Alright, we're here in Romans chapter 1, and as I said, both of the sermons here today
are about being thankful, and you might wonder, like, why did we read that in Romans 1? What
does this have to do about being thankful? And what I want to show you here today is
that when you look at these people that are just these God-hating, wicked people, really
the root cause is the fact that they're ungrateful and unthankful to God. It's not a matter of,
well, I was taught evolution in school, and they were deceived. No, no, no, just inside
of their hearts they did not want to give God glory and thank God. That's really the
start that caused them to become wicked people. So let's start back at verse number 16, and
the Bible reads in Romans 1 verse 16, For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ,
for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth, to the Jew first
and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to
faith, as it is written, The just shall live by faith. For the wrath of God is revealed
from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness.
Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them, for God hath showed it unto
them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen
being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power, and God has said that
they are without excuse. So in verse 16, the Bible is very clear that salvation comes for
all people by believing on Jesus, and the way we get people saved is not by some evolution
or creation seminar, but by giving people the gospel, whether they have a Buddhist background,
a Hindu background, an atheist background, or whatever. It's the gospel of Jesus Christ
that has the power. Then what you see in verses 17 through 20 is the Bible saying, you know,
these people, specifically verses 19 and 20, inside of people, they already know God is
real. They are born with that belief, and they can step outside and see what God has
made, and they know that God is real. Now, of course, that doesn't get somebody saved,
but every single person is born with a belief in God. You have that conscience on the inside
of you, and you can go outside, and common sense would tell anybody that this pulpit,
it was not created because I was cooking chicken and overcooked it and it exploded in my oven,
and then this is how we got this pulpit. It's like, hey, you know, Pastor Stuckey, that's
a nice suit. How did you get it? You'll never believe this, right? You know, I accidentally
mixed the wrong chemicals together, and there's this explosion and this fire, and then out popped
this suit. You'd say that's ridiculous, but isn't that what atheists believe, basically? I mean,
it's lunacy. It's stupidity. It's not about evidence. It's called they're denying reality
because they do not want to believe in a God that's going to judge them. And notice what it
says in verse 21, because that when they knew God, so they're aware of God. Inside of them,
they already know about God. They already know things. It's born into them to believe in God.
They see what God's made, and being aware of what God's made, they glorified Him not as God. That's
point number one. They did not glorify God. They knew that God created everything. They knew that
God created them. They knew that God created the sun, the moon, and the stars. And when you know
that somebody created everything, doesn't that just automatically tell you, I ought to give glory to
Him. He's the ruler, not me. But they refused to glorify God, even though they knew that God's the
one that made them and made everything in this world. It starts by not glorifying God. Go to
Psalm 24. Psalm 24. Psalm 24. Now, look, I understand people get deceived by false religions
and false beliefs, and we get that. But for somebody to become a God-hating, wicked person
inside of their heart, they determined not to glorify God. Point number one. It starts with not
glorifying God. It does not start with, oh, I saw this evolution seminar. For someone to go down this
road and become a wicked, evil person, it starts by inside of their heart, they don't want God to
be real. Psalm 24 verse 7. Lift up your heads, oh ye gates, and be ye lift up ye everlasting doors,
and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the
Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, oh ye gates, even lift them up, ye everlasting doors,
and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts. He is the King
of glory, Selah. Look, God is the King of glory. He's the one that demands and deserves respect.
He's the one that created us. He's the one that gives us life. He's the one that's given us all
the blessings we have. He's the one that created this world. And ever since I was a kid, inside of
myself, I want to make God happy. Isn't that the way that you felt? I want to glorify God. Now,
of course, you do wrong, we make mistakes, but inside of your heart, you want to do what's right.
But that's not the way everybody feels. People get bitter and mad against God and they don't
want to glorify God. Turn your Bible to Ephesians chapter 3. Ephesians chapter 3. I remember one
time my son was crying, my son Zeph. And he was crying because, you know, he did something wrong
and he got in trouble and I talked to him about it. And, you know, I asked him, like, you know,
why he was crying and he said he felt really bad because God was upset at him because he knew it
was wrong and he did it anyway. And, you know, obviously not a major thing. My son's five years
old. Okay. But I'm just saying inside of him as a young kid, you want to make God happy. Isn't that
true? You want to make God happy. But that's not the way that everybody feels. Now that's the way
everybody's born. Everybody's born believing in God and they want to make God happy, but things
can happen in their life where they decide to turn on God and not to glorify God. And they don't want
to believe in that God because they're bitter and mad at God. Ephesians 3 verse 20. Now unto him
that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power
that worketh in us, unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages,
world without end. Amen. You say, why is it pastor that we have not changed the music to bring in
more people? Well, here's the thing. It's not about us doing what we want to increase the
crowds. It's about glorifying God. And look, I praise God. We didn't make any changes because
we grew anyway by doing things the right way. We've got great people at our church, but that's not
the way every Baptist church does it. A lot of Baptist churches, they change things to fit with
Christian contemporary music and all those things and CCF and victory, and they make a lot of
changes. Why? Because they want to bring in bigger crowds. But look, this church does not exist to
make me look good or have a big crowd. No, it exists to glorify God. And whether that means we
have like 90 people at church or one day, Lord willing, have 500 people at church, this church
is going to exist to glorify God. The old fashioned way, hard preaching, the old fashioned hymns,
zealous soul winning, church planting. That is what this church is about. Go to Revelation 4,
Revelation chapter 4, verse number 10, Revelation 4, verse 10. The four and 20 elders fall down
before him that sat on the throne and worship him that liveth forever and ever and cast their
crowns before the throne, saying thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power for
thou has created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created. Why is it that the Lord
is worthy? Because he created all things. He created you. He created me. He created everything
that we see. And not only that, he created them for his pleasure. Look, your life does not exist
to make yourself happy. Your life exists to make God happy. You are created for God's pleasure.
It's not about what you want. You might want something, but what does God want?
You are created not to live for yourself, but to live for God and to give glory and honor to him.
Go to Revelation 5, Revelation 5, Revelation 5, verse 11, Revelation 5, verse 11.
And I beheld and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beast and the
elders, and the number of them was 10,000 times 10,000 and thousands of thousands, saying with a
loud voice, worthy is the lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength
and honor and glory and blessing. See, the Bible says here, worthy is the lamb. Why is it the lamb
is worthy? Because he died for you. That's what it says in that verse. I mean, the lamb died and
paid for your sins. Why should we try to glorify God and make God happy and be thankful to God?
Because he died and paid for your sins? Look, if you got a ticket, you know, for some sort of
driving fine of like 10,000 pesos, you're like, man, I can't pay it. And someone says, you know
what? No problem, brother. I'm going to pay it for you. You should be thankful to that person.
You should be thankful. And look, make no mistake. God gave us a gift. We do not have to pay back
that gift. We do not have to work to prove that we're really saved or anything like that. But
there should be the attitude of thank you God for the gift you gave me. Look, if you give your kids
a gift for Christmas and then they show no thankfulness at all, you're going to be very
mad at your kids. I mean, we're planning to give our kids gifts for Christmas. And if they're not
thankful for it, it's like no gift next Christmas. You say, why? Because they need to be thankful
and grateful for what they got from mom and dad. By the way, this is a side point. It has
absolutely nothing to do with the sermon, but you're foolish as a parent. If you teach your
kids Santa Claus, like you spend the money and then you give credit to the, to this
fictionary fake thing, Santa Claus, it's just like, you know, just tell your kids the truth.
Don't lie to them and say, Hey, you know, mom and dad gave you this and you ought to be thankful.
Go to Romans one, Romans one, Romans one.
Now to non-denominant church, that's probably hard preaching because they're afraid there'll
be a bunch of kids crying when, you know, the pastor says there is no Santa Claus,
right? I hope that's not hard preaching here.
Number one, they did not glorify God. How does someone become a wicked homosexual or
pedophile? Well, it starts by they didn't glorify God. They did not glorify God.
Number two, they were not thankful for what they were given. Romans one verse 21.
Because then when they knew God, they glorified him, not as God, neither were thankful. Man,
people that are unthankful are some of the most irritating people. You do something nice for
someone and they refuse to say thank you. It's like, what's wrong with you? I mean,
even if it's something small, it's just common courtesy that you, I would hope that your parents
teach you at a young age, something small, somebody holds the door for you. Thank you.
Right? We ought to say thank you for anything that we're given. But in Romans one,
you see people that are not willing to glorify God and they're unthankful to God for the things
they were given in life. Good Isaiah 14, Isaiah 14. Now it is certainly true that a lot of people
that go down this road in Romans one, the reason why they go down this road is the fact that a lot
of horrible things happen to them as a kid. And as a result, they grow bitter against God.
I get that. They still had a choice though, because other people have horrible things
that happen to them and they do not become bitter and hate God. Some people have horrible things
that happened as a kid, but they are still thankful to God for the blessings that God has
given them. Others though, they turn on God, they become bitter against God. They're mad at God
instead of glorifying God. And instead of being thankful, they grow bitter and say,
I'm never going to believe in that God. And they intentionally believe in a God they know doesn't
exist because they don't want to actually glorify the real God because they're mad at God.
And then they go down this spiral we see in Romans chapter one.
Isaiah 14, let me give you an example here with the devil. Isaiah 14 verse 10.
All they shall speak and say unto thee, art thou also become weak as we? Art thou become like unto
us? Thy pomp, which is like a word for being pompous, is a word for arrogant. Thy pomp is
brought down to the grave in the noise of thy vials. The worm is spread under thee and the
worms cover thee. How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning? How
art thou cut down to the ground which didst weaken the nations? For thou said in thine heart,
I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will sit also upon the
Mount of the congregation, the sides of the north. I will send above the heights of the clouds. I
will be like the most high. Yet thou shall be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.
I mean, this is the anointed cherub. This is someone, this angelic being, the devil,
who actually did have abilities above others. But instead of being thankful for what he did
have from God, he became bitter. He hated God. He says, no, I want more. I want to be like God.
I want to be like the most high. And then he's going to spend forever suffering in hell for all
eternity. And obviously we're looking at an angelic being, which is a bit different, but people go
down this same road where they get mad at God. They're not thankful for what they've been given
in life. They feel like something's owed to them and they grow mad and bitter at God instead of
being thankful toward God. Go to Ephesians 5, Ephesians chapter 5, Ephesians 5. Look,
when you're raising kids, if you see them develop this attitude of not being thankful,
somebody gives them something, they don't say thank you, you need to stop that immediately and
make sure your kids learn to say thank you. And look, you have to teach this to kids because kids
don't naturally do this. You have to tell them over and over and over again and stop them and say,
what do you say? Thank you. And I'm saying, even on something small, I'm saying you go to 7-Eleven
and the person gives you what you get. You teach your kids to say thank you for that. Why? I mean,
why? I mean, that's their job. You know what? You have a problem with your attitude, if that's the
way you feel. I mean, they should develop this attitude of saying thank you, whether it's at a
restaurant, whether it's something small. I mean, anything that you're given, just saying thank you.
Even if they paid for it, even if you buy something, that's just what you do. You say thank
you. And if your kids do not have that and they're not doing that, you need to change that immediately.
You say why? Because if you don't change that, your kids are going to grow up and be ungrateful,
spoiled brats. It's a fact. This is just common, you know, courtesy and manners 101. I'm sorry.
Thank you. Excuse me. Forgive me. I mean, that sounds like a future sermon here, right? Ephesians
5 verse 20, giving thanks always for all things on a God and the father in the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Look, any blessing and anything you get from God, you ought to thank God. You know,
your day ought to start by forgive me for what I did wrong yesterday. Help me to do better. And
also to thank God for what he has given you. And yeah, you know, things like salvation, you should
always be thanking God for that. Or thank you for giving me a great church. Thank you for blessing
me with a spouse. Thank you for blessing me with kids. Thank you for the job you've given me. We
ought to have this attitude of just thanking God. And this is so basic, but I'm showing you that in
Romans one, these people have become wicked people. Why did they go down that road? It wasn't
evidence that taught them this. No inside of their heart. They refused to glorify God and they were
unthankful, ungrateful for what God had given them. Go to Romans one, Romans one.
I mean, why do you have people like vice Pangit that starts acting like an animal? That is a
disgrace to being called a human being. I mean, literally you're acting like an animal, which I'm
sorry, but wasn't that the curse of God upon Nebuchadnezzar acting like an animal and then
people willingly act like animals. It's right because inside of his heart, he did not want to
glorify God. And he was unthankful and ungrateful to God. He certainly wasn't born that way. And it
wasn't evident. I just heard about evolution. And then all of a sudden you just started hating God.
No, it doesn't work that way. You can be deceived by false beliefs, but for someone to go down that
road in Romans one, they make a decision to be ungrateful, refuse to glorify God. And they end
up hating God inside of their hearts. Bible says they're haters of God in Romans one. And I'll tell
you what, that is not a normal reaction from people. I mean, when you think about, you know,
young kids, it's like young kids, they get mad. They might hate other people, but to hate God,
that's not something a normal person does, but inside of their heart, they did not want to
glorify God. And they went down that road, but they were one, they didn't glorify God. Point two,
they were not thankful for what they were given. Point three, they became vain in their
imaginations, vain in their imaginations. Romans one verse 21, because that when they knew God,
they glorified him, not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations.
And their foolish heart was darkened. Fools, idiots professing themselves to be wise. They
became fools and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like
corruptible man into birds and four footed beasts and creeping things. What the Bible is saying is
they didn't want to glorify God. They were unthankful, ungrateful. So inside of their
heart and inside of their minds, let me just imagine something. So I don't have to believe
in God. And the most stupid, ignorant things end up coming into the minds of man that doesn't want
to believe in God who created them. Just stupid beliefs that are out there. I mean,
just the dumbest thing ever. It's laughable when you talk about this thing about how there's like
900 genders or whatever. It's like, what? The stupidity. It's not a complicated topic. Where
does somebody come up with that? They just imagine it inside of their minds and hearts. Maybe I was
meant to be an animal. But that's the world we live in. You say, why? Because we are in a world
of people that are ungrateful and hate God. And there's no question the amount of reprobates in
this world is drastically increasing. Take a look at this country when you were a kid versus now.
Now raising young kids in this country, you know, you gotta be careful. There's people that are
acting animals like animals all around us all the time, openly. They don't even hide it. They
just let it be known. Every celebrity pretty much in the Philippines just acting like an animal
openly and yet they're really popular. What a shock that all these celebrities are dying when
they're 20 years old. Why? Because they're wicked perverts that hate God and they're getting what's
coming to them. Go to Genesis six, Genesis chapter six, Genesis chapter six. Now I want
to just show you a couple verses that show you this is not a new thing. Let's go before the
flood and see what was taking place in the world. Now when you look at the flood and you look at
the pre-flood days, we don't really have a lot of information about it. Everything got washed away
so we're not going to have historical records. Everything we know is pretty much found in Genesis
one. I mean, the first nine chapters of the Bible or the first six, first seven, eight, you know,
that area of the Bible. And there's not a whole lot, but the Bible does tell us in Genesis six a
little bit and you see it's not much different than the world that we live in today. Genesis six,
verse four, there are giants in the earth in those days. And also after that, when the sons of God
came in on the daughters of men and they bear children of them, the same became mighty men,
which were of old men of renown. You say, brother, what's this talking about? The sons of God. Well,
a son of God is someone who's saved. They believe on Jesus Christ. They've been born again. Just
like Jesus rebuked Nicodemus for not understanding the concept of the new birth before his
resurrection because the new birth already existed and they're marrying the daughters of men, not the
daughters of God. So it's giving you a generic thing saying save people are marrying unsaved
people. Why would they do that? Well, because they found them attractive. That's just how it
always is. Right? And so it came on the daughters of men and they bear children to them. The same
became mighty men, which are of old men of renown. What that's saying is they had children that
became very powerful and influential people. It's not saying they had a child that was 500 feet
tall. Look, a mom is not going to be able to give birth to a 40 kilo baby. Okay. Let's just use some
common sense here. Okay. They weren't just creating these like 500 foot tall, like half
angelic being human, whatever. No, they were giving birth to people that became powerful. Mighty men's
a term in the Bible that's just used for a person who's in an army or military, things like that.
So you're looking at politicians, people that are prominent. What we're seeing is you have saved
marrying the unsaved. What happens if the saved marries the unsaved? Well, generally the kids
are not going to grow up and serve God. Because if you as a Baptist decide, I'm going to just
marry someone of another faith that's not saved, you know what's going to take place? If you make
that compromise on marriage, you're going to make that compromise on infant baptism. You make that
compromise on everything. You need both parents on board to teach and raise your kids. Verse five,
And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the
thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. You know what people are doing before the flood?
I mean, remember the Bible says in like the days of Noah, I mean, it's a very wicked world is one
of those applications that's being made. These people, they were rejecting God and inside of
their minds, let's just come up with something where, you know, we can explain away God. And
there is no God and there are no rules. Same thing that's happening as we just saw in Romans
one, because there's nothing new under the sun. Same thing. Well, let us go to right after the
flood. Genesis 11. Let's see if anything has changed. Genesis chapter 11. Genesis 11 verse
four. Genesis 11 verse four. And they said, go to, let us build us a city in a tower whose top may
reach onto heaven. What? You're going to build a building that's going to make it to heaven? Are
you kidding me? But I don't know how tall the tallest building in the world is, but I know
there's no building that's like a million feet tall. And you're going to build a building to
reach up so you can be like eye level with God. You say, how could anyone come up with something
so stupid? Just the imaginations inside of his mind. He doesn't want to just believe in glorify
God. He wants to be on the same level as God, just foolishness. And let us make us a name,
lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. Now the end of verse four to me seems
to imply that they understood what they were doing. God would not approve of like, just in
case God scatters us, here's our backup plan. And it isn't amazing. God makes something happen that
is impossible. He basically performs a miracle to divide the languages at this point. Verse five,
and the Lord gave God, and the Lord came down to see the city and the towers, the children and men
building. And the Lord said, behold, the people is one and they have all one language. And this
they begin to do. And now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined
to do. They don't want to glorify God. They don't want to be thankful to God. So they just sit around
and say, let us just come up with something new. Let us just make up our own God in our own mind.
You know, you go out soul winning sometimes and people make statements like, well, my God would
never send somebody to hell. It's like, yeah, your God is a figment of your imagination. It's
the imaginations of your own mind and heart. It's not real. And yeah, you're right. Your God
wouldn't do that. The problem is your God doesn't exist. Your God has as much life as Dagon had in
it. None. Or as much as, you know, the, whatever the black Jesus at the feast, the black Nazarene
has none, no life in it. Go to Psalm 2, Psalm 2, Psalm chapter 2. And look, for sake of time,
we're not going to go through all these verses, but if you do a word study in the word, imagine
you're going to find a lot of references in the Bible and you're going to see wicked people just
coming up with stupidity in their minds, just vain imaginations as the Bible is saying in Romans 1.
In fact, there's a pretty famous rock song from John Lennon, right? What's the most famous song
by John Lennon and he wasn't with the Beatles at the time? The name of the song was Imagine.
Who knows that song? The song Imagine. Nobody wants to admit it. Nobody wants to admit they
know that song. How's that song go? Imagine there's no heaven. It's easy if you try.
No hell below us, above us only skies. Imagine all the people living for today.
Imagine there's no hell below us. I mean, I'm sorry, but when a volcano explodes,
you know what? That shows me idiots that the center of the earth is thousands of degrees.
Imagine all the people living for today. So you're just saying, just eat, drink and be married,
get drunk, do drugs and do all that. Live for today. Just sin and live it up
because there'll be no consequences. The imaginations of his heart. I mean,
in the own song he calls it Imagine. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh.
You don't want to believe in the God of the Bible. You just believe in stupidity.
I mean, the Beatles, they went to like India with the Hare Krishna followers. Like George Harrison
wrote a song about their hardcore Hare Krishna. You know, the people that are just like,
you know, just like for hours. The stupidity. So you don't want to believe in God the Creator.
So you believe in a stupid religion where you spend hours every day chanting, believing in a
blue God. Wow, that makes a lot of sense. But it's just the vain imaginations that come into
the minds and hearts of people that don't want to believe in the God of the Bible.
Now look, I didn't always know everything about the God of the Bible and I still don't now because
you're still learning, you're still reading, you're still memorizing, learning new things.
But I didn't know all the rules and commandments. If you had asked me like, you know, when I was a
kid, I'd say the Ten Commandments. And if you said there's more, I'd be like, there's more, right?
But here's the thing, even though I didn't know everything about God and as an unsafe person,
I wanted God to be happy with me. I wanted to glorify God. I wanted to do right. When I did
wrong and I had a guilty conscience and a guilty mind, I felt bad and I wanted to make changes. And
I knew God didn't approve. I knew He wasn't happy. But some people, instead of having that attitude,
instead they say, I don't care what God wants. He shouldn't give me rules anyway.
That's where it starts from. It does not start with being taught something false. It's inside
of their heart when they go down this spiral, become bad people. Psalm 2 verse 1,
Why did the heat enrage and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves
and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His anointing, saying,
let us break their bands asunder and cast away their courts from us.
Today, you look at most politicians and they sit around and they just try to get rid of the God
of the Bible. They don't like the God of the Bible. They don't want to follow the God of the Bible.
And they just take counsel saying, how can we make it hard for Christians? Because they don't like
the God of the Bible. They don't care about the God of the Hindus or the Buddhists or other
religions, but they care about the God of the Bible because they don't like the laws in this
book. What's God's reaction? He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh. The Lord shall have them
in derision. I mean, God's looking down and He's just laughing. He's saying, are you that stupid?
You can sit around and do all the counsels you want. I'm God almighty. You're not going to beat
me. I can do what I want. I have all power and authority. Then shall He speak unto them in His
wrath and vex them in His sore displeasure. These people, they hate God and they just
sit around and just imagine stupidity all day long. Why? Because they don't like the
God of the Bible. They don't like the true God up in heaven. That's the reason why. Turn your Bible
to Psalm 38. We'll look at a few more places. Psalm 38 in Psalms.
As I said, I'm cutting out a lot from my notes right now. Just look up the word imagine in the
Bible. Imagine, imagined. Look up those words and you're going to find, wow, there's literally,
and you say, what does that mean? It means literally that stupid people, people that hate
God, they don't want to follow God, they sit around and just come up with stupidity because
they don't want to believe in the God of the Bible. You look at most false religions in the
world, they're just obviously stupid. I mean, every false religion is wrong, but honestly,
most religions are just obviously madness. They make no sense whatsoever and people follow them.
And I get it. Some people are deceived, but what I'm saying is people that are leaders and then
embrace that fully, it's just like, because they don't want to believe in the God of the Bible.
They don't want a God that gives them laws and rules. Psalm 38 verse 11, my lovers and my friends
stand aloof for my sore and my kinsmen stand afar off. They also, they seek after my life,
lay snares for me and they that seek my hurt speak mischievous things and imagine deceits all the day
long. Just sitting around, just trying to come up with lies and ways to cause problems. Look,
you have to realize people don't always tell you the truth. And look, that's true of people
that are just normal people or even safe people. Don't think for a second that bad people are
going to be honest to you. All these reprobates that say, well, I was born that way. They're
lying. They imagine deceits. They don't care. They have no conscience. They don't feel bad about it.
They just tell lies. They imagine deceits. That's what the Bible says. Go to first Corinthians one,
first Corinthians chapter one, first Corinthians chapter one.
Bible says in first Corinthians one verse 18 for the preaching that crosses them that perish
foolishness, but unto us which are saved, it is the power of God. For it is written,
I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.
God says, I'm going to destroy this wisdom that people claim that they have in this world.
You think of people that are atheists, people that believe in the big bang theory,
the teachers of these false things and evolution. They say it's a fact. They've proven all this
stupid things like punctuated equilibrium because you can't prove gradual evolution.
It's been disproven. Just stupid stuff they come up with. Why?
Because there's no evidence for what they believe, but they don't care. It's not about evidence.
There's not more evidence for the earth being 4.6 billion years old than the earth being 6,000,
you know, over six, six to 7,000 years old. There's not more evidence. The evidence points
toward the Bible. The evidence points towards everything that the Bible says. I mean,
the evidence points toward a worldwide flood. Isn't it amazing that when you look at the so
called geologic table, you know what you got? You got birds near the top and humans near the top.
You know what? And you have animals that exist in the water toward the bottom. You know, that's
exactly what I would expect if there's a worldwide flood because birds fly around and they end up at
the top. I mean, that proves a flood. And what do they do? I mean, literally, they would have
no problem just switching the order of the animals. Oh, maybe birds came before dinosaurs.
We're just going to switch it. And they act like it's been proven from the geologic table. No,
actually the geologic table proves there was a worldwide flood. I mean, dinosaurs turned into
birds. That makes more sense than a bird ran out of energy and ended up at the top of the water
when there was a flood. That's what they teach. Dinosaurs turned into birds. Yeah, that makes a
lot of sense. Go to first Corinthians three, first Corinthians chapter three,
first Corinthians chapter three. No, when you run into people that are just, you know,
denying reality as you go out, soul winning, obviously people don't want to listen to gospel,
just move on. But also don't get into long winded debates about evolution and stuff that
does not. I mean, that's just a waste of time. If people want to argue with you, they're not going
to get saved. And I get it. I used to memorize a lot of facts on creation and evolution because
when I was in college, you'd run into people all the time, but that doesn't get people saved
because it's the gospel of Christ. It's the power of God unto salvation to everyone, every single
person that gets saved. It's the power of God. It's the gospel. First Corinthians three, verse 18,
let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become
a fool that he may be wise for the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written,
he taketh the wise in their own craftiness. And again, the Lord knows the thoughts of the wise,
that they are vain, vain imaginations. But verse 19 is interesting because he says,
he taketh the wise in their own craftiness. He said, what exactly does that mean? Well,
think about atheism, the big bang theory, you know, the Richard Dawkins, the Stephen Hawking,
the Neil deGrasse Tyson, you know, people like that, that are supposedly the wisest people on
earth, right? That's what they say. These are the wisest and smartest people. They're so much more
intelligent than any of us. I mean, Neil deGrasse Tyson's a million times smarter than us. Isn't
that what they teach us? Isn't that what they tell us? But God takes them in their own craftiness.
He said, what does that mean? Exactly. Their religion is all about, we're smarter than
anybody else. And if you don't agree, it's cause you're uneducated, right? And yet what they
believe is actually the dumbest thing you could come up with. Make no mistake. The big bang theory
is literally the dumbest thing you could come up with. I mean, if you sat around the dumbest
imagination that came in their mind, maybe the earth is 13.8 billion years or the world's 13.8
billion years ago. Just, I mean, nothing exploded. Just all the matter of the world condensed into
a dot and starts spinning and explodes. And then here we are. You can't come up with something
dumber. And it doesn't even explain the origin. I mean, this is how stupid it is. The book that
Charles Darwin wrote, The Origin of Species. When you listen to that title, The Origin of Species,
you would think he's giving the origin, the beginning, but yet evolution never gives the
beginning. They don't. They don't explain it because they can't. Why? Because the matter
would have had to come from something you idiot, but they can't explain it. Well, prove to us or
explain to us where God came from. You can't explain to us where this world started from.
But what actually makes more logical sense is that if there's an all powerful creator,
he's smarter than us and we're not going to understand everything.
That actually makes sense. What I'm saying is he takes them in their own craftiness.
Neil deGrasse Tyson, man, such a genius he is. And yet he says that we live in a simulated world.
Him and Elon Musk say that actually we live in some computer in some kid's basement
in a house. That's what he says. We're part of a video game, folks.
It's not real. We're like Super Mario characters. That's what they teach. Man,
that's so wise. That's so wise, Neil deGrasse Tyson. That is so wise, Mr. Elon Musk.
I mean, anyone who changed the name from Twitter to X, you can tell that's not that bright.
It's a dumb name. But it's like those are the smartest people, but he takes them in
their own craftiness. Or how about what is the religion of this world that's supposed to have
the secret hidden wisdom? Hinduism. Does that seem like the wisest religion to you?
You believe in a blue God with a snake around his neck?
That's the religion? God takes them in their own craftiness.
Or let me give you another example. Think of Buddhism. What is the whole religion of
Buddhism about? Removing suffering. That's what it's all about. Removing suffering. They'll
always talk about suffering, suffering, suffering if we could just remove suffering from life.
And yet, when you think of what countries Buddhism has thrived in, who knows the country
that has the highest percentage of Buddhism? It's not Thailand in terms of percentage of
the population. What country has the highest percentage? Cambodia has the highest percentage
of any country. Has anybody ever heard of Pol Pot in the Cambodian killing fields?
You couldn't have lived in a country with more suffering than Cambodia.
Their whole religion is let's remove all suffering. And where's the religion in?
Countries like Cambodia that has more suffering. China where there's all kinds of suffering.
Why? Because God takes them in their own craftiness. Okay, you want to remove all
suffering from your life, which is not something God says. Okay, I'll give you more suffering than
anyone. It's not a coincidence, folks. I mean, look at all false philosophies. I mentioned that
as we went through that series. You see, it's amazing. It's fascinating to me when I realized,
wow, he really takes them in their own craftiness. That's what you see.
Go back to Romans chapter one. Romans one. I mean, in the passage in Romans one,
oftentimes you make the application atheist, and that's a great application. Another great
application is to idolatry because they're not worshipping the creator. They're just talking
about turning him into an image. That's really idolatry that we're looking at. Made like the
corruptible man and four foot of beast and creeping things. Are you going to tell me
that you create a wooden idol, you give it a face, you give it a mouth, you feed it,
you give it a bath? I mean, you can literally go to YouTube, and it's like a big yearly event,
like the milk bath they give in some of these Asian countries for their idols. And it gets a
lot of views. People are like, this is the greatest thing I've ever seen. Look at that
milk bath they gave to Shiva. Are you going to sit here and tell me that idolatry makes
any sense whatsoever? But it's all in the imaginations of people. And look, even you
in this room, I mean, probably when you were growing up, you thought idolatry was stupid
anyway. You asked your parents, like, why are we praying to this piece of wood with a mouth?
It's just what we do. We're Catholics, right? What I'm saying is, it's just the vain imaginations
people come up with. It doesn't make any sense, but it's not about logic. It's not about evidence.
It's them being like a little kid that wants to wish something into existence. They don't
want to believe in the God of the Bible, so they come up with something in their own mind
and in their own heart. Point number one, they did not glorify God. Point two, they were not
thankful for what they were given. Point three, they became vain. Point four, lastly, they became
sinful. See, becoming these wicked, evil, disgusting people, it starts with just not
glorifying God and not being thankful for what God's given you. You don't accidentally become
like Vice Pangit or Mimi Yak. It's because of the fact they didn't want to glorify God inside
their minds and their hearts. They didn't want to be thankful to God, and that's what they became.
They just had the, I think they had the, I saw it on Google or whatever, when I opened it up,
they said it was the most unique Miss Universe because they had a bunch of guys
from different countries that were participating in the Miss Universe. It wasn't just like the
Netherlands. I'm trying to remember what the other country, I think it was Portugal,
if I remember correctly. It's like, what an embarrassment when the most attractive
woman in your country is a guy. And I'm not for the Miss Universe or beauty pageants anyway,
but I'm just saying it's just like the foolishness. It's like men are entering
beauty pageants. Or even in the world that we live in, men are winning all the
wrestling competitions for women in the US. Like they're entering the female and
they let men enter because they just identify as a woman. And it's like literally pro fighters that
are competing against women now are men, just like knocking women out. It's like the stupidity.
Explain to me, explain to me how you got this movement of feminism, which number one, you're
doing the opposite of creating women as feminine. You're making them masculine. Okay. It's a bad
name, but feminism, you want to promote and give women rights because they've been held
down for so long. And then you let guys enter the boxing competitions for women and knock them out.
Explain to me how that works, but it doesn't make any sense. But this is what happens when
you reject the God of the Bible. You start running into a lot of problems.
Point number four, they became sinful. Romans 1 verse 21, because when they knew God,
they glorified him not as God and neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations
and their foolish heart was darkened. And God says, you know what? I'm done with you.
You want to reject me. You don't have anything to do with me. You want to intentionally do the
opposite and just think against me all day long, how I'm going to destroy God and how I hate God,
then go ahead. I'm done with you. We'll see how it works out. Verse 24, wherefore God also gave
them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts to dishonor their own bodies between
themselves. Verse 26, for this cause, God gave them up on the vile affections for even their
women to change the natural use into that which is against nature. Likewise also the men leaving
the natural use of the woman burned their lusts one toward another, men with men working that
which is unseemly and receiving themselves that recompense of their error, which was me.
What is the Bible referring to here? It's referring to the homosexuals.
It's referring to the LGBT. I don't know what the percentage of the LGBT here is in the Philippines
or in Metro Manila, but it is skyrocketing. When you go out so many, you always see homos
everywhere. Cross dressers everywhere. You know what that says? Here's a country that is
ungrateful and unthankful toward God. Fighting against God. They hate the God of the Bible.
And this is the world that we've got. And it's not just the Philippines, but make them a say
about it. The Philippines is certainly near the top of the LGBT. What's that called? It's called
a society that does not want to give God glory and does not want to be thankful to God. That's
what it's called. It's not evidence. It's not like, well, you know, I had this class that said
the Bible is not true and now all of a sudden I hate God. No, because inside of the hearts and
minds of people, they know God is real. They might not know everything about the Bible,
but they know God is real. And the average and normal person wants God to be happy with them,
but not the people in Romans one. They want the opposite. They want to do the exact opposite of
God says verse number 28. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge.
So what does that say? They did not like to retain. They didn't want God in their knowledge.
I don't want to hear about the God of the Bible. I want to hear about the God of Leviticus 20.
I want to hear about the God that says this is wrong. I don't want rules. It's not evidence.
They just don't want to follow the God of the Bible. They don't want to follow the God that
gives them rules, even though they know it's true. And then what do they do? They just
lie to themselves and imagine the seats and all this stuff. And eventually they just start
believing stupidity. Yeah. And eventually these people, they do believe it. They believe stupid.
They try to believe something false. And then eventually they convince themselves. It's true.
They just lie to themselves enough. They eventually believe it because they do not
want to retain God in their knowledge. God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things,
which are not convenient, a reprobate or rejected mind being filled with all unrighteousness,
fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder,
debate, deceit, malignity, whispers, backbiters, haters of God. How can anyone come to a point
where they hate God? Children at a young age naturally have a love and affection toward God,
but they become this way because they don't want to be thankful and grateful to God.
Despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
without understanding covenant breakers, without natural infection, implacable, unmerciful.
Like in verse 30, inventors of evil things. They just come up with these stupid things
inside of their hearts and minds and they just think up foolishness.
Who knowing the judgment of God. So they know the judgment of God. They know God's punishment.
These people have some knowledge of what the Bible says. They know what the Bible says in Leviticus
20. They know what the Bible says about their lifestyle. Everybody knows the Sodom and Gomorrah
story. They cannot explain away what the meaning of that is or the people that got destroyed there.
They know what the Bible says. 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.
You know what makes these people happy? When there's more homos in this world.
There's more pedophiles in this world. See to the normal person,
if you pick up the newspaper and a tragedy takes place, it's not going to make you happy.
But to them, it's the opposite. They're filled full of murder. So when someone else commits
murder, they're happy about it. Now, of course, they're not going to say this because you might
be saying, that sounds hard to believe. Well, of course, they're not going to tell you this.
They're not going to be honest out loud about it, but that is what's inside of their mind.
They're filled with murder, the Bible says. And that's shocking, but that's literally what
they're like. They're bad people. They're evil people. But here's what I'm trying to tell you.
It starts by being unthankful to God, not wanting to glorify God.
You that have young kids, you know this, that your kids want to make God happy.
And so this is what I'm saying. If your kids are starting to be ungrateful and unthankful,
hey, you need to stop that immediately and say, hey, no, you need to be thankful for the things
that you're given. This attitude, well, I don't want to eat this food. No, you learn to eat what
we give you. Because other people are literally eating out of a dumpster can, out of a trash can.
You ought to be thankful for anything that we give you. You ought to be thankful to just have
a roof over your head, to be able to sleep at night. You ought to be thankful for everything
that you've been given. And look, these wicked people, it starts with just being unthankful.
Now look, I get it. If you're saved in this room, you're not going to become a Romans 1 person.
I get that. You're not going to all of a sudden become a pedophile one day. As a saved person,
that's never going to happen. But at the same time, it ought to show us the importance of
being thankful to God for the things we've been given in life. Don't be the sort of person that
is just unthankful and ungrateful. Because look, if you're saved, you have a lot to be thankful for.
And look, if you have this church, you have a lot to be thankful for. This is a great church.
I mean, in Metro Manila of 13, 14 million people, this is literally the place where people that love
God gather to be. This is the place. People, I mean, outside of Metro Manila, people come from
a long distance. Why? Because these are the people that love God. You ought to be thankful to have a
church like this. Because all over the world, there are people that are saying, man, I wish
I had a church like this. And any blessings you have in life, be thankful for what God has
given you. Let's close with a prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here today
and ask you to help us apply this sermon to our lives, including myself and my family. Help us
to be thankful for everything you've given us. Instead of focusing on things that we don't have
or things maybe that we wish we had, God, help us just be thankful for the things that we do have
and all the blessings you have given us. I ask you to help all these kids at a young age to learn
to be thankful for you, for everything you've given them, and also when they reach that age,
to receive you as Savior and believe on Jesus and get saved, God. And we just pray these things in
Jesus' name. Amen.