THE DOWNFALL OF FAMILY
Romans 1:18-32
A WARNING ABOUT WICKEDNESS
V:18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities — his eternal power and divine nature — have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
A. God is omniscience. He knows all and He sees all. He has made Himself
Known to everyone
1. God made everyone in His own image and likeness.
2. Everyone knows God through what can clearly be seen in creation.
3. Those who don’t know God, are conscience of His works and
know the difference between right and wrong.
B. God is spirit and no one has seen Him at any time.
1. He shows His glory through natural revelations. 3
2. The sun, moon, and the stars are His creation.
3. Some chose to ignore the divine creation.
4. But God has left man without an excuse.
REJECTING GOD, THE START OF WICKEDNESS
V:21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.
A. Paul wrote to the Gentile Church at Rome giving them instructions
On Godliness.
1. Paul knew that Church in Rome had its start in the Jewish Synagogues.
2. He also knew that the leaders of the Synagogues mixed the Word
of God with their Jewish traditions.
3. The Greek gods of the Romans were Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva.
Jupiter was the sky god that protected the Roman state.
4. The idol gods outside the church affected the church body.
B. The nation of Israel had a history of worshipping the idol gods of
Their neighbors.
1. Paul explained the spiritual downfall of rejecting the one true living
God.
2. Paul left no doubt, that people who worship idols know God.
3. Because people refuse to glorify God and give Him thanks
their minds became corrupt.
a. Their thinking became futile
b. Their hearts became darken
c. They became fools
C. The result of the rejection of the true God, was a depraved mind
1. Their god became the image of man, animals, birds that they
made with their own hands.
2. Rather than trusting the creator, they put their trust in dumb
idols they created.
3. They quit listening to the creator and began hearing their
depraved thinking.
THE CONSEQUENCES OF WICKEDNESS
V:24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator — who is forever praised. Amen.
26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.
A. Because they rejected the living God, He allowed Satan to have
total influence of their minds.
1. Those who reject God have no moral boundaries
2. Verse 24 and 25 give the downward spiral of rejection God
a. The sinful desires of the heart explodes.
b. Sexual impurity goes out of control.
c. Degrading of the bodies with one another
3. The truth which is the Word of God is exchanged for lies
and deceptions of Satan.
4. Worship of man-made idol replaces the worship of God.
B. When the culture rejects God’s commands, the family suffers.
1. Homosexuality becomes the norm
2. Men reject their position as head of the household
3. Women reject their role as helpmeet to the male figure
4. Today around the world, homosexuality is promoted in
every area of life
5. We have homosexuality in the news media, in sports, in government,
in advertisements, and on social media.
6. We have passed laws for homosexual equality.
7. In 2020 according to the US Census, there are 980 thousand
same sex households.
A DEPRAVED MIND, THE DEVIL’S WORKSHOP
V:28 Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. 29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31 they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
A. Family is the foundation of world civilization.
1. God’s command to the first marriage, was to populate the earth;
be fruitful and multiply.
2. When the family suffers the world goes in a decline.
3. When men and women destroy God's divine institution
of marriage between a man and woman, they destroy themselves.
B. When the moral fabric of the family is destroyed, those involved
Are given over to Satan and his devices.
1. The attitude of man changes from Godliness to wickedness.
C. Because he is deprived, his thoughts become wicked, His heart
Devises evil schemes, then all his actions become evil.
SUMMARY FROM THE BIBLE KNOWLEDGE COMMENTARY
Romans 1:29-31
The mental vacuum created by dismissing God was filled (the perf. tense implies filled full) with four forms of active sin: wickedness (adikia; cf. v. 18), evil (poneria), greed, and depravity (kakia, "badness or malice"). These four in turn express themselves in 17 more specific types of wickedness.
1:32. This whole pattern of evil becomes the lifestyle of people who continue to do (pres. tense implies continuing or habitual action) these very things in open defiance of God, a defiance aggravated (a) by fully knowing (epignontes; cf. v. 28) that such things deserve death and (b) by encouraging others in the same lifestyle. Such extremity of human rebellion against God fully warrants God's condemnation.
Rev. M. Mitchell
Asst Pastor Of Greater Macedonia Baptist Church
5510 West Sam Houston Parkway North
Houston, Texas 77o41
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