I'd like you please to turn to the book of Romans, and we are in chapter 1, Romans 1, and we begin today in the reading from verse 18 all the way to the end of the chapter, Romans 1 verse 18 to verse 32. Let me begin by reading this passage, first of all. Verse 18. "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness. Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them, for God had showed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things which are made, even his eternal power and God had so that they are without excuse.

Because when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imagination, and their foolish heart was darkened. And then, professing themselves to be wise, professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like two corruptible men, and two birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore, God also gave them up to uncleanness, through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves, who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshiped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed forever." Amen.

For this cause. For this cause. God gave them up unto vile affections. "For even their women detain their natural use into that which is against nature. And likewise also men, leaving the natural use of their women, burn in their lusts, one towards another, men with men, working that which is unseemingly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient. "Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity, whisperers, back biters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, impeccable, unmerciful, who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them." I'm stopping here at the end of chapter 1.

These amazing verses we just read from Romans 1, verses 18 to verse 32. Amazing verses in fact, God painting for us a picture here, which is so vivid and so real, a picture that you and I might not like to see or read. And yet God is painting before us here a picture of the reality that existed in the heart of the human race. But before we're going to move to those verses, I would like to remind you that in verses 16 and 17 of chapter 1, the Apostle Paul gave us the remedy for the human heart. The problem that the human heart has, the remedy, the medicine, the answer for the human race.

And the answer he gave us already here in verses 16 and 17. This is the third time that he used the word "I am" in this chapter. In chapter 1, he said earlier, in verse 14, he says, "I am a detto." In chapter 1 and verse 15, he said, "I am ready to come to you to share with you what I have on my heart, you Roman believers." And in chapter 1, verse 16, where we're just pointing out now, he says, "I am not ashamed of the gospel of the Messiah." I'm not ashamed of the gospel because the gospel is the work that the Messiah, Yeshua, the Christ, the Mashiach, the Christos, the Messiah, the Anointed One, have accomplished for the human race.

Paul says, "I am not ashamed of the gospel of the Messiah, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes." I made a point this time in our session together to say that it says here, "It is the power of God unto salvation." It doesn't say it was the power of God, but it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. It is God's dynamite. It is God's power. It is God's authority to give salvation to the human race. It was 2,000 years ago, and it is today. It was 2,000 years ago to the Jew first, and it is today to the Jew first.

It is the power of God to provide salvation for the human race. And he continued, and he said in verse 17, "For therein, in the gospel, burial and resurrection of the Messiah, God's righteousness revealed from faith unto faith." God is saying in accomplishing redemption through the gospel, through the work of Christ, of the Messiah, he says, "Listen, now I am able to give you justification." I am able to declare you righteous because of what the Messiah had accomplished on the tree. It is the righteousness of God revealed unto men from faith unto faith. It began with faith, and it's moving on and continuing in faith in the life of the believer.

And then he says, "As it is written." Interesting. He used the word as it is written because it is not something new. It was already written in the Hebrew Scriptures, as he already said, you remember in chapter 1 earlier in verse 2, he said, "Which was promised by his prophet through the Holy Scriptures, in the Holy Scriptures." It is written. What was written? The just shall live by faith. The just had saddik. By faith, be emunato. Shall live yichyeh in the Hebrew language. And so after telling this wonderful truth that on the basis of the gospel, the righteousness of God revealed from faith unto faith. Then what he does, from verse 18 of chapter 1, all the way to verse 20 of chapter 3, he takes the whole human race and he brings mankind into the court of a living God.

You know very well, when you are going to court, and the judge is sitting on his seat. And now the judge is going to evaluate the whole human race. That's what he does here. He takes us to court. And he says, "Listen, I have declared the gospel. I have declared the fact that there is a righteousness that can be provided through the message of the gospel, through the work of the Messiah on the tree. And now, if you do not want to accept the gospel, let's go to court. And the one that sits as the judge on the throne is none else but God himself." Yes, God.

He is a God that is a pure and holy God. He is a God that we read the same man, Habakkuk, who said, "The just shall live by faith." The same man, Habakkuk, said about this God, he said, "You are of a purer eye than to behold evil and cannot look upon sin." That's the judge. The judge that sits on his throne is a holy God. There is no sin on him. And he brings the whole human race into court. And he says, "Listen, let's see if you can become righteous on your own. Let's see if there is righteousness in you. Let's see. And I'm bringing you before me at the court." And now he began to evaluate the whole human race.

And by the way, from verse 18 of chapter 1 up to verse 20 of chapter 3, he takes three groups of people from among the human race. The first group is chapter 1, verses 18 to 32. This is the pagan nations of the world. These are the people who are what we would know, what we would call today, people who are pagan, living out away from the things of God, the whole pagan world. He brings them into court in verses 18 to 32. Then in chapter 2, verses 1 to 16, he brings into court the moralist. The person who says, "I'm pretty moral. I'm pretty decent. You see, I don't live in the bush somewhere. I'm not pagan.

I don't worship all kinds of idols. I'm a pretty decent man. I'm okay. I'm a moral man." He brings him into the court. And we're going to talk about this man also. And thirdly, from verse 17 of chapter 2, all the way to verse 8 of chapter 3, he's bringing the religious man. The Jewish man who would be the religious man who have the truth of God. He has the Bible in his hand. He knows the truth of God. And he also brings him into court. And he evaluates everyone. So everyone will be standing before the judge. And everyone at the end will have to be declared guilty. Now he began, very interesting, in verse 18, he began with the pagan world.

And in actually, in verse 18 to verse 32, he gives us four ways in which the human race went down further and further and further from God. You know, some tell us that we have been evolved, you see. There is the evolution. And man have actually been evolved. He got only better. You see, he began as an animal, worshipping some kind of an idol. And he kind of been evolved. And as time went on, man became better and better and brighter and brighter and greater and greater and greater and more, more proper. That's what man tells us today. But the Bible tells us that the opposite actually happened.

Actually, instead of man becoming better and better, there was actually a deterioration in the human race. He became worse and worse and worse. And so here we see, in Romans 1, verses 18 to 32, we see how the human race became lower and lower and lower, even lower than the beast in his behavior and conduct. And look at this. First of all, you notice that in verses 18, 19, and 20, we see that men began to turn away from God. Look what it says. And I'm reading verse 18. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness, because that which may be known of God is manifest in them, for God hath showeth unto them, for the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead.

So they are without excuse. Now, let's just think for a moment, beloved brothers and sisters. Notice, men who knew God turn away from the God whom he actually knew of. You see, it says in verse 18 that the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all ungodliness. See, the wrath of God, we often, when we think about the wrath of God, we think about one day in the future, God's wrath is going to fall upon men and he's going to destroy the whole human race. But it's not what we are being told here in Romans chapter 1 and verse 18. Actually, here it says that the wrath of God is being ongoing, revealed from heaven against all ungodliness.

What is ungodliness? It's clearly this. When one will say that God, I do not want you in my life. God, I have no interest in you and in what you have to say to me. God, I want to live my own life and I want nothing to do with you. In fact, we read it already in Psalm 14. You remember? Hanaval amar belibo ein Elohim. The wicked one said in his heart, there is no God. Or, in another word, saying, God, no. I don't want you in my life, God. I don't want anything to do with you. And here we see, because the wrath of God revealed from heaven against all, if you underline the word all, not some, but all ungodliness, which actually led to unrighteousness.

When we don't want God in our lives, it leads us to unrighteous living. That's what happened with man. And it says here in verse 18 that it is the wrath of God. Now, how does God reveal his wrath? You know how God revealed his wrath, and you're going to see it in a moment as we continue here. This wrath of God is where man says, God, I don't want you in my life. And then, you know what God did? He says, okay, you don't want to acknowledge me in your life? Okay, fine. You go ahead. You live your life without me. And when men set God aside, and God has said to him, okay, you want to go ahead, live your life?

What happened? It leads men from ungodliness to unrighteousness. You just look around and see what's going on in the world in which we live in today. You just see what's happening with men who knew God by turn away from God, turn away from him. And what happened when it's come to ungodliness, knowing not God or desiring not God in my life, it leads to all kind of unrighteous living. And so we read here in verse 18, that the wrath of God is being revealed. God allows man to carry on in his course. And he says, you see, if you carry on in your type of life, in your type of way, speaking to all of us, to all mankind.

He says, look what it's going to lead you into. And you're going to have to bear the consequence of not wanting God in your life. And so the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. Listen, what man does who hold the truth in unrighteousness. The word here for hold can be put hold down. Or in other words, suppress. And that's exactly what man does. He suppress, push down the truth of God. Set it aside. God, we don't want the truth of God. We don't want it in our home. We don't want it in our schools. We don't want it even in the professing churches of today.

They set the truth of God aside. Suppressing the truth of God. No, we don't let it rise up. We'll keep it down. We'll keep quiet. We will set it aside. Ungodliness lead to unrighteousness. Which brings about the wrath of God in the life of men. And so men hold down the truth of God. Suppress it in unrighteousness. And we continue here in these verses. Here in verses 19 and 20. He shows us, beloved brothers and sisters. He shows us that men knew God. God revealed himself to men in two ways. He says, what about the person who lives somewhere in the bush. Somewhere in Africa. And he didn't have a Bible in his hand.

He never heard about Jesus, the Messiah. He never heard about the law, the Tanakh. He never heard about the prophets, the Nevi'im. He never heard about the writings, the Ketuvim. What about them? How can they be guilty before God? Well, look what the Bible tells us in verses 19 and 20. It says in verse 19, men knew of God in his conscience inwardly. Look, it says here in verse 19, because that which may be known of God is manifested in them. That expression manifest in them has to do with conscience. Do you know, brothers and sisters, there is no man or woman upon the face of this earth that does not have a conscience.

A conscience is this light, this buzzer, that buzzes every time we do wrong. How did conscience enter into this world, by the way? Do you know how conscience entered into this world? Conscience came into this world the moment Adam disobeyed God and ate of the knowledge, of the tree of the knowledge, of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, in Genesis chapter 3. Do you remember how, what happened to Adam, when he ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, in chapter 3 of the book of Genesis, it says here, And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eye, and that the tree was desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, she did eat of it, she gave it unto her husband, and he did eat.

And what happened, look, their eyes were open, and they knew that they were naked, and they sawed fig leaves together, made themselves an apron, and he said, Heard the voice of the Lord, God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, Genesis 3 verse 8, and it says, And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord, amongst the trees of the garden. That's where conscience came in. Conscience is the basil, is the red light that we have received when we disobeyed God. And that's basil is existing today in the heart of every individual upon the face of this earth. God had placed it in the heart of man, and what man does, he hides from the presence of the Lord.

And you see, beloved brothers and sisters, here, the apostle, he's saying, listen, they knew God. They suppressed the truth of God. And the proof that they knew God is because, verse 19, the everything that may be known of God is manifest in them. There is no person, whether it is in Africa, whether it is in the desert, whether it is in the bush, that has no conscience. That he is awareing that he is accountable to a living God, to a creator somewhere. Even though his measure of understanding of this creator is very limited, but there is a sense of the accountability to one that is above this human being.

And so, it says here in Romans 1 and verse 19, Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them, for God had showed it unto them. I did not write it, Paul wrote it, by the inspiration of the Spirit of God, that God had showed it unto them. You and I might not understand. You and I might not grasp it. We are sitting here in this country with the Bible in our hands, with the liberty to read the Word, with the knowledge about the Messiah, while there are millions and many others in another country who do not know what we have, but they do have what we have, and that is conscience.

And conscience telling us, there is a need to give account to someone who is creator, who made me. And so the Bible tells us, when Adam sinned, and conscience came in, that you know what he did? He immediately tried to cover himself. He made fig leaves, apron of fig leaves, and he ran in hiding behind trees. And then, we read that he heard the voice of the Lord calling him, and he said, the Lord said unto him, Adam, where are you? And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself. And that's what happened to people today.

They hide from God. At least they think that they can hide from God, not realizing that God loves them so much, and he wants them to be drawn to him, because he knows already what they have done. He said to Adam, Who told you that you were naked? Has you eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee that you should not eat? You see, God knew that. He knew that all along. And man is guilty, because he knows in his conscience that he is accountable to a living God. But beloved, listen, it shows us here that it's not only that he knows it within, in his conscience, but there is another way where man is responsible towards God, and that's by virtue of creation, externally.

Look, it says in verse 20, In verse 20, men knew of God in creation, outwardly. It says in verse 20, For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, and being understood by the things which are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. You see, God is saying about man, about the human race. The human race knew God. They knew God, but what they did, they did, they turned away from God. And they are without excuse, because they have the responsibility to answer to their conscience internally, and to answer to creation externally. The creation? You mean, you don't recognize a creator when you look at the creation?

You know what David said many years ago? And I think it's very precious. David says in Psalm 8, he says this, listen. Psalm 8, verse 3. When I consider the heavens, the works of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which you have ordained, he says, what is man that you are mindful of him? And the sons of men, that you visit as him. You know, David looked around. He is a shepherd in Israel, in Beit Lechem. He was laying there, taking care of his sheep, the flock. And he is at night, looking up. I don't know if you have ever had the experience to lay down in Israel, in the Middle East there, at night time, to sleep outside and to look at the creation.

It looks like you can almost pick up a star in your hand and take it down. It seems to be so close. David lay down, and he looked at creation. He says, when I look at all what you have created, God, when I look at the works of your hands, and he says, what is man that you are mindful of him? What is the son of man that you have visited as him? Why are you troubling with us, with the human race, God, when I look at creation? You see, beloved, that's what Paul is taking to the pagan world, who set God aside, bring them to court.

And he said, look, you say that there is no God. You say that you can carry on your life. You don't have any accountability. He says, look, you have the responsibility. Number one, you have conscience within you. God, that brought this about when men, sin, enter into this world. But secondly, God's creation is enough evidence to show you that you are accountable to a living God. And men hold down, suppress the truth in unrighteousness. That's why they are without excuse at the court of the living God. And so, you can see, man did not start down and evolve up. No, but man started up. He knew all the beautiful things that had been given to him by a living God, but he had gone, he rejected this and he has gone down and he turned away from the Lord.

Now, let's move to the next verses. In the next verses, we have another step downwards now. It's not only that man sunk in his intelligence down. In the next verses, verse 21, 22, and 23, we see that man sunk in his ignorance. Look at this, verse 21, 22, and 23. Because that when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imagination, and their foolish heart was darkened. Confessing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and they changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like two corruptible men, birds, four-footed beasts, and creeping things. Here's the next thing that we read about the condition of the pagan world, which we are part of.

It says now that not only they turned away from God, but they did not glorify God himself. They didn't give him the honor and the glory, the kavod, the Hebrew word for glory, it's kavod, the value of God, the weight of God, the glory, the kavod, that belonged to this living God. That's what men have done. He did not give God's glory. And so what happened? In verse 21, men became vain in their imagination. It says here, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither they were thankful, but they became vain in their imagination, and their foolish heart was darkened. See, now we are going, we are moving downwards in the history of the human race.

So now when they knew God, men knew God, they did not give him glory, but they were not thankful for what he is and what he provided for them. Oh, how sad it is when we are unthankful to God for what he has given to us and has done for us. It is right here in the human heart. Unthankfulness characterizes us, characterized the human race in an amazing way. Unthankful for the light we have, for the breath we breathe, for the air, the sunshine, and all what God has given and provided for the human race. Men did not give the kavod, the glory to God, but they were so unthankful.

They were not thankful for all what he had provided for men, for us. And so now it tells us what happened. They have become vain in their imagination. Verse 22, they became fools. In Hebrew is the word tipshim, fools. It says here in verse 22, professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. Again, you remember I told you in Psalm 14, the fool say in his heart, there is no God. So they thought that they were wise, but actually the opposite have happened. Men who thought, I'm going to set God aside out of my life, and I will carry on in my direction, he discovered very quickly that instead of becoming wise, he actually became fool.

Tipesh, fool. Naval. He became fool. And we read, you know, if you just read in scripture, for example, just a verse in 1 Corinthians chapter 1, very interesting verse. 1 Corinthians chapter 1, it says this, and I'm reading here in verse 18. 1 Corinthians 1 verse 18 says this, For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. As it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and I will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?

You see, men thought that he is wise in his direction, setting God aside, not giving him the glory, not being thankful to the Lord. they thought they became very wise. Look what I have accomplished, what I have done. God is saying about men, he says, they profess to be wise, but actually they became fools. And you know what they did? You know what they have done? They, not giving glory to God, they end up to worship things, images, that are made and thought by men. Look in verse 23, men change the glory of God to images. In verse 23, they change the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image.

Make like unto corruptible, and then he gives us the downward course. First men, then birds, then beasts, four-footed beasts, and then creeping things. Isn't it amazing when you think about what happened, what men does? Men, human race, instead of worshiping the true and the living God, God gives us a built-in necessity to worship him. So what do they do? They don't give glory to God. We, by nature, didn't give glory to God. So what do we do? We begin to worship other things. We begin to worship men, then to birds, then beasts, four-footed beasts, and then the creeping things. And you don't tell me that it's not true.

Just look at the history of the human race. Do you know what happened when Israel came out of Egypt? When Moses went up to bring the Lord the Ten Commandments from Mount Sinai, when he came down, already the people, our own people, our own Jewish people, the people of God, end up worshiping a golden calf. And it's a form of a calf, and everybody says, this is the God that brought you out of Egypt. You see, people that have been just delivered out of Egypt by the mighty hand of God end up worshiping the golden calf. That is the people of God. Just imagine what the pagan world are worshiping today.

Just imagine, in fact, beloved brothers and sisters, let me tell you something very interesting, and someone had pointed it out in one of the messages about Romans chapter 1. He says, look at this. Even us today, you go to buy a car, you give the car name after animals. I don't know about you, I used to have a Mustang, and other people have a Cougar, and one has an Impala, the other one have Pinto, and even a bus they call Greyhound. Now you can see that even men today are naming their cars after the animals. In the past, they used to name it after people. They used to call it Lincoln, or Ford.

Now they call it after animals. Cougar, Jaguar, Impala, Pinto. You see? It is interesting. What happened historically in the pagan world is still existing today in the pagan world. The modern pagan world, of course. It's still the same. That's what happened with men. Men set God aside, and then what happened, they start to develop a set of worship. They worship men, and for men, they go down to birds, and then to beasts, and then to creeping things. Do you know that many years ago, God had warned our people Israel against it in the book of Deuteronomy. Can you please turn to Deuteronomy chapter 4? Deuteronomy chapter 4, verse 15.

God said to His people Israel, He says this, Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves, for ye saw no manner of similitude on the day that the Lord spake unto you in Choreb, out of the midst of the fire, lest ye corrupt yourselves and make you graven image, the similitude of any figure, the likeness of male or female, the likeness of beasts that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged fowl that flyeth in the air, the likeness of anything that creepeth on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water beneath the earth. Unless you lift up thine eyes into heaven, and when you see the sun and the moon and the star, even all the hosts of heaven, should be driven to worship them and serve them, which the Lord thy God has divided unto all the nations under the whole heaven.

You see, God already given our people and our people of all Israel this instruction in the Deuteronomy chapter 4 verses 15 and on, and he told them, listen, you be careful, do not do that which is not proper. Do not worship the men. Do not make all kind of images in order to worship them. And this is exactly what Shaul, Paul, is telling the Romans about the condition of the pagan world. What happened is, first of all, they turn away from God. Secondly, they did not give God the glory that He deserves. And what do they do? They end up changing the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like unto corruptible men, corruptible birds, corruptible beasts, and corruptible creeping things.

Let's tell us, beloved brothers and sisters, the condition that exists today in this world, what men, what the human race have done with the knowledge that He had. They are without excuse. Man is without excuse. We'll see that more and more as we're moving on in this chapter. But now look at this. We are only going downwards. There was not an improve in the life of man. The opposite. Man got further and further and further and further. And so in the next verses, verses 24 to 27, we see the third thing in the deterioration in the human race. Now they have changed the truth into a lie.

Verses 24 to 27. It says here, now this is the first time that we read here in Romans chapter 1, God gave them up. Wherefore, God gave them up. By the way, you have it in verse 24. You have it in verse 26. God gave them up. And you have it in verse 28. God gave them over. You have a three-time mention in Romans chapter 1 that God had given them up. He says, okay, you did not want to have me, you turn away from me. You did not give me the glory that I deserve as a living God, incorruptible God. look what's going to happen. Now I'm going to give you up.

Let's see what kind of life you will lead. And so look what happened. In verses 24 to 27, we have the fact that men change the truth into a lie and sinking indulgence. And so we find in verse 24, wherefore God gave them up into uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts to dishonor their own bodies between themselves. In verse 24, we have the dishonor of their bodies, sexual immorality. And we know that very well what's going on in the world in which we live in. Sexual promiscuity. Everybody can do what you want. There are sexual relationships going on all over in the world in which we live in.

Everybody says, I have my standard, I have my opinion, I have my desires and I got to fulfill them. And don't you and I ever think that we are not the same for a moment. We are just the same. The human heart is not different. Our human heart is not different. It is the grace of God that saved us. But here he tells us, sexual activity dishonoring their own body between themselves. But you notice that it's not only that. In the next verse, verse 25, men worship the creature more than the creator. It says here in verse 25, who change the truth of God into a lie and they worshiped and served the creature more than the creator who is blessed forever.

Amen. Allowing these things to go on end up worshiping the creature rather than the creator God. And what they have done, what men have done is that they serve the creature instead of serving the living God. You know, when it's come to these things, people think that God want to withhold from us that which will give us pleasure. But we don't realize that in the same way the boundaries in which God has set for us is only for our benefit. It's only for the blessings of men that there will be no chaos, a chaotic situation that exists in the world then and in the world today in which we live in.

The boundaries are always for our blessing and our benefit. But the sin nature seems to want to violate those boundaries. And so men end up serving actually the creature instead of serving the creator. And so we read again in verse 26 now, God gave them up. Now notice now, now it's not only for sexual immorality between the human race, but it's moving on that it's become vile affection, things that are already no longer normal. It says here in verse 26, for this cause God gave them up into vile affection for even their women did change their natural use into that which is against nature. What we find here today, we have lesbian, sexual relationship between women and women and that which is not normal anymore.

it says here in this verse, God gave them all over or gave them unto vile affections. Affection that is vile, that is not common. You know, a physical relationship between husband and wife is given by God. Marriage is honorable. Hebrews 13, bed is undefiled. Within the marriage union, it's God given. But you see what happened, what we see in the human race is that what happened is that once we violate, one man violated the normal sexual relationship, but they've gone beyond that. Verse 25 and 26, it says that the women did change the natural use of that which is against nature. Then he's moving on into the next verse.

Verse 27, he says, Now men burn in their lust one towards another. Here's homosexuality. It says here in verse 27, And likewise also the men leaving the natural use of women burn in their lust one towards another, men with men, working that which is unseemingly and receiving in themselves the recompense of their error which was meat. Now brothers and sisters, you know when we talk about homosexuality, we know from 1 Corinthians where the Apostle Paul said to the believers, Such were some of you. God told us, told the Corinthians, you were just the same, but you're washed, he said to them. You're cleansed by the blood of the Messiah.

God is able to cleanse us and to wash us from all that which the human heart have done and desire to do is able to bring us back to himself. So it is not a matter of hating or hating a sinner but hating the sin. That's what we learn here. That only brought about the chaos that's existing today in this world. I just want to read that verse that we read in 1 Corinthians chapter 6. We read those verses there. It says in verse 9, Know ye not that the unrighteous and unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God.

Verse 11, it says, And such were some of you, but ye are washed. Verse 11, ye are sanctified, ye are justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. That's where we can include ourselves, where we came from. You know, God is in the business of saving souls. He desired to bring men to himself, men and women, people to himself. We were far from the Lord in a life that we have come from, the Lord delivered us, washed us. But look at the condition that he describes in Romans chapter 1, the pagan world. And so we see that there is a deterioration from turning away from God, not giving him the glory that he deserved, and changing the truth into a lie.

And finally, in this passage, in Romans 1, verse 28 to 32, we can see another step downwards, man became depraved in his mind. Verse 28 to 32. Let me read those verses. Even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient. Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murderers, debate, deceit, malignity, whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful. Now, I want to pause here for a moment. It's interesting to see, you know, you and I might look and we can say, wait a minute, wait a minute.

Those people that we read about, what they have done in verses 21 to 27, sexual immorality, homosexuality, they are so evil, but we haven't gone that far. Look at the list that he gave us here in verses 29 to 31, 21 specific sins that we all can include ourselves in these 21 sins. Somewhere, one way or another, he's telling us here in those verses, first of all, in verse 28, men do things which are not fitting. Likewise, so men, he says, leaving the natural use of women, I saw it, verse 28 now, and even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to reprobate mind, to do things which are not convenient or not fitting.

God have allowed them. He says, okay, you want to carry on, you set me aside, you don't want God in your life, go ahead and you will see what's going to happen. This is the wrath of God. God lifting up his hands as it were, from protecting the human race, lifting up his hands from watching them and guiding. I'm not saying that he doesn't still guide and watch, but it is allowing men to see how far can he go, what kind of lifestyle will man accomplish at the end. And so we find that God gave them over now, in verse 28, the third time we read it, unto a reprobate mind.

It is amazing what people can think, what we can think in our mind. To do those things which are not convenient, not fitting, they're not right. They're not suitable, they're not convenient, they're not fitting, they're not honoring to the Lord, things that are no good. That's what he allowed men when he lifted up his hands, and he allowed him to carry on in his own life. And so in verses 29 to 31, we see the specific sins that man is filled with, and I can put myself here, and you can put yourself here as well. Look what it says, filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, even if we don't look at the first few, look at the full of envy, envy that existing here in this world, murderers, debate, deceit, malignity, whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, what about proud?

Can we fit ourselves at least into this? Boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents? We can definitely include ourselves in that without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, and unmerciful. It gives us a list of 21 things, 21 sins, that we can apply this to ourselves. We can definitely say, Lord, you know how many of those 21 sins that you are listing here are existing in my life, whether it is existed or whether it is ongoing existing, because this is the human nature and we need to deal with it every day of our lives. These are verses we need to read in Mark chapter 7 what Yeshua said to those that follow after him.

Mark chapter 7 and verse 20. Yeshua himself said this when he was here on earth. Verse 20 he says, listen, he said, that which comes out of men is that which defile the men. For from within, out of the heart of men proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornication, murder, theft, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness, all these evil things come from within and defile men. That's what we learn, beloved brothers and sisters and so here he brings into court the pagan world and he brings the world, the pagan world into court and notice how he concluded here. It says here in verse 32, the last verse of chapter 1 of Romans, who knowing the judgment of God and they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only they do this, but they have pleasure in them that do them.

That is the verdict at the end. It says not only that they do, that man does those things, but men have pleasure in the ones that do that. And so you know if you just imagine a courtroom, the judge is sitting on his seat, God himself a pure and a holy God and he declared the pagan world guilty, guilty before God. Only answer for this group of people is just like the only answer for any group of people including the moralist which we're going to talk about next time and including the religious Jewish person or religious person in general. The only answer for mankind is the gospel of our Lord Jesus the Messiah.

It's the work that he had accomplished and that Apostle Paul said in Romans 116 I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ of the Messiah for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes to the Jew first and also unto the Greek for in the gospel is the righteousness of God revealed from faith unto faith. Beloved brothers and sisters how grateful we are to be today for this gospel because of the work of the Messiah you and I can say today truly Lord Jesus we are grateful that our sins are forgiven we know that your work for us brought us into a relationship with God which we could never attain on our own.

So we thank the Lord for these truths that we have learned today and we trust that the Lord will help us as we study the book of Romans to continue to appreciate what Jesus has done for us.