Loving Homosexuals (part 2) - [1 Corinthians 6:9-11]

I grew up in the 60s and in our family, I don't know if it's a generational thing or my father was a Korean war vet, there's not a whole lot of I love you talk. At best, maybe if I go off to college or something, I would hear from my father, love you.

That almost takes the edge off instead of looking at someone and saying, I love you. I know my father loved me because of all the things that he did, but it was hard for me not to hear those words, I love you.

God's Love Revealed in Calvary and in His Word

I was thinking about how God loves us. At the pinnacle of God's love for us is Calvary, where God demonstrates, made conspicuous his love towards us, that while we were yet enemies, Christ died for us.

But in another very real way, God loves us, and this is the way. He tells us what he thinks in his revealed words. Can you imagine to know the mind of God? Sometimes I might think about my wife or my kids or a friend, have you ever said this to a spouse or a friend or a kid, what are you thinking about right now?

After a while, maybe you begin to think a little bit like your spouse or you're like your grandpa, you know what he's thinking about. But how would we as finite creatures, fallen creatures, finite and fallen creatures, understand God?

We look at the stars and the moon and the sky and we can get a sense of God's eternal power and his nature, but all the details, what's God like? What does he like? What does he not like? All these details, how does the Father relate to the Son?

Is there a Trinity? All these kind of things we don't know unless it was the condescending love of God that he would tell us in his word. Aren't you glad that you have his word to tell you exactly what you need?

And of course, there are some spots that are a little opaque, remember Peter said, some of Paul's writings are a little difficult, but so much of it is crystal clear, especially when you have the Spirit of God as your illuminator, the one who opens your eyes to the words and you think, this is just straightforward.

I personally am glad, especially as a preacher, to let you know what God thinks because otherwise it's just all made up stuff. What if he didn't reveal himself to us in the word? False gods, idols, you can see them, but they don't talk.

They're dumb. You go to a Chinese restaurant this afternoon or many other kinds of restaurants and you'll see some little cat god like that, you can put your ear up to that little kitty god all you want, but there's going to be no sounds coming out of that thing.

False gods, you can see, but they don't talk. The one God of the universe, as Paul would say, the living God, he's invisible, but he talks. How great is that? Eve Hutton, when he speaks, people are like, listen, some of the kids are like, Eve who?

I got asked by one of my children yesterday, when you were growing up, was there such thing as YouTube? You have a God who speaks. He speaks plainly and he has spoken finally in his Son and the Son's apostolic messengers.

Why This Sin Must Be Named and Why Christians Must Not Be Silent

So today we come to a topic that picks up from last week. What has God said about this timely, relevant topic? In First Corinthians, Paul has been dealing with sin and immature Christians. Then he says, I want to lay before you a parade of people that you used to be like.

And he says this so that the people say, I don't want to be what I used to be. I don't want to be that person anymore. I'm no longer the person I used to be. By the grace of God, I'm justified, redeemed, reconciled, pardoned, forgiven, acquitted.

I've been given a new nature and I don't want to be like the proverbial dog that goes back to its own, what? Vomit, as in 2 Peter, or to the cleaned sow, the clean pig that wallows right back into its own mire.

I don't want to be that way. So Paul says, look, you used to be this way, don't be that way anymore. But he talks about a particular group of people that I think it's important for us as Christians to think through because we can either think too harshly about or we can think too loosely about, and that is the topic of homosexuality.

So I've got a list of questions and answers underneath this banner, Thinking Biblically About Homosexuality. Maybe the subtitle could be Loving Homosexuals. And we'll see today, if you weren't here last week, that the Bible is clear, it's obvious, and that we can understand this in a way that honors God and loves our neighbor as ourself.

So let me give you the first few in review. Number one, why would we single out this sin when there's lots of other sins to single out? We learned last week, as I quoted a great reformer, a dog barks when his master is attacked.

I would be a coward if I saw that God's truth is attacked and yet would be silent. The point of attack here in America and all across the country, all across the world, has been this particular beachhead.

This is the spiritual battle of the bulge, homosexuality. When thieves or swindlers or revilers stand up and say, we can be gay thieves, gay revilers, gay swindlers, gay drunkards, then we're going to have to address that.

But the issue with gay marriage here in the States and in Massachusetts, this is the point of attack. So that's why we're going to talk about it last week and this week. And we will not call something that is unrighteous in God's clear word, righteous.

What God calls ungodly, we won't call godly. And of course it goes for this sin and all the other sins. The other nine sins listed in 1 Corinthians chapter 6 and the other sins listed in Galatians chapter 5 in the vice list and Revelation 21, the list goes on and on.

There's a holy God and he has told us plainly, this is what's right and this is what's wrong. That's why we're focusing on this particular sin. Number two in review, are Bible teachers homophobic? Well, maybe some are, but that's just usually a smoke screen, so we're not allowed to talk about it.

If you say something about homosexuals and say that, you know what, this is a forgivable sin, I encourage you to repent and believe in the gospel for your soul, you will stand before God one day, then we're homophobic.

When somebody says, you know, I don't like Jesus and his declaration that I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father but through me, I don't say to them, you're Christophobic.

There's not some kind of irrational fear of Jesus, maybe they have it or not, but that just dulls the argument, that just tries to get this out of the public square. I don't have an irrational fear, I'd actually like to be like Jesus, who in Luke 15 says he receives sinners and eats with them.

Why? Because he's compassionate, he's generous, he's gracious, and he doesn't receive them to then celebrate their sin, he doesn't receive them to applaud their sin, he doesn't receive them to say it's okay for you to be that way, he receives sinners because he is on a mission to ransom sinners, to seek and to save those who were lost, he's a great physician, to then tell them the truth about it.

Confession, Mercy, and Why "Born This Way" Is an Excuse

Number three, why do people insist that homosexuals are born this way? Answer, because it tries to alleviate guilt. It tries to alleviate guilt. Turn with me, if you would, to Proverbs 28, 13, we're going to look at this a little deeper, and then we'll move on and get to some new questions, but to set everything up again, I want to go back to these two verses in Proverbs 28 that talk about mercy from God, and it should be your desire, if you're a Christian, to want others to receive this mercy.

You want others to receive compassion from God, grace from God, that's a sign of being a Christian, by the way, is when you want your God to do for others what he's done for you. That's just a sign of love.

We're to love God and love our neighbor, and what's the best thing, the most loving thing you could tell someone, caught in any sin, enslaved to any sin, and that is this, you take ownership for your sin, agree with God that it is sin, and ask for his mercy.

And look at Proverbs 28, 13, you ought to underline this verse, and you ought to also say it's linked to verse 14, lots of times you just quote 13 without going to 14. These two Proverbs, verse 13 and 14, are crucial for any Christian or for anybody who is not a Christian who would like to be forgiven.

Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper. But, he who confesses, I agree with you God, confesses and forsakes, turns from them, will obtain mercy, or as some translations say, compassion. Blessed, don't you want the blessing of God, the commendation of God?

Blessed is the one who fears Yahweh always, but whoever hardens his heart will fall into calamity. Commentator Kidner said, sin buried is sin. Sin buried is sin. When we were in 1 Corinthians, did you notice Paul was putting this list together of the people like fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, drunkards, did you notice that list?

He was not saying if you've got the orientation to do these things, then they're wrong. He said the actions in and of themselves are wrong, and so whether a person's orientation because of the fall or propensity because of the fall or they're bent because of the fall is hetero or homo, both are unrighteous.

I looked at gaychurch .org this week, and I could just as easily call it excusechurch .org or blameshifting .org, and this is the kind of reasoning that goes on. Exhibit 1. Could salvation be reserved for a select group of people?

It may seem surprising, but this is not a new idea. The early Christians believed that salvation was only offered to those of Jewish heritage and not to the Gentiles, who were seen as an unclean abomination.

Thankfully, Paul and others wrote extensively on this issue and strongly refuted the notion that salvation is offered to a select few. Jews consider Gentiles as unclean, polluted, idolatrous, and sinful, the same revulsion many church people feel for homosexuals today.

Unfortunately, the gay and lesbians today are often asked to repent of being homosexual before being accepted. Like the Gentiles, they do not need to repent of their God-created nature. So you see the rationale.

See how the Jews were ostracizing Gentiles, and so we homosexuals are now in the same class as any other minority, whether it's female as a minority in the old days, black, different color, non-white, or Gentile.

Exhibit 2. John described best God's open invitation in John 3 .16 when he wrote, Whosoever believes in Jesus will not perish. Whosoever does not exclude anyone. Instead, it includes everyone. Simply put, it does not matter if you are gay or straight, black or white, male or female.

What matters is whether you believe in Jesus or not and have accepted Him as your Lord and Savior. Really? Now if you have a kid, and the kid does something, breaks a window, and comes to you, if you're the father or you're the mother and the kid becomes full of excuses, riddled with all these, you know, Johnny made me do it, somebody hypnotized me, the list could go on and on and on.

I particularly, when I find that kind of attitude, what I usually don't give is mercy. What I usually don't give is compassion. What I usually do is try to get to the bottom of it, and then justice is given.

So same too, as if the kid comes and says, I took the rock, I threw it, the devil didn't make me buy this dress. Anybody over 50 can laugh, anybody under 50, it's pop culture. Satan didn't make me do this, I did it, I accept full responsibility, and whatever way I need discipline, I'm willing to accept.

Thank you for loving me. And then how do you respond? So what a picture this is between a father and a son. And even though the father's sinfully tainted and not perfect, the son isn't either. When you think about the big picture, what we do when it comes to confession in 1 John chapter 1, Proverbs chapter 28, or any place else is just say, yes, I made myself did it, just like we learned in James last time.

Otherwise, you run into this kind of gobbledygook. Exhibit 3, Jesus never talked for or against homosexuality. This raises a question, if homosexuality is truly a sin worthy of eternal damnation, as some believe it is, then why didn't Jesus discuss it?

He certainly preached at length concerning every other sin listed in 1 Corinthians 6. Why did he leave this one out? God is not the author of confusion, 1 Corinthians 14, therefore I cannot see him leaving out such a critical sin from his discussions.

So since Jesus didn't talk about it, it's okay to do. Even though his apostolic messenger, Paul, talked about it often. For us as Christians even, when we're entangled in a sin, the best thing to do is what?

Blame? I've got a syndrome, a disease, I've got some kind of thing wrong with me. No, I'm wrong with me. I met the enemy and I'm the enemy. God, would you please forgive me? Your word says that if you look to the son for forgiveness, if you ask for confession, if you confess that he's faithful and just to what?

Forgive. We want people to be forgiven. Number four. Is it easy to be tricked when thinking about this topic? Is it easy to be deceived? Yes. The incessant barrage of the media, our own hearts, we have friends I've even talked to this week, where we say, you know what?

We know some homosexual people that seem more friendly, kind, giving, and outgoing than Christian people. So if you say, well, this person calls himself a Christian, this person calls himself a homosexual, this doesn't seem to add up and our hearts just don't know what to do with that.

It's easy to be misled. I'll read you the verses again. Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

Paul says, when it comes to they know the Christian language, they've had a Christian experience, they've been baptized, they can quote Bible verses, they go to the gay church, Paul says, do not be deceived.

I was born this way. In 1 Corinthians 6, Paul says, there's no need to be deceived. I'm telling you, these are the facts. This is the issue. Well, as long as I understand that these are two consenting adults in the privacy of their own home that love each other, who am I to judge?

Do not be deceived. Listen to the same word used. Why don't you just turn there? We might as well turn to 1 Timothy chapter 1. The same word for homosexual in 1 Corinthians 6 is used in 1 Timothy chapter 1 as their lexicon translates it, a sodomite, one who lies with a male as with a female.

1 Timothy chapter 1, and by the way, all this homosexuality stuff was going on back in Paul's day as well. It was a big issue then, it's a big issue now. Barclay said Socrates was a homosexual. Plato wrote a book, Symposium on Love, that applauded homosexuality.

Nero was a homosexual. Paul writes in 1 Timothy 1 .10, the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to what? Doesn't this, how can this be a sin if God made me this way, strike back to the very issue of did God really say, did God really say that?

Right back to the garden. I call this garden lies. Number five, what if the government calls homosexuality a hate crime, what do we do? Answer, we have to be faithful to the gospel and keep preaching the Bible, don't we?

So if the government does something, that changes the way we do something? I don't think so. First they'll take away our tax exemption, then they'll fine us, then they'll put us in jail, but we still have to say Christ forgives all kinds of sinners, including homosexuality.

We must obey God rather than what did Peter say in Acts 5. Number six, we're almost done with review, can homosexuals ever change? Let's go back to 1 Corinthians chapter 6. Absolutely, by the grace of God, they can be new creatures in Christ Jesus, old has gone.

You know, the homosexual community, the aggressive ones at least, will try to ride this issue like no other. How can they change? In ministries like Exodus and others where you try to think that you can really change, it's impossible.

Well, I only can go by what the word of God is. I'm not going to base my theology on experience. I'm not going to base my theology on what I see or what I hear. Peter can be standing at the Mount of Transfiguration, he hears God the Father, he sees Jesus the Son, and he says we have a word made what?

More sure. And I love this. Here's Paul saying, look at what God does. These transactions, they're all about grace, they're all about what God does for you. There's none of this man-centered salvation.

Three grace passives, and if you're a Christian, this has happened to you. This is good news for prostitutes, moralists, pastors' kids, homosexuals too. You are washed, see that in verse 11? There's a whole list of things that you used to be, but in verse 11 it says, and such were some of you, but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified.

Cleansed on the inside, set apart for God's work, declared acquitted, declared a righteous, declared pleasing in God's sight. Number seven, is there such thing as gay Christian clergy? Is there such a thing as gay clergy?

Well, it's a free country, you can call yourself that, but in God's eyes, there's no such thing as a clergyman or a clergywoman who is practicing homosexual. Turn your Bibles to Titus chapter 1, please.

Church Qualifications and Why Denominational Drift Matters

Everywhere you go, you have apostate denominations saying this is okay. Anglicans, you've got the Church of England, and what do they say in their issue in Human Sexuality Statement? Same-sex partnerships are acceptable for laypersons, but gay clergy are expected to be abstinent.

That's interesting. 2003, right here in New England, in the Episcopalian Church, Gene Robinson is now approved, or was approved, as the Bishop of the Diocese of New Hampshire. Reformed churches in Europe, many of them, it's okay to have a pastor who's in a same-sex relationship as long as he or she is monogamous.

Protestant Church in the Netherlands, United Protestant Church in Belgium, Danish National Church, Church of Sweden, Church of Iceland, Church of Norway, and the list goes on. I grew up a Lutheran, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

2009, August 21st, voted 559 to 451, 559 to 451, in favor of allowing non-celibate gays to become ordained ministers. Friends, mark this, by the way. When a denomination asks a question, we better revisit what we think about this.

It's over. The second you ask the question, what do we believe about homosexuality? Friends, it's over. Because what you believe is what the Scriptures clearly teach. You want to know how this doctrine comes in?

What's the Trojan horse that gets this doctrine into the Church? Every single time. Should women be pastors? That's the Trojan horse. Because if you can make 1 Timothy 2, which says, I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, local church, elder, pastor.

If you can take I do not allow and turn it into I do allow, you can make the Bible say anything you'd like it to say, at least in your heart. Presbyterian Church, USA, 2010, July 8th, General Assembly, 373 to 323 vote to approve the ordination of partnered homosexuals.

Ratification pending. Do you think they'll ratify it? United Church of Christ General Senate, 1985, a resolution entitled, doesn't this sound nice, calling on United Church of Christ congregations to declare themselves open and affirming.

In 2003, it officially added transgender persons to this declaration for full inclusion of life and leadership in the Church. It's sad, it's sick, and it's sinful. This has nothing to do, friends, as I said last week, with being unloving to homosexuals or uncompassionate or unneighborly.

It has everything to do with, if God says, and we're going to look at first chapter of Titus, if he says this is what qualifies a person to be a leader in my church that I bought with my own blood, then what's our option?

Well, I don't really like that. As one synod said, we need to engage in serious, respectful, and prayerful discussion of the covenantal relationship of marriage and equal marriage right for couples regardless of gender.

I don't need to pray about it. I don't need to talk about it. I can certainly be respectful. But the day that the elders of this church get together and we say, you know, could you please pray for us?

We're going to have a major powwow, and we want to discuss really, should women be pastors and is it okay for us to be practicing homosexuals? That is the day what? That is the day you should say I've changed the sign outside the door, pastor, to Ichabod Bible Church.

The glory of God has departed. Titus chapter 1, the qualifications are crystal clear. I mean, how easy can this be? For us, we want to submit to the Bible even if we don't like it. Titus 1 .5, this is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained in order.

Point elders in every town as I directed you. If anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife. The aner, the man, translated husband, of one wife. Greek word for woman. What does that mean? I want a man who has one wife and he's faithfully committed to her.

Sexual fidelity to her. Moral fidelity, man and woman, pure in his sexual life. Turn back two books, please, to 1 Timothy. It's the same thing. This does not say if anyone is above reproach, monogamous and loves one another.

One of the things that drives me crazy is people say, well, you can cohabitate as long as you love each other. So that means, let's say I wasn't married and I just had a girlfriend and I lived with her, then I could be her pastor too.

That would be their logic. I love her. 1 Timothy 3, it's the same thing. What are the words? No debate about the words. This is saying is trustworthy. If anyone aspires to the work or office of an overseer, he desires a noble task.

Therefore, an overseer must be, sounds just like Titus, doesn't it? Above reproach. You can say there's things about them that aren't right, but they don't stick. The husband, different word for man there, but still masculine, Andra, of one wife.

And then the list goes on. Number eight. What is the best way to evangelize homosexuals? Answer, the same way you evangelize any other sinner. There's no special gospel. There's no Gnostic gospel. There's no, I've got, this is a special, I've got five spiritual laws for these people.

Friend, she's a homosexual, and she said to me, Mike, I'm going to the hospital and I'm going to have a knee surgery. Would you come and visit me? I'd love to come and visit you, but I'm a pastor, and so when I go visit people in the hospital, I read a psalm, and then I pray.

Kim and I went. Went to the hospital. I knocked on the door like any other pastoral call with my Bible,.

And the partner was there.

The partner doesn't want to hear anything that I want to say, although she's kind to me and I'm kind to her. She said, okay, I'm going to go now. They kissed. We said goodbye. We talked. And I said, do you have any particular psalm that you'd like me to read?

She said, I really like that one psalm. Psalm 22, the Lord is my shepherd. I like that one. I said, I think you mean Psalm 23, but I'd like to read to you just one verse from one psalm, Psalm 22, verse 1.

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? I said, can you imagine the sins that we have committed against God the creator are so bad that he's going to judge every one of our sins, so bad that they deserve eternal torture forever in a place called hell.

And yet God in his goodness, his kindness, he didn't have to do it for the angels. He just judged. No plan of redemption. No salvation plan. God the Father poured out his wrath not on us, but on his Son.

And the Son drank the cup of God's wrath all the way down. Without the bloodshed, there's no forgiveness of sins. And Christ shed his blood and he was raised from the dead. God confirmed that. And she said to me, that must have been horrible that the Son had to receive all that wrath that he didn't even deserve.

How do we evangelize? Compassionately. Kindly. Regularly. The gospel about our great God. Our sin. The difference. The need we have. We've broken God's law. We show them their sin. Everett said, no man can enter heaven until he is first convinced he deserves hell.

Horatio Bonar said, in all unbelief there are two things. A good opinion of self and a bad opinion of God. So long as these things exist, it is impossible for an inquirer to find rest. His good opinion of himself makes him think it quite possible to win God's favor by his own religious performances.

The object of the Holy Spirit's work in convicting of sin is to alter the sinner's opinion of himself and so to reduce his estimate of his own character. That he shall think of himself as God does. What gospel do we preach to any sinner?

If you've got a sinner this big in your house, or you've got a sinner who's 90 years old, you preach to them the gospel, the good news, the declaration of what happened 2 ,000 years ago. You talk about the attributes of God.

You talk about their salvation and no one else. Acts chapter 4. You talk about how Christ would clothe himself in Philippians 2 with human flesh. Listen to what Thomas Watson said. That Christ should so clothe himself with our flesh, a piece of earth that we tread upon.

Oh, infinite humility. Christ taking our flesh was one of the lowest steps of his humiliation. He humbled himself more in lying in the virgin's womb than in hanging on the cross. It was not so much for a man to die, but for God to become a man was the wonder of humility.

Philippians 2 says he was made in the likeness of 1 John chapter 1 verse 7. The blood of Jesus cleanses us from all our sins. Number 9. What does it say about a society when it embraces homosexuality and celebrates it?

Romans 1 and God's Judgment on a Society That Celebrates Sin

Answer, let's go to Romans chapter 1. Romans chapter 1. What does it say about a society? What it says about the society is this. It says that judgment is here. It doesn't say judgment's coming if you keep it up.

It says, no, we're getting judged now. Oh, if America doesn't turn her back and all that stuff, and turn back to God, and if America doesn't turn her back on all these things, God's going to judge us.

Friends, look at the newspapers today. Look at the world today. Look at this issue of homosexuality, and you can say to yourself with crystal clarity, with Paul in Romans 1, God is judging America now.

And it is super scary. If I wasn't a Christian, believing in the sovereignty of God, I would be very, very frightened. Romans chapter 1, verse 18. Romans 1, 18. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth and unrighteousness.

This is very, very critical because the gospel found in verse 16. The gospel found in verse 16 about how God's righteousness is revealed in verse 17. I'm not ashamed of the gospel. It's the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, the Jew first and also the Gentile.

The gospel's important because there is such a thing as the wrath of God, the unmitigated, holy anger of God. That's true, and we need deliverance. We need the gospel of grace. People say, well, I'm not really mad at God.

Unbelievers say that. Well, how could you be after all the lavish gifts he gives you as an unbeliever? Breath and life and food and family and enjoyment and all that. How could you be mad at God? But friends, if you're not a Christian, having peace with God through the reconciliation done at Calvary by Jesus for you, he's angry with you.

People say, well, you know what? God's just kind of passive when it comes to sin. They expect every time that someone sins a lightning bolt to come down and kill the person. If you're really their God, you know, and this is really bad, then kill me with a lightning bolt.

Well, this passage talks about the anger and the wrath of God who is opposed always and forever actively. This isn't passive. This is active. And look at where it comes from. From where? From where? For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven.

This is not from society. This is not from the Supreme Court. This is God's wrath from heaven where he is. It's divine activity. And in a very, very real sense, isn't this true, Christians? You need to be saved, not primarily from sin.

Satan or the world. You primarily need to be saved by God from God himself. You need to be saved from God because it is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of a living God, isn't it? And look at, you know what?

Maybe God will just let a couple of those sins go. Maybe just one or two will get by against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. Are there exceptions? No. Does anything get by God? No. Some kind of, you know, you're going to fake a Passover here in basketball, but you'll look that way and you go, that one kind of got by me a little bit.

Everything he sees. And one of the things about God that people hate if they're an unbeliever is that God is immutably holy. He's immutably just. Immutably means he never changes. You know, it would be one thing if God was holy almost all the time, but a couple of times he just wasn't.

If he was just almost all the times, but a few times, especially the few times when I want to do my sin and get by with it, he just doesn't. But, you know, the problem with God is he's always holy, forever holy, and immutably holy.

And so what do people do? Men, by their unrighteousness, suppress the truth. Who can live like that? God is angry with the wicked every day. I can't deal with that. I've got to suppress that truth. I want it out of my life.

I've got to try to deflect that. Who wants to live with a mind honed in on God is going to get me? So what does our society do? It has to get rid of every remnant of God. We want it out of schools, out of the courtroom, out of the public arena.

We can't stand any of this God stuff because it impinges on our conscience when we want to sin. Society at best will say religion can be in the public square, but will create this kind of Westboro Baptist kind of Christian where it's this hellfire and brimstone caricature.

Verse 19, nobody can say I'm not sure about this God. I didn't have the facts. I didn't have sufficient data. I didn't know. I can't be blamed because verse 19 says that which is known about God is evident within them for God made it evident.

What's a substantiation? Verse 20, for since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes, his eternal, different word for eternal there, the alwaysness, power, and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are what?

Without excuse. By what has been made. By what has been made. Not by what has been evolved. Not by what has been theologically evolved. By what has been made. Just like in 2 Peter, the same word that created everything is the same word that's going to destroy things.

By what has been made. By God. And if there's a great God who made something, what's the response of the human? Now, Michelangelo was dead when I went to Florence to see David, the sculpture. But when I looked at David, the sculpture, by Michelangelo, I thought, and that is awesome.

How can you see some kind of, I don't know what it's made out of, marble or whatever. Here's a big chunk of marble over in the mountain, and you go, I see David in that. And then to sculpt it, and to put it up there, people are just like this.

Art students, stairs, riding, doing stuff, people are just there in awe. Look at David. Maybe you're into paintings, and you say, Renoir, what can Renoir do? And you sit and look, or you listen to music, and you just think, who could put that together?

How could Mozart do that? That's just amazing. There's just something in you that wants to go, that is awesome. And here God has made the universe with a word. And what's the response to the revelation of God in the universe?