Tell me about God.
Tell me what you believe about God. If you were going to do a profile of God, what would His profile look like? What is His intention? What is His heart? What is His way? Tell me what you think about God.
Would it be according to the Word of God or would it be according to your imagination, according to what you wish God were or what you hope that God is not?
When you tell me what you believe about God I’ll tell you what your relationship to God is really like.
The Bible is the Book that tells us what God is all about. This is God’s Book and this is where God reveals Himself.
Now God also, as we saw last week, reveals Himself to man through nature and by the evidence of the witness within themselves, God says to man, hey there is a God. There is a God. And you are accountable to Him. He is other than you and you need to discover who He is.
But many men don’t want to discover God.
They don’t want to spend the time to study the Bible. They want their ears tickled. They want to watch sitcoms on television instead of anything that has to do with Christianity, because the sitcoms portray their lives so well and they relate to them and they laugh at them and it just gives them their culture. It makes them very very comfortable.
But when you find out who God is and what God is really like, then you find out that there is a God who is a God of justice, a God of righteousness, and because He’s a God of justice and a God of righteousness, He’s a God of wrath. Let’s go back to Romans, chapter 1 and let me read to you in Romans, chapter 1.
It says,
“The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, the truth about God.”
And it says,
“Because that which is known about God is evident within them.”
We saw that, that there’s a God consciousness within every single human being. We know that there is someone outside of us that we are accountable to, someone outside of us, some power outside of us that is controlling this universe.
And he goes on to say,
“For since the creation of this world, His invisible attributes, God’s invisible attributes, His eternal power and His divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood through that which has been made so that they are without excuse …,”
He says,
“… for even though they knew God …,”
now listen carefully,
“… for even though they knew God they did not honor Him as God.”
In other words, although they knew there was a God, although they knew that they were accountable to Him, although they knew that He was powerful, although they knew He was eternal, they did not honor Him as God. They didn’t bow the knee. They didn’t worship Him. They didn’t submit to Him. They didn’t say, okay that’s what You say and that’s what I will believe.
So what did they do? It says, “For even though …,” verse 21, “… they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile …,” now listen, “… futile in their speculations.” In other words, they came up with their own profile of God. They came up with their own scenario of God. They said, God is like this and I’m sure that God is a God of love and God would never send anyone to hell. I’m sure that God is fair and that He understands where we’re coming from. No, God wouldn’t put those restrictions on me. God would not restrict me sexually. He made me. He knows I’m a sexual animal. So no, no, no, it’s all right. And so what they do is they become futile, empty, useless in their speculations.
Now watch what he says, “… and their foolish heart was darkened.” Their foolish heart was darkened. You play the fool, Precious One, when you ignore the truth about God. You play the fool when you create your own god in your own mind. Have you ever had someone say, oh get off my back, don’t tell me about Christianity, leave me alone, I’m fine, I’m fine, no I don’t want to hear the Bible, listen the man upstairs and I have an agreement, it’s okay, I know I’m okay with the man upstairs?
Listen the minute that you call Him the man upstairs, I know that you really don’t know who He is, because He’s never described as the man upstairs.
He is described as a holy God, a holy God that says, be holy even as I am holy.
In other words, you are to come up to My level. I don’t come down to yours. I’m not the man upstairs. I’m God.
And so he goes on to say, “Professing to be wise, they became fools and they exchanged the glory of an incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and of four footed animals and crawling creatures.”
You know when you stop and you look at the world of Bible times, the Greeks worshipped Apollo. I mean they had all sorts of gods, but they worshipped man. When you looked at the Romans, the Romans worshipped an eagle. When you looked at the Egyptians, the Egyptians worshipped a bull. When you looked at the Assyrians, the Assyrians worshipped a serpent. So what has happened?
These are people who had the evidence of a God within them, who had the testimony of God in creation and yet who ignored that, who turned from it and became futile in their speculations and, “Their foolish heart was darkened, professing themselves to be wise.” They became fools. And what did they do? What does a fool do? Well a fool exchanges, the glory, the glory, the true estimate, the proper estimate, that’s what glory means, the true estimate of an incorruptible God into an image, an image in the form of corruptible man and birds and four footed animals and crawling creatures.
If you’ve ever studied Greek mythology, if you’ve ever studied about the Greek gods you know that the Greek gods live very licentious lives, very violent lives and often they were very very jealous. Why? Because they were made and concocted in man’s mind and all man had to concoct those gods was his own thoughts, his own feelings, his own emotions, so he made his gods like him. And this is what happens when you and I turn away from the truth about God.
Now listen. The truth about God has been evident, evident since the very beginning of time. The first man on this earth, the first woman on this earth, Adam and Eve, lived in the presence of God.
They walked with God. They talked with God. They understood that there was a God and that this was the God that had created them.
Yes, they listened to a serpent, the serpent that the Assyrians worshipped. They listened to a serpent. The serpent we are told was the devil of old, Satan. And the serpent came in and spoke to Adam and Eve and they listened to the serpent instead of listening to God.
And that is the first, in a sense, that’s the first time that we have idolatry. Because what is idolatry? Idolatry is to worship something. It is to bow down to something other than God. It’s to listen to something or someone, other than God. And that’s what they did. And so what you see is you see from the very very beginning that when men knew God, they didn’t glorify Him as God. They didn’t honor Him as God. Instead, they turned purposefully away from that. They put on their blinders. They refused to acknowledge that God was God in creation. They closed their hearts to this evidence within and they walked away and they exchanged the glory of an incorruptible God into an image.
Now watch what happens in verse 24. “Therefore, therefore …,” when you see a therefore in the Word of God, you need to find out what the therefore is there for. Because therefore is a term of conclusion, so there’s a conclusion to all this. What happens when men turn away from the true knowledge of God, when they create their own gods, whether they be in the form of man or form of animals or creeping crawling creatures, what happens?
It says “Therefore God gave them over in the lust of their hearts to impurity. God gives them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity.” What’s he talking about? He’s talking about impurity in our lives. He’s talking about sexual immorality. He’s talking about the fact that we have taken what God made and which God made beautiful and we have distorted it and so when we turn our back on God, when we don’t go by God’s profile of Himself and we create our own god, then what you’re going to see is you’re going to see immorality.
Now what have you seen in the last thirty some years in the United States of America, if you’re old enough to remember or if you go back and remember? You have seen a change in our morals. You have seen a change in our morals. You’ve seen a change in our laws that have to do with morality. No longer is the woman protected. No longer is the child protected. No, the criminal, the pervert is protected and he’s the one that is let out of jail so that he can molest others. You turn on television today and you see all sorts of things. You can see all sorts of immorality going on on television even before the midnight hour. You couldn’t see that thirty some years ago.
What do you have now? You have people that are no longer married to each other and yet living with other people. You see adultery. You see fornication. You see homosexuality. You see lesbianism. You say, don’t talk to me that way. What are you, homophobic? No, I’m not. This is the result of what happens when you and I turn away from the truth about God. Oh, the terrible, terrible harvest that we reap. We’ll talk about it more in just a minute.
I know that these are not exciting things to study.
But you know what, they’re very enlightening. And they really help you understand where we are as a nation. It really helps you understand that God’s wrath is on us and that all the broken relationships, all the immorality, all the abortions, all the sexually transmitted diseases, all the murders, all these perverted acts upon people are all a result of this nation turning its back on God.
We haven’t wanted to hear about God.
I mean, where do you pick up a television program where they will actually talk about God and where they will actually talk about Jesus Christ, it’s forbidden. Why? Because of what Romans 1 says. This is where we are.
We don’t want to retain the knowledge of God.
We don’t want to understand God as He really is.
We want to come up with our own concept of God so that we can live the way we want to live.
And so what is the wrath of God? Remember I told you that the wrath of God is really God letting you have your own way.
I want you to go for just a minute to Psalm 81 and we want to look at verses 11 and 12,
“But My people did not listen to My voice and Israel did not obey Me.”
Do you want to know why Israel is in the trouble that they’re in right now?
It’s simply Precious One,
because they have not listened to God,
because they have not obeyed God.
They’ve got to understand the Word of God.
And you and I have to understand
the Word of God.
So watch what He says.
“So I gave them over to the stubbornness of their heart. I gave them over to the stubbornness of their heart to walk in their own devices.”
In Ezekiel, chapter 7, verse 4, he says,
“My eye shall have no pity on you. Nor will I spare you.” I shall bring your way upon you and your abominations will be among you and then you will know that I am God.”
What is the wrath of God?
It is God taking His hands off of you, as I said before and saying,
okay go ahead.
And this is what you see in Romans, chapter 1. When the wrath of God is revealed, it’s revealed because men turn their back on the true knowledge of God. They become futile in their speculations and look at verse 23,
“They exchange the glory of an incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man, of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures therefore, God gave them over …,”
This is the wrath of God.
“… God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity that their bodies might be dishonored among them, for they exchanged the truth of God for a lie.”
Hey, wait a minute; did you see that phrase before? Was there something else that they exchanged? And you’re going yea, yea and you’re right, you’re right. Look at verse 23. “They exchanged the glory of an incorruptible God into an image.” In verse 25,
“They exchange the truth of God for a lie.”
Hey, you know what? You’re going to see it again let me read on. “And they worshiped and they served the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason God gave them over …,” You say, wait a minute Kay. Wait a minute. God says, He gave them over again. That’s right. God gave them over, right. He says, “… God gave them over to degrading passions, for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural.” Now watch what you see here.
It says three times that they exchanged something.
“Three things are exchanged and we’ll explain that third one where the women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural and in the same way men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desires towards one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of the their error.”
We’re going to discuss that. And we’re going to discuss that because it has to do with homosexuality and it has to do with lesbianism.
And listen to me very carefully.
If you are a fornicator, if you are immoral, if you are sleeping around, you know, I mean just having sex with someone outside of marriage, if you’re a man and you’re having sex with another man, if you’re a woman and you’re having sex with another woman, just know this, I’m not here to condemn you.
I want you to understand what God says.
I want you to see what the Bible has to say. And I just urge you; don’t miss it.
You don’t want to miss it. You don’t have to be afraid of it. What you have to be afraid of is not knowing what the Bible says and reaping the consequences of that lack of knowledge or that refusal to know and you don’t want to do that. You don’t want to do that. So listen to me very carefully. Let’s go back and I wanted you to see that there were three things that were exchanged.
All right, then I wanted you to see that God gives them over.
So you’ve marked “they exchange”, you colored it pink, you put a black line under it. Now when they exchange something then God gives them over to something. Then they exchange something else, God gives them over to something else. Then they exchange something else and God gives them over to something else. And then you see the bottom line of it all and when we finish this program you can sit down and read through the end of Romans 1 and you my friend will see the bottom line of it all.
And you will understand why we are where we are as a nation.
It’s because, men and women have turned away from the true knowledge of God. They’ve exchanged truth for a lie and they’ve worshiped and served the creature more than the creator. In other words, they believe that what they believe is truth rather than finding out what God says. And so they worship the creature more than the creator.
Now that word, worship, is a word that means to bow down before. It is a word that means to venerate.
It’s a word that means to adore.
So it doesn’t even necessarily mean that you have to bow down, but it means that you’re just like this. It’s what you see on the faces of some of these people as they watch their rock stars or as they watch their movie stars, their athletes and their heroes and there’s just this adoration, there’s just this veneration. I mean they would do anything for them. And when you look at them that way, that is the worship that God is talking about. It’s the worship that we have for the creature, for the athlete, for the man, for the woman, rather than the creator.
And it says,
“They worshiped and served the creature.”
So it’s not just veneration, but then it’s a service to that, to that person.
Do you remember the story of Magic Johnson? Do you remember the story of how he got AIDS? Do you remember how many women he slept with? Some of those women slept with him simply because he was Magic Johnson.
They worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator.
Get your profile of God straight.
It’s not man.
It’s not man.
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