Romans 1:18-32

¹⁸ For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;

• Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!–Isaiah 5:20
• Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;² Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;³ Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth.⁴ For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving:-1 Timothy 4:1-4
•  This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.² For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,³ Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,⁴ Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;⁵ Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.⁶ For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts,⁷ Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.-2 Timothy 3:1-7

****Embracing a lifestyle that excludes God and godliness in favor of things that are forbidden by God invites the wrath of God.

¹⁹ Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.
²⁰ 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 that they are without excuse:
²¹ Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

****They know God is real, nature shows them clearly who God is, but because they want to walk in rebellion and reject God, they try to deny he is God. Their lives don’t honor God, they instead follow their sinfulness. They decide that their morality will be whatever they say it will be, if they think homosexuality and abortion are morally ok, then they go with it and reject any information to the contrary, especially if it’s the Word of God. Those who do this while claiming to know God, often they twist the Word of God to give them permission to continue on in these sinful behaviors. If you confront them with the truth, they will call you a hater, bigot, liar, evil or whatever phobe they think applies. This is what the Bible mean by them calling something evil good and something good evil.

²² Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,

They believe they are more knowledgeable and wise and serving the greater good while rejecting Jesus who can give them eternal life.

•  For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?- Mark 8:36

²³ And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.

Idolatry

²⁴ Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:
²⁵ Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
²⁶ For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
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 recompence of their error which was meet.
²⁸ And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;

They change what nature has shown them is true and more importantly what God has said is true into a a lie and then create a new truth they live by that allows them to live in their sin while feeling they are ok with God resulting in their conscious become seared (1 Timothy 4:2) We see this in the LGBTQ+ churches that have reinterpreted the verses that outline homosexuality as a sin so that it isn’t a sin… and with phrases like God is Love… and Love is Love. In this way, they are creating their own God that follows them and their desires, instead of them following the true God and denying their desires.
Even when HIV and AIDS exposed the error of men having sexual relations with other men, they still persisted in their sin. Their complete rejection of God meant that God wasn’t going to prevent them from going that direction into sin or protect them from the outcome of that choice. God allowed them to descend into a reprobate mind. Another way of saying this is, they become INSANE… morally and emotionally.
I’m seeing this moral insanity and emotional deregulation in many people, mostly those who are fighting to keep abortion legal, homosexual rights, the surgical procedures that mutilate little children in the name of gender-affirming care, and socialism to name a few. They produce videos of themselves saying hateful things and acting completely unhinged while spouting lies and wishing death and destruction on those who oppose them… and they lack insight into how unhinged they are. This is the reprobate mind, and it’s a judgment from God, not just on the ones who are acting out, but on everyone because we quietly allowed these things to go on unchecked. The next few verses describe the reprobate.

²⁹ Being filled with all unrighteousness,

Self-serving justice, no fairness… the “in it to win it” mind set that justifies anything to get what you want.

fornication,

The sexual revolution-the idea that it doesn’t matter how many sexual partners you have, Only Fans, Porn and prostitution.

wickedness,

Openly and happily committing evil behavior… I saw a woman dancing and flipping off her stomach just before she had an abortion. I saw another with a tee shirt bragging about how many abortions she had… and videos of people shoplifting while laughing and bragging about getting away with it.

covetousness,

It’s common now to lie about someone because of jealousy over what they have…but the sin of being covetousness fills the heart with hatred and removes gratitude towards God.

maliciousness;

laying in wait for one another… looking for an opportunity to cause harm to others. It’s all around us.

full of envy, murder,

Every single day, the news is filled with people murdering one another for stupid reasons that come from envy. You hear it as, “They disrespected me.”

debate,

This isn’t debate where people come together to discuss things, this is quarrelsome, disagreeable, divisive arguments.

deceit,

Lying in all forms to manipulate the outcome. People think that lying is something that is done with just words, but there are several forms of behaviors that are deceit and considered a lie. Examples are lies of omission where you hold back a truth, so a person makes a decision that is favorable to the liar that the person would not have made had they known… there are half-truths where only part of truth is presented in such a way that a logical person would draw the wrong conclusions… and there is concealing and delaying the truth.

malignity;

the hatred of another person that is so intense they are consumed with it so that the person lives spreading lies, sabotaging and plotting and fantasizing about evil things they want for the object of their hatred. There are millions of videos like this where entire groups of people are targeting with hateful comments and expressing desires for something bad to happen to them.

whisperers,

troublemaker behind the scene pitting one person against the other.

³⁰ Backbiters,

No loyalty, talking about others behind their backs in a negative way to cause division.

haters of God,

People who hate all things about the one true God… they hate the word of God and mock it, they mock Christians, and Jews. Right now in Nigeria, Christians are being murdered by these terrorist haters of the one true God.

despiteful,

Contemptuous hatred acting out spitefully. This is a person who lays in wait for a chance and reason to hurt someone else.

proud,

Pride … the act of self-glorification and worship. Pulling attention to yourself so that others will think of you more highly.

boasters,

Braggers… like influencers who show off their opulent lifestyles.

inventors of evil things,

This can be trends too… or movements for evil purposes.

disobedient to parents,

³¹ Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:

All of these things have become normalized behaviors. There is no shame in the behaviors because they have pushed God out of their lives they no longer feel convicted over it, their conscience has been seared… God has given them over to it and they have become reprobate… or morally and emotionally insane.

³² 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.

This is a fearful place to be for the person who has been turned over. As Christians, we need to be praying for people to have their eyes open. If God can reach us, he can reach them.