The righteousness of God is revealed from faith

The Responsibility of Mankind Before God

You have to understand that Anthropoi, or Anthropos, is that literal name that is most often translated man, but it means mankind. I also want to talk to you today, when we talk about mankind, is to talk about the aspect of responsibility.

Now what I mean by that, it's a responsibility of the heathen, and a responsibility of God's people. But it really begins with the same. Start with me, if you will, in Romans chapter one. Let's start in verse 17.

Romans chapter one, verse 17. For in it, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. As it is written, the righteous shall live by faith. Verse 18. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

And verse 19. For what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them. Ladies and gentlemen, I want you, for a moment, to remove yourself from a church setting. I want you to not hear this as a sermon.

Please don't. Please, if you have grown up in church, try to divorce the commonality, the ubiquitous platform. Try to divorce yourself from those things and try to do nothing else but not hear an old, fat, bowled preacher.

But try, just try, to stay focused on hearing the Word of the living God. Ladies and gentlemen, everyone in this room is responsible for understanding God's revelation. You see, there have been many people that have asked me the question of the years, what about this group of people who have never heard about God?

Well, God's Word is really clear, and it answers that question that says they're without excuse. For God has revealed Himself. You see, God loved man so much that before He even gave His own Son, God gave mankind existence.

You see, grace exists in the fact that you can do this right here. Whether you believe in God or not, God has revealed Himself to mankind, and He has revealed Himself in three ways. Number one, and for those of you that are believers, you're going to get this real quick.

God Revealed in Conviction, Conscience, and Creation

God has revealed Himself in conviction. Now, if you don't really understand what I'm talking about, or if you kind of, sort of do, you are not a believer. Okay? Now, I know that there's going to be some dope-smoking hippie millennial in here, some social justice warrior that's going to say, oh, are you judging me?

Yes, I am. For your own benefit. For you may have convinced yourself that God does not convict, that God does not judge, but I'm here to tell you, the rejection of His Son as a payment of your sin has damned you already.

You, like all of us in here, have been found guilty already. You know, we keep having this idea that at some point in the future, all mankind will be judged because of sin. That is not biblical. We as mankind, as anthropoi, have been found guilty at the moment of conception.

You were damned to hell. Simply for being a human being, you were damned to hell. But God, who is rich in love and mercy, not only saved us, but He did this as well. He gave us the power of conviction.

Now, if you are a Christian, you know exactly what I mean about conviction. It's not guilt. God is not a Jewish grandmother, okay? God is not a codependent wife who guilts you into doing things. Conviction far exceeds simple feeling bad or guilt.

It is not born from the moral upbringing of your culture. It is something entirely different. It is born in your spirit, and it gives you a restlessness. It robs you of peace. It gives you a place that will finally, and it may take years, trust me, I've been there, but you will repent of the sin God is convicting you of.

Or you're going to go home. That's one of the two things that's going to happen. Now, you might be a very moral person. There are moral atheists out there. There are very moral people, good people out there.

Oh, but Christian, the revelation of God far exceeds what they see in creation. It is a personal relationship in which conviction, and then greater in conviction is this. It's the soulless of grace. It is the peace of grace.

When you find that forgiveness, when you relent of that sin and resubmit yourself to God, oh, there is nothing sweeter in this world. Conviction is the revelation of God. Verse 17 says, from faith to faith.

Man, we need that faith more, Christians. And we only get faith, now listen to me, we only get faith by having faith in obedience to God. You're never going to grow. You're never going to matriculate out of the kindergarten class, Christian.

You're never going to grow until you face those fears and release the idolatry that has captured your life. But more on that in a second. God has revealed Himself through conviction. Second thing is this, for those of you that are not Christians, and trust me, there are a bunch in here.

There are a bunch in here. For those of you that are not convicted, God still strokes your conscience. Now you say to me, well, you said that it's conviction. You see, the difference between the two is this, a Christian will heed conviction.

A Christian will heed conviction. By the power of the Holy Spirit, the most daunting transgression and temptation will fall at the feet of a Christian. But for you non-believers in here, listen to what it says in verse 18.

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of man, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. I had a meeting with a man who is a diehard atheist, or should I say, he was.

Diehard atheist. Man, Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, oh, they were his heroes. He was a little YouTube baby, man. And he wanted to sound smart, so he found these men who would just simply castigate aspersions and mock openly the Christian faith.

And he found a sense of belonging in the identity of hating everything of God. So many Christians' children, in seeing the hypocrisy of their families and the church growing up, have left, they were never in the faith, but have left the church and followed this new atheism movement.

Now here's what's funny. Atheism web traffic, as of this morning, is one third of what Christian web traffic is. In fact, there are less atheists in the world today than there was 10 years ago. That's fact.

I know it may seem that atheism is growing, but in reality, it is not. And here is the number one reason why atheism is dying. And you'll see atheists trying to divorce themselves from this argument now.

Because evolution does not make sense. It doesn't make sense. It just absolutely does make sense. And mankind, even in an ungenerated state, even in a state of not being a Christian, can look at somebody and sit there and go, oh yes, I believe it, give me an A in my biology class.

Oh sure, I hate those Christians because I'm in rebellion, but I'm gonna believe a lie to help assuage the consciousness I feel in myself. But after a while, after a while, that consciousness that you have goes, I evolved from what?

What? Well, where did that come from? Well, where did that come from? And your mind bears witness to the fact that it doesn't make sense. God has revealed himself to us in conviction. He has revealed himself to us, even in the unbeliever in your consciousness.

But the third and final way, I shouldn't say final way, but the third way in this is this. It says God has revealed it in creation. Again, verse 20, read it with me. For his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in that things have been made.

Last night, my wife and I went out with some friends to the Southern Social. Now, if you've ever been there, it's a pretty good slop. It's pretty good, it's pretty good, pretty good. I personally had the vegetarian plate with alfalfa sprouts.

It just happened to come with a ribeye, but I sat there and I ate a meal. I ate a meal. You all know that I went to a restaurant, I ordered a meal, and then I ate it. What transpired between me eating that meal and me ordering that meal?

It's okay, shout it out. It was cooked. All right, here's what is revealed by God in creation. Do any of you idiots actually think that a cow walked into that kitchen, blew its brains out, and then somehow the ribeye evolved out of that tenderloin, climbed up onto a frying pan, and started frying itself?

Do you actually think that those gold Yukon potatoes grew legs and jumped into a pot of hot boiling water and made themselves? No, I ate a meal, and by default, I know there had to be a chef. You look at this creation and know that there is a creator, there is a God.

And if you're in this room and you're struggling with that, I ask you to keep struggling. I'm not gonna call you an idiot, even though you are. I'm not gonna openly mock you, even though I got yards and yards of material to do it.

Guys, you have to come to a place in your mind where you divorce the rhetoric of a society that says boys are girls and girls are boys, that have now come to a place where there are 117 genders. Verse 22, read it.

Professing themselves to be wise, man became fools. We live in a world today where the revelation of God is touted as foolishness. Science doesn't believe in that. Culture doesn't believe in that. Oh, but culture can believe that we evolved from nothing when the law of science says nothing can come from nothing.

We are to believe the lies and you have to if you deny the revelation of God in creation. Number two, not only are we responsible for recognizing God's revelation, we are responsible to God's righteousness.

Human Rebellion Against God's Holiness

God's righteousness, keep reading with me. In verse 21, for although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him. But they became futile in their thinking and their few foolish hearts were darkened.

Once again, claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of an immortal God for images resembling mortal man, birds, animals, and creeping things. Do you know what responsibility is?

I used to tell my sons and daughter, I didn't really have, my daughter was perfect, I really never had to get on to her. And she's cute and beautiful and smart and single. But I used to tell my boys, you will do this by this time.

That was what I said and I left it. And I used to say this, I don't care if you die, I don't care if Jesus Christ comes back, you better have that done before Jesus comes back. I don't care whether your heart stops beating with your last dying breath, you best get this done.

Okay, Dad, it's kind of dramatic, but okay. In my house, we never had one, two, or three, ever. I never counted. If you're a parent and your three-year-old is rebelling against you and you're counting, you're an idiot.

Because what you're teaching them is, there is a gray area to obedience that will not serve them well when they get older. Oh, well, Pastor, I don't believe with that. Okay, go ahead and schedule with Miss Carrie in about 10 years an appointment.

Because you will. Mark my word. If someone is told, be home by 10 o 'clock, and they get home at 10 .15, did they break the law? 100 all the time. Should then repercussions come from breaking that law?

It's funny, parents, all of y 'all say, absolutely. But sometimes it's hard to apply it to ourself, is it not? And then we wonder with such amazement when our kids rebel against hypocrisy. But that's a sermon for another time.

Understand this, that we are responsible to God's holiness. And look, we are without an excuse. There is no excuse. Again, it says in the last part of verse 20, all God did all of this stuff. And he showed who he was in such great magnitude.

I love it. Back in the old days with Abraham, we're talking about 2200 BC. God said, there are stars without number. Scientists said, oh, that's so stupid. We can see every one of them. We can count them.

Enter the Hubble Space Telescope. We can't even begin to count them. There's no way to do it. You see, what we want to do is we want to limit God's authority so that we can have our own idolatry. Guys, you are responsible.

Now listen, and you are without excuse. If you die today without the blood of Jesus paying for your sin, you're gonna go to hell. And it's not a little cave with fire and the devil. Satan ain't never been to hell, people.

Okay, he ain't never been. He is not the boss of hell, okay? Now he go in there one day, you might be roomies. But it's not the hell of Hollywood. You see, we gotta come to a place where we understand that you've had a hard life.

Your daddy wasn't there for you growing up. I'm sorry, oh, that's gas. I'm good. Oh, you were abused sexually or physically or emotionally or whatever. Guys, as daunting as that is to overcome and trust me, I know what I'm talking about.

As daunting as that come, when you come face to face with the holiness and the revealed nature of God, you are without excuse. I'm not saying that to be mean or for shock value. What I'm trying to do is stir some of you out of the enabling upbringing that you had.

Out of mommy's making excuses for you or dad's apathy at parenting you. I'm trying to wake you up that the bridge is out, people, and there is a concrete wall that will not quiver and is the holiness and righteousness of God and some of you are speeding directly into it.

There is an absolute that you have to have a responsibility in understanding God's holiness. Now look at this. It says this, we are without excuse. There is absolute. Now why? What's the deal? Well, read with me if you will.

Here is what we have ultimately failed to do. We are indifferent towards God. Christian, what time is it? How many of you already looked at your watch? How many of y 'all already thinking about Jason's Deli?

How many of y 'all already thinking about, well, you're going to hell. How many of y 'all, well, yet you're indifferent. You know, think about this for a second. You're sitting in a room where there are people literally who are going to spend eternity with their mouths gaped open in absolute horror.

And there is no appeal. There's no recess. There ain't no parole. Ain't no time off for good behavior. And we sit here and we're worried about worship songs and my likes and my dislikes. And it's too cold.

It's too hot. There's not enough light. I don't like these chairs. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You know what it is? It's indifference. It's indifference to the call God has made on our lives. God has called us as Christians to be holy as He is holy.

And that is not a perfection of social rejection of tattoos or smoking or godless white trash with long hair. What it is, is a rejection of the true holiness of God to love justice, to walk humbly with God hand in hand.

Number 21, verse 21. The other thing is ingratitude, ingratitude. How many of y 'all are grateful? Let's just stop right here. Under the age of 25, may I pick on you for a second? And I'll tell you why.

Because it's so easy. Because you're so dumb. Now, I know, I know, I got a son who, how old are you, Jeff? Can you speak? 22. And he's completing his engineering degree. He's a pretty smart kid. But he's still stupid, okay?

And I'm gonna tell you why, because he's 22. It doesn't mean that you are intellectually stupid. It means you are devoid of the experience that life's gonna bring along to you, okay? And some of y 'all is coming with a hammer.

But that's another story. Are you grateful? Guys, I'm gonna tell you a secret. There ain't no poor people in America. Oh, man, you don't know the projects in Chicago. Dude, you don't know the mountains of Nicaragua.

There ain't no poor people in America. It's always funny, I hear people talking about poor people and they got shoes. They got a McDonald's. And that war-torn ghetto blood crib bussing whatever bull crap you come up with to explain the hardness of your life, you ain't poor.

I lived in government housing, okay? Fun, I wasn't poor. But it's more than just understanding the realities of social economic issues. I sometimes am so ungrateful to God, God, I hate myself for it sometimes.

I complain about the dumbest things. I get fired up over stupid. I just sit there and I go, man, God, why can't my church do this? God, I mean, look what Adrian Rogers had. Look what I got, God. I mean, Paul Lewis is the chairman of the deacons.

It's true. Actually, Paul's really a good guy, but his wife, you know? God blesses me so much and I am so ungrateful. Do you realize if you read that passage of Scripture, God is alluding and flat out saying that that is the attitude of an unbeliever.

Let that sink in, Christian. Just as I am. With an ungrateful heart, you sing the loudest and have the biggest King James Bible any man could tote, but you're ungrateful for the grace of Almighty God.

Pastor, how am I ungrateful? Have you shared it with someone else? Last thing, idolatry. Verse 23, watch this. Understand that it's not that people didn't know the truth. Read with me, read with me. It says that they suppressed the truth.

You know you are not God. You know that there is a God. And so by you refusing to submit to God, not only are you in rebellion, but you are literally suppressing the truth. Oh, pastor, no, I'm not. I'm just apathetic.

You wanna play semantics with God? You are in rebellion. And you have a God already. What is this idolatry you speak of, pastor? Well, look, it says in verse 23, they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for resembling mortal man.

How many of you in this room wanna seek approval? Or you want the idolatry of self-importance? No, there's nobody. I get it, we're Baptists. I get it, I get it, I get it. That's all them liberal Democrats, that ain't us.

How many of y 'all are more concerned about your physical image than you are the holiness of God? Hold on, wait a minute, here we go, you ready? And you gotta make sure you get that butt up in there. Not me, pastor.

I went to Sunday school this morning. Last month, when we were worshiping and the music was just right, and that song is one that I loved, oh, I was praising God. You godless idolatry. Listen to me. Total surrender is either evident or it's total rebellion.

You don't reject God piecemeal. It's either all or it's nothing. Now, point three. Some of you in here need to recognize God's revelation. Some of you in here need to recognize God's holiness. But there's another group, and it's only you Christians in here, that this is that last group.

Justification by Faith and the Grace of God

You need to start recognizing God's grace. Because here's why. Unless you feel worthless, you don't feel holy. Unless you're considering constantly all of your faults and failures, and I'm looking at a couple of you right now.

Hey, Bill. You don't feel God loves you. Read with me in Romans chapter four, and I promise this is the last passage. Romans chapter four. Let's just do, since we're running out of time here, let's start in verse three.

Gosh, it's hot. Verse three. For what does the Scripture say? Now listen, don't just read a stupid Bible story. Please, listen to God's word. For what does the Scripture say? So you got Scripture quoting Scripture.

All right, this is really cool. What does Scripture say? Abraham believed God and then joined his local Southern Baptist church and Republican party. He did not smoke, cuss, drink, and he gave money to the pastor's helicopter fund for the glory of God.

Thank you, man. Yeah, thanks, baby. Is that what it says? Watch, are you ready? Here's God's requirement. Remember I said you've got to recognize God's righteousness. Here we go. Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness, period.

Grace. Here's what God requires of me. Faith. I believe God and God credits that. There's a doctrinal word, I forgot it. Please someone say it or I'm quitting and going to Bellevue. Thank you, pastor.

Imputation. God accredited, imputed righteousness to me. Christian, you may be struggling in your sanctification, but you will never struggle with your justification because it is by God's grace we are saved through faith and it is not of ourselves.

It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man boast. Guys, stop trying to morally save yourself. Stop trying to measure your good and bad. Let me help you. This good column does not exist except in your religious fantasy.

All you got is you're a loser. That's all you got. Oh, but thank God. A simple childlike faith, a simple childlike faith will be credited to you as righteous. Notice this next thing. Watch this. It says this.

And now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift, but as his due. And to the one who does not work, but believes in him, who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.

Watch this. Some of you have psychological problems. My gosh. Can we stop the insanity? Here's what you're trying to do. You take your sanctification process and you fret over it and the judgment of God more than you focus on the grace of God.

How do you live in peace? How do you live? I mean, personally, I would lose my ever-loving mind if my sin and my failures were always in front of me by my choice, I would be a powerless Christian. That doesn't mean, that does not mean that God is calling me to further refine myself.

What it means is those things that are in the past need to stay in the past. What I don't need to do is judge myself for what God has already released me from because that is by itself an act of idolatry.

You are becoming the judge of you when God says he is innocent. Doctrine of justification, what does it mean, Whitten? I'm gonna stop, man, that's it. Deacons, I want you to get switches or something.

I don't know what, but this is ridiculous. Guys, the only way for us to know the recipient of God's grace is to do it by practice. If you're in this room and you're more worried about the failures you've done rather than the calling of the present or the glory of the future, you need to change your psychological thought.

The gospel is the only way to understand God's grace and the word gospel simply means this, it's good news. The worst sound, most fearful sound I ever heard, and I've heard a lot of bad stuff, were the tires of a truck coming up a gravel driveway.

The application of belts, extension cords, rake handles, shovels were applied vociferously to a couple of three young men, and that sound brought about the dread of what was coming. Guys, for you that are believers that have received the grace of God, there is no dread that faces you, not in this life nor in the other.

Although it may cost you physically here, praise God, it is but a momentary pang, a whisper of smoke to the glory that is prepared for those of you in Christ Jesus. Christian, throw your shoulders back, stick your head up and walk not like a man, walk like a man of God.

I'm gonna ask the music people and pastors to come up and if you're in this room and you do not know whether you are a Christian or not, quit rejecting the call of God on your life, be in obedience and come up here and get some help.

If you need a prayer or if you need to join a church or if you need some accountability, if you need to be baptized, whatever decision you need to make today, I want you to stand with me, church, minister to someone, do something, and let us be obedient to the word of the living God.