I would draw your attention this morning back to God's holy word that we find in Romans 1, Paul's epistle to the church at Rome. Because of time and because of the fact that we are going to be partaking of the Lord's Supper, I'm going to refrain from reading a more lengthy portion like we normally do this morning. And we will read beginning in verse 24 through the end of the chapter of Romans 1. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason, God gave them up to dishonorable passions for their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature. And the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another. Men committing shameful acts, shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless." Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them, but give approval to those who practice them. Let's pray. Our gracious Lord and heavenly Father, we come before you, our sovereign Lord, and we thank you for the opportunity that we have to come before you with worship this morning. May you be glorified in what we have done and will do here this morning. May our worship be acceptable to you, Lord, as we seek to worship you in spirit and in truth. Lord, as we look at this passage this morning, we see this this list of. Of the mindset of those who are. Deeply entrenched in their sin, they have been given over to their sinful desires. to their sinful heart and to do according to what it craves. And Lord, we see that this would be a very, very apt description of us had you not made us into new creatures. that you had visited us with the new birth, that we've been made alive to see our sin and to understand our sin for what it is and to cling to the hope that we have in Jesus Christ and his death on the cross where he became sin for us. That he took upon himself that which was owed to you because of our sin. And he did this freely in love. He gave himself for us. That we might be adopted into your family and reconciled to you and have peace with you. Lord, we are. Grateful for that this morning, thankful for the gift of your son and his sacrifice. Lord, be with us as we look to your word this morning. May the Holy Spirit give us discernment and understanding of these things. And it's the name of Jesus we pray. Amen. Well, have you ever listened to someone who was giving a speech or teaching something that never really seemed to provide an answer for what they were dealing with? Have you ever been involved with something like that? Either they never arrive at giving the answer, or maybe the answer that they gave was so convoluted that it just might as well have not even been given. Been there many times. Some of you may have been in a situation where all the teaching did was cause you to have more questions. I've been in training sessions that have been like this, where the trainer either didn't know what he was talking about, Or maybe he was a lifelong learner, which there's nothing wrong with being a lifelong learner. We should all be learning all throughout our lives. But at some point in learning, you must reach a destination, right? You must arrive at the truth of what you've been trying to discover. And while the learning will always continue, The effort then is made to teach and instruct someone or others in regards to the truth that was learned that is now being revealed to those who are being instructed. This is this type of coaching now that is so popular. I don't mean coaching in the sports sense. but I've been through some leadership training recently, and one of the types of mentoring or coaching that they talk about is this concept of always asking questions. You never make a statement, you just lead by asking questions. And while there is some merit in this, and I'm not saying that this is not in some way beneficial, we might call this the Socratic method of teaching, right? There are benefits to it, but I will say that there comes a time when truth must be proclaimed. It's a must. Truth must be proclaimed. At a certain point, the time for questioning has come and gone, and truth must be echoed, if you will, from the highest hill to the deepest valley, right? Truth must be proclaimed. The educator must stop asking the questions and stand before his hearers and speak, instruct, teach, exhort, implore, And if the subject dictates that it be this way, he must urge. He must plead. He must plead with others that they understand and be moved to action by the truth that he is proclaiming. Let me try and make an example or an analogy of what I'm talking about. Let's say that there's a train that's about to leave station and this train does not have a human pilot. It's piloted automatically and it goes along its given route. It's loaded with passengers and then starts the journey and it doesn't stop until it reaches its destination. Now there's a person who has been given the charge by the individual who owns this whole rail system to keep the passengers on time. to see that they are properly on board at the appointed times. And above all, this person is tasked with making sure that they arrive safely at their destination. Every day, this one who is given charge of these things is giving a briefing, if you will, on the conditions and the hazards of the rail on which the train moves in the surrounding environment around where that rail has been laid down, that track has been laid down. Well, on this particular morning, he's been given information that there's a danger on one of the most widely traveled routes. The one that passes by the most awe-inspiring views as it meanders through maybe majestic mountains and along these seascape vistas or these ocean vistas as it travels from one place to the next on this rail route. But the rail has been broken and travels will not be able to arrive at their destination if they continue along this route. but the train instead will reach that point at which the rail is broken, and it will dive headlong into a great ravine, and anyone who is on that train will most assuredly perish. Won't be able to survive the crash. So this one who's been given charge of all this goes to the passengers and he begins to question them to see if he can politely and without giving any offense to them, get them to change from one destination to the other. So he begins with a line of questioning. Are you sure you want to go this way? Are you sure this is the way that you want to travel? Aren't you looking for something different in your route? Aren't you looking to go maybe to a different destination? Would you be willing to go a different way? And he gets no affirmative responses. No one willing to say, yeah, let's give it a try. They all want the way that seems best to them. They all want the way that they've been traveling for years. They want to travel in a way you see that is pleasing to the flesh. something that is good to their senses, a delight to their eyes. So the charge then goes into a slightly different way of questioning this, not just so open-ended, maybe he's got a question that has some pretense of danger in it. Well, what if there could be danger in the way on the route that you've chosen to go? You see, he has what he believes is a genuine care for these. He wants them to feel that he cares for them, that he loves them. He doesn't want them to fear what lay ahead, may cause some discomfort, some anguish, some turmoil, might upset their day, upset their balance. Well, what if the track was about to break along the route? Wouldn't you want to choose something different? Maybe now's the time to try something different. All kinds of subtle ways, full of maybe a little bit of truth, partial truth. But he questions them to try to get them to think differently, tries to get them to choose for themselves to change their course and to go a different way. But you see, he's never truly proclaimed the danger that lies ahead. He's soft-pedaled the dire circumstances these people are in if they board this train. There's any number of reasons for this. Fear, false notion of love and care, desire not to upset them like we've stated, a desire for it to even be their choice affects his way of leading them. And so he makes no bold no bold proclamation of the true state of things. So the train leaves and towards the end of the journey reaches that spot where the train tracks are broken and everyone on that train dives headlong into the ravine and dies and perishes. What has this man done? Was he loving? Was he loving to the passengers on the train? Did he really show true care for those he was given a charge over? And what will the owner of the rail system say? What will he say? Will he say, well done? Or will he banish him from his company for not performing that which was his duty? That was what he was charged with doing. Well, there's no question, is there? He should have stood up and boldly proclaimed, this is the route that leads to death. It's broken. You can't arrive at the destination that you want to go to. You'll never make it. There was no time for pleasantry. No more time for questioning and for leading by way of questions. There came a time to proclaim, to assert, to stand up and scream. Don't go this way. Well, Paul here in our text is no failing teacher. He's no pseudo instructor. He's not an insufficient teacher for us. He's not the one who never arrives at proclaiming the truth, you see. He emphatically states the case of the ungodly and their condition before a holy and righteous God. This is not done in an unloving way, but done in respect for the greatest love and concern for the sinner to show them their case rightly and unapologetically. So we pick up in our text this morning in verse 28, which we failed to get to last week. And we'll try and arrive, if we can, at the end of the chapter this morning. Paul goes on emphatically in Romans 1, 28 to say, And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. You will notice here that Paul is continuing a thought. He says here, and since. This is not something new that Paul is taking up here, but he's building, layering the case of what he is saying. He's leaving no stone unturned in his appraisal of mankind and sin. Man who suppressed the truth. Man who does not honor the God that he knows. man who is unthankful to God, man who has exchanged the worship of God for the worship of idols, man who has exchanged the truth about God for a lie, man who has worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator. And I don't hesitate to repeat these things over and over again, because this is what Paul is doing to build his case. He's laid the foundation and he is carefully, methodically, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, laying one well-carved block upon another until the whole is absolutely complete. Once again, we must bring to light here that this is not just Paul in Paul's wisdom who is doing this. Though he is wise, Paul is a wise man. He's able to contend with the greatest of the day as far as philosophy and worldly wisdom. Paul is not unwise, yet this is not Paul's wisdom. What he is laying out for us goes beyond, far beyond the wisdom of man. It's God the Holy Spirit revealing to us the truth through the pen of the Apostle Paul. Such that this is God's truth being revealed. It's God's truth, not ideas or notions that come from Paul, but come from God the Holy Spirit. This is God's truth and really and truthfully isn't any truth. Any truth God's truth. So Paul here continues with another statement regarding the why, and since they did not see fit to acknowledge God. They didn't want to acknowledge God. They were not willing to retain the knowledge of Him. They cared so little for God, though they knew of His His eternal power and His divine nature, they thought so little of Him that they pushed Him aside and had no desire to even acknowledge His very existence. They suppressed it. Isn't that what we read earlier? They suppressed the truth. They suppressed the knowledge of God. See how Paul is building? His case, one statement upon the other in such a way that this is truth that Paul is giving us by inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And it is beyond denying what Paul is saying here. You see these ones that were mentioned here, the they, you sometime go through this passage and just follow the theys. Write this out and connect all of the they's. Circle them, draw a line together, and it's all through this. One statement upon another about these who God has given up. They didn't want to acknowledge. They were not really willing to retain the knowledge of him. They're so preoccupied with themselves that to ponder someone else would take away from their own desires. especially in considering the Creator, who they were well aware of, and to whom they owed worship and honor and thanks. You would think that the flood in Noah's day would have been enough for them to have the understanding that God is to be esteemed and worshiped. Yet here we are again, Over and over again throughout history, man in his sin-stricken, depraved heart does not deem God worthy of worship or even acknowledgement. And because of his denial, because of this failure, for the third time, Paul says, God gave them up. When something is repeated in Scripture in such close proximity, it's something that we should sit up and take notice of. It's something that we should write down, something that we should mark out. In verse 24, therefore God gave them up. Verse 26, for this reason God gave them up. And here in verse 28 in our text this morning, since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up. Paul's repetition here is raised to a third degree, to a third level. God gave them up. We stated last week what that was. He abandoned them to their own sinful desires. He gave them over to them. He removed his restraining influence over them so that they would go down in their sin. What here did God give them over to? Well, in verse 24, we see that God gave them up to the lusts of their hearts, to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves. In verse 26, it's giving them up to dishonorable passions, which we read about as far as the grossest of sexual immoralities. And here now it is God giving them up to a debased mind to do those things which ought not to be done. This is a mind, this debased mind, is a mind that is incapable of understanding. It's empty of the gift of discernment. It has no discernment. In spiritual things, Matthew Henry said, it's like one who doesn't know their left hand from their right hand. There's no discernment, no knowledge, no understanding, emptiness. Lights shining all around them, but their eyes can no longer discern light from darkness. Truth is everywhere before them, but their minds are unable to grasp it. It's a debased mind. God has given them up to this debased mind. It's good for nothing. It's perverted, it's empty, it's worthless. It's been turned inside out. It cannot and will not approve what is good and cannot and will not disapprove of what is evil. It's twisted. It's a mind which, according to Isaiah 520, is given to call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Isaiah says, woe unto them who do this. Paul says in Ephesians 4, 18 through 19, they are darkened. in their understanding. This is a perfect picture of the debased mind. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to their hardness of heart. Remember what we said last week about the hardening of the heart? Due to their hardness of heart. Where does the blame lie? They become callous, Paul says back in that Ephesians passage, and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. This is the mind that is pointed out in our text here this morning in Romans 128, 2 Timothy 3.8 speaks of two who are of this type of mind. Just as Janus and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also opposed the truth, men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the truth. You see, these are those who produce no fruit in their lives. Their minds are debased, their minds are given over to worthlessness. They bear thorns and thistles in their lives due to the state of mind which is given over to their sinful hearts. Hebrews 6-8, listen to what Hebrews 6-8 says, but if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless. The debased mind is worthless. It's good for nothing. No redeeming quality, it's worthless. It doesn't bear the fruit that those who are created by God should be bearing to his honor and his glory. It's thorns and thistles. Men corrupted, excuse me, it is worthless and near to being cursed and its end is to be burned. to be burnt. If God does not intervene in a positive way and make them into something they are not, into a new creation, if they are not made into new creatures, the end will be to be burnt. And no one, then, can accuse Paul of not boldly proclaiming truth. in a way that could be misunderstood. No accusation could be made to Paul like this. He goes on to prove once again what comes from the debased mind. I wish we had time to go over all these in details. We don't. We would spend weeks here, if not months. So we'll just hit these as we go through. Just very quickly, we'll hit them in passing. But as we go through these verses, verses 29 through 31, please keep in mind that what we have here, we often refer to as a list of sins. In fact, this is the longest list of many lists like this that come from the pen of the Apostle Paul by inspiration of the Holy Spirit. This is the longest of these lists. And we often refer to them as a list of sins. Yet what we have is not properly a list of sins being committed, but it's the mind, the disposition of the individual who has been given over to their sin nature. That sin nature that is ruling the person as God has largely removed any restraining influence from his life. So while we think of this as a list of sins, let us think deeper than any one sin or classification of sin, but let us think about this as the sinful debased disposition of the sinner that God has given over to the sin that they love, the sin that they cherish, the sin that they cherish more than life. It's the sin that they choose. Romans 129, they were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice, they are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness, they are gossips. First, I want to address one thing here. Twice over in this verse, you may have noticed something. See how Paul says they were filled, and then goes on to say they are full of. This is not that they were partially, that at times they were, that on occasion they had these dispositions. No, he says that they were full. They are filled with this. Their hearts overflow with these things. Their minds run over with these dispositions. The spring itself, you see, is a poisoned spring. Is it any surprise then that what flows out of the poison spring is also poisoned? It's filled with it. It is full of it. Filled with all manner of unrighteousness. That is that they are opposed and set against that which is righteous. They have exchanged justice and are filled with injustice. He says they are full of evil. That is, to take delight and pleasure in doing what is wrong. That's evil. To take delight and pleasure in doing what is wrong. They are covetousness. They are full of greed, always wanting more and more. They're never satisfied. They're always craving more. Malice. Some of these things that in this list are so closely related. Very similar to evil here, malice, but they have a disposition to ill will, to injury of others, and to vengefulness. He says they are full of envy. Something very similar to covetousness. yet directed toward resentment for what others have that they do not have. Covetousness is wanting what we don't have, whereas the envy is holding others in derision because we want what they have. Murder. Interesting what follows. Envy, murder, since it often leads to murder. The unjust taking of life as Cain was envious of his brother Abel and murdered his brother. Also think about the hatred that exists or existed, excuse me, in the heart of Joseph's brothers. They were envious of him and what did they want to do to Joseph? Their plan was to murder him. Wanted him dead. Strife. Those who love disorder and quarreling and the tension and outworking of this disposition. social media is full of strife. Even within the reformed community, even within the community of those who love the doctrines of grace, there is strife. Even in Christians, this is a sin that we're so susceptible to. Deceit, Deceit is the pleasure that we get from trickery, from manipulation. Craftiness with a bent of ill will or cunning towards evil ends. Maliciousness, which is planning to ruin someone or something. Always looking to subvert the plans of another. Then he says they are gossips. speak evil about others behind closed doors, and often in an unjust manner, how guilty are we all of gossip? See how some of these things in this list appear to be so small? Yet they are included here in this list that Paul gives. How easily some of these dispositions rise up even in the heart of Christians who still battle with the remainders of indwelling sin. How easy it is for us to have this sort of mindset at times. Sin is a powerful thing. These besetting sins. Oftentimes. Verse 30 begins with slanderers. Very, very similar to gossips, but this is not in secret. This is in public. They make statements intended to run others, even making false statements to seek to harm others. Haters of God. People who will burn a church building down, right? Haters of God set themselves against Him because they hate Him and everyone who follows Him. They don't give Him thanks. They resent Him. All He is. And what kind of resentment it must be that the sin of their hearts would lead them to actually hate the one who gives them the actual air that they breathe. Haters of God. If you want to see an example of this, Think about the fact that if we love God, those who hate God are gonna hate us, right? And how many of the 12 disciples ended up martyred? Only one escaped martyrdom. They hated God so much that years after Christ died on the cross, rose again, ascended to heaven, they're still murdering his followers. And it's still occurring in various parts of the world today. The natural man is set at enmity to God. He hates God. Insolent, They're unruly, they put themselves always before others. Paul even speaks of himself in this way prior to his conversion, where he says he was an insolent opponent to Jesus Christ. He was set against Christ and all who followed him, even to the point of seeking their harm and their death. Hoddie. believing that they are greater than they are. They see themselves to be superior to others. Boastful, constantly speaking of themselves and what they have done, honoring themselves. Think of the attitude of the Pharisee that we find in Luke 18.11. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus. First, see a little bit of haughtiness here. God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. And then what does he go on to say? Then he boasts. What does he do? Boastful. And this is one who claims to be a follower of God the Father. the haughty and boastful prayer offered up to God as opposed to that of the publican. Think also of Lamech there in Genesis 4, how he boasted, boasted of killing a man. This next one here, inventors of evil. You know, here is something that we could spend a whole lot of time on. The heart given up to sin and the debased mind are always looking for some new evil. Something more. Some way to further all these other things. New ways to kill. New ways to slander. New ways to cause strife. Always finding new depths of evil to take part in. Think about how many ways during the medieval times, during the inquisitions, they developed to torture a man and kill a Christian. Always seeking new ways. Inventors of evil. There's a malignancy that exists. Always affecting more and more of the mind and the actions of those who are given up by God. And disobedient to parents. I'm always amazed that this appears here. As I'm always amazed that it appears in the Ten Commandments. And I shouldn't be amazed at this. This is often where sin first rears its ugly head. where the practice of sin often gets its first stranglehold upon a person as a young child being rebellious, being disobedient, dishonoring their parents. The parent-child relationship is at the very heart of God's order. the very foundation of society, yet this is what we see, that children have no regard even for their parents and set out from the earliest of ages to be disobedient to them. Well, verse 32 continues. Foolish. They have no understanding. They've said in their hearts there is no God. They're senseless. They're without discernment. Faithless. They're untrustworthy. They don't keep their word. They're oath breakers. They're promise breakers. They're heartless, Paul says. They have no real love for others. Only love for themselves and their own desires. They have no true natural affections. This is the disposition that absolutely rules. the heart and mind of the one who can murder their unborn child. They're heartless. They have no love. They have no love, no care, no affection for that one which should be the dearest and most precious to them. this disposition closely related to the last in this list, which is ruthless, which is to be without mercy, to be unforgiving, to be cruel, to have no pity, to be ruled by evil pride and self-interest. There is no mercy or grace that is extended to others. Ruthlessness. Well, Paul then sums it up in verse 32, where he says, though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them, but give approval to those who practice them. They knew God's righteous decree. It's plainly revealed to them through created order and the conscience that these practices, these dispositions are set against the very righteousness of God and are deserving of the punishment of death. There is no true atheism. There is none. There's suppression. There's suppression of truth. In the knowledge of God, there's neglectfulness. but there is a knowledge of God. We've already seen that they know him through nature. We won't go on to expound on this any further, but there's also the conscience that bears witness to this. Even in cultures where God is not worshipped, where they don't have the word of God, there's a penalty against many of these things that's on this list. There are laws that are made, even in societies that, the most, most uncivilized societies. There are laws against many of these things. It's written upon the conscience, written upon the heart of man. Romans 2.14, I think, hints at this. Romans 2.14 says, for when Gentiles who do not have the law, now listen, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires. They are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. There is written upon the conscience that these things are set against the Creator that has revealed Himself through creation. And here, this last portion of this verse, hear what Paul says and see the truth here spoken through this epistle. that these who have the knowledge of God's decree and the punishment that they deserve for practicing such things as these, they not only do them, but give approval to those who practice them. There's a saying that we use often in our culture that misery loves company. And this is true. Misery does love company, but still greater is the truth that sin loves company. You see, they not only practice this themselves, but they give their amen They applaud those who practice such things as these. They cheer one another on in their sin. They support one another in these things. Paul gives his amen to God, and these give their amen to the godless. They support one another. They applaud one another. They promote one another in these things. Do you see how debased the mind is here? How debased the mind is of the one who God has given up to their sin. How debased is it that man would give his hearty amen to others committing sinful, debaucherous acts? Think of those who cheered on the gladiators in the gladiator games of old, as men would slaughter one another, murder one another, and the cheering, the applause from the stands, possibly because those that were the gladiators were getting to do what those in the stands were unable of doing themselves. Think of those who would cheer on at certain points in history when the hangman would take one in mob justice and hang one unjustly to the cheers of those who would be witnessing these things. Think of, once again, abortion. I've seen numerous times someone post on social media how happy they are to have just come and had their abortion again. And usually it's after they've had two or three or four that they get so callous to this sin that they post online what a joy it was to be free of the burden of having a child. And then you scroll down a little bit and what do you see? Person after person. after person giving their amen to what that person has done in murdering their child. Celebrating this great sin. Think about even how our entertainment system, I was talking with the girls I think last week about this a little bit. Think about even how our entertainment industry over the last couple decades has made a shift where once we would have a hero that the story was about and the hero who fought as the good, he fought the evil. And now we've rewritten almost every story that stood for good versus evil, and we now celebrate the villain and make him out to be the hero. We're applauding that which is vile, that which is sinful, that which is rebellious to God. We celebrate these things. giving a hearty approval for that which is evil instead of that which is good. There are numerous ways we could illustrate this, but we've got to move on. I just want us to see and understand as we draw this to a close that this is the proof, What Paul adds in verse 32 here is the proof of the debased mind where God has removed his restraining influence and allowed other restraining influences to be weakened as well, the church being one of those. I wish I had time, but the failure of men to stand in the pulpit and call sin, sin, that was a restraining influence upon our society and mankind. And it promoted the proclamation of some truth out in society, that laws were made and sentences were cast upon those who committed some of these vile crimes. and there was a penalty for them. And it had a restraining influence upon men to know that if I commit murder, I may lose my life or spend the vast majority of my life in a small cell. If I slander, there's a public penalty for that. I can't get off on that. but God has judged rightly. And He's bringing His wrath upon these, letting them have their heart's desire so that they choose their own destruction. There is no issue in Scripture with divine sovereignty and man's responsibility. There is no issue in Scripture. We may not be able to fully grasp all that it entails, but man has chosen what man desires. And this is always the way of things if left to himself. God does not have to create in man a desire to suppress the truth. He doesn't have to create that. Man, by nature of his sinful heart, hates the truth. So he's gonna suppress it. It's his heart's desire to suppress it. God does not need to create an attitude of unthankfulness to him. Sinful man has no desire to honor God. No desire to give thanks to God. Sinful man does exactly what he desires to do and here we see God giving him over to it. Man knows the penalty, he does it anyway. He loves himself, he loves his sin more than he loves God in righteousness. He chooses death over life because it's the desire of his heart to live in sin. Romans 8, 5, for those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh. Romans 8, 7, for the mind that is set on the flesh is what? It's hostile to God. There is no case to be made for God forcing man to sin and man to hell. There's no case to be made for that. Sinful man in his fallen state does not need help in this. God does not actively work here. He leaves man. He gives them over to their debased mind, to their heart's desires, lets them have and reap the fruit of their fallen, sinful, debased heart and mind. What may we conclude from this whole section of Romans 1 beginning in verse 18 all the way through 32? Might we not say, as Matthew Henry said, the way of sin is downhill? Do you remember in our study of Genesis when we quoted Matthew Henry saying this? I looked it up this week. I'm thankful to have some of the tools that I have. I looked it up this week in his commentary, and five times over he states this, the way of sin is downhill. I was telling mom and dad, I have a sneaking suspicion that as he sat at his father's footsteps during family worship as a young man, this is something his father would say. And so it was ingrained in his mind. I have no proof of that. That's a suspicion on my part. But he says in his commentary, five times over, he says in his commentary upon the fall in Genesis, he says, note the way of sin is downhill. A man cannot stop himself when he will. The beginning of it is as the breaking forth of water to which it is hard to say, hitherto thou shalt come and no farther. And then in Exodus, he states, the way of sin is downhill. Those that are in league with idolaters will come by degrees to be in love with idolatry. And those that are prevailed upon to eat of the idolatrous sacrifice will come at length to offer it. From Leviticus, he states, it is of pernicious consequence to admit and to allow of any one sinful custom because one will make way for many. Admit but a single absurdity, you invite a thousand. The way of sin is downhill. In his commentary on Joshua, he says, but those that make a slight excuse to serve in daring to commit one sin will have their hearts so hardened by it that they will venture upon the next without such an excuse for the way of sin is downhill. And then from Proverbs, he comments, he therefore dreads one sin because it would draw on another for the way of sin is downhill. Do we not see from the text that we looked at this morning that it is a downhill slide and just keeps picking up pace until the point that they may be said to be even adventers of evil. So what then is the cure for this? What's the cure? The list here is staggering, is it not? It's overwhelming. The outlook is bleak for those that are bound in sin and its stranglehold upon the heart and upon the mind. They're held captive by this and they are willfully held captive by this. They hate the light. They run from the light. They love darkness more than light. Well, there's but one way, one way for this sinful downhill progression to stop. There is only one way to live in defiance of this downhill, downward way of sin. And it's to be turned by an active work of God. From living to ourselves, to living by faith in the Son of God who gave Himself for us. This is the Gospel of God concerning His Son. Sin goes downward to death and it will drag us down beneath the weight of its penalty, which is to be under the full load of God's wrath against sin and against the sinner. Get in the gospel. There is one who went down to the cross for us and bore the full measure of God's wrath for us by taking upon himself the sin that was ours, that we might be rescued from the downward way of sin and be lifted up to glory in and through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. There is a way that we walk not according to the flesh, A way in which our minds are not set upon the things of the flesh, which we just read from in Romans 8, 5. There's more I'd like to say here about this, but I'd say it best if I just read the following verses from Romans 8. Romans 8, verse 1 through 5. There is therefore now no condemnation. for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law weakened by flesh could not do by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh. And for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh. in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us. Who walk not, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the spirit set their minds on the things of the spirit. There is only one way that man can exit this downhill, downward way of sin. They must be rescued by an active work of God from self and self's desires and what that leads to. They must be transformed from the downward way of living and be given faith. Be given faith. And what did we go through earlier in Romans. What does it say? The righteous shall live by faith. Not faith in self, not faith in what I can do or what you can do, but faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. You see this long list of things that Paul mentioned here from our text this morning? Paul calls it out as it is. He doesn't beat around the bush. He doesn't pander with us in fear of upsetting our delicate sensibilities. No, Paul is a watchman on the wall, calling out the danger, giving warning of the destruction that awaits. Paul will have no blood upon his hands. He puts it all out there and shows that the way of sin is certainly downhill and we will continue to see what the penalty of that is as we go further in Romans. In this we must preach and we must teach and we must use it to exhort others to turn away from sin. We must shine a light upon the sinful heart so that the one still living in bondage might be, by the working of the Holy Spirit, be made to see his condition and fear the condemnation that awaits. Why should we fear that someone might fear the consequences of sin? Why would we fear that someone would feel the weight of condemnation upon them? Why should we soft-pedal the truth? I tell you, it's only the one who has felt this, felt the weight of sin in their heart and been given eyes to see that they are condemned under the weight of this sin and their inability to do anything about it. It's only that person who will look away from themselves and look to another for help. If they feel okay about themselves, they'll never look to Christ. Never. Never look to another to set them free. It's only in Christ that we have a refuge. There's no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. You see, And I pray we always remain this way. We have a real low view of man, but we have a real high view of Christ. We have an infinitely high view of the God-man. We have no confidence in man, but every reason to have confidence in the work and the person of Jesus Christ. Let us remember that as we take part in the Lord's Supper. Our confidence is in him and his work. Let's pray.