Dr. Michael Youssef, reflecting on the judgment taught in Romans Chapter 1.
Welcome to Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Youssef on this August Tuesday. Well, the topic of judgment is certainly a somber one, especially when you're talking about the judgment of God, which goes far beyond the courts of man. His judgment is eternal. Today, join Dr. Michael Youssef, pastor and author of more than 50 books, for a look into Romans Chapter 1, where Paul describes three purposes for God's judgment. You'll be challenged in your faith journey as you listen.
In fact, let's join Dr. Youssef now as he begins. Here in this epistle of Romans, you find the Apostle Paul being a great diagnostician. He's diagnosing the problem, the problem of culture, the problem of society, and the problem even with believers. Before he could tell them about their spiritual healing that only can be found in Jesus Christ, he has to show them their most depraved condition in which they are in. Before anyone can be saved from their sins eternally, they have to recognize that they are sinners.
Until I recognize that I am not just a sinner but a sinful, I could not come to Christ and ask forgiveness of my sins. And here in Romans Chapter 1 verses 18 to 32, Paul gives us three reasons as to why the wrath of God, the judgment of God must, not may, but must take place sooner or later. Reason number one, verses 18 to 23, you can write it down if you're taking notes. Reason number one for God's judgment is going to be upon those who invert the truth. The second reason verses 24-27, God's judgment will be upon those who perverted God's gift of sexuality. And thirdly, verses 28 to 32, God's judgment will be upon those of depraved minds. Inversion of God's truth, perversion of God's gift, deprivation of the mind. Bear with me please, those three causes of judgment as to the reason of judgment. In fact, those three things basically codify every conceivable sin you can think of is going to come under one of those three categories.
Let's look at the first one, the inversion of the truth. But before I get there, just bear with me just for a minute because there are several things I need to tell you about the wrath of God. It is very important because today more than 60% of those who claim to be Christians deny or reject the wrath of God altogether. Keith Getty has a song called In Christ Alone, we sing it in this church. One of the stanzas goes like this, and the wrath of God was satisfied, talking about the cross.
You will be amazed of how many singers and how many musicians and how many pastors literally either take that stanza out or modify it. They say, there is no wrath of God, only love. What they don't understand is this, that the wrath of God and the love of God are two sides of the same coin.
You try to split that coin and cease to be a legal tender. Without the wrath of God, the love of God is purposeless. Why? Because his love rescues us from the wrath of God. Are you with me? The love of God rescues us from the wrath of God. Without the love of God, the wrath of God is hopelessness.
We just might as well eat and drink and be married and for tomorrow we shall die. Now here is the biggest misconception about the wrath of God. God's judgment is not a capricious, uncontrollable fury as some people think, and that's why they avoid it. The reason they deny the judgment of God or the wrath of God is because they associate it with man's sinfulness of irrational and uncontrollable rage and emotions. It's because they associate the word wrath with man's hate-filled anger. And they say, God cannot do this. God is not like this. It's because they associate the word wrath with this animosity or animosity-laden feelings towards somebody.
So they throw the baby with the bathwater and deny the truth of the word. Some people think, just like an angry person, say, I'm going to get you for this. This is how God is. In fact, that's how Martin Luther for a while thought with God, I'm going to get you for this.
No, no, no, no, no, no. The wrath of God has nothing in common with this understanding of this type of emotions. This type of emotions described in the Bible in the Greek word thermos, from which we get the word thermometer, up and down. But the word that's used here is not the word thermos, but the word orge, which means controlled, settled matter. There's nothing with emotions. You say, well, what does that mean, controlled and settled? Listen to me very carefully, because it's important.
It is as controlled as settled as somebody jumping from the 10 floor building goes down to the ground. He's dead, right? It's settled. It has nothing to do with me. It has nothing to do with you. It has nothing to do with any of us, right? It's settled. It is like a person who puts his hand in the fire and keep it there and comes out, oh, it burns. It's controlled. It's settled. It has nothing to do with me, you or anybody else. It's just somebody standing in front of a freight train.
He's going to end up being men's meat, right? It has nothing to do with anybody else. It has something to do with the person. These are settled facts. These are indisputable things. But there's something else I want to tell you about the wrath of God. It is declared upon evil.
It is declared upon evil. See, you and I get angry when our pride is injured, right? We get really miffed, and sometimes we even want to take revenge.
That's the natural. But you see, there is no beef on the wrath of God. There's no personal animosity, no personal anger toward a specific person. No. It is a settled matter as a person jumping from a high-rise building and hitting the floor is going to die.
This is it. See, the essence of sin in the singular, the root of sin, the fruit is all the sinful things we do. But the root of sin in the singular is to get rid of God. That's the root of sin, is to replace God or is to ignore God or is to modify what God said and pervert his truth. And that is why the judgment of God is going to be on those who perverted his truth. The essence of sin or evil is either living without the fear of God or twisting the truth about God. Those who invert the truth about God's word. Those who tell half-truth about God's word. Listen to me. Those who have made up their mind to live by their own rules, whims and fancies are going to come under the wrath of God.
Make no mistake about it. So what is the truth? Well, Paul said in Romans chapter 1 verses 19 and 20, you see, they rejected the knowledge of God. The rejection of the knowledge of God is really the core of the problem.
I know you heard people say, God is not fair. What is going to happen to those who never heard? I always say they are none of your business, except you share gospel with them.
Leave them to God's care, love, mercy, grace and justice. But that's okay. It's always a red herring.
I always say, what are you going to do? You heard the truth. Don't worry about the ones who haven't heard. But if you look with me at verses 19 and 20, Paul tells us what's going to happen. Paul is saying that there is natural revelation of God that he has placed as plain as the nose in your face, except in some cases the nose is so horrific you can't miss it. He is saying that when they look at the majestic mountains and when they look at the mighty oceans, when they look at the exquisite and intricate way our bodies are formed, when they see the precision by which the galaxies and the stars are operating, and after seeing all of that and they do not believe in the Almighty God, then they will come under judgment. After seeing all of this and still think it comes from a blob, they're going to come under God's judgment. They just rejected God. I honestly believe that the theory of evolution is one of the most incredible hoaxes that ever been perpetrated upon humankind.
How come that the God who created these magnificent things with such precision and accuracy cannot breathe on a bunch of dust and there is humanity? The New York Times, now you agree with me that's not an evangelical paper, right? Back in 1979, July 11, 1979, reported and I'm going to read it, the latest DNA testing is proving the evolution among humans is a hoax. That's not Christianity today, that's New York Times. And what Paul is saying is this, denial of God is a concentrated act of the will to suppress the truth about God. No wonder the psalmist said in 1901, he said, the heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament proclaim his handiwork. And that is why it says, though they knew him, how? By looking at the magnificent creation and yet they chose to suppress the truth about God.
Instead of letting the natural revelation lead them to God, they chose to close their eyes. But there's one more thing I want you to know about the wrath of God. There is a day in which there's going to be a global judgment, the entire globe will be judged by God. And that judgment is coming upon those who have rejected God, those who have modified the word of God, those who have changed the truth about God. But there is something else that it says here in Romans that makes you want to sit in a corner and weep. He said, even in this life before the day of judgment, God gives him up to the consequences of the rejection. God gives us more of what we want.
Can you say that with me? God gives us more of what we want. You see it in the very early part of the scripture. Pharaoh hardened his heart. God says, Mr. Pharaoh, I'm going to give you more of what you want. I'm going to harden your heart even more.
The opposite is true. When you hunger for righteousness, you say, how can I do this? When you sin, and we all stumble and fall, and then you immediately cry out to God and say, oh God, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. Forgive me. That is not something a man of God or a woman of God should have, I am so sorry.
Forgive me. That's hungering for righteousness. God sees that, and he sees that hunger, and he says, I'll give you more of my righteousness. I'll give you more righteousness. You see, that's why I said those who hunger for righteousness, they shall be fed. Question, why does God give you more of what you want? See, God is a respecter of his creation. He respects us. I read not long ago that the number of people in the United States alone who have sexually transmitted diseases, over 70 million.
And this is a while back. God didn't give them that. God did not give them that. They gave it to themselves.
Why? Because all moral enlightenment comes from God. All intellectual enlightenment comes from God.
All reasoning power comes from God. So when the source of this moral, intellectual, and reasoning power, namely God, is rejected, they descend themselves into this moral, intellectual, and reasoning darkness. Beloved, we see this all around us. We see it all around us. Sometimes when I'm watching the news and you hear a news reporter showing some atrocity somewhere in the world and you say, this is man's inhumanity to man, I want to shout.
No, silly. This is man's humanity to man. Because without the one true God, there can be no true humanity. Without the light of the gospel, man becomes a wild beast. Verse 22, although they claim to be wise, they are foolish.
Now the Greek word here for foolish is the word from which we get our English word moron. Sometimes I hear some of these morons saying, because the final judgment has not happened, therefore it's not coming. Beloved, just because God is so patient, just because God is so long suffering, it does not mean that he does not settle accounts someday. He is settling some accounts now by giving them up to the consequences of their choices. But the final day, the judgment day, the day of wrath, which is yet to come, he will settle all accounts. Old preacher used to say, payday someday. Listen, God will bless and will bless and will bless and then bless some more. And then the day of reckoning comes. That's why the Bible said, nobody is going to have an excuse on that day.
No excuse. No one will be able to say, God did not give me enough time. God did not give me enough opportunities. God did not give me enough warnings.
No, no, no, no. Judgment is coming upon those who have inverted the truth. Secondly, judgment is coming upon those who perverted the gift of sexuality. See, when God's truth is suppressed, the mind becomes darkened.
And when the mind is darkened, all of God's gifts, all of them, but especially the gift of sexuality becomes perverted, misused and abused. Listen to what Jesus said. If you're still having problem with wrath and you think, well, this is the apostle Paul. Here's what Jesus said in John chapter three, verse 36. Whoever believes in the son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the son will not see life for God's wrath. This is Jesus now. God's wrath remain on them. Paul is basically saying the same thing that Jesus said in Romans 1 26.
For this reason, what reason? The perversion of God's gift of sexuality. God gave them up. For this reason, God gave them up to their detestable passions. The females exchange natural relations for unnatural and the male likewise. Beloved, listen to me. This is a very sensitive subject and I know it is especially sensitive for those who have family members who are caught in this lifestyle. Listen to me.
First of all, if you have a family member or like I do, neighbors whom I go and hug and I talk to and befriend, but if you have a family member, you must do the following. It doesn't matter who said what, you must love them, love them, love them, and then love them some more. Okay? It doesn't matter what a mega church pastor in this city or any other city said. It doesn't matter what a head of a denomination said. It doesn't matter what the Supreme Court said. It doesn't matter what government says.
God said that any sex other than between a husband and wife in marriage is perversion of the gift of sexuality. We must always love those who are caught in that lifestyle. Always, always, always you never stop praying and fasting on their behalf. Never, never, never, never give up praying for them.
Amen? A dear friend of mine told me just this week that a very reputable survey showed that 95% of those who have gone through sex change in Sweden where it's so easy, 95% of them are miserable and depressed. Beloved, all of the honest and brilliant psychiatrists that I read have said gender confusion is a terrible psychological disorder but it is treatable. It is treatable and you can go through a hundred sex change but until you come to the loving arms of Jesus, you'll still be unhappy. You'll still be miserable but Jesus loves you and he wants you to come to him today. God gave us the gift of sexuality to be practiced in marriage between a biological man and a biological woman. Listen to me, it's a terrible sentence. I might be emotional before you but when I was preparing the message, I genuinely wept.
It's a terrible sentence and it's repeated three times. God gave them up. Anyone who rejoices in that doesn't know the heart of Jesus. Inversion of the truth, perversion of God's gift of sexuality, thirdly the deprivation of the mind. Verses 28 to 32. Here again, the third time God gave them up. Beloved, listen to me, we are seeing this downward spiral before our own eyes. Every step that is taken down in rejecting of biblical truth, every step we take down in twisting biblical truth, in modifying biblical truth, in doing injustice to biblical truth, we see God hands of restraint.
Let's go, a little bit, a little bit, a little more, a little more, a little more. Until finally when the bottom of morality falls, this catalog of 21 evils will dominate our lives. These 21 categories, all manners of wickedness, evil, greed, depravity, envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice, gossip, slander, God haters, insolent, arrogant, boastful, invent new ways of doing evil.
They disobey their parents, senseless, heartless, ruthless. I don't know about you, every time I read this list I want to have a shower, but now I'm talking about spiritual shower. But just think about this being a dominant thing, terrible thing for our children and grandchildren to think about. Now I wonder how many of us, even if we don't practice these, we approve of them by our silence. Always wonder why the message of the angels about the birth of Jesus, that he was born in the darkest of night. That's because he and he alone can meet us at the midnight of our soul. Jesus wants to meet you at the midnight of your soul. Thank you for listening to pastor and international Bible teacher, Dr. Michael Youssef.
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