In 'The Tragic Exchange,' Scott Brown discusses Romans 1:18-32, highlighting the consequences of humanity's choice to exchange the glory of God for lies and idols. Brown emphasizes how this exchange leads to God's wrath and a descent into depravity, marked by sexual immorality, wickedness, and other sins. He describes a three-fold sequence: the exchange, God's giving people up to their desires, and the resulting suffering. Brown stresses that we are all 'Exchangers' and calls for awareness of the Holy Spirit's conviction to stop making these exchanges. He highlights the importance of sanctification as a process of ceasing these exchanges and turning back to God. The sermon contrasts the depravity of man with the glory and redemption offered through Jesus Christ, urging believers to choose whom they will serve and reminding them of the immense cost of sin and the immense value of Christ's redemptive work.

Romans 18, For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all godliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. In unrighteousness. Because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them for since the creation of the world. His invisible attributes are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. Because although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts and their foolish hearts were darkened.

Prophets, to be wise, they became fools and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man, and birds, and four-footed animals, and creepy things. Therefore, God also gave them up to uncleanness in the lust of their hearts to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie and worshiped and served the creature Rather than a creator who is blessed forever Amen For this reason God gave them up to vile passions for even their women exchange, the natural use of what is against nature. Likewise also men, leaving the natural use of the woman burned in the lust for one another. Men with men committing what is shameful and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind to do those things which are not fitting.

Being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness. They are whisperers, back-biters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful, who knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same, but also approve of those who practice them. Amen. So here we are finishing the last portion of the first chapter of the book of Romans, and these final words explain the traumatic effects of sin in the world. This section actually begins in verse 18, which is what we just read.

We'll begin dealing with verse 24, but verse 18 sets the stage and tells us what it's all about when the Apostle says, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. So that casts the vision for all that's to come. It's a picture of autonomous man doing his own thing, his own way, and he's exchanged the glory of God for his own way, or for a lie, or for images, or for some other kind of perversion. So we see here mankind is, He is suffering, he's upset, and he is always falling on the sword of his own preferences. And that's what the Exchangers do.

We are the Exchangers. This is about us, not about them. It is about what we do in daily life. It speaks of the greatest problem in our hearts. It speaks of the greatest problem in our homes.

It speaks of the greatest problem in any category of life that we have. And we commit these things before our conversion. The blood of Christ cleanses us from all unrighteousness. But still, we are exchangers. And God works progressively, slowly, too slowly, by our own disobedience, to accomplish glory in our lives, progressively, year after year.

We keep making the exchanges. Our sanctification is to stop making them. So this morning we should be aware of any conviction of the Holy Spirit of any exchanges we're making now. Don't make those anymore or make them less. Identify them, turn from them is one way that we'll be approaching this passage of Scripture.

Now, with this section in Romans, we are sinking into depravity. We are sinking into the language of horrible, horrible things. Even Spurgeon said in his sermon on this chapter, he said, Romans, this is a dreadful portion of the Word of God. I should hardly like to read it through aloud." And he did not read it through aloud that morning when he preached it. He said, read it at home and be startled by the awful vices that are there.

Well that's what we have before us. We will speak of the vices, but we'll try to keep our focus as well on what the main message is. And so even though Romans gives us a knowledge of depravity and he itemizes it, there are these long lists. It ends with 23 different things that we do as a result of the exchange. But though it gives us the detail of what's happening, and we should use this list to filter our lives right now here this morning and say, is any of this happening?

Even though we have that, we also have the doors open wide to the glory of God. That's what this passage is about. It's about the glory of God and the demise of the works of the devil. And it places before us light and darkness. It places before us these extremes, the glory of God and then the corruptible things.

And it says to all of us, choose now this day whom you will serve. And Paul is so explicit in all of these things. So we are reminded of the blessings of the Kingdom of God. Now, one thing about this passage that I appreciate very much is that it is, it's a bold declaration for the way things really are in this world. There are no rose-colored glasses here.

There's no holding back. As Paul was bold to declare it as it is and refresh all of us, we ought also to be the same. You know, this was actually one of the great joys of our trip to Romania. We were bold in declaring the works of the devil that we believe have worked its way into our churches and in the churches there in Romania. And we were able to just check off the works of the devil in the church regarding manhood and womanhood, regarding the raising of children, regarding the evils of giving your children to the Gentiles to be educated, regarding the evils of women not focusing their energies at home, not appreciating and trying in every possible way they can to fulfill that.

Well Paul here is so bold to identify the sins to be avoided, and it's appropriate for us to do that. If this sermon were being given in other parts of the world, perhaps Canada, we would have trouble. This is hate speech that we're dealing with here, as many of the nations of the world are regarding it. So there is much here now. This morning, just by way of introduction again, to belabor it, I hope these things that are here will help us grasp our own wounds as a result of the exchanges that we've made and to be here to seek the Lord for His remedies for the wounds that our exchanges have brought upon us.

There's not a person in here that's not suffering from some wounds for these exchanges. Let's just be honest about that. My family is not exempted. We had a week, this week, of just, in many ways, giving glory to God for the ways that He's dealing with the wounds of sin in our family. And we celebrated a birthday of Claudia's.

She's turned 13 this week. And we just had a chance to talk about each one of the children and ourselves and our own challenges. Each one of my children and Deborah and I each have our own sins. We have our own exchanges. So we had a chance to talk about that.

But we also had such a happy time talking about the grace of God, because we're seeing progress in those exchanges. Yes, even in Claudia, even in Blair, we're even seeing progress in me, maybe less. Some great strides among members of our family and then some not so great strides. And so we're working, we're continuing to work on the degradation that comes from exchanging the glory of God for a lie. So I hope this is going to be very practical, more on that later.

Now I want you to see something that's here in this passage. There's the consistent argument in the passage, and I want to show it to you before we dive into the text, Because I want you to see what Paul is repeating over and over again. It's the major issue in the text. There are three times Paul recites a three-fold sequence, okay? And I'm going to show it to you right now, and then we'll dive into the text.

The first time he announces this threefold sequence is in verse 23. Verses 23 and 24 is the first place you find it, then you see it in 25 through 27, and then you see it again in verse 28. And so, if you look at verse 23, you see that they exchanged. There's the exchange in verse 23. And then in 24, God gave them up.

Do you see that? That's the second thing. They exchange, God gives them up, and then thirdly, their suffering that results. Verse 24. They dishonor their bodies, their lust, they're driven by the lust of their hearts.

There's all this devastation. So that's the pattern. The exchange, and then God gives them up, and then thirdly, there is suffering, massive suffering, with all these descriptive words that are just absolutely amazing to read. The second recitation of the three-fold consequence of man's demise, verse 25, do you see it there? They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, that's the exchange.

Again, same just as before, and then God gave them up, verse 26, and then in verse 27 the penalty, the suffering of the results, the terrible penalty. We'll talk about that penalty later. The penalties are enormous in the example that he gives, but it's just a prototype example. He uses homosexuality, but that's not the only example. He just uses this unbelievably graphic one to get our attention, I believe, to help us understand how devastating this transaction, this exchange is.

The third time, he goes through the same threefold sequences in verse 28. Verse 28, God, the exchange is made, God gives them over, and there is suffering in the results. So that's the argument. Do you see this? It's a three-fold recitation of the three-fold problem of mankind that causes this demise.

Exchange, God actually giving you over so that we'll feel the pain of it without the pain we wouldn't turn and then and then the suffering that results as a result so I'm going to go through an explanation of these tragic exchanges And there are five points you have before you. First of all, I want to talk about the tragedy of it, in verse 24. Secondly, I want to talk about the madness of it, in verse 25. The perversion, or the perversions of it, in verses 26 through 27. And then the mental sickness that happens to us.

And here you get these 23 mental sicknesses, relational issues that flow from wrong thinking and the exchanging of the truth of God for a lie. It might be easy to say, oh, those homosexuals are so bad, but he gives us 23 other things that are quite transferable to every human being. And then, lastly, the intentional embracing and endorsement of it. So these are the tragic exchanges. Okay, let's begin with the first one.

So the tragedy of it is in verse 24. Therefore God gave them over to uncleanness in the lusts of their hearts to dishonor their bodies among themselves. And so the word, of course, therefore, announces the results of the exchange. This causes, again, to look back at verse 18 and see the context for the wrath of God as revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth and unrighteousness. So he's just filling, he's continuing to fill it out.

Here's an example of it here. And notice that he said the wrath of God is revealed to all ungodliness, not just your favorite ungodliness. The judgment of God goes everywhere, not just to those other people who do those things that we don't prefer And so there's this judgment now in in this passage there are two great exchanges One is the exchange of the glory of God for a lie, for idols. And the other is the exchange for the glory of God's design in sexuality, exchange for vile passions. Those are the two exchanges.

One leads to the other, obviously. One feeds the other and makes it flourish. So we have these three tragic things that take place that are listed in verse 24. The first, it's the tragedy of uncleanness. It says that God gave them up to uncleanness.

Now, just think about that for a minute. You're talking about, what is uncleanness? Imagine yourself being turned over in a septic tank or something like that just imagine yourself covered with film That's what he's saying happens to us when we exchange the glory of God for a life. There's there's an uncleanness about us now There's pollution. We're dirty have you ever been filled Have you ever been absolutely filthy with anything toxic that would actually threaten your life?

You know, there are chemicals that if you get them on yourself, you leave them on there, you can die. I've handled chemicals like that. You have to be very careful with them. And you better wash quickly. Water is almost, it's the universal cleansing for most of these difficult chemicals.

The washing of the water, it's your only hope, is to get clean quickly. He's talking about uncleanness. So I think we need to grip the imagery here. It's so tragic because we are walking around filthy as human beings. And this kind of uncleanness is impossible to wash off with human things.

It's only washed off by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's only, it's only take, The dirt of the heart, which is what he's talking about, can only be dealt with through supernatural works of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then he talks about the tragedy of the lusts of their hearts. It's tragic to be driven by lust instead of being directed by the holiness of God. Just to be driven by the lust of the flesh.

Imagine that. Well, we understand that. God helps us to restrain it. But think if the lust of your flesh just ran without any government at all, without any restraint. Think of evil unrestrained in your life.

This is a great tragedy, because when we make the exchange, it exposes us to just living by the lusts of our hearts. And so we end up being directed by the works of the flesh, which is the works of the devil. And the devil has come to kill and steal and destroy. And so It's a tragic, tragic exchange because of the lusts of our hearts. It makes us a shadow.

It makes us a blight. We're driven to and fro by the winds of everything just welling up in our hearts. We say whatever we want. We do whatever we want. We do whatever we want.

We have no government from God. We care nothing for anyone else. And this is a tragedy to exchange the glory of God for a lie, because it makes you a person who just runs by your own lusts. And this is not helpful. This is not good then there's the third tragedy and then he mentions the dishonor of your bodies is he gave enough to dishonor their bodies among themselves so there's dishonor in the in your body it's a tragedy It is tragic that man made in the image of God would dishonor his body that God had given him.

The Bible says that the body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. In some senses, the body is a sacred thing. It is but dust. We need to say that. And of course, we don't worship the body.

But we must acknowledge that the body is important. God gives us bodies for a reason, in the same way that He gave a body to the Lord Jesus Christ. But we dishonor our bodies, and so there's this desecration, there's this Unhealthiness infused in every part of the body. This last week, our family was reading in Isaiah, making our way through that book. And in the first chapter, we ran into a verse that gripped my soul when I was 17 years old, when I first read it.

And my mind went right back to that where Isaiah says the whole head is sick the whole heart faints that was me that was me before my conversion the whole everything everything was out of kilter for me from it said Isaiah says from the sole of the foot even to the head, there's no soundness in it. He says, but wounds and bruises and purifying sins. That's what happens. That's the dishonoring of the body. The whole head, from all the way down to the bottom of the feet, the body ends up getting defiled when we make these exchanges.

So what do we do? You know, the body is dishonored. We're unclean. We're being driven by the lusts of our hearts. And so what do we do?

Instead of turning back to God, what do we do? We turn to yoga and psychoanalysis. We turn to travel and extreme sports or 50-year-old men trying to find themselves dying in some exciting physical activity because they're trying to get their vigor back or something like that. We're trying constantly to get back something that we know we don't have and some significance, drugs or alcohol or medicine, whatever will give a small enough measure of fulfillment to keep us from saying life is not worth anything. Just give man enough to keep him going for another day.

Give him the excitement of some silly thing that doesn't truly help him, but just gets him on into another day. He's on a treadmill. He's lost. This is the picture of mankind, just constantly searching and searching for the next high to get him where he wants to go but he's driven by the lust of his heart but the reality is he's dishonoring his body and he's losing everything he hoped for. That's the picture of fallen man And the only remedy is to turn to God in repentance, to identify the exchange and say, Oh Lord, help me, help me stop this forever, if possible, and pour out your mercy upon me.

So as a result, you know, the loneliness, the depression, the exhaustion, the anxiety, you know, all the medications that are needed to deal with it, you know, all the external stimuli that are needed to make somebody feel good about themselves and to help them figure out that life is worth living. But there's no improving at all. It's a descending spiral from one generation to the next. So here, this is a picture of God giving mankind over to suffering. This phrase, given over, is critical to understand Paul's logic here.

It is the heart of it. Giving over and the exchanging of the glory of God. This is the heart of this passage of scripture. And, you know, this giving over is... He uses really extreme language for this.

It's the same word is used for being committed to prison, or judgment, or angels being delivered into the pit of darkness. It's that kind of giving over. It's very powerful. It's very high octane language that he uses. And it's this very powerful commitment of the human soul to go follow his own way.

Why would God do that? We wouldn't do that. Well, we're committed not to do that with our children, but God somehow does it with us, and He allows us to go into the suffering that's consistent with our choices in the exchange. And so God gives them over, and then we collapse emotionally, physically, relationally. Our marriages suffer, our children are cut off, our churches are destroyed, companies are devised by these dark exchanges that happen, the lust of the flesh, the dishonoring of the body.

The culture is just careening further and further into deeper debauchery. The costs are absolutely unfathomable. Calculate the cost of the nations trying to pay for the fixes of all these problems. The poverty, the broken marriages, the destroyed children, the drug abuse, all and we can just go on and on and on. The amount of money that is spent to try to fix these problems is incalculable.

And why? Well, because we've exchanged the glory of God for a lie. And God has so arranged the universe that sin is its own punishment. The Puritan Thomas Watson said that sin puts gravel in your bread and wormwood in your cup. And that's what God does when He gives you over to feel it, experience it.

Do you like that? One of the things we used to do with our children when they were smaller is when they were in some form of disobedience, some form of angry outburst, a pity party of some kind or whatever. I would always say, do you like this? Feel this. Feel this.

This is what rebellion against God is. Do you want to just have this feeling in your heart continue for three years? How about ten years? Well you can. But this is the kingdom of the devil.

How does it feel? Do you like it? And my children always say, no I don't like it. I do not like it. And I wanted them to know this was nothing, this was nothing less than the work of the devil in their life, and this dark exchange that causes the demise of the body and the cutting loose of all good government into the lust of the flesh is what's happening here.

So it is, it's tragic. That's why I say, look at the tragedy of it. And then Look at the madness of it in verse 25. Who exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

Now, let's work through this. So they exchange the truth of God for a lie. They exchange the truth of God for the opinions of men whose life is in their nostrils. What a stupid change. That's like trading a gold piece for a piece of paper.

It's madness. It's insanity. And Paul is pointing this out. And so there's this in madness, man disconnects himself from godly wisdom. And the nightmare of it is that everything good shrinks away from him.

It's madness to make this change, to go from the glory of God and taking a lie. It's just crazy. So you choose a life without love, without miracle, without every good thing. It's absolutely amazing that we would take the creator of the universe, just look up in the stars one night, look at a flower, look at a flea, and be amazed and take the creator of these things and choose MTV or some absolutely insane, you know, demonic thing that's just defiling? Absolutely not.

Why would you choose perfect beauty for perfect baseness? And That's his point here. But if one separates himself from God, then he will be separated on his own, doing what's natural, doing what is devastating, broken on the rocks of their own disobedience and slaves of their father, the devil. It's a crazy exchange. You know, when we were in Romania, we were driven past Ceaușescu's house, the largest building in the world, second to the Pentagon when it was built.

It's a house, okay? I forget the dimensions. Thousands of rooms. It's, we took some pictures. The camera, the width of the camera was not big enough to get the whole house.

It was just absolutely huge. So Ceausescu, this communist dictator, built the house, and then he executed the architects and everybody who built it, because he had tunnels and all kinds of things like that. That's what the devil does. He puts you to work for him, and then he executes you, because he has other plans for other destruction. That's the picture That's the exchange the glory of God for a lie It's absolutely amazing.

I Paul is a mate and then he then he's he ends look very carefully at this sentence rather than the Creator who is blessed forever. And then he does something that I don't think he does in any of others' letters. He says amen right in the middle of the letter. That doesn't, where else, I didn't look, but I just don't know where else that happens. Paul is...

He is stunned. He's thunderstruck by this exchange. And then he says, Amen! Just as if to stop the train and say, let's consider this for a moment. It's absolutely stunning that we would do that.

So there's madness. There's madness. The Creator who is blessed forever is rejected for stupid fads in the world. That's the reality of it. You know how often that happens.

Stupid earthly fads for what is eternal. We've lost our wits. And we do this in this life, even as believers. So I trust this will be a challenge, that God is giving us these contrasts to help us to see the extreme nature of it. And then not only is there madness in it, we have to see the perversion in it.

We have to see it. It's there. And it says that for this reason, God gave them up to vile passions. And then he says, even their women... And he takes an example that is stunning, because it's not quite as common.

He takes the example of women, and then he speaks of men. And a couple things to notice here. Notice who is doing the giving up. I just think we should pause on this for a minute. God gives them up.

Think about that. If God would give you up. Now it's one thing, it's one thing if your father or mother gave you up, but if God gives you up, this is on a completely different level. At least there would be God to protect you. At least there would be God to protect you.

At least there would be God to nourish you. But no, when you step away from God, there is a separation. And there is a giving it, but God himself does it. And then he allows, he allows this overwhelming wave of defilement to touch your life. That's what he does.

And then, and then, and then God allows men to receive the punishments for their sin, and he gives the example of homosexuality. It's a very startling expression of the breakdown. It's a fundamental attack on the Trinity. It's a fundamental attack on all theology. You undo manhood and womanhood.

You've undone the doctrine of the Trinity. You've undone the gospel. You've undone so many things. This is why we have a number of theologians that are hard at work, many of them at CBMW, Council for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, because they understand, well, you mess with gender. You mess with the gospel.

You mess with God the Father, you mess with God the Son, you blur sexuality, you destroy the gospel. And so that's what's happening here and there are these vile passions, you know, living in lust. You know, I read this week 40 percent of the downloads on the worldwide web are from pornographic sites. How's that? Twelve percent of the searches are for pornography.

The statistics are absolutely stunning. There is this pollution going on in our homes, in our hearts, in our churches, everywhere. It will cause the collapse of the church, absolutely. Don't think anything differently about that. When you attack, when you attack man made in the image of God and his function in the creation order, you have brought down, if you're successful, you have brought down the church.

And so it says here that they left the natural use. Again there's this leaving. They leave the natural use and then God gives them over. That's the logic. And then they burn in their lust.

And then he makes a value judgment. He says they're committing what is shameful. They're committing what is shameful. It's appropriate for believers to say that homosexuality is shameful. We should not be reluctant to say what the Bible says about it.

There may be a day where we land in prison by saying that homosexuality is shameful. We should go there happily. We must communicate what the Bible says about everything. And my expectation is that we will, in the next decade or two, we will see many, many of our pastors imprisoned for preaching this passage of Scripture as it sits before us now. Homosexuality is not inborn any more than being a backbiter is inborn, or being disobedient to parents is inborn.

It's just another sin. It's just one along the list of many sins. And then it says that the penalty is received in themselves. I mean, the penalty of homosexuality is so extreme. Homosexuals are three times more suicidal than their counterparts.

The average life expectancy of a homosexual without AIDS, without AIDS, is 33 years lower than the average. The average lifespan of a homosexual with AIDS is 39 years old. It's with AIDS. Without AIDS, what do you think? 41 years old.

That's the average life expectancy. The penalty is absolutely enormous. You know, we have a policeman right here in our midst, Tommy Vestal. Right now in San Francisco, California, there's a gay pride parade going on, where the policemen are standing around and watching illegal acts. They cut off the city, and it's just one massive homosexual orgy and the police just stand there and lawlessness prevails in the several block street.

It's happening right now today, the last day of September in San Francisco, California. And even though there are laws against these things, the police are standing because it is so dangerous for them to intervene in that city. It's just like Sodom, where it was dangerous to restrain this kind of evil. So there is, the results are absolutely amazing. You know it's interesting, We have this demographic wave going on, where we have many, many of the older generation.

You know, the baby boomers are now in their 50s and 60s. Well, what percentage of the population over 55 are homosexual? 3%. Okay, They're dead. They're dying.

Because of the penalty, the penalty which was due, as Paul explains it here. So, the perversion that comes from exchanging the glory of God for a lie is extremely costly. And Paul gives the example of homosexuality, but we could list dozens of other ways that exchanging the glory of God causes perverse downfalls in our lives and cuts a future off for us. And then the fourth is the mental sickness of it. And then we descend into this abyss of the debased mind.

He says, and even though they did not like to retain God, they did not like to retain God, they did not like God, they did not like what He says, They did not like to retain God. They did not like God. They did not like what He says. They did not like to retain God in their knowledge. And God gave them over to, and this is the phrase we're driving at, a debased mind.

A debased mind. Got that? You see that in verse 28? And then after that is sort of a verbal explanation of what a debased mind looks like. So if you want to know what a debased mind looks like, here are 23 things that tell you what that is.

And it says that they do what is not fitting. In other words, it's not reasonable. It's crazy. It doesn't fit. It makes no sense at all to do any of these things, to Be filled with covetousness or maliciousness.

It makes it's not fitting. It's stupid to do that. That's that's the idea and these these exchanges pollute the mind and And they cause the demise of relationships. And he mentions things that all of us think are bad, but they are in us in some measure and find expression. In the list, you find the exchange of your wisdom for God's wisdom.

And if you take any one of them, strife, let's just take strife, one of the 23. At any given point you can react to inflame strife or not. You can exchange the glory of God for a lie. A gentle answer turns away wrath. Well, that's the glory of God, or you can grow strife.

At any given moment, we are on one side of the balance sheet of the glory of God or the lie here. We make these exchanges, sexual immorality, wickedness. You turn on your computer, I guarantee you, with all that is there, there is the possibility for the exchange of the glory of God for a life. Murder, deceit, evil-mindedness, they are whispers, slander, back-biters, haters of God. There are all these things that have to do with the use of the tongue, and then the heart, and all kinds of things like this.

But you see them all there. They're violent, proud, boasters. Have you ever been tempted to boast? That's exchanging the glory of God for a lie. And it doesn't really go very, it doesn't get you any good place at all.

As a boaster, I know that. I understand the exchange that goes on there. And he speaks about disobedience to parents. Now, here's one thing we need to acknowledge. And I would like to address, first of all, you parents that are here.

Here's one thing that you need to know. When your children are disobedient to you, they are exchanging the glory of God for a lie. It will destroy them. And they are not just disobeying you, they are disobeying Almighty God. The Bible says, children, obey your parents in the Lord.

In other words, a child obeys his parents as he does the Lord. A child cannot disobey his parents and be in fellowship with the Lord. Disobedience to you is treason against God Almighty. That's what it really is. Don't fool ourselves.

When your children are disobedient, you need to understand what's happened. They've exchanged the glory of God for a lie. And you have been given to them as their parents to help them understand that that has happened to them. That the sin is against heaven. The sin is against the creator of the universe.

That they have rebelled against God alone. And you were just there. And that's the truth about every sin. You think you're sinning against your brother, but you're really sinning against God. And so to parents, understand what disobedience to parents is.

Understand the context that this is in. This is in the list of sexual immorality and homosexuality and every other thing. It's not a lesser problem. It is the problem. It's the problem of exchanging the glory of God for a lie.

Now why would God put disobedience to parents in this list? To teach us what's really happening. So that we're not living with rose-colored glasses raising these children, and thinking it's okay to dishonor us. They can have their own spiritual life. Absolutely not.

The two are one and the same. They cannot be separated. Children. So could I just speak to the children here for a moment, if I could just get your attention. Okay.

God has given you a trial with your parents to teach you to love God and honor God. And if you can honor your father and mother, you will teach your soul to honor God. And God desires to teach your soul how to honor and obey your parents so that you will honor and obey Him. And your parents will ask you to do things that you don't understand, they make no sense to you, and you have 50 questions for them. But God is training you now to honor God Almighty, because He will ask you to go places and do things, and you don't get all the detail.

You'll be just like Abraham. He did not know where he was going, but God was leading him one step at a time. God may ask you to do something that makes no sense to you. He may. He will ask you to do things that make no sense to the people in this world.

And you must obey God rather than man. So children, understand this. When you are disobedient to your father and your mother, it is a crime against God and the Lord Jesus Christ. And so you must take the time and repent and return your honor to your father and mother. God has given them to you to form your soul into a submissive and obedient soul so that your body would not be dishonored, so that you would not live by the lust of your flesh, so that you would not be defiled and wrecked in this life, but that you would have the glory of the kingdom of heaven upon you, and that the happiness of his wonderful world would fall upon you all the days of your life.

And that you would dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of your life. You would dwell in his temple and you would say one thing I have desire to the Lord that will I seek that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple. This is the refuge, This is the Kingdom of Heaven calling out every time your parents discipline you, every time disobedience wells up in your hearts. Please know that the Lord Jesus Christ is calling you to obey your father and mother so that you would obey Almighty God. And the Bible says that God blesses those who love Him.

And this is what God desires to do. And this is why this exchange is so tragic. Now, we could speak about all these words, these 23 items, you know, and how this is, this describes the sins against the first book of the law, you know, the sins against God, and these sins line up with the sins against the second, that are itemized in the second book of the law and the Ten Commandments, that this one addresses the fifth commandment, this one addresses the ninth. We could go all through that. But each one of these address particular commands of God that we can find.

OK, lastly, fifthly, in the exchange of the glory of God for a lie, there is the intentional embracing and endorsement of it. That's the world system, nodding, clapping, enjoying, embracing the wicked. That's what this is. Even though you know the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same, but approve also of those who practice them. That's approval for the world.

The world does not deserve our approval, brothers and sisters. We should not be clapping for these celebrities. We should not be enjoying the works of the wicked, in the music and the movies that are out there, in the world system, the images, the idols that are placed before us. Don't kid yourself that idols are some other, something other than rock and roll culture in this media saturated world that we live in. Idols are there.

That's where the idols are of today. They're not in the groves. They're in the CRT, they're in the television screens, and they're in the sounds, in the music, and they're broadcast all over the world. Everywhere you go in this world, everywhere I've ever been in this world, from Japan to Eastern Europe, you will hear the sounds of the world. You will hear the sounds of debauchery being played through the speakers on the streets that you walk on.

And guess where it all came from? America. It's American classic rock and roll. It's the forces that have brought down this culture and have destroyed countless families and continue to destroy them. So we do not approve of those who practice them.

We call them for what they are. We must do that. We should do that. We should not fall in and nod our heads in happiness with this debauched culture that we live in. God has not called us to that.

And so, there are many ways that we approve of these things. It's exchanging the glory of God for a lie. And this is the world culture, and the church will be tempted to go along and be in the approval loop of the debauchery of the world. But no, that's not for us at all. So the believer does the opposite.

The believer takes everyone he can with him in the opposite direction. So there is this intentional embracing and endorsement of the exchange. So there it is. Now, let me just give a couple of applications, and then we'll have a wider conversation. The futility of the world, the pains, the sufferings that we have as a result of sin are designed to drive us back to God.

So the question we should be asking is, oh Lord, what are the pains in my home right now that should drive you back to God today? We should also just acknowledge the relevance of this passage. This could have been written yesterday. And it just, it speaks of so many of the things that are so clearly in place in our lives today. So we should look at this with contemporary eyes and not leave it in the first century.

Thirdly, I just want us to lodge a check mark here on the destructiveness of the devil. The devil desires to destroy his children. And let's don't think anything different about that. And then lastly, this depravity must be seen in its setting, in the same way that you would want to see a diamond on a black velvet. You must see this depravity in its proper setting.

And that is the setting of this depravity is the cross, its redemption, its grace and truth of the Lord Jesus Christ, which comes in. And God would have all these things turn us to the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. The value of the interposing blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. In exchange for the world is the point here. That there's another exchange that is more wonderful than this dark exchange is terrible.

And that is Christ. His life from mine. That's the exchange that all of this points to. That it's His righteousness, not our own. That's the exchange that we have to hold on to.

We exchange the glory of God for a lie, but He's the way and the truth and the life. And our way can be exchanged, and death can be exchanged for life. And that, to me, is the crux of this whole passage. There is this devastating explanation of evil, but at the same time, in the backdrop of it all, is the great exchange of the Lord Jesus Christ, His righteousness for mine. And here we come to the value of the blood of the cross, of justification by faith alone, through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And I just can't help but thinking right now of those words at the end of the book of Hebrews. And now, May the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you complete for every good work, working in you what is well pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.