Text: Romans 1:18-25
Topic: How badly humankind is spiritually lost

• Illustration: A man puts on a monkey suit at the zoo, and falls into the den of lions, which turn out to be men wearing costumes, as well.
• Each man carries on a game of pretense.
  • Illustration: G. K. Chesterton declares the problem of civilization: me.
  • Illustration: John Stott quote on the sorry state of affairs of in "civilized" society.
• There are various ways the Bible talks about sin, but none is as complete as Paul's discussion in Romans.
• Paul says that until we understand the heart of man, we will never understand justification.

• Illustration: A girl is punished by her mother and made to stay in a closet, where she spits on all her mother's clothes until she runs out of spit. Still she waits for more spit to come up so she can continue.
• Sin is waiting for more spit; it's not just an act, but an attitude.
  • Illustration: In Albert Camus' The Stranger, a man about to be executed says he doesn't care whether God exists or not.

• When he does that, he lives in a shroud of darkness.
  • Illustration: In C.S. Lewis's allegory of his conversion, Reason says the Spirit of the Age doesn't know the difference between what nature meant for good and for garbage.

• Man has made himself a slave in an attempt to be free.
  • Illustration: Prince Philip warned protesters that freedom can be destroyed by making a mockery of it.
  • Illustration: D.L. Moody: sending a thief to college will only make him a bigger thief.
• The worst effect of sin is our low and brutalized spirit.

• Hell is an unending, physical, real separation from God.
  • Illustration: D.L. Moody is said to have wept whenever he preached on hell.
  • Illustration: Charlie Pierce said if hell is true, he would walk over a nation of broken glass to tell people.
• Hell is the choice of man who rejects God.

• There is a way out of this darkness.
• Man is not just unethical, but lost and dead.
  • Illustration: Zacharias gave his life to Christ at age 17.