Romans 1_28-32： The Tragic Ending for Every Atheist
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Summary
In this episode of Real Christianity, I close out the final verses of Romans 1:28-32. As you know, we ve been confronting the sin of Atheism, but more than that we ve learned how God distances himself from those who reject Him, leading these people toward a tragic, dark and sinful life, ending in eternal punishment.
Transcript
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In this episode of Real Christianity, I close out the final verses of Romans chapter one,
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which as you know, has been confronting the sin of atheism. But more than that,
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we've learned how God distances himself from those who reject him, leading these people
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toward a tragic, dark and sinful life ending in eternal punishment. This text will help
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Christians understand the wrath and justice of God. But more than that, it'll drive you
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to a place of concern for the lost. So stay tuned on how Christians should respond to
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these important truths. All that and more coming up right now. Welcome to Real Christianity. My
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name is Dale Partridge. Today's episode is titled Romans 1, 28-32, The Tragic Ending
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for every atheist. Now, as you know, this show is an audio and video ministry of relearn.org.
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And if you're watching the video recording of this episode, please be sure to subscribe
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there are not many Christians in the public eye committed to biblical truth, but we are. So we'd
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love to have you on the journey. Now, in light of Romans 1, which is so heavily focused on sexual
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immorality, I thought it was important to remind you that if you're struggling with the sin of
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All right, guys, we're going to go ahead and jump in to Romans 1, 28 through 32. You're going to be
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able to read it on the screen. And it says, and starting in 28, and I'm going to be reading to
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you guys in the ESV. It says, and since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up
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to a debased mind, to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of
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unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit,
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maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful,
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inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.
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Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die,
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They not only do them, but give approval to those who practice them.
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All right, so today's sermon is really on the final verses of Romans chapter one.
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It's the tragic and ultimate result of the cascading self-afflicted consequences of downward spiral atheism.
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And in other words, really the verses are the ultimate disastrous outcome of a person who rejects God
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and God actually pulling away from that individual.
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These are men and women, again, who are experiencing that distancing,
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that downward spiral towards self-worship and idolatry.
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Now, they've been identified in the scriptures as five ways.
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So I want to list those five ways because we've got to make sure
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And so if you've been following along with us from Romans chapter 1 verses 18
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all the way here to 32 is really this one big block having this conversation about the downward
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spiral of those who have rejected God, who have turned to idolatry, who have turned to self-worship.
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And those individuals are experiencing the distancing and withdrawing of God in five
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specific ways. And I'm going to list those off right now. Number one, they are people who have
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rejected the evidence of God clearly seen in creation. This is kind of Romans 1, 18 through
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23, that portion there, they've rejected God, the evidence of God in creation. They don't see God
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just in the things that are made. Number two, these are people who've exchanged the glory of
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the immortal God and worshiped idols instead. Some of your translations will say they've exchanged
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the truth of God for a lie. That's another mark of these individuals. Number three is these are
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people who have been, as a result, given over to the lusts of their hearts to impurity so that
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they would dishonor their bodies. And this is individuals, this is starting to have a judgment
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of God for the rejection of him. Number four, these are people who have been given over to the
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dishonorable passions of homosexuality as a way to physically manifest the perversion of their
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worship and experience the fullness of their self-worship in physical relationship form.
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That was last week's message on homosexuality. If you haven't taken a listen to that,
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go ahead and listen to that because it'll give you context for what we're talking about today.
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Number five is these are people who have been given over to a debased mind or to a depraved
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mind and have become slaves of all types of wicked behaviors that lead to misery, fruitlessness,
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and ultimately hell. That is where we're at in this passage and why Romans 1 is such an important
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passage of scripture, it really exudes the wrath and justice of God. So we're going to start off
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here in verses 28. And the passage opens with a causal clause. And I want you guys to always
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catch the grammar, right? I'm teaching you guys how to catch grammar, how to be on top of your
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interpretation process. It says in verse 28, and since they did not see fit to acknowledge God,
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Now, when it says, and since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God did this.
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Essentially, this is a cause and effect situation.
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That word since can really be replaced with the word because.
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It could be saying, and because they did not see God, see fit to acknowledge God, God gave
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we want to see that relationship in the grammar. This is the third and final divine delivery that
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we've seen since verses 18 to 32. It's a constant God delivering them over to certain things or
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handing them over to certain things. The first was emotional lusts and passions. The second was
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to do dishonorable and vile acts with their body. The third one here is now to a debased mind. So
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essentially what we're seeing here is this is a reality of the totality of God's judgment upon a
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person where the wrath of God is really being played out in a person's life. He purposefully
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withdraws from the life of an atheist, permitting them to really degenerate their entire being,
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from their emotions to their physical bodies, and now to their mind. And so this is just, again,
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representing and demonstrating the totality of God's wrath upon a person that denies the existence
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of God and worships idols as a result. Second Thessalonians 2, 10 through 12 says, quote,
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and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing because they refuse to love the truth
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and so be saved. Verse 11, therefore God sends them a strong delusion so that, that's a purpose
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clause, so that they may believe what is false, in order that, another purpose clause or a result
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clause, that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
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So when a person rejects God, God does not remain neutral in this person's life.
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God actually responds by sending them judgments and strong delusion. I mean, we're seeing this
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again, with the emotional withdrawing for their passions to impurity, the withdrawing to the
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physical debaucheries done with the body, and now to another withdraw to the mind, leading them to
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all types of improper thoughts and thinking. So the next phrase, it says, now out of the result
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of this really, is that God's handing them over to a debased mind that they would do what? It says
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that they would do what ought not to be done. Okay, the phrase becomes a banner over the next
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following four verses, identifying the things that ought not to be done. And so we're going to
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read those right now. It's Romans 1, 29 through 31. You can follow along. Again, I'm in the ESV.
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It says, quote, they were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice.
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They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness.
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They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.
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Okay, now this is speaking to the concept and principle of occupation.
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These are the attributes that are manifesting or occupying the heart and minds of these
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individuals who have rejected the existence of God, God's withdrawal from their life.
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And now as a result, their minds and hearts are saturated with wickedness.
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And the lesson here is that humanity is always filled with something.
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You are either consumed and ruled by light or you are either ruled and consumed by darkness.
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In fact, even those who, when you're looking upon the world, perform, you know, what we
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would call in the world morally righteous deeds, giving to the poor, helping a neighbor.
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But if these individuals are not saved and they're doing this from a place of self-righteousness,
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which they are, they're not doing it to the glory of Christ.
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This is why the Old Testament says, even our good works are filthy rags to God, because
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if it's not done to the glory of God, it's not actually good. And we know that because Romans
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14, 23 says, for whatever does not proceed from faith is sin. So even our good works,
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if you're not saved, are actually sinful. And that's why, again, even your good works are
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filthy rags to God, because if they're not done to the glory of Christ, they're done to the glory
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of self. And this is vital information for us to understand, because even though somebody does
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something good, if they're not saved and they're not doing it to the glory of Christ, it's not
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actually good. It is a moral act, but it's not actually done from the heart of praising and
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honoring and revering the Lord. This is why Jesus would often call the Pharisees whitewashed tombs
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because on the outside, they look beautiful, but on the inside, they're dead and full of bones.
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Or he'd call them, you know, the cup that's clean on the outside, but filthy on the inside,
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because it's not just about what we do on the outside. It's about the heart in which those
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things proceed from. That is vital Christian doctrine. But what Paul is saying here is that
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the absence of righteousness dwelling in a person will result in a person who is indwelt with
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unrighteousness. They are filled and full of unrighteousness. And then Paul goes on really to
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name the descriptions of these manifestations of those unrighteous, evil, covetous,
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and malice, the fullness of those things. And so he offers 12 appearances or manifestations
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of these things that ought not to be done, that are driven from unrighteousness and covetousness
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and malice and evil. And they are gossips. They are slanderers, haters of God. Insolent means to
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be disrespectful, haughty, which is another word or an older word for arrogant, boastful,
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inventors of evil, disobedient to parents. This is obviously interesting because this is speaking
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to a youth inside of this audience here because we often think that this letter is just written
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to the adults, but no, the scriptures often actually include children as if children were
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in the listening audience of the letter to be read. And so we see this in Ephesians chapter 6.
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Paul does that, talking, telling the kids to obey their parents, you know, as it's fitting in the
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Lord. And we're seeing it again here. There is an assumption that children are in the congregation
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of the church. And because while we're called to obey our parents while we're children, we're not
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called to obey our parents when we're older. We're called to honor them, but not obey them.
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And this is actually calling out those individuals that are disobedient to parents.
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It continues, it says, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.
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So these, again, are people who are ruled by wicked emotions, wicked bodies, and wicked
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I'm not going to go through and break down all of those individual characteristics because
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I think we understand what those generally mean.
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But these individuals are ruled by these things and they don't even know it because self-love
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That is a true characteristic of the lost. Paul continues by saying in Romans 1.32,
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he says, quote, though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things
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deserve to die, they not only do them, but give approval to those who practice them.
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So a few thoughts here that are, I think, important. First, I want you to catch, again,
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the grammar here, right? This is a concessive clause. A concessive clause is whenever something
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is introduced into the sentence that's shocking. Uh, for example, you, you think about, uh, Romans
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where it says, um, although they were sinners, Christ died for them. It's a shocking statement.
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It's like saying, uh, although they were rich, they lived on the streets. It's like, wait, what
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they're rich and they live on the streets or they were, they were sinners and yet still Christ died
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for them. And this is saying the same thing. It says, though they know God's righteous decree
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that those who practice things, such things deserve to die. They not only do them, but give
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approval to those who practice them. It's an emphatic indication of grammar. And so we're
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looking at this through the lens of a right hermeneutic to go, oh, wow, Paul is recognizing
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that this is a shocking thing. They know, yet they still don't do. And it's a fascinating thing.
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So first, even though they've been handed over in emotions, in body, and in mind, there was still,
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according to this passage, a remnant of the knowledge of righteousness remaining in them.
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What a fascinating concept. God's law is written on our hearts, every human being. We know this
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because again, in Romans 2, 14 through 16, it tells us, quote, for when Gentiles who do not
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have the law by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do
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not have the law. That is the written law. They show that the work of the law is written on their
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hearts while their conscience also bears witness and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even
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excuse them, end quote. So now, just we'll kind of move on from there. And this last phrase
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that Paul says about doing evil, but, you know, basically not just doing evil,
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They're actually approving evil, and it's written there to demonstrate the depth of
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It's showing that they don't just do these things, they actually encourage others to
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That's a whole different level of commitment there.
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Affirmation implies more than simply allowing some sort of evil, but actually encouraging
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This is likely a jab at those who are in position in the government or those who are influential
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The executives at Disney are not just evil themselves,
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but they actually give approval through their work
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They actually encourage other people to do that.
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So that they can continue to fuel their greed
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they're not there to serve God. They're there to serve their own bellies, which is, again,
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something we see constantly in scripture. Essentially, people who do evil affirm evil
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as a way to pacify their conscience. I want you guys to grasp that. People affirm evil who do evil
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as a way to pacify their conscience. It's a way to justify what they're doing because if enough
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people are doing this, then maybe what I'm doing isn't actually as evil as my conscience says it
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is. And so now this is, again, the wrap up of what's happening here in Romans chapter one.
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But before I move forward, I want to make sure that you're seeing a couple things. One, I want
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to make sure that you're seeing that God's presence in a person's life becomes the determining factor
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in their moral state. So the distance that God has placed between a person and another person,
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between himself and an individual is really the determining factor of their state of holiness or
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their state of light or their state of morality. So the degree of depravity is directly connected
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to the distance between God and another person. And so when we look upon the world and we see
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all the brokenness, the people who campaign to murder babies or to pervert gender or who partake
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homosexuality or are trying to legalize pedophilia or prostitution or taking people to children's
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or children's going to drag queen shows, all this stuff that's going on in the world.
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We have to understand the connection between the pursuit of these behaviors and their distance
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from God. There's a relationship there that we need to understand. And this is important
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because in a sense, we're all sinners from birth, right? We're all sinners from birth
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needing to be born again, needing the gospel to regenerate our hearts so that we can be redeemed
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in right relationship with God. But this also teaches that God's closeness is varied among
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humanity, right? He is close to his people, the church. We know that. Scripture talks about that
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all the time. But he's distant from the lost. And so he's not equally distant from those lost people.
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He's actually very distant from some people in history, as we can see if we just look down the
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corridors of war or the corridors of some of the world's most evil people. But what you have to see
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here also is just the justice of God. Okay, God doesn't just allow sin to go unpunished. But the
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thing is, is that he will afflict sinners, not just in eternal consequences, but he will afflict
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sinners even now. And so this is not just true of sinners. I would even say that he will allow
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Christians to experience the, not the fullness, but in part, the consequences of a sinful lifestyle.
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And he will distance himself in a degree so that we can understand how terrible it is to walk in
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sin and return to our master in his ways. And so he afflicts these individuals with his absence.
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He removes light from their life. He removes the conviction of the conscience. He removes the
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common grace that he has laid out on the world. He removes his righteous instruction. He leaves
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them to a life of utter misery, hopelessness, and pain. That's what happens to these individuals
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who reject God and turn to worship. They redirect their intuition and their intuitive desire to
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worship toward idolatry, toward themselves. And as a result, he backs away. So again,
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when you look upon a person who fits the description of the following state that we've,
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or the previous state that we've talked about, a person who you can see clearly is on a path of
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this downward self-afflicting spiral of distancing themselves from God. You have to realize that
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redemption can't be achieved through just a logical conversation or a religious conversation
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or behavior modification or legislation. That's not going to help. We have to see that these people
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don't need better information. They don't need better psychology. What they need is the only
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thing that can save them and save their souls and regenerate their hearts is the gospel of Jesus
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Christ. And so what I mean by all of that is that they're not unsalvageable. Nobody is unsalvageable
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in that sense. We have to remember what Paul says in 1 Timothy 1.15. He says,
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the saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world
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to save sinners of whom I am the foremost. What a posture to have. What a posture to have as the
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apostle to go, Christ came into the world to save sinners, and there are some wicked people in the
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world. And Paul says, I'm the greatest. I'm the greatest of them all. And so when you, like Paul,
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can see that you can truly actually be just as wicked had God not come and mercifully rescued
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you, when you can see that you could be just as wicked and evil and malicious and vile as anybody
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else in this world, and you realize that God has brought you to life and given you a conscience
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and given you the conviction of the Holy Spirit, you can start to comprehend the weight of His grace
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and mercy upon your life. That is essential here. Paul is wanting us to understand that
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this is a picture of the world and the lost, but as we're going to see as we turn to chapter two,
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this is actually a picture of who you once were. So let's pray, and then we'll close out.
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We thank you for a reminder of what happens when we reject you.
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And we ask, Lord, that you would save these people that have rejected you.
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Lord, that you would continue to make your enemies your friends.
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And Father, that you would save these sinners from their ways.
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And Lord, that you would remind us of the grace and mercy that's been extended to us
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Amen. Well, guys, thank you for listening to this episode of Real Christianity. What a blessing it
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On that note, thank you for listening to this episode of Real Christianity. My name is Dale