Lessons From Romans – Lesson 2
Rom 1:5 By whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations, for his name:
Rom 1:6 Among whom are ye also the called of Jesus Christ:
Rom 1:14 I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise.
Rom 1:15 So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also.
After a great introduction to this letter about who Jesus is and how he wants us to care about and wants us to be obedient to the faith among all nations for His name. And after Paul tells how he considers himself a debtor to all to get the Gospel to them.
After all God saved his wicked soul from an eternity in hell. And because of that Paul felt he had a debt to tell those who are lost. It was a real burden for Paul. He says as much as in me is he is ready to preach the gospel.
After that introduction come the great need. Why did Paul have such a burden? Why are we called to be obedient to the faith among all nations? Primary reason is for God’s glory. It is for His name.
Another reason is for the souls of men. Multitudes are lost and wicked and on their way to hell. And God is righteous and holy and just and He must judge sin. So next Paul lays this truth out man is a sinner and describes God’s wrath on unrighteousness
Rom 1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;
The wrath of God is against all sin. All of it. So if something is not done about the sin it will send you to hell because the wrath of God is against all ungodliness and against all unrighteousness. The only solution to escape the wrath of God against your sin is to have that sin forgiven based on faith in what Jesus did on the cross for you.
The end of verse 18 says who hold the truth in unrighteousness;
Rom 1:19 Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.
Rom 1:20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
The lost hold the truth because God has showed them enough truth. Rejecting the truth that they have been shown is called holding the truth in unrighteousness. If they held it rightly, then they would look more into it and they would search the matter out.
If they would respond to the amount of light they have been given, then Almighty God would move heaven and earth to get them more light.
God has given every man a conscience. Every person is born with a sense that there is a God with whom they have to do. And God has given creation as proof that He exists.
We have a solemn truth before us this morning. God declares that because the creation of the world is clearly seen and that the creation shows forth His eternal power and Godhead. And because that truth is clearly displayed to all makes all without excuse.
God will have done nothing wrong when he throws people into hell for they are without excuse. He will do them no injustice. All have sinned
God made the world in such a magnificent and complicated way that it cannot be explained except there must be a God. It took man 6000 years just to be able to read the DNA information in one cell. And it is so complicated that we still do not fully comprehend it.
You can look at the complexity of the cell and it is clear that it was designed and only God could design something so complicated. The evidence is everywhere from the smallest atom to the laws of physics to the expanse of the universe and everything in between.
It all clearly declares that there is an all-powerful creator. And since He created everything, then He has a right to make the rules on what sin is.
And our God made a way for sin to be forgiven. By faith and not of works. And He is not willing that any should perish and wants all to come to repentance. God loves the sinner so much that He gave His only begotton Son.
However, God is going to send them to hell unless they repent and believe in Jesus. And that will not happen unless someone reaches them with the Gospel. And if they don’t get saved then God is going to send them to hell.
There is no weighing of the balances, there are no second chances. They are without excuse.
And now comes a very detailed look at man’s sin. Paul is not going to be vague here. He is going to be vivid and describe the ugliness of man’s sin. And several times Paul is going to show that there are some consequences in this life attached to man’s sin.
The majority of punishment for sin is reserved for hell for all eternity. But there is some punishment that comes in this life as well.
The first is becoming vain in their imaginations and having their foolish heart darkened.
Rom 1:21 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
Since they knew that there was a God because they had the evidence of creation and they chose to deny that fact and thus glorify him not as God. And because they were not thankful and instead of accepting the truth they used their imaginations and made up other stuff to believe in other than God they reap the consequences of that.
And the first consequence mentioned is their foolish heart was darkened. Knowledge wise they chose darkness rather than light when they denied God. Do that long enough and the consequence is that your heart is darkened.
The light of the fact that God created and the light of their conscience given by God goes dark. As far as eternity goes this consequence is very dangerous. Why? Because Romans chapter 10 teaches us that the heart is involved in getting saved.
Rom 10:9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
Rom 10:10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
It is extremely difficult for someone to believe in their heart when their foolish heart is darkened.
A lost person can deny God once and God will keep calling and keep working and get them the gospel again. And God is patient and He is longsuffering, and He does give more than one chance to choose to believe.
But at some point a person can get to a point where their foolish heart gets darkened and they might never get another chance. A heart can get so dark that it just can’t see the light. The darker the heart gets the harder it is for them to see the light and get saved.
However, it is true that God can save the worst of the worst. With God all things are possible.
The second consequence to denying that God created is to become fools.
Rom 1:22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
This explains the evolutionists. They profess themselves to be wise and use their vain imaginations to think up fairytales that they think explains the universe. But that is all it is vain imagination.
Their fairytales goes against the laws of physics that they profess and it goes against the laws of mathematics. Just the complexities of one cell is mathematically statistically absolutely totally impossible.
To believe that the complexity of all we see just happened by accident is total foolishness.
Many of the evolutionists are very smart people in other areas. Some can do advanced surgery and save lives, others can built space ships. Some can design complicated bridges. The examples are many. But being smart in one area does not make you smart in all areas.
And it is a judgment of God for denying that He created. And that is why even very otherwise smart people will swallow a lie and accept vain imaginations and will strongly believe the most foolish things. They claim they are smart and God makes them fools.
The third consequence to denying that God created is worshipping the creation.
Rom 1:23 And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.
Rom 1:24 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:
Rom 1:25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
We see this in our world today in many ways. There are many who actually worship statues and idols. There are also many who worship nature. Some even give Mother Nature a name and worship her. Others serve the creature as in man. They worship humanity. That is called humanism.
Others will actually worship the creatures as in animals. Some of them will not even eat a cheeseburger or even drink a glass of milk.
The truth of God that they turned into a lie is that God created. They refused to give God glory and instead worship anything else.
The forth consequence mentioned to denying that God created and giving Him glory is vile affections.
Rom 1:26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
Rom 1:27 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 recompence of their error which was meet.
unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.
I don’t think I have to say too much about this one. The human body was designed to be used in a certain way and there are consequences and damage that is done to the human body when used outside that design.
So men who use their body unseemly will receive the natural consequences of it and the reaping what you sow in verse 27 it says is meet. As in correct and just and it is fitting for the error. It is right that they received the recompense of that error.
The fifth consequence mentioned to denying that God created and giving Him glory is the reprobate mind.
Rom 1:28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;
Reprobate means morally corrupt depraved.
Some like to use verse 28 and ONLY apply it to verses 26 and 27. But that is an error. While is can apply to verse 26 and 27 the main application is starting in verse 29. Look at the semi colon at the end of verse 28. That means that the main application of verse 28 is after verse 28.
And this is judgment from God applied to these people in this life. It says God gave them over to a reprobate mind. So they have reached a point where they do not want God and they don’t want God’s morality. And therefore God gives them what they want.
He turns their minds over to being a reprobate mind. And since how you think is reflected in how you act they will now do things that are morally wrong. And since a man will reap what he sows, then they will have bad coming their way in this life for the bad that they do.
Now for the sake of clarity Paul will give a long list of just what things will come from the reprobate mind that God has turned them over to.
Rom 1:29 Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,
Rom 1:30 Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
Rom 1:31 Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:
There is a whole lot of things in that list. Coveting and envy and deceit. And from gossiping (that is what whisperers is talking about) all the way to murder.
Rom 1:32 Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.
The people who refuse to accept the fact that God created and then refuse to give Him the glory for it and they refuse time and again to see the light. They will get their foolish hearts darkened and they will get turned over to a reprobate mind and they will do a wide variety of evil and immoral things.
And because their mind has been turned over by God then they just cannot think correctly. Many white liberal women who graduated college demonstrate this. The ladies on the view demonstrate this. The liberal lady on the five is an example.
Those that protest law and order and are mad because they are taking murders and people who rape children off the streets demonstrate this principal of God turning them over to a reprobate mind.
And I have seen men and women journalists demonstrate this. They will be interviewing someone and have someone very clearly in a logical way present facts to them and they just get a look on their face like a calf staring at a new gate.
They can’t get it. They cannot see. They cannot think correctly because their mind has been turned over to a reprobate mind.
And we see here that they have pleasure in others that do the same.
We all have heard the saying many times birds of a feather flock together. This is the same with sinners who deny God.
They will applaud others who are involved in the same immorality. They will support each other and encourage each other. And they will have pleasure when they see others sinning.
It comes to the point where there is no shame for their sin. They are bold about it. They will join websites whose purpose to facilitate the sins of adultery and fornication.
And you will see this principal in everything from sexual sins to our legacy media to our intelligence community just to name a few examples.
There were hundreds of FBI and CIA employees who joined other sinners to try to get Trump at any cost. They joined together and created fake documents about Russia. Person after person was called to testify to congress and lied thru their teeth.
And every one of them supported each other in the same sinful lies and deceit and maliciousness and malignity. And every one of them had pleasure is seeing another wicked person do the same thing.
The same thing is true for the democrat politicians and for the mainline media.
You will see this kind of behavior from High schools to the nursing home.
This whole section in Romans chapter one is not about only one type of sin. God is telling us the way things work in this world and that there are consequences in this life for not admitting the fact that God created and giving Him the glory for it.
Rom 1:28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;
Listen again to some of the keywords in these verses about this reprobate mind.
Vain in their imaginations,
Foolish heart
Corruptible man
uncleanness
lusts
dishonour
lie
worshipped and served the creature
vile affections
unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, envy, murder, deceit, backbiters,
haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things
without understanding, unmerciful.
There is a great need. A need that is not going to get fixed by legislation, Or a bigger police force. Man’s nature is naturally wicked. Better enforcement can and does reduce crime, but they cannot fix the underlying issue which is the wicked hearts of man and the reprobate mind.
All men are sinners and all men will sin. However, it escalates in people who reject God and push God until they are given over to a reprobate mind.
The only cure is for more people to get a new nature. People need to get born again. And God’s plan to make that happen is for us to go and tell people about Jesus. We must see the need.
When more people really see the need, then maybe more people will get a burden like Paul had to put getting God’s precious word out.