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Through the Bible with Les Feldick
LESSON 3 * PART 3 * BOOK 20
THE VERDICT IS GUILTY - RELIGIOUS MAN - ROM. 3:1-23
In the last lesson we studied about God's wrath to come. But maybe we should stop right here, and from here to Chapter 3, God is in so many words, building His case against mankind just like a prosecuting attorney. God is going to categorize them into three areas. Then we're going to come in the next series of verses to the moral man or woman, and then we will come to the religious individual. God will build His case against the immoral segment of humanity. Let's look at verse 24 once more:
Romans 1:24
The pagan temples of the old Greek and Roman gods were just glorified houses of prostitution in the name of religion. So it just follows that when you come from the idolatry of verse 23 you now come to the immorality of verse 24. It seems anything that degenerates society, people will buy. I remember people telling me that, even in the depression, people would have money for that. Let's go on to verse 25. Romans 1:25a
"Who changed the truth of God into a lie,..."
God put His stamp of approval upon the marriage relationship way back in the Garden of Eden. God said, "It's honorable in all." So in God's restraint, all these things are not only normal, but they're what God has given. But man has taken the God-given things and used them under the influence of the adversary, Satan.
Romans 1:25,26
"Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. So as a result of their original behavior of rejection, God now gives them up to something even worse. Romans 1:26b
Remember that Satan started with the women in the Garden of Eden. Now in this portion of Scripture, God is talking about Israel here, His Covenant people. Jeremiah 44:15,16
"Then all the men which knew that their wives had burned incense unto other gods (who was burning the incense? The women were!), and all the women that stood by, a great multitude, even all the people that dwelt in the land of Egypt in Pathros, answered Jeremiah, saying, `As for the word that thou hast spoken unto us in the name of the LORD, we will not hearken unto thee.'"
Jeremiah 44:17
A female goddess. Rather than that which was heterosexual immorality up in verse 24, they go into the vile affections of the homosexual lifestyle.
Romans 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 recompense of their error which was meet." Come back to Genesis Chapter 19. This is the first time that the Scripture deals with what God calls an abomination. Genesis 19:1
"AND there came two angels to Sodom at even;..." Now remember these two angels back in Chapter 18 were called men.
Genesis 18:2
Genesis 19:2
Now verse 4:
Now back to Romans: Of course you know what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah. God destroyed it, and we will see here that the New Testament attests to it. Reading verse 27 again we find:
Romans 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 recompense of their error which was meet." Let's look for a moment at II Peter Chapter 2. II Peter 2:5,6
"...making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly;"
We are never to forget that the reason God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah was because of its homosexual lifestyle. And the world is never to forget it. God is telling the world tonight, "Look what I've done to Sodom and Gomorrah, look at what I've done to those kind of people. II Peter 2:7
I'm simply saying but by the Grace of God I could be where they are, but on the other hand, by the Grace of God, they could be out of that lifestyle and be where I am, and that's where God wants you. That's why Paul makes it so plain in Romans Chapters 5 and 6 that where sin abounded, God's Grace can be greater. Now back to Romans Chapter 1 and verse 28: Once they get into this lifestyle which begins with an idolatrous heart. They may not have to fall down and worship a Buddha or something like that, but they have some sort of an anti-God attitude, or something else that takes God's place.
Romans 1:28
"And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind (you and I look at some of these things and wonder how can people do this? Well, God has removed all restraints from them, that's why. They don't care what people think, or what God thinks, but it was a judicial act of God to give them over to a reprobate mind), to do those things which are not convenient;"
Now reading on down, these are not pretty verses. Romans 1:29-32
We have to hold back these forces of iniquities until God comes.

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