Book of Romans - Ch. 1, Vs. 23-Ch. 2, Vs. 10 (11/21/1999)

OK. Book of Romans, first chapter.

We actually begin with verse 23 today. Paul is explaining how desperately man needs salvation.

I'm going to lock him out, I guess. In verse 22, professing themselves to be wise, they became silly, brainless, stupid, dull -witted, dumb, and so forth.

Verse 23, and they changed the glory of the incorruptible

God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four -footed beasts, and creeping things.

Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanliness through the lusts of their own hearts to dishonor their own bodies between themselves.

I'd like for everybody to understand God gave them the right to do evil.

You cannot be angry and learn of God at the same time. Verse 25, who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshiped and served the creature more than the creator, who is blessed forever.

Amen. For this cause, God gave them up unto vile afflictions.

For even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature.

Anytime you have a question about anything, lots of times you can find the answer from nature.

No place in nature do you find that it practices homosexuality to any extent.

Lesbianism, when I prepared this a couple weeks ago,

I had just read in the paper that our president had proclaimed this week as Queer and Fag Honor Week.

No, he he dressed it up.

But sin is sin, people. We cannot just manufacture some easy, palatable words and make it correct.

But a week dedicated to those people. Verse 32, who knowing the judgment of God that they which commit such things are worthy of death.

Well, I'm on 32, where are you? All right, if you insist.

27, and likewise also the men leaving the natural use of the woman burned in their lusts one toward another.

Men with men working that which is unseemly and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meat or which was fitting.

So the Bible tells us here that there is a recompense. David, what's that word mean?

Men also used animals for this same thing. Turn to the book of Deuteronomy, please.

To the 27th chapter and the 21st verse. Cursed be he that lieth with any manner of beast and all of the people shall say amen.

I hope you realize that God does not give a law where it does not apply.

So when he started to burn witches, that means there are witches. 28, and even as they did not like to retain

God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient.

Now the word or the phrase not convenient simply means not fit for man or beast.

29, being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignancy, whisperings.

Now, every time I've taught this and every time I've ever heard it taught, we just simply read all of those words and go on.

We're not going to do that this time. We're going to look at each one of them. Maybe the only time we do, but we're going to this morning.

We start off with unrighteousness. A deed of violating law and justice is unrighteousness.

Fornication, adultery, homosexuality, lesbianism, intercourse with animals and so forth, sexual intercourse with close relatives, sexual intercourse with a divorced man or woman, the worship of idols, of the defilement of idolatry as incurred by eating the sacrifice offered to an idol.

Wickedness means iniquity, depravity, malice, evil purpose and desires.

Covetousness, a greedy desire to have more. Malice, wickedness that is not ashamed to break laws.

Murder, murder was invariably visited with capital punishment.

Dennis, you know, every sin demands payment and that sin will be paid.

Yes, sir. Absolutely. The law of murder and its principle is founded on the fact that man having been made in the likeness of God.

Debate means contention, strife, wrangling, arguments.

Deceit is guile and subtlety. Malignity is bad character, depravity of mind and life.

Whisperer, secret slanderer or detractor, backbiter, a deframer, evil speaker, hater of God, hateful to God exceptionally, emptiest, impious and wicked, despiteful, injurious and insolent man who, one who lifted up with pride either heaps insult insulting language upon others or does them some shameful act or wrong, despitefulness, proud, showing oneself above others, overtopping, conspicuously above others, preeminent with an overweening estimate of one's means or merit, despising others or even treating them with contempt or haughtiness, boaster, an empty pretender, inventor of bad things, this is a contriver of bad nature, disobedient to parents and Debbie to think that that was included in this awful list, disobedient to parents means impersuadable, cannot be persuaded, not compliant and when a child got to that point then by law the father had to kill him, boy that put a stop to it.

Without understanding, foolish, unintelligent, stupid, covenant breaker, simple and faithless, without natural affection, means they're unsociable, unloving, implacable, truce breakers that cannot be persuaded to enter into a covenant, unmerciful, without mercy or mercilessness, so we have painted an awful picture of man without God, who knowing the judgment of God that they which commit such things are worthy of death,

John they know that, not only do the same but have pleasure in them to do it, they encourage each other, now we had in verse 29 it starts off with the words being filled, again filled, what part of grammar is that, it's what, it's a passive perfect participle, what's that mean, what's passive mean

David? Right, this action is done by someone other than themselves, it is an action once forever, the result of such an action is that they were completely filled with all of the aforementioned sins to a condition of always being full, let me ask you a question, to be different, is it our duty to do all of the good deeds we can, is it, is it, is it not our duty to do all of the good deeds that we can do, but sounds reasonable to me, well

David you know answer it, praise to the praise of his glory if you want to say it exactly right, it is, how do we do that, one word, one word, obey, that's right, it is simply our duty to obey

God, period, in doing that we'll, we will do good deeds, but don't start in the middle, in psalms 37 and 4, delight thyself also in the

Lord, and he shall give thee the, the desires of thine heart,

Dennis what's that mean to you, well why can you not say there won't be any bad things, nothing bad will ever happen to one of his children, all right, you, you changed the subject of the sentence,

I will think some bad things, we might perceive it to be so, but if it come from God it cannot be bad, it'd have to be good,

I wish that we would all get that fixed in our computer, all things are of God in the original state, and all things are good in the original state, everything that comes, and he's in control of everything, now we perceive it to be bad, usually because it does not go the way we want it to, or my reaction to it is wrong, or I hurt myself by it, there's no way that anybody could have ever explained to me, in 1941 when

I became so ill, and was in the hospital for so long, that that could be good

John, it just, it never entered my mind that it was good, but if it had not been for that incident

I'd have never met any of you, so it was good, he doesn't say that you won't suffer, or it won't hurt, but even the hurt is good, only as deep as you want it to be, yes,

Psalms 37 4, well, well, let's, let's, let's hear the pop, delight thyself also in the

Lord, and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart, all right, don't stop, he, and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart, good desires, because you want to, when you do not, seek out the

Lord in righteousness, and so, when you said that, that being filled with passion, and that was something that was done to them, that's a result of the fact that they didn't desire

God, so all of a sudden he put those desires in their heart, but the opposite is also true for those of us who do desire the

Lord, he puts the right desire, that's right, sure, that's right, that's right,

I'm so glad you finally saw that, for years and years,

I looked at the word desires as a verb, it isn't as a noun, he will not give you everything you want, that's not what it says, but he will give you the right desire to desire that that he wants, yes, it's imperative, well, okay, he shall give you the desires, doesn't mean that he will give you what you desire, he will give you the desire to desire that that he wants, and it's imperative, there's no escaping it,

Philippians 2 .13, that's right, and also he not only desires us to do good works, gives us the right desires, he's the one that works it, it is

God that worketh in you, he's the one that's working in you to do what he wants, and makes it possible for us to carry it out, great

God just about takes it all away from us, doesn't it, all we have to do is just perform it, yes, yes, no, well, as far as they were concerned, it was, yes, sir, yes, sir, but he did, he did, no, by knowing that fact, then

I can't go beat up somebody, can't find any fault,

I can see they answer the law, but that's as far as I can go, no, all right, where was

I so rudely interrupted, okay, remember

Philippians 2 .13, and Philippians 1 .29,

I think it is, now we come to chapter 2 in this wonderful book of Romans, tomorrow,

November the 22nd, my bride and I will have been married 54 years, and you know, the longer we live together, the more we become one mind, so David, I may not be too sharp today, because today's her turn,

Romans 2 and 1, therefore, or because of all of this, because you've been completely filled, thou art inexcusable, old man, you're without any defense, whosoever thou art that judges or criticizes, for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself, for thou that judgest doest the same things, if you didn't, you wouldn't recognize that it was wrong, now here's something for us to all think about, to find fault with things in your life, or to complain about circumstances, hold on to your seat, is worshiping the devil, the only way anyone knows anything about anything, is only by experience, therefore, when we condemn someone else, we're saying that either we are now, or we have in the past done the same thing, so be very careful when you open your mouth,

I didn't say you had to be one, you have to have some experience concerning that, sure, you'd have to, if it didn't, then we'd have to follow the philosophy that we need to be sure that our children experience all things evil, so they know what to avoid, verse two, but we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things, this is one of the main reasons for us to not be able to judge in truth, is because we do not know the truth, we cannot see the entire picture, another reason we cannot give an unbiased decision, every decision

Greg has ever made has been tilted one way or the other, we cannot escape that,

God's the only one that can, not that he makes decisions, but in judgment we have to, and thinkest thou this, oh man, that judges them which do such things, and doest the same that thou shalt escape the judgment of God, the

Jew is ready enough to judge a Gentile, but he forgets that the same principle on which he condemns the

Gentile, mainly that he does evil in spite of knowing better, condemns himself also, and unfortunately

Greg, you and I act like Jews once in a while, it is a common fault of man to think that laws apply to everyone else and not me, how many times you ever sat in not this church, but in any other service, and you thought boy the preacher's really getting them told today,

I'm so glad he said that, it better not be in this church, yes sir, yes sir, well hate us then,

I hope none of you get caught up in this, what's his name, Benny Hinn, well

I wonder why, it's getting more and more like San Francisco, well

I'd have to understand your definition of judge, sure, sure, absolutely, if we did not, we'd be in trouble, you know the

Lord said that by their fruits you shall know them, that's not talking about Christians, that's talking about the false teachers,

David, I think that we might actually all be taken together so that when you reset the phrase old man, you're talking about the natural man, yes, that's right, that's right, that's right, yes, that's right, you're right, absolutely, oh

I hear it all the time, well it's really not us judging, it's the bible that's judging them, just like if you sit on a jury and I've heard so many people say well

I can't condemn him to death, well you're not, it's the law that does it, yes, that's right, all right, in verse four

I would only add this, the word despisest or despise means to look down your nose at somebody, you're better than they are, the word thou is emphatic or a staccato, carries lots of weight, means each one of you, the riches of his, meaning

God's goodness and forbearance and long -suffering, this is what made it possible to you to be born into time, to be raised to the state where he notified you that you were his, we look at it as his long -suffering,

John is the Lord delaying his coming, he's right on schedule, yes, that's good, oh you're expecting one, that's premeditated visionary, no, that's right, no, he does nothing based on emotion, it's all matter of fact, that's good, do you feel another one coming, that's right, he has no patience, can we move on to five now, but after thy hardness, meaning stubbornness and impenitent or unrepentant heart, treasure up unto thyself wrath, against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, these people are treasuring up wrath, now that's borders on an oxymoron, because you do not ever connect treasure with evil, but these people are doing that, as I said earlier, every sin demands a payment, now our sins were paid for, theirs are not,

Jesus bore the weight of all of the sins of his people, all of them, of all of his people at one time on the cross, now

John, these people that are not under the blood, when they come to judgment, they will have to bear the weight of all of their individual sins, all at once, they won't be able to, but they'll have to, verse six, who will render and what's that mean besides making lard, all right, pay off, to pay that which is due to every man, every man according to his deeds, deed is any product, whatever, anything accomplished by hand or art, industry or mind, second

Corinthians 5 10 says, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that everyone may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad, if it's bad, you'll lose what reward could have been, if it's good, you will gain a reward, don't ask me to explain the rewards because I cannot, personally,

I think there'll be responsibilities, receive those things done in our bodies, in this life, in this life right now, there have been two or three good deeds that Greg has done, some of you have done less than that, but be aware of the fact you don't know when you do a good deed, if you do it's not a good deed, verse seven, to them who by patient continuance in well -doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life, well -doing means good faith, continuance in the good faith, a falling drop will finally wear a stone, at the bottom of every leaf on a tree, there is, and cradle was the only term that I could think of, but at the, where the leaf comes off of the branch, right down at that little spot, there's an awful lot of chemistry, there is a photoelectric cell that when the sun gets to a certain angle, which means in the fall, then the photocell is turned off and the green, what is the green chlorophyll is shut off, and we see all of the beautiful colors of the leaves, the colors were there all the time, it's just the chlorophyll has covered them, so at a certain time of year, that little photocell is shut off, but the amazing thing that I discovered when studying all of that was that there is a cradle and in it is an infant germ of life, the winds will rocket, the birds will sing to it all summer and next season then it will unfold into a leaf, so you see how

God is preparing next year's leaves even today, this spring, he was preparing next year's leaf, is he not doing the same thing with us, preparing us right now for the next life, but unto them that are contentious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indication, and wrath.

Now verses 8 and 9 are not speaking about man's destination, but about rewards, both good and bad.

Verse 9, tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doeth evil of the

Jew first and also the Gentile. Why the Jew first, Greg? That's right, but glory and honor and peace to every man that worketh good to the

Jew first and also to the Gentile. Let me give you again,

I've done it before, but seven steps to destiny. Debbie, it all starts with a thought, this may be seven or eight,

I don't know. Today is not my day. So first, hearing gives rise to thoughts.

Every thought bears fruit, every one of them. Fruit bears action.

Action brings a habit. From habits, our conduct is developed.

Conduct brings character, and character gives you destiny.

Destiny gives you heaven or hell. It all starts with hearing something which triggers a visionary thought in some people's minds, then we act on it, becomes a habit, conduct, character.

So every thought, Greg, every thought is powerful.

It is in the thinking process that all of the power lies. So be very careful what you allow your man to think about.

Dave and I was talking the other day about the power of the mind.

It has a mind of its own, and I hope someday he develops that into a powerful sermon.

That's why in the book of Philippians, in the fourth chapter and the eighth verse, we find Paul saying this, finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, just, pure, lovely, good report, if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.

Our time's almost up, but I must give you a little bit of the process of our mind, and I know

I've done this before. But every human being has a conscious mind, well, the rational ones, and a subconscious mind.

John, you're born with both. The subconscious mind never forgets.

It's like a non -failing computer that it takes all of the information from the conscious mind.

The conscious mind gets all of its information through the senses. So, the subconscious records everything, forever.

If you had control of your subconscious mind, you would be able to go back and relate everything that has ever occurred to you from the time that mind was formed.

As a side note, I believe in Revelation where it says the books will be opened, that's what will be opened, is our subconscious mind.

Now, every answer that you get for any question that you have, you go through every day and you have questions, well, every answer comes out of the subconscious mind.

If you put junk in, you're going to get junk out. If you put the word of God in, that's all you're going to get out.

Just stands to reason that all you know is what's in there. We have the option of putting in certain things.

God has access to it also. Satan doesn't, God does, talking to his people now.

So, Philippians 4 and 8, we need to commit to memory.

Whatever things are good, pure, holy, satisfying, everything, think on these things.

If you spend your time thinking on only the good, and it starts, remember, with one of the senses.

If you look at something that's bad, that's going to be recorded. By the way, the subconscious never recognizes a joke.

You cannot say, well, go ahead and record it, but play it back as a joke. God doesn't recognize a joke either.

It is impossible. And David, I was thinking more of that since we discussed it the other day.

Does God recognize a joke? You have to understand the definition of a joke.