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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 15
I
want to welcome you all back to our study of the Apostle Paul’s letter to the
Romans.
This is lesson 15 by my count and we’re still in chapter 1.
Now that’s a Bible study!
The
idea of a Bible study is to get as much information and application as you can
from the Bible verses under review. We have only “scratched” the surface
– believe me.
This
is why I say, “Every time I pick this book up I learn something new.”
This
is why the Bible is called, “The Living Word.”
A
special thank you goes out to my friend Dennis. He obviously studies
these Bible lessons line by line and he does this with his Bible open. I
edit these lessons before they are published to my website, but I’m human.
Dennis calls me if I’ve overlooked something during the editing process such as
a misspelled word or an omitted word in a Bible passage. Hey, I’m human. But he also calls me to discuss the
lessons. I like that.
So,
thank you Dennis for your encouraging words and for your support. You make a Bible teacher feel appreciated.
Let’s
get down to business. At the end of the last Bible lesson I closed with
this phrase:
Scripture
commands a Believer to flee from “all (sexual) immorality.”
1 Corinthians 6
18: Flee (sexual) immorality.
Every other sin that a man (or woman) commits is outside
the body, but the immoral man (or woman) sins against his own
body.
We
learned that sexual immorality is the second step an individual takes, after
idolatry, in their “turning
away” from God.
Let’s
return to our Bible passage.
Romans
1
28: And just as
they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over
to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper,
29: being filled
with (how
much) all
unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit,
malice; they are
gossips,
30: slanderers,
haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to
parents,
31: without
understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful;
Some
of you may be picturing the world we currently live in today while reading these
verses above. And that’s applicable,
certainly. But please remember Paul is writing to the Believers in Rome
in reference to the gentiles of old, who “suppressed the truth
(of God’s existence) in unrighteousness,”
so “God gave them
over.”
As
any society starts to turn away from
God it succumbs to idolatry.
It
finds a replacement for God and His so-called “burdensome” “tiresome” rules.
This
society will then begin to openly display widespread sexual immorality followed
by open homosexuality. After that, it is only a short step to the final
stage of social decay. The process for the individual is almost
identical.
Verses
28-31 above describe a society that has replaced God with selfish, worldly
delights. It is a society without
restraints, a culture that has lost all sense of right and wrong, a place where
everyone does what is right in his or her own eyes. There is a word for this in our English
language. It’s called anarchy = a situation in which there is a total lack
of organization or control.
Scripture
records a similar situation long after the call of Abraham amongst the Jews:
Judges
21
25: in those days
there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
Even
though they (the Jews) knew the one true Jehovah God and interacted with
Him regularly, they surrendered to idolatry.
Of course this led to sexual immorality.
Truth
is: we all are born with an Adamic Nature!
In
verse 28, the two words “depraved mind”
speaks of a mind that is clouded by sin.
It
is a mind that is no longer able to make moral judgments.
Please
read these few verses again.
Note
that these sins cover the whole range of life: the home, the family, marriage,
the workplace, and even your place of worship. All of life is affected by
a man or a woman’s decision to “turn his or her back” on God.
Nothing
is the same, nothing is left unaffected; no area of life is left unscarred.
Romans 1
32: and although
they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy
of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who
practice them.
Here
we have the final phase. The Apostle
Paul outlines three things that happen when men and women have completely
turned away from God:
They
are aware that the things they are doing are wrong.
They
commit the sins anyway.
They
praise others who join them in practicing these wrongdoings.
This
is when you know for certain you have reached the bottom.
The
bottom is where you are when evil becomes good and good becomes evil.
The
bottom is where you are when the wrongdoers are publicly praised while the
defenders of morality are loathed and mistreated.
When a preacher or a Bible teacher stands at the podium
and speaks out against abortion and legalizing homosexual marriage because this
is what the Word of God says, and members of the church congregation get up and
walk out of the building because they are in disagreement with his statements,
you are seeing the affect the liberal media has on about one-half of America
today.
People insist that this is a Christian nation but statistics
prove otherwise. When Christians
decide to base their actions on what some magazine, newspaper, or T.V. network
says, rather than agreeing with the written Word of God, then you have a
complete reversal of values in America.
Case
in point: my wife and I rented a movie not too long ago. I won’t
give you the name but I’m certain you would recognize it if I did. It
came highly recommended; a must see and rated PG-13. We thought PG-13 -
how bad can it be? We soon found out.
The
movie hadn’t played too long before we heard the Lord’s name used in vain x4.
There
was one semi-nude scene. I lost track of all the foul language and
F bombs in the dialogue, there were several killings, blood everywhere, and young
people were semi-dressed running around for no apparent reason. That was
enough for us. We pulled the plug! This was only PG-13! Truth is – many people choose to keep
watching…
Parents
by the tens of thousands are dropping their children off at movie theaters
every weekend to see films just like this one – and worse…without supervision!
…and although they
know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of
death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who
practice them.
When
an individual or a nation turns its back on God, the chosen course is always
downward. The Great Roman Empire wasn’t defeated militarily. It
fell for many reasons. But primarily it “rotted” from the inside out.
Long before the political decline came the moral decline. This pattern
has been repeated down through the ages and it has struck every great
civilization. Babylon, Nazi Germany, Russia under Lenin, the pattern is
the same. America, are you next?
But
what else is also true? A society in moral decay is ripe for the Gospel
of Christ.
As
I’ve said before, “God
gave them up,” but this doesn’t mean God gives up on them.
The
city of Rome was the center of wickedness on the earth. All that was
wrong with the world could be found there. It was a city wholly given
over to evil. It was a city where wrong was celebrated and right was
punished. It was a city of emperor-worship, pagan idolatry, gross
immorality, open homosexuality, a city where fathers routinely abandoned their
infant sons and daughters, and a city where slavery was rampant, a city built
upon insatiable cruelty. And how did the Apostle Paul, an unknown Jew
from Tarsus, feel about visiting Rome for the first time? What does this book say?
Romans 1
15: So, for my
part, I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.
16: For I am
not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to
everyone who believes,
The
Apostle Paul knew all of Rome needed nothing as much as it needed the
life-changing power of the gospel. And nowhere but in Jesus Christ our
Lord did that power exist.
End
of Romans chapter 1
(To
be continued)
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Heitzman’s Ministry
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