Hey my friends, it's Matt. This is a 10-minute Bible hour podcast. And I gotta say this at the front end of this episode. Don't take this one the wrong way. Please, please, please, don't take this one the wrong way. Because of what we're gonna talk about today, it'd be really easy to feel like we're departing from the whole tone of this podcast, and all of a sudden, this thing is a deal where I like to just think about what you might do that is naughty, bad, or scandalous and drag up old things that you feel guilty and lousy about, and then just tell you how bad you are. No, we are in the same boat as we go through the book of Galatians and we get to this list of very bad things we've been looking at, and the lists that we're going to look at around the New Testament today, we're in the same boat. These things are written to people like you and me who are screwed up in weird and different ways. The one thing about us is you know there's at least some creativity to how we are weird and damaged, and to what tempts us, and to what brings out the potential for darkness or hurtful stuff. But the one thing we all have in common is the capacity for that. And well, the New Testament speaks to it really frankly quite a bit, but we're gonna try to look at this list in the spirit of charity. I think of it this way I root for the Colorado Rockies, they're a major league baseball team, and they're the worst. And sometimes people say that and it's hyperbole right now. That is literal. They are the worst team having the worst season since the sport was invented. And I think Abner Doubleday invented that during the American Civil War. So it's saying something. It's a remarkably bad season, but I can't look away from the dumpster fire because they're bad at everything. Everything on the list is negative. And so I watched the show and I can't wait to see how the announcers are going to get through another two and a half hours of baseball without being mean to these players who they know. I mean, they all work for the same company. And these poor announcers calling these Rockies games, they have to point to the list of very bad things, like, well, you know, we all saw that, viewers. That was an unfortunate play. You know, unfortunately, the Rockies haven't been real good at that aspect of baseball this year. Well, that's right, Pat. And they also haven't been very good at that other aspect of baseball, which we just saw them get wrong here. And it's so on and so forth through the whole thing. But they try to be clinical about it and gracious about it. The players are nice, they're trying, they're not perfect, but still reality is what reality is, and the list is what the list is. And the New Testament lists of very bad things, well, um they are there. They're as much a part of the Bible as Psalm 23 and the pretty stuff. And based on what we just looked at in Galatians 5, I think it makes a lot of sense to go and do a quick cruise through a lot of these and compare notes. And I think if anything, it just illustrates the point that once again, people are broken and damaged and weird and tempted by very different things and in very different ways. And the thing that you are supposed to do when you read the Bible and come across the stuff that God says isn't what he wants for people, isn't what he wants for his followers. The thing you're supposed to do is turn to Jesus because the mechanism of forgiveness and atonement that's all over the Bible is right there next to it. Yes, the Bible points out the sin and shortcoming of humanity. Also, the Bible spends far more time and far more plot development on how it gets fixed and what God does about that. So, there, that's the setup, that's the frame up. I don't know if this is gonna be like one episode or two episodes. We're gonna read a little bit of Bible. There are lists of very bad things, there's a lot of lists. Here's the first one. It's in Mark chapter seven. And as I am turning to that, I'm just gonna tell you there is gonna be something on one of these lists that is gonna be your thing that you don't want people to know about. Uh something in your brain, something in your heart, something that happened one time, whatever that you're really embarrassed about. You do with that whatever you need to, but know that literally everyone else in the conversation is like we're coming upon our thing or things too. Like this is just uh a great time for humility for all of us, a great time, since you know you can listen to this podcast alone with nobody else around, to it's it's a great time to not wallow in a bunch of the grief and guilt or defensiveness or being like, I like all the parts of the Bible except for the part that says my thing isn't a good idea. That part, something's wrong with the translations off or something. Like, look, this is gonna sting. It is what it is. Let's just do this work and get after it. Mark 7, 21 through 22. This is from Jesus of Nazareth. These words are in red. So you know, I know there'd be some people who'd be tempted to be like, oh, well, you know, the lists of very bad things in the Bible. Well, that's just you know, that's Paul. Paul was a stick in the mud and never truly got over his Pharisee streak, and that just comes out from time to time. Well, the first one of these lists that we get is from Jesus himself. So here we go. Mark 7, 21 and 22. Jesus went on. What comes out of a man is what makes him unclean, for from within, out of men's hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance, and folly. All these evils come from inside and make a man unclean. I mean, if you remember your Bible stuff, you can tell what Jesus is speaking to. He's talking about clean and unclean laws and a controversy with the religious leaders who were upset about that. And Jesus is like, oh, I mean, there's also some heart stuff that's more than this physical outward stuff. There's some echoes there in Mark 7 of what you could maybe count as another list of very bad and destructive things that we get from the Sermon on the Mount, a book earlier in Matthew. It's a little different construction there in Matthew chapter 5, where Jesus talks about murder and adultery and divorce and violence and being unloving and unforgiving and breaking oaths. But it's all that sort of, you've heard it said long ago, don't murder. And anyone who murders will be subject to judgment. But I tell you that anyone who's angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. So if you remember that, there's kind of a list there as well of those things that I just reeled off. But now we're getting out of the gospel and overtly Jesus' part, and we're getting into the letters of the New Testament. The next list is in Romans 1, other than Galatians 5, that we've been looking at. This might, I mean, this is probably the most intense one in the whole New Testament. I'd say this is probably it. In Romans 1, Paul is starting by talking about the hope that is in the gospel and in Christ, but then he talks about why we need the hope that is in the gospel and in Christ. And he talks about the darkness of the heart of mankind and all of the different clever ways that the flesh has come up with to rebel against God. And this list just puts on a great big heeled steel-toed boot and just starts mashing on all the toes of all the people and all the things. This is not a feel-good section of the Bible, and there's no apology for that in the text. Romans 118 says, The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness. And he goes on to give a description of idolatry. That's charge number one. And from there, here we go. Buckle up. This is what it says. Therefore, God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged, this is humankind, is the they here, they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served created things rather than the Creator who is forever praised. There's another reference to idolatry, even sexual idolatry. Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts, even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another, men committed indecent acts with other men and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion. Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. They've become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed, depravity, they're full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and malice. They're gossip, slanderers, god haters, insolent, arrogant, and boastful. They invent ways of doing evil, they disobey their parents, they're senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things, but also approve of those who practice them. I know it was a lot. I'm going on, there's a point to all of this. First Corinthians six, nine through ten is at least it's a shorter list, it's only two verses. Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Don't be deceived, neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor male prostitutes, nor homosexual offenders, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor slanderers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were, but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and by the Spirit of our God. That last letter was to the seedy city of Rome. This next letter was to the seediest city of them all in this ancient world that Paul had visited, and that being Corinth. Apparently, those two cities had similar lists of problems, but also there's some variety in what tripped them up based on what the lists say. Did I skip one? I think I skipped one. First Corinthians five has one too. That's crazy. It's back-to-back lists of this stuff. But now I'm writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who calls themselves a brother, but is sexually immoral or greedy or an idolater or a slanderer or a drunkard or a swindler with such a man, don't even eat. Obviously, every one of these passages merits so much more nuance and contextualizing and talking about what's going on here. But on the surface, you see what's happening. There are these handful of places in the New Testament that very boldly and very directly say this is the stuff that is screwed up. You might be thinking to yourself at this point, well, I think that is enough of this exercise. Let us just be done and get on to the next thing. And I am also feeling that. And yet I am committed to the bit. So we are going to pause here and pick up where we left off. And we are going to grind through all of these lists, and we're going to look at them at once, and we're going to think about them at once, and we're going to think about why they're in there, and then we're going to point to the hopeful stuff coming out of that. Thank you for bearing with me through difficult material. More tomorrow. I'm Matt. This is the 10 Minute Bible Hour Podcast. Let's do this again soon.