In his sermon 'Worthy of Death,' Pastor Steve Hopkins explores the themes of sin, judgment, and redemption as outlined in Romans 1:28-32. He begins by emphasizing the transient nature of life, likening it to an hourglass where each grain of sand represents a moment that cannot be regained. The sermon delves into the concept of 'judicial abandonment,' where God allows people to follow their sinful desires as a form of divine punishment. Pastor Hopkins explains that this abandonment leads to a reprobate mind, filled with unrighteousness and various sins, including sexual immorality. He underscores the gravity of these sins by stating that they are worthy of death, both in a spiritual and eternal sense. Despite the somber tone, Pastor Hopkins offers hope through the gospel, asserting that redemption and forgiveness are available to those who repent and have faith in Jesus Christ. He highlights the importance of conscience as a guide to understanding one's sinful nature and the necessity of turning away from sin to live a life pleasing to God.

Welcome back to Barnet Bible Church. Join us this week as Pastor Hopkins continues his sermon series through the Book of Romans. If you would turn with me in your Bibles once again to the Book of Romans, Lord willing, we will be picking up with verse 28 and working our way through verse 32 this morning. But before we do, I've been doing these little pre-message messages and wanted to just talk briefly again about the brevity of this life. Something about being in an emergency room and having the various cords and straps and needles in your body and all that makes you sit and think about things you otherwise may not have thought about.

And I was thinking again this week about how, and you've heard me say this before, Your life, my life is like an hourglass turned upside down, and the grains of sand are falling. And when the last grain falls, it will not give back. It's not going to give back. That's it. And how precious every moment is, how precious every breath is, how precious every heartbeat is.

And you know when you're young and you're strong, you don't think about these things as much. It does us well in our youth to read Ecclesiastes and to remember in the days of your youth, these days aren't going to last forever. And one day you'll wake up and your body will be old if you get to live and your body will be suffering in different ways, and you will see frailty that you didn't see before and weakness that you didn't see before. And it does us well to think of those things ahead of time. The days of our life are like a book that is being written every day, maybe every hour is a another page that's being written.

And you don't know when the last chapter is going to be written, But when the last chapter is written, it's finished. And what's on the pages is what's on the pages for eternity. And there is a judgment that is coming. There is a day when we will all stand before the righteous Judge of all the earth. Take every moment, use it for God's glory with a view to His glory.

Remember the brevity of this life. Remember how short this life is and how precious every breath is and what a miracle it is to be able to stand on your feet, that I know right well. It is a miracle to be able to stand up on your feet in the morning and not fall to the left or to the right. And all the things that have to be in place are so miraculous that God has designed for all the systems to work for you to be able to to stand on your feet is it's just amazing so thank God for every breath thank him for every heartbeat and thank him when you're able to to function and all the things that he's designed in the body from before the foundations of the world are working with you because one day you'll wake up and you'll realize, wow, I'm weak, I'm frail, and I'm needy, and you'll want to have used those days of strength in a way that is pleasing to God. Let's turn in our Bibles, as I said, to the book of Romans, chapter 1.

And if you would stand with me for the reading of the word of the Lord, verses 28 through 32. We'll see how far we get this morning. The congregation would read aloud with me the word of the Lord. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient, being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity, whisperers, backbiter, haters of God, despicable, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant-breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful, who knowing the judgment of God that they which commit such things are worthy of death not only do the same but have pleasure in them that do them. Amen, let's pray.

Father, again we ask that you would send your spirit and you would open up the understanding of our hearts and our minds. Lord, that you would open up the word to us and make it known to us, God, and change us thereby for the glory of the name and the kingdom of your son our Lord Jesus Christ we ask it amen let's be seated so in our last session we focused on the reality of what it means to be given up by God to one's lusts, focusing on what theologians have referred to as judicial abandonment or a judicial hardening, whereby God as punishment for sin judicially acts to hand a person over to the lust they've always wanted to pursue and allows them to go their way. And I noted that the Apostle Paul uses this language Three times in the space of six verses, in verse 24, God gave them up. Verse 26, God gave them up. Verse 28, God gave them over.

And we noted last week that what the apostle is talking about here is a withdrawal of divine restraint. It is an abandonment to the pollution of one's nature, to their natural corruptions. It is a giving over to hardness. And I use the analogy of the master of a dog cutting the leash and letting the dog run. When God cuts the leash, when He lets the dog run, When he cuts a man free from every divine restraint and lets him go wherever he wants to go and wherever his desires lead him, lets him follow his heart, as they say, Men and women always run in the same direction.

It's the history of the corruption of humanity. When God cuts them loose, They always run in the same direction away from God to dishonor their bodies between themselves. That's the history of the world. To dishonor their bodies between themselves. To uncleanness, they always run to sexual impurity, to pursue the wicked desires of their utterly corrupted and depraved nature, which expresses itself in rebellion against God and revolt against God and a fist lifted against heaven saying I'll not have this man Jesus to reign over me in the pursuit of sexual immorality unto vile affections to depraved Passions and as I said last week it is a Judicial act this is a a judgment act of God It is a divine act of God God gives them up God gives them over and yet the cause is theirs.

We looked at the cause, and the cause was theirs. For this cause, we read in our last session, God gave them up. God gave them up, but the fault was theirs. The cause was in man, not in God. God gave them up, and to vile affections and what was the cause because they exchanged the glory of the uncorruptible God for corruptible images like of man, for idolatry in a word.

They swapped the truth they knew about God for a lie and chose to worship things God created rather than the Creator Himself who is blessed forever. And consequences follow. That's what we read about last week. Consequences follow. Divine consequences.

God gave them up. That's a divine consequence. And He gave them up to vile passions. He gave them up to unnatural lust. Women with women.

Men with men. And I noted last week Paul does not say that God gave them up to their sexual orientation or to pursue their sexual preference, but that in being given up to vile affections, they were receiving a recompense, a payment, an earthly penalty for their error which was due them. It's a judgment of God. So that we understand that the sin of homosexual behavior is itself a punishment. Did anyone catch that last week?

It is itself a punishment. It is a judgment of God. It is a being handed over to one's sins and passions and vile affections. And passions and vile affections. It is, again, a judicial act and many times a judicial act of punishment for previous sin.

It is consequence for this cause. God gave them up to vile affections. And I quoted the late R.C. Sproul, because I couldn't find any better words to express the truth of it. I'll quote him again because this is just so heavy.

When the apostle Paul describes the radical corruption of the human race, he sees the sin of homosexual behavior as the sin most representative of the radical nature of our fall. The most representative of the radical nature of the fall of man in the garden, which we have now inherited the corruption of that nature by ordinary generation down through the ages. He said it is the clearest expression of the depths of our perversity. Wow, today you turn on the news or any type of media and they call evil good and good evil, right? The Christian is wicked and evil and the homosexual is sainthood, right?

Everything has been turned completely upside down. But God's word is the same. We preach this on the streets, as I said before, This is the thing that brings out the crazies more than anything else. You can preach about just about anything on the streets of America, and people don't get robbed but you preach against their pet sin, against homosexuality, and they will swoop down upon you like vultures, and call the authorities and try to have you removed, etc. Etc.

But when the apostle catalogs, going forward, the sins of the corrupt nature of man, He begins with that sin committed by both men and women, that sin that is, in the words of Sproul again, most representative of the radical nature of our fall, and quote, the clearest expression of our perversity, homosexual behavior. And Then we looked at, as we continue to review, we looked at even their women. He begins with the women, even their women, for even their women, even the tenderest among them, even their women changed their natural use into that which is against nature, unthinkable, and acted contrary to God's natural created order. Likewise, also the men leaving the natural use of the woman burned in their lust one toward another, men with men working that which is unthinkable, unseemly, shameful, indecent, perverse. I was reading some of the works of a justice of a state supreme court a few years ago, and he was talking about how they would strike these different lines in certain trials where they tried sodomites, homosexuals, you know, when they used to put them in jail.

The things that were there were so, so awful that they couldn't even, you know, they would have to put lines through them, if I guess, for the public reading and you had to access it by certain other means or whatever because it was so vile, so awful. They didn't even want the public exposed to some of these things. I was on a trial many, many, many years ago, back when I was in my 20s, where the man who had been in this community molesting a little boy that we put in jail for 99 years that we tried to have executed, They wouldn't let us, the jury, execute him, but they, when his history came out, before we were able to give the sentence, you know, you have the phase where you try him and then later they give you what his track record was or whatever. And When they gave that track record, one of the things was that in 1985, he was arrested amongst all these things of exposing himself to children and stuff he had been in jail for. 73 years old, he was put in jail for homosexual contact in 1985 in Dallas County.

So as late as 1985, they were still putting people in jail in Texas for homosexual contact. Okay. See how quickly things can fall. You go to jail for this. We can't even print this stuff in the newspaper.

What's happened in these proceedings, it's so awful, so horrible. What these people are engaging in, now they're sainthood. They're the greatest thing on the face of the earth. Shameful and decent perverse, unnatural. God says it is unnatural.

And you know what? Everyone knows it's unnatural. Everyone knows it's unnatural. We know that from nature, right? We know it from nature as I said on the streets again You want to get people mad start talking about their pets and how they can learn from their pets that homosexuality is unnatural Your pets teach you that that is unnatural.

Everyone knows it. Nature teaches us that. Men suppress however the truth that God shows them about himself from nature and when they suppress that truth they end up perverting their nature All right, they end up perverting that which they have denied God showed himself clearly and visibly from nature 24 hours a day screaming God at everyone from nature screaming God the heavens show forth His glory the heaven of heavens is His majesty His wisdom in creation and all men know it everyone knows that Everyone knows God and everybody knows in their conscience that it's an unnatural thing. And God gives them over to that which they have now perverted. The nature that they perverted, God gives them over to that nature.

And we ended our last session last week with hope for the person who is engaged in that sin. As I said last week, it's not the unpardonable sin. We showed from Scripture that they may be forgiven of God and reconciled to God by faith in Christ, and we know people who have left that. I don't want to call it a lifestyle, they've left that sin. We know people who have left that sin.

They've been delivered from that sin, from the bondage, from the slavery. And they'll tell you, it's slavery. It's slavery. It is a deep, a dark slavery. All sexual sin is.

The further you get into it, the more enslaved a person gets. But we know those who have been delivered from both the penalty of homosexual sin as well as the slavery of homosexual sin. But it's not the unpardonable sin. And Paul had ex-homosexuals sitting in the pews of the church at Corinth. How do we know that?

We looked at 1 Corinthians chapter 6 verse 11, such were some of you. Such were some of you means there are people who were committing homosexual acts, who are no longer doing that. You weren't born this way. It's just something that you learned and you have committed and now you need to repent of like any other sin. We don't tell a thief, it's okay, we've got churches today in America, they're saying We don't talk about that.

We have homosexuals sitting in the pews or whatever our church is. They sin like any other sin. They just kind of slough it off. No big deal, whatever. If we had practicing thieves sitting in our church, we'd just say, well, you know, everybody sins.

No, if we had a practicing thief, we'd say, you need to repent, brother. You need to stop your thievery. You need to stop robbing people. You need to quit that. You know, you need to repent.

You need to turn from it. God will save you and can save you through His Son. And the evidence that He has saved you is that you will relinquish that sin. You will give it up. You will forsake it with the intent never to return to it.

That's what relinquish it means. And without that element of repentance, you don't have true repentance. Okay? There has to be a no reservation of mind. There has to be a complete forsaking of that sin and all sin with the intent never to return to it again, looking to Christ and Him crucified as the payment, sole payment, for the penalty of that sin and the power to be delivered from the bondage of that sin.

And it doesn't matter what it is, it's all the same. When God delivers from the penalty of sin over time, incrementally, He also, sometimes instantaneously, sometimes incrementally, He delivers from the power of that sin to enslave. Sin shall not have dominion over you. Okay? If sin has dominion over you, you need to look at whether or not you've truly been saved.

Okay? Does sin have dominion over you? You need to look at are you truly a child of God? Have you truly repented and truly believed on the name of Christ? The same power of the cross by which the penalty of sin is remitted and we are absolved of sin, the power of sin is broken in our lives.

Does that mean what are these guys called? The perfectionist guys? No, remember I've said you need to put a banner behind my head. Hang it up there. Sanctification.

It's progressive, okay? You're conformed more and more to the image of Christ so that you look back at your life one day and you say, that's what I was, but it's not what I am today. By the grace of God, that's what I was. And the writer of Amazing Grace said that. I know I'm not what I ought to be, but I know I'm not what I ought to be, but I know I'm not what I used to be, and that by the grace of God, right?

God is the one who's changed me. So as we go forward, he had ex-homosexuals sitting in the pews. Such were some of you. You used to be effeminate. You used to be abusers of yourselves with mankind.

You used to engage in that which is unseemly. But now you're washed in Jesus' blood. You're sanctified. You're set apart unto God. And you're justified in the name of the Lord Jesus.

And we pick up with verse 28 this morning we read, and even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge. So we're kind of back to this for a moment, right? Notwithstanding the fact that there are those, or were those in Paul's day, and they're those in our own day, who are delivered from the bondage of vile affections, who were once given over to them. The fearful reality is that the vast majority of those who don't want God in their thinking, who are given over to vile Affections who have suppressed the truth they know about God that God has shown them You're given up to vile affections as a judicial sentence a punishment of being handed over to their sin for past sin Most of them are never delivered from those things. You know that, don't you?

The vast majority are not delivered from those things. And we see it rampant in our culture and our society today. And it all started with this. Look, they didn't want God in their thinking. They didn't want God in their thinking.

They didn't want God in their thinking. God gave them over to a reprobate mind. God says, fine, you don't want me in your thinking? That's fine. I'll give you over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are shameful.

Men and women who don't even want to retain God in their knowledge. They want every remembrance of God wiped from the hard drive of their mind. They want every remembrance of God wiped from the hard drive of their mind. Psalm 10 verse 4 says, God is not in all their thoughts. Or if you put it in reverse, In all their thoughts or in all his thoughts, God is not.

That's what it's saying. God's not in their thoughts. He's not in all their thoughts. In all their thoughts, He is not. They don't even want to think about God.

They don't even want to remember God. So I see in our culture today this great, you know, move to just remove every type, anything at all that might make us possibly think about God. Education, media, whatever. No, we don't want anybody to even think about God, not the true God, not the true God. Calvin comments on this passage, they were not ashamed to extinguish as much as they could, see we still have a conscience, the glory of God which alone gives us light.

And so they deserve to become blind at noon day. They deserve that judicial sentence that God has put upon them by which is strikingly set forth the relation between sin and punishment, " Calvin goes on, "'as they chose not to continue in the knowledge of God, which alone guides our minds to true wisdom, the Lord gave them over to a perverted mind, which cannot choose right. And as they making a depraved choice preferred their own vanities to the true God and thus the error by which they were deceived was voluntary. It's their fault. It's their fault.

It's as if God said, okay, you don't even want to retain me in your knowledge, your wish is granted. I will give you over to a debased mind as a consequence for your sin. And so it is. And then the apostle begins to catalog the sins of the corrupt nature of man, from which no individual man or woman ever born can claim freedom. So as we work through this list quickly, I want us to look at this list and look at ourselves and remember that every one of us who were born slaves of sin.

You know, initially all we looked at was the one instance of abomination. As I said, quoting Sproul, he starts with the worst. This is something that really shows the worst of what's in man. But now we work through a list that shows, that catalogs this depravity of man and things that every single one of us must see in our own selves as members of the human race. Again Calvin writes, you referred initially only to the one instance of abomination which prevail among so many, but was not common to all, but he begins here to enumerate vices from which none could be found free.

No one can be found free. For though every vice did not or does not appear in each individual, yet all are guilty of some." Remember 1st John? If any man says he has no sin, he is a liar and the truth is not in him. Right? Calvin goes on, so that everyone might separately be accused of manifest depravity.

We don't see ourselves as bad as we are. The Puritans used to put it this way. They would say, so you're a sinner, okay, you admit you're a sinner, but what you don't understand is that you are nothing but sin from the sole of your feet to the top of your head. Ouch. Wait a minute, that bad?

That's the depth of it before God. There is no good in man, zero good in man whatsoever. We come into this world, children of wrath, with no righteousness whatsoever. We went through that a few weeks ago when we looked at the verse 117 that God used to change Martin Luther, you know, And to open up his eyes and to swing open the gates of paradise to him and beckon him to walk through, the just shall live by faith. Faith not in the righteousness of our own or any cooperation with God, but in an alien righteousness, the righteousness of Jesus Christ, God's Son, constituted by His perfect obedience to the law which He kept in our place and His death for our sins, which paid our sin debt before our holy God, Apart from which no man enters into the presence of God without that righteousness imputed or declared to the account of that person By faith which itself is the gift of God So as we read these every conscience should come under conviction as the list is read, and every mouth should be stopped from boasting.

Boasting about what? Of any righteousness whatsoever. You say, well, but don't we do some good deeds? All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. Every single thing that we have ever done in our lives, the best of our best of our good deeds are tainted with sin.

If you don't believe that, you don't see yourself as you should. There's this teaching out there that, well, the Spirit of God makes those acceptable. The blood of Christ, which washes away that sin, and then Christ's perfect righteousness in keeping the law perfectly in our place is the only, only righteousness that avails before God and makes man acceptable in the sight of God. Does everyone understand what I'm saying? You understand what I'm saying?

So every mouth must be stopped from boasting of any righteousness, even of good works, because the Good works are tainted with ill motivations. None of our motivations are perfect ever before God, ever. Well at Christmas, I gave, I mean, I run into these self-proclaimed atheists, I do good things all the time. Been in front of the Burnett bulletin or whatever, and you know, do good deeds. Do you give the glory to God, 100% for that, and in doing so, were you loving God perfectly with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind in the doing of that and your neighbor perfectly as yourself in the doing of that?

No, you didn't. So there's sin. There's tainted with sin. But when Jesus did it, he did it perfectly. Everything he did was perfect before God, and his righteousness alone is accepted before God to all those who are in him by faith.

Okay, so every mouth must be stopped from boasting of any righteousness or merit whatsoever before God. God says in verse 32, if you move down, skip down for just a moment, who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death. Please keep that in mind as we go forward. They which commit these things are worthy of death. He's saying your conscience knows that.

You know that. Your conscience should bear that out. There should be conviction upon you that I'm worthy of death. Worthy of death. Everyone knows in their conscience that God's sentence of eternal death is upon men for these things.

What? Unrighteousness. Being filled with all unrighteousness. Interesting, isn't it, when man basically, you can go out on the streets and man will, one after another, will tell you I'm good, I'm good, I'm good, I'm good. Man's basically good, really?

Wow. So far from being able to admit the depths of our depravity, people don't even think that they have sin at all, that man is somehow basically good. No. Fornication, sexual immorality. On the streets I commonly go to the Greek.

The word for fornication used in the New Testament is pornea, from which we get the modern English word pornography. Fornication, sexual immorality, lust, wickedness, God is not in all his thoughts, wickedness, covetousness, desiring those things which belong to others and wanting them for ourselves, maliciousness, evil intent against others, full of envy, envy, Everybody knows what envy is, murder that has hatred for others to the point that they could and sometimes do actually take innocent human life. Debate, an argument for every occasion. Can't not argue. It's an argument for every occasion.

Really? Why? It's deep within. Deceit. Deceit.

You ever, I was talking to one of my sons about this this past week, about myself. I was saying, do you think I should call this person that you just heard me on this phone call with I said because I said a word there That I think I changed kind of a little bit at the last minute to make myself appear better in a situation that I and He he worked with he said this is what I do in this situation dad. That's Caleb. You know he's always he's always under conviction about that I was like did I say that I think that was that the right way to say that or whatever to present myself and he said this here's the thing I would do dad if you think you know and yeah we should listen to our kids too right if you think you know that in any way that person was deceived, then you should go back and talk to them or whatever in any way deceived. So, well, there's a possibility.

So yeah. So yeah, I need to go back and say, hey, this is what I said. This is probably the way it came across. That's not reality. Here's the reality.

But deceit, we deceive many times. The heart is quick to make a lie. The heart is quick to make a lie. The heart is quick to make things appear better, us appear better, isn't it? You know, I appear better if I say it this way than if I say it that way and we're quick to do it.

We can do it really, really fast. Why? Because the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. We can't know the depths of it. Only God knows the depths of it.

Malignity, whispers, it's behind the back. Talk. Don't talk about that much in churches, right? Gossip's kind of like free rain now. No, gossip is a sin.

You know, in gossip, at Bernadette Bible Church, it's corrected. Slander. But whisperers behind the back talk, back biters, that's slanderers, saying something you know maliciously about someone that you know will injure their reputation. Anyone ever done it? Say something about someone you know that's going to lessen the esteem of someone of that third party person you're talking to, it's gonna lessen the esteem of that third party person of the other person you're talking about.

It's gonna lessen their esteem. They're gonna think less of them now after what you just said. They're not gonna think as highly of him as they thought before. It's wrong. It's a thing to be repented of.

Haters of God. Wow, just outright haters of God. It's all over the world today, isn't it? Despiteful, I'll get you back. I'll pay you back.

Proud, pride, oh pride. Boasters, inventors of evil things. I think it was a scroll, I forget who it was, I was reading it. They can't, they're not satisfied with the evil things that exist. They've got to invent new things, new ways to commit evil, new ways to sin against God.

Disobedient to parents. Interesting that he throws that in, isn't it? Disobedient to parents. Disobedient to parents. It's rampant today.

People think, oh well I can, you know, I'm 18. Really? 18 means now you can just do whatever you want. Yeah, well that's what the law says. Oh, so you're going to use the law against your parents?

Yeah. I'm 18. 18. You know? So what, dad?

Lily's going, I ain't going there. Right? I can see, she's serious. No. Disobedience against parents.

The fifth commandment. God hates that sin. Hates it. Without understanding, undiscerning. Covenant breakers.

People aren't trustworthy anymore. Shake a hand, sign a contract, break it. Even their marriage covenant. Without natural affection, unloving, it's not as God has intended, implacable, unable to be placated, unforgiving. I'm not forgiving you for that, ever.

Really? Christ forgave you for a lot more. Unmerciful. God shows mercy to those who are merciful. I've said while street preaching many times, how is it that the God you know exists but claim does not exist was so perfectly able to catalog a list of things that you are unable in the corruption of your nature to keep.

Come on, he could have come up with anything, right? He could have made ten commandments as you could obey, right? Could have made 10 commandments that you could obey. Could have. I mean, I've seen the world's 10 commandments, right?

Make sure you take good care of your pets and all this. I'll shall recycle or whatever. I've seen those. He could have said you can have all the gods you want. Man can do that, right?

But he can't keep the first commandment, you shall have no other gods before me. In other words, don't have any other gods in my sight. He could have said, worship created things and images, no problem, but he can't keep the second commandment. He could have said, you know, don't worry about how you use my name, no big deal, But he didn't. His name is if he's set apart as holy.

He could have said, no day is set apart from any other for my worship. Use every day alike, sports, recreation, Do whatever you want, just, you know, but he didn't. He could have said, you know, if your children are a burden, eliminate them. No, I shall not kill your elderly, Whoever gets in your way. He could have said, have sexual relations with anybody you want.

Love the one you're with, you know. Just do it, Nike. No. He said, you shall not commit adultery. He could have said, if you want something, take it.

Doesn't matter if it's yours or not, or if you earned it. All that matters to me is your happiness, you know. The Gospel of Joel Osteen. That's All that matters to God is your, He just wants you to be happy. I wish I could smile like Him.

I really don't. And don't worry about what you say about other people. Even if it's a lie or slanderless or gossip or untrue or hurtful, Just say whatever comes to your mind, speak your mind, get on your keyboard and just let it rip. No? These are all the commandments of God, right?

He could have said that, but he didn't. You shall not bear a false witness against your neighbor. Covet anybody's stuff you want. You know, do whatever it takes to get their stuff into your hands, go for it, no? Now, shan't not coven.

At the Main Street Bethlehem thing the other night, I ran into one of the guys that has been there going for years and years, and I remember we had a whole string of kids behind us one year and he was running one of the little deals and he said, we're having a thing today. We've not had one person be able to say the Ten Commandments. Some people know a few of them but nobody knows all the Ten Commandments. I said, oh, that's easy. I said, any one of the kids can tell you the Ten Commandments because we teach them by the finger, you know, signs.

One God shall have no other gods before me. Don't cut out any graven images. Don't make send to yourself any graven images. They'll be words, you know, your words about God. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.

Four corners of the house, four corners of the field, don't work in any of them on Sunday. Fifth commandment, yes, sir, yes, ma'am. Taught them, you know, since they were wee little ones, you know. Fifth commandment, the sixth commandment, you know. You shall not kill.

Seventh commandment, One of these people shouldn't run off with one of these, right? They're married. Eighth commandment, this guy got two of his fingers cut off for stealing. Ninth commandment, all these people are talking about this guy right here on his back. Shall not bear a false witness.

Tenth commandment, covet. Now, shalt not covet. Real simple. But God, how is it that God, as I started this, is perfectly able to pinpoint the very things that no one on the planet but his own dear son has ever been able to keep perfectly. Because he's God.

And you know what else? He knows your nature. He knows my nature. He knows the fallen, corrupted nature of man that we inherited from our parents after they fell in the garden 6, 000 years ago. Yes, 6, 000 years ago, when God created the heavens and the earth in six literal 24-hour days.

And on the seventh day, he rested. So we catalog these sins, And we realize that every one of us deserves death. Every one of us deserves death. God has given every man a conscience, and everyone knows that there's a judgment to come. Everyone knows that they're going to stand before the righteous judge of all the earth.

Some may sow dead in their conscience that it doesn't convict them as it once did, but they still have a conscience. The word conscience means con with science, knowledge, conscience. It's knowledge of our sin, it's knowledge of right and wrong, it's knowledge of our depravity. God says we're worthy of death. We know that we're worthy of death and as we close here with verse 32, it actually gets a little worse, doesn't it?

Because not only does man and his depravity do these things, but he also applauds and approves others who do them. One theologian put it this way, misery loves company. You know what else loves company? Sin loves to have company with it. Sin likes to lessen the sinfulness of sin by getting more people involved.

That's why you would see the homosexual pride rallies. You've got to get everybody together saying, this is all right, it's okay, it's okay, it's all good, it's fine, everything we're doing is fine, it's all good, it's all good. When they know it's not good, it's not fine, Something's not right. You've got to say it again and again and again. Like we said, the atheist, he has to say, there's no wall, there's no wall, there's no wall.

You know? No, he knows there's a wall. The homosexual knows that that's a sin. And every one of us knows that these things that God has listed here that we see in ourselves are sinful things that are worthy of death. Okay, but men want to get a bunch of people together and applaud them and say no, it's all good.

It's all good. It's all good. God says no. These are things that are worthy of death and you've not only done these things but you've also approved of others who have done them. Some even say well I didn't do that I wouldn't do that myself but then they'll you know I wouldn't abort my baby but they'll drive their their neighbors teenage daughter to an abortion clinic.

Well, you know, I wouldn't commit the homosexuality, but then they'll say, but you know, that's his choice. Who am I to judge? Jesus said judge with righteous judgment. In other words, Jesus commands us to judge, to judge with righteous judgment. So lots of bad news for modern man today, but good news just around the corner.

We had good news when we were looking at chapter 1 of verse 17. More good news is coming, and that is the good news of the gospel. Good news is coming in the book of Romans to the Romans, to the beloved of God in Rome, and good news is coming to Burnet Bible Church just around the corner as we go forward in the verse-by-verse exposition of Paul's letter to Rome. With that, let's pray. Father, we do thank you, God, that you have given us your Son.

We thank you that we know that though the judgment of God should fall upon every one of us, that those who are trusting in Jesus, whose faith is in Him alone, your son dealt with that judgment in their place. We thank you, Father, that Jesus came into the world to save sinners. We thank you that he accomplished the mission for which he came into the world. We thank you that he came into the world and he lived a perfect life that we couldn't live, and that he went to a cruel Roman cross and he bore the wrath for our sins. When our sin debt was laid upon him, he bore the wrath that was due us, and he satisfied justice, the justice that was due us.

And he hung As a curse and satisfied all the demands of the law in our place And became a curse in our place and was forsaken That we might not be forsaken was condemned that we might not be condemned, was punished that we might not be eternally punished in the flames of an eternal hell for all eternity. And we thank you God that He suffered willingly and He died fulfilling the mandate for the shedding of blood and that a spotless lamb must die. Thank you that he is the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Thank you that he has taken away our sins who believe on his name. Thank you that Jesus did not remain in the grave but has risen from the dead and has ascended at your right hand and is interceding for every one of his people even now by his blood.

Thank you Lord for Jesus. Thank you for all He's done for us. Thank you that we have life eternal through Him. We praise your holy name for it all. God, we ask that you would now help us as we prepare to share in the Lord's table together and eat of that bread and drink of that cup.

Help us to be obedient to examine ourselves before we eat of that bread and drink of that cup showing Jesus died for me, Jesus died for me. For it's in His holy name we pray these things, Amen.