Romans 1:28-32 – “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, faithless, heartless, ruthless.  Though they know God’s decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.”

I hope you all had a great holiday.  I also hope that you were challenged, but encouraged from the last message.  Paul takes much of the first three chapters of Romans to essentially drive home one single point – “no one is righteous, no, not one, no one understands, no one seeks for God.”  (Romans 3:10-11)  If you come into these messages with that understanding, you will know that the overall effect of these messages will be that no one will leave feeling good about themselves.  This is immensely unpopular in a society where everything is geared around making you feel good about yourself.  Self-esteem is lifted up as ultimate, where if someone doesn’t feel good about themselves, it is seen as a negative.  My hope through these messages from Romans 1-3 is not that you would walk away hating yourself, but that you would see that everything good in you is not your own, but wholly attributed to Christ.  By nature, you were a child of wrath, opposed to God – therefore in His eyes, there was NOTHING in you that was to be admired; it is only the grace, love, and mercy of Christ that saves you, and if you walk in His grace, whatever good is manifested within your life, must be due to His influence; Christ in you.  Put simply, before you can truly hope in Christ, you must lose all hope in yourself.  My encouragement is to read these messages to their completion, lest you be discouraged; each day will conclude by pointing us to the shed blood of Christ; where we can know peace, joy, and reconciliation to God.

The last message was almost wholly devoted to answering one question – is God just do condemn everyone.  Hopefully, that question was answered “yes” for you last time.  If you hold back reservations on the justice of God in condemning sinners, it will be very difficult for you to understand His grace and mercy through Christ; hidden somewhere deep within your soul you will always think that somehow His “saving” you was owed to you in some way.  You will always believe that you made a “right” decision, and therefore God was obliged to save you, whereas someone else made a “wrong” decision – implying that you are in some way “good” apart from God.  Christianity is not built on that understanding, however.  We are all, every one of us, fallen, apart, opposed to God from birth; sin is not something we merely do, it is who we are.  There is no room in Christianity for pride, even in a “decision”, because even the faith to believe is a gift of God.  So we are to be the most humble of all people, passionate in prayer that God’s will would be that many would be saved; and trusting that He is good and just in everything He does.

So, if everyone from birth rejects God, what is God’s response?  Does God have to intervene in order for men to continue in their sin?  NO!  “since they (men) did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done”  God simply says, “ok” if you do not want joy and peace in worship of me, then do what seems best to you in your darkened mind.  What is the result?  Sin begets greater sin, begets even greater sin still.  What is amazing is that the Bible tells us that all of us understand within ourselves that through our actions we have opposed our Creator, and deserve to die, yet we continue in our sin and approve of others who do so as well.  This the futility of mind that is spoken of in Ephesians 4:17-19 – “Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles (referenced here as non-believers) do, in the futility of their minds.  They are darkened in their understanding,alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.  They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity” 

I want you all to see something here that is very important.  Many people (who didn’t read the last message…) will say, “well I was never told the gospel, so God can’t bring me into judgment” or “I never knew of Jesus, so I can’t be held accountable to Him.”  People are not ignorant of God because of their location, like lets say… the desert of Africa or the wilderness of southeast Asia; people are ignorant of God because every person chooses to be.  They supress the truth of God and choose ignorance out of the hardness of their heart.  This is what it says here in Romans when is says that people “did not see fit to acknowledge God” but continued in sin, and also in Ephesians above when it says “the ignorance that is in them” is “due to their hardness of heart”.  That’s an amazing truth that should shut the mouths of everyone seeking to deny the justice of God in condemning all sinners.  Ignorance is the result of, not the cause of a hardness of heart against God.  The heart is born hard; against God, and produces every sort of evil; it even seeks to “invent” new kinds of evil.  You can see this all around you, and perhaps even you have been able to see this in your own life.  One sin, led to another sin, which led to a new sin that you wouldn’t have even thought yourself capable of before.

My exhortation today is to not try to justify yourself before God.  None of us is righteous before Him.  There is only one person who is righteous before God – Jesus Christ.  Therefore, do not harden your heart against Him today in sin or self-righteousness.  Lift up empty hands to Christ, and be strengthened.  Do not be like Esau, we are told of in Hebrews 12:12-17 – “Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed.  Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.  See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal.  For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.”  Hell will be full of self-righteous, “good” and “moral”, people.  Today is the day of salvation; rest your hope completely on the grace that is yours in Jesus Christ.  If you are not found in the grace of God, no good work will ever save you in the Day of Judgment.  If you are found in the grace of God, though you may have committed all sorts of evil, the shed blood of Christ is infinitely more precious, and covers all your sin.  Run to Christ, embrace Him without delay.  Consider yourself dead to those lusts of the flesh which would have you as their slave, and embrace the Master whose love knows no end.

Grace and Peace,

Adam