Common Knowledge About Sin

Transcript

GR 1411
11/22/09
Common Knowledge about Sin
Romans 1:30-32
Gil Rugh

We're studying the book of Romans together so I'd invite you to turn in your Bibles to Romans 1. I don't like to read too much material to you because I know it's hard to follow along when someone is reading, but I'd like to read a few comments regarding the situation in Paul's day in Rome. Paul is writing a letter to believers in Rome, he's writing and anticipating and hoping to be able to come to them and preach the gospel, as he said in 1:15, to you who are in Rome also. He had been unfolding something of the degradation of sin and the manifestation of man's sin as he lives under the wrath of a holy God who has been rejected by sinful men. We sometimes think that our day is exceptional in its sin and unusual.

But let me just read you some comments about what it was like in New Testament times, what it was like as Paul wrote the letter to the Romans. I'm just going to read miscellaneous comments, not consecutively because there are 10-12 pages and we don't want to take time for all of that. Rome's power and ingenuity has provided an ease of life unequaled in the history of the world. The Roman satirical writer, Juveno, writing around 100 A.D., so just a little bit after our New Testament time here. He coined the famous phrase, “bread and circuses,” to indicate how the Roman state looked after and controlled the population through material prosperity and endless entertainment. At the time of the formation of the New Testament Rome attained its highest level of material riches. Discretionary income was lavished on mass entertainment to a degree never seen in the history of the world and unparalleled until modern times. Just as they loved the great spectacles, the Romans loved their bodies. They kept them clean, perfumed, suntanned and in excellent physical condition because each Roman pictured himself on stage. Image was everything. We sometimes think that is something new. It was none other than Juveno, the Roman author of the first century, who came up with the famous phrase, “a healthy mind in a healthy body.”

In Rome's early history from around 200 B.C. there were seven days per year devoted to games which were called lutey. And we get the word ludicrous which means frivolous from that word. At the time of the Emperor Claudius who died in 54 A.D., the Roman calendar contained 159 days celebrated as holidays, of which 93 were devoted to games given at public expense. And then there were non-state sponsored ceremonies as well. And with sports came an obsession for gambling. Material success and leisure came at a price. People demanded more and more festive wealth until Rome choked on its own affluence. A contemporary of Jesus, the Roman historian Libby left this telling indictment. “Of late wealth has made us greedy and excessive pleasures produce a general desire to carry wantonness and license to the point of personal ruin and universal destruction.

That was a first century writer who was not a believer, making this observation.
The general populace was not bothered as long as food and entertainment abounded. The contemporary said of the Emperor Trajan at the end of the first century that his wisdom never failed to pay attention to the stars of the theater, the circus or the arena, for he well knew that the excellence of a government is shown no less in its care for the amusement of the people than in serious matters. And although the distribution of corn and money may satisfy the individual, spectacles are necessary for the contentment of the masses.

The Roman family. It constituted a structure of stability for all involved, husbands, wives and children alike. During the first century A.D. the Roman family, this unassailable rock, had cracked and crumbled away on every side. During this same period the role of the woman began to change. No longer content to be housewives, some Roman women for reasons good or not so good chose emancipation from the duties of maternity and engaged in male pursuits. Politics, public debate, dressing like a man, hunting with men, spear in hand, gladitorial jousting in full armor, fencing and other feats of strength and physical prowess.

The historian, Carthopeno, speaks of emancipated wives who were the various product of the new conditions of Roman marriage. Some evaded the duties of maternity for fear of losing their good looks. Some took a pride in being behind their husbands in no sphere of activity and vied with them in feats of strength which their sex would seem to forbid. With emancipation came the loosening of family ties. In this liberated culture personal choice prevailed. Adultery became endemic, divorce spread unchecked.

Another Roman writer of the period who died in 101 A.D. comments about a woman marrying her tenth husband. He said, I am less offended by a more straightforward prostitute. Bisexuality was common among the elite and the molestation of children was rampant. That uncontrolled desire as they put it. I won't read you the details of that.

According to the historian Will Durant the fall of Rome was in great part attributable to the Roman refusal to bear and raise children. Durant points out the widespread practice of infanticide, abortion, sexual excesses and the avoidance or deferment of marriage as the likely cause of the plunging population. With the weakening of these intermediary structures of family and marriage, the socially destabilizing effects of alternate sexual practices and the depressing, relentless drop in the birth rate, the liberated individual stood face to face and often alone before the enormous power of the police state.

Just a reminder. We think things have changed, things are far worse than they have ever been. I think if the Apostle Paul would show up today he would see changes in external appearances, but as he examined the society and the practices he would say, not much has changed, has it. You know why? Sinners are sinners. And the manifestation of our rebellion against God stays the same. And that's what we're finding in Romans 1. We're finding the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against men who have rejected Him and have come under His judgment.

And this subject of the wrath of God is not very popular. If you would meet someone coming from a religious service today and you would mention to them, God is a great God with a great love, isn't He? They would probably say, yes. If you say to them, God is a great God of an awesome and great wrath, isn't He? They would probably have a little more trouble with that statement. We have a statement and I'm just going to mention it and show you a verse or two, we'll get into it later in Romans. We sometimes say God loves the sinner but God hates the sin. And if you've been at Indian Hills very long you've heard me say, that's not true, that's not a biblically correct statement. It's not true to say God loves the sinner but hates the sin because you understand there is no sin without the sinner. Sin is not some kind of cloud in the air out there floating around, sin is the action of a person who is in rebellion against God. And so the Bible says God hates sin and God hates the sinner who commits the sin.

Turn back to Psalm 5. Just a couple of verses to show you where the Bible says God hates the sinner. Verse 4, you are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness, no evil dwells with you. The boastful shall not stand before your eyes, you hate all who do iniquity. You know He just doesn't hate the iniquity, He hates those who are doing the iniquity. You destroy those who speak falsely. The Lord abhors, He does hate the man of bloodshed and deceit. Turn over to Psalm 11:5, the Lord tests the righteous and the wicked, and the one who loves violence His soul hates. He hates the one who loves violence. One more passage, Proverbs 6:16, there are six things which the Lord hates, seven which are an abomination to Him—haughty eyes and a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans and feet that run rapidly to do evil, a false witness who utters lies and one who spreads strife among his brothers. You see in verse 19, He hates a false witness who utters lies, one who spreads strife. In fact it's the person that's in view in the things He hates because it's a person doing them. Verse 17, the haughty eyes are the eyes of a person who is proud and arrogant. A lying tongue is the tongue of one who is speaking lies.

What's the point here? Are you trying to make God “look bad?” No, I want God to look as He says He is. And He is a God of wrath, He's a God of hatred. And He hates people, He hates sinners. But you know it's also true that He loves sinners. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. When we get over to Romans 9 we'll find out that God hated Esau. But in Romans 5 we'll find that this is the great demonstration of love, in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.

We think we're making God look better when we say He loves the sinner but hates the sin. But you understand the marvelous thing is that those whom God hates are the object of His hatred and wrath are those that He loved and had His Son die for that they might experience His redemption. And understand that God had to hate me because of my rejection of him and my pursuit of sin, yet He loved me and had His Son die for me.

So we talk in Romans 1, as you turn back there, of the wrath of God being poured out. It is being poured out on men who have chosen to reject Him, reject the revelation He has given of Himself. God in wrath has put them under judgment so that now they are consumed by the sin that they so love and pursue. And He is giving us a picture of the total, complete sinfulness of man apart from the intervention of His saving grace, the power of the gospel.

There has been a repeated emphasis in this section that man is guilty because man has rejected and suppressed the truth that God has made known. He has refused to acknowledge and worship the God that he knows. And so God is revealing the results of that, man consumed by sin. We saw in verse 29, they are filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; they are full of envy. This is just not that a basically good person has been tainted by some sinful things. As God looks at us in our fallen condition, He sees people who are full of sin, filled with sin. It's what characterizes us in the sight of a holy God. So the picture is not pleasant. And we move through one sin after another. And it's not that every person commits every sin, but these are the kinds of things that come out of a life that has rejected the true and living God.

We pick up with the final twelve things, they were broken down into three basic sections in the listing. And the third section begins with gossips at the end of verse 29. Full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice. That goes together. Then you see the end of verse 29 picking up, they are. We've inserted they are to give you this change here in the form. Gossips, slanderers, haters of God and so on. Gossips, it's like a word whisperers, the Greek word has that same sound to it, the sound of the word is what the word carries. Whisperers, those who whisper in the ear, gossip. They have something to tell you but it is not good. When you say, what were they doing? They were passing on some gossip. Well that's not telling you how good someone is and how nice they are, it's something negative. And the word here carries something that is ruinous, that is harmful to the person. They are gossips. That's another thing. The mixture in the list that we have noted. He talked about sexual sins, moral sins, homosexuality more extensively earlier in the chapter. This is all part of the sinful package, if you will. Some gravitate toward one sin, some gravitate toward another, some love one kind of sin more than another kind. But it all comes from the same source as Jesus said in Mark 7. Out of the heart proceed all of these sinful things. Gossips. They delight in ruining people's reputation, in passing on the tidbit that will undermine someone, misrepresent them.

The next word, slanderers. Similar idea. If you're going to make a difference, the gossip or the whisperer does it more privately, the slanderer may be more bold and open with it. But they do the same thing. The slanderer is trying to slander, to falsely accuse, to ruin with his words someone. Incidentally, these two words, gossips and slanderers, are connected by Paul in II Corinthians 12. Turn over there if you would because the context is important for us to note. Verse 20, he's writing to the church at Corinth in anticipation of visiting them. For I am afraid that perhaps when I come I may find you to be not what I wish, and may be found by you to be not what you wish. He's afraid he's going to find them practicing sins that he'll have to correct with stern discipline. That perhaps there will be strife, jealousy, angry tempers, disputes, slanders, gossip. There are our two words in reverse order. Slanders, gossip, arrogance, disturbances. In the church at Corinth these things that fill the life of an unregenerate person being practiced in the church—gossip, slander. Have no place there because the power of the gospel cleanses us, makes us new, sets us free. So a warning. When the power of the gospel comes to a life there is sometimes the old man who is there, as we'll see in Romans 6, who wants to assert itself and the old qualities come out. So many churches have been weakened and ruined by gossip and slander.

Come back to Romans 1. This is what is in the heart of the unregenerate person. Sometimes it comes from the fact you have a person who has never been regenerated who has infiltrated and become part of the body and manifests his true character in the conduct. You'll note there is a mixture in the kinds of sins that are talked about because here we go from slanderers to haters of God. That's a strong thing to say. They are God-haters, they hate God. This is in line with verse 18, they are men who suppress the truth. We noted there is no one who doesn't know the truth, God has revealed it through creation. They know God, verse 19, 21, but they have chosen not to acknowledge Him, not to have them in their knowledge as verse 28 told us. They hate Him, they are not neutral, they are not misinformed, unknowing people who just need someone to come and enlighten them. They need someone to come with the light. Understand they are not poor, innocent people, they are people who are actively rejecting God. They are haters of God.

Come back to John 3. That great verse that is so well known, verse 16, for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son in order that whosoever believes in Him might not perish, but have eternal life. Verse 19, this is judgment that light has come into the world. Men loved the darkness rather than the light for their deeds were evil. Jesus Christ came into the world as light and John 1 told us that. In Him was life and the life was the light of men. Everyone who does evil hates the light, does not come to the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.

Come over to John 15. Jesus preparing His disciples for His coming crucifixion and then ultimate departure at the ascension in Acts 1. Verse 18, if the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hates you. You see that contrast. John 3:16, for God so loved the world, but the world hates God. Jesus said to His followers, the world hates Me so they hate you. If you are of the world the world would love its own. Because you are not of the world I chose you out of the world. Because of this the world hates you. Come down to verse 23, he who hates Me hates My Father also. If I had not done among them the work which no one else did, they would not have sin or guilt. But now they have both seen and hated Me and My Father as well. Verse 25, quoting from the Old Testament, they hated Me without cause. You see the attitude of the unbeliever? They are God-haters, they hate the Father, they hate the Son, they hate the people who belong to God. We're not dealing with neutrality here, we're not dealing with innocence in any way. We are dealing with the worst guilt of those who have chosen to reject God, who hate God, who are under the judgment of God and totally consumed with their sin.

Come back to Romans 1. Haters of God. We have three words that all tie around the idea of pride, boasting and so on. First is insolent. Sometimes you see in English the word hubris. That's the Greek word here, hubris, basically, a form of that word. It's a person who is so confident and arrogant in his own superiorness, whether it is with power, wealth, intelligence, social status that he has a contempt, an insolent contempt for other people. We see this in areas with wealth, people can be arrogant. They are so self- confident, self-sufficient that they are in themselves. And they view others with disdain. Can be with intellect and so you get into an intellectual environment and they have a disdain. If you offer an opinion, you don't know anything. They view you as lower, less important, less significant.

In I Timothy 1:13 Paul uses this of himself as he shares what he was like. He said before his conversion he was a violent aggressor. That's a translation of this same word. A violent aggressor. And in his pride and arrogance he mistreated others. That's carried in this word, it's the pride and arrogance that results in mistreatment of others because you view them as less important, less capable, less whatever than you. And so they are treated with disdain.

The next word in Romans 1, the word arrogant. It's a word used when the Bible says that God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble in James 4:6. I Peter 5:5, God resists the proud. The proud, arrogant, boastful. And that's the next word in the list here—boastful. So these are different words but you can see they are carrying similar overlapping ideas. Proud person. We call it self-confidence, but it is truly self-confidence. Boastful. A person wants others to know how good he is, how superior he is. And you know since these are characteristics of fallen man and his rebellion against God, you know what man does? He tries to turn them around and make them desirable. So we say you have to build self-confidence in the kids. And we look at athletes who want to brag how good they are. I mean, can anybody today do something good in the athletic field that they don't dance around for all in the stands. Look at me, did you see how good I was? I mean, what are you getting paid $20 million a year for? I mean, you missed four tackles and you made one. Seems to be you ought to give back three-quarters of your money. But no, look at me, look at me. Boastful. People have to know. We have programs built around people who brag about what they have accomplished. I'm the best at what I do, and it becomes admirable.

We want to produce self-esteem in our children. You know these things invade the church because this is the world's attitude and the church wants to be “with it” as the world looks at it, so we try to pick up on the world's idea and think we can mix it with the Bible and then we really impress them. Here's what a Christian psychologist writes. A little child is born with an irrepressible inclination to question his own worth. It is as natural as his urge to walk and talk. He just has such self-doubt, insecurity, his own worth. It's just natural. Rejection and ridicule scratch and nick his delicate ego all through the quiet years. Then it happens, he enters adolescence and his world explodes within. All the accumulated evidences resurrected and propelled into his conscious mind with volcanic forcefulness. He will deal with that experience for the rest of his life. You know what we end up with now? People who are terribly afraid to nick the self-esteem of this poor, delicate child. And his sense of self-worth is so fragile, if you so much as nick it, he'll have to deal with it the rest of his life.

Here's another article on the same subject. Self-esteem is the most fragile attribute in human nature. It can be damaged by very minor incidents and its reconstruction is often difficult to achieve. Now it wouldn't amaze me to read that, you can read it in any number of secular psychological writings, what bothers me is this is a Christian writing this. So now you have Christians who don't know how to raise their children. I surely don't want to give them a swat on the seat of the pants because I may knick him. I wish I had had this for my father. Little does he know what he did to my fragile sense of self-worth.

You know we have something totally contrary to the Word of God but now we have to mix it in so we look like we're really exactly where the world is. We're not Bible-thumping know-nothings, we're right there and we're sensitive to this delicate ....... I come to the Word of God and what does the Bible tell me? People are filled with self, they are insolent, arrogant, boastful. That's there, it's there, the rebellion is there. We go on to that.

So we have to be careful. These things that are true of fallen man, you understand fallen man wants to make them pluses, desirable. What do we have? We have men of human intelligence and so on, we have to have homosexual marriage. Why are they promoting that? You see anything God says is sin and contrary to His will, now we want to promote it, we want to make it acceptable. So sexual misconduct, of course that's fine. I mean, everybody should have the freedom to do what they want. And of course being proud, that's what makes you something in our world. And it's true, the world admires the self-made man, so to speak, the person who accomplished this. And so our magazines deal with the richest number of people, the most powerful people. A business magazine I get, the most powerful people, and they have power, influence, money, success, athletic ability. It's all promoted. And we think, we want to build that into our children, from the time they are little we want to encourage them to know they are somebody, they are important. Don't let anybody put you down. Is it any wonder they become teenagers and you find out, why did you shoot and kill that person? He didn't show me respect, the world revolves around me, you know. And we just fan the flames of that self-centered desire and wonder why we have the kinds of situations we have.

You'll note the Bible says, II Timothy 3:2, in the last days men will be weak in their self-worth. No, it says men will be lovers of self in the last days. Well they've always been lovers of self. Paul wrote about that. Now it's a virtue, it's something to be desired. We just love ourselves.

We have to move on. That was the root fall of Satan, remember, in Isaiah 14 the seven “I wills.” I will be like the Most High, I will .........., I will .......... Then he comes to Eve, what does he say? You can be like God, Genesis 3:5, knowing good and evil. God's plan for us is humility. When the gospel comes the hard point is to bow and acknowledge the living God, be humbled before Him that I am a wretched, hell-deserving sinner. My only hope is the Savior. God be merciful to me, the sinner. I believe in your Son and His death for me. It's a humbling process. That's why it's hard for a rich man. As our arrogance gets fanned, who are you to tell me to bow before the living God?

They are inventors of evil, back in Romans 1:30. Insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil. They are always coming up with another way to satisfy the insatiable desire of his rebellion against God. Depravity. What's the bottom? The molestation of children was rampant in Paul's day in the Roman Empire. What did they say? It was just an uncontrollable passion, that kind of relationship with children. We say it is revolting, it's repulsive. We come up with new ways. God establishes marriage and a sexual relationship between a husband and wife, but we have to come up with other ways, other alternatives. Then where does it stop, and on it goes. Inventors of evil.

Disobedient to parents. You see how these things can mix? In verse 30 we had slanderers, haters of God, boastful, disobedient to parents. Isn't hating God worse than being disobedient to parents? It all comes from the same heart, that's the point. Not that everybody does each of these sins or does them to the same degree, but it's all potentially there. But you know all have an attraction to their own particular kinds of sins. And they look at other people and their sins and shake their head, how could they do that. So the gossiper has no time and no place for the homosexual. But they wreak havoc with their gossip and manifest their evil character just as much as the immoral person does.

Now we come to disobedient to parents. We act like this is something new. Well you know the open display of certain sins becomes more common at different times. Disobedient to parents, when I was a kid and those of you of my generation, physical discipline was more practiced. There were kids in my school that got paddled. I mean, the teacher didn't think you were paying attention. Come up here, bend over and touch your ankles, grab your ankles. That's a very un-self-esteem promoting position. Then you take down the thick yardstick and whack, whack, whack. The most humiliating, I still remember a friend who was getting that and the teacher broke the yardstick over his behind. She made him go down to the principal's office and get a new yardstick and bring it back so she could finish. I'm sure he has never recovered from those nicks to his self-esteem. Insolent to parents, it's built in. And so the more the restraints are removed on any area of sin in society, the more prevalent it becomes. So any wonder we can't control 16-year-olds, we can't control 2-year-olds. You walk through the grocery store and you have this kid throwing a fit and the mother trying to say, if you don't stop that, I'm not going to buy you this. My dad had something more to give me. But is it any wonder it fans that, of course? Disobedient to parents, you know where it comes from—sinful hearts. Teenagers, young people want to rebel against their parents. Don't be surprised, it comes from the sinful heart. Restraints can be put on any conduct, we limit murder because we have punishments that can be carried out by and large in our country. But look at certain countries where they can't, and it's much more rampant. Just give him the opportunity for the sinful condition of man and his rebellion against God to be more obvious.

They are without understanding. This word translated, two words here, without understanding, one Greek word, was used in verse 21, their foolish heart was darkened. That word translated foolish, the same word translated without understanding here. This is a fool, a person who doesn't have understanding, can't learn even the common sense and from common sense things. You know a number of years ago, not a believer that I know of, the book is not from a believing perspective, wrote a book, The Death of Common Sense. And it just had all kinds of examples from our society and things going on. We don't have any common sense anymore. And it's true. If there is not a law to govern it ............. Where did common sense go? What is common sense, you can't do that or you do that. No that's not there because if there is not a law then you are free. The whole idea of common sense is not there. They are without understanding. Their ability to understand anything connected with the moral, the spiritual, and even carries out then, it spreads out throughout society. I mean, you look and think, close to disobedient to parents, you think if children are raised without discipline, common sense. As they get older they'll have undisciplined lives and have a problem with anybody's authority. I don't have to listen to my mother and dad, I don't have to listen to you either. And any wonder it goes on. But the common sense, they are without understanding, they can't put 2 and 2 together in these things. This is a result of man's rejection of God.

They are untrustworthy. Their word means nothing. Basic idea is breaking agreements. The idea that your word is good, that's not now. We find all kinds of ways to break contracts, to get out of something. It's like when we were kids and you said I promise I'm going to meet you to play ball at 3 o'clock this afternoon. And then later they say, you didn't show up. No, I had my fingers crossed, didn't count. That's the way we are, we cross our minds. They are untrustworthy. Could you take a person at their word? You're going to go and buy a house and they say, it's a good house, no problems. Okay, I'll take your word for that. Oh no. In fact you have to have four attorneys examine the contracts to make sure there aren't things in there that people would get out of. It's just where we are. Untrustworthy.

Unloving. We have to look a bit at this word. There is a Greek word that does not appear in its basic form in our New Testament, storge. The word here is astorge, it's storge with a on the front that makes it negative. So the negative form of this word does appear here and in another passage—astorge, unloving. Storge was natural family affection and love, the love that you would have in a family that is normal. But fallen man is astorge, he is without even natural affection.

Let me read to you again what was going on in Paul's day. The killing of infants was common practice. Here's what they say. The newly born is placed at the feet of its judge, the father. If it is picked up, that is to say recognized, it will live; if it is left on the ground then the father is rejecting it. It is then carried out and abandoned in some busy thoroughfare where it will quickly die unless a slave dealer chances to pick up the poor little thing to bring it up and sell it one day. There we have the rights of the father, today we have the rights of the mother. Another writer comments that the father of the newborn infant “might expose the newborn child to perish of cold and hunger, or be devoured by dogs on one of the public refuse dumps.” Seneca, the Roman contemporary of Paul wrote, children who are born weakly and deformed, we drown. One writer has said, never was the life of the child so precarious as at this time. Children were considered a misfortune.

So you see they had family, but it's all _________ on me and kids can become inconvenient. They cost too much money, they are too much bother. And right now is not a good time. So in those days a child is born, the father decides. He's not what I was hoping for, we're not keeping him. Get rid of him. Or it may have had some kind of physical deformity. Not going to raise that kid, get rid of it. He had that kind of power. Today we have it with abortion. How many millions of babies ............ Natural affection is gone, the love for this child is not there. I mean, I have to be practical. We think this is something new, what was going on in Rome. But let me tell you something, we don't find Paul saying, I'm planning to come to Rome and we're going to start a few organizations that will rescue the babies. Or we'll put a stop to this infanticide, it is terrible for the empire.

Look in Romans 1:15, on my part I am eager to preach the gospel to you at Rome, because he never lost sight of what the true tragedy was. The true tragedy is not that babies are being killed and misused and abused, the real tragedy is men and women have rejected the living God, are refusing to have Him in their knowledge. They are under the wrath of God and consumed by their sin and their passions and their vile self-interest. And you know what? This is just one of the manifestations. And it is because the church easily gets caught up in something that has such an emotional tug as children and babies. Why do you get involved in this crusade with this? Because this is not the real problem anymore than it was at Rome. And you wouldn't have cleaned up Rome and the Roman Empire by stopping infanticide because that's not the problem. That's just one you see in the list here, the problem is they have rejected the living God. That's why it's only the power of the gospel that can come in and change them from the inside. And when the gospel impacts them, it will change their behavior and their sinful practices.

This is one of twenty-one things in a list and this is not a complete list. I'm not saying it's not a tragedy that we do with unborn babies in our day that we have such ability to destroy in greater numbers than the Romans could have done. But that's not the problem, it does manifest clearly along with homosexuality and homosexual marriage and all of that. We're going to try to take out these twenty-one sins, you start something to deal with this sin, and you start with this. I mention the children because those are usually heart-tuggers to draw the church in, get fund raising. I was on the internet checking some sites someone asked me to look at. I find Christians get into the children ministry because those are heart-tuggers for believers to give their money to support that. And I'm not against helping children, but understand what the ministry of the church is, what is most important and foundational. We are here to present the gospel which is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.

We go on in this ugly list. They are without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful. We say, how could they do that terrible thing. They are without mercy, that's at the root of their hearts. One sin often leads to another. I'm often interested, you watch a program where they are solving a crime and they come to a person and the person has been arrested, you can see it on the news. And they'll say, I don't think they could have murdered someone. Then they go through, they were having an affair, being immoral, and they were lying and deceiving their friends and family, they were embezzling from work to pay for their affair. But they couldn't have committed murder. You understand what a cesspool the inner life of a fallen human being is? The potential that is there? It is awful frightening. We're not saying they are so bad and we aren't because we were just like they are, as Titus 3 says, until the grace of God intervened.

Look at verse 32, one of the most striking verses. And you put this with some of the other verses in Romans 1. Although they know the ordinance of God that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same but also give hearty approval to those who practice them. You ought to have marked in your Bible, they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death. They know. There has been an emphasis in this section on the knowledge of fallen man. Back in verse 18, they suppress the truth in unrighteousness. This has brought the wrath of God on them. Why? Verse 19, because that which is known about God is evident within them. They know about God, God made it evident to them. Look at verse 21, even though they knew God, they knew Him. Look down in verse 28, they did not see fit to acknowledge God, or literally to have God in their knowledge. Now verse 32, they know the ordinance of God. That repeated emphasis on different forms of this word to know. They know, they know, they know, they know. They know God, they know the ordinance of God. You read a Greek commentator, they'll say this is one of the righteous family of words because the word translated ordinance is built on the word righteous or righteousness, a little different ending. So it's a righteous decree or the righteous ordinance which the holy and righteous God who has revealed Himself has decreed as the right penalty for their sinful action. And you'll note, men know the righteous ordinance, decree of God, which is that those who practice such things are worthy of death. You know people pursuing their sin know there is a God, they know something about this God as He has revealed Himself in the creation. And they know that this God will demand the penalty of their death for their sin. There are no unknowing people. We'll get to this in the middle of chapter 2. God has made it known to them and he has built it in them as part of His image in them. They know it. That doesn't stop them.

They not only do the same, practice these same kinds of things, but they give hearty approval to those who do them. You know death is the penalty for sin. You know the book in the New Testament that talks most about death? It's the book of Romans, twenty-two times in the book of Romans the word death appears because he's going to talk about sin. We're talking about the gospel. When you talk about the gospel you have to talk about sin because the gospel is God's solution to man's sin. And the penalty for man's sin is death. So eighteen times in the book of Romans death will be connected to man's sin and we have Jesus Christ be the solution to the sinful condition of man. Man knows he deserves to die, he's under the penalty of death by God. He knows that, people practicing sin know it. And you know what? They not only continue to practice these things, but they give hearty approval to those who practice them. They're not content to practice them themselves, they want to give their approval to others. Not necessary that they do the same sin, but you know what sinful people like to do? They like to say, abortion is the right of the mother. Now this person may not be getting an abortion, they may have ten kids, but they think it is their right. And I approve their sinful conduct in one area and that makes me feel better about mine, right? Doesn't mean I'm committing the same sin. But if I'm a drunk and you're immoral, that's all right. It makes me feel better. So I'm happy to have people practice their sin. But you know what? It's built into man, God has made it known, the penalty for sin is death. We'll get to this in Romans 6, the wages of sin is death. And men know it, just like they know there is a God, they know this God is awesome and powerful, they know this God is righteous and holy and their conduct offends Him and makes them guilty before Him and will result in their death.

Why do we have all these religions that man has created to try to deal with sin and its consequences? Why are people going around saying “hail Marys” and trying to partake of sacraments, or doing something else? They know there is a God, they know they are guilty, they know their conduct is sinful. And around the world it goes with the various religion man has created because he knows. We're not dealing with innocent people, we're not dealing with people who don't know any better. We're dealing with God-haters, those who are suppressing the truth that God has revealed. That's the seriousness, the awfulness of their condition.

And they are not only continuing to practice these sins knowing that they are an offense against a holy God who will require a penalty, the penalty being death, they not only know there is a penalty; they know, verse 32, that those who practice such things are worthy of death—the ultimate penalty, the death penalty. And we'll see as we go through Romans death in all of its facets. They not only continue to practice it, they encourage others to do it. Shows how depraved we are. I mean, you put it in the context. Somebody practices it, that's bad, but now they encourage others to get involved, too. They look at that as even more despicable, and everybody doing this knows, they know. Do we have that fixed in our minds? Somehow with the approach to the gospel we have today we don't want to start in Romans 1, 2 and 3 so people get an idea that you trust Christ because you want a better marriage, a happier life, to do better, to feel better. Understand how serious the issue is? We're talking about sin.

That's why there is no solution ............. Why is the church running around trying to solve the abortion problem, solve the homosexual problem, solving immorality? Because they haven't studied Romans 1. Understand that is an evidence that man is under the wrath of God. Yes, it's terrible, it's awful, it's vile, it's sinful. But you know it's a manifestation of man turned over to his sin because he has rejected God, refuses to have God in his knowledge and he knows there is a penalty for his sin, which is death. Paul said in Romans 1:15, I am eager to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome also. For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. That's it. Here's the awfulness, the ugliness, the horror of it all. I'm not coming to clean up Rome by trying to stop infanticide, by trying to stop homosexual practice, by trying to have people recognize the sanctity of marriage. I'm coming to preach the gospel because these are people that can only be helped by the power of the gospel, which brings salvation. And that's what is needed—salvation. We need to be rescued from our awful, hopeless condition as God sees us. The amazing thing is those who hate God and are hated by God are the objects of God's love. And that while we were yet sinners, not after we cleaned up our lives, not after we stopped certain practices. While we were yet sinners Christ died for us. While we were dead in our trespasses and sins God saved us by mercy and grace. That's the salvation we bring to people. Not because we're better and we never did the vile things that you did and I would have never thought of doing that. No, because we were just like you, we are just like the lost in our basic condition. What is the difference? The gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. So we come, I simply come to present to you the gospel. You are a sinner under God's condemnation. I don't come to tell you that you ought to clean up your life, I come to tell you that you must place your faith in the Savior so that you can be cleansed and forgiven. The wages of sin is death but the free gift of God is eternal life in His Son, Jesus Christ.

Let's pray together. Thank you, Father, for the power of the gospel. It's an awful, terrible picture that has been presented of our wretched, vile, filthy condition apart from your grace. Lord, it's easy if we have been saved for some time to forget how great a salvation we have received, that took hold of us in our totally lost, totally hopeless, totally wretched condition. And it's through simple faith in Jesus Christ and His death as the payment for our sin that we experience the power that sets us free, that cleanses us and makes us pure, causes us to be born again. We thank you for the gospel of Jesus Christ that changed our lives and the privilege we have to share that gospel with others. In Christ's name, amen.