Classic Christianity – Book of Romans P8 (11-05-19)
Synopsis
So have you ever been called a bigot because you told someone who has identified himself as a homosexual that what he is doing is perversion? Have you bought into the lie that those who choose to partner up with someone of the same sex is an alternate lifestyle? If you are truly going to help someone, do you tell them the truth? You never want to get to the point in your own life that you call something other than what God calls something. If God calls it perversion, it is perversion. If God calls it sin, it is sin.
Do you want to know the truth? Are you willing to listen to truth? If not, then have you decided to not hold onto the knowledge of the truth? If so, then your foolish mind has become darkened. If this is you, realize that God loves you. He does not accept or approve of your behavior. He let you get caught up in this life because that is what you chose of your own free will. But God has provided a solution for you, a better way to live. Are you willing to come into the light. Right now, you are in darkness. But God says that He is the light of the world. Are you willing to come into the Light and let God tell you what your problem is and what the solution to your problem is?
Bob is sharing from Romans 1:21-32. Here Paul is speaking specifically about perversion, along with all kinds of evil behavior that is associated with perversion, a corruption of the mind. He specifically addresses sexual perversion. Perversion leads to all kinds of evil; envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy.
The apostle Paul describes how a person gets caught up in perversion. He explains how this perversion started. It started with the decision to not hold onto the knowledge of the truth. They did not think it worthwhile. Now perversion means having a corrupt mind and that perversion leads to bad behavior. Did you know that those who teach godliness as a means for financial gain is perversion, from a person of corrupt mind?
Have you ever observed someone who started out just smoking one cigarette, then he started smoking a marijuana joint. Before long, he got caught up in the hard-core drugs. Some have even got into drug dealing. Any perversion, a corruption of the mind, starts the same way. Now you may not have not have gotten into drugs or homosexuality, but there is no one who has not sinned. There is no one who is righteous. But all sin starts the same way, not holding onto truth and choosing to believe a lie.
Formerly, you did not want God. You may have even denied the existence of God. You suppressed truth in unrighteousness. You wanted to decide for yourself what is good and what is evil. How has that worked out for you? Do you realize that what you decided, by taking control of your own life, deciding your own standards to live by, independent of God, that that was the same lie in the garden of Eden that Adam believed. That is how death, death to God, entered the human race. God sent Jesus to reverse this problem that mankind caused.
You may have even heard your parents tell you something is wrong, but you did it anyway. Now you are ensnared and trapped. You are ashamed, but instead of admitting your error, you justify your behavior. As time goes on, you add sin to sin, and then approve and recruit others to do the same, to join in with you. You may have even mocked those who get in your way, even calling people who want to help you as bigots.
As far as recruiting others in your sinful behavior, is that not what drug dealers do? So too with those who are homosexuals. They know it is deserving of death. They have knowledge it is wrong, but are in denial of the truth. So they want others to accept their behavior. Now there is a movement going on. The media and the world and even the so-called churches have abandoned the truth and believed a lie. People will tell you they are born that way and to accept this so-called alternative lifestyle. What a disgrace! God loves you enough to tell you the truth. That is why the apostle Paul is writing to us today.
Listen, there is no sin beyond God’s grace. But you must first acknowledge your behavior is sin, and admit you are a sinner. When you do, then you are ready for the real good news. God has already paid the price of sin for you, his death on a cross. By shedding his blood on a cross, he took away forever the consequence to sin, which is death. His death was sufficent enough to pay the price of death required for your sin and for mine, and indeed the sins of the entire world. There is no man without sin that necessitated God to send Jesus to die in our place. Now, he has been raised from the dead so that that life that raised him from the dead will raise you up to new life in Him. He has offered you a gift of His righteousness, a new way to live, to be controlled not by your lustful passions but by the Spirit of God, who will live in you and instruct you in His ways, with truth that sets you free. Do you want the Spirit of God? What does the Spirit produce? Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Would you not want those things to be produced in your life? Let the Holy Spirit come into you and control you. Be born again and allow the Holy Spirit to control you. Try it His way, not your way.
Transcript
Romans 1:21
21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him,
They knew there was a God. They have seen the evidence of it. If you are like me, I do not remember a time in my life I did not believe in God. You just kind of grew up believing in God. It was obvious to me there is a God and I was not it. It was pretty obvious to me. But I did not know Him. I did not glory Him. I did not give thanks to Him. When a person continues in that mindset, there is a consequence to that manner of thinking. Yes, I know there is a God but I do not want to listen to Him. I have my intelligence to rely on. He says God did something. He said their thinking was off. Because of the mindset of “I do not need God”, it causes something to happen to our thinking.
Romans 1:21
but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.
He says our thinking became futile, our hearts became foolish, and our hearts became darkened, a darkened heart where it has no conscience any more. A buddy of mine remembered a time he and his wife walked into a pizza parlor, so dark that they could not see the table. The waiter came up and showed them to the table. After a while they saw the checkered table cloth. After a while someone handed him a menu, and he could read the menu. No one turned on the lights. They just became accustomed to the darkness. That is what happens. We have no awareness of good and evil, right and wrong. We think we can do anything we want and that is okay. Our hearts became darkened, insensitive to the things of God. That is a product of denying, not denying God, but denying God is truth. It is not denying the existence of God. It is denying the fact that I do not need to listen to Him and that I got my own standards. I got my own ways of looking at things. When that occurs, something happens to our hearts. It becomes futile. It becomes foolish. Man thinks he is wise and God says man’s wisdom is but foolishness to God. Our hearts become darkened.
1 Corinthians 1:18-25
18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written:“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise;
the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”20 Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. 22 Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24 but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.
Romans 1:22
22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools
That is exactly what happens. When man says this is what God says but that is old fashioned, they became fools. The foolish man says, “Do you understand that the bible was written down thousands of years ago but we live in the 20th century”. Just how different do you think you are from Adam, except you got clothes on? Just how much different do you think you are from Moses or Abraham? Just how much different do you think you are? Mankind is mankind and that hasn’t changed a bit according to the bible. There is no such thing as that is old time stuff. No, that is real stuff.
And so he says they claimed to be wise and became fools. So this is what started happening and that is what is happening today, not only in this country but in unbelievable proportions all over the world. Nothing new. It also ruined Rome. It came to the point where the Roman empire was having difficulty because there was no population being created because people said, “I do not need God to determine right from wrong or good from evil. It feels good so do it.” So their heart became foolish. It became darkened. What happened? They became fools.
Romans 1:23
23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.
They began to be idol worshipers. Folks. you know there is more idol worshipers than what you can carve out of wood. We can make idols out of booze, drugs, sex, and church. We can make idols out of anything, can’t we? That is what happened to them. Therefore, he says, a continuation of that mindset, whether you or me, that says “I do not need God to determine right from wrong and good from evil”. God says, “You are on your own. You let go of the wheel. I let go of the wheel and I will give you over to drive the car. You want to be independent then I will let you be independent. If you want to do it your way, then I will let you do it your way and you are going to see the results, but I will let you do it your way.”
Is that love? God gave us a free will, did he not? God also says, “I will not violate your free will. You have the right to choose right from wrong. You can choose right from wrong from what I said is right and wrong or you can choose it on your own. If you choose to do it on your own, then I will let you do it on your own.
Romans 1:24
24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.
It is the ultimate that could take place because of a darkened heart and a darkened mind and a mind that says “I am going to do it my way”. He say that God turned them over to these sinful desires of their hearts, to sexual impurity and the degrading of their bodies with one another.
Romans 1:25
25 They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator – who is forever praised. Amen.
They served and worshiped what God created rather than the one who created them. God created man and I began to worship man instead of the one who created man. No, the Creator is forever praised, meaning this is truth.
Romans 1:26
26 Because of this,
Man is saying ot God, “I am not going to listen to God. I am going to determine what is right and wrong, what is good and evil. I do not need You.”
Romans 1:26
26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts.
That word, “lust”, is a passion, an uncontrollable desire.
Romans 1:26
Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones.
What are you talking about? Sexual relations. It even says that it starts out with the women who exchanged their natural desires. What is a natural desire? A natural desire is for a woman is to desire a man. And the natural desire of a man is to desire a woman. In marriage, to have sexual intercourse is a natural desire, and to have a relationship with one another, naturally. What happens when a person says, “No. No. That is not right. I want to do it with a man.”?
Folks, God made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve. He never intended for sex to be done with the same sex. That is a perversion of the mind. That starts first of all with a mind that says “I do not need You. I do not need to listen to what You have to say what is right from wrong, good and evil. I am doing it my way. That is where it starts. Then the mind becomes darkened to the point where there is unnatural affection for one another. So even their women exchanged natural relations. He is saying even the women! Men will do anything, but even the women exchanged natural for unnatural ones!
Romans 1:27
27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.
Now, he says the males also abandoned natural relations. Folks, when it says you abandoned natural relations, it means you are born with natural relations. No one is born liking someone from the same sex. You are born with a natural relation for the opposite sex. Otherwise you cannot abandon it, can you? To abandon something, you have to have something. So that annihilates this idea that I was born this way.
This person said that when they were three years old they were attracted to a man. Three years old? What are people thinking about at three years old? You do not know who you are and what you are attracted to. And boys, until they get a certain age, they do not like girls. That does not mean they are homosexuals. They just do not like them. If I were to say to my grandchild, “Do you have a girl friend?” “Ugh. No.” Just wait until they get to twelve. And good if they don’t, if you know guys.
So it says men abandoned natural relations and were inflamed with lust. In the Greek language this is an uncontrollable emotion. You are inflamed. That is all you think about. It says that these men were inflamed with lust for one another. The men committed indecent acts with other men. You do not have to wonder what this is. Do you know what it is? They received in themselves the due penalty for their error. The act of homosexuality, what is that? It is having sex with the same sex. That is called perversion. It is not called, “born that way”. It is called perversion. When I continue to be involved in perversion, I become a pervert. It is called perversion.
I want to tell you something. I do not care if my son, and thank God he is not, is a homosexual. I do not care if my son was a homosexual, I would teach this message. You do not interpret the bible through a bias. All of a sudden you have somebody in the family who has got this, so you say, “I am going to stop teaching this”. Truth is truth regardless of who is engaged in error. You cannot take these things through your bias. I get letters from people who are about to cut my head off because of what I am teaching on this. So they decide to go off on error and abandon truth. They abandon truth in order to hold onto error.
I am telling you the truth. I am not knocking people. I am knocking the acts of people. God loves people regardless of their sexual preference. He loves you. He died for you. He was raised from the dead for you but He says what you are doing is perversion. When God says it is perversion, it is perversion. He also says in the bible that anyone who teaches that godliness is a means to financial gain is perversion, a person of corrupt mind.
1 Timothy 6:2-5
2 These are the things you are to teach and insist on. 3 If anyone teaches otherwise and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching, 4 they are conceited and understand nothing. They have an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions 5 and constant friction between people of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain.
So you can call either one of those perversion. It is a perversion of what is true. Folks, you cannot sidestep this stuff. We live in a day in age where men are scared to death to teach truth about the bible. It is a disgrace. So I am not knocking homosexuals. I am knocking homosexual behavior. I am calling what God calls it, perversion. So someone says to me here, “you are a bigot”. So I say, “You are a pervert”. So now that we slandered each other, let us go on with a conversation. It says they will receive the due penalty for their perversion. From God? No. There is now no condemnation for those awaiting Christ Jesus.
Romans 8:1-2
1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.
In our own soul, we have even today, that AIDS would be a part of that receiving the due penalty for their error. God does not give you AIDS. Your partner does. People live with this deep, deep awareness that I hope nobody finds out. “I am living a lie. I am living a lifestyle that I know nobody likes.” So guess what took place. An agenda took place.
Romans 1:32
32 Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
An agenda among people who practice homosexuality takes place, to approve of those who practice them. “We are going to have an agenda to have the world accept this. I was born this way. It is not sin. I was born this way.” Is that not what you hear? That is a lie from the pit of hell. So a movement started. It got into the media. It became glorified. I do not know about you, but it turns on my stomach to see a bunch of guys kissing each other. It is perversion. It is contrary to human nature. God did not make you that way. You have gotten into it by promotion. You certainly cannot propagate, so you must recruit.
And so we have acceptance, an approval. It has gotten into our political realm and now the church. So now we have gay bishops and we will have gay pastors and we will even have gay churches. People have said they go to church. Well, I know a lot of singles who go to church looking for mates. That is the only reason they go to church. They go to the singles department. There are a lot of good looking guys and girls there. I might find a mate. What is the difference? Going to church does not mean a thing. I went to church all my life and did not know the Lord from a flag pole. The issue is what is taught in that church. If I am going to teach that homosexuality is okay then I am going to have to say this bible is bunk. And I would have to say this God of the bible does not know what He is talking about. So I do not know what God you are talking about. So you have your own god. So you go to church and read the bible. You just took God out of the bible and have made your own. You have a straw man you are worshiping. For the God of the bible says this is perversion. And you are worshiping in a group, all hanging together, with homosexuals there, saying this is love.
Romans 1:28
28 Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God,
So here is the operative phrase, “the knowledge of God”. So these fools are saying, “I know what the knowledge of God is. So I know what the word of God says, but I do not want to hang onto it. It is old fashioned.”
Romans 1:28
so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done.
Did God make their mind depraved? No. He just said “I am going to quit teaching you. You do not want to learn”. If somebody is around somebody and they do not want to learn, what do you do? You say, “Well, wallow in your ignorance!” What else do you do if they will not be taught? Will they listen? So if they do not want to be taught, then you just turn them over to whatever they want to do. That is what God has done. So they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so He gave them over to a depraved mind. So what happens? Your mind has become depraved? Why? You are not thinking truth. You are thinking error. You are living a lifestyle that is totally contrary to who you really are. So He gave them over to a depraved mind to do what ought not to be done.
Romans 1:29
29 They have become filled
Folks, this is not sitting down and saying “I wonder which one of these things I am”. This is saying they have become filled. Do you remember what it means to be filled, to be filled with the Spirit? Being filled means to be controlled by. Being filled with the Spirit means to be controlled by the Spirit. They have become controlled by every kind of wickedness.
Romans 1:29
29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice.
So when you say to God, “You do not know what You are talking about. I am going to determine what is right and wrong, good and evil. I do not need You”, your mind becomes depraved and you become controlled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. People become full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. Go talk to any person on the police force. They will tell you it does not come from me. It comes from my talking to them. The most heinous crimes they will ever go into are in the homosexual community. The most heinous crimes are in that community. Why? You become controlled by envy, murder, strife, deceit, and malice. They are mad at people. You are deceitful.
Romans 1:29-32
They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31 they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. 32 Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
They are calling good evil and evil good. God says pity those who call evil good and good evil.
Isaiah 5:20
20 Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.
Yet today, what are you as a Christian, if you are going to identify yourself as a Christian, calling homosexuality a perverse act? What are you called? Bigots. Am I right or wrong? “You are one of those narrow minded people who are not accepting.” That is the big word today, isn’t it? Accepting what? Am I accepting you? Yes. Am I accepting your lifestyle? No. Will I ever accept your lifestyle? No.
Think about this for a moment. Let us just take some of the ten commandments. You do not have to take them all. Let’s just take some. Imagine someone saying these things. “Why don’t we have an atheist pride day to march on Disney Land?” “Why don’t we have a parent haters pride day?” “Why don’t we have a murderer’s pride day?” “I just killed six people. I am so proud of myself. Let us have a parade.” “Let us have an adulterer’s pride day.” The only problem is there would not be anybody watching on television. “Let us get all the thief”s together and have a thief pride day.” “Let us have the liars pride day. That would be a good one. Let us get all the liars and we are walking on Disney Land up and down the streets and be proud of being big liars.” “Why not have a coveter’s pride day?”
Folks, is adultery sin? Is there anyone in there that thinks you are born that way, except out of Adam. I guess you can go back to him and blame Adam. So someone says “I was born that way.” Does anyone think adultery is not sin? What about fornication? Is it sin or not? Then why would not homosexuality be sin? It seems to me you are doing the same thing except with someone of the same sex. Am I right or wrong? Why is one sin and the other is an alternative lifestyle. Can anyone answer me that question? Why is one okay and the other not? If you are fornicating and committing adultery, do you get your friends together and brag about it and talk about how we ought to get a parade going? I hope not! Now folks, I want to tell you something. In order to justify this, something has to be going on not only in their heads but also in people’s heads who accept that. Something is wrong. Something is deeply wrong in a country that has fallen so deep away from God’s standard that they say, “Hey, if you do not like that you are a bigot”. That is a shame, but it is true.
