Behavior of a Depraved Mind

Transcript

GR 1410
11/15/09
Behavior of a Depraved Mind
Romans 1:28-29
Gil Rugh

We're studying the book of Romans together and we're early in our study so turn in your Bibles to Romans 1. As I've mentioned, this is a portion of the Word of God that one preacher who is now with the Lord noted that if you weren't beginning at the beginning of a book and preaching through it verse by verse, you probably wouldn't want to come to Romans 1. What is presented here is not attractive, it's not pretty. It presents fallen, sinful human beings as God sees them. I was reflecting on this passage again this week, I couldn't help but think of what you sometimes see in a science fiction movie or a horror movie, not that I watch a lot of those. But sometimes you'll see a person that looks attractive and they'll look in a mirror and there is something about that mirror, it reveals them as they really are and the reflection coming back in that mirror is something horrible and grotesque and awful and ugly. And basically that's what is happening here. The Word of God is a mirror and it is showing us as we truly, really are in the sight of a holy and righteous God. What God is doing in this first major section of Romans, as you come over to Romans 3:9, when he is done the Spirit of God through Paul will have demonstrated, what then? Are we better than they? Are we Jews better than those Greeks and Gentiles? Not at all, for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin. That's what we need to understand, we must know that there are no exceptions. Everyone, Jew and Gentile alike are under sin, under condemnation, under the wrath of God. Guilty before Him.

This section began in verse 18 of chapter 1, the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. We ought to know the cause of the wrath of God is God has made Himself known. That is a reoccurring emphasis through this first chapter. Verse 19, that which is known about God is evident within them or among them. God made it evident to them. Verse 21, even though they knew God; down in verse 28, just as they did not see fit to have God in knowledge, or to acknowledge God. Literally, to have God in their knowledge. Down in verse 32, they know the ordinance of God. We noted there are not exceptions here, we are not dealing with innocent people, we are not dealing with people who don't know better, we are not dealing with people who are truly atheists and don't know that there is a God. We are dealing with people who have had God reveal Himself to them and they have determined to suppress what He has made known and not to acknowledge Him, not to honor Him, not to give Him glory as God.

The result is the judgment of God has come upon them. They are under the wrath of God presently. There is a future dimension to the wrath of God, eternal hell, but there is a present dimension to the wrath of God and every unbeliever lives under the wrath of God. The culmination of that wrath will be when they are sentenced to an eternal hell at the Great White Throne in Revelation 20. Presently the wrath of God is manifest in that God has turned them over, verse 24, in the lust of their hearts to impurity. Verse 26, He gave them over to degrading passions. And as we will be picking up in verse 28, God gave them over to a depraved mind. That's a judicial act of God. As a result of their rejection of Him, He in judgment has turned them over to their sinful passions and desires to pursue that which they desire as those who have rejected Him. An intensely important portion of the Word of God because it is foundational to everything. Many people present the gospel today, they think it is the gospel, and we tell people if you trust Christ He'll give you a better marriage, He'll make you happier, He'll do this and that. That's not where God begins when He wants to unfold His good news. He begins with how terrible our condition is. We are the objects of His wrath, we are under condemnation. And all the manifestations of sin that you see in the world go back to the fact that we are under God's judgment because we have rejected Him. And thus are experiencing the consequences of that action. The moral decay, you know so easy to get Christians all worked up about certain sins and problems—homosexuality, homosexual marriage and we have to rescue our country, we're going down the drain, we have to stop this open display. And then, what is going to happen? That's not the problem. We saw in Romans 1:26 as a result of men rejecting God, suppressing the knowledge they have of Him, God has turned them over to degrading passions. This is His judgment, the consequence of their rejecting Him. They are now with a life consumed with their own sin. That begins with their refusal to acknowledge Him.

Homosexuality and its various manifestations was the subject of verses 26-27. Why is that picked out and given more space than the other sins? Well it demonstrates how serious the sinful condition of man is. His rejection of God, suppressing of the truth of God goes so far now as he is under the judgment of God, that he even reacts against that which is natural. He will not even submit to what God says is natural or normal. That doesn't mean every person practices homosexuality. No, but it shows how far we go in our degradation and sin. We even violate the natural relationship that God established in creation between a man and a woman, and do that which is unnatural—women with women and men with men.

We say, we ought to put a stop to it then. That's not the problem, that's a manifestation of man's serious condition. He's under the judgment of God. The problem is he has rejected God. You know where men and women live who do not practice homosexuality? They live under the wrath of God. In John 3:36, a verse that we have looked at, he that has the Son has life, he that does not obey the Son will not see life but the wrath of God abides on him. The wrath of God abides on him, lives on him, remains on him, present tense. That's where he is, he's under the wrath of God. This is one clear undeniable manifestation where people even cross the bounds of what is natural, to the unnatural. But the root problem is their rejection of God.

That's true of all the moral decay, and that's where we're going to in the rest of Romans. This is how God sees us on the inside—filled with all kinds of sin, depravity, and so on. Because we have rejected God and replaced him with the worship of the creature and the creation, not the Creator. So verse 23, they exchanged the glory of the corruptible god for an image in the form of corruptible man and so on. Verse 25, they exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator. And we noted, they exchanged the glory of the corruptible god, verse 23, they exchanged the truth of God in verse 25. And so you come to verse 26, their women exchanged the natural for the unnatural. And the men did the same. The moral consequences of the rejection and replacing of the living God are played out in all kinds of moral and sinful degradation that he is just going to give us some examples of.

You know we tend to think of idolatry as bad, but we can really get worked up over certain sins like homosexuality. But you know what really is the thing that God hates the most? Our rejection of Him. That is the basic defiling sin and the result of which is seen in all kinds of sinful activity.

Let's pick up with verse 28, and just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind to do the things which are not proper. Very similar in content to what we had in verses 23-26, where verse 23, they exchanged the glory of God for the worship of creation. So verse 24, God gave them over in the lust of their heart to impurity. Then verse 25, they exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creation, not the Creator. So verse 26, God gave them over to degrading passions. So here they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, so God gave them over to a depraved mind. Those three statements, God gave them over, God gave them over, God gave them over, a declaration of God's judicial judgment on them for their rejection of Him. Interesting the way it is put here, they did not see fit to acknowledge God, or literally to have God in knowledge. They did not see fit. The word used here, translated see fit, is a word that means to put something or someone to the test and then make up your mind. So what we're really saying is we've been told they knew God; verse 19, God made Himself known to them, they have the knowledge of God, they have evaluated God as He has revealed Himself, and they have decided to reject Him. That's the picture. They did not see fit, they have evaluated the God who has revealed Himself and they have decided to suppress the truth concerning Him, to reject the knowledge of Him. They will not honor Him as God, they will replace Him with their own gods (small “g”). They did not see fit, they decided they would not have God in their knowledge, verse 28. Literally, we have to acknowledge God any longer, literally to have God in knowledge. Now we are told in verse 21, they knew God; verse 19, that which is known about God has been made evident to them. They knew Him, they have the knowledge of Him, but as they evaluated that they determined they would not have Him in knowledge. He's not going to be part of what we know. We will not use that as a basis for any activity. We reject Him, we're just going to exclude Him from our knowledge, we're not going to have Him be God in our lives. That's the condition, the position that they have come to.

The result? God gave them over. So you see these judicial acts of God in verse 24, verse 26, verse 28 where God gives them over to their depravity, to their depraved minds, to degrading passions, to the lust of their hearts are a result of their rejecting Him. So man is consumed by his passions, his lust, his wicked desires because the rejection of God has consequences in every area of life. That's what is being set forth here, a demonstration of our true, sinful condition.

God gave them over to a depraved mind. There is a play on words here that is hard to pick up in an English translation. If you go from one language to another it is sometimes hard to reproduce, particularly words that sound alike in a language. And in Greek the two words he uses here sound alike. The word translated to see fit and the word translated depraved. Both come from the same word—dokomos or dokomadzo. You can hear the sound, the dok there as we would have it is the core. It means to put something to the test and then decide on that basis. It would be used of metals. You put the metals to the test to decide if it is true gold, true silver and so on. If not it is rejected, it is discarded, it is useless. So that's the point. God gave them over to degrading passions, to a depraved mind. That word depraved is the same word as we had see fit, different form of it but the same basic word. God put them to the test and found them to be worthless, useless. They put God to the test and determined they wouldn't have Him in their knowledge. God put them to the test and determined they were worthless, useless. He turned them over to a useless mind, a reprobate mind, a depraved mind, a mind of no value or no use to God.

Turn over to II Timothy 3. Paul here talking about unbelievers and false teacher and so on that will come in the last days. Verse 5, those who hold to a form of godliness although they have denied its power. And then the sin to characterize these men, verse 7, they are always learning and never able to come to a knowledge of the truth, just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses. So these men also oppose the truth, note this, men of depraved minds, minds which are worthless, unfit for any moral or righteous use. So these men have depraved minds, they are rejected in regard to the faith because they have failed the test, they are of no use to God in that sense, for His righteous and holy purposes.

Turn over to Titus 1:16, they profess to know God but by their deeds they deny Him, being detestable and disobedient and worthless for any good deed. Here is the word worthless, useless because having been put to the test they are found to be of no value, no use, discarded. So God gave them over to minds which are useless, they are depraved. They are useless for any good purposes of God, any righteous purposes, any godly purposes. So now you have a mind that is depraved and this mind now leads them to do things which are not proper.

Come back to Romans 1. He gave them over to a depraved mind, now note the connection here, to do those things which are not proper. They've rejected God, He turned them over to a worthless mind, a depraved mind, and they do the things which are not proper. They are morally wrong, they are contrary and opposed to the righteous, holy purposes of God. It's important to see here the connection of the mind to the action. The depraved mind leads them to do things which are not proper.

Turn over to Romans 8:7, the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God. It does not subject itself to the law of God, it is not even able to do so. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You see those who have rejected God, have refused to have God in their knowledge cannot please God. Their mind is set on the flesh, not on God and the things that please Him. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You understand that. The man who has rejected God, who is now under the wrath of God and under the control of His worthless, useless, depraved mind never does anything that is pleasing to God. That's important. We look around and say, they do many good things. In the relative it's a better thing to cook a meal for a hungry person than it is to murder them. We say, that's something good. As God looks, He's looking at us as we are truly in the inside. It's like that mirror that reveals back what we really are. God sees us as we really are. This is not something done pleasing to Him, in submission and obedience to Him. This is done by someone who has rejected Him and is doing it for their own selfish purposes, even the best of our acts. That's why Isaiah 64 says that all our righteous deeds are like polluted, filthy rags in the sight of God. We think we look so good and are so righteous. God looks and all He sees is defilement. That's where he's going as he develops this.

Turn over to I Corinthians 2:14, but a natural man, a psuchikos, a soulish man, a man without the Spirit of God does not accept the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness to him. He cannot understand them because they are spiritually discerned or appraised. He has no ability to function in the spiritual realm of truth. We saw this earlier in Romans 1. He lives in darkness, he doesn't accept the things of the Spirit of God, they are foolishness to him.

Turn over to Ephesians 4:17, you'll see how much this sounds like Romans. So this I say and affirm together with the Lord that you walk no longer as the Gentiles also walk in the futility of their minds, in the emptiness of their minds. It's worthless. But they walk according to the futility of their minds. You see it's what is inside that determines our actions and our behavior. The unregenerate person walks in the emptiness of his mind, a mind that has rejected the living God, refuses to have God in his knowledge, and now under the wrath of God he conducts himself according to the dictates of a futile, empty, worthless mind. Being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their hearts. And having become callous they have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. They are hungry, they have an appetite for the things that are not pleasing to God. It's a terrible picture. And that's what God says is our condition apart from His saving grace. And it's the mind that leads to the conduct.

Come back to Romans 1. I want you to be sure you have the order established here. It would do away with a lot of the confusion that permeates churches that claim to be Bible believing. There are three steps here. 1. Romans 1:28, they did not see fit to acknowledge God. First step, they did not see fit to acknowledge God. 2. Second step, God gave them over to a depraved mind. They now walk in the futility of their mind, as Ephesians 4 says. A worthless mind, a mind that God has rejected for His purposes. 3. The third step, to do the things which are not proper. You have to have these three and understand them in order. 1. They did not see fit to acknowledge God. 2. In judgment God gave them over to a depraved mind. 3. As a result of now being controlled by their depraved mind, they do those things which are not proper. That includes all kinds of sinful behavior. It's the same pattern as we've seen through Romans 1. Now what happens, churches get caught up in thinking they are going to do good things that the world will appreciate and like and respect. So they're going to clean up #3, let's put a stop to doing those things which are not proper. And the church is going to get involved in a moral crusade. I read an article to the men in our open forum last week about evangelical churches joining together with Mormons and the reasoning they give is we have agreement on certain crucial moral issues, like the sanctity of marriage and opposition to homosexuality. You cannot start at point #3, they are doing things which are not proper. They are not proper because they are in violation of God's will. But you can't clean up that mess because #3 is a result of #2—God has turned them over to a depraved mind. Why? He wants them to sin? No, that's His judgment on them for their basic sin of #1, they did not see fit to acknowledge God. You have to start with what the problem is. We like to think we're doing something, we're going to get on this crusade. You can get Christians all worked up about standing for the sanctity of marriage. And we do. But I don't expect the unbeliever who is living under the control of a depraved mind ............ He can do nothing to please God. And it's a denial of the gospel that the church is out there acting like this is doing something to please God. That's not their basic problem.

So to decide we won't promote homosexual marriages, I think that's good. But it doesn't solve their problem. Their problem is they have rejected God, the problem is they did not see fit to acknowledge God, so God has poured out His wrath on them, turned them over to their sin that they have determined to pursue in rejecting Him. And now the results are all kinds of depraved conduct. But we deny the gospel when we try to start cleaning up, moral reformation. Missionaries go overseas, I get material from one because of an association I have. And the whole goal of this is we're helping prostitutes get out of prostitution, young women to learn a trade to stop the awfulness of prostitution and all that goes with that. I don't think in any letter I've gotten over the last several years has included the gospel at all. How do you even call this a biblical Christian organization? Isn't it good to get women out of prostitution? Well I think it's better not to practice prostitution, I think it's better not to lie, I think it's better not to steal, it's better not to murder, all those things. But you understand a person stops doing that, they haven't become more acceptable to God. We imply now that God is happier with them when we haven't dealt with the root problem. Your real problem, it would be great for you to stop being immoral, it would be great for you to stop being drunk, that would make your life easier. But you understand, it would not make you in any way more acceptable to God, you would still be living under the wrath of God for your rejection of Him.

So we imply that the problem is different than it is. And thus we imply that there is a solution to the problem other than the gospel, which is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. You can't clean up your life, you can't make yourself acceptable to God. Your problem is you have rejected Him, you are suppressing the truth that has been revealed concerning Him and any additional truth is just further rejected. And the depravity and degradation that we see all around us is just an open manifestation of the judgment of God. So we ought not to be out crusading against homosexuality as though if they stop that the judgment of God would be lifted. That's a lie. And those who are to be proclaiming the gospel end up denying the gosNote how he goes on. Verse 28, they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer. God gave them over to a depraved mind to do those things which are not proper. Now we're going to talk about some of these things.

But before we do, back up to Mark 7. We've been here a number of times. Jesus wants us to understand, He says, and we can't go into the context here, but they were confused. They thought if they cleaned up what they ate, what they touched, the Jews did, then they would be acceptable to God. The end of verse 18, do you not understand that whatever goes into them and from the outside cannot defile him because it does not go into his heart. The heart is the issue, the heart, the mind, the inner person. Look at verse 20, He was saying, that which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man. For from within out of the heart of men proceed, and look at all the things here. It's a list like we're going to have in Romans 1. Evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride. All these things proceed from within and defile the man. So trying to clean something up on the outside doesn't solve the problem. It's like I come along and there is a person having a heart attack and I say, I'll get a rag and wipe off the sweat from your forehead. Doesn't that feel better? Well it may feel better but it's not solving his problem, he's having a heart attack. He needs a cardiologist immediately. He feels better, I wiped his forehead. But that's not solving the problem, the problem is he is having a heart attack. You understand that's where the problem is, it's within. You have a cesspool within pumping out corruption. You just don't pick up one thing.

Back up to Jeremiah 17, we've been here before. Verse 9, the heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick. The picture of the analogy here. Here is your problem, your sickness is on the inside, it's your heart, it’s diseased. It's not this particular sinful practice or this particular sinful practice, it's the root of all sinful practice on the inside. The heart is more deceitful than all else and desperately sick. Who can understand it? I the Lord search the heart, I test the mind. So you see the heart and mind used of what we are on the inside. Even to give to each man according to his ways, according to the results of his deeds. Because what we do is a manifestation of the decision of our hearts and minds. He turned them over to a depraved mind to do the things which are not proper. I'm looking at your heart and all I see is corruption.

Back up to Jeremiah 13. Man has never been able to fix his own sinful problem, his own sinful condition, fix his own heart. Look at verse 23, can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? Then you also can do good who are accustomed to doing evil. It's impossible. If you have black skin you can't make it white, if you have red skin you can't make it white, if you have white skin you can't make it black. You can't change that. And the leopard can't change its spots. If that happened then you might be able to do something about your sinful condition. But you who are accustomed to doing evil, you can't do good. You see you can't please God. That's our condition, we're defiled. This is what the Spirit of God is making clear to us in Romans 1.

Come back to Romans 1. Beginning with verse 29 Paul is going to give a list of 21 vices, sins. This isn't a complete list, there are a number of these kinds of lists in the New Testament. But this is a long list, 21 items. It doesn't include everything and some of the things overlap. It is just revealing what we are like in the inside apart from the transforming power of the gospel which is the only thing that can change an inside.

So we pick up in verse 29, and really there is a breakdown in the list. Easiest way to look at it. Verse 29 starts out with being filled with. And the next four things tell us what we are filled with—all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil. That sort of forms a package, telling what we are filled with, these four things. Then you have another word which means basically the same thing, full of, and you have five items—envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice. So those five are grouped together. And then the last word in verse 29, gossip, really goes with what follows and the final twelve are lumped together. Here is what we are like on the inside, and this conduct comes out of the inside, out of our depraved minds, those minds which are worthless in God's sight, those who live in spiritual darkness. With darkened heart as he said up in verse 21, their foolish heart was darkened. They live in the realm of spiritual darkness and thus moral darkness. They live in the futility, the emptiness of their reasoning, as verse 21 told us.

So here they are being filled with. And that being filled with, sometimes we have talked about perfect tense. This is a perfect participle and it denotes their continuing state. This is what they were, this is what they are. Having been filled with all, that word to be filled with ........ A. T. Robertson was a great Southern Baptist Greek scholar and he said concerning this word translated being filled with, it means filled to the brim. That's what God sees as He looks at men and women apart from His redeeming, saving grace. They are filled with. Not, I see some specks, not there is a spot here or there. You are filled with these things. Being filled with all unrighteousness. Unrighteousness we saw back in verse 18, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness. We are filled with unrighteousness, everything that is right in the sight of God is rejected by fallen man. We are filled with unrighteousness, that which is opposed to the righteousness of God.

Wickedness. There are a number of words we are going to get—wickedness, evil, malice—used here. They are used as synonyms. This word poneria is interesting. It denotes depravity, iniquity, evil purposes and desires. What is interesting is it is a word used repeatedly of the devil. Turn over to I John 2:13, we're just going to pick up the portion that we want and not read the whole verse. Verse 13, because you have overcome the evil one. And that word evil is the same word we have translated wickedness back in Romans 1. And the evil one here is the devil. He is the one filled with iniquity, evil purposes and desires. He is the evil one. You understand those who are the children of the devil are filled with that which fills their father. Remember in John 8? You are of our father the devil, he was a murderer from the beginning. He is the father of lies and you are liars. You are filled with what fills him.

Look at I John 2:14, you have overcome the evil one. There is our word again for the devil. Over in chapter 3 verse 12, not as Cain who was of the evil one. And what did he do? He killed his brother. He was of the evil one, there is our word. And in I John 5:18, the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. Verse 18, the evil one does not touch the believer.

So we come back to Romans 1, it says we are filled with all unrighteousness, filled with all wickedness, filled to the brim. We partake of our spiritual father the devil until a new birth occurs. Is it any wonder Jesus said you must be born from above, you must be born again.

Filled with all greed. A person is consumed to have more and that's the pursuit of his live. Colossians 3:5 says greed is idolatry, just a form of idolatry. This is what my life is built around, this is what I desire. Another example from television. I was watching a program on the business channel and they do programs on businessmen or individuals who have financially gotten into corruption. There was a man on there who was a con man, he passed himself off as Rockefeller, the French Rockefeller. You talk about people being greedy. When they finally exposed him somebody just got on and traced out the Rockefellers and it was an American name back in the 1700s. Whoever came up with a French Rockefeller? Well this guy speaks with a heavy French accent, he says he was from France, so he just came to the United States, went to Hollywood I believe and signed into a hotel and used the name Rockefeller. Immediately people were falling all over him. Then he just talks about all the investments and pretty soon people are giving him money, not small amounts of money but $100,000. He says in six months to a year, with my investments I'll be able to return you $1 million. Then he goes to the East Coast, a real estate agent shows him a house, gives him $100,000 cash. He says, I can make that $1 million for you. Doing all this, a con man. The real estate person in the Hamptons that gave him $100,000 said I thought it was strange. The man he sent to pick up the $100,000 came in an old worn out tattered topcoat, and he didn't even bring a bag for the money. I had to go get a paper bag to put the money in. I thought as I watched him walk out the door with the brown paper bag with my $100,000 in it, did I do the right thing? Interesting thing, this man gets caught, goes to prison, the con man. After he gets out of prison they are interviewing him on the program. They asked him, do you feel guilty or bad about what you did? He said, no, I don't feel bad, I don't feel guilty. I was a con man, I deceived them. I had to go to prison to pay for what I did. They were greedy, they lost their money, they paid for what they did. So I don't feel guilty.

You know there was a certain perverse truth in what he said. Why would people give him $100,000? Greed. That's what he said, they are greedy. I'm a con man, I went to prison; they are greedy, they lost their money. Well, not just a little bit, he estimated that he had gotten over $40 million doing that. Don't tell me people aren't greedy. And he wasn't going to people like you and me who could come up with $100 or $500. I mean, he's looking at big sums. You don't get $40 million by getting $25 from this person and $50 from that person, unless you have a lot of people. It's just greedy, they are greedy. It's never enough. That's what we're talking about here, filled with greed. He's just a spokesman for his own sin.

Malice. This is one of the words I like because of its sound—kakia. Doesn't that sound bad? How could something kakia be good? Well that's malice. It's the most general word for evil. And this Greek word describes a man that is destitute of every quality that would make him good. And here God describes him as filled with all kakia. I mean, this evil allows no room for anything good.

Now we move on and get another word, being full of, second word, it's different than the word that began where we were told they were filled with. The middle of the verse, full of. A. T. Robertson again said it means stuffed full of. Emphasizing this just isn't a little bit. We use the disease, we don't just say we see a spot, we see a lump. They look at it and say your body is permeated, filled with. I don't know where we go in your body to find a place that doesn't have this disease. That's what God looks at when He sees us, people full of, filled with envy. Envy, I won't read you the extensive English Oxford Dictionary definition, but a person who is unhappy when anybody has what they don't have. They are always looking that they ought to have what someone else has, their position, their possessions, things like that.

The next one is murder, and they are put together. You'll note the mixture here. We say envy is bad, do you think envy is as bad as murder? Well you know it is in God's sight because it's a manifestation of the same thing, it's a manifestation of a person who is under His judgment because He has rejected God. So yes, just as serious, because it manifests that this person has rejected God and is living under the judgment of God. And that's a serious sin, the rejection of God. These two are put together also because they sound alike. Let me say them to you, I know you'll be interested—phthonos, phonos. Phthonos is envy, phonos is murder. So you see put them together and you get the play on the sounds of those words. Envy, murder. And they sound very similar. In Greek you take one letter out of envy and you have murder, and they're just put together. And we see it permeating out world, people blowing themselves up for the god (small “g”) they worship and so on. Killing people, do they think anything of it? Shouldn't they feel guilty? It's their condition. We practice abortion, murder babies before they are born. In our country it's women's rights and we men will stand for the right of the woman.

And our political leaders say, we ought to get on that bandwagon. Which one? Which bandwagon are you getting on? The envy bandwagon? The murder bandwagon? The strife bandwagon? The deceit bandwagon? The malice bandwagon? The gossip bandwagon? I mean, this bandwagon has gotten so long, why do we pick out one? That's not the problem. You understand we pick out one and then look like we're doing something and standing for something, standing for the gospel. Let them know abortion is sin and it's wrong, but that's not the basic problem. Homosexuality is wrong, sexual immorality, sex outside of marriage is wrong and sinful, lying is wrong. But you understand that's not your basic problem. If you stop that simple practice, you will still be under the wrath of God, you will still be doomed to the eternal wrath of God and in eternal hell. You understand your problem is a corrupted, sinful heart. You have rejected the living God, you have refused to bow before Him. In His grace He offers you His salvation in the person of His Son. If you will turn from your sin and place your faith in Jesus Christ, the One who died on the cross to pay the penalty for sin and was raised from the dead, you will be cleansed on the inside, born again, made new. That's your only hope, that's the message we have. It's not about homosexuality, it's not about abortion, it's not about murder. It's about sin and the sinful condition of the human heart, which is the source of all sinful activity.

Strife. I was visiting with someone this week, he also shares ministry in pastoring. We were talking about the fact of conflicts in the church. I said, I think a large part of the problem is we have so much strife in the church because we have unbelievers who have infiltrated the church, dressed as believers. Here is a manifestation, strife. Contention, there is a discontent in the heart. Strife.

Deceit. You know a person who is devious. We know this, we warn our kids when they are going to school and they are little. You be careful about this, you be careful who you talk to. Why? Because a nice man will come up and deceive you. You have to be careful with your money because someone will deceive you. Deceit, it goes on. So they are filled with it. We say, what's happening to our country? What's happening to our world? It's not my world. The whole world lies in the evil one, that includes the United States of America, you understand, even in its best days. Only those who have truly experienced God's salvation live for Him. We've never had a Christian America, you know, and there is only one nation God has chosen for Himself and they are under His wrath right now and will be until they are brought to their knees to acknowledge Him as their God. Then He will bring them salvation, and then the kingdom.

Malice. Another word for sin, just man's evil, wicked, sinful character. You know it just goes on. These are the things that we are filled with, that's full of these things. Can God make it any clearer? This is the condition. I think it is such a travesty that we would imply to people that we want to help them clean up their lives. The only thing that cleans up a life is the gospel. A person has to understand, you can't clean up your life from the outside, you can't stop being angry, you can't stop drinking, you can't stop being immoral. Those attempts to clean up your life won't work.

Turn to Isaiah 64:6, for all of us, all of us, all of us. We ought not to forget Titus 3. Remind them, Paul tells Titus, that they were one time just like these people. All of us have become like one who is unclean. Now note this, and all of our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment, polluted, defiled in the sight of God. All of us wither like a leaf and our iniquities like the wind take us away. There is no one who calls on your name, who arouses himself to take hold of you. For you have hidden your face from us, note this, and have delivered us into the power of our iniquities. That's the judgment of God. God gave them over to a depraved mind, delivered them into the power of their iniquities to be slaves to sin and their sinful passions. That's why the gospel is so beautiful, so necessary. The gospel is the power of God for salvation, for everyone who believes. That's why we need salvation. You understand, this is what we are full of. It's not that the things that I do are so bad, they are, but it's the fact they come from within me. And until that's cleaned........... The amazing thing, Isaiah starts early in his prophecy in the first chapter and tells us that though our sins are red like crimson they can be as white as snow. That's the cleansing power of the gospel.

Some of you may be trying to clean up your life. If I go to this church, stop doing this, stop doing that. Maybe you just ought to stop and consider, the gospel is God's power to bring you true cleansing, cleansing on the inside. He'll make you new, He'll cause you to be born again, He'll give you new life in Christ, He'll give you His righteousness. Now you can live for Him.

Let's pray together. Thank you, Lord, for the power of the gospel. When we look at our miserable, wretched, sinful condition as you see us, we are in awe at the wonder of your salvation. Though so filled with sin, depravity, vileness, we can experience your power that can bring complete, total cleansing. We can be washed white as snow, we can be completely forgiven, we can be delivered from your wrath, the present wrath and the wrath to come. We have the hope of eternal glory in your presence. Thank you for a Savior who loved us and died for us. We pray in His name, amen.