Romans 1

and that brings us to romans chapter 1 where paul said i am a servant or bond slave of jesus christ paul wrote his letter to the romans while he was in corinth at about 60 a.d it was his third visit to corinth and in his opening here he will express to them the desire that he has had to come to rome a long-standing desire but up until this present the time that he wrote he was hindered from going now when we close the book of acts last week we found paul in rome at the end of the book of acts and that was three years after he wrote this desire that he had to come to rome now he speaks of this desire as having been a long-standing desire we know that it was the will of god that paul was to go to rome jesus said as you've borne witness of me in jerusalem so must you bear witness of me in rome this desire to go to rome was a desire that was put upon his heart by the lord as the lord said that he would write his desires on the fleshly tablets of our hearts and so god had put upon paul's heart that desire to go to rome but it was several years before the desire was a fulfillment often times god reveals his will in advance but it takes time for it to be accomplished look how long abraham waited for the promise of god to give him a son through sarah and so often times like with abraham we get impatient waiting upon god and we think well maybe god needs my help maybe god can't quite do it without me getting involved and as a general rule we are able to pretty well mess things up when we get involved and then it takes a little longer because god has to unscramble our mess before he can go ahead with his program so paul is writing and so you were three years ahead in the last week now we're going back three years earlier as paul is writing to the romans expressing his desire to come he calls himself a servant of jesus christ when paul was on his way to damascus to imprison the believers in jesus christ breathing out murders against them very strong in his feelings against christianity determined to wipe out this sect the lord apprehended paul and as he was lying there on the ground the lord spoke to him and said saul saul why persecutest thou me his response was who art thou lord that i might serve thee and it was at that point that paul became a servant of jesus christ now he's writing to the roman church many years later about 27 or so years later and he calls himself a slave or a bond slave of jesus christ called to be an apostle writing to the ephesians he said paul in an an apostle by the will of god here he speaks of his calling to be an apostle one who has been sent out by the lord and separated unto the gospel of god or the good news of god about the only place you're going to find good news today is in the church you won't watch it or you won't see it on the television newscast you're gonna see bad news all you won't read it in your newspapers uh but the good news of jesus christ is just as good as it ever was the news that god can transform our lives from darkness to light from the power of satan unto god the wonderful good news which that is good news he had promised before by his prophets in the holy scriptures as you go through the old testament and the prophecies of the scriptures they are prophesying of the coming of god's anointed king or the messiah jesus christ is the messiah and thus the good news is that god has fulfilled the promises to their fathers the prophets and god has sent the messiah the savior into the world isaiah said all of us like sheep had gone astray we turned every one of us to our own ways and god laid on him the iniquities of us all the good news of the messiah who would come and who would bear our sin god would put on him the iniquities of us all but by bearing our sins he would grant to us eternal life forgiveness of sins so the promise of this good news by his prophets in the holy scriptures concerning his son jesus christ over 300 predictions concerning jesus giving details and uh aspects of his life were fulfilled by jesus christ it uh as far as mathematical com uh mathematical probabilities it is impossible for anyone to fulfill those predictions and yet jesus did and so he was declared concerning jesus christ which was made of the seed of david many of the promises concerning the messiah were related to david it it started when david had his friend nathan over and as they were sitting there talking david said you know nathan i was watching the people go into the tent over there go to the tent over there to worship god for they have moved the tabernacle to jerusalem and he said i'm sitting here in my palace all of the luxuries of the palace and here's god is dwelling in a tent that's not fair nathan i'm going to build a house for god that's going to excel anything i mean i'm not going to spare any expense i'm going to build god a magnificent house his friend nathan the prophet said david that sounds like a splendid idea do all that's in your heart nathan went home couldn't sleep that night god woke him up and said nathan you spoke out of turn you didn't wait on me you didn't listen for my voice you encouraged david to build me a house nathan i can't have david building me a house this guy's hands are too bloody so you're going to have to go back and tell david that he can't build me a house but you tell david i'll build him a house and that there will be one of his seed that will sit upon the throne forever that is the messiah will be a descendant of david so the next morning as nathan came into david he said oh david i've got some bad news and some good news the bad news is that you can't build god a house you're a man of war your hands are bloody but the good news is that god said that he took you from the sheep coat and from following after the sheep and he made you the ruler over his people and god is going to build you a house and there shall never cease one of your descendants sitting upon the throne david immediately recognized that as a promise that from his descendants the messiah would come so david went into the lord and he said oh lord you took me from the sheep coat following after the sheep you made me the ruler over your people oh god you've done so much i mean i'm amazed at what you've already done for me but now you speak of the future what can i say here david probably the most articulate man who ever lived a man who was gifted in words and offering praises to god the psalms are the witness of how capable this man was of expression of praise and thanksgiving and yet so overwhelmed by the goodness of god that he's speechless you know i love it when you just get to that place of awe and wonder so much that you just can't say anything sabrina rolas said when prayer reaches its ultimate words are impossible and and that that bit of just so overwhelmed by god's love and by grace that i just you know you get anything you say is almost cheapens what god has done in trying to express thanks there isn't any words in the english language that are adequate to express the feelings of your heart and your spirit for what the lord has done for you this is happening to me more and more god is blessing in such glorious ways that i find myself at a loss trying to express how much i appreciate what god has done and what god is doing i find words are inadequate to express it as the scripture speaks about the joy it is says it's unspeakable or that it it's indescribable uh paul in describing the the glorious trip that he had to heaven he said that it was uh impossible it would be a crime to try to describe the glory and the beauties that he heard while they're in heaven it would be a crime to try and describe because language hasn't been invented the modern philosophers today talk about the ultimate experience and the difficulty of having the ultimate experience now we are not sure that anybody has yet had it because the difficulty is if a person did have the ultimate experience they they wouldn't be able to describe it because there haven't been words that have been created that could describe or define the ultimate experience so uh if you had it you really couldn't share it because there isn't language to share it and so if if you had it and you should say to a friend oh last night i had the ultimate experience if they'd say oh great tell me about it they'd know that you don't know anything about it because if you knew anything about it you knew you couldn't describe it julian huxley who had such a tremendous influence on our present educational system thought that the ultimate experience was perhaps dying under uh hallucinating on lsd uh and uh he influenced a lot of people in fact there they were having so many of the university students in europe committing suicide uh thinking that maybe this was the ultimate experience death the ultimate experience can you imagine that that they had to start telling the classes we're not certain that death is the ultimate experience so in other words don't don't try to find the ultimate experience in suicide or death because we're not certain that that is it oh poor world you know as we get down a little bit paul's going to tell us about it professing himself to be wise he became fools because they began to worship and serve the creature rather than the creator so jesus is declared to be in the scriptures the son of god with power the son of david according to the scriptures but also declared to be the son of god with power for unto us a child is born unto us a son is given the child was to be of the seed of david but he was also to be the son of god given to us a son is child is born a son is given the psalm 2 speaks about the son of god god so loved the world he gave his only begotten son we are told in john and so declared to be the son of god with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead the greatest proof that jesus is indeed the promised messiah is the resurrection from the dead in the gospel of john as he closes his gospel he said and many other signs jesus did which i did not record but these things are written that you might believe that jesus is the messiah the son of god and by believing you might have life in his name now as john gave to us the signs of jesus the works the miracles that proved that he was supernatural the son of god the final sign would be his resurrection from the dead when the jews asked jesus for a sign he said there will no sign be given to this wicked and adulterous generation except the sign of jonah for as jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale so shall the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth the only sign jesus was going to give to them was his resurrection and so paul said declared or by his resurrection from the dead he was declared to be the son of god by whom that is by jesus we have received grace and apostleship for the obedience to the faith among the nations for his name so paul experienced the grace of god he talked of himself as the chiefest of sinners and yet as such he experienced the grace of god you too can experience the grace of god god's blessings god's unmerited favor and this theme of god's grace we're going to discover it throughout the whole book of romans and i pray that as we come through the book of romans that you'll come to a fuller richer understanding of god's grace than you have ever had before you see so much of our training is that of reward for good behavior and punishment for bad behavior so if you want to receive special favors you are especially good i mean that's just the way it is if you don't want any dessert just be bad and you get deprived of dessert you have to go to bed right after dinner but you don't get dessert because you've been bad today so it's the reward system reward for being good and and the punishment for being bad and it so clouds are our whole attitude mentally that we carry this over to god and there are so many times where we feel well i've been so horrible i've been so miserable i've just been out of sorts and surely god won't bless me today because i've been so miserable and god doesn't bless you and you say see i knew it i knew god wouldn't bless me i've been so horrible well no that isn't why god didn't bless you the reason why god didn't bless you is you didn't believe and trust him to bless you if you believe and trust god to bless you he will if you believe that he won't he won't i mean you don't have faith for the blessing you know i've discovered this interesting thing about grace that i've learned to expect to be blessed by god though i realize i don't deserve it and you know what the blessings have never stopped because i'm trusting god to bless me because i know that god loves me and wants to bless me god wants to bless you god wants to just lavish his love upon you jesus said if you being earthly fathers know how to give good gifts to your children now i take my grandkids into toys r us and i turn them loose and we go up to the check stand and check out the toys that they've chosen and and i love it i love it and it's just it's just i don't know it just does something for me to to see their smiles and to see their reactions and their responses before they could hardly talk when grandpa's coming down they teased our us you know i mean it's just it's a routine and it's a joy just a joy and so with god and if you being early i'm just an earthly father i'm not even a good example but god loves you and just wants to bless you and the lack of blessings is not because of the lack of devotions it's because of the lack of faith the lack of devotions often creates the lack of faith and if you believe something to be true it in a sense i believe that you know as long as i'm doing this god isn't going to bless me as long as i'm doing that i'm not going to expect god to bless me and so he doesn't i mean it's the blessings are received by faith in god's grace we're going to get into that quite a bit as we go through romans so that you will discover the key of being blessed by god when i discovered this several years ago while going through romans i discovered the grace of god and the fact that god will bless me because of his love for me not because i deserve it not because i'm worthy but even when i am totally undeserving and unworthy he even oftentimes chooses that to show his grace just to say i still love you chuck in spite of the fact that you really messed it up i still love you it's just sort of an assurance of of saying i still love you and what a joy it is to be blessed of god not on a reward of my goodness but just as a sign of his tremendous love for me so we receive grace and apostleship for the obedience to the faith among all nations for his name the lord had sent paul out to all the nations apostleship means to be sent out sent out by god to all of the nations for the name of christ among whom are ye also the called of jesus christ i've been called to be an apostle you also have been called by jesus christ and so his address of the letter is to all that are in rome who are beloved of god you know you love everybody but your family is beloved they're close there's a special kind of a love for those that are in the family and being in the family of god you've got a special relation god so loved the world but you're beloved of god you're special very special you're you're the family of god and thus in that intimate circle of beloved of god and called to be saints it's rather tragic that the catholic church has set up a long list of qualifications in order to be sainted by the church you've got to live sort of an ex exemplary life uh you uh have to do many wonderful deeds and then after you die you have to answer the prayers of the people and so that they can give testimony that they prayed to you and their loved one was healed or some miracles were done as they prayed to you and uh and if they get enough witnesses and testimonies to say well we prayed to uh saint charles and he uh you know did this for us and did that for us and all then then they will have their their meeting and their counsel and they will consider uh you and then they will acclaim that you were a saint and you get the official title of saint the lord doesn't put you through all that rigamarole the lord just calls you a saint that's neat and i like the ring it sounds very great saint charles i mean doesn't that have a ring to it that just sounds good you know i like it that john referred to himself as the disciple that jesus loved nobody else said that about him mark matthew luke they don't say the disciple that jesus loved only john says that he calls himself the disciple that jesus loved well you're the one who he's made a saint you've been called to be a saint and that's just by his grace again it isn't that i'm deserving that title but that's something he's given and so no wonder he follows that by saying grace to you and peace from god our father and the lord jesus christ now notice this is so typical paul begins all of his letters with this grace and peace it is always in that order you never read peace and grace be unto you and the reason being is that you cannot know the peace of god until you know the grace of god it is not until you know the grace of god that you can enter into the rest that god has for his people or that peace as long as you are trying to be good enough to be accepted by god you'll always be struggling you'll never be at peace it is only until you come to the place where you understand it is god's work and god's love for you that has put you in the family of god as undeserving and unworthy as we are but god's grace towards me and the finished work of jesus christ my righteousness is imputed to me by my faith in jesus and there i rest and because of that i have now peace but i didn't have real peace until i knew and discovered the grace of god and then it follows that there's i'm resting not in my works but in the finished work of jesus christ grace and peace from god our father and the lord jesus christ first he said i thank god through jesus christ for you all that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world now it is interesting that we don't know anything of the origin of the church in the city of rome but it shows us how the gospel had spread in fact in the first 30 years of the early church the gospel was taken into all the world when paul wrote to the colossians just a couple of years later he said and the word of the gospel as it has come to you as it is in all the world now here is a strong body of believers in rome in the last chapter of acts we find that when paul finally arrived at the roman port of purioli when the saints in rome heard of paul's arrival they came on out uh the appian way to meet paul all the way to uh epi to to meet paul there and uh some as far as the three taverns they came over to meet him there was a strong body of believers there in rome and their faith was spoken of throughout the whole world people were talking about the wonderful church in rome uh it's exciting that god is working in in so many places today and we could very well write uh to uh many of the pastors and say you know we thank god for uh your faith and how that you know your church is is being blessed and people all over the world are hearing of what god is doing uh there in san diego where they're in albuquerque or fort lauderdale or spokane or seattle or all around where god is working in such a glorious way for god he said is my witness whom i serve with my spirit in the gospel of his son the good news of jesus that without ceasing i make mention of you always in my prayers interesting as paul speaks about his prayer life he declares that god is his witness jesus said when you pray go into the closet and shut the door and pray to your father which seeth in secret and your father which seeth in secret shall reward you openly paul could not call others to bear witness though they were his companions he didn't say well i uh timothy will bear witness that i always am praying for you or luke will bear witness of my prayers for you or star aristarchus will bear witness of of the prayers that i pray he says no god is my witness. that without ceasing i'm mentioning you always in my prayers this man paul is an apostle a servant of jesus christ and really an example he was able to say be ye followers of me even as i also am of jesus christ the prayer life of paul god bears witness i'm making requests his prayer was that if by any means now at length i might have a prosperous journey by the will of god to come to you my desire my prayer i want to come i want to visit you i'm praying that that will be the will of god now paul was desiring to go to many different places and god stopped him they assayed to go to bithynia but the spirit hindered them now paul is praying that it will be god's will after all this time i'd like to come and visit you in rome not that i might see the sights of rome not that i might walk through the forum and and you know see all of the wonderful sights there in rome but i long to see you that i may impart unto you some spiritual gift to the end or the end result that you might become more established in your faith not to come as a tourist or a sight caesar or to satisfy a curiosity of just seeing rome the life of rome and all but my desire is to impart to you some spiritual gift the end result being your being established that is that i might be comforted together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me that just by our sharing together i will be edified you will be edified and that should be the experience whenever we gather with the body of christ there should be a mutual edifying blessing oh how good to see you oh what a blessing it is to be able to spend this time with you and as we share with one another what god's doing in our lives it's always just a blessing and edifying experience and that's what paul is desiring that i might come and share with you what god's been doing in my life i want to hear what god's doing in your life that we might just have mutual benefit by our visiting together now he said i want you to know i don't want you to be ignorant of this brethren that oftentimes i have purpose to come to you but up until now i've been hindered but i want to come that i might have some fruit among you also even as among other gentiles i want to see god's work in your life now the bible speaks about fruit abounding to our account the fruit of the ministry people's lives being blessed people's lives being edified through the ministry that's the fruit of the ministry the blessings that come to others and and so paul desires that he might have fruit there in rome also he might be able to bring others to the knowledge of jesus christ so i'm a debtor he said both to the greeks and to the barbarians to the wise and to the unwise so as much as in as is in me i am ready to preach the gospel to you that are in rome also i want to come and preach the gospel for i'm not ashamed of the gospel of christ it's the power of god unto salvation to the those that believe to everyone that believes to the jew first also to the greek so paul's expression of his desire to preach the gospel in rome the capital of the world he had that opportunity it didn't come just as he was expecting or hoping he came to rome as a prisoner of the roman government because of his appeal to caesar but god blessed his time in rome as we studied in the last chapter of acts and that many were converted paul wrote later to the corinthians telling them of the conversion of many even those of caesar's household and so a great ministry there in rome fruit as he desired so in the gospel of christ the righteousness of god is revealed from faith to faith as it is written the just shall live by faith the righteousness of god through faith it's revealed in faith there is that righteousness which is of works doing the right thing and there are many people who practice hard at doing the right thing the pharisees look how hard they struggled to do the right thing jesus spoke of the pharisees of straining at a gnat it was unlawful to eat anything that had blood all of the meat that they butchered had to be thoroughly bled to be kosher to be eaten so if they were jogging down the street and a nap would go down their throat they would gag themselves straining at a net trying to regurgitate the thing so that they wouldn't swallow it and thus violate the law of having blood they tried hard to be righteous but the righteousness was self-righteousness god said our righteousnesses is uh are as filthy rags in the sight of god all of that tremendous endeavor of the pharisees was jesus said except your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the pharisees you're not going to enter the kingdom of heaven something went with our sound system can you hear me okay i can't so you learn when you're speaking there's a certain uh feedback resonance that you get and a presence that we've lost so the righteousness of god is the other righteousness versus the self-righteousness which is my works it is the righteousness which is through faith in jesus christ where god imputes to me the righteousness of christ now when jesus said to his disciples except your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and pharisees i'm certain that their mouth dropped open and they said no way i mean these guys practice being righteous and jesus said theirs isn't sufficient you've got to exceed but jesus was talking about not righteousness that comes by our works but righteousness which comes by our faith in jesus christ the righteousness that god accounts or imputes to me and as we go in romans this will be one of the subjects that paul takes up in great detail that righteousness which is of christ through faith now the righteousness of god is revealed as we get into verse 18 the wrath of god is revealed so the revelation of the righteousness of god that which is imparted to me the just shall live by faith by my faith in jesus christ god accounts my faith for righteousness but on the other side of the coin the wrath of god shall be revealed from heaven now not a popular subject people don't like to hear about this the moment you mention the wrath of god then they give you some kind of a classification of hellfire brimstone preacher and and they don't want to hear of the wrath of god uh there's all of this uh flowery talk about the love of god and and you know god is love and love is god and you know and uh this whole bit and and they don't wanna know they don't wanna hear that he is we're back again we're off again we don't want to hear that god's wrath is going to be revealed and yet if we do not teach that god's wrath is going to come against all ungodliness and the unrighteousness of men who hold the truth of god in unrighteousness we are not being honest with the people we are not declaring the full gospel there is that other side yes god is love yes god so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son but the other side of the coin is that the wrath of god is going to be revealed from heaven against the ungodliness and the unrighteousness of men you cannot sin without paying the consequences for your sins either your sins will be forgiven by the grace of god through jesus christ or you will be punished forever for your sins the bible speaks of the judgment of god that is going to come upon this earth as god will judge the earth for their wickedness and for their sin and i do believe that that day of god's judgment is not far off i believe that the conditions of the world are getting to the place where god must judge the world now we do know historically that god has judged the world with a flood we know historically that god has judged certain cities when the wickedness gets so bad then god just says that's it and he wipes out that generation as he did in the days of noah when the hearts of men were only evil continually he did that in the case of the city of sodom and gomorrah where their sin became so blatant that god wiped them out so the wrath of god will be revealed from heaven against all of the ungodliness and the unrighteousness of men who hold the truth of god in unrighteousness it's not that they don't know god but they hold the truth of god in unrighteousness and so paul tells us and he gives now the indictment this is the cause this is the reason because that which may be known of god is manifest in them for god has shown it unto them no man has an excuse for not believing in god for god has revealed himself unto man by his creation and it is god's intent that man in observing god's creation come to the acknowledgement and the knowledge of the existence of god you cannot have design without a designer a machine without a mechanic or engineer who designed it and so here we are the wrath of god is revealed because when they they they knew that god existed that which may be known of god is manifest in them god has shown it unto them the bible tells us that the heavens declare the glory of god you go out and look up in the heavens you see the moon the stars the planets the galaxies they declare to you of the creator and even scientists today are forced to admit the day of creation they call it the big bang but when it all started now we say that there was a creator that god is the first cause not the big bang the first cause for the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even as eternal power and godhead so that they are without excuse the heavens declare the glory of god the earth shows his handiwork the life forms show design oh what fabulous design you look at the plants the flowers the insects the animals man and and you have to marvel at the design we we are in a day in which we are in mineralist you know we're making everything very small trying to make miniature kinds of uh chips and so forth everything smaller smaller doing more work can you imagine uh how large an amp brain must be and yet the the wisdom that that little ant has he knows that winter is coming he can't swim and so he lays up his store in the summer you've probably met some of them lately in your kitchen they're gathering up for winter when they can't get out now what tells that little ant where the food is and how does he tell his friends how does he communicate i found something you know and then to watch four or five of them working together to get one crumb off of the table you know amazing and yet their brains can't be that big solomon that wise man said go to the ant thou sluggard learn of his ways and be wise there are four things on earth that are small but exceedingly wise he talks about the ant laying up its food in the summer design marvelous design they tell you of the wisdom of god the heavens the awesomeness of the universe tells you of the glory of god and day in today they're talking to you night and tonight they're speaking and it's a universal language that is why in every culture even the most primitive there is the awareness and the consciousness of god and the worship of god many times it's false they've been led astray but yet the basic idea and concept of the existence of a creator a higher power it's there why because it's revealed throughout his creation but when they knew god they glorified him not as god neither were thankful and thus they became vain in their imaginations their foolish heart was darkened now we have the downward plunge of man yes god exists it's obvious in creation the design testifies of the creator but yet men do not glorify him as god they are exalting man we are in the age of humanism where man is exalted well actually we're getting i guess the place of animalism and treeism because they're beginning to exalt the animals and trees above man but the the worship of the creation rather than the creator so this is the beginning of the step down first of all they knew god but they wouldn't glorify him as god and thus they were not thankful and so they became vain in their imaginations you got to get real imaginative if you eliminate god then it takes real imagination to figure out how you got here how you got your eyes the ability to see how you got your nose the ability to smell how you got your mouth the ability to talk to taste how did these things come about you got to get real imaginative how did you get your eyes well billions of years ago when you were just a worm the sun began to give you ultraviolet radiations that caused a mutation of your cells that created a freckle unfortunately the freckle wasn't on the tail end and gradually through a process of many mutations that freckle turned into an eye in a socket that could move and you could see around so you became a salamander and as you were trying to make your way over the rocks the coral fresh out of that hot ocean poor little bottom side got scratched scabbed over became calloused continued to grow and develop until it became legs and then you could walk you see as i said when you try and put god out of the equation it takes an awful lot of imagination they became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened and professing themselves to be wise they actually became fools why do we laugh at this because it's foolish when you really stop to think of it to think that your body could have developed through billions of years of fortuious concurrences of accidental circumstances is ridiculous but he's on the downhill plunge next they changed the glory of an uncorruptable god into an image make like unto corruptable man the worship of man and today we see that don't we young people by the thousands worshiping man gathering in the concerts worshiping man worshiping the creature man making their gods like unto corruptable men and to birds and a four-footed beast and to creeping things save the kangaroo rats and it's amazing how many people will rally for these causes but just take a good look at them but really the tragic thing is that the government listens to them they all look pretty much the same cut out of the same cloth now because of this changing the glory of an uncorruptable god into the image of a man or beast or birds or whatever wherefore god also gave them up to uncleanness through the lust of their own hearts god gave them over to the lust to following and and doing the lust of their own hearts to dishonor their own bodies between themselves further step down who changed the truth of god into a lie and they worshipped and served the creature more than the creator who is blessed forevermore i would like to suggest that the worship of the creature is irrational to take a rose to look at its beautiful design to see the glorious color to hold it to your nose and take a deep breath and smell that marvelous fragrance and then to hold it out and admire it and say that's god that's ridiculous that's not god that's a creation of god and it's irrational to behold the beauty of the rose and to worship the rose the rational thing is to worship the one who was able to create such a beautiful flower to put in such a pleasant fragrance worship the creature the creator rather than the creature but man has got things all mixed up today and we are worshiping the creature rather than the creator and we are ascribing to the creature all types of miraculous powers of developing organs and so forth in order to meet the various uh recognized needs that i might have so we're going downhill changing the truth of god to a lie oh how that's being done today because they did not want to retain the truth of god they change it into a lie and for this cause god gave them over to their vile affections for the women did change the natural use into that which is against nature or lesbianism and likewise also the men leaving the natural use of the woman burned in their lust one toward another men with men working that which is unseemly and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which is fitting for what they've been doing now it is interesting to me that satan will seek to bring man to the lowest level of filth take the worship of these men in india who have declared that they have had an experience of becoming gods the avatars they've gone through this transformation and they have gone through the next level of uh evolutionary development and they've entered into the god state the sai babas and and the others uh that brilliant professors go over to to learn and to sit and to worship these men now these men who have elevated themselves to this god level the sai babas and these others to show you the level to which satan brings a man's mind when he has taken over and has control it is considered by these people that go over to worship the sai baba and so forth a tremendous honor to drink his urine or to eat his defecation because they feel that god sai baba is entering into them i mean look at what satan reduces people to and some of the practices in homosexuality are much the same the scatting and so forth in homosexuality the same thing satan will bring you to the lowest filthiest level and so here are men they refuse god they don't want to retain god in their minds they won't acknowledge the truth of god and so you're on a downhill skin into the lowest levels of depravity and filth it isn't just a you know well i just don't want to believe in god and all hey that's just the beginning you're on the way down and you're going to end up at the bottom this cause god gave them over to their vile affections now it is interesting to me he says the wrath of god is going to be revealed from heaven and it's when man gets to this level that the wrath of god is revealed the wrath of god was revealed against sodom and gomorrah when when it came to the place where the homosexuals were actively operating in the streets brazenly parading their gay prides that's when god said it's enough and he destroyed the cities of sodom and gomorrah and i believe that the activity of the homosexual community the gay pride parades and things of this nature is only an indication that we are at the place where the wrath of god will soon again be revealed from heaven the judgment of god against the unrighteousness of men and so because they did not want to retain god in their knowledge i don't want to know about god god gave them over to reprobate minds void of god and understanding of god to do those things which are not decent and being filled with all unrighteousness and now the activities fornication wickedness covetousness maliciousness full of envy murder debate deceit malignity whispers backbiters haters of god despiteful proud bolsters inventors of evil things disobedient to parents without understanding covenant breakers without natural affection implacable unmerciful who knowing the judgment of god that they which commit such things are worthy of death not only do the same but take pleasure in those that do them there are things that you adore that you would never think of doing and yet it is interesting how that through television and movies people take pleasure in those that do them we watch these horrible things people being blown away and you know the tough guy and heads rolling and things like that we watch it and there's some kind of a reason why people watch that stuff they take pleasure in seeing fornication or adultery or stuff like that portrayed in movies so not only do they do that but they take pleasure those that take pleasure in those things are guilty the bible said don't be deceived god isn't marked whatsoever a man sows that shall he also reap what and if you sow to the flesh of the flesh you're going to reap corruption if you're sowing this stuff into your mind taking pleasure and sowing this junk into your mind to the flesh then you're going to reap corruption people just don't go out and do these things they are things that have been planted in their minds bundy confessed to james dobson of being hooked on pornography and how the pornography finally didn't satisfy he had to actually go out and experience and thus that chain of murders you're sowing it in your mind you're planting seeds of corruption oh that god would help us to keep ourselves pure our minds pure our hearts pure that we would sow to the spirit and that's why you're done you're sowing to the spirit tonight the word of god is spirit and it is life and this will transform you this will change you this will elevate you it will lift you out of the pit of this world and its corruption today and it'll put you on another level a higher level a pure level holy level that's why it's so important that we guard what goes into our minds and that we plant to the spirit and we study the word and we stay in the word because we are living in a corrupt world and it's trying to infest you with its corruption and evil and you've got to stand daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself we've got to make that purpose in our hearts i'm not going to defile my mind i'm not going to defile my body i'm going to stay pure for god's sake i'm going to seek after god and as you do you are lifted higher and higher you turn away from god you don't want god in your mind you you take that path begin to worship and serve the creature rather than the creator you'll end up at the bottom of filth you're moving one direction or another upward or downward and you determine the direction by your own desires i want to seek god i want to be conformed into his image i want to be pure and holy as he is pure and holy i'm moving up i don't want to keep god in my mind i want to do my own thing i want to follow my own desires you're moving down and satan will take you to the bottom you'll find yourself doing things that you never dreamed you would ever do or were capable of doing you find yourself in that pit now paul here in chapter one is showing that without god we're all of us lost the whole world is guilty as we move into the next chapter he will confirm that there is none righteous no not one and so as we move into chapter two he'll show us that we are all guilty thus we all need the salvation that god has offered to man we will understand now even more the grace of god it's extended to the man that's the bottom of the pit that man who has gone all the way down to the depths is not beyond the love of god or the reach of god or the grace of god for god's grace reaches to the lowest hell to bring a man out of the pit who is ready to be destroyed oh how marvelous is this grace of god that he has offered to you and to me father we thank you for your word it is spirit it is life and lord we see the world around us and we see the very things that paul is describing here as men who did not want to retain god in their minds and so we're given over by god to reprobate minds to do these filthy things to live lives like animals we want to live like you we want the higher plane lord we want to be conformed into the image of jesus purify our minds our hearts in jesus name we pray amen shall we stand a fellow wrote to ann landers and said dear anne please help me i am confused i'm having an affair with two different women at the same time and i want to get married but i don't know which one to marry please advise me but don't give me any of that morality stuff she wrote back dear two-timer you say that you don't want any of that morality stuff but that's the only thing that separates man from the animal kingdom therefore i advise you to write to a veterinarian for advice [Applause] hey there are two planes upon which to live the spiritual plane or the fleshly plane after god or after the animals now no wonder man looks to the animals to find his roots he's living like an animal and thus he looks to the animal kingdom for his roots but your roots are not in the animal kingdom you are not a highly evolved animal we have fallen from the image of god the roots are upward man was made in the image of god he's fallen from that image if you want to find your roots find god and you'll find life and what life is all about in life as god intended it life on the highest plain and as we go through romans i pray that god will bring each of us into life in the highest plain that life in christ that life in the spirit may the lord be with you and bless you may he fill you with this spirit may he guide you with his counsels and may we each one be drawn closer to jesus christ with each day the lord bless thee and he thee the lord made his face to shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee and be gracious unto thee the lord lift up his countenance [Music] upon thee and give me peace god bless you you

Channel: Chuck Smith TWFT

Views: 1,122

Rating: 5 out of 5

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Id: 5RaLfFkzH64

Length: 78min 30sec (4710 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 15 2020