The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 3: The Power of Salvation

Episode Date: January 28, 2018

The only POWER that is able to save you and set you free is the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Amen and amen. How we doing, church? Doing all right? Everybody's looking good. If you got your Bibles, we're going to be in Romans chapter 1, or you could grab your Romans study journal and turn to page 6, and you'll find the text there and some space for you to take notes, etc. And so before we dive into it, I want to read to you the passage that we will be studying today, so if you would please stand to honor the Word of God. Romans chapter 1 beginning in verse 16, for I am not ashamed of the gospel. for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, the righteous shall live by faith. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them.

for his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world and the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling. mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore, God gave them up in the lust of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie,

and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever, amen. For this reason, God gave them up to dishonorable passions, for their women exchanged natural relations for those, that are contrary to nature. And the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another. Men committing shameless acts with men

and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their era. And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, fathless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them,

but give approval to those who practice them. This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated. Well, it looks like we're in a for a doozy today, does it not? So much for that easy like Sunday morning, Mass. Hey, here we go. We're going to dive right in. I'd love for you to either turn in your Bible or turn to page 6 of your starting journal, study God, because I just want you to see that I'm not making this stuff up. We're going to walk through this verse by verse.

And it starts off with this in verse 16 and 17 of chapter 1. You'll remember that last week, or in verse 15, Paul says that he can't wait to preach the gospel to those who are in Rome. And then immediately after that, he dives right into this. Four, I am not ashamed of the gospel. I just want to say, me either. And so this is what we do at 1122. We just do the gospel over and over and over and over.

And so if you're going to show up here, and I'm glad that you do, what you're not going to get is just kind of like a moralistic, you'd be a better version of you kind of deism. That's not what we do. We do the gospel over and over and over. And I know it's not popular, I know it's not new, I know it's not cool, I know it's not politically correct, but that is not the point. That we want to share with you the gospel. The gospel means good news. And news means that something happened and then somebody told you about it and that it is good.

The good news of the gospel is that God did for you and me what you and I could never do for ourselves. And it is good news. The gospel is the substitutionary atoning life, death, and resurrection of Jesus and his imputed righteousness unto us. In fact, I think last week I gave you the definition. Here's my definition of the gospel. The reconciling of sinful peoples to a holy God through the substitutionary atoning life, death, and resurrection of Jesus in accordance with the scriptures for the glory of God.

You see, good news enters into bad places, and the bad news is that. this is that you and I are sinners at birth. Don't believe me? Just look at your children. Did you teach them to sin? No, they were experts at it from birth. I mean, every single one of us were born into this world like the seagulls from Nemo, just mine, mine, mine, mine. Little glory hound sinners, center of our own universe. And what are you going to do about that if you have these unrighteous people in this perfect, holy, righteous God that will not put up with sin. Well, then Christ does for us

what we could never do for ourselves. And though the gospel is complex, that you could study the gospel for the rest of your life, and it's like a diamond that you can look at and tilt and look at from different angles and the light of the glory of God

shines upon it and refracts different levels of beauty as you examine it. The gospel is that, and yet it is simple enough for a child to understand and comprehend. A couple of weeks, weeks ago, we baptized my eight-year-old daughter, Reagan Capri. And in that, we watched my son's old baptism video. He got baptized four years ago. He's 12 now. He was eight when he got baptized.

And the gospel, though very complex, with words like substitutionary atonement and imputed righteousness, is still simple enough that an eight-year-old can understand. So check out how my eight-year-old, four years ago, explain the gospel. Check this out. We have sin. Jesus, God doesn't have sin. there's a consequence for us. There's no consequence for Jesus since he doesn't have sin. And then we switched places, so he took the consequence because he loved us so much. I am here to tell whoever's sitting and watching this video, Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior. Amen.

Little theologian. What he's talking about is the substitutionary atoning death of Christ and his imputed righteousness to us, that we have sin. The wages of sin is death. There are consequences. The crazy thing is, in talking about the gospel, I didn't use the word consequences. When I used to word consequences with him, it's a totally different conversation. Amen?

It's not about grace. And so, and then Jesus, I hope you caught this part. And Jesus traded places with us because he loved us so much. that is the gospel and so Paul says I'm not ashamed of that message because Jesus loved us so much he took the consequences for our sin and we received the consequences of his perfect holy life for I'm not ashamed of the gospel why Paul

for this is important for it is the power of God not going to be or was it is the power of God for salvation it is the power that word power in Greek is dynamos. It's where we get the word dynamite. That is a powerful thing. Have you ever had any experience with dynamite?

Anybody? It's your problem from growing up in the city, okay? I grew up to country. I knew a dude that had dynamite. I think I was a freshman in college. I was a member of this hunting club, and there was a dude in our hunt club named Zeke. If your name is Zeke,

you're more likely to have dynamite than if your name's not Zeke. That's just true. He worked for the railroad. And I don't know what he is. but we had these beavers that were damming up some of the like ponds and creeks and stuff in our hunting land and it was flooding some of our land and we had to take care of it. And several times we'd been to the beaver dams and like disassembled them, you know, by hand. And then a couple days later, they would just, they'd be there again.

And he asked me one day at the hunting camp, he says, hey, Jovey, you want to go blow up a beaver dam? You know what I think I do. I've never really considered that, but that sounds awesome. So me and Zeke get on his four-wheeler with a crate of dynamite. that didn't seem awesome but he was like don't worry it's bungeeed okay and so we go in my opinion way too fast through the woods we get to the beaver dams we put on our waiters we get out there and we're putting dynamite in the beaver dam and you hook these little this little cord to it then he had one of those little those little like bugs bunny things you know what I mean he had one

I'm like bro what do we do and he goes you might want to lay down behind the four-wheeler and so I do and he clicks that little thing and I'm talking about the earth rumble and that thing goes I mean, there is water and limbs and beaver parts just flying over me in the four-wheeler. Powerful. And Paul says, the gospel is the dynamite of God to blow that junk out of your life that is damning up what he has in store for you. That's what the gospel is. You know what's not the power? Your own behavior.

It's exhausting. It's what that is. But the gospel is the power of God for salvation. that when you put your trust, not in you, but when you put your trust in Jesus for what he did on the cross, that's the gospel, then it is the power for salvation. And when you get saved, here's what this means. There's actually a past, present, and future tense to what it means to be saved, to be a follower of Jesus. That we, when you put your faith in Jesus, we have been saved from the penalty of sin.

That means the debt is paid in full that you don't owe God based on the things that you you have done. You and I have been saved from the penalty of our sin. That means you go to heaven when you die instead of hell. And then currently, you and I are being saved from the power of sin. Theologians would call this progressive sanctification. What this means is like God over time, not necessarily overnight, makes you more and more and more like Jesus. That the things, there are some things, maybe not everything, there are some things that used to have power over your life and it doesn't have power over your life anymore. I hope somebody in here, I hope you've experienced this. Maybe you got saved here at 1122 like two years ago and then you run into a

situation that used to cause you to react one way and then you didn't react that way anymore. Like you run into this guy at work and he just cusses you and you say, that's okay Tom, I'll pray for you. And you go, what is happening? Who is? Who is? You? You say, that's okay, Tom, I'll pray for you. And you go, what is happening? Who is that? Or little things. Like, you just stump your toe and you're like, oh, no. Oh, my goodness.

I'm beginning to use an entire different dictionary of vocabulary, you know, because what's happening is the power of sin in your life is losing its grip because you are being saved from the power of sin. So we have been saved from the penalty sin. We are being saved from the power of sin. And then one day, we will be saved from the very presence of sin. That's called heaven. Nobody's sick, nobody's crying, nobody's hurt, nobody's hunger.

You understand? There's so much gold around there. They use it as pavement. It is a wonderful place. Paul says, I am not ashamed to the gospel. For it is the dynamite, the power of God for salvation. And listen, it is not your works, not your good behavior, not you trying to clean up you. And then it goes on to say this, to, what's that next word?

To everyone. Everyone. Do you know what good news that is? That the gospel is the power of salvation to everyone. So if you fall in the everyone category, I have such good news for you, you can be saved. And this means no matter how bad you are, no matter how bad you think you are, then you are not badder than the grace of God poured out on the cross. And somebody will be like, well, you don't know about me, pastor.

I'm still a little hungover from last night. Praise God, all right? You can be saved no matter what you've done, what you're doing. And then some of you think, how dare he, all right? Because you're really good. I mean, you were good at being good. In fact, this is your third church service of the day, all right? You went to the sunrise service?

They're like Easter only, whatever. We love him. We're going, okay, you went to that one. You went to the church you used to go to, and now you're at this one, all right? You wrote your compassion kids three letters this morning and have already memorized all the verses in the book. You were so good at being good. I've got good news for you too. You can be saved too.

You can. It's way harder than that. the hungover guy, okay, because he's like, yeah, I need some help, all right? But you can. Because the reality is every single one of us reject God. Some people reject God in rebellion. Some people reject God in religion. A rejection of God is just saying either, God, I don't need you, I do what I want with who I want, when I want, that's rebellion. That would be when Adam and Eve go for the fruit. Some of us reject God in religion. God, I don't need you because I'm going to work this out myself. That's when Adam and Eve sow the fig leaves. You see, we all reject God, either with the

fruit or the fig leaf, either with rebellion or religion, but all of us reject God. And the good news of the gospel is that it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. Who believes. Now, if I'm being honest, man, the fact that our English translations translate the Greek word Pistuo, that's the Greek word here, Pestuo, you should learn that word. The fact that we translated believe could be a little troublesome because when we think of the word believe we think of like mental assent to a fact that we believe that that is not what this word is this duo means like to trust to believe in see there's a big difference between believing that and believing in you get it like I believe that there's a college football team down in Gainesville I do not believe in that team

at all those are very different things um to believe in in, it would be like, if you're in your 40s are up, you remember going to the pool early with your parents? By the way, if you're under 40, you're not going to believe there. There used to be this thing on the end of pools called a diving board. Crazy, all right? I don't know how we all survived, but we did, all right? No helmets, no safety harnesses, no forms, but whatever. And we didn't do swim lessons.

Our parents just threw us in, and that's how you weeded out the weak ones, all right? And so, remember going to the, like, we did this public pool at Dillon, and you get out on the diving board, and your dad would be in the water. And you couldn't swim yet. You were way too little. You could barely walk out to the edge of the board. And you're there, and your dad's going, come on, jump, I'll catch you. And you're standing there. Now, the good news is the line that had formed behind you, they were so empathetic and compassion and impatient.

They're like, oh, look, you and your dad are having a moment. Why don't you just wait? Not really. They were calling your names. And there you are. and your dad is saying, come on, jump to me. Now, in that moment, do you believe that he's your dad? You're like, yeah, that's the guy.

He's been at my house since I can remember, all right? And he's married to that lady over there drinking tab, and here we are. That's belief that. If you grew up around church, probably if you grew up in the South, that's where you are. You believe that there's a God, all right? But to believe in, to Pistuo, like this word means, that it's a thing. the power of salvation to everyone who believes, it would be that you, you believe he is who he says he is and he will keep his promise, that if you jump off that diving board into his hands, he won't

let you go. And true faith or belief or trust is when this thing in your head kind of gets down in here in your heart, and it changes you, it trusts you, or you trusted enough to just step off, because the moment you step off, it's over, man, you're in, in, in. But you're trusting that he is who he says he is and he's going to do what he says. that's a fate that saves. That's what believes is. That's what he means here. He says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel,

for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes to the Jew first and also to the Greek. Now, you can jot this down in the side of your notes or whatever. For chapters 9 through 11, we're going to deal with that. And you may say, well, what is Paul? Why do you do the Jew-Greek thing right here? Well, there's a couple of things. One, just very practically speaking, do you know where you're going to do you know where you? Jesus started his ministry in Jerusalem.

I don't know if you've been there, a lot of Jews. They heard first, the Jews that put their faith in Jesus got saved first. But then also, spiritually speaking, salvation is from a chosen people that God picked as part of his plan, his purpose, his provision. We'll spend about a month on it. We'll get there in chapter 9. Let's keep going. Verse 17.

For in it, the it here is the gospel. For in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for. faith. Or in other words, from the beginning to the end. It is not revealed by works. It's revealed from faith for faith as it is written. And then he quotes Habakkuk, the righteous shall live by faith. Now, when the Bible talks about righteousness, it doesn't mean that everything you do is right. When the book of Romans uses the word righteousness, it means that you have a right standing before God. Maybe some of you, you know, some old country people would talk about somebody that met the Lord and you say, yep, he got right with the Lord. That's what Paul is talking about here.

And so righteousness is imputed or credited to us how, just like theologian J.P. Martin said, because we sin, our sin has consequences. Jesus doesn't sin. He doesn't have consequences. And he switched places with us because he loved us so much. The Bible would say it in 2nd Corinthians 521 this way, that God made him who was without sin to be sin for us, that we would be made the righteousness of God. The Bible says that Jesus is the propitiation for our sin. Propitiation means a payment that satisfies, which means that when Jesus on the cross says it is finished, the law, the justice, the perfection of God was satisfied at the cross. So if you're in Christ, that means he's not dissatisfied in you.

That when he looks at you because of Christ, you have a right standing before God. He sees the righteousness of his son. A couple of illustrations from the Bible is in Ephesians chapter 6. when Paul talks about putting on the full armor of God, remember he says put on the breastplate of righteousness. It is a picture of the imputed righteousness of Christ. You know what this means? Have you seen a breastplate?

They look awesome. Perfect pecks, perfect abs. You put that on. When the Lord sees you, he sees pecks and abs. Even though you know there's some serious jiggle going on under the breastplate. That's the righteousness of Christ imputed to you. Or in Luke chapter 15, when the prodigal son returns home, you remember, the father gets the robe of righteousness to ratchew to wrap it around the boy so you don't see the filth underneath, man, you see the righteousness

of the Father. That's what this is, that in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed. How, from faith for faith, as it is written, the righteous shall live by faith. So most of the time in the New Testament, you get the diagnosis before you get the cure. But here, Paul doesn't the other way around. So I would like for you to underline, either in your notebook or your Bible, all of chapter I mean, verses 16 and 17. Because chapter 1, verses 16 and 17, Paul is telling the church at Rome,

this is what the entire rest of the letter is about. This is it. This is his thesis for the book of Romans. He is not ashamed of the gospel. It is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it, the righteousness of God is revealed from fate for fate, as it is written, the righteous shall live by faith.

And now, after he gives the cure, all of the rest of the verses, he's going to give the diagnosis. And the diagnosis is essentially this. It is to show every single one of us that we are without excuse and every single one of us need a savior. We don't need a life coach. We don't need to try harder. We need someone to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. And that it is much worse than you think. Paul is going to lay out here the depravity of humankind, that we have not only dishonorable passions, but we also have a debased mind.

In other words, the heart of the problem, folks, is that you and I have a heart problem. And the gospel is the only cure. And so he goes, I cry too. Verse 18. He says, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of me. You get that? That the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. Okay, before we get going too far, because what most churches, man, what they're going to do.

Because Paul's going to, in a minute, Paul's going to get into some specific sins. And before we get into the specific sins, he says that the wrath of God is being poured out against all unrighteousness. All. In other words, there's no more all than all. and every single one of us are going to find ourselves on this list of unrighteousness. The Bible says that all have sin and fallen short of the glory of God, every single one of us. And he says that the wrath of God is revealed, not going to be revealed, not was revealed, but is being revealed against unrighteousness because he is right and he is just.

And in our culture today, verses like this, that's really bummed people out. I mean, in fact, the church doesn't talk about the wrath of God very much. I mean, we don't have a worship song that I can think of right now, where we're like, your wrath, oh God, burns us to a crisp, glory. We don't do that. We don't. And in fact, in today's culture, people will say, well, that's why, look, I can't believe

in a God who would punish people or have wrath against people. How could a good God punish people? You see, God is holy and God is just. and it would be against who he is. It would be against his nature to just overlook sin. The reason you and I can just overlook things and say, that's not a big deal, because you and I are not a big deal. And we are not wholly perfect and just.

And yet, deep in our souls, every single one of us actually do want justice in this world. We really do. I mean, imagine for a second if somebody, some evil person, kidnapped your son, your daughter, a loved one, and molested them, raped them, left them from dead, in the woods. And then one day they catch them. You're standing in court and the judge hears the evidence and says, you know what,

don't worry about it. We're going to let this one go. You would think that is an unjust judge. I mean, imagine, imagine, like, I don't know, a group of referees that for an entire game only throw penalties against one team and ignore the infractions of another team for the entire time. You would say you are unfit, unjust. Amen? I mean, that was crazy. Seriously? And so the wrath of God is revealed. In a few verses,

we'll talk about how that wrath is revealed. But the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness. Now real quick, before we get to that list, Christian, don't you ever look down your nose at some other person as if you are better, okay? Because you cannot simultaneously look down your nose at somebody and what they're doing and look up at the cross of Jesus. Ephesians 2 says, and we were all once dead in our trespasses. And so he goes on. He says, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven

against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who, by their unrighteousness, suppress the truth. Now Jesus told us he is the truth, the way the truth and the life. So the suppression of the truth that God put in you is unrighteousness. Verse 19, 4, what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them. because God has shown it to them.

In other words, what the Bible means here is that God has put in the heart of every man and woman and child this conscience or this idea or understanding that there is such a thing as right and wrong. Every culture believes in right and wrong. We may argue about some of the details of what is right and wrong, but no one would argue that there is no such thing as right and wrong. And we know this like at a heart level. Like honestly, did you have to teach your kids to sin? and when they did wrong, what did they do? They knew they had done wrong and they would run and they would hide. Because it's just before they ever met Jesus or went to a Bible study or any of that.

I remember one time I hear something in our pantry. I'm like, do we have rats? And I open it up and it's Reagan Capri. She was little, eight, four, something like that. And she's standing there with like a chocolate bar. She throws it down and there's chocolate on her face. What are you doing, Reagan? Nothing.

Reagan, I told you not to eat chocolate. and you have chocolate on your face. And she goes, it wasn't me. I'm like, baby, it's on your face. That's what I said. It's on your face. And she goes, J.P. did it. Just like that.

So you mean to tell me J.P. came in here, ate the chocolate, smeared it on your face, and he ran. And then she goes, I love you, daddy. Why? Wretched, wretched, wretched little deceitful sinners is what we are, and we know it. This is why when Adam and Eve sinned, they run from God in hide. This is what we do. He didn't tell them to run.

We know it. So, evidence number one, that none of us have an excuse, Paul is saying, because of God gave us, I don't know, an internal morality that we understand. There are some things that are wrong, and yet we do them anyway. Secondly, he's going to give us another reason. There's not a human on this planet that has an excuse for oppressing the truth of God. Verse 20, for his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world

and the things that have been made so they are without excuse. This is what's called natural law. In your study journal, study book here, you'll see we had the definition, natural law, God's existence revealed through the natural order of creation that makes everyone accountable. In other words, that every one of us have the opportunity to open our eyes and see all that is created and it points to the reality that there is a creator.

Look, man, I've got a bad. a bachelor's in biology, and it used to baffle me that people could not understand. The reason that our world looks like it has a design is because it was design. And that you and I are not just a great cosmic accident. We're not. We're not just gummy worms that crammed up out of the soup, and now one day we're doing church and rooting for a football team and loving and sacrificing. That feeling that you have between a husband and wife and that thing that you have for

your children, that's not an accident. and just a propagation of your DNA and comes from your pituitary, it's not. It has purpose. That love is a real thing because you were created in the image of God, and he is love. And so this world is without excuse because we could look at this world and see there's something bigger than us that we would be held accountable to. And so the reality is that you can know the justice of God from your conscience. You can know the power of God from creation, but you can only know the love of God from the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so he keeps going.

Verse 21. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened. Does that phrase sound familiar? Confession to make. When I call us wretched blackhearted sinners, I ripped it right off of here from Romans. That the problem, the heart of the problem is that you and I have a problem in our hearts. We have a darkened heart where we want to be God. want to be the center, we want to be in charge. It's the same sin that Adam and Eve fell to.

God, forget you, I got this, I'll do it my way. Verse 22. Claiming to be wise, they became fools. And exchanging the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. And listen, this is blatant idolatry. And sometimes what we will do, we will look at that and be like, wow, how dumb is a person that they would bow down to the image of a man or an image of an animal or an image of a creepy thing, okay? Look, ladies, some of you are worshipping a creepy thing. It's called your boyfriend, all right? He is not helping you draw close unto the Lord.

It's just true. We will bow down in a second to a job, to a bank account, to some kind of status, to what people think about us, that John Calvin says that we are idol-making factories. Verse 24, therefore God gave them up. Now, let's stop right here. You see, it said earlier that the wrath of God is being poured out, and you know how God's wrath is being poured out upon us right now? God's wrath in your life is when he gives you what you want. That's it.

When you say, I don't need you, God, I don't want you, I'm going to do my own thing. And the wrath of God is to say, okay, go ahead. Did you realize it's God's grace when you get busted? It's God's grace when you face the consequences? It's God's grace when you're convicted or convicted. because it will turn you to him to realize that his ways are better than our ways. You can discipline without love. You cannot love without discipline.

And God's love is poured out on us because he disciplines his children. I mean, I learned this in the first grade. I'm living in Dillon, South Carolina, where I grew up on Cleveland Street. It's kind of a busy street. It's two blocks from McDonald's. It was like the restaurant in town, okay? It's where people went to prom and stuff. And so, you know, it's busy.

And so me and my best friend Joey Pee, We were riding our bicycles. I had a little evil-can-eval dude, you know, and you go, I think you could do the gas, and we'd make a noise, and we were jumping ramps. And in my mind, it was like a six-foot vert, and we were doing cool stuff. But now that I think about it, it was a piece of plywood over one bricks. You know, we were like, poop.

And then we would hop down and we'd ride on my street in Cleveland Street, and, you know, riding around. And one day, my mom comes running out on the front porch screaming at me. Joseph Perry Martin III, you better get out of the street. Just scary, embarrass me in front of my friend. And I said, Mommy, you don't love me. She said, of course I loved you. If I didn't love you, I would let you ride in the street.

Immediately, my boy, Joey Peel behind me, starts to kind of, and I'm like, bro, what's your problem? He goes, my mama lets me ride the street. It's true. It is the wrath of God to give us over to whatever we want. Verse 24, therefore God gave them up to the lust of their hearts, lust of their hearts to impurity. We're going to come back. That word means sexual impurity. To the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves.

because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and they worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator who is blessed forever. And again, every single one of us have a tendency to worship stuff over our sovereign Savior. We do. Verse 26. For this reason. God gave them. Now we're going to stop right there.

Because before we talk specifically, and we're not going to avoid it, but before we talk specifically about some of the hot topics that Paul addresses here, I need us to understand this. He's going to give a long list, a long list of the manifestations of this thing, the manifestations of us worshipping creature over creator, of exchanging the glory of the immortal God for what I want. And hear me, church, every single one of us are in the same boat. Regardless of the level of sin.

Okay? As believers, as Christians, none of us have. the right to try to make one thing on the list somehow higher or lower than anything else on the list. That all of us, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Because what we like to do in our minds is this. In our minds, man, especially if you've been around church for a while, is we like to have, you know, when the Bible lifts out a bunch of sins, we got like red light sins, yellow light sins and green light sins. And the red light sins are like, y'all need to stop that.

That's terrible. And then we got some yellow light sins. I'm like, you know, I kind of struggle with it. I probably should stop. And then we've got like green light sins where we think God's like, okay, don't worry about that one anymore. Not a big deal. The problem is the scriptures.

See, for all of sin and fallen short of the glory of God. And the wages of sin, any sin all sin, the wages of sin is death. And so make sure that whatever we do, folks, that we never use the Bible. Listen, especially, man, if you consider yourself a Christian, Don't you ever use the Word of God as binoculars to look at somebody else? The Word of God is meant to be a mirror to hold up to look at us. So everybody on this list, it's going to say they a lot. The they is us.

Not somewhere out there, those heathens somewhere else. The they is sitting in your chair right now or standing on this stage right now. And so he says, for this reason, God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchange natural relations for those. that are contrary to nature, and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passions for one another, men committing shameless acts with men, and receiving in themselves to do penalty for their error. Now, so when it comes to the thing, I get asked all the time, I really do,

and this has made me really unpopular in some segments in our city, whatever. You'll get asked this thing, particularly in regards to like, same-sex attraction, homosexuality, gay marriage, all of this stuff. What do you think about fill in the blank? My answer would be, it doesn't matter what I think, because that's just my opinion. My opinion is whatever. The key question, no matter what the topic is this, is what do you think the Bible says about, fill in the blank? And then the deeper question then is, and what do you think about the Bible?

Is the Bible your authority or are you your authority? So if you are your authority, you make up whatever rules you want to. Okay. Now, I would warn you, it's idolatry of you because you're playing God. You're saying, my way's better than your way. But here at 1122, I need you to know, in love, that our authority is the scripture, is the scripture. Not what's popular, not what's politically correct, but we believe the word of God. We believe the word of God.

And I love you too much to tell you anything other than what is in here. And so I need you to understand. That's okay. So what the Bible says about sex and sexual immorality is this. Okay? The Bible says that sex is for married people. Not going to be married, not used to be married, not married in your heart. That's not a thing, okay?

That sex is for married people. And marriage is between one man and one woman in one covenant for one lifetime. That's what it is. And so anything outside of that is what Jesus calls pornao. Sound familiar? It's a Greek word that means sexual immorality. It's a junk drawer for anything that falls outside of that thing. Okay?

And so every single one of us have been born with sexually immoral desires. Every single one of us. And so as a Christ follower, what that means is that he is my Lord and I'm not my Lord. Not my desires, not my passions, not none of those things, not my attractions. That's not. Because that's the way animals live. Animals just say, what I feel I do. Followers of Jesus say, Jesus, what you tell me, by the spirit of God in me, I do.

And so anything, any sex outside of biblical marriage is sexual immorality. And so with that being said, one of the questions that I will get asked around here, because our vision statement is the Church of 1122 is a movement for all people to discover in deep in a relationship with Jesus. And some people will be like, so what does that? that all people mean? I've got a cousin. I've got an aunt. I've got a sister. I've got a brother in a same-sex relationship. Are they welcome at the Church of 1122? My question is, are you in the all-people category? Because we're a movement for all people, but this is not a movement for all people to do whatever

you want. It's a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus. And remember last week, identity in Christ precedes activity for Christ. So the gospel is not, regardless of what your struggle is in this world. The gospel is not, once you start acting right, then you can be a part of what we're doing. That is not the gospel. So who's accepted here? Everyone, because while we were unacceptable,

Christ died for every single one of us. And if the sinner's got to leave, I'm first out of the building because you should kick me out. Amen? So we will always be a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. and yet we will never do hermeneutical gymnastics to try to make this thing say what it does not say. And we live in a culture that says, hey, I do this, the Bible says that.

So I can either align my life with the scriptures. And today what a lot of folks do, even churches, just try to align the scriptures with us. That is not how we're going to do. And here's, I refuse to have this conversation. I refuse to stand before the Lord one day. And he goes, hey, you know, you didn't teach this part of the Bible. And it says this. And I refuse to go, you know what?

I was afraid. So I didn't do that. So I love you too much to tell you anything other than what the scriptures say. But mark my word, church. Don't you ever, none of us should ever use the scriptures as binoculars to look at somebody else. It should always be a mirror to look at us. And so he keeps going. And since they, and again, the they are anybody that exchanges the glory of the immortal God to say me,

which is every single one of us. And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. And they were filled with all manner of unrighteousness. And then what he's going to do is he's going to list out all manners of unrighteousness. This is in the same list as the two examples that he just gave, which is really just one example from two different viewpoints. And then here's some unrighteousness.

Ready? See if you and I fall into this list. One, evil. to covetousness, or you might want to jot down HGTV, right? Here's what that means, man, like you were cool with your house until you saw shiplap. And you were like, how are we going to live in this mess until, I mean, you know? Here's what it is, man, covetousness is when it's really in the front against God. God you didn't do this right.

You gave her what I'm supposed to have. That's what that is. And it's on the list. and malice you know what malice is that thing in me when i saw the referee high-five and tom brady we did it again you know that thing i want to choke him all right that's it i'm on the list they're full of envy and murder and strife and deceit who you think that they is there and i know some of you you know like man no i'm not deceit i'm not full of deceit okay how about this anybody clicked this week on a button that says, I have read and affirmed the terms and conditions. Did you read it? You're deceitful, man.

All right? Maliciousness, they are gossips. Nobody thinks they're a gossip. No, no, no, no, that's not gossip. That's prayer requests. Hey, we need to pray for Sally. Y'all heard what happened? Okay, if you start any sentence with, have you heard, you probably should shut up. If you're not a part of the problem or the solution, we shouldn't be talking about it. And yet we do, that's what gossip is. slanderers you can write down Twitter haters of God doesn't that sound that sounds intense right

that's on the list haters of God the next one's insolent I had to look it up it just means rude if you're rude the Bible saying that's unrighteousness and ungodliness of which God pours his wrath out on haughty and for you millennials

that's not haughty it's haughty all right it means arrogant boastful this next one just, I can't get over it, ready? Inventors of evil. There's some of us in the room doing some stuff so shady that the angels are like, I don't, we don't even have a word for that.

That's something like, wow, we got that dude's making up new evil, all right? And then the next one, disobedient to parents. What? This is a catch-all, is it not? You got haters of God, insolent, inventors of evil, every child who has ever lived. that's it he keeps going faithless heartless ruthless so listen do you know why i think paul has such a wide range on this list is because as christians we have no right to make one thing on the list any more important than any other thing on the list and you know what the

solution is the solution is not because here's the man here's the problem with church especially southern church southern evangelical church here's the problem we think you know what we're going to take back, we're going to take back our culture and the way we're going to do this. If we can pass enough laws to get the people that just don't even say they believe in Jesus to act like Jesus' followers, then, then we'll be good to go. Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me? That don't never work. It's not an outside end thing, man. It's not. Do you know what the law does? All the law does is reveal to you and I that we are lawbreakers. I have an x-ray of Reagan Capri's broken elbow. I don't know. It's sitting on my desk. I don't know who put it

there. I hate it. You know what the x-ray is? The x-ray reveals that there's a problem and an x-ray has zero power to fix the problem. She has to be healed. The law reveals that there's a problem. The list reveals that there's a problem and it has zero power to fix the problem. Our only hope in this world is not laws and rules and regulations. Our only hope for us individually,

for Jacksonville, for Florida, for our country and for the rest of the world, our only hope is the power of God, the gospel, the power of God for salvation, in our individual lives, amen? And then when we come together and act like it, and I'm telling you, you look through this list, if you're honest, and by the way, deceitfuls on here,

because if you're not honest, you're right up on the list. We're all there. Verse 32, he says, though they knew God's righteous decree, that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them, but they give approval to those who practice them. In other words, we become proud of things

that we should be ashamed of. And what everything, all of this list, these specifics of unrighteousness and ungodliness, they all have this in common, everything from the murderer to the disobedient to parents. They all have me in common. Forget you, I'm going to do what I want. And so here comes the good news. Remember, he started with the gospel, the cure. And then he gives the diagnosis.

And so the good news of the gospel is that the gospel is for anyone who needs a Savior, which is every one of us. The gospel is for anyone who needs a savior, and the good news is that's every single one of us. You see, here's the point. It's in your worship, God. The only power that is able to save you and set you free is the gospel of Jesus Christ. It's not behavior modification. It's not church attendance.

It's not. The only power that is able to save you and set you free is the gospel of Jesus Christ. And you may say, save me from who? Set me free from who? From you. from you. Don't you realize that you are enemy number one in your own life. Nobody's let you down more than you.

No one's broken more promises to you than you. Think about it. You can't even keep your own commandments. Is it not true? Anybody's still on their New Year's resolution? All right? Anybody haughty want to raise their hand? Be like right here, ha, ha, sinner.

It's just true. And the gospel of Jesus Christ is the only power that will set you free. and every single one of us need him to do for us what we can't do for ourselves. Tim Keller says this about the gospel. I love this. The gospel is this. We are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dared believe. And yet at the very same time, we are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared hope.

Both of those are right and true. A right and true. Charles Spurgeon says, I am a great sinner, but praise God, I have a greater Savior. Both of those are true. You see, I remember the moment a long time ago. I was a teenager. I remember that moment where I stepped off the diving board of faith into the arms of my Heavenly Father and didn't just believe that he was God, but believed in the reality that God so loved me,

sent his only begotten son. And that salvation, that gospel included me. I was at this little camp called Camp Pine Hill Baptist Retreat Center. Okay, quite honestly, I'm like a professional Christian now. I got to tell you, it was terrible. Like if our youth group tried to go there, I'd fire our youth pastor and get another one. You understand? I mean, it was awful.

Nobody north of the Mason Dixon could come because they would die from the yellow flies and the mosquito bites, all right? Just tough country kids could come. But the thing about that place, man, is that they declared and demonstrated the gospel. A bunch of college students were our counselors, and not only did they teach us what the Bible said about Jesus and heaven and hell and salvation, But they also showed us. And so there was this thing in me as a high school kid. I was in a bunch of trouble. But there was this thing in me as a high school kid that experienced something in these young men and these young women that was just enticing.

I knew they had this thing that I didn't have. And one night, on a Thursday night, our counselors, about eight or ten college kids, they reenacted the crucifixion of Christ. So a long time before Mel Gibson did it, man, our counselors are pulling off the passion of the Christ. And they basically took the accounts in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and they just acted them out with like bed sheets for togas, and they make these torches, and it started with Pontius Pilate. What should I do with this man named Jesus? And they screamed crucify him. And all of us kids are sitting on one side of this lake, and we watched, my counselor, he was a sophomore at Furman, playing the role of Jesus. Watch him take him down the side there and whip him and put a crown of thorns on him and mock him and take him to the cross.

We heard the hammer hit the nails over and over and over, and then they lifted up the cross with Christ on it. And he said all seven things that Jesus actually said on the cross, starting with, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they're due, and ending with it is finished. When they said it is finished, they put out the torches and it was dark. And Coach Bulley, the God had led me to Christ, turned a flashlight on him and said,

for God so loved the world, which means you. For God so loved you that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever, that could be you, that whosoever would believe in him, trust in him, have faith in him, would not perish but have everlasting life. And in that moment, I went from believing that to believing in. You see, that's what trust, that's what the faith that saves is. It's like, I've used this illustration before, but it's like this stool. This stool can sit here and I can come up next to it and I can believe that. That's a stool.

But it's not belief in until I shift the weight of who I am to trust that this stool will hold me up. And it's not a little bit of me and a little bit of a stool. Maybe you've heard some people say Christianity is a crutch. It's not a crutch. It's not a crutch. It's a stretcher. It's not a little bit of me and a little bit of Jesus. Look, it is all him and none of me. And so to put your faith in Jesus Christ, no matter who you want,

are and what you've done is to transfer the weight of your life onto the work the finish work of Christ at the cross and just like coach lee gave me that opportunity long time ago i'd like to give you the opportunity to not just believe that but to believe in to believe in you see because i'm not ashamed of the gospel of jesus christ it is the power of god for salvation for you for you if you'll believe. So would you bow your head and would you close your eyes? And I want to ask you, just straight up, for the very first time, is there anybody here, any of our campuses, for the very first time, you are ready to believe in, not just believe that, that you are ready to admit it. I am a sinner in need of a Savior. And I believe somehow that when Jesus Christ died on

the cross, that counted for me. When he says, it is finished, that means that the debt was paid in full. And today, for the very first time, you were ready to confess him as Lord. Surrender your life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. And if that is you, if you were ready to put your faith in Christ as your Savior, would you raise your hand high wherever you are? Lifted high and pray to him, say, Father, I am. I surrender my life to you. Our good and gracious Heavenly Father, God, we thank you for the gospel. God, we thank you for the reality that we sin and our sin has consequences and the consequences of our sin is death. And God, we thank you that you sent your only begotten son to come live a perfect, righteous life. And because you're righteous, you don't have

consequences. And God, I thank you that because you love us so much, you traded places with us. That you would pay our sin debt and we would receive a right standing with you. And so, God, even if we don't fully understand, I thank you that we can fully believe, we can fully believe. We can fully trust in you, that you are a good dad and you always keep your promises. And so, God, I thank you, and I praise you for the men and the women and students at all of our locations that have leapt in faith into the loving arms of you, our Heavenly Father. And God, I thank you and praise with you that you will never, ever, ever let them go. And we pray this in the good, strong name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Church, would you please stand as we close? Church, we close by praying.

And man, what a gift prayer is for us, that Christ tore the curtain or the veil between the presence of God and the people of God. And because Christ is our big brother and he makes God the Father, our Father, we are invited into the throne room of God. The Bible says you have not because you ask not. So by the power of the gospel, I implore you. If you need to pray about something, won't you just come and kneel and pray to a God that loves you? And we also, this is the time where we bring our tithes and our offerings, our first and our best. It is a response to the gospel. That we bring our first and our best because God first loved us by giving us his best in Christ.

And then we sing. And today we're going to go old school and we are going to sing an old hymn that is the gospel, that Jesus paid it all. And so let us pray and let us bring and let us sing. Let us respond.