Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.
Welcome back to Faith Award Baptist Church.
So nice to see you all here for our Sunday night service.
Find your seats, please.
Grab a song book.
Go to hymn number 236 and we'll get started tonight.
Hymn number 236.
No, not one.
Hymn number 236.
Once you find your place, we'll start together.
Right on that verse, 236.
There's not a friend like the lowly Jesus.
Hymn number 236.
Flip it up together now.
There's not a friend like the lowly Jesus.
No, not one.
Not enough to hear the law or temple fears to prove.
No, not one.
Please us to go about our struggles.
We will guide till the day is done.
There's not a friend like the lowly Jesus.
No, not one.
No, there's a friend like the lowly Jesus.
No, not one.
And yet the friend is so weak and lowly.
No, not one.
Jesus knows all about our struggles.
He will always be with us.
He will guide till the day is done.
There's not a friend like the lowly Jesus.
No, not one.
There's not a doubt that he did not hear us.
No, not one.
No light so bright but his light can't hear us.
No, not one.
Jesus knows all about our struggles.
He will guide till the day is done.
There's not a friend like the lowly Jesus.
No, not one.
Did everything by his grace for safety?
No, not one.
Wars didn't find that he was not taken.
No, not one.
Jesus knows all about our troubles.
He will guide till the day is done.
There's not a friend like the lowly Jesus.
No, not one.
Was there a gift like the Savior given?
No, not one.
Will he refuse us alone in heaven?
No, not one.
Jesus knows all about our troubles.
He will guide till the day is done.
There's not a friend like the lowly Jesus.
No, not one.
The first one is from the Bible.
It says, what a wonderful change in my life has been brought.
194.
Since Jesus came into my heart.
Him number 194.
We'll sing this out nice and strong on that verse now.
194.
What a wonderful change in my life has been brought.
194.
Sing it out now.
What a wonderful change in my life has been brought.
196.
Since Jesus came into my heart.
Him numberished of the devil, Jesus came into my heart.
168.
Since Jesus came into my heart.
But the Lord know my soul like the seed that was growing.
160.
Since Jesus came into my heart.
I am seeds from my mourning and growing in shade.
160.
Since Jesus came into my heart.
And I stand to be.
Where many are all washed away Since Jesus came into my heart
Just the joy of my soul Like the sea that was cold
Since Jesus came into my heart
I know there's a love of hope That is steadfast and sure
Since Jesus came into my heart
And with our mother down Now my pathway of joy
Since Jesus came into my heart
When the joy of my soul Like the sea that was cold
Since Jesus came into my heart
There's a light in the valley Of death now for me
Since Jesus came into my heart
And the gates of the city Beyond I can see
Since Jesus came into my heart
When the joy of my soul Like the sea that was cold
Since Jesus came into my heart
I shall go there to dwell In that city I know
Since Jesus came into my heart
And I can't be so happy As onward I go
Since Jesus came into my heart
When the joy of my soul Like the sea that was cold
Since Jesus came into my heart
Alright this time we'll go through our announcements together
If you don't have a bulletin, slip up your hand nice and high
We'll get to you with one
On the inside we have our service time
Sunday mornings at 1030 is our preaching service
Sunday nights at 6
Wednesday nights at 7 is our bible study
We've got the soul winning times listed there below
As well as salvations and baptisms
We've got the birthdays and anniversaries listed there for the month of January
On the back the birth announcement
Congratulations to the Meathor family on the birth of baby David Isaiah
Great picture, be sure to congratulate them
Below that the baby shower, that already happened today
Thank you to everyone who participated in that
And then we've got a wedding coming up for Micaiah and Isabella
That's on January the 18th
So just a couple weeks away on that
Everyone in the church is invited to attend
And so don't be shy about showing up to these type of things
They're definitely for everybody to come
And does anybody remember what time it was?
The time was in the bulletin last week and then the time disappeared
Oh, well of course the groom remembers
4 o'clock right?
So 4 in the afternoon is when that is on January the 18th
So we hope you'll be there for that
And then we've got some guest preachers coming up
On January 22nd
We've got Pastor Aaron Thompson from Sure Foundation Baptist Church up in Vancouver Washington
And the other 5 churches that he pastors
And then we've got Pastor Jonathan Shelley coming from Steadfast Baptist Church
In Cedar Hill, Texas
And that is about it for announcements
Let's go ahead and count up the soul winning
From the past few days going back to Thursday
Anything from Thursday?
Ok
Ok, got it
Ok
Alright, and then what about Friday?
Ok, anything else from Friday?
How about Saturday?
And then
Ok, got it
Alright, anything else from Saturday?
And then Brother Scott said that the main group had 5
Anything outside of that main group with Brother Scott?
Gotcha
Ok, got it
That's already written down, got it
Thanks for making sure though
Alright, anything else from today?
Alright, very good
Keep up the great work on soul winning
With that, let's sing our next song, come lead us
Alright, take your hymnals please
Go to hymn number 150
Hymn number 150
My faith has found a resting place
Hymn number 150
Start together on that first verse
My faith has found a resting place
It's not only my story
Hymn number 150
Sing it out on that first vowel
My faith has found a resting place
Not in device nor creed
I trust the ever-living
What is once for me shall be
I need no other argument
I need no other plea
Is it enough that Jesus died
And that he died for me
Is it enough for me that Jesus saved
This as my fear and now
A sinful soul I come to get
Will never cast me out
I need no other argument
I need no other plea
Is it enough that Jesus died
And that he died for me
My heart is leaning on the word
The written word of God
Salvation by my Savior's name
Salvation through his blood
I need no other argument
I need no other plea
Is it enough that Jesus died
And that he died for me
My faith has found a resting place
Not in device nor creed
I trust the ever-living
For he is precious what he shed
For he is mighty and gay
I need no other argument
I need no other plea
Is it enough that Jesus died
And that he died for me
Amen, turn over to hymn number 272
Jesus I come, hymn number 272
We haven't done this one in our church here
but if you know it sing it out with me nice and strong to help those around you
number 272 out of my bondage
Sing it out now
I love my God
Jesus I come, Jesus I come
Into thy freedom, gladness and life
Jesus I come to thee
Out of my sickness, into thy hope
Out of my want, and into thy wealth
Out of my sin, and into thy self
Jesus I come to thee
Out of my shameful failure and loss
Jesus I come, Jesus I come
Into thy glorious place of thy God
Jesus I come to thee
Out of her sorrows, into thy hope
Out of my storms, and into thy calm
Out of distress, to new villain's song
Jesus I come to thee
Out of unprecedented arrogant pride
Jesus I come, Jesus I come
Into thy blessed will to abide
Jesus I come to thee
Out of myself to dwell in thy love
Out of despair in rapture above
Upward or high on things like unknown
Jesus I come to thee, all the less
Out of the fear and dread of the two
Jesus I come, Jesus I come
Into thy joy and light of thy hope
Jesus I come to thee
Out of the depths of new villain's soul
Into the peace of our sheltering home
Ever thy glorious place to behold
Jesus I come to thee
Man, good singing tonight.
All right, this time we'll pass our offering plates around.
As the plates go around, let's turn our Bibles to Romans chapter 1.
Romans chapter number 1, as we always do, we'll read the entire chapter beginning in verse number 1.
Follow along silently with brother Dan as he reads Romans chapter 1, starting in verse number 1.
Romans chapter 1, the Bible reads, Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ,
called to be an apostle, separated under the gospel of God, which he had promised
afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures, concerning his son Jesus Christ our Lord,
which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the son of God with power,
according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead,
by whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations, for his name,
among whom are ye also the called of Jesus Christ, to all that be in Rome,
beloved of God, called to be saints, grace to you, and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
First I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world,
for God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his son,
that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers,
making requests, if by any means now at length I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God to come unto you.
For I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift, to the end you may be established,
that is, that I may be comforted together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me.
Now I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that oftentimes I purposed to come unto you, but was let hitherto,
that I might have some fruit among you also, even as among other Gentiles.
I am deader both to the Greeks and to the barbarians, both to the wise and to the unwise.
So, as much as is in me, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also.
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth,
to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
For therein is the righteousness of God, revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, that just shall live by faith.
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 showed it 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 that they are without excuse.
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.
Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image,
made like to corruptible man, and to 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 worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who was blessed forever. Amen?
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,
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 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 a 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, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things,
disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant-breakers, without natural affection,
implacable, 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.
Heavenly Father and Lord, thank you for allowing us to be in church. Thank you for all the soul winners doing the work for you.
Please fill Pastor Anderson with the Holy Spirit so that he may preach boldly from the Bible so that we can be identified by the sermon.
In Jesus' name I pray, Amen.
Amen. Romans chapter 1, I want to start reading in verse number 16. The title of my sermon this evening is God Gave Them Up.
This is a statement that occurs a few times in this chapter. God gave them up, God gave them up, God gave them over.
And these are pretty scary words when you think about God giving someone over, giving up someone.
That's the last place that anyone would ever want to be. But if you would look at verse number 16, the Bible reads,
But for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. This is a very famous verse. I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ.
For it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that goes to church. Is that what it says?
Everyone who is a good person, repents of all their sins, lives a good life, keeps the commandments. No.
It's the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
And so the gospel of Jesus Christ is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, right?
Salvation goes to everyone who believes.
That whosoever believeth in him, the Bible says, should not perish but have eternal life.
Isn't it interesting how some of the most famous verses in the Bible are so clear on what it takes to be saved?
Romans 1, 16. John 3, 16. And yet so many people can quote these verses and yet, whoop, just goes right over their head.
This concept of salvation by faith. But I want you to notice the next verse says,
For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith.
Now the therein is referring back to the gospel, right? I'm not ashamed of the gospel.
Therein in the gospel is revealed what? The righteousness of God from faith to faith.
As it is written, the just shall live by faith, right?
So people being saved by faith, people believing on Christ, receiving salvation, living by faith,
living eternally because of their faith is a revelation of the righteousness of God, right?
So God is righteous and that is revealed through salvation because we're not saved by our own righteousness.
All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. We're saved by the righteousness of God, imputed unto us.
But then, after he says that therein is the righteousness of God revealed, in the next verse, he says in verse 18,
the wrath of God is revealed, right? So on the one hand, the righteousness of God is revealed through the gospel,
through the idea of people being saved by faith in Jesus. That's a revelation of the righteousness of God.
And then also now we see that the wrath of God is also revealed from heaven against all ungodliness
and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness.
Now, some people will try to twist this passage of Romans 1 and come up with strange interpretations of it,
but it's very clear what we're talking about here. On the one hand, we are talking about saved Christians in verses 16 and 17
who have believed in Jesus and are therefore righteous in the sight of God. They're going to heaven and they will live by faith.
But then, on the other hand, we have the unsaved people of this world described from verse 18 and onward, right?
Because these are people who hold the truth in unrighteousness. Look at verse 19.
Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has showed it unto them.
And then it goes on at the end of verse 20 to say that they're without excuse because that when they knew God, they glorified him not as God.
Now, here's what we need to understand. Just because these people hold the truth or they may know about God,
or they're holding the truth, they know God, and so forth, that doesn't mean that they're saved.
When the Bible says here that they knew him, it just means that they were familiar with him, they became aware of him,
they were exposed to who he is because it says when they knew God, they glorified him not as God.
Okay, does that sound like a saved person? A saved person doesn't know who God is but not acknowledge him as God, right?
That's the opposite of being saved. Obviously, being saved has to do with believing in God, believing in Jesus Christ as the Son of God, as the Savior of the world.
This is the exact opposite of that, but sometimes people will try to twist this and take these parts about knowing God as somehow that that makes them saved.
That does not make you saved. What makes you saved is when God knows you. When he knows you, you're saved, but he's going to say to those that are not saved,
apart from me, I never knew you. These people, and let's back up with that in mind, I'm just kind of throwing that out there because people are constantly turning this passage on its head
because they don't like what it teaches. And so we're just going to go through this methodically and look at this carefully tonight.
It says, for the wrath of God, verse 18, is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness.
And the main thing I want you to see here is that these men who hold the truth in unrighteousness are the opposite of the people in verses 16 and 17, the people who believed in Jesus.
The righteousness of God is revealed in these people. The wrath of God is revealed in these people. And that's what I want you to see, the distinction that's there.
They hold the truth in unrighteousness. They possess the truth. It's not that they don't have access to the truth. They do. But they're not handling the truth properly.
They're not responding properly to that truth. And we'll see what that looks like in the next verse says, because that which may be known of God is manifest in them.
So in what way are they holding truth? They're holding truth because that which may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has showed it unto them.
So they're holding truth simply means God showed them the truth. They could, if they wanted to, know who God is because God showed them the truth.
Why? Verse 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.
So the idea here is that these people who are unsaved, it's not that they don't have access to truth. It's all around them, right?
The invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made. They can look at the creation and see God's eternal power and Godhead, and therefore they are without excuse.
So they have access to the truth. They have the ability to know truth, but yet they do not respond properly to that, verse 21, because that when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, right?
So it's not that they've never heard about God or that they have no inkling that there's a creator of this world. They should be able to realize that just from looking around.
They have been exposed to these truths, but yet they refuse to acknowledge what's right in front of them, that God is God, okay? That God is the creator and that they need to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved.
So it says that when they knew God, they glorified him not as God. This is not saying that they were saved. It's just saying that they were familiar with God.
It'd be like if I said, oh yeah, you know, I know brother Madison. It doesn't mean that I'm trusting in him as my savior or something, right? It just means I know who he is. I know him. I've met him, right? I've spoken with him. That's what that means when it says they knew God.
And so it says here 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.
So this downward spiral begins with someone not giving thanks and glory to God as the creator, not acknowledging him, being ungrateful, unthankful, not wanting to give him any credit for his creation, not wanting to give him any credit for all the blessings that he bestows upon us.
Because let's face it, he sends rain on the just and on the unjust, right? So God has blessed all the people of this world in various ways and he's given us life and he's given us various gifts and he's taken care of us at times.
And some of us appreciate that. Some of us don't. Some of us respect that and some don't. And so they did not acknowledge God as God. They were not grateful and thankful for the things that he had done for them.
And so therefore, because they had this attitude, they became vain in their imagination. They basically, you know, decide that, you know, well, God's not really the reason why we're here.
It's something else. They might believe in false gods or they may even just believe in evolution as a substitute for God and just say, well, this universe just created itself.
And they have this vain imagination that somehow the world can come from nothing, that living things can come from nonliving things and that everything is just a big cosmic accident.
And maybe in some other galaxy far, far away there's also another accident going on and other life forms and, you know, the truth is out there and I want to believe and all that kind of stuff.
But he says that they became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened.
Okay, so it all started with being ungrateful and they start dreaming up all these other explanations to not give God proper credit and proper glory and then their foolish heart ends up being darkened.
Now what I want you to notice here is that these people are the ones who are doing the wrong here. It's not God making them choose this or making them do this.
They're the ones who, when they were exposed to God, they decided not to glorify him as God. They decided not to be thankful. They decided to dream up all these vain imaginations.
But then now we have the first passive thing where something is happening to them, their foolish heart was darkened. Right?
So we see now their foolish heart's being darkened. That's something that's happening to them.
So the first three things are something that they're doing. You know, they are, you know, becoming vain and they are, you know, being unthankful and not glorifying God and then their foolish heart gets darkened as a result.
Okay. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.
Now stop and think about this. And you could also, whenever you're thinking about God and his creation, you can also think about an analogy of parents and their children because of the fact that God, of course, is the heavenly father.
And so in many ways, our parents on this earth are an analog with God in heaven and our understanding of who God is, that he is a father.
And so when you stop and think about this, what about children who are unthankful for what their parents have done for them?
And we're living in a generation that is unthankful to their parents in general. Okay. And what do I mean by that? Because if you think about it, when you're a parent, you make sacrifices to have children and to bring children into this world.
So, obviously, you end up spending just tons of time and money and energy and headaches and just think about how expensive it is just even to just give birth is expensive.
And then you're just buying all this food, you're buying all these diapers, you got to have a bigger house, you got to have a bigger vehicle, and then you're up in the middle of the night cleaning up diaper mess, vomit.
You know, you're dealing with all these problems, walking around with colicky babies in the middle of the night for hours and hours and hours.
And you're going through all these sacrifices. And here's what ungrateful children inevitably will say when you bring up to them, hey, you know, we did all this for you.
We spent all these thousands of hours and all this money and we put all this effort into raising you. Give us some respect. Give us some honor. Give us some gratitude. Give us some appreciation.
Here's what they'll inevitably say, well, I didn't ask to be brought into this world. I didn't ask to be born. I didn't ask you to do those things.
This is what children will say to their parents. I didn't ask for that. But you know what's so funny? This is the exact thing that atheists will say to God like, well, I didn't ask to be created. I didn't ask to be born.
Now here's the thing. You know what? Normal people are glad to be alive. I'm glad I'm here. You know what I mean? I'm glad that God created me and I'm glad that my parents made me.
And I'm glad that my parents raised me. I don't have this weird, like nihilistic, weird attitude of like, well, I didn't even ask to be born into this world.
Kind of a crazy, weird thing. But isn't that what people say? Because I guarantee you I'm not the only person who's heard this a million times.
From atheists about God or from children about their parents. Well, I didn't ask to be brought into this world. You know, I didn't ask for you to give birth to me, Mom.
It's like, what a stupid thing to say. But it's just as stupid as when people say, well, God, I didn't ask to be created. You know, why did you even create me in this world anyway?
You know, it's pretty sad to have that attitude. It makes it seem like you're living a really depressing life if you don't even value the gift of life that you've been given.
Because I, like I said, I'm glad to be here. I'm thankful for my life. I'm thankful that I'm alive right now. And I hope that God allows me to live much longer.
I want to live to be a very old man. I want to be up here preaching in my 90s or even beyond that. You know, whatever God allows me to do, I'll take it.
I'm not just like, oh, man, why am I even alive, you know? No, man, I want to be here.
But the point is that this kind of ungrateful attitude that children direct toward their parents is very similar to the type of stuff that you'll hear atheists say toward God.
Not wanting to glorify your parents as parents, not wanting to honor them is sort of like the same mentality where you don't want to honor God and give credit to God.
And you know what I've heard other people say, too, is when things happen in their life and you say, hey, that's a blessing from God, they say, no, God had nothing to do with that. I did that.
Or that's just chance. That was just good luck. Or that was just my hard work paying off.
No, every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the Father of lights with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.
And so it's that kind of ungrateful attitude that starts the downward spiral in Romans chapter 1 of people going down this dark path where they don't want to glorify God as God.
They're not thankful for the gift of life that God has given them. And so they go down this dark path.
And what's funny, too, is that you have this attitude now where children think they don't owe anything to their parents.
Now I can understand some unsaved atheist, non-Christian thinking that. I don't know how anybody can read the Bible and think that they don't owe something to their parents.
Because Jesus Christ literally preaches on this in Matthew chapter 15. He talks about how the Pharisees are hypocrites and how they have made the word of God of none effect through their tradition.
Because the Bible says, honor thy father and mother, and whoso curseth father or mother, let him die the death.
But you say that if a man says that it is corban, that is to say a gift whatsoever, thou mightest be profited by me and sufferest not to do anything for his father or mother. Right?
But what's he saying? And I know I said that kind of fast and it's kind of a mouthful, but read Matthew 15 carefully.
He's saying, you're allowing people to do nothing for their father and mother. You're not requiring them to honor their father and mother if they basically, you know, have this corban loophole where they donate the money or whatever they do.
However, exactly that worked isn't really the point. The point is that Jesus is rebuking the Pharisees for allowing people to wiggle out of honoring their father and mother and paying the debt that they owe to their father and mother.
And you say, well, I still don't believe it. Okay, how about in Paul's epistle to Timothy where he says, if any man or woman that believeth have widows, he says let them relieve them and let not the church be charged.
It says, if a man or woman that believes have widows, let them learn first piety at home and to requite their parents.
In 1 Timothy 5, it says that children should requite their parents. What does the word requite mean?
Requite means recompense, pay them back. And the Bible says that when your parents are old, you pay them back. You requite them.
It's like if you say we are quit, it means we're even. To requite is to make it quit, to pay it back, to recompense.
And so, yeah, you do owe your, you say, well, why would I owe my parents anything? Because your parents worked and paid and sacrificed to bring you into this world.
I didn't ask them to do that. Yeah, an atheist didn't ask to be created either, but here we are.
And you're an ungrateful punk and you need to not have that wicked attitude of ingratitude toward either God or your parents. Okay?
And so these people, they're having that ungrateful attitude toward God and that starts them on a dark path toward a horrible fate that we're going to see later in the chapter.
So it says in verse number 22, professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. And it's kind of funny, some of these intellectuals and scoffers and atheists that would deny the fact that God created this world.
What are they called? Professors many times, right? You know, these intellectual scientific types that claim that the world created itself, that things came from nothing, and that non-life produced life.
Of course, these are not actually scientific ideas. They're philosophical ideas. I mean, any biology textbook will tell you life begets life and that living material can only come from other living material.
Living material begets living material, but then here's what they'll say. Well, a long time ago, something alive must have come from something not alive because it's here.
So they have no explanation from where the first living things came from. And they'll acknowledge the principle that life can't come from non-life.
But they're like, well, but it had to have happened once because here we are. Excuse me, I have another explanation. God created life. God created life. Okay.
And obviously, you know, I don't want to paint a picture that all professors or that all scientists feel that way because there are many professors and many scientists who will acknowledge that God created life or that God at least could have created life.
Maybe that's the explanation they'll sometimes say. You know, not all of them are rabid atheists, of course, but many of them are.
And professing themselves to be wise, they became fools because it is really stupid to say that all this complicated genetic material and DNA and all of the complicated animals and plants that we see came from nothing.
It's impossible. It's a stupid thought. It'd be like finding a computer and saying that the computer just kind of naturally came into existence on its own.
That would be absurd, but yet even the simplest organism is way more complicated than that computer.
And here's the thing. You have to understand that when Charles Darwin is coming up with this idea of evolution, he's working before DNA had even been discovered.
In fact, he's working before anything was even really known about genetics because the father of genetics, Mendel, was actually living at the same time as Darwin.
And there's no evidence that they read each other's work. I mean, some people think they might have, you know, been aware of each other or some of their theories about it, but Mendel's work didn't become popular until after Darwin had been dead for a long time.
It didn't really get popular until the early 20th century. So genetics started to be discovered in the early 20th century is when that science started to develop.
And then DNA, we're talking about the middle of the 20th century. Okay. So here's the thing. Charles Darwin is saying, oh, well, these really simple organisms begat more complicated organisms.
But the problem that is that here's what Charles Darwin didn't know. There's no such thing as a simple organism.
You know, Charles Darwin didn't know the fact that there's no such thing as a simple organism because even if you go down to just a single-celled organism, it's extremely complicated.
You know, here's one example. You know, our DNA as human beings has 2.9 billion base pairs. Okay. So that's the code on which humans are built.
It's 2.9 billion base pairs long. That's how long our DNA is. And here's what's interesting about that is that there is a species of paramecium, which is a single-celled organism.
So you think, like, we're humans. We're these complicated organisms. We're, you know, we're a lot more than one cell, right? But just a tiny microscopic single-celled organism, there is one that has DNA with 299 billion base pairs.
So the DNA of certain single-celled organisms is actually, there's 100 times more information than our DNA. So that's your simple organism, right?
A creature with 299 billion base pairs, there's your simple organism. And here's the thing. Obviously, that's an extreme example.
But you could pick all, you could take all the single-celled organisms you want because now the genomes of millions of species have been mapped now in 2025.
Virtually any animal you want, you can go online if you know what you're doing and you can look at the full genome of any animal you want.
Name the animal, giraffe, polar bear, lion. I mean, those are easy. Now add another million species that you've never even heard of, all their DNA has been mapped now.
Remember, remember like 25 years ago they were mapping the human genome? It was a huge deal. Human genome project. Billions and billions of dollars and literally over a thousand scientists worked on it for years.
A thousand scientists are working on it, spending billions and billions of dollars to map the human genome. Now in 2025, you know how much it costs if you wanted to map your full human genome?
It's a thousand dollars to map your full genome. Exactly what they were trying to do 25 years ago, spending billions of dollars, thousands of scientists, now it's a thousand bucks.
I think it's like $1,100 exactly is how much it costs now for them to run. So now they're, you know, now they're doing it to every animal there is.
Every bacteria, every virus, every animal. I mean, they're mapping these genomes like crazy and there's all this data, nobody even has time to process it all.
And you can literally just go online and just download the full genome of a camel. I mean, you wouldn't know what to do with it necessarily, but you can literally just download it as a text file on your computer in a matter of seconds.
You know, from these websites. I've done it. It's easy. You know, you can just download it and it's just, there it is. You know, you just got all the, you know, ATCGGGAATTGCGA.
Whoa, this is really cool. But, you know, obviously then you got to figure out how to read it and process it and map it and so forth.
Folks, the simplest organism that there is has a super complicated code DNA that is the map for how to build that organism and it's super complicated.
And even a single cell, you know what, whenever I first learned about cells and all the parts of a cell, it reminded me of like a city. It's like a little city.
Every cell in your body or any animal's body, it's like a city. And I was thinking like, oh, these are different departments. It's like a whole operation that's going on in one cell.
And obviously our bodies are made up of trillions of cells, you know. And so this idea of, oh well, you know, it's just these little simple organisms and then they got more complicated.
Well then why aren't there any simple organisms anywhere for us to look at? Show me one of these simple organisms. And don't show me that picture of an ape slowly turning into a human, the famous picture.
Why don't you show me a picture of something that's nothing, not alive, turning into the first life form. Show me the evolution from nothingness to the first single celled organism.
You can't. Unless you just dreamed up something in your vain imagination. And real scientists will actually admit to you, yeah, we have no idea where life came from and we don't even know what life even is.
We don't even have a definition for life. That's a true story. But see, they professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, right, and dreamed up all of these explanations because of the wickedness of their heart which is really just not wanting to acknowledge God as God.
They don't want to retain God in their knowledge. They don't want to glorify him as God because they're unthankful, right? Just like a child who doesn't want to recognize their mother and father, doesn't want to honor their father and mother. They don't want to recognize the heavenly father. They don't want to recognize the creator.
It says in verse 23, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man and to birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things. And here's the thing, obviously the primary context here because it's the epistle to the Romans.
So it's the apostle Paul writing in the first century AD. He's obviously thinking about idolatry of, you know, worshiping humans, beasts or whatever, the whole pantheon of gods and goddesses.
And so they have idols like in the Old Testament, the golden calf or something. And then you have other Greek gods, Roman gods, Eastern gods, all these different things.
Obviously idolatry is the primary application, but you know, obviously the Bible is not just written by man. It's not just the apostle Paul writing. It's also the Holy Spirit writing.
And so often the Bible goes beyond just what's right there on the surface, what maybe the apostle Paul is directly referring to.
And there can be a lot of other layers of meaning and other applications because frankly in 2025 America, idolatry is not really a huge problem.
If we were living in India, yeah, it's still a problem. If we were living in Southeast Asia or something. But let's face it, in America it's not a huge problem.
But you know, you could also look at this and say, okay, well they changed the glory of the uncorruptible god into an image made like to corruptible man and to birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things.
And then in a moment he's going to say they worshiped and served the creature more than the creator.
You could also apply this to the idea that we as human beings are made in the image of God and they have basically taken that glory that God gets for creating us in his own image by now saying, well, no, no, no.
We weren't really made by God. We actually came from animals.
And then you'll see now this almost worship that people have toward animals now in our modern society even because they have this attitude, well, we're no different than that.
And they say, well, you know, you've got to be vegan because you wouldn't want to be milked every day. You don't want to have somebody just grabbing you and milking you.
So why are you grabbing that animal and milking that animal? Right? And you wouldn't want your children to be served as a burger or something. So why are you doing that to this cow?
Okay. But again, they're not glorifying and acknowledging God as the creator who has created human beings in his image and that human beings reflect the glory of God Almighty and are not products of animals and are not on par with animals.
We're not on the same level with animals. We as Christians, we worship the creator. But today, atheists and agnostics often worship the creation.
So they worship nature. And really, you can see how this connects with idolatry because idolatry in many cases has come out of this kind of pantheistic worship of nature.
Oh, we're worshiping the river over here. We're worshiping the mountain over here. We're worshiping the forest over here. And then it turns into like an anthropomorphized river god, mountain god, forest god, or whatever, right?
Kind of all connected. So even though we might not necessarily have the exact example of people carving an image of a cow and bowing down to it, we still can see this kind of a thing playing out where people aren't acknowledging God as the creator.
They're believing that we came from animals. They're then worshiping animals, saying that animals are more important than humans. And, you know, oh, I just don't like people. I just like dogs instead.
And you hear these kind of strange statements that people make, and they're not kidding, unfortunately.
And so the Bible says that because they did this, because they were not thankful and didn't glorify God and became fools, it says,
Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, verse 24, through the lusts of their own hearts to dishonor their own bodies between themselves.
Now the thing I want to point out here, this is the first of three statements. Because we have God gave them up, God gave them up, God gave them over.
Okay? And the first thing I want to point out here is that it says God gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts.
And the word wherefore at the beginning there in verse 24 means for this reason. Okay.
So because they didn't glorify God, because they came up with alternative explanations for where they came from and started worshiping animals instead of God,
because they did that, God gave them up to uncleanness. Now, again, I'm just going to reiterate because of the dumb interpretations that are out there,
are we talking about saved people? Is it even possible that we could be talking about saved Christians right now?
It's absurd because saved Christians aren't bowing down to a lizard and worshiping it.
There's no saved Christian that is worshiping, and that's what that is, the creeping thing there.
Creeping things are talking about lizards and things of that nature. Right? I'm not saying lizards are the only thing that creep, but that's an example of what we call a creeping thing.
Okay. And so Christians are not worshiping a lizard. None of them are. They're not worshiping cows. They're not refusing to acknowledge God as creator.
Everybody who's a saved Christian believes that God's the creator, and they're acknowledging God as God. Nobody says, oh, I don't believe in God, but I'm a Christian.
It'd be an absurd statement. If someone said that to you, you'd say, well, they're for sure not saved.
If somebody told me, well, I don't believe in God, but I am a Christian, you'd just say, well, you're unsaved. You're not saved.
Because without faith, it's impossible to please him. You know, you have to believe, salvation's by faith, back to verses 16 and 17.
And so we're talking about unsaved people who have just rejected God, and so as a result of rejecting God, God gave them up to uncleanness.
Okay. So just stop and think about the language here. Don't let this truth pass you by. What does that mean? God gave them up to uncleanness.
Okay. It sounds to me like there's something restraining these people or holding them back from getting super unclean.
But then God just kind of gives them up to uncleanness and just kind of says, whatever. Does everybody understand?
He's removing the restraint from them and just saying like, okay, whatever. You're going to be that way? Well, then I'm going to give you up to uncleanness.
And it says, through the lusts of their own hearts. So it is not that God has dreamed up something wicked or sinful for them to do.
God's not making them do anything weird or sinful, right? No, no, no. It's through the lusts of their own heart.
All God's doing is just giving them up, right? Instead of restraining them, instead of holding them back, he just gives them over to that.
And it all takes place through the lusts of their own heart. It comes from the wickedness of their own heart to dishonor their own bodies between themselves.
Okay. So they are being physical with one another in a dishonorable way. And we're going to get to the specifics of that in a moment.
He's going to tell us exactly what he's talking about. But it says, who changed the truth of God into a lie and worshiped and served the creature more than the creator who is blessed forever. Amen.
Now, we don't want to mistakenly think that verse 25 has to take place after verse 24. Verse 25 is just reminding us who we're talking about.
He gave them up to uncleanness to dishonor their own bodies between themselves. You know, those people that worshiped and served the creature more than the creator.
The ones we just talked about in verse 23. It's really just reminding us of what they did back in verse 23.
24 is the result. 25 is just identifying this group as those same people. Okay. This relative clause starting with who is describing the people that were given up, that were given up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts.
And because they did those things enumerated in verses 23 and 25, it says, for this cause, because of this, right, isn't that just like the wherefore in verse 24?
God gave them up unto vile affections. So notice, verse 24 says, wherefore God gave them up to uncleanness to dishonor their bodies.
And then in verse 26, it says, God gave them up unto vile affections. It's really a restatement of the same thing. Okay?
The dishonoring of their bodies between themselves is the same thing as the vile affections. Okay?
Why are they doing these things? Why? Because God gave them up. The implication here is that if God did not give them up to those things, they wouldn't be doing those things.
But God gave them up to those things. And you say, Pastor Anderson, you know, why are you breaking it down so simple because, you know, we just don't need this much help?
I'm really glad that you feel that way, but the sad thing is that everybody outside these walls doesn't seem to grasp what I'm teaching you right now.
And so I'm just going real slow to make sure that we, at least on the inside of these walls, understand this passage because I'm telling you, this is not being preached across America.
This is not being preached in Baptist churches. The so-called old IFB does not believe what I'm about to show you right here, even though it's crystal clear.
So I'm just leaving no stone unturned. You might as well just break it down word by word, line by line, and make sure we're all on the same page here.
Who changed the truth of God into a lie, worshiped the creature more than the Creator.
Verse 26, for this cause God gave them up unto vile affections for, now this is just further explanation of what the vile affections are, what the dishonoring their own bodies with themselves are.
For even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature, and likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lusts one toward another, men with men, working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error, which was meat.
And so what are we talking about here? The natural thing would be for men and women to have a physical relationship with one another.
A man and a woman get married and they have a physical relationship with one another. That is natural. That is normal.
The Bible says marriage is honorable in all, and the bed undefiled, but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge. So the Bible calls the marriage bed honorable.
Okay, it is natural. The man has a natural use of the woman, the Bible says, but these people go contrary to nature. Not just contrary to God or the Bible, they're going contrary to nature.
Contrary to human nature. Contrary to the natural world. And they do these vile things, gross things, dishonorable things, wicked things, where the women will leave the natural use, right?
And they'll do something against nature, and then also the men will do the same thing. Men with men. So obviously we're talking about homosexuality here.
We're talking about the women with the women, the men with the men. It's unnatural. It's not normal. It's vile. It's disgusting. And that's what is happening here.
Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another. Now, a man burning with lust toward another man is not normal.
Now look, we live amongst sinners. The world is filled with sinful people. We all have a sinful nature. Even after we're saved, we still have the same sinful flesh.
And we are surrounded by people, many of whom don't believe in God at all, are not Christian at all, don't think that absolute morality necessarily even exists.
But even among such people, it is not normal for a man to lust after another man. Even the most sinful people, worldly people, ungodly people, even a Christian on his most backslidden day is not burning in lust toward other dudes.
It's not normal. It's not natural. It goes against nature. It's sort of like, you know, you think about nature, you have magnets, and it's like the positive and the negative magnet attract each other.
The positive and the positive repel one another. The negative and the negative repel one another. And you try to push them together, it's just like, you can't get it to go together, right?
This is kind of how it is with two dudes. In fact, when I was a kid, my science book, in the subject on magnetism, and it was explaining magnetism, it showed two male poodles walking away from each other in disgust, and then it showed two female poodles walking away from each other in disgust.
And then it showed a male and a female poodle walking toward each other with a heart. And it, like, the male poodle was labeled positive, and it was showing, like, see, opposites attract. This is how magnets work.
You know, somehow I doubt that that's what the Tempe, you know, public school district has in their textbook right now. But that's the textbook I grew up with, you know, 30-some years ago or whatever.
And so here's what you have to understand, that men lusting toward other men, women, you know, doing this with each other, men doing this, it's bizarre.
And our world is trying to cram it down our throats and just make it seem like it's normal. So every TV show and movie and book and magazine is trying to just gaslight you into thinking that this is normal.
And that it's just totally normal. Like, they'll just, you know, on any kind of just, you know, book or TV show or movie, they'll just introduce these homo characters like it's just natural as rain.
Like, nobody's even surprised, just, oh yeah, whatever, you know, just normal. No, it isn't. But they push it and they push it and they brainwash you enough to where now even Christians are starting to think that this is normal.
And it is not normal. It is disgusting. It is vile. And let's face it, we all have a sinful nature. Okay? So here's the thing, you know, if I'm driving down the road and I see some, you know, image of some scantily clad babe, am I, as a man, Pastor Anderson, am I going to be tempted to lust after that image?
Or if I see some babe walking down the street or something and she's dressed inappropriately, there's a pretty good chance that, physically speaking, I am going to want to look at that and indulge in that fantasy or whatever because that's how we're wired as men biologically.
Okay? Men are attracted to women. Women are attracted to men. It's just biology, you know. And I'm sure that there, you know, some of you are so holy that maybe you've never had that thought or whatever.
But the point is that just, if we're honest, if we're honest as men, this is something that is tempting unto us. This is something that we deal with as men.
And here's the thing, the fact that our biology is wired that way does not give us an excuse to indulge in that.
You know, we can't just say, well, of course I'm going to look at it. I mean, you know, it's just I'm a red-blooded male, you know, telling me not to look at this beautiful babe.
You know, that's just like, you know, just telling the apple not to fall from the tree or something. It's just nature.
But here's what you have to understand is that God calls us to transcend the flesh. God calls us through the Spirit to overcome the lust of the flesh.
And the Bible says that if we walk in the Spirit, we will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. So God is not telling us, hey, yeah, it's natural, it's normal, I made you that way, so just go ahead and just lust after all the women and go out and just commit a bunch of fornication and adultery.
No. It's wrong. We are supposed to control those appetites. We're supposed to control the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh.
We are supposed to get married and then indulge that appetite in its proper context within marriage. One wife for life and that is what God has designed.
And yeah, does our biology prompt it? Look, my biology also would have, you know, my biology wanted me to eat about five of those doughnuts this morning and to drink a whole gallon of that milk.
If I would have just listened to whatever my body wanted, because I had one and a half doughnuts this morning. Usually I don't eat any of them, but today I ate one and a half of them.
And you know what? That was not me just going crazy. I'll show you going crazy. I'll eat a dozen doughnuts.
If I just took off the restraint, you know what I mean? Obviously you don't just go through life just indulging every craving.
You know, every time you feel like laying down, you're just going to lay down, you're just at work, get a little tired, just lay on the floor.
Just keep eating, eat every time I'm hungry, eat, eat, eat. You're going to get huge, right? You don't indulge every appetite.
And obviously when things are sinful, the Holy Spirit is there to help you overcome those things and transcend your biology, transcend the flesh.
But here's the thing, we as men, we have that temptation, don't we? We struggle with that where we see those images and we want to feast our eyes on that.
But here's the thing, if I'm driving down the street and I saw some dude on a billboard or some dude by the side of the road, I'm not just like, oh, you know, can't look at that, you know.
Because there's no desire to look at that. You know, if I walk into the locker room and there's some naked dude, that's not a temptation, right?
Now if I walked in and there's a naked lady, you know, again, it's just like a reflex, you're just going to want to look at that. It's just like, duh.
And you got to make a point not to do that. Does everybody understand what I'm saying?
Okay, so to sit there and say, well, you know, these homos, they're just sinners like the rest of us, you know, we're all just sinners. It's like, nah, not really.
Because, yeah, we're all sinners, but we don't have temptations other than those that are common to man.
There's no temptation taking you, but such as is common to man. And we all as men, yeah, we're all tempted by the beautiful babes of this world.
But you know what we're not tempted by is another dude. That's not a temptation. That's not a thing. Okay, in fact, it's not only not a temptation, it's gross.
It's repugnant to us. It's repulsive to us. We're just like, eh, gross. It's vile. That's the word the Bible uses.
And so we have to ask ourselves, why is it that a certain segment of our society in 2025 is dudes that lust after other dudes?
Why is there a segment of our society that is going against nature? Well, they're just sinners. No, because sinners don't do that.
Normal sinners don't do that. Christians who are backslidden, you know what they're going to do? They're going to go out and commit fornication or adultery or something.
Which, don't get me wrong, those are big sins. But those are the natural drives that they would be driven toward.
Whereas, when you see a man burning in lust toward another man, there's a question. How did he get that way? What went wrong?
Why is this dude lusting after another? Why are these women lesbians? Like, what happened there? And so the world has their answer. What's the world's answer?
Oh, they're born that way. It's baloney. I remember when I was a kid, they were searching for the gay gene and everything.
And you heard about this, and they're looking. And it's funny, they looked and looked and looked, and guess what? They never found it.
But now, all of a sudden, in 2025, they're just like, they're born that way. Like, what happened is, a bunch of scientists checked out that theory.
It didn't pan out. A few years went by of silence, and then all of a sudden, they're just like, well, yeah, I mean, and then it's just like, yeah, of course they're born that way.
You're like, what? I thought you guys explored that and it didn't pan out. They did identical twin studies, where they're seeing if one identical twin's a homo,
you know, does that impact whether the other twin's a homo? And it was like no statistically significant correlation.
And that even identical twins with the same DNA, if one's a homo, the effect that that has on the other one being a homo is not even statistically significant.
And even if there were some slight correlation, you could just say, well, they had the same weird upbringing or whatever.
But even that didn't pan out. They just, there were just a bunch of sets of identical twins where one was a homo and the other wasn't.
And there was no, and, you know, the science just isn't there. It's just a lie to say, oh, they're born that way. It's just, it's stupid. It's false.
And then these homos, every homo that you talk to, this is the crap that they'll say to you. They'll say like, oh, well, you don't understand. I already felt this way when I was seven.
Who's heard this from homos before? Oh, I felt this way when I was eight years old. I already knew it when I was nine. I already knew it when I was ten.
Here's why you know that this is total baloney, what they're saying to you, is that no six, seven, eight, or nine year old is even thinking about those things.
Am I right? Because guess what? When I was six, seven, eight, nine, I preferred boys too.
Because every single six, seven, eight, nine, ten year old prefers boys because girls have cooties.
They, because they're not thinking about these adult topics because they haven't even hit puberty. That's the last thing on their mind.
You know what they're thinking about? Boys are just fun to play with or whatever. So basically, you have these sodomites trying to rewrite their life history saying, oh, yeah, I did prefer boys when I was eight, nine, ten, eleven.
Yeah, you and everyone else too. And you say, no, no, I was thinking about something different. Well then, you know what? You must have been molested or shown pornography then because no child would normally think about those things at age five, six, seven, eight, nine.
Right? Unless they got exposed to something weird. And that's what our society now, wicked elements of our society are trying to do that now.
They're trying to expose kids to these ideas and get them thinking along these lines when they're five, six, seven, eight. They're getting in and teaching this stuff in kindergarten, first grade, second grade, third grade.
And they are trying to pervert the minds of young children and confuse them because any normal child is just not thinking about those things at all.
I mean, think about, you know, I can remember my own life. I remember being in fourth grade and being upset that I was surrounded by girls.
You know, I wanted to sit with boys and I had a girl on this side of my desk, I had a girl on this side, girl in front, girl in back. I was like, dang it.
But then I realized that the teacher had done that on purpose and that the whole room went boy, girl, boy, girl, boy, girl. Because at first I thought it was just me, just bad luck.
But then it turned out it was like boy, girl, boy, girl, boy, girl, boy, girl, boy, girl. Because the teacher knows there's going to be less talking.
Okay. But then you fast forward like three, four years to when you're 12, 13 and now all of a sudden it's like, hey, baby, all right, you know.
It goes from being bad luck to good luck to be surrounded by girls. Okay.
But it's not normal for kids in elementary school to be thinking about anything along those lines unless they've been corrupted by someone.
Someone took them aside, showed them something filthy, showed them something inappropriate, talked to them or even, you know, worse molested them or whatever.
That's how you know this. But it's like people just don't think. They don't stop and think that, yeah, we all when we're five, six, seven prefer the same gender because we're not thinking about it in a weird way.
It's just kids playing with other kids, you know. And just because let's say a girl is just a little bit of a tomboy or something, that's pretty normal.
Right. It's pretty normal. And it's pretty normal for boys to like play house or whatever sometimes. Those things are just normal things.
But what happens is what they do is they try to reinterpret their childhood and exaggerate these things. Oh, one time I played with dolls or something.
Every dude probably played with dolls sometime just because they got sick of their own toys. You know, every kid once they burn through the Hardy Boys started, you know, reading Nancy Drew for a while.
Right. Every girl they burn through the Nancy Drew series, they pull out the Hardy Boys, you know. It's just like there's always going to be a little bit of crossover of toys and entertainment and play.
And sometimes you're going to go play with the girls as a boy. You're going to go play house with them. And then they're going to come play like, you know, I don't know, Cowboys and Indians with you later or whatever.
But this stuff gets all reinterpreted through a perverted mind because under the pure, all things are pure. But under them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure.
But even their minds and their conscience is defiled. You know, so they go back and reinterpret these things in a weird way to claim they're born that way.
So on the one hand, we have this world claiming that sodomites are born that way, right? Because the Bible calls them sodomites. On the one hand, the world says they're born that way.
Then we have mainstream evangelical Christianity. Mainstream evangelical Christianity does not claim that they're born that way. They don't accept that. They do not acknowledge that.
Here's what mainstream evangelical Christianity says. Oh, they're just like everyone else. They're just normal. So they just kind of have this weird reality denial by claiming, oh, well, we're all sinners and they're just normal and they should just stop doing that. Just stop it.
And here's what's so funny is that some of these pastors, some of these evangelical pastors will even say things like, well, we could all be homos. And you're just like, what the heck?
You know, like, hey, you know, we could all, you know, we could all fall into that sin if we got backslidden enough. Amen. And it's just like crickets, you know, like it's like speak for yourself.
So the evangelical Christians are kind of just denying reality. They're just denying reality that these people are different. These people are not normal because most people are repulsed by that activity.
They're burning in lust toward it. Something's different here. So then the world is like, yeah, something's different. But then they make up this fiction about them being born that way.
The true story is, what the Bible says here, the reason that they are that way is because God gave them up to vile affections. That is the difference.
The difference between the superworldly sinful guy that you know that still thinks homos are weird, but he'll go out and be a whoremonger and, you know, he has no problem going to the strip club and going out and sowing his wild oats with a bunch of just babes that he picks up at home.
You know, some super wicked guy. What's the difference between that guy and homos? The difference is that one has been given up to vile affections and the other hasn't. Does everybody understand?
Now, what does this mean to be given up to vile affections? I think a great illustration for this is like a governor in your car. So old cars in the 70s, and I wasn't born, but this is what I've been told.
They had this thing called a governor, right? And certain vehicles would have a governor and it basically doesn't allow the car to go above a certain speed. Who knows what I'm talking about?
So there's like a governor that stops the car from going a certain speed, right? So it's like a restraint that keeps the car from going beyond a certain threshold.
Well, here's the thing. We as human beings made in the image of God, we also have certain restraints that make us different than animals, right? Because animals will do all kinds of weird, gross things that people won't do, right?
Dog will just like throw up and just start eating its own vomit. You know, a cat will just stick one of its hind legs up in the air and just start licking, you know, something gross and you're just like, what the heck? Like, what are you doing?
And, you know, we've all, if we've been around dogs long enough, we've seen dogs eat feces and vomit and all kinds, and you're just like, what in the world?
You know, we've also seen that proverbial dog in heat that is just humping everything in sight and you're just like, what is wrong with this dog?
They're animals. They don't have these, you know, qualms about cleanliness and things, right? Whereas human beings, we have all these boundaries and barriers that we don't cross and things that are gross to us and weird and not normal.
What happens is when a person rejects God to the point that we're talking about here in Romans chapter one, God will give them over to vile affections, meaning that he just removes the governor.
You know, there's like a threshold or a line that normal people don't cross. God basically just removes that.
So God is not dreaming up this filth or weird stuff that they get involved in, but normal people are not pedophiles or homos or any of these other perversions that I'm not even going to mention, like, you know, like what it says in Leviticus 18 and 20, you know, people that would lie with a beast or something like that.
You know, normal people would never do that. They don't want to do that. They're grossed out by that.
So when you see people that are doing those things, you know what it tells you? The governor has been removed.
So God has basically turned them into like tantamount to a beast where they'll just kind of do anything.
He removes that normal restraint and he just gives them over to dishonor their own bodies between themselves through the lusts of their own heart.
He just gives them over to vile affections. And then you see, it says in verse 26, God gave them up into vile affections for even their women to change the natural use of that which is against nature.
Likewise, also the man leaving the natural use of the woman burned in their lusts one to another.
If you see a man lusting toward another man and a man's burning lusts toward other men, it's because it's evidence that God has given him over to a reprobate mind.
He's been given up. Was he born that way now? Is he normal? Is he just like everyone else now? He's been given up.
And again, I don't see what's complicated about this chapter. I think this chapter is pretty clear, but it's just people don't want to believe this.
This would have been easy to preach 50 years ago. But people don't want to believe this because of the fact that our society has brainwashed us into thinking that homos are normal.
They're the same as everybody else or that they're even somehow better than us or wonderful. They're the nicest people ever.
But look what the Bible says. Even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, verse 28, God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient.
Convenient means things that would come naturally. God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things. It's like, what do you not understand about that, right?
God gave them over. So sometimes homos will say, God made me this way. And I'm like, you're not wrong.
Yeah, because God gave you over to a reprobate mind to do those things that are not convenient. God gave you up unto vile affections. God gave you up unto uncleanness.
That's why you're not normal. And he says, God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient.
Now, what does the word reprobate mean? The word reprobate simply means rejected. And you can use a dictionary to define this or you can just study the Bible and see how it's used.
For example, in Jeremiah 6-30, it says, reprobate silver shall men call them because the Lord has rejected them. So a reprobate mind means a rejected mind.
So they have the mindset of those who have been rejected by God. And notice how this is reciprocal. It says in verse 28, they did not like to retain God in their knowledge.
So they hate God so much that they have pushed him out of their mind like they don't even want to remember that he even exists. And as a consequence, God gave them over to a reprobate mind.
So basically what God's saying is, you rejected me, now I'm rejecting you. And he gave them up to vile affections.
It says, and then it goes on to describe them, being filled. Now, this is not a complete sentence. This is a dependent clause. This is not a complete sentence.
Being filled with all unrighteousness is a description of the people that we just talked about. God gave them over to a reprobate mind. Now let's describe the them.
Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity, whispers, backbiters.
Here's the key. Underline this one. Haters of God. Haters of God. Right? That's how they even got there in the first place.
Despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents. And again, we talked about how that attitude that atheists and agnostics and people who reject God have toward God is often the same attitude that they have toward their parents.
Or that even Christian kids can sometimes get toward their parents of like, well I don't owe you anything and I never asked to be born into this family and that kind of stupidity.
Without understanding covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful. Okay?
Now, some people will again try to twist this passage and say, well if being a homo makes you a reprobate, well then I guess just, you know, boasting makes you a reprobate or being disobedient to your parents makes you a reprobate.
No. Wrong. What the Bible is saying is that these people who are reprobate, they also have all these other sins as well.
They're also full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, maliciousness, malignity, whispers, backbiters, etc. These are just other attributes that they have.
Here's the difference. They share those attributes with normal people. Normal people can fall into the trap of being a whisperer, backbiter.
Normal people can do things like disobey their parents, covet, whatever. Okay, obviously every sin on this list a reprobate does not one make.
But what you have to understand is that what is described earlier in the passage is something that's against nature.
It isn't normal. It's normal for people to lie, cheat, steal because we have a sinful nature.
It is not normal for men to be attracted to other men, women to be attracted to other women. It is evidence of the reprobate mind.
Now here's what I, and I'm going to close the sermon in a few minutes, but let's review really quick everything I did not say that people will lie and say that I said.
You know, people who watch this online, obviously you're not going to. But people that will see this online, this is what they'll lie and say that I said.
And this is what people lie every single day about me in the old IP and they go, oh, Pastor Anderson believes that homosexuality is an unforgivable sin.
It's an unpardonable sin. Did I teach that at any point in this sermon? Did I teach anywhere in this sermon that being a homo turns a person into a reprobate?
That if someone commits a homo act, God turns them into a reprobate. Is that what I, is that what? No, because it's the exact opposite of that.
It is becoming a reprobate that turns someone into a homo. That's what I actually said. Being a homo doesn't make you a reprobate. Being a reprobate makes you a homo.
Okay, that's how it works. Does everybody understand the difference? Because being a homo is a symptom of the fact that you have been given over to the reprobate mind because you didn't want to retain God in your knowledge.
That's what that actually is saying. And so here's the thing. We do live in a day where people are very confused and where children are being corrupted, molested, brainwashed, confused.
And there are all kinds of kids and teenagers that right now, because of the abuse of just the filth and garbage that they're being exposed to, they're in their minds maybe wondering, maybe I'm a homo or something.
And they might even experiment with something or especially if they're under the influence of drugs or alcohol, someone might molest them or get them involved in some act that they normally would not have participated in.
You know, that doesn't make them a reprobate. It's super gross and wicked and sinful, but it wouldn't necessarily make them a reprobate. You say, where's the line? The person, the man who burns and lusts toward other men is a reprobate.
You know, somebody who did something gross, like I'll give you an example. I knew a guy that told me, he said that when he was growing up, he was molested and so therefore he was confused and he one time experimented with that and right away he was grossed out by it and knew like, this is not who I am.
Like, this is not for me. But the reason that he even tried it was because he'd been abused and corrupted and then that led him to experiment with that and then he was grossed out by it, rejected it, ended up many, many years later as an adult getting saved.
Okay, this guy's not a reprobate. Okay, he was a victim that then unfortunately went on to commit a gross sin at some point. That's not the point. Okay, but what we're saying is that those who are burning and lust toward the same gender are not normal.
So your out and proud sodomites are reprobates and by the way, they are beyond the hope of salvation. They have been rejected by God, they've been given over to a reprobate mind, they are doomed and damned and there is nothing you can do for them and it's too late for them.
They are rejected, they are reprobate. Okay, now here's the thing, when I'm out soul winning because people get super offended by this doctrine saying that, oh, homos can't be saved because, and it's like, well, maybe they can get saved.
How can you get saved when you hate God and don't even want to retain him in your knowledge and your heart has been darkened and your heart has been hardened and what does the Bible say in John 12 39 about people whose heart has been hardened and their mind darkened and their eyes blind?
It says, therefore, they could not believe because God is blind in their minds. Here's the thing, if a person believes in Jesus, they will be saved, period. You say, what if a homo believed in Jesus, will he be saved? Theoretically, yes, of course, everyone who believes will be saved.
But the problem is you can't believe in Jesus when you don't even want to retain him in your knowledge, when you hate him so much that you don't even want to believe he exists. So now he's hardened your heart and turned you over to a reprobate mind. You're done, it's too late for you.
People get super offended by this and they say, you know, that we don't love people or we're not, you know, reaching out to the homos and stuff. But here's the thing, we've accidentally witnessed to more homos than the old IFB has witnessed to on purpose.
Because people don't always walk around with a sign that says, hello, my name is, I'm a homo. And so, therefore, we're constantly giving the gospel to just every person we meet.
We're out soul winning, we knock doors, we give the gospel. And here's the thing, when a teenager, if a child or a teenager tells me that they're a sodomite, I just assume that they're just confused and don't know what they're talking about and I preach the gospel to them anyway.
You know what I mean? Because I'm just, because a lot of times these kids will identify that way because it's like trendy. Like, oh, I'm lesbian. Oh, I'm a homo or whatever. And you're just like, whatever, you know, and you give them the gospel just kind of hoping that they're just confused.
And a lot of times it turns out they've never even done any of that stuff. It's just like brainwashing that they've received.
Whereas if I'm out soul winning and I knock the door and somebody, some dude comes to the door in drag, I don't have to stand there and look at that. And God doesn't expect me to stand there and look at that and talk to that person.
And look, I knocked on the door one time and this guy's like, oh, you know, why don't I go get my boyfriend out of the shower? We can all talk about it. I'm just like, screw you, I'm out of here.
I'm not going to sit here and witness to some filthy, reprobate homo. That's casting your pearls before swine, my friend.
Okay. But like I said, we're constantly giving people the benefit of the doubt. And here's what I've always said. If I'm 99% sure that somebody is a homo, I'll give them the gospel anyway just for the 1% chance that they're not.
You know, and look, there have been people, I remember there was this one girl and she had like a boy's haircut, she had a rainbow sticker on her thermos, and I thought that for sure she was a lesbian.
Because she just seemed like it. But, you know what, I wasn't sure. I didn't have any evidence of that. I didn't want to just jump to that conclusion.
And so I ended up witnessing to her anyway, being kind under her anyway, and it turned out she was not a lesbian at all because a lot of people just have that sticker because they're just supporting homos or something.
It turned out she was married, totally normal, you know, so I'm not saying we want to just start labeling everyone and just jump into conclusions.
But, you know, when a dude is in drag or something, or when somebody just outright just tells you, I'm a homo, you know, then at that point you know what you're dealing with.
And you just need to get away from gross people like that and just move. You know, and it's funny because some people would be scandalized by me saying I'm not going to witness to some dude in drag.
It's like, well, what if I knocked on the door and a naked lady came to the door? Am I just going to be like, alright, Romans 3.23, let's go.
And guess what? A dude coming to the door in drag is way more offensive than coming to the door naked. It's super offensive, it's super gross, none of us want to look at that.
And the Bible says, I'll send no wicked thing before my eyes. And the Bible says, give not that which is holy unto the dogs and don't cast your pearls before swine because they will trample them under their feet and turn again and renew you.
So no, we're not going soul winning at a gay pride parade. Why would we want to be exposed to all that filth?
And so I know this is an unpopular doctrine, but it's amazing how every time I preach on this, the Bible keeps saying the same thing. I keep turning to Romans 1 and there it is again.
You know, and it's like, 2025, it still says it, I'm not changing on this doctrine, I'm not backing down on this doctrine.
And you say, well I don't agree with you Pastor Anderson because I think that homos can still be saved. Well here's what I say to you, go get as many homos saved as you want. Just don't bring them here.
Amen? Because we don't want them around our kids. So you go get all the homos you want saved. Good luck with that. You have a ball witnessing to homos.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father we thank you so much for your word Lord. Thank you for Romans chapter 1. Thank you that the gospel, the power of God unto salvation Lord.
Thank you that we are saved by faith alone, through grace, through Christ. Thank you so much for your unspeakable gift Lord.
And Lord God help us to beware of the horrible things that are going on in our society right now. The wicked agendas that are being pushed Lord.
And help us not to fall prey to wicked, malicious, evil people described in Romans 1. Help us to get away from them and keep our families away from them.
And to realize that if you have rejected them, we should reject them as well.
And Lord God please bless us as we go our separate ways this week. And help us to honor and glorify you throughout the week. And in Jesus name we pray. Amen.
Amen. All right ladies and gentlemen take your hymnals please. Go to hymn number 3.
Hymn number 3. Jesus paid it all. Hymn number 3.
Hymn number 3.
We've got a lot of first verse together. Hymn number 3. I hope the Savior is here. I just want you to sing this hymn. Hymn number 3. Sing it out.
I hear the Savior sing, Thy strength in me this fall.
Child of weakness, watch and pray. Light in me, thine own and all.
Jesus paid it all, all to rid my own. Sin hath let the crimson stain.
He washed it white as snow. For now in thee I find.
Thy power and thine alone can change the blood first spot and now the heart of stone.
Jesus paid it all, all to rid my own. Sin hath let the crimson stain.
He washed it white as snow. For now in thee I find.
Whereby thy grace to claim, I'll wash my varmints white.
In the blood of Calvary's plan, Jesus paid it all, all to rid my own.
Sin hath let the crimson stain. He washed it white as snow.
And went before the throne. I stand in incomplete.
Jesus died, my soul to save. My then shall still repeat.
Jesus paid it all, all to rid my own. Sin hath let the crimson stain.
He washed it white as snow.
Jesus paid it all, all to rid my own.