The word gospel translates to news that brings joy. But this isn't just any news. A gospel is news that changes a life forever. After being invaded and enslaved by Persia, Greece won two decisive battles at Marathon and Souls. The Greeks sent out heralds, also called evangelists, to proclaim the good news to the cities. We have fought for you. We have won. And now you're no longer slaves. You're free. The reality is that we are all slaves. Slaves to sin and slaves to death.
We are slaves in need of good news. Enter Jesus, God's son. Fully God, fully man. Bringing news that would change our lives forever. His news was this. I am the divine. Come to you to do what you cannot do for yourself. I will take what you deserve so you can have what I deserve. You have no idea how much it will cost me. But you also cannot imagine the depths of my love for you. It is a gift that I give freely. So repent. Repent from all the ways you run for me and follow me.
Follow me because I am the only way to eternal life. Follow me because I'm the Savior you've been looking for. Follow me because I have authority over everything. Yet I have humbled myself for you. Follow me. Because I died on a cross for you. Because I am your true love and your true life. This is my good news for you. This is my gospel. That you have been saved by grace and that you are slave no more. You. Were beginning this morning a study through the book of Romans.
And it is probably the book and the Bible, that needs to be studied every day for the rest of our lives. But even with doing that, well, it would never get to the depths of it all. So I'm excited to start this year with you going through the book of Romans. I'm going to ask that as we go through the book of Romans, that you read it repeatedly on your own. I'm going to try to get through a chapter a week.
There'll be some that I we can't, and there's no way I could go through every verse in every chapter. So we'll take big chunks of. But you're going to have to do some reading and some a little bit of study on your own. And we'll provide some resources throughout this so you can do that better. But I want to encourage you to bring your Bibles with you and to take notes as we go through this. Heather got us all new pens, those blue pens, and they are fantastic.
I've not like any of the pens we've had before, but I like these. And our youth pastor Michael was in the office of the day. I was going on about how much I like these pens, and he said, this little stinker. He said, you know, your children are excited about pens. Well, whatever. I like them. And so, they're there for you. Take notes, take them with you. Leave them other places. But read this book as we go through this. Take notes as we study together. Take notes on your own.
We'll talk about it as we go through chapter by chapter every week. And bring your huddle with you. This is important stuff. As Paul desired after he came to to faith in Jesus, when God met him on the road to Damascus, he, as he's developed his his faith and and understanding what the gospel truly was. He had a deep and yearning, abiding desire to go to Rome and tell the people in Rome about this gospel. Explain it thoroughly to them.
And while he was in Jerusalem, in one of his many prayer times, the Holy Spirit told him that that there would be great problems and peril if you were to go to Rome and warned him. And so part of that response, I think, later when Paul was in Corinth, he decided he would write a letter to the people in Rome to explain to them the fullness of the gospel of Jesus. And I started thinking about that.
And I thought, I thought this if you knew that, you would see those closest to you again, what would be the one thing you would most want to communicate to them? That we just spent time with our kids and our grandkids. It was fantastic. And we don't get to see them nearly enough. But if you had people like that in your life and you knew that you wouldn't see them again and you could communicate to them one thing, what would that one thing be?
The answer to that question will reveal your greatest values. And for Paul, his greatest value was the gospel. The good news of Jesus. And so he wrote this letter that we have on our Bibles called the Book of Romans. The book of Romans is divided into four sections. And Paul begins with in chapter one, verse 17 through chapter three, with the wrath of God. And then in chapter three through eight, he deals with the grace of God.
And after dealing with the wrath of God and the grace of God, he then talks about the plan of God in chapters nine through 11. Then, having dealt with the wrath of God, the grace of God, the plan of God, he then develops the will of God from chapters 12 to 15. And that's how the book is divided. And so as we jump into this first chapter, Paul is going to outline for us the wrath of God. And there's where there's the wrath of God. There's the good news of God as well, which is the gospel.
And so we'll get into all of it. But again, I want to encourage you read this. Let's study this together. It's a profound book, not just because it's scripture, but because of what it says. In Scripture. And so let's dive in. Chapter one of Romans, starting in verse one.
Paul, a bond servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God, which he promised before, through his prophets in the old, in the Holy Scriptures concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection of the dead.
Through him we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the life or to the faith among all nations. For his name. Among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ. What Paul does in the very beginning is set out to define who he is. In writing this gospel and he calls himself Paul. Do you remember what he said of himself, Paul? A bondservant. It's important for us to understand what he's saying about himself. A bondservant is the Greek word dulos, and it means complete devotion to.
So what Paul is saying is that he has chosen to be a slave completely devoted to another, in this case, Christ. Well, he's making the statement, and it's a profound statement. And he's saying this. He's saying I'm better off as a slave to you than a free man on my own. I'm better. I'm in a better position as your slave than I am. If I had free reign over my own life. That's a profound statement, because so many of us, especially in America, we value our freedom.
We don't want anybody telling us, demanding, giving us mandates, right? So what he's saying is, I can be free, but I'd rather be a slave. Not to a man, but to Jesus. And that's the great paradox of Christianity. That we are set free to become a slave of any saying. I am choosing to be a bondservant, completely devoted as a slave to my master Jesus. And notice what he says. He says, I am separated to the gospel.
Now when you talk about separation, you talk about being separated from something and separated to something. And most people in coming to faith come to faith. So they'll be separated from from my past, from sin, from what I was, from who I used to be. And even in Paul is talk to the church in Corinth. He lists this a horrendous list of of sin and sinful behavior and says, that's what some of you were. And so there's legitimately a separation from.
But Paul says he's not just separated from he says he is separated two. And this is an important distinction for us to make, not just to be separated from, but to be separated. Two. Now, think in terms of marriage. When you get married, you are separated from father. You're separated from mother. They will leave father, mother and cleave to each other. Become one flesh. You're separated from father mother and are separated from all over all others.
But you're not just separated from your separated to one other. Didn't stand. So there's both a separation from my own. Separation two. And Paul's point here is to say I am a slave. I am willingly and purposely putting myself under the service of another. I'm better off as a slave to God through Jesus than him of my own, living my life on my own. And I'm not just separated from. I'm separated two. So the question I have to ask myself, I encourage you to ask yourself. What are you separated to?
Some are separated to their career. Some are separated two many things. Paul says I'm separated to the gospel. Many people come to faith because they want to be separated from without even giving thought to being separated to something. So I believe that you can have a free soul and a lost life. You can have a free soul, but a lost life because you're not separated to something that's greater than yourself. Eternity. The gospel. The ministry of the gospel. Evangelism of the gospel.
So it's not enough for people to see. Just be separated from the old, he says. You need to be separated. Two. It's a challenge for us. Most of us think it's enough of this Christian life be separated from the past and separated from sin. It's not enough. When Jesus said to the people he called, he said, come, follow me. He's saying, separate yourself from everything else and be separated to me. So I want to challenge us this morning to be separated.
Two Christ. The Kingdom of God, the work of God in this world to the gospel. He says, this gospel came through the prophets. What he's talking about is the Old Testament prophets. This gospel that he's talking about, he says it's not new. It's old. It was given to us through the prophets of Old Testament generations and eons ago. The gospel is very old and very true. But, you know, most, most time I feel like like people are drawn to the new people like the new.
They don't like the old, like the new teachings, like new ideas, like new waves. I like to say it like this. If it's new, it's not true. If it's true, it's not new. The gospel, very old, is very true. And he talks about Jesus in terms of his dual nature, fully God and fully man. And he talks about Jesus as having of human origin the seed of David and eternally existent, the Son of God. Those are the words he uses.
And he says the evidence of Jesus's humanity is his birth, and the evidence of Jesus's divinity is his resurrection. He says this Jesus is is is uniquely unique because he is fully God and fully man. And he said, it's this unique Jesus that I am giving myself as a slave to. And he goes on and in these next few verses and gives it a little bit more full introduction, he says, I love you. I long to visit you, and he's writing to them.
And just as a side note, he says in verse 11, I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong, that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith. And and when I read that, I thought, but that's the that's the golden dream of every pastor to be mutually encouraged by their church, by each other's faith, and not have it be just one sided, where the pastor gets to impart faith and knowledge and and encourage this church.
But there's a there's a there's there's there's faith that comes back that that the pastor is encouraged by the church's faith as well. And so let me tell you, thank you. Some of you are very encouraging to me because I see your faith. I see your growth. I see your struggle. I see your successes. I, I see the faith that's growing and the desire to grow in faith. I see you're steady. I see you carry your Bibles. I see you do your devotions. I see you praying with us.
I see you ministering and it's encouraging. So thank you. My prayer is that we are continually mutually encouraged by each other's faith. But then it gets into the heart of chapter one and verses 14 and 15, and I want to jump into the heart of it. He says, I am a debtor both to the Greek, both to Greeks, and to barbarians. I'll tell you about that in just a minute. About to wise and to unwise. So as much as is in me, I am ready to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome.
Also. He says, I'm in debt now. He wasn't in debt financially. Thankfully, credit cards weren't around back then. And he lived within his means. He didn't overextend himself. But he's not talking about financial. That's what he's talking about is being in debt in this way, being the intermediary between the owner and the beneficiaries. And he says, basically, the owner has given something to me that he wants passed on to the beneficiaries.
The gospel, he said in I am in debt because I've been given it by the owner and I'm in debt. As long as I hold it, I have to give it to those who intended it to go. So I'm in debt. The same could be said of us. So if anybody who has the truth of Jesus, whoever, anybody who claims to be a Christian, the same could be said for us that we are in debt because we've been given something from God that he doesn't intend to stay with us.
But there's others who he intends to be the beneficiaries of it, and we have to pass it on when we get it and hold it. We live as debtors. And Paul says, I'm in debt. I have to pass it. The owner has given it to me, and there are many beneficiaries that haven't got it yet, and I have to pass it on. And friends, let me tell you this, that if we call ourselves Christians, we live as people of debt because we've been given something by God of Jesus. The gospel.
And there are many people who God desires to be beneficiaries of that gospel. And as long as you and I hold it where people of debt and the only way to get out of debt is to give it. Says I'm in debt to the Greeks and the barbarians. Now he is not talking about the Greeks and, you know, headhunters. The Greek language is so precise and it's so beautiful.
And Greeks loved their language and they were so arrogant about it that they thought anybody there was the the chosen people who spoke Greek, and everybody else who were just who spoke gibberish. And the way they said gibberish is baa, baa, baa baa. They said, that's what every other language sounds like. Someone is going to baa, baa baa. And so those who didn't speak Greek were barbarians. That's where that word comes from. Barbarians. And so Paul says, I'm indebted.
To everybody, the wise, the unwise, those who are the elites and those who are, you know, live in the ranchos and towns. You look like I'm in to everybody. I'm indebted. And I love the fact that he says, I am ready to preach. Paul could have used I am ready as his motto. Do you know what a motto is? What's a motto? Nothing. What's the matter with you? I think it's funny, David, I just. Yeah. First I thought it was more funny, but whatever. Bunch of barbarians. Anyway, you said I'm ready.
He could have use the words I'm ready as his model. Because the moment he came to faith, his his promises first response to God was God, what do you want me to do? And from that moment on, he said, I'm ready. He said, I'm ready to preach and I'm ready to serve. Romans one he said, I'm ready to suffer. Acts 21 he said, I'm ready to do all the unpleasant work, God, that you have me to do. Second Corinthians ten he said, I'm ready to die, second Timothy, for I'm ready.
He said, look, I'm I, I have chosen to set aside my own agenda and authority over my own life, and I have chosen to be a slave, complete a divided lead, loyal to this Jesus who was fully God and fully man. And I'm ready to pass on what he's given to me, to everybody, that they may benefit by the gospel. Also, and whatever that means. To preach, to serve, to suffer, to do the yucky stuff, even to die. I'm ready. Profile.
And then he gets in verses 16 and 17 is for I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes first to the Jew, then to the Gentile, the non-Jew. For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written, the righteous will live by faith. This is the theme of Romans.
These two verses are the theme of the entire book, and the theme of this entire book, according to those two verses, are righteousness and grace, not just grace. Grace means nothing without righteousness, and righteousness is unbearable. Without grace. The theme of Romans is righteousness and grace. We need to understand something about the righteousness of God. It's twofold. The righteousness of God is given by grace to faith, to those of us who will believe.
And the righteousness of God leads to wrath for those who will not believe. And the world hates the righteousness of God, but it loves the love of God. The world loves the love of God. Why would we not? For God loved the world and gave his son, that whoever believes in him would have been drawn a life. That's great news.
The world loves the love of God, but the world hates the righteousness of God, because the righteousness of God highlights individual sin, personal sin and the righteousness of God is given, imparted to those because of grace, through faith, to those who believe. But the righteousness of God demands that his wrath falls on those who won't believe. And Paul is going to deal with both.
The world does not want to acknowledge the righteousness of God, because it makes the sin of the individual so evident. And that's why there's so much talk about the love of God and so little about the righteousness of God. But don't worry, Paul will get into both. I want you to understand something about how profound the righteousness of God is. When the Bible, when the gospel talks about the righteousness of God, it doesn't just mean he's so holy that his wrath falls on the unrighteous.
That's not all that it means for God to be righteous. Understand this please. This is very, very, very important for God to be righteous. It means he must declare me righteous by my faith, not by behavior. For God to be righteous, it means he has to declare me righteous by faith alone that just will live by faith. Romans places the righteousness of God in the first position, but it's followed closely by the grace of God.
See, without righteousness, grace is simply the acceptance of every progressive, vile behavior. But without grace, righteousness is only wrath and condemnation. And so in Romans, Paul helps us understand that righteousness is primary, but grace is necessary if we don't come to God by his grace through faith, his righteousness levels his wrath against the unrighteous.
But because of his grace, which is necessary for us to come to Christ in faith, his righteousness is not leveled against us, is it? Is it is imputed upon us. And this was this has been Paul's prayer ever since he started ministry. You go back to Ephesians six, verses 19 and 20. He says, pray for me that whenever I open my mouth I may proclaim the mystery of the gospel. That's this righteousness and grace given to anyone Jew, non-Jew, given to anyone who would believe by faith. Apart from works.
In verse 17 he says in the gospel the righteousness from God and of God, it's two fold. It's revealed from faith to faith. And he says, the righteous will live by faith, righteousness. The gospel does not just define right the righteousness of God as a thing that condemns the sinner because of sin. The holiness of God does. But the righteousness of God means that his own righteousness is imputed to the one who puts their faith in Jesus. And he says, it is.
It's a righteousness from that will live by faith. It's from faith from first to last. That means that we enter into this relationship by faith. And that relationship with Jesus is sustained by faith. Please understand, friends, it doesn't start with faith and move to works. You don't accept Jesus by faith and then work hard to keep your relationship right from faith to faith. It starts with faith and it is sustained by faith. The righteous will live by faith, not by works.
When the Bible, when Paul says that the righteous will live, the righteous will live by faith, that word. Right. This is real. I mean, we're going to take a deep dive in Romans. Okay. You right. You track it with me. I guarantee you it's going to like getting a little drink of water out of a firehose. There's a lot here, but let me just keep pushing. Let's just keep digging down a little bit deeper. You all right? So some of you are like. Well, you're going to be all right.
We're going to grow up. We'll grow together in this. When the Bible uses the word righteous, we'll live by faith. That word righteous, a Greek word, the I'll okay. And it literally means that it literally means I justified. And what God is saying is that when he makes a person righteous, what he says is God says, I justify you now, I don't make you good. I don't make you better. I don't clean you up. God says I justify no, that's important. Because of this.
When a person, when a sinner responds in faith to Jesus, God doesn't make that sinner good. He doesn't make that sinner clean. He doesn't turn what used to be bad into something good. It means he places his righteousness on that sinner. So any time in in Greek, when a word ends in what we would say, double oh, oh, it means that person becomes that thief. They become that thing. And so if righteousness means justified, it means that God makes us become righteous.
And what's profound about that, he says, is not the righteousness of man, it's the righteousness of God Himself. So when I come to faith in Jesus, God takes his own righteousness and puts it on me. And now God sees me as someone who never sinned at all. It's profound. I become the righteousness of God. And God told us this in the Old Testament when he said, one of my names is Jehovah, Tippecanoe. God, my righteousness. I don't become a good person. I don't become a cleaned up person.
I don't become someone, just someone who's now new. I become in God's economy the very righteousness of God Himself. Can you imagine? Like when we get to heaven, if you place your faith in Jesus because of his work on the cross, his resurrection, you when you get there, it's not like God is in heaven. And he's like, well, I got the people who deserve this who were like the A group people right there.
I mean, I mean, some of the people in the Bible, like, they obviously they're going to be they're but then we got some they're not really A-listers, but they're, they're good. Be made. They made it and they did some really good stuff I think because I'm so gracious and benevolent. And we got some listeners and they were mostly good, but they believed in me, which was I mean, that's that's the requirement. And they did a pretty good job. And to be honest, we got some.
Do you listeners do it just by the skin of their teeth? You don't have that in heaven. There's no gradients in the visions of holiness and righteousness in heaven. It's the full righteousness of God. And if any of us are going to get there through faith in Jesus because of his grace, he says, I justify. I take my righteousness of Almighty God and I place it on you. Now you are the righteousness of God. That's the gospel. Did you ever think of yourself as that?
No. You are by faith the righteousness of God and God's righteousness dictates that he must declare you righteous by faith. Amazing to me. You all look like you're not impressed that what a savior. And this is why Paul can say. You've died to sin. That's not who you are anymore. So why go on living in it? You are the righteousness of God. Live in a way worthy of the calling you've received. That's the gospel. God treats the sinner as if they've never been a sinner at all. Let that sink in.
Some of you, some of us are carrying on baggage from years past. And yet we've come to faith. No, the only one carry around your baggage is you. Because God, because of his grace through faith, has imparted to you his own righteousness. And now he sees you as never having been a sinner at all. That's what Paul, and that's why the book of Romans is so profound. So let me ask you this.
If you knew you were unworthy to approach God, how much confidence would you have to approach his throne and ask his hand? Would you have any confidence at all if you knew you were completely unworthy to? How much confidence will the person have if they knew they were the righteousness of the father? To go before the father? In prayer. How much confidence would that person have? How much expectation with that person? Have? So the problem.
Is that you and I have not understood God's righteousness, and we still approach his throne as beggars, unworthy. He says, you are not. I have imputed to you my righteousness. I have declared you. You can approach my throne of grace with confidence where you will find mercy and grace. Is. Heard. Oh, boy. Say long ago, man, it isn't like your fire. Kindling is wet. I think that is true. The very righteousness of God himself. And Paul says, I'm not ashamed of this gospel. You know why?
He says, I'm not ashamed of it? Because it is the power of God to salvation for those who believe is what I want to understand. Paul understands the inherent power in the gospel. In this message, Paul doesn't say that the gospel brings power. Paul doesn't say the gospel creates power. Paul says the gospel is the power of God for salvation. Paul stood that when dealing with this, he was accessing the very power of God for salvation. It's amazing.
And so then Paul addresses why, why, why does one need God to impart his righteousness to them? Why does God need why? Why does someone need God to justify them? Because of sin, because of sin, personal sin. And so Paul is going to deal with three groups the humanist, the moralist, and the religionists. And every one of us falls in one of those three groups the humanist, the moralist, or the religionists. And so let me just help you understand. The humanist is the one who says,
my life is mine. I'll do what I want. And you can't tell me what's right or wrong. You don't know truth. My truth is my truth. Your truth is your truth. Love what you love. Do what you want. Don't let anybody tell you any different. Jew, humanist. Some people fall in that camp. That's where they live. Others are the moralists. And they're the ones who say, you know what? I'm not necessarily like a religious person, but I'm a I'm a really good person.
I haven't bought into I haven't drunk the Kool-Aid yet, but I'm a really good person. You know, people like this. My grandpa was this until he accepted Christ after 40 years of marriage as an old man, he was a moralist. And then there's a religionists. And these are the. Right. And we used to be humanists. We used to even be more or less. But now, I mean good church folk, that's what these are. And you've heard people talk about, they're like, they're really religious.
Like they go to church every week, they read the Bible, they do all the stuff you have to do. And the and Paul is going to address all of them. And there's going to say, no matter where you fall in any of those camps, you fall, I fall, we fall far short of the glory of God and are sinners. When compared to the perfection of the Holy God, every one of us doesn't matter which camper and fall far short of that. And so Paul then outlines God's wrath because of his righteousness.
I mean, drives home the need, no matter who you are, of being saved. Now remember, you're saved by faith because of God's grace and then God and His righteousness to you. But unless you come to him in faith because of God's grace and what he did on the cross, through Jesus, you will bear the wrath of God. The fact is this that God's wrath, because of his righteousness, is poured out in full force on the unrepentant sinner. And that is frightening, not to be very concerning.
If not for the grace of God. We are left completely without hope, hell bound and eternally lost. Let us never shy away from that truth. The righteousness of God says that if I come to him in faith in what Jesus did on the cross, he gives me his own righteousness. But if I reject Jesus. His righteousness demands that his wrath be poured out. That is frightening, and I ought to be very concerned for every one of us. Without faith in Jesus, we're left without hope. Hellbound. Eternally lost.
And so Paul will develop in verses 18 through 23. He'll say, the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the, the godlessness and wickedness of people who suppress the truth by their wickedness. Since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God's made it plain to them.
For since the creation of the world, God's invisible qualities, his eternal power, and his divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him. But their thinking became futile, and their foolish hearts were darkened.
Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles. In my Bible it uses the words ungodliness and unrighteousness, that God's wrath is being poured out on the ungodly and the unrighteous. And here's what he's saying. He's covering all the bases when he uses the word ungodliness. That's a man's offense against God.
And when he uses the word unrighteousness, that's God's manifest man. And so whether we have been offensive, offensive to God or to others who sin against God or others, he said, it covers all of us. And he said, God's wrath is poured out on them, and God's wrath is completely righteous. We must never lessen the reality of the wrath of God. And I know it's not popular.
I know most churches when preachers will talk about and preach about the love of God and never the wrath of God, but we must never lessen the reality, the severity of the wrath of God. Because without the wrath of God, the grace of God means nothing. And so God wants to save us. Through faith because of his grace. But, but we have to understand what God wants to save us from. And this is this is where we start to get serious about stuff. We're saved not from bad behavior.
We're saved from the wrath of God. See, Jesus didn't come and die on the cross, and so we can be saved from bad behavior. He came so we can be saved from the wrath of God that will be poured out on the unrighteous who don't believe by faith. Well, you and I are saved from is not from being bad. Well, you are saved from is the wrath of God. That's a very real reality. Every truth of God has been pushed back against, has been fought against, has been disregarded, has been devalued by humanity.
However, the universality and the clarity of God can be clearly seen so that people are without excuse. But what else can be seen is the destruction and degradation and ramification. When one denies and reconstructs the truth of God, so that every one of us is without excuse. See, humanity's problem is not that we don't know God, but that we do know God.
And here's here's humanity's problem is that we can clearly see God's qualities and character, but we choose to reject God and yet the truth of God. This is what Paul says, what can be clearly seen of God. His character, his quality, his power, his immutable nature can be clearly seen by what is made so that men and women are without excuse. Our problem is not that we don't know God. The problem is that we've chosen to neglect and deny God and His truth. Do you know what the knowledge of God is?
Of no use until it results in holy living? That's what Paul says. Though they knew God and they neither glorified him, they didn't live as if they knew God. The knowledge of God is not enough, and the knowledge of God without it affecting your life, betrays your knowledge of God and says that your faith is not real. We don't live rightly before God so that we are saved, but because we are saved, we do. Because we're being changed.
But it's interesting that Paul says all the, you know, these people, these ungodly, unrighteous, and because they did acknowledge God, they knew the truth. All you got to do is look around, look at creation, and you can't deny it. But they denied him. And then he says, not only on those who deny God, but those who were what, those who were unthankful. The wrath of God is being poured out on those who denied who God is, though he's clearly saying, and those who were unthankful.
Isn't that interesting that Paul puts there this idea of gratitude and thankfulness in this list? The wrath of God? Let me tell you this for someone to know God and to express in gratitude towards God is shocking. Shocking. There's not much worse that can be said of a person who knows God than they are unthankful to God. The thankfulness of the poor Puritans of old.
Our example, the Puritans of old in their poverty, who would hold in their hand a cup of water and a piece of bread, and in their poverty they would say, water and bread and Jesus, two. Amazing. And I think we have a water and bread and we think, is this all God work? And thankfulness says, bread and water. And Jesus, God, you been so good. And that type of thankfulness will make one happy and joyful, regardless of what life throws, says all those people, they became full.
Think of their wise who became fools and made images of man and birds and animals and reptiles. Do you realize what he's doing? He's hearkening that back to the creation account, and he's doing it in reverse order. He's hinting that when God started here and ended here with man, man and their foolishness starts here and degrades down. I want you to know something that he says inherit is this is man's need to worship. Although they knew God, they never glorified.
They didn't glorify God. They worship images. So even in the rejection of God remains the need to worship. And you and I will worship something. If it's not, God will be something. Be very careful because Scripture tells us that we become like the objects we worship. Look, I know what time it is. I got a little bit more to do here. Okay? Thank you. This is what it's going to be like as we go through. Maybe not this long.
Every time, but I'm just telling you this is what we're going to go through. And there's a lot here. So there's there's three verses that that Paul uses to drive home a point, verses 24, 26 and 28. And he says this. Therefore God gave them over, in their sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity, for the degrading of their bodies with one another. Verse 2426 because of this, God gave them over to sinful lusts.
Verse 26 and then verse 28, furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they might do what ought not be done. He says three different times, just catch it three different times. God gave them over. God's righteousness and his wrath and his just. That means that if not repentant, God will give one over to their sinful desires and allow the full destruction of those desires to take root in their lives.
Just. Lewis said that you can divide humanity into two groups. One group it says, Lord, thy will be done, and the other group whom God says, your will be done. And it is frightful. Please hear me. It is frightful to be given over to the full breadth of the destruction of our sinful desires.
And this is Paul's warning of those who refuse to acknowledge the truth of God, who refuse to acknowledge the truth of their own sin, who choose to realize their own personal need of a Savior, and those who choose to reject the work of Jesus on the cross. That God may give you over to the full destruction of your sin. I said earlier that Paul is going to just the humanist, the moralist, and the religionists. And in verses 26 and 27 he deals with being given over for the humanist.
And I'm not going to go through verses 26 and 27. Paul deals with what that looks like at the sexual level and deals with homosexuality, lesbianism. And I'm not going to deal with all that too. There's way too much to get into. But I do want to point you toward a thing we did called unfiltered and uncensored. When I of about two hours on this very topic is homosexuality, lesbianism, lesbianism compatible with Scripture based off of this?
And so I would encourage us to go there and dive into that. That is when Paul kind of says, here's what it looks like to be given over. And so I want to address it, though not here. Please take advantage of it. Let me wrap up with this. Paul brings this whole thing together. Now in verses 29 through 32. And he says this. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. And here's the list. See where you fall.
They're full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. It means you hold grudges. They're gossips who? Slanderers. God haters. Insolent, arrogant. You know, social media is the portal of arrogance and pride. Boastful. There it is. They invent ways of doing evil. They disobey their parents. All. They have no, they have no sinful, senseless, faithless, heartless and have no mercy.
Although they know God's righteous decrees that those who do all those things deserve death, they not only continue to do those things, the very thing is they ought not do they approve of others who do them. Like like like like like. People living in sin, celebrating debauchery. Like like like like. Approving of those who do those things. Like. Like I. Will. Be careful who you give your thumbs up to. And what Paul's saying is, all of us are worthy of the wrath of God. Yet there's good news.
The gospel that in spite of all that stuff, simply coming to God in faith in what Jesus did, in spite of all that stuff, can't be the faith God now sees you. As never having done any of that because of faith. And not only that, not just making you good and clean, but taking his very righteousness and saying, now I've so transformed you that you bear my righteousness. You are the righteousness of God. And so my question this morning. Why don't you admit your sin? And repent.
And accept the righteousness of God over your life. And live as the righteousness of God. This is the gospel, and it's beautiful. Why don't you pray with me? Father, I thank you that you love us. And you've loved us with an everlasting love. We love your love. But I also thank you. That you have been honest with us about ourselves. And that we can, in safety and confidence, admit our own sin. Because of your grace.
And thank you that in the repentance of our sin you give to us, impute to us your very righteousness. God, you are amazing, and we are lost without you. Friends, I invite you in this moment. If you've never accepted Jesus and the work you do on the cross by faith. What invite you to do that now? And maybe you have. But living as if you are the righteousness of God has been so far from your lifestyle. That a recommitment is necessary.
And so I'd invite you this moment to simply say, God, I agree, I'm a sinner. I don't want to live like that anymore. Jesus, thank you that you died on the cross for my sin. Father, I come to you by faith in what Jesus did. And I accept the forgiveness that you've offered. And I receive your righteousness over my life. And I choose this day to be your bondservant. And I'm ready. Jesus. Thank you for what you've done. We remember you this morning. We trust you when we give ourselves to you.
In your name I pray. Amen. We're going to wrap up with this because now we understand more fully what Jesus did. For those of you with the relationship with this risen Lord who have come to God in faith, by faith who have received the righteousness of God over your life, we remember the one through whom it came. Jesus. That he was making the way possible. He shared a meal. They took the bread. He said, this bread is my body given for you.
Every time you eat this, I want you to remember me the way, the truth, and the life, and eat the bread. You remember him. The door through which we go for forgiveness. Same. During that meal he took the cup and he lifted up to heaven. He gave thanks and he said, this cup, this is the new covenant in my blood shed for you, for the forgiveness of your sins. Every time you drink this. Remember me, Peter? Listen here. We remember Jesus. It's about him. And now no one else.
So thank you for being with us. This. Thank you for your patience. I know it was a lot, but it is so good. I entrust you to God and I entrust His word to you. Go this week and read Romans one and Romans two and get ready for next week. There are people in your world who do not know this gospel. For whom? Maybe living under the wrath of God. You are in debt. If you know Jesus, you are in debt. He's the owner. There's beneficiaries that he wants his message. Give it to your it.
And so this week I pray that God gives you opportunities and invite them next week to understand this. And I love you. It's been good for us to be together. We're going to sing a song and anything. If you want to talk about what we've talked about, it's been a pretty big deal. I'm going to be here after service. David will be here. There's some others over here for all those things you just don't want to. Let's just talk and pray together. That would be good. I I've been on my too long, Jeff.
I realize that that's.