunity to talk to Him, you just talk to Him about how Jesus frees from sin. And not in a condescending way, right? You don't say it in a condemning way, but in a way that offers them the opportunity to be free from the bondage of their sin. By the way, that's love. Love is when you get them out of the sin, not when you celebrate their sin. Love is when you help them get delivered from their sin. It is absolutely positively not love to leave them in their sin and to celebrate it. That's hate, yeah. I mean, why would we want to celebrate something that's sending people to hell? Listen, I'm not saying that a particular quote-unquote lifestyle is like, if you do this, you're going to hell. I'm not saying that. But it's often an indicator that they've rejected the Gospel. Now is it possible for somebody to receive the Gospel and then do those kinds of things? It is. Unfortunately, it is. That does happen. But the fact is, If a believer chooses to live a life in that way, they've brought reproach on the name of Christ and it will lead other people to hell. As we talked about last week, it doesn't matter if you're headed to heaven if everybody around you is going to hell because of you. Don't celebrate sin. And celebrating sin is the ultimate proof of a reprobate mind and or a reprobate society. When society begins to celebrate sin, that society has gone reprobate. Number four. the danger of this condition. I've already kind of mentioned a little bit on the danger here, but knowledge without obedience increases judgment. Remember what Jesus said? I'm not. I'm not going to go there because we're out of time, but remember what Jesus said in Luke chapter number 12. You can write this down. Look it up this afternoon versus 47 and 48. He basically says that there are more stripes for those who had more knowledge. We'll just simplify it like that, right? To whom much is given, much is required, right? And so, there you go. In James 4, verse 17, it says, "...to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin." That doesn't mean that if you don't know, then it's not sin. It just means that it's not presumptuous sin if you didn't know. But God's wrath is not only against sin itself, but it is also against those who promote sin. The same wrath of God that's revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness and ungodliness of man is also there for those who promote sin. Number five, the deliverance from sin's grip. Remember that Christ bore the judgment that we deserve. Christ bore the judgment that we deserve. The death that we're worthy of, He took. Go to Isaiah 53. Isaiah 53. Man, y'all have me yelling and stuff. Verse 4, "...Surely He hath borne our griefs, carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all. Thank You, Jesus, for taking my death. Amen. In Romans 5, verse 7, for scarcely for a righteous man will one die. Yet, peradventure for a good man, some would even dare to die. But God commended His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more than being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. Praise the Lord. You know, there is deliverance from sin. Jesus took our sin upon Himself at Calvary. He took the wrath of God upon Himself so that we could receive the righteousness of God upon ourselves. It is a positional thing. He took our place so we get to take His place in righteousness because He took our place in wrath. He offers that as a free gift. He laid down His life And you can receive the reward of that. The reward that's due to Him. By faith. Trusting in His work at Calvary. Turning to Him. And believing that what He did was enough. Believing that who He is and what He did is enough. He didn't deserve the punishment that we deserve, but He took it for us. So He bore our judgment. For the believer, he breaks the power of sin. In Romans 6, verse 6, it says, "...knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin." We don't have to live in sin. Listen, y'all. You have free choice. And that includes freely choosing to take the victory that Christ has given you and live in it. That includes freely choosing not to sin. You don't have to. You might do so, but you do not have to. You are not in bondage to sin anymore. If you've trusted Christ, you are born again. You are a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. You're no longer in bondage to sin. The whole chapter of Romans chapter 6, that whole chapter goes on and on to talk about how we're no longer in bondage to sin. We're dead to sin. It should be as though If I were to keel over and die and lay on the floor there, you could do anything you wanted to try to get my attention. Not going to happen. I would be dead to the world. And we're supposed to be the same to sin. Sin could dance around us and kick us in the ribs and we wouldn't even care because we're dead to it. What's that? Nothing. I'm dead to that. That's the way that it ought to be. That's the way that it can be. I'm not saying that you become perfect. As long as you're carrying around this bag of bones, you're going to have struggles. But you don't have to fail. And you do not have to live in sin. You're not in bondage to it. In Titus chapter 2, in verses 11 and 12, we find that grace teaches us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live righteously, soberly, justly in this present world. I'm messing it all up. Did I say it right? No? Titus 2. Verses 11 and 12. The grace of God, which leadeth to salvation, brings salvation. Yeah, teaching us. Soberly, righteously, and godly. There you go. In this present world. That's what the grace of God teaches us. It doesn't teach us that we can get away with sin. The grace of God doesn't teach us that lasciviousness is okay. That's unbridled lust. The grace of God does not teach us that concupiscence is okay. The grace of God does not teach us that committing these things in Romans 1 is okay. It teaches us to live soberly, righteously, and godly. and believers, we ought to do so. Not only that, but Christ gives new pleasure in righteousness. Amen? In Psalm 37, it says, "...Delight thyself also in the Lord, and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart." That's not a promise for you to get what you want. It's a promise for you to get what you want. Say, what does that mean? It is not a promise for you to receive the things that you desire. It is a promise for you to receive the desires that you ought to have. If you delight yourself in the Lord, then your desire will be Him, and He you will receive. He shall give you the desires of thine heart. If you're delighting in Him, what are your desires? Him. Right? In Romans 7, verse number 22, there's that battle going on, but he says in verse number 22, I delight in the law of God after the inward man. That's what we ought to be doing. Yes, there may be a battle. Yes, there may be some difficulty. But we ought not know the judgment of God and choose to sin anyways. The final mark of reprobation is knowing sin is wrong, yet doing it and celebrating others who do. We'll talk about it later. Sin goes from being tolerated to being glorified. I'm telling you, anybody that's been around for the last 30-40 years, sin goes from being tolerated to being glorified. We've watched it happen. But Christ delivers from both. The guilt. He delivers from both the guilt and the grip of sin. You can be delivered from the guilt of sin through salvation. You can be delivered from the grip of sin by His Spirit and His power. He has freed you from the guilt and the grip if you're born again. Let's all stand, heads bowed, eyes closed. If you're not saved today, I want to invite you to come.