The Word Made Plain

Guest (Male): Welcome to the word made plain with senior pastor Tony Clark of Calvary Chapel Newport News in Virginia. Currently, Pastor Tony is teaching through the book of Romans. Please open your Bible to Romans chapter 1 verses 21 through 25.

Tony Clark: The heart is deceit of emotions. So we see this person or people in society reject God, which leads to not glorifying him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thinking. Now their hearts and minds are devoid of light. Light or moral values, they come from God. They have already rejected him. Now this person or society is a slave to sin or that which is dark. And this is why Jesus said in in John 3:19, men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil. What a sad condition to be in. A person or society begins to call evil good and good evil, like Isaiah 5:20 says.

Oh, that verse goes on to say calling darkness light and light darkness, bitter for sweet and sweet bitter. I just wonder is this happening to you or someone you know? The sad thing is that this is happening to people in God's church. Jesus told us in Matthew 5 and verse 14, it says you are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. And we as believers today are allowing the darkness of political correctness and the ideas and ideals of cancel culture to direct God's church. To direct his church.

We bring that mess from the world into the church and expect for the church to operate like this wicked world. Calling what God says in the Bible is sin and calling them diseases. No victory in Christ, but being a constant victim. And and if you quote the Bible, then you're labeled as being unloving and unlike Jesus who is love. And I just say help us, Lord. They believe that they or the culture knows more than you and that hate book called the Bible. Look at verse 22. Professing to be wise, they became fools. I I mentioned this last time, but it bears repeating again.

I'm amazed at how atheists and agnostics and religious people, I have to add that in there, will admit that a painting shows that there was a painter. A building shows that there was a builder. A design shows that there was a designer, but refuse to see creation and admit that there is a creator. See, to admit that there is a creator means that they will be held accountable to him. Something that they don't want to do because they don't want anyone, especially the Christian's God, telling them how to live, what to do, and how to think.

So to reject that there is a God just makes a person a fool. In Psalm 14:1 and Psalm 53:1 it says the fool has said in his heart, there is no God. Oh, the downward spiral continues. Look at verse 23. And changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible men and birds and four-footed animals and and creeping things. So because God created us to worship him, when we suppress the truth about him to live in unrighteousness like verse 18 said, we fail to glorify him as God, nor are we thankful.

We become futile in our thoughts and our hearts become dark like verse 21 says. Now they are professing to be wiser than God, but became a fool like verse 22 said. Now instead of looking at creation and acknowledging that there is a creator that we need to worship, now we are worshiping the creation. Remembering in verse 21 it said that they became futile in their thoughts, which would cause them to think that evil is good and good is evil. This is backwards thinking. We see it plain and simple in this verse instead of worshiping the creator as God.

This society here in America and around the world is worshiping the creation as God. Backwards thinking. Paul said they changed the glory of the incorruptible God, notice, into an image made like corruptible man. Because we were created to worship and because this person or society has rejected the worship of the true and living God, so they turned to idols. And because the first idol we worship is ourselves, the team of me, like we said earlier, this is why this verse said we changed the glory of God into an image made like corruptible men. So we make idols to look like us with two eyes and two ears a nose and a mouth, arms and legs and feet just like us.

Oh, the psalmist picks up on this in Psalm 135 in verses 15 through 18 showing that there is nothing new under the sun. Watch this. It says the idols of the nations are silver and gold. Here it is, the works of men's hands. They have mouths, but they cannot speak. Eyes they have, but they cannot see. They have ears, but they cannot hear, nor is there any breath in their mouths. Those who make them are like them. So it's everyone who trust in them. This is amazing to me. I mentioned this as we were going through the Old Testament and the worship of idols and things as goes on uh in in the Old Testament.

I'm amazed. This shows the the the deception of Satan, how idol worship is such a spiritual thing. You just think it's just a little you know a little little idol of silver and gold. No, it is a spiritual thing. Watch this. How can I make a God with my hands? My own hands and then turn around and bow down and worship. I'm the creator now because I made it. So I can make a God that I got to carry around, that I can break, that I can throw in the garbage. My God carries me last time I checked.

This is the God that we serve. But the so it's a deception. Hindus, they worship over 330 million Gods. I can't even count to 330 million. They worship that many Gods. Amazing to me the deception. You know why? You know why? The Bible says in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 it says that Satan attaches himself to idols. Why? Because Satan always wanted to be worshiped as God. So watch this. So him and his demons, they attached themselves to idols. And so when people bow down to those idols, Satan is getting the worship that he's always wanted. This is why idol worship is such a spiritual thing.

They're starving in India where Hinduism runs prevalent. They're starving in India as filet mignon walks past them. A cow walks past them, but they can't kill it because it's a God. So they're they're they're starving. I am like I am looking at that cow and say you better give me some burgers from that thing, some steaks or something from that. I am hungry. But this this is the deception. The deception. And it's a major deception. Those are powerful verses from the psalmist. Idols all around us. And I want you to notice for the most part all the idols either looks like man or animals or a combination of the two.

Billions of people in India, China, even here in America are idol worshipers. They're worshiping idols in various forms. This is why idol worship is the number one form of worship in the world today. We talking billions. In China and India are worshiping idols. Here millions in America. Oh, we said oh well, you know Christianity is the number one way. Get out of here with that. It could because with that number they're lumping all of the cults and all that stuff in there who are worshiping a false Jesus, a false God. But that's being lumped in there.

No, no, idol worship is. Cuz idol idol is idol idol can be a noun, the name of a person, place or thing. Anything that we place in front of God becomes our idol. Anything that we give our time, talent and treasures to is our idol. I can tell you who your idol is. Let me look at your bank account and what you spend your money on. I can tell you what what your idol is and what your God is. Look what it says there in verse 24. It says therefore God gave them up to uncleanness and the lust of their hearts to dishonor their bodies among themselves.

Now we have to look at this verse. Pick it apart a little bit. The first thing I want to draw your attention to is the word therefore. The word therefore, the transitional conjunction that indicates what's about to follow is the consequences of what was just mentioned. And because mankind wants to suppress the truth about God given to them in their conscious and through creation, they want to worship idols of birds and beasts and creeping things. Therefore, here's the one of the saddest phrases in all of the Bible. Therefore, God gave them up to uncleanness. They wanted to worship animals.

Therefore, God gave them up to become like animals. And because of mankind's animalistic behavior, no wonder they, the scientists, the experts through evolution say that we evolved from animals. Why movies like The Planet of the Apes were so popular? Because they espouse a evolutionary mentality of apes evolving into men. And we become like what we worship. Mankind worships animals, so God gave them up to become like animals. 2 Corinthians 3:18 says we all with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image or we become like what we behold or look at or reflect uh that that that Greek word um behold it it means to reflect as in a mirror is what it means.

So let us behold or look in a mirror Jesus Christ in the word. Let us reflect him in worship. Why? Because when we do, we will start to behold as in a mirror the glory of God and we start to become like him. In other words, we start to see him reflecting back in our lives. It's just like when you woke up today, you looked in the mirror, your image was reflecting back. When we behold Jesus as in a mirror, we're hoping that the more we behold him, the more he'll start reflecting back. And we will see that reflecting back him back in our lives.

Note I'm going to go back to that phrase God gave them up. This is a powerful yet scary phrase. It it it's an intense verb in the Greek language. The Greek word is uh paradidomi. Uh paradidomi it it means to surrender, to yield up or to deliver up. Or it's used elsewhere in the New Testament. It's used in 1 Corinthians 13 verse 3 uh referring to giving up one's body to be burned. It is used in Galatians 2:20 and Ephesians 5:2 and then Ephesians 5:25 to refer to Christ giving up himself to die. And here is Paul saying that God gave them up to what?

He gave them up to uncleanness. The Greek word for uncleanness is uh should I say. And it's an amazing Greek word. It means an impurity. It speaks of a a spiritual uh filthiness. Now the rest of the verse tells us the type of uncleanness or filthiness God gave them up to. The third part of that verse says in the lust of their hearts to dishonor their bodies among themselves. So the uncleanness is connected to the lust in the hearts that leads them to dishonor their bodies. Lust in the Greek is And it refers to a carnal desire.

Watch this. A carnal desire for what is sinful or forbidden. James 1:14 says each one of us is tempted when we are drawn away of our own desires or lust and enticed. And because we desire to please our sinful uh desires over God's holiness, we become ensnared, we become enticed. It it means to trap. We becomes trapped and a slave to our sinful desires. So what is the result? We began to seek to fulfill or satisfy our sinful desires. Here it is by dishonoring our bodies. Oh, Paul tells us or he tells the believers in the city of Corinth in 1 Corinthians 6 in verse 13 that our bodies are not for sexual immorality, but for the Lord and the Lord for the body.

So we must ask ourselves these questions, is what I am watching with my eyes pleasing to the Lord? Will the Lord approve of what I'm listening to with my ears? Will the Lord be pleased with where my feet are taking me? If our bodies are for the Lord, then it matters what we do with them. Then we must ask ourselves, am I dishonoring my body? The Greek word for dishonor is and it means to despise, to mistreat uh uh to treat shamefully. So when we allow for lust for desires to fill our hearts, we will soon dishonor or treat our bodies shamefully in order to fulfill our lustful desires to justify our behaviors.

Look what what we do in verse 25. I want you to see there. It says who exchanged the truth of God for the lie and worship and serve the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever. Amen. Who exchanged the truth of God? Notice what it says for the lie. It's not a lie. It's not the definite article a. It's definite article the. It's the lie. So it's not just one of many lies. No, it is the lie. The lie that man is his own God and he should worship and serve himself or some other part of creation like animals.

Instead of worshiping the true and living God, it was the lie that Satan used in the Garden of Eden to deceive Eve into sin. In in Genesis 3:5 is very clear, you know, as he was tempting Eve. And Eve responded and said, no, God said if we disobey him, we shall surely die. And here it is. Satan said, you shall not die. Casting doubt upon the word of God. Please understand, precious people, anyone who will cause you to doubt something in the word of God is from Satan. To cast doubt. Oh no, we shouldn't we shouldn't do this.

We we should wait till we get married. Oh, it doesn't matter. God doesn't really mean that. He just said but if we love each other, it's okay. Run from them. If you if can we talk? Pull up your pants and run from them because they're causing you to cast doubt upon the word of God. Don't believe that that that love lie. That that that that love lie because of love we can do whatever we want to do. That devil's a lie. Can't do whatever you want to do. It's very clear here. Very clear in the word of God.

Casting doubt. He said you shall not surely die for God knows the day you eat of it you shall be like God. Knowing good from evil. In other words, Eve God is trying to keep something from you. He don't want you to be like him. He don't want you to see things the way he sees things. So he's telling you don't need of it because he don't want you to be like him. Oh, what a slithering snake Satan is. I just want to know are you believing the lie? That you're the captain of your own ship.

Do you believe that you can do what you want to do with your body and your life? No one can tell you what to do. I am the God in my life. If you're saying these kind of things, you're being deceived and you're believing the lie. The lie of knowing better than God. God says something in his word and you and you like Satan cast and doubt on it. You believe in the lie. May God open your eyes to the truth being spoken today in God's word. So what happened next? Well, you got to wait until next time because it gets deeper than that.

Gets deeper than that. Let me conclude with this. When God gives up part two in this message we saw how God will give up on a society when they are no longer glorifying him as God, nor are thankful. When their thoughts are futile and their hearts are darkened, they profess to be wise and they exchange the glory of God to worship themselves or some other idol. Yes, God will give a society up in this condition. But watch this. Please don't miss this. But he offers mercy and forgiveness to any individual who wants to be forgiven.

If you see yourself heading in this direction or living this way, God is drawing you today. Respond before it's too late because we don't know around what corner death is. Young folks, people young and old are dying by the by the thousands, the hundreds of thousands. It's been said that over 100,000 people die every 24 hours and go to hell. I wonder how that statistic just hit you. Did it hit you like was there indifference? Was there a shock like was did it wake you up a little bit like whoa? I got folks all around me who don't know the Lord.

And we don't know because we're still mid almost not quite post pandemic. People are dying all the time. It ain't going anywhere, folks. Corona is here to stay. Just like there's flu season. Well, this will be added to flu season. Oh, I got the flu. No, I got the coronavirus. It's it's not going anywhere. You better make sure that you're right with God depending upon your medical condition, how you taking care of yourself or whatever. But you want to make sure that you're right with God. Make sure that you when you stand tall before him just we already read you'll be without excuse.

So you can't give an excuse. Well, God see what what had happened was you won't be able to get that to him. We won't give you a chance to make sure things are right with between you and the Lord. Let's pray. Father, thank you so much for this time you've given us. Thank you for your word that is so clear to us. Lord, let us not be forgetful here. Let it be let us be doers of your word. You said this man or woman will be blessed in what he does. And so God, I pray your blessings upon us.

Let your word, Lord, fall upon good soil. Oh God, we just pray that your word will just minister to us. We need you, God, so desperately. And if there's anyone here who needs to get right with God, anyone here who has not repented of their sin and surrendered their life to Jesus Christ, just pray this simple prayer after me. Just say, Lord Jesus, forgive me. I believe you died on the cross and was buried and rose again. Come into my heart. I make you my Lord and savior. Help me to live for you by the power of your Holy Spirit from this moment forward in Jesus name.

Amen.

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