Ponder this question for a moment. What's the inevitable result when an entire civilization suppresses the truth about God?
Well, maybe the answer is self-evident. Just look around. Our times are marked by the outcomes of unbridled sin. Today, on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindahl points to the Bible's most vivid portrayal of human depravity. This picture doesn't leave any room for self-righteousness.
It's a humiliating depiction of selfish choices. Let's pick up our study where we left off on Friday's program. Teaching from Romans chapter 1, Chuck titled his message, Cinorama in Panorama. Let me make two closing comments before we go on to another subject. First.
To view lesbianism and homosexuality as anything but sinful is to remove. Any hope? from the ability to recover. Christians know that sin and its effect can be dealt with because God has said so in the scriptures. And Christ died to overcome sin.
So, when sin is mentioned, there is real hope. Second comment I want to make. It is unbiblical. Inaccurate. and grossly unkind to say God hates.
lesbians and homosexuals. Don't do that. It's terribly un-Christian. No more than he hates the thief. Or he hates the murderer.
Or he hates the gossip. We do the hating. And thereby blocked many an opportunity to win the hearts and minds of those. Trapped in the sand. May I return to my friend Ray?
I wasn't there at the time, but a fellow intern some years later said that. He was with Ray when Ray Stedman read a newspaper advertisement where a group of homosexuals were meeting. not far from where Ray lived. Ray said to the intern, why don't you come with me tonight? Let's go to the meeting.
The intern said, uh Me? There are several others that are interning. It says you.
So he said they got in the car, they drove there, and they went. They sat in the group, and they were meeting. He said, as I recall, a second floor of a home. And he said, we were surrounded by. Homosexuals and lesbians.
And he said, um, The man up front spoke of the hatred that many of the people had encountered from one person or another. And he said, if any of you have something you would like to share, I'd like you to stand. And the intern said to me, I could not believe it, but Ray stood up. And he said, Hi, I'm Ray. Um I'm here to say I'm sorry.
You see, I'm a Christian and I'm sorry for the way Other fellow Christians have treated you. They did not know what they were going to hear and raid without one. One word. That was ugly. are misplaced.
He spontaneously and And just from his heart, he said, I want all of you to know I'm a pastor of a church. And you're welcome to come. And he said, by the way, I'll stay if you want to talk. I just want you to know. I regret that you've ever experienced hatred.
Because you are not hated. Our God. Absolutely loves every one of you. And there's hope for you. The following Sunday, there were a number of them there.
Wonder how we would feel. with a number of them here. I'd love it. Where else are they going to hear? Words of hope.
Where else is there a community? That knows Jesus. is willing to say to them. That's your sin, I tell you. I got my own.
But together, you know what? We can know a God who forgives. Please. Be very careful. How you express your hatred for the sin.
Please. Already this day I've had three individuals come to me. who talked openly about their struggles. And they said, It's hard to find a place. as we try to figure out what life is like and about.
I mean, where they don't throw you out. And our part of the country is bad about that.
Okay. Let's forget geography. Let's forget roots. Let's remember Christ. who was criticized not for spending time with a religious, He was criticized for spending time with the sinners.
Admittedly, verse 27 concludes with serious words. Men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons. the due penalty of their error. It happens with lesbians also. It happens with homosexuals.
They are unique. of penalties connected with it. confusion of self-worth, self-identity. There are sexually transmitted sins that come only in that manner. There are a number of things.
Paul doesn't spell them out, nor should I. But the sad fact is that only adds to The horror. of all that goes with that lifestyle. God gave them over. To idolatry.
Which led to bodies that are dishonored. God gave them over. to passions that are degrading and God now verse 28 gave them over to a depraved mind. Look at that. Look at the words depraved.
Mind. Adakimas. A-D-O-K-I-M-O-S, adakimas, means tested and found worthless. tested and found to be of no use. When I worked in a machine shop going through school, there were times that we would run off pieces of the product we were making, and they would be.
out of dimension. They would not be useful products. They were known simply in one word as scrap. You would take the product and you would toss it in a pile of scrap metal. That's what this is about.
Here is a mind that becomes like scrap. Full of that which is worthless and useless. Not to the hedonist who hears this. Paul writes as an exaggerated, narrow-minded Jewish Pharisee. And his narrowness comes out in these words like a hysterical moralist.
No? No, Paul is a realist. Paul has spent his life of ministry with just such individuals as this. It's a portrayal of life that leaves God out. It's depravity on parade.
Interestingly, when James Montgomery Boyce begins to write on verses 28 to 32 in his fine work on Romans, he entitles the chapter. Lifting the lid on hell. There is a litany of 21 vices. between verse 29 and verse 31. And it's like the lid of hell is lifted.
That isn't original with boys, by the way. He got it from John Gerstner, who wrote The Atonement and the Purpose of God. In which Gershner writes, man as sinner hates God. Pete's Maynard. and hates himself.
He would kill God if he could. He does kill his fellow man when he can.
Okay. And he commits spiritual suicide every day of his life. Penetrate beneath the thin veneer of human culture and respectability. and you lift the lid of hell. Here the lid is lifted.
And you can read in these few verses. Life as it is when God and the truth of God. are suppressed. I confess to you that it is almost impossible to categorize these 21 vices. There's no neat classification for them, so we will sort of work our way through them since you know the meaning of most of them and don't need that explained.
Allow me. The first four sins are general types of sins. With which human depravity is filled. See how it reads, verse 29, being filled with. Here are the four.
All unrighteousness, wickedness, greed. Evil. General categories of sin, and you could Take any one of them and develop a a whole series of statements to be made about them. In the next group, we find five more sins that the depraved are full of. You know how we'll sometimes say rather sarcastically, oh, he's full of it.
Well, this is what the depraved are full of. Verse 29 concludes, full of envy. Full of murder. Full of strife. Full of deceit.
full of malice. Imagine living in a society like that. My friends, we do. We do. We have come to the place where we not only acknowledge that it goes on, we no longer blush.
We no longer get a chill up the back of our neck when we read of a mother drowning a family of children. shocked a little, but We read another of A couple of boys had walked a high school and indiscriminately fire away these assault weapons, killing one. another, another, and another, along with principal, teacher alike. We'll read of men invading little innocent children at school and binding them in. killing them after assaulting them.
They're full of it. And so are you. And so am I. without Christ. Take away the cross.
I'm running for my life from the law. And so are you. This isn't about them. It's but for the grace of God. It's about us.
Don't ever forget that. And then he turns to two. of the more acceptable sins. especially for Christians. Gossips.
and slanderers. Chances are good in the last two weeks, you've done both. One is behind closed doors. It's done in secret or with your family. where you say things that are hurtful and malicious.
And the listening ears are then impacted by what is said in the gossip. And it tends to smear the reputation of one who isn't there to defend herself or himself. Putting a wrong twist on an innocent act. The other is out in the open, it's slander, it's trumpeting. Words that are hurtful and marked by accusation and deliberate attempt to smear reputations.
Both have no place in the Christian family. Both have no place in the believer's life. Stop it. If that is your habit, Conquer it. You have the Spirit of God within you.
who is grieved every time you do either. The four sins that follow seem to be related to different forms of extreme pride. Look closely. Verse 30. Haters of God.
Insolent. Arrogant. Boastful. Haters of God, there's pride there. Insolent.
arrogant Boastful. These would be those puffed up with elevated opinions of themselves. wanting to control. wanting to take charge. Wanting to be known.
Wanting to be seen. We do it in a dozen different ways. The next two are a couple of independent types of sins that I find shocking. Look closely. One is inventors of evil.
and the other is disobedient to parents. Mm-hmm. Taking the last one first. This has reference to disrespecting those who have reared us. given us birth.
trained us as children, Helped us through our adolescence and now may not be quite as effective as they once were. Our tendency and pride is to race on beyond them. How wonderful it is to see Adults. respecting their parents. Cynthia and I have an attorney friend who recently lost his father.
And our email has been somewhat full of reports. of the man's adoration for his dad. who never got beyond the eighth grade in his education. My attorney friend is, of course, has his law degree. But he said, What I learned from my father.
Could not even be put into words. And the memorial service was just an honor to the man. Cynthia and I talked about how great it is to see that. And how unusual. Please observe Not satisfied with the expected, there are those who invent new forms of evil.
You really have to let your mind tumble to go there. An illustration will help. We are friends with a woman who had colon surgery. They found cancer. They cut into her abdomen a large scar, painful surgery, very painful.
recovery and while recovering she was finally able to get to her feet. carrying this large scar and And really uh walking with the gingerly to get about. She decided one day to have lunch with her friend, and this lady was available, and they drove to a place that was, this is out of the open, broad daylight lunch. She gets out one side, the friend gets out the other side, who had been driving. Both of them are assaulted by thugs.
One of them kicks her in the belly time after time after time after time. She bleeds, of course. Her friend is being kicked in the face. in the back. Thugs.
A friend from another country is visiting there, a person from Canada. who walks up to help and gets teeth knocked out of his head. in the process, but he does. succeed in getting rid of the thugs. Hmm.
As the police came And the charges were filed. The police said with a sigh: in our part of the country, this is now the new thrill. By the way, they never took their purses, their money, their keys, or their car. They wanted nothing but to see them bleed. That's depraved.
That's today's world. Just the thrill of watching them groan. and pass out. You reach the bottom of the rung when you come to senseless, faithless, heartless, and ruthless. Senseless.
They don't learn lessons in life. They keep doing the same thing again and again. which is a form of lunacy. Faithless, they're not willing to honor agreements and contracts. We see it.
Every week. They're faithless, heartless. Bonds of human affection are destroyed, sometimes deliberately, to get one's own way. And carelessly. And ruthless.
totally without pity and without mercy. Final blow. As if it could be worse, verse 32. Although they know the ordinance of God that those who practice such things are worthy of death. They not only Do the same.
They give hearty approval to those. who practice them. Not only are they done, They are watched and applauded. by fellow depraved humanity. Personal friend and fellow pastor and author Dr.
Kent Hughes of the College Church at Wheaton. Writes this in his fine work on Romans. This was one of the supreme horrors of the Roman Colosseum. Those committing the mayhem were supremely guilty, but those watching and applauding. were perhaps even more wretched.
What a telling application this has on our media-captivated society. Millions sit in their living rooms watching debauchery, violence, deceit, and many other vices and applaud what they see. It makes little difference whether the vices are real or portrayed. The effect is much the same. An increasingly depraved mind on the part of the viewer, approving another sin or encouraging another sin, is a sign that life has reached its lowest dimension.
The Christians are not exempt from this. Satan knows that if he can get us to laugh at things we believe we would never do. Our defenses will fall. Maybe someday our unwitting approval will give way to action. We need to be careful what we watch.
And applaud. You need to be careful what your children watch. and applaud. You need to screen the video games. You need to stop excusing it because it is all fantasy.
Where do these boys learn? to carry assault weapons to schools. The media helps them invent the evil. On this despairing note, the most vivid portrayal of humanity. Depraved humanity ends.
It is ugly, dark, scandalous, shocking. Listen to a review.
So God said in effect, that's what you want? That's what you get. It wasn't long before they were living in a pigpen smeared with filth, filthy inside and out. All this because they traded the true God for a fake God and worshiped the God they made instead of the God who made them. The God we bless, the God who blesses us, oh yes.
Worse followed. Refusing to know God, they soon. didn't know how to be human either. Women didn't know how to be women. Men didn't know how to be men.
Sexually confused, they abused and defiled one another. Women with women, men with men, all lust, no love. Then they paid for it. Oh, how they paid for it. Emptied of God and love.
Godless. and loveless wretches. Since they didn't bother to acknowledge God, God quit bothering them. And let them run loose. Then all hell broke loose, rampant evil, grabbing and grasping, vicious backstabbing.
They made life hell on earth with their envy. wanton killing, bickering and cheating. Look at them, mean-spirited, venomous, forked-tongue god-bashers. bullies, swaggerers, insufferable windbags. They keep inventing new ways of wrecking lives.
They ditch their parents when they get in the way. Stupid, slimy, cruel. True hole. Cold-blooded. And it's not as if they don't know better.
They know perfectly well they're spitting in God's face. They don't care. Worse. They hand out prizes to those who do the worst things. Best.
How do you close a message like this? Honestly. I think two contrasting statements do it best. Number one, suppressing the truth. Incites the wrath of God.
We've seen that. Suppressing the truth incites the wrath of God. You are responsible for the truth you hear. You even carry with you a book of the truth. and claim you believe it.
Practice it. That's our goal. Suppressing the truth incites the wrath of God. Embracing the truth invites the righteousness of God. Put the cross back in the picture and it is amazing what it does.
What can wash away these sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What do I have to do to be lost? Nothing. What do I have to do to be saved?
Christ. And then I have his blood to wash away. to clean me up. to put me on my feet for the first time. John Bradford, one of the saintliest of the English reformers, stood in the shadows as he watched a poor soul being dragged through the streets in shackles, a murderer.
On his way to the gallows to be hanged. It was Bradford who first said it. There But for the grace of God. Go I. And when I look at this in Romans 1, there, but for the grace of God.
Am I? I'm right there. but for the grace of God. And so are you. Let's bow together.
You've been very gracious to sit and listen. I know you've had questions. I know you've... wondered But what about Or you have an example you'd like to know about. Just pause long enough to let the truth in.
Set aside the questions. As you look back over your past, can you see The cross of Christ. Do you find a time when you surrendered your life to Jesus? When you took up his way of life and release to him yours. Who you believed?
That Christ died and had been raised for you. If not. You're lost. And your future is frighteningly grim. May God use these words to bring you to Christ.
is my prayer. Father, thank you for bringing us to our knees before you. Thank you for the healthy journey. Where we realize that we are no better than any other soul. Thank you for the reminder that hate never works and it is totally un-Christ-like.
Thank you for the wrath. and opens the lid of hell. and allows us to see it at its worst. Thank you for deliverance from depravity. Thank you for a reason to go on.
Thank you for hope beyond sin. I pray that we will all grasp it. and avail ourselves of it. Before it's too late. In the name of Jesus.
Everybody's sad. Amen. With his closing prayer, we conclude Chuck Swindahl's study in Romans chapter 1. The title of his message is Cinerama in Panorama. This is Insight for Living.
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I'm Bill Meyer. Join us when Chuck Swindahl describes what he calls judgment for the judgmental. Tuesday on Insight for Living. The preceding message, Cinerama in Panorama, was copyrighted in 2006, 2010, and 2025, and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2025 by Charles R. Swindahl, Incorporated.
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