(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Man, the title of my sermon comes from verse number four here where the Bible asks this question, actually not verse four, sorry, verse five. The Bible asks this question, is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance? The title of my sermon tonight is, is God unrighteous? Is God unrighteous? Obviously we know the answer to that question, but the apostle Paul puts this question forth and I want to go through some of this because there are a lot of people in this world today that do think that God is unrighteous. They think that the God of the Bible is unjust, that he's not a good God, that he's not a merciful, righteous, loving God, whatever they want to say about God. They think he's some kind of a malevolent God or an evil God or something like that. And so let's go through this passage and see what the apostle Paul has to say about it. Starting on verse number one, it says in verse one there, what advantage then hath the Jew or what profit is there of circumcision? Now let me just bring you up to speed in the context here. Hopefully you remember just in the last few weeks I preached a couple of sermons on Romans one, I preached on Romans two, and if you remember in Romans chapter two, the subject matter had to do with the fact that the Jews were condemned before God. They were guilty, they were sinners. The Gentiles, we know that they're sinners and that they've gone and worshiped idols and become pagans and so forth. But then in chapter two, he said, well, you know, the Jews, they don't follow the law. They're sinners as well. They're condemned as well. So then when we roll into chapter three, he says, well, what advantage then hath the Jew or what profit is there of circumcision? And then he answers the question of verse two, much every way, chiefly because that unto them were committed the oracles of God. So what is Paul saying here? The number one advantage that the Jews had over the Gentiles is that unto them were committed the oracles of God, meaning that the word of God was delivered unto them. So obviously if you were living back at that time, if you were living BC or around the time of Christ, if you grew up Jewish, right, you would probably have more of a chance of getting saved because you're hearing the word of God than if you grew up in some pagan household somewhere. So the advantage of the Jew is that unto them were committed the oracles of God. They had the most access to the word of God. Okay. And then he's going to jump back to this in verse nine and he says, what then are we better than they know and know why he's saying, look, the Jews are not better than the Gentiles. And notice it says in no wise, meaning in no way, shape or form are Jews better than Gentiles whatsoever. What advantage do they have? Is it because, you know, being faithful is just in their blood because they descended from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob? No. The advantage is that unto them were committed the oracles of God. They're hearing the Bible. They have more access to the word of God. But are the Jews better than the Gentiles? No in no wise, he says, for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles that they're all under sin. Okay. So let's go back to where we were. He said chiefly because that unto them were committed the oracles of God. Verse three, for what if some did not believe? Shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? So he's saying, okay, so the Jews had the oracles of God committed unto them. They received the word of God. What if the Jews didn't believe the word of God? What if some of them did not believe? What if they rejected the Lord Jesus Christ? Does that make the faith of God without effect? God forbid. Who cares? That's their problem, right? The fact that they have rejected the truth that was handed to them on a silver platter, like Stephen said, you know, you've received the law by the disposition of angels and have not kept it. They had everything handed them. Does that make the faith of God of none effect? Does that make the promises of God void to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob? They blew it. And so the righteous remnant was saved and the majority of them ended up ultimately falling away and being destroyed. And so what if some did not believe? Shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? God forbid. You know, just because even something doesn't mean that it isn't true. There are a lot of people today that don't believe a lot of things that are true and whether they believe it or not doesn't change the reality of it. He says, God forbid, yay. Verse four, let God be true, but every man a liar as it is written that thou mightest be justified in thy sayings and mightest overcome when they are judged. Now what does that statement mean? Thou mightest be justified in thy sayings. First of all, that's man speaking to God saying thou that thou mightest be justified in thy sayings and thou mightest overcome when thou are judged. You see, God is often judged by man, but God is always right. God always ends up being justified. Now what does the word justified mean? Justified means to be declared righteous. Now when we think of justification, we typically would connect that with having our sins forgiven because we're sinners and then we get justified and then we're declared righteous in the sight of God, which in order for us to be declared righteous, obviously there has to be a pardoning of our sins that we have, but actually God can be justified as well. Christ can be justified as well. Not because they had any problem or sin or any need for justification, but simply because justification just means to be declared righteous. So if someone declares God to be righteous, they're justifying God. If somebody declares the Bible to be righteous, they're justifying the Bible. And so he says, let God be true, but every man a liar. And remember the question that makes the title of the sermon tonight is, is God unrighteous? Cause this is the next verse, but if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance? I speak as a man. Well coming up in verse 10, we have a super famous verse, don't we? As it is written, there's an unrighteous no, not one. So it turns out that everyone is unrighteous except for God. He's actually the only one who's righteous. So he has the question was, is God unrighteous? No, you're unrighteous. Everyone else is unrighteous. He's the only one who's righteous. Well, did God lie? No, you're a liar. Every human on this earth is a liar, but God cannot lie. Okay. So Paul's getting across here when he says that God is going to be justified in his sayings and God is going to overcome when he's judged. Anybody who judges God, you know, that's obviously meaningless because God is the author of righteousness. So this part gets a little bit complicated. So I want to break this down as I get into the message tonight. In verse five, it says, but if our unrighteousness command the righteousness of God, what shall we say is God unrighteous, who taketh vengeance, I speak as a man, God forbid. That's kind of a complicated sentence, right? So let me break that down to you a little bit. What does the word command mean? Well to command something is to praise or exalt or lift up something. So for example, if a police officer received a commendation, that means that he's basically getting an award. He's being exalted or praised or extolled or lifted up somehow. So the question is in verse five, if our unrighteousness command the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Why in the world would our unrighteousness command the righteousness of God? Well what did he just say? He said, let God be true, but every man a liar, that thou mightest be justified in thy sayings and mightest overcome when thou art judged. Basically what the Bible is saying is that God is glorified even by sinful people on this earth, okay? So if people on this earth do the right thing and they're godly Christians, they're actually bringing glory to God, right? If I go out and follow Christ and do what's right, then I'm bringing glory to God with my life. But what about a horrible sinful person out there in this world? Are they bringing glory to God? They actually are. They're actually justifying God because by their unrighteous wicked life, they're actually making God look good because God is so much more righteous in comparison to them because God is true where they're a liar. God is righteous and they are unrighteous. So even the unrighteous people of this world ultimately bring glory to God just by their unrighteousness and then God basically is glorified as their judge that condemns them. So if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, meaning exalted or lifted up, then what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance? And he puts this in parentheses because he wants the reader to understand that he feels that this is a stupid question, okay? Is God unrighteous is a stupid question because obviously God is righteous. That's why he says in parentheses why I speak as a man. I'm basically just talking from an ignorant human fleshly perspective asking this question, is God unrighteous? I'm speaking as a man, you know, God forbid for then how shall God judge the world? You know, God is the judge of the entire world. How could he be unrighteous? For if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory. So he's saying, you know, if I lie and that just glorifies God by showing that he is the only one who tells the truth all the time, then why yet am I also judged as a sinner? And not rather as we be slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say, let us do evil that good may come, whose damnation is just. And so again, this is a kind of a complicated thing that he's saying here. But what he's basically saying is that, you know, we obviously should not go out and sin and lie and do wrong and say, well, ultimately, you know, God's glorified by everything that happens in this world, right? So obviously we should not do evil that good may come. Now this is kind of a foreshadowing of the argument that he's going to give in Romans chapter six, because in Romans chapter six, after he spent chapters three, four and five teaching salvation by grace through faith, he says in Romans six one, well, what then should we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid, because you know where sin abounded, grace did much more about. So should we just go out and sin and say, hey, look how much I can sin and God's grace is so sufficient and isn't it amazing how God's forgiving all this that I'm doing? Obviously that's crazy, right? And he says, no, just because we have an unlimited supply of grace and forgiveness from the Lord does not mean that we should go out and sin and so forth. But notice that there are people slanderously accusing Paul of teaching a license to sin because look what it says, as we be slanderously reported, it says in verse eight, as we be slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say, let us do evil that good may come. Now, Paul never taught that, but that's what he's being accused of teaching. Why is Paul being accused of teaching that? Because he's teaching a free salvation. He's teaching salvation by grace through faith. And so he's accused of giving people a license to sin and just go out and do whatever and sin more so that grace may abound. And you know, if we lie, it's all, you know, forgiven, it all brings glory to God ultimately. So obviously that's not what Paul's teaching. Then in verse nine, he kind of gets off that train of thought and jumps back to the original thing about the Jews and says, you know, Hey, what then are we better than they know and no wise for we before proved both Jews and Gentiles that they're all understand as it is written, there's none righteous. No, not one. Now I know that this portion of scripture is a little bit complicated, so I hope you didn't get lost there and all the details are bogged down and all the language here because, you know, these first eight verses of chapter three are kind of tough to understand and wrap your mind around. But I hope that my explanation there helped a little bit. But the reason I'm preaching this is because first of all, number one, all scripture is given by inspiration of God's profitable for doctrine. Just because the passage of scripture is tough doesn't mean that we should ignore it or back off from it or shy away from teaching it or, or learning about it. We need this portion of scripture. And number two, I think that this question is very relevant in our day is God unrighteous because there are so many people today that are standing in judgment of God today. And so God is justified in his sayings and God is overcome whenever he is judged. And there are many people today that stand in judgment of God. Now let me say this. There are about 8 billion people in the world. And here's what you're going to find about the 8 billion people in this world is that they have very different opinions from one another, don't they? You know, I guarantee you that even in this room, on varieties of subjects, if we got into conversations, we would be in total disagreement on something. You know, even if we agree on Jesus and the Bible, I guarantee you that if I got to talking to anyone in this room long enough, we'd probably find some subject where we just vehemently disagree with one another, am I right? Because you got 8 billion people and so you have all these different views, all these different opinions. Everybody thinks differently, different political opinions, religious views, philosophical views, views about everyday things, views about nutrition or sports or just anything. So here's my question for you. If there are 8 billion people in this world, all with dramatically different views on a variety of subjects, why would you for one second assume that the creator of the universe, the God who created everything, just happens to agree with you on everything? But that's what people think today. It doesn't make any sense, does it? You got all these different people with all these different views. Not only that, throughout our lives, our views on things change. But yet you expect to read the Bible and just be like, yup, yup, yeah, that's what I think too, yeah, yup, that's exactly the way I see it, yup, uh-huh, yup, yup, yup, well, God's just like me. God thinks just like me. God agrees with me on everything. I mean, think about how crazy that is. Basically what you're saying is that basically you're just this unique unicorn where you, out of all people in this world, just happen to be the person where your personal views and your kind of gut feeling and what you think in your heart that just kind of seems right to you just happens to be the exact way the creator of the universe feels. Isn't that amazing? It's not amazing because it's stupid because it isn't true because that's crazy to think that. You have some kind of a God complex if you think that you can look inside and find all the right answers and then you expect God to match that perfectly and then if God doesn't match that perfectly, you're going to judge God and say, well, I'm right and God's wrong about whatever the subject. Think about how arrogant it is for you to stand in judgment of God. But yet this is what people do every single day. I remember when I was a teenager and when you're young, you grow up in a Christian home, you're reading the Bible, you're listening to preaching and you get to a point where you start kind of thinking about things for yourself and kind of deciding who you are as a person, deciding what you personally believe, deciding what you want to do with your life. And so at some point in life you do some of your own soul searching. And I remember having this thought distinctly when I was a teenager as I was, you know, thinking through these things and trying to wrap my mind around some of the teachings of the Bible and things that God spells out in his word. And I remember thinking to myself, you know, what is my opinion? You know, I'm 13, 14, 15, 16 years old, whatever, and I was thinking like, what is my opinion? What are these views in my heart that just seem true? You know what they are? It's everything I've watched on TV my whole life. It's everything I've heard on the radio my whole life. It's everything I've read in magazines and books all my life. It's everything that my parents have taught me, that school has taught me, that church has taught me, that I've read, listened to, that the media has shown me. That's where my views are coming from. I'm getting my views just from all what people are telling me and different sorts of things that can I really trust that? You know, is that am I just the final judge of what's right and wrong when I'm 14 years old because my parents and school and church and mainly TV and movies and music and whatever have taught me to think a certain way. You know, I realized that my own heart is not a trustworthy source of truth. And so I decided that I am going to put my faith and trust in what the Word of God says on every subject. And when what I think and what the Word of God says conflict, I'm going to go with the Word of God and say, I'm wrong and the Bible's right. And I made that decision a long time ago, long before I was a pastor. In fact, long before I'd even read the Bible cover to cover, I already decided that I believed everything in the Bible and that whatever the Bible says, I'm just going to believe it because who so trusted in his own heart is a fool. And the Bible says, trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding in all thy ways, acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths. Now obviously we should listen to the leading of the Holy Spirit in our lives, but the Holy Spirit will speak to us through God's Word. He'll bring God's Word to our remembrance. He'll point us toward the Word of God. He will guide us into all truth. I'm talking about that inner voice that's just like, I don't know. I mean, would a loving God really do that? Would he really torch all those homos and Sodom and Gomorrah? I don't know. It just doesn't seem right to me. Well who the hell are you? Huh? Who are you? You're nobody. You were born yesterday. And you're going to sit there and be like, well I just don't know what God did here. Who cares what you think? I don't care what you think. You know, your opinion is just whatever happened to be taught to you by culture and society. Because let me tell you something, isn't it funny how so many people today do have similar views on certain subjects? Or even, they'll even spout off the same views on a certain subject. But yet 50 years ago they would have the opposite view. Because it's just whatever the media is feeding them, every movie, every TV show, every song on the radio has a message that is, and we're all susceptible to it. You know, we all live here. We're all getting all these influences from human beings and from, you know, mass media besides what we get from the word of God. And so we have to realize that just because you, that we think something, it doesn't just make it automatically right. Like well this doesn't seem right to me in the Bible. Well you know, the Bible says there's a way that seems right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. So there's some things that seem right that are dead wrong. And you know, the older you get, the more you're going to find out this is true in every area of life, not just religion. Okay, you can go into any subject you want with really definite ideas and then have your ideas overturned. You know, whether you study math, history, science, you name it, you're going to come to certain things where you just knew it was a certain way and then you, no, no, no, it's actually the other way, whoa, well it just doesn't seem right to me. I mean the world being round, that just doesn't seem right, you know, it feels flat or something. That's the kind of stupidity of just trusting your gut on everything instead of letting the word of God be your final authority because your gut is flawed, okay? Your gut is like one of 8 billion guts that are all saying 8 billion different things. And so at the end of the day, God's word is the final authority. You know, I just decided to make God's word my final authority. This is what I believe. This is the boss. And if what I think conflicts with what the Bible says, I'm going to go with the Bible. Let God be true and let me be a liar. Let God be righteous and let me be unrighteous. I'm the one that's wrong. He's the one who's right. And you know what? That's where you need to get in life, my friend, and say, oh, how can you just blindly believe the Bible? How can you just blindly believe what your cartoon movie, rock and roll music filled mind tells you is right all the time? What are you listening to? Some voice inside that just happens to be telling you whatever TV is telling you? Isn't that interesting that just, oh, you just have this inner voice that's just telling you the same thing that millions of other people are being told by their inner voice that nobody had an inner voice telling them that in the 50s or 60s or 70s. Now all of a sudden everybody's having this inner voice. It's called the narrator of a TV program that's talking, that told you those things. Is God unrighteous? No, no, you're unrighteous. I'm unrighteous. God is right. Let's look at the rest of the question because the question doesn't stop at is God unrighteous? The next part of the question is who taketh vengeance? Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance? Is it fair for God to punish sin? You know, God created this world and God created us and God basically allowed us to have free will and so, you know, that opened the door for us to sin and then everybody has sinned and then now there's a punishment that we're liable to and ultimately even the damnation of sinners brings God glory, right? God's glorified even by people's sinfulness because it makes him more righteous in comparison and when they're damned and sent to hell, he's glorified by their punishment because justice is served. Justice is carried out and then when people get saved, that glorifies God. In the end, everything ultimately brings glory to God in the end. So does that make God unrighteous for judging sin? No. Say, well, why not? Because here's the thing. God is the author of righteousness and he decides what's righteous and what isn't. You don't. You don't get to stand in judgment of God. God is the one who makes the rules, okay? There's God unrighteous who taketh vengeance. Now, obviously when we think of God punishing sin, the big subject is hell because the ultimate penalty for sinners is to spend eternity in hell, right? So that's a punishment for sin and people struggle with this. People have a hard time with this and I'll be honest with you, you know, there have been times in my life where I struggled to wrap my mind around the concept of hell and, and just think like, wow, you know, how can people be going to hell and, and hell is such a horrible place God, why would God create hell? And you, you know, you, you have a hard time, so I was wrapping your mind around that aspect of God where he's taking vengeance. But let me say this, you know, God is love. Now wouldn't you say that the love of God passes all understanding? You know, uh, that you may know the, the width and depth and height and, and the, the love of God that passes all understanding, right? You know, we have a song in the hymnal about the love of God. You know, if every tree were a quill and you know, the whole ocean's full of ink and you know, to write the love of God would drain the oceans dry, nor could the scroll contain the hole if stretched from sky to sky, right? Just you could just never comprehend the depths of God's love, right? Amen. Okay, well let me explain some of you. Because wrath is the same way. Just as I cannot comprehend the love of God. I'm like, man, I don't have love like God has. I mean, who here thinks that they're more loving than God? Who would raise your hand and say, you know, I'm more loving than Jesus. Jesus? Yeah, Jesus loving, but I'm more loving. Would anybody be stupid enough to confess that? No, because obviously, we could never come close to having as much love as God. God's love passes all understanding, God's the ultimate in love. Well, here's the thing. God is also the ultimate in vengeance. So if you can't grasp the love of God, if you can't fully comprehend the love of God, if you can't fully relate to the love of God, if you can't even come close to having that kind of love in your heart, why would you expect to have the level of vengeance in your heart that God has in his heart? I mean, think about it. So I could just be like, well, I, you know, I just, you know, I wouldn't send all those people to hell. Yeah, but you wouldn't die on the cross for people either. You know what I mean? I wouldn't, hey, I wouldn't go to hell for someone else. I wouldn't go to hell for anybody. I'd be like, nope, I'm not going. I'm just being honest. I'm not. I would not go to hell for anyone. There's no one on this planet that I would go to hell for, but yet Jesus Christ died on the cross for us. He took upon himself the sins of the world and he basically took the whole brunt of the wrath. God, the father pouring out his wrath on the son and he went to hell for three days and three nights and suffered all that eternal vengeance somehow in a finite period of time because he's God and you know, that's an amount of love that I can't even comprehend because I don't, I don't love anyone to that level and I think if you're honest, you would probably say the same thing. And so the point is, if we can't grasp the love of God, why would we think that we could grasp the wrath of God? God's wrath is also on this other level that we can't process. So as soon as you process the love of God, then come and tell me how you can't process the wrath of God because you can't process either one because God is so far beyond us on his love, but he's also so far beyond us on his justice because vengeance is not necessarily a bad thing because it stems from his righteousness or his justice. And so because God's sense of justice is on such another level, his vengeance is beyond our comprehension. And so therefore, if you try to process hell, if you try to process the wrath of God, you might struggle with it just like you struggle with processing the love of God. But at the end of the day, you just have to realize that you're not God. He's God. He makes the rules. And here's the other thing that I want to really emphasize is that there is no other God to compare him to. You know, God said, well, to whom will you liken me? Whom will you liken me? There's no other God. It's not like, well, you know, our God is, you know, a little meaner than this other God in this other universe or something. There's only one. So because there's only one, there's no point of comparison. So you know, whether you like him or not, he's the only one you've got. This is the only universe that you were born into. There is only one God. And he is who he is. In fact, that's what he even says about himself. I am that I am. Deal with it, right? I am that I am. This is who I am. Deal with it. That's God's message. He is God. Okay. You can either get on his program or get smoked. Now what's funny is when atheists think that they're so clever, they think they're so smart because they have all these arguments against God that are so absurd that we look at it and say, you know, professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. And they talk about, you know, the problem of evil in this world. And that's why we know God doesn't exist because of the problem of evil. I've even read these atheists, they're like, well, the reason I became an atheist is because, you know, I started thinking about the problem of evil in this world. And I've heard these guys like, you know, Richard Dawkins comes to mind, where Richard Dawkins said, you know, that possibly aliens could have created us, maybe. But what about the God of the Bible? Maybe not. And he was asked, well, you know, why is it possible that aliens could have created us, but not the God of the Bible? And he said, well, because the God of the Old Testament is homophobic, misogynistic, racist, he's vindictive, he's mean-spirited, and all these different things. Okay. Now, first of all, of course, that's not even true. Okay. Except for the part about hating homos. But you know, obviously the rest of that's not even true. But here's the thing. Let's say it were true. Why would that mean that God doesn't exist? Let's say for instance, that God were a malevolent God. Let's say that God were a mean God up in heaven. Would that mean that he doesn't exist? That's pretty stupid logic, isn't it? Because I, you know, I don't think Richard Dawkins like me, but yet I exist. But it's like, yeah, how could God be? There's only one. That's what he's like. Whatever you read in Genesis, that's what God's like. Whatever you read in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, that's what God's like. Yeah, but some of these things I don't agree with. Yeah, that's because you're one of 8 billion people that all have different opinions. And you don't just happen to line up perfectly with God on every opinion. What a shock. There is only one God. This is who he is. Deal with it. Well, I don't like him. Well, you know what? Then you're wicked. Go to hell. Because you know what? Righteous people love God. Okay. People who do truth, they come to the light and they actually come to Christ and they love Christ and they actually not only believe in Christ. But I'll tell you the biggest reason I believed in Christ as a young boy is because I didn't want to go to hell. But I'm not just like, well, you know, I mean, I have to believe in Christ and not go to hell, but you know, it doesn't mean I like it. Hey, I love Christ. Not only do I believe in Christ, but I love Jesus Christ. I love the Bible. I love God. In fact, I like all of it. Like there's not even any of it that I don't like. All of it. There's not a part that I'm kind of ashamed of and trying to hide. I just want to preach every single verse of it in my lifetime. I want to get up here behind this pulpit and just proclaim every single word of this book and just that God can be justified in his sayings and overcome when he is judged. And I just want to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ. And this is the most beautiful book in the world. I just love reading it every single day. You know, but then it's like, well, I just don't like it. That says more about you than it says about this book. You see, God is right. You're wrong. God is telling the truth. You're a liar. You believe lies. You've been brainwashed by TV, been brainwashed by the radio or whatever. That's your problem, okay? God is righteous. Everything God does is right. All of his judgments are right. He's right about every subject all the time. And so this attitude that says, well, you know, God is all these things that I don't like, therefore God doesn't exist. That's just stupid because, you know, even if God were a mean God, he could still exist. And it's just like, deal with it. You know, you're born into this universe and God is just ready to kick your butt. Well, that just can't be. Why not? Why not? Says who? And by the way, who even decides what mean this even is or what's even right or wrong? Because let me just explain this to you right now. If there were no God, if God didn't exist, then all things are permissible. If God did not exist, there would be no right and wrong. If everybody were just a combination of molecules and this were just a big cosmic accident, it's a little wrinkle in the space time continuum or something that all of a sudden we popped into this world, some cosmic accident. If we're just a bunch of hairless monkeys walking on our hind legs, then who cares? Who can even say what is right or wrong? There would be. God is the author of right and wrong. The Bible is the arbiter of right and wrong. God is the final judge. And so this attitude that says, well, you know, I don't like this about God, therefore I don't believe in him. That doesn't even make sense logically. That'd be like, well, I don't like North Korea, so I just choose to believe that it isn't there. But here's the thing about that is that we live in this really sheltered part of the world. Okay. I mean, do you understand that like we're living better as far as prosperity and comfort and safety and peace, we're living better than like 90 some percent of the world right now. Okay. Even if you're a poor person in America, even if you're struggling in America, you're living way better than a lot of people in other parts of the world. Okay. I mean, we have it good. We are super sheltered. And you know, there are some there's some bad places to be in this world. And you know what the Bible says, the dark places of the world are full of the habitations of cruelty. And there are some dark places in this world. You know, and I was I was just reading about an Indian reservation in Montana, where just like some huge it was like, they were saying that virtually every kid was getting molested in this town. All these rapists on the loose, and they weren't able to punish them. And there were just all these horrible predators, and they get they get just a slap on the wrist and they didn't have enough policemen to deal with it and collect the evidence. And so they're just they're not being prosecuted. And so all these girls are getting molested. It's like, you know what, there's stuff like that going on all over the world. There are horrible and you know, sorry to be negative, but this world is filled with murder and rape and molestation and all these horrible, horrible things. Just all kinds of people being robbed and beaten and abused and a bunch of fraud and corruption and people lie and cheat and steal and kill and commit adultery and people just hurt other people all the time. You know, that's why you have this great big religion with 500 million people in it called Buddhism, that's 100% based on the philosophy that all of life is suffering. And you want to know why that religion is so popular in a certain part of the world. Because it's such a whatever hole that they live in, such a crap hole that they live in, that basically that's how they feel about existence in life. Because yeah, that's where they live. In a messed up place, a godless place, a non Christian place, a horrible place filled with pain and suffering and misery. And let me tell you something, here we are living in the United States of America. Now we have to thank God every day that we live in such a nice place. Phoenix Arizona is a really nice place. Look at India, and it's got some rough places in India. North Korea is a rough place today. You want to live in North Korea? There are some really rough places in this world, there are some rough places all over. And you know what, you got to thank God you live in such a nice place, but you're so sheltered in America, you sometimes forget about all the horrible things that are going on out there in the world. And obviously, even in the United States, horrible things are going on. But it's even worse in other places. There's all this bad stuff. So we all agree on that? Okay, well, with that in mind, then let me ask you this question then. Why would you be surprised to find the level of gnarliness that you find in the Bible, given the level of gnarliness that exists in this world? Like why would you expect God to be this sweetness and light God when the world is the way it is? Ask yourself that question. Like, you know, it always blows my mind. When people look at something in the Bible where the Bible describes, because what does the Bible script the Bible describes? Not giving us descriptions, thank God, but it actually tells stories that involve, you know, just horrible murders, mutilation, rape, incest, and people are like, oh, it's horrible things. How can these things be in the Bible? They're in the world. They exist. Of course, they're going to be in the Bible. The Bible is real. And so yeah, it's going to have all these gnarly things. It's going to have all of these horrible things. I mean, you don't have to get far in Genesis before you're getting into just all kinds of horrible things, right? I mean, a gang rape and Sodom and Gomorrah and incest and murder and trickery and deceit and all these horrible things. It's like, oh, man, the Bible, you know, it should have a warning label on it. Hey, welcome to the world, buddy. Do you think you think there's anything in the Bible that doesn't exist in this world? I mean, you know, you read Leviticus 18 and you're just like, oh, what are we what are we talking about here? Leviticus 20. You're like, why are you bringing this up, God? Then he gets the end of the chapter and says, well, the Canaanites did all these things. And let me tell you something. It's not just the Canaanites. They're doing those things today, because this world is a messed up place. So therefore, when we read messed up things in the Bible, it shouldn't surprise us because there's messed up stuff going on in the world. OK, and then let's flip that over. When we encounter something messed up in life. Don't let that freak you out, because the Bible already told you that the world was messed up. Look what the Bible said. Look down at your Bible. This is the world you live in. The Bible says in verse 10, as is written, there's none righteous. No, not one. There's none that understand it. There's none that seeketh after God. They're all gone out of the way. They're together become unprofitable. There's none that do with good. No, not one. Their throat is an open sepulcher with their tongues. They've used deceit. The poison of asks is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood, destruction and misery are in their ways. In the way of peace, have they not known? That's the world that you live in. That's what the Bible says it's like. So when it ends up being that way, why are you surprised? You know, I'll knock on somebody's door out so many. Oh, you know, I was in Vietnam and I saw some stuff. And that's why I don't believe in God. Have you read the Bible, buddy, because the Bible told you about all that stuff you were going to go see in Vietnam. It's all right here in the book. Now if the Bible were some sweetness and light book, and then we lived in this gnarly world, then it'd be like, wait a minute, what's going on? Why doesn't this match? Or if the Bible had all these rough things, and then the world were just this wonderful place of sunshine and rainbows and unicorns, then all of a sudden we'd be like, what's with the Bible? Put a label on this thing. But guess what? They match. God's right. God's right about everything. And the longer that you live, and the more you put your faith and trust in God, you're going to find that God just keeps being right over and over again. And you'll start realizing where you were wrong and God was right. So it's smart when you're young to just trust, trust, you say, well, I'm not just going to trust. Well, you know what, without faith, it's impossible to please God. So good luck with your attitude that says, well, I have to see it to believe it. I'm not going to trust anything. I'm not just going to put my faith in something. I got to see the evidence. Okay, well, good luck with that. Because you will never please God like that. Because without faith, it's impossible to please Him. Folks, there has to be some final authority in this world. There has to be some final authority in our lives. There has to be some final authority for what righteousness even is. Because righteousness is an abstract concept. Right? People could argue about what's right. 8 billion people could have different opinions about what's right. Some people would say, oh, that's for sure wrong. Other people are like, well, maybe not. Surely we all agree this is wrong, and then somebody's like, no, at the end of the day, it's what God says. It's the Creator. It's the Word of God. And let me tell you something, the Creator of the universe is unique. There's only one. Stop comparing Him. Stop judging Him. Stop trying to figure out whether you like Him or not. You better just figure out that you like Him for your sake. And you know, the Bible says the fear of God is the beginning of knowledge. You say, well, God sounds scary. Good! Well, I just can't believe it. A scary God. Why not? This world's full of scary things. Lions are scary, right? Wolves are scary. Coyotes are scary. You know, if you're out in the wilderness and came across a bear or, you know, well, I just can't believe that such an animal would exist. It's out there, my friend, and it's ready to devour you. Well, guess what? God's out there, too, and He's scary, too. But thankfully, God is merciful, gracious, loving. Hey, look, if God's not merciful, gracious, and loving, then how did I end up on my way to heaven, and how did I get handed salvation on a silver platter? Am I worthy? Did I deserve that? No. It was super easy. Getting saved was so easy. Getting saved is super easy, free gift, handed to me on a silver platter. In spite of all my sins, in spite of all my flaws, I'm just accepted in the beloved, citizen of spiritual Israel, just everything given to me. Folks, it's easy. It's free. God's loving. God's gracious. Yeah, but I mean, you know, I just have to believe in Him. You know, if that's how you want to look at it, well, you know, that's your problem. But maybe it's your perspective that's wrong. I didn't ask to be born, you know, but see that all that is, that's just man's wisdom. That's just your understanding. That's just you being a rebellious punk. I mean, think about this. I, you know, I have children. You have children, right? Those that do. So did our children ask to be born into our families? We brought them into this world. Sometimes we remind them of that, right? I'm not going to finish the second half of that statement, but you know, as long as we remind our children that we brought them into this world. So I, you know, when I brought my children into this world, I didn't ask their permission before bringing them into this world. So couldn't they say the same thing to me? Couldn't my children look at me and be like, dad, why did you sire me? Because I didn't even ask to be born into this world. What would you say about a kid who said that to their parents? You'd say he's an idiot. Am I right? I mean, if I said to my parents, why did you even have me? I don't even want to be in this world and everyone exists. You just pick what is wrong with you, you punk idiot, especially if the parents gave the kid a nice life, right? Well guess what? God has provided a lot of nice things for us, you know, and then you're going to turn around and get all mad at God for bringing you into this world and get all rebellious and well, if he says I have to believe in him, then that just makes me not even want to believe in him. You know, you're just a rebellious punk. You know, you need to submit to the righteousness of God. You need to be humbled just like a good child is going to be a blessing to their parents. They're going to obey their parents. They're going to listen to their parents. They're not just going to just lash out and rebel against their parents and hate their parents. You know, God is our creator and this is where we are. And again, like I'm playing the devil's advocate here a little bit with some of these arguments because I don't for one second think that God is a bad God or malevolent God or a mean God or an unfair God. But let's say he were, that would not prevent him from existing. That's a really stupid argument. And especially if he's the guy who gets to define what fair even means. You know, it's kind of hard to cheat at the game when you make the rules. You know what I mean? You can't fight city hall, my friend. How much less can you fight against the God of the universe? You know, don't be found to fight against God. God is righteous. God is true. Everyone's a liar. This is the world that we live in. Let me just end on a more positive note. Okay. The sermon was a little bit negative, but let's end on a more positive note. You know, after we have this litany of things that describe mankind, this is what people are like. I mean, their mouth's full of cursing and bitterness. Have you found that to be true? I mean, their feet are swift to shed blood. There's a lot of violence in this world. People are being murdered in America every single day. Lots of people being murdered and beaten and, and again, we're living in one of the nicest places in the whole world and we've got all this violence going on. No fear of God before their eyes. Verse 19. Now we know what things so ever the law sayeth, it sayeth to them who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law there should no flesh be justified in his sight for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested being witnessed by the law and the prophets. Even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe for there is no difference for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God to declare I say at this time his righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Where is boasting then? It's excluded. By what law? Of works? No! But by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. So what's the Bible saying? The Bible is saying look, people are sinful, everybody in this world is a sinner, everybody has sinned, Jews, Gentiles, there's no difference. All sinned and come short of the glory of God. This world's a sinful place but because God loves us, he has provided us with salvation and he is just and he's the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus, okay? And millions and millions and millions and millions of people believe in Jesus. Millions and millions and millions and millions and millions of people believe in heaven and hell and they know for sure they're going to heaven and they're glad that they're not going to hell. And so are there people who refuse to believe on the name of the only begotten Son of God? Yes there are. And you know what? They're gonna go to hell when they die. Now that might seem harsh to you, sometimes it might even seem harsh to me but that's because I am lacking in both my love and my sense of justice. I don't have the vengeance that God has, I don't have the wrath that God has, I don't have the love that God has, I don't have the mercy that God has, I don't have the grace that God has. I'm an inferior being in every way. So just as I cannot grasp the positive attributes of God, I also cannot grasp some of his negative feelings toward sin. But at the end of the day, I just trust the Word of God and the Holy Spirit of God. And you know, if you want to listen to a voice, why don't you listen to the still small voice of the Holy Spirit of God? You know you want to listen to some voice that just kind of, you listen to your gut. Instead of listening to your gut, why not listen to his gut? You know, why not listen to the voice of the Spirit of God? And you say, well, how am I going to know the difference? What's the difference? Well let me explain something to you. If you're going to spend 30 hours every week watching TV, listening to podcasts, listening to the radio, listening to all kinds of heathens, and you're going to spend no time reading your Bible, I wonder which voice is going to be playing in your head when you wake up in the morning and when you're at noon and when you go to bed at night. What voice do you think is playing in your head? It's probably going to be the voice of some talking head from the TV. It's going to be the voice of some music group. It's going to be the voice. That's what you're spending like so much time. And look, I'm not saying, hey, you know, shine this world. Obviously, yeah, okay, we're all going to read secular books, we're all going to hear stuff, we're all going to listen to stuff, we're all going to be exposed to things in this world. But you know what? We better be getting a mega dose of this right here so that when we do go to work and get all the worldly perspectives in the break room, and when we do hear all the stuff that's thrown at us, you know, from this world, we can have a mega dose of this to balance it out. So you're not reading your Bible, and you're not listening to the preaching of God's Word, and you're doing 10 times as much listening to all this secular jazz, instead of listening to this, and then you wonder why this voice is pulling it's the wrong voice. But I guarantee you that if you spend, if you're a saved Christian, and you spend more time reading the Bible, you think your faith is going to go up or down? You think you're going to start agreeing with God more or less? You know, you read your Bible, you sow to the Spirit, you're going to start hearing the Holy Spirit talking to you more than hearing, you know, I don't know, whatever voice in your head of Joe Rogan or whatever, whoever you listen to, you know? You know, you got this little, you got this little miniature Joe Rogan on your shoulder right here with devil horns and a pitchfork, talking crap about the God of the Bible. And then over here, you've got, you know, this this little, you know, Alexander Scorby or something like quoting you scripture with a halo on his head. And it's like, you know, you got these two little voices. But here's the thing, if you're going to spend every day spending hours listening to the wrong people, and then you just five minutes in your Bible, or even zero minutes in your Bible, because I could pretty much promise that there's probably some people in this room who never crack open their Bible except when they come to church. And I'm not asking for a raise of hands, but I'll bet you anything that there are people sitting in this room right now that never opened their Bible this entire week, except on Sunday and Wednesday when they're at church. And other than that, they didn't touch it. Who thinks I'm right about that? All day long. And hopefully it's not from your own personal experience that you think I'm right about that. But you know, I'm right about that. Okay, so did those same people also watch nothing on YouTube? Did they listen to nothing? They probably took in hours and hours and hours of media that wasn't the Bible and then they didn't even read the Bible. You know, so you better you know, obviously, we can't help but get exposed to this culture that we live in. We're in America, we're not trying to be hermits, we're not in a monastery. We're getting exposed to stuff in our culture. And obviously, I'm not saying it's okay to just be exposed to everything because obviously there's a lot of stuff that we should not be looking at watching listening to that we should totally shine and stay away from. And some of these podcasters and people we shouldn't even listen to because they're so bad. But the point is, though, we're all going to get exposed to stuff. This is the antidote right here. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God, obviously, that applies to salvation. But even after we're saved, we live from faith to faith. If we want to increase our faith, we increase our Bible reading. You know, if we want to start having worldly philosophies, well, then stop reading your Bible and fill your mind with secular talk radio for 40 hours a week. And look, I used to have a lot of long drives at my job. And I would listen to political talk radio. And I'd listen to it for hours sometimes. And you know, I have no interest in it anymore. But there was a time in my life when I was kind of interested in political stuff. And I would listen to all that stuff. And you know what, but I always listen to my Bible first. Because I don't want to just listen to a bunch of worldly people and then not even listen to what God has to say. And then you wonder why people, people think that biblical preaching is so radical. It's because their mind is in the wrong place. It's your mind in the right place. And you know what, I'll be honest with you, you know, I've been saved for 35 years. And when you've been saved as long as I have and read the Bible as many times as I have, especially because I'm a preacher, especially because I love the Bible, so I've read it a bazillion times. And so here's the thing. Sometimes this wicked thought can creep into my head like, I've already read this so many times. I already know what this says. I don't need to read this. I already know what's coming in the next verse. You know, it's easy to get this mentality that thinks like, oh, I grew up in church. I've read the Bible a lot. But let me tell you something, you know, I've probably read the Bible more than the vast majority of people in this room. That's pretty safe to say. And I need to read the Bible every single day to keep my mind in the right place. There's not a day that goes by. And hey, I hope that there is somebody in this room that's read the Bible more than me. That'd be great. Maybe you can give me a high five after the service or something. But let me tell you something, though. I've read the Bible a lot, and even I know that I need to read it again. I'm not just going to skip 2023 because I read it so many times last year. I read it so many times in the last couple of years. I can skip 2023. No, I can't. I have to read it every single day. And so do you. Because if you don't read your Bible, you're going to start judging God and start slipping away in your mentality. And you're going to start thinking, well, the problem of evil is idiotic, bogus stuff that you hear on some, you know, podcast or whatever. And again, I'm not saying, you know, hey, don't ever read the news or don't ever listen to these talk radio or whatever. But man, the news is bizarre. Half the time. I mean, you know, when you spend a lot of time in the Bible and then you read like a New York Times article, I mean, like I read a New York Times article like two days ago and my head like exploded. I was just like, I was just like, what? But that's because I'm reading the truth. And then I was like, this article was written by a literal insane person. That's literally what I was thinking. I mean, I almost want to tell you about the article because it was so weird. But it was like, should I tell about the article real quick? It's like I was reading this article. All right. I'm just going to give you a real quick version. I read this article and it was talking about this woman who, you know, her baby had died. She had a miscarriage, right? And the author of the article was saying it was because she was black and she was stressed out from all the racism in America. So racism made her lose her baby because of all the systemic racism and whatever. That's what I saw. And then the next paragraph, I kid you not, the next paragraph, it said after this woman got home, you know, from the hospital, her boyfriend blamed her for losing the baby. And so he intensified his abuse toward her. And so he was strangling her in front of her children, telling her that she was going to die in front of her children to the point where she urinated herself. And I'm thinking to myself, I wonder if that's what's stressing her out. No it's probably just because America is so racist. That's probably, that's why she's stressed out. It's not because she has a boyfriend who just abuses her in these extreme ways in front of her children and to the point of almost killing her. And I'm just thinking like, did somebody proofread this article? What kind of a loony bin is the New York Times to literally say in one paragraph, oh yeah, it says she's, she was, you know, it's just so stressful being a black woman in America and that's the problem. And then it's like, meanwhile, back at the ranch, she's getting strangled and losing control of her bodily functions as she almost dies in front of her own children. I mean, I'm just like, who wrote this article? Like, folks, but let me explain something to you. People who read the New York Times every day and actually take it seriously, and look, we could turn to the next article and there's going to be equally insane stuff. Okay, that was just what I happened to read two days ago. I was like, what? Here's the thing. People who read that junk every day and they're getting reading this libtard newspaper every day, then they go to the Bible and the Bible seems insane. I read the Bible every day and then the New York Times seems insane. Who here thinks what I just explained from the New York Times article sounds pretty stinking insane? Okay, wow. So that was kind of a tangent. But it also drives in the point of all the gnarly things that are going on in this world. Why don't you just be thankful that you didn't get strangled today? Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Lord, we thank you so much for your word, Lord, and Lord God, even though this world is a rough place, Lord, thank you so much for giving us salvation, giving us hope, giving us light, and Lord, thank you for allowing us, your children, to live such beautiful lives and be safe and healthy and prosperous, Lord. Thank you so much for all the wonderful gifts you've given us, Lord. And even when you bring trials into our lives, even when we do go through pain and suffering and hard things, Lord, thank you so much that we know that all things are working together for good for us, even when we go through hard things, Lord. But this world is totally without hope. And so, Lord God, please help us not to go to the dung heap of this world to look for answers. Lord, please help us not to look in your word for answers, Lord, and not in the pile of garbage known as the New York Times or these other worldly sources, Lord. Help us understand that your word reigns supreme, and in Jesus' name we pray, amen.