And I want to read from verse 16 all the way down to verse 25, although we're going to be mainly focused on one verse, verse 18. But I want to read from verse 16 all the way to verse 25, just so that we can get a little bit of context.

Okay, 1 Timothy, sorry, Romans chapter 1, 16 through 25. Reading out of the ESV, "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 in 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 men 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." Let's pray. Gracious Father, we ask for your grace this morning as we come to examine your word, to discern, Lord God, your will and your purpose.

Help us, Lord God, to have a deepening and deepening understanding, Lord God, of what it is that we have in you, that we would learn to love you and to honor and glorify you, that you would examine our hearts, Lord God, this morning to see if there's any hurtful ways in us, that your word would do its work to judge the thoughts and intentions of our heart that we may honor and glorify you.

In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Last week we looked at verse 15 and 16 and 17, talking about the power of the Gospel and how in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. And then we had that powerful statement that is repeated in three separate times in the New Testament, a passage that again is quoted from Habakkuk, "The righteous shall live by faith." We talked about how starting from verse 18, Paul's going to jump into the heart of the Gospel message.

So if somebody asks you, "Well, what's Christianity about? What is the Gospel?" Maybe those of you who are Christians or young Christians or even mature Christians, to really dive into the depth of what Paul has to say, because this is basically Christianity 101. So he's going to jump into it, but one of the first things that we have to ask ourselves is why are we saved by faith?

Let me cause you to think that one more time. Why are we saved by faith? Because everything else that we do in life, we are taught and we believe that you have to work for it. Now if you have any friend who is saying, "You know what? I don't really need to work hard because I got this special number that I had in my dream and I know that if I pick these numbers I'm going to win the lottery." And this guy's been playing this, you know?

So he's just hoping to hit it big. Or maybe a student who's at school and he's dropping out all of his classes because he's trying to make the next social media thing and he's going to become a billionaire. And he wants a quick road to get to fame and fortune.

Ever since we're young, we're taught you have to work hard to get what you want. So if you're a student, you have to work hard to get good grades. If you're an athlete, you have to practice hard. If you're a student, you're again working hard to get good grades so you can get a good job.

If you have a good job, you have to work hard to get ahead and maybe get more money and advance in your career. In every aspect of our life, in every part of our life, we are taught that you ought to work hard and earn it. Yet when it comes to Christianity, they say, "No, it's just by faith.

It's not what you do." In fact, if you really sit down and think about it, think about it as somebody who's never heard this gospel before. It's like God is giving salvation by faith. It has nothing to do with what you earn. You can't earn your presence into God.

Let me put it another way. Those of you who are working, if you're working, you've been in a company for about 10 years and you've been working really hard, coming in early and working late. And all of a sudden, this guy comes in, you know, and he gets hired and he's slacking off.

He's not even come to work on time, but yet he's the one who gets to race. How would you feel? You know, would you feel that that's fair? It's like, "Well, I mean, he, you know, he can do whatever he wants." How many of you would sit there and think, "This is unjust." Right?

"This is unjust. I put on all that work and yet that's the guy that he gets to race? He gets to create advancement?" When it comes to our spirituality, when it comes to our salvation, sometimes we just kind of accept the grace of God without really thinking about how that would sound like to somebody else.

Right? That there's people in our lives who are, you know, very moral people. And just because they didn't believe in Jesus, that they're not going to go to heaven? Does that sound fair to you? Have you ever spoken to somebody who is trying to share the gospel with somebody who's not a Christian and they say, "Wait a second, you know, I know a bunch of Christians who don't work hard and they're not, you know, it's in my opinion, they're not great people, yet they're going to go to heaven because they say they believe?" And then here's these people who's sacrificing, giving to the poor, and they're adopting children with special needs and they say they can't go to heaven because they don't believe, they don't have faith?

How does that sound fair to you? Right? I mean, in life, you know, some of us are doing well, some of us are not doing well, but in the end, just to say, "Yeah, I know, I have belief, though. My eternity is taken care of." See, if we don't have a proper understanding of what the gospel is, even just embracing the gospel without really thinking, we don't really realize how it sounds, and if you aren't in the habit of sharing your faith, you don't know where the holes are, you know, holes in your logic.

Because we just say, "Oh, he loves me so much, he died for me, and it's by grace of God." That's awesome. But then until you sit down and somebody challenges you, like, how does that sound fair? Right? And even the gospel presentation itself, Jesus loves you and died for you, right?

Well, first of all, why would he love me? I don't know, right? Why would the God who created the universe, everything is made by him and for him, love me? Why would he love me? Right? But even if you get past that, say, "God loves me, okay? All right, let's now take your word for it, if he loves me, then why would he die for me?" Right?

Think about it carefully. If you're not a Christian and somebody said, somebody loves you and then died for you, what does that mean? Okay, if you love me, you know, take me out to lunch. You know what I mean? If you love me, buy me something, or give me some clothes, or give me a lift to the airport or something, if you love me, but he loved you so much he died for you.

What does that mean? We have to be able to answer that fundamental question, or else you don't know what the gospel is. You don't know what it is, and because we have such a superficial understanding of our salvation, our response to what the scripture says is going to be just as superficial.

It's like, "Oh, he died for me, you know, now I'm going to go to heaven, and I'm going to go to church and enjoy this in-between time with my friends." But what does it mean? Right? See, Paul is going to take the next three chapters, chapter 1, verse 18, all the way to chapter 3, verse 20, expositing why salvation can only be by faith.

Why your works is not going to get you into heaven. And until we are convinced of this, the gospel is not good news. It's going to sound like, "He just came and just threw out money." You know what I mean? God has just all this money left, and just like, "Here it is, and then whoever happened to grab it are the ones that are going to be saved." That is not how the gospel is presented to us.

In fact, if you look at verse 18, if you have the NIV, you don't have that word "for." It just jumps straight into, "The wrath of God is being revealed." If you have the NASV or the ESV, the other translation, it will have the word "for" in front of it.

And that word "for" is actually an important word. The word "for" connects this verse and what he's about to say in the next three chapters with the previous, what he said. So basically what he's saying is, the key statement in the previous verses is, "The righteous, the just, shall live by faith for the wrath of God is being revealed." Meaning, here's the reason why the just shall live by faith.

Here are the reasons that I'm going to give you in the next two to three chapters of why salvation is by faith and not by works. So the first thing that he comes and tells us is that salvation is by faith first and foremost because the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all ungodliness, unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

Now obviously that statement is only one of many statements that he's going to make, but he's going to introduce for us why Jesus had to die on the cross. And why salvation is only by faith and by faith alone. Now if I, again, yelled in this room, you know, that I have good news, right, and I mentioned this before, if I said, you know, "You guys are all healed!" Nobody even clapped, nobody, right?

Nobody even smiled, nobody even cracked a smile. "You're all healed!" Nothing? I just told you some great news, you're all healed! See, it's not good news unless you understand what you're healed from, right? If I just say, "You're healed!" and you don't really understand the sickness that you're healed from.

Now those of you, if I say, "You're healed from this," or "You guys were wrestling with certain kind of ailment," and say, "You're healed from that," then you recognize, "Oh, thank God!" But if I just say, "You're healed!" "Okay, I'd rather be healed than sick, though, okay, that's good," right?

So the Gospel message begins by identifying the sickness, right? Because without identifying the sickness, it's just news. It's just information. It's good news, but it's just information. Here's a reason why, if you read the Old Testament, if you've ever read the Old Testament consecutively from Genesis to Malachi, it is dark and depressing, right?

You don't do quiet time through the Kings if you're having a bad day. You know, "I want something to remind me of the grace of God," you know, "I want somebody to lift me up because, you know, I'm just discouraged." You don't read Kings, right? You might go through Philippians, maybe some parts of Psalms, some parts of Psalms, right?

Not all of it. But if you read consecutively the history of Israel, it is dark. And not only is it dark, it gets darker and darker and darker until you get to the book of Malachi, where it is absolutely helpless. It is a history of, over and over again, mankind sinning.

You know how mankind sins, God is angry, and He wipes the earth of people, and He saves only eight of them? Now, you would think that God's wrath would end there, but it's only the beginning. And the history of Israel is a constantly falling away from the law, and God being angry, judging them, and when God judges them, they come and cry out to God, "God has mercy." And because God has mercy, the nation of Israel is restored.

And as soon as they're restored, they go right back and they forget God. And when they forget God, they turn to idols. When they turn to idols, God becomes angry and judges them, and this is a constant cycle. And you would think that at some point, maybe the third cycle or fourth cycle, you know, Israel would be, "You know what, we've seen this history before, right?

Let's not repeat this." And then they would say, "You know what, from this day forward, we're not going to repeat what our ancestors did." Instead, it gets worse. It gets much worse. They go over and over again, until we get to the book of Malachi. If you read through the Old Testament carefully, you're going to, by the time you get to Malachi, you're going to be asking the same question that I ask.

Why do these people still exist? That's what you're going to ask. Instead of asking, I used to think the same thing. It's like, "Man, God is, God is, you know, an angry God in the Old Testament." Instead, when you start reading through, it's like, "Why is He so patient with these people?

Why doesn't He start over? He did it before. Why doesn't He start over?" Right? But all through the Old Testament, we have revelation of God's wrath and God's anger. In fact, if you read the Old Testament carefully, you're going to see that it was intentional. It was intentional that God and His wrath and His holiness and His justice was revealed so clearly.

It wasn't just something that they just kind of passed over. That was at the core of His character. Deuteronomy 4, 23-24, it says, "Take care, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which He had made with you, and make a carved image, the form of anything that the Lord your God has forbidden you.

For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God. He told the nation of Israel, 'If you go into this promised land and you forget Me, and you begin to worship idols, now watch out. Every curse that I said that was going to come upon you is going to come upon you, because He is a consuming fire.'" A consuming fire is something where you can't go into.

The hotter the flame, the further you have to be away. I don't know if you've ever been at a bonfire and then somebody got carried away and poured all the firewood in there all at once. It got so hot, everybody had to move back. That's the kind of picture that we see of who God is, that God is such a consuming fire, so we can't even be near it.

In fact, Isaiah 53, 34, 14, it says, "Who among us can dwell within the consuming fire? Who among us can dwell with everlasting burning?" And a sinner is even close to who He is. He said, "We will be consumed." Now if anybody is sitting here thinking, "Well, thank God we're not in the Old Testament.

You know, we're in the New Testament. You know, He just kind of evolved into this nice, friendly, you know, Santa Claus figure in the New Testament. Thank God we don't live in the Old Testament." But in fact, in the book of Hebrews, it describes Him exactly the same way.

Hebrews chapter 12, 28-29, "Therefore, let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire." This is not just the God of the Old Testament. This is the same God of the New Testament.

If we do not recognize the God that we are worshiping, if we don't know who He is, salvation just like candy being passed out. You know, during Halloween, just knock on the right door and you get candy. It's a free ticket to go to heaven. You know? And so we don't recognize what it is that we have in Christ.

So we're all thankful that we have it. Just like if I gave you a dollar bill, you know, you may not be that thankful about it, but still free dollar. Right? And that's about the level of appreciation that we have. That's about the level of worship that we give.

Because we don't really appreciate and realize what it is that we have in Christ. Let me give you an example. Well, you know, this morning I walked in and I found a lot of black widows in the sanctuary. They were all over the place. So I was kind of concerned.

I know black widows are dangerous, so I thought maybe I should look it up to see how dangerous it is. So maybe we should tell people to not to be here. Maybe we should fumigate it before we start in service. So I went and I did some research. And this is what I found.

Okay? Are you nervous? Okay. So let me read to you what I found. This is from the National Geographic website about black widows. The black widow spider's bite is much feared because its venom is reported to be 15 times stronger than a rattlesnake's. Did you know that? I didn't know that.

You know. That's what it says. This is on the National Geographic website. In humans, bites produce muscle aches, nausea, and paralysis of the diaphragm that can make breathing difficult. Okay? However, there's a however. However, contrary to popular belief, most people who are bitten suffer no serious damage, let alone death.

But bites can be fatal, usually to small children, the elderly, or the infirm. Fortunately, fatalities are fairly rare. The spiders are non-aggressive and bite only in self-defense, such as when someone accidentally sits on it or stomps on it or something like that. Right? So you're safe. You're not going to die from it.

You might. If anybody here gets nauseous or partial paralysis and you can't breathe, you're not going to die. So we're safe. We're all right. Anyway, let's look at the verse. Just the thought of having something that dangerous in the room makes you nervous. Now I made that up. I didn't see black wood.

I'm sure there's some somewhere. But I didn't see it. Okay? So the thought of a black widow might be crawling underneath, even after I told you it's not going to lead to fatality, makes us all nervous. And we want to look around and say, "Make sure that we're not near." Did I sit on one?

You know, "Oh, I feel paralysis here." And if I told you that it was concentrated in this area, you know, when you come in, you probably would all go over there. Remember when we had that beam that was broken? It was just in case that thing breaks down. Right?

Nobody sit in that area. Right? The thought of having something that poisonous, that dangerous, even if it doesn't lead to fatality, would cause us to be cautious, to examine carefully. Are we near this thing? Is it underneath my feet? Am I going to touch it? You know, am I safe?

And that thought is going to be prevalent in your mind. But when we think about God, we just assume we're safe. We assume it. We assume we're coming, we approach Him like we're approaching grandpa. You know what I mean? He's happy no matter what we do. In fact, the scripture makes that very clear.

In fact, this week I was listening to a pastor, and his thesis, his main topic of sermon was, God loves you no matter what, so what you do doesn't matter. That was his whole message. So I was listening to it carefully. Did I hear something wrong? And I listened to his sermon.

Sure enough, that was his message. So anybody tells you, puts a guilt trip on you, what you're doing, they're not teaching you about who God is. So what we do doesn't matter at all. See, that's the kind of preaching that has made the church what it is today. We don't have a right view of who God is.

And so therefore, it's just nonchalant, just kind of like, hey, let's go. We just assume that if we meet this God, that God is going to embrace us, and He's going to be happy. We just assume that. We never think, what if He's like the black, you know, the black widow?

Now there's nothing that says black widow, if He sees you, He's not going to bite you. He says no, He's only going to bite you if you sit on it, if it's aggravated. So as long as you don't aggravate it, He says it's okay. But it still makes you nervous.

Because that bite can cause paralysis. Because it's going to make you feel uncomfortable. It could cause you to be very seriously sick. And as a result of that, you're very careful. You want to examine, make sure you're not near it, you're not going to be bitten, no matter what.

But why do we think, when we think about this Holy God, that we automatically, I'm okay. Automatically. It's because the punch of the Gospel has been taken away. The need for the cross has been muddled and dummied down and shaved off. So we don't recognize why we need the cross in the first place.

It was just passed out like Halloween candy. Here it is, anybody want it? Here it is, give Jesus a try. Give Jesus a try. So people stood in line and took it, not recognizing why the Son of God. God Himself had to be crucified on the cross. And the only way that we can be safe from His wrath, from His wrath, from His justice, from His anger, is to be clothed in the blood of Christ.

And because we have not recognized it, and we just kind of glossed over it, our response is just as superficial. You know, I remember when I first came to the United States and got candy, it was so precious. You know, because back in Korea, back in the early 70s, you just didn't have candy like that.

It was a big, big deal. I came to the United States and my cousin told us that if you put a makeup on, you go trick or treating, they give you candy. We're like, "What? This is heaven." So, me, my older brother was too embarrassed, so he didn't do it.

Me and Philip decided we're going to put a, we literally put a paper bag over our head. And even that, we only had one bag. So I go and knock, and then they give me some candy, and then he, it was his turn, and he would go and knock, and he'd get some candy.

You know. I'm not, I'm not kidding. That's exactly what we did. We came home with bags of candy. You know, we came home, it was probably about two bags, about that size. I remember thinking, I was like, "Wow, America is great. This is awesome." Right? So, I get, I get so dumbfounded today, when now, with our, with kids, our kids or the kids, they say, "Oh, give me some candy." Like, "Nah." "What?

It's candy." Right? It's like, "Ah, whatever." You know, because they get it so freely. It's so readily available. With bags all the time. You know, it's not precious anymore. Because it's passed out left and right, because we have it everywhere. We have it in the pocket, we have it in the car, we have it at school, we have it at home.

So it's not big of a deal. So if you don't get candy today, you might get it tonight. You don't get it tonight, you probably get it tomorrow. And it's not precious. And as a result of that, there is no, you know, the candy doesn't have its power. The candy has lost its power.

When I went to Kenya, you know, with the orphanage that we were visiting for Beloved, you know, those kids, obviously, they don't have anything. So I brought a bag of candy, and literally, they were staring at me like I had something very, very precious. And I remember I gave that to them, and they followed me around for a week.

Because every time I reached into my pocket, they thought maybe candy's going to come out. And I was just thinking, there's power there. There's no power. Candy has no power here, but there's power there. Right? When we don't recognize the preciousness of what it is, what we have been saved from, Gospel is just news.

It's just news. And because it's news, there's no preciousness. There's no worship. There's no longing. There's no praising. It's just all theory. True worship is when we recognize that we have something great, and we come to worship it. Just like a lot of us go to sports stadiums to watch something above us.

We don't worship something mediocre. If Joe and I play basketball today, no one's going to come and pay money to see us play basketball. He just happens to be closest to me. Right? Because there's nothing to watch. We pay money to watch people who are above us do things that we can't possibly imagine doing.

Right? So when the Gospel becomes cheap grace, it's just something that we do, something that we say, something that we regurgitate, until we recognize its greatness. He says, "The Gospel, the wrath of God is being revealed." You know how we talked about in the first part in verse 17, it says, "The righteousness of God is being revealed?" And then that same phrase, "But the wrath of God is being revealed." Why is the righteousness of God being revealed important?

And then he says, "You need to understand why salvation is by faith. Because the wrath of God is being revealed." It doesn't talk about past tense, it doesn't talk about future tense, it's talking about now. Right? So we may ask ourselves, "Well, I know wrath of God is being revealed in maybe in the Middle East, maybe in North Korea, maybe in certain horrific events, but you know, living in Orange County, California, you know, I feel like grace of God is being revealed every day." You know what I mean?

Wake up every morning, see the sunshine, you know, especially get on the freeway and there's no traffic, the grace of God is being revealed. Air conditioner is working. You know what I mean? They have a sale, you get half off for going to Chipotle, grace of God is being revealed.

Right? We live in Orange County and it's like wrath of God is being revealed. When's the last time you saw something, you know, and we think like 9/11, we think of some disastrous things, but he says present tense. Is Paul talking about only at that time or is this a consistent thing?

Well, if you look at the tense in Greek, it is referring to an ongoing. Something that was there and something that's continuous, it's part of life. And if we don't recognize the wrath of God being revealed, then the grace of God being revealed would also be nullified. Because we don't know what the grace of God is for.

First of all, the wrath of God is being revealed today in the universal human experience of death. Because that's the first thing that the scripture talks about, that he said, "If you eat of this tree, you shall surely die." So as soon as they ate of it, death came.

In fact, not only did death come in, in Romans 5, 17 it says, "Because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man." It reigned. You know, it didn't just come in and affect some people, it said it reigned, meaning when something reigns, right? It means it has absolute sovereignty, absolute control over.

And that's how death is described in Romans chapter 5. It didn't just affect us that one day we're going to die, it said this death, this separation from God had reigned, meaning it affected everything that we do. See, death is the most tangible evidence of the fallenness of man, it's God's judgment upon mankind.

He said that's what's going to happen, that's what happens. 100%. 100%. Death was not intended in the Garden of Eden. Death came in as a result of rebellion against God. And this is the tangible evidence of his judgment. So today, you know, we just kind of think about death as like, "Ah, that's just a natural part of life." Just natural.

So because that's the only way the world can explain it. It just happens. You live and then you die, right? And you just try to milk as much as you can while you're in between. But what happens afterwards? How does all of this affect what happens afterwards? If you look about, look at our life in the context of just even human history, we're a blip.

We're literally a blip, we're like a mist that comes and then boom, it disappears. But see, death was not intended. Death was the most tangible evidence of judgment of God. You look at Jesus again at the, in front of the tomb of Lazarus where he deliberately waits until he dies to go.

And everybody is weeping because Lazarus is dead. He deliberately goes there late and he's about to raise Lazarus from the dead and we find him weeping. Why would he weep when he's going to raise him from the dead? Why would he weep when he deliberately went there, allowed him to die to raise him from the dead?

Now, we studied that before when we were studying that passage, but you know, the word for weep there that Jesus is described doing is different than the word that the crowds were weeping. It was two different words. I believe that John was expressing to us that his weeping was different.

His cause of weeping was different. And I believe the reason why he was weeping is because the most tangible evidence of God's judgment upon mankind is death. And death reigns. The only other time we see Jesus crying is when he's going into Jerusalem riding on a donkey. Everybody's celebrating, but Jesus is weeping.

This is only if you knew this day what would bring you peace and because you missed the coming of the Messiah, judgment is coming upon Israel. So in both times, Jesus weeps because of the tangible evidence of the judgment upon mankind. Death is a constant reminder to us. In as it is appointed for all men to die once, after this comes judgment.

Death is a constant reminder to us that judgment, the wrath of God is being revealed. Secondly, wrath of God is revealed in futility of life. Futility of life. If you look at the description of God's judgment upon mankind, you read Genesis chapter 317. This is how it's described. And to Adam he said, "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, you shall not eat of it.

Cursed is the ground because of you." Not only are you cursed, he said life itself, ground itself is going to be cursed. In pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life. He said not just one part, when you eat, you eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner from the moment you are born until you die.

So when he says from pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life, he's talking about from the moment you are born until the day you die, there's going to be suffering. He says in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life, thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you.

After long days of work, years of working, you may get fire. You still may not have enough to eat. After hard work you come back home and your husband is mad. Your wife is not satisfied with what you've done. There's turmoil in the home. There's turmoil at work. Turmoil everywhere you turn.

He says verse 19, by the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground for out of it you were taken for you are dust and to dust you shall return. And at the end of your life it's just going to be it. You know when we're younger we have this hope and the hope keeps us going, right.

And the hope is always the next stage. And so up to college life, you know you're thinking like, I'm going to graduate, you know. I'm going to be so awesome. I see all these band people traveling and have money. I can't do that because I don't have money. Right.

But when I get the job, when I get the job, I'm going to just have freedom. Right. And then, you know, we do it all the time. It's like, you know, I need a job. And we pray for that person to get a job. They get a job, post it on Facebook.

And we're like, congratulations. God is so awesome. He's so gracious. And a year later it's like, oh my gosh, I've got to go to work again. Why are you doing this to me, God? Right. A year before you're praising him for the job. And then for the rest of your life, you're going to be like, this is it?

Really, this is it? And you feel the futility. Some of you guys are like still in the early stages of that. And you're thinking in your head, maybe if I change my job, it'll get better. There's some people in here who've changed their job about four or five times.

Ask them. Ask them if the job changes their life. You know, it changes for a little bit because it's new. Just like when you buy a new car, but after two, three years, it's no longer new. And you repeat that same cycle. And after that cycle, what does it say?

From the dust you came to dust you'll go. And then you go through the cycle. And then what is this? Is this it? And then you die. That's modern interpretation of Genesis 317, right? You go and go and go. The futility of life. He says, yes, that's how it's going to be.

Because of the judgment. The wrath of God is being revealed in death, in corruption, in futility. And when we recognize all of this, and we just think, oh, if I just tweak it here, and if I got a different job, or went through a different career, or found a different person, and we keep tweaking this, thinking that somehow if we keep tweaking it, we're going to just get it right, and then everything's going to be okay.

Everybody in life does that. And then they die that way. Everybody does that. And then they die that way. And even in their 70s and 80s and 90s, they're still tweaking. Maybe if I just get there. Maybe if I lived here. Maybe if my kids did this. And they're all just tweaking just a little bit, thinking that if I can just get this right, and then at some point you have to recognize that that's nothing new under the sun.

Generations before us went through that. Generation now is going to go through that. After us is going to go through that. He says because that's the result of sin. That's the judgment of God on mankind. The third and finally is the final judgment. The wrath of God is being revealed in human degradation.

Three separate times, and I'm not going to get into it this morning, but three separate times it says God gave them over. Romans 124, God gave them over. 126, for this reason God gave them over. 128, for this reason God gave them over. In other words, you keep chasing after that, I'll let you go.

I'll let you go. And no longer God is speaking. No longer God is chasing. Again, we're going to get into that when we get to this text. But the final judgment of God, where God releases you, you want to be independent of me? Do it. Okay? I'm not going to play tug of war with you anymore.

And he gives them over. And that's what the scripture says. And we think somehow that freedom, oh we have freedom, now I don't have to do this and that. And somehow that's what freedom is. The worst thing that I can do for my kids is kick them out of the house.

You want the freedom? Go. Go. Do whatever. Now you can do whatever you want. Wake up whenever you want. Eat whatever you want. Sleep whenever you want. Do whatever you want. That is the final judgment. It's to let them be. Now as parents we know exactly what that's going to lead to.

But the scripture says when God brings judgment upon mankind, he allows mankind to go the direction that they are fighting to go. And he says go. And then human degradation, you see how far that goes. Do you notice that in our culture? Have you noticed that in our generation?

I'm sure you have. He said the wrath of God is being revealed against all ungodliness, unrighteousness. Where the truth of God that God is trying to reveal is being suppressed by their unrighteousness. And all of this is a revelation of God's judgment upon mankind. Which you and I were born into, that every sinner is in, and every person who has not been covered by the blood of Christ will meet this holy, holy, holy consuming fire of a God.

Let me ask you a question. When we think about our walk with God. Have we just glossed over our sin? We just assume God's going to forgive. Of course he always forgives. He's a gracious and loving God. Why wouldn't he forgive? And every time I go to a grandma, she gives me candy.

Why wouldn't God give me candy? You may not be thinking in those terms, but our attitude toward God is not much deeper than that. Why wouldn't he? In Jeremiah 3, 9 through 10, God sends Jeremiah to an obstinate, stiff-necked people. People who are sinning after God, chasing after idols, one generation after generation.

But they were very busy at the temple. They didn't burn down the temple. They were very busy doing religious things. But they were doing it because they think if they appease God, that somehow God is going to bless them, they're going to become rich. But yet they were compromised.

And this is what God says to them. Jeremiah 3, 9. Because she, meaning the nation of Israel, took her whoredom lightly. She polluted the land committing adultery with stone and tree. Meaning when God brought Jeremiah to expose their sin, they said, "What sin?" And they considered their sin light.

Do we consider our sin light? We don't take it seriously. Of course, God's a loving God. You know, how many times do we say, you know, well, this, everybody, this is how everybody is. Well, how many times do we cover over sin by excusing it by saying, "Where do you draw the line down?

Did God call everybody to do this?" How often do we just kind of cover over and justify our sins and not take it seriously as God takes it? And then not only does He indict the individuals, He indicts most severely the leaders. And in the indictment against the leadership, this is what He says, "They have healed the wounds of My people lightly." And you say, "Oh, okay, that's why.

The leaders didn't really care and they weren't gentle enough with the people and really cared and counseled them." You know, that's what we can take out of that first. But here's how they took it lightly. Here's how the nation of Israel or their leaders were being rebuked and they're going to be judged first.

And He says, "They have healed the wounds of My people lightly saying, 'Peace, peace,' when there is no peace." They didn't expose their sin. They didn't confront them with God's judgment. And they kept on telling Him, "Peace, peace." And as a result of that, everybody thought, "Well, if the leaders, the priests, you know, these prophets, they're telling us that God is fine.

Why are you, Jeremiah? Why are you constantly a downer?" And at the end, judgment comes upon them. And the whole time, until the judgment comes, they say, "Why? Why would God be angry with us? Why would He be angry with us?" There is only one way a sin can be justified.

You know, we could justify with dumbing down our theology. We can lower the bar by changing, you know, our theology so that we don't feel guilty. It's like, "Oh, guilt is legalism." You could say all of that. And all of that, the end result of it is just, sin is not that bad.

But real justification can only come by the blood of Christ. When we recognize our sin in light of who He is, and we see the wrath of God being revealed, and we come before God in desperation and repent. Repentance. Before there is forgiveness, there is repentance. You can't jump from sin to forgiveness.

Sin causes us to recognize that the wrath of God is being revealed because of that, and then we are convicted, we repent, and then so therefore, God forgives. It has to be in that order. In Genesis chapter 3, when God confronted Adam, He said, "Who told you? Who told you you were naked?

Why? Did you eat of the tree?" He said, "It's the woman, the woman you put here. She gave it to me and I ate." Think about how often we justify our sins because we do what we do because of them. "Oh, my wife, you know, she does this. I mean, it's impossible to be a good Christian in this home.

Oh, my husband, you know what I mean, he doesn't appreciate anything I do, and so therefore, I can only be this way. You don't know my background. You don't know how I grew up. You don't know what happened to me. I am the way I am. The reason why I'm bitter and angry is because I've been wronged.

It's the woman that you put in here is causing me, is forcing me. Put anybody else in my situation and they would sin too." And how often we justify our sins in blaming everybody else. "I am the way I am because the people that you put in my life is making me do this." In other words, "It's not my fault." In other words, "It's your fault." Go see Eve.

Who told you you were naked? The serpent. The serpent did it. He's the one. How often do we justify our sins? That our bitterness, our anger, our spiritual dryness, all of that is because of our surrounding. Because of our people. Because of our circumstance. So the moment we begin to justify our sins, there is no repentance.

The first step to come to God is to recognize that I'm a sinner. That I am deserving of this wrath. It's me. It's me, O Lord, standing in the need of prayer. It's me. It's me, O Lord. Not my brother, not my sister, but me, O Lord, standing in the need of prayer.

There can be no repentance. If we're constantly justifying our sins, the wrath of God is being revealed against all ungodliness, all unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. Would you close your eyes with me for a minute? Again, I invite you to take some time to pray.

I'm absolutely convinced. I know that some of the problems that you are in, you know, say, "Hey, you know, you're making, you're kind of, you know, belittling it, thinking like, "Oh, there's a simple answer." And I understand life is complicated, and some of us are in very complicated situations, whether it's work or family or whatever it may be.

But God has given one path to life. He says, "Come to me, all who are weary and have related." Jesus is the only one who can unburden this life. And if we're constantly thinking that if we have the right people in our lives and right circumstances, somehow things are going to get right, He says, "No, we're missing the whole point." Right?

The only path to life is Christ, and the only way to Christ is by repentance through the blood of Christ. So I invite you this morning to own up to our sins, to own up to my part. I've sinned. It's because of corruption in my heart that I am who I am.

And Lord, I believe, help my unbelief. So I want to invite you this morning to come before God in repentance and in prayer. Thank you, Lord, for giving me a way of salvation by the blood of Christ. That if I've taken His grace as just cheap candy, that I didn't really see the preciousness of what it is that we have in Christ, that you would come before the Lord and ask, "Lord, open my eyes to see that I may give worship and follow you with my whole heart." So let's take some time to pray.

Alright.