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- The Bible says in Romans 3 .23 that the wages of sin is death. What you deserve for your sin against the
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- God of the universe is destruction. Before you read the Bible, you already knew that when we understand the text.
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- This is when we understand the text, a daily study of God's Word, that we may be filled with the knowledge of His will.
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- Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. We've been looking at Romans 1, verses 18 through 32 this week.
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- And to keep everything in context, I've been encouraging you to read all of Romans 1, and then we'll focus on a different section.
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- Today we're looking at verses 28 through 32. Since they did not see fit to acknowledge
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- God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.
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- They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness.
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- They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.
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- 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.
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- This week we've been looking at five things that are clearly seen in all that has been made, and Romans 1 makes light of these five things.
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- The number one thing that we looked at earlier this week is God's wrath, or number one on that list anyway, because we read in verse 18, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.
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- Not that it's going to be revealed, although there will be a final day of wrath, but that His wrath has been revealed.
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- We see every day evidence of the fallen world that we live in, and that God has subjected everything to futility, as it talks about in Romans 8.
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- We can observe the wrath of God every day. Number two thing that is clearly seen is
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- God's eternal power and divine nature, as it says in verse 20. It's more than just knowing that God exists.
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- We can know in all that has been made His eternal power and His divine nature. We can see that the world is imperfect, and so we can contrast that and know that there is a
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- God who is perfect. We know His divine nature. We also see that the world is limited, so by contrast, we can know a
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- God who is eternal. We're able to know that just in the things that have been made. Number three, we know what's natural, and we know what's contrary to nature.
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- It doesn't take a rocket scientist to look at a man and look at a woman and know the two are different.
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- So why is it that man exchanged natural relationships and burn with lust for another man and a woman doing the same for another woman?
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- It's because God gave them up in the lust of their hearts to impurity because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie.
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- So it is a judgment of God subjecting us to this sin that destroys us.
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- And that's the fourth thing that we inherently understand. We know that the wages of sin is death.
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- As we look again at verse 32, 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.
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- If you do something that is contrary to nature, you know the result of that is going to be destruction.
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- If you try to jump off a cliff and you hit the bottom, you know by the laws of nature that what you deserve for breaking that law is death.
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- If you run up behind a large animal and kick him in the behind, that animal is going to turn around and maul you.
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- We know the consequences of destructive behavior. And if we know what is natural and what is unnatural, then when we do unnatural behavior, men burning with passion for other men, that there is destruction as a result of that behavior.
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- We can see that even in the results. We can see the higher rate of STDs among homosexuals.
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- We see the lower rate of life expectancy and the higher rates of depression and suicide.
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- We know that when we go for what is unnatural, that it will lead to our destruction.
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- We inherently know that. But God has given them over to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.
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- How do we rescue a person out of that? They need to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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- We must love the gospel. And we must love them enough not to let them destroy themselves, not encouraging this kind of behavior, but leading them to salvation that is in Christ Jesus.
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- This is a production of First Southern Baptist Church in Junction City, Kansas. Find us on the web at www .utt
