Hated Without A Cause, Part 2
John 15:17-25
Our Father, we thank You this morning for the wonderful truths that we have just heard. The Lord is indeed our Shepherd, that we who have chosen to follow Jesus have a tender Shepherd who guards us and keeps us and leads us and feeds us and someday shall lead us through the valley of the shadow of death into His own presence forevermore. We rejoice that we are counted worthy to be disciples of such a Shepherd, of such a Christ. And, Father, we ask that this morning as we look to the Word of God, our hearts will be lifted again to see what is required of us as disciples, to see that we are to be as Jesus was, the antagonist of the world, even though it means to suffer all of the abuse the world may give, that we can do it with hearts that are full of joy knowing that we are blessed when we are reviled because of the sake of Christ. Bless our time in the Word, Father, and meet each need of each heart that is here. We pray in Christ’s name. Amen.
About three weeks ago, one of the young college men here at Grace Church by the name of Bob Marriet, 26 year old young man was sharing Christ in a park here in the valley. And he was giving out tracts and confronting people with their sin and the need of Jesus Christ and he was attacked and beaten up by some individuals. Then a week ago last Tuesday, the same young man was out sharing Jesus Christ again, as he usually did, only this time he was at the corner of Seventh and Broadway in Los Angeles. At 4:40 in the afternoon, he was attacked and beaten again. This time the back of his skull was fractured in four places. As best they can tell, evidently by someone antagonized by his witnessing.
In the hospital, three holes were drilled in his skull to attempt to relieve the pressure of the fracture, but without success. And in three days he was dead.
When you read something like that in the newspaper, you say, “Yeah, that’s right.” When something like that happens to somebody that’s a part of your life, it changes. And then you realize that the world is a lot more hostile to the committed Christian than we think it is. Bob was a young man, I understand from our college young people, who would rather walk home than get a ride because he felt that if he walked he would be able to meet somebody with whom he could share Jesus Christ. That’s the kind of person he was.
Ed Backe was sharing this testimony with us on Wednesday night and he said that Bob was the kind of a person who never had a bad thing to say about anybody, who never gossiped or anything, but was totally content just to be sharing Jesus Christ. Well, Bob lost his life in confronting the Christ hating world. That was the price that he paid.
Now we’ve been studying in John 15 that this is the case. And indeed we’ve seen it illustrated to us as graphically as you could possible see it with one of our own people. The godless people who are a part of Satan’s system hate Christ. And they hate those who are committed to proclaiming Christ. We are living in a hostile world. We are living in a world that reacts violently to the message of sin. In Acts chapter 1 and verse 8, Jesus Christ preparing to ascend into heaven said, “Ye shall receive power after the Holy Spirit is come upon you and ye shall be witnesses unto Me in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the uttermost part of the earth.” And the word “witnesses”, “witnesses unto Me” in the Greek is mumarturis and from that word marturis which meant “witness,” we eventually got the word “martyr,” which means somebody who dies. And the reason is because when somebody became a witness for Jesus Christ, they normally paid for it with their life. And the word marturis soon became far more than just a witness; it soon meant a person who dies for his testimony. And so many died throughout the years of the early church that the word was identified with that.
That’s just exactly what Jesus said would happen in John 15. Let’s go in our Bibles to John 15 and we’ll pick up where we left off last week. Certainly my heart has been so burdened, I’m sure yours has too in just hearing about the account of Bob, perhaps most of you didn’t know him. But I think we can go to John chapter 15 and the hatred of the world against a Christian with a little cleaner view, a little clearer understanding than perhaps we would have had last week. Jesus said it would be like this but I don’t know whether we believed it, but maybe we believe it now.
And Jesus wanted to warn His disciples because, you see, they were told about all the wonderful promises that were theirs. They were told that they would have power unlimited. That they would be able to do the things that even hadn’t been done when Jesus was here. That they would have peace, that they would have joy, that they would experience the abundance that God could give to them. They were told that they would have all the promises that Christ could possibly put at their disposal. They were told they would lack absolutely nothing. They were told that they would have the energy and the power and the ability to confront the world.
Down in verse 26 and 27 of chapter 15, the promise comes to them, “But when the Comforter is come whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He shall testify of Me and ye also shall bear witness because you’ve been with Me from the beginning.” He even tells them that they will have Holy Spirit energized witnessing, Holy Spirit energized testimony. But lest they think because they have all these promises and because they have all this power in the Holy Spirit that they can go out into the world and expect no response that is negative and no reaction, Jesus takes all the way from verse 18 clear through verse 25 to tell them that the world is going to hate them for their testimony, the world is going to despise them and the world is going to attempt to persecute them. And down in verse I and 2 of chapter 16, He says the world is going to kill you and think that by doing that they’re doing God’s service because they’ll be so steeped in false religion.
And so, Jesus in the last night before He leaves this world in His crucifixion, this last time with His disciples, not only gives them promise after promise after promise but He also gives them this great warning to be aware of the hatred of the world.
Now we began to see last week why it is that the world hates Jesus Christ and why it is that the world continues to hate those who are Christ’s, those of us who have decided to follow Jesus, those of us who are willing to deny ourselves, take up the cross and follow Him daily. Why it is the world hates us, Jesus gives us three reasons, really, here.
Number one, and we’re reviewing for a moment, the world hates us because we’re not of this world, verses 18 and 19. Now we saw this last week. We saw that because we aren’t a part of the evil system of the world, the hates us. Naturally sin hates righteousness and false religion hates true religion. The world is a realm of evil. The world is controlled by Satan himself and his evil angels. The world is a society of wicked men who have set themselves against God, against Christ, against the Kingdom of God and against God’s people. That’s the world. And the world hates everything that is of God, of Christ or of us who are His. And as I told you last week, the heart of the whole system is false religion, whether it’s atheistic religion, whether it’s idolatry, cults, liberalism, modernism which is Satanic, whether it’s the god of materialism or humanism or whatever it is, they all hate true religion which is that involving faith in Jesus Christ. And so, because we don’t fit the system, we stand apart.
Look at verse 18, “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you are of the world, the world would love its own, but because ye are not of the world but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.” Don’t be surprised when the world hates you, Jesus said to His disciples, it hated Me. And the reason it hates you, verse 19, is because you’re not a part of it. If you were of the world, the world would love its own.
It’s kind of interesting that “its own” is a neuter singular rather than a masculine plural. The world loves its own, and “its own” is an individual singular usage. Every individual in the world loves his own things. That’s what it’s saying. It is not that the world really loves each other; it is that each individual in the world loves himself and the things that are his. And he only loves others insofar as loving others will bring advantage to him. There’s no love for the sake of love. It loves in the system to pass ... pacify its conscience, or it loves in the system to gain an advantage. The world loves its own. And it’s a selfish kind of love, it’s phileo love at best which is natural love, not agape which is deep, divine love. And it’s superficial because it’s connected to advantage. If ... if you were of the world, the world would love not you but its own, its own system, those who can give it advantage, it loves. And so naturally it would not love us because we are to the world’s disadvantage. We discredit the world. We confront the world. We condemn the world. We rebuke the world by a pure life and by the Word of God and thus the world does not love us.
John tells us in 1 John chapter 5 that the whole world lies in the lap of the evil one. That’s a vivid picture. The whole world lies in the lap of the evil one. There it rest in the evil one. They’re not unhappy, they’re relaxing there. The world is self-satisfied. The world is complacent. The world is indifferent to God. The world is unaware of its lostness, unconcerned about hell, alienated from God, lulled into the stupidity of doubting God’s judgment, hypnotized by Satan and his evil. The world is asleep in the lap of Satan. And when you and I come along and start rattling the world to wake it up, it’s very, very uncomfortable. The world doesn’t want to be disturbed. And when we arrive and begin the disturbing message of sin, the disturbing message of judgment, the disturbing message of hell we begin to rattle the world a little bit and they don’t like it. They’re comfortable in the arms of Satan. And the only response the world has is to hate the message and the messenger.
And that’s the attitude of the world toward Christianity. And don’t you think it’s any different, because it isn’t. And if it’s different in your life, then the world isn’t too sure that you’re really committed to Jesus Christ. It’s a settled fact. In verse 19, we have what we call in the Greek a first class conditional. If you are of the world, the world would love its own. And the “if” there is if ... if in the purest sense this is how it is, not if possible, but if absolutely probable, absolutely fact. You were of ... if you were of the world, the world would love its own. But because you’re not of the world but I’ve chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. It’s the if of a settled condition, the world loves its own things, the world is involved in its own things.
Verse 18 is the same thing. “If the world hate you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you.” And you can be sure the world will hate you. That’s what it’s ... it’s another first class conditional in verse 18. If the world hate you, and the first class conditional in the Greek means “and it will, mark it,” you know that it hated Me before it hated you.
Every man born is born into this world as a part of Satan’s system. He is under the headship of Satan. His father is the devil, the god of this world. His life is centered around the things of Satan. You know, and it’s hard to get people to understand this but if you read Ephesians chapter 2 and from verses 1 to 3 where it describes it, it says it right there. It talks about the fact that we’re all dead in trespasses and sin. It talks about the fact that Satan controls our lives. The unsaved individual is ... has a Satan centered existence and when one man or woman comes to a knowledge of Jesus Christ by personal faith, he is then delivered from the world. And in verse 19 it says the world doesn’t love you because of that. You are taken out of the world; you are delivered from the system. As Paul said it in Colossians, you are translated from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of His dear Son. You are taken apart from the world. You have been removed from all the old associations into associates and the old world hates you because of the new liberty that is yours in Christ, because of the new found joy, because of the new kind of confidence and the sense of belonging in an eternal way to God because of the fact that you have answers and that you share those answers. And that you confront them with sin and with judgment.
The response of the world is one, first of all, of antagonism. It’s one of envy. It’s one of jealousy. It’s one of hatred because our freedom and our joy are so real and theirs are non existent. It’s an old story. Anybody hates somebody who’s got all the answers. And especially satanic godless men in the world hate those who give the answer when the answer is the antithesis of satanic activity, the person of Jesus Christ.
If there isn’t any antagonism in the world toward your testimony, then you don’t have a visible testimony. So they hate us first of all because we don’t belong to the system and we violate the system and we confront the system. And by a pure life, we rebuke the system. And Satan militates against that.
Secondly, and we saw this last week just initially, they hated us ... they hate us, I should say, because they hated our Lord Jesus. That’s number two. The world hates us because they hated Jesus Christ and we represent Him. You see, hate isn’t something you can store up, hate has to be vented. And the world has always hated Jesus Christ and they have nobody to unleash that hatred on other than those of us who represent Jesus Christ. And so we get the brunt of His ... of really the hatred that is directed toward Christ. The unbelievers who reject Jesus Christ and hated Him and continue to hate Him without a cause, haven’t given up their hatred, they’ve just redirected it to us who represent Jesus Christ. And let me assure you that the hatred of the world is just as virile today as it was two thousand years ago. There are people all over the world dying for their faith in Jesus Christ.
Now notice verse 20. It says at the beginning of verse 20, “Remember the word that I said unto you,” and He’s referring back to chapter 13 verse 16, “the servant is not greater than his lord.” Now back there He was talking about service. Back there He was saying to them, “I’m concerned that you humbly wash each other’s feet as I have done to you and serve each other.” But here He’s using the same principle to apply to persecution and He’s saying, “You know, they persecuted Me, you don’t think that if they persecuted your Master that you’re going to get away without persecution, do you?” It identifies us with Jesus Christ in the fellowship of His sufferings.
In Philippians chapter 3 and verse 10, Paul talked about the fellowship of His sufferings. He knew what that meant. At our house, we have a little trophy case where we have some old trophies from way back that got all smashed in the earthquake. And that’s kind of, you know, from my past life about all I have to show for a lot of years of a lot of effort is a whole lot of junk.
But you know, as I was reading in the end of Galatians some years ago, I discovered Paul’s trophy case and Paul had a very interesting trophy case. He said, at the end of Galatians, he said, “I bear in my body the marks of Jesus Christ.” Paul’s trophy case was on his body.
And I can imagine when he was with somebody, it came time to take his clothes off, perhaps to go to bed at night or whatever, he’d take them off and the person would say, “Boy, where did you get all those marks, Paul? They’re all over you.” And Paul would say, “Well, you see those over there, see, got those for Jesus. You see those stripes across the back; I got those for the sake of Jesus.” And I believe he loved every one of them. And he said, “For me to live is ... what? ... is Christ and to die, that’s gain ... that’s gain.” He says, “I count my life as dung, as nothing that I may win Christ.”
And see, that was commitment. That was a kind of discipleship that identified him with Jesus Christ and he felt the same kind of abuse that the world gave to Jesus and finally, his head was cut off. Now he knew the fellowship of the sufferings of Jesus Christ, most Christians don’t know that. Most Christians don’t have the joy of knowing what it is to suffer rebuke, the anger and hatred of the world and in that sense to identify completely with Jesus Christ.
And Peter says, you know, in 1 Peter chapter 2, he says ... you know, he says, “Christ suffered as an example for us,” hupogramos is the Greek word, as a copy, or as a pattern for he ought to suffer. How did He suffer? He suffered and when He was reviled He reviled not again. He never reacted to suffering, He took it willingly. And that’s the way we’re to take it. Christ not only suffered on the cross to bear away our sin, but He suffered on the cross to give us a pattern as to how we ought to confront the world. And if the world abuses us, we ought to take it in silence and count ourselves worthy to have suffered with Jesus.
And so, He says, “Don’t be surprised if you suffer because I did and the servant is not greater than his lord.” All right, then He says in verse 20, “If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept My saying, they will keep yours also.” And you know what He’s saying there? He’s saying, “You’re going to have the same situation that I had. Some people are going to persecute you and some people are going to accept your words, there’s going to be a vast majority who will come after you, who will be antagonized, who will be angered at you. Then there are going to be those who accept.”
Now you know, most people don’t experience this because their whole Christianity may revolve in the church. We don’t feel the antagonism here because we’re believers here. But you try going door to door on your block and see how it affects people when you get to their door and announce to them that they are sinners in line for the judgment of God and an eternal bell. You see, we aren’t really in the business of confronting the world, we usually confine our Christianity to ourselves and that’s the problem.
And so, what does He say? He says, “They’re going to persecute you. But some as have accepted My word, will also accept your word.” And that’s the joy of it all. But keep in mind, there’s always going to be only a few. Matthew 7, Jesus said, “Broad is the way that leadeth to destruction and many there be that go in there at, but narrow is the way into life everlasting and few there be that find it.”
One minister said that there’s going to be more people in heaven than there will be in hell. I don’t believe that. I don’t believe that for a minute. I believe it’s always the few, it’s always the narrow way, it’s always the remnant. But that’s the joy of our ministry to be able to confront the world and suffer whatever abuse may come and know that some will hear the gospel and believe.
All right, in Acts chapter 7. I want to show you a little illustration of this, of the attitude of one individual. In Acts 7:52, a man named Stephen turned out to be, in Scripture at least, the first martyr of the church. In Acts ... 52, and all through this chapter he’s been preaching a great message, really indicting the people for their sin. And listen to how really powerfully he indicts them. Verse 52, “Which of the fathers have not your fathers persecuted?” He tells them, “You guys have just ... which of the prophets, I mean, have not your fathers persecuted?” He says, “You’ve just persecuted the prophets from the beginning of your history to the end and they have slain them who showed before the coming of the just one. You killed all the prophets, of whom you have been the betrayers and murderers.” He calls them what they are. “Who have received the law by the disposition of angels and have not kept it.”
Well, by the time he got done with this sermon, they were really furious. Verse 54, “When they heard these things they were cut to the heart and they gnashed on him with their teeth.” They began to grind their teeth they were so mad. “But he being full of the Holy Spirit, looked up steadfastly into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing on the right hand of God and said, Behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God.”
Well, naturally, this would ... you know, here he was seeing a vision of God Himself in heaven in His glory. And verse 57, “Then they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears.” They were so furious at him because he had indicted them and said that he was the one who had a relationship with God, he was the one who had a vision of the glory of God, not them. And they slammed their hands over their ears and they ran on him with one accord. Boy, that’s antagonism. “And they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man’s feet whose name was Saul, who later became Paul, and they stoned Stephen who was calling upon God and saying, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And he kneeled down and cried with a loud voice, Lord; lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.” It’s a little bit of the antagonism of the world.
Look at chapter 8. “And Saul was consenting unto his death. And at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the Apostles, and devout men carried Stephen to his burial and made great lamentation over him.” That’s a little idea of the pure hatred of the world when confronted with sin.
We were at a conference earlier this week, Paul and I in San Diego, National Youth Workers Conference, and the speaker for the week was Dr. Francis Schaeffer, the author of many books, The God Who Was There, Pollution: The Christian View of Ecology, many other books. And he was saying, in essence, what we have to get rid of are cheap presentations of the gospel and we’ve got to tell it like it like it is. And he’s right. He’s right. We have to confront men with their sin openly and f rankly and expect a reaction. Sometimes they’ll receive Jesus Christ, more times than not ... than that, they’ll violently react. When you confront the world, you get a reaction. And if you’re not getting it, you’re not confronting the world.
In the fifteenth century in Italy, the church was going great. Organized religion was at its heyday. The Pope was ruling everything. The Catholic Church had extended itself all over the place, and certainly in Italy especially, it was powerful and everybody went to church and everybody believed in God. And everybody was religious. But it was a fake. And the whole system at that point was under the control of Satan.
There came a preacher at that time, in the fifteenth century in Italy, whose name was Savana Rolla. Savana Rolla was, historically, one of the greatest reformers, preachers, prophets, politicians, philosophers the world has ever known. He entered into fifteenth century Italy and began to confront Italy with its sin. He preached on sin constantly. He denounced the sins and the corruptions of the Roman Church and he also denounced the sins and corruptions of individuals. He really prepared the way for the Reformation and had Italy had the kind of soil that Germany has, Savana Rolla might have been the reformer and not Martin Luther.
His preaching, his biographer says, quote: “Was a voice of thunder and his denunciation of sin was so terrific that the people who listened to him went about the street half dazed, bewildered and speechless. His congregations were so often in tears that the whole church resounded with their sobs and weeping. So they burned him at the stake. His body went up in flames and organized religion led the fire.”
You never can confront the world without expecting to get a reaction. And false systems of religion are behind it all. Satan operates through false religion. And I’m not just talking about Catholicism, there are some Catholics who know and love Jesus Christ. I’m talking about Catholicism perhaps sometimes in history as a system. I’m talking about liberal Protestantism. I’m talking about modernism. I’m talking about cults. I’m talking about whatever other kind of false system Satan can get, whether or not it has proximity to the Christian faith or is far from the Christian faith, they’re all antagonistic to Jesus Christ. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, “You will be hated of all men for My namesake.” And the world does hate us because they hated Him. And if He lives in us and lives through us, they’re going to hate us ... they’re going to hate us.
All right, then thirdly and lastly, not only does the world hate us because we’re not part of the system and because they hated our Lord, but thirdly, they hate us now watch this one because they don’t know God ... they don’t know God. And this is naturally the hardest thing for the world to swallow, especially those in false religions. And you can imagine how this went over when it was constantly the message of Jesus to the Jews. The Jews always prided themselves on their knowledge of God and Jesus repeatedly told them you don’t know God ... you don’t know God. And that is what infuriated them more than anything else.
Now here’s the real deep inner cause of all hate. It is the absence of a knowledge of God. Look at verse 21. “But all these things will they do unto you for My namesake because they know not Him that sent Me.”
You see, He says they’re going to kill you, they’re going to persecute you because of Me and they’re going to do it because they don’t know God who sent Me. Man is born into the world in enmity with God. He is rebellious. He is full of hate toward God. Men don’t love God. Men don’t know God.
You say, “What about religious people?” First Corinthians 10:20 says, “What they do is sacrifice unto demons and not unto God.” False religion is demonic. Liberalism, modernism, those things that even call themselves Christianity that deny the virgin birth of Christ and the deity of Christ and the verbal inspiration of Scripture, those are not people who love God, those are people who hate God. They are under Satan’s control. Whether it’s gross kind of atheism or whether it’s superficial kind of liberal modern Christianity, they all hate God. They are at enmity with God. They are against God. They are on Satan’s side.
And to be honest with you, an individual who doesn’t worship the true God through Jesus Christ presented in the New Testament, comes out an atheist no matter what else he may worship. For to worship the wrong God is nothing but practical atheism. And people in our world who think they’re worshiping God are worshiping a God who doesn’t exist and not worshiping the God who does. And that comes out atheism.
The Jews came along and they claimed to know God and yet they hated God in a body, Jesus Christ. What kind of a strange paradox is that? Jesus said, “You claim to know God and you hate Me and I’m God in human flesh.” Their love of God was a facade, it was a fake, it was a lie. They didn’t love God. Jesus said you don’t even know God; you’re of your father the devil in John 8. And they were super, super, super religious people.
Let me just show you a couple of verses in John 8. Verse 19, “Then they said unto Him, Where is Thy Father?” He was talking about the fact that God was His Father. “Where is Thy Father? Jesus answered; ‘Ye neither know Me nor My Father. If you’d known Me, you should have known My Father also.’”
Then over in 50 ... verse 54, “Jesus answered, If I honor Myself, My honor is nothing. It is My Father that honoreth Me of whom ye say that He is your God.” See. But watch this. “Yet ye have not known Him.”
They claim to know God, very religious, tremendously religious. And Jesus says you don’t know God. He’s not your Father at all. You’re of your father the devil. You have no knowledge of God whatever or you would know Me and you would honor Me as God.
The world worships the God who doesn’t exist. In Acts chapter 17, you remember Paul arrived in Athens. He stood up on Mars Hill and he said this, “Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are very religious ... very religious. For as I passed by and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD whom therefore ye ignorantly worship.”
Now, there they were worshiping some God they didn’t even know and yet they were very, very, very religious. Typical of man’s approach to religion. He postulates a god who doesn’t exist, worships that god and then says he worships God when in fact he’s an atheist.
In 1 Corinthians 2:7, Paul said, “But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages unto our glory which none of the princes of this age knew, for had they known it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” Paul says if men had known God, they never would have crucified Jesus Christ. And if men knew God today, they wouldn’t continue to put Him to open shame and crucify Him afresh, but they do and that’s proof positive they don’t know God at all.
And I’ve told you so many times throughout our study of John’s gospel that if an individual has never invited Jesus Christ into his life and received Him as personal Savior, I don’t care who that individual is or what he thinks he knows, he has absolutely no knowledge of God at all. No man ever knew God who rejected Jesus Christ, who is God in human flesh. And here is the deep reason why people hated Christ and why they hate us, they don’t know God and they are lulled to sleep by satanic counterfeit religion into thinking that they know God when they don’t. That’s why false religion is such a curse. I believe Satan spends his time in false religion. The world thinks it is theologically oriented, but it is godless, it is blind.
Now, at this point somebody might pop up and say, “Well, you know, this is kind of a sad thing because after all, it’s not my fault, right? I mean, it’s not my fault I was born ignorant of God. I came into the world; I don’t know God, why are you holding me responsible?”
You are responsible. Let me show you why. In Romans chapter 1 verse 19, read this ... well, verse 18, really, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness.” In other words, men know the truth ... men know the truth. Verse 19, “Because that which may be known of God is manifested in them for God hath shown it unto them.” Every man that comes into this world, God gives him the basic knowledge that He exists and not only from his inward knowledge, but verse 20, from creation he can know there’s a God. “The invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen.”
You say, “Well, if all of the information is there, how ... how did man get to the situation where he doesn’t know God?” I’ll tell you how, verse 21, “Because when they knew God,” listen to this, “they glorified Him not as God but became vain in their imaginations, their foolish heart was darkened, professing themselves to be wise they became fools and changed the glory of incorruptible God in an image,” and it goes on to describe the image. And finally, they wind up worshiping themselves. And in verse 28 it says, “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gav