This time let's turn to our Bibles, to
Romans chapter 1, and
Paul opens his epistle to the Romans by
declaring, Paul, a bondslave of Jesus Christ, called
to be an apostle, separated under the gospel
of God.
Twenty-five years before Paul wrote this epistle
to the Romans, he was on the road
to Damascus to imprison the Christians there, when
suddenly about noon there came a light brighter
than the midday sun, and there the Lord
said, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?
And he answered, Who art thou, Lord, that
I might serve thee?
Now, twenty-five years later Paul writes, Paul,
a servant or a bondslave of Jesus Christ.
Writing to the Philippian church concerning that same
conversion experience, he said, Those things which were
gained to me, I count a loss for
the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ,
for whom I suffer the loss of all
things, and do count them but refuse that
I may know him.
What I'm seeking to point out is that
the commitment that Paul had made twenty-five
years earlier was still being honored.
There are a lot of people who talk
about past experiences, but the past experiences have
not been translated into the present relationship, and
thus past experiences become null and void unless
they are translated into my present relationship.
Those things which were gained to me, I
counted loss twenty-five years ago.
Yea, doubtless, I do count them.
You see, it's still going on.
So past experience is only valid as it
is translated into my present walk and relationship.
Twenty-five years ago, who art thou, Lord,
that I may serve thee?
Now, twenty-five years later, Paul, a servant
of Jesus Christ.
We just finished the book of Acts, and
to help place the book of Romans, the
writing of the book of Romans, into the
study that we just had in Acts.
If you will remember, when Paul was in
Ephesus and Demetrius, the silversmith created the big
ruckus, you know, and they brought all of
the people of the city into the arena,
and they were chanting, Great is Diana of
the Ephesians, and so forth.
And how that at that point Paul said,
well, I'm going to go to Macedonia and
to Corinth, and then I'm going to go
to Jerusalem, and I must also see Rome.
So there Paul expressed his desire as he
left Ephesus, going over to Macedonia and then
to Corinth, to ultimately go on to Rome.
I must also see Rome.
And when he got to Corinth, before going
back to Jerusalem, it was from Corinth that
Paul wrote this letter to the church in
Rome.
And so that will help you place it
historically in the book of Acts.
He wrote the letter to the church in
Rome from Corinth, as he got ready to
leave Corinth to go back to Jerusalem, he
found out that there was an assassination plot
against him.
They were going to throw him overboard.
And so instead of taking a ship from
Corinth, he went on back up north to
Macedonia, crossed over to Troas, and then made
his way around the coast catching ships back
to Jerusalem.
He gave up his hope of being there
for Passover and intended to be there for
the Feast of Pentecost.
In Jerusalem, he was arrested, taken to Caesarea,
held in prison for two years.
He appealed unto Caesar.
And now, of course, in the book of
Acts, he was finally going to Rome.
But this was written some two years, a
little more than two years before Paul was
able to go to Rome.
And he is going to, in a little
bit, express his desire to come to Rome
and the purpose for which he desired to
go there.
So Paul, a bond slave of Jesus Christ,
called to be an apostle.
The Bible tells us that we should make
our calling and election sure.
Paul said, I was called to be an
apostle.
Now, it is wrong for us to classify
callings of God as important or highest calling
or greatest calling or whatever.
I don't know what God has called you
to be.
But it's important that you realize that you
can't be any more than what God has
called you to be.
And we oftentimes get into trouble trying to
do more than God has called us to
do.
Paul was called to be an apostle.
Then that's great.
Paul should be an apostle.
If he said Paul called to be a
tent maker, then he should be a tent
maker.
Paul called to be a camel driver, then
he should be a camel driver.
In other words, it's whatever God has called
you to be, that's the highest calling for
your life because you can't be more than
what God has called you to be.
And God only holds you responsible to be
what he's called you to be.
We oftentimes are guilty of taking on duties
that God hasn't laid on us.
Taking upon ourselves the responsibility because a great
desire to serve God in some greater capacity.
And thus I launch into areas where God
has not called me.
And that can be disastrous.
I would give you a personal testimony, but
we don't have time.
I have tried to be on occasions, but
God didn't call me to be.
And I always ended disastrously.
Sometimes our ambitions and our desires are beyond
the Lord's callings.
Paul called to be an apostle.
Separated unto the gospel of God, which of
course, the book of Romans is dedicated to
that subject.
Which he had promised before by his prophets
in the Holy Scriptures.
This glorious gospel of the Messiah, that salvation
through the Messiah is something that God prophesied
through the prophets concerning his son, Jesus Christ,
our Lord, which was made of the seed
of David according to the flesh.
Now, David came to Nathan, the prophet, and
said, I want to build a house for
the Lord.
I live in this beautiful palace and God
still lives in that tent.
They're still worshiping God in the tabernacle.
And it isn't right that I should live
in this glorious palace while God lives in
a tent.
I want to build a house for the
Lord, the most glorious building in the world.
Nathan, the prophet said, oh, that's great, David,
do all that is in your heart.
That night, the Lord came to Nathan, the
prophet, and spoke to him and said, Nathan,
you spoke out of turn.
You spoke too quickly.
You're going to have to go back to
David and you're going to have to tell
him that he's not going to be able
to build a house for me.
His hands are too bloody.
He's a man of war.
I can't have him building a house for
me.
But you tell David that I will build
him a house.
And there shall not cease from his seed
one to sit upon the throne.
David saw Nathan the next day and Nathan
said, David, I've got some bad news and
good news.
The bad news first.
God spoke to me last night and said,
you can't build a house for him.
Your hands are too bloody.
You're a man of war.
But your son will be able to rise
up and build a house.
But the good news, David, God is going
to build you a house.
And from your seed, there will never cease
to be a king sitting upon the throne
of Israel.
From which David immediately understood that the Messiah
was to come from David's seed.
And of course, this was just overwhelming to
David.
He went in before the Lord and he
said, oh, Lord, you took me from the
sheep coat from following after the sheep.
Lord, I was nothing.
I was just a shepherd.
And yet you took me and you made
me the king over your people.
And you've blessed me so much.
And now you speak of the years to
come.
Oh, God, what can I say?
And David was brought to a place of
silence before God.
So overwhelmed by the grace of God.
Have you ever been brought to that place?
So overwhelmed by the goodness of God that
there is just nothing you could say.
Savnerola said when prayer reaches its ultimate, words
are impossible.
That communion with God, when you really realize
what God has promised to do for us,
it's just so overwhelming.
There are times that I just I just
what can you say?
Too much.
God is too much.
Now, according to the promise, then he is
to come as the seed of David.
There shall come out of Jesse a righteous
branch.
So it is interesting that in the Gospels,
when they record the genealogies of Jesus, that
though the genealogy of Matthew and Luke are
different.
Both of them go back to David.
But from David, they take different branches in
Matthew's genealogy.
When you get to David and David begat
Solomon of Bathsheba, who was the wife of
Uriah.
And it brings you the genealogy from Solomon
on down to Joseph, who was supposed by
the people to be the father of Jesus.
Now, in the genealogy coming from Solomon, you
come to this fellow, Jeconiah, and the Lord
placed a curse upon Jeconiah from the last
verse of the 22nd chapter of Jeremiah, where
Jeremiah said, Hear, O earth, the word of
the Lord.
There shall not be a seed of Jeconiah
to sit upon the throne of David forever.
If Jesus were the son of Joseph, he
could not sit on the throne.
Luke gives us another genealogy, the genealogy of
Mary, of Joseph, who was the son-in
-law of Heli.
So it's Mary's genealogy in Luke.
And he traces a different line back to
David.
He comes back to Nathan, the son of
David.
So that Jesus, through Mary, a descendant of
David and thus a claimant to the throne
of David, but not through Jeconiah.
If so, he could not be a claimant
to the throne because of the curse of
God, that there should not be any of
Jeconiah's seed sitting upon the throne of Israel.
So the two genealogies, both to show that
it is through David.
And so Paul declares concerning his son, Jesus
Christ, our Lord, which was made 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 from the dead.
And so that resurrection of Christ, the proof
of the claim or the declaration.
By whom we have received grace and apostleship
for the obedience to the faith among all
nations for his name.
Among whom are ye also the called of
Jesus Christ to all that be in Orange
County, beloved of God called to be saints.
Grace to you.
And I like to personalize the scriptures.
I like to believe that they were writing
to me because the only thing that doesn't
really apply to me there is is Rome.
But I'm beloved of God and God's called
me to be a saint.
And really, Paul's epistle is to the saints
of God, the church.
Grace to you and peace from God, our
father in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Grace and peace.
The Siamese twins of the New Testament.
They're always coupled together and always in that
order.
I don't recall of any place in the
New Testament where it says peace and grace.
But it is always grace and peace.
Why?
Because you cannot really know the peace of
God until you have experienced the grace of
God.
Now, there was years in my Christian experience
that I really didn't have the peace of
God.
I have peace with God that was established
through the death of Jesus Christ.
But I didn't have the peace of God
because I was going about by my own
works to establish a righteous standing before God.
And as long as I was seeking by
my effort to be righteous before God, I
never found peace.
There was always a struggle in my Christian
experience.
I was always trying to be a little
better and always promising that I would do
better.
And I was restless.
I never had peace until I experienced the
grace of God.
And then I understood what it's all about.
Grace and peace.
Grace is always first.
And if you haven't yet experienced the grace
of God, then you really don't know the
peace of God in your life yet.
First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ
for you all that your faith is spoken
of throughout the whole world.
So there was a body of believers there
in Rome.
And their faith in Christ was known everywhere.
For God is my witness whom I serve
with my spirit in the gospel of his
son.
That without ceasing, I make mention of you
always in my prayers.
It's interesting to me that Paul has to
call God as the witness to his prayer
life.
And I think that that's proper.
Jesus said, when you pray, go in the
closet, shut the door.
And when you have prayed to your father,
or prayed to your father who seeth in
secret, and your father which seeth in secret
will reward you openly, don't make a big
public show of your prayer.
Don't write newsletters all over the United States
telling people that you're going to go into
your closet of prayer and kneel on your
special rug and hold them up in prayer
and then offer to sell them a square
of that rug for $5 donation.
I'm going to Jerusalem and I'm taking my
prayer rug and I'm going to place this
down on the Mount of Olives, about the
spot where Jesus is going to set his
foot when he returns.
And I'm going to pray for you on
the Mount of Olives.
Now, please send me your requests.
Those things you want me to pray for
you when I'm there.
And enclose a gift.
And then your next letter, you can buy
a little square of that prayer cloth or
that rug.
Or a donation.
God help us.
Paul has to call God as his witness
to his prayer life.
God is my witness.
I don't cease praying for you night and
day.
Making mention of you always in my prayers,
making request if by any means, now at
length, I might have a prosperous journey by
the will of God to come unto you.
Now, Paul is at Corinth.
He's going to head for Jerusalem.
He doesn't know what waits him in Jerusalem,
except that everywhere he goes, the Spirit is
telling him that bonds and imprisonment await him
there.
And yet, as he writes to those in
Rome, he's saying, I'm hoping to come to
you.
I'm praying that if by any means, I
might have a prosperous journey to you by
the will of God.
Now, Paul had said, I must also see
Rome.
Later, when he was in prison in Jerusalem,
discouraged and defeated, the Lord said, even as
you have testified of me here in Jerusalem,
Paul, be a good cheer because you must
also testify me of Rome.
So he did come to Rome by the
will of God.
I don't know that you, well, it was
a prosperous journey.
Though he was shipwrecked and the whole thing,
you know, yet by being shipwrecked on the
island of Malta, he was able to lead
Publius to the Lord.
And many of the Maltese people accepted Jesus.
While Paul was there.
So it was spiritually very prosperous, though you
might challenge that from a purely physical standpoint
with all of the hardship that he went
through.
14 days at sea in that storm when
everyone was so sick, they couldn't eat and
the whole thing.
Yet, Paul expresses his desire to God to
go to Rome.
For I long to see you that I
may impart unto you some spiritual gift to
the end that you might be established.
Paul's desire not to be just a tourist
to see the Colosseum and to see the
forum and all of the marvelous buildings in
Rome.
But the desire is to come to minister
to the church that he might impart to
them a spiritual gift by which they might
be established.
That is that I may be comforted together
with you by the mutual faith, both of
you and me, that we might really minister
to each other.
And it's true.
You cannot minister to others without being ministered
to yourself.
You cannot give without receiving.
There is always that mutual benefit of the
ministry.
Now, I would not have you ignorant, brethren,
that many times I purpose to come to
you.
But up until now, I've been hindered that
I might also have some fruit among you,
even as among other Gentiles.
I desire to bear fruit in Rome as
I have in other places.
For I am a debtor both to the
Greeks and to the barbarians, both to the
wise and the unwise.
So as much as is in me, or
as in me is, I am ready to
preach the gospel to you that are at
Rome also, for I am not ashamed of
the gospel of Christ, for it is the
power of God unto salvation to everyone that
believes, to the Jew first and also to
the Greek.
For therein is the righteousness of God revealed
from faith to faith, as it is written,
that just shall live by faith.
So Paul's declaration, I'm ready to come to
Rome.
I want to bear fruit in Rome.
I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ.
It's the power of God unto salvation to
everyone who believes, Jew first, also the Greek.
For in this, God has revealed the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith, as
it is written, that just shall live by
faith.
In the gospel of Jesus Christ, the righteousness
of God is revealed, because you see, even
God could not forgive our sins unrighteously.
There had to be a righteous basis for
the forgiveness of our sins.
For a judge to just totally dismiss charges
against a guilty man is not righteous.
God cannot just righteously say, well, you're forgiven.
There has to be a righteous basis for
God is righteous.
And there has to be a righteous basis
for the forgiveness of your sins.
That righteous basis is found in the gospel
of Jesus Christ.
For God had sentenced the one who sins
to death.
And the only righteous thing is to put
to death the sinner, because that is the
sentence that has been meted out against sin,
sinful man.
So, God established a righteous basis for forgiveness
by Jesus Christ becoming a substitute, taking your
sin upon Himself and dying in your place.
The righteous for the unrighteous, and thus providing
God the righteous basis for the forgiveness.
You are forgiven because Jesus Christ died for
you.
He took your place.
The death that you deserved, He took your
place and died for you.
And thus God has that right.
Thus, the righteousness of God is revealed from
faith to faith, as it is written, that
just shall live by faith.
For the wrath of God, now the righteousness
of God, and immediately we contrast that with
the wrath of God, is revealed from heaven
against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who
hold the truth in unrighteousness.
So, here we find the righteousness of God
revealed.
Now the wrath of God revealed.
God's wrath revealed against, number one, the ungodliness,
and secondly, the unrighteousness.
What's the difference between ungodliness and unrighteousness?
You remember when Moses came down from Mount
Sinai, he had the two tables of stone
with the Ten Commandments.
On the first table of stone, the first
four commandments dealt with man's relationship with God.
Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
Thou shalt not take the name of the
Lord thy God in vain.
Thou shalt not make any graven image or
likeness of God's.
Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.
Now, to violate one of these first four
commands constituted a wrong relationship with God, which
is ungodliness.
The second table of stone dealt with man's
relationship with fellow man.
And to violate one of the laws on
the second table of stone is not living
the right kind of life that you should
be living with your neighbor.
And thus, it constitutes unrighteousness, a wrong relationship
with my neighbor.
Unrighteousness.
So, the wrath of God is to be
revealed against the ungodliness and the unrighteousness of
men who hold the truth of God.
But they hold it in unrighteousness.
Having and knowing is not enough.
James said, be ye doers of the word,
not hearers only deceiving yourselves.
A lot of people today are deceiving themselves
because they've heard the word.
They know the word.
They know what God commands.
They hold the truth of God.
But unfortunately, they hold it in unrighteousness.
Because that which may be known of God
is manifest in them, for God hath shown
it unto them.
So, there is within my own conscience that
awareness of what is right and wrong.
Universally, there is within the consciousness of man
that which I know to be right, that
which I know to be wrong.
It's manifest within me.
God has just sort of inscribed it in
my heart and mind, in my conscience, and
I know what is right.
I know what is wrong.
That which may be known of God is
manifest in them.
God has shown it unto them.
For the invisible things of him from the
creation of the world are clearly seen.
Or, for the invisible things of him from
the creation of the world are clearly seen.
That is, the invisible God is revealed through
His creation.
The heavens declare the glory of God.
The earth shows His handiwork.
Day and to day they utter their speech.
Night and to night their voice goeth forth.
There's not a speech or a language where
their voice is not heard.
God speaks to man in the universal language
of nature, so that by nature I am
aware that God does exist.
The fool has said in his heart there
is no God.
The invisible things of him are revealed in
nature.
Because that when they knew God, they're without
excuse, because God is revealed by the things
that He has made, even His eternal power
and deity or Godhead, so that they are
without excuse.
Because when they knew God, they glorified Him
not as God.
Now, how can I do that in my
own life?
I fail to glorify God as God whenever
I argue with Him.
Because my arguing with God is in essence
saying, I know better what is good for
me than you.
And I'm really sort of exalting myself as
God.
I am not glorifying God as God when
I make demands upon Him, when I insist
through prayer that God does things a certain
way.
That is not glorifying God as God.
And there is just an awful lot of
this being propounded today by some of these
present-day evangelists.
And much of their teaching is really ungodly
because it elevates man to the position of
being authority, and God becomes the servant.
And so it's no longer Chuck, a servant
of Jesus Christ, but it's Chuck, the Lord
of Jesus Christ in a sense, because he's
supposed to follow my every whim and wish
and fulfill my every desire.
I was reading in a book the other
day by a well-known minister of a
very large church that he was desiring a
bicycle and praying for a bicycle.
And after praying several months for this bicycle
and not receiving it, he became angry with
God.
And he said, how can I teach people
to pray and to believe and trust You
in prayer when here I've been praying all
this time for a bicycle and You've never
given me the bicycle?
And he said, God said to him, well,
you've never told me what kind you wanted.
There are all kinds of bicycles.
Ten speeds, cruisers.
In my book, that's not glorifying God as
God.
What kind of a God am I serving
who doesn't know what kind of a bicycle
is best for me?
Waiting to get the model number from me
before He responds, you see.
Waiting to get my choice of colors.
No.
I reject that concept of God.
He is not a genie waiting to fulfill
my slightest wish or whim.
And when I seek to treat God as
a genie, that is not glorifying God as
God.
Peter tells us that if any of us
suffer according to the will of God, we
should just commit the keepings of our soul
unto Him as a faithful Creator.
I find that commitment, total commitment, is the
greatest place of rest and peace I know.
Because I don't have in my mind things
that God must do for me.
But I have a commitment of myself to
God so that whatever He does, I accept.
And I can rest.
Now, we have made our offer officially for
the property in Newport Beach.
And I don't know at this point if
we're going to get it or not.
And I'm not really praying that we get
it.
I'm not really praying that we don't get
it.
I'm just praying, Lord, Your will be done.
If You want us to have it, fine,
Lord.
If You don't want us to have it,
fine, Lord.
But you see, if I was in a
big, you know, have-tos, we've got to
have this property, you know, and you get
into that thing, and God, You've got to
give this to us kind of bit, then
I am sitting in the driver's seat and
I'm ordering God what to do.
And I am then putting myself in the
position of God and making Him subservient to
me.
That's not glorifying God as God.
And it's a trap that people fall into
quite easily.
Total commitment to whatever God wants.
Such a beautiful way to live because you
learn then to accept whatever comes along.
You're never disturbed because you're always expecting to
be disturbed.
The man who is always disturbed is the
man who never expects to be disturbed.
He doesn't really plan disturbances into his life.
And thus, he's very disturbed whenever a disturbance
comes.
But the man who is never disturbed is
the man who is always expecting disturbances.
So, when a disturbance comes, it doesn't disturb
him because he's expecting it.
Now, I've got a working relationship with God
and I reaffirm it every morning.
God, You can disturb me today for anything
You want.
If my plans don't coincide with Yours, then
Lord, disrupt my plans.
Disturb me.
Put me on Your path because I want
Your will to be done in my life
today.
And thus, if suddenly something comes up and
I'm not able to make that planned trip
or whatever, hey, God has something else in
mind.
The committing of the keeping of my soul
unto Him as a faithful Creator.
Glorifying God as God.
But, when they knew God, they would not
glorify Him as God.
Neither were they thankful.
But they became vain in their imaginations and
their foolish heart was darkened.
And professing themselves to be wise, they became
fools.
Now, you see, what Paul is telling them
is that God has revealed Himself through nature.
Man can know God through nature.
Nature is a revelation of God.
It's speaking to man of the existence of
God.
It's declaring the glory of God, His power,
His wonders.
But, if a man doesn't want to hold
the truth of God, he doesn't want to
glorify God as God.
He wants to elevate himself to the God
level.
I am God.
For I am the Master of my fate.
I am the Captain of my soul.
I am God.
I am self-governed man.
Then, as he looks at nature, he looks
at nature from a presuppositional position that God
does not exist.
And he then attempts to explain the myriad
phenomena of nature apart from God by natural
phenomena.
By natural happenings or circumstances.
And one of their favorite phrases is the
fortuitous occurrences of accidental circumstances.
And that can explain just about anything.
All of these random chance factors just so
happen that there were all of these fortuitous
occurrences of these accidental circumstances that finally, that
you are the end product of accident.
Billions of them through billions of years.
Here you suddenly are as the result of
this spontaneous generation.
There was an interesting symposium in Europe back
in 1975, I believe it was.
Carl Sagan wrote a book summarizing the convention.
It was the leading scientists of the world
who were gathered together for a symposium to
determine whether or not extraterrestrial beings were trying
to make contact with the planet Earth.
And so the book published by the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology on Extraterrestrial Communications, edited by
Carl Sagan, was a report of this symposium
and this gathering of the world's renowned scientists
who offered their various papers on the subject
of extraterrestrial beings seeking to communicate to those
on the planet Earth.
I was very fascinated with one of the
very first papers presented to this symposium by
a group of scientists who felt that it
would be important in determining whether or not
there were beings out there trying to communicate
with us here on the Earth to determine
what are the chance factors that life forms
could exist on some other planet within the
universe.
Taking into consideration all of the multiplied obstacles,
really, of life existing, they began to feed
into the computer the factors necessary for the
development of the first cell.
All of the variables to create the first
cell.
And the computer, working out these various factors,
came out with the answer that there was
only one chance in 10 to the 27th
power of the first cell ever being created.
Now, supposing the Earth is 6 billion years
old, that's only about 10 to the 17th
power seconds.
And so if you had these factors, say
a billion of them, each second, going on
for 6 billion years, you would only be
developing your first cell.
But then you have to develop two cells
at the same place.
And the first paper concluded that there were
no extraterrestrial beings trying to communicate with the
planet Earth because it's impossible that there could
be any life forms anywhere else in the
universe because of the complexities of the development
of the cell.
Life is impossible any place in the universe.
So, no sense to have the symposium of
whether or not there are extraterrestrial beings trying
to communicate with us because it's impossible that
they could exist.
The chance factors just rule it out.
I thought that that was a very interesting
paper.
I enjoyed reading it.
But I wondered, why didn't they carry that
one step further and realize that if it's
impossible that life forms could exist anywhere in
the universe apart from here, how in the
world do they think they exist here?
If it's impossible that life forms could form
on a planet in another galaxy, then it
should also be impossible for life forms to
appear here.
Which indeed it is.
Impossible by accident.
We were created.
But man who comes to nature with a
pre-suppositional base that God does not exist,
then tries to explain the phenomena of life
apart from God and you get into all
kinds of foolish speculations.
You ever wondered how it is that you
were able to walk?
Well, once upon a time, billions of years
ago, back when the earth was covered with
primordial ooze, and this cell had developed to
the place of a worm-like creature as
it made its way out of the ooze
and out of the waters and onto the
land, this fish-like creature coming onto land,
and flipping itself around on this foreign environment,
scratched itself on the coral reef or upon
the rock.
And that scratch developed into a wart-like
appendage which continued to develop and grow until
it became a leg with feet and five
toes.
And after billions of years, when the second
leg also developed, you were able to walk
instead of hop.
That is one of the explanations that has
been offered for the development of the legs.
I sort of agree with Paul.
They became vain in their imaginations and their
foolish heart was darkened and professing themselves to
be wise, they became fools.
You see, to rule God out is the
stance of the fool.
For the fool has said in his heart,
there is no God.
And to try to understand the universe apart
from God is impossible without getting into all
kinds of fanciful, unbelievable, preposterous speculation which is
nothing more than sheer foolishness but is being
passed off as scientific poppycock.
Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools
because they changed the glory of an uncorruptible
God into an image likened to corruptible man.
They made God like man.
They thought of God in the terms of
man.
Sought to bring God down to man's level.
The glory of an uncorruptible God now made
to look like man by the little idol
or images that they have carved or drawn.
Like birds, four-footed beasts and creeping things.
And as you look at the objects of
worship of the ancient men, ancient peoples, you
see these grotesque looking creatures that were representation
of the deities of the various peoples.
And you realize what Paul is talking about.
Man seeking to corrupt God.
Now because of this, God also gave them
up.
And we have the thrice God giving them
up.
God gave them up to uncleanness or filthiness
through the lust of their own hearts to
dishonor their own bodies between themselves.
For they changed the truth of God into
a lie and they worshiped and served the
creature more than the Creator who is blessed
forever.
So God gave them up to these filthy
lusts in their own hearts.
I can remember that when
I was a boy in junior high school,
the fellows would smuggle around these Sunshine and
Health magazines.
And that was about as pornographic as you
could get.
Magazines that dealt with nudism in the U
.S. And these were the things, you know,
that the guys would snicker over.
And it was just, you know, it was,
well, of course, you had to have your
connections to even get a copy of those
things.
And I think in my lifetime how far
we have sunk.
Because you can go into practically any grocery
store, any drug store, and you can pick
up these magazines today with all kinds of
implicit pictures that are designed to arouse and
stimulate the flesh.
And we realize that we are seeing the
consequences of God giving men up to uncleanness
through their lust.
The moral downward spiral that we are observing
in our society is concurrent with the teaching
of evolution.
The denial of the existence of God.
Trying to understand our universe apart from God.
And the result of man wanting to rule
God out of his mind and out of
the thinking processes is that God gives man
over to a mind in which he can
go ahead and sink into the filthiness of
his own heart.
Beginning to dishonor their own bodies between themselves
where they changed the truth of God into
a lie.
And they worship and serve the creature more
than the Creator who is blessed forevermore.
You see, by the evolutionary theory, the creature
becomes God.
It's the almighty cell and its tremendous propensities
to make these phenomenal changes to develop all
of the forms of life that we can
see.
The marvelous adaptabilities in nature.
And it becomes God.
They worship and serve the creature more than
the Creator.
They look at nature irrationally.
Deifying nature rather than worshiping the God who
created nature.
And whenever you stop at nature and you
worship nature, you're stopping one step short.
That's irrational to look at nature and say
that's God.
It's looking at nature and saying that is
the creation of God and letting nature speak
to you of God.
That's the rational way to observe nature.
And so man became irrational in his observation
of nature and he worshiped and served the
creature more than the Creator who is blessed
forever.
For this cause, God gave them up to
unnatural affections.
For even their women did change the natural
use into that which is against nature.
And likewise, also the men leaving the natural
use of the woman burned in their lust
one toward another.
Men with men doing that which is unseemly
and receiving in themselves that recompense of their
error which was necessary or which was right.
And even as they did not like to
retain God in their knowledge, God gave them
over to reprobate minds to do those things
which are unspeakable.
Not convenient.
Not proper.
So, man's degradation.
The downward spiral.
Can we observe it?
You bet you we can in the day
in which we live.
We see these very things of which Paul
warned and spoke.
As man is sought to eliminate God from
his mind, from his life, from our schools,
the awareness, the consciousness of God, we see
the inevitable consequences in a society that is
going deeper into the cesspool of immorality.
We see the downward trend being filled with
all unrighteousness.
Now, they held the truth of God in
unrighteousness, but now they don't even hold the
truth of God anymore.
God's given them over to reprobate minds and
thus they are filled with all unrighteousness, fornication,
wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, debate,
deceit, malignity, whispers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful,
proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to
parents, without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection,
implacable, unmerciful.
Sounds like the morning newspaper.
We're surrounded.
We see the inevitable consequences of man trying
to rule God out of his life.
We see it in our society in which
we live these very things prevalent in our
society, 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.
Now, do you watch soap operas?
Do you enjoy watching soap operas?
Do you enjoy watching Dallas?
Do you enjoy watching A Murder Mystery?
Do you enjoy watching movies that have these
X-rated features to them?
If you enjoy watching these things, then are
you not taking pleasure in those who do
them?
You see, you may square off very self
-righteously and say, well, I never commit fornication,
and I have never murdered anybody, or I've
never done this or that or the other.
But Paul says not only do they do
them, but they take pleasure in those that
do them.
That is, a person actually enjoys reading about
it.
Or a person enjoys watching it portrayed.
Things that I wouldn't think about doing myself,
but there's some kind of an excitement watching
someone else do it.
That's taking pleasure in those that do.
Be careful.
God help us.
We are being bombarded on every side by
Satan's wiles seeking to snare us, draw us
in, because it's fascinating, it's interesting.
Oh, it's just life, and I just am
interested in life, you know.
Rationalize how you please.
Be careful if you take pleasure in people
who do these things, watching them do these
things.
Therefore, thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou
art that judgest.
You see, I read this list and I
say, oh, yes, that's horrible.
My, I just don't know what we're going
to do.
You know, the world is going so terrible
bad, you know.
Terrible that people would do those kind of
things.
Terrible that people would live like that.
Well, you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you
are who judges.
For wherein you judge another, you're condemning yourself.
For you that judge are doing the same
things.
We've got to be careful of this judgment
bit, because if I have the capacity to
judge someone else and say, that's wrong, he
should not be doing that, then I'm condemning
myself because I know it's wrong.
And if I do it, it's doubly wrong
because I know it's wrong because I said
it was wrong for him to do it.
You know, it's amazing how horrible our sins
look when someone else is doing them, you
know.
Let someone else commit my sins.
And man, I can get just all kinds
of righteous indignation.
I can tell you why I did it.
I can justify it.
But it's horrible when someone else does it.
Terrible.
Be careful, O man, whoever you are who
is guilty of judging.
You're only condemning yourself because you're testifying to
the fact that you know better when you've
done those same things yourself.
But we are sure that the judgment of
God is according to truth against them which
commit such things.
God will have true judgment.
And do you think, O man, that judges
those that do such things and that you're
doing the same Do you think that you're
going to escape the judgment of God?
1 Corinthians chapter 5, Paul tells us that
we're all to appear before the judgment seat
of Christ to receive the things done in
our bodies whether they be good or evil.
Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we
seek to persuade men.
Do you think that you're going to escape
the judgment of God?
Do you think that you've got some kind
of an immunity or a divine dispensation, purchased
your indulgence, that you can get by with
it?
Or do you despise the riches of God's
goodness and forbearance and longsuffering?
You see, the mistake that many people so
often make is the misinterpreting of the longsuffering
and the patience of God.
God is so forbearing with us.
God is so patient with us.
God is so longsuffering.
And He doesn't immediately smite us and cut
us off when we do evil.
God has great patience with evildoers.
I don't know.
I wouldn't have that much patience.
I would rather God didn't.
I would rather God just wipe them out.
When I read of some of these things
and I read, you know, the guy murders
his family up in Chino.
Now you see him in court and you
know there's going to be months of court
appearances and all.
And you think, oh, God.
You know, quit justice, Lord.
But when it's me, oh, patience, Lord.
I'm working on it now, you know.
I hope one of these days, Lord, I'm
going to conquer, you know.
But sometimes I misinterpret that patience of God
and that longsuffering as approval.
Or that God really doesn't matter to God.
Or people actually become so deceived that they
believe that God is approving the things they
do because they say, I still have such
blessing upon my life.
You know, if God wasn't pleased with the
way I'm living, then He surely would have,
you know, taken away the blessings and all
from my life.
And because their lives continue to be blessed,
they say, well, God is approving the things
that I am doing.
Not so.
Do you think you're going to escape the
judgment of God?
Do you despise the riches of His goodness
and the forbearance and the longsuffering?
Don't you know that the goodness of God
is intended to lead you to repentance?
But after the hardness and impenitent heart, you're
actually treasuring up to yourself wrath against the
day of wrath and the revelation of the
righteous judgment of God.
Actually, it's just like a dam holding back
this judgment of God.
And you're just storing up as you continue
in your ways of sin and unrighteousness.
It's just storing up.
And one day the dam is going to
be released and the flood of judgment is
going to carry you away.
Woe, woe, woe to the inhabitants of the
earth by reason of the three trumpets which
are yet to sound.
And then we are reading of the angel's
warning of the wrath of God that is
coming as He pours out the cup of
His wrath and fury upon man.
And let me tell you something.
The earth in which we live is ripening
for judgment.
In fact, as I look at the world
today and the things in the world today,
I wonder just how much longer God can
wait before He judges.
The Bible tells us that God waited a
long time while Noah was building the ark,
but the judgment did come.
God's judgment is going to come again.
And it's just being treasured up or stored
up against the day of the wrath of
the revelation of the righteous judgment of God
who will render to every man according to
his deeds.
To them who by patient continuance in well
-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality,
God will grant to them eternal life.
But unto them that are contentious and do
not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness, they
will receive the indignation and wrath, tribulation and
anguish upon every soul of man that is
doing evil, of the Jew first and of
also the Gentile.
But glory and honor and peace to every
man that is working good to the Jew
first and also to the Gentile.
For there is no respect of persons with
God.
It doesn't matter if you're a Jew or
a Gentile.
God doesn't respect your person.
It's what you are that God acknowledges in
what you're doing.
For as many as have sinned without the
law will perish without law.
And as many as have sinned in the
law shall be judged by the law.
Now, the Gentiles without the law, they're going
to be judged without the law.
There is the law that God has written
in our own hearts, the conscience.
The Jews who have the law, God will
judge them by that law.
For not the hearers of the law are
just before God, but the doers of the
law shall be justified.
For when the Gentile, which have not the
law, do by nature the things contained within
the law, these having not the law are
a law unto themselves, which show the work
of the law written in their hearts, their
conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the
meanwhile either accusing or else excusing one another.
God has written His law in every man's
heart.
There is that consciousness and awareness of good
and evil.
It's innate.
Written in my heart by God.
And my conscience either excuses or accuses me.
In the day when God shall judge the
secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to
my Gospel.
Behold, now He's addressing Himself to the Jews.
They're in Rome.
You are called a Jew, and you are
resting in the law, and you make your
boast of God.
That you know His will.
You approve the things that are more excellent
because you've been instructed out of the law.
And you are confident that you are a
guide of the blind, a light to those
which are in darkness.
You're an instructor of the foolish.
You're a teacher of babes.
You have a form of knowledge and of
the truth in the law.
How about it though?
You that are teaching others, do you not
teach yourself?
You that are preaching that a man should
not steal, do you steal?
You that say that a man should not
commit adultery, do you commit adultery?
You that abhor as idols, do you commit
sacrilege?
Thou that makest thy boast of the law
through breaking the law, dishonest thou God?
So Paul is now talking to the Jews.
They have this position of spiritual superiority over
other men.
God has revealed His will to the Jews.
God has given His law to the Jews.
We are a guide to the blind.
We are a light to those in darkness.
We're an instructor of the foolish.
But Paul says, look, in teaching others, don't
you listen to yourself?
Aren't you learning yourself?
Now, Jesus said to His disciples, unless your
righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the
Pharisees, you're not going to enter the Kingdom
of Heaven.
And as He began to illustrate that statement,
He showed that the righteousness of the scribes
and the Pharisees was totally related to outward
observances of the law when inwardly they were
violating the law.
The law says thou shalt not kill, but
you hate that man so much you'd love
to kill him.
As far as Jesus is concerned, you're guilty
of violating the law thou shalt not kill.
Thou shalt not commit adultery, and yet you
have such great lust and desire for that
gal.
God says, hey, you've committed adultery in your
heart.
The law is spiritual.
And so Paul is saying, hey, you teach,
you shouldn't commit adultery.
Do you commit adultery?
You say you shouldn't have idols.
Do you commit sacrilege?
Is there some idol in your life?
Something that you hold up to be more
important than God?
Some goal or ambition or desire that supersedes
your love for God?
For the name of God is blasphemed among
the Gentiles through you as it is written,
for circumcision verily profiteth if you keep the
law.
But if you be a breaker of the
law, thy circumcision is made uncircumcision.
Now the idea of circumcision, there's a spiritual
concept behind it, and it is the cutting
away of the flesh which means I am
to live after the Spirit and not after
the flesh.
And that was the spiritual symbolism of circumcision.
A race of people who would live after
the Spirit, who would walk after God, not
walking after the flesh.
But the people began to take the physical
right and deny the spiritual application.
Though physically they were circumcised, spiritually they walked
after the flesh.
Paul said, I don't care if you've been
physically circumcised.
If you're still walking after the flesh, your
physical circumcision is meaningless because it isn't the
circumcision of the flesh that really counts before
God.
It's the circumcision of the heart.
In the same token, as Christians, water baptism
symbolizes the death and the end of the
old life after the flesh.
And coming up out of the water symbolizes
the new resurrected life in Jesus Christ.
And if I have been baptized forwards, backwards,
and three times in the name of the
Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, and I
am still walking after the flesh, that baptism
is totally meaningless.
For it is the baptism of the heart
that counts.
The circumcision of the heart that counts.
God wants me to be walking after the
Spirit.
To be desiring in my heart the walk
of the Spirit.
Therefore, if the uncircumcision, that is the Gentile
uncircumcised, keeps the righteousness of the law, shall
not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision?
Now this is also true in baptism.
If a person has never gone through the
physical rite of baptism, if he is indeed
alive unto God in the Spirit and living
and walking after the Spirit, his faith in
God and walk after the Spirit counts for
his not being baptized in water.
And I disagree with these people who place
such a tremendous emphasis upon getting them down
to the water and baptizing them in order
that they might be saved.
For the true baptism is of the heart,
a clear conscience before God.
It isn't the washing away of the filth
of the flesh, according to Peter.
And Paul the Apostle himself said, I thank
God I didn't baptize any of you but
Crispus and Gaius, as he wrote to the
Corinthian church.
He said, for God didn't call me to
baptize, but to preach the Gospel.
Therefore, God is looking at the man's heart.
God is looking at your heart.
What is it that you desire?
One thing have I desired of the Lord
and that will I seek after.
Am I really seeking after the Lord to
dwell in His presence?
To live in fellowship, continual fellowship with Him?
Or do I pay Him service on Sunday
and then the rest of the week devote
my life to my pursuit after my fleshly,
worldly desires and goals and ambitions?
Shall not the uncircumcision which is by nature,
if it fulfill the law, judge thee who
by the letter and circumcision are transgressing the
law?
For He is not a Jew which is
one outwardly.
Neither is that circumcision which is outward in
the flesh.
But He is a Jew which is one
inwardly and circumcision is that of the heart
in the Spirit and not in the letter,
whose praise is not of men but of
God.
Not seeking the approval of men but seeking
the approval of God.
Walking after God in the Spirit.
It isn't the life in the flesh that
man sees that's important.
It's the life in the Spirit that God
sees which is important.
My heart and the position of my heart
before God.
Now, Paul has in the first two chapters
successfully made us all guilty.
The Gentile world in its degraded state, reprobate
mind, guilty before God.
Because not only are they doing these unspeakable
things, but they're taking pleasure in those that
do them.
But also the Jew who judges the Gentile
and says, oh, isn't it terrible that they're
doing those things and living that way.
He is also guilty before God because though
he is giving God lip service perhaps, making
outward observances of the law within his heart,
there's defilement.
He judges others for what they're doing, but
he's guilty of doing the same himself.
So he also is guilty before God.
The man who has never heard is guilty
because God has written His law in his
heart.
And he'll be judged without the law.
God has revealed Himself in nature and that
which can be known of God has been
plainly, clearly displayed in nature.
But he's ignored the message of God through
nature because he didn't want to retain God
in his heart.
And thus, he looked at nature with a
presuppositional base that God does not exist.
The whole world is now guilty before God.
Terrible place to leave you.
But when we come back, we'll find God's
solution in chapters 3 and 4 for the
guilty world.
God's provisions for sinful man.
As Paul begins to unfold for us the
glorious grace of God revealed through Jesus Christ.
Paul loves to paint pictures.
He loves to paint pictures of the grace
of God.
But in order that we might enjoy all
of the beauties and the brilliance of the
grace of God, the colors, it's important first
of all to paint a background for the
picture.
And so he takes his canvas and he
dips his brush in coal black paint.
And he paints the background.
Chapters 1 and 2 of Romans.
He's giving you this background that he might
now splash upon the canvas the brilliance of
the glory of the grace of God that
he has revealed to us through Jesus Christ.
We, the sinning world, deserving that wrath of
God and yet being offered a glorious place
of fellowship and life with God.
Living and walking after the Spirit.
That eternal life of God being offered to
man.
So we'll get into the glorious grace of
God.
God's solutions for sinning man.
So you can move ahead.
There's no rule against reading chapters 3 and
4 in advance and discovering what God has
done to provide for us His glorious grace.
May the Lord be with you and bless
you as you walk with Him.
May the Lord clean up your TV viewing,
your magazine reading.
God help us not to be caught in
that trap of living after the flesh, that's
death.
Not to enjoy the things of the flesh.
Taking pleasure in those that do them.
May we take pleasure in walking with God.
Fellowshiping with Him.
Experiencing His presence, His love, His power in
our lives.
May you come into a deeper, richer, fuller
appreciation of God's love and grace for you.
In Jesus' name.