Bible Study: July 16, 2025

So we are going to spend our fourth Bible study in Revelation, Romans 1.

We will get through Romans 1 tonight. There is just so much in this first chapter of Romans.

And even as I was preparing this Bible study for tonight, I was looking at it and even added more notes to what I had even before we left.

Because as you go through it, you see so many of the fundamental things that you and I need to know as we live the way of life that God has called us to.

You, in the times past, I know I'll just quickly refresh your memories.

We've talked about grace and what it means. We've talked about what faith means, what belief means.

We've talked about not being ashamed of the gospel, but about living our lives and the way that God has said, no matter what the world or no matter what those around us may say or talk about or make fun of us or whatever it is, we just keep doing what God's will is and follow Him and follow Him implicitly. So the last time, we got down to about verse 25, I think it was, or 24. But I want to pick up in verse 22 and go through that again because in verse 21, it talks about God gives all these evidences of His creation.

As you have the opportunity to travel and you see things from around the world, it is amazing when you see the variety that God has created. When we were in Mallorca on one of the stops that we had, and there were these caves that we went down into.

That was just absolutely beautiful. Many of you have been in caves before, but I think this is just a stunning one. You can't help but think about God created all these things on earth, the variety of plants, grass, trees, foods that we eat, the whole nine yards, and all the various landscapes that you see around the world. Then underneath the earth, you have this beauty that's there with these stalagmites, stalactites, and the way they're all lit up. It's like, why did God take the time to make that so beautiful? Why did? But He did everything so that we would learn and appreciate Him. So when it's Acts and Romans 1 about mankind is really without excuse, we really are without excuse. There is God and is simply the spirit of Satan that leads us to not want to follow God or acknowledge Him.

In verse 22, I'm going to go ahead and share a screen here with you. I put together some notes here.

We are sharing. So get back up to where I want to be because I do think that we will get through chapter 1 and into Romans 2, which really is a continuation of chapter 1 when you look at what God is saying at the end of the chapter here. So professing themselves to be wise. Last time we talked about that. We know that wisdom comes from God. There is a wisdom of the world we talked about in 1 Corinthians 1. But we don't have that wisdom. We have that wisdom, but you have to have the Spirit of God to understand the plan of God. It only comes through His Holy Spirit. We talked about the only way to receive God's Holy Spirit is He calls. We repent, truly and genuinely and sincerely repent. We turn to Him. We're baptized. Hands are laid on us. He puts His Holy Spirit in us when He sees that repentance and that commitment to turn to Him. So professing to be wise, they might have the wisdom of the world. They might know how to create internets, and they might know how to build fantastic buildings and do all these things. Or there may be the scholars, the biblical scholars who can tell you every nuance of every Greek and Hebrew word in there.

But they don't have the Spirit of God that leads them how to live, how to apply those verses, and how to live those verses. The knowledge is great, but the knowledge alone is not enough. You have to understand it, and God's Spirit helps us to understand. So professing to be wise, they call themselves, they became fools. They weren't thankful to God. They didn't recognize God. They didn't want anything to do with Him. Verse 23 then talks about two sins among the many other other sins that God delineates here in chapter one that were extant in the world then, as Paul wrote, but are extant in the world today. And as we look around us in 2025, we see these two sins that God specifically talks about in Revelation 22 as well coming into play more and more. He says, they change the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man.

So rather than honoring God and giving Him credit, thanking Him, yielding to Him, looking to Him for guidance and direction, always in gratitude, and in faith, knowing that He has our best interest in heart, they turn to idols because they didn't have the Spirit of God. They know there's something more powerful than them. So in ancient days, as Paul is writing this, you know, he's writing it to a group of Jews and Gentiles. The Jews thought they were worshiping, or the people in the church, were worshiping the true God, but here you have the Gentiles absolutely worshiping idols. And so they would be listening to this and thinking, yeah, that's exactly what we did. Instead of thanking God, we look to our stone idols. We look to the sun. We look to whatever it is that they decided to bow down to. They changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. And notice, you know, I've got circled in my Bible, and corruptible man, because down through the history in the Bible, you see men who presented themselves as God. They were the idol that they wanted people to bow down to.

We can think of Nebuchadnezzar. We can think of, you know, the ancient times where the, you know, the people, you bow down to me. We know that there's a time ahead, that that time is coming again.

There will be a beast power. And the other beast of Revelation 13 will say, bow down to this beast power, this beast, this beast. And so we have idolatry that's there. And we know that we have idolatry. We may not have pagan statues on every corner in the cities of America today or Canada, or Australia, or England, or whatever country you're from. But we do have idols. There are things that we put and that we trust in more than God. We may not recognize it. We will come to recognize it.

You know, it could be our country. It could be bank accounts. It could be health care. It could be relationships. We could put friends and take what our friends say and make that more important than what God says because we follow them rather than God. So anything that's in place of God, as the second commandment says, you know, that's an idol. And so he's talking about this. Because they profess themselves to be wise, they thought they knew it all. And they were, as it says in 1 Corinthians 8 verse 1, puffed up because of that knowledge. They thought they were wise.

It was about them. But they became fools because they didn't understand the biblical truth.

And they turned to idols, whatever that idolatry is. You know, I have listed there, you know, one of the things that just to show how people do, you remember when Israel was coming out of Egypt and God erected, or the statue is as there was this plague of snakes. And he said, if you look on this this pole with the snake wrapped around it, if you look on it, you'll be healed, right? Well, that remained there. And people eventually made that into an idol. God gave that to them just to represent him. And I'm saying that not in the way that God intended it. Just do that. But he also was showing, you know, that that became an idol. Instead of looking to God, they started looking to this thing that was there. So we have in 1 Corinthians, where did I have that up? I didn't even... Oh yeah, 2 Corinthians 18.4, which Gloria specifically mentions that.

And so we have to be aware of what we might be putting before God and the truth that he gives us, because we are called to live by every word of God. The Bible is our guide. 2 Corinthians or 2 Kings 18 verse 4. Speaking of Hosea, you know, let me say Hezekiah, he came in and it says, He removed the high places, He broke down the brick pillars, He cut down the wooden image, and broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the children of Israel burned incense to it and called it Nahushan. Called it Nahushtan. And so they made something, even as God gave that to them, and even as they knew as God who was healing them, they allowed that object to become something that they actually worshiped. It is just a natural tendency of man to do that. And we have to be aware of that. It doesn't only happen in the world, it can happen to any of us as well. I mentioned Revelation 22. I'm going to go ahead and read verse 15 because as it's talking about the return of Christ and setting up His kingdom and then the purpose for this physical world being done and God coming down to dwell with man and the new heaven and new earth, it says in verse 15, well in verse 14 it says, Blessed are those who do His commandments, notice the do, not just know them, but do them live by His way of life. Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may enter through the gates into the city. But outside, outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters and whoever loves and practices a lie.

And so we have lies and idolatry that are mentioned for the end times, you know, because those are at stand throughout the history of man. We have to be aware of that, that we don't allow ourselves to fall into idolatry. And Romans 1 talks about that.

That's what man naturally does. That's the way that he does things. It's, you know, Romans 8, 7 talks about, I'm going to just go ahead and read Romans 8, 7. You all know what it is.

The carnal mind, that's the natural human mind. That's the mind without God's Holy Spirit.

Because the carnal mind is enmity against God, it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. It's impossible to do that without God's Holy Spirit and to serve him and to live his way of life the way that he said. And so we have many, you know, religions and people who say, I live by the commandments, but not all of them, right? I mean, we know the world has taken apart and they would call only people who violate, of course, the Sabbath day, the fourth commandment, the seventh commandment on adultery and sexual purity that God would want us to do.

Lying, you go right down the whole thing. Covetousness, every single one of them.

People excuse themselves and commit those all day long, but God expects his people to live by them completely. So, let's go back to Romans 1 there. So we hit idolatry in verse 23.

Interesting that God talks about that. And then in verse 24, Romans 1, he talks about something that was well known and well developed in the Gentile world, right?

The sexual perversity that's there. You know, there is... let me just go ahead and read verse 24.

Verse 24, therefore, because mankind was intent to not retain God in their knowledge, to not follow his way, says, therefore he gave them up. It's like he surrendered them. This is the way of life you want to live. I will let you live it and we'll see exactly where it goes because God knows where it all leads. He just knows where it all leads. Therefore, God gave them up to uncleanness in the lusts of their hearts to son or their bodies among themselves.

So, we have the sexual immorality. We read about that in Revelation 22, 15. That was extant in the Gentile world. You know, the Jews would have looked at that and thought, what a perverse society that was there. Simply everything, everything was okay in the Gentile world as they had temple prostitutes and you could do anything you wanted as long as you gave the money to the church.

It is the way it was. And so, the Jews, remember, as they're in the church, they're looking at the Gentiles thinking, you were really an evil people. You had a lot to repent of. The Jews had a lot to repent of as well. They didn't live as deprived of life as the Gentiles did at that time. But here they were. They're in uncleanness. And we may focus, and later on, you know, God does talk about, he does mention, you know, the homosexuality that is extant in the world today or very common in the world today, almost championed in the world today. He talks about that and we might focus in on that.

But in verse 24, he talks about the uncleanness in the lusts of their hearts. In the lusts of their hearts, you know, God is looking to you and me for purity, right? 1 John 3, 3 says, anyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, chooses purity, asks God for the strength through his Holy Spirit to eliminate the lusts of the flesh, the lusts of the eyes, the pride of life, to get that out of our hearts. You know, that takes resistance and consciously saying no to self. When we see those things develop in us and say, no, that isn't who God wants me to be, and only with his Holy Spirit can we ever weed those out of our lives so that we are no longer did by them. Let us do look back at 1 John 2 because what Paul is talking about here is exactly what John, who wrote his epistle here, his letter some 30, 30 or 40 years later than Paul, and he's talking in verse 2 about the same thing that Paul is talking about here in verse 15. Let me put some people in here. Verse 15 of 1 John 2. He says, Don't love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, you know what the lust of the flesh is. Paul will talk about that a little bit here as he talks about the sexual immorality and the perversity that goes on there. The lust of the eyes, the covetousness, I've got to have this. I want that. I want it all. And the pride of life. I am someone. I have to be seen as important. I have to do the things. I have to become someone, and I have to become the wise of the world as he says there. He talks about those three things, and that's what God is talking about back here when he says, I gave them up to uncleanness in the lusts of their hearts to dishonor their bodies among themselves. And then he says in verse 25, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie. And there we have the lie show up. You know, again, we saw that in Revelation 22, 15, and he talks about no one, no liar is going to be in the kingdom. We live in a world where, you know, maybe there's always been lies in the world. We know there's never been a time that there hasn't been, but it does seem over the last eight, nine years, lies have become just a normal way of life.

When you look at the news, when you read news stories, it's to the point anymore that almost anything I read, I think, is that true? And there's no way to actually, actually prove any of it.

You know, when you look at the world, you can look at one news station and they'll say something, you can look at something else and read another article that says just the opposite, and you think, well, where is the truth? So we go back to Isaiah 54, where God said, well, where is truth?

Truth is fallen in the streets. And we live in a world that is just built on lies. You don't know, you don't know what is what is what. And that is kind of the way it is. You know, we might look at the world and say that, but it can also be us. It can also be us.

Did I hear someone? It can also be us. You know, we have to be aware of it as well as we live in the world. And as we see these things going on around us, as we go to work, talk to our neighbors, listen to the news, read, you know, Twitter, X, whatever it is, and you see all these various opinions and you think, what is that true? Is that true? Is that true? We can find ourselves maybe coloring the truth and doing things as well. We have to be very, very aware because God uses this term, you know, the lie. They exchange the truth of God. We keep doing that.

Or the lie. Because another cause. They exchange the truth of God for the lie.

Doesn't have to be just one lie, right? Any lie. And people can exchange the truth of God for the lie.

We can take a verse and say it doesn't apply in this case. We can take a verse and put a different meaning on it than what God says it is. We can minimize it. We can do those things, and all those things could be lies. But, you know, I think the most telling place that God talks about lies and how they're going to be... how that's going to be a significant part of our lives going forward, we find it's second Thessalonians 2. Well-known verses. But we should do that and keep it in mind.

You know, as we watch the world go more and more to lie, lie, lie. More and more go to don't ever admit you're wrong, lie about everything. That can happen. And we need to be aware and always seeking the truth, not trying to suppress it as we read earlier in Romans 1, but always seeking the truth in all matters. That's what God would have us do. So in verse 9, verse 9 of 2 Thessalonians 2, it says, The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan. Well, he's the father of lies. He lied to Eve, and he was a very cunning, clever liar to be able to get her to turn against God and believe him. The coming lawless one is according to the working of Satan with all powers, signs, and lying wonders. Christ talks about this in Matthew 24 when he said, That false prophet that will be, he will do great wonders, that if it were possible, even the elect would be deceived. That's out there. That's out there in the world, and it will be pretty powerful. It'll be pretty powerful what is going on out there. We have to know who God is. We have to know what Christ's word is. We have to know what his voice is and follow his voice as he says in John 10. It will come according with all signs and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish because they didn't receive the love of the truth that they might be saved. Well, God's word is truth. We need to love it, but we need to love the truth in all matters. We need to look for the truth and seek the truth and see what really is going on because deception is going to be a major thing at the end of the age.

It was the first thing that Christ said, that they didn't receive the love of the truth that they may be saved. This verse has just really, over the last several months, has just really struck me.

It says, and for this reason, because people didn't love the truth. That means you don't lie.

You don't exaggerate. You don't have truths. You don't do all these things. You love the truth, and you speak the truth, and you let your yes be yes and your no be no, just like Jesus Christ did when he was on earth. For this reason, because they didn't love truth, God will send them strong delusion that they should believe the lie. When we believe the lie, whatever that lie is, we depart from God because we didn't cling to the truth, and we didn't listen to the truth, and fathom the truth, and love it. So, in verse 12, then, I'm going to read that because of praise in here you're going to see in Romans 1. I'll read 11 again. For this reason, God will send them strong delusion. God will send them strong delusion that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

At the end of Romans 1, we're going to see that very same phrase show up again. So lying, lying and idolatry, you know, whatever stands between us and God that we would say, we'll follow that. We'll bow down to that idol. We'll follow that position, that idea, whatever it is that between us and God is going to be there at the end time, and we know that the world is going to be so bowed down to this idol, this image at the end of time, and as it says in Revelation 13, and lying. So going back to Romans 1, they exchanged the truth, they exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and it says, for this reason God gave them up to vile passions. Well, passions, I think in the Old King James it says, it uses the word, affections. God gave them up to uncleanness.

That's what they wanted. They departed from him. When we depart from God, we fall into the basket of lust of the flesh, lust of light, lust of the eyes, or the pride of life. All of them, or maybe just one of them. When we fall away from God and start doing things the way we want, and follow our way rather than his way, and we don't want to follow him. That's what God is saying here. And for this reason he gave them up, again he surrendered, fine, do it your way. We'll see what all that comes to. For this reason, God gave them up to vile affections. It says in the Old King James, passions, I know it is a word, it's a vile. It's a passion like, I've got a passion for the truth.

I want to find the truth, and I'm going to study it like the Bereans did. That's a good passion.

The passions that this passion is is a vile passion, something evil. You're looking for, you're following something other than that. Whenever I read that verse, I think back to 2 Corinthians 6, because Paul, as God inspired him, as he's talking at the end of chapter 6 and 2 Corinthians about, don't come out of this world. Don't be unequally yoked with unbelievers.

Don't even touch things that are unclean. Leading into that whole series of verses that we find at the end of chapter 6 there, he says this in verse 11 and 12. He says, O Corinthians, we have spoken openly to you. Our heart is wide open. Paul was just giving them and telling them because he wanted them to receive the truth. He wanted them to be in the kingdom. He was just telling them the truth of God. Our heart is wide open. You are not restricted by us. Don't blame us. We're just telling you the truth of God. This is what God says to do. We're just saying his word is what he's saying. You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted by your own affections. You are restricted by your own affections. Those things that you won't let go of, that you just won't yield to God and surrender to him completely. That's what's holding you back.

And that's what he says is the feeling that's in you. You're resisting God. I don't want to give up this. I don't want to give up that. I kind of want to follow that and not what God says or whatever it might be that would do that. That's what's holding you back. But we have to be people who surrender all of ourselves to God. Doesn't happen overnight. We don't even know. I don't think... well, I know none of us that are alive know all the things that we have yet to overcome and yield to God. But he does. And in time, he lets us know. And then we use his Holy Spirit to become like him. For this reason... so if we go back to Romans 1...

Romans 1, verse 26. For this reason, God gave them up to vile passions. And then he talks about these things that we see increasing in our world today. You know, most of us here have been alive for several decades. We can think back to, you know, when homosexuality was looked down by everyone.

And we remember... I think it was 2015 where the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage.

And I remember... I remember because I was working with a group of hospitals at that time. And one of the administrators there... I mean, literally overnight, he flipped, right? It used to be that he was anti-this and anti-that. And then it was like, as soon as the president that was in the power at that time and the Supreme Court did it, it was like, yeah, you know, the gay lifestyle, we have to be tolerant to all of it.

And then he then approved everything. And I thought, wow, everything just changed. It was like, well, that's okay because someone said it was there. But we see this happening more and more as the world departs further and further from God.

This is one of the things that Paul said that is happening. God for God gives them up to vile passions. And all of a sudden you have all these sexual perversities.

You know, with same-sex marriage, it was people living together or premarital sex became the norm. People living together before marriage became the norm. Homosexuality became accepted. Now we have transsexuals and all these things that are going on in the world today that are kind of foreign to us because it becomes more and more perverse the further and further away you get from God and the more you reject Him. Again, if we go back to if we go back to 2 Timothy, Paul isn't the only one who talks.

Well, Paul wrote to Timothy as well, but he talks about this again in 2 Timothy 3. As we go through the rest of the chapter here, and we see all these things that God lists, which are the works of the flesh, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life, he lists them again in 2 Timothy 3, and he talks about it in the end time. Often, the church will say that, well, this is the world, and yes, exactly is the world, but this can happen in the church as well. None of us are immune from the passions or the affections of the world if we aren't on our guard and if we're not staying close to God and consciously choosing His way of life.

If we allow ourselves to relax, become part of the world, give in to this or give in to that, and begin to think more highly of ourselves than we should, these things can happen to us as well. So in chapter 3 of 2 Timothy, in verse 2, it says, men will be lovers of themselves.

We see that. We see that. We see the arrogance in the politicians, right? In the politics of the world, it's just full of people who are that way, but there are that can happen to us as well. If we begin to think of ourselves more highly than we should think, as the Bible warns us to be aware of, men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money. You know, I'll do whatever it takes for money. That's what I work for, and so we have a world that has that issue with it right now, as we've seen so many industries perverted by greed and stock market prices and how do we make more money, more money, more money, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedience of parents, right?

And that can just be, you know, respect, general respect. One of the reasons God has us teach our children to be obedient to parents and respect them is because we need to respect, throughout our lives. Without respect, societies fail. And as I, you know, as I had been back in seeing some of the things with these ICE here in America, I don't know if in Canada and in England and Australia, you follow any of things going on, but you know, apparently now people are, some are even encouraging people to attack ICE officers.

These are the immigration officers as they deport illegal immigrants, telling them, attack, attack them, I mean, to not respect authority. And when you have that message being thrown out into society, it cannot survive.

When we are teaching disrespect, when we're teaching disrespect and encouraging disrespect, certainly things are going to fall. So God says in the Lentimes, in the last days, respect is going to go out the window. We see that. They will be unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, talk about people. I mean, we see that all the time, people just throwing things out to say things about people that aren't true. You know, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, you know, not loyal to God and not loyal to others as well. Headstrong, naughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, that kind of smacks of 2 Corinthians 6 there. Having a form of godliness, they may keep the Sabbath day. They keep the Holy Days. They may say the right things. They may have a form of godliness, but they deny the power of it. And God says, you know, from such people, turn away.

You know, discernment. Discernment is something that God gives us that we can see what is going on and follow Him. I think verse 6 is a very interesting thing there because, you know, if we look at that from the world standpoint, certainly we need to watch, you know, watch what we're watching and paying attention to. But in verse 6 it says, for of this sort, of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women. And I'm not, you know, the word women is there, but it's anyone. You know, someone who can come in and they can kind of like say whatever they want, have a form of godliness, and get you to turn away. Having a form of godliness and creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts. Always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

It's an interesting time we live in and a time to have our antenna up and always to be focused in the word of God and following what he says. Okay, next week I'm going to have those of you who are just joining. I apologize for letting you sit in the waiting room. Next week I'm going to have a conference that will keep everyone admitted and see any questions and things that we have that we need to be answering. So, where were we? We are in verse 27.

Oh, you know, I'll just reference. You know, Timothy, Paul, when he's writing to Timothy, talks about verse 13 of 2 Timothy 3. I didn't go there saying, Evil men and imposters will grow worse and worse. And that's what we see happening in the world around us. Things just get worse and worse and worse the further you are away from God.

In Genesis 15 and verse 16, you know, God is talking to Abraham at that time. And he says, In the fourth generation, you'll come back and this land is going to be yours. He wasn't going to give it to Abraham. It's the sentence that said, Yet to be born. And it's the sentence that time because he said, Because the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete. And that's the verse that struck me years ago. The iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete. God is patient.

He will see, will people turn back to him? Will they recognize what they're doing? Will they listen to the warnings as he had prophets go to the Old Testament and say, Turn back to God, repent of this, don't do that anymore. And he would do that. And when the iniquity of the Amorites was complete, then he gave the land to Abraham and his descendants. Later on, later on in 1 Kings, God references that as well when he talks about, I gave this land to you because of the sin of the Amorites. They lost. They lost their right to the land. God took it from them because they didn't honor him and their iniquity became complete. As we watch the world around us, the iniquity is getting closer and closer to being complete. We don't know when. God will say, It's complete. What's going on in America, what's going on in England, Australia, Canada, all over the world, it's complete and it's time. We don't know. Could be months, could be years, could be decades. It's only in God's hands, but we all need to be ready as we see these, as I call them, the prophetic buds on the trees beginning to bloom. So, we go back to then Romans 1. We talked about the homosexuality that God, and it's always interesting because people in the world that are given to these lifestyles refute these verses. It couldn't be more clear in every translation of the Bible. There is no latitude in here to excuse, you know, what God says, but somehow the people that are given to those take that Bible and rip it out, take those verses out, and say it doesn't apply. It doesn't apply isn't what God is talking about, even though it's crystal clear here. Verse 28 says, And even though they did not like, I have that circled in my Bible, they didn't like, they just didn't want to follow God.

It's the Romans 8.7. It's the Romans 8.7 again, right? We don't want to follow God. The natural mind just wants to do things his own way. We want to follow our own ideas. We want to do what we want to do. We want to follow the lust that we have. We just want to live that lifestyle, but that's not what we are called to. We are called to deny self and deny our own passions and become like Jesus Christ. Even as though they didn't like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind. He took his Holy Spirit of the world. They don't have the Holy Spirit, but where you and I are concerned, he can take that Holy Spirit away, just like he took it away from Saul. When Saul didn't want to do things the way God said, when God said, utterly destroy those Amalekites, and then Saul didn't, and then even when he was approached by Samuel and said, why didn't you do what God said and ultimately destroy everything about them? You remember Saul's response? But I did! He didn't even get it. He wasn't focused on the detail of what God wanted and giving it exactly the way God wanted. And you and I, you know, as we have this Holy Spirit, need to look at his words and do things the way he says. He can take the Holy Spirit away. We don't have to turn to verses in there, but you know that in Hebrews, I think Hebrews 6, Hebrews 10, certainly in 2 Peter, it talks about those things as well. It happens in the world, certainly. It can happen. It can happen to you and me, too. And if we're not watching what we're doing, we can find ourselves slipping away from God, you know, slipping away from God. I'm reminded of a verse as I speak here in Hebrews 12, and we can drift away. We can drift away if we neglect him for a while and find ourselves caught up in the world, caught up in our own way of doing things, caught up in our own selves, and then, you know, drifting too far away from God. So it's very hard to come back, come back again. So then, in verse 29, and here he lists all these things. He talked about the sexual immorality and perversity earlier in the chapter, but then in verse 29, he just lists all these works of the flesh that we also find in Galatians 5, 19. And in Galatians 5, 19, you know, he'll say, these are the works of the flesh, but this is the fruit of the Spirit. You know, we are called, and with God's Holy Spirit, we put to death the works of the flesh, these things that define us. Not to the ultimate extent, as we read these things, but in the world, we're seeing more and more just how vile these works of the flesh could be. Being filled, the game of motion would be debased mind to do those things which are not fitting. Being filled with all, there's that word all, all unrighteousness, sexual immorality to extents that we couldn't have even maybe imagined, and how society has reacted to it. Ten years ago, if someone had said, this is what society will be like, you know, ten years from now, I think we would have scratched our head. I remember thinking, I remember thinking years ago, I, you know, God, how would America ever become like Sodom and Gomorrah?

How would America ever become like Sodom and Gomorrah? And today, I say, I think America has become worse than Sodom and Gomorrah because things can happen that much as far as when people just depart from God and allow themselves to run away with the machinations, the imaginations, and the temptations that Satan puts before them. Anyway, wickedness, covetousness, you know, how many people are, it's almost like weekly anymore that you see someone being murdered because they want something else. And I just, when I did see a news clip last night, something about a dentist in Colorado who killed his wife because he wanted to have an affair with some other lady, I think, how does a mind, how does a mind even come to that, you know, to that type of thing? It's just kind of like amazing. It just shows how depraved, how depraved people can be. Maliciousness, full of envy, you know, I want what you, I want what you have, and I'm willing to do anything to get it.

You know, it's just one of those things. Murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness.

They are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient, and disobedient to parents. There's the respect issue again if we take that, because if they're not taught obedience to parents, why would they respect anyone else?

Undisserning, and I have, you know, the undisserning circle there. You can't, you know, God gives us the spirit of discernment. What is right? What is wrong? How can it follow His voice?

It takes His Holy Spirit and using it and knowing the truth and understanding what the way of God is. But when you're apart from God, you're undisserning. You don't see. You don't see the truth. So we live in America, and I think in Canada, Australia, Britain, every country of the earth that someone is on this Bible study with us today, every single one we see just complete chasms between the true groups of people. Never the twain shall meet, right? I mean, we look in America, the Democrats and Republicans will never be one. They are so far apart, and their idea is that it just isn't possible unless there's some kind of complete commitment to God and everyone comes together. That's just not going to happen. And so we look at that all over the world, and we know that the only answer is Jesus Christ. Only He can bring unity. You know, we can see that.

We can see that. It's even happened in the churches of God over the years as we've seen the splits and certainly not the evil and the vileness of what is going on in the world.

But people follow their own things and justify whatever they do, and that's why you end up having not unity, but different factions that develop. We all have to guard against it, and there has to be the striving for unity, as Paul says in Ephesians 2 and 4. Anyway, so he lists all these things. Let me look at my notes here that I put together for you. You know, yeah, I'm just looking there. I have Romans 13. As Paul goes on, you know, in this book of Romans, he talks about respect.

Remember in Romans 13, he's talking about having respect for the governmental authorities as well, because God expects us to live in respect to that. Even though Jesus Christ knew that the Pharisees and the Roman government were not the government of God, he did have respect, and he did obey the laws of the land as it was, and he tells us that. In verse 1, I'll just read it to Romans 13, Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Now sometimes people, you may hear people say, I don't believe that. Man chooses. Man chooses who it is.

I've even, the man chooses who that is. But here it says, there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore, whoever resists the authority, resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves.

You know, let's just, so we are taught to be good citizens in America, follow God first, and where the government or authority isn't following God, follow God. He's the ultimate authority. So verse 30, verse 31, I'm gonna finish this list. I don't see any hands up, so I hope I'm not missing anyone there. If I am, we'll get to you here in a minute.

Undustworthy. You know, untrustworthy. Now, it goes back to the lies again. And sometimes you just, you know, people you work with, people you work with in the world, or whatever you think, I just don't, I don't trust that person, right? I mean, you hear that all the time on TV. I don't trust what this politician says, that politician says. I know we don't trust anything that any man says, only we trust what God says. He's very clear when he says, trust no man but your trust in God.

And we learn two times just trust in God. He will see us through and look to him no matter how difficult things might be, how difficult, just keep doing what God tells you to do. He will see you.

He will see you through. Undisscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful. And then verse 32 wraps up chapter one, but it really, the whole thought here goes into chapter two. And we'll spend a few minutes on that because it is something I know is you, well, let me finish 32. So here's these people who knowing the righteous judgment of God, well, that would be you and me, right? We know the righteous judgment of God. The people in the world don't know the righteous judgment of God. They haven't been called yet. They don't know the plan of God. They don't understand the Bible. It isn't his purpose to call everyone today. It is his purpose to call first fruits and develop us so that we will be able to work with and under Jesus Christ in the millennium to teach his ways. It makes it incumbent upon us to be living his way and learning those ways and seeing the benefit and the perfection in them in this life through knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death.

You know, all these things, all these things that are listed here in chapter one, all deserving of death, if you and I are doing these things, we deserve death. We absolutely know that, right?

That those who practice such things are deserving of death not only do the same, maybe not to the extent of that the world has been doing it, but still doing some of those things, but also approve, but also approve of those who practice them. And so you have this tolerance of sin that God warns about in the Bible, right? First Corinthians 5, Paul is quite, quite clear to the Corinthian church because they've been tolerating the sexual sin of a member there who was doing things. He said that it isn't even named among the Gentiles. And he said, don't tolerate. You're not loving that person. You don't agape that person if you're tolerating that sin, and you can't. Only God can forgive sin. No man can approve a sin and say, that was right that you did that, right? Not only do the same, but also approve of those who practice them.

So the church of God shouldn't tolerate sin. The church of God makes people aware of sin. We could get into a whole thing on that. When it talks about you restore a brother by showing him his faults and whatever, but also approve of those who practice them. And God says, you know, at the same verse that he says, that those who do them are deserving of death. We have to be, we're not approving and just overlooking them and saying, it's okay. It's okay. We have to be people who live by God's and expect of ourselves that we are growing closer and closer to God, and that we see that among each other. And we work with each other as well to help us along God's way. So chapter one, we'll finish it there. It's quite a thing. I'm going to go into chapter two, but as we're looking at all these things, remember in the Roman church we have two groups of people. We have the Jews, who have begun coming back to Italy after they were textiled for a number of years, and then we have Gentiles being called into the church as well. So the Jews would look at the Gentiles and say, you're guilty of all these things, and therefore, you know, you're evil people.

And indeed, the Gentile world was. They were completely apart from God. They worshiped idols.

They didn't know God to their credit. When they learned of God and God called them, they turned from their way, which had to be a very difficult thing for them to do.

The Jews, as we get into chapter two, you know, might have been in a position that they could say, oh, we're much better than you. We don't have temples. We don't have temple prostitutes, and we're not running around doing these things and whatever, and could have seen themselves more highly and have no need to repent. Can't do that. Can't do that. Everyone needs to repent.

So chapter two, we're going to talk about that a little bit, but as we go into verse one, he says in verse one something that we see extant in the world today that has become a thing, and I want to talk about that a little bit, but let me pause as we end chapter one here and see if there are any questions, comments, or anything that anyone wants to talk about, and then we'll spend a couple minutes on the beginning of chapter two. Hey, Belbruce.

Well, I'm just wondering. I mean, in verse 30, let's see, in verse 31 it says, without understanding.

So is that like one group of people? And then verse 32, it sounds like they do understand, and they just do it anyway. Yeah, who know the righteous judgment of God. You know, that could be me, right? I know the righteous judgment of God. I could say, I approve of these things.

That's okay if you do that, right? And you can still attend church or whatever, or we don't even have to talk about it. I think that's what he's showing there. Remember, he's writing to the church there. He's writing to the church. He's not writing to the world. These are the words to the world, but this letter went to the church. It went to the disciples of whom you and I are. So, okay, Bill Hillibranner. Yeah, one of the major things that we know better is Romans 1.20, where we talked about there, the things that God made our witness. And then he says at the end of that verse, even as a eternal power and Godhead. So, the great sin is the belief in the Trinity, in which instead of God, the Godhead preparing a family, becoming family, is that Trinity doctrine, which, of course, is the very first commandment, so that the world has, even the world's churches or Sunday churches, have that false God. So, that's very powerful.

It says, even as eternal power and Godhead, because God made green alligators and long-necked geese, but he didn't make any trinities to go to the... So, anyway, that makes it clear.

It's not only the Trinity. That's not the only lie that's out there. Okay. Tim?

Yeah.

Bless the Lord. Bless. What does that mean? Bless the Lord.

Bless the Lord. I would give thanks to God. Give glory to God. Bless Him. Give Him...

It says in 1 Corinthians, again, all things acknowledge Him, Proverbs 3, 5, that all things acknowledge Him. Bless Him. Thank Him for everything that we do have become our.

Okay.

Make sense?

Yes, sir.

Okay.

Okay. Let's look at... Let's look at...

Okay. Chapter 2, verse 1. Remember these chapters are put in there by man.

This was one whole letter by Paul. But in verse 1, he talks about something, you know, that we've seen, but we see it more and more in the world around us today. If you follow Paul politics, the world's politics, in any country in the world, I think, it has just become over the last eight to ten years, this is something that is just glaring almost. And it's not just happened.

It's gone on for centuries. In verse 1, he says, therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are, who judge, for in whatever you judge another, you condemn yourself for you who judge, practice the same things. So, you know, again, if we look at Jews and Gentiles, and Jews were saying, oh, you're sexually immoral, well, there was sexual immorality among them. Oh, you're blasphemers. You don't know God. Well, we know the Pharisees, you know, they blasphemed God, and all these things. And God says, you know, look, you know, we'll go back to Matthew 7.

You know, Christ says, before you start accusing someone else, look at yourself.

Look at yourself. Get rid of the beam in your eye before you start looking at the spec in someone else's eyes and project something on him. So, we have this thing in the world today that's become more and more evident. And years ago, I mean, literally years ago, I was reading something, I read something about the Saul Alinsky method. And Saul Alinsky method had 12 or 13 different traits of how you would take over society and mold it in your thing. And one of them was projection. Accuse the other person of what you're doing, of what you yourself are doing. And so, we see that in the world around us, right? Saul Alinsky said it. Karl Marx also said it.

Just Joseph Goebbels, when I looked on the internet, he of the Nazis, he used it as well.

But when you look at projection and what it is today, and we, you know, you might listen to the news sometimes, and, you know, there's been a lot of talk in America about this person's a Nazi, this person's a fascist, this person's given some censorship. And I'm not going to make any political things here because I am completely neutral. I don't want someone to say politics and whatever. But you listen to the news and you think, well, wow, actually looking at, you know, you're saying that about that person, but then that's kind of what you want. That's the projection type stuff. So it is prevalent in politics today. You know, as you look up, it says the Babylonian Talmud, right? The Jews go a lot by some of their oral traditions in the Talmud. It says that the Babylonian one says, don't touch your neighbor with the blemish you yourself have.

You know, it's very easy to see ourselves in someone else and say, oh, you've got this problem, or just assume that someone else has that problem without really knowing. The ancient Greek philosopher says, when you're offended at any man's faults, turn to yourself and study your own faults, right? You know, some of the, as we were in Greece and we were talking about some of the Greek philosophers, they didn't have the Spirit of God, but they did understand some of human nature when they talked about some of these things. And here's this Epictetus who says this. And then Joseph Goebbels of the Nazis called it an accusation and mirror. You know, accuse someone else. It's a good defense against what you're doing. Cast the reflection on them so that you screen yourself from what you're really up to. So it's a whole study in itself, but this is what God is talking about in verse 1 here. It was extant and throughout history. We see it. We see it in play today. It can happen in the church as well. Again, he's talking to church people here. And it's a clever thing of Satan. It's one of Satan's devices that are there. And when Paul talks about it in 2 Corinthians, I think it's 2 Corinthians 11 or 4, talks about we are aware of Satan's devices. We have to kind of look at these things, and we kind of have to kind of see what it is as part of seeking the truth.

You know, is this projection or what is really going on with this? I just want to kind of go through a couple of verses here. You know, in Titus 1, we'll talk about there. So there's a lot of things that we see that are developing in more of a mainstream in the world today.

And I remember Mr. Armstrong used to say that, you know, as things happen in the world, we can find them in the church as well. We just have to be very, very aware of them and don't just let anything of the world rub off onto us and also be aware of that. In Titus 1, verse 15, Paul again is kind of referring to this. He says, to the pure, all things are pure. You know, someone could be doing things for the right reason and, you know, for the absolute right reason. But to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure. They always have some alternative thing going on. They have something on going on behind the scenes, and so they can't relate to someone who doesn't have a hidden agenda or whatever it is. To the pure, all things are pure. But to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure. But even their mind and conscious are defiled. You know, verse 16 again, they profess to know God, but their works reveal them. And of course, Christ talked about that Himself. And, you know, Paul is kind of reflecting that when Jesus Christ said, in Matthew 7 and the Sermon on the Mount, He said, judge not that you be not judged.

Watch what you're doing. Watch what you're doing. I mean, John 7, 24 says, we should judge righteous judgment. If something is a sin, we should call it a sin, and we should be very clear of it when we see it and not deny it. But judge not that you be not judged, for with what judgment you judge, you will be judged. And with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.

Why do you look at the speck in your brother's eyes, but don't consider the plank in your own eye?

Or how can you say to your brother, let me remove the speck from your eye, and look, a plank is in your own eye? And then Christ says, hypocrite, first, go back and look at yourself, remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye. So, you know, as we move into Romans 2, we're going to see Paul talking about the Jews a little bit. And I'm not going to take any more time tonight, but you could read down through... I'm going to go ahead and read down through verse 5, because it just follows along with his. God is talking about this other thing that is there as part of the work of the flesh, you know, this projection that we would call it today, that we see extant in the world around us that can rub on upon us if we're not careful. It says, you know, you yourself do the same things in Romans 2 verse 2, but we know that the judgment of God is according to truth. What's truth?

The Bible! That leads us, that guides us, that's our constitution, that's our document. We do things the way God says. We know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things. And do you think this, oh man, you who judge those practicing such things and doing the same, that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, His forbearance, and long-suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God, what does it do? It leads us to repentance. When we're aware, when we, when God shows us what it is that we need to do, or someone else brings it to our attention, we reflect, we acknowledge, we repent. God leads us to repentance. It's another one of those gifts He gives us to repent and to completely turn to Him.

Verse 5, but in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart, you are treasuring up for yourself wrath and the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. So let me, let me end there, and we will, we will pick up in chapter 2 next week then. But we are through chapter 1, and I hope, you know, I know I, I have learned a lot in going through this again. You know, myself, I hope it's helped others as we look and see how do we live? How do we please God? How do we do the things that we need to do? This is a very rich, rich part of Scripture for us to look at and, and to strive to live by. Okay, I'll open it up for any, oh, okay, let me see. Hi, Kate, how are you doing tonight? I'm doing good. I'm glad you enjoyed your vacation. Thank you. You know, when it comes to the governments of men, I always refer back to Daniel 2 21, where it says, God brings down kings and raises up kings. And I just feel that applies to world leaders today, that whoever is a world leader is there because God wants them there to serve His purposes.

So I don't even get involved in politics myself at all. I agree, and I think that has become really evident over the last several years, right, that God puts there. And really, when you look at it, we shouldn't be involved in politics at all, because then we are putting our stock in the world.

Who wants to say we voted against what God's will was, right? There is. Okay, hey, Bill.

Yeah, I'll double up on that or triple up on that about I don't get involved in politics.

You made a comment, or we talked about the scripture, the iniquity of the MRI was not complete, which is an interesting statement. But what I want to make comment is how much I have understood by realizing the deceitfulness of grace and the correction of favor. You see, God, there's still favor with the Amorites because they're made in God's image, and He created Christ to die for us.

So the iniquity wasn't full yet. They had the favor of being created in God's image, still.

So without using that word, grace messes us up. John, one of the famous writers in Plain Truth, I wish there was another word for grace. But anyway, I just wanted to bring that out.

They still had favor because they're made in God's image. And Jehoshaphat's son, Jehoram, killed all six of his brothers, but he still had the favor of being David's descendant. So God didn't kill him right away, but he said, you're going to be sick until your bowels fall out because you killed all your brothers. So with using favor, it's so much easier to understand some of those things.

Okay, any other comments, questions?

Hi, brother Shaby. Yes, hey, Xavier. How are you doing? Hi, everyone. There's a verse we read earlier in chapter one, verse 27. Yes. There's a 27 where it says they practice and teach others to do so. Which one is that? Oh, that's 32. 32, all right. There's a saying growing up we used to, where our parents used to say, Misre-Love Company. And it's just a paraphrase of Proverbs chapter 16, verse 24 through 30. But they shorten it in that sense.

They say, Misre-Love Company does exactly what describes these neighbors. Yep.

Yeah, you said 1 Corinthians 15 33. Did you say that? No. I'm thinking what you said. Okay, evil company corrupts good habits, right? Yeah, and I was thinking Proverbs 16, 24 through 30.

Yeah. Where it says, a parliament lures his neighbor and leads him in a way that is not good.

Yeah. And verse 30, he shuts his eyes and divides perverse things, moving his lips, he brings evil to pass. And starting at verse 26, yeah. Yep. We gotta watch it. We live in the world and Christ wanted us to live in the world, right? But we have to be guard against these ways of the world that don't rub off on us. So, yeah. And we have to be careful to what among ourselves, if someone can come in with weird things and... Yep. Yeah, absolutely.

Okay. Hey, Sandy. Sandy, how you doing tonight? I'm good. I'm better. Thank you. I just wanted to say it's a beautiful background you have. The peaceful water in your garden is so pretty. It is. It is.

And the people who lived there before us did a marvelous job. I just dress and keep it.

Very appropriate for the Bible studies. Very appropriate.

Okay. I hope you're doing okay, Sandy. I'm better. Day to time. Day to time. Thank you.

Okay. Billy, another comment? Yeah. Romans 1, 27. Right. I know it's a in the Greek. It's a detail in the Greek, but that's not correctly translated, man and woman, which is the husband and wife word of Enar and Gunne. It's Aaron and Thelius.

So it really should be translated, leaving the natural use of the female. They lusted with the male with male. So it even goes to another level of perversion and breaking of the commandments.

But anyway, it isn't the husband and wife word. It's male with male and female with female.

Okay. Yeah. Well, I mean, it is amazing what man could do. You have to wonder what other perversion that could possibly be that we haven't seen already, right? But probably...

Yeah, I'm 80 years old. And when I was a kid, I heard that word, you know, queer. And I didn't even believe there really were anything. I thought that was just a thing that people made up. I didn't realize when I was a kid in the 50s that there was... That was really a thing. Yeah. Yep. Okay.

Well, then I guess we will say good night. Good night, and we will... Everyone have a very good Sabbath. Those of you who run from Jacksonville, we are looking forward to being with you this Sabbath. The rest of you have a very good Sabbath, and we will look forward to being back with all of you next Wednesday night. Okay? Bye!