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(1) Walk Thru The Word: Romans 1: 18-32 (ESV) “God’s Wrath Is Revealed Against The Suppression of Truth”
18For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
24Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
26For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.
28And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.
(5) Message map: Rom. 1: 18 – 32
Do We Retreat From Or Call To Repentance A Reprobate Nation?
• the consequences of rejecting god = seven steps of slipping Away
• When God Removes his restraining grace Sin Shapes Our Character
• god reveals Himself & calls To us through creation
• god calls all to repentance
• our Call To cooperate & participate in Christ’s great commission to make disciples
(6) Seven Steps of slipping away
1) 18-19 They engage in the UNRIGHTEOUSNESS SUPPRESSION of truth 18-19 by their unrighteousness (lack of reverence towards God and His justice that concludes in moral wrong doing) they suppress (restrain and hinder the course or progress of) the truth (what God’s Word expresses about God and the execution of his purposes through Christ).
2) 19 – 22 They IGNORE the revelatory COMMUNICATIONS and lessons of CREATION/ that display God’s 20invisible attributes, eternal power and divine nature,
3) 21Refusing to acknowledge what we know and can see of God’s handiwork, and HONOR him as God (His Supremely Divine rank, position and worth) or give THANKS (show appreciation for God’s gifts & benefits to us) to him,
4) Leads to FUTILE (empty, useless) thinking, (reasoning impaired) and their foolish hearts were darkened (deprived of the light truth)
5) Foolishness for Wisdom 23Claiming/Professing (KJV) to be WISE, (have “sophos” = intellectual sophistication) they became FOOLS (as a simpleton, who has lost savour, and goes flat and tasteless like salt that has lost its strength and flavour),
6) 23and EXCHANGED (traded, altered, transformed) the GLORY (divine splendor & kingly majesty as supreme ruler in absolute perfection) of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
7) Rom 1:24 24Therefore God GAVE them up (delivered them over to be taken into custody, to be judged, condemned, punished, scourged, tormented, put to death) in (by) the lusts of their HEARTS (the centre of all physical and spiritual life the soul or mind, as it is the fountain and seat of the thoughts, passions, desires, appetites, affections, purposes, endeavours, the seat of the faculty of understanding and intelligence, and of the will and character.)
(8) When God removes his restraining grace, Sin Shapes Our Character
The sin of idol worship has CONSEQUENCES that include …
The CONSEQUENCES are quickened – made horrifically worse as God shows His absolute disdain and rejection of our behavioral choices by REMOVING His RESTRAINING grace, so we are given over to the sin that shifts our character into an abominable, dreadful state of REPROBATION (abandoned to sin; one lost to virtue, incapable of making right choices) resulting in homosexuality …
1) The GENDER confusion of HOMOSEXUALITY/ SAME SEX ATTRACTION the impurity of which dishonors God’s intended purposes for our bodies. Engaging in such, causes us to SUFFER from the very NATURE of the sin that is practiced. (The wages of sin is death Rom 6:23. We don’t have to get caught/exposed in sin to experience the consequences of sin. Practice it in secret and you’ll suffer from it in secret!)
2) 27Sin carries a vindictive justice, which is described in Rom 1:27 as the process by which we receive in [our]selves the due PENALTY (reward, recompense, retribution) for the error” (deceit, delusion, deception) we suffer. — Meaning we are reciprocated what is recompensed necessarily as a wage of consequence for the mistakes we make.
• When we resist God, he removes his restraining grace, leaving us to our own selves where sin shapes our character. Rather than conform to plan of God, in Whose image we are made, out character conforms to the sin for which we have exchanged it.
1 Thes. 4: 2-5 2For you know what commandments we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus. 3For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality; 4that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, 5not in lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God; Let’s Pray that God ReAwakens, ReInvigorates & ReEstablishes Us in Our Calls In Christ! Do We Retreat From Or Call To Repentance A Reprobate Nation?” Are We Willing To Be Used Of God as the Answer to Our Own Prayers? Click To Tweet
(9) Walk Thru The Word: Jeremiah 18: 24-27 (ESV)
God offers Us “If—Then” Propositions
ERROR (deceit, delusion, deception) does not have to be the END of our story!
Jeremiah 18: 5-11 5Then the word of the LORD came to me: 6“O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter has done? declares the LORD. Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. 7If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, 8and if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it. 9And if at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it, 10and if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will relent of the good that I had intended to do to it. 11Now, therefore, say to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: ‘Thus says the LORD, Behold, I am shaping disaster against you and devising a plan against you. Return, everyone from his evil way, and amend your ways and your deeds.’
(10) God reveals Himself & calls To us through creation
God makes it Plain for us to Perceive & God reveals himself so he can redeem us
Rom 1: 19 – 20 God makes it Plain for us to Perceive , 19For what can be known about God is PLAIN (apparent, clear, visible, manifest) to them, because God has shown it to them. 20For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly PERCEIVED (it’s intuitive for our mental capacities to reach “bottom-line” conclusions about God that are consistent with His Word.)
God REVEALS himself so he can REDEEM us
This revelation should make it easier and more intuitive for the Holy Spirit to reveal to us where people are, so we can meet them at the point of their interest and need.
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(11) God wants to Prevent people from perishing
Matthew 18:14 So it is not the WILL of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should PERISH.
Matt 18: 10-14 10“See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven. (Some manuscripts add verse 11: For the Son of Man came to save the lost, which the KJV, NAS, NIV & ISV do) 12What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? 13And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray. 14So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.
(12)The Sins of Romans 1 Are Rampant In
Politics, Government & Education
All of Which Can Be Called to Repentance 
Evangelism gets limited by the EITHER OR THINKING that puts others either in a t “they are saved and are in my ‘accepted and DESTINED for Heaven’ box” or they are unsaved, pagan infidels who deserve DESTRUCTION in Hell.
Can God work in us, so we see those with differing moral and political views …
1) not as ENEMIES, but those
2) for whom God has EMPATHY
3) and are members of the EVANGELISTIC field God can use us to reach.
Rom 2:4 paraphrase: God’s kindness is intended to lead us [and others] to repentance.
(13) Repentance is the remedy that Restores us to God
The Lost are one mustard seed step of faith away from beginning their process of Restoration
Rom 1: 21 – 22 The REMEDY for foolishness is REPENTANCE that RESTORES one in the FEAR of (acknowledging in awesome reverence) the Lord which is the beginning of wisdom. (Prov. 9:10 & 15:16)
This will ESTABLISH / REESTABLISH the God’s glory in our lives.
Proverbs 9:10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, (shrewd prudence that guides behavior) Fear of the LORD is the foundation of wisdom. … The beginning of wisdom is to fear the LORD, and acknowledging the Holy One is understanding. …
Proverbs 15:16 Better is a little with the fear of the LORD than great treasure and trouble with it.
What the lost need, however, is for God’s people to walk in their 2 Corinthians 5:18 ministry of reconciliation.
ESV — All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation;
NAS — Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.
KJV — And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;
CEV — God has done it all! He sent Christ to make peace between himself and us, and he has given us the work of making peace between himself and others.
(14) (Yellow – Not In Your Notes)
FIVE ROLES OF Discipleship Making / Making disciples = A.P.E.S.T.
For our purposes, though, I want to dig into the different roles he names. This is sometimes referred to as A.P.E.S.T. as he names these five roles: 1) Apostles, 2) Prophets, 3) Evangelists, 4) Shepherds, 5) Teachers
Each one of these five roles provide distinct ministries. Synergy (a situation in which the outcomes are greater than the sum of the individual parts/inputs) results when these roles cooperate to form a well-balanced church that is led by a plurality of leaders with varied gifts:
① Apostles start churches and movements of churches.
② Prophets proclaim the truth of God and urge people to follow.
③ Evangelists plea with people to trust in Christ.
④ Shepherds care for the souls and physical needs of people
⑤ Teachers explain and convey the wonders of God’s Word.
Where do you see God calling you to contribute and fit in at LCF in ministry to the souls He will bring here?
(15) Let’s Pray that God ReAwakens, ReInvigorates & ReEstablishes Us in Our Calls In Christ!
Do We Retreat From Or Call To Repentance A Reprobate Nation?”
Are We Willing To Be Used Of God as the Answer to Our Own Prayers?
Let’s Pray:
God give us the faith to trust that You can work through us to reach the most unlikely of others, whom You love!
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