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Established
November 2003
Rightly
Dividing the Word of Truth
(2
Timothy 2:15)
This is good and
acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who
desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 1Timothy 2:3-4
Romans
by the Book Lesson
14
Hello
and welcome back. I pray you’re all getting comfortable with the idea of
participating in a Bible study. Once you
know some of the basics you are off and running, as they say. One
of the first and foremost things you must learn is to Rightly Divide the
Word of Truth (2 Timothy 2:15).
What’s
that? I’m glad you asked. When you
separate those things that were written to the Jews under the Law from those
things that were written to the church of God in the Age of Grace, you are
Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth.
For
example many people have been taught, incorrectly, that the New Testament the Christian
Age or the Church Age begins at Matthew 1:1 and that is incorrect. You
see, Scripture says Jesus Christ came to His own, under the Law, to fulfill the
promises made to the fathers (see Romans 15:8). Therefore, the four
gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and most of the book of Acts are actually a
continuation of God’s Old Testament Prophetic Program. Others contend that the Church Age begins at
Pentecost (Acts 2) and this is the majority and traditional view.
Here’s
the problem with the traditional view.
The Church, the Body of Christ, was a new creation, a secret (a mystery)
known only by God from the foundations of the earth, and revealed to only to
Paul. As such, it did not exist before
Paul (Ephesians 3:1-10; Galatians 2:6-9; Colossians 1:24-27; Romans 16:25-27).
What
was Pentecost? Pentecost was one of 7
Jewish feast days. It occurred 50 days
after Passover. It was the time Jesus
instructed His disciples to wait and remain in Jerusalem to receive the
promised Holy Spirit (Luke 24:29; John 14:16-17). The coming of the Holy Spirit was a key
component of God’s prophetic program to Israel (Isaiah 44:3, 59:21). It was not the birth to the Church, the Body
of Christ, for there is nothing in the Old Testament that spoke of this
Church. Rather, the baptism of the Holy
Spirit was an essential part of the fulfillment of the New Covenant which Jesus
had initiated at the Last Supper (Jeremiah 31:33; Ezekiel 16, 37; Matthew
26:27-28).
I
pray you find this information useful as you continue to study your Bible.
Please
open your Bible to Romans chapter 1. We’ll
start today’s lesson at verse 24.
What
is the judgment of God when mankind turns away from Him?
God
gives them up. But be careful. This is not saying God gives up on them!
We
learned that with each step man takes away from God the further and further
into depravity he or she sinks. This is the message of verses 25-27. They reveal the progressive nature of sin
specifically idolatry and then sexual sin.
*Suggested
reading: Isaiah 44:9-20 – The Folly of Idolatry
Romans 1
25: For they (Paul is
specifically addressing gentiles of old in these passages. No Law was
ever given to the gentiles as it was given to the Jews. The Law was under
no command from God to be spread as the Gospel of Grace is today) exchanged the (what)
truth of
God for (what) a
lie, (what lie? They can be like God. So who is behind this
deception– the god of this world is working this of course. The father of
lies, Satan, is against anything God is for) and worshiped and
served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever.
Amen.
26: For this reason
God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women
exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural,
27: and in the same
way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in
their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and
receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.
Verse
25: even though they knew God existed, they chose to reject Him; and they are
without excuse (verse 20). They “made” or fashioned objects of iron,
wood, and stone to worship instead of the one true God. You see, it’s man’s nature to worship
something – God put that instinct in us.
For
those who are thinking they will be able to stand before their Creator at the
Great White Throne Judgment and claim ignorance of His existence I have news. That won’t work. Scripture says everyone
was born with the knowledge of their Creator.
John
1
9: There was the
true Light (the
word Light is capitalized so it is referring to deity.
This
passage refers to the Lord Jesus Christ who is the Light of the world.
Now read carefully),
which coming into the world, enlightens every man (you may add the
word woman here without doing any harm to the text or changing its meaning).
I
prefer the KJV translation myself.
John 1
9: That was the
true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.
(KJV)
– it’s saying the same thing; I just prefer the way it’s said.
These
passages indicate that we are “born” with the innate knowledge of our
Creator. Which means: coming directly from
the mind rather than being acquired by experience or from external sources.
Verses
26-27: the Gentiles next step away from their Creator God took them from
idolatry to sexual immorality.
God
gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural
function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the men
abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward
one another, men with men committing indecent acts…
Note
the process. Idolatry always leads to immorality and this is usually
sexual in nature. This is why the
worship of the false god Baal in the Old Testament was accompanied by temple
prostitution.
Once
men invent gods of their own making, they can then rewrite the rules of human
conduct. Rules like the Ten Commandments no longer apply to them.
Want
to sleep around. Why not?
Want
to commit adultery. Why not?
Want
to have pre-marital sex? Why not everyone else is? Why not go with
the flow?
Want
to download pornography? Why not?
Without
God and His Commandments, anything goes, all things are on the table.
But
why is illicit sex so destructive to the Believer in particular and why does
Scripture command us to flee from it? Yes, this is a command from
Head Quarters! To find one of the answers
we must return to the book of beginnings (Genesis).
The
Lord God created Adam in the Garden of Eden and then said, “It is not good for
man to be alone. I will make him a
helper (help meet) suitable for him.” (Genesis
2:18)
The
LORD God caused Adam to fall into a deep sleep; then He took one of his ribs
and closed up that place. The LORD God fashioned into a woman the rib
which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man. (See Genesis
2:21-22)
Adam
named her “Woman.”
Which
means: taken out of Man. (See Genesis 2:23)
Genesis 2
24: For this reason
a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his
wife; and they shall become one flesh.
25: And the man and
his (what’s
the next word) wife
were both naked and were not ashamed.
With
this act the LORD God established the institutions
of marriage and the family.
These two “Bedrock” institutions are critical to the LORD God’s plans to
populate the planet earth with God-fearing children.
Let’s
back up just a bit; when the LORD God created Adam he gave them a
command.
Did
you catch that?
Now
most people miss the point I’m about to make because when they read their Bible
they read it but they don’t see it. So pay close attention. I
guarantee you that most of Christendom has no idea this verse is even in their
Bible…but it is.
Genesis 1
27: God created man
in His own image, in the image of God He created Him;
(Pay
attention – read carefully) male and female
He created them.
That’s
not a typo. The LORD God created Adam bisexual = describes something such
as a flower that has both male and female reproductive organs.
The
woman was
already in
Adam when he was created.
Now
read verse 28.
Genesis 1
28: God blessed (who) them; and God
said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and
subdue it; and rule the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over
every living thing that moves on the earth.”
In
other words, the LORD God gave them dominion over all the earth and told
them to be fruitful and multiply (fill the earth with your offspring in
other words).
Only
the woman wasn’t “on the scene” just yet. Are you still with me?
When
the LORD God created man and then brought him the woman to be his “help meet” He
established the institutions of marriage and the family.
What
happened next?
If
you know the Old Testament, then you know the garden was invaded by the serpent
(Satan – the destroyer). The LORD God created something that was “very good” so
Satan set his mind to destroy it. Satan deceived the woman by lying,
causing the woman to doubt what God had said; Adam then chose to eat the
forbidden fruit, and sin entered the world by Adam’s willful disobedience and
not the woman’s for she was deceived.
As
I’ve often said, anything God is for Satan is against; this includes you if
you’re a Believer. It certainly includes the institutions of marriage and
the family which have been ordained by God.
Soon
after Adam and the woman were joined together as “one flesh” Satan
found a way to destroy their joy and bring the world they lived in to an end.
Believers
it is not a matter of “if” your
marriage and your family will come under attack; it is a matter of “when.”
The Christian marriage is the KEY battleground in Spiritual warfare.
Can
we deny that this is the age where divorces, adultery, homosexual unions, are
becoming acceptable even among the churched?
Can
we deny the statistics which show young people in the church are skipping
marriage altogether and choosing to live together instead?
The
Christian divorce rate is perched right around 50% today; the same as the rest
of the unbelieving world. The rippling effect this has had on the family
unit has impacted our homes, our schools, our communities, and our nation.
According
to the U.S. Census Bureau in November, 2009, there are approximately 13.7
million single parents in the United States today, and those parents are
responsible for raising 21.8 million children (approximately 26% of children
under 21 in the U.S. today).
The
U.S. Census Bureau does not break these stats down as to Believers and
non-believers, but they are still remarkable.
Of
the mothers who are custodial parents:
45%
are currently divorced or separated
34.2%
have never been married
19%
are married (In most cases, these numbers represent women who have remarried.)
1.7%
was widowed
Of
the fathers who are custodial parents:
57.8%
are divorced or separated
20.9%
have never married
20%
are currently married (In most cases, these numbers represent men who have
remarried.)
Less
than 1% was widowed
According to the Single Parent Success Foundation
63
% of teen-age suicides nationwide are individuals from single-parent families.
75
% of children in chemical dependency hospitals are from single-parent families.
More
than 1/2 of all youths incarcerated in the U.S. lived in one-parent families as
a child.
7.7
% of all out-of-wedlock births in the country in 2008 were to girls under the
age of 18.
I
could continue giving you stats like these but for the sake of time we’ll move
on…
We’ve
taken the pledge of allegiance, God, and prayer out of our schools.
We
teach evolution as fact and refuse to even introduce Creationism into the
classroom.
What’s
the end result when people choose to reject God? There’s no mystery here.
History
has shown us and yet as a nation we continue to move down this dark road.
Today
we have children bullying children, guns in school, drugs in school, a lack of
respect for authority figures, no respect for rules or the law, de-sensitized
children committing mass murders without remorse, and little self-esteem.
Children
are without a moral compass to guide them, they are without goals; children
lack respect for their parent(s), and they have little if any self-control.
Children
engage in fist fights and film these on You-Tube for the world to see.
Children
are sexting sexually explicit and suggestive pictures of themselves via cell
phones. Skype has allowed the sharing of nude and semi-nude images over
the internet and much worse. 51% of teen
girls cite pressure from guys as a reason to send these explicit messages and
images while only 18% of the teen boys say so. But I’m not convinced of these
statistics. Immorality is a slippery
slope. I don’t buy the excuses.
I
will ask the question, “Where are the parent(s)?”
Parents,
these are not society’s ills these are your concerns. 50%
of the Christian families are now mirroring the world and the god of this world
(Satan) couldn’t be more pleased.
I
pray you can see why Scripture commands a Believer to flee from “all sexual
immorality.” It’s the second step an individual takes, after
Idolatry, in their “turning away” from God.
1 Corinthians 6
18: Flee immorality.
Every other sin that a man (or woman) commits is outside
the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body.
19: Or do you not
know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have
from God, and that you are not your own?
(To
be continued)
©
Copyright 2011
GJ
Heitzman’s Ministry
All
Rights Reserved
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